The FDA has concluded its “consultation process” on Golden Rice.  This, you may recall, is rice bioengineered to contain genes for beta-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A.

The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) consulted with the FDA to make sure that the agency had no objection to this rice being used in human or animal food products.

The FDA’s letter to IRRI concluding the consultation includes this statement:

Although GR2E [“Golden”} rice is not intended for human or animal food uses in the United States, when present, it would be a producer’s or distributer’s responsibility to ensure that labeling of human and animal foods marketed in the United States, meets applicable legal requirements.  Although the concentration of ß-carotene in GR2E rice is too low to warrant a nutrient content claim, the ß-carotene in GR2E rice results in grain that is yellow-golden in color.*

The FDA’s analysis of the science concludes that this rice Is unlikely to be toxic or allergenic.  It also concludes that although the rice contains higher amounts of ß-carotene than non-modified rice, people in the U.S. are unlikely to eat much of it and in any case the amounts would decline due to storage, processing, and cooking.

In any case, the amounts are not high enough to merit a nutrient-content claim.

This rice has long been promoted as a means to solve problems of vitamin A deficiency in the developing world.  Will it?  We are still waiting to find out.

*What does “too low to warrant a nutrient content claim” mean?

The FDA’s rules for nutrient content claims (go to pages 91 and 92) say:

• “High,” “Rich in,” or “Excellent source of” means that a standard food portion contains 20% or more of the daily value for that nutrient.
• “Good source,” “Contains,” or “Provides” means 10% to 19% of the daily value per standard serving.
• “More,” “Fortified,” “Enriched,” “Added,” “Extra,” or “Plus” means 10% or more of the daily value than an appropriate reference food.

The daily value for beta-carotene is complicated because it is a precursor of vitamin A; 12 micrograms of beta-carotene are equivalent to one vitamin A unit.  The standard for adults and children is 900 vitamin A units or 900 x 12 for beta-carotene = 10,800 micrograms.

One serving of Golden Rice must provide less than 10% of that amount (1,080 micrograms).

For comparison, one small carrot provides about 4000 micrograms of beta-carotene.

The AP reports that the reason the WHO committee on preventing noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) did not recommend soda taxes is that the US representative vetoed the idea.

The Trump administration has torpedoed a plan to recommend higher taxes on sugary drinks, forcing a World Health Organization panel to back off the U.N. agency’s previous call for such taxes as a way to fight obesity, diabetes and other life-threatening conditions.

The move disappointed many public health experts but was enthusiastically welcomed by the International Food and Beverage Alliance — a group that represents companies including Coca-Cola, PepsiCo. and Unilever.

The WHO committee’s report appeared in The Lancet last week.  About soda taxes, it said:

The Commissioners represented rich and diverse views and perspectives. There was broad agreement in most areas, but some views were conflicting and could not be resolved. As such, some recommendations, such as reducing sugar consumption through effective taxation on sugar-sweetened beverages and the accountability of the private sector, could not be reflected in this report, despite broad support from many Commissioners.

It did not include soda taxes in its tax recommendation:

Implement fiscal measures, including raising taxes on tobacco and alcohol, and consider evidence-based fiscal measures for other unhealthy products.

This omission is striking in view of WHO’s strong previous positions on the need to reduce NCDs as part of the agency’s Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, and on reducing sugars and taxing sodas as a means to achieve those goals:

• In 2015, WHO recommended  that sugars be consumed at less than 10% of calories.
• In 2016, WHO recommended taxes on sugary drinks as a way to reduce sugar intake and prevent NCDs.

Again a US veto?  Recall the infamous incident in 2003 when the US blocked the agency from recommending a reduction in sugar intake.

The US should not be holding WHO hostage to public health measures.

WHO should not be caving in to US threats.

NCDs are the major cause of worldwide death and disability and we need worldwide efforts to prevent them.  This calls for cooperation, not blackmail.

Shame.

The USDA reports that investment in agricultural research is declining (since 2009) in high-income countries, particularly in the U.S.

The U.S. share of total agricultural investment in research was 35% in 1960; it fell to 25% in 2013.

What with global problems of hunger, chronic disease, and climate change, shouldn’t we be doing more agricultural research, not less?

The documents

• Agricultural Research Investment and Policy Reform in High-Income Countries
• Summary report
• Amber Waves article, Agricultural Research in High-Income Countries Faces New Challenges as Public Funding Stalls.
• Webinar, Tuesday, June 5, at 1 p.m. EDT.  Registration webinar page.

The industry newsletter,  BeverageDaily.com, offers a collection of recent articles about the beer business.

• Brewers Association: Microbreweries and taprooms are ‘clearly the growth engine of craft’:  The US craft beer industry is seeing most of its current and predicted future growth coming from small-scale operations like local microbreweries and taprooms, a shift away from regional breweries with multi-state distribution footprints, according to the Brewers Association… Read
• Low calorie, vegan and gluten-free beers win favor with millennial consumers: Low-calorie, vegan and gluten-free are likely to be winning attributes for beer brands who want to appeal to millennials, according to GlobalData… Read
• New era of brewing? YCH Hops sees interest around proprietary Cryo Hops:  Cryo Hops, developed by YCH Hops using a patent-pending process, has generated a buzz with brewers as the highly-concentrated ingredient means breweries, in theory, can use half the amount of hops to achieve the same desired beer flavor profiles… Read
• Oskar Blues sees adoption of larger format craft beer packaging on the rise:  After being among the first craft breweries to can its beer nearly 20 years ago, Oskar Blues of Colorado has introduced its latest packaging innovation of 24-can variety packs using collated shrink packaging engineered by The Dow Chemical Company. And the brewer says larger formats like this are now catching on in the craft category… Read
• O-I to close US plant following ‘continued decline of beer’: Owens-Illinois (OI) says it has finalized plans to stop production at its Atlanta, GA, plant on or after July 18… Read
• Japan’s major beer breweries scramble for a place in canned cocktail market:  Traditional beer manufacturers Asahi, Suntory and Kirin are extending their presence into the canned cocktail market… Read
• Irish Distillers acquires craft brewer Eight Degrees Brewing
• Pernod Ricard owned Irish Distillers – a supplier of spirits and wines and producer of Jameson Irish whiskey – has acquired craft brewer Eight Degrees Brewing… Read
• Scotland introduces minimum unit pricing for alcohol: Scotland has become the first country in the world to introduce minimum unit pricing (MUP) for alcohol, with legislation coming into effect this week… Read
• ‘Optimism and dynamism’ among independent UK brewers: In the UK, 63% of independent brewers say they expect their turnover to increase this year: showing ‘the optimism and dynamism’ of the sector against a backdrop of unprecedented competition and continued dominance of big beer, according to SIBA, the UK’s society of independent brewers… Read
• Corona charm: What can food makers learn from Latin America’s most valuable brand?  Corona leads the throng of beer brands that dominate the 2018 BrandZ Top 50 most valuable Latin American Brands list, and with only three food companies ranked it begs the question: what can industry learn from the likes of Corona and Skol?.. Read
• What – exactly – is ‘alcohol free’?  In Europe, an ‘alcohol-free’ drink is defined as one under 0.5% ABV. In the UK, however, an ‘alcohol-free’ drink must be 0.05% ABV or below. But the UK’s definition could change, with the government currently consulting on new regulations for low alcohol drinks labelling… Read
• Australian alcohol advertising code in need of ‘thorough review’ for failing to protect teens:  Current alcohol advertising regulations in Australia are failing to protect the health and well-being of adolescents, with academics claiming that it is leading to an environment that is ‘not consistent with the responsible marketing spirit’… Read

The World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research have published their third compendium of information about diet and cancer risk.

By this time, their research base is so enormous that it takes them 12,000 pages to cover it.   The summary alone is more than 100 pages.

Consequently, they have created an online toolkit with a matrix for dealing with the information.

The matrix provides an interactive summary of dietary correlates .  Here is a clip from the section on factors that decrease cancer risk, convincingly or probably.

And here is a clip from the section on dietary correlates of increased cancer risk.

On the website, you can click on the bubbles to be directed to pages discussing the evidence for each of these factors.

The bottom line?  Eat your veggies.  Don’t gain excess weight.  Avoid excess alcohol and processed meats.  Be active.

Very handy, this.

The site also provides further information about these particular factors:

• Wholegrains, vegetables and fruit – PDF (2.7MB, 140 pages) | Toolkit.zip (7.4mb)
• Meat, fish and dairy products – PDF (2.5MB, 80 pages) | Toolkit.zip (4.4mb)
• Preservation and processing of foods – PDF (1.3mb, 53 pages) | Toolkit.zip (2.6mb)
• Non-alcoholic drinks – PDF (1.7mb, 64 pages) | Toolkit.zip (2.8mb)
• Alcoholic drinks – PDF (2.6mb, 85 pages) | Toolkit.zip (5.5mb)
• Other dietary exposures – PDF (1.9mb, 74 pages) | Toolkit.zip (3.4mb)
• Physical activity – PDF (1.6mb, 64 pages) | Toolkit.zip (3.8mb)
• Body fatness and weight gain – PDF (2.8mb, 142 pages) | Toolkit.zip (7.7mb)
• Height and birthweight – PDF (1.5mb, 70 pages) | Toolkit.zip (4mb)
• Lactation – PDF (1mb, 33 pages) | Toolkit.zip (1.6mb)

The New York Times describes the enormous gap between the pay of company chief executives and their employees.

Its two printed pages of lists compare CEO total annual compensation (in millions of dollars) to the median pay of employees (in $ thousands).  

Median means half the employees get that amount or more, but the other half gets that amount or less.

I looked for the data on companies that produce, food, beverage, or agricultural products.  I could not find many (where is Coca-Cola?).  Several of the companies of interest—Monsanto, Sysco, and Procter & Gamble, for example—list the pay of the CEOs, but not employees.

Even so, the comparison is striking.  Repeat: CEO pay is in $ millions; worker pay is in $ thousands.

The Times interactive lists provide calculations of the ratios (and its account explains the limitations of these data—part-time work, etc).

If you need quantifiable evidence for income inequality, here it is.

American Farmland Trust has a new report out documenting the rapid loss of farmland to urban and suburban development.

Action Aid USA has videos demonstrating how “Agribusiness Is Devastating to Family Farmers, Rural Communities, and the Environment.”