Andrew Kimbrell of the Huffington Post on Vilsack for Sec of USDA

By Andrew Kimbrell of the Huffington Post
Posted December 23, 2008 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-kimbrell/obamas-choice-of-vilsack_b_153213.html
 
Subdued approval greeted President-elect Obama’s choice of Tom Vilsack for Secretary of Agriculture last week. This came from mainstream environmental groups, such as Sierra Club, and even organizations that have been critical in the past of the Iowa governor’s policies. Vilsack comes across in nearly all [...]

More Proof that the FDA Is a Tool of Big Corporations

By JULIE SCELFO of the New York Times
Published: December 23, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/24/dining/24chem.html
 
WEEKS after its own advisory board accused the Food and Drug Administration of failing to adequately consider research about the dangers of bisphenol-A, found in many plastic baby bottles, plastic food containers and metal can linings, the agency has agreed to reconsider the issue.
The F.D.A.’s draft risk assessment [...]

Bribery Is One Tool in the Chest of Many Corporations: Siemens AG in Perspective

By SIRI SCHUBERT and T. CHRISTIAN MILLER of the New York Times
Published: December 20, 2008
REINHARD SIEKACZEK was half asleep in bed when his doorbell rang here early one morning two years ago.
Still in his pajamas, he peeked out his bedroom window, hurried downstairs and flung open the front door. Standing before him in the cool, [...]

A Data Based Argument for Universal Health Care, Part 3: Profiting from Life and Death

We argued in our previous two posts, found here, that people in the United States are less healthy than Japan, the social democracies in western Europe, Cuba, and Costa Rica despite the fact that Americans spend more than twice as much, on a per capita basis, on health care. The next piece of the puzzle [...]

Court Documents Reveal Child Research Center Was Under the Influence of Johnson & Johnson

By Gardiner Harris of the New York Times
Posted at  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/25/health/25psych.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print
When a Congressional investigation revealed in June that Dr. Joseph Biederman, a world-renowned child psychiatrist, had earned far more money from drug makers than he had reported to his university, he said that his interests were “solely in the advancement of medical treatment through rigorous and [...]

A New Hope: Big Business to Soon Be on the Defensive in D.C.

By Kevin G. Hall | McClatchy Newspapers
 
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/economics/story/55374.html
 
WASHINGTON — After years of playing offense, big business is getting ready for the less familiar role of playing defense following President-elect Barack Obama’s victory and legislative gains by other Democrats.
Corporate America enjoyed favorable treatment under the Bush administration for almost eight years and for most of [...]

Dr. Mercola: what the chemical industry does not want you to know

Dr. Mercola @ Mercola.com

The global chemical industry annually produces about 6 billion pounds of bisphenol A (BPA), an integral component of a vast array of plastic products, generating at least $6 billion in annual sales. The value of BPA-based manufactured goods is probably incalculable. Environmental Working Group studies have found BPA in more than half [...]

Michael Pollan: to the next President (aka, Farmer-in-Chief)

From the New York Times
By MICHAEL POLLAN
 

Dear Mr. President-Elect,
It may surprise you to learn that among the issues that will occupy much of your time in the coming years is one you barely mentioned during the campaign: food. Food policy is not something American presidents have had to give much thought to, at least since [...]

Judge Orders Release of Documents on Lilly’s Zyprexa

By Mary Williams Walsh
New York Times
 A federal judge in Brooklyn decided on Friday to unseal confidential materials about Eli Lilly’s top-selling antipsychotic drug Zyprexa, citing “the health of hundreds of thousands of people” and “fundamental questions” about the way drugs are approved for new uses.
The decision by Judge Jack B. Weinstein of Federal District Court came as part [...]

The World According to Monsanto: the new film

From the Institute for Responsible Technology
 

Formal release of this chilling documentary is scheduled for fall, 2008 with public showings around the nation, but the film is now available as a pre-publication release.
Monsanto’s controversial past combines some of the most toxic products ever sold with misleading reports, pressure tactics, collusion, and attempted corruption. They now race to genetically engineer [...]