The Meaty Truth is an eye-opening look at the massive problems caused by the American population's food supply. Water, meat, and milk and other dairy products are filled with toxins, antibiotics, untested growth hormones, ammonia, and animal pus and manure. The current conditions of the food production industry must drastically improve, and until they do, it is absolutely vital to monitor what you eat. Castle and Goodman take a hard-hitting look at what America is putting into its food, the negative effects this has on the world, and the best ways to make healthy, informed decisions about eating. As the antibiotic age ends, the rise of pandemic diseases is approaching. Approximately half of the illnesses that claim American lives today are related to what we eat, and our health-care system is focused on treating the sick, not preventing illnesses from occurring. To fix our health problems, to continue feeding the world's ever-growing population, and to save our planet from ecological destruction, we can no longer avoid making changes to how American meat and dairy are produced. This guide is easy to read, applicable to anyone's lifestyle, and impossible to put down.

We all witness, in advertising and on supermarket shelves, the fierce competition for our food dollars. In this engrossing exposé, Marion Nestle goes behind the scenes to reveal how the competition really works and how it affects our health. The abundance of food in the United States--enough calories to meet the needs of every man, woman, and child twice over--has a downside. Our over-efficient food industry must do everything possible to persuade people to eat more--more food, more often, and in larger portions--no matter what it does to waistlines or well-being. Like manufacturing cigarettes or building weapons, making food is big business. Food companies in 2000 generated nearly $900 billion in sales. They have stakeholders to please, shareholders to satisfy, and government regulations to deal with. It is nevertheless shocking to learn precisely how food companies lobby officials, co-opt experts, and expand sales by marketing to children, members of minority groups, and people in developing countries. We learn that the food industry plays politics as well as or better than other industries, not least because so much of its activity takes place outside the public view. Editor of the 1988 Surgeon General's Report on Nutrition and Health, Nestle is uniquely qualified to lead us through the maze of food industry interests and influences. She vividly illustrates food politics in action: watered-down government dietary advice, schools pushing soft drinks, diet supplements promoted as if they were First Amendment rights. When it comes to the mass production and consumption of food, strategic decisions are driven by economics--not science, not common sense, and certainly not health. No wonder most of us are thoroughly confused about what to eat to stay healthy. An accessible and balanced account, Food Politics will forever change the way we respond to food industry marketing practices. By explaining how much the food industry influences government nutrition policies and how cleverly it links its interests to those of nutrition experts, this path-breaking book helps us understand more clearly than ever before what we eat and why.

This book provides current research on consumer perceptions, government regulations and health impacts of the food markets. Chapter One discusses the consumer perceptions on health and welfare of European lobsters placed on the market live and how these aspects affect their quality and food safety. Chapter Two uses a large, national survey to identify, describe, and explain differences among three groups of consumers categorized according to their propensity to buy and support local food. Chapter Three analyzes Moldovas transition to organic farming and the prospects for organic food processing and export, taking into consideration the conditions of and opportunities presented by the new agreement. Chapter Four examines how nano-food packaging designed to enhance shelf-life affects consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for perishable products in order to better understand how the controversy surrounding nanotechnology is likely to affect its market success. Chapter Five gives some strategic suggestions regarding how the headquarters of restaurant chains should manage their store networks in domestic context. Chapter Six investigates the accessibility of markets and challenges faced in markerting of mariculture products. Chapter Seven discusses the importance of the normalization of food supplements labeling, particularly the creatine-based ones, and reviews how the labeling of the supplements commercialized in Brazil are related to the respective legislation. Chapter Eight analyzes the most important issues for sustainable value in food retail.

In September 2015, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's Food and Nutrition Board convened a workshop in Washington, DC, to discuss how communications and marketing impact consumer knowledge, skills, and behavior around food, nutrition, and healthy eating. The workshop was divided into three sessions, each with specific goals that were developed by the planning committee: Session 1 described the current state of the science concerning the role of consumer education, health communications and marketing, commercial brand marketing, health literacy, and other forms of communication in affecting consumer knowledge, skills, and behavior with respect to food safety, nutrition, and other health matters. Session 2 explored how scientific information is communicated, including the credibility of the source and of the communicator, the clarity and usability of the information, misconceptions/misinformation, and the impact of scientific communication on policy makers and the role of policy as a macro-level channel of communication. Session 3 explored the current state of the science concerning how food literacy can be strengthened through communication tools and strategies. This report summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.