The Bush Administration's National Offshore Aquaculture Act, which died without being passed in the last Congress, has bobbed to the surface again, despite protests from groups such as Food and Water Watch, Envronmental Defense, and the Pure Salmon Campaign that the bill would in effect privatize large areas of the ocean for agribusiness-scale fish farms with virtually no environmental safeguards. The groups fear that the act would create a $6 billion industry of "ocean feedlots" similar to hog and chicken production facilities on land that would pollute the water with fish excrement and rotting food and create untold other problems.
FDA NEWSPEAK
Even as the FDA appears to have been caught with it's pants down on the
possibility that the melamine that poisoned pet food may have found its way
into the human
food supply chain, the organization seems hell bent
on weakening labeling rules that allow consumers to identify foods that
have been irradiated. Currently, irradiated products must be labeled—logically
enough—as "irradiated." But consumers shy away from products
emblazoned with that word. The solution: make up a new, nicer sounding—if less
accurate—term. The industry is lobbying for "pasteurized."