Raw Milk Back? NC Lawmakers Reverse Course on Proposed Ban, After Bipartisan Outcry + More
North Carolina lawmakers agreed May 6 to reverse course and undo their plans to ban raw milk — a move that goes against public health warnings made by state agricultural leaders and others.
Just last week, the state Senate’s agriculture committee gave its approval to the annual Farm Act, including a provision to ban raw milk. That piece of the bill was requested by N.C. Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler. He said that alongside diseases like salmonella and E. coli that raw milk can spread, new research has shown raw milk also transmits bird flu.
In addition to posing a threat to North Carolina’s multibillion-dollar poultry industry, Troxler said, scientists also worry that bird flu will evolve to infect humans more easily if people keep putting it in their bodies, whether from raw milk or other sources.
Not so G-R-R-Reat: How Food Ads Shape the Diets of Children and Teens
Before most kids can spell “nutrition,” they’ve already seen thousands of advertisements for candy-colored cereal, salty snacks and sugary soda.
According to a 2024 study, children between the ages of 2 and 11 watch more than 1,000 food and beverage commercials per year. To promote their products to younger audiences, advertisers typically use bright colors, catchy jingles and singing mascots.
Remember Tony the Tiger? These characters stick with kids long after the ad is over.
The food industry spends nearly $14 billion on commercial advertising, much of it aimed at hooking young viewers on their products.
And the ads may contribute to unhealthy eating habits and long-term health risks.
The foods they promote are often high in calories and sugar but low in nutritional value – products that can be classified as ultraprocessed food, or UPF. They also often contain a range of harmful chemicals linked to behavioral issues, hormone disruption and potential cancer risk, including additives such as Red Dye No. 40, Yellow Dye No. 5, BHA and BHT.
FDA Plans to Review Chemicals in US Food Supply, Official Says
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plans to step up safety reviews on chemicals in foods, including one widely used as a preservative in products containing fats, said Kyle Diamantas, the agency’s top food official, on Thursday.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose agency oversees the FDA, has pledged to tackle chronic illnesses by overhauling the U.S. diet. He has pushed for bans on synthetic food colors and encouraged fast-food chains to switch to beef tallow instead of seed oils for French fries. The FDA, which has suffered mass layoffs under President Donald Trump, will update a list of chemicals that will be top priorities for reviews, said Diamantas, acting deputy commissioner for human foods.
“Historically FDA has been somewhat reactionary when it comes to reviewing chemicals in the food supply,” he said at a food safety conference outside Chicago. “The goal is to move to a proactive process to ensure that the chemicals in our food remain safe.”
The FDA will prioritize reviews of chemicals including butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT); butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA); and azodicarbonamide (ADA), Diamantas said. BHT is one of the most commonly used antioxidants in foods containing fats, according to the HHS.
Investigation Uncovers Shocking Evidence That Major Beef Brands Are Deceiving Their Customers: ‘Knowingly Defrauding the Public’
An investigation by agribusiness watchdog Farm Forward uncovered evidence that three of the four largest players in the beef industry are “deceiving consumers” by improperly labeling products as “antibiotic free” or “raised without antibiotics.”
According to Farm Forward’s report, lax enforcement policies on the part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prompted the group to file Freedom of Information Act requests seeking information on the results of inspections.
The group explained that the investigation was spurred by the “USDA’s refusal to regulate and provide punitive action against bad actors or even disclose which companies’ products tested positive for antibiotics” after a 2023 sampling project revealed that 20% of meat labeled RWA “contained antibiotics.”
Farm Forward asserted that American consumers were “being scammed by Big Beef” and that the USDA “is knowingly letting them get away with it.”
‘Frankenstein Meets the Matrix’: Montana & Indiana Become Latest US States to Ban Cultivated Meat
Montana Governor Greg Gianforte has signed a bill that prevents the production or sale of cultivated meat in the state, while Indiana has introduced a two-year prohibition.
From Oct. 1, manufacturing or selling cultivated meat in Montana could put you at risk of imprisonment for up to three months, a fine of up to $250, or both.
The state became the fourth to pass legislation banning cultivated meat after Governor Greg Gianforte signed HB 401 into law on May 1.
Retailers that sell cultivated meat could face fines too, while restaurants could have their licences suspended. Additionally, even though it can’t be sold, the state has put a restriction on how cultivated meat can be marketed, preventing it from being “misbranded.”
And yesterday (May 6), Indiana Governor Mike Braun signed into law HB 1425, which establishes a two-year moratorium on the sale and manufacturing of cultivated meat and its labelling as a “meat product.” It’s in effect from July 1 this year until June 30, 2027, and violators face fines up to $10,000, the highest of any other such ban in the U.S.
Michigan Lawmaker Pushes for Labeling of Cultivated Cell Meat Products
As the average American consumes 327 pounds of meat annually, the future of meat production is poised for transformation with the advent of cultivated cell meat State Representative Jerry Neyer, who has a background in farming, is advocating for transparency in this emerging industry.
“Grew up on a dairy farm came right off the farm right into the legislature. From one pile to the other if you want to say that,” said Neyer, emphasizing his connection to traditional farming.
Neyer is championing Michigan House Bill 4076, which aims to establish labeling requirements for cultivated meat products. “People have a right to know whether their meat comes from the farm or comes from a petri dish and ultimately, that’s what this level of legislation calls for,” he said.
Scientists Develop Reliable Pig Fat Cell Line in Lab-Grown Meat Breakthrough
A breakthrough in cultivated meat research could accelerate the production of realistic, animal-free meat alternatives, British scientists say.
A newly developed pig fat cell line has demonstrated exceptional stability and efficiency, marking a step towards scalable lab-grown meat without genetic modification. Researchers from the Roslin Institute created a unique fat cell line, dubbed FaTTy, derived from early-stage pig stem cells.
Unlike most animal stem cells, which lose their ability to reliably produce fat over time, FaTTy cells can grow indefinitely in the lab while consistently developing into fat tissue. The discovery could overcome one of the key challenges in the cultivated meat industry: producing sustainable and realistic animal fat.
“We didn’t simply develop a tool, we made a very special discovery,” said Dr Tom Thrower, lead researcher at the Roslin Institute, based in Edinburgh.
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