Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Exclusive: 30th Annual National Food Policy Conference

Posted by Erin Zimmer, October 2, 2007 at 2:15 PM

Thirty years ago, leafy spinach wasn't the green enemy and contaminated Odwalla juice hadn't killed a kid yet. These and other food policy issues were discussed at last week's 30th annual National Food Policy Conference in downtown D.C., where Serious Eats was on the scene with a room full of scientists, congressional members, strategists from Tyson and Kraft foods, and the conference BMOCs—the "ag" crowd (the USDA and FDA).

'In my day, we didn't die trying to eat PB and J.'
Experts discussed issues like contaminated Peter Pan peanut butter, healthier school lunches, and the farm bill. Snarkiest among panelists was molecular biologist and Kansas State University professor Douglas Powell, who said media wasn't doing enough. In his web forum, Barf Blog, he uses his potty mouth to describe oral-fecal outbreaks.

'The word poop just registers with people.'
He and other International Food Safety Network researchers post news clips, podcasts, and videos on how often the public eats poop unknowingly. To underscore his point, he quoted Jon Stewart: "If you think the 'Employees Must Wash Hands' sign will keep piss out of your burger, you're wrong," Powell believes burger-flippers, farmers picking fruit, and other food-handlers on the front lines should be watched closer.

He blames "food pornography," and all those close-up, glossy images of tuna carpaccio and crumbly berry tarts for stealing the food media limelight. When a confused conference-goer asked him to explain "food porn," he compared it to regular porn. "Both are meant to titillate, not inform. Photographers use the same techniques to create that lush, layered look."

A more optimistic Christopher Doering, Reuters agriculture correspondent, noted that food policy coverage in the media may have a long way to go "but doesn't have to fight for a place at the table anymore." He and other panelists cited important tipping points, like USA Today's decision to run a front-page headline on E. coli–infected bagged spinach last year, when many similar outbreaks were happening under the radar. One year later, spinach sales are still down 25 percent, explained Stephen Clapp, senior editor of Food Chemical News. Publicity worked, but Clapp fears people will choose tater tots and other junk food out of fear of unhealthy healthy foods like contaminated spinach and sprouts. "We don't want that," he asserted.

So what was on the menu at the food-centric conference? Right before lunch, Powell said he "wouldn't touch sandwiches with sprouts," the predictable entrée at many conferences. Luckily, the Consumer Federation of America, the conference organizers, knew better than that. Attendees cleaned plates of grilled salmon and arugula salad, ready for more chatter of oral-fecal contaminations, the farm bill, and childhood obesity.

About the author: Erin Zimmer, Serious Eats's Washington, D.C., correspondent, is a just-graduated Georgetown gal following her nose about town as Washingtonian magazine's Dining intern and Best Bites blogger. She got her start as the Hoya campus paper's food columnist, and since entering "real person-hood" has ached for her dining hall's omelet station.

Post a Comment

Tags: food policy, food safety, food scares, health, National Food Policy Conference