From the category archives:

Consumeristic

Marketing, shopping and buying

It’s not just a cookie

February 19, 2011

When I wrote a post last month questioning Girl Scout cookies, I didn’t know what to expect. People get touchy about American icons.  Or they get afflicted with “it’s just a cookie” syndrome. But I plowed in anyway. No pain, no gain and all that. And wow. Talk about hitting a nerve. But in a good way. A really good [...]

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The ABCs of GMOs:
Alfalfa, bureaucrats and a conversation with a kid

February 5, 2011

Talking GMOs with my 7-year-old: Me: “You know how cows eat grass?” Tess: “Uh, huh.” Me: “Well, some of that grass is made by scientists instead of by nature.” Tess: “How do they make it? Do they rip the plant or give it surgery?” Me: “Kind of. They put genes from bacteria into the grass cells. You remember what genes [...]

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Stop reading labels and start reading ingredients

January 29, 2011

All week I’ve been seeing stories about Walmart-style food reform and food manufacturers’ self-serving nutrition labels, about fake meat, fake blueberries and fake maple syrup. Stories about all the ways the food industry tricks us, and all the ways people get mad about the food industry tricking us.  So here’s a thought: Let’s stop playing the game. Ignore the labels. Don’t look at numbers. Don’t believe [...]

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The color of trouble

January 22, 2011

Before I started Spoonfed, I began collecting “kid food” advertisements with the intention of skewering them on a regular basis. But as those torn pages piled up, I realized they were all the same. Different products, different gimmicks: Lunchables give kids brain power! Pop-Tarts are the cornerstone of a balanced breakfast! McDonald’s is healthy for hipster moms and [...]

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Food donations revisited: Dealing with the junk

January 14, 2011

Just saw an interesting NPR story called Overburdened food banks can’t say no to junk. And that brought to mind a Spoonfed discussion from November: Would you feed your own kid the same food you donate to food pantries?  The NPR piece notes that most of the unhealthy food given to food banks comes from grocery [...]

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Daily (Show) dose of funny. With fries.

January 13, 2011

This bit on banning Happy Meal toys aired last week, but I couldn’t pass on a chance to cite The Daily Show and tweak McDonald’s at the same time. Because, really, while Comedy Central is poking fun at those of us who think food companies ought to lay off our kids (while we parents also parent), McDonald’s doesn’t exactly [...]

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Let’s talk Girl Scout cookies

January 7, 2011

I was talking to a friend this past fall about Brownies. The Girl Scout kind. Her daughter had just joined a troop, and, remembering how much I’d loved camping and earning badges as a Girl Scout myself, I asked for details, thinking my daughter might like to join, too. I’d kind of forgotten about the cookies. Years ago, [...]

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Would you feed your own kid the same food you donate to food pantries?

November 24, 2010

Last year at about this time, my daughter and I were in the grocery store, buying items for a local food drive. After I threw a few bags of brown rice in the cart, Tess asked me why brown and not white. “Because it’s healthier,” I answered, “and it’s what we eat.” Then I told [...]

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More McDonald’s madness
(Also: critical food legislation)

November 17, 2010

Because my recent post about McDonald’s “nutrition workshops” drew a lot of ire and eyeballs, I figured there’d be interest in the latest jaw-dropping news from the Land of Ronald: For starters, London’s Guardian newspaper reported last week that the British Department of Health is creating food-policy advisory groups that include reps from McDonald’s, PepsiCo, and other fast-food and [...]

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This just in: Fast food is unhealthy

November 9, 2010

Hot on the heels of my post about McDonald’s “nutrition workshops” comes this satisfying but mostly sad piece of research from Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity. Satisfying because it supports the common-sense contention (and my argument in the McEducation post) that fast food does not offer the healthful options it claims. Only 12 of 3,039 meal [...]

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