Between The Lines - Michael Jacobson: Food, health, safety regulation threats in Congress (Week Ending April 15, 2011)

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

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The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Between The Lines on Stitcher

Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

Listen to Scott Harris Live on WPKN Radio

Between The Lines' Executive Producer Scott Harris hosts a live, weekly talk show, Counterpoint, from which some of Between The Lines' interviews are excerpted. Listen every Monday evening from 8 to 10 p.m. EDT at www.WPKN.org (Follows the 5-7 minute White Rose Calendar.)

Counterpoint in its entirety is archived after midnight ET Monday nights, and is available for at least a year following broadcast in WPKN Radio's Archives.

You can also listen to full unedited interview segments from Counterpoint, which are generally available some time the day following broadcast.

Subscribe to Counterpoint bulletins via our subscriptions page.

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GOP Proposes Deep Cuts for Regulating Food, Health and Safety Standards

RealAudio MP3

Posted April 6, 2011

Interview with Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, conducted by Melinda Tuhus

The Food and Drug Administration just released proposed rules requiring chain restaurants and other establishments that primarily serve food to display calorie counts of the food they sell. The requirement was part of the health care reform legislation passed by Congress just over a year ago.

According to the National Institutes of Health, “more than a third of adults and nearly 17 percent of children in the United States are obese, increasing their chances of developing health problems including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, fatty liver disease and some cancers. Obesity-related diseases account for nearly 10 percent of U.S. medical spending, or an estimated $147 billion a year.”

Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Michael Jacobson, executive director, and co-founder in 1971, of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. One of the group’s signature issues is nutrition, along with food safety. The organization gained notoriety in 1994, when it released data on the high amount of saturated fat in movie house popcorn. An earlier version of the FDA labeling rules included food served in theaters, but after intense lobbying by the industry, they were exempted from the calorie posting requirements. Jacobson discusses his group’s priorities and his concerns about the Republican-controlled House effort to cut federal funding for health and safety regulations.

MICHAEL JACOBSON: We have tremendous concerns in some of the areas, like Tea Partyers would love to repeal the health reform legislation, which provides about a billion dollars a year for the first time to support prevention campaigns, preventing health problems. And so the initial money is funding wonderful state and local programs to improve diet, promote exercise, reduce smoking. So that's a constant target of the Republicans. In terms of food safety, the Republicans want to cut the FDA's budget, rather than increase it. And that will only increase food-borne illness outbreaks in this country, which will mean fewer inspectors, inability to respond to outbreaks, and we'll have more and more cases, if Republicans get their way, of people getting sick from or dying from salmonella, e-coli and other food-borne pathogens.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Where does the FDA budget stand now? Do you feel like it's drastically underfunded?

MICHAEL JACOBSON: Yeah, it's considerably underfunded, but in the last few years Congress has provided a fair amount more money, but much of that money would disappear.

BETWEEN THE LINES: And is that money for increased on-the-ground inspections?

MICHAEL JACOBSON: Yeah, on the ground in the U.S. and abroad, because China on occasion likes to send us tainted food.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Is there any other specific area you're concerned about with this new Congress?

MICHAEL JACOBSON: The Agriculture budget includes not just farm subsidies, but food stamps and the Food and Drug Administration. A couple of key congresspeople have said, we have to cut the agriculture budget, and let's start with food stamps, not farm subsidies. And that's just crazy. Many legislators and the administration recognize the stupidity of some of these farm subsidies that go to huge farms, and in some cases end up raising prices to consumers; keeping out imported sugar costs consumers several billion dollars a year in higher food prices. Giving millions of dollars to certain huge farms is unconscionable. Sen. Harkin and others have wanted to reduce these subsidies or limit subsidies to $250,000 or some other figure, and that would save considerable money each year, but Congress seems like they might cut food stamps instead -- take it out of the poor. We have high unemployment, and people with poor educations; it makes life tough for a lot of people. Food stamps is a wonderful safety net and something that should not be cut.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Michael Jacobson, do you have any evidence that movie house popcorn has gotten any less bad since you did that expose many years ago that made Center for Science in the Public Interest famous, or infamous?

MICHAEL JACOBSON: I can't remember which theaters switched to canola oil. There's been some improvement, but some theaters still use coconut oil. But regardless of the oil, these huge containers of popcorn contain 1000 calories -- it's just so out of proportion to common sense servings. So movie theater popcorn is still a problem. The theater industry is trying to prevent the Food and Drug Administration from requiring calorie disclosures on the menu boards at movie theaters, and the FDA is coming out with a Federal Register proposal on menu labeling, and one of the issues will be, "Should theaters be covered or not?"

BETWEEN THE LINES: Is it by state or are there federal regulations now, like when you go into a McDonald's anywhere, they have to post that?

MICHAEL JACOBSON: California, New York City, Philadelphia. The law was passed but hasn't been implemented. Hopefully, the regulations will take effect some time next year.

BETWEEN THE LINES: So when the regulations go into effect, people patronizing chain restaurants will be able to see what they're buying. So you actually think that's an important step, that that can change people's behavior?

MICHAEL JACOBSON: That's right. It'll change some people's behavior, but it's not like flipping that light switch. It'll give people information; they have to see it, and they have to use it. A lot of it's up to them. I think a lot of people don't even look at a menu or a menu board when they go into a McDonald's; they know what they're going to have because they've ordered it for the past ten years. So those people probably won't be affected. Some people don't care very much about calories; they're normal weight, they feel perfectly fine, so they won't change their eating habits. But some people will be shocked by the calorie levels, and choose smaller items or split a dessert with somebody, or skip a dessert. We'll certainly see some changes.

Visit the Center for Science in the Public Interest at www.cspinet.org