This Time It's Peanuts: Food Scares and Food Production

Making News

Gregg Pulls Out, Eroding Obama's Efforts of Bipartisanship ()

Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire dealt the Obama Administration a blow on Thursday when he abruptly withdrew as the President's nominee for Commerce Secretary. A fiscal conservative, the Republican Senator said it would be “very difficult, day in and day out,” to serve in an Obama cabinet. Reporter Michael Kranish is covering the story for the Boston Globe.

Guests:

• Michael Kranish: Political Reporter, Boston Globe, @globekranish

Links:

• White House statement on Gregg's withdrawal

Main Topic

This Time It's Peanuts: Food Scares and Food Production ()

In the largest food recall in US history, more than eighteen hundred products containing peanuts have been pulled from grocery shelves. A salmonella contamination in peanuts has been linked to nine deaths and six hundred illnesses. The outbreak is the latest in a long line of food scares. What went wrong at the Georgia processing plant that shipped peanuts that the owner knew were contaminated? Is the Food and Drug Administration doing enough to make sure food is safe? How do laws affect what we eat? Does the system itself need to be overhauled?

Guests:

• Gardiner Harris: Public Health Reporter, New York Times
• Caroline Smith DeWaal: Food Safety Director, Center for Science in the Public Interest
• Marion Nestle: Professor of Food Studies, New York University, @marionnestle
• Joel Salatin: advocate, sustainable agriculture movement
• Brian Halweil: Senior Researcher, Worldwatch Institute

Links:

• House Commerce Committee hearing on the Salmonella outbreak
• USDA proposes to debar Peanut Corporation of America
• Harvard study on consumer confidence and food safety
• Harris' article on peanut products being sent out before tests
• DeWaal on long shelf life extending the hazard of peanut products
• Nestle's 'Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition'
• Salatin's 'Everything I Want to Do it Illegal: War Stories from the Local Food Front'
• Halweil's 'Eat Here: Reclaiming Homegrown Pleasures in a Global Supermarket'

Reporter's Notebook

Satellites' Collision Creates More Orbiting Space Debris ()

On Wednesday, a Russian and American satellite in space ran into each other head on. Both weighed more than half a ton and were traveling at 17,500 miles an hour. It was the first time there’s been such a collision, which sent hundreds of pieces of debris into space, and possibly into the orbit of other spacecraft, including the Hubble telescope. Astronomer Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics is an analyst of the space program.

Guests:

• Jonathan McDowell: Astronomer, Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, @planet4589