Gulf Coast Oil Spill

Are The FDA's Safe Seafood Standards Based On The Wrong Numbers?

Rachel Slajda | December 16, 2010, 8:43AM

NOAA officials sort fish gathered from an area affected by the Deep Horizon oil spill.

Even as the Obama administration tries to encourage folks to eat more Gulf of Mexico seafood, health advocates on the Gulf Coast are calling into question the method federal agencies use to determine the food is safe.

The Federal Drug Administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other agencies use an average level of seafood consumption to determine what level of pollutants would make a Gulf shrimp or oyster unsafe. Both agencies have declared Gulf seafood safe, as long as its taken from non-restricted areas.

But, according to a report released this month by the environmental non-profit Natural Resources Defense Council, the numbers the FDA uses for average consumption are far, far below the amount of seafood that the average Gulf Coast resident eats.

According to the NRDC's survey, Gulf Coast residents eat between four and 12 times as much as the national average.

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Child nutrition

How The Child Nutrition Act Will Raise School Lunch Prices

Rachel Slajda | December 15, 2010, 8:34AM

Something you may not know about the child nutrition bill President Obama signed into law this week: It will raise the price of school lunches for most students.

For years, the federal government has given school districts subsidies so they could offer free and reduced-price lunches to poor students. But there's never been any rule that says all the money has to actually go to poor students. Often, the school district will use part of the funds to lower the price of lunch for the rest of the school -- the ones who don't strictly qualify for free lunches.

The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act closes that loophole.

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