Legislation to vastly expand the regulatory powers of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) failed to advance in the Senate last week as proponents had expected. A vote may be rescheduled when Congress reconvenes after the Thanksgiving recess. But if lawmakers are truly vested in optimizing food safety, they will look beyond bureaucratic tinkering and instead eliminate obstacles to innovations in food science as well as market competition. Americans are certainly hungry for more rational policy. Spanning some150 pages, the Food Safety Modernization Act would authorize the FDA to dictate …
Our long national nightmare is over. Phusion Projects, the makers of Four Loko brand caffeinated malt beverages, announced yesterday that it will remove the caffeine from its products. Phusion’s decisions came just one day after Senator Chuck Schumer (D–NY) pushed the Food and Drug Administration to ban “these dangerous and toxic drinks.” Unfortunately Schumer never explained what exactly makes these drinks “dangerous and toxic.” For now, Americans are still free to buy malt beverages. And for a limited time they are also still free to buy caffeinated drinks like coffee …
It’s enough to make Ronald McDonald join the Tea Party. San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors is seriously mulling a ban on the Happy Meal and other toy giveaways associated with foods containing more sugar, sodium, and fat than the proponents of the ban regard as appropriate. The proposed “Healthy Food Incentives Ordinance” also conditions a free trinket on half-cup servings of both a fruit and vegetable. Obnoxious as this is—although not by California standards, perhaps—the proposal is the latest attempt by government officials at every level to do something about …
The administrative state is one of the biggest threats to our liberty and it is operating without consent of the people and under the radar of most people. This is a huge cause for concern and it is something that should be brought out into the open. The administrative state acts without consent of the governed and has little public accountability giving them power to interpret and enforce laws however it sees fit. This is causing a decline in our constitutional government. The administrative state are government bureaucracies that create …
Should Cheerios be regulated as a drug? That’s what the FDA suggested last month in a letter to the breakfast cereal’s maker, General Mills. The issue originated with a claim on cereal boxes that says Cheerios will “lower your cholesterol 4% in six weeks.” The FDA said in a letter to General Mills that the company’s advertising makes “unauthorized health claims.” Apparently, General Mills would not have been in violation of FDA rules had they left out a specific degree of cholesterol reduction. That pesky little four percent is enough …
