Gem of the day

Grist has an excellent interview with Bruce Bradley, a veteran of what Bradley terms 'big food' (General Mills, Nabisco, you get the picture). Bradley's turned rogue after 15 years in the vortex but paints a remarkably sane and reasonable picture of why there are such deeply ingrained issues with the ways most of the food in the world is produced, marketed and consumed.

Gems are his top three things every consumer should know about the industry:

• "Big Food is profit-driven. Don't be fooled into thinking a brand or the food company that owns it cares about you or your health."
  
• "Think critically. Most claims and advertising by Big Food companies are meant to manipulate you, not educate you. Read your labels and do your research."
  
• "There is no free lunch. Over the long-term, you always get what you pay for. Cheap food is very expensive once you add up the true costs -- like the taxes you pay to subsidize Big Food companies, health consequences like obesity or diabetes, the devastating harm to our environment, and the inhumane treatment of animals raised within the industrialized food system"