Environmentalists Politicize Your Kitchen

You cant eat politics. Or can you?

The Environmental Working Group (EWG), a Washington-based lobbying organization, has just published its own recipe book. In keeping the EWGs nanny state ethos, the organization wants to tell you what to eat and what not to eat via their guide, Good Food on a Tight Budget. While they include links to reputable third-party organizations like WIC and MyPlate, several of EWGs recommendations fly in the face of these very groups.

The publication purports to be a guide for families at risk of hunger. Heres another group that has been supporting people at nutritional risk since 1972 the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). WIC recently updated the foods it offers and expanded the type and amount of canned fish, specifically for breastfeeding women. What does the EWG guide say about canned fish? They say fresh or frozen salmon are best reason unknown and canned light tuna should be limited to one serving per month because it may contain industrial pollutants.

That advice is flat out wrong. All forms of salmon are excellent sources of omega-3s, required for brain and heart health. And tuna, migratory ocean fish, are largely unaffected by the inland industrial plants EWG targets with its advice. In fact both salmon and canned light tuna are listed by the FDA as particularly low in mercury.

Another group with nutrition expertise featured in the EWG Guide, but whose recommendations are blatantly ignored is USDAs MyPlate. MyPlate says, twice a week, make seafoodfish and shellfishthe main protein food on your plate and encourages people to do so by eating a variety of fish species in a variety of forms. For example, canned seafood, such as canned salmon, tuna, or sardines, is quick and easy to use.

But of course, if EWG made it that simple and encouraging, what would become of the fish fear they need to promote in order to fuel their war against coal-fired power plants? The fact that environmentalists would scare people away from eating healthy, affordable types of seafood at a time when Americans eat far too little fish to begin with in order to promote a narrow agenda, is all you need to know about politically-correct cooking.

And what would EWG rather have you eat? Why, dig into the guide and youll find that goat is the worlds most commonly eaten meat. See recipe on page 25.