Taco Bell to Drop Kids Meals

By January 2014, Taco Bell will no longer offer kids’ meals, which are currently used as a marketing scheme to entice children into eating unhealthy foods. Other fast-food restaurants, like McDonald’s and Burger King, have failed to acknowledge that the toys they use to promote their kids’ meals constitute marketing. Removing the kids menu seems to be a step in the right direction, although some believe that by dropping the kids’ menu it may lead parents to order higher calorie meals off the regular menu. Other fast food restaurant should follow Taco Bell’s lead and drop the kid meals, but with over 90 percent of children’s meals at the top chains failing to meet the restaurant industry’s own nutrition standards for kids’ meals, eliminating kids meals would be the tip of the iceberg.

GMO Fight Heats Up on Kauai, Big Island

Public hearings on GMO?s have heated up on the Big Island and Kauai. Both county councils are debating bills that could have far-reaching impacts on Hawaii?s agribusiness and farming industries, after state legislation requiring labels on imported GMO foods failed to pass this session. Currently, none of the large agribusiness companies are operating on the Big Island and they hope to keep it that way. Council member, Margaret Wille, has proposed a bill that would prevent agribusiness companies from taking root on the Big Island and ban new GMO crops. Kauai County council member, Gary Hooser, has proposed a bill that freezes biotech growth until the county does a thorough assessment of the industry’s potential environmental impacts. The bill would also require the county to regulate pesticide use, and require farmers to disclose whether they are growing GMO crops. Tell the leaders of Hawaii it?s time to stop poisoning paradise and start protecting the islands? families, children and tourists or you?ll take your next vacation elsewhere!

High Levels of Arsenic in Water Near Fracking Sites

A study of water quality in the Barnett Shale region of North Texas has found elevated levels of arsenic in wells that are closer to fracking sites. The study, published last week in Environmental Science & Technology Journal, had?tested 100 private water wells in 2011 in Tarrant and surrounding counties in the Barnett Shale region , where oil and gas companies have been injecting a combination of fluid, chemicals and sand to release shale gas from rock formations. Those with dangerously high levels of arsenic ? about one-third of the wells ? tended to be much closer to natural gas wells than those that were not contaminated. Long-term exposure to arsenic is linked to several major diseases, including prostate, lung, skin and liver cancers. ?This study, while not surprising, is another example of the many dangers of fracking.

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