If office gremlins are making off with your daily meal, innovative designer Sherwood Forlee has a clever solution: the Anti-Theft Lunch Bag. Simply put, Anti-Theft Lunch Bags "are regular sandwich bags that have green splotches printed on both sides." With your sandwich inside, the bag simulates mold and makes the contents look disgusting. These bags aren't available for purchase, but the idea shouldn't be difficult to replicate if you need more sandwich security at your workplace. Thanks Patrix!
Original here
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Anti-Theft Lunch Bag Deters Sandwich Thieves
Five Flaws in the New U.S. ‘Country of Origin’ Food Labeling
On September 30th, six years after Congress originally passed the law, the United States will implement a country of origin labeling program for supermarket foods. But due to industry pressure, some of the most important and potentially dangerous products are exempt from being labeled. Only 1.3% of imported food is inspected by the FDA, and of that small fraction, many hazardous items are confiscated. The average American consumes an estimated 260 pounds of imported food every year, which is roughly 13% of their diet. Food safety will always be a concern. Arming consumers with the knowledge of where their food comes from will not only help with everyday shopping, but also help in the case of a recall of a food from a specific region (like jalapeños from Mexico). While the new law has some benefits, many recent examples of food contamination and safety concerns show that it won’t do enough.
1. The law does not apply to pet food. In 2007, contaminated gluten and rice protein from China was used to make pet food, resulting in the death of thousands of dogs and cats across America. The food was also used to feed pigs, chickens, and farmed fish which entered the human food supply, but no illnesses were reported. The same pet food would be exempt from the new labeling because only the ingredients were imported, not the final product. Mixtures do not apply under the law—not even fruit salad.
2. The law does not apply to dried foods or processed foods of any kind. Any processed food can avoid the label if it was shipped from a foreign country and then packaged in the United States. China was caught exporting dried apples preserved in a cancer-causing substance in 2007 and non-eviscerated dried fish in 2008, Indian imports of dried spices have been confiscated for salmonella contamination, and dried chili and other items from Mexico have been rejected as “filthy.”
3. The law does not apply to drugs. The FDA has dismissed requests to label pharmaceutical drugs with their country of origin, even after 19 people died from a tainted batch of the blood-thinning drug heparin from China.
4. The law does not apply to everyone. Only stores which purchased over $230,000 of fresh produce in the previous year will be required to label their red-meat, poultry, produce, and fish. This exempts butcher shops and fish markets from the law if they do not have a produce section.
5. The law does not always mandate accuracy. If a meat packer orders beef from five different countries within the same time period, the business is not required to keep track of which meat came from which country. A label could read: “Product of the United States, Mexico, Australia, Canada, or China.”
To its credit, the launch of the Country of Origin Label in the United States does improve the labeling of raw red meat and poultry, enabling consumers to make safer choices on these products. Other than that, this program can only serve as a reminder that globalization shouldn’t be a welcome guest at your dinner table; instead, try to eat locally-sourced foods, which not only tend to be safer, but are better for the environment.
GM Asks for Government Support on Battery Development
General Motors Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner, appearing on Capitol Hill, called on Congress to support advanced-battery development in the U.S., which he said lags far behind the government-supported development efforts in Japan and South Korea.
The lengthening lead Japan’s auto makers hold in securing supplies of advanced batteries to power the next generation of automobiles has become a rallying point for the U.S. auto industry in seeking at least $25 billion in government loans.Over the past decade, Japan’s auto giants have been teaming up with its electronics companies, which have dominated global battery manufacturing for laptop computers, mobile phones and other products. Now the American auto companies are playing catch-up.
Securing an adequate supply of batteries over the next few years has become a growing concern for auto makers everywhere. The U.S. industry is leery of depending too heavily on foreign battery makers allied with Japanese auto makers, for fear those suppliers would give priority to filling the orders of their Japanese partners.
“Moving from imported oil to imported batteries” wouldn’t address the nation’s energy-security concerns, said Mark Fields, head of Ford Motor Co. operations in the Americas, speaking recently in Washington. “Bold and dramatic incentives are needed to accelerate the commercial development of high-energy power batteries right here in the U.S.”
For now, some U.S. auto makers are seeking supplies from Japanese battery makers. GM recently announced plans to buy lithium-ion batteries for 100,000 hybrids from Japan’s Hitachi Ltd., and Sanyo Electric Co. supplies batteries for Ford hybrids.
But Japanese companies continue to invest in their own facilities. Nissan and partner NEC announced in May that they will build a factory that has capacity to make 65,000 lithium-ion batteries a year by 2011, as the car maker aims to become the world’s largest producer of electric vehicles.
Unlike the U.S., Japan has made fuel efficiency a top priority for years. While Detroit has focused on highly profitable large trucks and SUVs in recent years, Japanese auto makers have continued to concentrate on smaller, fuel-sipping vehicles, including hybrids. This strategy has paid off, and left American automakers scrambling to adapt to the changing market.
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