What should you know about what's in your food?

California's Proposition 65 forces companies to label their food in detail about harmful substances. There's a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives, H.R. 4167, that appears intended to curtail that proposition's effectiveness and possibly override any other, similar state regulations. Read more about it in this story from the Los Angeles Times about the food-labeling bill. That story was written by a California newspaper and so localizes the story to that state, but it's a national bill and so it will apply everywhere. Also, because the California market is so large, its regulations often set the standard for the food the rest of us eat. (Think about all the furniture you see with labels on it that tell you whether it meets particular California standards for flammability.)

You might choose to express how you feel about H.R. 4167. If so, you can find your elected officials via this locator. (It will work no matter where you live.)

You can find out more about Proposition 65 at this site, but a lot of the information requires registration. And there are other places to learn more, such as U.S. PIRG, AFDO, and the Consumer Scribbler.