Olive Garden’s Culinary Institute Exposed
For a while I had to work at an Olive Garden to help pay the bills. I can tell you that it was one of the worst jobs I have ever had. The kitchen cleanliness was so bad I wouldn’t even eat a bag of chips I brought in for fear of germs leaping onto any food I wished to consume. Though it was illegal the management cast a blind 
eye to employees smoking in the prep kitchen where it was not uncommon to find dozens of cigarette butts lying on counters, the floors and even on hand sinks. Their bonus checks were good so they didn’t care and the health inspector was rumored to be in their pocket.
The management staff’s general approach to customers was to treat them like cattle. Servers were often seated with three or four tables all at the same time which guaranteed none of the tables were going to receive good service and as a result the server was not going to receive a good tip. Again, their bonus checks were good so they didn’t care.
They did not care about their employees, their customers, health concerns, the law or anything other than their bonus checks. It was not a circumstance of one bad management crew as this staff has routinely been rewarded for exemplifying the Olive Garden standard. It is the OG culture. Two of the managers were recognized with a trip to the Culinary Institute of Tuscany. Both said there wasn’t much educating as the company kept them drunk most of the time. Both also said that the food they experienced in Italy was nothing like the Olive Garden menu. No surprise there.
Now a former Olive Garden manager has outed the Culinary Institute of Tuscany as a fraud – he says it is actually a hotel that parent company Darden Restaurant Group rents out during the off-season. According to the article, “There wasn’t much learning involved. Still though, it was a free trip to Italy.” The article appears on the foodie web site Eater and you can read it HERE.
HFCS Producers Revamping Disinformation Ads
The Corn Refiners Association, makers of those humorous but scientifically unfounded “Sweet Surprise” commercials are changing their approach. In their first barrage of commercials meant to confuse the public about the many harmful effects of their product, High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), they ran ads featuring two attractive 30-somethings engaging in a conversation that went something like this:
Actor 1: You want a soda?
Actor 2: Are you kidding? That has High Fructose Corn Syrup in it. You know what they say about that stuff right?
Actor 1: No what?
Actor 2: Er, uh. [shrugs]
The gist of those first commercials was that if you didn’t know about the dangers that extensive scientific research has uncovered about the effects of HFCS on the human body then it must not exist. That’s a heck of an argument to make about the safety of your product isn’t? “Oh, you didn’t know that Duke University research indicates HFCS leads to liver ailments similar to those suffered by long term alcoholics and that a Princeton study has found that subjects that consume HFCS show considerably more weight gain than those who consume an equal amount of table sugar? Well, then it must not be true since you didn’t know about it.”
Since putting the big bucks into those ads meant to confuse the facts, the Corn Refiners Association has seen some disturbing results – for them anyway. The public wasn’t fooled and food manufacturers are responding to the cry for foods without HFCS. Hunt’s Ketchup is now the only major ketchup brand to not contain HFCS. The Jones Soda Co., makers of premium carbonated soft drinks, does not use HFCS in any of their products. Jones even has a list of links to the multitude of scientific research that debunks the claims of the HFCS manufactures that their product is safe and natural.
Then the big bomb was dropped this past summer. Dr. Pepper, one of the most popular soft drinks in the US, announced in a July press release that to celebrate their 125th anniversary that they were replacing HFCS with sugar. Other factors have lead to soft drink makers to move away from HFCS and back to sugar like proposed changes to SNAP program regulations that would prohibit food stamps from being used to purchase soft drinks. This is long overdue.
With the failure of their Sweet Surprise campaign they have shifted gears but are still employing the same tactic of subversive disinformation. Their first move, as reported by AP, is that they are changing the name of High Fructose Corn Syrup to Corn Sugar. This clever ploy will allow products to claim they have no HFCS when in fact they do.
They have asked for an official name change from the FDA. They even went and started a new web site www.cornsugar.com. Too bad because the FDA already has an established definition for corn sugar and it is not the same as HFCS. No doubt, having an inside man in the FDA (Obama-appointed, Monsanto-lobbyist Michael Taylor) will undoubtedly lead to a redefining of the phrase “corn sugar.”
The new commercials feature actors pretending to be concerned parents who are confused about the effects of HFCS. They plug the disinformation web site and even pretend that the scientific information listed there is from independent sources rather studies paid for by the the Corn Refiners Association to produce favorable findings.
I would like to post one of those commercials here for you but for some reason the Corn Refiners Association doesn’t want these commercials being embedded on other sites. That seems odd that you want your message getting out there and here someone is willing to put your commercial on their site for free and you refuse to let them. Kind of leaves you wondering what they are hiding doesn’t?
If you want to view the new spot you can venture over to the youtube and check the HFCS Disinformation Ad out yourself and do what I did – vote it a thumbs down and then flag it for being a scam. Or don’t, suit yourself.
White House Kitchen Garden a Facade?
The White House has certainly touted it’s Kitchen Garden, even going so far as to having it featured as the “theme ingredient” on a special Iron Chef:America. I am sure the first lady is passionate and devoted to the sustainable, local and/or organic lifestyle. Mrs. Obama certainly seems sincere in her concerns for the environment and in rescuing our children from the obesity epidemic created by agribusiness juggernauts like Monsanto and their foot soldiers, the fast food industry.
I do not, however, believe her husband cares about these issues. After all his actions suggest an ambivalence reminiscent of his predecessor. Supposedly, pandering to big business is the realm of Republicans but President Obama has dangerously littered the government with agribusiness pawns.
Despite being given a list of 12 qualified candidates (known as the sustainable dozen) for key positions in his administration, the President has made numerous suspect appointments to bureaus charged with protecting the public’s welfare. No, suspect is not the right word, nefarious is more accurate. The conflict of interest created by these appointments is borderline criminal, not unlike naming John Dillinger Secretary of the Treasury.
Take the President’s choice to head the Department of Agriculture (USDA), Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack. Vilsack has long been a champion of genetically modified (GM) corn and other grains. Genetically modifying corn to be more resistant to herbicides was a process developed by Monsanto in the 1970’s. But, as science has since proven, GM corn is the root cause of every e coli outbreak on record. Ever.
Vilsack has such a notorious reputation for being a puppet for agribusiness mega corporations that a satirical PSA was actually commissioned by environmentalists. That’s right, environmentalists are opposed to this Democrat. Here’s the video:
After being pummeled by his own supporters for selling out the USDA to Biotech, Obama did throw them a bone. The President named Kathleen Merrigan, director of the Agriculture, Food and Environment Program at Tufts University (and one of the sustainable dozen) as his Sustainable Foods Czar. Sure it is just a token gesture and the position is largely meaningless but it calmed the masses. At least for a while.
Another one of President Obama’s appointments was naming Michael Taylor as special assistant to the FDA Commissioner for food safety. Taylor will actually be making laws that affect the profitability of Monsanto, the primary client of his employer prior to joining the Obama administration. Before working for Monsanto, Taylor was part of the George H W Bush administration, again making policy for the FDA. Prior to that stint with the FDA, Taylor worked for Monsanto. His resume is the very definition of “conflict of interest.”
Green publication The Huffington Post has called Taylor, “The person who may be responsible for more food-related illness and death than anyone in history,” here’s what else they had to say:
If GMOs are indeed responsible for massive sickness and death, then the individual who oversaw the FDA policy that facilitated their introduction holds a uniquely infamous role in human history. That person is Michael Taylor. He had been Monsanto’s attorney before becoming policy chief at the FDA. Soon after, he became Monsanto’s vice president and chief lobbyist.
Now Barrack Obama is not the first President to turn the keys to the nation’s safety over to Monsanto. As mentioned above the first President Bush also employed Michael Taylor despite an obvious conflict of interest. President Bill Clinton had a troubling number of his advisers moving into lucrative positions with Monsanto once his term was over, like Marcia Hale an assistant to the President for intergovernmental relations. It’s certain that the so-called “Monsanto revolving door” is not one of Obama’s promised changes.
The President naming the head of New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection, Lisa Jackson, to lead the EPA has raised an eyebrow or two. Jackson does not have documented ties to big business like Taylor or Vilsack. At the same time she has shown an alarming familiarity with lobbyists even going so far as to hire corporate lobbyists like Nancy Wittenberg to work on her staff.
While most feel Jackson’s tenure with the NJDEP was marred in ineffective leadership and finger-pointing, some environmentalist groups insist that her lack of production was not her fault. Apparently the one thing that both sides agree on is that Jackson accomplished nothing during her term.
As his Surgeon General, President Obama has picked Alabama physician Regina Benjamin. Dr. Benjamin was given the assignment of helping Americans get healthier. Her work with rural, impoverished patients in the heart of Katrina country is quite noble. But the well documented fact that she accepted $10,000 from Burger King just before joining the Obama regime is understandably curious.
The money was purportedly for serving on a nutritional advisory panel with the fast food giant. There is something peculiar about the nation’s top doctor being on the payroll of a company that produces the Angry Whopper, a sandwich with 1120 calories (657 from fat), 175 mg of cholesterol, 73 grams of total fat, 25 of which are saturated, three are the heart disease causing trans fats. Oh, and let’s not forget that virtually everything Burger King sells incorporates Monsanto’s Frakencorn into it, the burgers, the buns, even the soft drinks.
Though the national media have tried to portray these appointments as positive moves, farm-to-table advocates do not share in the enthusiasm. Sure there are a handful of White House orchestrated blogs like Obama Foodorama whose job is to spin these Presidential missteps, but most have found the business-as-usual appointments disconcerting.
If the White House Kitchen Garden inspires others to plant their own then that is outstanding. Surely growing the vegetables that are used in the White House does slightly lower the burden on the over-taxed citizenry. The first lady is setting a wonderful example. And while it is a quaint idea, from the outside looking in it appears to be just another parlor trick. Clearly the President’s stance on the environment lacks transparency.
