Fight for Food Education Sign it!Who: Celebrity chef Jamie OliverPetitioning: The G20—an international forum of major economic powers, including the USThe lowdown: Worldwide, 42 million kids under the age of 5 are overweight or obese. Jamie Oliver wants to change that. How? By convincing the world’s biggest governments to require basic culinary education for kids. “I believe that it’s a child’s human right to be taught how to grow and cook fresh nutritious food at school,” he says. Amen! Get BPA out of Your CansWho: Environmental Working Group (EWG)Sign it!Food companies still using bisphenol-A (BPA) in can liningsWe know that BPA is linked to health problems like , , and . But we haven’t known exactly which brands are using BPA in their packaging—until now. A new EWG report analyzed 252 major canned food brands and found that 78 use BPA in all their products (31 other brands do not use BPA, and the remaining 143 dodged the EWG’s inquiries. Check out the full results .) The new petition targets those 78 major players, like Goya, Green Giant, Old El Paso, Bush’s, and Ocean Spray. Petitioning: The lowdown: hormone disruptionhypertensionheart diseasehere MORE: The Five Weirdest New Labels on Food and How to Read Them Stop Telling Kids to “Color Their Mouth” with Candy Sign it!Who: Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and concerned mom Julie RossiPetitioning: Crayola president and CEO Mike PerryThe lowdown: Crayola’s “Color Your Mouth” candies are so laden with artificial dyes, they’re actually marketed based on their ability to stain your kid’s tongue. That’s not so sweet, considering that a growing body of evidence suggests that artificial dyes are linked to hyperactivity. Urge Congress to Enrich Doctors’ Medical Education with Nutrition Know-How Sign it!Who: Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM)Petitioning: US CongressThe lowdown: In the US, medical students are required to receive 25 hours of nutrition education. But nearly 3 out of 4 medical schools don’t meet this benchmark, meaning future docs aren’t fully equipped to provide healthy-eating advice. So Reps Tim Ryan and Pat Tiberi are reintroducing the ENRICH Act—which would establish a $15 million grant to increase medical students’ nutrition education—after the House failed to pass it last year. PCRM wants to make sure the bill doesn’t meet the same fate in 2015. MORE: Five Everyday Food Chemicals that Could Be Making You Gain Weight Tell Costco to Reject Genetically Engineered Salmon Sign it!Who: Center for Food Safety (CFS)Petitioning: Costco CEO W. Craig JelinekThe lowdown: The FDA is currently reviewing genetically engineered salmon—yes, the live fish—for commercial production. If it gets the green light, it’s unlikely the GE salmon would be labeled as such. Several big retailers (Target, Trader Joe’s Kroger, Safeway, and more) have already pledged not to sell the frankenfish. Now, CFS is urging Costco, one of the country’s biggest seafood retailers, to make the same preemptive declaration as its competitors.
