Welcome to FERN’s Friday Feed (#FFF), where we share the stories from this week that made us stop and think.
Shame at the holiday table
Quartz
“It’s a truism that food is an expression of love,” writes Annaliese Griffin. “It’s also true that, in many families, food is an expression of judgment and control. There is no time when this is more pronounced than during the holidays. In some families sugar and ‘junk foods’ are forbidden; in others, mom skips dessert, citing her diet. Men are commended for having hearty appetites, while women worry about appearing gluttonous … And social boundaries are different once you enter the family sphere. It’s nearly impossible to imagine another setting in which adults openly critique one another’s eating habits and bodies. ‘Do you really need a second helping?’ or ‘Let’s put some meat on those bones!’”
Meet the company that will profit if Trump tightens work requirements
Mother Jones
An enormous company stands to benefit from the Trump administration’s push to expand work requirements for public aid such as nutrition programs and Medicaid. “Though Maximus is barely known to the taxpayers who underwrite the programs it helps run in 41 states and for multiple cities and counties and the Social Security Administration, as of September 2017 it had nearly $2.5 billion in annual revenue and 20,400 employees on four continents,” writes FERN contributor Tracie McMillan.
Stadium food lousy with mice, roaches and a dangerous array of filth
ESPN
An Outside the Lines analysis of more than 16,000 “routine food-safety inspection reports” from the 111 NFL, MLB, NBA venues in 2016-17 found “thousands” of violations, from “chicken, shrimp and sushi festering at dangerous temperatures that can breed bacteria” to “cooks sweating over food; beef blood dripping on a shelf; moldy or expired food; dirty utensils or contaminated equipment; and the presence of live cockroaches and mice.” At nearly a third “of the venues, half or more of their food service outlets incurred one or more high-level violations, the type of unsanitary conditions or omissions that can pose a risk for a foodborne illness.”
The truth about eating raw cookie dough
The Cut
‘Tis the season when many people roll up their sleeves to bake dozens of Christmas cookies, and perhaps slip a bite or two of the raw dough along the way. The CDC says we shouldn’t eat raw cookie dough—but is is really so dangerous? “In your typical cookie recipe, there are two main ingredients that could make you ill: eggs, which can carry salmonella, and raw flour, surprisingly, which can become contaminated with E. coli germ,” writes Amanda Arnold. The best way to avoid danger is to use pasteurized eggs—though maybe the hint of danger is what makes the dough taste so good.
Immigration crackdown could be behind food recalls
Slate
There has been a lot of debate over what’s caused an uptick in food recalls. One writer argues it’s the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration. “[T]o do even the most basic food safety practices, you need workers who can get trained, stay, and put that training to work. Any situation that disrupts the farm workplace, increases turnover, or incentivizes workers to keep quiet and not get noticed has consequences for food safety,” writes Sarah Taber. “And the recent immigration crackdowns are more than disruptive enough to affect farm operations’ safety practices.”