You may or may not have heard of the FOODBABE and her army. She is one of the most important people on the social media scene today, and pop culture has been changed by her revolution..
I first heard her on Alex Jones some time ago. She was espousing the dangers of SUBWAY bread and how an agent similar to plastic was within it.. I sort of dismissed her a bit.. Then a few days later SUBWAY announced that external pressures was going to cause them to phase out this really creepy element. I thanked my lucky stars that I never ate Subway.. but then became a “Facebok fan’ of the FOOD BABE..
Her name is Vani Hari. And she is getting some big attention now that her little website and Facebook fan backing has changed the way we look at food and its ingredients.
NPR just ran a story on her adding to the mix. This is what they said,
But as her profile grows, so too do the criticisms of her approach. Detractors, many of them academics, say she stokes unfounded fears about what’s in our food to garner publicity. Steve Novella, a Yale neuroscientist and prominent pseudoscience warrior, among others, has dubbed Hari the “Jenny McCarthy of food” after the celebrity known for championing thoroughly debunked claims that vaccines cause autism.
First off.. I am not comfortable with the last theory in that quote. But it’s fine. Whatever..
NPR also said,
Critics note that Hari lacks credentials in nutrition or food science; she’s a former consultant who studied computer science. Hari declined to be interviewed for this story; through her publicist, she told NPR she isn’t speaking to media until her new book is released in February. But when the Charlotte Observer asked her about such criticisms, Hari answered, “I’ve never claimed to be a nutritionist. I’m an investigator.”
But that lack of training often leads her to misinterpret peer-reviewed research and technical details about food chemistry, nutrition and health, says Kevin Folta, a professor of horticultural sciences at the University of Florida and vocal online critic of Hari. “She really conflates the science,” he tells The Salt.
“If anything, she’s created more confusion about food, more confusion about the role of chemicals and additives,” Folta says.
More recently, as we’ve reported, Hari’s attacks on the lack of pumpkin in Starbucks’ Pumpkin Spice lattes prompted the Institute of Food Technologists to release a video explaining the chemicals that replicate that squash flavor in a cup of Joe.
The war is on..It sounds to me like the Food Babe fight is about to go mainstream.. She is mainstream enough now for foodies to pounce on her. But even more important, big agra and all the notorious characters associated with GMO will sit back and watch her as she is forced to defend herself from the detractors that NPR profiled in its piece.
Hari is attacking back.. On her website, she posted some of the more hateful commentary that she has received since the article in NPR was shared around the world. Some of the comments mock her natural beauty by calling her a ‘whore’ and worse.. Others actually call for her rape or death. I would imagine that those who dislike her message are very uncomfortable now being coupled with misogamy and hate. But it’s the Internet, that happens often.
Hari is also saying this on her page:
Part of the reason I am responding now is because their messages have started to infiltrate the mainstream media. Seemingly reputable news organizations like NPR (in a blog post titled “Is The Food Babe A Fearmonger? Scientists Are Speaking Out”) even linked to the hate groups – quoting one of their spokespeople and repeated their ridiculous and biased messages as if they have any merit.
Obviously, some powerful entities in the food industry have a financial incentive to try to discredit me in the work we have all done together. And that’s why I created this page — to comprehensively address the criticisms levied at our movement to secure a healthy, unpolluted food supply — and the work I have been personally doing in support of this effort.
I think truth is often in the middle. Hari may make mistakes. Perhaps sometimes overdue what should not be.. chemicals often are just chemicals and not particularly harmful. However, I also believe that the FOOD BABE is onto something.. If she was not, why didn’t SUBWAY fight her? Because the public is sick of crap, garbage, and useless ingredients in food. We want food again. The FOOD BABE Is striking while the iron is hot..
I take her postings with a grain of salt. However her inspiration to people to eat better, eat clean, and drink clean, is positive.. She is clever in her marketing.. Also, she knows the way to make cash, icing on the cake of her food war..
Even if we assume she is flawed, does that make the point of her message any less important? If you cannot pronounce the chemical added to your food, it may make you at least think twice before eating it. That is basically her main issue. Big companies want to discredit her because they think if they can do it, it would make her message muddy and allow those chemicals to free flow without scrutiny.
Instead of profiling the FOOD BABE and offering negative articles about her, perhaps mainstream stays like NPR and the ilk should focus on some of the topics she has covered. While they are at it, visit a farm in India where a farmer just committed suicide because of a GMO crop failure.
But that’s too hard. It’s much easier labeling the food war as a personality war.. And it’s a lot more simple to besmirch one person’s character instead of honing in on just what ingredients go into Frankenfood and why..