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New Bill Targets Harmful Ingredients in California School Food

News Feed
Friday, March 21, 2025

FRIDAY, March 21, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- Across California, kids are digging into lunches packed with chips, cookies and other ultra-processed snacks -- but a new bill could soon change what’s on their trays.California lawmakers have introduced a new bill that would ban certain ultra-processed foods from school meals across the state. Assembly Bill 1264 would begin phasing out these foods in 2028, with the goal of fully removing them by 2032.The bipartisan proposal aims to protect kids from chemicals and additives found in many packaged foods. “Our schools should not be serving students ultra-processed food products that are filled with chemical additives that can harm their physical and mental health,” Democratic Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, who introduced the bill, told NBC News.Ultra-processed foods such as chips, candy, instant noodles and sodas are usually made with low-cost ingredients and often have long shelf lives.They also may include additives like high-fructose corn syrup, maltodextrin and soy protein isolate -- ingredients not commonly found in your pantry.Studies show that eating more of these foods can raise the risk for diabetes, heart disease, cancer and mental health problems like depression and anxiety. Some experts also believe these foods are designed to make people overeat by triggering the brain’s reward system.“The foods that we see that people show the common signs of addiction with are those ultra-processed foods that are high in both carbohydrates and fats in a way that we don’t see in nature, and at levels that we don’t see in nature,” Ashley Gearhardt, a psychology professor at the University of Michigan, told NBC News. “There’s evidence that especially that combo of carbs and fats has the superadditive amplification of the reward system and the brain,” she added.The bill would have California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment define which foods are most harmful, based on their fat, sugar and/or salt content, and whether they've been linked to food addiction or other serious health risks.Gabriel said schools might just switch to “one brand of granola bars instead of another” or change recipes to meet the new rules."Americans are among the world’s biggest consumers of ultra-processed foods, and we are paying the price for it, both in terms of our declining health and our rapidly rising health care costs," Gabriel said at a news conference, according to NBC News."This proposal is based on the common-sense premise that our public schools should not be serving students ultra-processed food products that can harm their physical or mental health or interfere with their ability to learn," he added.This is not Gabriel’s first push for safer school food. In 2023, he passed the California Food Safety Act, which banned four harmful food additives from products sold in the state. Assembly Minority Leader James Gallagher, co-author of the proposed bill, said children’s health shouldn’t be a partisan issue. “When it comes to our kids, we’ve got an obesity epidemic,” he said. “Our kids should be having healthy food to eat, and it seems like, increasingly, that is not the case.”“It’s not as if we’re not going to feed children at school,” Scott Faber of the Environmental Working Group, added. “We may just feed them healthier food.”Some observers have expressed concern."Restricting access to shelf-ready foods could exacerbate health disparities, limit choice and create consumer confusion," said Sarah Gallo, Consumer Brands Association's senior vice president of product policy.She added that food companies want to work with regulators to keep products safe, affordable and convenient.SOURCE: NBC News, March 19, 2025Copyright © 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

By I. Edwards HealthDay ReporterFRIDAY, March 21, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- Across California, kids are digging into lunches packed with chips,...

FRIDAY, March 21, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- Across California, kids are digging into lunches packed with chips, cookies and other ultra-processed snacks -- but a new bill could soon change what’s on their trays.

California lawmakers have introduced a new bill that would ban certain ultra-processed foods from school meals across the state. 

Assembly Bill 1264 would begin phasing out these foods in 2028, with the goal of fully removing them by 2032.

The bipartisan proposal aims to protect kids from chemicals and additives found in many packaged foods. 

“Our schools should not be serving students ultra-processed food products that are filled with chemical additives that can harm their physical and mental health,” Democratic Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, who introduced the bill, told NBC News.

Ultra-processed foods such as chips, candy, instant noodles and sodas are usually made with low-cost ingredients and often have long shelf lives.

They also may include additives like high-fructose corn syrup, maltodextrin and soy protein isolate -- ingredients not commonly found in your pantry.

Studies show that eating more of these foods can raise the risk for diabetes, heart disease, cancer and mental health problems like depression and anxiety. 

Some experts also believe these foods are designed to make people overeat by triggering the brain’s reward system.

“The foods that we see that people show the common signs of addiction with are those ultra-processed foods that are high in both carbohydrates and fats in a way that we don’t see in nature, and at levels that we don’t see in nature,” Ashley Gearhardt, a psychology professor at the University of Michigan, told NBC News. 

“There’s evidence that especially that combo of carbs and fats has the superadditive amplification of the reward system and the brain,” she added.

The bill would have California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment define which foods are most harmful, based on their fat, sugar and/or salt content, and whether they've been linked to food addiction or other serious health risks.

Gabriel said schools might just switch to “one brand of granola bars instead of another” or change recipes to meet the new rules.

"Americans are among the world’s biggest consumers of ultra-processed foods, and we are paying the price for it, both in terms of our declining health and our rapidly rising health care costs," Gabriel said at a news conference, according to NBC News.

"This proposal is based on the common-sense premise that our public schools should not be serving students ultra-processed food products that can harm their physical or mental health or interfere with their ability to learn," he added.

This is not Gabriel’s first push for safer school food. In 2023, he passed the California Food Safety Act, which banned four harmful food additives from products sold in the state. 

Assembly Minority Leader James Gallagher, co-author of the proposed bill, said children’s health shouldn’t be a partisan issue. 

“When it comes to our kids, we’ve got an obesity epidemic,” he said. “Our kids should be having healthy food to eat, and it seems like, increasingly, that is not the case.”

“It’s not as if we’re not going to feed children at school,” Scott Faber of the Environmental Working Group, added. “We may just feed them healthier food.”

Some observers have expressed concern.

"Restricting access to shelf-ready foods could exacerbate health disparities, limit choice and create consumer confusion," said Sarah Gallo, Consumer Brands Association's senior vice president of product policy.

She added that food companies want to work with regulators to keep products safe, affordable and convenient.

SOURCE: NBC News, March 19, 2025

Copyright © 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Read the full story here.
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Related News

California banned polystyrene. So why is it still on store shelves?

Expanded polystyrene foam, the white fluffy plastic in styrofoam, was banned in food service ware on Jan. 1. But shoppers in CA say its still on the shelves.

Styrofoam coffee cups, plates, clamshell takeout containers and other food service items made with expanded polystyrene plastic can still be found in restaurants and on store shelves, despite a ban that went into effect on Jan. 1.A Smart and Final in Redwood City was brimming with foam plates, bowls and cups for sale on Thursday. Want to buy these goods online? It was no problem to log on to Amazon.com to find a variety of foam food ware products — Dart insulated hot/cold foam cups, or Hefty Everyday 10.25” plates — that could be shipped to an address in California. Polystyrene foam is still being sold in the state of California despite a ban that went into effect on Jan. 1, 2025. (Susanne Rust/Susanne Rust/Los Angeles Times) Same with the restaurant supply shop KaTom, which is based in Kodak, Tenn.Smart and Final and KaTom didn’t respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for Amazon said the company would look into the matter. The expanded polystyrene ban is part of a single-use plastic law, Senate Bill 54, that Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law in 2022 but bailed on earlier this month. And while the full law now sits in limbo, one part remains in effect: A de facto ban on so-called expanded polystyrene, the soft, white, foamy material commonly used for takeout food service items. Nick Lapis, director of advocacy for Californians Against Waste — one of the many stakeholder organizations that worked with lawmakers to craft SB 54 — said the law had been written in a way that insured the polystyrene ban would go into effect even if the rest of the package failed. “So, it’s still in effect whether or not there are regulations for the rest of the bill,” he said.CalRecycle, the state’s waste agency, is tasked with overseeing and enforcing the law.Asked why styrofoam food service products are still widely available, CalRecycle spokesperson Melanie Turner said in an email that her agency is in the process of identifying businesses producing, selling and distributing the products in the state and considering “ways to help them comply with the law.”SB 54 called for plastic and packaging companies to reduce single-use plastic packaging by 25% and ensure that 65% of that material is recyclable and 100% either recyclable or compostable — all by 2032. The law also required packaging producers to bear the costs of their products’ end-life (whether via recycling, composting, landfill or export) and figure out how to make it happen — removing that costly burden from consumers and state and local governments.In December, representatives from the plastic, packaging and chemical recycling industry urged the governor to abandon the regulations, suggesting they were unachievable as written and could cost Californians roughly $300 per year to implement — a number that has been hotly contested by environmental groups and lawmakers, who say it doesn’t factor in the money saved by reducing plastic waste in towns, cities and the environment.Their pressure campaign — joined by Rachel Wagoner, the former director of CalRecycle and now the director of the Circular Action Alliance, a coalition for the plastic and packaging industry — worked. Newsom let the deadline for the bill’s finalized rules and regulations pass without implementation and ordered CalRecycle to start the process over. Polystyrene foam is still being sold in the state of California despite a ban that went into effect on Jan. 1, 2025. (Susanne Rust/Los Angeles Times) However, the bill’s stand-alone styrofoam proviso — which doesn’t require the finalization of rules and regulation — makes clear that producers of expanded polystyrene food service ware “shall not sell, offer for sale, distribute, or import into the state” these plastic products unless the producer can demonstrate recycling rates of no less than 25% on Jan. 1, 2025, 30% by Jan. 1, 2028, 50% by Jan. 1, 2030 and 65% by 2032.And on Jan. 1, that recycling target hadn’t been met and is therefore banned. (Recycling rates for expanded polystyrene range around 1% nationally).Neither CalRecycle or Newsom’s office has issued an acknowledgment of the ban — leaving plastic distributors, sellers, environmental groups, waste haulers and lawmakers uncertain about the state government’s willingness to enforce the law.“I don’t understand why the administration can’t put out a statement saying that,” said Lapis. “At this point, silence from the administration only creates additional legal liability for companies that don’t realize they are breaking the law.”At a state Senate budget hearing on Thursday, lawmakers questioned the directors of CalEPA and CalRecycle about its lack of action regarding the polystyrene ban. CalRecycle is a department within CalEPA.“Why hasn’t Cal Recycle taken steps to implement the provisions of SB 54 that deal with the sale of expanded polystyrene?” Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica), the sponsor and author of the bill, asked Yana Garcia, the secretary of CalEPA. “You know, the product has not met the strict requirements under SB 54, so there’s now steps that need to be taken to prohibited sale.”Garcia responded that in terms of the messaging around polystyrene, her agency and CalRecycle “possibly need to lean in more there as well, particularly at this moment.”Jan Dell, the founder and president of the Laguna Beach-based environmental group Last Beach Cleanup, said the continued presence of expanded polystyrene on store shelves throughout the state underscores one of the major problems with the law: CalRecycle cannot easily enforce it.This “proves that CalRecycle is incapable of implementing and enforcing the massive scope of SB 54 on all packaging,” she said in an email, suggesting the whole law should be repealed “to save taxpayer money and enable strict bans on the worst plastic pollution items to pass and be implemented.”Turner said via email that the agency could provide “compliance assistance,” initiate investigations and issue notices of violation. According to one state analysis, 2.9 million tons of single-use plastic and 171.4 billion single-use plastic components were sold, offered for sale or distributed during 2023 in California.Single-use plastics and plastic waste more broadly are considered a growing environmental and health problem. In recent decades, the accumulation of plastic waste has overwhelmed waterways and oceans, sickened marine life and threatened human health.On March 7, Newsom stopped the landmark plastic waste law from moving forward — rejecting rules and regulations his own staff had written — despite more than two years of effort, negotiation and input from the plastic and packaging industry, as well as environmental organizations, waste haulers and other lawmakers.

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Business
Government

Building Stronger Communities Through Food Mutual Aid

Who Spoke: The event was kicked off by Civil Eats Membership Manager Kalisha Bass, with a welcome from Executive Director Naomi Starkman. Editorial Director Margo True moderated our conversation with Katina Parker, a filmmaker and founder of Feed Durham in North Carolina, and Yasmin Ruiz, food justice co-organizer at Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) […] The post Building Stronger Communities Through Food Mutual Aid appeared first on Civil Eats.

Last week, we welcomed Civil Eats members and the public to a thought-provoking and inspiring discussion on how to create and sustain food mutual aid. Our salons are usually for members only, but we felt that this inherently generous topic deserved to be shared with all interested listeners, particularly at a time when many of us might be supporting mutual aid in our communities. Who Spoke: The event was kicked off by Civil Eats Membership Manager Kalisha Bass, with a welcome from Executive Director Naomi Starkman. Editorial Director Margo True moderated our conversation with Katina Parker, a filmmaker and founder of Feed Durham in North Carolina, and Yasmin Ruiz, food justice co-organizer at Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) in Chicago. Feed Durham is a multifaceted program that feeds hundreds of people at a time and includes produce giveaways, clothing distributions, and repair clinics. LVEJO was founded 30 years ago to fight environmental injustice in the neighborhood, has now expanded into several different food mutual aid projects. The Overview: The conversation centered around what true community care looks like, based not on charity but on reciprocity, and how people can care for one another during difficult times. The audience included people from across the U.S., many of whom work on farms, garden programs, and food access issues. They contributed a lively stream of chats during the discussion. Many audience members were already working to feed people in their communities, and a few were encouraged by Parker to start new local projects such as community gardens to feed more people in need. By the time the salon ended, there was a palpable energy for change in the audience, with listeners vowing to connect with one another and the speakers after the session. Become a member today for invitations to future salons—along with other benefits that come with being a Civil Eats member. Nuggets From the Conversation     What Is Food Mutual Aid? Katina Parker emphasized that mutual aid is not about traditional power structures, but about shared responsibility and collective survival, as it was in her family and community: “Growing up, there were a lot of kids, and we never went hungry. . . . Surviving wasn’t just about sharing food, it was about knowing one another. It’s what Dr. King called ‘service.’ There’s a difference between service and volunteerism. Service is something that is built into our lives, it’s a way of being, it’s a lifestyle–and volunteerism is something you pencil in on a Saturday.” Yasmin Ruiz of LVEJO defined mutual aid as “solidarity, as opposed to charity,” fostering empowerment and reciprocal relationships. “It’s not just you being on the receiving end, but giving back. It gives a sense of empowerment to people in the community, [and] allows us to take direct action to immediate needs we see.” Tips for Sustaining a Food Mutual Aid Community Learn from elders, Indigenous communities, and immigrants. Elders are a trove of expertise, and immigrants (who are sometimes also Indigenous, as in the case of the Little Village neighborhood) hold knowledge from their homeland, including of agricultural practices. People on the receiving end need to be involved. Parker emphasized learning from unhoused individuals to prepare for societal disruptions, potentially including how to live outside, how the land and soil work, knowledge about weather conditions, and beyond. “Learn things from people that are different from us, particularly people who are closer to the earth. Native folks, unhoused people, veterans—they know a lot about the land.”   Turning Challenges Into Opportunities How to unite a group of people from disparate backgrounds into a true mutual aid community? Parker: “Unless you’re forging relationships across difference and really learning from one another, what you’re doing is what I would call ‘altruistic capitalism.’ What we need for what’s coming is to lean deeper into these relationships.” Programs that once supported farmers, school food sourcing, and food banks are being cut, increasing reliance on mutual aid as available resources decrease. Ruiz noted LVEJO’s community gardens produced 8.2 tons of food last year, but the demand far exceeds supply. Continuing to build local partnerships is key. Sources of Inspiration and Strength Ruiz says it’s the relationships she forges with people in the community, and seeing how participating in mutual aid gives people agency and purpose. “A lot of people that have helped us are also people that have received produce and meals.” For Parker, it’s often her family. “My faith and the memory of how I was raised, and how so many have looked out for me along the way. Many of them are still alive, in their 70s and their 80s now. I spend a lot of time talking with them . . . . Standing on those broad shoulders is definitely what keeps me in it, and an awareness that we need people to survive.” Expanding Mutual Aid Feed Durham is launching a national mutual aid network focused on rapid response and food access. “After four years of no rest, we have to find another gear and somehow dig deeper and be in the battle of our lives. . . .We have the best chance of getting the world that we’ve been fighting for right now, because things are so unstable and so unfamiliar.” Read More About Food Mutual Aid Photo Essay: Standing in the Gaps With Feed Durham In Chicago, an Environmental Organization Feeds a Community Indigenous Food Reciprocity as a Model for Mutual Aid Op-ed: We Can Build a Better Food System Through Mutual Aid How a Year of Mutual Aid Fed Minneapolis Food is Free in a City Near You Op-ed: Why Those Community Fridges Won’t Solve Hunger Seattle’s Little Free Libraries Offer a Catalog of Collections and Connections The post Building Stronger Communities Through Food Mutual Aid appeared first on Civil Eats.

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A greener Ramadan: How Atlanta-area mosques are cutting food waste during the Muslim holy month

At some places of worship, hundreds of people attend the evening breaking of the fast — which means a lot of discarded food and plastic water bottles. This year, more than a dozen sites of worship are planning “zero-waste” iftars to tackle the problem.

One evening in early March, Nina Ansari frowns as she picks up an untouched plate of rice left on the floor of the masjid she attends near her home in Stone Mountain. “Would anyone like to take this?” she asks a group of women standing nearby. When no one responds, she picks it up. Her hands are already full of the pizza and curry leftovers that her kids didn’t finish. If she doesn’t take the rice home, it will be thrown out. “There’s a lot of waste that happens during Ramadan,” says Nina, 38, who grew up in Georgia.  During the Muslim holy month — a time of spiritual rejuvenation through increased prayer and daylight fasting — masjids may serve hundreds of visitors for iftar, the sunset meal that marks the breaking of the fast. Some also serve a meal in the predawn hours, suhoor, before congregants start their fast.  That all can add up to a lot of trash, though. At mosques in Atlanta and elsewhere, it’s not uncommon to find garbage cans packed to the top by the end of the night, with some plates and plastic water bottles still half full.  “It’s just not acceptable for us,” says Nina. “My family is conscious of water and food conservation. We eat leftovers — we are not wasting or being snooty about wasting.”  She’s not the only one concerned about the problem. This year, more than two dozen Atlanta-area masjids or Islamic groups are planning environmentally friendly “zero-waste iftars,” aiming to cut down on the amount of discarded food, disposable plates, and water bottles. Food waste is a global and national dilemma — in the U.S., almost 40 percent of the food supply ends up in the landfill. But the trash generated during the holy month directly conflicts with a religious mandate to not be wasteful, says Marium Masud, who attends Marietta’s Masjid Al Furqan West Cobb Islamic Center: “We are called to be stewards of the Earth. There is a saying from the Prophet Muhammad that all of the Earth is a masjid. So it’s up to us to keep it clean, just like we keep our masjids clean.” Bahadur Ali Sohani of Lilburn shows off water bottles he has just crushed at Masjid Fatimah in Stone Mountain before recycling them. Tasnim Shamma Masud is part of a “green team” of 17 volunteers that Al Furqan established to help tackle the problem. This past year, Al Furqan’s green team focused on one thing: banning plastic water bottles. In the past, the masjid threw away nearly 300 plastic bottles every night — but this year, hardly any. To prepare for Ramadan, the team added water filling stations, brought in reusable five-gallon water bottles, and had their Cub Scout packs sell recycled aluminum bottles to community members for $10 each. They also accepted donations to give out water bottles for free to anyone who couldn’t afford them.  On March 19, Al Furqan — where 200 to 250 people come for iftars each weeknight — will host its first “zero-waste iftar” in partnership with Georgia Interfaith Power and Light, or GIPL, a nonprofit that works with religious groups on environmental justice. The organization provides training, workshops, and grants for reusable or compostable plates and cutlery. At the end of the iftar dinner, GIPL also covers the cost of sending the excess to the Atlanta nonprofit CHaRM, which composts food waste and processes hard-to-recycle items. Al Furqan’s zero-waste iftar is just one of 24 zero-waste iftars planned across Atlanta-area Islamic centers this Ramadan. At least 15 now have dedicated green teams. That’s a big increase from 2023, when there was only one masjid with a GIPL-certified green team: Roswell Community Masjid, or RCM. RCM, which hosts weekly zero-waste iftar dinners every Saturday, signed a contract with Atlanta-based Goodr in mid-January to handle its composting and provide food waste recovery services year-round. Monitoring trash At Masjid Fatimah in Stone Mountain, Mohammed Ata Ur Rasheed helps direct trash traffic during Ramadan. He sits in a folding chair for hours each night telling male congregants where to put the recycling, trash, and compost. About 150 people attend their iftar dinners each night.  “People waste so much food. There are half-eaten plates. Sometimes the entire plate. And because they don’t want me to see what they’re throwing away, they take another plate to cover it,” Rasheed says. “I see you! Sometimes I tell them, when you’re grabbing food, get a smaller portion. The food is there. I collected a lot of bread the past two days because people didn’t like it and were trying to throw it away.” (Some local masjids like Masjid Fatimah are working to reduce food waste by having volunteers portion out plates before handing them out to attendees — who tend to pile food on their own plates after fasting all day long.) Mohammed Ata Ur Rasheed of Masjid Fatimah in Stone Mountain organizes and stacks plates before throwing them away. Courtesy of Mohammed Ata Ur Rasheed Reducing waste isn’t just aligned with religious principles — there’s also a financial incentive. Rasheed estimates that his masjid has saved nearly $1,000 so far because it has not needed to call Gwinnett County to pick up excess trash: Instead of five bags every night, there is now only one.  Masjid Fatimah still provides congregants with plastic water bottles. But this year, it’s cutting down on the volume of its recycling by placing permanent markers with instructions on neon-green poster boards near the free bottles. “I put up a message and every day I remind people: Label your bottle, put your initial,” says Rasheed, calling this his personal pilot project. When they’re done drinking, he reminds people to remove the caps from their bottles and crush them so they’ll take up less space in the trash.  At the end of the night, he sorts through the compost bin and trash to bring home what he can to add to his compost pile and feed his four chickens and red wiggler worms. Rasheed, who grew up gardening in Hyderabad, India, spends two hours a day working with his beehives and tending to his backyard permaculture setup after he returns home from his job as a biologist at the CDC; his garden provides hundreds of pounds of produce each year for his family of four. At the masjid, he shows other gardeners how to use the pizza boxes left over from Ramadan iftars to create easy garden plots and reduce time spent pulling weeds. He says more congregants are following his example and bringing scraps home to feed their backyard chickens as well.  ‘Khalifas’ of the earth, or green teams Ayesha Abid is the program coordinator for Georgia Interfaith Power and Light. Informally, she calls herself the Muslim organizer for the nonprofit, and has been working to increase the number of Muslim organizations embracing recycling and reducing energy use and waste since she joined in 2023. “It’s hard to say for sure, since we are in the Bible Belt and we have more churches, but we have about 150 green teams [statewide],” Abid says, explaining that this includes teams across all religious houses of worship. “If there are about 100 masjids and 15 have green teams, I don’t think that’s a bad representation.” Atlanta Masjid of Al-Islam in East Atlanta is composting for the first time this year, and received a grant from GIPL for its zero-waste iftar.  The masjid, which opened in 1958, is the largest and oldest Islamic community center in metro Atlanta.  Mohammed Ata Ur Rasheed shows off some of the produce from his permaculture garden. Courtesy of Mohammed Ata Ur Rasheed “It isn’t that expensive to do composting,” Abid says. “What’s expensive is manpower or volunteers. The biggest thing I was hearing was ‘I don’t have volunteers to take it to CHaRM.’ There was a woman at [Atlanta Masjid of Al-Islam] who just took six to eight bags of compost/recyclable waste in her van. You need community members willing to step up to do that. I think the women in the community are uplifting this the most.” Abid says East Cobb Islamic Center, Al Furqan West Cobb Islamic Center, and Roswell Community Masjid have all called to eliminate single-use plastic bottles and encourage people to bring their own tupperware to take home food so it isn’t thrown out.   “I grew up in Georgia and going to masjids, my most significant memory of Ramadan is seeing aunties forget which water bottle is theirs and getting a new one and letting entire bottles of water go to waste,” Abid says. “Volunteers are tired after fasting all day and don’t have energy to empty it into gardens. Muslims are supposed to be ‘khalifas’ [stewards] of the Earth, especially during Ramadan, and I could never make sense of the waste. This disconnect has always stood out to me. A lot of people question it but don’t care about it. But we’re working to fix that.”  This story was originally published by Grist with the headline A greener Ramadan: How Atlanta-area mosques are cutting food waste during the Muslim holy month on Mar 16, 2025.

Food
Waste

Maggie Baird, Mother of Billie Eilish, Receives Environmental Award at Gala Event

Maggie Baird, mother of musicians Billie Eilish and Finneas, and founder of the food insecurity-focused nonprofit Support+Feed, has received the Superhero for Earth award from the Captain Planet Foundation

ATLANTA (AP) — Maggie Baird, mother of chart-topping musicians Billie Eilish and Finneas, received the Superhero for Earth award Saturday from the Captain Planet Foundation at a gala event.Baird is the founder of the nonprofit Support + Feed, which works on food insecurity and environmental issues. Her group has an anchor presence in 11 U.S. cities and expanded partnerships in Europe, the United Kingdom and Australia.Baird told The Associated Press that she has been working on these issues for years, though her message is now amplified with the additional voices of her Grammy-winning children. “People need food. People need food every day and our climate is really in trouble and we've got to address our food systems,” Baird said. “As we work on our larger goals, we have these beautiful daily wins where we get to support people in just their struggle to just survive.”The Atlanta-based nonprofit Captain Planet Foundation works with young people on environmental issues around the world, supporting school gardens and other initiatives. More than 1.7 million children have participated in programs. The foundation was formed in 1991 and co-founded by media mogul Ted Turner.“I really admire this organization, Captain Planet, and I really appreciate their shining a light on what we do at Support + Feed — and to me that's really what matters,” Baird said. Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See - Feb. 2025

Food
Climate

Cargo ship captain arrested after North Sea collision raises environmental concerns

Authorities arrested the captain of the cargo ship Solong after a fatal North Sea collision led to a jet fuel spill, raising alarms about marine pollution.Robyn Vinter, Josh Halliday, and Karen McVeigh report for The Guardian.In short:The Solong collided with the Stena Immaculate, which was carrying 220,000 barrels of jet fuel for the U.S. Air Force; at least one tank is leaking into the North Sea.Authorities arrested the Solong’s captain on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter after a crew member went missing.Experts warn that jet fuel is highly toxic to marine life, with potential long-term ecological consequences.Key quote:“The health and environmental effects will be short- and long-term, local and regional.”— Dr. Jennifer Allan, Cardiff UniversityWhy this matters:Jet fuel spills can have severe consequences for marine ecosystems, harming fish, birds, and coastal habitats. Unlike crude oil, jet fuel evaporates quickly but is more acutely toxic, potentially disrupting food chains and contaminating fisheries. The North Sea supports diverse marine life and a significant fishing industry, making this spill particularly concerning. Investigations will determine the full extent of the damage, but containment efforts are already underway.Related: Oil pollution in UK seas underreported by nearly half, warns Oceana

Authorities arrested the captain of the cargo ship Solong after a fatal North Sea collision led to a jet fuel spill, raising alarms about marine pollution.Robyn Vinter, Josh Halliday, and Karen McVeigh report for The Guardian.In short:The Solong collided with the Stena Immaculate, which was carrying 220,000 barrels of jet fuel for the U.S. Air Force; at least one tank is leaking into the North Sea.Authorities arrested the Solong’s captain on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter after a crew member went missing.Experts warn that jet fuel is highly toxic to marine life, with potential long-term ecological consequences.Key quote:“The health and environmental effects will be short- and long-term, local and regional.”— Dr. Jennifer Allan, Cardiff UniversityWhy this matters:Jet fuel spills can have severe consequences for marine ecosystems, harming fish, birds, and coastal habitats. Unlike crude oil, jet fuel evaporates quickly but is more acutely toxic, potentially disrupting food chains and contaminating fisheries. The North Sea supports diverse marine life and a significant fishing industry, making this spill particularly concerning. Investigations will determine the full extent of the damage, but containment efforts are already underway.Related: Oil pollution in UK seas underreported by nearly half, warns Oceana

Food
Health
Pollution

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Climate

Modern Nature

By 2050, 10 billion people may inhabit Earth. Do we need GMOs to Feed the World? Is organic production the answer? Modern Nature takes the viewer on a worldwide odyssey to find answers. Includes perspectives from philosopher Noam Chomsky, physicist Vandana Shiva and street farmer Ron Finley.

Food
Agriculture
Business

From Tide to Table: Two Docks Shellfish

Clams have been called the perfect protein - let's find out why. From harvest through the processing facility, to the delivery to a restaurant, we find out what it takes to get clams on your plate.

Food
Documentary

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