Food Trends: Progress Is Our Most Important Product Certainly there is plenty wrong with our food "system," and it's easy to point that out week after week. Every day there's more bad news, and when credible people say that 900 million Indians are hungry - really hungry, not "dying" for a Snickers - the tendency is to get so depressed that one overlooks progress. Perhaps, too, New Yorkers are born to kvetch. But here in the United States at least, every week there's evidence that the pendulum is swinging. One could allow pessimism to reign, but it's my sworn duty to occasionally point out some of The Good Stuff. And there's been plenty the last few weeks. All tempered, of course, but we'll try to tame the inner curmudgeon here. To wit: The Walt Disney Co. announced a curb on junk food marketing aimed at kids, to be implemented by 2015. At that point, all products advertised on any of Disney's media outlets must meet certain nutrition guidelines. Kudos to Disney for taking the lead on this issue, and though we'd like to see others follow suit, this should not be a voluntary system based on the good will of individual companies: we need real standards to which all advertisers and marketers must adhere. Attempts to curb junk food marketing through voluntary guidelines have been nearly useless, and junk food is now advertised on school buses and in schools. It's unlikely Disney is setting a real trend; it's just showing what needs to be the norm. McDonald's is also helping to set new norms, by establishing a 10-year timeline to phase out pork gestation crates from its U.S. supply chain. And other companies have set earlier deadlines. Even though one wishes that McDonald's would get a move on, this is big. Kroger, the nation's largest grocery chain, has urged its suppliers to speed up the elimination of gestation crates, and a New Jersey Senate committee has approved a proposed law that would ban them. Write this down: gestation crates will be gone within a generation. Perhaps equally significant, Subway has announced not one, not two, but three new vegan sandwiches, on what appears to be a trial run. It will be interesting to see how they do, and how the company promotes them because Subway talks a lot about their "healthier" fast food, but promotes the BMT, steak-and-cheese and other high-fat sandwiches like mad. Speaking of Subway, in 2011 the chain said it cut salt by 15 percent across the board. This might be good news, but only if you believe that salt is harmful. The real good news is in this Gary Taubes piece which essentially maintains that everything you thought you knew about salt was wrong. Pass the shaker. A court ruled that the Food and Drug Administration must reconsider two petitions urging the agency to restrict the subtherapeutic use of antibiotics on livestock. This decision follows a March order that the F.D.A. begin withdrawing the use of two major classes of antibiotics from livestock production if they cannot be proved to be safe. The most recent ruling could be read as a scolding: "For over thirty years, the Agency has been confronted with evidence of the human health risks associated with the widespread subtherapeutic use of antibiotics in food-producing animals, and, despite a statutory mandate to ensure the safety of animal drugs, the Agency has done shockingly little to address these risks." (Why is curbing antibiotic use so critical? Read Maryn McKenna.) We need the F.D.A., and we need it to do its job well. It's good that it's also considering placing a ban on BPA in infant formula containers (although one could easily say "just do it"), and that it denied the Corn Refiners Association's petition to change the name of high-fructose corn syrup to "corn sugar." (Although, come on. What difference would it make? You could call it Gold Spun From Straw for all it matters. It's still not food.) The Farm Bill is a mess, and no one understands it (which is why it's so susceptible to lobbyists), but at least this time some people are paying attention. First there was the laudable Local Farms, Food, and Jobs Act from Representative Chellie Pingree, Democrat of Maine. Then Senator Frank Lautenberg, Democrat of New Jersey, introduced an amendment mandating that the government study the link between sugary beverages and obesity. Bernie Sanders, Independent of Vermont, suggests that an amendment be added allowing states to require GMO labeling. And the Senate at large voted to reject the Tea-Party-led effort to cut nutrition assistance nearly in half. It's a bit of a mess. Hundreds of amendments to the farm bill have been introduced, and my guess is that ultimately we'll be saying what we said five years ago - "Wait "til next time!" - but there are signs that more members of Congress are at least trying to do the right thing. It's our job to get more of those types elected come November. To make that easier, there will soon be a scorecard of how your elected representatives are acting, Farm-Bill-wise. Finally, and this is a good omen, an Ohio judge has ruled that a state law limiting the ability of local governments to regulate restaurants in order to improve public health is not constitutional. To disambiguate this, as Wikipedia would say, it's O.K. in Ohio, according to this judge, anyway, for municipalities to boss restaurants around, health-wise.) Please visit my blog and join me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter.