This Week in Food Freedom: PETA Jumps the Sea Kitten, Good News in California, and More

• People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) president Ingrid Newkirk has called her organization “complete press sluts,” and it still rings true. The Orange County Register reports that the vegan group which once gave grants to an arsonist wants to place a memorial at the spot where a truck carrying fish — er, “sea kittens” in PETA-speak —crashed. PETA did not say if it intended to memorialize the 2,000 or so dogs and cats it kills in its Virginia “animal shelter” each year.
• The Los Angeles Times endorsed a “no” vote on soda taxes in El Monte and Richmond, California. The editors noted that “efforts to tax junk foods or regulate dietary behavior are almost sure to have logical inconsistencies.” We couldn’t agree more. National polls show that most people agree, and opponents expect to defeat the tax in Richmond by a wide margin.
• USA Today reports that companies are trying to reverse the effects of sedentary lifestyles by redesigning office layouts. This “active design” is intended to get desk workers moving around the office and not just sitting at their desks. One of the ideas from our “Small Choices, Big Bodies” report was that changes encouraging sedentary lifestyles led to obesity: If “active design” becomes a trend, we should see less sedentary behavior and less obesity.
• CCF in the News: We’re fighting back against activist attempts to classify candy as a drug in Las Vegas and suburban Philadelphia, and agriculture media is taking notice of our HumaneWatch project’s efforts to tell the truth about the anti-agriculture Humane Society of the United States (not to be confused with local pet shelters).
• CCF This Week: In our daily posts this week, we’re hitting back against claims that food is addictive like a drug, defending the traditional Halloween trick-or-treat candy, and pointing out that even Kelly Brownell’s colleagues are finding that Americans know personal responsibility matters to fighting obesity.