"controversy" news and stories

With the premier of Fast Food Nation at the Cannes Film Festival, a lot of protests both prosecuting and defending the fast food industry have sprung up. Despite the fact that official release of the film will not be until the fall, sides have been taken and opinions have been formed, and everyone is so polarized that it is almost beside the point that the movie is getting less-than-glowing reviews. Supporters of the movie still hope that its wide release will further raise awareness of the problems in the industry, from food standards to encouraging healthy eating habits. And on the other side, Best Food Nation is a website started by a coalition of food industry trade associations and lobby groups as a reaction to Eric Schlosser's books, Fast Food Nation and Chew on This, trying to give the public access to information from the supply side of the industry.

Cinematical asked the question yesterday, but I'm asking it here: should we just leave the fast food industry alone? Forget the "issues" and just let people eat it if they want to?

Budweiser is official beer of World Cup, the most internationally watched sporting event in the world. They bought the rights for the 2002 and 2006 games for about $80 million in 1998 - before they knew where those games were to be hosted. The problem is that this year's World Cup is hosted by Germany and Germans don't like Budweiser.

For Germans, beer and football (soccer, for the Americans) go hand in hand and Germans are some of the biggest beer drinkers in the world - with many outstanding brews coming from their own country. The prospect of having to drink only Budweiser at the games was something of a slap in the face to German brewers. One fan, cited the Wall Street Journal, even said "This is just the worst beer you could imagine." Bad publicity poured from fans and the press. And to make matters worse, the beer had to be sold as "Anheuser Busch Bud" because of a legal battle over the Budweiser name rights with a Czech brewer that makes "Budweis" beer.

With the prospect of millions of potential beer drinkers, both in stadiums and at home, Budweiser knew they had to do something. Fast.