"lawsuit" news and stories

As if we didn't have enough reason to distrust our egg supply (remember the recall in November?), now we know why prices have gone up. And grocery wholesalers are suing.

Word is, four industry trade groups -- United Egg Producers, United Egg Association, United States Egg Marketers and the Missouri Egg Council -- conspired to manipulate supply to increase demand, thereby falsely inflating the price of eggs in the U.S. The prominent egg producers include Land O'Lakes, Cal-Maine Foods, Hillandale Farms and Ohio Fresh Eggs, among 14 others, according to a press release sent out by prosecuting firm Stueve Siegel Hanson, representing Associated Wholesale Grocers, Inc, among six others.

In order to cut down on supply, producers allegedly agreed to kill off hens, which resulted in at least a 40 percent increase in egg prices in 2008, reports the L.A. Times from the following civil complaint filed by Sodexo Inc. The trade groups also increased exports (to further dwindle U.S. supply) and reduced the number of hens per cage, which they marketed as a move towards animal health. That's just wrong.

The plan is said to have gone down as early as 1999, says The Kansas City Star (home of the lawsuit), and since then, egg prices have more than doubled, with a peak of $2.20 per dozen in March 2008 from $1 a dozen in March 2002.

Vegetarians who thought no one was on their side will be happy to know that a group of doctors are going to bat for a meat-free alternative to the food pyramid.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) filed suit with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) -- who drafts the country's official food pyramid, MyPyramid -- after it ignored their petition offering a vegetarian alternative called the Power Plate, reports the Chicago Tribune. They say the USDA is blind to the rising rates in obesity and diabetes, which became common after the first pyramid was presented almost two decades ago. But they don't just want a supplemental vegetarian pyramid; they want to withdraw the old and instate theirs.

The Power Plate, available here on the PCRM site, has no portion recommendations and instead simply advises getting an equal balance of fruits, grains, legumes and vegetables, which are divided equally on a plate-shaped graph that looks more like a company logo than a guide.

Why so glum, Ronald McDonald?

First, officials in one California county banned toys in fast-food kid's meals, Happy and otherwise (setting off a nationwide trend). Then there was that flap over McDonald's cadmium-contaminated Shrek glasses.

Now a public advocacy group has issued an ultimatum to the Golden Arches: Get those toys out of all Happy Meals, or we'll sue.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest announced yesterday that it will take McDonald's to court unless the fast-food giant immediately stops including toys in any meals (the plastic baubles no doubt constitute some sizeable portion of our trade deficit with China). The group charges that the toys lure children into a lifelong cycle of unhealthy eating habits, obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

Moose aren't usually something you have to watch out for in New York City.

But one woman is suing a Manhattan bar where she claims she was hit when a stuffed moose head fell from above, the New York Post reported.

Raina Kumra says a moose head "dislodged" and struck her on the head at the White Slab Palace, a Scandanavian-themed bar and lounge on Delancey Street in Manhattan in October, according to papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.

"The taxidermy moose head weighed approximately 150 pounds, with antlers spanning over 3 feet," the suit says according to the Post.

If the allegations in a recently leaked discrimination suit against celebrity chef Anne Burrell are true, contestants on her new Food Network reality show may have gotten an earful about more than their poor stirring techniques.

Former employees say Burrell, whose "Worst Cooks in America" competition debuts next month, "constantly harassed (them) with sexually discriminatory and derogatory remarks." The complaint, filed earlier this year, was publicized today by blogger Abbe Diaz, whose husband, Sasha Muniak, owned the New York restaurant where the incidents allegedly occurred and is named as a defendant.