Skyline Happenings

Q. What foods are banned in Europe that are not banned in the United States, and what are the implications of eating those foods?

A. The European Union prohibits or severely restricts many food additives that have been linked to cancer that are still used in American-made bread, cookies, soft drinks and other processed foods. Europe also bars the use of several drugs that are used in farm animals in the United States, and many European countries limit the cultivation and import of genetically modified foods.

“In some cases, food-processing companies will reformulate a food product for sale in Europe” but continue to sell the product with the additives in the United States, said Lisa Y. Lefferts, senior scientist at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a food safety advocacy organization.

A 1958 amendment to the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act prohibits the Food and Drug Administration from approving food additives that are linked to cancer, but an agency spokeswoman said that many substances that were in use before passage of the amendment, known as the Delaney amendment, are considered to have had prior approval and “therefore are not regulated as food additives.”

In October, the F.D.A. agreed to ban six artificial flavoring substancesshown to cause cancer in animals, following petitions and a lawsuit filed by the Center for Science in the Public Interest and other organizations. The F.D.A. insists the six artificial flavors “do not pose a risk to public health,” but concedes that the law requires it not approve the food additives. Food companies will have at least two years to remove them from their products.

Here’s a short list of some of the food additives restricted by the European Union but allowed in American foods. Most must be listed as ingredients on the labels, though information about drugs used to increase the yield in farm animals is generally not provided.

From Crosscut: “Seattle Opera wig master Ashlee Naegle begins the process of creating a custom wig for performer Martin Muehle inside the new Opera Center at Seattle Center. With the new building comes the opera’s first dedicated wig shop. (All photos by Matt M. McKnight/Crosscut)

Seattle Opera opens a soaring new headquarters this weekend, its translucent façade lit in dreamy purple for the occasion. Designed by NBBJ architects and located next door to McCaw Hall (the opera’s performance venue at Seattle Center), the $60 million, 105,000-square-foot “Opera Center” features tall banks of windows, a Mercer Street-facing event space for community programming and staff lounges with killer views of the Space Needle. The new accommodations offer 20,000 more square feet than the previous HQ, and house three rehearsal studios, classrooms, a lofty costume shop and, for the first time, dedicated space for wig making.

The old building — a former carpet factory in South Lake Union that Seattle Opera had leased for staff, rehearsal space and storage since 1993 — was notoriously dark, cramped and labyrinthine. The hair and makeup department was lodged in a storage space at the end of a hallway. It had no door, just a plain curtain separating the windowless space from the freight elevator.

Ed note: Immanence is a simple word with a powerful meaning. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica : ” Its most important use is for the theological conception of God as existing in and throughout the created world, as opposed, for example, to deism, which conceives him as separate from and above the universe. This concept has been expressed in a great variety of forms, including theism and pantheism.

From Aeon: “Martin Luther King Jr knew he was risking his life. The US civil rights leader, who would be assassinated in 1968 while campaigning for equality, realised that his safety, and that of his family and co-activists, were constantly in danger. In 1958, he had been stabbed and nearly killed during a book-signing event in Harlem. In 1956, during his involvement in the Montgomery bus boycott, the front porch of his home had been bombed. Yet King did not relent. After receiving a menacing phone call one night in January of 1956, King turned to God for the strength to carry on.

‘I am here taking a stand for what I believe is right. But now I am afraid,’ King prayed at his kitchen table. ‘At that moment,’ he wrote in Stride Toward Freedom (1958), ‘I experienced the presence of the Divine as I had never experienced God before. It seemed as though I could hear the quiet assurance of an inner voice saying: “Stand up for justice, stand up for truth; and God will be at your side forever.” Almost at once my fears began to go. My uncertainty disappeared. I was ready to face anything.’

King’s faith in God helped him weather the storms of his calling. But his abiding beliefs in progress and the ideals of his nation also demanded faith in a certain kind of creator: an immanent God, working directly in the world through human beings, relying on them to carry out His will on Earth. Indeed, King’s belief in God’s immanence helped to strengthen his optimism about nonviolence and democracy, his ability to withstand disappointment, death threats, political setbacks and the seemingly irreversible condition of human sinfulness. God, he believed, was in the world, and His will would prevail, even when the evidence of moral victories seemed slim. The faithful need only stay the righteous course.

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