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Solitary Is Not Asocial: Social Interactions Among Mountain Lions

"F61 — F61 and F96, familial mountain lions followed by Panthera's Teton Cougar Project, engage in play. Photograph by Jeff Hogan.

On May 5, 2012, the way I—and many other scientists—understood mountain lions changed forever. A few days earlier, data collected from F57, an adult female mountain lion we'd captured as part of Panthera's Teton Cougar Project just the month before, revealed that she'd been in the same place for two full days, behavior typically indicative of having made a kill. When new data conveyed that another adult female mountain lion, F109, had closed to within 500 meters of F57's position, I rushed out with Jake Kay, a project intern at the time, to set motion-triggered cameras over the massive elk carcass we discovered on location.

Some days later, I retrieved the cameras and reviewed the video footage in our office with anticipation—F109's data indicated that she'd visited the kill and in fact spent some time there. Slowly I clicked on each video in succession, hopeful but aware that capturing an interaction between mountain lions on film would be like catching smoke in my bare hands. But at precisely 11:35 pm on May 5^th (the day I set the camera), F57 trotted into frame under cover of darkness. She quickly backtracked and hissed loudly in the direction from which she'd come. F109 emerged on screen, walking stiff-legged and tall; F57 snarled and retreated to the left side of the carcass. F109 followed, closing the distance between them from ten yards to two. F57 instantly rolled onto her back; her four clawed feet aimed at the interloper. F109 hissed quietly, and then turned her head to the side, communicating mild submission. Then the video ended. I sat alone in the quiet that followed, hand still on the mouse, stunned by what I'd just seen. And then I shot my arms above my head, and yelled “YES” at the ceiling, as thrilled and surprised as if I'd just won the World Cup. Because in mountain lion biology, I just had.

Mountain lions are solitary carnivores, and in fact every wild cat, big or small, is considered solitary, except two: the African lion that forms great family prides most people are very familiar with, and cheetahs, which sometimes form male coalitions that hunt and work together to court females and defend territory. Ecology has a particular definition for “solitary,” when referring to wildlife; Solitary species do not cooperatively raise young, forage, mates, or defend resources from competitors or predators. Solitary carnivores are expected to interact infrequently, and these rare interactions to be about courtship or territorial disputes. Everything you ever read about mountain lions would suggest that F57 and F109 should have avoided each other. But they didn't. So perhaps I'd caught something odd, something out of place in mountain lion society?

Not the case, as you can read in a new article just published in Current Zoology. Between May 2012 and March 2015, we documented 65 Male-Female, 48 Female-Female, and 5 Male-Male interactions among 12 overlapping mountain lions. We captured an amazing 59 of these interactions on film, 11 (17%) of which included courtship behaviors (see Rare Video Footage Shows the Dynamics of Cougar Courtship). We found that mountain lions interacted 5.5 times as often between December 1st and May 31^stas they did between June 1^st and November 30^th each year, which makes sense, since elk form massive winter herds on feed grounds from December-May and mountain lions court each other during breeding between February and May (see A Fortress For Cougar Kittens).

Sixty percent of the mountain lion interactions we documented occurred over food—a kill made by one of the mountain lions. And contrary to everything we read about mountain lions, kittens were present at 60% of Female-Female and Male-Female interactions at kill sites. Courtship interactions were less common. We even documented three adult pumas feeding together on 5 occasions, and as many as 9 pumas at a kill, including youngsters.

In 1989, Sandell emphasized that solitary is not the same as non-social, and that all solitary wild cats are social to some degree. Researchers studying primates also offer useful insights applicable to solitary wild cats. They define solitary primates as those that look for food alone, but still maintain social relationships. So while the frequency with which we documented mountain lions interacting with each other is unprecedented and sheds new light on the social behavior of mountain lions, it is not enough to challenge their status as a solitary species; all evidence so far indicates that mountain lions (and most wild cat species) hunt alone.

Stay tuned for more on the social behaviors of mountain lions from Panthera's Teton Cougar Project. This research is the first in a series of papers we are publishing on the subject—the next explores patterns of social interactions and attempts to explain why mountain lions interact with some frequency. For updates, photos, and videos of all the mountain lions followed as part of Panthera's Teton Cougar Project, join us on Facebook.

"Logo_WhiteBackgrounds"

Further reading:

Sandell M, 1989. The mating tactics and spacing patterns of solitary carnivores. In: Gittleman JL ed. Carnivore Behavior, Ecology, and Evolution. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 164-182.

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California Knows Best: What's Good For The Environment Can Also Be Great For The Economy
Been there, done that. As states across the nation scramble to adjust their energy portfolios to meet increasingly stringent carbon emission limits and other climate change mandates, our experience in California since 2006 could prove to be a useful guide.

Back then, we heard the dire warnings that our groundbreaking law curtailing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions - the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32) - would be economically catastrophic for the Golden State. But almost 10 years later, the many ominous predictions from opponents of clean energy have fallen flat.

California is on track to meet the near-term goals set by AB 32--limiting the state's GHG emissions to 1990 levels by 2020-- resulting in less air pollution and cleaner water and soil. What's more, our economy has not only survived, it has shown remarkable progress in recent years. This law and other forward-thinking policies have created a demand for private-sector investment in clean energy solutions without the economic Armageddon that the naysayers predicted. As the renewable energy industry and other "clean tech" fields have expanded, so have 21st-century job opportunities for our vast workforce.

Today, we face another chance to take a major step forward toward a low-carbon future. Senate Bill 32 (Pavley), proposed in 2014 and most recently amended in 2016, would bring about additional GHG cuts and provide even greater propulsion to our clean tech economy. The bill looks to reduce GHG by extending the long-term climate pollution target to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. The usual suspects are once again sounding alarm bells, but thanks to our experience, California knows better.

Laws like AB 32 have helped California position ourselves on the cutting edge of sustainable development and green innovation - and we continue to reap the benefits. Our clean tech companies create more jobs and invest more money in the economy than similar companies in any other state, with more than 500,000 Californians now employed by the clean energy industry. Not only does this emerging field offer higher-than-average wages and new opportunities in construction and manufacturing, it has begun to create a valuable new export economy. Our international leadership on climate change is not just influential--it's marketable. The cutting-edge technologies and know-how created here in California are becoming increasingly valuable in a global market that is hungry for green solutions.

As nations around the world implement their own climate change policies, California companies have a competitive advantage thanks to the years spent developing new innovations and solutions. And as their profits rise, these companies continue to invest in new technology, innovations and training.

We've seen this kind of investment in green innovation right here in Los Angeles, where the Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is phasing out polluting coal-fired power--currently 50 percent of its energy portfolio--and expanding its reliance on locally produced clean energy through the CLEAN LA Solar feed-in tariff program (FiT), which takes advantage of the abundant solar energy available on more than 10,000 acres of rooftops in Los Angeles to supply zero-carbon, renewable energy to the city.

A study by UCLA and USC found that approximately 26 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions would be displaced by expanding the FiT and other solar programs to 1,500 megawatts (MW)--a goal that the researchers say will be feasible with the proper tools and resources. Major FiT projects recently announced include the Westmont Drive buildings, which will generate 16.4 megawatts of solar energy for LADWP customers, CRAFTED at the Port of L.A., which is expected to gross $5.6 million over 20 years, and the U.S. Postal Service Processing and Distribution Center in Los Angeles, which began installing 31,000 solar panels this month.

These initiatives not only help California meet stringent GHG reduction goals, they catalyze economic growth and private investment in the areas that need it most. Of all the FiT installations, more than 40 percent are located in low-income areas with a need for economic expansion. Experts project that when the FiT program is expanded to 600 MW, it will create more than 11,000 green jobs in the Los Angeles basin and add an additional $200 million more in direct private investment.

Members of the Los Angeles Business Council and the CLEAN LA Solar Coalition recognize the potential of sustainable practices to continue driving economic growth. But while California has taken the lead on sustainable development for the moment, we must not take for granted the forward-thinking policies that have brought us here. To sustain our global leadership on climate change and continue to enjoy the robust economic benefits from our burgeoning green tech industry, we will need to forge a strategic path forward, drawing on experience from existing programs and relying on consistent, clear policy to incentivize future green development.

Innovative new proposals such as Senate Bill 32 will propel our state into a healthier future--both environmentally and economically. As always, there will be plenty of opposition to change. But California must stay the course and forge ahead with the confidence that comes from past experience, which assures us that not only are cutting-edge sustainability policies good for our planet, they're good for business.

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3 Ways to Avoid Fairwashing
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Workers process organic coconuts at Fair Trade coconut oil facility Serendipol in Sri Lanka. Photo Courtesy of Dr. Bronner's.

by guest blogger Lisa Bronner, writer of the blog Going Green with a Bronner Mom

Fair Trade is a good thing. Authentic Fair Trade includes such principles as direct buying from growers; fair prices; benefit to communities where products are grown; no child labor, forced labor, or otherwise exploited labor; transparency and traceability; and environmental sustainability, among other key components.

And the very good news is that Fair Trade initiatives work. As concluded in a 2013 Harvard study, "Fair Trade does achieve many of its intended goals."

However, as with any movement that captures consumers' attention and their spending (over $5.7 billion were spent on Fair Trade purchases in 2014), unscrupulous manufacturers make a grab for some of these profits without engaging in authentic Fair Trade practices. This is fairwashing.

No one appreciates being taken for a fool. None of us want to find out that our well-meaning dollars went to support child or slave labor. We don't mind paying more for more benefit but the last thing we want to discover is that our money is not benefiting whom we thought it was.

The key is to become savvy consumers who can navigate the shopping options instead of cynical consumers who stop buying Fair Trade altogether.

Here are three steps to increasing your Fair Trade savviness:

1. Increase your education and awareness as a consumer.

Familiarize yourself with independent consumer education groups such as Fair World Project, which is a branch of the Organic Consumers Association. Not only is their website a wealth of information on authentic Fair Trade, current efforts to promote Fair Trade and exposing fairwashers, but it will also point you to the next steps: good Fair Trade certifiers and Fair Trade companies.

2. Familiarize yourself with meaningful Fair Trade certifications.

As with any claim, there is a great difference between what an organization says about itself and what can be verified through independent third party certifiers. Part of fairwashing is the use of flimsy certifiers, whose certification seals look awfully reassuring but whose standards are full of gaps. Furthermore, there has been a surge in corporations who have internally certified their own products as Fair Trade, but without independent, external, third party confirmation, these claims are unverified.

Again, because of the lack of legal oversight, it is up to the consumer to learn which certifications are meaningful.

Based on the International Guide to Fair Trade Labels and the Fair World Project's recommendations, the following are certifications found in the United States that are reputable and substantive:

Fair for Life, which has become a part of Ecocert.
Fairtrade America, the domestic branch of Fairtrade International (Not to be confused with Fair Trade USA).
Small Producers Symbol, a program from Fair Trade International.

There are other programs doing excellent eco-social work that may not be specifically Fair Trade, but are still worth checking out. The Fair World Project has this excellent comparison of such groups.

3. Create direct relationships with companies.

Don't stop reading yet. You cannot throw down the gauntlet and say that you're only going to buy fittings with these seals above, because there are many reasons why excellent companies do not seek certification. One reason a company may forgo certification is that the certification process is time consuming and expensive. Small manufacturers may not have the wherewithal to do it. They also may not feel like they need to because they have such good and open communication with their customers.

Companies that have transparency, that answer questions openly, that reveal their supply chains readily--check out what they say about themselves. Contact them and see how readily they answer questions. Research their reputation in the marketplace. If you encounter a run-around, or change of subject, or flat-out refusal to answer, that's a red flag.

To sum up, bad labor practices are an issue that requires all consumers' attention. Forced labor and child slavery in the cocoa industry of West Africa is widely documented, including in the 2014 documentary The Dark Side of Chocolate and Fortune magazine's recent overview. The most nefarious problems with coffee production include forest and habitat destruction, child labor and unfair pay. The 2013 Bangladesh garment factory collapse made the conditions in the clothing industry impossible to ignore.

With awareness comes responsibility. As our world shrinks through communication and technology, we are no longer far removed from what's happening on the other side of the world. We can easily see that our decisions and actions do not exist in a vacuum. What we do here, for good or for bad, has a reverberating impact through the global web. We cannot ignore this power.

As the 2013 Harvard report concludes, "Fair Trade, if it is implemented successfully, holds the possibility of being a market-based tool that can improve the welfare of consumers, the lives of producers, and the local environment."

Lisa Bronner is the writer of the blog Going Green with a Bronner Mom, in connection with her family's company, Dr. Bronner's, makers of best-selling organic personal care products. Through her writing and public speaking, Lisa guides consumers through the quagmire of the organic marketplace and simplifies the process of green living at home. Embracing the concept of stewardship, she recognizes individuals' ability to make a world of difference by how they live their every day. A stay-at-home mom to three, she believes that regularly gathering with them around the family dinner table is the single most important parenting act in her day.

For more from Maria Rodale, visit www.mariasfarmcountrykitchen.com

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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Milestone Birthdays This Month For National Park Service & Me!
Happy Birthday month to me and the National Park Service!

This first day of August we both enter a month of symbolic birthdays. On August 21 I turn 65 and become Medicare eligible, though I still feel the youthful enthusiasm and zest I felt as a child, largely because of the experiences I've had in our stupendous national parks. On August 25 our National Park Service celebrates its 100th birthday and enters its second century as caretaker of our national treasures in a country that is vastly different by race, ethnicity, gender and age than in 1916, and sorely in need of the lessons from our parks to help unify us.

From the perspective of age 65, I can see the long arm of destiny in my life. As a little girl growing up in Jamaica in the 1950s, slipping away to sit by myself on the banks of the stream that ran through our village, how could I have known that I was being prepared for the role I would play in my life? Sitting quietly under cool shade trees, watching schools of tiny fish darting and turning in the water and shrimp backpedaling on their tailfins, I dreamed of someday becoming a tour guide and introducing people to stunningly beautiful and historic places.

I had no concept of America, and no idea there was such a thing as a National Park System in the world. Yet for the past 20 years my husband Frank and I have been at the forefront of a movement that has made America's national parks household words in homes where they'd never been uttered before, and growing numbers of ethnically diverse Americans have been drawn to visit and stand up for our parks.

From the perspective of 21 years ardent involvement with the National Park System, I can see the long arc the Park Service has traveled from its inception by passionate conservationists in 1916 to where it is today. The first director of the Service, Stephen Mather was also instrumental in its creation. His passion for nature and for protecting treasured spaces for Americans into perpetuity mirrors mine and can be deduced from how he left no stone unturned to achieve those goals.

According to PBS, Mather "counted as one of the highlights of his life meeting the legendary John Muir on a hike in Sequoia National Park in 1912. When he visited Sequoia and Yosemite in the summer of 1914, Mather was disgusted by the poor condition of the parks.

"He wrote a letter of complaint to his college friend, Secretary of the Interior Franklin Lane, who invited Mather to come to Washington and do something about it himself. Mather accepted the challenge. As assistant to Lane in charge of the parks, he began a crusade to mold a haphazard collection of national parks into a cohesive system and to create a federal agency solely devoted to them: the National Park Service.

"Mather took on staff, paying their salaries out of his own pocket, and began a public relations and political lobbying campaign to build awareness of the parks and increase their size and number. He raised funds from his wealthy friends to purchase new park lands and he often purchased land himself and donated it to the National Park Service for protection. He joined forces with the budding automotive industry to 'democratize' the parks by making them more accessible to a broader cross-section of Americans. He and his assistant, Horace Albright, professionalized the corps of superintendents and rangers in the parks. . ."

Today, the current office holder in Mather's position is fronting a proposal that, for the first time in 100 years, would allow greater commercial/corporate presence in our national parks and require park staff to raise funds, completely foreign to their job description. As I discuss in this blog, the order has been criticized by the National Parks Conservation Association, the Coalition of Retirees and is the subject of multiple online petitions, but still today is shrouded in secrecy. It is scheduled to go into office in 2017 when the current director will have left office.

As the Service enters its much-heralded Centennial month, we remain far short of Mather's goals of "democratizing" the system and making it accessible to a broader cross section of the public. Many millions of people still have not been reached with the message that there are such things as national parks, that they represent our collective legacy and history, that they belong to us and that we have the duty and privilege of protecting them for the future.

To help accomplish these goals Frank and I, along with legions of other people including members of the Diverse Environmental Leaders Speakers Bureau that we formed in 2014, are among the catalysts for a growing nature movement of racially diverse Americans. As members of the Next100 Coalition, we are striving to help shape a new vision for the Park Service's Next 100 years by asking President Obama to issue a Presidential Memorandum with policies to ensure a more diverse system, workforce and stream of visitors.

Like Mather, this week we're heading to Washington, DC to do what we can for the parks and their future, including helping inspire young leaders in the Historically Black Colleges & Universities Initiative (HBCUI) for public lands, accompanying them to meet with Members of Congress and Interior Secretary Sally Jewell.

For mine and the Park Service's birthdays, the greatest gift I could get is to see Mather's vision for the Park Service being realized. I know it can happen because my nascent vision as a child desiring to be a tour guide introducing people to beautiful places has been filled beyond my wildest dreams, almost outside my own volition. The great mystic and philosopher Joseph Campbell said it best in The Power of Myth, "I don't have to have faith. I have experience."

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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More Coca-Cola Ties Seen Inside U.S. Centers For Disease Control
In June, Dr. Barbara Bowman, a high-ranking official within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, unexpectedly departed the agency, two days after information came to light indicating that she had been communicating regularly with - and offering guidance to - a leading Coca-Cola advocate seeking to influence world health authorities on sugar and beverage policy matters.

Now, more emails suggest that another veteran CDC official has similarly close ties to the global soft drink giant. Michael Pratt, Senior Advisor for Global Health in the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion at the CDC, has a history of promoting and helping lead research funded by Coca-Cola. Pratt also works closely with the nonprofit corporate interest group set up by Coca-Cola called the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI), emails obtained through Freedom of Information requests show.

Pratt did not respond to questions about his work, which includes a position as a professor at Emory University, a private research university in Atlanta that has received millions of dollars from the Coca-Cola Foundation and more than $100 million from famed longtime Coca-Cola leader Robert W. Woodruff and Woodruff's brother George. Indeed, Coca-Cola's financial support for Emory is so strong that the university states on its website that "it's unofficially considered poor school spirit to drink other soda brands on campus."

CDC spokeswoman Kathy Harben said Pratt had been on a "temporary assignment" to Emory University but his work at Emory "is completed and he is now back on staff at CDC." Emory University websites still show Pratt as currently assigned as a professor there, however.

Regardless, research by consumer advocacy group U.S. Right to Know shows Pratt is another high-ranking CDC official with close ties to Coca-Cola. And experts in the nutrition arena said that because the mission of the CDC is protecting public health, it is problematic for agency officials to collaborate with a corporate interest that has a track record of downplaying the health risks of its products.

"These alignments are worrisome because they help provide legitimacy to industry-friendly spin," said Andy Bellatti, a dietitian and founder of Dietitians for Professional Integrity.

One key message Coca-Cola has been pushing is "Energy Balance." Consumption of sugar-laden foods and beverages is not to blame for obesity or other health problems; a lack of exercise is the primary culprit, the theory goes. "There is increasing concern about overweight and obesity worldwide, and while there are many factors involved, the fundamental cause in most cases is an imbalance between calories consumed and calories expended," Coca-Cola states on its website.

"The soda industry is keen on deflecting the conversation away from the well-documented negative health effects of sugar-sweetened beverages and onto physical activity," said Bellatti.

The messaging comes at a time when leading global health authorities are urging a crack-down on consumption of sugary food and beverages, and some cities are implementing added taxes on sodas to try to discourage consumption. Coca-Cola has been fighting back in part by providing funding for scientists and organizations who back up the company with research and academic presentations.

Pratt's work with the industry appears to fit into that messaging effort. Last year he co-authored a Latin America health and nutrition study and related papers funded in part by Coca-Cola and ILSI to investigate the diets of individuals in Latin American countries and to establish a database for studying the "complex relationship existing between energy imbalance, obesity and associated chronic diseases..." Pratt also has been acting as a scientific "advisor" to ILSI North America, serving on an ILSI committee on "energy balance and active lifestyle." And he is a member of the ILSI Research Foundation Board of Trustees. He also served as an advisor to an international study of childhood obesity funded by Coca-Cola.

ILSI's North American branch, whose members include Coca-Cola, PepsiCo Inc., Dr Pepper Snapple Group and more than two dozen other food industry players, states as its mission the advancement of the "understanding and application of science related to the nutritional quality and safety of the food supply." But some independent scientists and food industry activists consider ILSI to be a front group aimed at advancing the interests of the food industry. It was founded by Coca-Cola scientific and regulatory affairs leader Alex Malaspina in 1978. ILSI has had a long and checkered relationship with the World Health Organization, working at one time closely with its Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and with WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer and the International Programme on Chemical Safety.

But a report by a consultant to WHO found that ILSI was infiltrating WHO and FAO with scientists, money and research to garner favor for industry products and strategies. ILSI was also accused of attempting to undermine WHO tobacco control efforts on behalf of the tobacco industry.

One April 2012 email exchange obtained through a Freedom of Information request shows Pratt as part of a circle of professors communicating with Rhona Applebaum, then Coca-Cola's chief scientific and regulatory officer, about difficulties getting cooperation on a study in Mexico from that country's National Institute of Public Health. The Institute would not "play ball because of who was sponsoring the study," according to an email Peter Katzmarzyk, a professor of exercise science at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University, sent to the group. Appelbaum defended the integrity of the research and expressed anger at the situation, writing "So if good scientists take $$$ from Coke - what? - they're corrupted? Despite the fact they're advancing public good?" In the email exchange Pratt offered to assist "especially if these issues continue to arise."

Emails show Pratt's communication with Applebaum, who also served a term as ILSI's president, continued through at least 2014, including discussion of work for "Exercise is Medicine," an initiative launched in 2007 by Coca-Cola and for which Pratt serves as an advisory board member.

Applebaum left the company in 2015 after the Global Energy Balance Network that she helped establish came under public scrutiny amid allegations that it was little more than a Coca-Cola propaganda group. Coca-Cola poured roughly $1.5 million into the establishment of the group, including a $1 million grant to the University of Colorado. But after Coca-Cola's ties to the organization were made public in an article in The New York Times, and after several scientists and public health authorities accused the network of "peddling scientific nonsense," the university returned the money to Coca-Cola. The network disbanded in late 2015 after emails surfaced that detailed Coca-Cola's efforts to use the network to influence scientific research on sugary drinks.

Coca-Cola has been particularly zealous in recent years in working to counter concerns about consumption of beverages with high sugar content and links between sugary beverages and obesity and other diseases. The New York Times reported last year that Coke's chief executive, Muhtar Kent, admitted that the company had spent almost $120 million since 2010 to pay for academic health research and for partnerships with major medical and community groups involved in curbing the obesity epidemic.

Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University and the author of "Soda Politics," said that when CDC officials work so closely with industry, there is a conflict of interest risk the CDC should consider.

"Officials of public health agencies run the risk of cooptation, capture, or conflict of interest when they have close professional ties with companies whose job it is to sell food products, regardless of the effects of those products on health," said Nestle.

Pratt's ties to Coca-Cola and ILSI are similar to those seen with Bowman. Bowman, who directed the CDC's Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention, worked early in her career as a senior nutritionist for Coca-Cola and later while at the CDC co-authored an edition of a book called Present Knowledge in Nutrition as "a publication of the International Life Sciences Institute." The emails between Bowman and Malaspina showed ongoing communications regarding ILSI and beverage industry interests.

During Bowman's tenure, in May 2013, ILSI and other organizers invited Bowman and the CDC to participate in a project ILSI was engaged in with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop a "branded foods database." Travel costs for Bowman would be paid by ILSI, the invitation stated. Bowman did agree to participate and the CDC provided funding, at least $25,000, Harben confirmed, to support the database project. The 15-member steering committee for the project held six ILSI representatives, documents show.

Both Bowman and Pratt have worked under the direction of Ursula Bauer, director of the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. After U.S. Right to Know publicized emails about Bowman's ties to ILSI and Coca-Cola, Bauer defended the relationship in an email to her employees, saying "it's not unusual for Barbara - or any of us- to correspond with others who have similar interests in our areas of work..."

Still, Bowman announced an unexpected retirement from CDC two days after the emails were made public. CDC initially denied she had departed the agency, but Harben said this week that was only because it took some time to "process" Bowman's transition to retirement.

The relationships raise fundamental questions about how close is too close when public officials collaborate with industry interests that can conflict with public interests.

Yoni Freedhoff, MD, an assistant professor of family medicine at the University of Ottawa and founder of the Bariatric Medical Institute, said there is a real danger to when public health officials become too close with corporate players.

"Until we recognize the inherent risks of conflicts of interest with the food industry and public health, there is near certainty that these conflicts will influence the nature and strength of recommendations and programs in ways that will be friendly to industries whose products contribute to the burden of illness those same recommendations and programs are meant to address," Freedhoff said.

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Meatless Monday: Cool Beans, Hot Jazz and More Ways to Celebrate the International Year of Pulses
Nutrition, sustainability, versatility, affordability, sheer deliciousness -- there's so many reasons to love dried beans, especially now, the International Year of Pulses. I've been celebrating all year, blogging, teaching and presenting about them, including later this month at Farm to Table Experience in New Orleans, but my favorite way to celebrate is to cook and share them --a pot of pulses brings the fun. I'm soaking red beans now to have a pot of red beans and rice ready for August 4, Louis Armstrong's birthday. The jazz great so loved New Orleans and the city's signature dish, he'd sign autographs, Red beans and ricely yours.

Like many bean dishes, RBR, was created as dish to satisfy the belly and stretch the budget. Honoring culinary traditions are part of the pleasure of cooking and eating for me, but so are riffing, innovating and reinterpreting, doing with ingredients what musicians do with melodic form -- kitchen jazz. Pulses welcome that. Their meaty but meatless chew invites me to create vegan versions of classic dishes. Armstrong's own RBR recipe, like most, includes pork. Mine swaps plants for pig but loses no flavor.

Both Armstrong's RBR recipe and mine require slow cooking, letting the beans simmer over low heat with no fuss. You get on with your life, the beans get on with theirs. Over time, a dish of simple ingredients develops rich, umami, complex flavors, so you end up with something greater than the sum of its parts.

Basic supermarket beans will do, but heirloom recipes deserve heirloom ingredients. I think they offer deeper flavor, deeper connection and a little romance -- I'm for all three. So is heirloom bean purveyor Rancho Gordo. By supporting smaller farmers producing beans from open-pollinated seeds, Rancho Gordo has introduced us to beans of every color, size, texture and flavor, reflecting America's rich crop diversity.

Slow cooking beans from scratch does something magical to them, endowing them with a creamy tenderness, infusing them with whatever spices and ingredients you pair them with. Problem is, we're less and less likely to invest the time -- slow cooking -- or any cooking -- requires. Lucky for you Better Bean Co. is glad to do the work for you. Better beans aren't dried, they're not canned, they're slow cooked, and skillet finished, generously seasoned and sold fresh and ready to eat in tubs in refrigerated section of many grocery stores. They're innovators with an old fashioned ethic -- they're small, family-owned and all their beans -- including some red beans Armstrong might have gone for-- are vegan and organic.

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Pulses aren't just versatile in the kitchen, they're friendly in the field. Growing pulses requires a fraction of the water of raising livestock. Family-owned Fresh Nature Foods goes one better by producing extra low water-chickpeas. They're green -- green as in sustainably farmed and green as in color. They're fledgling chickpeas, if you will, picked sweet and early in the growing stage, nutrient-dense and GMO-free. Fresh Nature Foods has just wrapped up a healthy and sustainable green chickpea harvest. Their frozen green chickpeas are being used in food service from schools to restaurants. Now they're making their way to markets, along with green chickpea hummus.

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This is not a sponsored post. This is me wanting to connect people with pulses, just spreading some leguminous love. Happy Louis Armstrong's birthday, happy International Year of Pulses.

Green is the New Black (Green Chickpeas With Black Rice and Green Tahini Dressing)

Whether it's red beans and rice or rice and chickpeas, beans and rice is the most important dish in the world. Here nutty-flavored, nutrient-dense black rice changes it up from basic brown, so do sweet green chickpeas instead of the standard blonde ones The parsley-infused tahini dressing has a bold flavor and adds a designery pale green accent to a dish that may be served hot or -- to beat the summer heat -- at room temperature.

For black rice:

1 cup black rice
2-1/2 cups water or vegetable broth
sea salt to taste
juice of 1 lemon (about 2 tablespoons)

In a large pot set on high heat, bring water or broth to boil. Pour in the rice. Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes. Grains will swell and become tender but retaining some chew. Drain off any remaining cooking liquid. Add sea salt to taste and lemon juice, Set aside.

For the green chickpeas:

2 cups green chickpeas, thawed (you can also use the standard blonde ones)
1 handful each mint, cilantro and flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
2-3 tablespoons green tahini dressing (recipe below)
sea salt to taste

Pour 1-1/2 cups of the chickpeas into a large bowl, reserving the remaining 1/2 cup for garnish. Add the chopped herbs to the bowl, mix together and add 2 to 3 tablespoons of the green tahini dressing. Season with sea salt.

For the green tahini dressing:

1/4 c lemon juice
1 clove garlic
1/2 cup tahini
1/2 cup water
1 cup flat-leaf Italian parsley, tightly packed (about 1/2 bunch)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
pinch turmeric (if desired)

Whizz everything together in a blender or food processor until thick, creamy and smooth. Cover and refrigerate. Dressing will thicken as it chills. Thin with another 3-4 tablespoons of water, if desired.

Makes 1-1/2 cups, or 8 to 10 servings. Dressing keeps covered and chilled for a week.

To assemble:

Mound dressed chickpeas atop black rice, garnishing with the 1/2 cup of plain chickpeas for an extra pop. Pour remaining green tahini dressing in a bowl to drizzle on top, if desired.

Serves 4 to 6.

More about pulses at Beans: A Handful of Magic.
More things soulful at soulfulvegan.com.

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