Local Government
Philadelphia mayor signs strong menu labeling law that requires most chain restaurants to display calorie, fat, other nutrition information starting in 2010. Most of city's cheesesteak joints are stand-alone shops or small chains and won't be subject to law.
By Maryclaire Dale
The Associated Press; International Herald Tribune 2008-12-18 (entry)
Food policy proposals under discussion in San Francisco would decrease use of imported food, strengthen ties to nearby farms and could include new rural-urban accords for water conservation, alternative-energy production. Policy also would increase flow between countryside, which controls energy, food production and land; and city, which controls policy, finance, markets.
By Erin Allday
San Francisco Chronicle 2008-11-29 (entry)
As fast-food ban sponsor recovers from childbirth, city council panel colleagues nix her proposal, saying one-year ban on new fast-food outlets would stifle economic development and hurt small businesses in San Jose. And: Food zoning as anti-obesity measure is paternalistic and wrong, says columnist (click 'See also').
The Associated Press; The Mercury News (CA) 2008-08-21 (entry)
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When one in eight families who bring children to Maryland emergency room are undernourished, there's growing need for nutrition programs. Baltimore officials are right to urge physicians to screen young patients for malnutrition and refer families to food pantries. But encouraging families to get help isn't enough; city needs a plan.
The editors
The Baltimore Sun 2008-07-18 (entry)
California farmers, already weary from concerns with drought, pests, heat and cold, fall victim to thieves who steal diesel fuel to sell to struggling truckers. Heists of fuel follow those of copper in irrigation systems.
By Paul Vercammen
CNN 2008-06-05 (entry)
New York's mayor, health commissioner and city council deserve credit for withstanding pressure from retail food industry to approve 1,000 more mobile fruit and vegetable stands. The new pushcarts are destined for city's poorest areas, home to disproportionate share of those with diet-related disease.
The editors
The New York Times 2008-03-01 (entry)
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Food waste recycling pilot plan OK'd after letter-writing campaign by the Ohio EPA and others to Erie county commissioners. Sanitation engineer had wanted county to first study how subtracting garbage would fit into the county's plans for the landfill.
By Tom Jackson
Sandusky Register (OH) 2008-12-28 (entry)
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An inconvenient truth of cutting back for conservation: It adds less money, short-term, to coffers of cash-strapped municipalities that face repairs and replacements for aging infrastructures. Officials in Toronto area reconfigure water rates to make up the difference, and consider charging bottled-water producers extra.
By Phinjo Gombu
Toronto Star 2008-01-26 (entry)
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Low-income children need abundant access to fresh produce plus safe play space to halt epidemic of childhood obesity, Baltimore task force reports. Plan would involve schools, food stores and churches; much of report details what city schools can do, including more healthful food choices and requiring playgrounds at all elementary schools.
By John Fritze
The Baltimore Sun 2008-01-10 (entry)
Canadian province of Alberta spent more than $700,000 on sandwiches and other catering for mostly noontime meetings in 2006, records show, and government critic wonders about reluctance to fund children's school lunches.
By Darcy Henton
The Edmonton Journal (Canada) 2008-01-09 (entry)
Citing increasing level of obesity and diabetes, South Los Angeles governing group moves to ban fast-food restaurants, but others question scope of ordinance and wonder whether menus have been carefully considered.
By Rick Orlov
Daily News (L.A.) 2007-12-11 (entry)
Keeping the fully loaded garbage trucks rolling, and the high fees paid for dumping, seems more important to Erie County officials than the private industry pilot program that would compost Ohio restaurants' food waste and help in recycling effort. How could it be that studying composting options is better than actually composting?
The editors
Sandusky Register (OH) 2007-11-28 (entry)
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In recycling effort, Ohio plant nursery volunteers to compost food waste from nearby restaurants and pay $5 a ton for the privilege. Erie County officials lean toward saying no, because less garbage going into the county landfill means less money for the county.
By Tom Jackson
Sandusky Register (OH) 2007-11-23 (entry)
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With 500,000 or more people in Chicago - mostly low-income African-American and Hispanic areas - living in food deserts, it's time for city to attract supermarkets that sell the fresh meat, produce and frozen foods that are essential to a healthy lifestyle.
The editors
Chicago Sun-Times 2007-11-25 (entry)
Memphis school lunch chief, who resigned after allegations of mismanagement and a one-year program loss of nearly $3.7 million, received nearly $8,800 in severance pay; official said it was the cheap and expedient solution.
By Kristina Goetz
Commercial-Appeal (TN) 2007-10-31 (entry)
Poverty will compromise adequate nutrition in case of flu pandemic in Kansas City, report says; many citizens can afford only three-day stockpile of food rather than recommended two-week supply, and if schools close, poor children would be deprived of their only hot meal of the day.
By Dave Helling
The Kansas City Star 2007-10-24 (entry)
Erythrina gall wasp, an accidental import from Africa, devastates groves of wiliwili trees used as wind shields for crops in Hawaii; desperate officials consider importing a Tanzanian wasp they hope might prey on it, but after mongoose import eschewed pesky rats for native birds, others are wary.
By Tomas Alex Tizon
Los Angeles Times 2007-10-15 (entry)
Diary of starving man casts unwelcome light on harshness of Japan's policy on level welfare rates; recipients are expected to depend on relatives and use all savings before taking "shameful handout."
By Norimitsu Onishi
The New York Times 2007-10-12 (entry)
As Atlanta grows, community garden plots are feeding the burgeoning appetite for locally grown produce and mingling of cultures; advocacy group partners with administration to open parks for communal plots.
By Elizabeth Lee
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution 0000-00-00 (entry)
Grand Forks city council says sugar beet residue won't smell so sweet, and bans its dumping on rented land west of the city; American Crystal Sugar Co., disagrees, saying that the sugar, which causes odor as it decays, will be gone.
The Associated Press; The Bismarck Tribune 0000-00-00 (entry)
Despite day jobs, couple hunt, fish and gather about a third of the food they eat, using a nearly comprehensive mental map of Seattle foraging spots to relish what they call unbelievably bountiful land.
By Huan Hsu
Seattle Weekly 2007-08-08 (entry)
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New interactive map allows users to tract proliferation of factory farms by state and county - even number of animals - and it raises questions of whether we pursue the logic of industrialism to its limits, and how badly will it harm the landscape, the people who live in it and democracy itself?
The editors
The New York Times (may require subscription) (entry)
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