Trends & Activism
Prevention - currently less than five cents of every dollar spent on health - crucial to public health, say advocates (click 'See also'). Healthy communities created by planning across sectors, e.g., farm-to-school programs; supporting sustainable regional food systems; helping healthy food retailers succeed where fresh produce is limited, increasing funding to nutrition programs.
By Laura Troyer
The Food Times 2008-12-23 (entry)
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Noting his emphasis on diet-health links, food policy reform advocates pin all hopes on Obama, but coalition addressing hunger, food crisis may have real reason for optimism. He vowed to abolish childhood hunger by 2015. Since food is inextricably linked to other priorities - climate change, energy and health care policies - group also predicts reform potential.
By Kim Severson
The New York Times 2008-12-24 (entry)
National food reform, fight against diet-related disease should start in Obama's new back yard - with garden, says Alice Waters, chef and activist. She has teamed with Ruth Reichl, Gourmet magazine editor, and Danny Meyer, New York restaurateur, to volunteer for 'kitchen cabinet' duties after trio helped raise $800,000 for his campaign.
By Kate Coleman
San Francisco Chronicle 2008-12-10 (entry)
As Americans cut spending on everything in response to job worries, they stock up on frozen foods, food storage for home cooking, Wal-Mart head reports. In Sam's Clubs, he sees restaurateurs shopping several times a week, using yesterday's cash to buy food for tonight's business. And: Using coupons at checkout makes person behind you seem cheap, too (click 'See also').
By Nadine Elsibai
bloomberg.com 2008-12-14 (entry)
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New website offers access to information about public health, agriculture, and connects the two fields. Johns Hopkins University site, a project of its Center for a Livable Future (click 'See also') links communities, organizations, individuals. Site allows search of databases, vetted collection of reports, journal articles.
By Karla Cook
The Food Times 2008-12-14 (entry)
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Farm lobby group calculates annual per-head livestock fee on emissions-rich cows, pigs as possible result of EPA report after Supreme Court ruling on air pollution. EPA says report does not include proposal to tax livestock. Environment group supports proposal, saying it could push switch toward healthier crops.
By Bob Johnson
The Associated Press; The Washington Post 2008-12-05 (entry)
Notorious buttercream incident in Alfa Romeo 20 years ago grows into Food Runners, a San Francisco group of volunteers that helps direct surplus food, whether from parties or farmers' markets, to those in need. Says one volunteer: 'If you've had a bad week, go and do something like Food Runners....It changes your whole outlook on life.'
By Nancy Mullane
National Public Radio 2008-12-02 (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)
Smallmouth bass, favorite prey fish of bald eagles, are on a NY mercury advisory list.
Bald eagles - fish-eating barometers of environmental health - show rising mercury levels in Catskills, site of drinking-water reservoirs for New York City. Most mercury comes from coal-burning power plant emissions blown from Midwest; toxin falls into water and becomes methylmercury, which contaminates worms, then fish. And: New York advisories limiting amount of state's fish that can be safely eaten (click 'See also').
By Anthony DePalma
The New York Times 2008-11-24 (entry)
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More neighborhood green space reduces risk of heart disease, greatly narrows health gaps and death rates between rich, poor, UK researchers learn. Governments should promote and invest in green areas, which provide opportunities for stress reduction and physical activity. And: Plunging hands into the dirt therapeutic for gardeners (click 'See also').
By Michael Kahn
Reuters 2008-11-07 (entry)
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Food industry would rather us not notice: its billions spent on ads to children; its donations to nutrition associations; its lobbying that has made food labels confusing; its minimizing of health concerns related to its products; that it fronts groups that fight obesity and that it tries to discredit critics. Opinion: Modifiable diet factors cause much more illness, death than car crashes, nutrition professor, pediatrician say (click 'See also').
By Adam Voiland
U.S. News & World Report 2008-10-17 (entry)
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Obama must decide what, how and why the whole of America eats. Food system guzzles 19 percent of fossil fuels, gushes up to 37 percent of greenhouse gas emissions; health care is sapping 16 percent of national budget, with four diet-related diseases making top 10 killers list; global food price crisis shows food can't be traded across borders like color television sets (click 'See also').
By Jess Halliday
FoodNavigator 2008-11-03 (entry)
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Barack Obama has opportunity to reposition global food crisis as critical foreign policy, and he should, since hunger is directly tied to civil unrest. Surely a world that found $1 trillion to rescue financial institutions can find $30 billion for short-term hunger needs and improvements to increase food production.
By Nancy Roman
World Food Program (UN)/Reuters AlertNet 2008-11-05 (entry)
As local food movement gains popularity, urban dwellers think beyond salad gardens to laying hens for eggs and meat, backyard goats for meat and lawn control, bees for pollination and honey, and fish in unused swimming pools for lean protein. Then, they question rules against farming.
By Diane Peters
National Post (Canada) 2008-10-24 (entry)
Food system's power blocks free speech, threatens democracy by scaring farmers into silence and lack of food labeling, says Eric Schlosser, co-producer of documentary, 'Food, Inc.' Monsanto sues farmers over use of genetically modified seeds without permission, but, then, food firms don't label products containing such organisms, arguing that genetically modified foods are not substantially different. Surveys show Americans unaware that 70 percent of all processed foods contain GM ingredients.
By Evan Solomon
The Globe and Mail (Canada) 2008-10-25 (entry)
With drinking water and energy increasingly precious, washing away waste makes little sense, says Rose George in new book. Transforming waste into fertilizer won't work - it is "the most efficient means--short of eating the sludge--of injecting toxic substances directly into the human body," EPA panel said in 1975. Eco-sewage, with two streams, would slash water use by 80 percent.
By Johann Hari
Slate Magazine 2008-10-20 (entry)
As shoppers hunt for deals on groceries, casual restaurant meals, take-out food and other goods or services, coupon-clipping returns as household activity. Manufacturers have become more restrictive by imposing time limits and more purchase requirements for redemption.
By Emanuella Grinberg
CNN 2008-10-09 (entry)
Seeing gold in garbage, two entrepreneurs offer coupons redeemable for groceries, coffee, in exchange for recycling. Recycling rate jumps in one town from three percent to 32 percent in a year, and in another town, participation is up tenfold. 'Our customer is anyone who lives in a home and buys stuff,' says founder, who is aiming for profit by 2010.
By Keith Naughton and Daniel McGinn
Newsweek 2008-10-06 (entry)
California voters should pass Proposition 2; every state should enact similar laws. Philosophy of cheapness cannot justify cruelty of industrial farming, with millions of pregnant sows, calves and laying hens kept in cages so small they can barely move. Reducing concentration of animals also will reduce air, water pollution and begin to redress imbalance between small farmers and huge corporations that have acquired anti-competitive control over meat industry.
The editors
The New York Times 2008-10-08 (entry)
Sharing capital and ideas, artisans and agricultural entrepreneurs unite to save Vermont town, and, in process, create what could be a model for rebuilding the food system, conserving farmland and farming sustainably. Success may herald 'major social transformation, the swinging back of the pendulum from industrialization and globalization,' says investor.
By Marian Burros
The New York Times 2008-10-08 (entry)
American food supply is flawed but China's present is our past. Tainted milk scandal mirrors New York's in the mid 19th century, when up to 8,000 babies died each year. Large-scale adulteration requires fast-growing get-rich-quick economy coupled with regulatory vacuum. Scandals are symptomatic of a deep failure of politics.
By Bee Wilson
The New York Times 2008-09-30 (entry)
If Congress can conjure up vast sums for Wall Street bailout, why, when we speak urgently of a fraying social net, of charities reeling and empty food pantries, of tens of millions of Americans (the types who clean the likes of AIG and Freddie Mac at night) without food and shelter, is there not a penny available? Our nation's priorities are in the wrong place.
By Joel Berg
The Washington Post 2008-09-28 (entry)
New 'positive eating' replaces deprivation diets, returns participants to pleasures of seasonal foods, meals with family and friends, the kitchen and scratch cooking. People of normal weight spend more time on food shopping, cooking and cleanup than others, study shows. And: New cooks drive increase in food website traffic, sales of cookbooks, food magazines, inexpensive cookware and basic foods (click 'See also').
By Tara Parker-Pope
The New York Times 2008-09-17 (entry)
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In race to be green, colleges try eco-friendly no-tray policy and students with big appetites find heaping helping of complaints. Multiple plates are cumbersome to carry, extra trips for seconds are disruptive, and it takes longer to clear the table. Another school replaces disposable foam trays for plastic containers that can be returned dirty, or replaced for $5.
By Jodi S. Cohen
Chicago Tribune 2008-09-06 (entry)
Sarah Palin, vice president pick of GOP candidate John McCain, is a mooseburger-eating former beauty contestant and the Alaska governor. She doesn't mind shooting caribou because it 'has had a good life. It's been free out there on the tundra, not caged up on a farm with no place to go.' She laid off the chef in the governor's mansion - no need for that, she said. Her husband, a native Yup'ik Eskimo (click 'See also'), is a former commercial fisherman.
By Cathleen Decker and Michael Finnegan
Los Angeles Times 2008-08-30 (entry)
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To kick fast-food addiction and re-establish relationship with what's good for us and for planet, we must move beyond grief cycle (denial, anger, depression, bargaining, acceptance) and, through actions in our lives, understand that real food is a right. Next step is demanding action from political leaders. And: To comment on the Healthy Food and Agriculture Declaration, click 'See also.'
By Katrina Heron
San Francisco Chronicle 2008-08-17 (entry)
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In 1987, Joe Biden promised to hire an Italian chef if elected president, so he could always eat his favorite food. It was an unusual campaign promise, but indicative of his engaging personality that will mesh well with staid, more serious Barack Obama.
By Carl P. Leubsdorf
The Dallas Morning News 2008-08-23 (entry)
To secure future of food, combine genetic engineering with organic farming to grow more with less harm to environment and to farm workers, says plant pathology professor, organic farmer's wife. Pesticides more harmful than genetic engineering, she says. And: Food prices, shortages pressure those who resist genetically engineered crops (click 'See also').
By Pamela Ronald
The Boston Globe 2008-03-16 (entry)
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Urban farming could relieve strain on food supply, increase food independence, combat obesity. When dinner is plucked from balcony pots or lawn, carbon footprint nearly disappears. Want to cool cities cheaply? Plant crops on rooftops. It's an excuse to geek out with NASA tech. Best of all, it would reconnect us to our frontier spirit.
By Clive Thompson
Wired magazine 2008-08-18 (entry)
Universities compete for students, satisfy their professors with cross-disciplinary food studies programs that draw on explosion of food literature and link students' personal choices with labor practices, health and the environment. Food studies also underscore universities' emphasis on sustainability, in operations and in the classroom.
By Jane Black
The Washington Post 2008-08-20 (entry)
With irreversible climate change expected in 100 months, everything we do matters. Individuals alone can't re-engineer Britain's fossil-fuel-dependent food, transport and energy systems; government must lead. Between 1938 and 1944, economy was re-engineered and there were dramatic cuts in resource use and household consumption. How countdown was calculated (click 'See also').
By Andrew Simms
The Guardian (UK) 2008-08-01 (entry)
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In Dallas, entrepreneurial mechanic blends 'CNN and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' with inspiration from stay-all-day coffee shops in Mexico City and London, but adds wine, beer and chain-link curtains.
The Dallas Morning News 2008-08-01 (entry)
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Cost of moving goods could transform some foods into luxuries and further promote the local food movement. 'Avocado salad in Minneapolis in January is just not going to work in this new world, because flying it in is going to make it cost as much as a rib eye,' says researcher.
By Larry Rohter
The New York Times 2008-08-02 (entry)
With presidential campaign showing aspects of beauty pageant/eating contest, will sedentary, overweight electorate pick former fat kid turned skinny gym-goer who eats protein bars and battles cigarettes or slightly overweight guy with weakness for Butterfingers and doughnuts? Does weight struggle make candidate seem like 'one of us?'
By Amy Chozick
The Wall Street Journal. (may require subscription) 2008-08-01 (entry)
Barack Obama's Berlin speech vague on trade, a concern for Europe considering earlier vow to renegotiate NAFTA, opposition to Colombian trade deal. Europeans dislike $289 billion farm/food bill that maintains U.S. farm subsidies; Americans say they're losing $200 million yearly because Europe won't buy their chickens disinfected by chlorine bath. Click 'See also' for youtube video.
By Steven Erlanger
The New York Times 2008-07-25 (entry)
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To cut nation's fossil fuel use for food production by half, individuals must eat less, reduce junk food intake and switch to diet lower in meat, therefore reducing demand for processed foods and factory-farmed livestock, Cornell researchers say. Other crucial need: transformation from conventional to organic farming.
Science Daily 2008-07-24 (entry)
Professor's vertical farming idea (click 'See also') captures imagination of New York borough president. 'The sky is the limit in Manhattan,' he says, but skeptic brings another view: 'Would a tomato in lower Manhattan be able to outbid an investment banker for space in a high-rise? My bet is that the investment banker will pay more.'
By Bina Venkataraman
The New York Times 2008-07-15 (entry)
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Considering rising cost of food, the carbon footprint, the food shortage, the moral queasiness about biofuels, food safety issues and the Midwest floods, activist wants to see next president think global, eat local - from the 18-acre yard of the White House.
By Ellen Goodman
International Herald Tribune 2008-07-04 (entry)
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Social, cultural dimensions of our food system should raise great concerns for conservatives. Even the smallest acts of resistance to corporate-governmental collaboration on policy and nutritional guidelines are crucial to recovering local culture and will nurture ability to either govern or to resist centralized government.
By John Schwenkler
The American Conservative 2008-06-30 (entry)
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Growing number of urbanites, concerned about rising food prices, drugs and diseases and factory farm practices buy whole sides of beef for $750 and up. Then they face learning curve on chest freezers, butchers' paper, and what part of cow makes steak and what part makes ground round.
By Jane Black
The Washington Post 2008-06-17 (entry)
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With nearest water cooler a 10-minute walk away, undocumented and pregnant grape field worker in California collapses and later dies of heat exhaustion. Governor promises justice. State has most stringent heat laws in U.S., requiring water, shade and rest breaks. In 2007, more than half of employers audited were violating rules; 200 inspectors are responsible for auditing millions of employers.
By Sasha Khokha
KQED; National Public Radio 2008-06-06 (entry)
The Veggie Mobile makes one-hour stops at assisted living centers and public housing projects in urban food deserts.
As food, fuel prices climb, states and nonprofit groups find ways aid urban poor. In New York, $500,00 from health department funds Veggie Mobile, which delivers produce to residents in Troy, Albany and Schenectady at dramatic savings with more selection and fresher options; others use community supported agriculture, like Iowa's Farm to Folk; traditional grocers beginning to respond to need and earning potential.
By Valerie Bauman
The Associated Press; Newsday 2008-06-07 (entry)
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Factory farming has turned animal husbandry into animal abuse, and new administration should consider regulating farm pollution as rigorously as other industries, phasing out confinement systems, banning antibiotics used for growth, and robust use of antitrust laws to encourage more competition.
The editors
The New York Times 2008-05-31 (entry)
In reaction to wasteful use of land and suspicions about food sources, guerrilla gardeners plant without approval on land that's not theirs. The movement, part beautification, part eco-activism, part social outlet, turns neglected public space and vacant lots into floral or food outposts. First two requirements: sun and water source.
By Joe Robinson
Los Angeles Times 2008-05-29 (entry)
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We may be a busy nation, but the same American who has just 30 minutes for the kitchen is somehow finding 240 minutes each day to watch TV. If we're serious about reclaiming control of our food from industrial companies and giving food the priority it deserves, the kitchen is where we have to start.
By Paul Roberts
Los Angeles Times 2008-05-21 (entry)
Cutting food costs starts with buying store brands, then branches out: Buy less, waste less; buy a breadmaker and bake your own; make your own spreads, dips, pasta sauces and soups; avoid prepared bags of salad; grow arugula at home; buy staples in bulk; try local markets for fruits and vegetables.
By Jill Papworth
The Guardian (UK) 2008-05-17 (entry)
As European countries mount focused campaigns against childhood obesity, American efforts founder at the top. The 2009 budget ends a $75 million program to help schools and communities expand physical-education offerings; USDA pushes a low-fat diet, but supports Pizza Hut's stuffed crust pizza. Foundations, state and local governments and local groups attempt to provide leadership.
By Susan Levine and Lori Aratani
The Washington Post 2008-05-19 (entry)
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As part of a five-day series on childhood obesity in The Washington Post (click 'See also'), the presidential candidates were asked how they would address the problem. Excerpts:
*Hillary Clinton: Ban junk food in schools, install universal school breakfast plan, double summer feeding program, implement a healthy schools program that funds replacing all unhealthy food with healthy food in schools by 2012, increase funding for physical education, voluntary guidelines for food industry.
*Barack Obama: Coordinate and collaborate across departments, ensure adequate resources, expand and accelerate research on prevention and treatment, support nutrition and physical activity grant programs, support public health and advocacy groups, finalize voluntary food and beverage advertising guidelines and if they're not effective, make them mandatory.
*John McCain: Teach children and their parents about child health, healthier meals at home and exercise as a family activity, nutrition education and more physical education at school, diet and fitness guidance by health-care providers, healthy food options for schools, adequate funding for physical education, prevention and maintenance as part of basic health care plans, appropriate and informative food labeling, and voluntary standards for food makers.
The Washington Post 2008-05-17 (entry)
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Candidate John McCain, in speech, imagines achievements as president, including: better nutritional content of school lunches; declining obesity and diet-related disease rates among the young; installation of temporary worker program; new free trade accords; elimination of U.S. tariffs on agricultural imports; phase-out of unneeded farm subsidies; and end of world food crisis.
By John McCain (transcript)
The Washington Post 2008-05-15 (entry)
Reducing food, water waste - estimated at 30 percent of food production worth about $48.3 billion, and up to half the water - must be part of the political agenda, say authors of report for UN. Effective conservation strategy aids farmers, business, ecosystems, and the hungry.
By Stephanie Blenckner
Stockholm International Water Institute 2008-05-14 (entry)
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Great cooking requires good farming and a healthy environment, because care required for sustainable agriculture yields good flavor and nutrition. To increase demand for good food, we must consider cost per nutrient value, not cost per quantity. Small farms are not a nostalgic notion; the high cost of oil requires a graceful move into a post-industrial agriculture economy.
By Dan Barber
The New York Times 2008-05-11 (entry)
Cooperative of farmers, ranchers, with $88,000 USDA grant, aims to reduce obstacles of getting local products onto school lunch trays. Co-op will act as order/collection/distribution center for up to 60 growers. Growers will be the sole shareholders; if project succeeds, it could be used as model. One ranch already sells kiwis at a loss because kids' response so encouraging; will join in hopes of turning a profit.
By Natalie Ragus
The Lompoc Record 2008-04-30 (entry)
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Up to three million New Yorkers live in communities with high rates of diet-related disease and a dearth of supermarkets (click 'See also' for study). Many residents spend food budget at pharmacies, which sell processed foods and sodas, then medicines for diet-related ills. City could support another 100 grocers; planning director calls situation a health crisis.
By David Gonzalez
The New York Times 2008-05-05 (entry)
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American agriculture must chart course away from factory farming to reverse environmental and human health problems, Pew panel says. Experts, in two-year study, probed quantity and impact of animal sewage on waterways and soil; human health implications of antimicrobials used for animal growth; impact of factory farms on rural life; and welfare of animals. For report, click 'See also.'
By H. Josef Hebert
The Associated Press; San Francisco Chronicle 2008-04-29 (entry)
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Massachusetts bakers, looking for local wheat source but unable to convince farmers to take the chance, persuade 50 customers to rip up their lawns to grow wheat test plots. In two years' time, they hope to tell the farmers which varieties grow best in Northeast - meanwhile, they envision volunteer harvesters on bicycles, bearing scythes.
By Tina Antolini
National Public Radio 2008-04-28 (entry)
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Presidential candidates are missing opportunity to put food at the center of their green plans, to support beginning farmers and to champion communities' efforts, nationwide, to build local food sources including farmers' markets and edible gardens. Neither candidate has dared to address the farm/food bill and how it could catalyze a truly green economy.
By Anna Lappé
Grist 2008-04-22 (entry)
Bon Appetit Management; NPR
As tomatoes are shipped from California to Massachusetts and back, and landfills burp methane from discarded food, Bon Appetit introduces to its food-service clients a diet featuring local produce, less meat and reduced portions. It hopes to increase efficiency, reduce emissions and persuade its parent, the food-service giant Compass Group, to follow.
By Kenneth R. Weiss
Los Angeles Times 2008-04-22 (entry)
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With a backdrop of widespread food riots, ballooning prices and countries scrambling to feed themselves, export partners be damned, the one thing in our power is our own diet. It takes about five pounds of grain to produce a single pound of beef. Reducing meat consumption is as meaningful as using compact fluorescent bulbs or cloth shopping bags - it's time to start.
By Brandon Keim
Wired 2008-04-21 (entry)
Tracy A. Woodward/The Washington Post
Volunteers plant potatoes that eventually will be harvested for food banks. Fresh produce gives needy people a sense of dignity, says worker.
Retired FEMA worker realizes vision in 40 acres of volunteer-grown watermelons, cantaloupes, green beans, beets, turnips, onions, corn, peas, cucumbers, potatoes, okra and lima beans - for charity. 'If we don't do something, then we're not going to close this poverty. Obesity. Diabetes. It's a gap we're not even trying to zero in on.' He says youthful volunteers 'almost through sensing it,' know the hungry kids in class.
By Jackie Spinner
The Washington Post 2008-04-13 (entry)
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Tennessee legislature considers bill that would require labeling and public notice for any meat or milk from cloned animals, or for any genetically altered or modified foods or ingredients for human consumption. If passed, law would take effect in January, 2009.
Tennessee General Assembly 2008-04-11 (entry)
British chef Jamie Oliver looks to scrimping of World War II and begins program to aid in return to cooking and basics. First target town is Rotherham, where mothers once passed junk food through fences to children unhappy with his school food improvements. 'If we can get people in one town cooking, I want to establish a blueprint that can get people cooking across the whole country this year.'
By Owen Gibson
The Guardian (UK) 2008-03-29 (entry)
Diversified organic family farm is renegade in windswept South Dakota, the 'lunatic fringe of the Corn Belt,' where industrial agriculture prevails. Expert says this is model for future, because it works on improbable - and ideal - farmland: 'Pay farmers to reduce synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. Pay them to enhance wildlife, diversity their crops, build soil and restore wetlands. Pay them to develop local markets for their products, especially fresh food.'
By Sam Hurst
Gourmet magazine 2008-04-01 (entry)
Striving to create a metropolis that can feed itself, garden activists target the 5,000-plus private- and city-owned vacant sites in San Francisco as sites of temporary, volunteer-tended organic gardens. Landowners wouldn't be charged, produce would go to local food banks and maybe to farmers' markets. Skeptics wonder about water sources and hidden costs.
By Matthew Green
San Francisco Chronicle 2008-03-22 (entry)
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Wal-Mart decides to carry milk only from cows not treated with artificial growth hormone. Kroger now sells only milk made without the hormone, rBST. Safeway has switched its in-store brands to non-rBST milk; Starbucks now uses only non-rBST milk. In 2006, 18 percent of dairy cows were injected with the milk-increasing hormone, USDA says.
By Janet McFarland
The Globe and Mail (Canada) 2008-03-22 (entry)
Our homogenized domestic landscape is mirrored in the runaway demand for, and planting of, corn. As manufacturing disappears and the food supply chain dwindles, why not reintroduce farmland? Purposeful reclamation of urban and suburban lands for return to agriculture is serious fodder for artists, architects and academics.
By Allison Arieff
The New York Times 2008-03-19 (entry)
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Percy Schmeiser, the farmer who sued Monsanto Canada over rogue Roundup Ready canola plants he found growing in his field in 2005, settles the case. It was the latest in a continuing battle between the 77-year-old farmer and the agribusiness giant. The farmer was found by court to have planted Monsanto's patented seeds in 1998 without paying its required fee.
By Murray Lyons
The Star Phoenix (Saskatoon) 2008-03-19 (entry)
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Parents switch from hard plastic baby bottles after reports questioning safety of chemical used in their manufacture. In tests on animals, the chemical, called bisphenol A, or BPA, shows hormone-like effects on the reproductive system. Sales of glass baby bottles boom.
By Lisa A. Flam
The Associated Press; The Guardian (UK) 2008-03-13 (entry)
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'Diet globalization' means demand for pork in Russia, beef in Indonesia and dairy in Mexico. Home-cooked food is out, fast food is in. Farmers, producing flat-out, are happily uncertain of what to plant, since nearly every commodity crop is going up. Rising food prices are fueling inflation in U.S., social unrest and riots in other countries. Grain stockpiles are at lowest levels in decades; investors bet on scarcity and high prices.
By David Sreitfeld
The New York Times 2008-03-09 (entry)
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Faith-based investors' group launches web campaign (click 'See also') to boycott genetically modified sugar beets, citing 'weak governmental review and oversight, and the lack of long-term, independent and peer-reviewed safety studies.' Pre-written letter for visitors to send to food companies urges public opposition to unlabeled GM sugar from Monsanto's Roundup Ready sugar beets. Environmental groups have filed lawsuit to prevent spring planting.
By Chris Jones
Food Navigator 2008-03-05 (entry)
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Appetite of growing middle class in China, India for meat and processed food is more immediate threat than climate change, says UK scientific adviser, a student of chaos theory. Global food security requires a substantial investment in modern agriculture and irrigation. Higher food prices force poor to even less-balanced diets, with short- and long-term health consequences.
By Roger Highfield
The Telegraph (Great Britain) 2008-03-06 (entry)
Republicans John McCain and Governor Jim Douglas of Vermont part ways on subsidy program that has paid Vermont farmers more than $50 million since it began in 2002. The governor says it belongs in the rewrite of the farm/food bill; in 2001, Senator McCain voted against it. Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both say they support subsidy extension.
By Sam Hemingway
Burlington Free Press (VT) 2008-02-20 (entry)
Michael Pollan, author of 'In Defense of Food,' analyzes a few candidates' food policy: Barack Obama - calculatedly vague, but somebody there understands the link between public health and agriculture. Hillary Clinton - supported local agriculture and farm-to-school programs in New York, but the Clintons have deep roots in agribusiness. Mike Huckabee - does he understand obesity in a systemic way or as a personal triumph? John Edwards - had called for a moratorium on feedlots, a single food safety agency and his adviser on agriculture was an organic farmer.
By Rebekah Denn
Seattle Post-Intelligencer (WA) 2008-02-15 (entry)
Barack Obama says that inadequacy of food recall process is clear, since most Hallmark/Westland beef recalled had already been eaten. He says that if elected, he will hire more federal food inspectors and ask the USDA whether federal food safety laws need to be strengthened. He says that as a parent, 'there are few issues more important to me than ensuring the safety of the food that our children consume.'
BarackObama.com 2008-02-18 (entry)
With nation's largest beef recall under way, Hillary Clinton details the food safety plan she would pursue if elected. It includes increasing USDA food safety funding by more than 50 percent, creation of a Food Safety Administration, granting safety agencies recall authority, creation of a national tracing system, and prosecution of production facilities that allow unsafe food to enter our food supply.
HillaryClinton.com 2008-02-18 (entry)
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Tarmac-sitting and stories of flight delays don't change the notion of 'reasonable' quantity of food for a 10-month old, couple learns after airport security officer confiscates a jar of prunes, a jar of bananas and one serving of formula. Told they would need a 'doctor's note' to take more, both dad and mom pointed out that they were physicians - and filed a complaint.
By Joe Sharkey
The New York Times 2008-02-19 (entry)
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As shoppers ask questions, retailers join consumer groups and lawmakers to call for labeling and/or government tracking of milk and meat from clones and progeny. The FDA says neither labeling nor disclosure is needed though science is imperfect. Without labeling, critics say, problems wouldn't be linked to the technology. The European Food Safety Authority says suffering of deformed clones and surrogate mothers is too great to justify cloning for food.
By Bernadette Tansey
San Francisco Chronicle 2008-02-18 (entry)
British officials consider modifying law to reduce public knowledge of biotech test field locations. Last summer, vandals damaged field of genetically modified potatoes. Anti-GM activists have linked to European groups that share tactics on gaining access to fields; crop trashings are on upswing in France and Germany as farmers grow more GM crops.
By Ian Sample
The Guardian (UK) 2008-02-16 (entry)
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In New Orleans, Barack Obama tells elementary school crowd he favors chocolate milk over strawberry, and at Dooky Chase's Creole restaurant, he douses his gumbo with hot sauce before he tastes it - while the owner looks straight ahead. For the restaurant's Creole Gumbo recipe, click on 'See also.'
The Associated Press; National Public Radio 2008-02-09 (entry)
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Thirty-three cent tax per bag helps Ireland kick the plastic bag habit. Now groceries might be stowed in backpacks or in reusable cloth bags brought out from trunks, and the crinkly and ubiquitous symbol of modern life is socially unacceptable. A similar tax has been proposed on chewing gum, which dots Dublin's sidewalks.
By Elisabeth Rosenthal
The New York Times 2008-02-03 (entry)
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Farmer sues Monsanto in Canadian small claims court for about $600, the cost of removing the agribusiness giant's genetically modified oilseed rape plants found in a field he was planting in 2005. "No corporation should have the right to introduce GM seeds or plants into the environment and not be responsible for it," says Percy Schmeiser, calling the unwanted plants "pollution."
By David Adam
The Guardian (UK) 2008-01-22 (entry)
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With conflict resolution groups and anti-gang interventions, there are breakfast programs (it's hard to fight when you're eating well), and those efforts in Ontario have received a $7.7 million boost from the federal government.
The Canadian Press 2008-01-10 (entry)
Eating locally makes sense in the summertime, when tomatoes are ripe in Jersey, or the dates are golden in California. But in Ohio during winter? Herewith, a distovore's meal in which each component collected frequent flyer miles before they were gathered from Whole Foods.
By Joel Stein
Time magazine 2008-01-10 (entry)
If New Yorkers go berserk when their neighborhood coffee shop closes and suicides go up as Australian mining denudes the landscape so gardens won't grow, our reaction to global warming likely will be pervasive and savage sadness, philosopher says.
By Clive Thompson
Wired magazine 2007-12-20 (entry)
Engineering students advocate using old cooking oil from Illinois university's residence hall kitchens as vehicle fuel for shuttle buses. They say the move could save money and reduce carbon emissions; effort has tentative backing of the school.
By Brian Cox
Chicago Tribune 2007-12-24 (entry)
Moving into health consciousness, France bans smoking in cafes, bars, restaurants and discos, but change won't be enforced until after New Year's celebrations. The decision, which doesn't include open-air terraces or pavement tables, follows similar bans in Britain, Italy, Ireland and Spain.
BBC News 2007-12-28 (entry)
In 2008, expect debate on: food safety; getting processed, packaged foods out of public schools after Senate killed amendment to its farm/food bill that would have limited them; regaining our joy in food and eating; the definition of "natural;" processed-food nutrition ranking systems, raw milk, and the end of cheap food, worldwide.
By Terri Coles
Reuters 2007-12-21 (entry)
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Look for the foodie culture to mesh with an obsessive quest for provenance as organic is supplanted by local, and haute gets hot in the frozen food department. Meanwhile, the processed food industry trumpets benefits of white bread, and those in the fats industries suggest a return to real mayonnaise, and to the taste of real butter.
By J.M. Hirsch
The Associated Press; Seattle Post-Intelligencer 2007-12-18 (entry)
Baltimore's public garden guru, Miriam Avins, wins $48,750 grant from George Soros' foundation to facilitate urban gardens. Gardens, she says, improve communities' eating habits, strengthen neighborhoods by gathering residents together for work and help the environment by reducing water runoff.
By Adam Bednar
Baltimore Messenger 2007-11-28 (entry)
Dutch restaurant/lab loaded with hidden cameras, "face readers," secret scales and scent producers examines what makes us eat and drink the way we do. The $4 million venture is effort of university; Sodexho, a food service company; a kitchen equipment maker; and monitoring system manufacturer.
By Marlise Simons
The New York Times 2007-11-26 (entry)
As presidential candidates don hard hats and admire ethanol plants in Iowa, farmers, up to their ears in a bumper crop of corn that spanned a third of the state's surface, wonder what they have done wrong and why public opinion has turned against them.
By Joel Achenbach
Washington Post 2007-11-23 (entry)
European Union reconsiders "Made in the EU" label for food and drink but not for meat. Critics say the proposal lacks specifics of country and transportation required. Initial proposal, in 2004, was rejected by UK, Germany and the Netherlands because it would cost too much.
By Jochen Luypaert
Business Week Online 2007-11-20 (entry)
Google Earth moves companies, activists to plot links to the sources of our food, as does Dole with a brand of organic bananas, or to the sources of our electricity by ZIP code, as does Appalachian Voices, a nonprofit that fights mountaintop removal coal mining.
By Kevin J. Delaney
Wall Street Journal 2007-11-15 (entry)
If the farm/food bill passes, it will be a triumph of farm lobbies and politics. But reform movement gathered disparate groups like never before: the conservative Heritage Foundation, the Environmental Working Group, Taxpayers for Common Sense, the food-aid group Oxfam, and the Bush administration, among others.
By Amanda Paulson
The Christian Science Monitor 2007-11-16 (entry)
Families find that one-stop, big-box shopping doesn't provide us best variety, prices or healthful options, so we're spending more time traveling and buying - paper towels at Sam's Club, chicken breasts, soy burgers, frozen vegetables and microwaveable brown rice at the natural foods store, and milk on the way home at the 7-Eleven.
By Janice Podsada
The Hartford Courant 2007-11-04 (entry)
After North Carolina decides to dye raw milk gray to discourage human consumption, a legislator begins work on a bill that would halt the plan; new bill would follow one that would legalize dairy shares, which allow customers to buy part ownership in a milk-producing animal so they can have raw milk.
By Suzanne Nelson
The Independent Weekly (NC) 2007-10-31 (entry)
Citing ills of industrial farming, pollution, and epidemics of obesity and diabetes, reform-minded citizens react to status-quo farm/food bill with emotions ranging from disappointment to fury, while faintly applauding increased funds for produce farmers, organic farming, conservation, and fruits and vegetables for schoolchildren.
By Carol Ness
San Francisco Chronicle 2007-11-01 (entry)
With the blogworld as our oyster, anyone with a yen and a computer can serve it forth, and here's how, but remember that the best ones have a strong point of view, nice art, an easy way with words and something more profound to say than "here's what I ate or cooked."
By Regina Schrambling
Los Angeles Times 2007-10-31 (entry)
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Japan's squeaky-clean image slips after candy manufacturer admits recycling old red bean paste for new rice cakes and earlier allegations of mixed meats mislabeled as pure ground beef; officials vow to prosecute but citizens feel unsettled and even worry about authenticity and safety of sushi, shark's fin and marbled beef, the nation's iconic dishes.
By Hiroko Tabuchi
The Associated Press 2007-10-26 (entry)
As China's economy booms, its military hires dietitians and the soldier's diet improves in quality and variety; rice and wheat consumption drops as that of animal protein goes up, and Mao's time of troops' digging wild vegetables seems distant.
China Daily 2007-10-05 (entry)
Long used in China, integrated aquaculture, with fish waste fertilizing certain plants and fish sold at market, now attractive to researchers and entrepreneurs in Australia; barramundi and Murray cod enrich lettuce, bok choy and herbs.
By Mary-Lou Considine
ECOS magazine; sciencealert.com 2007-08-29 (entry)
College, university cafeterias in Maine remove trays and see reduction in food waste; schools also institute buying locally, sending food waste to pig farms, composting scraps, buying in bulk and limiting seafood to species that are not vulnerable to overfishing.
By Ann S. Kim
Portland Press-Herald (ME) 2007-09-24 (entry)
When Alice Waters makes a meal from the farmers' market, it's clear she believes that a luscious meal has transformative powers, and she writes about those powers in "The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons and Recipes From a Delicious Revolution"
By Kim Severson
The New York Times 2007-09-19 (entry)
To determine your environmental footprint of those restaurant dinners and other lifestyle choices, play this game from American Public Media.
By Christopher Kennedy, Michael Skoler and others
American Public Media and Realtime Associates, Inc. 2007-09-19 (entry)
Crete, once home to ultra-healthful Mediterranean diet and religion-based fasting, is evolving to suit modern tastes, adding air-conditioned supermarket with apples from Chile - and a hospital that includes a wing for cardiac care, once a rarity on the island.
By Joseph Shapiro
National Public Radio 2007-09-08 (entry)
Inspired by environmental justice and groups that feed the homeless with surplus food, freegans in New York eschew capitalism and scavenge for groceries in the 50 million pounds of food garbage discarded annually; they favor D'Agostino's, Trader Joe's and Whole Foods.
By Erika Hayasaki
Los Angeles Times 2007-09-11 (entry)
Indian prison plans to offer inmates new diet, including eggs, soybeans, seasonal vegetables and chutneys, as well as slices of onion and lemon as condiments; cooking classes also contemplated.
The Telegraph (Calcutta, India) 2007-09-03 (entry)
Jail farm in Massachusetts town becomes unconventional tourist draw as well as place for well-behaved inmates to feel sense of accomplishment while learning the art of tending plants and animals.
By Erin Conroy
Boston Globe 2007-09-01 (entry)
Keeping the organic label pure may be tough to do as Wal-Mart and other behemoths are ramping up; already the industry is split between true ideals (localism and sustainability, in addition to no pesticides) and those willing to sacrifice for growth.
By Jake Whitney
San Francisco Chronicle 2007-01-28 (entry)
Target Corporation, in war against Wal-Mart and its industrial organics, sponsors a farmers' market in St. Paul/Minneapolis, but some customers balk at the Archer Farms booth, which is no farm, but the discount store's house brand.
City Pages (MN) 2007-08-23 (entry)
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Long the designated caretakers of the poor and disenfranchised, religious communities find their interests growing toward farming and food production for reasons including humane treatment of animals, fair wages to workers and stewardship of the Earth.
By Joan Nathan
The New York Times 2007-08-22 (entry)
Near the site of a murder that ripped a North Carolina town apart, the Anathoth Community Garden now grows, the gift of a black woman to a white church, and now the working poor find food at their door, and the town is finding a new peace.
By Fred Bahnson
Orion Magazine 2007-07-01 (entry)
Austin-based non-profit group adds school gardens and farm-to-fork program to agenda that includes teaching low-income residents garden programs and how to sell produce they grow at farmers' markets.
By Paul Brown
News8Austin (TX) 0000-00-00 (entry)
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Running an organic garden is easy with a large staff, but techniques, detailed in "The Elements of Organic Gardening," by Prince Charles, are simple - good soil, black plastic, and keeping the chickens out.
By Charles Elliott
The New York Times (may require subscription) 0000-00-00 (entry)
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Seattle's Lettuce Link, which teaches gardening, nutrition and cooking to low-income population, helps fill coffers of food pantries and hot meal food banks whose regular donors are on summer vacation.
By Ann Lovejoy
Seattle Post-Intelligencer (WA) 2007-08-17 (entry)
See also
As Atlanta grows
