More Food News

Canada 'only nation to leave UN drought agreement'
BBC News, 28 March 2013

GMO food labels would benefit Minnesota consumers
StarTribune, 31 March 2013
A California referendum requiring GMO labeling lost last year, in part because the $9.2 million raised by proponents was no match for the $46 million spent by opponents Monsanto, Hershey, Coke, Pepsi and other companies...

Vermont maple-syrup farmers tap into technology
Seattle Times, 31 March 2013
His greatest secret weapon is a reverse-osmosis machine that concentrates the sap by pulling it through sensitive membranes, greatly increasing the sugar content before it hits the boiler. The $8,000 instrumentsaves more fuel and money than every other innovation combined. With it Morse can process sap into syrup in 30 minutes, something that used to take two hours.

Poverty and Food:

Everything you think you know about poverty is wrong
Deseret News, 25 March 2013.
While comparing wealth across borders is not easy, one method is to look at food spending. Historically, there has been a consistent negative correlation between a person's wealth and the percent of their income spent on food. In other words, if you must spend almost all of your money on food, you probably aren't doing that well.

Gathering food left in the fields to feed the hungry
The Desert Sun, 31 March 2013
"Obviously, providing free, fresh, local healthy produce to fight not only hunger but diabetes, obesity, hypertension, etc., is one part," she said. "But the other is that we are the only gleaning/produce 'rescue' organization in the nation to pay our field workers. Not just pay them, but pay a living wage—$10-$12 per hour—significantly above prevailing farm wage."

Why we need food stamps
Sacramento Bee, 31 March 2013
Every time a CalFresh card is swiped at a store, a nearly instantaneous transfer of funds from Washington starts a cash ripple effect locally. Using an 89-cent head of broccoli as an example, the federal reimbursement for the full 89 cents benefits the grower, the distributor, the store and the person who consumes the broccoli's nutrition.

More Mainers strain to put food on table
Portland Press Herald, 1 April 2013.
A variety of factors -- lower wages, unemployment, cuts in benefits -- drive people to seek food assistance, straining pantries and food programs that have long struggled to keep up with demand. Many of those people are from middle income backgrounds but have seen their incomes slashed by unemployment or reductions in work hours and pay and are running out of savings.

An interesting series about food and the food industry today:

Food Part I: Three Book Recommendations
chapelboro.com, 17 February 2013

Food Part II: The Science of the Stomach
chapelboro.com, 24 February 2013

Food Part IIIA: Wonder Bread Is Not Wonderful
chapelboro.com, 3 March 2013

Food Part IIIB: An Apple a Day Really Did Used to Keep the Doctor Away
chapelboro.com, 10 March 2013

Food Part IV: The Chicken and the Egg
chapelboro.com, 24 March 2013

Food Part V: Conclusion and Some Politics
chapelboro.com, 31 March 2013

A Couple More From Facebook:

Weekend Through Wednesday Food Notes

Boholano farmers put up organic rice seed bank
Philipppine Information Agency, 21 March 2013.
... a few years ago, farmers noted that commercial rice breeds produce bountiful harvests but the costly inorganic fertilizers needed to grow them have drained farmers of their profits.

Bachmann Bungles Benghazi, Food Stamps
FactCheck.org, 22 March 2013.
Bachmann's claim that 70 percent of federal dollars allocated to food stamps goes to "salaries and pensions for the bureaucrats who are supposed to be taking care of the poor" is wildly inaccurate. It's less than 5 percent.

How Rising Food Costs Affect Black Families
The Root, 23 March 2013.
Although correlated, poverty and food insecurity are not the same. Unemployment is the strongest predictor of food insecurity -- and as minority communities struggle the most in finding work, they also disproportionately become victims of hunger.

Okay, I'm guessing this one is basically true, but with the Conspiracy Theorist's magic touch...

USDA agricultural census program is a covert surveillance operation to compile government database of food and farm assets
NaturalNews.com, 27 March 2013
Most Americans don't yet realize that President Obama has already signed an executive order declaring government ownership and control over all farms, food, livestock, seeds, farm equipment and more.

A saner explanation!

USDA still seeking Census of Ag data
Ag Week, 25 March 2013.
The Census, conducted every five years, helps USDA officials administer federal farm programs and also helps collect information on agricultural products such as bison, for which statistics aren't gathered annually.

The official website for the census.

USDA Census of Agriculture

Wednesday - Thursday - Friday

No particular theme this time, unless maybe it's "grow your own."

I did see an interesting tv news item about seed banks but didn't get a chance to take any notes.

News articles over three days:

Foodbank: Hunger on the rise in eastern Idaho
LocalNews8.com, 19 March 2013.
New statistics from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare show a staggering number of Idahoans are on food stamps. The number represents 17-percent of people statewide.

Markets pledge not to sell genetically-modified salmon
Seattle Times/New York Times, 19 March 2013.
The campaign by the environmental and consumer groups suggests that the salmon could have trouble winning acceptance in the market, assuming consumers could identify it.

No-brown apples sparkle in lunchboxes
Seattle Times, 20 March 2013.
The Opal follows the past of most new modern varieties—trademarked fruits that are closely managed by a limited number of growers and distributors.

New EU farm subsidy plan criticised by green groups
BBC News, 20 March 2013.
Farmers will be paid twice by taxpayers for the same work if Europe's farm ministers get their way over subsidies.

The egg box that updates a humble yet classic design
BBC, 21 March 2013.
Her concept for an egg carton of the future—made of cardboard and a rubber band—was made for a university competition but has already received some cautious commercial interest.

However, these all showed up on my Facebook page:

Tuesday's Food News

It's been a while since I've tried to read a lot of news sites one right after another so doing it today forcibly reminded me my old computer just isn't up to online current events. News sites are the worst about cramming in all the bells and whistles—many very badly programmed—so I waste lots of time waiting for videos and ads to load or time out, rather than just getting on with reading the articles I'm there for.

Today's theme seems to be how much of our food has been engineered to taste so good that we eat way too much of it.

An innocent celebration of an American favorite:

What Iconic American Food Helped America Through WWII?
Ancestry.com, 19 December 2012.
Along with conserving gasoline, paper, clothes and rubber products during WWII, folks on the home front were expected to do their part by conserving food.

Two books that take a different view!

How the Food Makers Captured Our Brains
New York Times, 22 June 2009.
Dr. Kessler finds some similarities in the food industry, which has combined and created foods in a way that taps into our brain circuitry and stimulates our desire for more.

Article discusses:
The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite by David Kessler

How Sweet It Is
New York Times, 15 March 2013
Because, while whole milk has gotten a bum rap as a source of saturated (read: bad) fats, resulting in a precipitous plunge in milk-drinking, cheese, though no less fatty, is still perceived as wholesome and dietarily innocuous. More to the point, we have a federal mandate to eat lots of cheese!

You Really Can't Eat Just One, and Here's the Reason
New York Times, 17 March 2013.
And that is the nub of Mr. Moss's case: By concentrating fat, salt and sugar in products formulated for maximum "bliss," Big Food has spent almost a century distorting the American diet in favor of calorie-dense products whose consumption pattern has been mirrored by the calamitous rise in obesity rates.

Articles discuss:
Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss

Two more articles:

Bill would let farmers kill attacking wolves
Seattle Times, 18 March 2013.
Smith said wolf attacks, though infrequent, can be financially devastating to small farmers who operate on slim profit margins.

In a New Aisle, Energy Drinks Sidestep Some Rules
New York Times, 19 March 2013.
...the drink's maker has decided after a decade of selling it as a dietary supplement to market it as a beverage, a switch that will bring significant changes in how it is regulated.

Found on Facebook:

Why This Blog?

Over the past couple months, I've been taking online classes through the different MOOCs: Coursera, edX, and Udacity.

Was starting to think it could be interesting to blog about my experiences with these classes and then I started a new class yesterday (Economic Issues, Food & You) which includes a journal as part of the course work. Seemed simplest to me to just blog for this since links will be live—and I won't be able to lose any of my notes! Hence the food theme for the blog for the time being. (Yummy radishes!!!)

Right now I'd better get on with my food news entry. More about my general educational experiences later.