Food | Grist

Oh, SNAP!

More NYC farmers markets accept food stamps and sales soar 1
Posted 5 days, 16 hours ago The NYT's Cityroom blog offers some hopeful news on getting more healthy food into low-income neighborhoods.
Tuna Blues

So long and thanks for all the fish 47
Posted 1 week, 5 days ago There was some hope recently that the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, the organization charged with managing the Atlantic tuna fishery, would listen to its own scientists and ban commercial Atlantic bluefin tuna fishing so that the species might survive. Nope.
good for bottom lines, bad for waistlines

How the 40 year drop in the minimum wage helped cause obesity 3
Posted 2 weeks, 5 days ago Tom Laskawy has written about the link between wages and obesity before -- with wages dropping since the 60s and healthy food prices always going up, people eat more unhealthy food. But now two economists have drilled down into these issues and claim to have found a specific link between a drop in the minimum wage and obesity.
Oh Rats

While scientists fight over BPA studies, Congress could just act 1
Posted 2 weeks, 6 days ago A great part of the scientific debate over BPA becomes "quibbles over individual rat studies" -- and over the rats themselves. The best explanation of the Great Rat Debate comes from an article about the shadowy network of so-called "product defense firms" that are used by industry to sow fear, uncertainty, and doubt over any research that questions the safety of commercial products.
the empire strikes back

Soda lobby gets its game on 4
Posted 3 weeks, 3 days ago The sugar lobby has kept their work against the soda tax off their paperwork and thus out of public sight. But its invisibility doesn't lessen its ferocity or, so far, its effectiveness.
ISI isn't so popular

New allies in fight against Obama’s pesticide lobbyist nominee 1
Posted 3 weeks, 4 days ago I'm sure many of you have seen the various petitions zipping around the Internet encouraging opposition to President Obama's nomination of pesticide lobbyist Islam "Isi" Siddiqui to the Office of the United State's Trade Representative. The argument against him goes something like this:
Spice up that lantern, Jacko

This Halloween, have your pumpkin—and eat it, too 5
Posted 1 month ago April McGreger did not begin to fully appreciate pumpkin until she began to think outside the box -- or, more accurately the orange globe. If you are looking only for round, bright orange ones that we most readily identify as pumpkins you are missing out on a myriad of beautiful colors and shapes and the best pumpkin eating. And don't miss out on April McGreger's White Bean and Pumpkin Chili recipe.
GMO wishes, geo-engineering dreams

Save us, [insert techno-fix here], you’re our only hope! 7
Posted 1 month ago Watching SuperFreakonomics author Steve Levitt sitting next to Jon Stewart as they shook their heads in disbelief that everyone wasn't on the climate change/geo-engineering bandwagon depressed me to no end. Techno-fixes--you gotta love 'em. Or not.
Jonesin' for a Ho-Ho

Scientists claim junk food is as addictive as heroin 18
Posted 1 month ago With the rumors swirling that Michelle Obama is a big fan of former FDA Commissioner David Kessler's new book The End of Overeating, it seems reasonable to check in on the science behind an "addiction model" for salty, sweet, and fatty processed food. As it happens, a group of researchers has just released a new study on the subject. The conclusion: the brain responds to junk food the same way it does to heroin.
White House loads policy initiatives into a few hours of fun at Healthy Kids Fair 0
Posted 1 month, 1 week ago The autumn sunshine was very bright, the weather unseasonably warm, and there was a party atmosphere at the White House for Wednesday’s Healthy Kids Fair. The fun side of the the Healthy Kids Fair was reported by mainstream media. But the event couldn’t have been more serious.
Now that smarts

Will FDA take quotation marks off “Smart Choices” [UPDATED] 3
Posted 1 month, 1 week ago Maybe trying to make Froot Loops a "Smart Choice" wasn't such a smart choice for the food industry. Looks like the FDA's about to impose labeling rules that are actually sort of smart (as opposed to "smart").
A FARMER SPEAKS

Bee here, now: organic apiary in a chemical world 6
Posted 1 month, 1 week ago Beekeeping is rising in popularity--from urban rooftops to backyard hives, the world is abuzz with interest in homegrown honey. Pioneering beekeeper Ross Conrad delivers the bitter and the sweet news about organic honey. His words might just give you hives.
headless horsemen of the bureaucracy

Is anyone in charge of food safety? 1
Posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago The fact that there remains no one in charge of food safety at the USDA has become a sick sort of joke among food policy types.
notable quotable

Jill Richardson’s apt critique of the redesigned Senate Ag Committee website 0
Posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago La Vida Locavore's Jill Richardson notes the irony in the new Senate Ag Committee website.
battle royal

Is Michelle Obama about to take on Big Food? 40
Posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago While the First Lady has been exercising what diplomats would call her "soft power" for a while, i.e. planting a garden, making speeches on healthy eating, and so on, indications are that she's quietly developing a set of policy recommendations to reform the food system.
more government, please!

Can Jamie Oliver cooking lessons cure obesity? 10
Posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago Celebrity chef and food activist Jamie Oliver is trying to tackle obesity by teaching people how to cook. Tom Laskawy admires that pluck, but he thinks it's going to take more than kitchen chops to slim down America.
Pollan-ated

Big Ag’s odd obsession with You-Know-Who 4
Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago I really really really didn't want to write another post on Michael Pollan. Don't get me wrong -- I'm a big fan. It's just that reducing the whole of the food movement to Pollan's work naturally ignores so much else that's going on. But don't blame me for this post. Blame Big Ag.
core values

Apples with a sense of place 10
Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago In my personal experience the single most rewarding aspect of eating locally has been exploring my own region in depth. I think of it as seeking the wisdom of Wendell Berry who says repeatedly, "You've got to know where you are. You've got to consult the genius of the place."
Growing community by selling local foods

Minnesota food system study—building trust is good business 0
Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago
USDA FAIL

Can the USDA really keep our food safe? 10
Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago Having read and listened to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack's attempts at ground beef-related damage control in the wake of the recent food safety revelations, I'm left to wonder if the USDA simply needs to get out of the food safety business entirely.