Kiko's Food News, 4.6.12

Turns out today’s my birthday (full moon/Passover/Easter weekend special!), and last night my wise younger brother was talking about how with age comes the ability to improve, every day. So I ask you, my readers, to help me improve Kiko’s Food News. What do you want to read more about? What would make this information more digestible, more relevant to your lives, more TASTY? Reply with a comment to this post and let me know!

Experts have promoted the fishing and eating of smaller fish that are lower on the food chain as the way to avoid depleting our oceans of larger, over-fished species, but a new study calls for a cap on forage fish fishing, saying the catch should be cut in half for some fisheries to protect populations of both the fish and the natural predators that depend on them: (full story)

You know a trend has really caught on when Williams-Sonoma launches a product line around it: “Agrarian” includes an array of garden tools, cheese making supplies, bee hives, and resources for how to raise chickens: (full story)

Roberto Romano’s film The Harvest/La Cosecha , which was screened across the country for Farmworker Awareness Week, informs us that nearly 500,000 children as young as six harvest up to 25% of all crops in the US: (full story)

Packaged baby food may not be as healthy as it seems as many brands that have veggies prominently displayed on the front actually list fruit as the main ingredient, masking surprisingly high sugar content: (full story)

As U.S. pork producers build new barns and retrofit old ones to give hogs more space, they say consumers opposed to keeping pregnant sows in tight cages can expect to pay for their clearer consciences with higher food prices (we know that more sustainable practices are more expensive, looks like it’s time to put our money where our mouth is!):(full story)

Ya know when men save a little food in their beard for later? This is kinda like that: (full story)

Kiko's Food News, 3.30.12

As a follow-up to the pink slime headline I shared last week, and testament to how consumer pressure can lead to changing practices in the food industry, Beef Products Inc. announced the temporary shutdown of three of its four plants that produce “lean finely textured beef”; not only had McDonald’s, the National School Lunch Program, Kroger & Safeway decided to reduce or eliminate it, but viral campaigns by regular joes also changed the game: (full story)

The Just Label It Campaign announced this week that a record-breaking one million Americans signed the petition calling on the FDA to label genetically engineered foods:(full story)

We were excited to see six of the food producers we work with (Dandelion Chocolate, Farmhouse Culture, Baia Pasta, Barinaga Ranch, Emmy’s Pickles…and Chez Pim coming soon!) celebrated in San Francisco Magazine’s list of top ten artisan food makers to watch:(full story)

The new wave of food co-ops are slick community markets that have thrown off the members-only rules, volunteer requirements and vegetarian philosophies commonly associated with them, going with an every-man’s product assortment: (full story)

With volumes of traditional sodas declining for the seventh consecutive year, soft drink companies have been acting similar to tobacco companies, putting promotion dollars behind the drinks with the highest margins, and introducing non-carbonated alternatives the same way cig companies promote smokeless tobacco and other spinoffs: (full story)

Similarly, Coca-Cola Great Britain pledged to cut portions and reformulate its products as part of a U.K. government drive to curb obesity; they will invest $24 million by 2014 to reformulate soft drinks and cut the average number of calories per liter by at least 30%:(full story)

Maybe it’s time to reconsider donkey meat–here’s a quirky roundup of foods that might change your perspective on our ability to feed the planet: (full story)

Kiko's Food News, 3.23.12

Can a neighborhood corner store improve public health? As part of the nationwide Healthy Corner Stores Initiative, more than 600 corner stores in Philadelphia have signed pledges to stock healthy food: (full story)

A dismal option for the school lunch menu: the U.S.D.A. announced that starting this fall, schools will be able to choose whether or not they buy hamburger that contains lean finely textured beef known as “pink slime”; it was previously sold only to dog food or cooking oil suppliers: (full story)

That make you want to go meatless? Since I was away last week, I want to make sure you caught Bittman’s characteristically persuasive argument about why fake chicken is worth eating. Did you know “a third of Americans now eat meatless meals ‘a significant amount of the time’”? (full story)

Packaged-food companies facing stagnant growth are turning to snacks as a way to report sales increases to their stakeholders; snack prices can be raised more easily than those of grocery staples (and who hasn’t been itching for the invention of a chocolate-flavored tortilla chip??): (full story)

In what I consider a missed opportunity for new precedents in meat sourcing, McDonald’s was granted an exemption to London’s local food sourcing goals for the upcoming Olympics and will therefore source only 10% of the chicken it processes from British farmers: (full story)

Sales of products with Fair Trade USA’s seal of approval for ethics and sustainability rose 75% in the fourth quarter of 2011 over the first quarter, according to a recent SPINS report; this even though fair trade-certified products almost always cost more than the alternative: (full story)

The number of health-oriented and vegan food trucks across the country is growing; here’s a helpful list by city, should you have a hankering: (full story)

Inspiration for your Friday happy hour: a growing band of brewers is turning to the complex, earthy spice of rye for a new take on the strong flavors craft-beer drinkers have grown to love: (full story)

Kiko's Food News, 3.9.12

Food can’t escape politics, as some members of the Park Slope Food Co-Op are calling for a boycott of Israeli-made foods, butting heads with the anti-boycott “More Hummus Please” group of pro-Israel members: (full story)

“I’d turn vegan for you”, “I think we’d grow a great organic garden together”, and other fool-proof lines for hitting on a foodie: (full story)

Wal-Mart has announced plans to open 13 smaller-format “Neighborhood Market” stores in California this year and next; averaging 42,000 square feet, these will compete with existing stores already fighting for market share. Wal-Mart has the resources to drive local shops out of business by temporarily undercutting prices, which can result in a net job loss for communities and has caused widespread opposition to their stores across California: (full story)

A new study shows that higher levels of vitamin D–not calcium–are tied to fewer stress fractures in young women; the participants who got lots of vitamin D through their diet and supplements were half as likely to suffer a stress fracture as those who didn’t get much: (full story)

Actor Wendell Pierce of HBO’s “Treme” & “The Wire” has opened Sterling Express, the first in a convenience store chain that will sell fresh produce and salads in addition to the usual chips and sodas; he’ll soon open a grocery store called Sterling Farms, the first of several in New Orleans’s low-income neighborhoods, where supermarkets are scarce: (full story)

A Food Safety News investigation revealed that one-third of America’s honey supply is probably smuggled in from China and could be tainted with the antibioticChloramphenicol used by Chinese beekeepers to stave off a bacterial infection that threatened to cripple the country’s honey industry in the late 90s; the drug is outlawed in the U.S.: (full story)

Kiko's Food News, 3.2.12

A New York federal court dismissed the lawsuit against agribusiness giant Monsanto brought by thousands of certified organic farmers, ruining their hopes that the suit would protect them against infringing on the company’s crop patents in the future: (full story)

I’ve added a new book to my “to-read” list: Tracie McMillan’s The American Way of Eatingexposes US food distribution the way Pollan exposed our agricultural system by chronicling her work as a laborer in California’s farm fields, a produce clerk at Walmart, and in the kitchen at Applebee’s: (full story)

A study on fruit and veggie consumption in six low-income, primarily minority neighborhoods in Chicago found that convenience was key among those who eat more produce, and the price of the produce didn’t matter; this furthers the argument that Americans aren’t skipping healthy food because of its cost, but rather because cooking with fresh produce takes a little effort: (full story)

Fresh Direct, NYC’s grocery delivery success story, has grown from a small start-up to almost 2,000 employees and is relocating headquarters to the Bronx to stay within the five boroughs; Mayor Bloomberg makes an argument for how keeping the business local achieves the city’s “number one priority” of job creation, and will benefit NY residents for decades to come: (full story)

Starting this week, raw meat sold at grocery stores must carry a nutrition label with info including calories, protein level, cholesterol, saturated fat, sodium and more: (full story)

A Food Safety News investigation revealed that one-third of America’s honey supply is probably smuggled in from China and could be tainted with the antibioticChloramphenicol used by Chinese beekeepers to stave off a bacterial infection that threatened to cripple the country’s honey industry in the late 90s; the drug is outlawed in the U.S.:(full story)

Kiko's Food News, 2.24.12

This NY Times article argues that the revival of craft manufacturing isn’t just a fad for hipsters–it’s a refinement of the excesses of our industrial era plus a return to specialization, which is inherent to capitalism: (full story)

I enjoyed reading 7×7′s profile on the CEO of Bon Appétit Management; they operate cafeterias that through 136.5 million meals a year bring the local-sustainable movement to more than 400 venues nationwide: (full story)

Organic food companies are cheering because their potential markets just doubled: the U.S. and the European Union are announcing that they will soon treat each other’s organic standards as equivalent: (full story)

California has introduced a cottage food bill, the California Homemade Food Act, AB 1616; similar to the “cottage food laws” in 31 other US states, it would allow for the sale of non-potentially hazardous foods prepared in a home kitchen: (full story)

Price increases across the North American food industry have turned off shoppers and led to weak sales for some packaged food makers; Kraft, among others, has introduced smaller package sizes with lower price tags to appeal to consumers with limited budgets:(full story)

Check out this Korean artist’s use of funky design to create containers that keep eggs, veggies and other food fresher (and possibly better tasting!) without refrigeration: (full story)

Kiko's Food News, 2.17.12

This NY Times article argues that the revival of craft manufacturing isn’t just a fad for hipsters–it’s a refinement of the excesses of our industrial era plus a return to specialization, which is inherent to capitalism: (full story)

I enjoyed reading 7×7′s profile on the CEO of Bon Appétit Management; they operate cafeterias that through 136.5 million meals a year bring the local-sustainable movement to more than 400 venues nationwide: (full story)

Organic food companies are cheering because their potential markets just doubled: the U.S. and the European Union are announcing that they will soon treat each other’s organic standards as equivalent: (full story)

California has introduced a cottage food bill, the California Homemade Food Act, AB 1616; similar to the “cottage food laws” in 31 other US states, it would allow for the sale of non-potentially hazardous foods prepared in a home kitchen: (full story)

Price increases across the North American food industry have turned off shoppers and led to weak sales for some packaged food makers; Kraft, among others, has introduced smaller package sizes with lower price tags to appeal to consumers with limited budgets:(full story)

Check out this Korean artist’s use of funky design to create containers that keep eggs, veggies and other food fresher (and possibly better tasting!) without refrigeration: (full story)

Kiko's Food News, 2.10.12

When a foodie and a non-foodie fall in love, cooking and eating aren’t always a shared experience; as we await next week’s annual celebration of couple-dom, this article  seems apropos: (full story)

The “mindful eating” movement is growing, rooted in the idea that eating slowly and genuinely relishing each bite could remedy our fast-paced American lifestyle, endless fad diets and the resulting path toward obesity: (full story)

A new CDC report found that 9 out of 10 Americans ages 2 and older consume more than the recommended amount of sodium each day; the leading culprits are not potato chips or popcorn but slices of bread and dinner rolls: (full story)

It was just a matter of time before lard made its comeback, overcoming stigmas associated with disgusting-ness and taking the spotlight on restaurant menus: (full story)

Monsanto aggressively touts its technology as vital to ensuring adequate food production worldwide, but this article digs into how they’ve held back the development of sustainable agriculture by expanding monoculture, increasing herbicide use, suppressing research and more: (full story)

And as one group of victims of Monsanto’s dominance, farmers who say they cannot keep genetically modified crops from their fields have brought a suit against them that’s sparking debate around the country with new petitions, ballot initiatives and lawsuits in the works: (full story)

Finally, a profile of a few of the family-owned, independent markets that have faced heightened competition from large supermarket chains but survive to fill an important need in their communities: (full story)

Kiko's Food News, 2.3.12

Low cattle supplies in 2012 (the herd is the smallest its been in 60 years) are expected to drive up beef prices for the second year in a row: (full story)

Tackling challenges of access to fresh and healthy food for all, a brother-sister duo have opened a new kind of grocery store at “the intersection of food justice and high-concept retail” in the Castleberry Hill neighborhood of Atlanta; as they say, “if Jay-Z and Kanye can create a lifestyle brand that people in urban and suburban areas aspire to, regardless of their actual income, why can’t we do that with organic food?” (full story)

Food Shift, an organization working to collect unwanted, good quality food from stores and bakeries and deliver the products to agencies that feed low-income people, is partnering with grocers to grow the amount of food that can be fed to people instead of wasted: (full story)

Replacing what used to be “a suitcase of papers on the back of an agronomist’s motorcycle”, iPads are making their way to coffee co-ops and farmers in East Africa, Mexico, and South America; they come loaded with training videos in a variety of languages related to everything from agronomy best practices to growing protein-rich mushrooms out of coffee production waste: (full story)

Alli from our grocery team, Emily Olson of Foodzie and Caleb Zigas of La Cocina share their tips for successfully launching a small food business: (full story)

Kiko's Food News, 1.27.12

Yes we all have different tastes–that’s what makes the world go round–but what is it that makes certain foods so polarizing? (full story)

Paula Deen’s unfortunate diagnosis with diabetes exposes the disconnect between what we see chefs cooking on TV and what viewers should actually be learning to cook: (full story)

One response to this disconnect between restaurant dining and health is Halfsies, a social initiative preparing to launch in Austin and NYC. It offers restaurant-goers a choice that provides a healthier portion size, reduces food waste, and supports the fight against hunger: (full story)

In order to devote more time to changing national food policies to help consumers, Gary Hirshberg is stepping down as the CEO of Stonyfield Farm and handing over responsibilities of the organic yogurt company to the former CEO of Ben & Jerry’s; his focus will be on U.S. agriculture policy, and fundraising to get Obama re-elected:(full story)

Almost a year after the earthquake and tsunami caused a triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, Japan is still struggling to protect its food supply from radioactive contamination. The discovery of tainted rice and contaminated beef have left officials scrambling to plug gaps in the government’s food-screening measures: (full story)

Korean as the new Thai, QR’s on packaging, and the full list of food trends witnessed at the Winter Fancy Foods show in SF two weekends ago:  (full story)

Kiko's Food News, 1.20.12

Backyard gardens grow the kookiest things: a Swedish woman lost her wedding ring in the 1990′s–guess where she found it last month?? (full story)

Hostess (of Ding Dong, Sno Ball and Ho Ho fame) has filed for bankruptcy and I’m torn as to how I feel about it. The nostalgist in me mourns the disappearance of my dad’s favorite childhood treats, but a much bigger side of me is celebrating changing consumer preference towards real food! (full story)

Still, some packaged foods giants apparently have money to burn: Kraft is rolling out a new cheese product called “Kraft Fresh Take” (sounds more like a news segment than a food!) and advertising it with a $50 million campaign: (full story)

And Burger King is testing out delivery at about 10 locations in Maryland and Virginia, targeting busy families by offering meals that can feed a small army; options include 10 cheeseburgers and 20-piece chicken tenders (all for $14.49), or 40 piece chicken tenders and two drinks (for $10.99): (full story)

The battle against food waste rages on, this time in the form of a new strip that can be adhered inside packaging to make strawberries shipped from overseas last two days longer: (full story)

“Mahele” is Hawaiian for “to share in the work is to share in the bounty”; at the 170-acre farm of that name on remote Maui, the harvest doesn’t belong to any one person, community members are invited to work the land, and when they’re ready to leave, they fill a bag with as much fresh produce as they need to feed their families: (full story)

If you save enough toothpicks from your deli sandwiches, maybe some day you can make one of these: (full story)

Kiko's Food News, 1.13.12

Three points for government involvement in our food supply and consumption this week. First, in an effort to sustain fishing for the future, the US will this year become the first country to impose catch limits for every fish species it manages; this policy, forged by the Bush admnisitration and finalized with Obama’s backing, marks an unusual collaboration across party lines: (full story)

Second, the USDA’s trying to play an active role in Americans’ day to day health: their new “SuperTracker” website offers three ways to track our diets: (full story)

And third, New York City’s Department of Health has decided that oversize restaurant portions are making New Yorkers fat, so they’re taking aim at the food industry in a new subway ad campaign launched Monday: (full story)

A growing number of grocers are signing up to have the packaged foods they sell evaluated and ranked for nutritional content.  But I’m with Marion Nestle on this one:  “it doesn’t matter whether one potato chip is slightly better for you than another….if you want to encourage people to eat healthy, you want to encourage them not to eat food products. You want them to eat real food.”: (full story)

Everyone has their favorite parts of favorite foods, whether it’s muffin tops or the white middle of an Oreo; increasingly, food fanatics are finding each other online, creating Facebook pages that focus on favorite parts of food (like “I love sticking my finger in the cake and eating the frosting”), and innovating around their favorite parts to create tools like the “bagel scooper” and “edge brownie pan”: (full story)

In what seems to me like a reaction to consumer aversion towards their over-roasted coffee beans, Starbucks is launching a “blonde” coffee line; interesting to see the big dogs changing their offerings due to preference for beans that taste truer to their pre-roast flavor (a trend we’ve witnessed here at the Market): (full story)

Todmorden, a town in England’s West Yorkshire, has a “cheeky” plan: they want to be first town in the country to be self-sufficient in food by 2018: (full story)

Kiko's Food News, 1.6.12

I was encouraged by Marion Nestle’s optimism when I heard her speak at Berkeley’s Edible Education course this Fall, but her prognosis for food politics in 2012 is cloudy: (full story)

One bright note is that with milk as a mark of new money in emerging economies around the globe, prices paid for it are higher and dairy farmers may earn and be rewarded the way they deserve to be:  (full story)

During the winter, a lot of the organic produce in our supermarkets come from farms in the Mexican desert; stress on the region’s water supply and natural environment calls into question how truly sustainable the organic label has become : (full story)

In an online study of consumers, chocolate was judged as significantly lower-calorie when it was described as “fair trade”, demonstrating how the label promotes an inaccurate assumption of lower calories than its competitors: (full story)

Grist offered an apt exploration of how Walmart’s sneakily-spun expansion into food deserts and general take-over of the American food system is making it more concentrated and industrialized than ever before: (full story)

Meanwhile, for SF residents looking to invest food dollars locally,  options will expand this year when Local: Mission Eatery opens their breakfast-centric cafe and market. With the exception of coffee, chocolate and sugar, ALL products will be sourced from Northern California: (full story)

Kiko's Food News, 12.30.11

As Americans show greater interest in eating local produce, an increasing number of farmers markets are staying open year-round; the number of winter markets (defined as those operating between November and March) jumped from 886 in 2010 to 1,225 in 2011 (New York impressively edges out balmy California with the most!) (full story)

Get On the Shelf, the latest idea from WalMartLabs (the retailer’s in-house social media think tank, a product of their April  acquisition of data mining firm Kosmix) is a new product competition that invites anyone to submit a product idea to the retailer for development: (full story)

And speaking of more packaged foods on the shelves, Manischewitz, the 123-year-old kosher brand, is for the first time creating kosher gravies, broths, crackers and more that appeal to gentiles: (full story)

Craft breweries nationwide have been replacing beer bottles with aluminum cans, and for good reason: cans help beer stay fresh by blocking light and keeping out oxygen better than many bottles, are more portable than glass, and lighter to ship–plus, a canning line has a smaller footprint: (full story)

Livestock receives an estimated 80% of the nation’s antibiotics, yet in a step backwards for protecting the public from rising antibiotic resistance, the FDA just announced its withdrawal of a decades-old proposal to limit the use of antibiotics in animal feed: (full story)

Mark Bittman simplifies the goal of “eating better” in 2012 to “eating more plants”, and offers recipes to make semi-veganism work for all of us–bon appetit! (full story)

Kiko's Food News, 12.23.11

I’ll be keeping cozy in front of the Market all day tomorrow (we’re open 9-5)–come say hi. I’d love to hear your feedback on what kind of food news you’ve liked reading in 2011…or leave your comments here!

Carol your way to hungry–so many holiday songs are about delicious food! (full story)

Kraft is planning to roll out some 70 new products in the first quarter of 2012, including two lines of dinner kits, energy and “mocktail” versions of its water enhancers, and Philadelphia Indulgence Spreads which mixes chocolate with cream cheese for dipping (no comment): (full story)

The list of startups at the intersection of technology and food keeps growing, and in a sea of names like Foodbuzz, Foodcaching, Foodia, Foodily, Foodista, Foodler, Foodoro, Foodspotting, Foodtree, Fooducopia, and Foodzie, it’s challenging to find an edge: (full story)

Learn why apples, cabbage, and eggs are among the produce that lasts longest in your kitchen, plus other ways to avoid throwing out produce gone bad (#1: steer clear of pre-cut fruits and veggies!) : (full story)

Check out these TV ads by McDonalds, Perdue, and other huge food companies that focus on farmers, giving them a sense of salt-of-the-earth hero worship: (full story)

Kiko's Food News, 12.16.11

With the mainstreaming of vegetarianism in recent discourse, it’s interesting to see how many vegetarians there actually are out there; in a phone poll taken last week, 33% of Americans reported that they eat vegetarian meals a significant amount of the time (and that number is in addition to committed vegetarians): (full story)

Ever wonder how far apart a lettuce patch has to be from farm animals to prevent bacterial contamination? The University of Maryland’s Center for Food Safety does, and this week they announced a $9 million research project to provide scientific guidance on the safest ways to grow, pack, transport and store salad fixings: (full story)

My mom raised me to fear 18-wheelers on the highway; now it’s time to brace ourselves for an even more harrowing scenario, as Kraft is pushing for 97,000-lb trucks called “bridge wreckers” to be approved in more states: (full story)

These mammoth trucks and their similarly scaled exhaust are among reasons why the global output of heat-trapping carbon dioxide has jumped by a record amount; the world’s efforts at slowing man-made global warming aren’t preventing greenhouse gas emissions from exceeding the UN’s worst-case scenarios: (full story)

And as the resulting climate change accelerates, weather in Maine is becoming less different from that in South Carolina, introducing opportunities for farmers in formerly disparate agricultural regions to start swapping best practices: (full story)

Jonathan Bloom, author of American Wasteland, gave insights into how Europeans waste less food due to how they’re set up for waste disposal and how they structure grocery shopping (our abundance of space for landfills and too-big refridgerators are our downfall!) (full story)

A friend turned me on to a blog called Frugal Dad this week; check out this infographic the dads whipped up, depicting the extent of consolidation in the food industry: (full story)

Kiko's Food News, 12.9.11

In this “Biggest Loser” video spoof by Food & Water Watch, the corporate fat cat is the inevitable winner unless the government steps in with farm bill measures that help keep independent farmers afloat and consumers from being obese:(full story)

Another way to use taxation to de-incentivize sugar consumption: research at Iowa State demonstrates that taxing manufacturers on their use of sweeteners would be more effective than taxing the finished sugary food: (full story)

Filet mignon and Jameson are the most shoplifted items in the US, and cheese is the most shoplifted in the world–don’t go getting any smart ideas, now! (full story)

The UN has completed its first-ever global assessment of the state of the planet’s land resources (what took so long??), finding in a report released Monday that a quarter of all land is highly degraded, and most available land is already being farmed (mostly in ways that decrease its productivity): (full story)

The government spent a record $71.8 billion on the SNAP (food stamp) program last year, or about 12 percent of the national grocery bill, underscoring the benefit’s importance as revenue for big grocers and explaining the fight by Kroger, Safeway, Supervalu, and other chains against cutting spending on them: (full story)

What if, as an alternative to food presentation or service, we could search for restaurant reviews focusing on the health and sustainability of its food as metrics? (full story)

Kiko's Food News, 12.2.11

Did you know the economic recession has led to an increase in the number of SF residents using food stamps each month from 29,008 in 2008 to 44,185 in 2010? This Bay Guardian story profiles the work of Food Guardians in increasing food access and awareness of healthy food for tens of thousands of San Franciscans in chronically poor health: (full story)

And you know I can’t resist a holiday food waste alert: Americans generate an extra 5 million tons of household waste each year between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, including three times as much food waste as at other times of the year. The Worldwatch Institute offers 10 simple steps we can take to make this season less wasteful (such as avoiding the tendency to unnecessarily stuff guests when hosting!) 

(full story)

We’ll have to be gracious on our own soon, as Café Gratitudes and Gracias Madre are closing their doors due to lawsuits from former employees: (full story)

An unlikely place to expose injustices faced by lunch ladies, a food network show highlighted these low-level school employees who cook daily in school cafeterias; one said she and her colleagues are held in such low regard that they’re not even allowed in the teacher’s lounge at the schools they serve: (full story) 
This humorously shocking infographic compares Walmart’s scale in sales, land use, and manpower in relation to other retailers, international GDP’s, and armies: (full story)

As if we need more reason to put salad bars in schools, a CDC report suggests that in 2010, about one in four high school students ate fruit less than once a day, and one in three ate vegetables once or less a day: (full story)

An interesting new small business concept for wine tasting: TastingRoom.com “reformats” wines from their original retail packaging into 50- and 100-milliliter, single-serving bottles. (full story)

Eat like a food expert: here’s a list of 7 foods they avoid, including corn fed beef and conventionally grown potatoes: (full story)

Kiko's Food News, 11.11.11

A neat example of how one culture’s unique cuisine can be enjoyed within the framework of what we know about healthful eating today: the Oldways African Heritage Diet Pyramid  has a prominent layer devoted entirely to collards, chard, kale and spinach! (full story)

What passes for honey in many grocery chains may not have the health benefits, as the majority of samples in a recent test had all of the natural pollen removed before bottling:(full story)

Occupy Big Food has created a petition to tell Butterball–the number one producer of turkeys in the US–that Americans are no longer going to purchase turkeys that are inhumanely treated; this Civil Eats article breaks down the truth about turkey production today: (full story)

A recent study at UC Davis found that people’s visits to fast-food joints increased along with their incomes, and that poor people were spending fewer dollars on fast food than lower-middle and middle-income Americans: (full story)

The idea that food may be addictive was barely on scientists’ radar a decade ago, but a growing body of medical research suggests that processed foods and sugary drinks aren’t simply unhealthy–they can hijack the brain in ways that resemble addictions to cocaine, nicotine and other drugs: (full story)

A former food marketing exec who spent over 15 years at companies like General Mills, Pillsbury, and Nabisco talks about how the processed food industry is trying to grow and defend their business by relying on self-serving research and other tactics: (full story)

Kiko's Food News, 11.4.11

The government has proposed the first changes in 15 years to its $11 billion school-lunch program, such as decreasing the starch and salt content in lunches; food companies including Coca-Cola, Del Monte Foods and the makers of frozen pizza and French fries have a huge stake in the new guidelines and many argue that it would raise the cost of meals and call for food that too many children just won’t eat: (full story)

Well, at least one school district is full speed ahead: the Chicago Public Schools announced that its main food-service company will begin buying and serving chicken drumsticks from birds raised in the local area without antibiotics. The deal will bring 1.2 million pounds of chicken to 473 schools per year, and makes Chicago the nation’s largest district to endorse feeding kids chicken that is antibiotic-free. (full story)

A study released this week revealed that U.S. children and teenagers are seeing far more soda ads than before, with blacks and Hispanics being major targets as marketers have expanded online. Black children and teens saw 80 to 90 percent more ads than white children, Hispanic children saw 49 percent more ads for sugary drinks and energy drinks on Spanish-language television, and Hispanic teens saw 99 percent more ads: (full story)

Mark Bittman aimed his discussion this week at those who think eating locally is an “elitist plot”. To counter those who believe they’re entitled to eat any food any time, Bittman argues that to grow what you can close to where you live and eat what you can grow is nothing new, certainly not elite, and necessary: (full story)

The New York Times highlighted a swarm of new butcher shops that are turning around the way meat is bought and sold in the US, including that of our friend Patrick Martins whose Heritage Meat Shop seeks out breeds of cattle or hogs other than those favored by industrial meat packers: (full story)