the extraordinary science of junk food.

you should read this. now.

dream food labels.

mark bittman explains, in the nytimes magazine food issue, his ideas on food labels. they'd incorporate foodness, nutrition, and welfare. foodness is a pretty rad idea. i am kind of warming up to him.

interesting. not gonna happen, but interesting.

a little round-up.

• a history of the taco.
• facebook's valuation in burger king whoppers.
• the veggie burgers i plan to make this week. 
• a space shuttle food truck. and it's for sale!  
• my garden project has a website. 
• i am going to be speaking about said garden project at the farm to cafeteria conference. 
• you should be watching food curated. seriously. every video rocks.
• and for kicks, the beastie boys's sabotage video with kids in their roles (thanks, blake!): 

reee-col-aaah.

i am writing about food corps, food stamps, and farmers' markets. there is math and econometrics involved. additionally, there is the growing pain that is my sore throat; i have been eating ricolas like there is no tomorrow. needless to say, i will write more exciting things soon.

for now, a photo of the chalupas i forgot weeks ago.

wait. pizza?

can you believe congress declared pizza a vegetable? to begin, tomatoes are a fruit.

i might need to get working on school lunch policy. this is a disaster.

always and forever.

parks and recreation takes on the world food crisis in a model UN episode.

i love this show. SO much.

the truth is out there.

i've been waiting for this to be true.  amy sapkota, thank you.

from food safety news:

Poultry farms that transition to organic and stop giving their birds antibiotics have significantly lower levels of drug-resistant bacteria, according to new research out of the University of Maryland's School of Public Health.

The authors of the study, published in Environmental Health Perspectives this week, say it's the first to demonstrate lower levels of drug-resistant bacteria on newly organic farms in the United States, adding credence to what environmental and public health advocates have been saying for years: antibiotic usage needs to be curtailed in American agriculture to combat growing antibiotic resistance.

Most experts agree that overusing antibiotics in both human medicine and animal agriculture is contributing to the problem -- more than 100,000 people in the U.S. die from bacterial infections, 70 percent of which are resistant to antibiotics. Recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration data indicate approximately 80 percent of all antibiotics sold in the U.S. are given to food animals.  

 i knew it. thank you to those who study the hard sciences that can make this information a reality. 

an addendum: here's a link to the study if you want to read the whole thing. 

like this.

working working working on this crazy literature review. the part i am dealing with now is mostly like this diagram.

tuned.

new rack on my bike. a little tune-up. riding about town with food books (mostly from inter-library loan) on the back: sustainable agriculture, food justice, minimally-processed and refrigerated fruits and vegetables.

seriously, academics couldn't give a book a good name if they tried.

that's me.

a food blogger baker. i am making scones for this event.

pretty awesome, huh? i bake things and childhood hunger is eradicated. done and done.

thank you, snl,

for making fun of the high fructose corn syrup advertisements.
i knew you would.

go here for the original and the snl version.

dumber than nails.

a new study has shown that kids who eat loads of junk food have a lower IQ. FOREVER.

from the daily mail,

Children who eat more chips, crisps, biscuits and pizza before the age of three have a lower IQ five years later, a study showed. The difference could be as much as five IQ points compared with children given healthier diets with fruit, vegetables and home-cooked food. But even if their diet improves, it could be too late as the ill-effects can persist for a lifetime.

there's no going back? shit. shit. shit. i can't believe my fears have materialized.

the president mentioned,

and i have a solution: the little red wagon.

i am a part of an interdisciplinary team working to reduce rates of childhood obesity in north carolina. we conceived a mobile market/ food truck that would bring low-cost fruits and vegetables into food deserts (where there is little or no access to grocery stores). it's really very awesome and doable. and we've already in touch with all sorts of community members, some of whom are in the video.

the team is a finalist in the emerging issues competition. we need your vote to win. no need to create a user name or anything of the sort.

you don't even have to watch the videos if you don't want. just check "little red wagon."
http://www.ncsu.edu/iei/?page_id=842

please. the greatest birthday present if we win next week.

not sure it's better.

food executives are starting to take initiative, making changes to product labeling, moving the information to the front of the package. but, is it any easier to read? better information? do the consumers know what to do with it?

michelle obama apparently challenged food manufacturers to make this change. originally a conversation that included the FDA, the federal government moved too slowly (again!) and so industry took matters into their hands.

what do we think? it's not the labeling i had hoped. read the whole story here.

sesame street community gardening.

LOVE.
thanks, streetgardening.org. for better viewing, go to their site.

all the veggie ladies.

Super Sprowtz on Vimeo.

in the fattest city in america.

there is a BEEF FAT SPILL in the houston ship channel. 15,000 gallons of animal fat that congealed immediately. oh holy hell.

from the huffington post:

Unlike oil, beef fat doesn't create a colorful sheen on the surface of the water that can be skimmed off, [Richard] Brahms said. ... Workers are using fishnets to corral the fat, then pitchforks to lift 1-foot-by-1 foot chunks of the cream-colored debris, officials said.

you love your hometown no matter what, right?

S510.

the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S 510) is going to be voted on tonight. the house voted on its version in 2009.

michael pollan and eric schlosser did a nice op-ed in the nytimes yesterday about the whole thing (no surprise there). they actually mention that americans were outraged about the Wright County Egg inspection and salmonella scandal of late summer, which i don't really believe.

but they ended with a super quote from teddy roosevelt (who is always awesome):

“Unfortunately,” he said, “the misdeeds of those who are responsible for the abuses we design to cure will bring discredit and damage not only upon them, but upon the innocent stock growers, the ranchmen and farmers of this country.”

pretty sure that says it all.

to say.

three nytimes articles that are practically permanent tabs:

• recipe for preserved lemons. shira asks what i will do with them once i make them. no idea. but i want to make them.
  
• an article on food stamps, now know as SNAP. thank you, lyndon johnson, for making this program happen, and damn you, michael bloomberg, for suggesting that low-income earners should not get to choose what they eat.
  
• more on punch, and my old hood in brooklyn. it's the punchiest.
  

food fight.

Food Fight is an abridged history of American-centric war, from World War II to present day, told through the foods of the countries in conflict. Watch as traditional comestibles slug it out for world domination in this chronologically re-enacted smorgasbord of aggression.it's pretty graphic. but awesome. try to watch it without the cheat sheet.

i realize it's not showing properly, so here's the link to the actual site.