Kiko's Food News, 1.31.14

Or maybe I should call today’s issue “Farm Bill News”? 

On Wednesday the House approved a massive five-year farm bill, which includes nearly $1 billion in annual reductions to food stamps (SNAP) that will affect about 850,000 families across the country; the Senate is expected to pass the bill next week: (NPR)

Within the 900 pages of the bill is a nationwide program that will allow low-income families to double their food stamp benefits to buy fruits and veggies at farmers markets; the program provides up to $20 million annually in matching funds for five years: (Washington Post) 

The bill also signals a win for animal welfare due to the removal of the dangerous King Amendment that would have threatened states’ powers to enact their own agricultural standards (such as California’s mandating larger cages for egg-laying chickens): (Sioux City News)

***

A group of “agrarian elders”, including some of the biggest rock stars of the sustainable food movement, met to document what they want to pass on to younger farmers; topics ranged from how they’ve structured C.S.A.'s to how they’ve marketed heirloom varietals to restaurant clients: (New York Times)

India's growing taste for "exotic" veggies like broccoli, leeks and cabbage are making these more profitable for farmers there to cultivate: (BBC)

If you're watching the Superbowl on Sunday, look out for this year's Chipotle production: their new “Farmed and Dangerous” series will take a satirical look at industrial-scale farming to promote the company’s concerns about the humane treatment of meat animals: (New York Times)

Kiko's Food News, 1.24.14

Does your family debate ideal quantities of protein intake as often as mine has recently? If so, this article offers guidelines on how much, and what kind, of protein we should be ingesting: (Washington Post)

I’m proud to see that my girlfriends who work as chefs are part of a broadening posse, as women are increasingly filling the kitchen jobs that will produce the next generation of leaders in America’s best restaurants: (New York Times)

This chart shows how Americans' grocery spending habits are out of whack with USDA recommendations; for example, we spend four times the amount recommended on refined grains but about a fifth of the amount recommended on whole grains: (Mother Jones)

People in 13 states have been sickened by salmonella detected in “white slime” -- think back to the pink stuff, but from poultry instead of beef -- which is made by forcing chicken through a sieve to separate the bone from the edible meat tissue, and sold for institutional food service: (NBC)

Monsanto is rolling out new varieties of lettuce, peppers, broccoli and other “superveggies” at supermarkets across the US; what’s surprising is that they aren’t genetically modified, created instead by crossbreeding (which farmers have done for millennia): (Wired)

Kiko's Food News, 1.17.14

Wondering if your favorite pickle, coffee, beer or chocolate is the best our country’s food makers have to offer? Our friends at the Good Food Awards just announced the 2014 winners of the blind judging! (Good Food Awards)

General Mills said it is no longer using genetically engineered ingredients to make Cheerios, after a nearly yearlong campaign by a consumer activist group: (Los Angeles Times)

But will other food marketers divert their energy from certifying their food as organic because it’s easier to become certified as GMO-free? (New York Times)

Google web traffic data has an uncanny way of reflecting when foods are running out–check out how dramatically web searches were affected by shortages in Velveeta, Sriracha and Twinkies: (CNBC)

Americans are consuming fewer calories and eating at home more often according to a new USDA study, but the improvements could be attributable to cash-strapped Americans eating at home out of necessity during the recession: (Wall Street Journal)

I had a ball learning about “sokkuri sweets,” Japanese confections that look like inedible objects — check out these celebrities caught on TV biting shoes and calendars they thought could be made of sugar! (Kotaku)

Kiko's Food News, 1.10.14

A study found that poor people with diabetes are significantly more likely to go to the hospital for dangerously low blood sugar at the end of the month--when food budgets are tight--than at the beginning of the month: (New York Times)

Yes, young Americans are increasingly pursuing careers in agriculture, but do single farmers need to BYOB ("bring your own boyfriend") if they want to live off the land? My friend Kristina made this video to pose the question: (Youtube)

McDonald's announced its commitment to begin purchasing "verified sustainable beef" in 2016--but how will they do this if there isn't even a universal definition of sustainable beef? (Huffington Post) 

Anthony Bourdain has signed a deal to open a massive international food market in Manhattan, in hopes of "giving young chefs a showcase to strut their stuff" and bringing Asian and European hawker foods to New York: (Fox News)

Maybe he'll offer artichoke or pepperoni gelato, like some shops in Italy that are offering savory flavors--often with a wine pairing--to compete with the glut of sweet gelato shops! (New York Times)

Kiko's Food News, 1.3.14

Happy Fab '14!

Kicking the year off on the right note, one of our most vocal fellow food waste fighters summed up 2013's big scores in combatting the food waste problem; my favorite is her #1, the realization that anecdotally, consumers like you and me seem inspired to waste less with each bite: (NRDC)

It's been well documented in recent years that the cost of food as it compares to other expenditures for Americans is going down, but I was surprised to see how dramatically the amount of money we spend on food cooked at home is going down vs. food eaten in restaurants: (The Atlantic)

The story of hunger is evolving as the percentage of the world's population with access to 2,500 or more calories a day has grown from 30% to 61%, but the countries that have a history of food insufficiency aren't just growing more food--they're increasing supply by importing it from abroad: (NPR)

Farmers in big agribusiness are fighting back against years of critical media coverage by connecting with consumers through social media and in-person outreach to try and show they don't have anything to hide: (Newser)

From a Mexican tax on sugary drinks to legislation banning Happy Meal toys in Chile and Peru, Latin America is becoming a laboratory for public policies meant to steer consumers away from processed food: (Wall Street Journal)

Kiko's Food News, 12.20.13

On the heels of last week's FDA announcement on antibiotic overuse in livestock, Consumer Reports found that drug-resistant microbes lurked in about half of over 300 samples of raw chicken breasts they tested: (Huffington Post)

Whole Foods will stop selling Chobani Greek yogurt by early next year to make room for smaller brands that are organic or don't contain genetically modified ingredients; this parallels the chain's commitment that all food in its stores containing GMOs be labelled as such by 2018: (Wall Street Journal) 

That healthy foods cost more may be conventional wisdom, but a new Harvard study calculated just how much more--about a dollar and a half: (Reuters)

More and more food companies are swapping out ingredients that consumers feel are unhealthy due to a shift from consumer "democratization to activism"; through sites like Change.org, consumers can post petitions online and get a lot of people to apply pressure quickly: (NBC News)

The UN released a report insisting that transformative changes are needed in our food, agriculture and trade systems in order to increase diversity on farms, reduce our use of fertilizer and other inputs, and support small-scale farmers: (Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy)

Kiko's Food News, 12.13.13

The FDA has finally approved a strong recommendation for livestock producers to stop using antibiotics that are medically important in humans as growth promoters: (Civil Eats)

Reports are revealing that milk from organic dairies contains far more of the fatty acids that contribute to a healthy heart than conventional milk; this is the most clear-cut instance of an organic food's offering a nutritional advantage over its conventional counterpart: (New York Times)

Major food companies are gobbling each other up, as Sysco is merging with US Foods in a deal worth $8.2 billion, and Whitewave Foods will acquire Earthbound Farm: (Forbes)

Not all superfoods are sourced from faraway exotic lands and cost a pretty penny--here are eight inexpensive ones to fill our shopping baskets with: (Huffington Post)

A Russian supermarket chain has introduced interactive kiosks that will create grocery lists for customers based on past purchases, recommend items that are in stock (and their location in the store), and suggest relevant recipes: (Adweek)

Kiko's Food News, 12.6.13

NASA announced plans to grow cress, turnips and basil on the moon, with a goal of assessing whether humans could one day live (and farm) there: (NPR)

A Mongolian BBQ restaurant is making a great statement on food waste by charging all-you-can-eat diners for any food left on their plates: (Los Angeles Times) 

Researchers have decided that the fungi and bacteria that grow on the surface of wine grapes in a particular region are what make its unique terroir; they affect the health of grapes and are eventually incorporated into the must, contributing consistently to a wine’s distinctive taste of place: (New York Times)

Germany's brewers are pushing to have their beer named to UNESCO's "intangible cultural heritage" list, which recognizes practices requiring urgent measures to keep alive; their strict beer purity regulations allow only four ingredients--water, malt, hops and yeast--to be used in the brewing process: (NBC News)

Diet-related diseases may take root in early childhood--even in utero--as studies show that babies born to mothers who eat a varied diet while pregnant and breast-feeding are more open to a wide range of flavors throughout life; exposure to a maternal junk food diet is being linked to children with a matching preference for junk: (New York Times)

Kiko's Food News, 11.29.13

For me, Black Friday usually equals too many Americans buying too many things we don't need; this year though, today is an opportunity for those who suffer from capitalism's extremes to speak up for their rights, as Walmart workers are staging the biggest day of protests in Walmart's history, asking for higher wages, more full-time jobs and an end to employer retaliation: (The Hill) 

This accompanies growing public acknowledgement for the inequalities faced by these workers, due in part to figures like Ashton Kutcher who attacked Walmart on Twitter this week over the heinous discrepancy between profits and wages: (Salon)

A restaurant owner in an Arab village outside of Jerusalem is on a mission to save culinary culture by offering diners a 50% discount if they turn off their cellphones at the door; he's clearly a trailblazer, as his restaurant also once won the Guinness World Record for the largest plate of hummus! (Huffington Post)

Scientists are working to build a "better" egg, one that's stocked with fatty acids, vitamins, and calcium; they're trying to increase the buttery taste of the yolk and to develop shells that are uniform and strong: (Wall Street Journal)

The Norwegian military is fighting climate change with a new Meatless Mondays rollout, estimating that it can cut its meat consumption by more than 330,000 pounds a year if the program extends to all units at home and abroad: (The Atlantic)  

Kiko's Food News, 11.22.13

Let's Move, Moscow! To promote the Olympics in Sochi, city officials there are letting people ride the subway free if they do 30 squats: (Fast Company)

Have we been remiss in throwing out our apple cores all these years? Some are arguing that the core is merely a “product of society,” and that eating it could save Americans $13.2 billion worth of fruit: (The Atlantic)

A movement is emerging amongst Native Americans to bring back the food of their ancestors--from a salad of raw cattails to meatloaf made of venison & bison--to confront a loss of traditional culture and rise in diet-related ailments: (Al-jazeera)

A Bronx woman has made it her mission to bring upscale grocery stores to the Bronx by using Google Glasses to prove that outdated perceptions are to blame for her neighborhood's nutritional misfortune: (New York Daily News)

After 85 years, antibiotics are growing impotent; so what would agriculture (80% of antibiotics are used on farm animals), medicine and everyday life look like if we lose these drugs entirely? (Medium)  

Kiko's Food News, 11.15.13

The Environmental Working Group revealed that the federal government paid $11.3 million in taxpayer-funded farm subsidies from 1995 to 2012 to 50 billionaires (or businesses in which they have some form of ownership)--ouch: (New York Times)

The first ever Sriracha Festival offered sriracha ice cream and sriracha cocktails, but the hot sauce's growing popularity has led to a lawsuit from neighbors angered with the inflammatory fumes emitted by its humungous new factory: (CBS News)

British Airways is introducing umami as the new ingredient it hopes can pep up perennially bland airline food; they consulted with chef Chef Heston Blumenthal to overcome the 30% loss in tasting ability that results from dry cabin pressure and altitude: (Wall Street Journal)

A UN panel said that rising global temperatures will make it harder for crops to thrive, potentially reducing overall production by as much as 2% each decade and driving up prices at a time when the demand for food is expected to soar: (New York Times)

Consumers are increasingly willing to pay over $10 for cold-pressed-juices, bringing the craze from small-batch to mass-produced; I’m with Marion Nestle, who says "it's a lot of money, why not have a salad?": (Wall Street Journal) 

Kiko's Food News, 11.8.13

The FDA has been busy trying to keep our food supply safe! They released a study finding that about 12% of spices brought to the US are contaminated with insect parts, rodent hairs and other impurities: (New York Times)

And they may soon require food makers to ease out artificial trans fats, the artery-clogging ingredient that increases shelf life in processed foods; eliminating trans fats could prevent about 20,000 heart attacks and 7,000 deaths a year: (Reuters)

A growing number of food and drink companies are quietly removing the “natural” claim from their packages, due to lawsuits and the acknowledgment that "natural" has no clear meaning; though many Americans still want natural products, only 47% view the claim as trustworthy: (Wall Street Journal)  

The New York Times challenged an ad agency to design a game-changing campaign for broccoli that rivals the campaigns packaged food giants routinely pull off with their mega budgets; this kind of consumer-facing produce marketing could be a new approach to getting people to eat healthier: (New York Times)

Kraft Foods’ mac and cheese will soon lose its neon orange glow as the artificial dyes are replaced with colors from spices such as paprika, annatto and turmeric; this demonstrates the power of public pressure, mounted through an online petition asking the company to stop using the dyes: (NPR)

Kiko's Food News, 11.1.13

How cool that Cropmobster, one of the startups working to divert food waste around the U.S., just launched Food Waste News, a website dedicated to aggregating info about food waste from all segments of the industry! (Food Waste News) 

A study on the effects of race and poverty on food access found that living in a poor, mostly black neighborhood presents "a double disadvantage", as poor black neighborhoods not only have fewer supermarkets than wealthier black neighborhoods, but also fewer than poor white neighborhoods: (Los Angeles Times)

José Andrés and other restaurant tycoons have been pioneering ipad tablets as menus; not only can they display unlimited content and be updated in real time, but they offer apps like one that allows diners to get the server’s or chef's attention through the touch of a button (not sure this would be my approach to “empowering the diner”!): (NPR)

San Francisco may become the first U.S. city to curb the consumption of sugary drinks with a 2-cents-per-ounce soda tax; Supervisor Scott Wiener, who proposed the ballot measure, estimates this could bring in an estimated $30 million in tax proceeds annually: (Reuters)

Danny Bowien, the Mission District sweetheart chef made famous by his Mission Chinese Food, will soon have more restaurants in NYC than in SF; Mission Cantina, the second restaurant he’s opening on the Lower East Side, will serve its own Oaxacan-style cheese and nixtamalize its own corn! (New York Times)

 

Kiko's Food News, 10.25.13

A recent study shows that Oreo cookies can be as addictive in lab rats as cocaine or morphine: (Los Angeles Times)

Meanwhile, new research suggests that bombarding people with ads for junk food may not be brainwash them as critics thought; it finds that people who look at too many pictures of food will find it less enjoyable and eventually, stop buying it due to satiation: (Fast Company) 

Mark Bittman argues that to avoid and handle salmonella outbreaks like the recent one from Foster Farm, the F.D.A. must disallow the use of prophylactic antibiotics in animal production, and the U.S.D.A. must consider salmonella an “adulterant” whose presence on foods is sufficient to take them off the market: (New York Times) 

More than $1 billion in compensation is going out to black farmers who faced discrimination by the U.S.D.A. in the past, when they were denied loans for farm operation, ownership, and equipment: (NPR)

A McDonald’s employee of ten years was arrested recently for asking the president of the company to talk about why wages are as low as they are; she's a leader in the movement to get a raise in the minimum wage: (Upworthiest)

Japan’s Prime Minister wants to turn the nation's reputation for expensive but high-quality foods into a new export opportunity to combat a shrinking domestic market; just as France exports fine wine, his aims for Japan to become world famous for its painstakingly cultivated fruit, rice, beef and sake: (Wall Street Journal)

Kiko's Food News, 10.11.13

Do you shop at Cracker Barrel or Whole Foods, and what does that say about your politics? Interesting to think about why the businesses we patronize may correlate with our allegiances: (NPR)

California’s cities will have a new policy tool to support urban agriculture come January, thanks to the new Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones Act: (CUESA)

The juicing trend has officially passed the tipping point, with Starbucks opening a $70-million factory to churn out 140,000 gallons of juice a week for their Evolution Fresh brand: (Los Angeles Times)

The UK’s food and drink federation is requiring manufacturers to open their doors to school children as part of its new “see inside manufacturing” program; the production line at Coke, Mars, and Nestle should open some eyes! (Food Navigator)

Speaking of Nestle, the one that ends with a short “e”--public health advocate and famous school lunch lady Marion Nestle--has written a new book, Eat, Drink, Vote, in support of a national food system that prioritizes health and the environment over corporate profits: (Civil Eats)

P.S. I know I sound like a broken record, but please consider donating to Civil Eats! Less than a week to reach their Kickstarter goal, and I truly believe that future Americans will eat better if they survive: (Throw em a bone HERE)

Kiko's Food News, 10.4.13

Wondering what the governmental shutdown could mean for food safety and access, for farmers, and for the environment? (Civil Eats)

That article, along with many of my most juicy food headlines, comes from Civil Eats, a food policy news source that's raising money to sustain; please consider donating so my friends Naomi and Paula can keep up their reporting!(Kickstarter)

Once we understand what expiration date language really means, we may be able to throw out less food while still eating safely; the "better-safe-than-sorry" blanket rule can be wasteful, so this glossary will help: (Businessweek)

I've got to get my hands on the new Working Class Foodies' Cookbook; not only does it include tasty, affordable recipes for under $8/person, but also info on how to stock a $40, $60, and $100 pantry: (Nab it!)

It may seem obvious that Americans' obsession with size, where volume equals value in supermarkets and restaurants, is making us bigger...but I like how Frank Bruni puts it here: (New York Times)

Philabundance, America's first non-profit grocery store, is ready to open its doors;  shoppers with annual incomes equal to or less than twice the federal poverty level can accrue store credit each time they shop: (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Kiko's Food News, 9.27.13

Crazy but possible that in our lifetime, instead of cooking up dinner, we may be able to print it!? (New York Times)

A report showed how food that's allowed to rot is creating billions of tons of greenhouse gases, with an interesting spotlight on what kind of foods are wasted in various regions of the world: (NPR)

It's this kind of information that has led the former president of Trader Joe's to open an inspiring new market that will prepare and repackage produce that's slightly past its sell-by date--but still edible!--at deeply discounted prices: (NPR)

Drones (aka unmanned aerial vehicles), formerly a thing of military use, will soon be used by farmers to see their corn, wheat and other crops from a new angle and thereby react to changing conditions more quickly: (Fast Company)

A Gallup study showed that lack of access to food in and of itself doesn't matter when it comes to obesity; having a lower income is the dominant factor in an American's increased likelihood to be obese: (Gallup)

The world's most celebrated chefs met with seed breeding specialists at what might go down in history as the genesis of the seed-to-table movement; the ability of these breeders to create nutrient-rich, flavorful new breeds could be an old-school alternative to genetically modified plants: (New York Times)

Kiko's Food News, 9.20.13

Habits like eating more fruits and veggies, meditation and yoga were found to reverse signs of aging; these lifestyle changes increase the length of telomeres, the ends of chromosomes linked to aging: (Bloomberg)

But we yogis who love our homemade kombucha also gotta laugh at ourselves sometimes: (Huffington Post)

House Republicans narrowly pushed through a bill that slashes billions of dollars from the food stamp program, dashing hopes for passage this year of a new five-year farm bill: (New York Times)

Michelle Obama is convening the first White House summit on food marketing to children; she also kicked off a campaign to encourage people to drink more plain water! (Time)

I get knocked for my blanket preference for eating food cold, but maybe I’m not so crazy: studies on taste nerves demonstrated that the perception of taste decreases when the temperature rises beyond 95° F: (The Guardian)

And one more study found that football fans’ saturated-fat consumption increased by as much as 28% following defeats of their favorite team and decreased by 16% following victories; the association was particularly pronounced in cities with the most devoted fans, and nail-biting defeats led to greater consumption of caloric, fatty foods than lopsided ones: (New York Times)

Kiko's Food News, 9.13.13

Trader Joe's is dropping health benefits for part-timers and will instead cut each of them a check for $500 to apply towards Obamacare's new insurance exchanges; is this precisely what's supposed to happen with Obamacare? (Huffington Post)

Tips, a custom that originated from the acronym T.I.P. for "to insure promptitude", are a part of dining out that we take for granted; now a spate of restaurants are doing away with tipping: (Los Angeles Times)

If lobster were super cheap, would it taste as good? This case study explores the link between food price and value perception: (New Yorker)

This fun roundup of young chef trailblazers who learned their work ethic and taste for great food from chef parents includes a couple of my favorites in San Fran (the Lee brothers of Namu) and DC (Nic Jammet of Sweetgreen): (New York Times) 

Technology continues to creep into grocery stores, from digital signs that update prices and offer promotions, to fingerprint scanners for checkout, to self-propelled "smart" shopping carts; in an industry built on human interaction, could this be too much tech, too fast? (Los Angeles Times)

Kiko's Food News, 9.6.13

Anyone fancy a Union Jack made of scones, cream and jam? Flags are always fun to look at, but best when constructed from food characteristic of its country: (Visual News)

To explain how chefs pair ingredients, scientists created a flavor map with lines connecting foods with common components; it shows that Western chefs tend to pair ingredients with shared flavor compounds, while recipes from East Asia tend to combine ingredients with few overlapping flavors: (Scientific American)

This guy took the US map, pinged Google Maps for the nearest grocery store at regular intervals, and drew lines ending at the nearest; long lines denote areas with fewer grocery stores, a sign of food deserts: (Flowing Data)

Google is using data analysis to get its employees to drink more water and eat less M&Ms; even though management believes food brings people together, they don't want staff to eat so often that it reduces their efficiency! (Daily Mail)

Cultures throughout history have ritualized the food that should be eaten at funerals; this is an interesting tour of "sad food", from Belgian dark chocolate cake to Amish raisin pie: (Utne Reader)