(Re)Name That Flu!
NPR is taking up Fiona Feck’s challenge to have the public resolve the swine flu/H1N1 virus name controversy.
According to The New York Times: Â ”Maybe, she suggested, there could be a competition, and members of the public could come up with a better name.”
What thou asks of the internet, thou shalt recieve. Â From Twitter (#NameThatFlu) [...]
May 5, 2009
Tags: bacon, food event, innovation, marketing, trivia Posted in: Fun Food Facts 
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Behind The Scenes At The Child Nutrition Policy Meeting
From the American News Project in February:
The Committee on Medicine said they are looking to make “evidence based” changes to the National School Lunch Program. Funny how they haven’t paid attention to the evidence for the last thirty years. It might have something to do with the fact there weren’t any scientists at [...]
May 4, 2009
Tags: agriculture, change, farmers, food event, Health, marketing, nutrition, obesity, policy, subsidies Posted in: Health, Politics No Comments
Swine Flu Renamed To Please Pork Producers
Lobbyists’ requests to the World Health Organization to rename the swine flu to something more innocuous were denied the other day. Predictably, the name ’swine flu’ has had people scrambling away from pork products. Egypt has slaughtered its 300,000 pigs in its effort to prevent local outbreak (link).
The name “is jeopardizing and may [...]
April 29, 2009
Tags: agriculture, bacon, education, farmers, food event, Health, marketing, policy Posted in: Health, Politics, Science & Technology No Comments
Is Factory Farming To Blame For The Swine Flu?
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano began White House press briefing on the swine influenza by noting it had been declared a public health emergency. She said:
That sounds more severe than really it is. This is standard operating procedure and allows us to free up federal, state, and local agencies and their resources [...]
April 27, 2009
Tags: factory farms, farmers, food event, food safety, Health Posted in: Health, Science & Technology One Comment
4,000 Years of Failed Price Control Policies, But Chavez Thinks It Will Work This Time
For the past forty centuries or more, countless civilizations have attempted to feed people by fixing prices and each time it has produced catastrophic consequences. Â Whether they are democratic governments, dictators, or socialist reformers these “central planners”, as economists call them, have profound negative effects on the market when they attempt to hijack supply [...]
April 20, 2009
Tags: agriculture, education, farmers, food event, hunger, policy Posted in: Politics, Science & Technology No Comments
Getting Both Your Mind and Car Running: Coffee Is The New Biofuel
The first diesel engine, invented by Rudolph Diesel in Germany, ran on pure peanut oil. Eventually crude oil was used because it was cheaper to produce and easier to work with. However, the concern for the environment and the extreme fluctuations in crude oil prices have brought biodiesels back on the scene. [...]
April 3, 2009
Tags: agriculture, energy, food, food event, greenhouse gases, innovation, waste Posted in: Science & Technology 3 Comments
America’s Finest News Source Recognizes Food Troubles
How does America know when it is facing a real crisis? As a nation, who do we turn to for insightful analysis and cool-headed criticism? Who do we trust when it comes to reporting the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Why, only the expertise of The Onion, heralded as “America’s [...]
April 1, 2009
Tags: food event, food safety, innovation Posted in: Fun Food Facts No Comments
Reflections on the Future of Food & Nutrition Conference at Tufts
The problems I see in today’s agriculture and food policy aren’t just in my head, they are on everyone’s plates. The Future of Food and Nutrition Conference held by Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy was a small, but glorious affair of how intellectualism can be applied to our pressing food [...]
March 30, 2009
Tags: Add new tag, agriculture, education, food event, Health, heroes, nutrition, policy Posted in: Health, Politics, Science & Technology 4 Comments
Disney Sponsored Eggs are Just Goofy
Disney toys and movies are ubiquitous figures in any parent’s home, but is working with the government to sponsor food one step too far? This could be perfect fodder for those who rail against Disney’s corporatism. You see, the USDA is using Disney characters to promote “healthy” eating (link). In the video [...]
March 25, 2009
Tags: food, food event, innovation, marketing, moms, nutrition, USDA Posted in: Health, Politics No Comments
Yes, We Can: The Obamas To Plant White House Vegetable Garden
The “Eat the View” campaign, thousands of concerned citizens, and notable figures in contemporary food movements (Alice Waters, Michael Pollan…) helped make the dream of an edible landscape on the White House lawn a reality. Today, 23 fifth graders from a local elementary school, which has had its own garden since 2001, will help [...]
March 20, 2009
Tags: Barack Obama, change, farmers, food event, green, heroes Posted in: Health, Politics One Comment
