Paul Greenberg wrote American Catch and Four Fish, two important books that exposed most of us to the complexities of modern industrial fishing. In Sunday’s NYT, he distilled his research into three rules for eating seafood, a la Michael Pollan’s “Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Greenberg’s rules starts with, “Eat American seafood.”
The fast food giant is contracting, not expanding, for the first time in 40 years. Not that the Golden Arches are a thing of the past, mind you. Although the chain will close around 700 restaurants worldwide this year, McDonald’s remains the country’s biggest hamburger chain, with more than twice as many restaurants as its closest competitor, Burger King.
A giant, unseasonal toxic algae bloom has shut down shellfish harvesting on half of the West Coast. Experts attribute it to the unseasonably warm weather the region has seen this year, as well as “nutrients” such as nitrogen, which often stems from sewage and farm runoff.
Not-so-awesome data show that the world’s 37 biggest aquifers have reached their “sustainability tipping point”–i.e., we’re taking out more than we’re putting in.
Good question. The Guardian looks at whether such a label would change the industry. While there is some support for the idea, some activists say that “introducing ‘antibiotic-free’ labels risks creating a two-tier food system, with meat products from animals raised without antibiotics turned into premium products while the majority continue to buy from those reared using antibiotics. Such a situation would do little to deal with the problem of antibiotic resistance.” (After all, none of us want to live in a “post-antibiotics world.”)
Pope Francis has released a long message about many things this week, including a section about how industrial-scale agriculture promotes monoculture. He wrote: “The expansion of [genetically modified crops] has the effect of destroying the complex network of ecosystems, diminishing the diversity of production and affecting regional economies, now and in the future.”
Anna Roth is a contributing writer for Civil Eats. She also writes a weekly restaurant column in the San Francisco Chronicle and her work has appeared in Best Food Writing 2014, SF Weekly, Eater, Modern Farmer, Sunset, and her book, West Coast Road Eats. Anna lives in San Francisco. Read more >
Italy’s school meal menu reads like a fancy restaurant’s, and kids in Finland get to test and approve meals. In the US, the National School Lunch Program links to ag, education, and nutrition, but the director of the Global Child Nutrition Foundation says it still has a long way to go.
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