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The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. This thread is non-political, although you will find that most here are conservative folks. No matter what, you won’t be flamed and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack the Weekly Gardening Thread. There is no telling where it will go and... that...

Does it ‘bug’ you?: Worm and cricket lollipops are displayed during a global ‘Pestaurant’ event sponsored by Ehrlich Pest Control at the Occidental Restaurant in Washington, DC.Though slightly uncertain, Erin Kolski pronounced the unusual fare on her plate — a burger made from ground-up grasshoppers — to be surprisingly tasty. “It’s a little crunchy. It tastes fine,” Kolski said, sounding somewhat surprised as she favorably appraised the dish at Washington’s Occidental Restaurant, a popular establishment a stone’s throw from the White House. Hers was one of many such plates served up Wednesday by chef Rodney Scruggs, who helped organize an...

Upon a declaration of a “war” against the product, advocates against the consumption of soda state that it should also include in its labels the risks for developing diseases such as obesity and diabetes. By doing so, they will be using an approach quite similar to the tobacco’s.

San Diego-based Total Communicator Solutions Inc., a leader in mobile brand management, announced today the use of the Gimbal™ context aware and proximity platform integrated with its Spark Compass platform in a pioneering research project in workplace wellness. The project, named Project Boundary , has been conceptualized by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) IDEA Lab and the Office of the National Coordinator. It is a research project undertaken in the spirit of exploring new concepts and ideas in workplace wellness that will benefit the American workplace, and to spark further innovation in this space. “Our project is...

The next time you can be bothered enough to feed a homeless person you might find yourself at odds with the law. Yes, you have to be “bothered” because you are under no obligation to help your fellow mankind, who has fallen on hard times and on harder concrete slabs. That’s right, because if you help homeless people in cities like Daytona Beach, Florida; Raleigh, N.C.; Myrtle Beach, S.C.; and Birmingham, Alabama you could be fined, physically removed and/or be threatened with time behind bars – and they have actually done it. In fact, 33 cities across the United States...

Human beings have been using various agricultural techniques to genetically modify (i.e., breed for preferred traits in) their food for thousands of years, and the more recent and more rapidly innovative advent of genetically modified foods via laboratory has helped scientists and farmers to develop hardier, more nutritious, pest-and-weather-resistant crops that have the ability to feed more people while using up less space and fewer resources (which, I might mention, is a pretty great environmental development to boot).Despite their boundless potential for feeding the hungry and alleviate poverty the world over, genetically modified organisms have inspired a small but...

The Soylent Revolution Will Not Be Pleasurable I just spent more than a week experiencing Soylent, the most joyless new technology to hit the world since we first laid eyes on MS-DOS. Soylent is a drink mix invented by a group of engineers who harbor ambitions of shaking up the global food business. Robert Rhinehart, the 25-year-old co-founder and chief executive of the firm selling the drink, hit upon the idea when he found himself spending too much time and money searching for nutritious meals while he was working on a wireless-tech start-up in San Francisco. Using a process Mr....

Two national chain restaurants have asked that customers refrain from bringing firearms into their establishments, saying the weapons can create an uncomfortable atmosphere for other diners. Sonic Drive-In and Chili's Grill & Bar both issued statements Friday requesting that customers keep their guns out of their restaurants even if they have an open carry permit. The request, which stops short of an outright ban, came after members of the gun-rights group Open Carry Texas walked into Texas outlets of Sonic and Chili's carrying assault rifles. Dallas-based Brinker International, which owns the Chili's chain, said in a statement it was dedicated...

Last month, I ate a strawberry. The taste exploded in my mouth as my throat was bathed in rich juices. The meat of the berry was soft and succulent. I was in France. Last week, I ate another strawberry. There was a slight reddish flavour, which combatted the petroleum essence of the packaging. The meat of the berry was corky, dry and flavourless. I was in Canada.

The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. This thread is non-political, although you will find that most here are conservative folks. No matter what, you won’t be flamed and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack the Weekly Gardening Thread. There is no telling where it will go and... that...

WHEN we began our Let’s Move! initiative four years ago, we set one simple but ambitious goal: to end the epidemic of childhood obesity in a generation so that kids born today will grow up healthy. To achieve this goal, we have adhered to one clear standard: what works. The initiatives we undertake are evidence-based, and we rely on the most current science. Research indicated that kids needed less sugar, salt and fat in their diets, so we revamped school lunch menus accordingly. When data showed that the lack of nearby grocery stores negatively affected people’s eating habits, we worked...

There’s a hashtag filled with colorful commentary and color pictures of the devastation Michelle Obama’s healthy school lunch initiative has wrought on the plastic platters of America’s school children. There’s a GAO report showing participation in the school lunch program down more than 1 million students— the first such decline in years— while costs are up and the actual nutritional value of these allegedly improved meals remains in question. But none of this requires reevaluation. The real problem with Michelle Obama’s crusade and a top-down, inflexible federal mandate for students of varying sizes and tastes is that Republicans are pointing...

May 27, 2014 - 02:40 PM Ned W Schmidt Agri-Commodities Prices Winning - Or, how long does it take the Street to identify an elephant in the room? Apparently the answer to that question is a time period longer than should be the case. Agri-Food prices have been rising fairly dramatically thus far this year. With an average gain of about 10% since the beginning of the year, eating is becoming far more expensive. Rather than a short-term phenomenon, higher prices for Agri-Foods over time are part of the future, an unavoidable one. Prices rise for Agri-Foods when demand grows...

VIDEO AT LINKYou’re an avid home cook. You make your own pestos, your own mayonnaise, your own tapenades. You dominate at tomato sauces. But now you’re perhaps sitting at your desk wondering why you’ve never made your own peanut butter. We are. According to Mr. Alton Brown, whose hacks we’ve featured before, whipping up your own peanut butter is as simple as frying peanuts in a wok, adding honey and salt, and blitzing them in the food processor. Now we sort of feel like idiots. Especially since Brown delivers a killer pro tip at the end, about adding a bit...

Chriss W. Street 26 May 2014 After five years of the federal government telling the public that despite a $3.5 trillion increase in monetary expansion, the inflation rate is below +2%, the Department of Agriculture (DOA) just warned the American public that the consumer price index for food is up by 10% this year. The DOA tried to blame food inflation on the drought conditions in California, but last year’s drought was worse and food prices fell by -6%. The real problem is Federal Reserve monetary stimulus is stimulating inflation. I reported in "Food Price Inflation Scares the Fed” two...

After five years of the federal government telling the public that despite a $3.5 trillion increase in monetary expansion, the inflation rate is below +2%, the Department of Agriculture (DOA) just warned the American public that the consumer price index for food is up by 10% this year. The DOA tried to blame food inflation on the drought conditions in California, but last year’s drought was worse and food prices fell by -6%. The real problem is Federal Reserve monetary stimulus is stimulating inflation. I reported in "Food Price Inflation Scares the Fed” two months ago that commodity food costs...

As you scarf down burgers and potato salad this long Memorial Day weekend, consider this: Americans have the cheapest food in history, and that unprecedented abundance is largely responsible for why we’re so fat. According to a new article in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, Americans in the 1930s spent a quarter of their disposable income on food. That share has fallen steadily through the decades, to the point where today less than 10% of Americans’ disposable dollars go for food. (That varies across income groups, of course: The poorest 20% of Americans still spend about a third of...

It may seem like the stuff of science fiction, but scientists have now printed, not picked, fresh fruit. Researchers working at a company in Cambridge, England, have used a new process to enable the 3D printing of a variety of fresh products. They recently unveiled the process and results at the TechFoodHack conference held in Cambridge, an experimental dining event that also included the unveiling of a new flavour of gelato. 3D printing was first demonstrated back in 1984, but use of the technique was not widespread until 2010 when the cost of the Additive Manufacturing machines dropped significantly in...

News broke today that Sprinkles Cupcakes will install New York City's first 24-hour cupcake ATM at its Upper East Side location next week. The unit has a 760 cupcake capacity and can dispense up to four sweet treats at a time. That's pretty cool—but not as cool as a vending machine that makes fresh pizza in under three minutes. Behold Let's Pizza:(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Invented by entrepreneur Claudio Torghele, Let's Pizza machines were initially designed and manufactured in Northern Italy. Customers choose between up to four kinds of pies, and watch through windows as the machine adds water to flour, kneads the dough,...

The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. This thread is non-political, although you will find that most here are conservative folks. No matter what, you won’t be flamed and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack the Weekly Gardening Thread. There is no telling where it will go and... that...