Tag Archives: Food & Drink

Overpicking threatens Greek herbs

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“Forestry officials on the Greek island of Crete have slapped a five-year ban on the collection of a variety of wild herbs snipped to near-extinction, the state-run ANA agency said. The forestry department of Hania, one of the island’s main towns, placed restrictions on picking sage, marjoram, oregano and sideritis, better known as Cretan mountain tea, in protected areas. Special permission is required for commercial collection, and an allowance of up to 500 grammes is made ‘for personal use’. And Cretan dittany, a therapeutic plant prized since antiquity that is exclusive to the island, is off the table altogether.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/07/30/overpicking-threatens-greek-herbs/

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Appeals court upholds decision to block New York City soda ban

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“New York City’s plan to ban large sugary drinks from restaurants and other eateries was an illegal overreach of executive power, a state appeals court ruled on Tuesday, upholding a lower court decision in March that struck down the law. The law, which would have prohibited those businesses from selling sodas and other sugary beverages larger than 16 ounces, ‘violated the state principle of separation of powers,’ the First Department of the state Supreme Court’s Appellate Division said in a unanimous decision. Mayor Michael Bloomberg had advanced the regulation as a way to combat obesity among city residents.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/07/30/appeals-court-upholds-decision-to-block-new-york-city-soda-ban/

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New Beer Lawsuit Could Spell Trouble For Keystone XL Pipeline

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“In a statement issued on July 2, Larry Bell, President of Bell’s Brewery, explained: ‘As Michigan’s oldest and largest brewery, Bell’s has a longstanding commitment to quality. While Bell’s uses water from the municipal water system to brew our beer, the pristine cleanliness of the water and air around our brewery and neighbors is of the utmost importance to us.’ Evidently Bell’s concerns were not addressed, because last week the company filed a lawsuit against Enbridge and CCP, the developer of the site where the pollution facility is being located, at Comstock Commerce Park.”

http://cleantechnica.com/2013/07/26/new-beer-lawsuit-could-spell-trouble-for-keystone-xl-pipeline/

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The greatest food in human history?

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“What is ‘the cheapest, most nutritious and bountiful food that has ever existed in human history’? Hint: It has 390 calories. It contains 23g, or half a daily serving, of protein, plus 7% of daily fiber, 20% of daily calcium and so on.  Also, you can get it in 14,000 locations in the US and it usually costs $1. Presenting one of the unsung wonders of modern life, the McDonald’s McDouble cheeseburger. The argument above was made by a commenter on the Freakonomics blog run by economics writer Stephen Dubner and professor Steven Leavitt, who co-wrote the million-selling books on the hidden side of everything.”

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/the_greatest_food_human_history_5bikMtD5ZJ50x1KMCyGfTJ

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Too Stoned to Drive? There’s an App for That.

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“CheckPlusBalance was developed specifically to help people who want to be confident that they can perform at a safe level after taking medication, alcohol, recreational drugs, or who have any reason to confirm their current level of functioning.  The test takes about two minutes to complete and it provides an accurate snapshot of the subject’s memory, balance, reaction time and time perception. Individuals can create their own personal sober ‘baseline’ when they feel ‘okay.’ The baseline can be reset anytime and standard baselines are included.  The app is currently available free as a public service to anyone who wants it.”

http://www.thedailychronic.net/2013/24920/new-safe-driving-iphone-app-to-quickly-accurately-and-privately-measure-impairment/

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FDA finally releases draft of new food import safety rules

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“Importers would be accountable for verifying with their foreign suppliers that certain food safety standards are being met. Under current conditions, U.S. food safety inspectors examine food coming into the country but are able to inspect only a small percentage for potential problems. Importers have a market interest in ensuring the safety of the food they bring in, but currently are not required to mandate that their suppliers meet certain standards. Under the new rules, importers would be required to maintain records verifying that their foreign suppliers have met standards for the production of the food coming into the country. Importers would undergo audits.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/07/26/fda-finally-releasees-draft-of-improved-food-import-safety-rules/

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How Hackers Use Bots to Score Prime Restaurant Reservations

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“Forget about hacking an app or database: for a small cadre of hackers in San Francisco, it’s all about writing code that can score them a great table at a hot restaurant. According to the BBC, these developers and programmers have designed bots that scan restaurant Websites for open tables and reserve them. Diogo Mónica, a security engineer with e-commerce firm Square, is one of those programmers. A self-described foodie, he decided to get around his inability to score a table at the ultra-popular State Bird Provisions by writing a script that sent out an email every time the restaurant’s reservation page changed.”

http://slashdot.org/topic/cloud/how-hackers-use-bots-to-score-prime-restaurant-reservations/

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Egypt’s wheat problem: how Morsi jeopardized the bread supply

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“Lack of money and a quixotic attempt at making Egypt self-sufficient spurred the decline, say officials familiar with the matter. Mursi dreamt of making Egypt grow all its own wheat and allowed imported stocks to fall to precariously low levels. It hurt both the country’s wheat stocks and Mursi’s government. With a quarter of Egypt’s 84 million people living below the poverty line of $1.65 a day, millions depend on subsidized bread that sells for less than 1 U.S. cent per loaf. That supply relies on foreign wheat. The country is the world’s largest wheat importer, bringing in about 10 million tonnes a year, around half its annual consumption.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/07/26/egypts-wheat-problem-how-morsi-jeopardized-the-bread-supply/

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Feds vs. Raisins: Small Farmers Stand Up to the USDA

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Feds vs. Raisins: Small Farmers Stand Up to the USDA

“It’s called an agriculture marketing order. Depression-era regulations meant to stabilize crop prices endanger the livelihoods of small farmers across the country, but the raisin marketing order is particularly egregious. An elected board of bureaucrats known as the Raisin Administrative Committee decides what the proper yield should be in any given year in order to meet a previously decided-upon price. Once they can estimate the size of the year’s harvest, they force every farmer to surrender a percentage of their crop to raisin packers like Sun-Maid.”

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Cheese shop owner on crusade to block FDA ban on mimolette

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“The US fate of the bright-orange, mild-tasting French cheese has been in jeopardy for months and the Food and Drug Administration has blocked all further imports. Why? Because US regulators determined the cantaloupe-like rind of the cheese was covered with too many cheese mites, even though the tiny bugs give mimolette its unique flavor. 1.5 tonnes (3,300 pounds) of cheese were blocked from being imported. Benoit de Vitton of French import company Isigny says those 1.5 tonnes were eventually destroyed. Mmenus inform diners about the FDA decision, noting that mimolette has been ‘the National Cheese of France since King Louis XIV.'”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/07/25/cheese-shop-owner-on-crusade-to-block-ban-on-mimolette-over-mites-in-rind/

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