Welcome once again for another week's round-up of eco-foodie news, tips, links & recipes. I hope you all had a good holiday weekend (if you're in the US)! Each week I glean tasty bits from the various blogs & sites I follow outside of the Kos-verse and bring them together here for your perusal. If you have a good tasty bit to share let us know about it in the comments!
This week's "What is This?" is a clever one that I have actually used:
And hint: it is related to one of the tasty bits below;)
News
China's Bizarre Food "Safety" Scene and Our Own
The sickening of nearly 300 people from ingesting pig steroids is probably the least bizarre of China’s recent food safety “blunders.” There are the watermelons that began exploding in Eastern China, due to (according to China Central Television) overuse of a chemical that makes them grow faster; the raw pork that glows blue because of phosphorescent bacteria; and the discovery that one in ten meals is cooked using oil dredged from the sewers (collected under the cover of darkness from drains behind restaurants, filtered, and resold).
Our agricultural system is opaque, and works hard to hide all sorts of “peculiarities” from public view; from the (comparatively tame-sounding) threat of spreading drug-resistant bacteria to humans after using 80% of our antibiotics on animals, or the prevalence of GMO-containing products in our supermarkets, to the literal enslavement of farm workers, or the horrific abuses of some factory-farmed animals.
Banned chemicals found in tons of imported fish
Over the past 12 months, officials in Tennessee, one of the few states doing testing, found evidence of a prohibited substance.
Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas and Florida also turned up the same in recent years while screening imported fish.
How much tainted fish might end up on plates in restaurants or homes is unknown, but one Alabama official says it’s coming into the country despite a U.S. Food and Drug Administration effort to block such shipments.
“I can tell you right off the bat that 40 percent of the imported fish we test is positive for banned drugs that are not safe for human health,” said Brett Hall, deputy commissioner for the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries.
Is Your Meat Habit Giving You Diabetes?
A new peer-reviewed study published in the journal Diabetes Care found a strong link between diabetes onset and blood levels of a group of harsh industrial chemicals charmingly known as "persistent organic pollutants" (POPs), most of which have been banned in the United States for years but still end up in our food (hence the "persistent" bit—they degrade very slowly).
How are these awful chemicals sticking around and still causing trouble decades after being banned? POPs accumulate in the fatty tissue of animals—and transfer to the animals that eat them, including humans who eat meat and fish. In industrial animal farming, livestock are often given feed that includes animal fat, which helps POPs hang around in the food chain. "We feed the cow fat to the pigs and the chickens, and we feed the pig and chicken fat to the cows," one expert told Elert. The widespread practice of feeding "poultry litter"—chicken feces mixed with feathers, dead chickens, and feed remnants, including beef products—to confined cows is another way these toxins keep cycling though the food chain. Why would the meat industry engage in such feeding practices? Simply put, because they're cheap.
Resveratrol Prevents The Loss of Muscle and Strength
As strange as it sounds, a new research study published in the FASEB Journal, suggests that the "healthy" ingredient in red wine, resveratrol, may prevent the negative effects that spaceflight and sedentary lifestyles have on people. The report describes experiments in rats that simulated the weightlessness of spaceflight, during which the group fed resveratrol did not develop insulin resistance or a loss of bone mineral density, as did those who were not fed resveratrol.
Yerba Mate is a Natural Energy Drink
Traditional South American beverage Yerba mate has become popular over the last few years for it's reputation of being a high caffeine drink that doesn't come with a jittery buzz. It is purported to be health-enhancing, but recent claims that it might be a carcinogen have devotees worried.
Other benefits shown in studies include properties that lessen obesity in a high-starch diet, provides a reduction in LDL cholesterol to those on statin therapy, and may help in treating heart disease. The studies that indicate it as a potential carcinogen mostly point to traditional practices of drinking mate at a very hot temperature as well as the drying process of the leaves, which involves curing with smoke from the burning of wood. Drinking mate in moderation at a reasonable temperature is seen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as "not classifiable as to its carcinogenicity to humans".
USDA launches program to get more food from local farms into school cafeterias
Farm-to-school sales benefit rural economies, said Deborah Kane, vice president of food and farms for Ecotrust, a Portland, Ore., conservation and economic development group that organized a pilot program that gave the Portland and Gervais school districts an extra 7 cents per meal in 2008-09 to spend on local foods. An Ecotrust study coming out soon found even such a small sum could have a big impact — every dollar the two districts spent on local food generated $1.86 in economic activity, Kane said. And, for each job directly created by their purchase of local food, another 1.43 jobs were created indirectly.
The USDA’s 76-page report said team members learned in their travels that communities with farm-to-school initiatives are passionate about them and work hard to overcome the challenges they face, but success depends on good communications among schools, farmers and others invested in the programs. And it said money is needed to support these programs, particularly for food service staff training, equipment and facilities to process and store local produce, and to develop educational activities for students.
New Study Says "Food Deserts" Only Part of the Problem
Some of the headlines reporting the study cast doubt on the importance of making healthier food more available. However, what the researchers make clear is that more options are needed, in addition to better food access. Just providing more outlets for produce will not change our response to a food system that has spent decades persuading us to eat highly processed food (or as Food First calls it, MESS: manufactured edible substitute substance).
MESSes may not have much nutritional value. They may be loaded with chemicals. They may make us feel bloated, slow and tired. However, we eat them anyways because they are convenient and taste good and because they have been so effectively marketed they are part of our social fabric.
Home & Garden
10 Tips to Green Your Camping Trip
Center for Sustainable Destinations
A travel guide from National Geographic to sustainable places!
DIY Water Trough Planter
DIY Compost Tumbler (Video)
Modern Wall Planter Made from Modular Blocks
Choose DIY to Save Big on Solar Panels for Your Home
Four Homemade Cleaners
Superhero Garden Gnomes
IKEA Hackers: Socker Solar Lanterns
The BeeCrib is a Flatpack Beehive
Beehives and boxes are popping up everywhere. If you've wanting one of your own, this flat-pack concept might be the perfect thing for your roof or balcony.
8 Great New Books for Urban Homesteaders
Refresh an old carpet with a carpet rake
Recipes
Tortellini Pasta Salad
Crab, Avocado & Potato Terrine
Corn Soup with Harissa Yogurt
Grilled Corn and Quinoa Salad
Zucchini Goat Cheese Tart
Grilled Green Beans
Green tomato-apple chutney
Zucchini Quinoa Lasagna
Broiled Tofu with Snow Peas, Broccoli and Shitake
Lemonade with Black Raspberry and Lavendar
Lemon and Lime Icebox Pie
Mini sweet cinnamon cherry pies
I'm not even a fan of cherry pie but these little mini pies baked in muffin tins are adorable!
Another week, another plateful of tasty bits! Thanks for stopping by!