Climate Food and Agriculture

Cantaloupe food poisoning outbreak is now the deadliest in 12 years

Don't tell Michele Bachmann, but it turns out that when food isn't adequately regulated, you can get giant deadly food poisoning outbreaks. Most recently, a crop of listeria-tainted cantaloupe has now killed 13 people officially, and possibly as many as 16 -- shooting right past the salmonella episode three years ago that killed nine. This is the most deaths from contaminated food since a 1998 listeria outbreak that killed 21.

Food Studies: It all began with spam

Anna has found a way to combine a love of food with a history of science degree, thanks to the legendary canned meat.

Feds help GMO salmon swim upstream

Although the FDA approval process has been stalled, a new grant from the USDA suggests salmon may yet become the first genetically engineered animal to be approved for human consumption.

Busting Monsanto's 'better' broccoli

The seed giant is now selling a ready-to-eat broccoli product meant to "maintain your body's defenses against the damage of environmental pollutants and free radicals." Can you taste the irony?

Beauty and the Beastly BPA-Soaked Soup

Disney princess-mania can strike 3 to 5-year-old children at any time. That’s bad enough for kids (and mostly their parents), but now these bedazzled damsels are harming all children in a whole new way -- by enticing them to ingest high levels of BPA.

Campbell's has been using Disney princesses and other Disney characters to sell kid-targeted food. Cartoon labels and "cool shapes" -- i.e. noodles that are supposedly, though unidentifiably, made to look like kids’ favorite characters -- help entice "healthy kids" into eating chicken in salty chicken broth. And of all the soups tested for BPA in a recent study, the Disney Princess Cool Shapes soup scored the worst.

Would you believe Mark Zuckerberg killed a bison?

Does this look like the face of a man who could kill a bison? Does this look like the DOG of a man who could kill a bison? WELL IT IS. Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg is continuing his yearlong challenge of eating healthier and more sustainably by only eating meat he kills himself, rather than meat from environmentally unfriendly factory farms. And now he's going after the deadliest game. Or wait, no. But pretty big game nonetheless.

Food Studies: why I love in-flight meals

After living all over the world, Chi-Hoon Kim has found a home in Indiana, studying how food expresses national identities.

Berry toxic: Decoding the organic strawberry debacle

Food advocates and farmers want to close a loophole that allows farms to sell organic berries that have spent as much as half their lives in conventional nurseries.

U.S. government gives food speculators the thumbs up

Since the housing crash, food prices have been at the center of Wall Street speculator's games. Can government regulation make a difference?

Feeding frenzy: Who's behind the unsavory food stamp parodies

Two sensationalist videos about government food assistance have gotten the attention of conservatives recently. One may not be what it seems.