food
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An ode to scary mutant fruits
Awl editor Alex Balk found out that farmers have been tinkering with plant genetics to create cross-breeds like "pluerries," and it inspired him to heights of lyrical brilliance:
Please Don't Make The Fruits Do Sex To Each Other
The freakish fruits that Science spawns—
The pros we know, but not the cons
What laws of nature might we breach
By blending apricot and peach? -
For sharks, a race to the fin-ish line?
The shark-fin ban sitting on California Gov. Jerry Brown's desk could help curb a barbaric practice and boost dwindling apex-predator populations. But it also highlights the complexities of sustainable shark fishing.
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Stamping out hunger with fast food?
As surprising as it sounds, the recent flurry of responses to a program that makes fast food available with food stamps might be unfounded.
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ConAgra pulls a dirty frozen-meal trick on food bloggers
Hey, remember those ads where they used to secretly replace people's actual made-from-beans coffee with freeze-dried Flavor Crystals? Those were a laugh riot, right? So obviously the most genius possible marketing plan for frozen dinners -- basically the food equivalent of instant coffee -- would be to make people think they're eating real made-from-food food, and then alert them that they've been baited and switched. It can't fail! You know, unless the people involved are food bloggers who care about eating organic, fresh, and healthy ingredients rather than mass-fabricated sodium-enhanced spun and capped protein strands. Then they might get pissed.
But ConAgra, makers of such food-adjacent items as Chef Boyardee and Reddi-Wip, didn't see that one coming when they set up a supposed luxury dinner with a group of food bloggers and their guests. The host, chef George Duran, served -- and implied he had cooked -- a main course of lasagna and a dessert of, um, "razzleberry pie." Once the bloggers had gotten it down their necks, Duran told them the food was actually frozen Marie Callender dinners. Smile, you're on ConAgra Camera!
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Surprise! Americans are drinking A LOT of soda
On average, Americans now get nearly 10 percent of their calories from soda and other sugary beverages.
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Field of broken dreams
New labor laws could protect children as young as 12 from working, and even dying, in dangerous jobs on industrial farms. But do they go far enough?
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New Agtivist: Lisa Gross is covering the city with trees
Grist's New Agtivist interview series returns, with the voice behind the Boston Tree Party -- a plan to create a massive, decentralized urban orchard.
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Irene's damage not 'overrated' for farmers
From apple orchards in New York to sweet corn fields in Massachusetts, we take a look at how farmers are faring after the storm.
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Green for greens: Philadelphia subsidizes farmers markets
A new farmers market subsidy program for food stamps recipients makes the City of Brotherly Love a just little healthier.