Whether the goal is to connect restaurants with food purveyors or to create on-demand delivery services from local farms, investment money from Silicon Valley has growing potential to transform the food industry ($350 million invested last year vs. $50 million in 2008): (New York Times)
Among the food businesses being invested in is San Francisco startup Hampton Creek, who are engineering a plant-based egg substitute for cookies, mayo, and even cookie dough for people who like to eat the dough but don’t want to worry about salmonella (wonder if they need extra taste testers for that one??): (Fast Company)
A high school science project tracked the effects of organic vs. conventional diets on the health of fruit flies, finding those that were fed organic bananas and potatoes fared better in fertility, stress resistance and longevity; because fruit flies’ short life span allows the tracking of biological effects over a brief period of time, this paves the way for additional studies on the health benefits of organic: (New York Times)
Switching out ciggies for hummus: Sabra Dipping Co., the largest U.S. hummus maker, is incentivizing farmers in the heart of tobacco country to grow chickpeas to reduce its dependence on growing them in the Pacific Northwest and to identify new chickpea varieties: (Wall Street Journal)
More than 100 New York City restaurants, from haute cuisine to chains, have pledged to reduce their food waste by 50% by composting and recycling: (New York Times)
New findings suggest a direct relationship between the routine use of antibiotics in animal production and the increased resistance of bacteria to antibiotics used to treat human illnesses: (Eating Well)