Kiko's Food News, 9.16.11

18 Reasons has officially moved into its new space next door to the Creamery! The Bay Citizen interviewed Rosie about the kind of programming it will allow for: (full story)

In the coming months, 7-11 stores will become drop spots for Amazon orders, which will be delivered to public lockers instead of left on doorsteps; what if the same system could be set up for CSA boxes? (full story)

A recent study on global forces that have created our “obesogenic environment” highlights how since 1900, the energy requirements for daily life have decreased substantially, while the food industry has made it easier for people to consume more calories throughout the day: (full story)

Sure school cafeterias can make their menus healthier, but if students react by choosing to buy “lunch” from snack trucks instead, where does it get us? (full story)

The US and the European Union announced a bilateral agreement to combat illegal fishing; this will be a hard one to track, since (due to its very nature) no one knows how much illegal fishing there even is! (full story)

Would you try meat grown in a science lab? In vitro meat might someday be an option for people with carnivorous inclinations who aren’t wild about the idea of killing and eating real animals: (full story)

Countdown to October 24th: Food Day will be a new, nationwide holiday (modeled after Earth Day). In response to what can often feel like a fragmented national food movement, organizers hope that “if we all host fairly simultaneous events and campaigns about food-system issues it will be clear that these issues are connected.”: (full story)

Kiko's Food News, 9.9.11

Quite a list today, but some very juicy stuff if you’ll bear with me!

Interesting ingredient alert: tomato water is the newest spinoff of the summer staple, showing up in kitchens across SF: (full story)

Google’s been a lot of things to a lot of people, but a food authority? Yesterday they acquired Zagat: (full story)

If you’re like me, you love the sound of a friend biting into a crisp apple; if you have misophonia, that sound probably makes you panic: (full story)

Researchers at the New England Complex Systems Institute have found a causal relationship between critically high food prices and social unrest; when a certain price point for food is crossed, citizens begin to look at their rulers differently: (full story)

Two Stanford d.school students have launched Culture Kitchen, a culinary school where women (or more specifically, grandmothers!) share their family recipes and insight into their cultural backgrounds: (full story)

Speaking of diverse cultural influences, this Forbes article suggests that Trader Joe’s has gained a competitive advantage in a crowded space by embracing the “immigrant perspective”: (full story)

And as for that crowded space, traditional supermarket chains are faltering, squeezed by expensive purveyors of organic, local and artisanal products on the high end and discounters like Costco and Wal-Mart on the low end. Fresh N’ Easy from British chain Tesco is not yet profitable stateside but has ambitious expansion plans in this space in SF and beyond [Sam is quoted in this one!]: (full story)

Beyond the romantic notions the phrase “locally grown” has come to elicit, in Eastern Kentucky vegetable growing is a means of feeding people who have trouble affording standard groceries from the store: (full story)

Vineyards across Sonoma County are emerging as a threat to the coho salmon, as a dwindling number of coho must contend with water-hungry vines and a frost-prevention method that can suck smaller tributaries dry: (full story)

And Sonoma’s Gravenstein Apple is another victim of the region’s emerging monoculture; the crop is threatened since land is more profitable when used to grow wine grapes: (full story)

Kiko's Food News, 8.26.11

Slow Food USA has officially launched their $5 Challenge campaign, encouraging people across the country to cook food at home that costs no more than five dollars per person:(full story)

Federal agents organized a sting operation against a tiny raw milk buying club in Venice, CA (the Rawesome Raw Food Club-how good is that name?), arresting a club volunteer and seizing computers, files, cash, and $70,000 worth of perishable produce; how’s that for efficient use of crime fighting resources?!: (full story)

Scientists have discovered a natural preservative which could mean the end of rotting food; the substance destroys the bacteria that make meat, fish, eggs and dairy products decompose: (full story)

Federal officials rejected Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal to bar New York City’s food stamp users from buying soda and other sugary drinks with them; the decision derailed one of the mayor’s big ideas to fight obesity and poor nutrition in the city: (full story)

Chicago’s O’Hare Airport has partnered with a community group to start a 2,400 square foot apiary on-site; now 23 beehives are up and running and are scheduled to yield 575 pounds of honey this year: (full story)

UC Davis, long California’s hub for agricultural learning, has just launched a sustainable agriculture major, taught by faculty from 8 different departments: (full story)

If you’re reading this from New York, please visit this store since I can’t: the Hawthorne Valley Farm Store, a health-conscious and earth-conscious grocery nestled in the hills of Harlemville, has a special labeling system for foods produced by nearby farms that maintain “ecosystem-friendly ratios of plants to animals”, and runs sleepover camps where children learn how to milk cows and make yogurt: (full story)

Kiko's Food News, 8.19.11

A bright start to the school lunch year in Greely, Colorado, where public school food service officials attended a culinary boot camp as part of their district-wide initiative to restore the lost art of cooking in cafeterias: (full story)

Food prices could level off at the end of the year because farmers are seeing less demand for corn and are expecting a big crop; this will slow general food price inflation (since so much of food is made from corn!): (full story)

Speaking of the farmers, Mark Bittman profiled a handful of new ones that feel “the pie is getting bigger and that the more people that get into this the better it will be for everyone”: (full story)

Whole Foods has opened its first Wellness Club at its Dedham, Mass. store; members can use the reference library, take a lifestyle evaluation, or “learn how to prepare a dish — such as mango quinoa porridge — from a chef in a sleek kitchen, and then head out into the store to find, and buy, the ingredients.”! (full story)

The outbreak of illness from turkey contaminated with antibiotic-resistant salmonella is reviving a debate over whether federal regulators need to curtail the use of antibiotics in livestock. The focus now is on whether the FDA will turn its guidance for limiting antibiotic use into mandatory rules for the industry: (full story)

And meanwhile, a recent study by the University of Maryland found that poultry farms that have made the transition from conventional to organic farming have significantly lower levels of antibiotic-resistant bacteria than conventional poultry farms: (full story)

You know about Slow Food International but don’t ACTUALLY know about the projects they’re involved in? Take this home for weekend reading: their beautiful new electronic “almanac”, in Carlo Petrini’s words, “speaks about us and the land we live on: in other words, our true wealth”: (full story)

Kiko's Food News, 8.12.11

Gearing up for some good eating this weekend? Want to know where Sam and Anne go for dinner out? Their favorite food spots in SF and Sonoma: (full story)

Tablehopper leaked news about the next restaurant to go into the empty spot at the end of our block (R.I.P. Craig’s Place, Ebb & Flow…); yes, it’s yet another izakaya place in SF, but this one sounds like it might have a more home-style angle: (full story)

For the first time, Monsanto has developed a crop that will be marketed directly to consumers (as opposed to made into processed foods). Monsanto, which holds 60% of the nation’s corn market, is ready to begin selling genetically modified sweet corn to consumers at supermarkets and farmers markets: (full story)

Given their proliferation all over the country, farmers markets could generate tens of thousands of new jobs with modest federal support; unfortunately federal policies favoring industrial ag hold them back: (full story)

And while we’re on the topic of federal policies supporting industrial ag, here’s a good discussion of a key obstacle to making good food available to all: if it truly costs a farmer $8 to produce a dozen pasture-raised eggs, and Walmart charges about $1 for a dozen, how can food that’s raised right not be considered elitist? (full story)

Feel like you’ve noticed a lot of “free-from” foods in the grocery aisle lately? The global food allergy market for products with less or no gluten, wheat, lactose, nuts, egg, soy, and additives is projected to exceed $26 billion by 2017:  (full story)

Trace and Trust, a boat-to-table seafood distribution program, was started this year to make fishing more lucrative and shopping more reliable. By cutting out the wholesaler, the fishermen get a bigger cut of what chefs and stores pay, and lets restaurants and retailers know they are buying the freshest fish possible: (full story)