food

Food production and consumption — from farm to table to leftovers put in the trash can — carry "huge hidden costs" of at least $10 trillion a year, mostly from the consequences of unhealthy diets, said the UN Food and Agriculture Organization on Monday. In its State of Food and Agriculture report, the FAO urged governments and the private sector to use a true-cost accounting system to assess the flaws in the agrifood system and how to mitigate them.

Americans are going to eat a lot of meat in 2018 — 222.2 pounds per person, according to USDA projections that are based on the expectation of a comparatively strong economy that will give people more disposable income.

What do you get when you cross Korean barbecue with ice cream? A Spam ice cream sandwich is one of three answers in Culver City, the Los Angeles suburb. "The Hawaiian Pizza sandwich includes pineapple ice cream and Spam pieces between white chocolate macadamia nut cookies," says the Los Angeles Times.

World Food Prize laureate Pedro Sanchez, a soils scientist, says Cuba "could be a very good market" for U.S. food companies, but adds that "it's not a one-way situation." In an interview with UC Food Observer, Sanchez said, "America has so much to learn from Cuba. Some of the agricultural techniques used in Cuba may benefit our food system."

Political reporters from newspapers in Chico and Sacramento, California, and Reno, Nevada, collaborated on a list of “10 issues that the presidential candidates absolutely need to discuss but probably won’t.” The “F-word” -- as in food -- comes in at number four.

Grocers, restaurants and other companies that use organic foods "have turned to creative strategies for wooing prospective farmers and ranchers," says the Des Moines Register.

Engineers from Murdoch University in Australia hope to build a prototype "bubble greenhouse" that could be used in arid areas as a low-tech way to turn saltwater into fresh water and grow food, says SciDevNet, a website devoted to international development.

"After decades of worsening diets and sharp increases in obesity, Americans' eating habits have begun changing for the better," says the New York Times.

In central Illinois, the Green Top Grocery, scheduled to open in a "food desert," would improve the diets of shoppers and the incomes of nearby farmers, says Iowa Farmer Today.

The AGree policy initiative called for greater funding for the U.S. agricultural and food research system, coupled with an updated list of priorities for publicly funded research.

Rice, one of the world's staple foods, feeds hundreds of millions of people daily. It's also high in starch, "which turns to sugar, and often thereafter body fat," says the Washington Post.

Japan, the largest Asian importer of corn, beef and pork, has lowered its target for food self-sufficiency to 45 percent by 2026 from the current 50 percent, said Bloomberg.

Overwhelmingly, Americans drive to the grocery store and they usually don't go to the store nearest to their homes, even if they have to walk, take a bus or get a ride with someone else, says a USDA study.

In the business of agriculture, food becomes part of networking among professionals, says Civil Eats, describing how new women farmers in Wisconsin created a grassroots network through informal potluck meals.

"Markedly lower" rainfall is raising concern about the winter wheat and barley crops in North Korea, says the Washington Post. The winter grains supply only 5 percent of North Korea's food but are a vital bridge, the so-called barley hump, during the spring...

While lawmakers argue over labeling food made with genetically modified organisms, "products certified as containing no genetically modified organisms are proliferating on grocery shelves without any nationwide mandatory regulations," says the New York Times.