Sustainable Dish

At a wine tasting, one sniffs, gargles, spits and comments on the terroir - land on which the grapes were grown and whence comes the flavor. But have you ever gotten a good sniff of the terroir itself? Anne Zimmerman, writing for Culinate, gets up close and personal with some soil, and has an opportunity to explore how healthy earth affects the food grown in it.

There are many factors that affect obesity: diet, exercise, genetics. But now a new player has entered the game – plastics. Yes, that useful, jack of all trades material found throughout your house could be a major contributor to the obesity epidemic. Newsweek reports and Tom Lawsky at Grist provides some analysis.

Homemade food is certainly healthier, but is it tastier and cheaper than fast food? I would certainly say yes, but would a bunch of teenage boys agree? Sally Sampson at the Washington Post puts it to the test by whipping up some staple fast food cuisine at home.

First Lady Michelle Obama was honored by the American Public Gardens Association at the opening of the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh for planting the White House Garden. While the USDA is moving forward with the “Know Your Food, Know Your Farmer” program, and those of us in the non-profit world are always pushing for public interest in sustainable food, Michelle Obama has given the movement a huge boost simply by planting some seeds. Obama Foodorama reports.

A recently completed study by the USDA states that education is the biggest factor in determining whether a person buys organic foods regardless of age, ethnicity or number of children they have. So I guess that’s the solution - send everyone to college, and we’ll all eat organic food. Simple enough, right? Read the full report here.

When most people think of a farmer, they think of a big guy in overalls, driving a tractor over the crop-studded land. But did you know that 65%-75% of the worlds food supply is grown by women and that two in ten American farms are run by women? Nicole Sugarman writes about being a female farmer on Beyond Green.