Sustainable Dish

That tomato may be organic, but who picked it – a yuppie farmer taking a break from Wall Street or a poorly paid immigrant worker receiving less than $8,000 a year? The latter is likely your answer. The San Francisco Bay Guardian reports on how the sustainable food movement leaves out many poor and underserved people.

Gardening brings peace to many people, so why not use it to aid those returning from war? A gardening program in New Jersey is having great success helping veterans overcome issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder through growing food. The New York Times reports.

If you think diabetes is a problem now, wait until 2034. Diabetes rates are expected to double, and with higher rates come increasing cost for treatment – up to $171 billion. Get the details at Natural News.

“Food Insecurity” has become a buzzword of late, but I agree with the authors of this article in the Rural Intelligence that it takes away from its true meaning – hunger. In the land of plenty, millions still suffer lack of food and nutrition; let’s not blur the lines with confusing terms.

Another mouth-watering article from the ever-supportive New York Times profiles Soul Food Farm, that provides eggs and chickens from Chez Panisse and many others.

In the food world, Iowa is known for vast fields of mono-crops and a heavy dose of factory farming, but could this all be changing? With a suffering local economy, Iowa may be the next state to jump on the organic/sustainable bandwagon. Read the full article on the Mother Nature Network.

You think beef is bad? Watch out for chicken! A recent Consumer Reports study found that over 60% of chicken is contaminated with salmonella or campylobacter bacteria, two leading causes of food-related illness. Read more here.