I recently found a Forbes op-ed entitled “America’s Agricultural Angst”, but instead of being angsty about Big Ag taking over the world, the author was angsty in the opposite direction. “The liberals are threatening to kill the American agriculture business! How will we feed the world?” Ok, I made that quote up, but you get the idea.

The Chinese government is kind of scary, and if they told me to stop putting melamine in my dairy products, I would probably follow their orders. According to the New York Times however, even after the melamine crackdown of 2008 after six children were killed and thousands sickened, companies are still tainting products with the dubious substance.

Mainstream mag Time gives props to grass-fed, even going so far as to say it might save the world. Perhaps this claim is a little strong, but the article makes a good argument for carbon sequestration in all that healthy land those cows tread upon.

James McWilliams, locavore-basher extraordinaire, contributed an entry on grass-fed beef  to the Freakonomics blog on the NYTimes. Not so much a legitimate argument, it seems to be more of a dig at terminology on corn-fed vs. grass-fed. Come on James, you can do better than that.

As you probably already know, First Lady Michelle Obama is on a crusade to lower the rates of childhood obesity. The blog Fooducate believes that she will fail, arguing that it is much simpler and more profitable for many industries to “fix” obesity than to “prevent” it. It’s a good point; how will the weight loss, pharmaceutical and junk food industries make any money if we’re all thin and happy – it would be a travesty!

New York City: Home of Wall Street, the Yankees, townhouses and haute cuisine. Also home to 3.3 million people struggling to put food on the table. The Economist reports on The Big Apple’s battle with hunger.

In a different city far across the country, an uplifting story about Latino families planting urban gardens in otherwise desolate neighborhoods. Not only do these gardens bring healthy food to the underserved, but monetary savings and a sense of accomplishment. Read the story at the New York Times.

Back in my day, a snack meant a banana or celery after school, not a 100 calorie snack pack for every 40 minute period. No wonder American children are among the most obese in the world, it’s constant grazing. Read it in the Times.

“FDA on BPA: Our Hands Are Tied”, reports Grist. Well, at least they’ve admitted it’s bad for you. Unfortunately, the FDA isn’t planning to do much about it.

<Sigh> I feel like I write this every other “dish”. Another massive meat recall has hit California; they don’t seem to be learning from past mistakes. NYTimes reports.

First vegetarianism came into vogue, then veganism. Now we’ve flipped 180 degrees with the mostly meat diet. Will the caveman diet work for this group of young, snarky, hipsters? “Cavemen don’t eat nightshade”, reports the New York Times.

The Atlantic published a review of a new Alice Waters bio to much uproar from the sustainable food community. The piece is called “Cultivating Failure” and it is absurd. I suggest you read it if you desire a good dose of ignorance. There have been several excellent rebuttals, such as this one from Grist’s Tom Philpott.

The Huffington Post reports on a recent study linking certain Monsanto GMO crops to organ damage. Will this stop them? Probably not. After all, they did an extensive 90 day trial on humans and we all know 90 days is plenty of time to reveal chronic conditions.

The New York Times states that Michelle Obama wants to leave a legacy, and after a year, she has decided what it will be. Her goal is to reduce childhood obesity and reverse the number of diabetics. Lucky for her, it appears obesity rates are leveling off at an even 34% for adults. She has some work ahead of her.

A cold snap has hit Florida and it ain’t pretty. In a state hard hit by the market crash, crop failure due to the weather is a low blow from Mother Nature. Get the details at the NYTimes.

It’s been a New York Times heavy-Dish already, I’m aware, but I’ve got one more for you. Here’s an interesting article on New York’s holiday gluttony when all those who curtailed their calorie intake threw caution to the wind.

What do anthropologists do? They take all the factors– biology, culture, ecology – and bring them together to tell a more complete story of why things are the way they are. Joan Mencher, an anthropologist working in India on women’s issues, food justice, land use and more gives an insider’s view on how the “Green Revolution”  failed and why it won’t work in the future.

Well, I had a vegetarian burrito bowl for lunch yesterday and now I’m feeling guilty about it. Chipotle claims “food with integrity”, but their actions don’t always back up this bold statement. Read the article on Grist.

“Can organic produce and natural shampoo turn you into a heartless jerk?” That’s the question that several scientists asked in a recent study. What they found was an interesting question of moral licensing”. Read it on Slate.

Could it be? Those bastions of hamburgers and hotdogs, those holy houses of cotton candy, peanuts and beer are going green? Baseball players are declaring war on junk food; no more cheeseburgers in the club house. Maybe their fans will take heed?  The Wall Street Journal reports.

You may be tempted to give those random cans of mandarin oranges and hearts of palm to your local food drive this holiday season, but do everyone a favor, and cough up some dough instead. The New York Times reports on how much further a couple of dollars can go than an old can of beans.

So you’re trying to be healthy. You’ve cut down on meat, you’re eating organic produce, kale has become your best friend and you’re taking fish oil pills. Wait, wait, rewind – fish oil pills? They better be sustainable ones! An article in the NYTimes explains why the popularity of fish oil pills is making our oceans murky and dank.

Marion Nestle gives a nice round-up of what our tireless food agencies have been (or haven’t been) up to lately.  USDA – FDA – FTC

How does a nice, lab-grown piece of bacon sound? Or maybe a piece of Petri dish pork? Scientists in Holland have replicated pork meat in their labs, yet somehow, it just doesn’t sound appealing. Read the rest at the UK Times Online.

Nothing quite says health like eating McDonalds at the Olympics. How else would those highly-trained athletes get enough calories? They need those 2000 calorie burgers. For some reason, The Guardian is skeptical – I can’t imagine why.

According to Adam Platt writing for New York Magazine, New York finally has its own cuisine and it isn’t bagels or pizza, it’s fresh, farmer-sourced food. Being a New Yorker, that sounds pretty tasty to me.

I’m always amazed when things like this come as a shock to people, but I’m sure many will find Nicholas Kristof’s “Cancer In the Kitchen” article surprising. Between processed food and BPA-laden containers, the kitchen seems like the number one entry point for questionable substances to enter our systems.

As if one major beef recall wasn’t enough for the year, Cargill has announced another recall for contaminated ground beef distributed in Arizona and New Mexico. Beware the burger! Get the full scoop at USAToday.

Frequent questions asked of vegetarians: “But don’t you need meat to live?” “How do you get your protein?” “Are you sickly and anemic if you don’t eat beef?” Marion Nestle comes to the rescue with a blog post on why it’s just fine not to eat animals.

Bisphenol A – the little plastic that causes big problems. Looks like it’s finally getting the attention it desperately deserves. Nicholas Kristof reports in the New York Times.

“H1N1” or “Swine Flu”, which do you prefer? The name that reveals the link to factory farming, or the sanitized white house version? Tom Philpott suggests the media get more comfortable with “swine flu” on Grist.

Factory farmed products may be in the overwhelming majority of the food we eat, but it can be avoided with a bit of gumption. Nicolette Hahn Niman gives a detailed roundup of the steps to eating food you can be comfortable with on the Huffington Post.

Jonathan Safran Foer’s new book, “Eating Animals”, is the latest in a line of books espousing conscientious thought in eating. Elizabeth Colbert published a fantastic review in The New Yorker giving it both praise and due criticism. What I want to know is, does the author have anything new to say, or is it the same information Pollan and so many others have already published?

Nicole Hahn Niman strikes again with an op-ed in the New York Times defending small livestock farmers. In the face of a new report stating that GHG emissions from livestock may be as high as 51%, Hahn Niman states that small family farms aren’t the problem - de-forestation and industrial agriculture are.  I think she and Safron Foer (above) may have some disagreements on this one.

A man by the name of Islam Siddiqui has been nominated for the position of chief agricultural negotiator in the office of the U.S. trade representatives. You may know him from such frightening organizations as “CropLife America”, which openly blasted Michelle Obama’s organic garden.  Seems to be a blatant oxymoron; The New York Times reports.

Cocoa Krispies boosts your immunity! Wait, I take that back, and so does Kellogg. The cereal giant is reneging on its claim that Cocoa Krispies and other cereals boost health with added antioxidants. It’s a tough time out there for fake healthy food. See Advertising Age for the full story.

For the December edition of Consumer Reports, a plethora of cans, bottles and bags were tested for BPA – the results were not good. Fooducate gives a very clear breakdown of the problems associated with BPA (toxicity, brain damage, cancer), and Civil Eats gives some further insight.

All of our food may be produced by major agriculture corporations, but at least our wine’s still safe, right? Unfortunately, the top 30 wines sold in the U.S. all come from major producers who buy “grape juice” in bulk from various locations and slap a label on it. But don’t despair, small wineries still do exist, just look for “produced and bottled by” on the label and you’re in the clear. Read the full story on The Daily Beast.

I knew they would find a use for all that poop! A Vermont dairy farm will be turning manure from 1,200 cattle into energy for 250 homes. Hopefully the energy won’t smell like the manure. Read the full article on Environmental Leader.

Coca Cola is launching 90 calorie cans of their most popular soda brands. While I applaud their effort to reduce soda consumption, I hope it doesn’t encourage people to drink two or three instead of one. How about a tall glass of tap water?

Baby carrots may look cute, but is it really wise to waste your money on whittled down roots? They so accurately reflect the American consumer’s desire for conformity in food. Read all about it on WiseBread.

Good news on the slaughterhouse front (is any slaughterhouse news good news?). Certain small, state run slaughterhouses will be approved to sell meat across state lines under proposed inspection policy. This is great news for sustainable farmers who abhor sending their precious cattle to large, dirty slaughterhouses. To learn more, read Chris Hunt’s article on The Green Fork.

Oh Grist, you provide us with so much useful sustainable food information. I could try and write a witty paragraph about each article, but there are so many, it would take me all day. Instead I’ll point our readers  in the direction of some good stuff on GMO’s and Bill Gates, antibiotics on feed lots, “Smart Choices”, and CAFOs “above the law”.

Up until recently, it was believed that live stock production contributed about 18% of the world’s global warming gases. An alarming new report by the Worldwatch Institute puts that number at 51% – half of the human contribution! Check out the report here, and Change.org’s analysis here. Coming soon: The American Meat Institute’s rebuttal.

Food brings us many things; memories, pleasure, guilt, nourishment. It is shaped by our culture and our beliefs, our families and friends. Eventually, we take all of that information and pass it on to the next generation. Jonathan Safran Foer, writing for the New York Times Magazine, expresses all of these ideas in a new Food Issue article.

“Two thirds of all High Fructose Corn Syrup goes into soft drinks.” “Each additional daily serving of soda increases a child’s chance risk for obesity by 60%.” Those are just a few of the gems that Fooducate picked out from UCLA’s Center for Health Policy’s recent study on soda consumption in California.

Gourmet Magazine’s demise sent shock waves throughout the food-focused world. While some pegged its style as pretentious, others defended the editorial skill and content. Either way, there is no question that Gourmet was ground breaking in its critique of modern agriculture and support of sustainable food. Read Grist’s opinion here, and check out Gourmet’s “Food Politics” section.

The Farm Bureau, showing a depressing amount of short-sightedness, is trying to knock down a new congressional bill to derail climate control. Apparently, the bill will mean higher fuel and fertilizer costs, hitting the heart of American Ag. Yes, fuel guzzling, hormone injecting, pesticide-spraying, Big American Ag. See the New York Times for more.

Michael Pollan was recently asked to speak at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Sounds simple enough, right? World renowned agricultural author goes to speak at world renowned agriculture school? Wrong. Read about the “controversy” that ensued in the Los Angeles Times.

The entire country of Ireland is banning GM products. Yes folks, while they have weaseled their way into 65%-70% of American food products, Ireland is cutting them out completely. It seems like if a country, a whole dang country, is banning GM products, maybe we should take a close look at why they are doing so.

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.