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DailyDirt: Packing A School Lunch
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
School lunches are often joked about having “mystery meat” or other unsavory, unpalatable menu items. Sure, there have been some positive steps to add more fruits and vegetables, but ketchup was almost counted as a vegetable, too. Maybe it’s time to save the milk money and pack your kids’ lunches.
- A study of about 1,000 students shows that kids are being rushed to finish their lunches, and when they are, more of the food is wasted. More class time sometimes means less lunch time, and waiting in line to buy a lunch also eats into the time that kids could be actually eating their food. [url]
- Watching American kids trying foreign school lunches is amusing. Surprisingly, it looks like a Kenyan meal and a high energy biscuit from Afghanistan were the winners. [url]
- There are plenty of blogs about school lunches and the strange things that happen with kids’ meals. Moms shamed for packing Oreos? Check. Schools serving meat that’s older than some of the students? Check. Millions of meals are served every day, there’s bound to be a few crazy ones. [url]
- The US Department of Agriculture has required a fruit or vegetable to be included in a school lunch program since 2012. However, kids haven’t magically started eating more fruits and vegetables. [url]
After you’ve finished checking out those links, take a look at our Daily Deals for cool gadgets and other awesome stuff.
Filed Under: diet, food, health, lunch, lunchtime, school
Companies: usda
DailyDirt: The Legal Definition Of What You're Eating…
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
There are some bizarre legal definitions for common foods. For example, we’ve seen that the definition of a sandwich was under dispute because a burrito place was encroaching on a sandwich shop in a shopping mall food court. That case decided that a burrito was not a sandwich, but food experts don’t all agree on that point. Here are a few other cases of defining some foods legally and not with your gut.
- Unilever is suing a vegan “mayo” company because it doesn’t use eggs in its product. The startup Hampton Creek may be benefiting from some publicity here, and its “Just Mayo” mayonnaise-like spread will likely sell more now. In the end, though, both Unilever and Hampton Creek (and any other condiment makers) may need to be more explicit about ingredients and make a clear distinction between mayo and mayo dressing. [url]
- In 1893, the Supreme Court decided that, under customs law, a tomato is a vegetable, not a fruit. A fruit importer was trying to get tomatoes into the US without having to pay the 10% import tax, so against biological definitions, the court ruled that vegetables were “_usually served at dinner in, with, or after the soup, fish, or meats … and not, like fruits generally, as dessert_” — and tomatoes were therefore a vegetable in everyday experience. [url]
- In 1981, the US Department of Agriculture had 90 days to come up with new standards for subsidized school lunch programs. The resulting new rules almost considered ketchup to be a vegetable, but the ketchup-counts-as-a-veggie policy was not adopted. [url]
If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.
Filed Under: condiments, food, ketchup, mayo, mayonnaise, sandwich, tomato
Companies: hampton creek foods, unilever, usda
DailyDirt: Better Tasting Fruits And Vegetables
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
If fruits and vegetables tasted even better, maybe people would include more in their diet. Part of what researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture are trying to do is to improve the taste and nutritional profile of specialty crops like fruits and vegetables, in the hope that Americans will adopt a healthier diet. For generations, humans have been inadvertently breeding the nutrients out of fruits and vegetables, by selecting varieties that are more palatable (i.e., higher in sugar and starch). Then, somewhere along the way, appearance became important, and farmers began breeding aesthetically pleasing varieties, often at the expense of taste. So, now we’re stuck with some pretty bland products. Here are some more tasty links.
- For the past 70 years or so, people have been breeding tomatoes for a uniform red color, but in the process, a gene that increases sugar content in tomatoes was inactivated. The gene, SlGLK2, increases the formation of chloroplasts, which are responsible for producing sugars through photosynthesis. Researchers have shown that by re-inserting an intact copy of the gene into tomatoes, they could increase the amount of glucose and fructose by up to 40%, while still retaining the uniform color ripening trait. Too bad they weren’t actually able to taste them (federal regulations prohibit sampling experimental crops). [url]
- Researchers have found that today’s Fuji apples are mealier, less flavorful, and more susceptible to disease than they were in the 1970s. The culprit: climate change. Studies in controlled temperature environments have shown that higher temperatures have been linked to a decrease in taste and texture in apples. Who knows what other crops might also have been changed due to global warming? [url]
- University of Florida researchers have discovered that they can improve the taste of fruits by exposing them to far-red light. They were able to use specific wavelengths of light to manipulate the production of volatile compounds that control aroma and taste in fruits like tomatoes, strawberries, and blueberries. Imagine your produce tasting even better after being stored in your far-red-light-equipped refrigerator! [url]
If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.
Filed Under: apples, breeding, climate change, crops, diet, farming, food, fruits, gmo, taste, tomato, vegetables
Companies: usda
DailyDirt: The Disappearing Bee
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
People usually don’t think too much about how important bees are to the quality of human life. As pollinators, bees play an important role in the survival of crops that depend on them. The mass die-off of bees, also known as “Colony Collapse Disorder,” can have detrimental effects on economies that depend heavily on pollinator-dependent crops. Scientists are just starting to figure out what might be causing these mass die-offs, while others are working on alternatives to using bees for pollination. Here are a few links related to the disappearing bee.
- A new study has found that pollen contaminated with a wide variety of pesticides and fungicides could be responsible for the mass die-offs of bees. Bees that ate contaminated pollen were less able to resist getting infected by a parasite called Nosema ceranae, which has been implicated in Colony Collapse Disorder. On average, the contaminated pollen contained nine different pesticides and fungicides. [url]
- The once-common-but-now-rare Western bumblebee (Bombus occidentalis) has been spotted in Washington state for the first time since the mid-1990s. This particular bee species has a very unique “white butt” that makes it instantly distinguishable. A queen and a few other bees were also spotted, and they may be the only population of Western bumblebees in the state. The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation is hoping to conserve and help rebuild the population. [url]
- University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources is looking at using leafcutter bees as an alternative to disappearing honey bees for pollination. While leafcutter bees are more expensive and management intensive, they’re as good as or even better than honey bees at pollinating certain crops, such as alfalfa seed, strawberries, and melons. [url]
- The U.S. Department of Agriculture is studying the use of blue orchard bees (aka orchard mason bees) as a replacement for honey bees. Blue orchard bees can pollinate a variety of crops, including almond, peach, plum, cherry, and apple, and they’re extremely efficient. For fruit trees, it takes only 2,000 blue orchard bees to do the work of 100,000 honey bees. [url]
If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.
Filed Under: bees, blue orchard bees, colony collapse disorder, crops, environment, farming, fruits, fungicides, honey bees, insects, leafcutter bees, pesticides, pollination
Companies: usda
DailyDirt: Exporting Weird Meats
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Some people don’t eat meat at all for a variety of reasons, and some omnivores are just picky about the types of meat they eat. There are a lot of other animals besides cows and pigs. Here are just a few less commonly consumed meats that seem more suitable for exporting.
- Puerto Rico is planning to get rid of its overpopulation of iguanas by exporting the meat of this lizard — and selling it for up to $6 per pound. These reptiles aren’t native to the island, but since they were introduced in the 1970s, the creatures have thrived — and currently outnumber the human population in Puerto Rico. [url]
- There’s an interesting outlier in the trade imbalance between the US and China — American chicken farmers supply China with a vast number of chicken feet. And US researchers somewhere are working on genetically modified chickens to grow more than two feet… [url]
- After years without USDA funding for the inspection of slaughterhouses for horses, Congress lifted the inspection ban in 2011. Horse flesh isn’t expected to become a widely popular entree in the US, but some 200,000 horses per year could be processed and exported. [url]
- To discover more food-related links, check out what’s floating around in StumbleUpon. [url]
By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.
Filed Under: chicken feet, china, horses, iguanas, meat, puerto rico
Companies: usda
DailyDirt: Bacon Tastes Good. Pork Chops Taste Goood.
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Pork is one of the most commonly consumed meats worldwide. Interestingly, even though it was marketed as the “other white meat” (that slogan was retired in 2011), the USDA always referred to pork as a “red meat” on its website. Here are just a few more fascinating tidbits on pig products.
- A severe nosebleed (caused by a rare blood disorder that prevents normal blood clotting) can be stopped with a rolled up piece of salt cured pork. This salt pork remedy has actually been around for several decades — but it doesn’t work with bacon, so don’t grab just any slice of deli meat. [url]
- Bacon-flavored toothpaste is available for folks who like to brush their teeth as an appetizer for breakfast. Don’t swallow this stuff or use as a condiment. [url]
- The use of lard isn’t too common in cooking anymore — but who’s to blame for that? Pig fat just doesn’t sound as appetizing as hydrogenated vegetable oils… does it? hmm. [url]
- To discover more food-related links, check out what’s floating around in StumbleUpon. [url]
By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.
Filed Under: bacon, food, lard, nosebleed, pork, toothpaste
Companies: usda
DailyDirt: Video Challenges
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Do you have a video camera and untapped creative juices? There are more and more outlets for uploading your videos, and there are even people willing to pay you for your contributions. Here are just a few open video contests out there.
- Create your own Public Service Announcement on how technology has made an impact on creativity. There’s a $1000 prize available, and it’s due on October 28th, 2011. (Oh yeah, and you can keep the copyright to your submissions for this one because we’re sponsoring it!) [url]
- The USDA has a Fruits&Veggies contest looking for a 30-second video on how to add more plants to your diet. The first prize is $1500, and the submission period ends November 15, 2011. [url]
- Submit a video on the theme of Unlikely Innovation here. The winner receives $5000, and it’s due on December 30, 2011. [url]
- To find other interesting links for entrepreneurial folks, check out what’s currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]
Filed Under: challenges, creativity, prizes, psa, video contests
Companies: innocentive, usda
Cocoa Genome Released… But Is It Really In The Public Domain?
from the the-public-domain-has-no-restrictions dept
Last week, a PR person working for Mars (makers of M&Ms and such) sent me an email about how scientists from Mars along with the USDA and IBM (among others) had sequenced the cacao genome and that “the results of the research will be made available to the public with permanent access,” at the accurately named Cacao Genome Database. Sounded interesting, but it was a busy week, and I wasn’t able to spend much time digging into it. I was intrigued, however, by the claim in the press release that the team had “released the preliminary findings of their breakthrough cacao genome sequence and made it available in the public domain“. It’s so rare to hear of some big companies doing research and release it into the public domain, that it, alone, seemed newsworthy, and something I wanted to explore.
Thankfully, before I even got the chance to, I saw Glyn Moody point me to Glen Newton’s analysis of the claims of public domain and open access for the data, only to discover it’s not true. While they are making the data available, it’s hardly public domain. You have to agree to a license that has some serious restrictions in it (and some contradictions). For example, it lists out the ways you can use it — and leaves out commercial use. Real public domain doesn’t care (and doesn’t require a license).
Then there’s this:
The User shall not transfer the information referred to in this agreement, or any copy of them, to a third party without obtaining written authorization from the Providers which will only be provided subject to the third party user entering into this same IAA.
I’m kind of wondering if this is just boilerplate that the lawyers threw into this not understanding what public domain means. But it seems pretty silly to (a) create a license for supposedly public domain data which (b) doesn’t allow you to tell anyone about what’s in the license!
There is a nice bit in the “license” where it says you can’t use the data in a patent application, but one would hope that the data being in the public domain would exclude it from being used in a limited fashion elsewhere anyway (sans license agreement). Separately, someone in the comments notes that the original license agreement said that if you used the data, you couldn’t publish any articles about your findings until some period in the future — but that clause was later removed (though, it’s unclear if those who signed in prior to the removal still need to live by that).
However, I do have a pretty serious question: is this data in the public domain? Last year, we pointed out how difficult it is to put something into the public domain. Here, we have a case where Mars, the main company behind the research, has put out a press release, which clearly states:
Today, Mars, Incorporated, the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), and IBM released the preliminary findings of their breakthrough cacao genome sequence and made it available in the public domain.
Thus, one could easily read that and believe these findings are public domain. But, then, when you go to the actual site, it claims all sorts of license restrictions. So, if someone goes and copies all the data and puts it on their own site, is that legal? It certainly looks like the company put the info into the public domain via the press release, and once something is in the public domain, you can’t reverse that (well, unless you’re the 10th Circuit appeals court). So, it certainly looks like someone could make the argument that the license Mars is trying to put on this data is meaningless. The company has already declared it in the public domain, and thus, no license applies. But, here’s where the lack of any clear rules for how you officially make something public domain come into play. Would Mars claim that the press release “misrepresented” the company’s position?
I don’t mean to come down too hard on Mars. It’s actually quite nice that a company would do such research and try to make it “open” and try to prevent it from being locked up in patents. I really do commend such actions, and don’t wish to negate that point. But, I think the public domain is a really important thing, and if a company wants to put content into the public domain, they should be clear about what’s really in the public domain.
Filed Under: cocoa, genome, licenses, public domain
Companies: ibm, mars, usda
More Examples Of Patent Incentives Making The World Less Safe
from the hoarding-the-info-needed-to-save-us dept
For years, we’ve written about how Indonesia has been hoarding bird flu samples and refusing to share them with researchers, because they’re afraid that someone will come in and patent the cure, based on the samples they provide, and that will make it much costlier to Indonesia to get the vaccine. Of course, the end result instead might be no vaccine at all… It looks like we may be facing a similar issue with Ug99, a fungus that is aggressively killing wheat crops in Africa and the Middle East — potentially having a massive impact on global food supplies. FormerAC alerts us to an article about the fight against Ug99, where it’s noted that Pakistan won’t share some important samples with the rest of the world, again out of fear that some big company will patent what they find:
As the breeders keep tinkering, South Asia is bracing for impact. The CDL recently tried to get its hands on a suspicious P. graminis sample from Pakistan that is said to knock out Sr31. But the country is reluctant to share: “Some countries regard isolates of their pathogens as part of their genetic heritage,” CDL director Marty Carson says. “I guess there’s a fear that we’ll patent something off of it.”
Well, given Monsanto’s history of patenting disease resistant crops — and then over-aggressively attacking anyone who uses such crops (even accidentally), it would seem like a rather legitimate fear. Perhaps, rather than brushing this fear off, the USDA’s Cereal Disease Laboratory (CDL) should work to do something to fix things?
Filed Under: cdl, indonesia, intellectual property, monsanto, pakistan, patent
Companies: monsanto, usda