• Food

Green Groups Urge Congress to Cut Food Waste In Half

• Congress
• food waste
• GHG emissions
• methane

by Natasha Lasky, ODP Staff Writer Food waste is a serious concern in the United States — every year, between 30 and 40% of all food in the country is unsold or uneaten. The Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic (FLPC), ReFED, NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), and World Wildlife Fund (WWF), among […]

• Food

USPS Could Help Deliver Food to Those in Need

• food insecurity
• food waste
• hunger
• USPS

by Amy Lupica, ODP Staff Writer A new analysis from the World Wildlife Fund lays out a plan to use the existing logistical infrastructure of the United States Postal Service to distribute millions of tons of food from farmers directly to consumers. Each year, an estimated 17 million tons of crops never leave the farm, despite millions of Americans living in […]

• Food

Wild Variants of Popular Crops Under Threat of Extinction

• agriculture
• biodiversity
• crops

by Natasha Lasky, ODP Staff Writer While humans have been domesticating crops for the past 10,000 years, we also need wild variants of the crops we cultivate as they have traits that make them more resistant to disease and resilient to environmental changes. We can breed these traits into our domesticated crops. But a new […]

• Food

One Fishy Thing: Wisconsin’s Caviar Cover Up

• caviar
• Department of Natural Resources
• eggs
• sturgeon

The case of the caviar cover-up! Wisconsin’s top expert on sturgeon fish — dubbed the “sturgeon general” — was charged with obstructing an investigation into an illicit caviar ring — he and fellow biologists at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) are alleged to have funneled fish eggs to a network of caviar processors.  […]

• Food

Government Report About Heavy Metals In Baby Foods Causes Widespread Concern

• baby food
• brain development
• children
• FDA
• infants
• toxic metals

A government report released last week raised alarm due to the high levels of heavy metals found in most baby foods.  The House Oversight Committee reviewed documents provided by four of the largest baby food makers in the U.S. — and found that all four used ingredients containing high levels of arsenic, mercury, and lead.

Why This Matters:  Even low levels of exposure to these metals can cause serious damage to brain development in kids.

• Food

One Cool Thing: Printed Beef — It’s What’s for Dinner!

• 3D printing
• beef
• climate change
• cows
• cruelty free
• steak

Bringing new meaning to conjuring up dinner, an Israeli company has pioneered a cruelty-free ribeye steak made from real cow cells and “produced” by a 3D printer.  The company, Aleph Farms, prints living cells that are incubated to grow, differentiate and interact — the result is meat with the texture and qualities of a real […]