Growers and Grocers

Starbucks is blending the line between coffee shop and, well everything else, as they plan to add book sales to their repertoire this fall when Mitch Albom’s forthcoming new novel, One More Day, appears in the Frappachino making shops in early October.
Free Press columnist Mitch Albom says he is “very humbled and flattered” […]

Scientists at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) based in the Philippines announced recently that they have isolated the gene, labelled Sub1A-1, that allows rice to survive flooding for up to 2 weeks. To countless poor rice farmers that have been repeatedly been hit with crop losses year after year due to typhoons and moonsoon […]

I’m filling in this week while Betty Carlson is travelling. She’ll be back next Sunday, with lots of great stuff to chew on. Thanks to the Growers and Grocers crew, and to our fearless leader Cate, for providing many of the links in today’s post.
First up this week is the news that there are now […]

Many thanks to Kate at Accidental Hedonist for the original inspiration for this story.
A funny thing has happened on the way to eating healthier over much of 2006. Organics have positively exploded on grocery store shelves, making well-informed consumer decisions more difficult than ever. A while back, I wrote about the USDA’s […]

Whether it is because asians are largely lactose-intolerant or that we do not have that many cows, it is not a wonder that cheese production is not a big industry in this region. It is, therefore, surprising to learn that in Sta. Cruz, Laguna, a small town 96km south of Manila, cheese production is a […]

Have you ever seen a whole, fresh peeled coconut (instead of the packaged shreds)? How about mini-iceberg lettuce? Purple or orange cauliflower? Well, if you haven’t, you may be seeing them in your produce department soon. According to the Sacramento Bee’s Michael Marks, these products are on their way. They […]

What to Eat - An Aisle by Aisle Guide to Savvy Food Choices and Good Eating by Marion Nestle

The supermarket can be an intimidating place if you’re trying to eat healthy. Figuring out good food choices can require an advanced education in math, science and possibly even advertising. It’s enough to send one running to […]

Have a Coke and a smile. I’d like to buy the world a Coke. The Pepsi Generation. Nope, none of it works. Because in India, no one is smiling – or sharing a soft drink.
Earlier this week, the Center for Science and Environment (CSE), a New Delhi-based environmental group, announced that soft drinks produced by […]

Philippine tuna exporters appeal to the government to help persuade Japan to lift its 9-year ban on smoked tuna products.
Japan’s Department of Health and Welfare barred shipments of filter-smoked tuna and tilapia products from the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand citing that the smoking process to preserve freshness posed a health hazard to Japanese consumers. Philippine […]

For this week’s news, it will be pretty hard to beat Sheryl Kirby’s post about bugs in food coloring. I’m still wondering about what this means for vegetarians.
In fact, food production news this week seems to be dominated by the question of what is really in our food, and whether said food lives up […]