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‘Top Chef’ should take up the ultimate challenge: school lunch

By Marc R. aka Mental Masala • on March 14, 2010

Season 7 of Bravo’s Top Chef will be based in Washington, D.C., reported the Metrocurean

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Here’s the catch: More sustainable seafood requires exerting pressure up the supply chain

By Marc R. aka Mental Masala • on March 2, 2010

This is part 2 of a series on improving market-based seafood sustainability initiatives, inspired by a recent article published by an international team

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Why seafood wallet cards can be the wrong bait for consumers

By Marc R. aka Mental Masala • on February 25, 2010

Seafood guides and other consumer-based campaigns are an important part of the quest for sustainable seafood and healthy oceans, but so far they have not

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Saul’s got SOLE: The Jewish deli in Berkeley evolves

By Marc R. aka Mental Masala • on February 15, 2010

When it comes to comfort food — especially comfort food that is

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What does asthma have to do with farm animals — or food?

By Marc R. aka Mental Masala • on January 18, 2010

When government officials hear the words "backyard livestock," they

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Food & Wine magazine sins against the monkfish

By Marc R. aka Mental Masala • on January 10, 2010

A monkfish (Wikimedia Commons) In

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Tuna or not-tuna: more questions for sushi eaters

By Marc R. aka Mental Masala • on December 18, 2009

When you think about eating endangered

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More from this Author

The little fish that we can: California’s sardine industry, now and then

When the subject of Monterey, California, comes up, most people think of two things: the magnificent scenery and the

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There Be Dragons: Examining the alternatives to unsustainable aquaculture fish feed

February 23, 2010 update: I discovered that the credit for the grasshopper photo was incorrect. The photo is actually from tazintosh's

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New research on aquaculture industry reveals murky waters surrounding fish-feed issue

The products of aquaculture, the farming of sea creatures and plants, are often divided into "bad fish" — piscavores, like salmon, that eat more pounds of protein in the form of other fish than they

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Behavioral economics and the food system

The human mind is fascinating. Understanding how we make decisions, how we form preferences, how we think about the future is not only intellectually interesting, but can also help us understand the dynamics

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Mapping Markets and Organic Demand

Today is “Direct Markets” day for the USDA’s new “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food”

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Life Lab creates farm-to-school learning programs

Today is "Farm to Institution" day for the USDA's new "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food" initiative.

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‘Eating In’ for Better Food in Schools

I went to a Slow Food USA "Eat In" at the foot of San Francisco's magnificent City Hall on Monday, one of several hundred events

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Twenty-five years of food expenditure trends

One of the interesting data tidbits in the recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) is annual American food expenditures. Using

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