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Concentration in the food industry not a concern, says new GAO report

By Marc R. aka Mental Masala • on August 5, 2009

In recent years, farmers have received an ever-decreasing share

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Checking in on the agricultural check-off programs

By Marc R. aka Mental Masala • on July 30, 2009

Standing in front of a 50-foot tall display of potatoes, mushrooms, beef jerky, and other agricultural products at the 2009 All-American Farm Expo in Modesto,

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Educating the public about toxins in white croaker fish

By Marc R. aka Mental Masala • on July 6, 2009

Don't croak early, SoCal fishermen!: Thanks to unregulated dumping of DDT and PCBs into Southern California sewers between the 1950s and '70s, fish caught

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“Dirt”-y movie tells how we’ve sold our soils

By Marc R. aka Mental Masala • on July 5, 2009

The last page of every issue of Edible

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Modern therapy for the LOHAS set

By Marc R. aka Mental Masala • on June 28, 2009

Will Peak Soil counseling be next? Clinical psychologist Kathy McMahon has branched out from the usual counseling topics to writing an advice column called

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Grow for it: A message about food from the president

By Marc R. aka Mental Masala • on June 27, 2009

In 1945, during the fourth year of America's direct involvement in World War II, President Harry Truman issued a

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Nobu’s no-no: The rise and fall of the bluefin tuna

By Marc R. aka Mental Masala • on June 12, 2009

With the Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin stocks plummeting to shockingly low levels, chef and restaurateur Nobu Matsuhisa (24 prestigious restaurants

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Asia could teach U.S. some new corn tricks

Thanks to fertile Midwestern plains, commodity-focused agricultural policy, a foreign policy that makes cheap petroleum a high priority, and an innovative agricultural industry, Americans are truly the

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Koreans crack open a cool, frosty dose of fiber

As an observer of the American food scene, I see many instances of oddly supplemented foods and drinks, where everyday foods are dosed with antioxidants or vitamins or another supposedly healthful supplement

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Free-range Porky’s, now playing at one Bay Area cinema

San Francisco may have more vegetarians and health-obsessed eaters per capita than any other U.S. city, but it also has a fair number of pork lovers — and to serve them, numerous

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Fatal attraction: Humanity’s love affair with fish like the Chilean sea bass

Recently I was snared — or hooked, snagged, or netted (pick your favorite fishing pun) — by a book that shows  humanity's enormous capacity to affect ocean life. We can nearly wipe out an entire

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Buzzkill: Can native bees do the job?

With the health of honey bee colonies in dramatic decline, can farmers rely on native bees to

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Snapshot of the American diet

I find this juxtaposition of establishments at the Bayfair Mall in San Leandro, California, a good illustration of the

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Taxing cows to curb climate change

When you fill your car's tank, you pay a gas tax. Someday, when you fill your belly with cheese, milk, or steak, you might have to pay another type of gas tax — one levied on the methane and nitrous

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Political celebrations past and present

On election night in 1992* — the year that Bill Clinton won his first term and Barbara Boxer was first elected to

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