Kickstarter is listing a seriously worthwhile project and you can help fund it. The school is working to raise $10,000 by August 2 to support their small but productive 1 acre farm in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward.

Currently Our School at Blair Grocery is working with over 30 at risk kids to teach them the importance of sustainable farming and more importantly, how to farm.

Here’s what the money will go toward, according to Kickstarter:

• 100 yards of organic soil to supplement our compost

• Seeds for sprouts, row crops, and heirloom vegetables

• Hoophouses (inexpensive, quick-to-build greenhouses)

• New bee hives and a new queen bee

• 10 new worm bins for vermicompost

• Shovels, hoes, and rakes for students

• Irrigation necessities: water meter, hoses, and sprinklers

Help support the project by August 2.

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Each month Thompson Reuters surveys about 3,000 people on varying health issues and this month the questions revolved around organic food. While Americans are more concerned with toxins and want to support more local farmers than ever before, cost seems to cause them to often make different choices. With world food prices growing as a result of increased demand, external conflict, and strange weather patterns, consumers are hesitant to buy organic which they deem more expensive.

According to NPR’s SHOTS:

A majority — 54 percent — say organic food is too expensive. Harsh weather and strong demand for all kinds of food are pushing prices higher across the board, as NPR’s Marilyn Geewax reported last month.

After price, the second-most common reason people prefer non-organics is that they’re more readily available, a sentiment expressed by 21 percent of respondents.

This is more than a little disheartening considering that while organic can be more expensive at the grocery store when compared to many conventional foods, there are many ways around this. Buying organic foods that are in season is always the best way to go. If you live in South Carolina and you buy a mango from Mexico or an avocado from Chili you’re bound to pay top dollar. So cook with what’s growing in your area and avoid organic foods that travel a long way to get to your plate. Secondly, consider joining a natural foods co-op where you can find organic foods at reduced prices in exchange for being a member and volunteering or join a CSA.

Support local farmers, organic or not, by making sure that they use sustainable practices in the growth and production of the foods you love. Cut out meat and dairy as much as possible, considering that these are often the most expensive items on your grocery list. And minimize your grocery list by removing as many processed foods, organic or not, from it. Processed foods are also pricey. These steps can have a HUGE impact on the prices you pay. Here are more tips for saving green while eating organic.

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According to a story on Inhabitat, scientists are experimenting on ways to derive gelatin from humans and their research will be appearing in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry.

The process the researchers perfected actually involves taking human gelatin genes and inserting them into a strain of yeast. With their technology they were able to grow gelatin with controllable features.

Though I’d be interested to know where the genes are derived. According to Science Daily, not only would this prevent the use of gelatin made from innumerable animals, it would also eliminate the risk of Mad Cow disease in addition to creating a predictable source of gelatin. Working with animal based gelatin is at times unpredictable because you don’t know how the end product will turn out.

Human-based gelatins are actually being studied for use in drug capsules and other medical applications for the most part, though marshmallows and neon gelatin molds are what I initially envisioned.

This is right up there with meat substitutes made from poop. I’m not sure how you categorize it either. It’s not plant-based but it’s not animal-based either. Or maybe it is animal-based depending on where you place humans. But don’t worry, you’re not eating your neighbor here.

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In the north Pacific ocean alone between 12,000 and 24,000 tons of plastic end up in fish. This is 9 percent of fish found in the north Pacific, according to researchers at the University of California, San Diego. Keep in mind that this does not include fish that die from ingesting plastic and it doesn’t include fish that pass the plastic through their systems. So in reality, the numbers are likely even higher than study calculations.

The study, published in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series, came to this conclusion by traveling hundreds of miles throughout the north Pacific Ocean testing fish along the way.

According to The New York Times:

The research team, including the authors of the study, Peter Davison and Rebecca Asch, traveled across hundreds of miles of the North Pacific ocean gyre, collecting fish specimens, water samples and marine debris at depths ranging from the surface to thousands of feet under. Just over 9 percent of the fish caught during the expedition had small pieces of plastic in their stomachs.

These findings are undoubtedly disturbing but they only include a small piece of the plastic pie. These huge numbers only tell the story of the north Pacific though other oceans likely have similar pollution problems.

The main challenge, said Mr. Woodring of Project Kaisei, is that the infrastructure for proper waste management and recycling “simply cannot keep pace with the exponential growth of plastic in our daily lives.”

Therefore, it ends up covering our planet and being ingested by a huge number of marine species, many of which die as a result.

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Nitrates and nitrites are used in the processing of meat to provide the color and taste we’ve all grown accustomed to in our dogs. They’re also used to kill bacteria and prevent botulism. Conventional hot dogs use sodium nitrite, the synthetic version of the additive, while natural and organic versions use celery powder or celery juice to preserve their product. But in fact both have healthy doses of nitrate, according to The New York Times.

The New York Times reports:

A study published earlier this year in The Journal of Food Protection found that natural hot dogs had anywhere from one-half to 10 times the amount of nitrite that conventional hot dogs contained. Natural bacon had from about a third as much nitrite as a conventional brand to more than twice as much.

Current labeling standards require products that use the non-synthetic source of nitrites and nitrates to say “Uncured” or “No nitrates or nitrites added,” when products are cured and nitrites and nitrates are added, just from a natural source. In fact, food manufacturers are pushing for more clear food labeling rather than the USDA, in order to clear the confusion with consumers.

Again The New York Times:

Applegate and other natural companies have proposed alternate wording to the U.S.D.A. in the past without success. They say they are confident their products offer enough other benefits — all natural ingredients, meeting the standards for the humane treatment of animals, for example — that it is best to be upfront with consumers about the preservatives. Ms. Boardman said tests showed the amount of nitrite and nitrate in Applegate products was similar to conventional brands.

Whether organic or not, processed meats should not be a regular part of your diet. In fact, studies have shown that they endanger your health. This holiday weekend why not consider grilling healthier like this grilled romaine, grilled tomato and eggplant, or Cambodian grilled corn? Tasty eats that are free of dangerous additives. Cheers to that.

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A new extensive study outlined the best and worst foods for a healthy body weight. Potato chips, it turns out are the worst food for weight gain causing more gain per serving than any other food. Yogurt led to the least weight gain. The authors of the study dispute the advice that staying lean is really just a matter of eating less and exercising more, stating that this notion alone could be naïve.

“For diet, conventional wisdom often recommends ‘everything in moderation,’ with a focus only on total calories consumed,” says Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, an associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and lead author of the study. “Our results demonstrate that the quality of the diet — the types of food and beverages that one consumes — is strongly linked to weight gain.”

According to Time’s Healthland:

For each extra serving of potato chips eaten in a day, for instance, people gained 1.69 lbs. every four years, the study showed. Among the other extra-fattening foods it highlighted: potatoes of any kind — baked, boiled, mashed or French fried, each extra serving was associated with an average 1.28-lb. weight gain (looked at separately, however, French fries were particularly unhealthy, linked with more than 3 lbs. of gain alone). Rounding out the top five most fattening foods were sugar-sweetened beverages, red meat and processed red meat, each associated with about 1 lb. of weight gain every four years.

Refined sugars and white flours had a similar impact on weight overtime. The findings were based on three different studies following over 400,000 people.

High quality vegetarian foods like fruits, vegetables, and whole grains led to the least weight gain. Other factors including watching too much television, sleep, inactivity, and alcohol consumption not surprisingly also impacted weight gain over the years.

Science is proving not surprisingly that eating a diet loaded with unprocessed foods overtime impacts weight gain in a positive light not just calorie control. The less processed, the less impact on the planet as well. And if you want to enjoy a diet rich in fruits, veggies, and high quality dairy, choose one that’s sourced close to home. You’ll find your local bounty tastes SO much better and fewer fossil fuels were wasted in transport.

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According to Diane Feinstein (D-CA), the primary sponsor for PAMTA, reported on Civil Eats. “[t]he effectiveness of antibiotics for humans is jeopardized when they are used to fatten healthy pigs or speed the growth of chickens. This is a basic food safety initiative that would phase out the misuse of these drugs so that food in supermarkets across America will not spread strains of drug-resistant bacteria.”

The Federal Register outlined how the sub therapeutic use of antibiotics actually causes resistance:

Misuse and overuse of antimicrobial drugs creates selective evolutionary pressure that enables antimicrobial resistant bacteria to increase in numbers more rapidly than antimicrobial susceptible bacteria and thus increases the opportunity for individuals to become infected by resistant bacteria.

According to the FDA, 80 percent of the antibiotics produced in this country are used in animal agriculture. This amount is estimated to be more than four times the amount of drugs used to treat human illness.

The bill, which Senators Susan Collins (R-ME), Jack Reed (D-RI), and Barbara Boxer (D-CA), all have worked together on was outlined by Civil Eats and does the following:

• Phases out the non-therapeutic use of medically important antibiotics in livestock;

• Requires new applications for animal antibiotics to demonstrate the use of the antibiotic will not endanger public health;

• Does not restrict the use of antibiotics to treat sick livestock or to treat pets.

“PAMTA will limit the agricultural use of seven types of antibiotics that have been identified by the Food and Drug Administration as critically important in human medicine to ensure that antibiotic-resistance is not inadvertently accelerated,” according to Feinstein’s office.

Let’s hope that this time it gets some traction.

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The FDA, according to Reuters and seen on MNN, [found] ‘significant violations of the Current Good Manufacturing Practice regulations for food manufacturers.’

The FDA had stern words for Kellogg:

[It was] determined that the foods manufactured at your facility are adulterated … in that they have been prepared, packed, or held under insanitary conditions whereby they may have become contaminated with filth, or whereby they may have been rendered injurious to health.

Kellogg vowed to clean up its act. The FDA is giving the food manufacturer 15 days to outline a plan to fix the problem. In 2010 an inspection at the Augusta plant cited problems with food storage.

Listeria Defined
I wrote about listeria last year when it caused 5 deaths at a Texas Food Factory. Listeriosis is an infection caused by eating food contaminated with the bacteria. The disease affects those with weakened immune systems including the elderly, pregnant women, newborns, and adults with weakened immune systems. In the United States, an estimated 2,500 persons become seriously ill with listeriosis each year. Of these, 500 die, according to the CDC.

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More on Listeria
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