What Do International Trade Agreements Have to Do With Dinner?
International trade agreements may seem like a long way from what you’re making for dinner. But the two agreements on the table this spring — the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic...
View ArticleFrom Soup to Fries: Amy’s Joins the “Clean” Fast Food Club
In two weeks, an organic farmer at an undisclosed California potato patch will harvest the first crop of potatoes destined for the fryer in the kitchen at the soon-to-launch Amy’s Drive Thru restaurant...
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How Buying Smaller Fruit Could Save California’s Drought-Stricken Family Farms
Second-generation organic peach grower David “Mas” Masumoto describes the difference between a farming disaster and a crisis this way: A disaster is when he harvests nothing, while a crisis is when...
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Searching for Food You Can Believe in? Eat Well Guide’s New App Has You Covered
It’s almost impossible to remember Life Before Yelp–that far away time when finding a nearby restaurant or shop required a travel guide, phone book, or recommendation from a friend. Now it’s easy to...
View ArticleIs Your Grass-Fed Beef for Real? Here’s How to Tell and Why it Matters
When you buy a pound of hamburger in the grocery store, you’re likely to be bombarded by an incredible assortment of labels. With all-natural, grass-fed, free-range, pastured, sustainably sourced, and...
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Dinner by the Numbers: How Do Meal Kits Stack Up?
Putting food on the table on a busy weeknight is a universal problem. Now, a horde of new, sleek, venture capital-funded services has arrived on the market peddling what they think is a solution: kits...
View ArticleGoodbye Tipping, Hello Living Wage: The Changing Face of Progressive Restaurants
A new message appearing at the top of the menu at Camino, a high-end restaurant in Oakland, California, declares the end of an age-old American practice. “No more tips!” it reads. “Our prices now...
View ArticleAre ‘Superfoods’ Over?
Over the past decade, blueberries have become big business in the U.S. In 1998, the Oregon blueberry harvest was 17 million pounds. By 2013, blueberry production had catapulted to 90 million pounds, on...
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Josephine Wants to Bring the Sharing Economy to Your Kitchen
On a Wednesday afternoon in late July, I sat in a stranger’s kitchen dipping a crispy papadum into a bowl of homemade lentil soup. No, I don’t burst into people’s houses, Goldilocks-style, demanding...
View ArticleBig Food is Spending Millions to Lobby for Less Transparency
By all accounts, Americans want a more transparent food system. Recent polling suggests the majority of Americans favor labeling that tells them exactly how and where their food is produced. And yet,...
View ArticleWhy Food Belongs in Our Discussions of Race
In the wake of the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, after the death of Michael Brown, the Baltimore uprising after the death of Freddie Gray, and the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement, much has...
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Former Black Panther Launches Oakland Urban Farm to Give Ex-Prisoners a Fresh...
Elaine Brown is no stranger to radical ideas. The 72-year-old former chairwoman of the Black Panther Party has long advocated on behalf of prisoners. Now she is determined to transform a once-blighted...
View ArticleMajoring in Food: Colleges Offering More Courses, Degrees
When professor Jennifer Otten stands in front of her first classes this Fall, she’ll see a student in every seat and know that the names of dozens more fill a waiting list. Each of the undergraduate...
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Is Millet the Next Super Grain?
When scientists Amrita Hazra and Patricia Bubner arrived in Berkeley, California a few years back to do post-doctoral science at the University of California, they bonded over what they saw as an...
View ArticleGMO Salmon is Coming to a Store Near You. Will You Know When it Arrives?
Late last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved AquAdvantage salmon—the first edible genetically engineered animal to earn such an approval. The salmon, produced by AquaBounty...
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What You Need to Know About Artificial Food Coloring Phase-Outs
Artificial colors are so last year. Or that’s what the recent announcement from Mars, Inc.—the maker of colorful candy brands such as M&Ms, LifeSavers, and Skittles—suggests. With it, Mars joined a...
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How Small Grocers are Banding Together to Change Food Retail For the Good
At a time when the food retail business is controlled by a handful a large chains, independent grocers are few and far between. But that’s only part of what makes Sam Mogannam, founder of San...
View ArticleA Local Grain Economy Comes to Life in California
When it comes to buying a local loaf of bread, most food conscious consumers find that supporting a small neighborhood bakery fits the criteria just fine. But for longtime restaurateur Bob Klein, the...
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Mobile Pantries Get Fresh Food to Where People Need It Most
School is letting out, and the back parking lot of Laurel Elementary School in East Oakland bustles with activity. As children stream out of the building, many join their parents and caregivers in line...
View ArticleThe Perennial Plate: A Vegetarian-Turned-Rancher Shares Her Story
The first film from Season 4 of The Perennial Plate web documentary series about sustainable food takes place in Del Norte, Colorado. It follows Keri Brandt, a former vegetarian and associate...
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