Your Produce Choices Without Bees, Source: Whole Foods Markets
Making History Mondays is a weekly digest of American food news from the around the web. These are the stories that are changing American foodways and impacting the way we eat.
- CAUSE AND EFFECT: A Whole Foods store demonstrates what the produce section of your grocery store will look like if bees continue to disappear.
- WHICH WHEAT: A class action lawsuit has been filed against mega agricultural corporation Monsanto by a group of farmers in Idaho. Monsanto has been testing Genetically Modified Wheat in Idaho, which isn’t approved for consumption or growing in the United States. It has been found to be taking over non-GMO wheat in fields in Eastern Oregon that weren’t planted with the new wheat, causing panic in the wheat markets. Japan has temporarily suspended wheat imports until the matter has been resolved.
- OL’ McDONALD WAS A LADY?: According to a recently released report from the Department of Agriculture (USDA), the number of women taking up farming as a career has tripled since 1978, making up 14% of the population of farmers in this country.
- MEAT ALTERNATIVES: Why is Bill Gates Investing in Chicken-Less Eggs? Scientists and investors are concerned that the ecosystem will not be able to sustain the current and growing demand for animal-based foods. The global demand for eggs, for example, was 14 million tons in 2000, and is expected to grow to 38 million tons by 2030. High profile investors like Gates are supporting research into alternatives like Beyond Eggs, an egg substitute made of ground peas, sorghum and other ingredients.
- FAD OF 2013: The official food fad of the summer of 2013 has been declared. The winner is the cronut – part donut, part croissant, all good. They can’t make them fast enough in New York, where bags of them are appearing on Craigslist for upwards of $40. We’ve had them here in Minneapolis for a little while, thanks to Angel Food Bakery, who is currently hostin a competition to find a new name since cronut has recently been trademarked.
- MORE CULINARY REVAMPS: Last week I reported that the National Park Service was rolling out new local and sustainable concession menus throughout the park system. Now Amtrak has also hired a culinary team to revamp their onboard dining experience.
