Food

While purpose-driven organizations can't be manufactured and must be rooted in authenticity, there are tools to help define an organizational purpose. In our view, there could be no better sector suited for purpose-driven planning than agriculture. After all, food - healthy and sustainable food - is the foundation not only for health and wellness, but also for allowing people and societies at large to thrive. Add to that a growing food culture, and the opportunity is ripe for purpose-driven food and agriculture organizations. [node:read-more:link]

Penn State researchers have found that eggs from small flocks of chickens are more likely to be contaminated with Salmonella enteritidis than eggs sold in grocery stores, which typically come from larger flocks.  That conclusion was drawn from a six-month study done last year in Pennsylvania. Researchers from Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences collected and tested more than 6,000 eggs from more than 200 selling points across the state for the study. [node:read-more:link]

For some, there's a a glam factor attached to the vegan lifestyle. And these days, there seems to be a growing chorus singing the praises of the environmental and health benefits of a plant-centric diet.  Perhaps nowhere is the embrace of a vegetarian diet more on display than in Berlin, Germany, dubbed a global vegan mecca for its growing array of restaurants (think: vegan kebabs, pizza and ice cream) as well as vegan street festivals — and even a vegan butcher. [node:read-more:link]

There is no doubt in my mind that television advertising has contributed to the gap between consumers and the source of their food.  The primary reason is that showing a steer to sell steaks is not a great marketing strategy.  Most commercials for meat products don’t use live animals but when they do it is usually a cartoonish approach.  Only occasionally do we see realistic videos or photos of live animals.  We know that humor will get a commercial watched.  The latest Perdue commercials use humor after a serious message while Sanderson uses humor to present the serious message.  I have no [node:read-more:link]

The recent discovery of documents that the sugar industry paid scientists to blame saturated fat for promoting heart disease appears to vindicate the findings of an independent author who found that eating meat, butter and cheese may not be completely to blame for human heart illness. [node:read-more:link]

This study reviews microbial hazards and risks in the U.S. meat and poultry supply that have emerged, are emerging, or that evidence suggests may emerge in the future. [node:read-more:link]

The Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program provides 4 million low-income elementary students in 8,000 schools with a fresh fruit or vegetable snack every day at school. [node:read-more:link]

Allowing homely fruits and vegetables to compost in the field has some benefits, but many of Connecticut’s 6,000 farms are choosing to process sub-standard produce into wine, jellies and pickeled goods, in addition to donating leftovers to food banks. “We’ll take ugly fruit, there’s nothing wrong with it,” James Arena-DeRosa, president and CEO of Foodshare, told students. Foodshare moves over six million pounds of donated shelf stable and perishable food into Connecticut communities every year, Arena-DeRosa said. [node:read-more:link]

The United States must embrace on-farm pathogen monitoring by regulators as part of its strategy to prevent foodborne illnesses, Pew Charitable Trusts argues. Scores of sickness-causing microbes - including new strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria - could arise undetected unless regulators have greater access to farms and feedlots, enabling scientists to better understand how pathogens evolve, Pew says in its report. [node:read-more:link]

It turns out that bacteria may transfer to food that has fallen on the floor no matter how fast you pick it up. Rutgers University researchers disproved the widely accepted notion that it's okay to scoop up food and eat it within a "safe" five-second window. Donald Schaffner, Rutgers professor and extension specialist in food science, found that moisture, the type of surface and contact time all contribute to cross-contamination. In some instances, the transfer begins in less than one second. [node:read-more:link]