Anastasia has started an interesting discussion over at Biofortified about the food served at the Obamas’ first state dinner, a reception for the visiting Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh.* The dinner was quite light on meat** and included both traditional American and Indian foods. As I said last night on the twitter feed: Anyone [...]
Posts under ‘food’
What is it about purple plants?
I’m really at a loss here, but there’s just something way cooler about eating a purple colored plant over a more regular color. I’m not sure what it is (I’m not particularly partial to the color purple in other contexts). Consider the case of the cauliflower.
Food Stamps Usage
Today 1 in 8 Americans and 1 in 4 children is on food stamps. We have some of the most productive agriculture in the world, which translates into some of the lowest food prices. Any change that decreases our productivity is going to have to include some way to protect those who already don’t have [...]
Happy Thanksgiving!
In recognitions of the huge feasts many of us are or soon will be sitting down to, let us take a moment to think about the very fact that vast range of different foods human beings can eat might be the very reason we out competed other hominids (specifically neaderthals) with more specialized diets. Our [...]
About the herbicide application report that’s floating around
The Organic Center released a report about the effects of two genetically engineered traits, herbicide resistance and bt on pesticide usage in the US. I don’t know if their numbers are accurate or not, but assuming they are, I can try put those numbers in context.
Not Genetically Engineered: Watermelon
Seedless watermelons are the occasional target of uninformed prejudice against genetic engineering. They aren’t genetically engineered, but personally I think the method of producing seedless watermelons is even more exciting than just adding a gene.
Bananas: The Original Not-From-Here Fruit
Bananas do not grow in the continental United States, but at the same time they’re the cheapest and most eaten fresh fruit and are available year-round. Click through for more (including a picture of Musa basjoo, the hardy banana plant). This post doesn’t touch on the biology of bananas, I will cover that tomorrow unless it is displaced by braking news.
Spoiled with Perfect Produce
Matt over at The Scientist Gardener put up an important post a couple of days ago where he related his own experiences touring a lettuce field: The crop wasn’t in great shape, but we anticipated a decent harvest. We were shocked to learn that the field had already been harvested! Hundreds of perfectly edible heads lay all [...]
Potato Breeding
A lot of people may not share my enthusiasm for the potato genome, hopefully you all enjoy eating potatoes. The stereotype of potatoes is lots of boring sameness one identical to the next.* Reality, as usual, is much more complicated. Tens of thousands of cultivars can still be found in the South American regions where [...]