Tag archives for food
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Guests at the upscale Harney Sushi in San Diego now get a little something extra with their fresh tuna and crab rolls: edible QR (quick response) codes. When scanned with a smart phone or tablet, the codes take users to the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) FishWatch website, where they can learn about the sustainability of the seafood they…
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By Andreas Merkl, President, Ocean Conservancy Smart fisheries management is a great place to start a conversation about putting the ocean at the center of the world’s biggest challenges. This is because the most profitable type of fishing is sustainable fishing – better management helps fishermen and the ocean at the same time. Sustainable fishing…
Geography in the News: Hot Chocolate
Posted by Neal Lineback of Maps101.com and Maps.com on April 27, 2013 By Neal Lineback and Mandy Lineback Gritzner, Geography in the NewsTM and Maps.com LOVING HOT CHOCOLATE A new type of chocolate came on the market around 2010. Chocolate makers boasted that acticoa, which is packed with antioxidants, slows the aging process and prevents wrinkles. If true, this is even one more reason to eat this…
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It rises in Ethiopia’s Shewa Highlands, and flows for 760 kms through terraced hillsides, volcanic outcrops and fertile grasslands as far as the world’s greatest desert lake, Lake Turkana, in Kenya. The lower valley of the Omo River is believed by some historians to have been a cultural crossroads for thousands of years, where a…
By Alison Barratt of Monterey Bay Aquarium Is it really OK to eat Chilean seabass? For nearly a decade, we’ve been hearing “Take a pass on Chilean Seabass,” that pirates are plundering our oceans to put this fish on our plates. And now the Seafood Watch program at the Monterey Bay Aquarium is saying some of it…
Geography in the News: Breadfruit, Food Source for the Tropics
Posted by Neal Lineback of Maps101.com and Maps.com on February 22, 2013 By Neal Lineback and Mandy Lineback Gritzner, Geography in the NewsTM and Maps.com WHAT IN THE WORLD IS BREADFRUIT? Although obesity is in the news in the West, starvation and malnutrition are prevalent in many parts of the world. Scientists continue to search for new food sources. One of the most promising foods gaining interest…
At Ocean Views, we’ve covered the specter of mis-identified seafood several times. Today, the conservation group Oceana released a new report that brings the issue into even more focus. Oceana collected fish samples from 674 retail outlets in 21 states and used DNA testing to compare those products against U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seafood labeling…
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Why would members of remote tribal communities, heads of state, Nobel Laureates, local activists, scientists, artists, and people like you plan to travel to Salamanca Spain? The l0th World Wilderness Congress will convene there on October 4 involving a great diversity of people, professions and activists who understand the importance of wild nature to…
Kua o ka ‘La ——— the syllables roll off the tongue as only the Hawaiian language can, like the white crested waves rolling up the black sand volcanic beaches. Literally it means “back of the sun”. This unique event occurred within the sound of the surf where the school depends on the sun! This environmental…
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In his new book, The Origin of Feces, David Waltner Toews does the dirty work of showing that poop is part of our daily lives—from food to health to sustainability.
I was in the Congo a few months before this tragedy in association with The Frankfort Zoological Society which was awarded a $3.42 million grant from the European Union. We were tasked with writing a Master Plan for the recovery of The Kundelungu and Upemba National Parks devastated by war and corruption. Upemba, where Atamato…
Why Hot Chocolate Looks Better in an Orange Cup
Posted by Suzan Eaton on January 10, 2013 
What’s the trick to making a truly satisfying hot chocolate? It may be less about the ingredients you use and more about which mug you use to drink it.
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Food innovation happens with everything we eat. Why don’t we ever hear about it?
Grabbing at Solutions: Water for the Hungry First
Posted by Sandra Postel of National Geographic's Freshwater Initiative in Water Currents on December 14, 2012 
A spontaneous, largely under-the-radar blue revolution is gaining steam in sub-Saharan Africa and has the potential to boost food security and incomes for tens of millions of the region’s poorest inhabitants.
Small-scale irrigation techniques with simple buckets, affordable pumps, drip lines, and other equipment are enabling farm families to weather dry seasons, raise yields, diversify their crops, and lift themselves out of poverty.
But unless African governments and foreign interests lend support to these farmer-driven initiatives, rather than undermine them through land and water deals that benefit large-scale, commercial schemes, the best opportunity in decades for societal advancement in the region will be squandered.
Posted by Reports from the wildlife trade monitoring organization Traffic, African media outlets, and scholarly researchers point to well-developed trade in pangolins from African source countries to China.
According to a recent report on ABC’s 20/20, Americans consumed more than 4.7 billion pounds of fish last year. “But an ABC News investigation reveals consumers don’t often get what they pay for,” said the report. (Note that the fish part starts at 3:42 in the above video.) The program went on to explain that…
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As the East Coast begins to spring back to life, there is another disaster waiting to befall us in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. As the storm bore down on the coast, farmers and fishermen scrambled to bring in one last haul before the tempest struck. Farmers were at very nearly the end of…
The floating barges, whole fish on display, and motley assortment of attendants give my favorite seafood market the look and feel of an era lost, or at least of a foreign shore that still remembers where seafood comes from. I like shopping here because the vast majority of the product is from local waters, and…
Heated Discussion about Energy in Second Presidential Debate, but No Mention of Climate
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on October 18, 2012 Next to jobs and the economy, the National Journal reports, no other issue has dominated this year’s election as much as energy because it’s a proxy for many other things (subscription). “Energy has not been this big an issue in a presidential campaign since the tumultuous years of the 1970s,” when the Arab oil embargo raised gasoline prices and had…
Can National Happiness Survive on an Organic Diet?
Posted by Dan Klotz on October 18, 2012 
The small kingdom of Bhutan is known for establishing the “gross national happiness” tool, a “multidimensional measurement” that looks at its citizens’ quality of life and well-being. Lately, it has been making waves for its government’s ambition to become the first 100% organic country in the world. Its only competition? The Pacific Island of…
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The oceans (or the ocean, singular; depending on your perspective), are (is) big. To paraphrase Douglas Adams’s Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, “You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is” (Mr. Adams was actually referring to the universe, but seeing as we can swim, dive, and fish in the ocean, but –…
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Nobody likes bad news, and this is enough to make an ocean lover cry. A new study found that overfishing is worse than previous studies have suggested. What changed to reveal this sad conclusion? New methods allowed scientists to estimate the status of fisheries that were previously “status unknown.” Since these unknown fisheries make up…
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World Water Week—an annual conference in Stockholm dedicated to discussing the management of global water resources—opened Monday with a message about cleaning your plate.
Food waste, according to experts at the conference, accounts for significant water waste.
A third to a half of all food grown globally either sits untouched on our plates or rots before it even gets there. A new report from the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) states that 40 percent of food purchased in the U.S. is thrown away. And a new documentary called Taste the Waste highlights the problem. Watch the trailer.
Twenty years ago, a single sockeye salmon traveled 900 miles up the Columbia and Snake Rivers. It was an epic journey; travelling against the current the fish climbed more than 6,500 feet in elevation and up the “fish ladders” of eight dams. Bears, eagles, bobcats and other predators tried to grab this fish along the…
For the lucky few get to travel to space, the food isn’t exactly, well, out of this world. Most space cuisine consists of a limited selection of pre-packaged food prepared by adding water—possibly leading to “menu fatigue” that could compromise the crew’s health. Enter the “gastronauts”—a team of scientists with the NASA-funded Hawaii Space Exploration Analogue and Simulation project (HI-SEAS) who are working to develop more appetizing and healthy foods for long-term space travel. Think shrimp paella, curry chicken crepes, and chocolate pudding with raspberries.
