Fresh off her much-applauded announcement of important changes to the government-subsidized school lunch program, Michelle Obama has been sweeping the nation promoting the second anniversary of “Let’s Move” by judging an elementary school cooking challenge with Top Chefs, dancing the Platypus Walk at Disney Orlando, and doing push ups with Ellen DeGeneres. It’s uplifting to . . . read more »
It’s hard to find a pantry or refrigerator anywhere that doesn’t contain food that wasn’t grown, formulated with or fed a GMO (genetically modified organism). And that freaks a lot people out. In short, GMO is a laboratory process of taking genes from one species and inserting them into another in an attempt to obtain . . . read more »
Last night I was perusing Loss-Adjusted Food Availability spreadsheets available on the USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) website (I know, get a life). Despite the boring title, the data is quite interesting as it provides per capita food availability in the U.S., adjusted for food spoilage, plate waste, “other” losses, and what we export and . . . read more »
Abstract Archaeological research in the northern Tucson Basin over the last two decades has confirmed that species of the genus Agave were cultivated in extensive agricultural fields marked by the presence of rock piles, terraces, and check dams. Researchers estimate that ~ 10,000 agaves were harvested annually from a standing population of greater than 100,000 cultivated . . . read more »
Jeff D. Leach1, Glenn R Gibson2, and Jan Van Loo3 1 Paleobiotics Lab, USA, 2The University of Reading, UK, 3Orafti, Belgium Abstract Modern studies of prebiotic non digestible carbohydrates continue to expand and demonstrate their colonic and systemic benefits. However, virtually nothing is known of their use among ancient populations. In this paper we discuss evidence for prebiotic use . . . read more »
Modern humans are the latest in a diverse line of species within the genus Homo that evolved on a nutritional landscape very different from the one we find ourselves on today. During the ~ 2.5 million years since the first member of our genus made an appearance in the fossil record, humans subsisted on an . . . read more »
