Food System
FoodCorps & Thrive Market: Helping Kids Access Food Education & Nourishing School Meals
Food insecurity and lack of access is seldom visible quite as clearly as it is in public schools. While some students bring nourishing, nutritious lunches from home, many students — particularly those in low-income areas — face disproportionate barriers when it comes to accessing healthy foods. FoodCorps understands that children need nutritious food in order ...
A Major Mission Milestone: Thrive Market Now Accepts SNAP EBT
300,000 signatures, one trip to Congress, and almost a decade later, Thrive Market is now proud to accept SNAP EBT. We’re the first online-only retailer to reach this milestone, making it that much easier for millions of families across the country to access the healthy food they need. Today’s announcement is a significant step toward ...
Author Esha Chhabra’s Advice for Becoming a More Conscious Consumer
What is the cost of consumption? It’s a question Esha Chhabra thinks of often. Chhabra is a writer and journalist focused on global development, the environment, and business, particularly the way the three work together and influence one another. Whether it’s the food, clothing, and personal care products we need or the nice-to-haves, everything we ...
How FoodCycle LA and Thrive Market are Feeding People, Not Landfills
More than 100 billion pounds of food is wasted in the United States every year. It ends up in landfills, where it’s a major contributor to climate change. Meanwhile, 45 million people in the U.S.—particularly single parents and the BIPOC community—lack access to healthy food. What if you could begin to solve both problems at ...
Healthy Living For All: Our $10M Pledge to End Food Inequality
Fast food chains abound on the military base in the Mojave Desert where My lives with her husband and twin toddlers, but grocery stores that stock healthy items are hours away. Susan struggles to afford the groceries she needs on just $170 of government assistance per month. For Rachael, finding the gluten-free products that are ...
What Does “Natural” Mean On Food Labels?
Although many supermarket staples can contain preservatives and chemical ingredients, there’s also a good selection that’s nutritious and natural. But—what does “natural” mean, exactly?
The Food Pyramid: Changing with the Times
The colorful Food Pyramid used to be everywhere, from the backs of cereal boxes to packages of crackers.
What Is Sustainable Farming?
Sustainable farming is a growing movement that promotes the production of food, such as crops and animal products, through various farming techniques. These methods are used to support small family farms that raise healthy crops and livestock, protect the environment, stimulate local economies, and provide better health opportunities for consumers. In order to fully understand ...
What Is Compost?
According to the National Resources Defense Council, Americans throw away 40 percent of the food that is annually produced in the United States.
One in Five Children in the U.S. Is Food Insecure, Study Shows
When you think about hunger, what comes to mind? Is it the East African child with flies buzzing around her head? The rural Indian family living on a few dollars a day?
New Antibiotic-Resistant Gene Found in Pigs: Another Reason to Go Organic?
Could a bite of a fatty, tasty pork chop or juicy carnitas alter the body’s resistance to critical life-saving antibiotics? According to new research out of China, yes. Authors of a recent study in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases were looking for antibiotic resistance in the E. coli that reside in the guts of food animals. ...
Why One Research University Gave $1 Million Back to Coca-Cola
Are Big Soda’s tricks not working as well as they used to? With Americans drinking way less full-calorie soda than they used to—a 25 percent decrease since the late 1990s—Coke smartly turned to academia to drum up some research to try and stop the hemorrhaging.
Sugar, Salt, and Fat: Why We Just Can’t Quit Junk Food
Did you know that Coca Cola calls its most loyal fan base “heavy users?” If this somewhat derogatory term evokes images of kids strung out on sugar chugging a can of Coke, that exact scenario is just what Big Food corporations are banking on.
All The Signs Are Clear: It’s Time to Reconsider Factory-Farmed Meat
Are industrial meat’s chickens finally coming to roost? It certainly looks that way.
Can Urban Farming Revitalize Detroit’s Lower East Side?
The Great Recession was tougher on some cities than others. Take Detroit, for instance.
Composting 101: Green Your Garden and Minimize Food Waste All At Once
“The worms go crazy“,Cassie Martinez laughs. “And kids are obsessed.”
The Simple Reason Junk Food Is So Cheap
Hate paying taxes every year? Trade in your suit and tie for a pair of overalls. Instead of handing over part of your hard-earned paycheck every April, you could get a handsome sum of money from the government if you become a corn farmer.
More Proof That The Western Diet Is A Global Problem
Amid the glowing Shanghai signs advertising traditional hot noodles and dumplings, the mega-city’s residents are increasingly likely to see Colonel Sanders smiling down, beckoning them with his 11 herbs and spices.
How Industrial Farming Is Killing the Planet
Ever wonder why you can get a 99-cent bag of some brands of chips at the gas station, but grabbing some chips for your guac at the health food store costs a little more?
New American Dietary Guidelines Omit One Key Factor
Like death and taxes, here’s another certainty: fiery debates every five years over what should be included in the federal dietary guidelines. We’re also certain to hear the backlash from all sides when their pet issues don’t make it into the final draft—which is where we’re at now.
Old MacDonald? That’s Mrs. MacDonald These Days
If your idea of American agriculture is American Gothic—the classic painting of a farmer, his wife, and a pitchfork—it’s time to think again. These days, it might be more accurate to paint an image of a farmer and her husband.
Americans Are Buying So Much Organic Food That We’re Running Out
If you’re looking for proof that, increasingly, American consumers are growing tired of questionable, chemical-soaked food, look no further than the results of the 2014 organic survey, just released by the United States Department of Agriculture.
Who’s Eating Junk Food? Probably Not Who You Think
One of the loudest arguments for restaurants and food companies to improve the nutritional quality of their offerings goes something like this: The artificially low cost of junk foods make them especially attractive to low-income Americans, who eat worse than those in the middle and upper classes.
Final Answer: Here’s What’s Wiping Out Our Bees
The buzz around bees is turning into a roar.