If you love the convenience of Keurig K-cups, but recognize the wastefulness of these, then you might want to check out refillable K-cups like this Ekobrew. The stainless steel construction should help it last a long time, and you can fill it with any of your favorite ground coffees. It can be bought for $17 at Amazon, or there’s also a plastic version available for just over $8.
As you probably heard already, researchers in Europe have managed to grow meat in laboratory conditions, starting out with cow stem cells. They even went a step further and cooked and ate the meat, reporting ho-hum results – the lack of fat was an issue. As my grandfather used to say, “The fat is where the flavor is.” Indeed. So flavor aside, it proved to be a pretty decent substitute, reportedly. The potential here is huge…meat production is widely criticized as not only inhumane, but a significant contributor of greenhouse gas. As the population grows, demand for food will grow with it, so this has the potential to greatly help offset that demand.
What I found really interesting though was a question on FastCompany – Would vegans and vegetarians eat synthetic meat? It’s an interesting conundrum (YES! I’ve been wanting to use that word in a post for a while now). There’s also the aspect of food safety…with concerns like Mad Cow Disease, growth hormones, pink slime, etc, the idea of a tightly controlled lab environment for your food supply has its appeal.
Others are working on the synthetic meat problem too, and with backers such as Sergey Brin, Bill Gates, and Peter Thiel throwing their support at these projects, I think it’s only a matter of ‘when’, not ‘if’, you’ll be ordering a test tube burger at McDonald’s within the next decade.
The power of corporate greed is such that, even after 4-methylimidazole was found to cause cancer, Pepsi continued to ship product containing it. They removed it from product sold in California after a new law requiring labeling of carcinogens, but it’s taken until now for them to commit to removing it nationwide (and even then, not until around the end of 2013). Well, at least they’re finally taking this step. You’re probably still better off sticking with tap water though!
(via smartplanet)
Well I think the title says it all…Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide is really nasty stuff that studies are showing has a link to some really nasty human diseases. Add to that the increased use of crops that have been genetically modified to be roundup-resistant, and you should start being concerned about the safety of your food supply. Do yourself a favor and either buy organic foods, or grow your own vegetables! (read more at The Good Human)
It’s hard enough to avoid GMO foods when there are no laws requiring the labeling of them, but it’s harder once you learn that other common ingredients may be manufactured from GMOs. For example: if you see maltodextrin in the list of a product’s ingredients, know that most of that is made from GMO corn (unless the product is labeled as “USDA Organic”). Vitamin C is another GMO corn product (mostly). Same with ascorbic acid. Will these GMO products cause you harm? That’s the big question, and frankly until the scientific testing has been done to show that a particular GMO crop is safe to eat, it’s best to avoid this stuff (IMHO).
(read more about this at Care2)
The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) and the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) are asking the FDA to allow them to include Aspartame in milk without having to add any labeling indicating that this ingredient has been added. Worse, it would apply to any artificial sweetener. Consumers would have no indication that what they’re drinking may not be pure milk, but have artificial ingredients added. It requires an incredible stretch of the imagination to see how this could be good for consumers, but that is the reality of the food production system that we have created and support in this country.
The government is accepting public comments on this issue through 5/21; follow this link.
For more on this issue, check out this article….it’s long but has a lot of good information in it and is worth reading!
This is one of those stories I find almost too scary to be true…yet I don’t see reason to doubt it. A study by the Biodiversity Research Institute (link) found that 84% of fish have levels of mercury that are unsafe, posing a health risk to humans. So on the one hand, we’re told to eat more fish, it’s good for you…yeah well except for the mercury part of it. 🙁 Relative to other countries, fish in the US tested better, with a bit more than 40% of samples above the recommend mercury levels. Most other countries ranked higher, in the 90+% range. Swordfish and tuna rank as the worst (highest mercury concentrations).
(via CBS News)
China has a well-earned reputation for careless disregard for the safety of their food supply (follow this link for the ‘top 10 food scandals‘, for example). Now with horsemeat concerns in the European food supply, and most recently Ikea meatballs, Ikea wanted to reassure the Chinese that the meatballs served in China are actually made in China, and are not tied to the horsemeat scandal in Europe. Well, it kinda backfired, as it seems even the Chinese are losing faith in their food supply…and would rather have potentially horsemeat-laden meatballs from Europe than domestically produced meatballs. As one person was quoted as saying, “I don’t really care about horse meat. The key point is that if it’s produced in China, it probably has rat meat.” Hard to argue with that, based on recent history.
Could be worse though…when testing for horse DNA in meat pies produced in Iceland, they found the meat pies actually contained no meat. Lol.
Then another food surprise in China…in an effort to maximize profits, some vendors are selling walnuts filled with concrete.
Shown here is a pretty slick concept for an in-home hydroponic garden designed by Hyundai. At this point it’s just a concept, but I’ll admit it has me thinking about designing and building something like this myself. Hydroponics are nothing new, but what this concept does is make it look good, like something you don’t feel the need to hide away in your basement.
(via Treehugger)
Funny video to start your day:
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