The Most Outrageous Fast Foods Ever

by Eve Solomon (Huffington Post)

Here at HuffPost Green, we think that fast food often embodies what's wrong with how America eats: it's fast, cheap, and easy. Today's concerns about obesity and sustainability is causing many fast food restaurants to at least offer some lower calorie and "healthier" options. Despite the trends, the fast food and chain restaurant industries still boast an abundance of highly-processed high calorie foods and factory-farmed meat. Whether you eat at McDonald's daily or refuse to touch the stuff, check out this slideshow of some of the most extravagant fast foods past and present. From a 4-patty burger to the cheesiest of cheese fries, Huffpost Green explores some of the heaviest food options out there.

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The Story of Cap & Trade

The Story of Cap & Trade is a fast-paced, fact-filled look at the leading climate solution being discussed at Copenhagen and on Capitol Hill.

Host Annie Leonard introduces the energy traders and Wall Street financiers at the heart of this scheme and reveals the "devils in the details" in current cap and trade proposals: free permits to big polluters, fake offsets and distraction from what’s really required to tackle the climate crisis. If you’ve heard about cap and trade, but aren’t sure how it works (or who benefits), this is the film is for you.

The Priciest Foods Ever...And Why Expensive Foods Cost so Much

by Eve Solomon

It's amazing the delicacies nature can produce, and what's even more amazing is how much humans will pay to eat them! Some of the most expensive foods are also the most ridiculous. From pooped-out coffee beans to moose milk cheese, HuffPost Green thought we'd take a look at some of the priciest foods, and find out why they cost so much.

(Follow the link in the headline to see the expensive food slide show at Huffingtonpost.com)

ClimateGate: The 7 Biggest Lies about the Supposed "Global Warming Hoax"

by Katherine Goldstein

A few weeks ago, hackers broke into the emails of one of the Climate Research Unit of The University of East Anglia, and climate skeptics have been having a field day making mountains out of molehills about what the emails contain. The verdict on global warming is in -- it's caused by humans and it is happening and nothing in the emails remotely challenges that. However, with the internet abuzz about what has been labeled "ClimateGate," we thought we should set the record straight about the rumors, lies and insinuations about what the emails actually contain -- and what they "prove" about climate change.

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College's too-fat-to-graduate rule under fire

By Elizabeth Landau, CNN
cnnAuthor = "By Elizabeth Landau, CNN";

Obesity increases a person's risk of heart disease, type II diabetes, stroke, some cancers and other ailments.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Students must pass BMI test in order to place out of fitness class at Lincoln University
Lincoln is a historically black college in Oxford, Pennsylvania
Department head defends the policy; legal expert says the requirement is excessive
African-Americans were 1.4 times as likely to be obese as non-Hispanic whites in 2007
(CNN) -- Most college students expect to receive their diplomas on the basis of grades, but at a Pennsylvania school, physical fitness matters too.
Students at Lincoln University with a body mass index of 30 or above, reflective of obesity, must take a fitness course that meets three hours per week. Those who are assigned to the class but do not complete it cannot graduate.

Child fitness levels 'overestimated' by parents

Parents have big misconceptions about the amount of exercise their children do, the British Heart Foundation says.
It says 71% of nearly 1,000 parents polled think their children are "active enough" but only 10% of their children say they do the recommended amount.
The charity says parents need to take the "blinkers off" about how active their children are to prevent obesity.
The National Obesity Forum urged local councils to improve the quality and range of affordable sports facilities.

Food blamed for teen obesity

Added On November 17, 2009
With all the talk about lowering health care costs, prescription prices are skyrocketing. CNN's Alina Cho reports.

Scientists develop rot-proof apple that stays fresh for 4 months

by Colin Dunn

Scientists in Australia have developed an apple that won't rot. Or, won't rot for a long, long time. The delicious-sounding RS103-130 apple is a rare cross-breed 20 years in the making, cooked up by researchers at Australia's Queensland Primary Industries and Fisheries. They claim the shiny red apples will stay fresh, delicious, and crispy for four months. But, wait; aren't things like apples supposed to rot?

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Michelle Obama visits Sesame Street

Raw milk debate heats up in the Dairy State

By Joe Orso
November 9, 2009
From: The La Crosse Tribune


Vince Hundt, local dairy farmer, spoke about the raw milk debate like this:

Right now, with approval from the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, it is legal to buy vodka, cigarettes, drugs with warnings of side effects that include death, and a 12-gauge shotgun.

On the other hand, milk that comes straight from the teat of a cow (aka, unpasteurized milk) is not legal, or at least less legal, to sell.

"Right now, because DATCP says it is a threat to my health, I cannot drive out into the country and buy a gallon of milk from a farmer," said Hundt at a Friday afternoon meeting of about 60 raw milk supporters and state Sen. Dan Kapanke.

For those new to the issue, selling unpasteurized milk is illegal in Wisconsin. But for about a decade, with DATCP's blessing, some dairy farmers have sold their raw milk directly to people who have bought a share in the cow, and later in the farm, thus becoming part-owners.

The Localvore's Dilemma

Note: This is an old article, but the term that it describes is new to me, which is why it caught my interest.

By Drake Bennett
July 22, 2007
From: The Boston Globe

AT VARIOUS POINTS in the coming months, a few hundred of Vermont's most ethical eaters will take the "Localvore Challenge." The actual dates of the challenge vary from town to town, but the idea is that, for a single meal, or a day, or an entire week, participants will eat only food that was grown or raised within 100 miles of where they live.

Vermont's localvores (also known as "locavores" or "locatarians") and their counterparts around the country are part of a burgeoning movement. In recent years, as large companies with globe-straddling supply networks have come to dominate organic agriculture, "local" has emerged as the new watchword of conscientious consumption. Over the past year and a half, the interest in local food has been fueled by best-selling memoirs and manifestos about local eating and dietary self-sufficiency, such as Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle," Bill McKibben's "Deep Economy," and Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma."

Winter Farmers' Market Offers Fresh, Local Food All Year

While the weather outside might be frightful, it only makes a winter farmers’ market all the more delightful. Farmers’ markets, traditionally held in more temperate months, are known for their fresh, delicious produce, baked goods and crafts. The festivity and camaraderie between farmers, crafters, artisans and their customers actually may draw more people to a farmers’ market than the fresh food does. But cold months tend to put the kibosh on such markets in areas where the thermometer dips below freezing. There is hope though.

Food Lobby Mobilizes, As Soda Tax Bubbles Up

By Christine Spolar, Huffington Post Investigative Fund and Joseph Eaton, Staff Writer, Center for Public Integrity

Washington lobbyists have been enjoying a multi-million-dollar sugar rush from the food industry.

Soft drink makers, supermarket companies, agriculture and the fast-food business have poured millions into campaigning against what they fear could be a burgeoning national movement to raise money for health care reform by taxing sweetened beverages.

During the first nine months of 2009, the industry groups stepped up their lobbying in Congress. They have spent more than $24 million on the issue of a national excise tax on sweetened beverages and on other legislative and regulatory issues, according to an examination of lobbying reports filed with the Senate Office of Public Records. The review shows that 21 companies and organizations reported that they lobbied specifically on the proposed tax on sugar-sweetened beverages - which among other things would include sodas, juice drinks and chocolate milk.

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Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/04/soda-tax-mobilizes-food-l_n_345840.html

Tests Find Wide Range of Bisphenol A in Canned Soups, Juice, and More

by Naomi Starkman

Consumer Reports’ latest tests of canned foods, including soups, juice, tuna, and green beans, have found that almost all of the 19 name-brand foods tested contain measurable levels of Bisphenol A (BPA). The results are reported in the December 2009 issue and also available online. BPA, which has been used for years in clear plastic bottles and food-can liners, has been restricted in Canada and some U.S. states and municipalities because it has been linked to a wide array of health effects including reproductive abnormalities, heightened risk of breast and prostate cancers, diabetes, and heart disease.

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Al Gore explains how call for climate change action is similar to civil rights movement

The push for government action on climate change is like the US civil rights movement, according to former Vice President Al Gore. Both causes depended on and depend on a grassroots call to change.

Gore talked about those similarities during webcast interview with Katie Couric about his new book Our Choice, his follow-up to the film about global warming An Inconvenient Truth.

Couric referred to Gore as the "Godfather of Green" before beginning the 32-minute interview. Gore touched on the the moral issues surrounding inaction on climate change as well as cap and trade legislation specifics.

(click link in headline to watch video on Huffington Post)

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/02/al-gore-explains-how-call_n_343170.html

How Posted Calories Affect Food Orders

Just a few weeks ago, independent researchers reported that New York City’s ground-breaking calorie labeling law had had absolutely no effect on the caloric content of meals bought at chain restaurants in poor neighborhoods. Last week, city health officials delivered a more upbeat assessment, saying New Yorkers ordered fewer calories at four chains — Au Bon Pain, KFC, McDonald’s and Starbucks — after the law went into effect last year.
The changes reported by the city health department’s preliminary data were modest, indicating little change either way in the number of calories bought at 8 of 13 chains surveyed, and a significant increase in calories ordered at Subway, which researchers attributed to a continuing $5 promotional special on footlong sandwiches that has tripled demand for them.
Although the findings of the two reports appear to contradict one another, researchers said differences in focus and size might explain the discrepancies.

Debate flares on limits of nature and commerce in National Parks

Furor over a lease to harvest oysters at the Point Reyes National Seashore, as told in this New York Times article, has also drawn in partisans across the country. Playing into an old debate, the question is raised: Are the national parks primarily for preserving untouched wilderness, or for preserving the historic human imprint on the land, too?

Baloney Science On The Perils Of Meat

By David Becker
From The Huffington Post

More bad news for red and processed meat. Linked to cancer again! Call in the Department of Homeland security and the nation’s top scientists.

Meat has a terrible reputation already, so why not pile on?

But the recent study in the American Journal of Epidemiology Nov 1, which found “associated risks” for prostate cancer with red and processed meat, is stretching for a headline rather than for some truth we can sink our teeth into.

This grinning gourd is a healthful food in disguise

By Ellen. S. Wilkowe
Fom The Daily Record

You've picked, carved, painted and perfected your pumpkin to your heart's content. Now, what about your stomach?

Before tossing out those seeds and flesh, consider packing pumpkin into your next snack, meal or dessert. With its sweet and starchy innards — think soups and breads — and toast-worthy seeds, pumpkins are as edible as they are carve-able.

How to post your demo speech video to your blog

Have you ever wondered how to upload a video of your demonstration speech to your LSC 100 blog? Look no further than this helpful (and fun!) tutorial. Soon, uploading your video will be as easy as G.L.O.C.U.P.!

You will be required to include your video in a blog post in which you will critique your own performance. For details of the self-evaluation assignment, see instructions given in class.

Copyright 2009, LSC100 Productions