Why Wal-Mart Is Making Our Health Its Problem - "So what's behind
the [healthier-eating] initiative? In a word: scale. In
a recent article in HBR, Chris Meyer and I argued that we'll see companies taking more and more ownership of externalities they could ignore because of changing sensibilities and better sensors (meaning detection and reporting of impacts by third parties). But we also identified a third driver: the scale of modern business. Whereas in the past, a single grocer could not have much impact on society, in today's highly consolidated market, Wal-Mart touches a significant percentage of the nation's food intake. Once you reach a scale where your decisions have ramifications for millions, it is hard to pretend that the impacts, even as distant ripples, are not your problem."
posted by kliuless
on Jan 24, 2011 -
75 comments
Eating local, organic foods
may not be the best option. The
vast majority of greenhouse gas emissions stem from food production, not transportation, and production inputs for organic food are typically higher. Third world countries that have a food system that is organic and local by default are suffering from lack of infrastructure and investment in basic production technologies that could improve nutrition for millions of people.
[more inside]
posted by stinker
on Apr 28, 2010 -
153 comments
Teff, a native Ethiopian grain, has been cultivated there for at least 4,000 years. Its
seeds are smaller than pinheads, and can be easily scattered. Many Ethiopians eat it two to three times a day in
injera bread,
porridge or, of course,
alcohol (pages 3-4). The grain is gluten-free and is full of essential amino acids, calcium, and other vitamins and minerals. It has a
short growing season and tolerance for marginal soils and drought or flood conditions, but its
low comparative yield optimal sunlight conditions, and
labor intensive harvest may limit the spread of the grain.
posted by Pants!
on Jan 6, 2008 -
28 comments
USDA releases new food pyramid(s). Instead of one cogent nutritional guideline for all Americans, the USDA has
released a dozen because "one size doesn't fit all." Dietitians have advocated
revision for a while now but change has been slow. According to author
Marion Nestle, the nutritional guidelines have become
highly politized by industry lobbyists: "My first day on the job, I was given the rules: No matter what the research indicated, the report could not recommend 'eat less meat' as a way to reduce intake of saturated fat." Newspeak for sweets appears to be
discretionary calories; are we doing any better?
posted by fatllama
on Apr 19, 2005 -
29 comments
Interesting info for even the ardent
salad dodgers
(via bifurcated rivets)
posted by johnny7
on Feb 23, 2004 -
9 comments
One of the holy grails of the infosaturated overworking computer professionals like myself is a single food capable of giving all the nutrients you'd need for a meal, and be as easy as possible to prepare and eat. Some friends used to call this dream creation "food paste" or "foodstuff capsules" or most simply "fuel." I never thought my
Jetsonian dream would ever come true, but now there's the
Dilberito, with
100% of 23 vitamins and
Jamba Juice's Smoothies. Why do I mention Jamba? Because I saw
this poster in the SFO airport last night, and they even go so far as to answer the question "
can I get too much Jamba?"
posted by mathowie
on Mar 6, 2000 -
7 comments
