• Rapper 50 Cent is suing Taco Bell for messing with his name. [Wall Street Journal]
• A look at the detective work that went into tracking down that nasty jalapeno [AP/Chicago Tribune]
• An Ohio woman charged with assault after throwing peanuts at her allergic neighbor [Fox News]
• Seems a Wisconsin grocery store owner might have been selling stolen fruit [Twincities.com]
• Rising food prices may be a culprit behind the rising crime rate in Manila [GMANews.tv]
• Slow Food is hoping to put on the "Woodstock of food" in San Francisco this Labor Day. [NYT]
• Grocers are now pulling jalapeno peppers from shelves in the next salmonella scare. [LA Times]
• Lack of preparation, poor record-keeping — there are a million things wrong with our food safety system. [WSJ]
• Grocers are adjusting to new consumer spending habits, thanks to inflation. [Star-Tribune]
• A proposed law would ban any new fast-food restaurants from opening in a 32-mile area of Los Angeles. [LA Times]
• Finally! One lone salmonella-tainted pepper has emerged in Texas. But the mystery continues... [Discover/80Beats]
• Poor regulation of Chinese food production has U.S. Olympians worried about what they eat in Beijing. [ABC News]
• L.A. wants to close 400 fast food restaurants in order to save the obese from themselves. [WSJ]
• Food banks take a page from The Book of Ruth, start setting up gleaning programs. [USAToday]
• Want to eat sustainably and locally without actually doing anything? You lazy locavores are not alone! [NYT]
• Global warming is killing the oysters. [Boston Globe]
• Oh good! "Fish Ebola" has been found in Lake Michigan fish. [Washington Post]
• Middle East dilemma: food or water? [New York Times]
• Where is Haiti's promised food aid? [Chicago Tribune]
• Hey! In the midst of a global food crisis, maybe it might be a little tacky to use fish to give yourself a pedicure! [LA Times]
• The FDA has finally lifted the ban on tomatoes. Um, does this mean we shouldn't have been buying them for the past few weeks? [New York Times]
• Jalapeño and serrano peppers, however, are still dangerous. [Chicago Tribune]
• All these food poisoning outbreaks are driving people right to their local farmers' markets. [Washington Post]
• The Pope thinks you're greedy. [Guardian]
• Well, maybe not those of you in the EU who want to start a 1.6 billion fund to combat the global food crisis. [LA Times]
• A big huge study seems to support a low-carb diet and "Mediterranean regime." Screw that, though. Bread still rules. [AP/Yahoo]
• Though a bread habit can be dangerous when Subway employees apparently bake a knife into your loaf. [Reuters]
• Not just a producer: The government of India announced it's looking to make food processing its next big economic growth engine. [Press Information Bureau of India]
• And speaking of economic "engines," right here in our own bread basket Iowa corn producers are pretty proud of the massive popularity of E85 ethanol. [Wallaces Farmer]
• Food pantry and soup kitchen usage is up 9 percent over last year in New York City. [NYT]
• The head of the World Bank says we're going to need $10 billion to offset the effects of food inflation over the next few years in developing countries. [AP via NYT]
• Did you know that the FDA spent $2.2 million over the past eight years on employee award ceremonies? [Food & Water Watch]
• In a slow market, realtors turn to food to lure buyers. Apparently freshly-baked pies or lemonade on a hot day make the idea of a mortgage go down a little easier. [Seattle Post-Intelligencer]
• Vertical farming is (a) quite possibly the solution to the food crisis, (b) SO COOL. [IHT]
• California becomes the first state to ban trans fats across the board. [SF Chronicle]
• 400,000 Japanese fishermen staged a one-day strike to protest fuel costs. [NYT]
• The "silent tsunami" of rising food costs hits hardest on ... sunflower seeds? [Forbes]
• Biochemists in Argentina work 'round the clock to find the perfect hamburger. [WaPo]
• It's a DC burger extravaganza. [Washington Post]
• Rocky Aoki, may you rest in a heaven where Japanese chefs with sharp knives entertain fat midwesterners. [New York Times]
• If you're going to rob a house, you might as well bathe yourself in barbecue sauce. [WWMT]
• Once again, New York has the best food markets. [Village Voice]
• Starbucks is selling smoothies. Just don't call them smoothies or CEO Howard Schultz will drink your blood. You know, like the boogieman. [Serious Eats]
• Mint leaves may have given a Virginia family food poisoning. [Washington Post]
• Delivering drug-laced cookies to the police department is probably not the perfect crime. [Chicago Tribune]
• Restrictions are tightening up on pesticides, but is it enough? (No.) [LA Times]
• There's a drought in California. Is irresponsible water usage to blame? ( Probably!) [San Francisco Chronicle]
• OMG, we might have to walk further to get Starbucks. [New York Times]
• Some American consumers getting in on the ground floor of food production. [NY Times]
• Investigators pretty well stumped as to what caused that pesky salmonella outbreak. Maybe Jalepenos? [Sacramento Bee/AP]
• Using sea water to farm the desert in Mexico [LA Times]
• Iraq having as hard a time with its crops as with everything else [Chicago Tribune]
• Family grocery bills skyrocketing across the pond [Times of London]
• Despite a recent recall of 5.3 million pounds of beef, our meat is totally safe. So says the secretary of agriculture. [AP]
• Farms are dying off, but produce festivals live on! [NYT]
• Need to lose weight? Try writing down everything you eat. No cheating! [San Francisco Chronicle]
• Staff of the AP Beijing bureau give their restaurant recommendations for Olympic spectators. On the menu: deep-fried starfish. [Welt]
• An instant menu translator — genius! [BusinessWire]
• Rising food costs means Europe is close to capitulating on GM produce. [Reuters]
• We have the technology - so why can't we find the salmonella? [WaPo]
• Coca-Cola paying out $137.5 million to settle a shareholder lawsuit . [Tribune/AP]
• D-8 on the food crisis: Right up there with oil in the "grave threats" category . [NYT/AP]
• G-8 on the food crisis: Planning to "discuss the subject more in the afternoon." [NYT/AP]
• Lobster, lobster, lobster. [NYT]
• America's top July 4th cookout-related ask.com search items. [AHT]
• Meat meets fine art. [Pierre Menard]
• There's a food so disgusting that prisons use it as punishment. Of course, someone had to taste test it. [Slate]
• Fresh from the fancy food show, a list of 2008's best new gourmet sodas. [Mouthing Off/F&W]
• Rich becoming organic farmers as peak oil survival strategy? [NYT]
• Once more into the breach: E. Coli beef recall hits 20 states [DFP]
• China: chocolate industry's last great frontier (until India) [Reuters]
• As global apocalypse nears, bourbon sales are through the roof [AP]
• Adroit NZ man sells imaginary "soul" to Hell Pizza Co. for $3800 [West]
• Sbux, overextended in crap real estate markets, to close 600 stores [Trib]
• Soon-to-be-much-emailed list of 101 picnic ideas from Mark Bittman [NYT]
• Criticized & embarrassed FDA adding a hundred labs to salmonella hunt [USAT]
• Group: food packaging claiming immunity boost should stop doing so [UPI]
• Cracker Barrel, lining America's empty highways, is in the crapper [Reuters]
• Hezbollah-dominated Beirut eats at 'Buns and Guns' restaurant [AP]
• New Yorkers discover edible comestibles at Disney World [NYT]
• Anheuser-Busch, St. Louis not going quietly in the night [Trib]
• Legendarily cheap Vegas casino food succumbs to reality [LAT]
• Ice cream among many food products threatened by bee die-off [NBC/DC]
• S. Korea to accept U.S. beef again; future of gov't unsure [NYT]
• Japanese/Chinese food row reenacted by Olympics team [Reuters]
• Texas Gov. comes out hard against food-crop ethanol [SETR]
• Mars/DoA/IBM to sequence, manipulate cacao genome [WaPo]
• Frozen chickens stolen from NJ food bank found! [NJ]
• Food stamps go out to Midwestern flooding victims [Reuters]
• Cashew juice, now for sale, confounds the imagination [NYT]
• Surge of deep-dish pizza to arrive in Iraq for July 4th [AP]
• Monsanto profits soar on yield-bumping weed-killer sales [Bloomberg]
• Florida buys U.S. Sugar to restore 187k acres of Everglades [AFP]
• Food voucher giveaway sparks mini-riot in Milwaukee [AP]
• 17 states require insurance to cover eating disorders [Trib]
• Youth exposure to alcohol advertising on TV increases [NYT]
• Brazil's biofuel farmhands treated predictably poorly [LAT]
• Chinese fast food market splintered but surging [Reuters]
• Many more stricken by TomatoGate, which may never be solved [USAT]
• Can a countertop scanner help with your grocery shopping? [NYT]
• Widespread wheat fungus to wipe out 1-2% of Kansan crop [AP]
• Reeling from 8% food inflation, Mx. locks prices for 6 mos. [BBC]
• Will Canada ban horse slaughter for food production? [CBC]
• Flooding in Iowa severely damaging corn crop [NYTimes]
• China reveling in bumper summer wheat crop [ChinaDaily]
• Canada's fast food chains bring back tomato [TCP]
• U.S. states embroiled in tomato blame game [AmAg]
• Nanotech food conference in D.C. this week [N&DN]
• Paula Deen's Savannah restaurant on fire! [AP]
• Congress to subpoena dodgy imported food safety testers [NYT]
• Tomatogate toll up to 228, with one possible death [AP]
• ConAgra: food prices could rise 9% a year through 2012 [SeattlePI]
• Mugabe cruelly using internal food aid to fix elections [VOA]
• Shedding light on opaque Louisiana restaurant inspections [Shreveport Times]
• FDA had a food safety plan, but they didn't follow it! [NYT]
• Tomato salmonella sick count up to 167, no deaths [Chron]
• InBev offers $46B — approx 100 euros — for Budweiser [Reuters]
• Corn, up 18% this month over flooding, passes $7 [Bloomberg]
• Stephanie Izard wins Top Chef with panache, pistachios [Trib]
• 100k beef protesters in S. Korea want their gov't out [Economist]
• Anti-biofuel lobbyist group of diverse backgrounds launches [WorldPoultry]
• Americans turn to vegetable gardening in record numbers [NYTimes]
• Burma says it has enough rice, but no one else agrees [Reuters]
• What to do if you find yourself near a dreaded tomato [AP]
• Disastrous grain yields this summer bode poorly for world [NYT]
• S. Korea US beef import row metastasizes into gov't crisis [Guardian]
• Anti-tomato hysteria continues as McD's & Walmart drop 'em [WSJ]
• Multiple hazmat incidents at the Chicago chocolate factory [Tribune]
• After decades of woes, Senate privatizes its food services [UPI]
• Grant Achatz, heroic molecular gastronomist, wins Beard award! [AP]
• Takeaway from food summit: biofuels outrank starving people [G&M]
• Wild salmon is gone, farmed is dangerous; maybe sardines? [NYT]
• Niche marketing for food allergy sufferers growing rapidly [WaPo]
• Roma, red and plum tomatoes are out in salmonella scare [LAT]
• Food crisis conf. solves nothing, especially on biofuels [Guardian]
• Why food subsidies might make sense for African farmers [NewSci]
• Food bank demand continues to skyrocket among non-poor [Reuters]
• Brits against eating cloned meat for safety, profit [Telegraph]
• Will salmonella tomato scare lower bacon demand via BLTs?! [Reuters]
• Latest from food conference: nothing being accomplished [Reuters]
• Private capital finds agriculture, with unknown consequences [NYT]
• Smuckers buys Folgers for $3B with more acquisitions to come [Trib]
• Burma makes refugees work for food aid, boots them from housing [AP]
• Monsanto plans to double yields of corn and soybean. Eek! [IHT]
• Utah schools have more junk food available than any other state's [SLTrib]
• 20% of people can't taste pepper's most active ingredient [NYT]
• UK's row over food dyes and child hyperactivity comes here [Tribune]
• CFTC has unconvincing plan to normalize food commodity trading [Forbes]
• Salmonella outbreak from tomatoes sickens dozens in 9 states [AP]
• After the FAO food conference is done, G8 to pick up mantle [Xinhua]
• How are we going to grow 50% more food in 22 years? GMOs? Probably [AP]
• Delegates snubbing starvation-monger Mugabe's presence at conference [NYT]
• Ahmadinejad uses conference to decry Israel (but not its food policies) [Telegraph]
• Lula defends Brazil's biofuel production and fingers ag. subsidies [Bloomberg]
• Gains we've made against global poverty in past decade to vanish [Trib]
• Organic fast food sweeping the nation! [WaPo]
• Mugabe audaciously makes an appearance at Rome food conf. [AFP]
• Fast food represents supermajority of children's budgets [NYT]
• Food shortage suicides in Afghanistan kind of our fault [Trib]
• Cellulosic ethanol development slow despite promise [Reuters]
• More meat getting to your plate without Big Ag's interference [AP]
• High energy prices have stoked the theft of restaurant grease [NYT]
• High organic fertilizer prices are rocking Peru's guano industry [NYT]
• It is somehow possible to predict high food prices through 2017 [TheStar]
• S. Korea holding a "tasting" of N. Korean food to raise awareness [hani]
• Also, the S. Korean minister who OK'd US beef imports to be fired [hani]
• UN: global food prices may dip but will stay high [AFP]
• German dairy farmers dumping milk to boost prices [NYT]
• Spam sales soar as food prices rise while wages don't [AP]
• No more free peanuts on USAir as fuel prices rise [Trib]
• OMG Rachael Ray is some kind of donut fashion terrorist!!!1! [ABC]
• How can we turn high food prices into poverty relief? [APO]
• How can we turn high food prices into massive profits? [Philly]
• Canada's adoption of food origin labeling going alright [Gazette]
• U.S. defunding research on approaching deadly wheat fungus [AP]
• Child obesity levels off as...standards for obesity drop? [NYT]
• After immigration crackdown, farmers decamp to Mexico for legal cheap labor [NYT]
• Are private food safety labs cheating for unscrupulous food importers? [Trib]
• McD about to be priced off the Champs-Elysees, Paris' priciest strip [IHT]
• Food banks around the country crunched by increased demand and prices [AP]
• Restaurateur thinks he's being moral by serving shark and not shark fin [Reuters]
• Congress passes farm bill again, or at least part of it [WaPo]
• Evil Burmese junta finally allows in any and all foreign aid [CBC]
• Japanese rice aid row leaves U.S. looking like the bad guy [NYTimes]
• S Korea: probably no massive famine in N Korea this year [AP]
• McD keeps a stiff upper lip on (mediocre) premium coffee sales [Trib]
• House overrode Bush's farm bill veto by large margin, on its way to Senate when... [SFGate]
• ...it was discovered that 34 pages were missing from the version Bush signed! [AP]
• (and legal challenges and embarrassment and wrangling and recrimination ensue)
• Tide turning more strongly against ethanol subsidies [AFP]
• Meanwhile, restaurant grease biofuel industry roaring [Trib]
• Chick-fil-A launches entertaining campaign against McD's new Chicken Sandwich [NYT]
• Burma finally lets in WFP helicopters, too little too late [AP]
• Agr. Sec'y finally calling for ban on slaughtering downer cows [WaPo]
• S. Korea, once a major US beef importer, avoids our old cattle [Reuters]
• Substantial E. coli-contaminated beef product recall underway [WebMD]
• 2008 Junior Beef Cookoff at Arkansas state fair slightly ominous [Daily Citizen]
• McCain agrees with Bush on subsidies and would veto farm bill... [Reuters]
• ...but McCain is against Bush's foolhardy ethanol push [AP]
• World Bank: 2-3 more years of high food prices, and then...? [Forbes]
• UK pushing for liberalized, free market CAP...will the EU oblige? [BBC]
• Subordinate female monkeys can't get enough junk food! [NYTimes]
• Shh don't tell anyone, but global food prices fell in April [BBC]
• Bush farm bill veto to fail; BigMac, Bama & Billary miss the vote [WaPo]
• Blind item: which country on the brink of civil war faces starvation? [NYTimes]
• Wal-Mart to bravely start serving food in its small-format UK stores [Reuters]
• Food purveyors too economically fragile to display at restaurant show [Trib]
• Dry dog food has been identified as a potential salmonella vector [FOX]
• House passes lumbering Farm Bill with 75%, for better or worse [NYTimes]
• Foie gras prohibition ends in Chicago; it was sort of fun [Tribune]
• BS: Bush admin's claim of biofuel's small role in global food crisis [AP]
• High prices force non-poor people to eat cheap fatty foods [ABCNews]
• Cookie-pushing girl scout unloads record 17k boxes on lardy MI [USAToday]
• Farm bill vote expected today, veto expected tomorrow, neither good [Reuters]
• Food aid bill: by the way, poor countries, you have to use GMO seeds! [Tribune]
• UK's Minister of Climate Change undermines Ramsay's food mile claims [Mirror]
• Undocumented immigrant worker bust at big Kosher meat plant in Iowa [NYTimes]
• Your sugar preferences, consumption may be a genetic predisposition [ScienceDaily]
• North Korea has a predictably interesting take on global food crisis [RedOrbit]
• ADB to African countries: please cool it with the food export bans! [Reuters]
• Should pet foods have calorie listings? What's Spot's RDA, exactly? [DMN]
• Burma's junta, large and evil as it is, hoarding all the good food aid [AP]
• Did you know the junta forced everyone to plant semi-useless jatropha nut? [AFP]
• Food science's new artificial mouth to make tastier products for you [NYTimes]
• Liberia bans food exports in a move sure to go over well with its neighbors [RTT]
• McDonald's has decreed that you will eat more fried chicken for breakfast [Trib]
• In antipodal Australia, beer trumps children in battle for seat belts [BBC]
• Now that Congress finally finished farm bill, Bush to veto it [USAToday]
• Maybe a million Burmese storm victims going largely without aid [Bloomberg]
• In Canada, gov't support for ethanol subsidies waning rapidly [G&M]
• Rice production rising globally, but it won't stop rising prices [CNA]
• Crop dusting in California a lot more dangerous than it sounds [NYTimes]
• Burma changes its mind about letting in foreign aid workers [NYTimes]
• After the junta was caught stealing supplies, WFP halts shipments [AP]
• Just as a reminder, most of Burma's farmland is under water [Bloomberg]
• New idea: lacking air power, the junta can't stop food drops [AFP]
• It's really Hate On Food Aid Day: WFP worker killed in N Kenya [Reuters]
• With over 100k confirmed dead, Burma finally accepting food aid from...everyone [Yahoo]
• 2m people in Sadr City running out of food and other supplies no good for anyone [NYTimes]
• North Korea, as out of food as anyone, ended negotiations with US for aid "sincerely" [RadioAU]
• India's banned commodities trading of several foodstuffs, for all the good it'll do [Bloomberg]
• As drumbeat against ethanol intensifies, corn state senators keep plowing away [AO]
• UN finally starts moving food to Burmese cyclone victims [ET]
• WFP: let's rebrand it as a "global hunger emergency" [VOA]
• Have you noticed ingredient shifts at your local diner? [AP]
• Attention urban vacant lots: you will be farmland [NYT]
• Ghrelin's role in eating more pervasive than ever! [SD]
• Guess which President's daughter's wedding's going to be organic! [AP]
• Whole wheat pasta service restored after Harvard student riot [BH]
• Myanmar cyclone kills 22k, shuts down the exporter's rice region [AFP]
• Thailand had an idea about a rice OPEC, but then backed off [Guardian]
• Letter: "it's not ethanol's fault that people eat too much and are wasteful" [Tribune]
• Editorial: "nevertheless, ethanol is doing more harm than good" [NYTimes]