How the food pyramid failed and why we need myplate
The Atlantic - 6/2/2011. By Daniel Fromson – So by now you might have heard that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is doing away with the iconic Food Pyramid. This morning, it announced the country's new nutrition graphic. MyPlate, a colorful pie-chart-style plate graphic showing the recommended amounts of fruits, vegetables, protein, grains, and dairy, replaces the similarly named MyPyramid, which most people agree was more or less indecipherable. |
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Where is the 21st-century approach to feeding the world?
The Guardian [UK] - 6/2/2011.By Tim Lang – Slowly, surely, a new mixture of consensus and fault lines is emerging about world food. On the one hand, there is agreement that we are entering a new era in which basic agricultural commodity prices are rising after decades of dropping. This will hit the poorest hardest, as the new Oxfam report rightly points out. But on the other hand, there is not yet sufficient agreement or political leverage to begin the big changes that are necessary. |
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Pesticide notification is common courtesy
Village Soup - 6/2/2011.Editorial – While Mainers are known for valuing their privacy and independence, those values can only be preserved if we also respect the rights of our neighbors. LD 228, An Act To Revise Notification Requirements for Pesticides Applications, would repeal the current law that provides for a notification registry for those who want to be told when pesticides are being applied near their property. We join with the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association and Maine’s Environmental Priorities Coalition in calling on citizens to contact their state senators, to urge them to vote against this dangerous measure. |
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Down with healthy school lunches, says House GOP
Grist - 6/1/2011. By Tom Laskawy – Having already moved to gut USDA programs promoting agricultural conservation and renewable energy and strip the USDA of its authority to enact the first meaningful reform of the irredeemably monopolistic livestock industry, House Republicans have now turned their attention to that other great threat to American freedom: USDA nutrition guidelines. |
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