Gigabiting

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If it looks like a duck and it quacks like a duck…

We manage to breeze through Halloween. Any 5-year old can set you straight. So why are state legislatures struggling with the definition of candy?

Retail food sales have traditionally been exempt from sales tax, which were deemed cruel and regressive. In recent years, as cash-strapped states look to plug up budget deficits, candy taxes have become the go-to revenue source. Already this year candy or soda taxes have been proposed or passed in more than a dozen states. Read entire article.

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Time Magazine’s annual roundup of the world’s most influential leaders, thinkers, heroes, and artists hits newsstands this week, and this year the list includes four individuals from the food sector whose ideas and talent transform the world we live in. Read entire article.

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Inside the school cafeteria

It’s just like you remember: loud and chaotic, lunch ladies in hairnets, pizza Fridays. The lines are long, the meat is still a mystery, and most of what’s brought from home gets tossed.

Less familiar are the trading bans and peanut-free zones to accommodate allergies, the absence of any actual cooking, and the runaway rates of childhood obesity and diabetes.

The National School Lunch Program provides commodities and subsidies to public and private schools that offer free or reduced-price meals. This year’s subsidy was $2.68 for each free lunch down to 25¢ for full-priced lunches. At that rate, most districts can afford food costs of about 90¢ for each lunch served. Read entire article.

       image courtesy of Geostationary Banana Over Texas

Bananas are on a crash course to extinction.

10 years, give or take. That’s how long scientists are giving the banana.

Then what will we slice on our morning cereal? Read entire article.

Walk down a midtown Manhattan street and you’ll see a folding table piled high with knockoff Prada handbags, Rolex watches, and Louis Vuitton wallets for a fraction of their retail prices.

Shoppers are well-acquainted with the fake designer goods racket. They know they are buying counterfeits, choosing to be complicit in a crime in pursuit of a bargain.

But what about the shadow economy for counterfeit food products? Read entire article.

Is your food politically correct?

Overfished species, inhumanely treated farm animals— menus are minefields of ethically suspect foods. In the past few weeks, a Hollywood hangout abruptly closed down after being exposed for serving whale sushi, and the U.N. voted to keep the near-extinct bluefin tuna on dinner plates.

Amoral bon vivant or epicurean standard-bearer?

For many of us, vegetarianism is not an option. What’s an omnivore to do? Here’s the story behind the controversies surrounding the meat we eat. Read entire article.