The Salt

Could African Crops Be Improved With Private Biotech Data?()  

The baobob fruit is one of the 100 traditional African food crops that a group of scientists want to learn more about to improve nutrition.

May 22, 2013 A plant scientist at Mars Inc. has appealed to the world's biggest life sciences companies to help him — by sharing what they already know about 100 crops that could provide better nutrition in Africa. But can the kings of agricultural intellectual property get onboard with open source agricultural information for Africa?

Summary

The Salt

How Genomics Solved The Mystery Of Ireland's Great Famine()  

This illustration from 1846 shows a starving boy and girl raking the ground for potatoes during the Irish Potato Famine, which began in the 1840s.

May 22, 2013 Although scientists have known that a funguslike organism caused the potato blight that triggered the Great Famine in Ireland in the 1840s, they didn't know which strain was the culprit. But they do now, thanks to the genes in some 19th century potato samples.

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Kitchen Window

Real Butterscotch: The Beauty Of Sugar And Dairy Transformed()  

Butterscotch Budino With Caramel Sauce And Salt

May 22, 2013 When a few humble elements are combined in perfect balance, butterscotch is born. And food writer Deena Prichep says she turns this childhood favorite into a dinner-party star with counterpoints like flaky salt or crunchy nuts.

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The Salt

Nutrition Group Says Chocolate Milk Is OK, No Need For Aspartame()  

Morgan Barnett, 7, drinks from containers of 1 percent milk and chocolate milk during lunch at a school in St. Paul, Minn., in 2006.

May 21, 2013 The nation's largest group of nutritionists is urging the FDA to reject the dairy industry's petition to change the definition of milk. The petition aims to allow aspartame or other alternatives to be used to sweeten milk in an effort to boost consumption in schools.

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The Salt

African Cities Test The Limits Of Living With Livestock()  

Sheep graze in the street last year in Cairo.

May 21, 2013 Hipsters may just be discovering the joys of backyard chickens, but in African megacities, people have been bringing their animals into the slums with them for decades. That's creating a new ecosystem of animals and huge numbers of people living closely together like never before.

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The Salt

Vertical 'Pinkhouses:' The Future Of Urban Farming?()  

This "pinkhouse" at Caliber Biotherapeutics in Bryan, Texas, grows 2.2 million plants under the glow of blue and red LEDs.

May 21, 2013 Architects have come up with spectacular concepts for vertical farms that would grow crops in city skyscrapers. But many horticulturists think the future of vertical farming isn't in skyscrapers, but rather in large, indoor warehouses lit up magenta by superefficient LEDs.

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The Salt

Washington State Butcher Spikes Pig Feed With Weed()  

William von Schneidau, who owns the BB Ranch butcher shop at Pike Place Market in Seattle, has made prosciutto from pigs fed marijuana.

May 20, 2013 Despite its name, the "pot pig" experiment isn't an attempt to develop a new meaty treat for stoners. Instead, a Seattle butcher is feeding marijuana seeds, stems and root bulbs to swine as a cheeky money-saving measure.

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The Salt

Sandwich Monday: The Saltwich()  

The pretzel shape provides nice little windows through which you can see your poor choices.

May 20, 2013 For this week's Sandwich Monday, we celebrate an expert panel's recommendations about salt intake by taking in as much salt as we can, with The Saltwich.

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The Salt

Can A Piece Of Hair Reveal How Much Coke Or Pepsi You Drink?()  

Carbon isotope analysis: a scientific way to know just how much soda kids are drinking behind parents' backs?

May 20, 2013 People are notorious for under-reporting what they consume — they lie, forget or just guess wrong. For researchers who want to know how much soda we're drinking, a high-tech analysis technique could help.

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The Salt

Giant Renaissance Food People Descend Upon New York()  

Autumn

May 19, 2013 Giuseppe Arcimboldo was a 16th-century artist who liked to play with his food, transforming it into the building blocks of many of his fantastical portraits. Artist Philip Haas has taken those portraits out of museums, reinterpreting them as colossal statues that interact with the natural environment.

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The Salt

'Picture Cook': Drawings Are The Key Ingredients In These Recipes()  

Eggplant Parmesan for PROMO

May 17, 2013 Designer Katie Shelly's upcoming cookbook offers 50 illustrated recipe "blueprints" for basic meals — from simple snacks to more hefty dishes like eggplant Parmesan. She hopes they'll inspire any level of cook to improvise in the kitchen.

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The Salt

Flaxseed: The Next Superfood For Cattle And Beef?()  

NBO3 launched its enriched ground beef at the Tops grocery chain in New York in March.

May 17, 2013 After years of research, an animal scientist looking for ways to keep inflammation down in cattle came up with a novel approach: feed them flax. The flax in their food helps keep animals healthy and has an added benefit for people who later eat their meat: omega-3 enriched beef.

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The Salt

Congress: Where Food Reforms Go To Die?()  

The U.S. Capitol building

May 16, 2013 As Congress gets to work on the farm bill, two common-sense, bipartisan reform measures seem to have gotten run over somewhere along the way. The first would set minimum standards for housing egg-laying chickens. The second sought to change how the U.S. provides food aid to people in foreign nations.

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The Salt

No More Smuggling: Many Cured Italian Meats Coming To America()  

Even Sophia Loren felt compelled to smuggle mortadella, despite a U.S. ban — well, her character did, anyway, in the 1971 film Lady Liberty.

May 16, 2013 Culatello. Capocollo. Sopressata. It will soon be legal to import a whole new world of Italian cured pork products, thanks to the USDA's decision to end a decades-long ban. Every Italian region and province, and even many towns have their own distinctive salumi.

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Parallels

Underground Tunnels Feed Gaza's Hankering For KFC()  

KFC is delivered in one of the many underground smuggling tunnels connecting Egypt to the Gaza Strip city of Rafah.

May 16, 2013 Gaza Strip residents rely heavily on smuggling tunnels to Egypt. Among many other goods, the passageways are reportedly bringing regular deliveries of fast food.

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The Salt

How Trace Amounts Of Arsenic End Up In Grocery Store Meat ()  

Roxarsone, a drug linked to elevated levels of inorganic arsenic in chicken meat, is no longer used in broiler chicken farming, producers say. But another arsenic-based drug is still used to raise turkeys.

May 16, 2013 A recently published study found slightly elevated amounts of inorganic arsenic in samples of chicken meat purchased at grocery stores. Arsenic-based drugs are no longer used in chickens — but they are still used in turkeys.

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The Salt

Can Star Power Make New Orleans' Food Deserts Bloom?()  

Wendell Pierce, the actor and co-owner of Sterling Farms grocery store, chats with Dwight Henry, who will be making doughnuts and buttermilk drops in the store.

May 15, 2013 Actor Wendell Pierce, who stars in David Simon's Treme, is trying to combat New Orleans' food deserts by building convenience and grocery stores in the city's neediest areas. But a host of stumbling blocks still make it hard to get fresh, healthful foods to people living in these areas.

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Kitchen Window

When humble elements are combined in perfect balance, the star of these dramatic desserts is born.

Real Butterscotch: The Beauty Of Sugar And Dairy Transformed

When humble elements are combined in perfect balance, the star of these dramatic desserts is born.

The revival of this old-fashioned flavor inspires a crepe cake, a chocolate-crusted tart and more.

Bringing Back Butterscotch

The revival of this old-fashioned flavor inspires a crepe cake, a chocolate-crusted tart and more.

Stash a treat to practice self-appreciation: slow-roasted nuts, salty-sweet matzo candy and more.

Try A Do-It-Yourself Mother's Day

Stash a treat to practice self-appreciation: slow-roasted nuts, salty-sweet matzo candy and more.

These regional recipes exemplify the virtues of Italian cuisine: simple, traditional and fresh.

Bringing Home The Essence Of Umbria, Italy

These regional recipes exemplify the virtues of Italian cuisine: simple, traditional and fresh.

Try them now in their seasonal prime in a chilled soup, a citrusy spread or a traditional rice dish.

A Fresh Pod Cast: Savoring Spring's Green Peas

Try them now in their seasonal prime in a chilled soup, a citrusy spread or a traditional rice dish.

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