Allow Producers to Irradiate Your Vegetables?
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved food producers to irradiate vegetables such as spinach and iceberg lettuce to increase the shelf life and also to limit the growth of pathogens especially Salmonella and E. coli.
Although there are many other effective ways available, Irradiation is considered to be safe and effective by FDA. But this may contaminate the mass distribution of food. The irradiation is a Band-Aid solution to keep a broken system in place, but not an ultimate solution. Some consumer groups are worried that irradiated vegetables are inferior, contaminated and unhealthy. But studies done by the FDA showed no relationship between radiation and long-term health risks such as cancer.
Farmers don’t reap the benefit of Rising Food Prices
A new study by EurekAlert shows that when global coffee prices rise,farmers do not see the same rise in the price they receive. Increases in the international coffee price are reflected relatively rapidly in domestic prices paid by exporters and large traders. Marketing costs such as transport, handling, storage, and processing do not increase with price. The study was conducted in long-time coffee producing nation of Uganda by Marcel Fafchamps and Ruth Vargas Hill.
Don’t blame eat less: India to America
Due to their huge populations, countries like India and China may appear to consume gigantic amounts of food, but according to this Times of India article US per capita consumption is much higher than rest of the world including Europe. US grain consumption is twice that of the European Union and thrice that of China. Each Indian gets to eat about 178 kg of grain in a year, while a US citizen consumes 1,046 kg. Vegetable oils consumption per person is 41 kg per year in US, in India 11 kg per year. Beef consumption in US, is 42.6 kg per person per year, compared to a mere 1.6 kg in India and 5.9 kg in China. The article questions who is to blame for the current food crisis?
What makes Food Look Tasty?
Have you ever noticed that every food looks better and tasty when you go to the supermarket hungry? A hormone that makes people eat more by causing food to look tastier and looks better. This substance is called ghrelin. When it comes to food , ghrelin improves perception and memory of food. It is secreted in the gut and causes hunger and encourages eating.
Photo Source: www.orouei.com
Brain’s power to sense the calories
Ivan de Araujo and colleagues have found that the brain can sense the calories in food, independent of the taste mechanism. The finding that the brain’s reward system is switched on by this “sixth sense” machinery could have implications for understanding the causes of obesity.
Bread Crisis
Acute shortages of subsidized bread, which is sold at less than one U.S. cent a loaf, have caused hours-long lines and violence at some sites in poor neighborhoods in Egypt. Unsubsidized bread sells 10 to 12 times the subsidized price. According to police, at least seven people have died in the clashes. Egypt has a population of 80 million with 71% literacy rate.
