And this made me happy...

I had a piece of dark chocolate today and one of the ingredients was "non-gmo soy lecitin". I've never seen this before in my life, but it was encouraging. At least its a start on what we've been talking about right?

This made me sad...

There was high fructose corn syrup in the ketchup I ate this morning... eww. I never noticed before, but I did this week because of our discussions recently

Interesting NYT articles this week

Two VERY interesting stories so far in the New York Times this week about food. The first ran on Monday and is about a restaurant in the Netherlands which is really a lab to monitor food culture, eating habits, diet, and all sorts of related things like heart rate while eating. It is really fascinating how the researchers created this restaurant with all the measuring instruments in places like floor tiles and seat cushions, so it all seems like a normal dining experience. Here's the link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/26/world/europe/26dutch.html?ref=todayspaper
The second article ran on Tuesday and is about traditional food crops surviving in Italy (and all over the world, but the reporter profiled a man in Italy). The article talks about how there are all these traditional crops (called landraces) with special properties and flavors and how many of them are dying out fast because the older generation is growing them and the newer generation isn't interested. It is also interesting to note that the article mentions a United Nations International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources. I had no idea there was international law precedent for traditional crops! Here's the link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/27/world/europe/27italy.html?ref=todayspaper

for the seniors...

Barbara Kingsolver has been chosen to be the 2008 commencement speaker. Her most recent book is "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life." Here's the recent article from Duke: http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/2007/11/kingsolver.html.

McDonalds vs. Starbucks

I found this article on msnbc.com about how due to the success of the McCafe McDonalds is planning on selling lattes and other drinks of that nature. Apparently they want to become a beverage destination and not just serve beverages as afterthoughts. So I found this article interesting because I knoww quite a few people with starbucks addictions but cant really see them going to mcdonalds the same way. McDonalds doesnt have the same feel or reputation. Also because I know we have discussed the role of fast food in society, and think this article ties in kind of interestingly. How could expanding into the overpriced beverage market affect the role of the fast food restaurant? Also will people who go to starbucks but dont frequent Mcdonalds start going there for drinks and then start buying the food? I dont know, I just thought this was kind of interesting.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21837962/

Meat. The environment. Bad.

So, I saw this article from the New Scientist while I was doing research for Env 101. The article is basically in line with my reasons for being a vegetarian. I thought I would post a link because it makes some interesting assertions. Like the fact that "a kilogram of beef is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution than driving for 3 hours while leaving all the lights on back home."
here's the link:
http://www.lexisnexis.com/us/lnacademic/search/homesubmitForm.do

Sound familiar?

I was reading the Chronicle today, and there is an article about the Bioengineering conference held here at Duke over the weekend, and one of the topics was patenting plants and animals like in the movie we watched Monday. They talked about the Monsanto case just as we did. It's good to see that people are talking about this stuff, especially on a college campus where it might be easier to get more people interested. See you all tonight!

Ashley

LINK:
http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2007/11/12/News/Lawyers.Dispute.Patents.On.Animals.And.Plants-3094496.shtml