Friday Faves No. 180

Our favorite finds from the front lines of food.

 

This summer will mark the 10th anniversary of one of the best (not just food) ads of all time. Created by director Juan Cabral, the 2007 idea was not popular but he ultimately prevailed.  "A brand needs to go to the heart and not to the brain. Gorilla is - in those 90 seconds- trying to take you somewhere".   How are you going to celebrate this landmark anniversary? (Guardian)

Algae here, algae there,  algae everywhere.....no it's not the latest Dr. Seuss crazy, its what's in your food!  It's already in baking mixes, cookies, milk, non-dairy creamer, vegan eggs, salad dressings, ice cream, smoothies and so on. Are you ready for the algae revolution? (Fast Company)

We heard a lot of support last week across social media channels for "A Day Without immigrants".  One of our absolute fave chefs, Jose Andres,  stepped up to close his restaurants to make this very important point.  But it was not just the top chefs or the mom & pop shops.  CNBC reported that some McDonald's closed for the day in support as well.  (Washington City Paper, CNBC)

What is your favorite ice cream?  Coppa, a retailer in Juneau, Alaska, has their answer - Candied Salmon Ice Cream. Yup....they walked away with the Symphony of Seafood top prize this last week. Other winners included a pool and spa clarifier, a leather clutch,  coho salmon bottarga, salmon chowder, salmon bites (for babies) and Orca Bay's albondigas and jjamppong soups.  What a list!  (SeafoodSource)

It looks like Mexico's sugar tax is starting to have an effect on consumption but the jury is still out on how much impact it might have on obesity. (Guardian) 

Friday Faves No. 174

our favorite finds from the front lines of food

To the ovens! OK its not just a holiday battle cry, but the result of a recently published study that proves that cooking or baking can help you feel better.  We knew that of course, but these days when a lot of people are feeling down from post-election to holiday stresses, we could all turn to our kitchens to conjure up a bit a hearty helping of homemade 'feel-good'. (Smithsonian Magazine & Munchies)

Not that you should....but you could....eat it that is JetBlue just came out with an edible ad campaign just in time for holiday travel. Yes indeed, don't let winter travel delays worry you. Just eat the paper made out of potato starch, water, vegetable oil and glycerin.  (adWeek)

Have we got a stocking stuffer idea for all the Canadians out there! Yes, it's here! Poutine flavored lip balm!  Well, if KFC can come out with fried chicken scented sunscreen, we really have nothing to say about this lip balm. Just please Canada, don't make poutine your new favorite pumpkin spice replacement for the holidays. (Munchies)

And finally some good news for bees. General Mills just announced a $4 million dollar commitment that should help plant over 100,000 acres of pollinator habitat through 2021.  This is a deal, bringing together GM along with the non-profit Xerces Society and the USDA's Natural Resource Conservation Service, will help farmers plant and protect pollinator habitat including native wildflower field edges and flowering hedgerows.  Since bees are responsible for an annual $25 billion in agricultural production, it's nice to see companies that understand that good environmental practices make good financial sense. (Food Business News)

Friday Faves No. 171

our favorite finds from the front lines of food

From the You Can't Make this Stuff Up files, Joan Crawford goes to the supermarket, in white gloves, in a 1969 Pepsi promo (video above). You can read here about where this wacky three and a half minutes of TV came from. (Stargayzing)

The Next Hot Trends in Food as identified by the Wall Street Journal. Not a lot of surprises here for those who keep up with the food scene and sustainability discussions, but concepts like "regenerative agriculture" might get more mainstream. (Wall Street Journal)

Is Dry Farming the Next Wave in a Drought-Plagued World? Some fruit growers in California eschew irrigation and have escaped the financial fallout experienced by fellow farmers in recent years. “There’s all this talk about watering the almonds...When you set up almonds to receive water every few days and the roots don’t go deep, then yeah, they will die if we don’t water them. But almonds were once dry farmed in many parts of California, including San Luis Obispo County, southern Monterey County, and the Sierra foothills.” (Food & Environment Reporting Network)

As with our politics, fast food keeps getting weirder and more over the top. Why fast-food chains are making ‘increasingly outrageous’ creations to get you through the door. (Washington Post)

Entrepreneurs getting creative with seafood byproducts “If all fish were processed and all the byproduct collected, it is estimated that globally there would be around 36 million tons of raw material available, producing about 9.5 million tons of fishmeal and 1.5 million tons of fish oil,” according to the University of Stirling/IFFO report. (Seafood Source)

Meat packers add plants to plate as consumers, competition shift. "We are going to see the meat industry recognize that it needs to diversify." (Reuters)

The Real Soylent Sickness "Silicon Valley’s failure to capture our appetites lies at the heart of what the technology industry misses about so many other things in this world. Though it may be possible to create technically feasible products for any aspect of our lives, those only succeed if they improve—rather than seek to replace—the human, highly tactile, and pleasurable world we want to live in." (New Yorker)

Friday Faves No. 167

our favorite finds from the front lines of food

photo via Portland Press Herald

Moleche, anyone? Invasive green crabs are scuttling from dilemma to delicacy. A group of Maine fishermen and scientists are getting expert advice from Venice, Italy, to turn a rampant threat to Maine's fisheries into a marketable part of the solution. (Portland Press Herald)

Are Rotisserie Chickens a Bargain? A thorough answer to a curious question of food retailing economics."In most stores, the cooked chickens aren’t any cheaper. They just look cheaper. The per-chicken price favors the deli counter, but the per-pound price favors the refrigerator case." (Priceonomics)

Craft beer makers diversify to spread the love: Stone Brewing plans a craft beer-centric hotel with room service growler delivery and farm-to-table dining in San Diego, California. (Restaurant Hospitality)

That's not trash. Artisanal Food Waste: Can You Turn Scraps Into Premium Products? "Conversations about waste don't have to carry connotations of self-flagellation." (NPR / the Salt)

Ramen outpaces tobacco as currency in US prisons "Cost-cutting measures by private facilities have led to subpar food quality and fewer meals, making noodles a commodity that trades well above its value" (Guardian)

Finger lickin' good? Actually, don't eat KFC's limited edition "fried chicken" sunscreen. (Ad Week)

Friday Faves No. 165

our favorite finds from the front lines of food

image via Washington Post

Huge, once-hated fish now seen as weapon against Asian carp
"Persecuted by anglers and deprived of places to spawn, the alligator gar (above) — with a head that resembles an alligator and two rows of needlelike teeth — survived primarily in southern states in the tributaries of the Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico after being declared extinct in several states farther north. To many, it was a freak, a “trash fish” that threatened sportfish, something to be exterminated."(Washington Post)

Where the girls (chefs) are: Why are so many women chefs drawn to the coast of Maine? “While male chefs tend to follow the money and status, women chefs are in search of appreciative, knowledgeable audiences, a sense of community, and a more balanced life outside the kitchen.” (Boston Globe)

Meal kits an eating less meat continue. Restaurants enter the meal kit space. Operators who have been following the growth of delivered meal kits are now experimenting with their own. "And while more than 100 meal kit delivery companies are attempting to differentiate themselves by offering niche categories such as vegan, paleo and even Southern food, restaurant operators are beginning to see the wisdom of offering a grab-n-go meal kit or quick delivery kit that’s prepared by local chefs who consumers know." (Restaurant Hospitality)

Grill Concepts launches new Laurel Point seafood-focused restaurant with Millennial appeal.  “We saw a void in the marketplace...Few restaurants are going in this direction and doing it well, though people are eating less meat.” (Restaurant Concepts)

A super-cute new video for Chipotle. Guess it take a lot of cute to make people forget about e. coli.

A futurist on food: Farming on the moon, lab-grown meat, and old fashioned boring stuff like greater transparency. (Washington Post)

A Space-Age Food Product Cultivated by the Incas "What did the Incas and NASA have in common? They both faced the problem of long journeys through harsh, forbidding territory" (New York Times)

The Curious Appeal of ‘Bad’ Food In the age of Instagram-perfect dishes, why are there so many sites and blogs dedicated to culinary disasters? "Feeding yourself or others is a success, an act of love, even when the meal resembles unappetizing brown mush."  (Atlantic)

Bycatch is no small matter. A shameful death on the part of we humans for an animal that had lived so long: 400-year-old Greenland shark is the oldest vertebrate animal (Guardian)

Friday Faves No. 158

our favorite finds from the front lines of food

The most emotional ad about a strawberry you will every watch. OK, it's really about the epidemic of food waste and how "some 40 percent of all food purchased in the U.S. each year goes uneaten, wasting money, water and energy to the tune of $162 billion." (AdWeek)

The Future of Food Is Lab-Grown, according to some new start-ups. How appetizing they sound runs the gamut, from "fake meat" shrimp made with algae to stem cell meatballs. Sounds like a revolution that's going to be won on messaging and taste.  (Fortune)

Other than seaweed, the new food trend we're seeing everywhere is...weed.  In the Weed: Meet the bakers, chefs and soda makers who are taking the edibles world higher This new wave of products features "weed-infused spicy cheddar crackers, a buzzy iced coffee drink and even steak tartare with truffle oil that's got a little something special." (Tasting Table)

Kickstarter-Funded Chocolate Bar Company Wants to Pay Africans a Decent Wage For Once “There are no Ghanaian workers involved in the traditional or fair-trade production of chocolate (outside cocoa farms) because the production happens outside the continent....Our goal is to bring these jobs to Africa.” (Modern Farmer)

For fruit and veg, suffering might not make them beautiful, but it might make them more nutritious. Beneath An Ugly Outside, Marred Fruit May Pack More Nutrition (NPR)

The slow life of a Cow Cam: Waitrose live-streaming boring videos from the farm. "The strategy is simple: Shoppers want proof of quality food, so why not use modern technology to give them a live look at it? Waitrose does have a good sourcing story to tell, too, having recently become the only supermarket able to guarantee that all the cows that provide its milk and cream have access to grazing." (AdWeek)

Friday Faves No. 156

our favorite finds from the front lines of food

Coffee beans getting ready for your morning at Oakland, CA's own Mr. Espresso.

First, the good news: Drinking more coffee may undo liver damage from booze (Reuters)

Car and snacks are for everyone as Nascar starts using food sites as an a ad base: "'We wanted to start to talk about Daytona as a day that families get together," said Robert Gottlieb, Fox Sports' evp of marketing. 'It was important for us in framing that conversation to reach into food and lifestyle.'" (AdWeek)

Coupons for millennials: Whole Foods introduces digital coupons to lure more shoppers (Guardian)

From local patriots to beer: Eleven Signs a City Will Succeed "11. They have craft breweries. One final marker, perhaps the most reliable: A city on the way back will have one or more craft breweries, and probably some small distilleries too....A town that has craft breweries also has a certain kind of entrepreneur, and a critical mass of mainly young (except for me) customers. You may think I’m joking, but just try to find an exception." (Atlantic)

Mike Velings: The case for fish farming A great TED talk about a subject that's near and dear to our hearts — the need for developing aquaculture to feed a growing world population.
 

Friday Faves No. 139

our favorite finds from the front lines of food

We resisted watching this, but then, Schadenfreude can be sweet: Hugh Acheson Made Kris Jenner's Nachos And if you still haven't had your fill: The 23 Most Ridiculous Lines From Kris Jenner's Kookbook (yeah, that's how she's spelling it). 1) On her casual taste in dishware: "I am notorious for my table settings and my dishes. If I'm cooking an Italian meal, I will grab my red Hermès china to go with the red sauce." (Eater)

Marketing rule #1 — don't insult your customers. Sexist beer ads: why it's time for a cold, hard rethink. "There is a powerful business case for beer companies to abandon the puerile misogyny and step into the 21st century. The Daily Mail reports that the number of female beer drinkers in the UK has doubled to 1.3 million in recent years, and that women make up 31% of weekly beer drinkers." And the real shocker: "The study, which examined nearly 40,000 banner adverts over a six month period, is perhaps another suggestion that sticking a semi-naked woman next to a product isn’t necessarily the most inventive or effective way to sell it." (Guardian)

Ivory Coast president tours country's first chocolate factory. Chocolate to be made in Ivory Coast for first time despite country being the world’s biggest grower of cocoa beans. "Despite its French ownership, the plant represents a small victory in the continent’s battle to profit from its natural resources instead of exporting them to be processed elsewhere." (Guardian)

Does A Pig Fed With Green Tea Taste Better? Some farmers in Japan think so. Apparently, it works with goats too. (Modern Farmer)

A nice personal essay from David Chang on how war and scarcity can shape a culinary legacy. "At the end of the day, you’re not born a great cook. It’s something you have to learn, and you need something to work with." (Lucky Peach)

The Piggly Wiggly way: Businesses should think carefully about continuing to heap work on their customers. Lots of interesting points here: "The reason why so many people feel overworked these days is that they are constantly being asked to do “unseen” jobs by everybody from Amazon to the Internal Revenue Service to the local school board. And the reason why they feel so alienated is that they spend so much time pressing buttons and speaking to machines rather than interacting with other people." And: "If [businesses] never meet their customers, they will lose touch with them. And although self-service is great for saving costs, its effect over time is to train customers to shop on price, and thus to switch as soon as a slightly cheaper rival comes along." (Economist)

'It's like eating a hedgerow': why do hop shoots cost €1,000 a kilo? Sounds like a bit much to pay for something described as "kale-like," but if people are willing to pay... (Guardian)

Friday Faves No. 137

our favorite finds from the front lines of food

Woman walks Paris marathon with a bucket on her head to talk about water. Gambian woman Siabatou Sanneh (above) displays a sandwich board which translates as "In Africa women walk this distance each day for drinking water" as she carries a jerrycan of water on her head while walking the route of the 39th Paris Marathon in Paris, on April 12, 2015, to raise awareness for the cause of charity "Water for Africa." (CBS News)

The Guardian explores the brave new world of food packaging language. From ‘family owned’ and ‘created with love’, to ‘hand crafted’ and ‘authentic’, food-packet rhetoric is now mainly in the business of selling nice feelings...A brand of snack bars is made “in small batches at our own makery”. Makery? I am guessing that “makery” is a portmanteau for “made-up bakery.” (Guardian)

The language fight is getting ugly: MillerCoors Sued For Selling Blue Moon As A Craft Beer (Consumerist)

Human mind wired for marketing through storytelling, says Forrester analyst “Decision making is not rational and it is not rational in business-to-business either,” said Laura Ramos, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, San Francisco. “You wouldn’t know that from looking at content because in B2B, you think if you put all the facts out there of course consumers will make the right choice.” (Luxury Daily)

Who needs New Nordic? Giving Northern (North American) Cuisine Its Due "Both at sea and far inland, chefs from some of the chillier regions of North America are making an effort to dive deeper into their habitat. From New England up through the Maritime Provinces of Canada and west to Montreal and Toronto, they are doing culinary work that poses questions without simple answers: What exactly is Northern cooking? And how do you make that identity clear and compelling to diners?" (New York Times)

Michelin Star Chef Turns Spring Fashion into Culinary Masterpieces (PSFK)

Better to eat vegetarian that a lot of industrial meat. The Nation’s First Vegetarian Public School Is Thriving "We had no focus on vegetarianism specifically," says Groff, the school’s principal. "If we were presented with a free-range, organic chicken, that’s something we would talk about." (Fast Company)

Friday Faves No. 134

our favorite finds from the front lines of food

The house that Champagne built: a Russian man has built a house made almost entirely of Champagne bottles in the city of Chelyabinsk, where it is known as the “Palace of Oz.” It took 12,000 bottles, so you'd better start drinking if you want one of your own.(Drinks Business)

In hard new this week, the seafood world has been called out in an new AP Investigation: Are slaves catching the fish you buy? (AP)

Is the Strawberry Field The Next Farmworkers’ Rights Battleground? It's not just hard work, it's literaly poison: "Roman Pinal, the Southern California regional director for the United Farm Workers (UFW), says strawberry pickers are more susceptible to pesticide exposure than the average farmworker because the fields are more densely planted than other crops, meaning chemicals are being sprayed or are drifting closer to farmworkers. What’s more, compared to crops that are harvested once a season, strawberry plants produce fruit every two days—creating a situation where chemical management and harvesting occur “right on top” of each other, he says." (Civil Eats)

New waves of distilling have been a boost for rural areas, and that was the case in the 1920s and 30s too. Old Time Farm Crime: The Hooch Farmers of Templeton "Templeton Rye, “the good stuff,” was a hot commodity in Prohibition era Chicago, Kansas City and New York and its popularity helped save many a family farm in rural Northwest Iowa where the booze was illegally distilled by desperate farmers during the lean years of the 1920s and early-30s." (Modern Farmer)

'New Nordic' goes to the bar with Icelandic Birch Cocktails. (Huffington Post)

A Belgian chef Is making summer in a bottle with gin flavored with lobster. (Munchies)

Now Marriott has a magazine. You could too. Don't worry about all this new lingo. "Content" = stuff worth looking at that makes people like you. “Content marketing is a marathon; it’s not a sprint, said Lisa LaCour, vp of global marketing at content-recommendation platform Outbrain." (Digiday)

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 84

weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food

• Guerilla Wi-Fry: Burger King left giant, eight-foot-long fries lying on the streets of New York, Los Angeles and Chicago (above), along with free wi-fi in the area, to promote its new crinkle-cut fries. (Design Taxi)

• China buys 5 percent of Ukraine's total land — about 9 percent of its farmland — to feed its growing population."China eats about one-fifth of the world’s food supplies, but holds just 9 percent of the world’s farmland after rapid industrialization. The country has already purchased farmland in Africa, South America and Southeast Asia, but the deal with Ukraine represents its biggest investment in foreign farmland to date. (UPI)

• Spotting opportunity from above, airline pilot launches rooftop farming startup in Hawaii where most food is imported and costs are high. (Seedstock)
  

• Korean exporters are looking to make sojus the next "it" liquor, capitalizing on the growing hip-ness of all things Korean, from kimchi to K-Pop,  Gangnum Style to ingredients round-ups in Food & Wine. (NPR)

• We've posted about independent Scottish brewery Brew Dog before because we love their irreverent style. Now US consumers are going to get to know them better through a show on the new Esquire network (see video previews) where they travel around the country making new beers and evangelizing for craft brewing. Audio clip on the show from The World. (PRI/The World & Esquire)

• Global chocolate prices are up due to surging demand. "People are going back to an impulse buy....Chocolate was resilient but not recession-proof...The very high-end products got the brunt of consumption declines during the recession." (WSJ)

•  October 2 is National Kale Day, with a whole supporting web site celebrating all things kale (actually way more about kale than you would have thought possible).

• Can Processed Food Be Healthy? This radio segment explore whether industrial food science can be harnessed for good, from fake meat to seaweed chips. (On Point)

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 74

weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food

 

• In Australia, one farm is employing the cutest little beekeeper you've ever seen, a labrador retriever named Bazz (above) who takes to the fields in his custom-made suit and has been trained to sniff out diseased hives. (Treehugger)

• It's not like selling handbags: For online food startups, a challenging recipe for success "Unlike groceries, artisanal foods are generally considered a niche market. They make great gifts, as well as delicious occasional treats, but most people -- even foodies -- aren't buying high-end truffle oil too often." (Fortune)

• Rare Japanese Volkswagen Bus Toaster Imprints VW Logo on Toast and you can't have one, unless you're one of the lucky few. (Laughing Squid)

• Men's fashion site Mr Porter has bridged their style into food with their "The Way I cook" series, like this one with model and cake enthusiast Sam Homan. Anyone looking to make a company video for their food product, take notes. (Mr Porter)

• Hotels and resorts want a piece of the Farm to Table movement: "In May 2012, Hyatt Hotels Corp. required chefs at its 120 full-service hotels in the U.S., Canada and Caribbean to use at least five local ingredients on their menus. The rules define local as food grown or caught within 50 miles of the hotel." And the experiment is still going. (News-press)

• Want to know which currencies are over or undervalued? You can find the answers through Burgernomics. (Economist)

• More US consumers are looking to purchase organic foods, but supply issues are sending farmers and consumers to China. Will the US be able to sort out its domestic supply? (audio of radio show) (On Point)

• Harrod's links it's Cocktails and All that Jazz in-store promotions with its social platforms including great little videos like this one for mixing Hendricks gin cocktails in a teapot. “Extending a local retail campaign like this to digital can enable a global audience to participate, expose new customers to the brand, and ultimately, if done right, drive traffic and sales to ecommerce.” (Luxury Daily)

• How to drink coffee in space at zero gravity, explained to you, in this little video made by NASA. Because, you know, it could come in really handy if you find yourself in space. (Laughing Squid)

• San Francisco style prediction: uni is the new foie gras, with a tour of some of their favorite uni dishes, from crostini to flan to snuggled up next to a raw quail egg. (The Bold Italic)

Ad: Thirsty for Love

David Hasselhoff is thirsty for love and iced coffee in this Cumberland Farms ad.

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 73

weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food

 

• Happy Summer from the Pork Fairy. These bathing beauties make an uninhabited island in the Bahamas their home. (Treehugger)

• Another reason not to underestimate smaller regional markets: the chefs are spreading out. A shortage of qualified cooks to work in top New York kitchen has risen to newsworthy levels. The reasons are the same as they ever were — low pay and high rent — but now there are so many other scenes to be part of. (NPR)

• Despite the economic slow-down, the food business is still booming in the US. "Specialty food sales in the U.S. alone grew 13 percent to $85 billion in 2012. And Americans consumed a record $34 billion worth of wine last year." (Inc.)
  

• In a problem that could be fixed in the stew pot, urban farmers are abandoning hundreds of fashion chickens. Really, it was only a matter of time. (Jezebel)

• Biotech corn seeds that were supposed to keep pests away are faltering, causing an upswing in pesticides. "Steiner, the Nebraska crop consultant, usually argues for another strategy: Starve the rootworms, he tells his clients. Just switch that field to another crop. 'One rotation can do a lot of good,' he says. 'Go to beans, wheat, oats. It's the No. 1 right thing to do.'" (NPR)

• Nursery food is good for you, or at least the nostalgia it inspires. "Nostalgia has been shown to counteract loneliness, boredom and anxiety. It makes people more generous to strangers and more tolerant of outsiders. Couples feel closer and look happier when they’re sharing nostalgic memories. On cold days, or in cold rooms, people use nostalgia to literally feel warmer." Bring on the mac & cheese and a fluffernutter. (New York Times)

• David Hasselhoff is now Thirsty for Love (and apparently iced coffee) in this campier than camp video. In a world of spoof upon spoof, Entertainment Weekly suggests that this is really Hasselhoff as character David Brent from The Office. (Laughing Squid) Which brings to mind another Hoff, this time of the deep sea. "The alien-like crab -- nicknamed the "Hoff" in honor of David Hasselhoff's similarly hairy torso -- was discovered in 2009, living on the perimeter of hydrothermal vents thousands of feet beneath the Indian and Arctic oceans." Really, you can't make this stuff up. (LA  Times)

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 72

weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food

• Amelie meets butter (above) in one of the coolest cooking commercials we've ever seen.

• Gin is at risk: British gin distillers could be facing a production crisis as a deadly fungus rips through Scottish junipers, leaving the berries “in serious trouble.”

• A new culprit in cod decline? "Scientists believe they have evidence global warming may hold a clue in the mystery of why, despite 20 years of increasingly harsh fishery regulations, cod hasn't rebounded. The species of zooplankton that is one of the preferred foods of larval cod simply can't take the heat."

• How about no more "trash" talk for starters. Short of Cod, Massachusetts Chefs Suggest a Dish of Blood Cockle: Catch Limits Have New Englanders Testing New Recipes, and Names, for 'Trash Fish'

• Foodem, a new tech solution for linking wholesale food buyers and sellers has launched. “Today, you see lots of small and mid-size farms take their produce to farmers markets, but they only sell for individual use,” Rehman said. “Many of those farms could handle wholesale quantity buying, but don’t know how to connect with those buyers. We help them find a market that works for them.”

• And one from the advertising vaults: If you don't have cutting-edge food photography, there's always naked ladies, like this one for Pol pasta in 1905.

Ad: Somersby Cider

Somersby Cider riffs on the Apple Store image and product fanatics in this ad.

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 71

weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food

 

• Food advertising jazz age-style (above) with a 1929 promotion for Runnymede eggs served aboard the Graf Zeppelin (found on the great vintage image site Retronaut).

• Farm Free or Die!  Maine Towns Rebel AGainst Food Rules "Local food activists don't want to eliminate regulation; they just want to self-regulate at the community level among people who know and trust each other." Similar efforts are happening in the UK “Food and farming aren’t just about market economics and just getting people calories in their body; it’s got this huge social and cultural dimension to it.

• Baked ham? New marijuana-fed pork from near Seattle won't get you high, but it's rumored to be delicious — and the pigs aren't complaining. "Asked if feeding marijuana affects the pigs, such as perhaps giving them munchies, Gross said can see no effect on the pigs. Already all pigs do is sleep and eat, he said."

• In other pork news, Iowa-based La Quercia has launched its version of the famous Spanish jamón ibérico, Spallacia, made from acorn-fed Tamworth pigs.

• The trend of donut-love carries on with California's answer to NYC's Cronut: the Mochi Donut. They come in flavors such as strawberry shortcake, cafe au lait, double mango and raspberry custard. And if you don't believe that uber-donuts are a full-on craze, the Cronut now has its own black market.

• Artist Ben Frost uses MacDonald's french fry containers as a pop art canvas to explore the relationship between capitalism and pop culture.

• Counterfeit Food More Widespread Than Suspected "Investigators have uncovered thousands of frauds, raising fresh questions about regulatory oversight as criminals offer bargain-hunting shoppers cheap versions of everyday products, including counterfeit chocolate and adulterated olive oil, Jacob’s Creek wine and even Bollinger Champagne. As the horse meat scandal showed, even legitimate companies can be overtaken by the murky world of food fraud."

• Food Entrepreneur Is A New Breed Of Afghan Business Owner  "I'm very optimist for after 2014, because 10 years ago, woman were not able to work outside of home, especially during the Taliban regime. And right now, we can see lots of the women, that they have their own business. And also, we can see lots of change."

• Pretty auaponics: London-based urban farming business growUP have just shared images of their successfully launched shipping container aquaponics farm in the Marlborough playground as part of the Chelsea Fringe, an alt garden festival.

• After a large die-off directly related to spraying, Oregon residents are planning a funeral to memorialize dead bees and advocate for them.

Ad: Norman, Eco-Warrior

Norman: Cat, eco-warrior, and sustainable seafood messenger for Canadian supermarket chain Loblaws.

Sing Along Snacks: Chiquita Banana original

It's never too early or too late for a snack, so crank up that volume on your computer.

Bananas — once a new exotic food, and now the most popular fruit in America. Chiquita hit the big screen with a song to tell us all about them.

Produced by the United Fruit Company in the 1940's, this commercial appeared only in movie theaters. The voice of Chiquita belongs to Monica Lewis. She turned 91 May 5, 2013.

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 65

weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food

• Discover global cuisine through the kitchens of grandmothers with this excellent photojournalism project Delicatessen with love by Gabriele Galimberti. Each photo features a  grandmother with her signature dish as both ingredients and finished product. At right, grandmothers from Egypt, Haiti and Latvia.

• The GM food debate gets even uglier as Monsanto threatens to sue the state of Vermont. "Lawmakers in Vermont are looking to regulate food labels so customers can know which products are made from genetically modified crops, but agricultural giants Monsanto say they will sue if the state follows through."

• Looking to unload a châteaux? Christie’s is capitalising on the thirst for wealthy Chinese consumers to buy wineries by opening the world’s first estate agency for would-be vineyard buyers.

• Luxury food producers take note and come up with ways that you can take advantage of this style. Jaeger-LeCoultre tempts female consumers with emotional marketing, and they do a great job of it. “'Jaeger-LeCoultre’s strategy behind this campaign is connecting with their target market’s emotions on various events and occurrences that happen throughout their life, and focusing on the positive perspective that they can continuously reinvent themselves,' Ms. Strum said." Notice that nothing is said about watches in the full two minutes.