Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Fri, 19 Oct 2012 17:00:00 PDT Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101011/04404411361/dailydirt-serious-food-regulations-that-dont-sound-so-serious.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101011/04404411361/dailydirt-serious-food-regulations-that-dont-sound-so-serious.shtml a tomato is a vegetable in 1893). Here are just a few examples of more recent politically-charged food proposals.

• Pizza is not a vegetable, but just 1/8 of a cup of tomato paste counts the same as a half cup of vegetables, according to Congress. It's actually not that easy to directly compare the nutritional value of various servings of fruits and vegetables, but plenty of people simply see highly-processed foods as an unacceptable component of school lunches. [url]
• The USDA had a suggestion to try out a "Meatless Monday" recommendation, but it quickly backed off doing so. The proposal would have encouraged corporate and school cafeterias to offer a vegetarian meal on Mondays, but there were obvious objections from parts of the agriculture industry. [url]
• California's Proposition 37 would require labels on genetically modified foods -- and consumers will likely be surprised at the amount of GMOs in their diet. If it passes, the result of this vote could make GM foods a larger national issue. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20101011/04404411361 Thu, 26 Apr 2012 17:00:00 PDT Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100429/2256469246/dailydirt-dead-body-removal.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100429/2256469246/dailydirt-dead-body-removal.shtml

The Colorado Forest service wants to remove six frozen cows from a mountain cabin, and they've looked into using explosives to try to get rid of these carcasses. There's a bit of urgency for removing these frozen cows because if they aren't removed soon, they'll thaw out, decay and potentially ruin a popular hot springs attraction nearby. [url]

The infamous "Oregon Whale" isn't an urban legend. In 1970, the Oregon Dept. of Transportation tried to vaporize a beached sperm whale, but the explosion just created a big, smelly mess. [url]

The US Department of Agriculture actually has an official procedure for "Obliterating Animal Carcasses With Explosives" published in 1995. So that makes everything cool—don't forget to put on your goggles. [url]

To find some more bizarre/crazy stuff, check out some things that other StumbleUpon users have found. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100429/2256469246 Fri, 30 Mar 2012 17:00:00 PDT Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111017/17361316390/dailydirt-tracking-down-your-food.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111017/17361316390/dailydirt-tracking-down-your-food.shtml kill what we eat or farm fruits and vegetables, but there are a few online tools that'll help people see where they're food is coming from. Here are just a few examples of food-tracking projects that could bring some aspects of farming closer to home.

• Keeping track of nearly every aspect of a pig's life and "afterlife" seems like a huge project, but the pork industry is starting to collect data on where your sausage and pork chops grew up. Who needs to play Farmville when there'll be real-time systems keeping track of actual farm animals that you can eat in real life...? [url]
• Chicken trackers have been available for a few years now, allowing people to easily see where their poultry came from. Stalking your chicken could make it more appetizing. [url]
• The US Department of Agriculture has an online mapping tool for finding "food deserts" -- not desserts -- where there is limited availability of healthy foods. This online map doesn't show where there isn't any pizza delivery service, but maybe it should so it gets more traffic. [url]
• To discover more food-related links, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20111017/17361316390 Fri, 10 Jun 2011 17:00:00 PDT Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110517/16172114305/dailydirt-better-food-through-science.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110517/16172114305/dailydirt-better-food-through-science.shtml

The all-American hamburger might be improved upon if the meat was quickly dipped in liquid nitrogen before being deep fried. Perhaps a dry ice slurry would be more practical, though. [url]

The USDA has revised its recommended cooking temperatures for various meats. But only the chefs at America's Test Kitchen actually measure their cooked meats at home... [url]

Using a solar-powered pizza box oven to cook food sounds pretty impractical. A solar-powered microwave oven sounds like a better idea. [url]

To discover more food-related links, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110517/16172114305