The European Union spends €55 billion a year on farm subsidies. Until recently the question of where the money goes was a closely-guarded secret. But thanks to a campaign by journalists, researchers and computer programmers, European taxpayers now have the right to know how their tax money is spent. This short film tells the story [...]

In the largest dietary study ever American researchers followed over 800 overweight subjects for two years. The participants followed four popular diets and they all lost weight. After six months the average weight loss was six kilos then this planed out and after two years the average loss was between three to four kilos. Only [...]

How much unnecessary technological crap can you fit in a kitchen? Obviously this depends on your definition of unnecessary, technological and crap – in addition to the size of your wallet and kitchen. But taking a walk through the aisles of kitchen products available is a frightening display of the excellent collaboration between product developers [...]

Via Boing Boing comes this marvel of legal wackiness. The plastic bag containing grapes has the text: The recipient of the produce contained in this package agrees not to propagate or reproduce any portion of the produce, including (but not limited to) seeds, stems, tissue and fruit. I suppose that the sellers are trying to [...]

Who says that religion is static and does not develop… An Israeli rabbi has declared giraffe meat and milk to be kosher, although his pronouncement is unlikely to have observant Jews clamouring to consume the exotic products, a daily reported on Friday. “The giraffe has all the signs of a ritually pure animal, and the [...]

Eat fish, don’t eat fish, don’t eat cod, eat salmon, shellfish is bad, or good. Giant prawns help developing countries or screw up the environment. Fish is confusing. Since I don’t eat meat or poulty fish is the main source of food confusion. It should be easier since I don’t have to worry about so [...]

Every now and then you come across a book which is just inspired. This idea fits the bill exactly. What a brilliant idea. Photographer Peter Menzel and author-journalist Faith D’Alusio have put together the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats. The book is a comparative photo-chronicle of their visits to 30 families in 24 [...]

Over at Owen’s Musings (via Memex 1.0) I read the following I have just learned from DFIDâ??s Chief Economist, Tony Venables, that the grain required to fill a 25-gallon SUV gas tank with ethanol will feed one person for a year. While I had not seen this nugget of information before I know that in [...]

A team of scientists at the University of Maryland have “discovered” a way of making healthier pizza. The scientists have: developed a way of baking and fermenting dough which can increase levels of antioxidants, which protect against cell and tissue damage. It may not be the cure for cancer nor the common cold but it [...]

After films and books like Supersize Me and Nickel and Dimed. Not to mention things like McLibel (documentary, book and lawsuit). It may be understandable that McDonald’s have had enough of bad publicity. So bad has the publicity become that the word McJob has now become synonymous with a badly paid shitty jobs. It’s even [...]

Since I had asked about them, after dinner yesterday our hosts took me to a small stand and bought me a paan, which looks like herbs wrapped in a green leaf with some tin foil on. It seems such a curious thing but I had been too cautious to try one on my own. The [...]