U.S. Department of Agriculture

"A Place at the Table": Hunger in America

PETA Demands UCSF Give Back Federal Money Used for Experiment on Really Sad Monkey

PETA is asking the National Institutes of Health to demand that the University of California at San Francisco give back the $2.1 million in federal funds it spent experimenting on monkeys, which the group says violated animal welfare laws.UCSF was cited by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for ... More >>

Pink Slime Seems Impossible to Avoid

​Pink slime -- aka "lean finely textured beef," meat salvaged off the carcass through a process of heat, centrifuging, and ammonia-gassing -- is the bugaboo of the day, as impossible to avoid in the media as it apparently is in hamburgers. It's a story that hits most of the sustainable food moveme ... More >>

White Bread Is Lovable Because the Government Engineered to Be That Way

Nigh flavorless. Textureless. Nutritionally vapid. There's a reason white bread has become the symbol of all that is wrong with industrialized food, not to mention WASP culture. Turns out, that reason is the U.S. government.In a mind-blowing feature in this month's Believer, Aaron Bobrow-Strain ... More >>

This Whole 'Food Desert' Thing? Maybe That's Not the Problem

apdesign / ShutterstockActually, it's not quite like this.​For the past decade or so, there's been a big push to identify "food deserts" -- low-income neighborhoods and even cities that don't have ready access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Plant markets in those deserts, the thinking has gone, a ... More >>

You Ate a Ton of Food Last Year

​Yeah, that's what most of us have been saying to ourselves over the past few weeks, but it's true, according to the USDA. NPR's food correspondant, Allison Aubrey, looked over the agency's food consumption data and reported some of the numbers she found: 185 pounds of meat, 31 pounds of chee ... More >>

Everyone Loses Out When School Lunch Is Privatized

Monkey Business / ShutterstockNo, these kids don't look human to SFoodie, either.The New York Times ran a barnstormer of an opinion piece this weekend detailing how the contracting out of school lunch to management companies and food processors has affected nutrition, wages, and even standardized te ... More >>

Do You Really Need to Toss Food Once the "Use-By" Date Expires?

​Most of us conduct periodic sweeps through the refrigerator to ferret out the molding fruit salads and check the cartons of yogurt and eggs to see whether we've been keeping them too long. On Grist, though, National Resources Defense Council scientist Dana Gunders says that "use-by" dates are not ... More >>

Local Food Is Bigger Business Than You Might Expect

John Loo/Flickr​Given the fact that most Americans have to peel stickers or plastic off their produce before eating them, you'd think that the local-foods business represents a tiny, not-very-lucrative segment of the food system. But a new USDA report, whose findings the Washington Post summa ... More >>

Congress Rules That Pizza Sauce Is a Vegetable

Alan Cowan / ShutterstockSource of many vital nutrients. Apparently.​Criticize the Obama administration if you will for being too soft on GMOs or too hard on legal pot dispensaries, but it seems to be on the marks when it comes to school lunch. The USDA, under the administration, has been working ... More >>

Sacramento Goes Vegan, Pumpkin Recipes Galore, and Veal at McDonalds!? We're All Screwed.

​ • McDonald's in Switzerland is serving VEAL BURGERS. In related news, Old Navy is selling Prada, Ke$ha is playing first fiddle in the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and I'm gonna murder everyone • Subway is open to adding vegan options and we need to send emails right now to support that t ... More >>

Why Is There Such a Big Difference Between USDA Recommendations and Subsidies?

​ The Washington Post ran a blistering article yesterday comparing what the USDA wants Americans put on their plates and what foods are on the agency's plate in terms of crop subsidies and price guarantees. Of the roughly $200 billion spent to subsidize U.S. commodity crops from 1995 to 2010 (co ... More >>

Vegetarians Love Doing It, True Blood's Pam Loves Chimps, and Easiest/Best Chocolate Mousse Recipe Ever!

​ • Cargill recalled 185,000 pounds of their Salmonella turkey this week! Yet another fabulous Cargill recall this year! What can I say? They're on a roll! And again, another exemplary job by the USDA. Did you know USDA has a website where you can ask them questions? Let's all ask them WHY TH ... More >>

USDA on Unlabeled Beef Irradiation: Not Now, Maybe Later

Pixelpeter/Shutterstock​The USDA is doing a public-relations campaign about food safety this month, and sent a Bay Area native -- now a Deputy Under Secretary -- to our offices to talk about e. coli. I, however, wanted to talk about food irradiation. The two topics are related. In July, the ... More >>

Faux-Gras Donuts, Bunny Adoptions, Vegan Cooking Zines, and Protest the Terrible Circus!

​ ​• There are over 1,000 food-borne illness outbreaks in the United States EVERY year. At least, from 2008 forward, when the Centers for Disease Control began compiling the data. Fucking disgraceful. This is what happens when you have an "oversight" agency that's in bed with the people it's ... More >>

Animal Lovers Ask eBay to Stop Pet Sales

How else will he find a home?​Falling deep in puppy love is a hard thing to avoid when scrolling through eBay's classifieds and seeing pictures of pets who need a home. And although it's a great way to trap people into picking up one of those cuddly creatures, animal activists are calling for an e ... More >>

Going Legit, Part 5: Selling Your Food Through Grocery Stores

Marge BakeryMegan Gordon.​Part five of a series in which SFoodie asks the question: With the Underground Market now shut down, what would it take for San Francisco's aspiring food microventures to go legit? The shelves at grocery stores like Rainbow, Bi-Rite, and Canyon Market are packed with loc ... More >>

Can't Lose Weight? It Might Be Your Plate

Precise Portions​ It's never easy to stay motivated when it comes to eating healthily, but when your dinner plate is a constant reminder, it's harder to feign ignorance or forgetfulness. Ann-Marie Stephens has just created a set of dinnerware, Precise Portions, designed to help people keep ... More >>

Ripping on the USDA's New Graphic, Whispering About Stumptown

​Today's notes on national stories, local trends, random tastes, and other bycatch dredged up from the food media.​1. No more food pyramid. After several years and $2 million in research, the USDA released its new nutrition graphic last week to replace the much-maligned food pyramid, and the com ... More >>

Pork Can Now Officially Be Pink, A Taste of Seesaw's Smorrebrod

​Today's notes on national stories, local trends, random tastes, and other bycatch dredged up from the food media. 1. Pink Pork. The big news of the day is that the USDA has just lowered its recommended serving temperature for whole cuts of pork, from 160 degrees Farenheit to 145. (The serving te ... More >>

Spending $$$ on Cooking Less, Fear of Sushi and Plastic

​Today's notes on national stories, local trends, random tastes, and other bycatch dredged up from the food media. 1. How often do you use your KitchenAid? In the Atlantic, Megan McArdle attempts to resolve a conundrum: Why are businesses like Sur La Table thriving and high-end appliances appeari ... More >>

Fixing School Lunch (NOT), Spring Busting Out All Over, the Mysterious Falernian

​Today's notes on national stories, local trends, random tastes, and other bycatch dredged up from the food media. 1. School lunch suppliers scrambling. On BNET, Melanie Warner writes about the changes that major companies supplying school lunch programs are making to comply with new USDA regula ... More >>

Genetically Modified Beets at the Center of Food Safety Debate

Fact: Beet deregulation would be a boon to Schrute family farms ​Beets are not always the preferred vegetable on one's plate, but they are considered among the healthier foods we eat -- until they're not.Food Safety groups are challenging beet growers who are attempting to plant genetically engine ... More >>

Heartswork Winery WELL REaD 2009 California Red

At $5.99, this is one bottle that defies the common wisdom that no-sulfites-added wines justify a higher price.​A molecule called sulfur dioxide ― aka sulfites, a common preservative ― has become the crux of an ongoing disagreement between two schools of winemakers. Those who vouch for the ... More >>

Leopold's Brings Austro-Italian Food to S.F., One More Steakhouse Joins the Fray

​ ​The past 24 hours in gossip, innuendo, and cold hard facts about the San Francisco restaurant scene. Both Inside Scoop and Grub Street hail the opening of Leopold's (Leopold's: 2400 Polk, 474-2000), which started serving dinner this weekend. The pitch: Austro-Italian food ― pappardelle w ... More >>

Farmers' Markets Explode Across the U.S. ― Well, Most of the U.S.

USDA​Our favorite morsel from the blogs. Obama Foodorama stands in awe before the just-released plumped-up USDA National Farmers Market Directory, which includes an interactive map. Foodorama: The improved state-by-state Directory makes it easier to find your local Farmers Market, which can b ... More >>

Fresh Eats: Our weekly roundup of SFoodie news

How Safe Is Chicken Tartare? A Saga of Discovery

CAKES A./FlickrChicken tartare at Ippuku: Just looking at this photo makes me crave it again.​In the week following simultaneous restaurant reviews in the Chronicle and SF Weekly of Ippuku, a Japanese restaurant in Berkeley, the Chronicle's comments sections filled with disgust over a dish that bo ... More >>

'Happy Meal' Legislation Cites Faulty Data

How heavy is that box? ​San Francisco's ongoing effort to mandate how healthy a kids' meal must be in order to include a neato toy has, literally, blown up into a City Hall food fight. You could see this proposal as yet another San Francisco nanny state measure to tell parents how to raise their k ... More >>

Are There Just Too Damn Many Farmers' Markets?

OSFlicks/Flickr​Our favorite morsels from the Web. At Salon today, Riddhi Shah probes the dark side of the boom in U.S, farmers' markets. Sure, weekly food fests like the Wednesday Castro market are a boon for city folk, but how much do we really know about the communities where our farmer b ... More >>

S.F. Rising: Flax-Oat Bread from Vital Vittles

​ A weekly survey of bread in San Francisco ― the baked and the steamed, the artisan and the novelty.Flax Seed-Oat BreadSource: Vital Vittles, available at grocery stores around the city.Price: $4-5, depending on the storeToast-appropriateness: 10/10

'Kitchen Table Talks' Break Down Food Politics for Activists, Wonks, and Just Plain Eaters

Northfield.org via FlickrJessica Prentice: The original locavore?Yammering about food is a local pastime, whether it's talk about the latest street-food find, the endless debate about organic versus local, or what "green" really means (do Veev cocktails count?). Now there's an organized space for s ... More >>

National Survey Names S.F. 'Least Wasteful City in America,' Gives Locals Even More Reason to Lord It Over No. 25 Atlanta

S.F. is the greenest in the realm -- or at least we say we areA study commissioned by the water bottle company Nalgene -- which definitely has a horse in this race -- has deemed San Francisco the nation's "1st least wasteful city" (their words) in a field of 25 major cities. Atlanta, as the headline ... More >>

Last Night: Charge of the Light Brown Apple Moth at Town School for Boys

Bob's Pickle Pops: Made From Freshly Squeezed Pickles

Massive Beef Recall: It's What's for Lunch, Kiddies

Big Poultry And The USDA Passing Off Pumped-Up Chicken As Natural

Big Poultry And The USDA Passing Off Pumped-Up Chicken As Natural

World Vegetarian Day: What Would Morrissey Do?

World Vegetarian Day: What Would Morrissey Do?

Canning Tomatoes: Industrious Food Bloggers Save For The Winter

Canning Tomatoes: Industrious Food Bloggers Save For The Winter

Best 50s Flashback Dinner

House of Prime Rib

Attention, Shoppers

Denis Johnson's latest play takes us halfway to hell

Dog Bites

Dance away the energy blues, then worship at Sunset’s gardening headquarters

Blues Fallin' Down Like Hail

Is Denis Johnson's new work one play -- or three?

Dish

Dish

Savage Love

Petal Pushers

Orchid collectors, watch your back. Uncle Sam knows what you're up to.