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The Salt
5:50 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

Inside A Tart Cherry Revival: 'Somebody Needs To Do This!'

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Credit Dan Charles / NPR
At Michigan State University's Clarksville Research Station, researchers apply pollen by hand to tart cherry blossoms, in order to breed new varieties.
Credit Dan Charles / NPR
Mike Van Agtmael grows tart cherries on his farm near Hart, Mich.
Credit Dan Charles / NPR
Amy Iezzoni, a fruit breeder at Michigan State University, traveled to Eastern Europe and the countries of the former Soviet Union to collect many different types of cherry trees.
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Originally published on Thu May 23, 2013 8:23 pm

Some fruits, like apples, you can find anywhere. But others have gotten a little bit lost in today's global food business.

Take tart cherries, also known as sour cherries. Unlike sweet cherries, America's tart cherries are too fragile to ship very far, so most people never get to taste a fresh one.

They're typically frozen, then baked into that iconic American dessert, the cherry pie — and cherry pies aren't as popular as they used to be.

Yet the humble sour cherry is experiencing an unlikely renaissance — and the best may be yet to come.

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The Salt
5:19 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

Oprah Winfrey's Latest Venture Is Farming In Hawaii

Credit The Oprah Magazine
The June issue of The Oprah Magazine includes an article with details on Oprah Winfrey's new farm in Hawaii.
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The local food movement has a powerful new poster girl.

More glowing than American Gothic, Oprah Winfrey and her pal, Bob Greene, appear on the cover of the June issue of The Oprah Magazine, standing in what looks to be a field of kale.

"Oprah's New Farm!" reads the headline splashed across the pair's checkered shirts. "How She's Growing Healthier — and You Can Too."

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The Salt
4:11 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

This 9-Year-Old Girl Told McDonald's CEO: 'Stop Tricking Kids'

Credit Jamie Robertson / Courtesy Jamie Robertson
Hannah Robertson, 9, and her mom, blogger Kia Robertson — with the makings for kale chips, of course.
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Originally published on Thu May 23, 2013 4:47 pm

It's not every day that a 9-year-old girl chastises the CEO of one of the world's biggest fast-food chains.

Yet that's exactly what young Hannah Robertson did Thursday morning at McDonald's annual shareholders meeting in Chicago. When the meeting opened up to questions, Hannah was first up at the mic with a pointed criticism.

"It would be nice if you stopped trying to trick kids into wanting to eat your food all the time," she told McDonald's CEO Don Thompson.

Ouch.

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The Salt
12:34 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

Canned Peaches Are As Nutritious As Fresh. Really?

Credit Matthew Staver / Bloomberg via Getty Images
Canned peaches can pack as many, or in some cases, more nutrients than fresh ones, research suggests. But be sure to skip the added syrup.
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Originally published on Thu May 23, 2013 1:14 pm

I know, I know — I was incredulous, too.

But a new study published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture finds that canned peaches (yes, from the grocery store canned aisle) are as loaded with nutrients as fresh peaches. And in some cases, they pack more of a nutritional punch.

Take for instance, vitamin C: Researchers found almost four times more of it in canned than fresh peaches. In addition, canned had comparable levels of vitamin E and a lot more folate than fresh.

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The Salt
6:24 pm
Wed May 22, 2013

In Raw Milk Case, Activists See Food Freedom On Trial

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Credit Toby Talbot / AP
Supporters say Wisconsin farmer Vernon Hershberger's trial isn't just about raw milk: It's also, they say, about the right to get foods from farmers without government intervention.
Credit Maureen McCollum, Wisconsin Public Radio
Activists supporting Hershberger have set up camp across the street from the Sauk County courthouse, in the Al Ringling Theatre.
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Originally published on Thu May 23, 2013 5:59 pm

What is the case against Wisconsin farmer Vernon Hershberger really about? It depends on whom you ask.

To hear the prosecution, it's about licensing, not raw milk: Hershberger, a dairy farmer hailing from the town of Loganville, is on trial this week for operating without three licenses. He's also accused of continuing to sell raw milk to members of his private club after he was ordered not to.

If convicted, the father of 10 faces more than a year in jail and more than $10,000 in fines.

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The Salt
5:44 pm
Wed May 22, 2013

Could African Crops Be Improved With Private Biotech Data?

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Credit Alexander Joe / AFP/Getty Images
The baobob fruit is one of the 100 traditional African food crops that a group of scientists want to learn more about to improve nutrition.
Credit Paballo Thekiso / AFP/Getty Images
Marula is one of the crops whose genome will be sequenced through the African Orphan Crops Consortium.
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"I'm shocked by the optimism here," Howard Yana-Shapiro, the chief agricultural officer for Mars Inc. said Tuesday to the audience of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs' Global Food Security Symposium in Washington, D.C.

Seated there before him were some of the leaders from the wealthiest international organizations and multinational companies of the fight to end hunger. And Shapiro told them they weren't even close.

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The Salt
10:52 am
Wed May 22, 2013

How Genomics Solved The Mystery Of Ireland's Great Famine

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Credit Hulton Archive / Getty Images
This illustration from 1846 shows a starving boy and girl raking the ground for potatoes during the Irish Potato Famine, which began in the 1840s.
Credit Marco Thines/Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung
Plant pathologists sequenced the genome of 19th century potato specimens like this one from London's Kew Gardens herbarium, collected during the height of the Irish famine in 1847.
Credit Wikimedia Commons
The funguslike organism Phytophthora infestans causes potato leaves to decay and tubers to rot.
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An international group of plant pathologists has solved a historical mystery behind Ireland's Great Famine.

Sure, scientists have known for a while that a funguslike organism called Phytophthora infestans was responsible for the potato blight that plagued Ireland starting in the 1840s. But there are many different strains of the pathogen that cause the disease, and scientists have finally discovered the one that triggered the Great Famine.

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The Salt
5:18 pm
Tue May 21, 2013

African Cities Test The Limits Of Living With Livestock

Credit Gianluigi Guercia / AFP/Getty Images
Sheep graze in the street last year in Cairo.
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Raising chickens has become so fashionable among some urban Americans that there's now a market for chicken diapers, as we reported this month.

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The Salt
5:09 pm
Tue May 21, 2013

Nutrition Group Says Chocolate Milk Is OK, No Need For Aspartame

Credit Eric Miller / AP
Morgan Barnett, 7, drinks from containers of 1 percent milk and chocolate milk during lunch at a school in St. Paul, Minn., in 2006.
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Originally published on Wed May 22, 2013 4:01 pm

A controversial petition by the dairy industry to allow milk sweetened with aspartame or other alternative sweeteners to be labeled on the front of the carton simply as MILK is drawing criticism from the nation's leading group of nutritionists.

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The Salt
3:35 pm
Tue May 21, 2013

Vertical 'Pinkhouses:' The Future Of Urban Farming?

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Credit Courtesy of Caliber Therapeutics
This "pinkhouse" at Caliber Biotherapeutics in Bryan, Texas, grows 2.2 million plants under the glow of blue and red LEDs.
Credit Courtesy of Plantagon
An artist's rendering of what a planned vertical farm in Linkoping, Sweden, will look like.
Credit Courtesy of Purdue Agricultural Communication photo/Tom Campbell
Cary Mitchell and Celina Gomez, of Purdue University, harvest tomatoes grown next to a tower of blue and red LEDs.
Credit Courtesy of Caliber Biotherapeutics
Plants at Caliber Biotherapeutics grow under blue and red LEDs, with wavelengths of light that match those that get absorbed by the photosynthetic machinery.
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Originally published on Thu May 23, 2013 5:58 pm

The idea of vertical farming is all the rage right now. Architects and engineers have come up with spectacular concepts for lofty buildings that could function as urban food centers of the future.

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