Here are this week’s headlines!  We have news on food prices, expensive farmland, an excellent OpEd by Mark Bittman, the color blue and why you shouldn’t eat Chinese food.  Enjoy!

A Simple Fix for Farming – Excellent piece by Mark Bittman about a study proving that more food can be grown without industrial outputs.  A must read.

Another Food Crisis is Likely to Spur Revolution in the Developing World – “Some serious research has been done on the correlation between food prices and social unrest. The New England Complex Systems Institute has published several reports (NECSI). Their data show clear correlations during periods of food shortage in 2008 and during the Arab Spring period in 2011. Alarmingly, today the current food crisis is at the same type of levels that led to widespread unrest in 2008 and 2011.”

Why China Has the Worst Farms in the World – Pictures and discussion of Chinese farms.

Maggots in the Pasta: Why Europe Screens Tainted Chinese Food – “Cypriot inspectors found arsenic in the frozen calamari. The Italians discovered maggots in the pasta. There were glass chips in the pumpkin seeds bound for Denmark, and Spanish regulators blocked a shipment of frozen duck meat because of forged papers. It has been a rough year for Chinese food exports to Europe.”

Eating Our Weight in GMOs – “Americans are unknowingly consuming vast amounts of genetically-modified (GMO) foods, reports the nonprofit consumer advocacy organization Environmental Working Group (EWG). According to their analysis released last week, the average adult in America consumes 193 pounds of GMO foods every year…”

How Record Food Prices Disrupt World Energy Markets – Seems the classic Catch22.  High oil prices raise the price of food, which triggers instability in oil producing nations, which raises the price of oil, further raising the price of food!

Iowa Farms Minting Millionaires – Further widening the gap between rich and poor.

Blue Through the Centuries – I loved this article.  Blue is the rarest of naturally occurring colors.