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Full title: First Lady: ‘Imagine’ an America Where Kids Beg for ‘More Fruits, Vegetables’ – ‘It is Possible To Create This World!' (CNSNews.com) – First Lady Michelle Obama said she can “imagine” an America where businesses promote the “healthiest options” so children will be “begging and pleading” for fruits and vegetables, adding that “it is possible to create” such a world. “I mean, just think for a minute what this country could look like,” Mrs. Obama said at the Partnership for a Healthier America Summit on Friday at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. “Imagine walking into any grocery store...

WASHINGTON -- A sharp jump in the cost of vegetables led wholesale prices to rise at a seasonally adjusted rate of 0.2% in January compared with the previous month, the biggest increase since the summer, the Labor Department said Wednesday. The Producer Price Index for finished goods. one of several gauges of inflation, had dropped for three straight months, including a 0.3% decline in December, before January's rise. The main driver of January's increase was a 0.7% jump in food prices. The costs of fresh and dry vegetables were up 39% from December, as cold weather in California and elsewhere...

Hundreds of people were fighting eachother on the streets of Athens during a food giveaway, prompting an outcry over the growing desperation created by economic crisis. Farmers protesting against government cuts gave away 50 tonnes of free vegetables and fruit in the Greek capital earlier today, causing chaos in the streets as impoverished and hungry people elbowed their way to the stalls. Startling images of Greeks struggling to seize bags of tomatoes and leeks thrown from a truck outside the Agriculture Ministry have sparked further debate about poverty in the debt-ridden nation. ‘These images make me angry.

Updated at 8 p.m. ET: NEW YORK - A suspected terrorist parked a van packed with what he thought was a 1,000-pound bomb next to the Federal Reserve building in Lower Manhattan and tried to detonate it Wednesday morning before he was arrested in a terror sting operation, authorities said. The suspect, 21-year-old Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, is a Bangladeshi national who came to the U.S. on a student visa in January for the specific purpose of launching a terror attack here, authorities said. He allegedly told an undercover agent last month that he hoped the attack would disrupt...

COLUMBIA — When Eric and Joanna Reuter of Chert Hollow Farm, 12 miles north of Columbia, decided they wanted to raise and sell pigs this spring, they checked out Missouri laws on feeding. What they discovered surprised them: It is illegal to feed vegetables to pigs if the animals are going to be sold to consumers in Missouri.

Even as the temperatures soar, the excitement of fireworks are still fresh in your mind, and the garden is producing at its peak, it’s time to grab a cold drink, find some shade, and start making plans for your fall garden. Thoughts of fall are probably the last thing on your mind right now. But by planning, and where appropriate planting now, your landscape and garden will be ready to flourish this fall...

Have you heard about the GenVeg campaign? No, it’s not a new youth-vote drive. It’s a collaboration between Birdseye and Lady M to promote their frozen vegetables and her No Child’s Fat Behind program. The Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA), which works with the private sector and its honorary chair First Lady Michelle Obama to end the childhood obesity crisis, today announced that Birds Eye, America's leading vegetable company, is launching a three-year effort to encourage kids to look at vegetables in a whole new way. "Birds Eye understands that talking to kids differently about eating their vegetables is...

Two brothers from Beijing have carved out an unusual career - making musical instruments from carrots, potatoes and other vegetables. Nan Weidong and Nan Weiping have been making playable flutes with everything from leeks to carrots. Frequent projects see them using a sweet potato as an ocarina, a bamboo shoot as a flute, and a yam might become a whistle. The pair make a living from their instruments which have seen them appear on Chinese talent shows and other high-profile performances, which pay up to $8,000 a time. Each does however, require a new set of instruments, as the vegetables...

Politics: To leftist food scolds, eating more vegetables is important. So why are California's two Democratic senators having a cow about a water bill that would let their Central Valley's farmers grow more veggies? House Republican Devin Nunes' Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley Water Relief Act (H.R. 1837), which passed easily in the House last week, was the first standalone bill to address the persistent problem of arbitrary state decisions to deny water to the farmers of the Central Valley. It's a good bill. But not to the more obtuse Democrats. Sen. Dianne Feinstein has denounced the Nunes bill as "a recipe...

Learn the basics of crop rotation, implement these techniques in your home garden, and the increased health and production of your vegetables will make you glad to put the effort into doing so...

It was just a couple of weeks ago that I was really glad that the last of my garden had frozen. Being blessed with a long growing season is not always what it's cracked-up to be. You understand ... gardening is hard work! When it lasts from March or April until December, it can get tedious.Then, yesterday, my first order of seeds that I don't need came in from John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds. Four beautiful little envelopes that sound like maracas; Baby Lincoln Leeks, Tres Fine Maraichere Endive, Beaumont Broccoli, and Large Fruited Mixture Ornamental Gourds.I am stoked.Yep,...

An alphabetical listing of 40 sources of Seeds, Transplants, and Bulbs for Vegetables, Herbs, Flowers, Grains, Grasses, Ground Covers, Vines, Fruits, Sprouting, Trees, Wildflowers, and much more. Many are Open-pollinated, Non-GMO, Organic, and Heirloom varieties. Most offer a Free Catalog.

In the October, 2011 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, Australian researchers report the outcome of a study which suggests site-specific protective effects of various fruits and vegetables against the risk of colorectal cancer. The finding may help explain inconsistent results from other studies which sought to examine the effects of plant foods against the cancer disease. Lin Fritschi, PhD and colleagues at the University of Western Australia compared 918 colorectal cancer patients to 1,021 controls who had no history of the disease. Questionnaires completed by the participants were analyzed for the frequency of consumption of 38...

The shooter is now here in Norway now. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002651290254 That's his facebook page. He is a conservative sci-fi fan.Battle Star Galactica and Stargate. He likes hunting. Hence why he has at least two legally owned guns. It is not hard to get a gun in Norway. We have gun ownership rates close to the US and Switzerland. Personally I am starting to think we need more damn gun control. For Norway that is, not the US. I a currently reading through posts he has made at various political forums. He would fit in here at free republic. I agree with...

OAK PARK, Mich. (WJBK) - "The price of organic food is kind of through the roof," said Julie Bass. So, why not grow your own? However, Bass' garden is a little unique because it's in her front yard. "We thought it'd be really cool to do it so the neighbors could see. The kids love it. The kids from the neighborhood all come and help," she said. Bass' cool garden has landed her in hot water with the City of Oak Park. Code enforcement gave her a warning, then a ticket and now she's been charged with a misdemeanor....

As of this coming Thursday, the food pyramid -- that symbol of healthy eating -- is going to go the way of the real pyramids and becoming a thing of the past. This week, the Obama administration will be unveiling a new graphic to tell American consumers what quantities of grains, fruits and vegetables, protein and dairy they should eat to maintain a healthy diet. The pyramid is to be replace by a plate, with four different-colored sections indicating how much of each food group the United States Department of Agriculture recommends and is a "crucial element of the administration's...

Freezing temperatures across a wide swath of Mexico the night of Feb. 3-4 have made a big impact in available fresh produce. Expect the effects to be felt in your supermarket any day now. From The Packer Feb 4th, 2011 Mexico freeze threatens vegetable crops By Andy Nelson The freeze reached fields as far south as southern Sinaloa. Crops in the border state of Sonora could be devastated.“The last time there was a freeze of this severity was 1957,” said Jerry Wagner, director of sales and marketing for Nogales, Ariz.-based Farmer’s Best. “It’s still too early to tell, but there’s...

A company in Tennessee is recalling some packages of frozen vegetables because they may contain glass fragments. Pictsweet said Friday that 24,000 pounds of packages were distributed to Kroger stores in the southeastern U.S. and Walmart stores throughout the U.S. Recalled are:

Scientists at the Univ. of Pennsylvania School of Medicine discovered that a dietary antioxidant found in such vegetables as broccoli and cauliflower protects cells from damage caused by chemicals generated during the body’s inflammatory response to infection and injury. The finding has implications for such inflammation-based disorders as cystic fibrosis (CF), diabetes, heart disease, and neurodegeneration. Through cell-culture studies and a synthesis of known antioxidant biochemistry, Zhe Lu, professor of physiology, Yanping Xu , senior research investigator, and Szilvia Szép , postdoctoral researcher, showed that the antioxidant thiocyanate normally existing in the body protects lung cells from injuries caused by...

HELENA, Mont. – A Montana woman fended off a bear trying to muscle its way into her home Thursday by pelting the animal with a large piece of zucchini from her garden. The woman suffered minor scratches and one of her dogs was wounded after tussling with the 200-pound bear.

DeKalb County is suing a man for growing too many vegetables on his own land, Channel 2 Action News reported. Steve Miller of Clarkston said he plans to fight the county and has gotten his 2-acre property rezoned so that he can have his garden. But he still faces nearly $5,000 in fines, Miller told Channel 2. Miller has been growing a variety of vegetables for 15 years, and his neighbors support him. He sells what he grows at local markets and gives some away, he said. "It's a way of life, like it's something in my blood,” Miller told...

Pill-popping ancients liked a good dose of vegetables, archaeobotanists have found after analyzing plant DNA in Greek-made pills from a 130 BC shipwreck. Though archaeologists have known about the ship since the 1980s, this is the first time researchers have had a crack at analyzing the drugs found onboard. Using the GenBank genetic database as their guide, they have found that the pills appear to contain carrot, parsley, radish, alfalfa, chestnut, celery, wild onion, yarrow, oak, and cabbage. Geneticist Robert Fleischer of the Smithsonian's National Zoological Park says that many of the ingredients match those described in ancient texts, New...

IF pests and blight are wrecking your plants, it might be time to turn your garden on its head. Growing crops that dangle upside down from homemade or commercially available planters is growing more popular, and its adherents swear they’ll never come back down to earth.

An analysis by Mount Sinai researchers of over eight years of dietary data from more than 400,000 people has found that the relationship between high consumption of fruits and vegetables and a reduced risk of cancer is not as strong as commonly thought. The study is published online April 6, 2010 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. It is widely believed that a diet rich in fruits and vegetables can reduce the risk of cancer. In 1990, the World Health Organization recommended eating five servings of fruits and vegetables a day to prevent cancer and other diseases. However,...

Ingredients: 1 chicken (3 lbs.) cut into pieces, back and wings discarded (or save for soup or to make a broth later) 3T wheat flour or all purpose flour 2t. Cafe Netties Classic European Classic saltless seasonings Pepper to taste 1 tablespoon olive oil 1/2 lb. French green beans (haricots verts), trimmed (see note) 2 parsnips, peeled and diced 1 yellow summer squash, diced 1 zucchini, diced 1 cup small red pearl onions, peeled 2 small carrots, peeled, diced 1 cup fresh mushrooms, quartered 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 cup dry white wine 2 cups chicken stock or canned low-salt...

Ingredients: 3 large sweet onions, chopped 1/2 cup butter, divided in half 2 eggs 3/4 cup Half and Half 2 cups grated Swiss cheese 1 cup crushed saltine crackers Salt and pepper to taste

Workers at McCain's vegetable factory in north west Tasmania are asking the company to be more respectful in its negotiations about their redundancies. Workers say they have received little detail nearly 10 days after McCain announced it would close the Smithton plant. The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union is writing to the company to seek more information about exactly how many workers will lose their jobs when the factory closes next year.

PARIS (AFP) – Brigitte Bardot, one-time French screen goddess turned animal rights activist, wants the European Union to institute a "Vegetarian Day" as part of the battle against global warming. In a letter this week to European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barrosoa, Bardot said "a few weeks before the Copenhagen climate summit, I would like to draw your attention to the need to question cattle-farming, whose effects on the environment are of concern." Quoting studies by the World Bank and the UN food agency FAO, Bardot said in the letter which was released Friday that cattle-raising not only caused high...

The First Lady will help kick off the 40th year of "Sesame Street" with an appearance on the Nov. 10 season premiere, PBS announced Tuesday. Michelle Obama will bring with her a message touting the importance of planting gardens and healthy eating. She'll teach children how to plant tomato, cucumber and lettuce seeds as part of the show's new two-year science initiative called "My World is Green & Growing." "All these seeds need to grow are sun, soil and water. If you eat these healthy foods, you're going to grow up to be big and strong, like me," Obama tells...

They look more like the brightly lit shelves of a chemists shop than the rows of a vegetable garden. But according to their creators, these perfect looking vegetables could be the future of food. In a perfectly controlled and totally sterile environment - uncontaminated by dirt, insects or fresh air - Japanese scientists are developing a new way of growing vegetables. Called plant factories, these anonymous looking warehouses have sprung up across the country and can churn out immaculate looking lettuces and green leaves 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Every part of the plant's environment is controlled...

Potatoes, apples and oranges were his weapons of choice, but apparently nothing in an Emmaus man's refrigerator was safe from being tossed around his neighborhood, police said. Residents in the area of Perkiomen Street can rest easy now that a serial fruits and vegetables thrower has been caught, police said. Anthony Lee Ritton, 18, of 206 S. Perkiomen St., threw oranges, apples, potatoes and other fruits and vegetables at vehicles over a six-month period, according to a complaint filed at District Court in Emmaus. Ritton was caught after unwittingly tossing a potato – investigators believe it was a russet –...

So there are a lot of environmental wackos, organic food junkies, hippies, libtards, the sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, waistoids, dweebies, and dickheads that think genetically modified food is evil. But what they don't realize is, this practise has gone on for thousands of years through grafting, selective breeding, etc. No "organic" food they eat today is exactly the same as it was 1000 years ago. Plus, when you look at amazing foods like those listed below, you have to admit there is some use to genetic modification. Graisins (Image via Elanso) The graisin (or giant raisin) is a...

Some Odd, Others Bizarre - These Items Are Not Just for Foodies Anymore: In the industry they're known as exotic or specialty produce, but consumers might think of these fruits and vegetables as unusual, uncommon or simply strange... What follows are descriptions of 13 exotic fruits and vegetables that may have never made it into your shopping cart -- let alone your mouth. The next time you're in the supermarket, perhaps you'll give them a closer look.

NEARLY 85,000 people have signed an online petition calling for part of the White House lawn to be turned into a vegetable patch, the plan's germinator said today. "The idea is for the Obama family to plant an organic vegetable garden on part of the White House lawn, with the cultivated vegies going to the White House kitchen and any overflow going to feed those in need," Roger Doiron, said, adding the idea had sprouted last year. If the Obamas were to plant a garden on the White House grounds, it would have the "inspirational potential" to spawn millions of...

An Amazing and Prolific Urban Homestead by Jules Dervaes Looking back at 1965, the year I entered college, I hardly recognize myself! At 18 I was headed — like everyone I knew — for life in the professional world. My dad was providing for our family by working for Chevron as a district manager of central Florida. For me, class valedictorian at Tampa’s Jesuit High School, the die had been cast to make my living by wearing a white collar. Working at manual labor was never a possibility, never even imagined. Getting married in 1970 brought new responsibilities and a...

I am in need of help planting a garden. This is my first spring here in SW Virginia. I don't know when to start planting various vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, carrots, lettuce, spinach, peas, green beans, corn and the like.

Eating veggies shrinks the brain 14 Sep 2008 MELBOURNE: Scientists have discovered that going veggie could be bad for your brain-with those on a meat-free diet six times more likely to suffer brain shrinkage. Vegans and vegetarians are the most likely to be deficient because the best sources of the vitamin are meat, particularly liver, milk and fish. Vitamin B12 deficiency can also cause anaemia and inflammation of the nervous system. Yeast extracts are one of the few vegetarian foods which provide good levels of the vitamin. The link was discovered by Oxford University scientists who used memory tests, physical...

MELBOURNE: Scientists have discovered that going veggie could be bad for your brain-with those on a meat-free diet six times more likely to suffer brain shrinkage. Vegans and vegetarians are the most likely to be deficient because the best sources of the vitamin are meat, particularly liver, milk and fish. Vitamin B12 deficiency can also cause anaemia and inflammation of the nervous system. Yeast extracts are one of the few vegetarian foods which provide good levels of the vitamin. The link was discovered by Oxford University scientists who used memory tests, physical checks and brain scans to examine 107 people...

Farmyard manure contaminated with residues of weedkiller is stunting the growth of vegetables in gardens all over the country, the Royal Horticultural Society has said. Cases of manure contaminated by herbicides used on grassland to control weeds appear to be a new phenomenon, according to the Society, with more instances reported this year than ever before. The most common crops affected are tomatoes, peas, beans, potatoes and lettuces, though ornamental plants such as delphinium, phlox and roses may be susceptible. Gardeners have complained to the Pesticides Safety Directorate which says that the manure they have been buying is likely to...

Eat Fruits And Veggies While Breastfeeding And Baby Will Probably Like Them ScienceDaily (Dec. 4, 2007) — Moms, want your baby to learn to like fruits and vegetables? Breastfed babies whose mothers eat fruits and vegetables are more inclined to like those foods themselves, a new study has found. (Credit: iStockphoto/Amy Kimball) According to new research from the Monell Center, if you're breast feeding, you can provide baby with a good start by eating them yourself. And, offer your baby plenty of opportunities to taste fruits and vegetables as s/he makes the transition to solid foods by giving repeated feeding...

Eating more cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower is associated with a reduced risk of aggressive prostate cancer. Several studies have demonstrated an association between eating vegetables and a reduced risk of prostate cancer, but study results have not been consistent and many have not investigated the association among patients with aggressive prostate cancer. Victoria Kirsh, Ph.D., of Cancer Care Ontario in Toronto and colleagues evaluated the possible association in 1,338 prostate cancer patients diagnosed in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial. Each of the men completed a 137-item food-frequency questionnaire. They found that eating fruits and...

The Humane Society of the U.S. has, for years, been trying to frighten people away from consuming meat, milk and eggs -- but its recent testimony before a congressional committee reached a new low when the HSUS president, Wayne Pacelle, made the unsupported claim that pigs could be harboring the infamous and deadly British ‘mad cow” disease. Swine veterinarians quickly pointed out that “mad cow,” or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, has never occurred naturally in swine. At the height of the British “mad cow” epidemic, both swine and cattle were exposed to the tissues from thousands of infected cattle and the...

According to Fox 35, Charlie Crist is the winner of the Republican Primary for Governor. Time for us to get behind him. SM

Drinking fruit and vegetable juices more than three times a week can dramatically cut the chances of developing Alzheimer's disease, a new study has found. Researchers followed almost 2,000 volunteers for up to 10 years while monitoring their juice consumption and brain function. They found the risk of Alzheimer's was 76 per cent lower for those who drank juices more than three times a week compared to those who drank them less than once a week. Other research has shown that eating curry can help stave off the disease and improve mental agility because of compounds found in the spice...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - People who ate a low-fat vegan diet, cutting out all meat and dairy, lowered their blood sugar more and lost more weight than people on a standard American Diabetes Association diet, researchers said on Thursday. They lowered their cholesterol more and ended up with better kidney function, according to the report published in Diabetes Care, a journal published by the American Diabetes Association. Participants said the vegan diet was easier to follow than most because they did not measure portions or count calories. Three of the vegan dieters dropped out of the study, compared to eight on...

CHICAGO - Buying organic milk these days - or organic apples, eggs, or beef - no longer has to mean an extra trip to a Whole Foods supermarket or the local co-op. Organic products now line the shelves at Safeway and Costco. And Wal-Mart - already the nation's largest organic-milk seller - says it wants to sell more organic food. Large companies including Kraft, General Mills, and Kellogg own sizable organic- and natural-food brands. Now, they are developing organic versions of their own products, too. Still, while some organic-food fans welcome its broadening appeal and availability, others worry that the...

Vegetable Compounds Combat Cancer In the ongoing war on cancer, researchers have enlisted a new series of soldiers: roots and vegetables. New findings presented at the American Association for Cancer Research show that a grocery list of vegetables including ginger, hot peppers and cauliflower show promise as cancer-combating agents. Pharmacologist Shivendra Singh of the University of Pittsburgh and his colleagues showed that a chemical released when cruciferous vegetables--such as cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage--are chewed helps control human prostate tumors grafted into mice. Phenethyl-isothiocyanate, or PEITC, prompted the prostate cancer cells to kill themselves in a process called apoptosis. By the...

Spring is in the Air: Gardening 101 Hello everyone. Spring is coming, I can smell it. Please leave gardening tips and tricks. I am looking to find some very low upkeep annuals this year other then marigolds. I am tired of beheading petunias in my planter boxes to make them last till fall. Also suggestions for vegetable gardens. Good Gardening links also. ENJOY : )

In one of the largest studies of its kind, UCSF researchers have found that eating lots of fruits and vegetables -- particularly vegetables -- is associated with about a 50 percent reduction in the risk of developing pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer is difficult to diagnose and remains largely untreatable. It kills about 30,000 people in the U.S. each year and has a five-year survival under four percent. The vegetables most strongly associated with increased protection were onions, garlic, beans, yellow vegetables (such as carrots, yams, sweet potatoes, corn and yellow squash), dark leafy vegetables and cruciferous vegetables. Light-green vegetables, tomatoes...

I live on a small farm in the northeast and practice the almost extinct art (around here anyhow) of canning my own vegetables. This year's harvest is tremendous and I am looking for some non-standard recipes for putting up the stock. Much appreciated.