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Why do many food plants contain cyanide? In murder mysteries, the detective usually diagnoses cyanide poisoning by the scent of bitter almonds wafting from the corpse. The detective knows what many of us might find surprising — that the deadly poison cyanide is naturally present in bitter almonds and many other plants used as food, including apples, peaches, apricots, lima beans, barley, sorghum, flaxseed and bamboo shoots.There's a reason that cyanide exists in all these plants, and it is — to paraphrase Sherlock Holmes — evolutionary, suggests Kenneth M. Olsen, PhD, an assistant professor of biology in Arts &...

Small brewers line up to pay premium prices for scarce ingredients Double-whammy shortages of two main ingredients are threatening to send the price of beer significantly higher, just in time for the national drinking holiday known as Super Bowl Sunday. * * * In September, Martin paid $4 for a pound for hops. By late October, he said, it was $50 a pound. Likewise, barley prices have almost doubled in the same period. Just a few weeks ago, George Peterson, owner of Central Coast Brewery in San Luis Obispo, Calif., spent $160 to brew a batch of beer equal to...

(SASKATOON) -- Beer is becoming an international beverage of choice and Canadian barley is expected to continue to play a major role in fuelling the brew, an expert said Friday. With consumption increasing worldwide and global production rising by six to eight per cent annually, demand will likely increase for malt barley grown in Western Canada, said malt and feed barley expert Al Morris of IMBM Winnipeg. "Worldwide, it's just booming," Morris said during a presentation at a CGF Brokerage and Consulting agriculture conference in Saskatoon. "We need more barley in the ground to keep up with global beer sales."...

Small brewers from Australia to Oregon face the daunting prospect of tweaking their recipes or experimenting less with new brews thanks to a worldwide shortage of one key beer ingredient and rising prices for others.

The rapid expansion of biofuel production may be welcome news for environmentalists but for the world’s beer drinkers it could be a different story. Strong demand for biofuel feedstocks such as corn, soyabeans and rapeseed is encouraging farmers to plant these crops instead of grains like barley, driving up prices. Jean-François van Boxmeer, chief executive of Heineken the Dutch brewer, warned last week that the expansion of the biofuel sector was beginning to cause a “structural shift” in European and US agricultural markets. One consequence, he said, could be a long-term shift upwards in the price of beer. Barley and...

WASHINGTON - Roll over oats: Breakfast cereals and other foods that contain barley also will be able to start claiming they can reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. The disease kills 500,000 Americans a year. Labels on whole barley and dry milled barley products, including flakes, grits, flour and meal, are expected to start making the claim, the Food and Drug Administration said Friday in announcing its ruling. The claim is identical to that already made on many oat products. The FDA estimates a quarter of the hot breakfast cereals, and another 5 percent of the cold cereals, sold...

QUESTION: Why does Gen. 42:25 refer to corn, when corn is a new world crop? Europeans did not know of its existence until the 16th Century. Surely that must be a mistranslation by the KJV translators, because the Jews would have not known about corn.