Added 1 October, 2014
Seems like every food these days has versions that are organic, small-batch, artisanal, hand-made, locally sourced, and sustainably grown... these are the new buzzwords of the food world. So it should come as no surprise that one of the latest foods to jump on this trend is popcorn. What with Europeans and healthists worrying about genetically-...
Added 2 September, 2014
Green energy is booming. Renewables now produce 22 percent of the world's electricity, a number that will likely rise to 26 percent by 2020. The future is one that is less reliant on fossil fuels. But in some places, the future has already arrived. El Hierro, the smallest and least known of Spain's Canary Islands with some 10,000 residents, is...
Added 27 August, 2014
While only a scant 1.3-percent of the general population is said to be allergic to peanuts, many airlines have done away with the popular snack to please a small but vocal group of people who are allergic to them. Fact is, the number of people suffering from allergies in general has been rising in the world over the last decade. While no one is...
Added 25 August, 2014
"Functional beverages" is a category of non-alcoholic bottled drink that includes ingredients such as herbs, vitamins, minerals, and amino acids that are said to offer health benefits. Examples include sports drinks like Gatorade, energy drinks like Red Bull, and any number of ready-to-drink teas and waters infused with exotic herbs and "...
Added 24 June, 2014
Actual grubs just might be the next frontier of grub. Of course, this is nothing new in Asia, where locusts, crickets, bamboo worms and scorpions are already considered to be a staple part of diets. Now the bugs are coming to North American and Europe. A recent report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization enumerates some 2000...
Added 24 June, 2014
We are entering the Robotic Decade, the years when personal mobile robots will finally make an impact on our daily lives. More and more we will see robots taking jobs that we ourselves once did. At Germany's Düsseldorf airport, parking robots are now inviting departing passengers to leave their cars near the airport terminal so they can quickly...
Added 19 June, 2014
We know that greater transparency is a growing trend, but is this going one step too far? Turns out that the US state of Alaska as one of the country's highest rates of fetal alcohol syndrome, a condition in a child that results from alcohol exposure during the mother's pregnancy. As a way of combatting this, the government is supporting an...
Added 16 April, 2014
More and more, people are concerned with the ingredients of the products they use. Watchwords these days are "natural," "organic," "chemical-free," "small-batch" and the like. Many companies are responding by creating products with more natural ingredients. Unfortunately in the cosmetics industry, however, there is still a lot of opacity. Full...
Added 25 March, 2014
Weird-looking natural food stores were once considered to be on the fringes of urban grocery stores. But as eating healthfully has become normalized, natural food emporiums like Whole Foods in the USA and Food Lover's Market in South Africa have become the mainstream markets for a large, wealthy segment of the population. Meanwhile, as the...
Added 19 March, 2014
If you've ever seen Google News then you know that the selection and placement of stories on that site is determined automatically by a computer program. But the stories themselves were all written by humans. Not for long. The Los Angeles Times is one of several newspapers now employing computers to write their articles. The stories are...