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6 Morsels of Good Foodie News

School lunches are improving; Walmart's into sustainability: Mark Bittman

By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff

Posted Mar 23, 2011 12:22 PM CDT

(Newser) – Sometimes it’s important for a critic to drop the criticism and offer some praise. In the New York Times, Mark Bittman presents a taste of good news in the food world:

  1. Backers of better food policy are gaining real traction: The reauthorized Child Nutrition Act will improve school lunches, while the Food Safety Modernization Act will make our meals safer.

  1. Walmart is making a big push for local food, including doubling “sales of locally-sourced produce” and encouraging sustainable farming. And McDonald's is following the retail giant's lead.
  2. “Real food is spreading”: The number of US farmers' markets has increased some 250% since 1994 to 6,000.
  3. Urban farming is growing from Pittsburgh to Milwaukee, and city governments are supporting the trend.
  4. A new generation of farmers is on its way: Even though farmers are aging, nonprofits give “farming a new cachet of cool.”
  5. School food is getting better: It “may have more potential positive influences than anything else," and the USDA, for example, is backing a program to get chefs into schools. Some 550 schools are on board.
Read Bittman's whole column here.

A man shops in the produce area at Pacifica Farmers Market in Pacifica, Calif, Wednesday, March 16, 2011.
A man shops in the produce area at Pacifica Farmers Market in Pacifica, Calif, Wednesday, March 16, 2011.   (AP Photo)
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COMMENTS
Showing 2 of 3 comments
BCto
Mar 23, 2011 3:02 PM CDT
a step in the right direction
OrangeSyndicate
Mar 23, 2011 1:24 PM CDT
This is great news, but I'm pretty weary of Walmart and Mcdonalds making the push for local foods. All they really care about is money and cutting costs, and there's no way the local food industry (which SHOULD rely on quality and sustainability) will benefit from this, in the long run. To think companies like Mcdonalds would try to be positive and progressive for the sake of the environment or anything else that isn't profitable is laughable.

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