Widen Palate to Reverse Overfishing

Study says some species in danger of extinction

(NEWSER) - Pity the poor hagfish: It has an awful name, an even-worse nickname ("slime eel"), shudder-inducing eating habits (it is thought to burrow into dead and dying creatures on the ocean floor and absorb nutrients through its skin), and now troubling numbers about its very survival. Of 76 species worldwide, nine face risk of extinction, reports Live Science . Scientists are worried because, while the hagfish will never be a cuddly poster subject, its function as a bottom scavenger is important for the food chain. More»

Reports of overfished oceans are exaggerated: Aquatics professor

(NEWSER) - The last few years have seen lots of gloom-and-doom scenarios about how the world is running out of fish . Don't believe it, writes aquatics professor Ray Hilborn in the New York Times . Flawed studies produced those results. In reality, "fish stocks worldwide appear to be stable, and in the United States they are rebuilding, in many cases at a rapid rate." It's true that some species, such as bluefin tuna, are overfished in international waters, a problem that requires "global cooperation and American leadership." More»

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

(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.

Overfishing has led to wildly unbalanced ecosystem

(NEWSER) - Want to help restore the ocean’s severely unbalanced ecoysystem? Develop a taste for anchovies and sardines. A new study shows that a worldwide appetite for smaller, “grazing” fish would do wonders to restore balance after years of overfishing the more popular, and larger, varieties. Humans tend to like tuna, cod, and other predatory fish from the top of the food chain, the Independent reports. But after years of eating those varieties, their numbers are in a catastrophic decline, having fallen by two-thirds over the past century. More»

As in Eat Real Food, writes Mark Bittman

(NEWSER) - America's taking baby steps toward eating a diet of real food, writes Mark Bittman in the New York Times. He rounds up a trio developments—the USDA urging people to eat less , Michelle Obama teaming up with Walmart , and Oprah challenging her staff to go vegan for a week. All are admirable to a certain extent, but they still tend to push pseudo-healthy versions of bad food instead of challenging us to eat better food altogether. More»