Your quinoa habit really did help Peru's poor. But there's trouble ahead

The price of quinoa tripled from 2006 to 2013 as America and Europe discovered this new superfood. That led to scary media reports that the people who grew it in the high Andes mountains of Bolivia and Peru could no longer afford to eat it. And while, as we reported, groups working on the ground tried to spread the word that your love of quinoa was actually helping Andean farmers, that was still anecdote rather than evidence. Read more at NPR...

More than a fourth of FDA import refusals are for fruits, vegetables

When combined, fruits and vegetables were the foods most frequently subject to import refusals by the FDA from 2005 to 2013, followed by fishery products/seafood and the spices/flavorings/salts category. Read more at Food Safety News...

Many popular canned foods still use controversial chemical

In an analysis of previous randomized clinical studies, researchers from Harvard University's School of Public Health found that subjects who followed vegetarian or vegan diets lost 4.4 or 5.5 pounds more, respectively, than control subjects. Read more at Fortune...

More people on Earth now obese than underweight

According to a new study, body mass index levels are spiking worldwide — so much so that obese people now outnumber the underweight population for perhaps the first time in global history. Read more at Stat...

Patrick Holden wants to shine a light on the true cost of American food

The farmer-food system thought leader is gathering a group of thinkers for a summit on the invisible costs of an industrial food system. Read more at Civil Eats...