5@5: Increasing awareness for the soil-climate connection | What Americans eat in a day, now v. 1970

A boon for soil, and for the environment

A growing number of farmers are seeing their fields as a repository for the carbon in the atmosphere that's causing climate change—and regenerate their depleted soils while at it. And to do that, they're returning to holistic management practices. Between 5 and 10 percent of growers worldwide use regenerative techniques, according to one estimate, but farmers need funding to help them adopt new techniques. Read more at The New York Times...

The changing American diet

The USDA's Food Availability Data System estimates how much of major food groups Americans eat, going as far back as 1970. These visualizations show the rise of wheat flour, cooking oil and chicken, and the fall of whole milk and beef. See more at Flowing Data...

West Coast cities sue Monsanto to pay for chemical cleanup

Before Roundup, Monsanto made polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. They were banned more than 35 years ago, but Portland's city council and six other West Coast cities are suing Monsanto to recoup some costs of cleaning up these potentially carginogenic PCBs in waterways. Read more at High Country News...

Judge rejects 2 Oregon counties' anti-GMO bans

Voters in two counties in southern Oregon approved ordinances that would ban genetically engineered crops in 2014, but a judge struck them down due to a state law preventing local GMO bans. Read more at Oregon Live...

Low-fat or 'light' foods encourage over-eating in the long term

A study published in International Journal of Research in Marketing found that overconsumption of foods marketed as low-fat may have long-term effects. Read more at Bakery and Snacks...