Fresh Picks – Top 5 Stories Worth Reading
Waitress’s Wages Leave Little to Take Home
Forbes
A waitress in a family-style restaurant in Detroit says it’s a struggle to make ends meet. Most servers are women and they are subject to a sub-minimum wage that hasn’t been raised since 1991. Family members often provide a crucial safety net.
Poultry scientists working on “chicken translator”
Gizmag.com
Any experienced chicken farmer will tell you, the relative contentment of the birds can be gauged by the sounds they’re making. While this has generally been accepted as anecdotal folk wisdom, a team of scientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Georgia are now trying to scientifically verify it.
More Americans now eating whole grains, fresh produce
Los Angeles Times
A vast majority of Americans say they eat more whole grains and fresh produce than they did five years ago, but many believe the federal government needs to do more to ensure greater access to locally produced fresh food, according to a new survey.
Battle Brewing Over Labeling of Genetically Modified Food
NYTimes.com
For more than a decade, almost all processed foods in the US have contained ingredients from plants whose DNA was manipulated in a laboratory. Regulators and many scientists say these pose no danger. Labeling bills have been proposed in more than a dozen states over the last year, the most closely watched labeling effort is a proposed ballot initiative in California that cleared a crucial hurdle this month.
LA makes history with ban on plastic bags at stores
Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles became the largest city in the nation to approve a ban on plastic bags at supermarket checkout lines, handing a hard-fought victory to environmentalists and promising to change the way Angelenos do their grocery shopping.