Fresh Picks – Top 5 Stories Worth Reading
Your Favorite Restaurant’s Secret Ingredient: Data, and Lots of It
Wired Enterprise
Welcome to the data-driven, number-crunching future of restauranteering. With the food business thriving again in the midst of America’s economic upswing – consistently claiming a whopping 4 percent of GDP — some of the nation’s top eateries are quietly embracing data mining to eke out profit in a tough economy.
U.S. scraps rules to limit farm jobs done by kids
Star Tribune
Facing public outcry from farmers and politicians, the U.S. Department of Labor is abandoning proposed rules that, in the name of safety, would have barred young hired farm workers from performing a range of hazardous tasks. The department issued a statement saying the withdrawal was made in response to thousands of comments about how the rules might affect family-owned farms.
Oregon asks to kill salmon-eating birds
Capital Press
Oregon officials were successful in getting permission to kill sea lions that feed on protected salmon trying to swim upriver to spawn. Now they want federal approval to shoot a type of seabird that eats millions of baby salmon trying to reach the ocean. Oregon needs federal approval to start shooting dozens of the long-necked, dark gray seabirds on coastal rivers because they are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
California Heads for Vote on Modified Food Labeling
Bloomberg
Californians are on course to vote whether genetically modified food must be labeled after a campaign targeting biotech-crop companies gathered enough support for a referendum. A petition was signed by 971,126 people, 75 % more than the minimum needed for a statewide vote. Approval from 50 % of voters would make the proposal law.
Michelle Obama’s Food Desert Plan Yields Few New Stores: Retail
Bloomberg
After vowing to open more than 1,000 stores selling fresh fruit and vegetables in underserved urban neighborhoods, or “food deserts,” grocers have opened a fraction of them, putting in jeopardy Michelle Obama’s effort to improve food choices for low-income Americans.