by Rosalin Luetum and Gabrielle Blavatsky

photo source: blisstree[dot]com

Last month, Mayor Bloomberg proposed a big soda ban that would outlaw the sale of soft drinks larger than 16 ounces -- larger than a can of soda, but smaller than a bottle.  The proposed ban includes drinks with at least 25 calories per eight ounces. Diet sodas, fruit juices, and dairy-based drinks are exempt. If approved, the ban would take effect March 2013.

by Mark Dunlea

Governor Cuomo announced on May 17, 2012 that he shortly would issue draft regulations to end the requirement that applicants be fingerprinted (imaged) to apply for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps, benefits. Other than New York City, the rest of the state (and the rest of the country, other than Arizona) had already largely ended this procedure for most applicants (especially the elderly and working families).

by Ed Yowell

Przemek Adolf and Monika Luczak, the self-proclaimed "duo of flavor fanatics," started Fresh Picked Pantry Inc. in 2011 and have been producing bottled sauces, savory and sweet, under the brand Saucy By Nature for almost a year.  Przemek and Monika are pioneers in the exploding New York food artisan movement.  Like many others in the movement, they are dedicated to sourcing fresh ingredients from our growing region and conducting seasonal production in the city.  They are helping to build a vibrant, regional farm and food economy, and doing so deliciously.  Now they are teaming to start Fare Trade, the Food Artisans Alliance. I talked to them about their new mission. 

"Weight of the Nation," a new four-part HBO series paints a grim picture of our health prospects -- and our children's.

photo credit: Shutterstock/iQoncept

by Kerry Trueman

Substance abuse? That's so last century. Our problem now is sustenance abuse. Opiates are optional, but everyone's gotta eat. And therein lies the path to dietary disaster in America. "If you go with the flow, you'll be fat," is how Weight of the Nation, HBO's epic four-part series on our obesity crisis, sums it up. And once your weight creeps up, it puts you at risk for a whole range of unhealthy, unhappy outcomes.

by Kerry Trueman

Photo credit: HBO

HBO launched an ambitious anti-obesity campaign last month with The Weight of the Nation, a 4-part documentary series that warns just how catastrophic this epidemic will become if we don't make some radical changes. To help get the word out, HBO has created a website that makes the series available for free on line, and also encourages communities and organizations to host their own screenings.

You can watch the trailer here.

You can read my review, originally published on AlterNet, here.

By Kerry Trueman

Here's a trio of new books that offer some sustainably minded summer reading:

• Dan Imhoff's newly revised Food Fight: The Citizen's Guide to the Next Farm Bill, a nifty paperback filled with compelling graphics, charts, and analysis that will get you up to speed on this eternally perplexing piece of legislation;
• Greenhorns: 50 Dispatches from the New Farmers' Movement , a compilation of essays by young farmers who offer firsthand accounts of the risks and rewards they've encountered in pursuit of their agrarian dreams;
• Sandor Katz's comprehensive, definitive guide to all things fermented, The Art of Fermentation, which covers an astonishing range of fermented foods and promises to become an instant classic, with a foreword by Michael Pollan (who also wrote the forward for Food Fight).

By Rosalin Luetum

More than 5,000 people attended last month's Brooklyn Food Conference presented by Brooklyn Food Coalition (BFC).  According to BFC Coordinator Nancy Romer, most attendees found it to be the most diverse event they have participated in, in terms of class, race, age, gender, employment and interests.  Judging from the audiences, two of the biggest priorities that emerged from the day's conversations were school food and labor.  The largest groups -- parents, teachers and youth -- came out for school food reform, pushing for greater investment in fresh fruits and vegetables, local sourcing of food, school gardens and food studies in the curriculum. Discussion in the labor workshops proposed legislation that would guarantee the right to organize, be collectively represented, and establish safe working conditions, living wages and paid sick days for all workers. In Romer's words, the conference was a "mass popular education event that helped to define and grow the food movement."  To learn more and find out how to help build the movement, visit BKFoodConference.org.

 *The update is a continuation of a Q and A with Nancy Romer that took place prior to the Brooklyn Food Conference. Read the original article here.

Image: Schoharie County, photo courtesy of Dougtone via Flickr Commons

Image: New York City, photo courtesy of Nadavspi via Wikimedia Commons

by Abby Youngblood

On May 12, five thousand people from New York City and beyond gathered at the Brooklyn Technical High School for the 2012 Brooklyn Food Conference.  The conference included a Youth Summit with over 300 youth and more than 150 workshops across a broad spectrum of food systems issues.  Workshops topics ranged from discussions about culture, spirituality, labor, health, hunger, emergency food, entrepreneurship and the Farm Bill to hands-on sessions on making compost and fermenting cabbage.  Throughout the day, “mega- workshops” took place in the school auditorium on food policy issues, hydraulic fracturing (or “fracking”), and on building partnerships across urban and rural divides.