Be Happy

And now for Real Books/Fake Excerpts with comic genius Dan Naturman.

Spam Rides Again

You know times are tough when Spam is flying off the shelves.

In times of trouble the United States has historically turned to a tin of pink processed meat to see it through – and so it is again that sales of Spam are soaring as the recession bites.

They have shot up by more than 10 per cent in the past three months and the Hormel Foods Corporation has had to introduce a double shift at its factory in Austin, Minnesota, seven days a week to keep up with demand.

Psycho Spud

Lebanese farmer grows giant potato. I ain't eating that thing.

Ice Pop Culture

Don't ya wish you could be an ice pop at this very moment?

No Going Home

The number of American homeless is "alarming".

"Everywhere I go, I hear there is an increase" in the need for housing aid, especially for families, says Philip Mangano, executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, which coordinates federal programs. He says the main causes are job losses and foreclosures.

Other factors have been higher food and fuel prices hitting families with "no cushion," says Nan Roman of the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

The Vice Guide to North Korea

This is part one of an interesting and funny documentary about an American's experience in North Korea.



It's broken up into several parts, click here for them, you imperialist pig.

Big Macs for Homophobes

McDonald's gives in to anti-gay agenda.

After months of pressure from an anti-gay-marriage group, McDonald's Corp. has given up a director's seat and will stop sponsorship of a national gay business organization.

Burger King always did taste better anyway.

Rock, Roll, & Roast Beef

"For less than the cost of a Big Mac, fries and a Coke, you can buy a loaf of fresh bread and some good cheese or roast beef, which you will enjoy much more."

Steve Albini

Grow Your Own

Turn your lawn into a garden with the 10 most easy to grow veggies.

Superfood

Another reason to finish your broccoli.

No Money, No Yummy

Restaurant chains are closing as broke diners stay home.

Food for the Rats

Approved GM corn toxic?

"Laboratory rats, fed with a genetically engineered (GE) maize produced by Monsanto, have shown signs of toxicity in kidney and liver, according to a new study. This is the first time that a GE product which has been cleared for use as food for humans and animals has shown signs of toxic effects on internal organs.

Why are the people who made Agent Orange making us dinner?

Bull Ban

France ends the ban on Red Bull energy drink.

The drink had been banned in France for twelve years due to health authorities' concerns about unknown consequences of the ingredient taurine, a chemical forbidden in several countries.

Shrinking Packages

US food manufacturers are shrinking the size of products rather than raise prices. On the bright side, it could be a good thing for our expanding waistlines.

Food for Fuel

Did bio-fuel cause the food crisis?

Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian.

Where's the Beef?

US food supply is vanishing.

Worldwide, food prices have risen 45% in the past nine months, posing a crisis for millions, says the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization.

Because of the current economics of food, and changes in federal farm subsidy programs designed to make farmers rely more on the markets, large U.S. reserves may be gone for a long time.

A Bad Wrap

Well, if the food isn't toxic, its packaging probably is. How long exactly until we become mutants?

Urban, Organic, Cuba

But while none of these slogans are household words in Cuba, 70 percent of the vegetables and herbs grown on the island today are organic and the urban gardens where they are raised are usually within walking distance of those who will consume them. So in one blow Cuba reduced the use of fossil fuels in the production and transportation of food. And they began doing this nearly 20 years ago.

Read more here.

Daily Bread

Flour shortage leads to bread riots in Egypt.

Dumpster Divers Unite

Rebecca, 51, owns a small duplex and has a job running an art program for a health care organization. She's also an artist in her own right whose accomplishments include a piece that hangs in the Seattle Art Museum.

And she gets 99 percent of her food from the Dumpster.

"It's so easy to eat for free," she says. "The only things I buy are butter and milk."

Read more here.

Renegade Gardeners

They're sneaking about in the wee hours, they're invading land that isn't theirs, they're taking over unloved plots of earth, even traffic medians and planting stuff. They're the guerrilla gardener movement.

Scott is a guerrilla gardener, a member of a burgeoning movement of green enthusiasts who plant without approval on land that's not theirs. In London, Berlin, Miami, San Francisco and Southern California, these free-range tillers are sowing a new kind of flower power. In nighttime planting parties or solo "seed bombing" runs, they aim to turn neglected public space and vacant lots into floral or food outposts.

Story with photos here and a seed-bomb tutorial for you wannabe guerrilla gardeners.

Shopping List

Seven tips to avoiding genetically modified foods.

Going Green, Eating Green, Saving Green

Vegetable gardens are sprouting up in the city. I'm hoping to get my own garden going one of these years.

Refreshing

Coca-Cola is set to phase out a "controversial chemical linked to hyperactivity and gene damage".



This the first I've heard of it. Read more here.

Fat Chance

Seems someone's been spiking the Olsen Twins' coffee with full fat milk in order to fatten them up a bit. Oh, the horror! Personally I need to go the other way. I have been slacking big time with the fitness routine and have packed on a few pounds. My fat ass really needs to get back on this new treadmill here...

Funding Frankenfood

Is the Bush administration using food crisis to give GM foods a boost?

Food Fight

Could "food riots" come to the United States?

...the US and some countries in the West may have to brace themselves for a starving army guided by the morality of the stomach.

Read more here

Back to Nature

Fears of the financial instability, food and fuel shortages creating a new "survivalist" movement?



A few years ago, Kathleen Breault was just another suburban grandma, driving countless hours every week, stopping for lunch at McDonald's, buying clothes at the mall, watching TV in the evenings.

That was before Breault heard an author talk about the bleak future of the world's oil supply. Now, she's preparing for the world as we know it to disappear.

Breault cut her driving time in half. She switched to a diet of locally grown foods near her upstate New York home and lost 70 pounds. She sliced up her credit cards, banished her television and swore off plane travel. She began relying on a wood-burning stove.

"I was panic-stricken," the 50-year-old recalled, her voice shaking. "Devastated. Depressed. Afraid. Vulnerable. Weak. Alone. Just terrible."

Read more here. Cut up the credit cards, banish the t.v., lose 70 pounds... sounds like a plan.