cookiesinheaven

For the first time, scientists have isolated the parasite Nosema ceranae (Microsporidia) from professional apiaries suffering from honey bee colony depopulation syndrome. They then went on to treat the infection with complete success. - Science Daily

Down the hill from the famous Hollywood sign in Los Angeles, 20 nuns spend their days praying and singing and baking at a small monastery. Their 85-year-old order endured the Great Depression, but today's economic crisis finds them struggling again. While the Monastery of the Angels sits in the middle of the hustle and bustle of Hollywood, the Dominican nuns are cloistered from the world in contemplative prayer every morning.

..It's Sister Mary Raphael's job to watch the monastery's money. Lately, she's been watching the monastery's investments and annuities dwindle. In January, she found out the value of the investments had dropped by 70 percent. Plus, medical bills for the elderly nuns drained the bank account, says the mother superior, Sister Mary Raymond.

"So that was when we began to get really scared," Sister Mary Raymond says.

..Today, the sisters are putting their faith in something the monastery's famous for: pumpkin bread. They've been baking and selling it for the past 40 years to help cover expenses.

These days, the nuns get $9 a loaf for their famed pumpkin bread. L.A. City Council member Tom LaBonge is a big fan. When he visited the monastery the other day, he said he buys loaves to give as gifts during the Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremonies and other special occasions.

"I gave President Obama, when he was running for office, a loaf of bread," LaBonge says.

With bread that popular, you would think it would be a big moneymaker for the monastery. But there's just one hitch: The oven is broken. And without it, the nuns are out of business. - npr

Labels: charity, Food, oven

For the third straight year, the value of ag products in Santa Barbara County surpassed the $1 billion mark.

The county crop report shows for 2008, production value reached about $1.14 billion. That is an increase of about three percent compared to 2007. More than 50 different crops reported gross receipts, or sales before expenses, of more than $1 million.

Daren Gee has been in the strawberry business for years. Once again, strawberries remain the county's top crop, grossing more than $309 million. - KSBY

Two Fatburger subsidiaries of Fog Cutter Capital Group Inc. have filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection.

According to an SEC report, Fatburger Restaurants of California, Inc. and Fatburger Restaurants of Nevada, Inc. declared bankruptcy after GE Capital Business Asset Funding Corp. notified them that they risked a breach of contract unless they made payments by April 7 relating to $3.85 million worth of loans. Fatburger said it will seek to restructure the loans during bankruptcy proceedings. - Bizjournals

In these hard economic times we are seeing more and more how it affects the restaurant industry. Today, two Fatburger subsidiaries have filed for Chapter 11. Fatburger Restaurants of California and Fatburger Restaurants of Nevada have filed for reorganization in U.S. Bankruptcy Court yesterday. - FoodieinDisguise.com

Lovers of king salmon will have to settle for fish hooked in the Pacific Northwest this year under a federal agency's recommendation Wednesday to ban the commercial catching of salmon off California and much of Oregon in an attempt to save the fabled fish.

The move, which the National Marine Fisheries Service is expected to make final by May 1, comes after the fewest chinook salmon ever recorded made their way up the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers last fall.

"There are just no fish," said Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations. "If they allowed any fishing, they would be putting at risk future fishing." - SFGate

Ask folks to name Hawai‘i’s most valuable farm crop and they’ll likely say sugar or pineapple, maybe hazard a guess at macadamia nuts. Few will answer correctly–seeds–and even fewer will know that at least half that industry is devoted to growing genetically-modified organisms, or GMOs.

In the past two decades, the Islands have hosted some 2,252 outdoor tests for experimental GE plants, more than any other place. Open-air field trials have been conducted on corn, soybeans, cotton, potatoes, wheat, alfalfa, beets, rice, safflower, sorghum, sunflowers, sugar cane, pineapple, dendrobium orchids, anthurium, coffee and papaya, among others. About 130 now are under way throughout the state.

Some of Hawai‘i’s outdoor tests—by companies such as Monsanto, ProdiGene, Garst Seed Co. and Hawai‘i Agriculture Research Center(HARC)—also involved biopharmaceuticals, which refers to plants genetically-engineered to produce medical supplies, drugs, vaccines and industrial chemicals. According to court documents, these trials involved experimental AIDS and hepatitis B vaccines; growth hormones; enzyme production from human genes; and aprotinin, a blood-clotting cow protein that is also an insect toxin. Information about where these tests were done remains blocked by a court order. - Honolulu Weekly

...It is not a question of if the sugar maple will disappear, it is a question of when. Such shifts of species have taken place gradually in the past, over hundreds of years, allowing adaptation, but not in this case. Already, according to research from ecologist Brian Beckage of UVM, tree species have shifted more than 90 meters up the slopes of the Green Mountains since 1964 in search of cooler climes.

The cost will be tremendous if these predictions hold true. Maple syrup production in the Northeast, a $65 million a year industry, will cease to exist and with it a critical financial lifeline for small family farmers in the region. Already, according to preliminary data from one of Rock's graduate students, the sap from northeastern maples is getting less sweet. - The Daily Climate

The recall last week of 2 million pounds of pistachios because of concerns about salmonella contamination has been expanded, and federal officials say more recalls of foods containing pistachios are on the horizon.

...The recall was expanded this week to cover Setton's entire 2008 crop, except for raw in-shell pistachios. Most pistachios sold in stores are roasted.

... In addition to selling in the USA, Setton sold to Canada, Korea, Hong Kong, Germany, Australia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, France, Cyprus, Greece, Lebanon, Norway, Ukraine and Ecuador. - USA Today

Egg rolls from a Hayward manufacturer are now being recalled after state health officials warned Tuesday they contain pepper associated with a recent salmonella outbreak.

California Department of Public Health officials advised consumers not to eat chicken egg rolls and vegetable egg rolls from EDS Wrap and Roll Foods, LLC. - Mercury News

...But while food industry giants that have long opposed new regulations are beginning to change their tune, small-scale producers are growing increasingly vocal about their own concerns.

The problem, they say, is that small farmers, who are most accountable for their food's freshness and health, may suffer the heaviest burden under proposed new food rules.

"A lot of people worry that what's on the books right now is very much geared toward the biggest agricultural players," said Patty Lavera, assistant director of the nonprofit consumer group Food and Water Watch. "It's sort of a one-size-fits-all approach, and when its one size fits all, it's usually written by the big guy." - NYTimes

Stonyfield Farm is recalling about 44,000 quarts of fat-free plain organic yogurt in Stonyfield Farm branded containers because the yogurt products might contain sanitizer that's normally used in food plants. The company said it hasn't received any reports of illnesses, but it has received several reports from people noticing an off-taste or off-smell. Stonyfield Farm said the issue resulted from human error in not following the company's standard operating procedures.

The recalled products are limited to Stonyfield Farm 32-ounce Fat Free Plain yogurt with the UPC code 52159 00006. It carries one of these product codes printed along the cup bottom that start with the following date codes:

-- May 06 09: Time stamped 22:17 through 23:59 (limited to these specific time stamps only).
-- May 07 09: All time stamps.For more information, consumers can call 800-776-2697. - AP

Beer Wars LIVE with Ben Stein, is a one night event taking you inside the boardrooms and back rooms of the American beer industry. The event will feature the exclusive never-before-seen documentary Beer Wars, followed by a riveting live discussion led by Ben Stein with America’s leading independent brewers and experts.

Beer Wars will introduce you to the who’s who in beer while following the journey of small, independent brewers who are challenging the corporate giants. Director Anat Baron provides an insider’s perspective of the daily battles and all out wars that dominate one of America’s favorite industries.