food

A lot of the grass-fed beef sold in the U.S. now comes from Australia because it's cheaper and available year-round. But U.S. producers say they still have an advantage over the imported meat: a homegrown story.

A team of eight people overseeing the critical foodborne illness tracking database PulseNet has been reduced to three. And a CDC division chief says that a multistate outbreak would push the remaining staff beyond their capacity.

It may be fast food, but it's taking longer than ever in the drive-through lane. A study conducted by an industry trade magazine finds the major chains are offering more complicated menu items that take longer to assemble and are tougher to get right.

Doctors have other ways to explain why wheat makes some people sick, like the hygiene hypothesis.

Jim Ledvinka grew up outside of Chicago watching his grandmother make ketchup from scratch once a year. As a kid, he hated the stuff. As a man — and now a grandfather — he became desperate to re-create it. That's where All Things Considered's Found Recipes project comes in.

It's the top-selling spirit in the world, but you've probably never heard of it. That's because Jinro soju does less than 5 percent of its sales in the U.S. Now, they're looking to expand that presence — by a lot. "We want to be in every store," says one marketing manager. "That's our main goal."

In a secret location, revealed minutes before the event, thousands came all dressed in white. They brought white tables and chairs, elegant china, wine and food, and they set up in a park in New York City. These elegant pop-up "white garb" dinners, called Diner en Blanc, are happening all over the world.

The origin of the bagel "is somewhat mysterious," says a writer who recently explored the topic. What is unquestionable is that bagel met and married lox in New York. But as in so many modern unions, both partners came to the marriage with plenty of baggage.

One of the really big challenges facing our world is how to grow more food without using up the globe's land and water. One company in Ohio says we've been ignoring one solution: insects. It's using larvae of the black soldier fly to convert waste into feed for fish or pigs.

Tulane medical students are trading in their scrubs for chefs whites. They've teamed up with culinary students at Johnson & Wales University as part of an innovative new program designed to teach both groups how good nutrition can help stave off lifestyle diseases.

An initiative in New York City is designed to nudge the families of overweight kids and teens to change the way they eat with fruit and vegetable prescriptions. The big incentive? Free produce as well as tips on how best to cook and economize.

Author Anya Von Bremzen's new memoir, Mastering The Art of Soviet Cooking, is a tragic-comic history of a family and a nation as seen through the kitchen window. Everything we ate in the Soviet Union was grown ... by the party state," she says. "So, with the food, inevitably, you ingested the ideology."