September 18: Stories That Caught Our Attention This Week

This week, Eater introduced us to the barista world champ who quit his coffee shop job to be a coffee farmer in Colombia. Tim Wendelboe wants to learn how cup quality is affected by pre-harvest practices, and to figure out how to produce supreme coffee at a lower cost to the farmer.

Up and over in Colorado, cannibis enthusiasts are trying to navigate the lack of legislation that surrounds the organic marijuana industry. Because it’s federally illegal, the USDA cannot steer smokers that prefer organically-grown product in any direction (right or wrong). A few third-party organizations, such as Denver-based Organic Cannibis Association, are working on creating their own certifications that would weed out (pun totally intended) growers that lie about not-so-organic practices.

Speaking of the big O, a study by the USDA shows the sale of organic food up by 72 percent since 2008.

Just in time for the Jewish New Year, New York’s Supreme Court ruled on Monday that slaughtering chickens on the street in Brooklyn is not disturbing enough to be illegal. An animal rights group tried to put a stop to Kapparot, the traditional ritual tied to Rosh Hashana where a practitioner swings a live chicken around his or her head three times while reciting prayer and then slits the bird’s throat. The tradition is meant to”transfer the practitioner’s sins to the bird,” according to court documents, and is now perfectly legal.

And finally, a park across the pond is reportedly covered in cow poop after a local London city council’s decision to bring cows to the village green went awry. The original plan was to bring small Belted Galloways to the green in an trial to promote flora biodiversity. When they weren’t available, 1,800-pound Aberdeen Angus arrived instead. We think they’re pretty cute, but stepping in a cow pie on a morning run might change our minds, too …