April 15: Stories That Caught Our Attention This Week

What seemed like a late April Fools’ joke by NPR on Tuesday was not: A goat walked into a California Starbucks the other day, and they’ve got photo evidence. NPR interviewed a goat expert on the situation, who talked about goats eating cardboard and not drinking lattes.

A Canadian fisherman wants people to get acquainted with something called 3-D ocean farming, which he uses to harvest plant life like seaweed. Bren Smith sees seaweed’s full potential as a dietary staple, a potential source of biofuel, and a carbon sink to filter out the nitrogen that’s taking a toll on sea life. Seaweed FTW!

Strawberries have ousted apples at the top of the Dirty Dozen list, which measures the level of pesticide residue on common fruits and vegetables. The report, released earlier this week, found pesticide residue on 98 percent of tested strawberries. The USDA and Environmental Working Group (EWG) test 35,000 samples of fruit and vegetables yearly to comprise the list. After strawberries, in descending order, we have: apples, nectarines, peaches, celery, grapes, cherries, spinach, tomatoes, red peppers, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, hot peppers and kale/collard greens.

The New York Times showcased a handful of micro-dairies this Tuesday, where the cows are normal sized, but the batches aren’t. Some micro-dairies, which are bottling their own milk and emphasizing buzzwords like unhomogenized, organic, grass-fed and local (in marketing and in practice), are even having milkmen deliver their product fresh to your door.

Lastly, a Florida food critic who previously lauded the menus of her region’s hottest restaurants published an extensive (and extensively alarming) piece on the farm-to-table movement and how, over and over again, it’s a big lie. Give it a read. We’re glad we did.