Amazing what foods you can find in your own– and your neighbor's– backyard. Photo credit: Iso Rabins of ForageSF "What happens on your plates represents your most important engagement with the natural world and the biggest impact you have on climate change." – Michael Pollan

Considering that I work from home, don't fly very often, and walk or take mass transit most places, I bet Michael Pollan is especially right for me. Last June, QUEST had a radio piece on a low carbon diet with tips to lower your CO2 impact, but my inner scientist needs some data. That's when I found the Carbon Foodprint Calculator.

Here's what I ate yesterday:

• Cereal with Milk
• Small Salad
• Chicken Sandwich
• 3 Diet Cokes
• Beer
• Apple, Banana, and some strawberries

My wife usually nags me about my diet, but I think I did pretty well yesterday! (excepting those diet cokes) My carbon foodprint was 2641 CO₂e points. Each point represents 1 gram of CO₂e equivalent or in my case 5.8 lbs of CO₂e. Now this is calculator certainly has limitations (mentioned in their FAQ section), but it is a satisfying comparison study. The site claims that most Americans have room to cut their carbon foodprint 25%. Not easily done, but luckily we have help in the Bay Area.

This weekend, Iso Rabins, founder of ForageSF, is taking an intrepid crew out to learn about foraged foods (virtually zero in carbon foodprint if foraged locally). He'll teach you how to identify wild edibles all around you, from wild fennel to mallow to nettle. Many of the plants we see everyday can be consumed on the spot (although better after a quick rinse). After taking a collecting walk, he'll cook up some snacks that includes some of what was foraged.

On Monday, Chef Laura Stec and climatologist Eugene Cordero cook up some Cool Cuisine, with a discussion of their new cookbook focusing on low carbon recipes. Cordero presents research on the energy efficiency of our food system and the relationship to our changing climate and then Chef Laura provides some practical cooking tips for low carbon foods without sacrificing flavor. For those who can't make the event, you can watch their presentation last month at the PARC Forum.

Guided Foraging Tour with ForageSF & TransportedSF

When: Sunday, August 9^th 12 PM – 7 PM

Where: Meet at Papa Toby's Revolution Café, 3248 22nd St, SF

Cost: $35, Tickets

Environmental Action through Eating: Best Bang for the Buck

When: Monday, August 10^th 6 PM – 730 PM

Where: Commonwealth Club, 595 Market St, 2^nd Floor, SF

Cost: $8 members, $15 non-members, Tickets

Bring it on! A healthy dose of epicatechin, serotonin, caffeine, theobromine, phenylethylamine, and polyphenolsThe scientific name for chocolate, Theobroma, translates to “food of the gods.” This delectable confection has been worshipped for centuries and the fervor for this sweet treat hasn’t abated yet. Scientists have been studying the putative health benefits of dark chocolate for over a decade, and their studies are showing that it shouldn’t necessarily be regarded as a guilty indulgence.

As seen in our QUEST story, "The Sweet Science of Chocolate," UCSF’s Mary Engler conducted a clinical trial that showed that a plant-based flavonoid, epicatechin, helped to promote healthy blood flow in healthy patients.

Other researchers in the late ‘90’s, such as Adam Drenowski at the University of Washington, found that chocolate helps trigger the release of endorphins, while Daniele Piomelli of UC Irvine, conducted research on cannabinoids found in chocolate.

And recent research suggested that chocolate could even be good for your memory. There are other compounds present in chocolate which may have beneficial effects on your mind and body, such as serotonin, caffeine, theobromine, phenylethylamine, and polyphenols. Who knows what future chocolate research may yield, but in the meantime– no joke here– you might even be pumping chocolate-based fuels into your gas tank!

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Chef Ryan Farr demonstrates the art of the butcher.By Jenny Oh and Lauren Sommer

On Thursday night, the Society of Agriculture and Food Ecology and Meatpaper Magazine co-hosted a panel discussion at UC Berkeley titled, "The Art of the Butcher". Using whole animals from local ranches was the topic of the night, and judging from the standing room only crowd, it's an area that the sustainable agriculture community is gravitating towards.

Marissa Guggiana of Sonoma Direct led the panel, which included both chefs and producers. Melanie Eisemann and David Budworth of Avedano's butcher shop discussed how butcher shops typically don't break down whole animals in-house, and usually provide only the most popular cuts of meat such as the tenderloin, ribs and chops. At Avedano's, they encourage their customers to try lesser-known cuts that can be cheaper and more flavorful depending on the method of preparation. They also offer regular classes on how to butcher your own meat.

Producer Mark Pasternak of Devil's Gulch Ranch described the change he has seen in the marketplace from both chefs and consumers. He's able to sell his pigs to restaurants and markets that are looking for local animals that are raised outdoors, and Bay Area customers are helping to increase the demand for this sustainably raised meat. Chefs Nate Appleman of A16 and Ryan Farr of Ivy Elegance are both dedicated to using every bit of the pig that they can, from the ears and skin all the way down to the hooves. Appleman serves 20 pounds to tripe of week.

The culmination of the evening was a demonstration by Chef Ryan Farr on how to break down an entire side of a pig. It was divided up into CSA shares, which were pre-sold to members of the audience. For more on local meat CSA's, check out this Quest story.

Is this you in the kitchen?Here in the Bay Area, we're known the world around as foodies, especially given the recent popularity of the Slow Food Festival. As we approach the biggest food holiday of the year, it's a great opportunity to think about the science behind all of these scrumptious meals.

Last year, I stumbled across a new series of lectures on Food Ethics & Environment at Stanford University. Headlining the series was the incomparable Michael Pollan, who led an interactive discussion on the evolution of food culture in the U.S. I was amazed at the level of passion in the audience and moreover the knowledge level of the audience. I left inspired to take my time with food and eat a little healthier (that worked for about a week).

This year, Stanford again delivers a stellar lineup. Over the next few weeks and months– there will be discussions ranging from water, the affect of global warming on our food, fair trade coffee, and even a conversation with a organic farmer (it's Joel Salatin, one of the heroes from the "Omnivore's Dilemma").

So before you give thanks next week, consider a heaping serving of food science.

All events are free. They take place at the Annenberg Auditorium on the Stanford University Campus. The events are usually held on Thursday nights at 7pm. For more info, check out the Stanford Ethics Website.

We put this story on the calendar back in September, before melamine-tainted milk started making headlines in China (with some products turning up on Asian grocery store shelves here in the US. Find KQED reporter Oanh Ha's excellent reporting on that story here, here, and here). We'd been planning to focus on criticism of FDA's handling of imported fresh produce, and had to recast the piece when it became clear that the concerns around food safety were much broader.

Another plan was shelved when the FDA declined to let us visit any of their local facilities, including a testing lab in Alameda that had been scheduled for closure only a year ago – right around the time that Mexican jalapeno peppers sickened 13,000 people and devastated the domestic tomato industry. (Officials blamed tomatoes before narrowing in on the peppers.) Luckily, the press office from the Bureau of Customs and Border Patrol generously agreed to show us around a Port of Oakland warehouse, where –- I quickly discovered — there were no FDA inspectors to be found. That's because FDA inspectors do their Port work largely in front of computer screens, scanning shipping manifests for products they believe warrant physical inspection.

That means two things: One, the FDA relies largely on the exporters' own description of what's in the product. As several people told me, it's an "honor system." Two, almost none (less than one percent) of the imported produce is ever tested for salmonella, e.coli, or any of the other human health threats we worry about.

When we finally talked to FDA Director of Food Safety David Acheson by phone from Maryland, he made the point pretty clearly: FDA knows its food safety program needs work. But that's going to require more and sustained funding. It'll be interesting to see how well the agency can make that case come January.

Listen to the Food Safety radio report online.

This sushi is good enough to eat.
Photo credit: Andrea Kissack.If you are a sushi lover, they can make your mouth water just thinking about them, bite sized pieces of Hamachi (yellow tail tuna), Ebi (shrimp), red snapper and Toro (Bluefin tuna) over vinegar sweetened rice. Can’t you just taste the raw fish delicacies right now? But, not so fast, these popular sushi items may not be the best thing you could do for yourself or the sea. They are either over-fished, farmed with aquaculture methods that pollute the ocean, are caught using methods that destroy ocean habitats or they are likely to contain contaminants, such as PCBs and Mercury, that can harm human health.

There is a new trend in town. Sustainable sushi. The Monterey Bay Aquarium, and two other ocean conservation groups (Blue Ocean Institute and Environmental Defense Fund), have come out with new advice for making better sushi choices. Modeled after the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s popular Seafood Watch Pocket Guide, the new sustainable sushi guide helps consumers make informed choices by categorizing seafood into three areas: Green (or best choice), Yellow (or good alternative) and Red (what to avoid). Just what kind of sushi you should avoid may surprise you. Until now, Unagi (bbq eel with avocado), seemed pretty harmless and a good choice for reluctant sushi eaters. Well, Unagi is farmed, freshwater juvenile eel so that definitely gets a red light from the Seafood Watch folks. You can try a sustainable alternative to Unagi at Tataki Sushi Bar in San Francisco. It may be the only restaurant of it’s kind in the country. The owners of the all sustainable sushi restaurant say they don’t want to become a niche as much as they want to influence the rest of the industry to change its’ practices. And with sushi a growing multibillion dollar industry, consumer preferences can have a big impact.

So how do you green your sushi? Try Pacific Halibut, farmed scallop or North American Albacore. Monterey Bay Aquarium biologists consider these among the “best” seafood because they come from abundant, well-managed fisheries or are raised using sustainable aquaculture methods.