Some people may have thought after watching the latest movie, The Martian, that a trip to Mars and growing food on Mars might be possible, but not till many light years from now. The movie is not far from real science. NASA revealed on October 5th in a recent article, that growing plants in space is an actual reality while also announcing a growing partnership with USDA. This partnership, signed by Deputy Secretary Krysta Harden from USDA and Deputy Administrator Dava Newman from NASA, declares that both the organizations are committed to inspiring young minds toward future careers in science, technology, engineering mathematics and agriculture. What is the science behind growing veggies in space? NASA’s plant-growth system, called Veggie, has allowed astronauts to use ...
Bringing together the San Antonio community (63.2% Latino), Hemisphere Park opened up a portion of the planned park, the Yanaguana Children's Park, to celebrate their 3 day grand opening and ribbon cutting on October 3rd, 2015. The new park was filled with smiling faces of children enjoying the beautiful Texas weather this weekend, climbing, running, digging and splashing in the water fountains. Providing access to active areas, where little is found in regards to green space or places for children to play in downtown, the newly designed urban park provided open areas for kids to enjoy playgrounds, sand pits, and plenty of free music and interactive games for families. Free parking, is available over the weekend, allowing families who cannot walk to the park, a way to afford a ...
Water bottle sales have nearly tripled compared to the falling rates of soda consumption, reports the New York Times. Prompting the question, do the studies showing the link between obesity and consumption of sugary beverages make an impact? J. Alexander M. Douglas Jr., president of Coca-Cola North America, was quoted in the same article that, “Health and wellness are a major enduring trend and each brand has to compete in that environment." But healthier beverage options are not just trending across certain states, they are being proven as recent market reports show a noticeable decrease in soda consumption. Sugary beverage taxes are not popular in all states, as in California, but a growing amount of sugary beverage consumers may be realizing the health warnings associated ...
A new study conducted by Texas A&M AgriLife Research and the Institute for Obesity Research and Program Evaluation found out that school entrees paired with popular veggies like potatoes were less likely to be wasted. Plate waste studies are performed to better understand what students are eating and how to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into students diets. Research shows Latino students are more likely to purchase unhealthy snacks and beverages that are available within their schools. Knowing how to incorporate and encourage consumption of healthier foods is vital to Latino youth's health, as Latino youth have a higher risk of obesity and diabetes. Unfortunately, the studies findings stated that the least popular vegetables were dark-green leafy vegetables, such as ...
Throughout the nation, people are gearing up for Food Day. A day when events are held in almost every state, to help promote healthy foods and food policies. How can you get involved? Host an event! Like an apple crunch event!
Join the conversation on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest, food day chats are are on the 24th of every month, just follow #FoodDayChat.
Attend a local community event To see your local meet up or to get involved, register here ...
San Diego (33.2% Latino) is sprinkling the city in gardens. Healthy foods from the local corporate gardens are just outside the door. Urban Plantations, an organic gardening company offers its landscaping services to corporate, residential and assisted-living clients. Bringing organic fresh produce to locals, the company is all about making edible landscapes a norm in the city. However, more needs to be done in encouraging people to want to use produce of edible foods within their companies cafeterias, mentioned Karen Contreras, the founder and president of the company. Many companies and campus clients utilize the food in their cafeterias, but not to the majority that would be harvested on a farm, Contreras explained in a recent article. Contreras leads clients to utilize the ...
How do we see through false advertising claims from unhealthy food ads? One third of American kids are overweight or obese. These numbers of obesity rates rise in lower income neighborhoods and cause disease, diabetes, and joint deterioration. We make poor food choices, but what are they influenced by? Taking advantage of knowledge about food advertising, and food literacy education, the new Food Fight Toolkit helps schools, students, parents and staff learn how to make better buying decisions with health in ...
“You can grow anything. People have grown some crazy stuff with the towers,” Nate Storey, a tower farmer in Wyoming stated in a recent article from Civil Eats. “We’ve grown tomatoes and very large statured crops, watermelons. It works until they’re about 20 pounds apiece and then things start falling." Growing indoors in rural Rocky Mountain West, tower farms like these help rural areas provide fresh produce to locals without strain of the harsh climates during winter. Wyoming is considered to have the largest ranches and farms, but the fewest number of vegetable farms of any state. Having an easily accessible source for local fresh produce is important to Wyoming as many foods are shipped in from other areas and may not stay fresh as long. Latinos living in rural ...
RJ Manchester and Erica Asti, staffers at the Florida Hospital for Children, along with Dr. Angela Fals and her team, spent years working with obese children and families in their Central Florida CCFW clinic. The local childhood overweight and obesity rates ranged from 32% in Orange County (28.7% Latino population) to 64% in Osceola County (48.6% Latino). The team was growing increasingly concerned about younger and younger patients with obesity-related health complications. “We were having some of the youngest patients we’ve ever had in the weight and wellness clinic with pre-diabetes and diabetes,” Asti said. They wanted to step up in a big way.
An underlying issue: No P.E. Asti and Manchester and the CCFW team discovered that many parents misidentified their ...
