San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and other city officials today celebrated the first full-service grocery store to open in more than 20 years in the Bayview District. Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market officially opened this morning at the intersection of Third Street and Carroll Avenue.

Lee said the opening of the store "is about fulfilling old promises in this city."The store hired 21 of its 40 employees from the Bayview zip code, and 72 percent of its employees are local hires, Lee said.

"We want to make sure this neighborhood never feels neglected," he said. Former Supervisor Sophie Maxwell had worked for years on the project while she was on the board and felt relieved that it was finally done.

"Its like having a baby, only since 2007," Maxwell said. "Finally the baby is here."She said the neighborhood's lack of a full-service store was not due to a lack of trying. "It's not as if people in the Bayview haven't been fighting for a long time, they just haven't been heard," she said.

Fresh & Easy CEO Tim Mason said his company "has worked very hard to create a thoughtful business," a store that offers cheap produce and healthy meats to provide "the key basics you need to run a family."

Mason also announced that the company plans to open another store in the southeast part of the city on Silver Avenue in early 2012. While the opening was celebrated inside the store, dozens of protesters gathered outside and argued that the project, which also includes about 400 nearby residential units, does not provide adequate affordable housing for low-income residents. Keevin O'Brien, a local minister who helped organize the protest, said he was worried the developer was trying to "gentrify and move poor people out of the neighborhood."

O'Brien said the low-income residents "feel shut out of the table" and were "asking (the developer) to come help us remove economic blight from our neighborhood." Katrina Buchmann, 34, said she was homeless and wanted more support. "I need a place to live, and these people will not listen to us," she said.

Charles Cooke, who came to the grand opening with his wife and granddaughter, said "a lot of it sounds like excuses to me" and said it takes diligence and perseverance to thrive in society.

Cooke said he worked with Safeway for nearly 30 years to send his kids to college, and said he thinks the store is "a real plus" for the neighborhood. "Hold onto it, don't disrespect it on the first day," he said.

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Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel’s 100th day in office is approaching, and we’re taking stock of his progress. One problem he’s taken on is "food deserts," areas that don’t have much fresh food for sale.

Experts say the number of Chicagoans living in food deserts stands at approximately 400,000. Emanuel says he wants to cut that number in half by the end of his first term. The food desert is a complex, un-sexy policy problem, but Emanuel says he’ll spend political capital on it.

When he was barnstorming for mayor, Rahm Emanuel met a young African-American couple who live near 89th Street. The wife a doctor. The husband in information technology. Two kids. The couple told Emanuel they traveled eight miles to grocery shop. Emanuel assumed they endured the trek for cheaper prices.

EMANUEL: Maybe this is a vulnerability for a politician but I don’t mind because you always have to learn.

He learned the couple traveled because they didn’t have good grocery stores in their neighborhood.

EMANUEL: Here was something that kind of materialized it in an existential way. It was a way that just drove home, and  I remember saying to the staff that was with me at the time – I want to speak to this.

MOORE: Would you say before you met that couple food deserts were even on your radar?

EMANUEL: Let’s go through my professional life. I’m a congressman on the North Side of the city of Chicago. What I do for office hours? Congress on your corner at grocery stores. I’m going to be honest – it’s not a material thing for people I represented. As chief of staff to the president of the United States, obviously I don’t want to say I had other issues, but I did have other issues.

Emanuel read up on food deserts and made their elimination part of his transition plan. And, during his first 100 days in office – he followed up. Back in June the mayor convened CEOs from major food chains and he received commitments from them to open stores in Chicago. Then, in July, he introduced an ordinance to city council that would make urban agriculture a new zoning designation in Chicago. The idea’s to kick-start large-scale production of vegetables close to where people need them.

EMANUEL: I see this as an opportunity to address a number of issues with one hit.

Jobs, economic development and…

EMANUEL: We’ll begin to make a dent on the public health piece of this, which is people having the opportunity to have access to fresh fruits, vegetables and meats in their area.

It’s one thing to want to make a dent in a problem like food deserts, but it’s another thing to actually make it happen.

GALLAHGER:  It’s a complicated situation in neighborhoods like the ones we see in food deserts … it’s not just a problem that happened overnight; it’s been going on for a while.

This is national food desert expert, Mari Gallahger. She says Mayor Emanuel could have his work cut out for him. She's not aware of any city that’s eradicated food deserts.

GALLAHGER:  These neighborhoods have suffered from disinvestment and other kinds of challenges, but they also have a number of assets, too. And given that everyone does eats as part of the human condition, we think there’s a real opportunity around healthy food in terms of, certainly, public health and better diet.

I meet Gallagher at the kind of spot she says could be one of these assets: the farmers market.

MARKET VENDOR: Thank you, have a nice day!

This market’s on 111th street, in the Pullman neighborhood’s Arcade Park. It’s got stalks of corn piled up like hay, and it’s got less common vegetables around, too, like kohlrabi.

MARKET VENDOR: It's in the cabbage family. You boil them like potatoes and serve with a cream sauce.

Gallahger says neighborhoods in the center of food deserts benefit from farmers markets. But they have another asset, too: small, corner stores. Food deserts have plenty of them.

GALLAGHER: These smaller stores that specialize in products that can sit on the shelves like potato chips and boxes of cereal and so on. Those are lower-risk items. If they’re going to start getting into produce, there’s a whole skill set around buying produce, displaying produce. But I think that these are challenges we can help stores address.

Gallahger says food deserts could stand to get help attracting bigger, mainstream grocery stores, too. Mayor Emanuel has already hit this. Again, he gathered grocery chain CEOS for a food desert summit in June. Emanuel walked in with data about neighborhood population density, and he handed over a list of 11 sites that need a big-box store and are commercially zoned (see below).

The talk was frank.

EMANUEL: Although it’s morally motivating for me, they’re not in the moral business. As one CEO said to me and I won’t say who, says ‘look, if you want to grandstand I’ll write you a check and I’ll be done with it.’ I said that’s not what I want. I want you to open stores that serve people, create jobs and make money. I want you to make money.

Supervalu CEO Craig Herkert attended Emanuel’s summit. The chain is the parent company of Jewel-Osco and Save-A-Lot.

Herkert says Supervalu will open 30 more discount Save-A-Lot stores in Chicago over the next five years.

HERKERT: Let me state clearly, this first and foremost, is a very good business decision for us.

Naturally, I asked if any Chicago-style sweetheart deals got cut. Herkert said no, just break the red tape.

HERKERT: What the mayor has offered us is his support from the mayor’s office to do what he can to help us get these things opened. He did not give us, nor did we request, financial aid or support. We can open these stores as a viable business option on our own.

ODOMS-YOUNG: I want to see what happens with the meat around that.

Angela Odoms-Young is a nutritional scientist at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

ODOMS-YOUNG: It’s easy to say we’re going to bring in grocery stores. But we really need to make sure the community has input in what that plan will be.

Odoms-Young says the food desert issue is a broad one and it’s not solved just by having successful businesses in a neighborhood. Even big stores can minimize fruits and vegetables, so someone will have to keep watch. After all, the federal government recommends eating five fruits and vegetables a day to prevent chronic disease. That only works if people have the food available - and children see it.

ODOMS-YOUNG: When you have young children, exposure actually can contribute to the development of dietary habits. So when you have flaming-hots in a community, you have these sweetened beverages and people are only exposed to those things, a lot of your habits are really sort of coming together and you’re greatly influenced by your environment.

As grocery chains, urban agriculture and retooled corner stores peck away at the food desert problem in Chicago, the philosophy is guided by a simple principle: everyone has to eat.

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Consider supporting local farmers and entrepreneurs by buying for produce at the Columbia Pike Farmer's Market. The market is in it's 15th year and is open Sundays, 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Then after you visit the market, walk over to the Columbia Pike Branch Library - we're open Sundays afternoons from 1:00 to 5:0 p.m.

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The banana is perhaps the oldest recorded fruit in the world as well as the most consumed. But some dieters avoid bananas like a slippery peel. Are bananas unhealthy? Or have some carb-phobic dieters gone bananas? Here are some banana nutrition facts...
 
Considered a healthy staple for thousands of years, the banana is now shunned by some low-carb dieters because of its sugar content.
 
Most dieticians and nutritionists would caution diabetics and those with blood sugar and metabolic deficiencies to be careful with banana intake, especially over-ripe bananas.
 
Diabetics—and those who burn up carbohydrates very quickly—would be better off opting for green-tipped bananas. Eating some protein and natural fat along with a banana can also help manage blood sugar levels.
 
So how much sugar is in a banana? And are bananas healthy for most of us?
 
One medium-sized banana (approximately 7 inches long) contains 14 grams of sugar. Is 14 grams a lot? It depends what kind of sugar comprises the 14 grams and how quickly those sugars spike blood sugar levels.
 
Blood sugar spike from eating bananas
According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, an all-yellow ripe American banana has a glycemic load (GL) of only 13 on a scale of 100. But an average banana’s glycemic index (GI) is approximately 50. What is the difference between GL and GI? The glycemic load is generally regarded as a more accurate indicator of a carbohydrate’s effect on blood sugar levels.
 
A banana’s glycemic load is considered medium (11-19 is medium; low = 10 or less; high = 20 or more), which supports the theory that those with blood-sugar sensitivities should be at least slightly cautious with banana consumption, especially overly ripe ones.
 
Bananas’ many health benefits
Athletes love bananas for the quick and sustained burst of energy provided. But even professional couch potatoes enjoy many benefits of eating bananas, including:
 
Battling depression: bananas contain the amino acid tryptophan, which converts into serotonin, the body’s natural mood-enhancing chemical. Keeping the pipes flowing: high in fiber (3 grams), bananas can stimulate the bowels, reversing constipation. Stress management: a single banana contains about 12 percent of your daily potassium needs. Stress reduces potassium levels. Fatigued? Irritable? Have high blood pressure? Eat bananas. Helping heartburn: bananas, for most people, are a natural antacid.
 
High vitamin and mineral content
Low-fat dieters also love bananas as they contain virtually no fat. Bananas do have a gram or two of protein, but where a banana really shines nutritiously is in its vitamin content. A banana is high in the following:
 
Vitamin C: 17 percent of recommended daily value in one banana
Vitamin B6 (22 percent; good for the nervous system)
Folate (6 percent; good for cell repair)
 
Bananas are also high in the mineral manganese (good for bone health), supplying 16 percent of the recommended daily value. Are you susceptible to cramping? Magnesium can help prevent cramps and bananas contain 8 percent recommended daily value.
 
Conclusion: bananas are part of a healthy diet
Although a banana is 93 percent carbohydrate, dieters who are leery of carbs should not, by and large, exclude bananas from their diet. Bananas are not a perfect, complete food, as they do not contain all the essential amino acids. For those who crash a couple hours after eating lunch, a banana could be part of a smart, healthy snack, though it would be best combined with a higher protein snack like cheese.
 
A healthy diet should include several servings of fruit and vegetables each day, and a banana or two a day, for most people, should be part of that game plan.

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It once was a given that the lunchroom lady got to work early and sweated over hot ovens until the kids came streaming in for lunch. That paradigm went the way of the victory garden until it became a given that school food was almost inedible with pretend chicken nuggets and bright yellow macaroni and cheese.

Today, the lunchroom lady… and gentleman are back, cooking real food for real kids who just might be able to function better as a result. Wednesday, The New York Times ran a major feature on how the Greeley school district has fully embraced the real food movement, even hiring an executive chef from the Culinary Institute of America.

But Greeley is not alone. Boulder Valley Schools have such real food that they even have a catering department where you can order food for your next event. This Friday, there will be a fundraiser with such musical guests as Todd Park Mohr and Mollie O’Brien to raise money for the Boulder Schools food program.

Denver, too, has cooks wandering outside to pluck fresh foods from school gardens. “We’re doing a lot of scratch cooking and using produce from school gardens in our cafeterias,” notes district spokesperson Michael Vaughn. Last year, in fact, Denver brought in professional chefs to teach district chefs the art of scratch cooking.

So far, the district has been able to use about 1200 pounds a year of school grown produce, which may not make much of a dent in the total produce budget but no doubt helps a lot of kids make the connection between growing vegetables and eating lunch.

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The Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Canada Safeway are warning the public about a dip that may be contaminated with Listeria. Safeway initiated a voluntary recall of the affected products, which are the Signature Cafe 6-Layer Dip products with a best-before date of September 16.

The dips are imported from the U.S. and are sold in 425-gram and 850-gram sizes and have been distributed nationally. Consumption of the Listeria monocytogenes bacteria can cause listeriosis, which can cause high fever, severe headache, neck stiffness, nausea, and complications in pregnancy. "Pregnant women, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems are particularly at risk," the CFIA said.

"Infected pregnant women may experience only a mild, flu-like illness, however, infections during pregnancy can lead to premature delivery, infection of the newborn, or even stillbirth."The CFIA said on Saturday that there have been no reports of illness.

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There would also be no need to refrigerate produce treated with the preservative, called, bisin, which is produced by harmless bacteria. They say that foods like milk, sausages and sandwiches containing the agent could be on the shelves within three years. Ready meals, opened wine and fresh salad dressing could also be safely consumed long after they were bought, say scientists. Researchers at Minnesota University in the US discovered the substance from a culture of a harmless bacteria, Bifodobacterium longum, commonly found in the human gut. It is the first naturally occurring agent identified that attacks so-called gram-negative bacteria such as E.coli, salmonella and listeria.

Dan Sullivan, an Irish microbiologist who now works at the university, told The Sunday Times: "It seems to be much better than anything which has gone before. It doesn't compromise nutrient quality — we are not adding a chemical, we are adding a natural ingredient."He and his team have patented the substance in the US. Bisin is related to nisin, which attacks gram-positive bacteria, and is used in the manufacture of processed cheeses and meats. As such, it is generally recognised as safe and would not have to be pharmacologically tested. It would not be able to prevent fruit and vegetables from rotting, however, as they decompose in a different way.

Further research is now ongoing, looking at exactly how good it is at stopping bacteria from growing.
Meanwhile, a British wholesaler has begun to make sandwiches with a two-week shelf life, by replacing all the oxygen in the plastic packaging with nitrogen and carbon dioxide. Ray Boggiana, a food technologist who helped develop the range for Booker, which supplies convenience stores, said: "The science is not new. It's all about using a protective atmosphere in the packaging."

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A good eats program is putting a smile on underprivileged people's faces and fresh food on their tables. Good thing too, because getting good food is great, but not when sinking your teeth into a hand picked onion means a bite out of your bank account.  "Most everybody says eating healthy is expensive," said the Sioux City Farmers Market, marketing manager Dee Polak.

Food at farmers markets may be high for some, but there's a national program that's designed to help get this good food to almost everyone who want's it, without the price tag. It's called the Farmers Market Nutrition Program. A state and federally funded voucher system that hands out these vouchers for farmers market fruits and vegetables to low income seniors and mothers with kids under five.

"They choose anything that's a fresh produce, not processed," said vendor Janna Wesselius. The vouchers are each for a specific amount, and can be spent like cash to buy produce at any vendor stand participating in the program. In Sioux City that amounts to around 20.

"I think in Woodbury County alone we helped over 2,100 families last year," said Polak. And they took in between $60 to $80-thousand in vouchers. Which vendors redeem for cash at participating banks.

"I take it and can deposit it just like any other money that I would take in," said Wesselius. It's a good feeling for many vendors, knowing they're giving families old and young a fresh taste of something good.

"When you see little fingers reach for cherry tomatoes or little fingers reach for fresh carrots then you know you are doing the right thing, because they are reaching for that instead of the cookies and the candy," said vendor, Audrey Brown.

It's good food at a great price. The Farmers Market Nutrition Program isn't the only program being used to get good food to folks. Market organizers in Sioux City said they have two stands that are also accepting food stamps.

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Hidden behind a beautiful 19th-century house, Fox Trot produces 450 square feet of really good food. It's a prototype project run by bk farmyards, which hopes schools, community gardens and homeowners like the Fishers will let them turn their unused land into working farms.

"The homeowner that lives here is donating their land and also their water," says bk farmyards founder Stacey Murphy. "People are reaping the benefits of that by becoming CSA members and getting produce from the site."

CSA stands for community supported agriculture. CSA members pay farmers a lump sum in the spring to get vegetables, greens and herbs once a week until fall.

Because they host Foxtrot, the homeowners get theirs for free. Not bad for some of the freshest vegetables in the city. "The produce is harvested about 45 minutes before they (the members) show up," says Murphy.

Once a week Murphy and her farmers-in-training meet to plan crop rotations and yields. Then she shows them how to harvest the week’s kale, cabbage and greens, or how to trim cucumbers, basil, eggplants and tomatoes. They wash, weigh and bag up the goods for their six CSA customers who come over to pick it up.

"We measure everything that goes into the site so that we know if a farmer wanted to farm 12 of these sites that they could sustain a lifestyle in the city on those 12 plots," says Murphy. "This year is about training people how to take care of backyards so we can increase the amount of food that’s being grown in Brooklyn."

Beyond producing 20 to 30 pounds of produce a week until November, Foxtrot brings neighbors together and is a boon to Brooklyn's water, air and soil. It also looks a lot better than it used to. Murphy says the land that is now known as Foxtrot used to be completely unused, with weeds as tall has her head.

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