The UC Food Observer chooses a handful of important stories for you to read each work day. Typically, we offer this on Fridays, but with so many important and wonderful stories out there, we’ll be providing a wrap several days a week.

 

Today, we’re especially appreciating audio … a wonderful soundtrack as we type away. On the menu, in no particular order:

 

1. Prozac in the yogurt aisle … can “good” bacteria chill us out? Allison Aubrey (@AubreyNPRFood) writes a terrific piece for NPR’s The Salt.

 

2. Should we diet for the drought? KALW Radio in San Francisco produces a 60-minute broadcast featuring Grist’s Nathanael Johnson (@SavorTooth) and the University of California Water Institute’s Doug Parker (@ucanrwater). David Onek hosts. Two thumbs up!

 

3. What Doesn’t Kill You: pork consolidation. Katy Keiffer (@kcorrigank) and Mother Jones’  Tom Philpott (@tomphilpott) discuss JBS’s acquisition of Cargill pork production and the impact that exports have on the industry. What Doesn’t Kill You is a show that provides food industry insight for Heritage Radio Network (@Heritage_Radio); always worth a listen!

 

4. Helping veterans through food and agriculture: past and present shares Food Tank’s excellent compilation of programs working with veterans and farming, ICYMI. The post also contains a brief and fascinating history of California’s land settlement colonies (World War I era) and links to wonderful period pieces, including photographs.

 

5. Gut microbes enable a coffee pest to withstand toxic concentrations of caffeine. Berkeley Lab and USDA research could lead to new ways to fight a beetle that devastates coffee crops worldwide.

 

6. We think everyone should take a peek at Mark Bittman’s latest California Matters video. This episode – Chop Suey’s Next Wave – explores the history of Chinese-American cuisine with his guide, UC Irvine’s Yong Chen, author of “Chop Suey, USA: The Story of Chinese Food in America.”