We've talked recently about companies who dump surplus stock with no thought to the social and environmental consequences. Now, here's the flip side: teams that glean unused fruit from privately owned trees and get it into the hands of food banks and charitable organizations. Traditional gleaning groups like the Gleaning Network coordinate tens of thousands of volunteers to glean leftovers from farmers' fields. Now, urban gleaning efforts are picking off the low-hanging fruits in residential areas and passing them along to food assistance programs.

"I'm such a sucker for efficiency," gleaner Matt Jurach told Alternet.org. "It kills me to see all the effort people put into a tree and it produces all this fruit, then it falls onto the ground and rots. It's understandable, because we're busy people. But when you have a group, we complete the last step."

Groups like Harvest Sacramento in California have already harvested nearly 10,000 pounds of produce since the beginning of the year. The typical residential fruit tree bears some 200-300 pounds of fruit a year. That's a free source of healthy, seasonal produce—a virtual gold mine for food banks that rely on inexpensive, pre-packaged staples. 

Gleaning groups send out teams of trained volunteers to identify homes with fruit trees and convince homeowners to donate their harvest. Harvest teams visit a handful of homes during a typical harvest event. Volunteers keep bruised produce and fruit that appears likely to spoil quickly, then sorts and transports the rest to local charities. Gleaning groups exist in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Florida, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and California.

(Photo credit:sundaykofax, flickr)

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver's new TV series, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, doesn't debut until March 26, but the healthy food advocate is already mixing it up with first graders and lunchroom staff alike. In the new show, Oliver brings his passion for healthier eating habits to Huntington, W. Va., recently dubbed "the fattest city in America." The 2010 TED Prize winner's goal: "I wish for your help to create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity."

Simple enough, right? Not where these children are concerned. Take a look at what happened when Oliver asked these first-graders to identify various fresh fruits and vegetables.

At least the kids gave his queries an energetic attempt. The reception was considerably less enthusiastic behind the scenes in the kitchen.

Looks like Oliver has his job cut out for him (the least of which is cutting out the junk food served at school). Still, we suspect his action-oriented philosophy will pick up steam. "Every child should be taught to cook in school, not just talk about nutrition all day. Good food can be made in 15 minutes. This could be the first generation where the kids teach the parents," he says.

Food Revolution premieres Friday, March 26 on ABC TV.

(Photo credit:JamieOliver.com)

For all the struggle consumers go through to get accurate, complete nutritional product labeling, sometimes detailed labels still leave us in the dark. Who can make heads or tails out of that chemical soup? "I speak English, and some Spanish, but I could not pronounce half the words on food labels and quickly realized that the ingredients on food labels tell us very little," confesses Dwayne Ratleff.

So the sole owner/employee of a San Francisco housekeeping service decided to clean things up himself, researching and creating a $1.99 iPhone/iPod app that provides details on more than 1,500 food additives. Don't Eat That cuts through what Ratleff calls the "eastern urban elite Martian dialect" of labeling language to offer food product definitions, safety standards and research information from the United States and other countries. The data resides on your device, so there's no need for an internet connection while you puzzle things out in the grocery store aisle.

Ratliff's sources include the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA), Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), Codex Alimetarius, the American Cancer Society, the International Agency For Research On Cancer (IARC), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and web sites including Celiac.com. Empowering consumers to make their own decisions about the ingredients they eat is the point. "Err in your favor," urges Ratleff. "If you do not feel comfortable with the science backing the safety of an additive, avoid it, especially if there are alternative sources."

(Photo credit:iLoveButter, flickr)

I detest getting strange looks from sales clerks when I pull out my reuseable bag. This is 2010, isn't it? Haven't we gotten over the idea that single-use plastic bags are a wasteful, superfluous mess? It's days like these when we wish we could hop a (carbon-offset) plane for London, so we could shop at Unpackaged.

Need a little but not a lot? Check. Need a lot more than a little? Check. Whether you bring your own bags, boxes and bottles or whether you need to pick up a few more reuseable bags there at the store, you can get your fill of organic, whole foods.

1. Fill your container.
2. We weigh.
3. You pay.

Pretty simple, no?

While we can't fly over to pick up some groceries this afternoon, we can feast our eyes on what unpackaged shopping at Unpackaged looks like. Enjoy.

Drool over more eye candy from Unpackaged's shop plus information about the store's products and policies at Unpackaged.

(Photo credit:Unpackaged)

Tight end Tony Gonzalez. Olympic medalist and track superstar Carl Lewis. Pro surfer Katie Coryell. UFC fighter Ricardo Moreira and pro cyclist Christine Varderos.

It's no longer even remotely possible to claim that you can't be at the top of your game if you're vegan—not with hardcore athletes like these showing us all how it's done. Fortunately, we non-superhumans can enjoy a vegan lifestyle while building health and fitness, too. A new book from professional Ironman triathlete Brandon Brazier, Thrive Fitness: The Vegan-Based Training Program for Maximum Strength, Health and Fitness, shows how.

The active vegan lifestyle, Brazier writes, is based on four components: high-return exercise, high net-gain nutrition, efficient sleep and uncomplementary stress reduction. "Wait," we know you're thinking, "where's all the stuff about protein and vegetables?" Vegan nutrition is only part of the plan that Dr. Neal D. Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, calls "an authoritative guide to outstanding performance ... (that) brings sports enthusiasts to their peak and helps everyone—athlete or not—to recover from stress and feel their best." Recover from stress? We're in.

Because we know you're still hankering to know what foods these athletes are eating to thrive (we know we are!), we looked up Brazier's top foods for peak performance:

1. Açai berries
2. Agave nectar
3. Buckwheat
4. Chlorella
5. Coconut oil
6. Coconut water
7. Dates
8. Flax seed
9. Greens
10. Green tea
11. Hemp
12. Maca
13. Salba
14. Sea vegetables
15. Yerba maté

That sounds like a workable list of pantry basics, to us (although we'd have to admit there are more than a couple of unfamiliar ingredients on the list—guess we need to consult the book, huh)? If you're looking for even more on nutrition, Brazier has also written Thrive Nutrition: The Vegan Nutrition Guide to Optimal Performance in Sports and Life.

Not entirely convinced you can do it yourself? Take it from none other than Carl Lewis.

(Photo credit:BrendanBrazier.com)

Do you really need to know what an antioxidant is in order to eat wisely? Food journalist Michael Pollan thinks not. In fact, cutting through the clamor of the latest research on this and the greatest supplement for that is the key to what Americans need to know to become healthier overall. We need less detail and more common sense food savvy.

"After spending several years trying to answer the supposedly incredibly complicated question of how we should eat in order to be maximally healthy, I discovered the answer was shockingly simple: eat real food, not too much of it, and more plants than meat," Pollan writes at The Huffington Post. "Or, put another way, get off the modern western diet, with its abundance of processed food, refined grains and sugars, and its sore lack of vegetables, whole grains and fruit."

So Pollan began collecting advice from people who ate real, whole foods, developing a list of common sense reminders that help keep grocery store shoppers and restaurant diners on track. His resulting book, Food Rules, presents that collective wisdom in 64 pithy principles for healthier eating.

From Food Rules:

• Avoid foods you see advertised on television. Food marketers are ingenious at turning criticisms of their products—and rules like these—into new ways to sell slightly different versions of the same processed foods: They simply reformulate (to be low-fat, have no HFCS or transfats, or to contain fewer ingredients) and then boast about their implied healthfulness, whether the boast is meaningful or not. The best way to escape these marketing ploys is to tune out the marketing itself, by refusing to buy heavily promoted foods.
• If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don't.
• Don't eat breakfast cereals that change the color of the milk. This should go without saying. Such cereals are highly processed and full of refined carbohydrates as well as chemical additives.

Not only does real food taste better and offer a healthier way to eat, but it could go a long way toward solving the chronic health problems dogging Americans and swelling our need for more and more health care interventions. Observes Pollan: "Make no mistake: our health care crisis is in large part a crisis of the American diet -- roughly three quarters of the two-trillion plus we spend on health care in this country goes to treat chronic diseases, most of which can be prevented by a change in lifestyle, especially diet."

(Photo credit:Michael Pollan)

Looks like we're not the only ones who think real food stands a fighting chance at making it back onto the American plate. Our friends at Change.org have put "mainstream concern about cheap food" at the top of their list of sustainable food trends to watch for 2010. "We eat unhealthily largely because our industrial food system processes subsidized corn into food-like stuff that we place at the center of our diets where fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains should be," writes Katherine Gustafson. "To the health-conscious or those active in food politics, that statement will come as no surprise."

Surprised? Not us. We've lent our voice to the growing chorus all year long. Get the big picture by scanning our list of the best 20 stories on what we call "real food" from the past year.

1. Can Big Beef censor the sustainable truth?
2. Safer bottles haven't canned BPA problems
3. Big Ag's growing appetite for lobbying
4. Top 10 riskiest FDA-regulated foods
5. Obama's health plan: the missing element (it's food!)
6. Unlock the facts on GM seeds
7. Demand for organics reaches all demographics
8. Cheerios are a drug, says the FDA
9. Fast food chains riding the green train
10. Nastiest junk food ingredients
11. The unexpected influence of biofuel on pest control
12. Whose fault is elite meat?
13. Vilsack leads changes in food politics
14. The oxymoron of organic junk food
15. Pork industry breeding superbugs?
16. The dirty dozen: Know which produce is heavy on pesticides
17. Artificial sweeteners: Sweet and lowdown
18. The industrialization of organic food
19. Go organic when it counts
20. Eat locally everywhere: Locavores go mainstream
21. Can you name 3 foods high in trans fats?
22. Recalls point to processed food pitfalls
23. Can organic survive the economic downturn?
24. Mercury found in high fructose corn syrup

Ok, you're right—that was 24 stories, not 20. We couldn't find four stories to trim from the list that we didn't think you need to read.

What can you do to serve up real food? Unfortunately, we're still at the "let the buyer beware" stage—so let Super Eco show you how. Here's to taking heart, taking action and eating healthy in 2010.

(Photo credit:ckforjc, SXC)

Whew, long week—let's get some take-out or just pop in some frozen dinners, 'k? On second thought ... we think not. Cooking from scratch isn't nearly as taxing as most of us would make it out to be at the end of a stressful day. In fact, these folks are able to whip up a savory meal (with wine—it's some kind of chef's prerogative to enjoy a great glass of wine during meal prep, isn't it?) in the short time it takes to demonstrate the real health and economic costs of relying on prepackaged convenience foods.

There's never been a better time to cook from scratch than during the holidays, when you have a little extra time and maybe a little extra manpower to help get you started. We won't keep you from your kitchen today ... Here's some quick food for thought. May it inspire to more healthful, tastier holidays!

(Photo credit:macanudo, SXC)

If you're not a seasoned cook, being flexible at the grocery store can prove challenging. What might you possibly make with that store special? And if you made it, what other ingredients would you need? Whole Foods leads you through these sorts of dilemmas with a new website for web-enabled cell phone users. Look what you can do from your phone as you stroll the aisles:

• Access more than 2,000 recipes
• Look up store hours and driving directions
• Plug in your ZIP code to see current store specials
• Create shopping lists
• Save favorite recipes to "My Recipe Box"
• Find online coupons
• Read news tips like this one on artificial sweeteners
• Check your local store's calendar of events

We like the ingredient lists and recipe features so much that you might just spot us checking this out when we happen to be at different grocery stores. (Gasp!) Surf over to the new Whole Foods mobile site at m.wholefoodsmarket.com.

(Photo credit:Andrea Richeson/Whole Foods)

'Tis the season to let the belt out a notch ... or to buy a bigger belt. The holidays are upon us, and that means more eating, more drinking and more pudge.

Willpower alone isn't enough in these bloated times. Not when two out of three Americans is clinically overweight and treading on the planet more heavily than ever before.

Believe it or not, obesity weighs down on our climate, too. Here's how, according to London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine's Department of Epidemiology and Population Health researchers.

So, before you tuck into a second heaping helping of grandma's high fructose corn syrup special pecan pie, bite off one of these Jedi taste bud  tricks to curb your holiday appetite and your environmental footprint:

1. Eat mindfully. You're more likely to overeat when you're watching Ralphie nearly shoot his eye out (or any other TV). Solution: Tune out distractions while eating, even your crazy Aunt Hazel. Chew slowly and ignore her. You'll enjoy the sensory qualities of food more and eat less.

2. Don't nervous nibble. For many, myself included, food equals instant comfort, especially in stressful situations and especially sweets. Staking out the appetizer table at a boring office function or a name tag party where you hardly know anyone is a tempting escape. You can either deal with the root of the problem (social anxiety? shyness? food addiction?), but why beat yourself up before New Year's resolution time? Fill up on healthy, organic foods before party-going instead. If you must nervous nosh, stick to fresh fruit and veg. Be strong!

3. Snack small and often. Studies show people eat up to 40 percent more when they're tired. And who isn't wiped out during the Silly Season? Most of us tend to "tired eat" right before bed. Eat small, nourishing meals throughout the day and sip plenty of hot herbal tea before bed. Stealing a nap here and there helps, too.  

4. Avoid, avoid, avoid! Think out of sight out of mouth. Don't buy junk food you know you won't be able to resist. Shamelessly re-gift candy and chocolate. Whatever it takes.

5. Downsize. Eat half of what's on your plate. Wait five or so minutes and see if you're still hungry. Or, minimize food waste altogether by reaching for smaller (reusable!) bowls and plates.

I admit, these Grinch-y tips and tricks are neither festive nor fun. They take hard work and self-discipline, especially when a buttercream frosted chocolate pistachio yule log is staring back at you. Use the force, my festive friend, or you'll have to literally force yourself back into your skinny jeans.

(Photo credit:Flickr, Dano)