Portside

The Mediterranean diet has become a mishmash of hyperbole, half-truths and howlers, stirred together for political and commercial ends.

Chemist Feng Jiao and Robert Jinkerson, a specialist in artificial photosynthesis, contend that their system — known as “electro-agriculture” — could convert electricity into chemical energy with four times the efficiency of photosynthesis.

Refrigeration is such a significant contributor to global warming and ozone depletion that Project Drawdown points to refrigerant management as the No. 1 thing we can do to mitigate climate change.

The truth is, greenhouse-gas emissions from food are sensitive to the exact mode of production, which vary country to country, region to region, and even farm to farm. And any analysis is only as good as the quality of the data that go into it.

Once upon a time, Americans riding the rails could choose menus of charbroiled steak, golden French toast, and prunes.

California's new law prohibits sell-by dates and requires standardized language for date labels.

A Connecticut judge ruled that the lawsuit claiming Poland Spring mislabeled its water and deceptively marketed it can go forward.

Behind the bubbly cashiers in Hawaiian shirts, craveable snacks, and bargain-basement prices are questionable business practices that have many food brands crying foul at the company’s blatant and aggressive copycat culture.

Most people do their food shopping solely at supermarkets or grocery stores where they find only those options that big food corporations allow them. Today the top five food retail companies account for about half of the market.

Environmentalists and even agribusinesses and food conglomerates talk about supplanting industrial methods with kinder and gentler “regenerative agriculture” that revives the pastoral wisdom of our ancestors.