Reading branch of US chain to close after protests over stance on same-sex relationships
A US fast food chain is to close its first branch in the UK after protests and boycott calls by LGBT campaigners.
Chick-fil-A faced demands to “cluck off” when the fried chicken outlet opened in a shopping mall in Reading this month.
Continue reading...When the fast-food giant’s lawyers swooped on a small Canadian restaurant over its fish burger, the response was pithy
When Canadian chef Paul Shufelt decided to market a new burger at his Edmonton restaurant, he wanted to pay homage to the fast-food greats that have come before him – not find himself embroiled in a legal battle with a multinational corporation.
After creating a cod burger with coleslaw and red onions, Woodshed Burgers named their newest item the Effing Filet O’ Fish, a reference to both local company Effing Seafood, which provided the seafood, and the famous McDonald’s sandwich.
Continue reading...Global hunger index finds countries affected by drought and conflict in sub-Saharan Africa have seen biggest increases in undernourished people
The climate crisis is driving alarming levels of hunger in the world, undermining food security in the world’s most vulnerable regions, according to this year’s global hunger index.
The annual report, a ranking of 117 countries measuring hunger rates and trends, shows progress since 2000 but warns that the world still has a long way to go to reach the zero hunger target agreed by world leaders by 2030.
Continue reading...Pedro Sánchez confuses prized jamón ibérico for plain old jamón serrano in ‘serious error’
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has confused jamón ibérico, the prized Spanish ham, with run-of-the-mill jamón serrano in a gaffe on a par with a French politician referring to a fine burgundy as plonk.
Speaking at the centuries-old livestock fair in Zafra in Extremadura, western Spain, Sánchez left his audience open-mouthed when he told them “you can be sure that when the Chinese president visited Spain he would have been served a plate of jamón serrano from Extremadura”.
Continue reading...Police find cannabis-flavoured wine, olives, coffee and tuna at home of Sicilian celebrity chef Carmelo Chiaramonte
A well-known Sicilian chef arrested with drugs at his home justified their presence by saying he was looking for “new flavours” for contemporary cuisine, Italian media have reported.
Officers say they found a pair of two-metre tall marijuana plants and 500 grams of Indian hemp at chef Carmelo Chiaramonte’s home in Trecastagni, a village at the foot of Mount Etna.
Continue reading...Marc Veyrat’s La Maison des Bois lost its third star after, he says, an inspector suspected cheddar in a souffle
The celebrity French chef Marc Veyrat is suing the Michelin Guide after inspectors stripped his restaurant of its coveted third star, claiming they had botched their evaluation, in particular over a cheese souffle.
“I’ve been dishonoured, I saw my team in tears ... to have them call you one evening without warning, without anything written down, without anything, to say ‘that’s it, it’s over’,” Veyrat told France Inter radio on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Study recommends move away from ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to reducing carbon footprint
A “one-size-fits-all” solution to addressing the climate crisis through our diets could be unhelpful, as how we eat affects the environment in different ways depending on where we live and how our food is sourced, according to a new report.
Although reducing the consumption of meat and animal-based products globally could lower greenhouse gas emissions, it could also have adverse impacts on people’s health and nutrition in some countries, according to a report published online in the Global Environmental Change journal on Monday.
Continue reading...David Califa was leading a group of food tourists in Istanbul in 2016 when three of them were killed in an Isis attack. But he was determined to go back to the city, its restaurants and his friends
March 2016 was only the third time David Califa had taken a group of Israelis on his Hungry Tourist food tour to Istanbul. It was going well; he was happy showing people the city he loved. On the morning of the 19th they went to Hayvore, a restaurant in the heart of the central Beyoğlu district, for a breakfast of pide, a kind of Turkish pizza, sometimes made with ground meat or vegetables, often gooey with molten cheese and topped with a fried egg. Califa had planned that afterwards they would eat köfte at Hussein’s and visit the market to stop at his favourite fish shop Reşat Balik where owner Ahmet Yazgüneş had the most delicious lakerda – cured bonito. The group of 12 walked to Istiklal Caddesi, the elegant street at the heart of Beyoğlu, once lined with grand department stores and colonnaded arcades, now pedestrianised andfull of international chains and banks. They stopped for a group photo.
“I heard a bang like a metallic slam,” says Califa. “Then I opened my eyes and there was smoke.” Somehow he found he was still standing up, but his clothes were torn and his ankle was bleeding. “I saw my friends lying in front of me.” One woman was already dead. Others were terribly wounded. He saw too the body of the suicide bomber. “My girlfriend took me by the hand and we sat down. It felt like ages waiting. Half an hour feels like a lifetime. Everyone was bleeding, everyone was shouting. Two of my friends died in front of me. An old man working in a small shop selling cheap scarves ran into the street with all the scarves and tried to staunch the bleeding and tie tourniquets. I remember looking up and people were at every window with phones.”
Continue reading...Victory for community concerned about the industry’s environmental costs strengthens calls for shakeup of rules along Chilean coast
A growing wave of resistance to the expansion of salmon farms along the Chilean coast has led to an important victory in the fight to protect a pristine fjord in southern Patagonia, home to indigenous groups and an array of stunning wildlife.
Dolphins, whales and colonies of penguins thrive in the 240km-long Beagle Channel, an area of outstanding natural beauty between Chile and Argentina which attracts tourists from all over the world.
Continue reading...Reforms will oblige Cuba to work more closely with its US neighbours – in spite of US President Trump’s frosty attitude
Cuba has introduced sweeping reforms of its fishing laws in a move seen as smoothing the way for possible collaboration with the US on protecting their shared ocean, despite Donald Trump’s policy of reversing a thaw in relations.
The move is the first time the text of an environmental law in Cuba specifies the need for scientific research, which experts say will mean greater reliance on state-of-the-art US technology.
Continue reading...A strict conservation programme is helping protect the tiny country’s marine ecosystems, despite the growing threat of steadily warming waters
Why Belize is a world leader in protecting the ocean
All photographs by Tony Rath
Continue reading...Entrepreneurs are cooking up wholesome alternatives to sugary baby formulas in a country where only one baby in 10 gets the recommended nutrition
When her baby was six months old, Dr Hemapriya Natesan found herself appalled by the sugary commercial baby food available. With her mother, she began to make batches of mullaikatiya sathumaavu, a traditional porridge for weaning infants in Tamil Nadu, southern India.
It’s a painstaking 10-day process with more than 15 grains, lentils and nuts. Many of the ingredients are first sprouted, then sun-dried in the sweltering heat before being slow-roasted, ground and sieved.
Continue reading...Church offers guidance to avoid unintentional rule-breaking, such as ‘the word coffee isn’t always in the name of coffee drinks’
The Mormon church has renewed warnings to its younger members that there’s no grey area when it comes to the temptations of coffee – don’t drink it.
“The word coffee isn’t always in the name of coffee drinks,” warns an official guidance in the August issue of a youth magazine for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Continue reading...The trade minister, Simon Birmingham, has released a list of food products the EU wants protected as ‘geographical indicators’
Australia is gearing up for a fight with the European Union over the naming of hundreds of products including feta, gruyere and scotch beef as negotiations continue over an “ambitious” free trade agreement.
The trade minister, Simon Birmingham, has released a list of names the EU wants protected as part of the new trade deal – known as “geographical indications” or GIs – which are aimed at protecting European products.
Continue reading...Despite poverty, lack of refrigeration and a constant battle for cleanliness, the residents of Kibera are resourceful with the food they eat and sell. Fried fish, samosas, and bean dishes are all on the menu, reflecting the cultural mix of those who call the area home
Continue reading...Schools may have to close, exams could be disrupted and fresh food for pupils’ meals could run short because of panic buying with prices soaring by up to 20%, according to a secret Department for Education analysis of the risks of a no-deal Brexit obtained by the Observer.
The five-page document – marked “Official Sensitive” and with the instruction “Do Not Circulate” – also raises the possibility of teacher absences caused by travel disruption, citing schools in Kent as particularly at risk.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Analysis includes stark assessments of potential problems including panic-buying and civil disorder
The UK is currently less able to cope with a hard Brexit than it was in the spring, with the real risk of panic-buying in the run-up to Christmas and civil disorder if the country leaves the EU without a deal on 31 October, an official document reveals.
The prime minister, Boris Johnson, has made Michael Gove responsible for “turbo-charging” Brexit planning, and on Thursday the new chancellor, Sajid Javid, announced an extra £2.1bn of funding to prepare for a no-deal exit.
Continue reading...Tired of scrabbling around for last-minute dinner ideas and throwing away unused perishables? These 10 tips will get you properly organised
Kate Turner is aware that the chalkboard meal-planner in her Sussex kitchen can bewilder visitors. “Friends come round and go: ‘Wow, my God!’,” says the author of My Zero-Waste Kitchen. That breakfast, lunch and dinner wallchart (Wednesday: porridge; Dad’s salad; pilaf; Thursday: cereal, tuna sandwiches; spinach pie) may look overwhelming, but Turner insists: “It’s not scary. Not having to think about what you’re cooking is liberating. It saves money, time and stress.”
Meal-planning has a way to go before it becomes mainstream, but it has long been a hit with weight-loss experts and wellness gurus, and the growing desire to cut food waste has led to a new wave of interest.
Continue reading...The death of fair trade (Journal, 23 July) can partly be laid at the door of the EU. Its treatment of former colonies, restricting tariff-free trade to “primary produce” so that the profitable part of the businesses, manufacture, is protected, means that they may be independent in terms of politics, but are economically still the same colonies.
Take Ghana, which Samanth Subramanian mentions. Go and buy your bar of “Fairtrade” Divine chocolate. On the back it waxes lyrical about Kuapa Kokoo, the cocoa farmers’ organisation that tries to guarantee fair and stable prices for cocoa beans, with a bit extra for the social premium. Read to the end of the small print where it says: “Made in Germany”. Ghana has a perfectly good chocolate factory, at the port town of Tema, but workers only make chocolate for the local market, because that is all they are allowed to do. Ghana would be a lot richer if it could sell the manufactured product over here, but that would be in direct competition with the German manufacturer, which the EU is formed to protect. That is why I voted leave in the referendum – though I probably would not do so again, as Brexit is unlikely to improve the situation.
Tim Gossling
Cambridge
Pair ate fur-covered dead animals in front of children in London despite pleas to stop
Two pro-meat protesters have been fined after eating raw squirrels at a food market.
Related: View to a cull: is grey squirrel the ultimate sustainable meat?
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