FarmVille is the green place to be for city folk reaping the rewards of rural relationships and cooperation through good, clean social gaming.

The hugely popular farming sim has my friends and family bragging on Facebook about a season of planting cash crops, helping neighbors grow lettuce instead of lawns and finding new homes for lost little duckies. It quacks me up!

The strategy of the Zynga grainchild: The user is given the chance to start their own farm, build it …

Tags: computer , cows , crops , Electronic Arts , family farms , Farm sim , farming , FarmVille , livestock , Mark Skaggs , milk , Monopoly , organic , social games , soybeans , sustainability , vegetables , virtual reality

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I hope you’re not one of those people who squirms when a mother breastfeeds her baby in public, because I’m one of those publicly breastfeeding mothers. If that makes you uncomfortable, well, talk to the breast!

There is no better food for babies than breast milk, of course, so it’s a great decision for mothers who are able to do it. And when it comes to social graces, I’m just not sorry to say that I won’t run off to nurse in a bathroom or tote bottles around to …

Tags: bottle , BPA , breast , breast feeding , breastfeeding , formula , infant formula , milk , nursing , soy

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No downer beef, if you please. But gimme slabs of chocolate and cheese -  and all of the other upper foods that help effect serotonin and dopamine, the two neurotransmitters in the old brain. Who says the Gods must be crazy? We’ve sampled the forbidden fruit and want more! Give us more!

Dopamine is related to pleasure and euphoria while serotonin has to do with mood, memory and sleep. Both of these pathways can be stimulated by food, as well as by exposure to light and exercise.

No food, of course, …

Tags: almonds , apples , cheese , chocolate , dopamine , fruits , milk , neurotransmitters , organic , phenylethylamine , red wine , serotonin , tomatoes , tryptophan

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Serious hikers and those who travel are quite familiar with the many varieties of portable water testers. But who would have imagined that here in the United States we would ever feel the need or desire to test our pet food or baby formula?

With an estimated 50,000 Chinese children sickened and several deaths after drinking melamine contaminated formula, and the reported deaths 8,500 dogs and cats in the United States from contaminated pet food produced in China, the folks at Purdue University were inspired

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Tags: chemicals , contamination , environment , food , hazard , melamine , milk , pets , safety , toxicity

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Security was exceptionally tight surrounding the sentencing in the tainted milk scandal in China. Police roadblocks were set up and grieving parents of the young victims were not allowed into the courtroom to hear the verdicts. Three people were sentenced to death (including a middleman who peddled the poison to milk stations) and several others were ordered behind bars, including the head of the dairy that knowingly produced the melamine-contaminated formula.

Tian Wenhua, who pleaded guilty, received a life sentence plus a $3.6M fine. Why did the …

Tags: china , contamination , food safety , milk , news

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