Food & Farm News
» March 4, 2009 «
Name game prompts kids to eat more veggies
A new study from Cornell University suggests children will eat more vegetables if the names change. In the study, 186 four-year-olds were given regular carrots for lunch, but every other day the same vegetables were named X-ray Vision Carrots. The children ate twice as much when the name was different. When the new name was dropped several weeks later, the children continued to eat carrots at the new pace. Other cool names used were Power Peas and Dinosaur Broccoli Trees, both of which caused an increase in consumption by the children.
Volunteers teach the art of apple grafting 
A modern-day Johnny Appleseed is teaching students how to graft apple trees. Joe Sabol has a group of volunteers in the California Rare Fruit Growers who go to schools mainly in Central California and teach them the grafting craft. The students get to take the tree home and plant it in their backyard. This is the tenth year of the program, and some students have decided to make agriculture their career after the grafting lesson. More than 2,000 apple roots will be grafted this spring.
Ice cream maker boosts honeybee campaign
An ice cream company is redoubling its efforts to aid the honeybee. Haagen-Dazs brand has donated another $250,000 to UC Davis and Penn State for research, for a total of a half million dollars over two years. Honeybee pollination is required to produce one-third of the natural food we eat—including ice cream. In the last three years, more than a third of the honeybee hives have died from colony collapse disorder. The company hopes research will find a cause and cure.
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