Blog
This is an unprecedented time. My generation has gone through a lot, but nothing this swift, with global information coming in through every pore of the world. It’s overloading us, for sure—even more than we’re used to being overloaded, which is saying a lot. And it’s shortening our patience.
Read MoreCustomers don’t want to eat the traditional way anymore, whether it’s because it’s too expensive, too inconvenient or too time-consuming. Think of all the channels that exist now: meal kits, Amazon, grocery delivery. It’s safe to say that the effect of those channels recently sent two longtime grocers—Fairway Mart on the East Coast and Earth Fare in Colorado—into bankruptcy. And it’s predicted that US supermarkets will decline 6 percent in the next five years.
Read MoreSulforaphane is a chemical they’ve found in foods we already know are really good for you like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, watercress, etc. In our search for wonder drugs, we obliterate these foods in test tubes and isolate their contents on a molecular level to see what they’re made of.
Read MoreNitrates are thought to work better by increasing blood flow to our skeletal muscle bed, so the vessels that carry the oxygenated blood to our working muscle groups become physically wider so we get more air in. More air in equals a hotter fire. Theoretically, this suggests our endurance capacity is increased because we can run at a higher pace for longer before fatiguing.
Read MoreSustainability is everywhere. Or let me rephrase that. The word sustainability is everywhere. Scrawled across corporate posters in Starbucks and etched into labels in nearly every aisle of the grocery store, this single word has taken on a life of its own thanks mostly to marketers and a handful of tried and true brands who were walking the walk before it was cool.
Read MoreAll proteins are not created equal at all—no! Even meat proteins vary from animal to animal. Beef has more fat and iron while chicken, for example, tends to be a leaner source of proteins. Fish is again high fat and high protein but has different types of fats than red meat—often considered the good fats, but I’m not sure I agree with that sentiment entirely. Whey protein comes from cow milk, and plant proteins….well those come from plants.
Read MoreFor farmers, it’s been a tough couple of years in an already-tough industry. But none of that compares to the challenges that lay before us: in retaliation for tariffs from the U.S., China will no longer buy our ag exports. To put it in context, China was the fourth-largest buyer of our agricultural goods.
Read MoreSo, let’s talk about oxygen. Oxygen is an unstable gas and our body takes advantage of that instability to produce energy. Part of the process of energy production involves disrupting electrons and spinning them through the little batteries in our cells called the mitochondria. Most of these reactions are very well controlled but sometimes some of the electrons escape. This is when the trouble begins.
Read MoreAt Spinaca, we talk a lot about health and wellness in the context of food, which makes sense. After all, launching, improving and maintaining good health has so much to do with what and how we eat.
Read MoreSaturated fats have definitely gotten a bad name over the years. Saturated fats, when digested, generally go through a double loop around the body because fats find it difficult to dissolve in our blood which is a water-based environment and most people recognise fats and water don’t mix very well. So fats are transported via our lymphatic systems which is a little bit like the back roads if our arteries and veins are the freeways.
Read MoreWhatever we grow at Spinaca, my MO is to use the whole plant for multiple applications per our Root-to-Shoot philosophy. Hemp is slightly different, though. With hemp, seeds are bred for their end result, meaning some seeds support fiber production while another might support oil production. Yes, some seeds are hybrids, but they produce mediocre yields of both fiber and oil, so we’ll separate plantings to maximize yields independently. That being said, we’ll still be able to utilize every part of what each plant grows.
Read MoreThe concept of restricting the intake of key macro or micronutrients (unless for medical reasons) does not sit well with me and in my mind can’t ever be particularly healthy because it means our bodies will missing key components that we need to help provide us with energy, make things and generally function as, you know, humans.
Read MoreAs I described in my last post, until very recently, the federal government considered industrial hemp a Schedule I controlled substance. But when Congress finalized the 2018 Farm Bill last December, all of that changed; the new bill de-scheduled hemp as a controlled substance and allows it to cross state lines for commercial purposes.
Read MoreAt the end of 2018, Congress passed a Farm Bill that differs from its predecessors in one remarkable way: it removes hemp from the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) and includes it as a viable crop “for agronomic rotational purposes and for use as a habitat for honey bees and other pollinators.” Furthermore, it opens the door for funding research studying the uses of industrial hemp as well as “emerging commercial products derived from hemp.”
Read MoreIts that time of year isn’t it!? Odds are most of us took a minute or two this month to think about our health and how to get fitter and healthier for 2019. New Year, new attitude, right? We hit the gym and chow down on spinach and celery juice for all of two days or two weeks if we’re lucky…..then it’s back to coffee and chocolate! People often ask me how to make that new New Years Resolution of better diet and exercise stick. Well, I’ll tell ya. I have three simple tips to help you out.
Read MoreTo anyone outside the fresh produce supply chain, the recent romaine lettuce E. coli scare may have felt like a routine outbreak. But anyone on the inside knows: this one was different.*
Read More
