"bbc" news and stories

I'm sure we're all aware by now that there's a rice shortage going on. Lots of factors contribute, but the bottom line is that even in the first world there is some rationing going on. But what happens if it gets worse?

The BBC recently posted this article about some possible rice replacements. Quinoa, the native South American grain, was first on the list. I think a lot of people are aware of quinoa by now, but how many people have heard of fufu? That's a west African dish made from cassava, but apparently it's not well known outside of that region's population.

Most of the other grains in the BBC article are familiar, like millet and bulgur. I know there are plenty of other grains out there, and lots of edible plants that we just don't eat. Maybe we should start thinking about that kind of thing, now that we're having shortages of some of our staple foods.

Frustrated by those tough-peeling egg shells? Here's how to making shelling those eggs a breeze!

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It's April 1st and you know what that means: it's April Fool's Day! You'll probably be avoiding (or not) tricks all day. I bet nothing will top this one from the BBC.

A well respected news program called Panorama broadcast a story in 1957 about a great spaghetti harvest in Switzerland. The public fell for it hook, line, and sinker. The BBC fielded hundreds of calls from viewers asking how they, too, could grow a spaghetti tree, to which they answered "Place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best."

This is the first I had heard of this, but it is classic! The footage from the original story is quite nice, but I can't imagine anyone actually believing it. Ah well, I guess I come from a much more cynical and media savvy age, but it's neat to look back on a time when a hoax like this was possible.

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It was fifty years ago that BBC first broadcast the famous "Spaghetti Harvest" episode on their television news show Panorama. In Ticino in southern Swistzerland near Italy, the British Broadcasting Company show Panorama covered the bumper Swiss spaghetti crop of 1957.

While scenes of harvesters working in the spaghetti orchards played on the screen, the show's anchor, Richard Dimbleby, discussed how a mild winter and less infestations of the "spaghetti weevil" allowed farmers to harvest a huge crop from the Spaghetti Bushes.

Dimbleby reported, "The spaghetti harvest here in Switzerland is not, of course, carried out on anything like the tremendous scale of the Italian industry, many of you, I'm sure, will have seen pictures of the vast spaghetti plantations in the Po Valley. For the Swiss, however, it tends to be more of a family affair."

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Although some children will be quick to point out which foods are healthy ones to their parents, not all children have reacted so positively to the recent changes in school lunches. At least, they haven't in the UK. The BBC conducted a survey of secondary schools (middle and high schools) and found that at 60% of them, there had been a drop in the number of students that were opting to buy the school-provided lunch since the switch to a healthier menu. Only 10% of schools had an increase in the number of students taking lunch since the change.

It's too bad that there isn't any US data on this phenomenon after so many schools and school districts have placed restrictions on what types of food are appropriate for kids to have access to during the day, but it seems likely that the problem would be a similar one, especially with older kids who can easily leave campus or go out after school to get the fries and pizzas that they have always had access to at school until now.

The problem is one that will gradually go away over time, as the kids who were used to the "old way" of doing things graduate and the number of students who think that they are entitled to something greasy and unhealthy will decrease compared to he number of children who might actually look forward to a healthier lunch.

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