"the economist" news and stories

Grown-up sodas. Image: Details.

A few of the best stories spied elsewhere on the Web this week:

BoingBoing picks up The Economist's story (and awesome graphic): "How many minutes do people in your city have to work to buy a Big Mac?"

Adult sodas from the stylish fellas at Details.

Starbucks-lovers, alert! They are lowering prices on some drinks but kicking them up a notch on others.

The L.A. Times reports: Facebook has created "Restaurant City." You may never get work done again.

Another ephemerally gorgeous piece from Design*Sponge's "In The Kitchen With" column, featuring a meringue-raspberry ice cream cake and some enviable dishware.

Portland, Oregon continues to rule, with a Fermentation Fest on Thursday of next week. (Clearly either our invite was lost in the mail, or they do not know about our pickling problems.)

Have you sampled the blackberries in the market right now? They are super-sweet. This Blackberry-Cabernet Caipirinha from Chow had us drooling.

The best Bruni interview of the bunch -- from the New Yorker.

Marion Nestle says that when she talks to people, she hears "this phenomenal sense of despair about their inability to do anything about climate change, or the disparity between rich and poor." A despair that she says is alleviated by a trip to the grocery store where "they can make decisions about what they are buying and send a very clear message." Perhaps people really do express these sentiments to her, but unless specifically directed, it seems unlikely that most people make the connection between relieving their feeling of despair over the "disparity between rich and poor" and shopping for groceries - in this case, probably organic ones.

But it is true that consumers have the power to change the marketplace and that they are doing it every day with the decisions they make at the grocery store, as The Economist mentioned in a recent article. The organic food industry is growing by leaps and bounds and there is an ever-increasing call for higher-quality food, held to higher standards, whether they are organic, local, fair-trade, hormone-free, etc.

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