“Food and drink” on The Daily Caller

Is your 4G smartphone only operating at 3G speed? Is your high-definition screen only 720p? Is your hot tub not quite hot enough? Is it a really long walk to your farmers market? (more)

Hundreds of events around the country today will celebrate “Food Day,” a relic of the 1970s that petered out — presumably — because it was irrelevant. Judging from this year’s lineup, we should hope this encore is a one-time precursor to extinction. (more)

Many folks are put-off by New York City’s constant meddling in the food choices of its citizens, whether it is scolding them about salt or grossing them out by graphically comparing sports drinks to liquid fat. But hey, we can live somewhere else and eat in peace, right? (more)

World food prices rose in June as the cost of sugar, meat and dairy increased, adding to inflationary pressure that has prompted central banks across the world to raise interest rates. (more)

BEIJING (AP) — Watermelons have been bursting by the score in eastern China after farmers gave them overdoses of growth chemicals during wet weather, creating what state media called fields of “land mines.” (more)

WASHINGTON- Diplomacy took a backseat to head-to-head competition Tuesday night as chefs from 12 countries vied for the title of top embassy chef. (more)

Now that this year’s federal budget has been worked out, biofuels policy will move its way back up the agenda in the 112th Congress. Late in 2010, biofuels policy briefly became a marquee topic when none other than Al Gore opined that “it is not a good policy to have these massive subsidies for first-generation ethanol,” referring to a whole suite of subsidies and mandates for corn-based ethanol. History will note the first statute to mandate the use of ethanol as an additive to certain reformulated gasoline blends passed the U.S. Senate in 1994 by then-Vice President Gore’s tie-breaking vote. (more)

Are we becoming tasteful tipplers? A new study ranks the U.S. as the top wine-consuming nation in the world. (more)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Republican head of the House Budget Committee has proposed cutting agriculture subsidies by $30 billion over the next 10 years as part of a broad effort to slash federal spending, but it remains to be seen whether his ideas will be incorporated in legislation that sets funding for agriculture programs. (more)

If you want a big example of how not to eat, just take a look at City Councilman Leroy Comrie, his wife told The Post. (more)

Attention coffee lovers: don’t worry, your need for caffeine isn’t your fault. A team of esteemed biological scientists recently published a study in PLoS Genetics that links caffeine addiction to one’s genetic makeup. The study found that people who carry a specific version of two genes involved with the breakdown of chemicals in the liver, (CYP1A2 and AHR,) will crave and consume more caffeine than those who do not posses the genes. (more)

Do you know someone who counts “food miles”? Who prefers “heirloom” vegetables and buys organic everything? If so, your friend might be stricken with a case of food snobbery—a holier-than-thou affliction that’s been spreading across America since Alice Waters first anointed herself high priestess of Berkeley cuisine. (more)

After staunchly defending the safety of artificial food colorings, the federal government is for the first time publicly reassessing whether foods like Jell-O, Lucky Charms cereal and Minute Maid Lemonade should carry warnings that the bright artificial colorings in them worsen behavior problems like hyperactivity in some children. (more)

Have you ever noticed that people on diets are really crabby? While many might blame low blood sugar or a general lack of pleasure (rice cakes, cabbage soup — ugh!), recent psychological research suggests that it’s actually the exercise of self-control that leads people to become irritable and aggressive at inappropriate times. (more)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The federal government is investing $60 million in three major studies on the effects of climate change on crops and forests to help ensure farmers and foresters can continue producing food and timber while trying to limit the impact of a changing environment. (more)

The wackiest video of the past two weeks wasn’t one of Charlie Sheen’s maniacal rants. No, the prize goes to the undercover exposé showing senior NPR Officials Gone Wild, a story that broke here at The Daily Caller. (more)

What did you have for lunch today? It doesn’t really matter. Whatever it was, it’s probably going to cause heart disease, cancer, or hypertension. (more)

A specialist ice cream parlor plans to serve up breast milk ice cream and says people should think of it as an organic, free-range treat. (more)

At the London restaurant Archipelago, diners can order the $11 Baby Bee Brulee: a creamy custard topped with a crunchy little bee. In New York, the Mexican restaurant Toloache offers $11 chapulines tacos: two tacos stuffed with Oaxacan-style dried grasshoppers. (more)

What if the recent turmoil in Egypt spread to countries across sub-Saharan Africa, or even southeast Asia? There’s a real chance of that — not for political reasons, but for nutritive ones. As food prices skyrocket globally, we could soon see an outbreak of food riots. (more)