If you want to become rich, Jim Rogers, investment whiz, best-selling author and one of Wall Street's towering personalities, has this advice: Become a farmer. Food prices have been high recently. Some have questioned how long that can continue. Not Rogers. He predicts that farming incomes will rise dramatically in the next few decades, faster than those in most other industries — even Wall Street. The essence of his argument is this: We don't need more bankers. What we need ...

The largest empty space on the shelves of health-food stores these days is probably where the Crunchy Granola is stocked. What is Crunchy Granola? It is a dry cereal about the texture of uncooked oatmeal that consists of rolled oats, wheat germ, sesame seeds, unsweetened coconut, soy oil, sea salt and brown sugar, give or take a few things. Because of all that natural goodness, plus a not unpleasant sweetish taste, it is the rage right now with a generation ...

Itching for a good after-school science experiment? Researchers at Rutgers University in New Jersey have created a homemade bedbug trap using a plastic cat-food dish, an insulated jug and some dry-ice pellets. According to Wan-Tien Tsai, who reported her findings in December at the annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America, the dry-ice-and-thermos combo captured the bloodsucking critters in an infested apartment just as effectively as, if not more so than, equipment used by professional exterminators. The most ...

If you eat meat, the odds are high that you've enjoyed a meal made from an animal raised on a factory farm . According to the USDA, 2% of U.S. livestock facilities raise an estimated 40% of all farm animals. This means that pigs, chickens and cows are concentrated in a small number of very large farms. But even if you're a vegetarian, the health and environmental repercussions of these facilities may affect you. In his ...

It's a hazy morning, and I'm standing outside a McDonald's just a few yards from the U.S. border. The fast-food joint seems to be the favorite place in Tijuana for assignations of every kind. Near me linger a pair of mismatched lovers, some drug pushers and a giant of a man crosshatched with scars, as if somebody has played tic-tac-toe on his face with a knife. He eyes me briefly ­before stepping forward. "America," he says, nodding ...

Over my morning coffee , I read the news this week that a battle is brewing between Starbucks and McDonald's. According to the story, McDonald's is planning to capitalize on the public's willingness to pay $4 for a cup of coffee by hiring baristas and dropping espresso machines in 14,000 of their fast-food outlets. Meanwhile, Starbucks, with business lagging, is fighting back with an "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" strategy, by offering heated breakfast sandwiches ...

Once upon a time Americans had a culture of food to guide us through the increasingly treacherous landscape of food choices: fat vs. carbs, organic vs. conventional, vegetarian vs. carnivorous. Culture in this case is just a fancy way of saying "your mom." She taught us what to eat, when to eat it, how much of it to eat, even the order in which to eat it. But Mom's influence over the dinner menu has proved no match for the ...

Unlike his rival Jared Fogle, whose message of wellness has helped Subway overtake the Golden Arches as the largest restaurant chain in the world, Ronald McDonald doesn't look Unlike his rival Jared Fogle, whose message of wellness has helped Subway overtake the Golden Arches as the largest restaurant chain in the world, Ronald McDonald doesn't look like the picture of health these days. When a report recently surfaced that the 48-year-old clown was being retired, Ronald haters everywhere felt ...

It's parmigiano-reggiano, but not as you know it. Not only is it Slow Food Presidia — endorsed, it's also handmade from the milk of a rare breed of white Modenese curled-horn cattle, then aged for 36 months and served as "air" . Its fleeting, sweet, rich umami intensity is part of a dish called "five textures and tastes of Parmesan" that includes a velvety 18-month cream accented with ricotta and a 40-month frico, or cheese crisp. This sort ...

I'm not sure how to say this without offending anybody. So I'm going to just blurt it out. Jewish food is awful. I say this with all respect. I'm Jewish myself—Joel Stein is practically a WASP next to me. But the fact has to be faced. And the question asked, is there isn't a way out of our culinary wandering in the desert? I'm not talking about Kosher food, which is a special department of its own. ...