The Laws Are Changing. School Food Bill Approved By Committee.

The House Education and Labor Committee approved a bill on Thursday that, if passed by Congress, would set standards for school food. The Associated Press says that the bill will cost $8 billion over a decade. It will also provide more free lunches to low-income students. First Lady Michelle Obama said, "This important legislation will combat hunger and provide millions of
schoolchildren with access to healthier meals, a critical step in the
battle against childhood obesity."

Next week's cocktail time in the Big Easy with the annual Tales of the Cocktail festival. The New Orleans event runs July 21-25 and, according to Zagat's, brings bartenders from around the world for seminars, drinking, and the annual Cocktail Murder in which a tired old mixed drink is laid to rest with a proper jazz funeral. This year they're going to kill Sex on the Beach.

Civil Eats interviews Daniel Imhoff, editor of the upcoming essay collection, The CAFO Reader. The book features essays about Concentrated Animal Feeding Organizations, which the EPA defines as, "a farming facility that keeps numerous animals raised for food in
close confinement, with the potential to pollute." Imhoff includes essays from all sides of the CAFO arguments. In the interview, he discusses changes in farm policy since the 2008 election, the difference between farms and factories, and the effects of our society having fewer land-owning farmers.

It's art! It's food! It's politics! Paste Magazine has presidents holding hams, while Huffington Post features photos of politicians with ice cream. If politicians with food aren't your thing, have some hand-knit packaged meat, link courtesy of Annie.