Food Tank, the website

The brand-new Food Tank is not an irritating aquarium-themed seafood restaurant concept or a shoot-em-up flick set in a cafeteria. It's a think tank about food, though the matters the organization hopes to tackle won't be so mundane as the search for palatable application for the world's glut of truffle oil.

Founders Danielle Nierenberg and Ellen Gustafson, a sustainable agriculture expert and "social entrepreneur"/food systems activist respectively, envision that Food Tank will combat the world hunger, poverty, and obesity epidemics by publishing newsletters, launching investigative reports, working with policy makers, journalists, farmers, scientists and other key players, and organizing tours in Latin America, Asia and sub-Saharan Africa as well as in North America. Naturally, they are looking for donors.

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Felicia Friesema

California Grown Olives

Olives are on the pressing block. Earlier this week, the U.S. International Trade Commission held a public hearing to launch an investigation into the olive oil industry that was largely fueled by a UC Davis study two years ago. The study reported many of the imported olive oils on our supermarket shelves are not the extra virgins they claim to be. (Shocker.)

As reported in The Seattle Times, domestic producers in attendance were rallying for tighter regulation in the industry. "We just want a level playing field so we can compete," said Fresno olive oil producer Pat Ricchiuti, president of Enzo Olive Oil Co.

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Pete Souza/the White House

Obama and Romney shake hands in the Oval Office after lunch

Yesterday our fine POTUS met with Mr. Willard "Mitt" Romney for what we're sure will be the first of many warm and cordial private lunches.

The meal was served in a dining room adjacent to the Oval Office -- doubtless so that Romney could have a good look at the special place he will never, ever occupy.

Not that our president is a vindictive man. But we do wonder if the White House chef, in coming up with her "Southwestern-themed" menu, might have just a little touch of passive-aggressiveness.

The main dishes were white turkey chili and Southwestern grilled chicken salad. We're sure there were no subliminal messages of "jive white turkey" or grilled white meat, though.

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Flickr/elisasizzle

Nutella on toast

Maybe it's a good thing that New York City Mayor Bloomberg has targeted soda as a leading cause of the obesity epidemic, because he could have targeted something far, far more important: Nutella. Which is precisely what the government of France has done. In an effort to curb obesity, France is proposing a "fat tax," which would target not pâté or foie gras, but palm oil. Right. Because that's what's making everyone fat, apparently, not the many McDonald's restaurants in Paris or all that glorious cheese. (And yes, if you were wondering, French people get fat too, although calling out Gerard Depardieu seems really unfair.)

In what has become known as the Nutella Amendment, France's (Socialist, of course) government plans to quadruple taxes on products containing palm oil, a key ingredient in the hugely popular Italian hazelnut-chocolate spread. The argument is that palm oil consumption is fueling obesity, reports The Guardian. And no, this isn't making anybody happy, particularly French schoolchildren and the government of Malaysia, which produces palm oil.

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Daquella Manera via flickr

A pro-GMO labeling march held in Washington, D.C., last year

Just a few weeks back, it looked as though Proposition 37, the law that would require the labeling of most foods that include genetically modified ingredients, would pass with ease. Polls showed that CA voters approved of the measure by a wide margin.

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Denise Cross/Flickr

Cookies and milk

Boy, they took away your fois gras, and now this? As it happens, it's National Bittersweet Chocolate with Almonds Day, a particularly apt food to celebrate on a day when you think at least half this country is nuts. No doubt you've already started cycling through the five stages of grief, starting the first stage (denial) last night, when you were wistfully colorblind to the big map of the United States being slowly shaded in with the wrong Crayola.

Then, as filling in the map was interrupted by a satellite feed of your guy delivering his concession speech, you gave in. You had resisted the chocolates until that point; after that, you had no choice. Food as a coping mechanism: It works for Cookie Monster, it will work for you. And that's how five bars of dark chocolate were devoured by midnight. At least it will make you smarter.

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R.E.~/Flickr

Cake from Proof Bakery

First, take a moment to sigh with relief. No, laugh. Because if there was ever a time to hoot and cheer as if you and your friends just narrowly averted death by trash compactor in the basement of the Death Star, this would be it. Maybe it wasn't as close as the pollsters predicted it would be, but that's of no consequence now. What's important is that your year-long anxiety attack is over. And now that your stomach is no longer tied up in knots, you must be hungry.

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7-Eleven

Predicting the outcome of an event can be done in one of several ways. Possible results can be gauged using statistics, polls, qualitative analysis -- or maybe psychic octopus. For the presidential election, the convenience store 7-Eleven partnered with The Onion and drew in voters with the simply-named coffee cup game, the 7-Election.

Coffee drinkers picked a red, blue (or green for the unbiased) cup for your coffee -- and then the folks at 7-Eleven tallied the results.

If we can guess what party you lean towards based on your alcohol of choice, why not use coffee cups? It's probably just as accurate, and 7-Eleven seems a fairly egalitarian polling place. We love that a non-scientific poll specifically asks coffee drinkers what they think. And that it includes the opinion of everyone who gets to-go cups of java at a convenience stores, or at least this one, and not just registered voters.

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LaMenta3 via flickrtd>

Political lunch boxes

On his blog today, Michael Ruhlman asks, "Is it justifiable for me, known and read primarily for writing about food, cooking, and the work of the professional kitchen, to voice my opinion on a matter unrelated to food?" The blog post, titled "Vote! (a question to readers & a free signed Ruhlman's 20)," comes four years after Ruhlman posted about the last presidential election with a post titled "Vote Obama." Ruhlman now says he thinks he was wrong to write that post, because no one should tell anyone else how to vote. But he does wonder if it's fair for food writers to express their opinions on things that don't directly relate to food. He goes on to say "I wonder is there anything unrelated to food?"

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carighttoknow.org

Screen shot from new Yes On 37 commercial

If you're looking for the disparity in power between the two factions clashing over Proposition 37, the upcoming ballot initiative regarding the labeling of GMO products, consider this: The No-On-37 folks have spent tens of millions on ads, including a barrage of television commercials, opposing the Proposition that have aired over the past few months. The Yes-On-37 folks released their first commercial today. You can view it below.

It seems the media blitz, funded mainly by huge companies such as Monsanto and DuPont, is working. According to this week's LA Weekly news feature on Prop 37:

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