Slashfood

Wal-Mart practically had us at hello with their sustainability announcement yesterday, and we weren't alone. News that the retailing behemoth was launching a new global commitment to sustainable agriculture, with a focus on small and medium-sized farmers had blogs and Twitter feeds ablaze.

The announcement wasn't vague. It outlined specific goals that Wal-Mart is committed to reach by 2015. Among them:

* Selling $1 billion in food sourced from 1 million small and medium farmers.
* Asking suppliers about the water, energy, fertilizer and pesticide used per unit of food produced.
* Implementing a requirement for sustainably sourced palm oil for all Wal-Mart private-brand products.
* Sourcing only beef that does not contribute to the deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon.

"Grocery is more than half of Wal-Mart's business," Michael T. Duke, president and chief executive was quoted as saying in The New York Times. "Yet only four of our 39 public sustainability goals address food.

Fred Kirschenmann, distinguished fellow for the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture and president of Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture told Slashfood he met with Mike Duke in Iowa last month while the executive was visiting a farm committed to sustainable practices.

The Pictsweet Company announced today a voluntary recall of certain codes of store-brand products containing frozen green peas, after the company learned that some of the packages may contain glass fragments, which may cause injury if ingested. No injuries have yet been reported.

Products subject to this recall were distributed only to Kroger stores in the Southeast United States and to Walmart stores throughout the United States. Find a complete list of items after the jump.

For most of us, trying to recall our favorite TV commercial for a restaurant is kind of like trying to recall last night's dreams-a virtually indistinct sequence of half-remembered imagery: the stringy, cheesy uplift of a steaming slice of pizza, a slow pan shot along a foot-long sub, a sizzling fajita.

But the folks at Los Angeles-based Ace Metrix have figured out how to sort through this psycho-mess to determine which commercials are most effective, and they've just released their list of the top 20 restaurant ads of 2010, according to Nation's Restaurant News. (You can see all the commercials at the Ace Metrix site.) How do they do it?

We're not sure if the folks in the City of Watsonville, California, were fans of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, but we're pretty sure the star-chef would give a high-five to its council members. In a 6-1 vote on Tuesday, members passed a Healthy Eating Options ordinance, requiring all new restaurants (and existing restaurants looking to expand), to offer healthy options on their menus if they want to secure a building permit.

"It's a very attainable requirement," says Marcela Tavantzis, assistant city manager. "We're not trying to dissuade businesses from coming to Wastonville. The threshold is very low, but it's designed to get restaurants to think about their selections."

The ordinance is based on a point system determined by a list of options. Offering whole-grain bread will earn a restaurant one point. Prepare fish, chicken or beef by broiling, baking or poaching? Bingo! Two points. Offer water free of charge to customers? Yup. That's another point. To secure a permit, restaurateurs need a total of six points. Existing restaurants are also encouraged, but not required, to participate. Certificates are given to businesses that earn nine points, while restaurants that reach 13 will be able to proudly display a Golden Carrot Award. (Sounds like hot-dog joints should rethink the new construction in Watsonville.)

Street food has gone leagues beyond the old Sabrett umbrella, a steamed dog on a bun and a ginormous yellow mustard dispenser (but don't get us wrong; we're still Sabrett fans). L.A.'s Grilled Cheese Truck and the Phoenix take on a mobile Parisian crèpes unit, Truckin' Good Food, are street-food lovers' fever dreams. Are you with us on this? Head over to the Huffington Post for the low-down on the country's Top 10 Most Influential Food Trucks.

Don't know what to make for dinner? Or lunch? Or brunch for the family?

There's an app or two for that, and their numbers grow every day.

Lifehacker rounded up its favorite apps for cooking and recipes available for the iPhone, highlighting what makes each one great, for everyone from home gourmands to kitchen novices.

On the list: Cooks Illustrated, Epicurious, Allrecipes.com Dinner Spinner, Evernote, Whole Foods Market Recipes and How to Cook Everything.

Sick of dressing as the same old hot-dog, Halloween after Halloween? That may qualify you for a Chipotle contest. But isn't it time you worked your top-chef look? From a Crocs-toting Mario Batali (using a prosthetic belly if you don't happen to be molto-shaped), to a pearl-sportin' Paula Deen, the folks at Chow show you how, with six hilarious how-tos and photos. Here's a thought: How about Sam Mason from "Dinner with the Band?" Head down to the local tattoo parlor right now, and you might have a decent copy of Sam's fish tat by Halloween.

That the gorgeous Italian export Giada De Laurentiis knows her way around a plate of pasta is not exactly news. But what the star of Giada At Home told an adoring crowd at last weekend's New York Wine & Food Festival may surprise you. Is she ready to have more children? Visit our friends at YumSugar to find out, in 5 Things You May Not Know About Giada De Laurentis.