Appetizers

This year an essential component of your healthy Mediterranean diet is going to get more expensive. Spanish olive oil (about 50% of the global supply) is in crisis following a drought that reduced production by 62% and will send import prices soaring.

Rabbit is being billed by some as the next “backyard chicken.” Size and carbon footprint are small; rabbits are quiet, easy to raise (will happily eat kitchen scraps), easy to butcher, lean and tasty; and they reproduce and adapt quickly. Though you don’t get the bonus of fresh eggs every day, it seems like a sustainable meat option to consider.

If you think sugary drinks are at the heart of the obesity epidemic, this news may renew your optimism that we are getting more on track. For the first time in more than 20 years, water has surpassed soda as Americans’ favorite beverage. According to industry tracker Beverage Digest, per-capita soda consumption peaked in 1998 at 54 gallons per person per year, compared with just 42 gallons of water. We now drink an average of 44 gallons of soda and 58 gallons of water per year (a 38% rise). Next, we need to figure out how to get the plastic bottles out of the equation.