A new, free mobile app aims to help reduce the impact of food waste. The numbers on food waste are staggering: The EPA cites that more than 33 million tons of edible food end up in U.S. landfills each year; and nearly half of the food produced in the world—some 2 billion tons every year—goes uneaten.

Despite recent news that the nation's top fast-food restaurant menu items aren't getting healthier, even though many of them boast "healthy" menu upgrades, lurking in the wings are the rising number healthy fast-food options.

Author, forager, and wild food advocate Hank Shaw finally had his "olympic moment," winning the James Beard Award for Best Individual Food Blog this year—his third year to be nominated.

On his 80th birthday, the red-headed stranger, Willie Nelson, launched an app. "Lend a Hand" is a story within a song written by Nelson and Marty Dread to educated children about food and farms.

It's almost impossible to go to the market without coming back with something in a box, bag, can or jar. The simplicity of eliminating steps in preparing our food is now commonplace. We cut corners because food manufacturers make it so unbelievably easy and cheap to do so. Certainly some processed foods are safer than others, and most of us recognize how truly lucky we are to have so many options at our fingertips. And that's just the point: When we change our food habits, we change the world. It may seem as if processed food only affects our health, but there's a much bigger impact…and all the more reason for us to cut processed foods out for good.

Chick'n. Tofurky. Not Dogs. Some of the best-selling (and best-tasting) vegan mock meat items do so with tongue-in-cheek names. For many of us vegans, it's bittersweet.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with making a food taste like another, but when we do this to avoid inflicting suffering, why do we keep the names associated with those practices?

Dear Organic Authority Readers:

We need your vote! We're thrilled to be participating in the Ethical Ocean and Vegan Cuts Vegan Recipe Challenge with our Royal Rainbow Superfood Quinoa Salad, developed by our publisher and editor-in-chief, Laura Klein.

You may have seen the pictures of the New York protest featuring people dresed up in orange, passing out samples of bright orange cheese... but do you know what it's really about? The rumored ban on mimolette cheese in America is a complicated affair, so it's time to set the record straight.

In this corner: Weighing in at just one vote short of champion, the Montana Alliance for Raw Milk, which just lost the right for small farmers in the state to sell raw milk directly to consumers. The loss means raw milk is still illegal in Montana, just as it is in much of the rest of the country. And weighing in at the other corner: the recent New York state judge's hefty ruling that Mayor Michael Bloomberg's soda ban is “arbitrary and capricious” despite soda's many known health risks. It's gonna be quite a fight! Welcome to Battle of the Ridiculous Beverage Bans!

If you're hip to CSAs—community supported agriculture, where you pay upfront for a "subscription" to fresh food from a farm—then you might want to keep your eyes open for the latest trend, CSRs: community supported restaurants.