Yesterday we mentioned that a heat wave has threatened Russia's wheat crop. Now the country's in danger of losing its fruit seed bank. Marion Nestle writes in The Atlantic that the Global Crop Diversity Trust has issued a warning that real estate developers are threatening the home of the Pavlovsk Experiment Station near St. Petersburg. The land at risk is Europe's largest genebank field, which houses thousands of fruit crops that aren't found anywhere else in the world.
Researchers along the Gulf Coast are watching the blue crabs to gauge the damage done to seafood by the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster. The Associate Press reports that despite reports that three-quarters of the oil had been removed, blue crab larvae are still specked with oil. Being near the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico's food chain, the tainted larvae could have bigger ramifications. The good news is, the larvae are surviving, and could lose the oil when they molt. Unless they're eaten by a fish first.
The Los Angeles Times looks at the unhealthiest items on fast food menus, courtesy of "Eat This, Not That" author David Zinczenko. A word of advice: avoid anything with the word "baconator" in its name.
Not on the worst-of list? The veggies at Taco Bell. But perhaps they should be. The Packer reports that lettuce and tomatoes used at Taco Bell outlets in five states led to over 150 reported cases of salmonella. The Centers for Disease Control aren't sure if the produce was to blame; they're awaiting trackback efforts to find the sources of the produce. Newspapers in Oregon and Kentucky, where outbreaks occurred, report that a epidemiologist with Oregon's public health department has found the link.
