Editor's note: The Southern Foodways Alliance delves deep in the history, tradition, heroes and plain old deliciousness of Southern food. Today's contributor, Emile Dayan, writes a weekly SFA blog series called "Sustainable South" about food and the environment, nutrition, food access, food justice, agricultural issues and food politics.

In recent years, there has been a lot of talk about urban agriculture and the solution it provides for sustainable and healthy living. The Jones Valley Teaching Farm (JVTF) in Birmingham, Alabama, however, is much more than an urban farm. Their vision is to educate 10,000 Birmingham children annually.
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Nearly 400 new cereals hit the market last year. Adding to the confusion as you stand in the store aisle: Nutritional differences among brands are more vast than with almost any other kind of food, experts say. Call it snap, crackle, huh?!

"Some cereals are as healthy as salad, others are like scarfing down a chocolate eclair," says Dawn Jackson Blatner, author of "The Flexitarian Diet." "But while there are a lot of sugary cereals, happily, it's easier than ever to find a really nutritious one."
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While you're frying up some eggs and bacon, we're cooking up something else: a way to celebrate today's food holiday.

When fresh fruit comes along, you must pick it. May 20 is National Strawberry Picking Day!

Nothing says springtime like fresh fruit, and there’s nothing quite as satisfying as picking your own. This time of year fruit farms across the country open their gates to let the general public help themselves to their latest crops.

Picking your own fruit isn’t only a fun outing with family or friends; it’s also an opportunity to meet and support local farmers. You get a better sense of how the food you enjoy is cultivated, and smaller farms often use more sustainable growing practices.
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While you're frying up some eggs and bacon, we're cooking up something else: a way to celebrate today's food holiday.

Toss your hands in the air. May is National Salad Month!

Salads often get a bad rap for being too healthy or boring. While they might be the former, they definitely do not need to be the latter. Salads are actually a great way to use up leftovers and can make a balanced meal that will leave you feeling full and satisfied.

Like any meal, salads should be balanced. There should be different flavors, textures and colors. Nuts, berries, cheeses, and herbs can all help turn ‘rabbit food’ into a meal you’ll actually enjoy.

Here are some tips for shaking up the common salad:
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"Crowd control" took on a whole new meaning last night as a room full of partygoers in San Francisco were given power over a cocktail-making robot controlled by their smartphones.

Attendees at the closing party for the Google I/O Conference were invited to send a drink recipe via a smartphone app to the Makr Shakr, a three-armed robot designed especially for the show. They could then interact with attendees of similar taste to collaboratively design their perfect drink via social media.

MIT's Senseable City Lab wanted to see what would happen when you let a mass of people take control of an industrial manufacturing machine.

Read the full story: Robotic bartender creates crowd-sourced cocktails via a smartphone app

While you're frying up some eggs and bacon, we're cooking up something else: a way to celebrate today's food holiday.

How shell we celebrate? May 16 is National Coquilles St. Jacques Day!

For those who need to brush off the ol' French translation books, today we’re celebrating scallops.

Coquilles St. Jacques, or scallops St. James, is a classic French preparation of the soft, mildly sweet mollusks. It’s named for - you guessed it - St. James, who is reputedly buried in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain.
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Looks like Mc Donalds' McRib won't be the only pressed pork patty in town.

Burger King is about to offer up some competition. The fire-grilled burger-maker unveiled its summer BBQ menu on Wednesday, which includes the Rib Sandwich along with 12 other items.

The menu, also featuring a Memphis BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich and a Carolina BBQ Tendercrisp Sandiwch, will debut on May 21.

While a Burger King publicist wouldn't confirm if this menu is intended to lure customers away from the McDonald's McRib, the Burger King rib sandwich does bear a BBQ-themed resemblance.

Read - Burger King's answer to the McRib

Previously:
McDonald's got its start as a barbecue restaurant
Taking a ribbing – testing out McDonald's cult sandwich

While you're frying up some eggs and bacon, we're cooking up something else: a way to celebrate today's food holiday.

Chips ahoy! May 15 is National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day.

These tiny teardrop-shaped morsels will melt away your Wednesday woes.

Celebrate today's holiday with this scrumptious recipe from iReporter Cynthia Falardeau's grandmother.
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The agitated sandwich shop customer disliked the pickles. Now she's in one with the cops.

A Massachusetts woman who ordered a steak-and-cheese sub at a subway station was so angry about "too many pickles" on her sandwich that she punched an employee and shoved two jars of pickles at her, transit police said Monday.
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