Turns out today’s my birthday (full moon/Passover/Easter weekend special!), and last night my wise younger brother was talking about how with age comes the ability to improve, every day. So I ask you, my readers, to help me improve Kiko’s Food News. What do you want to read more about? What would make this information more digestible, more relevant to your lives, more TASTY? Reply with a comment to this post and let me know!

Experts have promoted the fishing and eating of smaller fish that are lower on the food chain as the way to avoid depleting our oceans of larger, over-fished species, but a new study calls for a cap on forage fish fishing, saying the catch should be cut in half for some fisheries to protect populations of both the fish and the natural predators that depend on them: (full story)

You know a trend has really caught on when Williams-Sonoma launches a product line around it: “Agrarian” includes an array of garden tools, cheese making supplies, bee hives, and resources for how to raise chickens: (full story)

Roberto Romano’s film The Harvest/La Cosecha , which was screened across the country for Farmworker Awareness Week, informs us that nearly 500,000 children as young as six harvest up to 25% of all crops in the US: (full story)

Packaged baby food may not be as healthy as it seems as many brands that have veggies prominently displayed on the front actually list fruit as the main ingredient, masking surprisingly high sugar content: (full story)

As U.S. pork producers build new barns and retrofit old ones to give hogs more space, they say consumers opposed to keeping pregnant sows in tight cages can expect to pay for their clearer consciences with higher food prices (we know that more sustainable practices are more expensive, looks like it’s time to put our money where our mouth is!): (full story)

Ya know when men save a little food in their beard for later? This is kinda like that: (full story)

As a follow-up to the pink slime headline I shared last week, and testament to how consumer pressure can lead to changing practices in the food industry, Beef Products Inc. announced the temporary shutdown of three of its four plants that produce “lean finely textured beef”; not only had McDonald’s, the National School Lunch Program, Kroger & Safeway decided to reduce or eliminate it, but viral campaigns by regular joes also changed the game: (full story)

The Just Label It Campaign announced this week that a record-breaking one million Americans signed the petition calling on the FDA to label genetically engineered foods: (full story)

We were excited to see six of the food producers we work with (Dandelion Chocolate, Farmhouse Culture, Baia Pasta, Barinaga Ranch, Emmy’s Pickles…and Chez Pim coming soon!) celebrated in San Francisco Magazine’s list of top ten artisan food makers to watch: (full story)

The new wave of food co-ops are slick community markets that have thrown off the members-only rules, volunteer requirements and vegetarian philosophies commonly associated with them, going with an every-man’s product assortment: (full story)

With volumes of traditional sodas declining for the seventh consecutive year, soft drink companies have been acting similar to tobacco companies, putting promotion dollars behind the drinks with the highest margins, and introducing non-carbonated alternatives the same way cig companies promote smokeless tobacco and other spinoffs: (full story)

Similarly, Coca-Cola Great Britain pledged to cut portions and reformulate its products as part of a U.K. government drive to curb obesity; they will invest $24 million by 2014 to reformulate soft drinks and cut the average number of calories per liter by at least 30%: (full story)

Maybe it’s time to reconsider donkey meat–here’s a quirky roundup of foods that might change your perspective on our ability to feed the planet: (full story)

Can a neighborhood corner store improve public health? As part of the nationwide Healthy Corner Stores Initiative, more than 600 corner stores in Philadelphia have signed pledges to stock healthy food: (full story)

A dismal option for the school lunch menu: the U.S.D.A. announced that starting this fall, schools will be able to choose whether or not they buy hamburger that contains lean finely textured beef known as “pink slime”; it was previously sold only to dog food or cooking oil suppliers: (full story)

That make you want to go meatless? Since I was away last week, I want to make sure you caught Bittman’s characteristically persuasive argument about why fake chicken is worth eating. Did you know “a third of Americans now eat meatless meals ‘a significant amount of the time’”? (full story)

Packaged-food companies facing stagnant growth are turning to snacks as a way to report sales increases to their stakeholders; snack prices can be raised more easily than those of grocery staples (and who hasn’t been itching for the invention of a chocolate-flavored tortilla chip??): (full story)

In what I consider a missed opportunity for new precedents in meat sourcing, McDonald’s was granted an exemption to London’s local food sourcing goals for the upcoming Olympics and will therefore source only 10% of the chicken it processes from British farmers: (full story)

Sales of products with Fair Trade USA’s seal of approval for ethics and sustainability rose 75% in the fourth quarter of 2011 over the first quarter, according to a recent SPINS report; this even though fair trade-certified products almost always cost more than the alternative: (full story)

The number of health-oriented and vegan food trucks across the country is growing; here’s a helpful list by city, should you have a hankering: (full story)

Inspiration for your Friday happy hour: a growing band of brewers is turning to the complex, earthy spice of rye for a new take on the strong flavors craft-beer drinkers have grown to love: (full story)