Bloggers approach food issues from a variety of angles:

• At Gristmill, Aimee Witteman and Tom Philpott discuss the prospects for the Farm Bill and Sharon Astyk looks at the many costs of food.
• Andrew Schneider at Secret Ingredients shares the frightening things he learned at a food safety conference.
• Barbara Fisher at Tigers & Strawberries explains why restaurants discard so much food and how they can reduce the waste.
• Revere at Effect Measure considers the prospects for growing meat in tissue cultures.

Elsewhere:

Andrew Revkin at Dot Earth provides an annotated version of Bush’s climate-change speech; Dave Loos at EnviroWonk recaps the drinking game that accompanied the address; and Gristmill rounds up other reactions from high-profile types on different sides of the climate issue.

Chris Mooney at Science Progress reports that the candidates haven’t accepted invitations for Science Debate 2008 – but the debate campaign still had some noteworthy successes.

Frances Beinecke at Switchboard explains why the National Toxicology Program’s brief on bisphenol A health concerns is so gratifying.

Jacob Goldstein at the WSJ’s Health Blog has the scoop on a new drug-safety monitoring initiative from FDA and WellPoint.

Jennifer Jacquet at Shifting Baselines considers options for addressing the plastic bag problem.

Rupert Walder at RH Reality Check gives us the bad news on global maternal and child mortality, and provides an update on international efforts to reduce these deaths.