The blogging evolution has created an excellent online resource for foodies as they live out and learn more about their great passion – food. Foodies are uniting through blogs to share their passion for food, using them as portals to review and comment on current trends and venues.

As social media continues to sweep the nation, new food blogs pepper the blogosphere every day. According to Pew Internet and American Life Project, 12 million adults maintain blogs of all types and 57 million adults log on to read what bloggers have to say.

Although most food bloggers are not professional chefs or writers, a bounty of fascinating and award-winning material is posted by bloggers every day. Some blogs have readerships that newspapers and magazines only dream about.

Today’s reporters and editors scan food blogs for their next dinner recipe, as well as their next story idea. Public relations firms are asking bloggers to try their clients’ food products and write reviews. Even established cookbook authors and related professionals have plunged in to the blogosphere looking for a new interactive audience.

As bloggers catering to all different types of information experience hunger pains, the variety of food blogs continues to expand exponentially. No single online source is able to list the millions, but there are a few popular and useful directories.

The food blog lists food blog addresses. The Chef’s Blog Directory also lists blogs by category.

Blogs that feature posts on whatever the writer is passionate about are among the most popular. This could include musings on styles of cooking, kitchen tools, at-home ideas, budget dinners, restaurant or dish reviews, food and travel, shopping for food and sharing recipes. Almost a Chef is a good example of this “free spirited” type of blogging.

Another current trend is that many blogs can be sifted into very narrowly focused subjects, areas or topics. One example is Pork, Knife and Spoon, a pork-specific blog written by Shauna James Ahern, a pork enthusiast. Ahern is also the author of the popular blog Gluten-Free Girl, which recently was named by the London Times as one of the “50 best” food blogs in the world.

Some blogs are designed with the goal of creating a community and drawing together like-minded individuals. Writers in this category use the Internet to connect and communicate with each other. Some blogs focus on interactive elements.

For example, Is My Blog Burning? encourages users to create a profile, post and vote on food links and even add their own blog to the “big fat food search engine.” In addition to their online interactions, users also hold themed cooking events, which are hosted by a different blogger each time.

It’s clear the trend of foodies using social media to expand their knowledge about food shows no sign of ebbing. After all, foodie readers are not only hungry for information, they want to post recipes, learn new culinary tips and share about their own exquisite creations, while gaining feedback from other like-minded individuals.

What's your favorite food or foodie blog?

Boosting fruit and vegetable consumption is a special objective of the new team at the Agriculture Department.

As Kathleen Merrigan, deputy secretary, noted during a recent interview, “The president and first lady are very interested in healthy eating. They are passionate spokespersons about solving the growing childhood obesity crisis.”

Merrigan, who has a doctorate in environmental planning and policy, said she and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack agree that the problem must be addressed and the department has a major role to play in solving it.

“Fruits and vegetables need to have a bigger role in Americans’ diets,” Merrigan said. “We are going to be looking at all kinds of ways to make that happen.”

For example, the administration’s 2010 budget proposal includes an increase of $2.3 million for the Agricultural Marketing Service to establish marketing agreements/orders that support quality assurance for fruits and vegetables. Merrigan pointed out that this support was proposed in direct response to requests from producers and others in the industry.

The budget also targets an additional $1 billion annually to support child nutrition programs.

“We are looking for innovative ways to get fruits and vegetables into our school lunch and breakfast programs,” Merrigan said.

Such innovation will involve the infrastructure of fruit and vegetable production, she explained.

“I can say with certainty that President Obama, Secretary Vilsack and I are really concerned about small- and medium-sized farming operations. We are concerned about the health and vitality of the fruit and vegetable industry,” Merrigan noted.

The goal of improving the diet of Americans has fostered an all-inclusive discussion about agriculture.

“I think it is very exciting now that people of all sorts want to engage in discussions about agriculture,” Merrigan said. “I hope production agriculture sees this as an opportunity, not a threat. My job here is to be deputy for all sizes of agriculture, all kinds of production, all different crops and all different regions.”

This article was written by by G.B. Crawford of the Florida Farm Bureau and was originally published in the July 2009 issue of Foodie News.

Brand loyalty has gone by the wayside with the recession. A two-year study of 685 grocery brands, which analyzed data from 32 million consumer grocery discount cards, found in 2008 that the average brand lost one-third of its loyal customer base. By this year, according to the Financial Times, more than half of the typical brand’s loyal consumers will switch to other products.

“Defection is top of mind for brand managers now because they’re the most profitable customers,” says Eric Anderson, associate professor of marketing at Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. “Price and promotion have become so salient at retail, that what we thought was the loyal customer can be moved with discounts.”

The study was conducted by the Chief Marketing Officer Council and Catalina Marketing’s Pointer Media Network.

Chicago Tribune writer James A. Fussell challenges readers to test their "Foodie I.Q." with a fun online quiz.

"If you watch cooking shows such as Bravo's 'Top Chef' and 'Top Chef Masters,' you've probably heard these and other 50-cent food words tossed around like croutons in a summer salad," Fussell writes. "But – hands off the keyboard – do you know what they mean without looking them up?" he challenges.

Ganache, ceviche, risotto, carpacci, hamachi and remoulade are just a sampling of the 25 foodie words cooked up for the quiz to stump you.

Test your "Foodie IQ" today!

When it comes to choosing organic over conventional for restaurants, the vast majority of foodservice decision-makers “talk the talk” when it comes to produce but often do not “walk the walk” due to typically higher prices.

“Restaurants always have to keep a very close watch on costs and the bottom line because profit margins are so narrow,” said Dan Locricchio, vice president of Sysco Denver, North America’s largest foodservice distributor. In addition to Denver and other metropolitan markets, Sysco Denver serves ski resorts and other vacation getaways in Colorado.

The foodservice market is a major consumer of fruits and vegetables and 30 percent of U.S. fresh produce goes to this sector, Locricchio said. He has found that most decision-makers he deals with prefer to buy organic produce, but instead often opt for conventional.

The green stuff, as in cold hard cash, is often a major factor at play.

For example, mixed greens or a spring mix are a popular produce choice for many Rocky Mountain foodservice establishments. But, organic mixed greens cost 50 percent more – $15 per case, compared to $10 per case for conventional mixed greens, Locricchio said. As a result, organic doesn’t even come close to conventional produce in total sales.

“Conventional spring mix outsells organic 10 to 1,” Locricchio said. He expects this trend to continue as restaurants and other foodservice buyers keep an eye on the bottom line, particularly in today’s tough economic climate.

There is one trend in the foodservice market that is all the rage right now: local produce.

“Anything that has to do with locally grown produce is the hottest food trend in Denver right now,” Locricchio says. “All the chefs Sysco works with like to support local growers and prefer local produce.”

Locricchio believes the “buy local” trend will continue to gain momentum, which is why he encourages growers to actively pursue the foodservice market.

“People really are paying attention to where the produce comes from,” he said. “Growers need to tell their stories and let foodservice and retail buyers know what separates them from the competition.”