Thinly sliced: London mayor bans fast food near schools, GOP gives Newman’s Own a tax break, and more

This is the web version of a list we publish twice-weekly in our newsletter. It comprises the most noteworthy food stories of the moment, selected by our editors. Get it first here.

1. We can never resist a good Snopes fact-check. Did President Donald Trump reverse an insecticide ban after receiving $1 million from Dow Chemicals? You bet he did.

2. Maybe you read this week’s Washington Post profile about the burgeoning youth movement on farms, and how “today’s young farmer” is more likely to be college-educated and working in local food systems. The article combines data from a just-released report about young farmers’ demographics and products, with USDA census data that confirms America’s farm operators are growing old. If the article is any indication, it seems the tide is turning towards sustainability, but the truth is that they’re just a sliver of the agricultural sector. The majority of young farmers grow fruits and vegetables, or “specialty crops” that represent less than 4 percent of total cropland in the U.S., as the Post’s own Tamar Haspel has pointed out. The change is cultural—not yet economic.

3. Saffron is worth $2,700 per pound and U.S. farms are taking note, Ozy reports.

4. In this week’s tax bill special-interest news: a tax break just for Newman’s Own. Politico has the story.

5. The mayor of London is expected ban fast food restaurants within 400 meters of schools, the Evening Standard reports.

6. In other U.K. news, here’s a delightful story in The Guardian about how the takeaway sandwich came to rule the world. There are more people making British sandwiches than working in agriculture!

7. In case you missed it over the holiday, here’s the Washington Post on a report claiming the sugar industry hid the ingredient’s connection to heart disease.