Bring back the local farm. We've had it easy for a long time, sustained by subsidized, globalized agribusiness that grows, harvests, processes and ships food from distant places, so much so that most of us have lost our connection to the land that produces it. [News Source]

Just add water: mosquitoes arrive with the rain. Been bitten? You're not alone. [News Source]

Eating too many nuts in pregnancy could put babies at risk of asthma. Women who eat a lot of nuts during pregnancy may be putting their children at greater risk of asthma, scientists warned yesterday. [News Source]

Low-fat diet not tops for weight loss, study finds. A long-running comparison of three diet plans found that the low-carbohydrate Atkins regimen and a Mediterranean diet rich in fish and nuts produced slightly greater weight loss than a low-fat program modeled on American Heart Assn. dietary guidelines. [News Source]

Study: Low-carb diet best for weight, cholesterol. The Atkins diet may have proved itself after all: A low-carb diet and a Mediterranean-style regimen helped people lose more weight than a traditional low-fat diet in one of the longest and largest studies to compare the dueling weight-loss techniques. [News Source]

Female starlings duped into mating with duds. Environmental pollutants lead lesser males to sing louder and attract more mates. [News Source]

Alaska births are at higher risk for defects. Alaska infants are twice as likely to be born with major birth defects as infants in the U.S. as a whole, according to a new study by the state Department of Health and Social Services -- and officials are at a loss to explain why. [News Source]

Color me concerned. New research indicates that artificial food dyes can disrupt some children's behavior, and activists and consumer groups are asking for bans or limits on the dyes. [News Source]

Menthol the bait to trap smokers, researchers say. Hoping to lure a new generation of smokers, tobacco companies routinely manipulate levels of menthol so that their cigarettes prove more appealing and less harsh to novice users, researchers reported. [News Source]

Vitamin K good for young bones, too: study (Nutraingredients.com) Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is reportedly the most prevalent rheumatic disease in children, and affects one in every 250 children in the US, according to the Arthritis Foundation. [News Source]

Vitamin K good for young bones, too: study (Food Production Daily) Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is reportedly the most prevalent rheumatic disease in children, and affects one in every 250 children in the US, according to the Arthritis Foundation. [News Source]

Vitamins not linked to death risk (Honolulu Advertiser) Q. The other day I heard a rather frightening statement — that prescription drugs and medical procedures are among the leading causes of death in the United States. Is this true? And how do drugs compare in this regard to the safety of vitamins and antioxidants? Please give me some basic facts and statistics to put this into perspective. [News Source]