The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

TakePart Gang:

Everything I Know About Climate Change, I Learned in the Fifth Grade by Martin Musatov

When Torture Is Condoned, Is FISA That Shocking? by Wendy Cohen

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Nicole Hughes:

Baltimore Woman Turns Tragedy Into Art

Why Don’t We Do More to Stop Global Warming?

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Andy Kondrat:

Foods You Should and Shouldn’t Buy Organic

Paper or Plastic? The Environmental Impact

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Jon Popham:

The Energy Independence Bill: A Filibuster Odyssey

“Bruno” Fools Mossad Agent

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Gina Telaroli:

While Iran Tests Missiles, Test These 5 Iranian Films

Mao’s Out, Time to Capitalize On the Olympics

Everywhere you go now, there’s organic this and organic that, and it all sounds pretty good except for the fact that organic food costs something like twenty-seven times more than regular food. So, that begs the question - if cost is an issue, what should you choose to be part of your organic diet?

The Daily Green’s got you covered. The website has created a list of the top 12 foods that you ought to eat organic, as well as the top 11 foods that you don’t need to splurge on. The list of foods that you should eat organic includes things like celary, because there’s no skin that you can remove, thus you can’t get the pesticides off, either. And, if you can’t find celary, the site gives you different options for similar foods you might be able to find.

As for the top foods that you don’t need to spend the money on, how about mango?

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Everybody was Kung Fu fighting….

To escape some of the extreme heat yesterday, I ventured to an air-conditioned movie theater to see Kung Fu Panda. 1 word my friends: amazing. Pandas are adorable and Jack Black as a panda, is even more fabulous.

This DreamWorks animated picture is about a panda who wants to be a kung fu master had a lot of positive messages and here are my top 6 takeaways:

1) You are the secret ingredient and if you believe in yourself, you can do anything.

2) Don’t eat when you are angry; only eat when you are hungry

3) Find your motivator (in this case of the Panda it was almond cookies and dumplings) and use it.

4) Get exercise. Take the stairs, walk to work, lift some weights. You never know when you will be called on to resuce an entire village from a kung fu master.

5) “One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it.” Whoa.

6) Never Give up.

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The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

Nicole Hughes:

U.S. Media Ignores Link Between Midwest Floods and Global Warming

Top 10 Houseplants for Removing Indoor Air Pollution

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Andy Kondrat:

Dubai to Build Rotating Positive Energy Tower

Bioethicist Peter Singer Tackles World Food Shortage

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Jon Popham:

Americacorps Workers Assist Flood Ravaged Town

Australians “Out-Fat” Americans

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Giulia Rozzi:

Progressive Book Club

Oprah Recommends “A New Earth”

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Gina Telaroli:

Human Rights Watch 2008 Film Festival Update

SilverDocs 2008 Update

Peter Singer, possibly the world’s most renowned bioethicist (I mean, how many others can you think of?), found himself on NPR’s Marketplace today to discuss this food crisis we’re in the midst of. Dr. Singer starts with a very simple question: “Why are we in the midst of a food crisis when world production of food per person has actually grown steadily since the 1960s?”

There are a few reasons according to Dr. Singer, not least of which is our new forays into ethanol production, which takes 100 million tons of corn off our tables. But it’s the meat people eat that’s really doing it. Dr. Singer breaks it down old skool:

But most corn isn’t eaten by humans; it’s eaten by animals and that’s the biggest part of the problem. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, 756 million tons of grain plus most of the world’s soybean crop are fed to animals and that amount has increased sharply in recent years as Asian nations have become more prosperous and their populations have started eating more meat.

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What did you eat yesterday? Chances are somewhere in your meal and snack choices was some corn. Don’t believe me? You should head on over to I-Tunes tomorrow and download a fascinating documentary called King Corn. Katie blogged about King Corn when it was in theaters and now, along with being on DVD, King Corn is making the move to I-Tunes.

You can now download the documentary that will make you question everything that you eat (as I write this I’m looking at my coffee, yogurt and cliff bar rather quizzically). As summer nears and more and more local food markets open, this may be the perfect time to hang out with a film that discusses what’s in our food and where it comes from.

takepart to download the film now and to watch the trailer and learn more, click here >>>

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If you’re concerned about what junk is making its way into what you’re eating and drinking, and want to make sure your food is safe for you and the environment, Food & Water Watch has got you covered. A group based in Washington, D.C., the good people at this organization are monitoring what’s going into our food and drink, and trying to enact change. Here’s what they’re all about, straight from the source:

At Food & Water Watch we believe that the public should be able to count on our government to oversee and protect the quality and safety of food and water. We deserve to know that food and water are free of unhealthy chemicals, bacteria and added hormones. We have the right to know where our food comes from with accurate labeling and we have the right to clean, affordable, publicly owned water.

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UK Residents waste $20 Billion worth of food every year, The Guardian reports. A new British Government study on waste has found that Britons are simply throwing away $20 Billion worth of food that could have been eaten. If you’ve sampled certain British cuisine, this might not come as much of a surprise, but the negative effect this enormous amount of waste has on the environment is no joke.

Approximately $12 Billion of the total comes from food that is bought but never touched. Britons simply toss out 13 million unopened yogurt containers, 5,500 untouched chickens and 440,000 un-nuked TV Dinners each year. The rest of the $20 Billion comes from excess food which is prepared to eat but never consumed because the amount was misjudged and the extra is never eaten as leftovers.

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Michael Klare’s latest book “Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Energy” just came out. It’s a great look at the changing world and the role that energy plays in shifting politics and the future of the planet.

For those you wanting to read up on energy without leaving your computer or going to the bookstore (you should def order it though - the amazon link is above), I recommend you head on over to TomDispatch.com to read a new essay by Klare called “The End of the World as You Know It…and the Rise of the New Energy World Order.” It gives a nice overview to the topics he covers in the book.

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