Salon: Monsanto loathers will want to read all about this week’s development, in which President Obama signed a bill barring federal courts from halting the sale of genetically modified or engineered crops and seeds. Food safety advocates are incensed.  —Kathryn Robinson

The New York Times Magazine: I’ve been trying to read my way through all the James Beard Foundation’s journalism award nominees since they were announced last week. A standout in the profile category—at least neck-and-neck with fellow nominee “Danny and the Electric Kung Pao Pastrami Test” from GQ, which we celebrated here back in December—is by Alex Halberstadt. His profile of Cook’s Illustrated founder Christopher Kimball (whose “bow tie, suspenders and severely parted hair” give him the look of “someone who might’ve sold homeowners’ insurance to Calvin Coolidge”) is a piece of food writing about food writing. Representative line: “…Kimball’s obsession isn’t cooking, or even food per se, but their social context and potency as metaphors.” —James Ross Gardner

Los Angeles Times: In just 396 words I learned 1) the term “food desert” (a geographic location in which healthy food isn’t easily accessible because it’s not nearby); and 2) that despite being a preoccupation among nutrition advocates, food deserts have little to do with whether or not locals are overweight or obese. Researchers, Mary MacVean reports, “looked at the habits of 97,678 adults in the California Healthy Interview Survey, and their weight, body mass index, and other indicators such as income.” And they found that “shopping patterns are weakly related, if at all, to neighborhoods in the United States.” The variable that shatters the “food desert” hypothesis? Automobiles. —JRG

The Oatmeal: You could spend your down time reading some sparkling food prose or an intellectual treatise on cocktail trends or food sourcing…or there's always this bizarre yet hilarious cartoon about the tipping ramifications of having a server rip one during a meal at Red Robin. There's a reason this man is one of our 50 most influential Seattleites. —Allecia Vermillion

The Atlantic: A Southern Methodist University study found that organically fed fruit flies lived significantly longer and more fertile lives than their non-organic friends. The study can’t explain why that happened but it might suggest there’s some substance to the idea that organic food is better for you. —Dameon Matule