Slate: The chicken nugget: a biography. Small, salty, spongy and reviled by food purists, the lowly nugget can now be tracked to its little-known but likely progenitor: a Cornell University poultry-science professor named Robert C. Baker, who proposed the nugget in 1963, way before McDonald's introduced its wildly popular McNuggets in 1980. -- Glenn Collins Culture: Coveted cheese from a rocky, salty Croatian island. -- Jeff Gordinier Ecocentric: Everything you ever wanted to know about collard greens, and an attempt to settle the eternal debate: long-braised or quick-cooked? -- Julia Moskin The New York Times: The Mendrisio region of Switzerland, which borders Italy, has both gold and wine. Which is more valuable? -- Maria Newman Lunch Box Blues: Back to school with the Associated Press food editor, J.M. Hirsch; his blog chronicles his continuing efforts to pack lunch for his kid, without falling back on Uncrustables or school food. Wednesday was mac and cheese, with several modernist twists. -- Julia Moskin Time Out Chicago: Cocoa nibs? Saffron-infused water? Are these the bagels of the future? -- Jeff Gordinier The Economist: Food riots, land grabs and drought make the headlines, but it is the slow reduction in the yields of the world's staple crops that is triggering a silent alarm. A new study by American and Canadian universities reveals that global growth in yields of rice and wheat has significantly declined over the last two decades. -- Glenn Collins Esquire: Rod Stewart is woeful over the waning of British pubs. -- Jeff Gordinier Business Week: At $21,900 an acre, Iowa farmland has hit a record high, and America's tillable acres are fetching startling prices thanks to world population and the rising demand for food. -- Glenn Collins Poetry Foundation: A great Jimmy Santiago Baca poem for the start of a new year. -- Jeff Gordinier