Sampler Platter: Spam, Zima, cheese roads and chicken manure

In today's installment of food news...

• McDonald's cuts the cheese, ups its prices. TMZ
• If Spam is selling like hotcakes, why are Hormel's profits in the tank? Bloomberg
• CASA Restaurant -- a 5,000-square-foot Mexican outpost on Bunker Hill -- heads into the home stretch before opening. Angelenic
• Lukewarm food is hot enough for felons. S.F. Chronicle
• The long, slow, torturous death of Zima. Slate
• "Guess what they call the Grocery Shrink Ray at General Mills? Holistic Margin Management." Consumerist
• Cheese makes safer roads. CNN
• Sip the science: Beer is good for your heart. MSN
• "When I left school and started working the land, this stuff was seen as farmer’s gold." That "stuff" is chicken manure.  N.Y. Times examines poultry industry pollution.
• The Brie log is the new cheese ball. Serious Eats
• Chowhound readers debate: "Disneyland Dining: The Mediocrest Place on Earth"?

-- Elina Shatkin

Photo: Andrew Scholer / Los Angeles Times