June 2008
5 posts
“Our current food predicament resembles a Malthusian scenario—misery and...”
– The New Yorker
Tyson to pull "false and misleading" label
The USDA has ordered Tyson Foods to stop labeling its chicken “raised without antibiotics”, after discovering that the company regularly uses gentamicin in its hatcheries.
More from Forbes.com…
Cute shirts from FoodTee Market
Found these via The Kitchn, get them at FoodTee Market
“I call it the American paradox, people who obsess about nutritional health and...”
– Michael Pollan
Anti-U.S. beef protest draws 100,000 S.Koreans
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean students, parents with toddlers in tow, and union members took to the streets on Saturday in a massive protest against a government decision to resume imports of U.S. beef that they see as dangerous. More…
May 2008
6 posts
Latest blog obsession: For the Love of Food. Would you look at that hummus?! Oh man … I have to go eat something now.
City Chickens
I don’t eat eggs often, but when I do I insist that they come from ethically raised hens. Most industrial food animals are subject to some degree of discomfort, but the conditions endured by factory farm layer hens can be particularly gruesome. Plus, when chickens are raised in healthier conditions their eggs tend to be healthier and tastier as well. The non-industrial egg options available...
Give Sardines a Chance
Taras Grescoe is the author of a new book called Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood. An article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer quotes Grescoe and other activists on some of the complex issues we face in trying to eat seafood that is healthy for both our bodies and the environment. Excerpts: “The simple fact is, if you are eating cheap shrimp today, it...
“In a report published May 14, the United Nations estimated that U.S. retailers...”
– Seattle Post-Intelligencer
“A sustainable decline in prices will be possible only with an increase in...”
– National Post
March 2008
12 posts
“If men are from Mars and women are from Venus, then Mars is a land where the...”
– The Associated Press
Waste time on the internet for a good cause.
FreeRice.com raises donations for the UN World Food Program. It’s similar in concept to The Hunger Site, except that there is no daily cap on donations: the longer you play the vocabulary game, the more rice is donated. (And the more you learn.)
“Everyone wants to eat like an American … But if they do, we’re going to...”
– The New York Times
“We are sleep-walking into a crisis.”
– Tim Lang, Professor of Food Policy at the University of Leeds
Misunderstood: Dandelions
I just don’t get it. Why is a food that’s delicious, nutritious and almost impossible to not grow so detested? Okay, so a single plant can take over an entire suburban block within days. What’s so great about pristine green lawns anyway? Dandelions add a cheerful splash of color to the landscape with no extra effort or water, making them the ideal sustainable flower. And...
Ethiopia: A Model for Food Independence?
As the need for food aid continues to outpace the global community’s ability to provide it, Ethiopia’s recent strategies for escaping food aid dependency may offer an answer: Among these was attempting to differentiate between people facing chronic food insecurity - currently estimated at more than eight million - and people facing either transitory or acute food insecurity - estimated...
More beet for your buck.
In today’s Seasonal Cook column of the San Francisco Chronicle, writer Victoria McGinley discusses how to get the most out of your root vegetables. In a nutshell: Shop for locally grown roots. Not only are they younger and yummier, but they’re more likely to have the greens still attached—greens that can be easily turned into a tasty, nutritious side dish to accompany the roots...
MSG Update
An article about MSG in the New York Times today reveals that the much-maligned additive may be lurking where you least suspect—in your health food:The whey protein concentrate and liquid aminos that many Americans buy at health food stores are also, essentially, pure glutamate, Dr. Chaudhari said. According to U.S.D.A. guidelines, “labeling is required when MSG is added as a direct ingredient.”...
Look Ma, No Tears
Scientists have figured out how to make tear-free onions by removing the gene responsible for the irritating enzyme. They claim it tastes the same as the natural version. So, if you’re a big pussy, New Zealand’s got your back.
Quite possibly the most important invention ever.
Bacon. Vodka.
Imperialist Ideals?
Wellesley professor Robert Paarlberg says local, organic “slow” food is a “post-materialist fantasy” the developed world is imposing on Africa’s rural poor. It’s not a novel accusation; after using all available technologies and resources to raise our own standard of living, western nations now want to prevent developing countries from doing the same so they...
February 2008
17 posts
Feeding the World
The UN’s World Food Program, the entity charged with feeding almost 80 million people in over 70 countries, is in serious trouble, according to The Guardian. Food riots have broken out in Morocco, Yemen, Mexico, Guinea, Mauritania, Senegal and Uzbekistan. Pakistan has reintroduced rationing for the first time in two decades. Russia has frozen the price of milk, bread, eggs and cooking oil...
Those Wacky French
France is asking the U.N. to protect their national cuisine as a threatened cultural treasure. A similar request from Mexico was rejected, but the French are notoriously passionate about defending their gastronomic heritage from the homogenizing influence of global industrialization, so perhaps they have a chance.
Everything really is better with bacon.
The continuing mission to seek out new foods to stuff bacon into continues with Bacon Marcona Almond Maple Syrup Brittle over at HungryMag.
Koreans Invent Space Kimchi
“If a Korean goes to space, kimchi must go there, too,” said one scientist. Ordinary kimchi is teeming with microbes, like lactic acid bacteria, which help fermentation. On Earth they are harmless, but scientists fear they could turn dangerous in space if cosmic rays cause them to mutate. Another problem is that kimchi has a short shelf life, especially when temperatures fluctuate...
“The one diet to which we appear to be very poorly adapted on the evidence of how...”
– http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/77330
They told us butter is evil and margarine is good,...
AlterNet interviews Michael Pollan about some of issues discussed in his latest book, In Defense of Food. A good portion of the article is devoted to what Pollan perceives as the pitfalls of current methods in nutrition research:I’m not a Luddite; I’m not anti-science. I’m fascinated by nutritional science. But I’ve also acquired a healthy skepticism about how much and how...
Does Eating Healthy Have to Be So Expensive?
American Chronicle on how to eat better for less.
“One key piece of information missing from the coverage of the beef crisis is a...”
– http://www.ethicurean.com/2008/02/19/recall-and-school-lunch/
“We’ve been saying, “Trust us” … Now the shoe is on the...”
– http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1714218,00.html
Recalled Beef
After revelations that slaughterhouse workers at the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co were illegally torturing sick animals and putting them into the food supply, the USDA issued a recall on all meat produced within the last year. Needless to say, most of it has already been consumed. Stories like this underscore how disregard for animals often goes along with disregard for people. The...
February Gardening To-Do List
Downsizer.net, a sustainable living resource guide, clues us in about the most important tasks to accomplish and best crops to sow this month.
Baba ganoush, here I come.
The Hummus Blog lays out the steps to perfectly roasted eggplant.
Developing Countries Grew More Biotech Crops in...
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - In 2007, 282.3 million acres of the world’s cropland were planted with soybeans, corn, cotton and other crops genetically altered to resist pests and herbicides, an increase of about 12 percent from the previous year, according to the report. The report drew criticism from advocates of traditional agriculture, who warned that adopting genetically engineered crops could trap...
US doctors group backs marijuana for medical uses
WASHINGTON, Feb 15 (Reuters) - A leading U.S. doctors group has endorsed using marijuana for medical purposes, urging the U.S. government to roll back a prohibition on using it to treat patients and supporting studies into its medical applications. The group cited evidence that marijuana is valuable in treating severe weight loss associated with AIDS, and nausea and vomiting associated with...
1 tag
Farm Bill Update
After Bush threatened to veto any proposal that raises taxes, the House Ag. Comittee responded with a draft that reduces program costs. Some of it sounds good—cuts to corn and soybean subsidies are badly overdue. Some are more controversial—cuts aimed at farmers with high incomes from non-agricultural sources could potentially be evaded with some creative financial tactics. And the American...
January 2008
1 post
3 tags
In which a tedious diary entry morphs into an...
Just picked up some feline Innova Evo for Clementine (a.k.a. The Evil One). All the corn and wheat in most commercial cat diets makes me uncomfortable; cats, being obligate carnivores, have unique issues with carb metabolism and too many of ‘em puts me in mind of diabetes. And after reading the “Corn” section of The Omnivore’s Dilemma I feel even more strongly that most...
September 2007
1 post
Food is love.
My poor husband Bryan’s been having tooth/jaw pain on and off for a couple weeks now. He says it doesn’t hurt to eat, but psychologically he doesn’t want to, and while I was working this weekend he ate nothing but a couple helpings of mashed potatoes. Sigh. So I loaded him up with chocolate pudding and italian wedding soup, and he loaded himself up with rum and over-the-counter...
July 2007
1 post
1 tag
Another reason to eat organic.
Check out this 2005 article from the Journal of Environmental Quality. Quote: However, absorption of antibiotics in the animal gut is not complete and as a result substantial amounts of antibiotics are excreted in urine and feces that end up in manure … This study points out the potential human health risks associated with consumption of fresh vegetables grown in soil amended with...
April 2007
1 post
My Life in Food
SUNDAY - Brunch: New Seasons. Veggie udon and Bibicaffe. Stocked up on goodies for the rest of the week. Had fun, as usual, debating merits of local versus organic versus “happy livestock” claims…Bryan now actually won’t buy foreign produce…I love my husband. - Back home, made some pasta with half semolina, half white flour. Determined cheap pasta machine is...
March 2007
1 post
1 tag
Still More Tales from the Fur Side.
So we figured out how to keep the dog happy when we leave. Good news: A big raw, meaty frozen bone keeps her so quiet and happy while locked in the kennel she doesn’t even notice our comings and goings. Bad news: She EATS the bone. A bone the size and thickness of my arm, and she crunches it up and eats it in 30 minutes. MOTHERFUCKING PIT BULLS. Oh, well. Raw bones don’t splinter,...
January 2007
1 post
Mmm, sap.
I’m finishing up The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and I recommend this book to everyone. Everyone who eats, at least. I read a lot of books on food politics: Schlosser, Robbins, Lyman—I’ve even slogged through all of Marion Nestle’s stuff—and this is my favorite in a long while. Immensely readable, with an emphasis on facts. And it has only reinforced my conviction that industrial,...