Note: As our Web nets improve, our news trawls are turning up ever more links.
Must-reads:
The Observer (UK): A very inspiring profile and history of the brother and sister who saved Fordhall farm, their dad’s pioneer organic enterprise.
San Francisco Chronicle: Opinion piece about moral qualms surrounding the rise of “industrial organic.” Average Americans are “held captive by an industrialized food system destined — if not designed — to make them sick.” Can these same producers make them well by going organic?
San Francisco Chronicle: California-based HMO Kaiser Permanente begins a pilot program this month in which it will buy produce for 19 hospitals from small, local farmers. Stanford, Berkeley, and USF are watching closely, for this could change the institutional food system in a major way.
MSNBC (via Associated Press): Low-income families will now get fruits, vegetables, and whole grains under the federal Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program. WIC now covers about $35 monthly for staples such as juice, eggs, cheese and milk; alas, the program will pay for less of those products to cover the new foods’ cost. [Corn Maven wants to know, What took so long?] [Dairy Queen sez: Some farmers markets have accepted food stamps for a long time.]
Lighter fare:
Toronto Globe and Mail: Organic wines from the Similkameen Valley, in British Columbia, are winning over skeptical oenophiles.
New York Times*: Article in the Your Money section discusses Community Supported Agriculture boxes, or subscriptions to locqal farms.
Concord Monitor: Yet another Pollan convert details her adventures in ethical eating.
Boston Globe: Farmers markets are hotter than ever.
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