Telegraph (UK): Best article we’ve seen yet about how Alice Waters’ Edible Schoolyard program actually works as part of the school’s curriculum. Special guest Eric Schlosser offers some interesting insights.
Time Magazine: Sub-Saharan Africa’s soil has been sucked dry of nutrients. This article says that the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, the $150 million agriculture initiative announced by the Gates and Rockefeller foundations last week, will have to encourage both widespread use of chemical fertilizers and even greater participation of women.
USA Today: A review of GQ/Vanity Fair writer David Kamp’s “The United States of Arugula: How We Became a Gourmet Nation” sounds like the basic tasty historical romp from Julia Child through Alice Waters … right up until Kamp is quoted as dreaming of a day when McDonald’s decides “to spurn the big commercial farms and instead build up a network of small, all-natural produce growers.” Woot! [Man of La Muncha comments: McDonald’s has experience building a network of producers. That’s the approach they took to ensure supplies for their first store in Moscow, 16 years ago.]
Spinach/E. coli update >
AP/ABC News: Tampering is not suspected in the E. coli outbreak. Also, Natural Selection said late yesterday that the manufacturing codes from packages of spinach turned in by infected patients all were from non-organic spinach. The company sells both kinds. The FDA is warning that restaurants and grocers may take spinach out of bags, so consumers should avoid spinach altogether.
L.A. Times*: A farmer-centric look at how the outbreak is affecting California, which supplies 70% of the nation’s spinach.
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