Chicago Tribune blog: How to identify organic, conventional industrial, and genetically modified produce — just by using the PLU on the sticker.
Yahoo! press release: Whole Foods has found what it says is a sustainable source for the Patagonian toothfish, the endangered but oh-so-tasty fish also known as Chilean sea bass. [DQ says: Hmm. Wonder if it’s still as high in mercury. Here’s a clear list of mercury levels in fish from the NRDC and a less user-friendly one from the FDA.]
New York Times*: America’s coolest food bank grows organic vegetables for HIV patients in Sonoma, CA.
L.A. Times*: Transcripts have been released of police’s post-accident interview of the elderly driver who mowed down people, killing 10, in the Santa Monica farmers market a few years ago.
Treehugger: The Union of Concerned Scientists is backing Nina Planck’s claim that cornfed feedlot cattle are most to blame for the E. coli outbreak. Includes link to video about grassfed benefits.
Contra Costa Times: The Sunol Water Temple Agricultural Park, or Sunol AgPark, is a big hit with nonprofit food groups (like People’s Grocery) and small business owners (Baia Nicchia tomato seedlings). Through a partnership between the city of San Francisco and SAGE, a Berkeley nonprofit, small farmers get affordable land to grow on (monthly rent is $125 an acre), and the public gets an agri-educational site.
Daily Herald (Wash.): An otherwise forgettable column whining about grocery-shopping decisions is saved by a call to a bioethics professor. UPenn’s Arthur Caplan reassures that there’s no need to have “a moral aneurysm” in the supermarket. Just establish a scale of ethical priorities — is taste most important to you? Cost? The environment? Your health? Animal suffering? Pick one thing that matters most and let that drive your decisions. And be grateful: these are the “dilemmas of abundance.” Man of La Muncha points out that this column originally ran in the Washington Post in July; the lazy Herald just added a sentence about spinach to “update” it.
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April 9th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
Whole foods is selling Chilean Sea Bass even though it is NOT approved fishing season according to the Marine Stewardship Council. Also, Whole Foods is selling many products (including sea bass) listed as “avoid” by the National Seafood Council 2007 guide.