My pesky job caused me to miss some huge breaking news today. The USDA has apparently decided that whatever the FDA might say about meat and dairy from cloned animals being just the same as that from two parents, it’s not close enough to be labeled “organic.”
Sam Fromartz, the author of “Organic, Inc.” who blogs […]

I’m reading so much news now, trying to help make the daily Digest as comprehensive as possible, that my blog reading has greatly suffered as a result. Fortunately, readers have been sending in links to great posts on other food-related blogs. Instead of lumping them in with the Digest, I’m thinking they should have their […]

There was such an avalanche of links today we ran out of time to read them all. They’ll have to wait ’til tomorrow.
Cotton in a trap: Andrew Leonard has been increasingly devoting his column How the World Works to understanding the pros and cons of biotechnology applications, and this one, which looks at an anthropologist’s […]

My friend Kate gets the willies from creepy-crawly things. Of course, my friend Kate is also a landscape architect. I suppose there is a possibility that she became a landscape architect specifically to battle her demons, but in the end, they still give her the heebie-jeebies. When Kate heard that I was […]

Ask the Weiss man: If you’re at all concerned about eating cloned meat and dairy under the organic label, read this excellent Washington Post online Q&A in which excellent biotech reporter Rick Weiss takes questions from readers. Make time to read it all, if you can, as Weiss not only clarifies the science, but […]

Tickets for the Feb. 27 presentation on “The Past, The Present, The Future of Food” by Whole Foods founder/CEO John Mackey, followed by the much-anticipated discussion with “Omnivore’s Dilemma” author Michael Pollan, become available Thursday.
Thankfully, perhaps heeding warnings that legions of foodie hooligans might trample each other, the Knight Program has decided to charge $5 […]

My husband watches Home and Garden Television every minute that he’s not actually soldering copper or sawing wood. (The Potato Non Grata does occasionally break to do a photo shoot or to watch “Law and Order,” the latter over my heavy sighs.) So there was no way I could have missed the promos for “Living […]

It’s finally warming up here, so I went for a walk on my day off today. Some of the citrus trees in my Oakland neighborhood are covered in ripe fruit! So I stole foraged some Meyer lemons and some oranges. (Hey, if the tree grows next to a public sidewalk, and there’s fruit all over […]

It may have taken egosurfing by Tom Philpott — the Grist reporter and farmer whose every word I gobble up greedily — to send Grist readers here, but we’re excited to have you. Grist is one of the main inspirations for the Ethicurean. We too think there’s no topic too grim for a punny headline, […]

Meat monopoly busters: A new “packer ban” bill introduced by Senators Charles Grassley and Tom Harkin seeks to prohibit the large meatpackers from buying and raising their own livestock, which leads to price gouging and shutting out small farmers and ranchers. This is really big news, as it would basically force Tyson, Smithfield, etc to […]

Seattle is cold, clear, and dry today, the kind of weather that makes my thoughts turn to bicycling. Instead of venturing out, I cook a heavy brunch that will give me a lot of energy for a walk planned this evening, downhill to the post office and back.
We have a pack of four sweet […]

Cascadia Girl over at has a nice write-up of weekending in Methow Valley, including where to stay and what to do. Why the interest here? Methow is where the Butter Bitch and I source much of our beef, through a meat CSA, and lamb through direct purchase.  We knew that the Crown […]

This has been a pretty hard week for me.
You see, I’ve spent the last two or three years getting more acquainted with the environment and sustainable food sources, but I never really felt accountable to anyone but myself — and I was a pretty forgiving person, to myself at least. I tried to do […]

Reasons to move to France, no. 26: With samples of artisanal cheeses from every region, baguette-making demonstrations, rabbit-breed exhibitions, live pigs and cows, the annual Salon International de l’Agriculture in Paris sounds like the most awesome Ethicurean vacation imaginable, rivaling the Slow Food international conference. Washington Post
Schlosser speaks: On the eve of “Fast Food Nation” […]

Michael Pollan writes deceptively simple yet terrific opening sentences.
“The Omnivore’s Dilemma” started off with “What should we have for dinner?” — a question that he revealed to be a minefield for most Americans, and one that he didn’t ever answer, exactly, in the rest of the book. In tomorrow’s New York Times Magazine, he does. […]