San Francisco Chronicle: The sudden chill has California citrus growers staying up all night to protect their crops, but lemons may be a casualty of the cold.
Guardian (UK): Wow — tomatoes are flying in England’s food fight over whether organic agriculture is a “lifestyle” choice, no better than conventional. This satirical comment piece by farmer Oliver Walston dubs the U.K. Soil Association the “Organic Church” and compares the advent of organic fish farming to Martin Luther’s nailing his 99 theses in protest over the sale of indulgences. We thought Walston’s piece was kind of funny — unlike most of the Guardian commenters, one of which called it a “one-dimensional, vitriolic fart of an article.”
Washington Post: The E. coli from the recent Taco John’s outbreak has been traced to a California dairy farm located near where the lettuce was grown — just as in the “spinach investigation, the outbreak strain was found in the feces of cattle grazing near spinach fields.” Now, were they really “grazing,” as in eating grass, or were these cows standing around in a crowded feedlot? Since the names of the offending dairies have not been released, there’s no way to know whether the unnatural feeding practices known to encourage the growth of this virulent strain of E. coli are more to blame than the cattle’s proximity.
Food Consumer: Finally acknowledging that high fructose corn syrup is the devil’s candy the product of a laboratory, not the earth, Cadbury-Schweppes has announced it will no longer market 7UP as “All Natural.” Under threat of a lawsuit, Kraft is doing the same with its Capri Sun drinks. Sweet!
Winona Daily News: Like a Chihuahua nipping at the heels of a polar bear, the Cornucopia Institute has filed yet another complaint against a Wal-Mart, this time in Wisconsin, for in-store signage incorrectly labeling products as organic.
PBS: In a short Q&A, Grist writer Tom Philpott explains why no energy source except solar can be considered either “clean” or sustainable. Note to Philpott groupies: There’s a photo that reveals our favorite journalist-turned-farmer has some killer baby blues.
The Age (Australia): A somewhat scattered paean to ethical meat eating includes a mention of Australia’s recent advertising skirmish between two different meat producers.
New York Times: Cooking classes are the latest trend in corporate team building.
USA Today: Sort of old news, but in case you missed it, new studies show that being a parent really does ruin your waistline in more ways than one.
Food, Farming, & Food Politics events calendar
Humor:
January 14th, 2007 at 8:55 am
28 degrees here in San Diego at 9 in the morning! Whatever is going to freeze is froze…. I’m looking at frozen roses this morning out the window and lots of frost damage on the tropicals!
January 14th, 2007 at 8:57 am
Oh, and I picked up the “natural” 7-up, laughed and tossed it back on the shelf. I’m so tired of HFCS in everything - it is really disgusting.