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” opening in the U.K., Eric Schlosser tells how McDonald’s has moved on to targeting working-class Americans and Chinese men, and how slaughterhouse injuries have magically decreased. Guardian (UK)
Down with “life patents”: Denise Caruso writes that, with companies like Syngenta quietly patenting the genetic information of living organisms, we may well be ceding control of the world’s food supply and hamstringing potential medical advances without any discussion of the ethics of controlling life. New York Times
Eat “no evil”: Google spends $100,000 per day on food for its employees and their guests. And not just organic, sustainable, and local food — but also nitrate-free meat dishes, Monterey Bay Aquarium–approved seafood, free-range eggs. Even the grease gets recycled into biodiesel fuel. Can we work there? Pretty please? Washington Post
Bad news for vegetarian greenies: Scotland is building a renewable energy plant that will run on animal bone meal and other bio-waste. The Herald (UK)
Cornfed cats: Cheap carbs aren’t good for your feline friends, either. Miami Herald
Children of the revolution: Bear Naked makes granola, but its youthful founders don’t want it to remind people of “old hippies.” New York Times
Formula for success: A Q&A with an American mother who decided to donate her breast milk to HIV/AIDS orphaned infants in Africa. We were about to get out our hankies until the last few paragraphs made us sit up straight: a company that pasteurizes breast milk? That just sounds… well, wrong. Foreign Policy (Via Megnut)
Mmmmmole: Mark Bittman find several Mexico City restaurants serving up mouthwatering regional fare, including ant larvae and bull’s tail. New York Times
Slow down, power down: Sometimes being powerless can be a good thing. San Francisco Chronicle Sunday Magazine
Food, Farming, & Food Politics events calendar
Humor:
January 29th, 2007 at 8:31 am
As a vegetarian, one of my biggest objections to western-style meat-eating is that so much of the animal is wasted. People only want the ‘choice’ cuts of meat, which means more animals have to be killed to meet the demands.
I would have no objection to heating my home with power generated from bio-waste, especially if it meant those ‘leftover’ animal bits didn’t have to be shipped somewhere else or disposed of in a less eco-friendly manner. As long as people eat meat in this fashion, the waste will be there, so why not find a good way to use it?