Meat technology: A Scientific American editorial discussing consumer resistance to cloned meat recommends transparency and labeling. One fact it says most meat eaters don’t know (and we didn’t): “The cattle industry has long employed a process called budding, in which technicians manually separate the undifferentiated cells in a fertilized cow egg that has undergone several […]

Today is the first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year. It’s a “golden” pig year, considered the pinnacle of good luck and prosperity, which only comes around every six decades. I was born during 1971, a “metal” pig year, and while I don’t believe in astrology — neither the Chinese nor the […]

Ode to umami: In honor of the Year of the Pig, an op-ed asks skittish Americans to reconsider that staple of Chinese cooking — monosodium glutamate, or MSG. If “industrially made MSG is a chemically ‘neat’ form of one of the umami compounds that delight our taste buds when they occur naturally in cheese, ham […]

If there were an Ethicurean Mt. Rushmore, Jamie Oliver’s mug would be on it.
The British chef and organic-food proponent first used his celebrity from his popular TV show “The Naked Chef” to start charity restaurants where disadvantaged young people could learn a trade, and then launched a quest to change what U.K. schoolkids eat. The […]

The age of agri-tourism: Small farms are increasingly diversifying into non-agricultural activities like farm tours, cheese-making classes, and photo safaris. The income from such activities often dwarfs their revenues from crops. New York Times
Idea ripe for U.S. implementation: The new Farmers’ City Market shop in south-west London aims to bring the farmers market indoors, while […]

The ethics of cloning: Most of the op-eds we’ve seen about eating meat and dairy from cloned animals have tried to appeal to Americans’ personal health fears. This one aims for the heart of animal lovers. Business Week (Thanks, Marc)
This is your food-chain on drugs: Federal legislation introduced by Senators Edward Kennedy (D–Massachusetts) and Olympia […]

Large, chain supermarkets have no smell. Even in the produce aisle, where piping sprays water over cucumbers and lettuces in a vain attempt to make them look dew-kissed, the only scent you might catch is a faint chlorine tang — possibly from the floor, possible from the misters. The apples might as well be made […]

Slaughterhouse live: An excellent piece by AP writer Roxana Hegeman goes inside the world’s largest slaughterhouses, where worker injuries are common and as a result, movements to unionize are once again popular. Interviews with immigrant workers reveal new facets to their plight. Associated Press
Salmonella outbreak in peanut butter : ConAgra is recalling jars of Peter […]

I’ve never been inside a proper slaughterhouse, and I don’t have a burning desire to start taking tours. But the most arresting moment of the trip Sir Loin and I took to Morocco last fall was watching men in Marrakesh shop for chickens.
To see it for yourself, this is what you have to do. Go […]

Bird-flu CSI: It’s official — comparison between the UK and Hungarian strains of the avian-flu virus reveals the highest genetic match, much more so than the strains found in wild birds. Press release
Dept. of About Time: A federal judge ruled yesterday that the USDA failed to adequately assess possible environmental impacts before approving Monsanto’s genetically […]

This past Sunday was the 7th Annual Seed Fair at the Montreal Botanical Gardens. I guess I missed the first six editions so I was happy when my friend Marc asked me to join him for this one. I always save some seeds each year so I was glad to have the opportunity not only […]

Hoofbeats of the food apocalypse: A mysterious plague is killing off U.S. honeybees, threatening to disrupt pollination of a range of crops. Affected hives are often empty except for the queen and a few bees, with no sign as to what happened. Fact nugget: There are rent-a-bee services? Reuters
Norway to the rescue: Norway is building […]

Mark Dixon and Ben Evans have a video camera, a car, and a helluva plan for a road trip — a year-long “eco-expedition” covering all 50 United States. I met Mark at Grist’s cocktail party in San Francisco last year and he’s e-mailed me to say that they’ve just launched the website for Your Environmental […]

Saturday I joined about 25 Bay Area food bloggers to volunteer for an afternoon at the San Francisco Food Bank. It was organized by Sam and Amy, and it was a lot of fun. I got to meet writers whose dinnerware I can recognize but not their faces, while ever so slightly helping […]

Future of food: Peter Melchett has an excellent op-ed on what England’s bird-flu outbreak means for the future of farming — will it be high-tech, dependent on genetic engineering and biosecurity, or low-tech, meaning organic and local? Guardian (UK)
Overkill: A chillingly sad story about how so-called “disease containment” practices work in the United States, based […]