Painting the pet-food big picture: An excellent investigation into the Menu Foods pet food recall. Christie Keith nails the most important questions: “How did this problem … get so out of hand? How come pet owners weren’t informed more rapidly about the contaminated pet food? Why is it so hard to get accurate numbers of affected animals? Why didn’t veterinarians get any notification? Where did the system break down?” The answers all point to one really big problem: There isn’t really a system. San Francisco Chronicle
Eggstraordinary demand: Farmers say improved treatment of hens has led to better tasting, more healthful eggs — and consumers are flocking to buy them. One of the large-scale, free-ranging operators mentioned offers “outdoor porches” for its birds. (Boston Globe) The Houston Chronicle profiles a former factory egg farmer turned free-range raiser who has some long-term perspective: “The cage egg was the big new thing when we started back in 1956. The range egg was considered a strong, nasty egg. [Customers] wanted the light egg. Now the dark yolk [is in fashion]. It has been a complete 180-degree turnaround.”
Oh, myoglobin!: Harold McGee investigates what makes meat red. For example, since nitrites are forbidden in foods labeled “natural” or “organic” — manufacturers are using a mix of nitrate-rich vegetable extracts and bacterial cultures such as celery-juice powder, which convert the nitrate into redness-preserving nitrite. (New York Times) Related fun: Check out Food & Water Watch’s “Just Say No to Mono Meat” video about the scary new practice of using carbon monoxide to keep meat red. (Via Culinate)
Glad that’s settled: A new study confirms that adults in higher socioeconomic groups (by income and education) have higher quality diets; also, people who perceived food price as a barrier ate more poorly. Reuters
Small plates of … sparrows and squirrels?: Steven Rinella’s yearlong project, documented in “The Scavenger’s Guide to Haute Cuisine,” in which he prepares a 45-course meal based on Auguste Escoffier’s 1903 “Guide Culinaire” required him to do a lot of hunting and gathering, such as fishing for ling cod, bow-hunting for elk, snagging pigeons from under bridges and behind air-conditioners. It sounds like a stunt, but his goal was to highlight our depersonalized relationship to food, and show that current regulations requiring that any game sold in America must be raised on farms or ranches is actually harmful to both the farmed animals and wild ones. New York Times
Searching for the “Alice Waters of city food politics”: Kim Severson takes an interesting look at whether NYC mayor Bloomberg is leading the city’s current food revolution or surfing the wave of a social change well under way before he took office. New York Times
Jobs of the dietgeist: Evolving tastes in food and wine have opened up new careers in foraging at farmers markets, beer consulting, culinary tourism, television, with Slow Food-style advocacy groups – with anything involving artisanal food and restaurant drinks. L.A. Times
Set your DVR: Nathan Lyon, who works at an L.A. farmers market four days a week, has gotten his own cooking show on the Discovery Health channel (10 p.m. Thursdays). His catchphrase? “Great food starts fresh.” He’s way cute, too. (Washington Post) Over at WannaVeg, Eric reminds us to record “The Manic Organic” show, with a Canadian organic farmer who combines growing tips with recipe ideas (10 and 10:30 p.m. EST Monday evening, Discovery Home).
They got SOLE: About half of Food & Wine’s list of best new chefs focus on local and seasonal ingredients. Food & Wine
Weight gain in pregnancy predicts weight of child (Reuters)
Best peas are either straight from the farmers market — or frozen (Washington Post)
Facts about salmonella and eggs (Washington Post)
Adam Gopnik discusses the role of eating in books, and then tries out some literary-inspired recipes (New Yorker)
Monsanto’s 2Q profits are up 23%, thanks to the corn-based ethanol boom (BusinessWeek)
Food, Farming, & Food Politics events calendar
Humor:
April 4th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
Love love love your Digest. As usual, I can’t wait to dig in.
The name Steven Rinella jumped out at me. We excerpted *A Scavenger’s Guide to Haute Cuisine* on Culinate back in January; here’s the link: http://www.culinate.com/read/book_excerpts/The+Scavenger*27s+Guide+to+Haute+Cuisine.
He’s quite a guy.