DIY locavoreanism: The cover story of New York magazine this month is Manny Howard’s tale of his experiment in "Brooklyn-style subsistence farming, starring smelly chickens, an angry rabbit, a freak tornado, a vegetable garden to die for, two psyched kids, and a marriage in the weeds." While quite a few people hate it, we (OK, Bonnie) think it’s pretty funny, in a sick over-the-top, car-crash kind of way, a lot funnier, certainly, than Adam Gopnik’s locavore-tourist piece in the New Yorker’s food issue. Unlike Gopnik, whose condescending, look-at-those-crazy-neo-hippies tone of ironic detachment is what actually got our organic-cotton knickers in a twist (thanks Ed!), Howard comes across as really trying to grok what this whole connection of food to land thing is all about. Someone ought to have told him it’s also OK just to support local farmers. Oh, and not to feed chickens dry catfood. Update: Reuters has an interview with Howard today, in which he admits that the carnage really affected him.
Fair-price peaches: Six seniors at Portland State University have spent the past eight weeks documenting the region’s sustainable development efforts, including comparing 100 items at the farmers markets in the South Park Blocks, as well as Wal-Mart, Safeway, New Seasons and Whole Foods. (Portland Tribune)
"Pets with benefits": A fascinating detailed look at the case for and against allowing miniature goats in Seattle’s backyards — an issue recently covered by Jenni for us for us. (Seattle Weekly)
It’s all about the meme (and us!): The Sydney Morning Herald says if you want to eat with a conscioence, you need to know these buzzwords: "ethicurean", "locavore", "fair-trade", "sustainable", "urban agriculture".
A look at healthy school lunch programs in Portland and Berkeley (Culinate)
Food, Farming, & Food Politics events calendar
September 18th, 2007 at 9:29 am
You’re welcome. I originally was going to use the panty metaphore, but thought better of it.