Archive for January, 2009
Mark Bittman on Cooking Up a Story
Mark Bittman, whose "How to Cook Everything: 2,000 Simple Recipes for Great Food" is the best present you can give a young wannabe cook — I still turn to my decrepit copy weekly for simple,
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Rumors flying about the U.S. Department of Agribusiness as Usual
In the mad scramble preceding Tuesday's droolingly anticipated handover of executive power, there are a lot of politics happening at light speed. And some of them, apparently, are bad news — especially if you're someone who eats food. Yes, that would be you, me, and everyone we know. The rumor mill
In pursuit of a dream: Starting work at Yestermorrow
In 2008, as my husband and I traveled around the country and talked with friends about our dreams for the future, a couple people mentioned to us that we should really check out this school called
Small-scale farmer circa 1931
Comfood list-serv member Shawn posted a link to this National Archives
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Digest – News: Mega-McDonald’s, bathing moo-ties, and CA Senate embraces food
No budget, but an awesome mandate: The California state Senate reforms its agriculture committee - traditionally a buddy of the state's industrial produce contingent - to prioritize issues such as sustainable agriculture, food safety, animal welfare, and food security. Berkeley/Oakland Senator Loni Hancock
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Digest – Features and blogs: COOL is not, GM fuel, and DC local-style
So un-COOL: The USDA releases the final rule on Country of Origin Labeling, the law that requires that many of our main foodstuffs be labeled with (duh) the country where they were made, but it leaves a massive loophole by exempting "processed" foods from the law and defining "processed" broadly to include
Show Senator Pat Roberts that small farmers aren’t little GQ-reading dilettantes
Former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack went before the Senate Agriculture Committee today to be confirmed as Secretary of Agriculture. Brownfield has a short recap of the run-of-the-mill comments, the
Dope shit: Who to thank, and why, for antibiotics in your veggies
Manure, my favorite topic of conversation (particularly at parties), is pretty awesome. It has been a staple crop fertilizer virtually since humankind began cultivating its own food. It's everything synthetic fertilizer wishes
Digest: Food’s future heats up, dairy prices tank, and we ask FDA to hold the peanut butter
Incompetence sandwich: 400 people have been sickened nationwide by a Salmonella outbreak linked to King Nut peanut butter, and while the company has quickly responded with a voluntary recall, the FDA has yet to issue a press release telling the public they should avoid the stuff. Are they nuts? (CNN.com) 2100:
Hannibal Peckter: When being Mother Hen isn’t all it’s cracked up to be
Post updated 11:27 a.m. with punnier new headline, hat tip to Impolite Company Editor's note: We're pleased to announce that frequent guest contributor Debra Eschmeyer has consented to join the Ethicurean
Ask the Ethicurean: What will vog do to my veggies?
We're reviving the Ask the Ethicurean column by plucking a recent question from the comments section. Send your burning questions about SOLE food to
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Digest – News & opinion: Antibiotics freakout, Gupta as Doc-in-Chief, duelling op-ed duos
Side of spinach, hold the tetracycline: Researchers at the University of Minnesota find that when crops are fertilized with manure from animals routinely fed antibiotics (a common practice in CAFOs to help them survive their living conditions), the antibiotics are absorbed into the crops. This is an
Digest – Features & blogs: China’s milk madness, the joys of UnderSecs
Lactotalitarianism: Up until the mid-'90s, milk was far from a staple food in Chinese diets. But when the national development bank decided that milk production would lead to economic growth in the countryside, it encouraged peasant farmers to take out loans to buy cows, and China catapulted to a leading
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SupportVilsack.com: Wethinks they doth profess too much
A very odd site mysteriously popped up last week, with a banner headlined "Support Tom Vilsack for Secretary of Agriculture" and featuring both smiley and serious-but-loving
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Radiolab’s “Choice” episode: This is your brain on emotions
The public radio program Radiolab (one of the most interesting and thought-provoking radio programs around, in my opinion) had an episode recently that might be of interest
