Archive for July, 2009
GAO recommends better labeling for bottled water
Thirsty for more information: The Government Accountability Office recently looked at oversight of the bottled water by the FDA and states in comparison to EPA's regulation of tap water. FDA's standards are generally similar, but GAO noted that 1) FDA has not set a standard for di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP) or given a good reason why is hasn't, and
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Can biotechnology ‘feed the world’? Not likely, says genetic engineering expert Doug Gurian-Sherman
With food shortages provoking riots in recent years, and the world’s population increasing exponentially, Congress will soon be debating the next big U.S. aid package for developing countries. America currently
Some native plants are dangerous to honey bees
No good deed goes unpunished: Planting a California buckeye (Aesculus californica; Wikipedia image at right) in your yard will benefit the native bees, insects, and birds that co-evolved
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Fantastic Swine Flu Totem cartoon by Steve Brodner
Not so comic relief: Connecting the dots from NAFTA to swine flu. (Mother Jones) See something for the Digest? Send the link to
Rich countries gobbling up poor countries’ farmland at truly alarming rates
A recipe for complete and utter world disaster: Rich countries and international corporations, including automakers, are buying up farmland in developing countries at a rate that ought to set off humanitarian alarm bells worldwide. New reports from the United Nations and others estimate that nearly 20
Sam Fromartz on the WaPo’s organic standards article
"Don’t make a fucking shelf-stable organic English muffin!": We've been holding off on Digesting the Washington Post's much-talked-about and hands-wrung-over story, “Purity of Organic Label is Questioned,”
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Thanks, USDA! Coming soon: Laying hens that won’t try to kill each other
Time for a new Meatrix?: Lest we forget that the Department of Agriculture's role is to help out the food industry by any means possible, a team of scientists led by USDA Agricultural Research Service biologist Heng-wei Cheng and William M. Muir of Purdue University
Houston Press tells, shows where fajita beef comes from
Before hipsters discovered butchery class: Houston Press reporter Robb Walsh has a long but fascinating feature on his recent adventures in butchery, which "all started with a meat mystery — call it the case of the disappearing skirt." Walsh was developing fajita recipes for a grilling cookbook but
Critiquing the Obamas’ first harvest: symbols vs. policy
Seeds of change at White House still germinating: Thoughtful piece asking food movement heavyweights (Ferd Hofner of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition and yes, the ubiquitous Mr. P) whether the Obama Administration has been more talk than action over healthy food policy, with the White House
In case you missed it: Will Allen profiled in NY Times Mag
We can't get enough of Will Allen: The Sunday New York Times Magazine had a must-read profile of Milwaukee urban farmer and grant magnet Will Allen, one of the most inspiring leaders of the sustainable food movement. Allen, writes "Bottlemania" author Elizabeth Royte, "is the go-to expert on urban farming…a
NPR critique of “Food, Inc” points to important divide
How to reach across the GMO corn rows: A brief segment on NPR reported from Kansas City has the food-politics blogosphere and Twitter kingdom bristling. (La Vida Locavore calls it a "one-sided
Welcoming in a new era of flexitarianism
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly…whatever you like: Nice, if rambling, article about how writers like Mark Bittman, Michael Pollan, and new entrant Robyn O'Brien (whose very interesting book, "The
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Educating the public about toxins in white croaker fish
Don't croak early, SoCal fishermen!: Thanks to unregulated dumping of DDT and PCBs into Southern California sewers between the 1950s and '70s, fish caught off-shore from Los Angeles can have high concentrations of toxins. The white croaker, a fish popular with SoCal's Asian community, is particularly
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Newsweek wants you to read about agriculture, now
A Berry good list: Newsweek's list of 50 books that even busy people should read now, because they "open a window on the times we live in, whether they deal directly with the issues of today or simply help us see ourselves in new and surprising ways," includes Wendell Berry's "Unsettling of America"
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“Dirt”-y movie tells how we’ve sold our soils
The last page of every issue of Edible San Francisco contains this anonymous quotation: "Despite its artistic pretensions and its many accomplishments, humankind
