Back in February, the Charlotte Observer published a shocking six-part series on the human suffering involved in producing cheap chicken. “The Cruelest Cuts” package looked at typical working conditions at a poultry plant, the makeup of the workforce, the sorry state of government oversight, and how the companies stay below regulatory radar. (Bonnie’s post […]

The salmonella outbreak from fresh tomatoes has sickened hundreds so far — with many more sicknesses presumably going unreported — in 36 states, and the FDA has still not identified the source of the pathogen. Sabin Russell, the San Francisco Chronicle’s medical reporter, yesterday revealed that a major reason is that tomatoes from many regions are mixed together as they move through the stages of commerce. The practice is known as “repacking.”

The type of article lamented by a few commenters on my recent post about food miles vs. food choices made an appearance in Salon a few days ago.
Starting with a provocative headline (”Is local food really miles better?”) and subtitle (”Many of us now count ‘food miles.’ But local fruits and veggies may not be […]

With millions in the tropics rely on the banana as a staple food, the spread of the Panama disease is a serious issue. If it hits a region, like Uganda, that depends on bananas, a humanitarian catastrophe could ensue.

If you want to fight global warming with your diet, it is better to change what you eat than where it comes from, according to a recently published article in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Science and Technology.

Several years ago, Brazil filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) claiming that United States cotton subsidies violated international trade agreements. In 2004, the WTO ruled in Brazil’s favor. More recently, the U.S. lost its appeal, and so now Brazil can propose retaliatory trade sanctions on products from the U.S.

With city bans on non-recyclable and non-compostable materials (e.g., polystyrene) and restaurants attempting to be greener, there is quite a discussion about the best packaging for takeout orders.

The European Union is changing the rules for chemicals, requiring that industry demonstrate that a chemical is safe before using it in consumer products. This approach, sometimes called “the precautionary principle,” is in stark contrast to the approach in the United States, where a chemical is considered “innocent until proven carcinogenic.”

Safeway is running ads declaring that their tomatoes are “robust,” a word that makes me think of strength and resilience, two qualities that should have nothing to do with burstingly juicy red orbs.

San Francisco’s Mayor Gavin Newson sat down with chef, food activist, and Slow Food International vice president Alice Waterso to help publicize Slow Food Nation, a giant celebration of food, farming, and culture that is coming to San Francisco on Labor Day weekend in late August.

Catching up on podcasts this weekend I listened to a few that might interest Ethicurean readers: Fredrick Kaufman talking about America’s eating history, Good Food from KCRW talking about sustainable seafood and backyard chickens, and Paul Roberts talking about his new book “The End of Food” on On Point Radio.

Hansen’s Natural Soda is switching from high fructose corn syrup to sugar. That news, along with record high corn prices, has me wondering if consumption rates of HFCS are changing, and if so, how fast.

The May 20 episode of Quest, the science program on San Francisco’s public television station, had two segments that might be of interest to Ethicurean readers.

The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco is currently hosting a witty installation by Beijing-based artist Zhan Wang. It’s a sculpture of San Francisco made entirely of kitchenware — tongs, graters, pots, serving dishes, tea kettles, and so on. Naturally, each piece is made in China.
The photo above shows the Financial District as viewed […]

Taras Grescoe says he wrote “Bottomfeeder” (Bloomsbury USA, May 2008) for a somewhat selfish reason: he wanted to taste the world’s great seafood dishes — like bouillabaisse in Marseilles, fish and chips in England, bluefin tuna sashimi in Tokyo — before they disappeared or were dramatically changed by our plundering of the oceans. Whatever his motivation, Grescoe has given us a fascinating book that I hope will inform many about the dire state of the oceans, expose the dreadful environmental consequences of badly managed aquaculture, and prompt us to make better seafood choices.