I hadn’t given the global coffee trade a whole lot of thought before a DVD of the Oxfam America documentary “Black Gold” crossed my desk. Coffee is the second most actively traded commodity globally, and though there’s a great deal of money involved in the coffee trade, very little of that money ends up in the farmers’ pockets.

Editorials and op-eds about sustainable agriculture (or its opposite) from newspapers and websites big and small.

In-depth, offbeat, or thought-provoking features about aspects of SOLE food, from eating locally to farms marketing to methods of food preservation.

Posts by bloggers at both personal and nonprofit sites that you won’t want to miss.

In-depth, offbeat, or thought-provoking features about aspects of SOLE food, from eating locally to farms marketing to methods of food preservation.

I am not a wine connoisseur by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, when it comes to wine, I can generally take it or leave it. I’ve nothing against it, mind you, and I’ve found that the right wine can often make a good meal even more blissful. But I can also leave a […]

NEWS
Organic, except when it’s too hard: The USDA followed the tried-and-true technique of releasing controversial news on a Friday afternoon with an interim approval to the rule allowing 38 non-organic ingredients to be used in products with the “USDA organic” label. Manufacturers must prove (whatever that means) that the organic equivalents can’t be found […]

The FTC is seeking to halt the merger between Whole Foods and Wild Oats. Everyone’s blogging about this Reuters story reporting on the Dutch researchers who’re trying to grow pork meat in a lab, hoping to feed millions without the need to raise and slaughter animals. Coca-Cola is pledging to reduce the amount of water is uses to make its drinks.

“Mad bee disease”?: About 60 scientists are sharing their early findings regarding “colony collapse disorder” in bees. They’re focusing on the most likely suspects: a virus, a fungus or a pesticide, particularly the neonicotinoids group banned in France for causing what the French called “mad bee disease.” They’ve set aside for now the possibility that […]

Gateway giveaways: AgSec Mike Johanns has announced proposed changes to Farm Bill programs “to help future generations of farmers and ranchers become established in production agriculture.” Unfortunately, one of them involves proposes raising the direct payment for commodity crops by 20 percent for beginners. Given that there is no shortage of these crops, and that […]

Bye-bye, organic coffee, sugar, chocolate?: Sam Fromartz reports on a new ruling by the USDA that dramatically changes how non-U.S. farms are certified organic. Previously, only a small percentage of farms in “grower groups” would be randomly inspected, and the group would then police the remainder’s practices. Writes Fromartz: “The staggered inspection method has been […]

Bravo to Wolfgang Puck!: The L.A. restauranteur is taking foie gras, battery eggs, and meat from caged animals off the menu at all of his 14 fine-dining restaurants, 82 casual cafes, and his packaged food business. He’ll also only sell seafood from certified sustainable fisheries, and will incorporate even more organic and local produce. San […]

Brace yourselves, it’s link-overload Wednesday!
Faith & Drugs Administration: The Center for Food Safety has blasted the FDA’s risk assessment of the safety of food from cloned animals because it used data that was “selectively reported to fit predetermined conclusions” and relied heavily on unpublished data from two cloning companies. “Any safety conclusions are based more […]

Eating ethically isn’t especially easy.
For one thing, it means cutting down on my meat consumption, at least until I find more sources of meat that my stomach can stomach, now that it is actually attached to my brain. Also, Noshette is a born-again omnivore and it still getting her meat-feet wet, so we are eating tofu […]

While Nosher of the North hunkers down under a blizzard that has been called brutal and pummeling, and while our California and Texas friends bask in warm weather, the Butter Bitch and I are waiting for spring.
The weather in Seattle has been bad this year, but far better than winters from our youths in the […]