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Massive gingerbread house recall a reminder that food safety starts in the gut

By • on December 28, 2010

Grist (where I am the food editor) just got a late entry to our Scariest Food of 2010 contest: Gingerbread houses. Not because you can break a tooth on some of

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Hey USDA & DoJ: Ranchers want more competition in the cattle industry

By • on August 18, 2010

Big hats carrying small sticks: The CEO of R-Calf, which represents cattle raisers, has been criss-crossing the country, exhorting people to get to Fort Collins, Colorado, on Aug. 27th for a federal-level workshop about competition in the cattle industry. He wants 25,000 to show up and "send a message

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Cooking outside the comfort zone: green tomatoes

By • on August 4, 2010

In the world of science, there's something called "publication bias," which recognizes that studies with positive results are more likely to be published than studies with negative ones. I suspect there is a similar bias

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Cooking outside my comfort zone, Part 2: Fresh chickpeas

By • on August 3, 2010

Last week, I vowed to escape my farmers market rut and cook outside my comfort zone in honor of National

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Richmond has a farmers market on wheels

By • on July 28, 2010

The meals on the bus go round and round: In Richmond, Virginia, Mark Lilly has transformed a 1987 diesel school bus into a mobile produce market called Farm to Family, which also has a CSA program. The interior is really cool looking -- what a great idea for recycling an old vehicle. (Blog

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Cook outside your comfort zone in honor of National Farmers Market Week

By • on July 22, 2010

It's the height of summer, and the tables of farmers markets around the country are overflowing with firm-fleshed, scarlet tomatoes; bunches of fragrant basil; and -- depending on where you live -- juicy stone fruits, avocados,

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The USDA looks at local food

By • on June 10, 2010

Every now and then, newspapers print an article that makes it seem like locavores are running the U.S. food system, throwing our weight around, causing Big Ag to cower in corners. If only we

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Two recipes – and lots of opinions – from ‘Farmers Market Desserts’ author Jennie Schacht

By • on May 28, 2010

Summer fruits from the farmers market are the supermodels of the produce world. Just like Heidi Klum doesn't need makeup

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Target, Wegman’s top Greenpeace’s report card for seafood sales

By • on May 17, 2010

If we're going to have anything approaching a sustainable seafood system, we need to combine personal adherence to seafood lists with moves up the supply chain to the big buyers, the wholesalers, and supermarkets that sell the bulk of the seafood. Whereas wholesalers primarily work in the background,

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Giving everyone a Grand (Opening, at Local Roots)

By • on May 16, 2010

One year ago, the twelve of us who formed the steering committee of the Wooster Local Food Cooperative, Inc., held a public meeting at the Wayne County Public Library to share our ideas for a year-round local food market in downtown

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Russ Parsons looks beyond the farmers market

By • on May 1, 2010

In an adaptation of his keynote address at the Small Farms Conference, Russ Parsons praises the farmers market — an institution that has had a "revolutionary effect" — but also calls it "one of the most inefficient business plans ever devised." He notes some of the flaws: they are only open a few

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Cultivating community in Ohio: Local Roots crops get sweeter in winter

By • on February 8, 2010

Three months have passed since my last update on Local Roots Market in Wooster, Ohio. Back then, were on the cusp of opening at last. What's happened in the meantime? A

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Words on the street food

By • on December 14, 2009

A sampler of dispatches from the street-food universe. What this got to do with Ethicureanism? Well, unlike most fast food, good street food is made from fresh, real ingredients by independent sole proprietors. And it fascinates us because it's like the "farming in the middle" conundrum: how can talented

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Open season: Local Roots Markets opens in Wooster, Ohio

By • on November 2, 2009

Nine months doesn't really seem like a very long time: over the span of a lifetime, just a mere hiccup on a long journey. But when you're in the midst of those nine months (ask any expectant mother), you find yourself amazed at how much goes on in that time frame — and how it can seem to pass so slowly,

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Small-town grocery stores feed a need bigger than stomachs

By • on October 31, 2009

In the small Nebraska town I now call home, a small grocery store anchors one end of Main Street. Once a farm-implement dealership, it has nine aisles, a dairy cooler, and a fresh meat counter. It employs nine full-time

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