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Defender of the seeds: Q&A with Claire Hope Cummings, author of “Uncertain Peril”
An environmental lawyer for 20 years, including four spent with the USDA, Claire Hope Cummings reports regularly on agriculture and the environment; she has also farmed in California and in Vietnam. We chatted recently
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I can read you like a cook: A review of “Kitchen Literacy”
As the local-food movement broadens and more people find pleasure in shopping at the local farmers markets and/or in growing their own produce, we find more folks 'fessing up to their lack of expertise. How do you know when a fruit or vegetable is ripe? What's the difference between various cuts of meat?
Review: Carolyn Steel’s “Hungry City”
A review I wrote of "Hungry City: How Food Shapes Our Lives," a new UK food-politics book by architecture professor Carolyn Steel, appeared in
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No-go fish: A review of “Bottomfeeder” by Taras Grescoe
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
Soil vs. dirt
The radio program Living on Earth has been running excerpts from "Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape," a book by renowned nature writer Barry Lopez ("Crossing Open Ground," "Arctic Dreams," "Of Wolves and Men") that defines landscape terms such as
An “Unsettling” look at industrial agriculture
The flaws of industrial agriculture and the current backlash against it came into sharp focus a couple of weeks ago, following the death of former Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz, well-known for his exhortations to
Michael Pollan on Canadian radio – CBC
Michael Pollan came to Canada — almost.
The promotional tour for his new book "In Defense of Food" landed him an interview on CBC Radio's The Current (listen to the interview
Digest – Pollanation mania
There's a bumper crop of reviews of Michael Pollan's new book, "In Defense of Food" (see ours) along with an interview with the SOLE Brother No. 1 about it on NPR.
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The jury is in: A review of Michael Pollan’s “In Defense of Food”
In December 2005 I quit smoking, after 12 years of a cigarette habit that sometimes reached a pack a day. After many, many failed attempts that included nicotine patches, Wellbutrin, and even hypnotherapy (I lit up five minutes after the session), I read a book by Allen Carr called “The Easy Way
The joy of cookbooks: Judith Jones’s “The Tenth Muse”
When I read "My Life in France" by Julia Child a couple of years ago, I was struck by the vast effort it took to edit and publish her first book in the United States, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." Written with her French co-authors, Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, this
Book review: “Super Natural Cooking” by Heidi Swanson
The mass media's coverage of food is a cacophony of quick fixes ("Eat a handful of goji berries and wipe out the effects of those two fast-food burgers you ate for lunch!") and hype ("Do cranberries cure cancer? Stay tuned for a shocking new report"). Heidi Swanson — creator
Spring salad
Yesterday I harvested a ton of lettuce from my community garden plot. Sorrel, red curly, romaine, Boston, arugula, and chicory. Bursting with flavour, these luscious greens barely needed much dressing, but I needed some protein in my diet becuase I am working out at the gym on a regular basis and need
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Au Pied de Cochon – - my birthday dinner
I apologize for not posting last week, but I've been quite busy lately. I've spent the better part of the last two weeks playing drums for a college production of the musical "Hair" and I also celebrated my birthday last week. Noshette kindly took me out to an early dinner (I had a 7pm curtain call)
A recipe for change: Slow Food founder Carlo Petrini speaks in San Francisco
On May 10 Dairy Queen and I went to a lecture by Slow Food International founder Carlo Petrini, who's on the road to promote the English-language release of his book "Slow
Digest: Organic rules changed, irradiation renamed, feed the tank and starve the poor
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
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