Section » Food revolt
Life as a give-a-shit-atarian: On loving peas, beets, and Tom Robbins
Self-identification is one of those never-ending challenges that occupy humans. Even highly self-aware people seem to spend a lot of time defending and refining their self-definition. Last week,
More articles
An artisanal plea from a fed-up foodie
When you find me behind bars, locked up for a fit of lexical rage, please know that it was granola that pushed me over the edge. Not just any granola: "artisan granola." Presumably its makers meant artisanal granola, made in limited quantities
Math lessons for Budiansky: Industrial concentration vs. local choice
On Friday, New York Times op-ed contributor Steven Budiansky challenged local food advocates to rethink their math, mainly about food miles. As it happens, I was already doing some food calculations that day -- but not of the sort
Battling the bugs—and the temptation to use chemical WMDs
Off to war against the weed-lurking worms. (Steph Larsen photos) I'm at war with the common stalk borer. As much as I believe in sustainability and chemical-free agriculture in theory, I've never been more
Michael Pollan on the rise of the food movement(s)
Pollan nation: In what is ostensibly a five-book review for the June 10 New York Review of Books, journalist Michael Pollan has an epic essay charting the emergence and character of the food movement. Or, as he puts
Words on the street food
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
Big Meat has tantrum over Oct 15 Michael Pollan talk at CalPoly
Harris Ranch feedlot photo from Mark Bittman's 2008 NY Times article, "Rethinking the Meat Guzzler" RIP, academic freedom: Writer Michael Pollan—aka "elitist," and apparently Agribiz Public Enemy No. 1—will now be part of a panel discussion at Cal Poly on Oct. 15 instead of giving a
“Food, Inc.” the book: Picking up where the documentary left off
By Joshua J. Biggley Summer blockbusters are often contrived, schlocky representations of the books on which they are
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
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
Comments Off • Read more »
What the finance meltdown has in common with the industrial food system
Toxic assets: Tom Philpott uses the New Yorker's recent chronicle of the world financial collapse as a mirror for the global food system. But "whereas Wall Street’s leverage was financial, the food industry’s is mostly ecological and social," writes Philpott, before going on to detail all the dire
Comments Off • Read more »
What two 19th-century cities can teach us about community-based food systems
While compiling this week's (long overdue) Digest, I came across the excellent infographic above in Yes! magazine's April issue, which is all
The slaughter bottleneck in buying local meat
Last fall I wrote a piece for Mother Jones' sustainability issue, on how the lack of small-scale slaughter facilities hampers both local meat production and distribution. It was bumped from that issue, along with all the other food coverage, and finally appears in this month's March/April special package
Digest – Commentary & blogs: School food programs need to start from scratch, Vilsack unCOOL’d, NYC foodshed
Trays important: Alice Waters and Chez Panisse Foundation director Katrina Heron urge the Obama administration to fix the National School Lunch Program not by throwing a little more money at it, but by starting from scratch. Which means a lot more dough: enough for schools to afford to cook and serve
Ready, set, go change the food system: A checklist for evaluating the new USDA’s first six months
Above: National Agricultural Library archival image, shot from the Washington Monument in the mid-1920s; US Department of Agriculture greenhouses on
