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The grape taste of Ohio wines
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 wine bottle in the refrigerator for weeks before even thinking about having another
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Digest: USDA diluting organics, emptying bottled water
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
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Digest: Whole Foods blocked, lab loins, organic dairy smacked, Coke’s washwashing
NEWS The Safeway defense: As previously reported, the FTC is seeking to halt the merger between Whole Foods and Wild Oats, saying it will result in higher food prices in the markets in which the two previously competed. Whole Foods is arguing, quite rightly, that the agency assumes it competes only with
Digest: Bee conference, MickeyD’s makes Greenpeace, pass the chuck
"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."
Digest: Farm Bill proposals, health conflicts, bottled water redux
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.
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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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Digest: Puck goes Ethicurean, watery news, organic ag shortage
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
Digest: Faith-based FDA, Chron raises food consciousness, more
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
Montreal profile: A tale of tofu
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
Waiting for spring with bee’s knees
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
Digest: Wild birds cleared, USDA censured, protection from transgenic corn
Bird-flu CSI: It's official — comparison between the UK and Hungarian strains of the avian-flu virus reveals the highest genetic match, much more so than the strains found in wild birds. Press release Dept. of About Time: A federal judge
Detox
I am about to turn a corner in my life. A sharp corner. This isn't a story about eating organic food, or even local food. This is a story about not eating any food at all. Besides eating to survive, I have been getting more deeply involved in food and eating for about 20 years. It all began when I was
Digest: Greens packaging, clone progeny, Fiji brand
Bacteria love bagged lettuce: Scientists are now confirming the obvious — that processing, mixing, and bagging leafy greens promotes the spread of bacteria like E. coli, just like it has in the hamburger industry. Others claim the Vegetable Industrial Complex, with its triple baths of chlorinated water,
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Digest: Raw-milk row redux, state of the oceans, biotech crops up, what would Mao order?
Rah rah for raw milk: Ignore those people claiming raw milk has cured their asthma — all unpasteurized milk is dirty and dangerous, say FDA and state health officials. But as this article makes clear, the regulators are overlooking a crucial point: how raw milk from industrial, feedlot dairies destined
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Eclectic Oregon pinot noir: Medici
Over the past two Thanksgiving holidays, the Butter Bitch and I have found ourselves in the Oregon wine country, sampling a number of excellent wines and enjoying the scenery. Our
