Section » Friends of the fork
Digest – Blogs: Salatin opines, Windy City to ban chickens, organic processors doing their part
Everything he wants to say should probably be illegal: The inimitable Joel Salatin riffs on the pitfalls of “sound science.” (Food Democracy) Buy fresh, buy local ingredients: Lainie deconstructs new research from the USDA that indicates many organic
Comments Off • Read more »
More articles
Digest – Blogs: Exploring food deserts, Cargill timeline, music to our ears
Watching the sausage being made so we don't have to: The absolutely heroic Dan Owens is live-blogging the Senate's Farm Bill cluster$*%@ debate — with trademark blistering commentary. (Blog for Rural America) "Nutritional apartheid": OrangeClouds115
“King Corn” preview and discussion in Berkeley draws crowd
Michael Pollan with "King Corn" stars Curt Ellis and Ian Cheney, and director Aaron Woolf, along with a corny hat that Pollan had in his backpack. As expected, Tuesday night's special event for "King Corn," featuring Michael Pollan and the
Comments Off • Read more »
Bay Area events: “King Corn” filmmakers to chat with Michael Pollan, audiences
Like the maize from which it takes its name, the documentary "King Corn" is conquering America. The film's message — that maybe, just maybe, the U.S. is growing too much subsidized cheap grain — obviously contains enough kernels of truth to
Comments Off • Read more »
“King Corn” is really about zombies
BoingBoing's Xeni Jardin has an entertaining interview for bbTV with the "King Corn" guys, shortly after their screening for Congress. Although they look like they're getting used to
Comments Off • Read more »
Digest – Features: The ABCs of GM foods, Alice as the Sustainable Kitchen Fairy, clean-food catastrophe
This Digest was amended at 11 a.m. to add the excellent New York Times Magazine feature on water. A frank look at frankenfoods: Science writer Elena Conis has a top-notch, clear-eyed primer on the science of, and debate over, genetically modified foods — which can be found in 70% of processed foods.
Digest – Blogs: Foie gras formula, we all (heart) Fergus Henderson
Applying the Learned Hand formula to foie gras: According to a wonderfully nerdy post at Law For Food, PETA should really be concentrating on improving feedlot conditions, instead of the low-hanging livers. Paté, Montana
Comments Off • Read more »
Digest – Features: Pollan Q&A, the bee middleman, some wild donations to hunger cause
Two P's in a partnership: As part of its "Sow What" special series of food and farming, Grist columnist Tom Philpott interviews Michael Pollan in a Q&A that blessedly doesn't go over the same tired soil (except the Cracker Jacks). Interesting nuggets: congresspeople are now calling Pollan
Digest – Features: Cows — they’ll eat anything, Wendell Berry book & news
China, please, just say no: Several American feedlot cattle operators are starting up in China, where they hope to "kick start the consolidation of China's disorganized beef-production chain, bringing to Inner Mongolia all the high-volume efficiency — and social and environmental concerns
Comments Off • Read more »
Digest – Blogsnacks: A farmer learns something new, Midwestern grapes, deformed frogs
A pasture and his flock: Farmer Gene Logsdon ruminates on his luck in the recent floods and what he learned from the drought this year about sheep, weeds, and conventional wisdom. (Organic To Be) Organic
Digest – Blogsnacks: Eat meat, kill the planet, Alice has higher standards
PETA vs. green carnivores: The biggest brawl we've ever seen on Gristmill's comment section is over a post about the animal-rights group's "stupid claim" that "you just cannot be a meat-eating environmentalist." (Gristmill) Don't
Guest post: Keeping goats in Seattle
Bonnie here: Jenni Pertuset, who's posted previously about the Crown S Ranch in Washington State, recently met a goat owner who could use some help from fellow Seattle residents. Read on to find out how a small urban
Digest: Breastfeeding campaign exposé, pet food history lesson, SciAm food issue
Wow, can't remember the last time the Digest was short enough for one post. The media seems to be taking Labor Day Weekend off. NEWS & FEATURES The most SOLE food of all: A few years ago, in an attempt to raise the nation's historically low rate of breast-feeding, federal health officials commissioned
Digest – Features: Deenosaur, urban farms, Pollan update
Paula, you make us puke: Celebrity chef Paula Deen has been very good for her sponsor Smithfield Foods, and the company, aka the Death Star of Pork, has been very good to her in return. She's entirely unfazed by how it treats its workers, whose union has staged protests at her appearances — and
Blogsnacks: Pigs in the ‘hood, framing fatness, you can can
Move over Dellums, Novella for mayor: A shout-out to Tea at the Grinder for alerting us to City Farmer, Novella Carpenter's blog. Some of us know Novella as the nice woman who herded the chickens for all
