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‘Top Chef’ should take up the ultimate challenge: school lunch
Season 7 of Bravo’s Top Chef will be based in Washington, D.C., reported the Metrocurean (no relation) a few days ago, with filming to begin in early April. That means that the popular reality show, with
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The ‘femivore’: New breed of feminist, or frontier throwback?
Cross-posted from Grist, where I am serving as deputy food editor (part time). Have locavores and feminists -- factions that a few years ago, some
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
Meet your greens, part 3: Taking the stand against the veggilantes
This is the third in a series about the USDA hearings on an industry proposal for a food-safety marketing agreement for leafy green vegetables. My first post describes what marketing agreements are and do; my second
Meet your greens, part 2: Industry seeks to outfox FDA
This is the second in a series of posts on my week in Monterey, CA, where I attended the first of seven USDA hearings around the country on an industry proposal to create a national
Meet your greens: National Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement hearings, Week 1
This is the first in a short series on the National Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement hearings held September 22-24 in Monterey, CA. I packed a suit for three days of USDA hearings over an industry-proposed
‘Eating In’ for Better Food in Schools
I went to a Slow Food USA "Eat In" at the foot of San Francisco's magnificent City Hall on Monday, one of several hundred events across the country that aims to build a movement around the upcoming reauthorization of the Child
Pork prevention: What’s behind the NPPC bailout, or how the government keeps filling up Big Meat’s trough
During the Iowa flood disaster in the summer of 2008, I proposed that there are winners and losers in moments of human tragedy — those who pay the costs of dealing with an unsavory situation, and those who are on the receiving end
NPR utters the phrase “big milk”
Consolidation station: NPR's John Burnett shines a spotlight on agribusiness consolidation, the control of the food system by an ever-smaller group of mega-companies. Independent farmers and ranchers are pushing the Obama Administration to take a good, long look at the factors that brought us to where
School lunch reform: A pipe dream or a deluge?
The kids will have their... whole wheat roll?: The momentum is building for big changes to the national school lunch program, reports Kim Severson in the New York Times. Ann Cooper, the chef who famously transformed lunches in the Berkeley school system and has since moved on to Boulder, Colorado, is
NYT mag on obesity: Don’t punish, politicize
Who paves the road for the responsibility bandwagon?: Were it up to him, Cleveland Clinic heart surgeon Delos Cosgrove would amend the clinic's wellness policy--which already bans the hiring of smokers--to include a ban on the hiring of obese people. His is a hard-line approach linking obesity to personal
Family farmers: No NAIS in our name
NPPC doesn't speak for me: Rhonda Perry, a Missouri farmer and director of the Missouri Rural Crisis Center, is tired of Big Meat purporting to represent her interests in Washington. NAIS, a controversial animal tracking program [that we've covered numerous
Feds to hold workshops on ‘competition issues’ in agriculture
We're not the only skeptics. The same day that Ethicurean Marc gave his skeptical analysis of a General Accounting Office report finding no harm from the growing (ha-ha) power of a very few agribiz companies, the U.S. Departments of
Senate basically kind of halves funding for National Animal ID
Say it again, with feeling: Senators John Tester (D-MT) and Mike Enzi (R-WY) flexed some legislative and moral muscle earlier this week with an amendment to the agriculture spending bill that halves funding for the USDA's controversial National Animal Identification System (NAIS). The amended bill
GAO report questions selection of Kansas lab site
Darn those GAO bean-counters! Analysts in the Government Accountability Office are questioning the selection process of a site in Kansas for the planned new National Bio and Agro-defense Facility (NBAF), which will study some of the most virulent animal and plant diseases known to man. We're sincerely
