The sun was not yet warm enough when, in the company of my chef friend Alice Waters, I entered an elegantly refurbished area of the docks; pretty little coffee shops were serving warm mugs of excellent organic fairtrade coffee; sumptuous bakeries were putting out all sorts of good things, spreading the fragrant aroma of some wonderful kinds of bread…. The former, with long hair and a plaid flannel shirt, held his lovely little blond-haired daughter in his arms and told me, in a conspiratorial tone, that he had to drive two hundred miles to come and sell in that market: he charged incredibly high prices for his squashes, it was “a cinch,” and in just two monthly visits he could earn more than enough to maintain his family and spend hours surfing on the beach…. He replied: There are many cases of organic farming that are not sustainable, because they create a vast monoculture, one that relies on the use of integrated pesticides which greatly reduce the surrounding biodiversity: vast stretches of vineyards in Chile and in Italy, huge plantations of vegetables in California, hectares and hectares of olive groves in Spain…. Social sustainability can be achieved through public intervention, through politics: in Brazil, in those regions where the Workers’ Party con-trols the local government, all food served in public cafeterias must by law be organic and must be produced by small local producers at fair but accessible prices. Agroecology has a scientific basis, but it also has profound political implications, because it is badly in need of public intervention: before an agroecological approach can be established in Latin America, there must be agrarian reform and public intervention in the market to protect small farmers or to guarantee fair prices for producers and consumers.

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 Food Nation.” The book, which we have not yet read, is about the future of food, and what we must do to prevent […]

People who enjoy sausage and respect the law should not watch either being made.
That curt assessment is usually attributed to 19th-century statesman Otto von Bismarck, and I can certainly agree with him about the second part. For example, it’s hard to see how all the maneuvering and wheeling-and-dealing and horse trading going on around the […]

I used to make fun of the Dairy Queen Mother for talking to strangers everywhere she went — in elevators, grocery stores, even movie-theater bathrooms. Actually, she still does it, and I still tease her about it, partly because she has no “psychodar” (sorry, Mom).
But when the subject is SOLE food, I’m finding it […]

There’s a benefit for Slow Food tonight from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Ferry Building in San Francisco. Admission to “Food from the Heart” is free, and the marketplace’s merchants and restaurateurs will be offering seasonal hors d’oeuvres for $2 each, while Slow Food will pour interesting wines to taste for $5 per […]

Meat monopoly busters: A new “packer ban” bill introduced by Senators Charles Grassley and Tom Harkin seeks to prohibit the large meatpackers from buying and raising their own livestock, which leads to price gouging and shutting out small farmers and ranchers. This is really big news, as it would basically force Tyson, Smithfield, etc to […]

A big shout-out to all you passionate Brussel-sprout lovers — Stonefruit in particular — as I have finally had a pleasant experience with the cabbagey kids!
I waited until the weather turned frosty, as what’s bad for citrus is good for sweetening Brassica oleracea, you all said, to buy some loose, tightly closed, hard buds from […]

I want everyone to see this squash. In fact, I want everyone to taste this squash.
It’s from Finca Pura Vida, a certified organic farm in Fayetteville, TX which sells goods at the Sunset Valley Farmer’s Market on Saturdays. The little girl’s name is Giselle. When I began taking pictures of this amazing squash, […]

The Economist: In a sign that it has reached true zeitgeist level, the venerable U.K. magazine takes on the idea of voting with your forks. While we’d dispute some of the cavalier claims from interested parties that organic agriculture is no better for the environment than industrial, the article makes some thought-provoking points about fair-trade […]

L.A. Times Magazine: A gripping, epic story about Organic Pastures dairy, the E. coli cases linked to its raw milk, and the family history of owner Mark McAfee, which goes a long way to explaining his defiance in the face of officials. [DQ says: Although we don’t drink much milk, I’ve been shelling out the […]

Grist: Tom Philpott explains why Thanksgiving can often suck, as “people not socialized to cook and eat together can be expected to bare their fangs when they’re forced to do so.” But it doesn’t have to, and we should reclaim it.
New York Times: Peter Hoffman, owner and chef of Savoy, has a long op-ed about […]

Well, I didn’t manage to use up all of the produce in my fridge before I left, but I made a valiant effort, even having leftover kale and a salad together in one meal. I did have to discard some arugula from the Eatwell box that I had let go too long. It’s funny how […]

Most Americans learned in elementary school that the first Thanksgiving meal was actually a harvest feast with which the Pilgrims celebrated growing their first successful New World crops: corn, squash, and beans. What they didn’t tell us was that the first European settlers preferred to dine on salt meat and wormy bread brought over by […]

The Independent (UK): Article by Wendy Fogarty of Slow Food UK says buying organic is only half the battle, and that while bashing “Big Organic” for what it’s not is counterproductive, British consumers still need to get on board with local and seasonal.
Grist: Yolanda Crous’s amusing report from the “green carpet” from the Environmental Media […]

L.A. City Beat: Last month’s E.coli outbreak has hurt spinach farmers, but it’s interesting how fast blame shifted from produce growers to cattle ranchers to feral pigs. This article asks whether attention can be redirected back to the true culprit — feedlots — and if the Central Valley will be forced to change its unsustainable […]