Family farm sends developers packing, welcomes kids who want to learn: http://www.childrenandnature.org/news/detail/family_transforms_struggling_farm_into_outdoor_classroom/
Further scientific proof that we are a lot like slugs: http://www.foodpolitics.com/2009/11/the-latest-on-too-much-salt/
What happens when you label genetically modified apples as something else? More people want to buy them: http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/27/would-gmo-apples-by-another-name-taste-sweeter/
Child diets and learning disabilities: http://organicconnectmag.com/wp/2009/11/child-diet-and-learning-disabilities/
Thanksgiving at the Edible Schoolyard (some great pics): http://www.edibleschoolyard.org/journal/2009/11/25/harvest-to-home/
The New Yorker magazine recently released its 2009 Food Issue. As our country engages in a collective discussion on food politics, local foods, and healthy eating, I was curious to see what one of the best sources on food writing would have to say about eating sustainably in NYC.
Would they discuss President and Michelle Obama’s date night at Blue Hill (a West Village restaurant that serves creative local foods)?
How more and more New York City restaurants are cooking locally and sustaibably — reaching out to local farmers and serving seasonal ingredients?
How the best and most innovative cooking these days is coming from sustainable and local foods restaurants?
Or how farmers markets are changing the way New Yorkers eat?
I opened up the issue and . . . Nothing. Not a word on local foods, sustainability, or our changing culture of cooking and eating.
What’s up New Yorker? Haven’t heard the news? Are you trying not to be relevant?
The folks over at The New York Times are more savvy and tuned in. On their blog, Green Inc.. they write about food politics and other environmental issues. Check out this post about young chefs doing sustainable cooking.
Chocolate Milk has been in the news lately, claiming that it isn’t such a bad guy after all. The New York Times ran an article claiming that chocolate milk may help reduce the risk of heart disease. That all sounds pretty good, but where did all this come from? When a study like this comes out, I always like to ask myself who paid for the research? Not that I throw every bit of science I see out the door if I don’t know where it came from, but it’s good to ask. In this case, I have to wonder, with the Child Nutrition Act up for re-authorization, and so many schools and parents taking a hard look at what kids are eating, might it be milk companies that paid for this research? Science isn’t free, and experts saying nice things about chocolate milk is just so timely and so helpful for people who want to sell more of it. But I shouldn’t be so critical. The facts are these: a study showed that chocolate milk seemed to help in preventing atherosclerosis (though the scientists stressed that more studies are necessary before any real conclusions can be reached) and milk companies jumped on it. There are now ad campaigns focused on keeping chocolate milk in schools, and milk company press talking about the nutritional benefits of milk that far outweigh the harm of chocolate. So what’s wrong with regular milk? According to the milk companies,kids won’t drink it. According to chef Ann Cooper, who recently removed chocolate milk from her entire Colorado school district, nothing. Kids are fine drinking plain old white milk, and its sugarier cousins are gone.
CSAs: Food Oases: http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php/slow_food/blog_post/low_income_csas/
8 steps to save food: as easy as 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8: http://www.chefann.com/blog/archives/1649
Farmed fish, wild fish, red fish, blue fish: http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/19/fish-stories/
Better lunches, healthier kids, better world: http://organicconnectmag.com/wp/2009/11/child-health-and-school-lunches/
Here at WOYP central, we are not happy about President Obama’s nominee for Chief Agriculture Negotiator at the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office, Islam Siddiqui. Mr. Siddiqui is currently the vice-president of science and regulatory affairs at CropLife America (formerly the National Agricultural Chemicals Association) and used to be a pesticide lobbyist. CropLife is a big trade group that are responsible for almost all the toxic pesticides in America, and Siddiqui’s agenda as VP has recently included weakening the Endangered Species and Clean Water Acts, andfighting to keep DDT in use. We can’t let the senate confirm Siddiqui! Check out this online form that lets you send a message to New York’s senators. Siddiqui must be stopped!
Link Buffet November 18, 2009
Hoping for a Rooftop Farm in Brooklyn In hope of accommodating Bushwick, Brooklyn with the freshest food available, Ben Flanner is working with Bushwick locavores to place a garden on Roberta’s restaurant located in Bushwick.
Libby’s Warns of a Canned Pumpkin Shortage The public has been forewarned; due to a possible shortage of canned pumpkin, pumpkin purchasers may have to opt out and buy fresh whole pumpkins.
What *Can’t* You Do With Leftover Food? Recycling left over food may just be a solution among many to solve the ever growing issue of mass amounts of methane in landfills.
Plan B Update: The Copenhagen Conference on Food Security Lester R. Brown expresses his concern for world-wide rising tides covering over rice lands in his newly released book Plan B. 4.0.
Senate Agricultural Committee on School Food A hearing was conducted to address the hunger and improve health in child nutrition programs; read a few quotes made by the Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.
New Report Reveals Dramatic Rise in Pesticide Use on Genetically Engineered (GE) Crops Due to the Spread of Resistant Weeds Could your “healthy” crops be tainted? The Center For Food Safety provides the public with and adverse warning.
The Bookshelf: Gastropolis The Bookshelf: Gastropolis provides a vast insight of just a few of the thousands of restaurants in New York City and what type of foods are offered there.
Hunger in the United States An article has been published that aims to reach out to Congress; based on the new federal data, the United States is in dire need of a plan that will end child hunger.
The FDA has temporarily delayed a ban on the sale of raw oysters from the Gulf Coast. The ban was made in order to reduce the risk of Vibrio vulnificus (Vv). Vv is a flesh-eating bacteria which resides in all coastal waters.
Although the infection could be transmitted through eating raw oysters, people usually catch it when they expose wounds to bacteria in seawater. The illness isn’t serious unless you have a very weak immune system or suffer from certain health conditions. Healthy people have nothing to worry about in this rare food-borne disease.
If the ban is made official raw oysters will undergo months of quick freezing, frozen storage, high hydrostatic pressure, mild heat, and low dose gamma irradiation. This would reduce Vv risk. However, little could be said about how fresh the oyster will be once they reach consumers’ plates.
We’re hoping the FDA will find a way of reducing health risks without compromising freshness.
Take action here.
Jonathan Safran Foer’s new book, Eating Animals, is the talk of the internet these days. This is Foer’s first nonfiction work (you may remember Foer from such novels as Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close) and it was prompted by two events: the birth of his first child, and the approach of Thanksgiving. Eating Animals explores the question of how we can sustain the food traditions we grew up with, which often involve eating meat, while passing on the values we have adopted as adults, which may contradict those traditional menus.
Foer’s questions lead him to investigate the food system, and leave him shocked and saddened by the factory farms he witnesses. In the end, though, Foer does not end up writing a book about hard-line vegetarianism. He celebrates the few (tragically few) farmers who resist the factory farm system by raising and slaughtering animals as humanely as possible, and he asks us to see the question of meat-eating as a spectrum. We cannot ignore factory farms, the sheer speed of production (400 cows an hour, a pig every three or four seconds, all at one slaughterhouse) and the sheer horror of seeing these places (this is a family blog, you’ll have to read the book yourself) is literally unimaginable. But that’s one end of the spectrum, and cutting animal products out of your life entirely is just the other end. As Foer points out, much of the reason that the factory farm system still thrives is that people feel that if they can’t bring themselves to move to the other end of the spectrum and give up meat completely, they shouldn’t make any changes at all: if they can’t do everything, they feel they must do nothing. When we make decisions about food, we must do so from the point on that spectrum where we are most comfortable. Being responsible about food doesn’t necessarily mean giving up meat, or giving up food traditions, Foer argues. It simply means being aware of the consequences of our choices, and choosing foods and food sources carefully.
Which brings me to something else that’s been floating around the internet lately: these guys. They’re butchers, in Brooklyn, NY. Their policy of never wasting a part of an animal has led them in some strange directions, like a “sandwich” with pork tongues instead of bread. Yeah, it sounds gross, but people seem to love it, and the “no waste” policy and locally sourced meat are a great antidote to factory farms and megachain grocery stores. They just opened their new shop, The Meat Hook, yesterday, in the same building as The Brooklyn Kitchen (home of some great cooking classes). It can be tough living in the age of factory farms, simultaneously being appalled at the way meat gets to our plates, and cherishing the traditions in our lives that involve meat (and just liking the taste), but it’s good to know that there are butchers out there who try to take a better approach to meat than fast, cheap, and unethical.
P.S. If you’re after more blogs about Thanksgiving in these modern times, but with less moral questions, and more talk about quick and energy-efficient ways of cooking a turkey, check this out.
Michael Pollan’s The Ominvore’s Dilemma completely redefined food for thousands of adults, and now there’s a new version out for young readers who want to learn about what exactly it is they’re eating. The new version has all the same information as the original, but in a more direct writing style, and with some pictures, graphs, and diagrams that really help visualize what Michael Pollan is talking about. It doesn’t discuss the issues as deeply as the original, and it skips some of the more complex details (macroutrients, yes; flavonoids, no) but it’s a great way for kids, especially middle school age, to learn about where our food comes from. Check out the review over at Slow Food USA.
Link Buffet November 10, 2009
Chow down.
A message from Vandana Shiva and the Center for Food Safety In response to Monsanto’s bizarre claims of decency, author, activist and leader of the Slows Foods Movements Vandana Shiva tells what impact Monsanto has really had on small farmers.
From Sustainable Table: tips from the author of The Dorm Room Diet Author Daphne Oz discusses how to adjust to college cafeteria eating and make smart food choices while in school.
Michael Pollan’s new book for younger readers — review from Slow Food USA Michael Pollan has a new book out! Run! It’s actually a revised version of The Omnivores Dilemma, written for the middle school aged reader.
Small slaughterhouses may catch a break – Slow Food USA Good news for small slaughterhouses — pending legistlation allows them to ship over state lines.
Worms eat my garbage — Slow Food USA You’ve asked yourself: I know composting is the bees-knees, why how can I do it in my very small apartment? The answer, my friends, is WORMS. Slow Food explains how to build a worm bin that will get the job done.
The Sixth-Grade Kitchen Orientation at the Edible Schoolyard With fall here and winter coming, sixth graders at the Edible Schoolyard turn their attention from the garden to the kitchen.
Solar One says: Give us Your Leaves! Our partner organization Solar One has a new plan to get leaves from your yard to NYC community gardens. Read about it.
Chef Ann Cooper, fixing our food system and reeling in your dinner: podcasts from Heritage Radio Network Give a listen to these food podcasts from Heritage Radio Network: Edible Communities with Chef Ann Cooper (10/14/09), Fixing our National Food System (11/2/09), The Main Course (10/25/09) and Catch It Cook It Eat It (10/17/09).
