If you have been following us for a little while, you probably realize that I support small, local, family farms. I also try to stay aware of how corporate greed has infected our food (Taking Control) and support protecting our family farms (End of Farmer’s Markets?) Like many of you who support eating and living [...]
Unintended consequences are just that – unintended. Sometimes the best intentions lead to adverse results. For example, the U.S. market-oriented agricultural system seems to be a natural result of Keynesian economy…let those who can compete compete and the weak will simply fall by the wayside…or is it a perpetuation of elite dominance? Let’s look at [...]
Over the course of the last four days, I have eaten more fast food than I have had in many, many, many months. I am a sucker for fast food, I admit it. Not very Zomppa-like or healthy, but it’s sometimes real good. But generally, it’s sort of a “treat” for me, not a way [...]
A friend of mine passed this along – it’s a documentary called Controlling Our Food that apparently aired in France in 2008 (many of you may have already heard of it) but it certainly is not one that will be aired anytime soon here in the U.S. Why? It doesn’t have too nice things to say [...]
Nothing earth-shattering today, but to pass a thoughtful article by Jon Carroll of the San Francisco Chronicle. Carrol deftly articulates the central role of food. As he says, “start with the food.” I couldn’t agree more–food is always in fashion. It impacts everything, everything-politics, religion, the economy…. What seems trendy now is often a revitalization [...]
Most of you have probably heard about the Food Safety Modernization Act, aka H.R. 875, proposed by Representative DeLauro. With what seems to be increasing outbreaks of bacteria and unsafe substances in everything from baby formula to peanut butter, there has been even more urgent impetus to address the fact that our food safety system [...]
I came across an interesting collaborative of artists working on different social movements: Just Seeds. They just came out with a series of posters on urban gardens, healthy cooking for youth, and urban food deserts. Check them out: Food concerns more than nutrients; it concerns social and economic justice; it is empowerment, it is a [...]
There’s nothing like the smell of the buttery box of freshly-popped popcorn that you swear you won’t buy but then you do and proceed to eat half of it before the previews are over at the movie theatre. Every afternoon, someone in my office pops a bag of Orville Redenbacher’s and boy, it smells good. [...]
As many of you know, India is full of contradictions. One of the biggest and most obvious points of contrast is the wide gap between rich and poor. It is not just a bit rich and a bit poor – it is like having the fancy Le Meridian hotel where meals cost as much as [...]
Remember how talk of GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms was all the rage a few years ago? These days, they hardly warrant a blip in the news. Have we all somehow determined that the need for perfectly round tomatoes is more important than questioning the unintended consequences of perfectly round tomatoes? While science has enabled some [...]
