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Alaska’s long summer days in all their cruciferous glory: Steve Hubacek won last night’s giant cabbage weigh-off at the Alaska State Fair with a world record 127-pound entry (Anchorage Daily News story).
If your dedication to local food ever wavers, San Fransisco-based food journalist Eric Burkett is following food industry product recalls on his blog Industrial Omelet. His latest post covers Plainview Milk Products, JBS Swift Beef Co and an update on the Nestlé Toll House cookie dough saga.
Eric was a reporter at the Anchorage Daily News before moving to California to become a chef.
Last week President Obama released his fiscal 2010 budget for the Food & Drug Administration, and we here at Eat Local Northwest were extremely pleased to learn that he’s proposing to increase food safety dollars from $508 million last year to $649 million in ‘09 — and then $783 million in 2010. I knew there was something I liked about that guy! That’s a 47% increase over three years, the largest in FDA history. Looks like we might finally get serious about the food we eat, and soon.
You sort of already knew this, but according to the latest issue of Organic Gardening, reducing your red meat consumption by just 15% decreases greenhouse gas emissions as much as eating a totally local diet. That’s because of all the greenhouse gases that are generated when grain is transported to feedlots. But even 100% pastured cows generate greenhouse gases. Point taken.
Great opinion piece today by Marcella Hazan on the slow demise of the home cook.
Most of the time I’m merely trying to keep up, trying to write just enough on a two or three day count that I don’t forget how to do it. Call it a hazard of the day job. I’m getting more comfortable with the idea that I won’t be inspired every time I fire up the laptop, that some posts will simply be serviceable. That’s why it’s so exciting when a post comes out just so. I can feel it in the rhythm of the language, in the bones of the story.
Sometimes I’ll read something on one of my favorite blogs and likewise think, ‘Hey, that’s right on.’ These posts always tell a good story. They’re typically pretty short. They’re often a fresh spin on the season but really about the larger drama of reclaiming our food and where it comes from. In all, they’re good inspiration for a writer’s soul. Here are a few of them:
Hunter Angler Gardener Cook’s tale of found morels
Kale for Sale’s no bag please and song of seasonal food
Herbwife’s Kitchen’s ode to wild onions
Green Bean Dreams’ slipping slugs a mickey
And Cincy Locavore’s great post, evolution of oats into non-food.
Here at Eat Local Northwest we generally leave the politics of food to others, because doing it right requires more complexity than we can offer in a short space and so many are already doing an excellent job. But sometimes a single story captures intersecting forces so well, magnifies what’s really at stake, that it’s hard not to call attention to it. An article in today’s NY Times, Costly Fuel Means Costly Calories, describes how escalating fuel prices are causing food shortages in the poorest and hungriest places on earth, particularly through the rising price of cooking oils. Check it out.
And if you like, read our previous post about local hunger right here in cosmopolitan, literate Seattle.
