Posts under ‘politics’

I’m always telling folks to know where their food comes from and to ask their farmers. But what can you do when the farmer lies? Like in this case, both the Food Network and the White House Garden fail the transparency test.
See what happens when hype and political opportunity get out of hand. Perhaps people [...]

In a post the other day about raw milk, I mentioned this small dairy farm in Canada being harassed by Fraser Health on a consistent basis. I wondered why people would take the time to go after small dairies (whose customers deliberately go out of their way to purchase raw milk) and asked, “Qui bono?”
Alice [...]

I drink raw milk and it fascinates me that there is so much controversy over this liquid that has been in the human diet for thousands of years.
I don’t understand why the people who are against it simply don’t drink it and go on about their business. Why are they so hell-bent on trying to [...]

There’s an interesting article over at The Ethicurean: “The Failure of Science”: New paper makes a damning case against genetically modified food crops.
In [the paper] Don Lotter, a UC-Davis trained scientist, makes a persuasive case that the transgenic seed industry is built on fundamentally flawed science, and that companies like Monsanto have used their vast [...]

I can’t wait until this movie comes to a theater near me:

According to the Official Food, Inc. Movie Site:
In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and [...]

I’ve had a week now to think about the 60 Minutes segment on Alice Waters. I should have been the perfect audience for this segment, yet felt distinctly dissatisfied after it aired.
In this segment, Leslie Stahl presented the slow food movement as elitist. Because as we all know, cooking from scratch, buying from local farmers [...]

I saw a most inspiring movie the other night at the Bluestone Farm Fullmoon fireside: The Power of Community – How Cuba Survived Peak Oil. Apart from its value as a “how to” or as a plug for local, sustainable food, it is a testament to the human spirit.
From their site:
When the Soviet Union collapsed [...]

Here in the great state of Connecticut (third smallest in the union), raw milk is currently legal. We can even buy it in retail stores that choose to carry it. Interestingly, those that choose to tend to be natural foods stores. Lately, there’s been some action to review and change the availability of raw milk [...]

From the NY Times (may require free subscription): The former chairwoman of one of China’s biggest dairy producers pleaded guilty to selling fake milk powder.
SHANGHAI — The former chairwoman of one of China’s biggest dairy producers pleaded guilty on Wednesday to selling tainted powdered baby formula and acknowledged for the first time that the company [...]

Last January, I attended a talk by Michael Pollan in Madison, CT. The event included a Farmer’s Market, which included a CT NOFA display booth.They asked if I wanted to join and I admitted that I was not a farmer, just an eater. They said that was fine and I’ve been a member since. Membership [...]