Folks Gotta Eat

Sweet treats for your Sweetheart

2012-02-13T10:00:00Z

]]> Valentines Day is not a day to be watching what you eat. This past summer I went on a binge after reading about S'mores cakes in jars. I first saw them over at How Sweet It Is and just had to make them! After a few delicious tries I decided to tweak the recipe. I was after a more melty gooey cake like the melted chocolate in a S'more so I decided to swap the cake for my own flourless chocolate cake recipe. Back in the days of my internet dating I also used to post recipes on Allrecipes.com, this cake is tried and true and always welcome at our table.

Simply make up your favourite graham cracker crust recipe (or the recipe on the back of the graham cracker package), equally distribute among six jars and pack them down with the handle of a wooden spoon. Top with flourless chocolate cake batter and bake them off for about 15 minutes. From this point they can be stored in the fridge until you are ready to serve.

You know those molten lava cakes at fancy restaurants? They are all made well in advance and simply microwaved before serving. For reals. I think it's the greatest trick - everyone thinks lava cakes are so fancy but really they are an incredibly easy timesaver dessert for restaurants.

So right before you are ready to eat dessert simply microwave your jars for about 30 seconds or a minute. While they are in the microwave getting their chocolate cake all gooey preheat your broiler.

Here's a Pro Tip - while the cakes are in the microwave do a lot of banging around in the kitchen and turn the tap on high - basically you'll want to drown out the sound of the microwave and make it seem like you are working really hard in the kitchen. Trust me no one else needs to know you're microwaving dessert.

Once your cakes are out of the microwave place jars on a cookie sheet, top with mini marshmallows and fire under the broiler. Keep the oven door open and do not take your eyes off them for a minute. When marshmallows are toasted remove from oven and serve immediately.

I've made these cakes for birthdays, Bar-b-ques and I even made 75 of them for a wedding reception this summer.

When you eat them you need to get right down in there deep and make sure you get some of each layer.

Individual desserts are impressive but this year Valentines Day is on a weekday and who has time for that malarkey after working all day? Not this girl. So instead I'll just be making a giant pan of S'mores cake for the Hubs.

My graham cracker crust recipe is 1 1/2 cups of graham cracker crumbs, 1/2 cup melted butter and a big pinch of coarse sea salt. I love a little salty with my sweet.

I'll top the graham cracker crust with the flourless chocolate cake.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

4 (1 ounce) squares semisweet chocolate, chopped

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup white sugar

1/2 cup cocoa powder

3 eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).

In the top of a double boiler over lightly simmering water, melt chocolate and butter. Remove from heat, and stir in sugar, cocoa powder, eggs, and vanilla. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes.

Then I'll cover it with marshmallows and broil until toasted and gooey.

We may or may not eat the entire thing for dinner. There will definitely be wine and maybe even candles, we'll then watch reruns of Law & Order SVU and I'll think about how lucky I am that internet dating paid off for me.

Happy Valentines Day! I hope yours is just as sweet.

]]>

A lazy girl's guide to preserving tomatoes

2011-10-04T11:00:00Z

salsa verde for the winter. I left another bunch of them nestled in crumpled newspaper in a box in the basement and they ripened up nicely. ]]>

I wanted to can up some tomato sauce for the winter but since most of my garden tomatoes are heirlooms they can be all over the map with acid levels and I didn't want to risk it. So instead I decided to slow roast up a bunch and freeze them in ziploc bags. Aka the lazy girl's method of tomato preserving!

This is a very rustic sauce so I simply cut up the assorted tomatoes in wedges with the peels still on, topped them with some fresh thyme and a whole bulb of chopped Ontario garlic and put them in a low 300 degree oven.

Here they are after about an hour in the oven, the house is smelling great by now but they still need some more time.

Another hour later and they are looking really good.

Allow the tomatoes to cool and then load into large freezer bags.

Flatten, squeezing out all the air and then freeze on the cookie sheet, by freezing them flat they'll store nicely in the freezer and stack easily.

Now in the dark of winter I can simply thaw one, boil up some pasta and dinner is done and I barely broke a sweat! Sometimes I toast my laziness.

]]>

Fig preserves redux

2011-09-13T12:00:00Z

fig preserves two ways? They were delicious, garnished many a cheese plate in the last year and made lovely hostess gifts during the holiday season. In their tiny 125 ml jars they were the perfect size to just open and pop on the cheese platter as is. Well I'm back at it. I figure if George Lucas can go back and reedit the Star Wars trilogy every couple of years I'm allowed to go back and improve on my fig preserves (I fully realize nerds everywhere will debate if George Lucas' changes are really improvements but in the case of my preserves they are!)

]]> I loved both our balsamic and black pepper and orange versions last year but discovered quite by accident that they were actually best when the two kinds were blended together. By accident I mean we'd opened one jar for Christmas Eve and one for Christmas Day and in an effort to save fridge space the dregs of both got combined into one jar.

I made one batch of this jam on the weekend and was so happy with it I went back and bought more figs today and did another 12 jars. Maybe next year when the special effects/jam technology progresses even further I'll go back in to the recipe again and make more improvements but as it stands so far it's pretty darn good!

All kidding aside (how will I show my face at Fan Expo next year?) this fig jam is excellent with aged and runny goats cheeses or as part of a grilled cheese with gouda or havarti or as I discovered tonight as a pizza with prosciutto and arugula.

Fig Preserves Special Edition, Rereleased (Greedo shoots first!)

24 figs (one of those little flats or a few small baskets)

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

½ cup balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon orange zest (zest about half a large orange)

1 tsp fresh ground black pepper

1. Sterilize 12 clean 125 ml jars and lids in boiling water or run them through the dishwasher set to extra hot setting. Keep jars and sealing discs hot until ready to use.

2. In a large saucepan, combine figs, sugar, vinegar and orange zest.

3. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring frequently. Reduce heat, cover and boil gently until soft, about 10 minutes. Let cool slightly. Transfer to a food processor fitted with a metal blade or use an immersion hand blender and purée leaving it slightly chunky and rustic looking. Stir in black pepper.

4. Ladle hot preserves into a hot jar to within 1/4 inch of top of jar (headspace). Wipe jar rim with a clean dampened cloth to remove any drips or smears. Centre hot snap lid on clean jar rim. Screw band down "fingertip" tight. Place filled jars in your canner filled with boiling water - a pasta pot or asparagus pot also works if you don't have a canner pot or you can buy a universal round rack that fits in the bottom of most large stock pots - basically you don't want the jars touching the bottom of the pot - this could cause breakage. Repeat for remaining jam.

5. When canner is filled, ensure that all jars are covered by at least one inch of water. Cover canner and bring water to full rolling boil before starting to count processing time. Boil filled jars for 6 minutes.

6. When processing time is complete, turn stove off, remove canner lid, wait 5 minutes, then remove jars without tilting and place them upright on your counter on top of a towel (this is so your jars don't crack coming from a hot pot to a cold countertop). Cool upright, undisturbed 24 hours.

7. After cooling check jar seals. Sealed lids curve downward and do not move when pressed. Remove screw bands; wipe and dry bands and jars. Store screw bands separately or replace loosely on jars, as desired. Label and store jars in a cool, dark place. Refrigerate any unsealed jars and eat within a month.

Fig, prosciutto and arugula pizza

Adapted almost exactly from Pioneer Woman

When I first saw this recipe on Pioneer Woman I knew I had to make it. Today's jam adventure yielded 12 jars plus extra that just wasn't enough to fill a 13th jar. This was a perfect use for that extra jam! A tour through the fridge showed we also had both mozzarella and parmesan cheese, prosciutto and we always have arugula in the garden (it's our favourite salad green).

Now unlike the Pioneer Woman I don't make my own pizza dough. This is for two reasons, first, I live in Toronto's Corso Italia neigbourhood and all the local bakeries sell fresh pizza dough for about $1.50. I can't make dough that good for that little. Second, yeasted doughs scare me. I don't make breads or pizzas doughs because they include yeast and it's alive. It freaks me out and I admit is completely irrational.

It's super easy. Dough is spread with fig preserves, topped with mozzarella and baked off until golden in a 450 degree oven.

When it's pulled out of the oven it's topped with slices of prosciutto, arugula and some fresh grated parmesan.

It's heavenly, a perfect blend of sweet, savoury, cheesy and peppery from the arugula. What a easy and delicious dinner. This would also be good cut into small pieces as an appetizer or at a party.

So, do you use the same recipes for your canning every year? Or like old George can you just not leave well enough alone and keep tinkering? Do you bravely make your own pizza dough and yeast be damned? Let me know in the comments area below!

]]>

Fresh Moves for food deserts

2011-08-16T21:39:29Z

Here at Folks Gotta Eat, we've talked about food deserts before. According to Chicago-based Fresh Moves, a food desert is "a problem in which entire communities have severely limited access to fresh fruits and veggies, and therefore suffer from significant health issues related to poor diets." So, what can we do about them? ]]>

We love our cars back home in the States, so, it should come as no surprise that folks up and invented the "Mobile Produce Market." (Though back home in Missouri growing up, it was usual for folks to just pull over their van, car, or truck and sell their fruits, veggies, hand-made dolls, corn cob pipes - you name it - out of the back at any decent intersection. I'm pretty sure folks didn't need permits for that - they just did it.)

Fresh Moves is an organization in Chicago that came together to begin to address the problem of food deserts in the city. From the Fresh Moves website:

The answer? Put the whole thing on wheels! So Food Desert Action sprang into, well, ACTION. They were able to secure a bus, donated from the CTA. They partnered with Architecture for Humanity to transform the bus into a mobile produce market. They worked with volunteers at EPIC to put together this website. And now, they're working hard to bring the Lawndale community fresh, delicious, nutritious produce - and educating the public at large about how fun it can be to eat healthily.

]]>

Alexandra Cousteau on World Water Day

2011-03-23T02:07:47Z

Folks Gotta Eat for long, you know that I give a shit about the future of water, and so should you. Here's one of the best pieces I've read in celebration of World Water Day, so I thought I would share it. It's from the granddaughter of Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Alexandra Cousteau. She writes, "Today is World Water Day. To mark the occasion, I have three challenges for you..."]]>

Make a difference in the global clean water crisis. One in eight people -- almost one billion -- on our planet do not have access to safe water. Illnesses resulting from a lack of safe water kill more young children than AIDS, malaria, and measles combined. Tragically, the United Nations has reported that even more people die from unsafe water than from all forms of violence, including war. This is one of the great tragedies and challenges of our time and it's something that our generation has the technology and resources to address. There are several outstanding and highly credible organizations that are making a measurable difference for communities throughout the world. I recommend NYC-based charity: water.
Manage your personal water footprint. Your water consumption goes far beyond the tap. We teamed up with the National Geographic Society to put together a simple and robust water calculator at NationalGeographic.com/water. It's amazing how easy and practical it is to cut your water footprint by 10 to 15-percent.
Get involved on your own waterfront. Every single one of us lives on the waterfront. Your waterfront may be the storm drain on your street, the creek in your backyard or the ocean that borders your town -- our relationship with water in all of its forms is critical to the health and well being of our families, our communities and our water planet. Taking care of this intergenerational community asset goes beyond what most think of as "environmentalism" and gets to the very heart of how we define healthy communities; how we manage the resources that create jobs and local economy; and how we build local capacity now for the challenges ahead.

My grandfather Jacques-Yves Cousteau was always baffled when people would ask him why he was such a vocal advocate for protecting water resources. He would usually begin his response with, "When you go and see..." and then paint the picture as only he could of the majesty and importance of the water place in question.

His advice still rings true today. I challenge you to explore your local waterfront. Take a walk along the creek or river in your city and ask yourself if it's the kind of place where you'd let your children swim. Stop for a moment the next time it rains and consider the water you see running off of your property or along a nearby street and ask yourself if you'd eat fish from the waters it drains to. Go and see the places where your drinking water is sourced.

Regardless of backgrounds or political philosophies, I believe we all want to live and raise our families in communities where our local water is safe enough for swimming, drinking and fishing. On this World Water Day, I challenge you to explore and get involved in your own waterfront.

Alexandra Cousteau recently teamed up with RBC and National Geographic for a 138-day tour of water issues across the US, Canada and Mexico called Expedition Blue Planet: North America. They documented shocking water issues, incredible innovations and inspiring stories along the way. You can watch films from the expedition and learn more about making a difference on your own waterfront on our site at www.AlexandraCousteau.org.

**This piece originally appeared on the Huffington Post.

]]>

Making granola bars is easy!

2011-03-20T01:24:08Z

Galen Weston Jr. of the Loblaws grocery chain here in Canada. He is often maligned for his hokey ads for new President's Choice products that paint him as an everyman who just gets really excited about premade cheesecakes when in actual fact he took over the 9 billion dollar Loblaws Companies Limited from dear old Dad. ]]>

However in talking to friends I notice there is a growing underground fangirl movement for the man. As evidenced by the hubs I obviously have a thing for nerds and Galen (often in argyle sweaters - especially in their holiday ads) talking about the new Presidents Choice products is just the ticket for me. In fact when I'm off to our local Loblaws Superstore I often yell out that "I'm off to see my boyfriend Galen" while hubs rolls his eyes.

While I'm usually more than happy to pay for the convenience of their fantastic ready made products it irks me how much granola and energy bars cost (anywhere from $2.49 to $4 a box with 6 to 8 bars) plus the amount of packaging makes me feel a bit sick.

Added to that a huge list of ingredients, including some I can't even pronounce and I was ready to break up with Galen once and for all!

One of my favourite bloggers (seriously check out her kitchen reno posts - GORGEOUS) recently posted a recipe for granola bars and a homemade version of Larabars that were drool worthy. Meanwhile the dance company I work for was deep in rehearsals and I thought taking some healthy snacks to the dancers would be much appreciated. I decided to double up the recipe to feed 10 hard working dancers and try it out.

Sadly I realized once I'd already started melting honey and butter that I was out of dried apricots and raisins. However with the clock ticking and rehearsal looming I decided to use Shutterbean's ratio of sweeteners and butter with what I had on hand. It fast became an excuse to clean out my pantry and use what I did have - dates, dried ginger, coconut and some leftover cashews.

What a success they were! They were delicious and those hungry boys gobbled them up! I've since bought a huge bag of apricots and more dates and can't wait to continue playing with the combinations of dried fruits, nuts and seeds. They are so easy I'll never buy packaged granola bars again and they make the house smell delicious. My only suggestion is to let them cool almost completely before cutting them. When I tried cutting them after waiting only 30 minutes they started to fall apart.

Melting butter (or margarine), dark brown sugar and some creamy honey.

Nutty Ginger Date Granola Bars

Makes 24 bars

Recipe adapted from Shutterbean

¾ cup butter or vegan margarine (in this batch I used an olive oil based margarine as there were some vegans in the company)

1 cup honey

1 cup packed brown sugar

4 cups rolled oats

1 cup slivered almonds

1 cup cashews chopped (mine were leftover from Christmas so were salted - but I love a little salt in my sweet)

½ cup pumpkin seeds

1 cup shredded coconut

1 cup chopped dates

¾ cup finely chopped candied ginger

2 tbsps flax seed

¼ cup wheat germ

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Line an 9 x 13 inch baking pan with parchment paper and set aside. In a large saucepan, melt butter with honey and brown sugar. In a large bowl mix the oats, dried fruits & nuts with the wheat germ. Pour the sugar/honey mixture into the dried goods and stir thoroughly.

Firmly press the granola mixture into your prepared baking pan - I used a metal spatula and all my strength - and bake for 45 minutes. Let cool and cut into bars.

How yummy is this?

Or how yummy are they?

]]>

March 22nd is World Water Day

2011-03-15T14:35:44Z

Tap Water Pledge in support for public tap water on the Council of Canadians website, then I went into my kitchen, filled a pint glass with Toronto tap water, and drank it down. What a luxury! ]]>

I was up late last night watching coverage of the near nuclear meltdown happening in Japan. I was thinking about how water is the only saviour in that situation to keep everything cool, but then I felt sick to my stomach thinking about how dangerous and contaminated all of the water anywhere near there will be for years to come.

This tap water thing - it is a privilege to have clean, plentiful, accessible water. We have to protect it, and promote safe water as a fundamental human right.

In honour of World Water Day, I'm planning to head out to some events. The first I'll share with you is at the Royal Ontario Museum. This month, they are featuring a water exhibition and forum. As it's sponsored by RBC's Blue Water Project, I'm heading in with a critical eye, but I'm appreciative of the spotlight on water, nonetheless.

Stay tuned for more about water events and actions you can take. I'll close with a few lines from Mos Def and his song "New World Water."

Man, you gotta cook with it, bathe and clean with it (That's right)
When it's hot, summertime you fiend for it (Let 'em know)
You gotta put it in the iron you steamin' with (That's right)
It's what they dress wounds and treat diseases with (Shout it out)
The rich and poor, black and white got need for it (That's right)
And everybody in the world can agree with this (Let 'em know)

]]>

Learning about Canada's food trends

2011-03-09T03:26:46Z

This past Saturday night, I was lucky enough to select from two fabulous main courses at Brockton General in Toronto. This charming little spot is a perfect case study of the findings of a recent survey that checked in with more than 500 professional chefs to identify "what's hot" for Canadian restaurants in 2011.

The results are not surprising, but I find number number three kind of funny (nutrition and health), given all the restaurants that seem to have sprung up on every corner specializing in charcuterie, gourmet burgers and macaroni and cheese. (For folks back home, charcuterie is a fancy word for salting, smoking and curing.) Not that I'm complaining, as my "potted animal" that arrived to the table on Saturday night in a beautiful little mason jar was pretty damn tasty as a compliment to the handmade pasta laced with toasted pumpkin seed magic. (Can you tell that I generally write about food politics and not recipes or restaurant reviews? I don't even know what the hell the stuff on the pasta was called - "sauce" seems underwhelming somehow.)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 3, 2010

TORONTO - Local, sustainable and healthy options top the list of menu trends in Canadian restaurants for 2011. More than 500 professional chefs identified what's hot in the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association's (CRFA's) second annual Canadian Chef Survey conducted by independent market research firm BrandSpark International.

Top 10 Canadian menu trends for 2011:

Locally produced food and locally inspired dishes
Sustainability
Nutrition and health
Organics
Simplicity/back-to-basics
Gluten-free/food allergy conscious
Craft beer/microbrews
Artisanal cheeses
Bite-size/mini desserts
Quinoa/ancient grains

]]>

Veterans to farmers

2011-01-11T15:56:02Z

Tuesday. Here at Folks Gotta Eat, we try and learn something new on Tuesdays. I've just been reading about a project that seems like a good use of USDA funding - the Farmer-Veteran Coalition.]]>

When I was growing up back home in rural Missouri, there seemed to be only a handful of options for young people after they finished high school - if they finished high school. You could either go off to university (a very small percentage of young people realized this), go to work in the lead mines, go to work in the log woods, or join the military. I was fortunate that when my younger brother joined the Navy, we were in a time of relative peace. He was able to get a pretty fantastic education, and now has an amazing, stable career in aviation.

These days in the U.S. and Canada, not much has changed. In fact, many of the employment opportunities listed above are dwindling, so the situation is even worse. And what about the young people from rural areas who return from service in Iraq and Afghanistan to a terrible economy and scarce supports? Well, this is where the Farmer-Veteran Coalition comes in.

According to their website, the problem looks something like this:

Rural communities are experiencing a disproportionate amount of U.S. military deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a study released in 2006 by the Carsey Institute, a think tank at the University of New Hampshire. "The mortality rate for soldiers from rural America is about 60 percent higher than the mortality rate for soldiers from metropolitan areas," said the Institute's William O'Hare. According to the study, "The elevated rural death rate reflects a higher enlistment rate among young adults in rural America, where private sector jobs are often scarce. Only 24 percent of employed young adults, ages 18 to 24, hold full-time jobs in rural communities. Traditional rural employment in farming, logging, mining, fishing and small manufacturing have been declining for many years."

Their solution?

The Farmer-Veteran Coalition would like as its goal to reach .5% of all veterans with post 9/30/2001 service, and either introduce them to the range of opportunities in our industry, or help support and advance them if they have already chosen our field. That is 10,000 current veterans and will go to 15,000 over the next 3 to 5 years.

Careers in our field would be traditional family farms, farm management jobs, specialized skills on existing farms (agronomy, veterinary, quality control, mechanics, equipment operation, distribution, sales, etc.), specialized areas of agriculture (horticulture, viticulture, apiculture), food processing and retail food handling and sales.

Cool stuff.]]>

Learning about food and class

2010-12-28T15:10:55Z

article in Newsweek, of all places. I'm not sure if it's my white liberal guilt (which I don't really believe in, but seems to be a common label), or my on-going concern that I will be further divided from my family, but I think a lot about food and class. This particular article is great because it tosses out some fantastic facts that provide perspective on what is happening in the U.S., and in many parts of the world, concerning the great food divide. ]]>

If you've been reading FGE long, you probably know where I fall on the "foodie" spectrum. I've not yet reached the point of going to specialty shops looking for rare ingredients, but I do completely get off on a trip to Whole Foods (so many pretty things!). My household spends 20% (easily) of our income on food, while the U.S. average is 13%.

I think the authors first important point is a reminder that this type of food divide is far from new.

There have always been rich people and poor people in America and, in a capitalist economy, the well-to-do have always had the freedom to indulge themselves as they please. In hard times, food has always marked a bright border between the haves and the have-nots. In the earliest days of the Depression, as the poor waited on bread lines, the middle and upper classes in America became devoted to fad diets. Followers of the Hollywood 18-Day Diet, writes Harvey Levenstein in his 1993 book Paradox of Plenty,"could live on fewer than six hundred calories a day by limiting each meal to half a grapefruit, melba toast, coffee without cream or sugar, and, at lunch and dinner, some raw vegetables."

It's hard to imagine that so many folks would be starving and waiting hours for a simple loaf of bread while others obsess and limit their consumption. However, that's not far off the mark from what we have today. According to the article, the number of Americans on food stamps (SNAP) has surged by 58.5 percent in the last three years. That's a lot of folks on "bread lines" if you will. This while I'm trying to make the "important" decision of which gourmet hotspot to head to for dinner in NYC tonight.

The article goes on to discuss the point that how Americans see food might be a huge part of the problem. Americans see food as a "matter of personal freedom" - we are "food libertarians." Perhaps a more utilitarian view of food as a necessity, much the same as water, might be in order?

[Joel Berg, Executive Director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger] believes, like Fischler, that the answer lies in seeing food more as a shared resource, like water, than as a consumer product, like shoes. "It's a nuanced conversation, but I think 'local' or 'organic' as the shorthand for all things good is way too simplistic," says Berg. "I think we need a broader conversation about scale, working conditions, and environmental impact. It's a little too much of people buying easy virtue." The food industry hasn't been entirely bad: it developed the technology to bring apples to Wisconsin in the middle of winter, after all. It could surely make sustainably produced fruits and vegetables affordable and available. "We need to bring social justice to bigger agriculture as well," Berg says.

Agreed.

"You can't force junk on people and then criticize it at the same time." Suluki is a community organizer, and sees the web of problems before us--hunger, obesity, health--as something for the community to solve. "We can't just attack this problem as individuals," he tells me. "A healthy community produces healthy people."

Which brings us back to the need to work on building healthy, INCLUSIVE communities.

]]>

B.C. and Ontario food production

2010-11-02T05:00:59Z

hopeful and positive. No cynicism at Casa Melanie allowed! In this vein, The Tyee has a new series running on Thursdays and Fridays that educates, stimulates and inspires: Growing the Local Bounty: Reports from Farmlands In Flux in Ontario and B.C. ]]>

I'm a little behind the trigger on this one, as it started last week and I only just saw it today. Mama's been busy bringing home the local, sustainable bacon, and hasn't had time to attend to her blog as much as she'd like. (Sometimes I switch into the third person without warning.) Besides the piece that introduces the series, there are two articles from the series already on The Tyee. One looks at innovations in farm product distribution by farmers in Ontario's Mennonite community. The second explores another farm-to-table project in B.C.

People are hungry for change. But the reality is that consumer demand alone won't create the kind of food system we want. What will it take? What are the ingredients of truly local, sustainable and equitable food systems? These are the questions that we seek to answer with this series produced by The Tyee Solutions Society.

Stay tuned to The Tyee for more from this spectacular series.

]]>

Why we're fat

2010-09-28T12:59:06Z

freedom! ]]>

The folks I dearly admire over at Grist posted this fantastic visual from Visual Economics (my new fave site) to help us understand what Americans are eating, and how that might lead to the challenges with obesity. I'm struck by the amount of corn syrup (now carefully re-branded as "corn sugar" to fight the stigma) that folks take in. Yikers. I guess the Big Gulp contributes to that. Does anything strike you about this visual?

]]>

Food resistance

2010-09-21T12:55:55Z

Even in job interview settings, when folks ask me what my biggest professional challenge is, I can easily name that I am not so good with authority. I also consider this one of my greatest assets. It's why I choose leadership positions professionally, and why I love to host the dinner parties. So, naturally, resisting the food authorities resonates with me.

I should qualify this post by saying that I firmly believe in food safety regulations. However, my inner Libertarian (we've talked about her before) asserts that individuals have the right to, for example, consume raw milk products if they darn well please!

This morning over coffee I was reading my favourite online rag, Grist, and caught David Gumpert's piece, "Six things you should know before defying the real food police." Gumpert is right on that food resistance is serious business. We all know what happens when you stand up to Monsanto, for example - they put Blackwater on your trail!

So, what are the six things you should know to support you in your resistance efforts?

As more individuals contemplate resistance, it's important to consider the ramifications. Here are a half-dozen insights I've gleaned from speaking with a number of resisters as to what you can expect if you defy the real food police.

1. You will be treated harshly: The sight of agriculture agents escorted by one or two state police vehicles showing up in one's front yard is an intimidating one for most people. The intent, of course, is to send a grim message to others who may be contemplating a similar action. Sometimes there are ongoing search warrants, as in the case of Vernon Hershberger in Wisconsin. Sometimes there are additional official orders, as in the case of Rawesome in California.

2. Get used to the loneliness: Some individuals who resist expect other farmers to back them, and for consumers to rally to the cause. While consumers have made noise in places like Wisconsin and Massachusetts by phoning local politicians, farmers are often shocked by the lack of support they receive from other farmers. One farmer who spoke out loudly after his raw dairy was shut down told me several neighboring farmers not only didn't help, but used the event as an excuse to steal customers from him. But even those unaffected farmers who are sympathetic are mostly concerned with making a living so they can keep up on their home and equipment payments.

3. Better have your family on board: There's little worse than publicly standing up to the authorities then having your spouse tell you shortly afterwards that you were a fool, and that s/he can't take the pressure. One farmer told me his wife dreads his business trips for fear she'll have to confront the authorities herself.

4. It is stressful: You should assume you're being watched a lot, and you never know when the authorities will show up. The authorities will play on the fear and uncertainty most people feel, sometimes keeping a farm under observation, and even waiting till both parents are gone so they can confront the teenage children left in charge and serve a search warrant.

5. Going underground is no panacea: One farmer who stood up in protest decided after a few months to simply do her raw milk business underground, out of public view. But now, each time she gets ready to ship or transport the contraband food items, she feels increasingly nervous: "I'm not naturally a sneak."

6. Be ready to obtain legal help: Farmers and food distributors are often loath to seek out legal help because it's so expensive -- $300 to $500 an hour isn't unusual. Based on what I've observed, resisters should do whatever they can to get legal assistance. There are too many instances where search warrants are defective in one respect or another -- for example, in not giving authorities the right to use force to gain entry to buildings or storage areas. Sometimes, there aren't even laws on the books covering the authorities' actions; in Massachusetts, agriculture authorities said "cowshare" arrangements are illegal when issuing a cease-and-desist order to Brigitte Ruthman, yet there are no laws on the books covering cowshares. She has since engaged an attorney to help her counter the case. The Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund can provide legal input as well.

There's little doubt that more farmers will stand up to what seems to many uneven enforcement of food-safety laws, which favor factory operations over smaller operations. For example, officials have linked a new strain of E. coli to actual illnesses, reports the New York Times, yet they can't even force the large meat processors to test whether their meat is tainted with it.

Just understand that the glory days of food resistance haven't yet arrived.

]]>

Luxury water? Um, no thank you.

2010-09-15T02:44:33Z

look at it! Now tell, me folks, what does Ron White imagine "Luxury Water" to be? ]]>

I mean, there is the obvious to consider - it is more than likely a toxic plastic bottle filled with tap water from ol' Ron White's house himself. The deeper issue here is almost too disturbing to consider, though I tend to think about it, and blog about it, quite a lot. Water is NOT a luxury item, it's a damn human right.

I have the urge to go over to Ron's house (I'm not sure a "Ron" actually exists. All I really know about Ron is that I've peered into the window of his shoe store and it's pretty tasty, though out of my price range), and smack him a few times with his luxury water bottle. (I will admit that after listening to part of this week's This American Life podcast about a guy who got the full police and legal smack down after jokingly threatening the Apple store on Facebook, I'm a bit hesitant to publicly talk about readjusting Ron White's attitude.)

I'll close with a photo of the two most frightening things I know of at this time.

]]>

They say corn is king

2010-08-24T05:06:00Z

King Corn," wanted to understand corn. They started off their journey by getting a professional hair analysis. Turns out, the carbon in their bodies originates from corn. It seems most of us these days are made of commodity corn that must be processed before we can eat it. (Fact: An Iowa farmer can no longer feed herself by the corn on her farm.) ]]>

Where, oh where, does commodity corn go?

Feed for animals (about half of all commodity corn)
High fructose corn syrup
Corn protein
Corn starch

Ian and Curt not only get an education about corn, but manage to pull together a film that educates the rest of us too. The only sad part is that, like many of us, they had to see that the mass production of commodity corn leads to economies that no longer support smaller farming operations. It also leads to cattle confinement feeding operations that result in a whole lot of sick cows and, eventually, unhealthy people. Pile on the high fructose corn syrup, and it's no wonder we're the first generation that might have shorter life spans than our parents due to our eating habits.

]]>