‘Diet for a Hot Planet’ author has a recipe for eating responsibly
- Topics:
- Blog
Thursday, March 11th, 2010, 1:42 PM
Check out article on Diet for a Hot Planet by MNN writer Sidney Stevens.
Ladies We Love
- Topics:
- Blog, Local Food
Monday, March 8th, 2010, 3:41 PM
Thanks to Cathy Erway for the sweet shout out in the very cool Ladies’ Home Journal/Ladies Lounge blog post about her new book, The Art of Eating In. Cathy is a lady we can all admire for calling attention to the merits fresh, healthy, homemade food.
Great review from Kirkus
- Topics:
- Blog
Monday, March 8th, 2010, 1:10 PM
Just got word of the following favorable review from Kirkus!
DIET FOR A HOT PLANET: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do About It by Anna Lappé
MSN “Practical Guide for Healthy Living” host Lappé elaborates on her mother’s conviction, elucidated in the classic Diet for a Small Planet (1971), that individual food choices can lead to massive social consequences.
The author convincingly argues that food is “the integrating lens” for the innumerable responses to climate change. At three meals or more per day, Lappé writes, we are faced with either supporting or resisting industrial food production. So-called conventional food production and distribution—ecologically and economically fragile—contributes to nearly one-third of total human-caused global warming and paradoxically creates hunger out of plenty. Organic, local, plant-based foods, on the other hand, have the potential to not only mitigate but ultimately repair this damage. Lappé bolsters her support for a local, organic diet with a substantial bibliography of peer-reviewed science, studies, policies and interviews. Her journalism and science is rock-solid, as are her clear-headed critiques of scare-mongering by corporations (like Monsanto or Dow) invested in biotech or industrial food production. The author offers simple solutions to our near-future food security and climate stability—eat real foods, mostly plants, from organic, local sources. Yes, Michael Pollan owns this territory, but Lappé helpfully recontextualizes the argument, noting that one mealtime choice, multiplied by millions, offers benefits toward planetary health and food security. Accessibly written, rationally argued and focused on action over rhetoric, the book will interest parents, foodies, economists, committed vegetarians, moral omnivores, environmentalists, health enthusiasts and anyone interested in actually doing something about climate change while government responses stagnate.
An essential toolkit for readers looking for a pragmatic climate-response action plan of their own.
(Author tour to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, Ore., Seattle, Durham, N.C., Ann Arbor, Mich., Minneapolis, Northampton, Mass., Boston, Washington, D.C., New York. Agent: Sam Stoloff/Frances Goldin Literary Agency)
Diet for a Hot Planet launch plans are set!
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- Blog
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010, 5:00 PM
Mark the calendar for April 1st! That’s the day we’ll celebrate the official launch of Diet for a Hot Planet in New York City.
I’m excited – and honored – that so many great organizations are sponsoring this launch, including The Food Studies Program at The New School, with Bloomsbury USA, Edible Manhattan, Glynwood Institute, Just Food, Sustainable Table, and WhyHunger.
More info – including where you can RSVP – on the events page.
Hope to see you on April 1st!
Food Rebellions this Friday!
- Topics:
- Blog
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010, 4:31 PM
Check it out! This Friday evening, Eric Holt-Giménez, author and Executive Director of Food First, will host a stimulating discussion of his latest book (co-authored by Raj Patel with Annie Shattuck) Food Rebellions: Crisis and the Hunger for Justice. Learn about the root causes driving the food crisis and the powerful movements that have risen in response.
Friday, March 5, 2010 at 7:30 PM
1199SEIU Martin Luther King Jr. Labor Center Auditorium
310 West 43rd St. (btwn 8th and 9th Avenues)
New York, NY
The Small Planet Institute is proud to be a co-sponsor of this event, along with the Alberto Lovera Bolivarian Circle of NY, in partnership with WhyHunger and the Brooklyn Food Coalition.
This event is free and open to the public – bring your friends!
For more info, contact cbalbertolovera@gmail.com
Tips for Taking the Principles of Eating In On the Road
- Topics:
- Blog, Local Food
Monday, March 1st, 2010, 6:03 PM
Traveled down to DC last Thursday in the middle of Eat In week. I braved the blizzard at La Guardia and the guy in the suit in 6F throwing up. (Thankfully he went for one of those paper bags in the seat pocket you always wonder if anybody actually uses.)
I knew this trip would fall in heart of “Eat In” week, but I imagined packing myself off with meals to carry me through at least a day. But getting out of the house, and setting up my seventh-month old with her babysitter, proved a bit preoccupying. As a result, I was reminded of a few of the basic principles of sort-of eating in, on the road. And I decided I would only eat out what I could make at home. That meant, of course, cutting out all processed foods and most of what you find in airports. It also meant planning ahead. So the first night in DC, when I was heading back to my hotel, and before ducking into the Metro, I spied a café with handmade sandwiches and just-made soups and salads and dove in. A half-hour later, popping up somewhere in Maryland, I was glad I had. The only so-called food options out there were golden arches and a strip mall’s Chinese takeout.
Eating well on the road is tough, but not impossible. And, it’s getting easier, at least marginally so.
When we landed at DCA on Thursday and I was famished–despite the stomach-turning in-flight experience–I discovered Cibo stocked a self-declared “vegan sandwich” with hummous, eggplant, and squash on 7-grain bread. It was certainly not as good as what any of us could make for ourselves, but at least it met my cardinal rule. I would make it at home.
Here are some more tips for eating well on the road:
1. Bring your own gear: Grist’s Umbra has a great video on the benefits and sourcing of cool to-go food gear. When traveling, I always try to remember to grab my coffee mug and bring my own tea bags, especially nice for late nights in hotel rooms when you’ve got a coffee maker and not much else.
2. Make your own to-go snacks: I love to bring along nuts and dried fruit: cashews and dried cranberries, almonds and raisins. Your own personalized trail mix is always a great snack in a pinch.
3. Keep your eyes peeled: When you see good food, go for it. You never know when you’ll find it again.
4. Tap online resources before you go: Use the Eat Well Guide to find farmers market hours, stores with great food options, and restaurants carrying sustainably raised and locally grown foods.
5. Ask the locals: Peep up on Twitter, check out Chowhound, see what the Slow Food USA chapters have to say. Even if you don’t know any locals where you’re headed, you can ask informed sustainable food devotees. You’ll be glad you did.
Getting behind the climate change deniers
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- Blog
Thursday, February 25th, 2010, 3:37 PM
Climate change skeptics are the same “recycled critics” who challenged the effects of tobacco and acid rain, says Jeffrey Sachs in an informative article in The Guardian.
And, in many cases they are backed by the same big money corporations and lobbyists. But we shouldn’t be fooled – we need to listen to the climate scientists who have issued a clear warning about the human impact on the climate – and then we need to act.
–posted by Kate
Week of Eating In: So far, so good
- Topics:
- Blog, Local Food
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010, 4:44 PM
Today’s challenge ended up being not so challenging after all.
Problem: 12:30pm lunch date at DUMBO restaurant Superfine with Slow Food USA’s Josh Viertel.
Solution: Turn a lunch into a picnic (at the office).
The Result: Cheaper lunch. Better food. More fun.
Carrying a bag of homemade treats into the cavernous 20 Jay Street (a convenient two blocks down from my shared green offices), I got to see Slow Food up-close-and-personal and was charmed by the friendly staff who communed at a communal table over food from their home fridges.
Josh enjoyed my husband’s leftover veggie chili, garnished with slices of radish and scooped from last night’s big pot. For “dessert” we had apple slices with yogurt (and some chocolate, of course). ["Tempeh Chili with Black Beans," How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, Mark Bittman, pp.678-679]
While Josh was making us espressos–yes, Slow Food has its own mini-Lavazza machine in their office kitchen thanks to Slow Food International’s relationship with the company–one of the staff squeezed past him.
“Sorry, just trying to get the compost,” she said as she opened the freezer, popped open a Tupperware container, and tossed in the day’s food scraps.
Seems Slow Food peeps are really walking their talk.
After we finished our chat, Josh introduced me to some of the staff, most of whom I’d only “met” online and it was lovely to put faces to names.
In the end, Josh and I agreed the conversation was much more fruitful and fun than if we’d dined at Superfine down the street.
Conclusion: Challenge met.
TIP 1: Get Inspired
As we explore the challenges, and joys, of eating in this week, I thought I would share some tips along the way. My first: Get inspired.
Though I love food, I’m no chef nor am I one of those cooks who can walk into a kitchen and whip up a feast from whatever is in the fridge. Nope. I need direction. I need cookbooks. And I love them. I love learning how to put together new and unusual flavors. I love getting to know different cookbook “palettes.” Peter Berley is fond of maple syrup. Lorna Sass has a thing for lentils. And so on.
In honor of the week, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite sources of inspiration:
• How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Bittman has a refreshingly simple way of presenting his recipes and explaining steps. He demystifies techniques and whether you’re a seasoned home chef or a total newbie, there’s soemthing in here for everyone.
• The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen: I would keep this cookbook on my shelf for the vegan skillet cornbread alone, but it’s also chockful of other great ideas.
• The Joy of Cooking: Indispensible for the basics.
• Recipes from an Ecological Kitchen: Lorna Sass was green long before it was hip. Most of the eco-minded messages that I highlight in my work, she’s been saying for a long time. Lorna’s soups are especially divine. Make a pot and have it all week.
• The Cheeseboard Cookbook: The scones are devilishly good and the pizzas are creative concoctions: Try the zucchini, feta, lime, and cilantro. Yum.
• Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen: Half of my last book includes my take on what we call grub–healthy, local, sustainably raised and fairly made food–why it’s important and how we can fight for it. The second half is filled with recipes by my co-author Bryant Terry who created seasonal menus complete with suggested soundtracks to consume will you cook and dine. What’s the soundtrack to your food?
• Lucid Food: My friend Louisa Shafia has a new cookbook and it’s as gorgeous to look at as it is to cook from.
• Super Natural Cooking: Heidi Swanson, the goddess behind 101cookbooks.com got a deserved James Beard Award for this cookbook. Dive in. You won’t be sorry.
Those are just some of my favs. What are yours?
Off to think about what to make for dinner…
Week of Eating In, Dispatch 1: The Challenge of Eating In
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- Blog
Monday, February 22nd, 2010, 4:34 PM
As soon as Cathy asked if I would join the week of Eating In, I said “Yes, of course!”
I read an advance copy of Cathy’s book and loved it, had fun with helping with her Hungry Filmmakers here in the city, and am in the midst of final touches on a tour for my new book, Diet for a Hot Planet.
Like Cathy, and the thousands of us across the country participating in the Week of Eating In, I care about where my food comes from and believe what we eat makes a whopping difference not only to our own happiness and waistline but to the health of the planet and its climate, too. So I figured it’d be the least I could do to throw in my lot with the Week of Eating In. I also thought it would be easy.
But then I remembered…
Choice, arguably the best café in all of the lovely borough of Brooklyn, opened a second restaurant six days ago. It’s a half a block from my office. Last week the lunch lines were so long they wound out the restaurant door. Can I really resist their scones for one more week?
Plus, there’s the coffee problem. I swore it off during nine months of pregnancy and most of nursing so far. But now that I’m back in the coffee boat it’s hard to resist the brewing barrels down the hall from my office. (Note to self: Remember to brew more in the morning and take those to-go mugs to work.)
Then I looked at my calendar: I had planned three business lunch dates this week. I’m also headed down the east coast on Thursday for a presentation in Washington D.C. and have a talk on Friday in Maryland. There’s a dinner birthday party on Friday night and we had committed to a brunch with the moms and dads we see every week at our daughter’s YMCA swim class. And, in complete Eating In irony, there’s my dinner date Tuesday with one of the women who got me eating in in the first place: my friend Mollie Katzen. Hmm. All of a sudden not eating out seemed a lot more challenging.
Now I’m wondering what I got myself into.
FoodNYC report is out today!
- Topics:
- Blog, Food Policy & Politics, Local Food
Thursday, February 18th, 2010, 1:25 PM
FoodNYC: A Blueprint for a Sustainable Food System was released by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer this morning.
It’s full of ideas that came out of the fantastic food and climate conference held in December. The report is the first unified and comprehensive set of “food policy” proposals aimed at improving health and the environment, and creating jobs – good news for New Yorkers.
It’s inspiring to see real work and tangible proposals coming out of the summit in which so many people participated!
Snowy Saturday at Duke
- Topics:
- Blog, Take a Bite News & Events
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010, 4:03 PM
North Carolina got some snow while I was there this weekend, but that didn’t stop people from coming out to hear my talk on the connections between climate change and the food system. Thanks to Stella, Professor Clark and everyone who helped bring me to Duke. It was a great event!
Finding energy and inspiration at the Real Food Challenge at UNC!
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- Blog
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010, 3:57 PM
It was really energizing to spend Friday night with the amazing students at UNC who are part of the Real Food Challenge campaign. Big thanks to Elena, Jordan and everyone who helped put together this terrific event!
Support school food reform
- Topics:
- Blog, Local Food
Monday, February 8th, 2010, 4:37 PM
The work of the Brooklyn Food Coalition keeps going strong! Building off the successful inaugural conference last spring, the coalition now has 11 neighborhood groups that are doing projects across the borough – on a variety of issues from expanding community gardens to labor rights and land access. The BFC is also holding a benefit with singer Jen Chapin to support efforts around school food reform. Check out the BFC website to learn more about their good work.
– Kate
A cool food class grows in Brooklyn
Monday, February 8th, 2010, 4:27 PM
Check out this terrific story about a class called “Food, Land and You,” taught at the Automotive High School in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. These city high schoolers are not only learning about where food comes from, but also food access and justice issues.
–Kate
Challenging the Supremacy of the Supermarket
- Topics:
- Blog, Local Food, Organic Food & Farming
Friday, February 5th, 2010, 1:40 PM
Check it out! The UK village of Martin is now producing enough food to feed most of its residents.
The community-based cooperative, called FutureFarms, was the brainchild of Nick Snelgar who organized the first village meeting in 2003. Today, FutureFarms grows 45 types of vegetables and raises free-range animals and is well on the way to helping the village be completely self-sufficient in food.
Makes you realize the power that people have at the grassroots level to make real changes to the food system.
- Kate
Year of Urban Ag Kicks off in Seattle
- Topics:
- Blog, Food Policy & Politics, Local Food, Organic Food & Farming, Urban Agriculture & Community Gardening
Friday, February 5th, 2010, 1:39 PM
Exciting times for the sustainable food movement in Seattle.
Mayor Mike McGinn and Seattle City Councilmembers just announced a campaign to promote urban agriculture and increase community access to locally grown food.
Dubbed “The Year of Urban Agriculture,” the initiative comes with it’s own nifty web portal, chock full of information and resources and events going on throughout the year.
This campaign comes out of efforts around Seattle City Council Resolution 31019–the Local Food Action Initiative–which was passed in April 2008 and outlined actions to promote local and regional food sustainability and security.
We’re excited that Anna is headed to Seattle for a stop on the DHP book tour. We look forward to meeting the folks behind the policies and no doubt it will be inspiring to be on the ground in a place where so much exciting work is taking place.
–Kate
One More Reason to Eat Local: It’s the Economy, Stupid
- Topics:
- Blog, Local Food, Organic Food & Farming
Friday, February 5th, 2010, 1:36 PM
One question that comes up when we talk about increasing local food production is: will it boost the local economy and create good jobs? New research from the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture shows that it could.
Researchers looked at 10 counties in southwest Iowa and found that increasing fruit and vegetable production could bring “an additional $2.67 million in labor income and the equivalent of 45 farm-level jobs to the region” during Iowa’s typical growing season. Pretty impressive.
This is the kind of research the sustainable, local food movement really needs to push new policies and initiatives forward.
– Kate
Monsanto – A New Low?
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- Blog
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010, 1:08 PM
Newsflash: According to Covalence, Monsanto is the least ethical company in the world.
The Swiss research firm Covalence released its annual ranking of the ethical performances of 581 multi-national corporations. The companies are ranked on 45 criteria including labor standards and human rights records. Monsanto came in dead last – that’s right – last.
This is probably not news at all to the small farmers around the globe who have been burned by their tactics.
- posted by Kate
ADM Says What?
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- Blog
Friday, January 29th, 2010, 1:16 PM
In an alternate universe – one in which fairness and food sovereignty reign – ADM head Patricia Woertz has this to say about her company and its role the world.
It’s About Time: Time magazine jumps into the food and climate conversation
- Topics:
- Blog
Friday, January 29th, 2010, 1:06 PM
It’s great to see TIME delve into the conversation about industrial meat production and the benefits of grass-fed beef.
Glad to see the writer refuting the myth-making by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association that feedlot meat is better for the environment. But you could finish the Time magazine article being a little too starry eyed about grass-fed beef. We need to marry this conversation with a reality check: Only a tiny fraction of U.S. beef is grass-fed and there would be no sustainable way to convert our nation’s entire cattle population to the pasture. I know, no one is proposing that’s what we do, but we need then to be clear that we should be talking not only about how cattle is best raised – but how much of it we should be eating, too. In a nation that leads the world in per capita beef consumption, that’s a particularly relevant conversation to be having.
Just Ordered James Hansen’s New Book
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- Blog
Friday, January 29th, 2010, 1:00 PM
Dr. James Hansen, the nation’s leading scientist on climate issues and an increasingly vocal proponent for tough climate change action, has just released a book that paints a frightening scenario if we ignore the signs of climate change and lays out strategies to save our planet.
Not So Cheery Cheerios: What’s General Mills Got to Do with Deforestation?
- Topics:
- Blog
Friday, January 29th, 2010, 12:55 PM
Last week, activists from Rainforest Action Network braved the snow and unfurled a banner in front of General Mills headquarters in Minneapolis, MN demanding that the company cut off ties with its chief supplier of palm oil, Cargill.
Why? Because palm oil producers, like those that Cargill buys from, have been tied with rainforest destruction in Indonesia and Malaysia.
While General Mills says it supports a moratorium on palm oil expansion into tropical rainforests, RAN points out that is palm oil supplier, Cargill, does not.
Join us in letting General Mills know you don’t want a serving of rainforest destruction with your breakfast cereal.
Click here to learn more about this vital global warming issue issue and how you can take action.
“What’s on Your Plate?” Coming to national TV this February 7, 2010!
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010, 10:00 AM
“What’s On Your Plate?” is a new food doc following two eleven-year-old New Yorkers as they explore their place in the food chain. With the camera as their companion, the girl guides talk to food activists, farmers, new friends, storekeepers, their families, and the viewer, in their quest to understand what’s on all of our plates.
I had a great time participating in the film—talking with the girls in front of the camera and hanging out behind the camera on the advisory team—and can’t wait to watch the national screening on Sunday, February 7th.
Check it out and join us in the “What’s on Your Plate?” Family Cook-In! to accompany the screening.
Here’s a great toolkit to help you plan a screening and cook-in event:
In bookstores now – The Locavore Way
Thursday, January 21st, 2010, 4:54 PM
Amy Cotler, culinary professional and long time farm-to-table advocate, recently published a fabulous new book called The Locavore Way: Discover and Enjoy the Pleasures of Locally Grown Food (and sent me an advance copy).
It’s chock full of great tips on how to buy, cook, and eat locally produced food. I know there are a lot of books out there on this theme, but The Locavore Way is a welcome addition to my already bulging sustainable food bookshelf.
Check it out for yourself at Amy’s website.
Early words on Diet for a Hot Planet
- Topics:
- Blog, Take a Bite News & Events
Thursday, January 21st, 2010, 4:40 PM
Diet for a Hot Planet is nearly here, and early reviews are starting to come in! BOOKLIST calls it “responsibly researched and cogently articulated…an impeccable, informative, and inspiring contribution to the quest for environmental reform.” You can pre-order your copy on Amazon or let your locally owned bookstore know that you want first dibs when it’s out in stores in late March.
More DHP reviews!
- Topics:
- Blog, Take a Bite News & Events
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010, 4:41 PM
I’m very grateful to my fellow advocates and leaders in the sustainable food movement for taking the time to read an advance copy of Diet for a Hot Planet and offer their gracious feedback.
Here is some of what they had to say:
“Anna Lappé’s message is timely and empowering. Instead of waiting for politicians to do the right thing, we can make simple changes to our diet, enjoy it, and help change the world.”
—Eric Schlosser
“Nothing is more important than connecting the way we eat to global warming. After all, food is an everyday need for everyone. Anna Lappé shows us that eating with intention is our responsibility and our pleasure.”
—Alice Waters
“In this tour-de-force, Anna Lappé provides readable, lively, and much-needed answers to question that all too few of us understand: how does our food affect the planet?”
— Raj Patel
Diet for a Hot Planet – coming to a bookstore near you!
- Topics:
- Blog, Take a Bite News & Events
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010, 4:47 PM
I’m excited to hit the road this year, with daughter Ida in tow, to share stories and lessons learned from DHP, including ideas for what we can do to make positive changes for the environment and our diets. We’ll be posting event information as it becomes available, so check back frequently for updates. If you’d like to host an event in your community, email Kate at kate[at]smallplanet.org.
Lucid Food is delicious food!
- Topics:
- Blog, Local Food
Monday, January 18th, 2010, 4:31 PM
We squeezed into Jimmy’s No 43 in New York City’s East Village last week for Louisa Shafia’s warm and friendly book launch party. Check out her new baby: Lucid Food: Cooking for an Eco-Conscious Life. (She also graciously gave me a shout out from the stage for helping her conceptualize the book in its early stages.)
The night was a celebration of eating fresh, local and delicious food and included some of Louisa’s tasty treats.
I can’t wait to start cooking some of Louisa’s food in my own kitchen!
Launch of Lucid Food: Cooking for an Eco-Conscious Life
- Topics:
- Blog, Local Food
Thursday, December 17th, 2009, 7:53 PM
The launch of Louisa Shafia’s beautiful new cookbook, Lucid Food: Cooking for an Eco-Conscious Life will take place at Jimmy’s No 43 bar/restaurant on January 14th, from 6:30-9:00pm. Just Food is helping put on the event, and all proceeds (tickets are $22.50 in advance, $25 at the door) will go to the organization. Come eat some great hors d’oeuvres, pick up a copy of the book, and listen to Louisa talk about her experiences writing and cooking. Hope to see you there!
Hungry Filmmakers
- Topics:
- Blog, Event - Past
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009, 4:54 PM
Come to the Anthology Film Archives tonight to see excerpts from six food and agricultural related films. A filmmaker panel discussion will follow, hosted by Anna.
Short clips from What’s “Organic” About Organic?”, Big River and Truck Farm, The Greenhorns, Grown in Detroit, Faces From the New Farm and an Untitled Film by Sara Grady will be screened.
Hungry Filmmakers
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Doors open at 7 pm, screenings begin at 7:30 pm,
after-party at 9 pm at Jimmy’s No. 43 (43 East 7th Street)
Anthology Film Archives
32 2nd Avenue (at E. 2nd Street)
New York, NY 10003
Admission: $10
Tickets available at www.hungryfilmmakers.blogspot.com
Live Webcast for the Food & Climate Summit
- Topics:
- Blog
Friday, December 11th, 2009, 9:12 PM
Thanks to NYU for providing a live webcast of the NYC Food & Climate Summit plenary session. The webcast link will go live at 9:28 a.m. Users will need RealPlayer to view. Hope you can tune in! www.nyu.edu and www.justfood.org.
Food & Climate Summit
- Topics:
- Blog
Thursday, November 19th, 2009, 10:37 PM
Check it out! The New York City Food and Climate Summit registration is online now. The event will sell out quickly, so click here ASAP. I have the honor of hosting the opening plenary conversation and co-running a workshop on the food system and climate change. I look forward to seeing you there.
Anna’s Eco-Apple Pie
- Topics:
- Blog, Local Food, Press
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009, 9:59 PM
11/18/09 – ABC 7
Check out this yummy apple pie recipe from the Joy of Cooking, adapted with green-twists the whole way through.
Back in the Saddle! Diet for a Hot Planet is on its way!
- Topics:
- Blog
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009, 6:12 PM
Ida is happily hanging with Grandma Hannah and I’m sitting in a cafe in my neighborhood in Brooklyn settling down to try to respond to a long list of unattended e-mails, queries, news, and blogs that I’ve been dying to write.
It has been a whirlwind since Ida was born, in between naps and nursing, cuddles and diaper changes, I’ve spent countless hours finishing edits on Diet for a Hot Planet (can we take a moment to praise proofreaders?). DHP is out late March 2010….more book news coming soon.
In other news, I had a four-minute soundbite-moment about food and climate change on CNN’s Your Money, delivered a talk at the wonderful Western Piedmont Community College in North Carolina on the topic, and did an interview for a History Channel documentary (it was very doomsday and the producer didn’t seem pleased with my possibilist answers to his dour questions like: So, how bad is it really going to get?).
We’re also busily gearing up for our 8th Annual Small Planet Fund party and Just Food’s Food & Climate Summit. Don’t miss ‘em!
The Great Land Grab is Out from Oakland Institute
- Topics:
- Blog, Hunger & Food Crisis
Thursday, October 8th, 2009, 2:32 PM
Our colleague Anuradha Mittal just launched a new report on the global land grab gobble. Check it out here: The Great Land Grab: Rush for World’s Farmland Threatens Food Security for the Poor.
On Hiatus Update
- Topics:
- Blog
Sunday, July 19th, 2009, 1:50 AM
Ida Jeanette Marshall-Lappe
Born 7/11/09, 12:48am, 8 lb 11 oz, 21 inches
On Hiatus
- Topics:
- Blog
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009, 10:28 AM
Dear Take a Bite Readers,
We’re taking a break from the blog for a few months.
I’m finishing up the book, Diet for a Hot Planet out from Bloomsbury in March 2010 and I’m finishing up incubating another baby–a real one. My daughter is due July 6th.
Since this site is a bare-bones operation, we’re putting the Blog and site on pause until the Fall. Please feel free to keep e-mailing us ideas for resources and links and when we’re back up-and-running we’ll certainly turn to all your great suggestions.
In the meantime, browse the site for more resources and ideas about groups to connect with.
Best,
Anna
Support This Film
- Topics:
- Blog, Take a Bite News & Events
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009, 11:23 AM
Luis Argueta, one of TAB’s allies, is currently in the post-production on his latest documentary, abUSed: The Postville Raid. The film, which has a target release date of winter 2009, is a full-length documentary that tells the story of the most brutal, most expensive, and one of the largest Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in the history of the United States. By weaving together the personal stories of the individuals, the families, and the town directly affected by the events of May 12, 2008, the film presents the human face of immigration, the socioeconomic forces which fuel migration, and serves as a cautionary tale against government abuses of constitutional and human rights.
To view a brief, 8 minute trailer of abUSed: The Postville Raid, please visit the website. You can also stay up-to-date with developments by joining the abUSed Facebook group.
Vegan Soul Kitchen-revue
- Topics:
- Blog
Tuesday, May 5th, 2009, 10:43 AM
If you haven’t seen it yet, Bryant Terry’s great new cookbook, VEGAN SOUL KITCHEN, is the perfect expression of how giving up meat doesn’t mean giving up flavor.
Bryant is on tour now, so check out him out on the road–and tell him I say hi.
Silence on the Line
- Topics:
- Blog
Friday, May 1st, 2009, 11:48 AM
Over here in Bite Central, I’m working on the finishing touches of Draft #1 for the book that launched this site. Noticed the sparse blogs? That’s the reason for ‘em. In the meantime, check out the great reporting on Swine Flu by Grist’s Tom Philpott over at www.grist.org.
USDA Expands Its Garden Vision
- Topics:
- Blog
Thursday, April 23rd, 2009, 11:36 AM
Check out Jane Black’s article over at The Washington Post about Vilsack’s garden vision. Pretty exciting stuff! Can’t wait to visit it!!
More Bon Appetit News on NPR
- Topics:
- Blog
Thursday, April 23rd, 2009, 11:33 AM
David Gorn reports on the catering company’s meat and cheese cutback ban on Wednesday:
Ban The Burger, Save The World
Bon Appetit Serves Cheeseburgers While Lowering Carbon Footprint
- Topics:
- Blog, Meat Industry
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009, 12:38 PM
The folks over at Bon Appetit Management Co., a California-based catering company that serves 80 million meals a year at schools and companies across the country, recently announced that it has reduced the beef it purchases by 25 percent.
According to an article over at Meatingplace, Bon Appetit has “exceeded its carbon footprint goals for the year by reducing beef purchases by 25 percent, cheese by 10 percent, tropical fruit by 50 percent and total food waste by 20 percent.”
A representative from Bon Appetit said: “Chefs are able to offer the usual cheeseburgers to diners who want them, and still reduce the amount of beef they purchase. This reduction is a key component of the program because regardless of how far it travels, or how the animals are raised, beef and cheese come from methane-emitting ruminant animals and methane is a greenhouse gas 23 times more powerful than CO2.”
–Deepa
Indian Farmers in Crisis– Great Reporting on the Green Revolution
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009, 12:36 PM
Read/watch this two-part series by NPR, which illustrates the current crisis facing Indian farmers.
Veteran NPR journalist Daniel Zwerdling gives a brief history of the Green Revolution, which encouraged Indian farmers in the ’60’s and ’70’s to abandon traditional farming methods in favor of input-responsive seeds, that were high-yielding when combined with high levels of chemical use and heavy water irrigation.
According to Zwerdling, “Government studies show that farmers have pumped so much groundwater to irrigate their crops that the water table is dropping dramatically, as much as 3 feet every year… [So farmers] keep hiring the drilling company to come back to their fields, to bore the wells ever deeper…” The soil is being gradually destroyed by the drilling and salt levels. The costs of drilling, and remedying the damage that’s been done, is incredibly expensive– prohibitive, in fact, for many Indian farmers, who are already overwhelmed by their debt and are struggling to support their families.
Read the article and share your thoughts. You can find more resources in the Oakland Institute’s Voices from Africa report or in Vandana Shiva’s writings– both share examples for how we can build solutions in the wake of the Green Revolution.
–Deepa
The Oakland Institute Launches “Voices From Africa”
- Topics:
- Blog, Food Industry News & Trends, Food Policy & Politics, Hunger & Food Crisis, Organic Food & Farming
Friday, April 10th, 2009, 4:21 PM
The Oakland Institute has created an new online community called Voices From Africa, a supplement to the report on alternatives to the New Green Revolution in Africa. The Oakland Institute Reporter describes Voices from Africa as “a new online clearinghouse to share information on and promote alternatives to the New Green Revolution in Africa. Featuring articles, press releases, commentary, and reports from African NGOs and partner organizations and individuals around the world, Voices from Africa is set up as an interactive web community and will also serve as a resource for media and policy makers to hear the perspective of the African civil society groups on plans for a New Green Revolution in Africa.”
Join the Voices From Africa community today.
Members will be able to create their own account, access articles and documents on these issues, participate in forums, and strategize with policy-makers, activists and other stakeholders from all over the globe. Make your voice heard in this critical debate.
–Deepa
Take a Bite’s New Home
- Topics:
- Blog
Friday, April 3rd, 2009, 5:31 PM
After a winter in California, where I indulged in endless amounts of farmers’-market procured local citrus, we’re back in Brooklyn. The citrus may not be as plentiful, but it’s still good to be home.
I’ve taken up shop to finish the book at the wonderful collective office space known as GreenSpaces NY, filled with found furniture and funky antiques, succulents and sculptures. Along with collective thrice-weekly lunches, the eclectic folks here are getting ready to take the seedlings sprouting next to my desk to the rooftop garden they’re creating and signing up anyone who’s interested for our very own CSA.
Feels like this is definitely a sympatico spot to be finishing a book on ecological agriculture, climate change, and the future of eating.
I can’t say I don’t miss those organic local strawberries, but I’m looking forward to dining on roof-grown produce soon enough.
Here are a few pics of the place:
Key Climate Change Legislation Gives Big Ag a Pass
- Topics:
- Blog
Friday, April 3rd, 2009, 5:10 PM
Read this great Grist piece explaining what’s gone missing and why it matters by our colleague, Meredith Niles, over at the Center for Food Safety.
Small Planet launches new site
- Topics:
- Blog
Wednesday, April 1st, 2009, 5:31 PM
Check out the Small Planet Institute’s new look.
It’s Real, It’s Happening…the White House Gets a Garden
- Topics:
- Local Food, Press
Wednesday, March 18th, 2009, 4:33 PM
ABC reports that the First Family is digging in close to home.
Read all about it in The Times, too!
A Victory for Grassroots Action!
- Topics:
- Blog, Food Policy & Politics
Thursday, March 5th, 2009, 8:47 PM
The Capitol Power Plant in Washington, DC is under intense pressure to switch from burning dirty coal to a more climate-friendly operation. The coal burning plant, which powers the surrounding area (including many government buildings) has been barraged by a series of actions: a hugely successful peaceful demonstration on March 2nd, a major action initiative by the Capitol Climate Action Coalition which encouraged supporters to flood Congress with letters, and direct support from Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Pelosi and Reid support a switch to 100% natural gas.
This article by the Youth Climate Movement berates the plant for “being the largest source of pollution in Washington DC… This plant symbolizes the stranglehold coal has over our climate, our environment, our communities, and our political process.”
Read the letter Pelosi and Reid sent to Stephen Ayres, Acting Architect of the Capitol, in which they state, “Taking this major step toward cleaning up the Capitol Power Plant’s emissions would be an important demonstration of Congress’ willingness to deal with the enormous challenges of global warming, energy independence and our inefficient use of finite fossil fuels. We strongly encourage you to move forward aggressively with us on a comprehensive set of policies for the entire Capitol complex and the entire Legislative Branch to quickly reduce emissions and petroleum consumption through energy efficiency, renewable energy, and clean alternative fuels.”
Support the Capitol Climate Action Campaign, and celebrate this victory, as grassroots action works to mobilize our political leaders.
– Deepa
New Report Just Out on AGRA
- Topics:
- Biotechnology, Blog, Hunger & Food Crisis
Thursday, March 5th, 2009, 8:47 PM
We highly recommend The Oakland Institute’s important new report, “Voices From Africa: African Farmers & Environmentalists Speak Out Against a New Green Revolution in Africa.”
Run, Don’t Walk, to Get Your Copy of Vegan Soul Kitchen
- Topics:
- Blog
Thursday, March 5th, 2009, 10:39 AM
The indomitable Bryant Terry (co-conspirator of Grub) has done it again with this mouth-wateringly fantastic cookbook. At the launch party last night, the scene was a perfect expression of the book itself: spirited, eclectic, hopeful, and fun. Dip your toes (or your spoons) into these recipes and you’ll find the same.
RAN in the NYT
- Topics:
- Blog, Food Industry News & Trends
Wednesday, March 4th, 2009, 11:11 AM
The New York Times published this article about eBay’s belated efforts to promote themselves as a “green” company, claiming that because their business model is founded on buying and selling used products, the company is environmentally friendly by default. (They’ve also added a “Green Team” to their staff, whose job it is to hype the company’s environmental efforts.)
Rainforest Action Network’s Executive Director, Michael Brune, was quoted in the article, stating, “Over the last couple of years, protecting the environment has become as American as apple pie and Derek Jeter. Every company wants to at least be seen as being friendly to the environment. A lot of the things sold on eBay are new merchandise, and last time I checked the Postal Service still used fossil fuels for all of their planes and their trucks, so it’s not sustainable.
It’s fair to say that buying used goods on eBay is better for the environment, but let’s not get carried away and say this is the greenest thing since recycled paper.”
– Deepa
Capitol Climate Action Power Past Coal
- Topics:
- Blog
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009, 8:31 PM
Check out all the details about the historic protest in DC yesterday here and the inspiring slideshow here.
The World in 2101?
- Topics:
- Biotechnology, Blog, Food Industry News & Trends, Food Policy & Politics, Hunger & Food Crisis, Organic Food & Farming
Thursday, February 26th, 2009, 2:13 PM
The WorldWatch Institute has published a new report which investigates an “imagined future:” State of the World 2009: Into a Warming World highlights the potential fate of the planet if scientists, consumers, producers, and politicians act quickly and effectively now, in 2009, to combat the energy and climate change crises.
According WorldWatch, “The questions addressed in the State of the World 2009 are many: how do we adapt- not just as communities and nations, but as a species-to the warming that is headed our way, no matter what we do now? How will the world deal with the fact that the climate burden will fall heaviest on countries whose contributions to climate change have been the most modest? And even as we struggle to adapt, how does society maintain focus on slashing emissions to a pale shadow of their current levels?”
The report selects specific challenges (land use, energy, emissions, etc.) and proposes innovative alternatives. Some of the Innovations highlighted in the Land Use section are:
>> In Parana, Brazil, farmers have developed organic management systems combined with no-till. No-till plots yielded a third more wheat and soybean than conventional plowed plots and reduced soil erosion by up to 90 percent. (p. 36)
>> In 2005, a Pennsylvania dairy farm invested $1.14 million in a project to process the manure from 800 cows, using a digester and a combined heat and power unit. Now the farm makes a profit using biogas to generate 120 kilowatt-hours of electricity to sell back to the local utility. (p. 41)
>> Both India and China have large national programs to revegetate millions of hectares of forest and grasslands-seen as investments to reduce poverty and protect watersheds. (p. 44)
>> In Morocco, 34 pastoral cooperatives with more than 8,000 members rehabilitated and manage some 450,000 hectares of grazing reserves. (p. 44)
>> In Rajasthan, India, community-led watershed restoration programs have reinstated more than 5,000 traditional johads (rainwater storage tanks) in over 1,000 villages. (p. 44)
>> Some countries are redirecting subsidy payments to agri-environmental payments for ecosystem services, some of which explicitly include carbon storage and emissions reduction. (p. 46)
If you’re interested in reading more, download chapters or purchase a copy of this critical report here.
– Deepa
European Union Parliament Joins the Climate Change Conversation
- Topics:
- Blog, Food Policy & Politics, Meat Industry
Thursday, February 26th, 2009, 2:12 PM
The European Union’s Parliament joined a growing debate when they assembled in early February: how to combat climate change and livestock emissions while ensuring adequate food supplies for their 27 member-nations.
According to an article on “The Pig Site,” the EU Parliament said “changes in behavior by consumers and the consideration of targets for reducing agricultural emissions should accompany regulations to cap industrial greenhouse gases and improve energy efficiency.” The 80-page report also reiterated the EU’s plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions 20% by 2020.
A step forward, right? Well, the assembly also took a huge leap backward when they decided to DELETE a piece of the report that demanded a cut in global meat consumption, especially in wealthy countries. Why the hesitation? Read the article and tell us what you think.
– Deepa
Just Food’s 2009 Summit on Food and Climate Change
Thursday, February 26th, 2009, 2:10 PM
SPECIAL EVENT!
Support Just Food’s 2009 Summit on Food and Climate Change! The Summit “will help build a more educated, informed and politically involved network of urban and rural communities in the New York City region to influence food, farm and environmental policy. It will be structured to inform and educate participants, generate ideas and strategies, and build coalitions to create and mobilize around a concrete platform for action on Food and Climate Change in 2010.” Just Food’s conference coincides with the United Nations Climate Change conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.
For more information about this critical event, contact Nadia Johnson, the Food Justice Coordinator at Just Food. She can be reached at nadia@justfood.org or at 212.645.9880, ext. 237.
– Deepa
The First Lady Takes on Food
- Topics:
- Blog, Food Policy & Politics, Local Food
Thursday, February 26th, 2009, 2:09 PM
We’ve been delighted by all the food news coming out of the White House lately.
First, we heard that Michelle Obama presented Agriculture Department employees with a seedling from the Jackson magnolia, which the New York Times reports has been “growing on the west side of the south portico of the White House for 180 years… Andrew Jackson planted the tree in memory of his wife, Rachel, who died before he entered the White House.”
Then, last week Mrs. Obama and Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack broke ground outside the USDA offices in the first step toward building an office garden to help feed the local community–and set an example for locals, who the Obamas and Vilsack hope to encourage to start growing their own food.
Next, on February 22nd, before the Obama’s first state dinner, Mrs. Obama invited a group of reporters and culinary students into the White House kitchens, to watch and sample the food being prepared. According to an article published by the New York Times, Sam Kass (the Obamas family chef from Chicago), executive chef Cristeta Comerford, executive pastry chef, Bill Yosses and others were inside preparing a veritable feast.
Mrs. Obama has repeatedly advocated for eating healthy, locally grown and sustainable foods, saying, “My kids are more inclined to try different vegetables if they are fresh and local and delicious.”
Hey, keeping the First Family healthy and on their toes is a tough job, but someone’s gotta do it.
-Deepa
YES! Magazine: Food For Everyone
- Topics:
- Blog, Food Industry News & Trends
Thursday, February 26th, 2009, 4:00 AM
Check out the upcoming “Food For Everyone” Spring 2009 issue of YES! Magazine.
Brooklyn Food Conference on Facebook, YouTube
- Topics:
- Blog, Take a Bite News & Events
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009, 2:35 PM
A few months ago, in a cluttered meeting room on the second floor of the Park Slope Food Coop, a group of coop members started talking about the idea of having a community-wide food conference on food politics, and food action, in Brooklyn. Out of those early conversations has sprung one of the most exciting and creative conferences about food that I’ve heard about in a long time.
Hope to see you there!
We wanted to share an e-mail from one of the volunteer organizers, Winton, who’s heading up the social networking outlets of the upcoming Brooklyn Food Conference:
Hi All,
Wanted to introduce myself to everyone. My name is Winton and I’m heading up the Facebook and YouTube promotional efforts for the conference. If you have yet to visit either of the sites (the YouTube site is new…) the links to them are below. Please feel free to send me feedback and if you want to help manage content that would be great also. My information is listed as well in case you need to reach me. Looking forward to interacting with you all.
Facebook Group (must sign up to join the group): http://tinyurl.com/cr24cj
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/bfconference
E-mail wintonw@gmail.com for more information, and reserve your place at the conference now!
The New Scientist Jumps into the Fray
- Topics:
- Blog, Meat Industry
Sunday, February 15th, 2009, 2:06 PM
Check out this new article from one of my favorite science mags, The New Scientist. Jim Giles does the math on what eating less meat could save us in terms of cold hard cash. His conclusion? Choosing to cut back on the tenderloins could “wipe $20 trillion off the cost of fighting climate change.” Read it yourself and let us know what you think!
Lucas from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers Addresses UN
- Topics:
- Blog, Food Policy & Politics, Organic Food & Farming
Tuesday, February 10th, 2009, 2:13 PM
Lucas Benitez, our good friend and ally from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, gave an inspired speech on behalf of farmworkers and laborers at the United Nations on First World United Justice Day on February 10, 2009.
In his speech, he suggested state interventions for aid to farmworkers, while emphasizing the ground-up approach that has made the Immokalee movement so powerful.
He advocated for the dignity and respect of farmworkers around the world, stating, “With this sort of practical and political support from elected leaders, consumers and the corporations that purchase produce will be able to demand a new product from the US agricultural industry — not just good, cheap, and safe food, but fair food, food that respects human rights and doesn’t exploit human beings.
Food is at the very heart of any society. The workers who plant, pick, and pack food throughout the US — and around the world — have yet to receive the respect and honor they so deserve. generations of poverty and degradation. On this day, the very first World Social Justice Day, let us recognize the fundamental dignity of farm labor and the men and women who put the food on our tables.”
Read the entire speech and support the Coalition’s work here.
– Deepa
What Would Darwin Think?
- Topics:
- Biotechnology, Blog
Monday, February 9th, 2009, 2:15 PM
Claire Hope Cummings penned a fascinating article for Beacon Broadside which questions how Charles Darwin would feel that the faith vs. reason argument has carried on and on, far past his lifetime, into a new century.
Religious conservative circles around the country push an agenda of “creationism” in public schools, reducing evolution to mere theory. Cummings discusses Darwin’s own delicate balance between science and religion, and questions how the faith vs. reason argument plays out in the world of food and technology (i.e. cloning, genetic modification of animals, gene harvesting, etc).
From reading this website and other resources, we know the potential health and energy repercussions of mixing technology and food production, but for many, the ethical question may be equally significant.
Read the article, and tell us your thoughts.
– Deepa
Anna in Seattle
- Topics:
- Blog
Friday, February 6th, 2009, 2:16 PM
Anna was in Seattle this week, shooting the second season of MSN’s Practical Guide to Healthier Living.
You can see the new season, starting in March 2009, at www.healthyliving.msn.com.
Supermarkets and Climate Change
- Topics:
- Food Policy & Politics
Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009, 5:46 PM
A new study from Environmental Investigation Agency reveals the global warming impact of supermarkets.
London, Food, and Climate Change
- Topics:
- Food Policy & Politics
Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009, 5:44 PM
London’s Food Sector: Greenhouse Gas Emissions
A Report for the Greater London Authority
UK Hospitals to Go Veg?
- Topics:
- Blog, Food Industry News & Trends, Meat Industry
Monday, February 2nd, 2009, 10:00 PM
We gotta say, the pronouncement perked our ears up: British hospitals to promote cutting back on meat to help the climate?
Juliette Jowit, from the British rag The Guardian, reported on a plan to eliminate meat from hospital menus across the UK. The action would be part of a larger strategy by the National Health Service (UK) to lower carbon emissions and save money, which could then be redirected into patient care.
Check it out here.
The National Health Service was inspired by a study they conducted last year through which they discovered that their emissions alone account for approximately 3% of the country’s s total emissions. If the NHS was a country, this emissions toll would rank them the planet’s 81st worst emitter in 2004.
The NHS has proposed both long- and short-term changes, from “urging people to drink less bottled water to more phone-in surgeries by GPs to the food: The NHS is planning to limit meat and dairy on hospital menus. David Pencheon, director of NHS’s sustainable development unit, said, “We’d like higher levels of fresh food, and probably higher levels of fresh fruit and veg, and more investment in a local economy.”
Sounds good to us.
RAN and the World Social Forum
- Topics:
- Blog, Food Policy & Politics, Forests
Monday, February 2nd, 2009, 9:56 PM
We wanted to post part of a letter from our colleague, Leila, Agribusiness Campaign Director at Rainforest Action Network. If you want to get in touch with Leila or learn more about the campaign visit RAN.
——
Good Evening All! I thought I’d share a little more details on our participation and plans at the World Social Forum (WSF) in Belem, Brazil beginning tomorrow. (Read RAN staffer Andrea’s blog here.)
For the first time ever, the World Social Forum is being held in the Amazon, and will gather the largest Indigenous delegation in the history of the forum. Levana and Andrea are representing RAN on the ground at the WSF and will be taking an active role within an international Amazon delegation, comprised of Indigenous allies/networks such as COIAB, COICA and international NGO allies such as Amazon Watch, Amazon Alliance, IFG (International Forum on Globalization, BIC (Bank Information Center) and many others. We’re very excited to be participating and co-coordinating one of the most visible actions at the forum—the “Human Banner.” (see below)
Our participation in the WSF is a great opportunity to launch the year by reconnecting with allies from all around the world, frontline communities impacted by soy, palm oil and agrofuels, as well as playing a crucial role in bringing attention to the Amazon, Indigenous rights, rainforest issues generally, and the importance of making forests a top priority in the upcoming climate negotiations.
Here’s what we’ll be doing on the ground:
Human banner:
Prior to the mass march of nearly 100,000 people that officially opens the WSF, we will be supporting our Indigenous allies in sounding the alarm in defense of the Amazon and its inhabitants. We are working with the Amazon delegation to organize at least 1,000 people or so to participate in a human banner near the Amazon River. We will be using human bodies to spell out “SOS Amazonia”, indicating the need to focus on protecting the Amazon, and its inhabitants, particularly given its fundamental significance in climate stabilization. This will be photographed by award-winning photojournalist, Lou Dematteis and videographed by Antoine Bonsorte, from a helicopter. Joining them in the helicopter and on the ground will be photographers and journalists from major media outlets/wires such as AP, AFP and Al Jazeera, as well as Brazilian media.
Other events and meetings at the World Social Forum:
The Amazon delegation is sponsoring several events and workshops at the World Social Forum. We’ll be actively participating and/or recruiting our allies to participate in the following events:
· Jan 28, “State of the Amazon”, panel and a media briefing where Andrea will serve as a spokesperson and talk about the Rainforest Agribusiness campaign and agribusiness impacts in the Amazon.
· Jan 29, Challenging IIRSA (Integration of South American Regional Infrastructure) Workshop, where Levana and Andrea will be leading a session on corporate campaign strategies to use in challenging national and regional “development” projects
· Jan 29, Indigenous Rights in Action Workshop focusing on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
· Jan 29, Brazilian Amazon Now and Forever focusing on the Amazon and Climate Change
· Jan 30, Action for the Amazon, a strategy session to prepare for the Amazon Forum taking place in Manaus, Brazil in July.
Andrea will be speaking at a couple of other workshops, including:
· REDVIDA panel on food, water and climate change
· The launch of a Global Women’s Network on Right to Livelihood which is seeking to link issues of agriculture, food sovereignty, seeds, climate change, land, water and forests to issues connected with livelihoods.
If you have any questions about our work at the WSF or after, please do not hesitate to ask. Thanks!
Leila
The Attack on Organic Agriculture–or the more things change, the more they stay the same
- Topics:
- Biofuels, Biotechnology, Blog, Organic Food & Farming
Tuesday, January 27th, 2009, 3:07 PM
As the new year turned, and Obama’s transition team developed their plan for the agriculture team, George McGovern and Marshall Matz, both now on the board of the World Food Program, weighed in with an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune, parroting many of the claims about industrial ag and its pseudo-benefits we’ve been hearing (and debunking) for years.
read their op-ed here and my response below. While my letter to the editor didn’t make it into print, one by George Naylor from the National Family Farming Coalition did.
Dear Editors:
Thank you for your coverage of the Agriculture Secretary nominee (“Agriculture’s next big challenge” January 4, 2009), but the authors mislead your readers about the real costs of the “commercial agriculture” they claim the new Secretary should celebrate.
Industrial agriculture will lessen–not improve–our ability to feed ourselves and foster sustainable rural communities, especially in the face of a climate unstable future. Organic agriculture, on the other hand, is proving to foster more resilient crops and to sequester greater levels of carbon in the soil.
The authors also claim that industrial agriculture is “key in our becoming less dependent on foreign oil,” while in reality this system of farming does the opposite: Because industrial agriculture is addicted to manmade fertilizers, which require significant natural gas to produce, we are increasingly dependent on imports from countries with natural gas reserves. Organic agriculture, on the other hand, releases us from our foreign oil dependence in the food sector by eliminating our addiction to petroleum-based chemicals and manmade fertilizer.
Finally, the authors perpetuate the myth that organic agriculture cannot feed the world, when new research, including a multi-year study from the University of Michigan, has shown that shifting toward organic agriculture can actually increase yields overall, while creating auxiliary benefits like cleaner water and safer fields for our farm workers and farmers.
Sincerely,
Anna Lappé
Oakland, California
The Carbon Footprint of Your Orange Juice
- Topics:
- Biotechnology, Blog
Thursday, January 22nd, 2009, 3:51 PM
Today is O.J.s day: Got a note about friend Alissa Hamilton’s OJ book Squeezed and an alert that The Times just posted the findings of a PepsiCo research project on the emissions from producing America’s favorite breakfast drink.
Who’s the (Ag) Man?
- Topics:
- Biofuels, Food Policy & Politics
Wednesday, January 14th, 2009, 5:50 PM
Sitting here listening to the confirmation hearings for Vilsack, Obama’s pick for Secretary of Agriculture. I’m only 68:00mins (by the video’s account) into the hearings (which are a total of 161 minutes long), but so far I’ve heard a lot of talk about the wonders of biofuels and corn-based ethanol to meet our renewable energy needs and boost the economy of rural America. The questions (so far at least) on biofuels have been softballs.
Check out the reports from Food First about biofuels folly. Renewable? Ha. Among the other realities of biofuels are the environmental costs of producing the water-thirsty and fertilizer-addicted corn crops, with huge amounts of natural gas required to produce the manmade fertilizer used on our fields.
“Food Matters”
- Topics:
- Blog, Food Industry News & Trends
Wednesday, January 14th, 2009, 5:05 PM
Salon calls Mark Bittman’s new book, Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating with More Than 75 Recipes, “An unusual blend of manifesto, self-help manual and cookbook designed to convince people that they can drastically improve their diets with relatively little discomfort.”
Bittman, who writes the Minimalist column for the New York Times, takes a simple, holistic approach to food and cooking.
Read Salon’s s review here.
America: Land of Fast Food?!
- Topics:
- Blog, Meat Industry
Wednesday, January 14th, 2009, 5:05 PM
Meredith Niles wrote a great article for Gristmill about Burger King’s new marketing scheme, a seven-minute film called Whopper Virgins. You might have seen it earlier from the FoxNews clip of my mother debating the Burger King ad-guy about it. (see below)
The filmmakers fly to remote locations and give the locals their first taste of a Burger King burger as they discuss so-called “American culinary culture” and refer to the United States as the “land of fast food.”
Niles asks, “What is the point of this film? And what about the health and climate impacts of this type of food? I doubt that the crew took the time to tell them that if they actually ate the whole Whopper they consumed 40 grams of fat. They also probably failed to mention the greenhouse gas emissions tied to animal production (18 percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions according to the U.N.) or the other environmental pollution problems associated with mass-produced animals. And I wonder if they bothered to note that the beef they were eating was probably confined in its own feces for the better part of its life.”
Misdirected advertising concept? We thought so, too.
Chomping on CivilEats
- Topics:
- Blog, Food Industry News & Trends, Hunger & Food Crisis, Urban Agriculture & Community Gardening
Friday, January 9th, 2009, 5:45 PM
CivilEats.com, an offshoot of the popular Slow Food Nation blog, has launched a new website with a host of foodie allies. The site will focus on the current challenges facing the food system, with contributions from chef/activists, to farmers and urban gardeners. The website promises to “promote critical thought about sustainable agriculture and food systems,” something we are in critical need of given the current economic, climate and food crises. Visit the site here, we are!
What Local Foods Backlash?
- Topics:
- Blog, Local Food
Wednesday, January 7th, 2009, 3:58 PM
Just checking out that Time magazine hot trends of ‘08 again and seeing their commentario on local foods. Apparently, another food trend from last year was the locavore backlash.
The backlash, which certainly got a lot of media last year in my opinion mainly because the media loves controversy and saying the heretical–and, after all, what could be more sacrosanct than praising your local tomatoes?
Never mind that one of the big articles that set off the local debate raised questions about the benefits of Brits chomping on home-raised vs. New Zealand raised lamb. The study concluded–and the author of the article concurred–that it was actually environmentally better to choose the far-flung meat than the local meat.
Michael Shuman did a fantastic take down of the research study, arguing that the comparison was apples and oranges. (Read more here). He also pointed out that with study funding from the New Zealand lamb industry, the results (eat more New Zealand lamb!) seemed a little biased in nature.
It seems to me that the locavore message suffered not from an analytical flaw, but partly from a messaging one: the locavore celebrants have a whole set of criteria for the food they desire–it’s not just about mileage. Locavore’s are also seeing food that’s raised sustainably (and for many justly) raised; they’re seeking to make consumer choices that support community building, not just a food company’s bottom line. But of course many who hear the word “local” simply think “distance”, missing out on the holistic complexity of the locavore message.
I’ve also noticed that the local foods critics tend to use extreme examples to build their cases, like comparing driving 15 miles to buy some farmers market peaches vs. picking a peach at your mega-grocery store where economies of scale arguably increase efficiency. Sure, the first instance is not so environmentally sound, but I don’t know many locavores who get the importance of picking local produce and somehow miss that spewing all that gas to get to the market is not smart. Again, most locavores I know are holistic thinkers, the kind of people who will walk to their farmers market, bring reusable bags when they do, and compost the leftovers when they’re done. In other words, a pretty eco-minded bunch.
Finally, this off-base local foods backlash doesn’t seem to be making much of a dent in what people are actually doing. Says Michelle Locke of the AP, this currently (hot) trend is taking shoppers of all stripes by storm: “Suburban moms? Check. Artisanal-cheese-sniffing foodies? Double check. And how about shoppers in the decidedly unhippie halls of Wal-Mart?”
I guess the backlash hasn’t translated to people turning up their noses at local turnips and that’s a good thing–for our health and for the climate.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
- Topics:
- Blog
Monday, January 5th, 2009, 2:42 PM
We hope you all had a restful and restorative new year. We are back in the saddle and will be posting new research and posts. If you have questions, ideas, comments, links, shoot us a line.
All the best,
The Take a Bite Team
A Smash Hit!
- Topics:
- Blog, New to the Site, Take a Bite News & Events
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008, 11:31 PM
Our annual auction and party, which was held at COLORS Restaurant on December 8th, was a huge success! We were so honored to be able to further support our amazing core grantees and the work of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.
See photos from the event here.
The Tap is Trendy Says Time Magazine
- Topics:
- Blog, Food Industry News & Trends
Monday, December 29th, 2008, 2:51 PM
Time Mag ran its annual “top ten of everything,” including dipping their judging toes into the top ten of food. Coming in at number four was the almighty tap. With Nestle and the other Big Water companies quivering about the fate of their high-profit product lines (aka bottled water), the tap trend is certainly taking off.
White-tableclothed restaurants are starting to get in on the tap-is-best mantra and I couldn’t help but notice at both the Museum of Natural History in NYC and the new Academy of Sciences Museum in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park their water fountains were draped with info-posters about the benefits of bottled water.
So drink up–from the tap and save your hard earned bucks for something more vital than water you can get for free.
Small Planet Fund Featured on NBC
- Topics:
- Blog, Local Food
Wednesday, December 17th, 2008, 4:00 PM
The work of our sister organization, Small Planet Fund, and our auction fundraiser is the Deal of the Day over at NBC New York.
They love the private cheese tasting at Saxelby Cheesemongers we have up for grabs, as well as the trips to Martha’s Vineyard and Mount Tremper. And they’re right, supporting local businesses and not-for-profits is a guilt-free way to gift this holiday season.
Check out the plug here.
Online auction bidding ends tomorrow. Check it out.
Food Democracy Now
- Topics:
- Blog, Food Policy & Politics, Hunger & Food Crisis
Monday, December 15th, 2008, 12:28 PM
On the brink of a new administration, we stand a chance to shift how our government sets policy about food and farming policy by speaking up for a new leader of the USDA who would put the environment, human health, and worker welfare above the narrow interests of the biggest producers.
With this spirit in mind, I have added my name to a letter to the President-Elect framing the values we share about food and farming in this country and offering the names of candidates who would be wonderful leaders at the USDA.
If you haven’t already, take a look at the Food Democracy letter to the Obama administration. We have already tallied 48,000 signatures. If we could top 100,000 that would certainly put us on the map!
My Mother Takes on Burger King Advertisers
- Topics:
- Blog, Take a Bite News & Events
Tuesday, December 9th, 2008, 4:35 PM
Burger King exploits “Whopper Virgins” in far-off countries to market their fast food mainstay? Hear what my mother has to say about it .
Join Us Tomorrow Night at COLORS Restaurant
- Topics:
- Blog, Take a Bite News & Events
Tuesday, December 9th, 2008, 4:31 PM
Every year, our foundation, the Small Planet Fund, hosts the best party in New York City (but maybe I’m a little biased). Don’t miss it this year. All the deets can be found here. Want to support the Fund but don’t live in NYC or can’t make the event? You can donate online or check out our online auction items.
The Fund supports grassroots organizations around the world addressing the root causes of hunger and poverty, including this year’s special guests from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.
The Best Article Yet on Food and Climate Change
- Topics:
- Blog, Food Industry News & Trends
Thursday, December 4th, 2008, 1:32 PM
The New York Times published a really stellar article about food and climate change today. Check out Elizabeth Rosenthal’s “As More Eat Meat, a Bid to Cut Emissions” in today’s Times.
What if We Had a President Who Cared about the Climate Crisis? Wait, Looks Like We Do
- Topics:
- Blog, Food Policy & Politics
Tuesday, November 18th, 2008, 7:48 PM
Check out this surprise video from President-Elect Obama to the governors gathered to discuss climate change policy.
Travel to the Amazon in January with Rainforest Action Network
Thursday, November 13th, 2008, 2:08 PM
I wanted to share this note from my colleague Leila Salazar-Lopez from Rainforest Action Network:
I’m writing to extend the invitation to join Rainforest Action Network on a once in a lifetime opportunity to visit the Brazilian Amazon and bear witness to the impacts of U.S. Agribusiness’ impacts on Indigenous and local communities and the Amazon rainforest. The delegation of RAN supporters and close allies will take place from January 16–28, 2009. The journey begins in the heart of the Amazon –Manaus-, travels through the soy plantations of Santarem, and ends where the Amazon meets the Atlantic Ocean –Belem. Space is limited, so please RSVP by November 15. See below for more detailed information on the journey or go to www.ran.org/amazon09.
As you know, RAN’s Rainforest Agribusiness Campaign is challenging one of the fastest growing threats to the Amazon: the rapid expansion of soy plantations by U.S. agribusiness giants ADM, Bunge and Cargill. The spread of soy plantations is fueling the destruction of the world’s largest tropical rainforest, which is one of the planet’s most biologically and culturally diverse ecosystems.
We’ll travel by riverboat on the Amazon River from Manaus to Santarém; stay at a comfortable eco-lodge in the heart of the Amazon; commune with Indigenous and local leaders, allies, activists, soy workers and frontline communities; and witness the impacts of U.S. agribusiness in and around Santarém. We’ll go on exciting excursions and participate in informative presentations led by the Rainforest Agribusiness team and our allies. For those of you who have a little extra time, we encourage you to join RAN staff, our allies and 80,000 people from around the world at the World Social Forum –the alternative to the World Economic Forum- which will take place in Belém, Brazil, from Jan 27 to Feb 1, 2009. For more information, visit www.forumsocialmundial.org.br
Please join us for this once-in-a-lifetime experience to join RAN staff and committed activists on a journey to one of the most magical and threatened places on earth. Become a deeper part of the solution to the protect the Amazon and the Indigenous and local communities working to protect this global treasure.
If you have any questions about the trip please do not hesitate to contact me at Leila@ran.org or 415-659-0532. You can also contact Branden Barber, RAN’s Development Director, at branden@ran.org or 415-659-0539.
I look forward to hearing from you and hope that you can join us on what will be a journey of a lifetime.
For the forests and the future,
Leila Salazar-Lopez
Rainforest Agribusiness Campaign Director
Have a Cool Holiday this Season
- Topics:
- Blog, Local Food
Thursday, November 13th, 2008, 1:37 PM
Hey all,
Sorry for the brief hiatus. I’ve been working on the book, traveling (ah, that carbon footprint), and haven’t had a minute to post.
But now that the holidays are just around the corner, wanted to let you know about a couple of great resources.
Check out our the Center for Food Safety (our partner organization) and their new special feature offering the best tips and information to help you create the “coolest” holiday possible.
With their helpful tips, you can help create a holiday meal with the lowest possible greenhouse gas emissions toll. The site offers tips, a quick thanksgiving history, and recipes from two of the top sustainable chefs: Dan Barber of Blue Hill and Nora Pouillon of Restaurant Nora (the nation’s first certified organic restaurant).
My boyfriend and I are charged with bringing some veggie sides to T-day dinner and we’ll be sure to check out what Nora and Dan recommend.
Oreo Cookies and Global Warning: What’s the Connection?
- Topics:
- Biofuels, Blog, Hunger & Food Crisis
Wednesday, October 29th, 2008, 11:27 AM
Oreo cookies, Cheez-It crackers, and other foods, soaps, and cosmetics, all contain palm oil–the demand for which has more than doubled in the past year, making palm oil the most widely-traded vegetable oil in the world.
The climate change connection? The push for palm is encroaching on some of the world’s most important rainforests. Most of the palm oil in the U.S. is importted from Indonesia and Malaysia, where burning of forests to make way for plantations is commonplace. This deforestation, and the release of stored carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, is one of the main reasons Indonesia is among the worst contributors to the manmade global warming effect.
The Rainforest Action Network, Greenpeace International, Friends of the Earth and the Center for Science in the Public Interest are all campaigning to increase public awareness of the environmental impact of current palm oil production.
Leila Salazar-Lopez, who leads Rainforest Action network’s agribusiness campaign says, “There’s currently no palm oil in the world that can be proven to be sustainable.”
These groups are building a coalition of concerned citizens and food companies to advocate for sustainable palm oil. Get involved!
Learn more about palm oil and how you are affected here.
NY Farmers Calendar
- Topics:
- Blog, Local Food, Organic Food & Farming
Wednesday, October 29th, 2008, 11:25 AM
As we move closer to a new year, and get into the holiday spirit, consider gifting one of these beautiful calendars featuring local farmers in New York’s Columbia County. All the profits will benefit farm-to-table education for urban children. This is a great way to celebrate local farmers, raise awareness, and fundraise for children’s education.
Oprah on Prop 2 and Conscious Consumption
- Topics:
- Blog, Food Policy & Politics, Meat Industry
Wednesday, October 29th, 2008, 11:21 AM
We wrote a while back about Oprah’s foray into veganism, now she’s taking viewers into the heart of the livestock industry with an in-depth show on Prop 2 (the California animal welfare proposition on the ballot) and the state of livestock production.
Oprah’s show includes speakers from across the spectrum, including Wayne Pacelle (president of the Humane Society of the United States and the original sponsors of the Proposition 2 legislation) as well as Prop 2 critics. Proponents of the bill say Prop 2 would ensure more humane treatment of poultry in the state. Opponents counter that it would make production more expensive, putting farmers out of business and driving up costs.
Pacelle sums up Prop 2 this way: “This is just about basic decency,” he said. “It’s about, if animals are going to be raised for food—and that’s certainly the case in this country—then the least we can do for them is allow them to move. I mean, what’s more basic than allowing animals with legs and wings to move around?”
The average American consumes approximately 254 eggs a year. 95% of egg-laying hens are raised in caged facilities. Human decency and common sense indicate that we should care about the quality and size of these cages, to ensure a better quality of life for food-producing animals and a better quality of the food we’re consuming.
You can watch a really great online slideshow about the show and learn how to be ever-more “conscious” consumers.
Obama and the American Farmer
- Topics:
- Blog, Food Policy & Politics
Wednesday, October 29th, 2008, 11:14 AM
“America’s farmers are America’s future.” ~ Barack Obama, Indianapolis, IN, 10/23/2008
Michigan Goes Green
- Topics:
- Blog, Hunger & Food Crisis, Local Food, Organic Food & Farming, Urban Agriculture & Community Gardening
Wednesday, October 29th, 2008, 11:13 AM
Just got word about this cool new initiative out of Michigan…
The state’s governor recently launched Garden for Growth which allows residents to use “tax-reverted” (aka, unusued, abandoned, overgrown) properties to create community gardens–bringing crunchy, fresh, organic, healthy foods into the heart of the state’s urban communities. Gardeners and curious urbanites can lease vacant lots without the cost burden, and if they are successful, they can decide to purchase their plot to create a permanent garden.
Maybe other states will get inspired by this creative idea for re-zoning urban areas, to ensure greater community access to fresh, healthy foods.
To learn more click here.
Imagine if Our President Said This.
- Topics:
- Blog, Food Policy & Politics
Thursday, October 23rd, 2008, 6:10 PM
Well, he just might.
Read on for an excerpt from Obama’s recent interview posted at TIME.
Barack Obama: I was just reading an article in the New York Times by Michael Pollen about food and the fact that our entire agricultural system is built on cheap oil. As a consequence, our agriculture sector actually is contributing more greenhouse gases than our transportation sector. And in the mean time, it’s creating monocultures that are vulnerable to national security threats, are now vulnerable to sky-high food prices or crashes in food prices, huge swings in commodity prices, and are partly responsible for the explosion in our healthcare costs because they’re contributing to type 2 diabetes, stroke and heart disease, obesity, all the things that are driving our huge explosion in healthcare costs. That’s just one sector of the economy. You think about the same thing is true on transportation. The same thing is true on how we construct our buildings. The same is true across the board.For us to say we are just going to completely revamp how we use energy in a way that deals with climate change, deals with national security and drives our economy, that’s going to be my number one priority when I get into office, assuming, obviously, that we have done enough to just stabilize the immediate economic situation.
LaDonna Redmond – at the World Hunger Year Food Crisis Event
- Topics:
- Blog
Friday, October 17th, 2008, 8:07 PM
LaDonna Redmond, Cooper Union, October 16th 2008
Gerardo Reyes Chavez – World Hunger Year Food Crisis Event
- Topics:
- Blog
Friday, October 17th, 2008, 8:06 PM
Raj Patel – World Hunger Year Food Crisis Event
- Topics:
- Blog
Friday, October 17th, 2008, 8:04 PM
Raj Patel, Cooper Union, October 16th 2008, New York City
Food Fighters in the New York Times
Friday, October 10th, 2008, 9:11 AM
It’s a funny feeling to wake up and, while perusing the homepage of The New York Times , stumble on what feels like your family — pics and profiles of some of the “food fighters” in the movement afoot for healthy, sustainable food for everyone.
Among the people profiled (including Bryant and me) are my dear friends who started Maverick Farms in North Carolina. The crew of Maverick Farms have created one of the most special spots in the country, and the weekend I spent there on the Grub tour was one of the highlights of my whole book jaunt. After a delicious dinner made with freshly picked everything, a reading from passages in Grub, and a rousing tour de force by Molly on the old baby grand in the corner of hte living room, we all nestled down to watch Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers on a sheet hanging down the wall. I remember falling asleep full of wine, good conversation, and sore muscles from time down on the farm: a formula for a good night’s rest.
Other profiles include workers from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers who we’re excited to be bringing to New York City for our special end-of-the-year fundraiser on the 60th anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights.
Also, Severine, the awesome force behind Greenhorns, has a great pic and the most impressive fridge.
Check them all out here.
An outtake from our photo shoot on Added Value’s Community Farm in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
New Study Shows Media Overlooked the Connection between Climate Change and Food
- Topics:
- Blog, Food Policy & Politics, Hunger & Food Crisis
Wednesday, October 8th, 2008, 12:23 PM
We’re excited to announce the publication of a new study on the media coverage (or lack of it!) about the connection between climate change and food. Led by Roni Neff, from Johns Hopkins University, the study analyzed media coverage of climate change in the country’s top 16 newspapers for their inclusion of the links between global warming and agriculture and the food system. You probably wouldn’t be too surprised to hear that despite the food system contributing to nearly one-third of the global warming effect, the media barely mentioned it, but now you’ve got the numbers.
Says research director and friend to Take a Bite, Roni Neff, PhD:
Greater public awareness could lead to consumer demand for food with lower greenhouse gas emissions. Greater awareness could also spur action from policy makers and the food and agriculture sectors toward reducing food and agriculture-related emissions. The more we know about climate change news coverage, the more effectively we can help to ensure the important facts regarding the food systems’ contribution receive the attention they deserve.
See the full press release and link to the report Yesterday’s dinner, tomorrow’s weather, today’s news? US newspaper coverage of food system contributions to climate change.
Getting out the Vote
- Topics:
- Blog, Food Policy & Politics
Wednesday, October 8th, 2008, 11:45 AM
This site is about food, about where it comes from, how it’s made, and how that affects everything from our waistlines to our weather. It’s also about policies and politics, about the decisions made in cities across the world and on the national and international level that affect what (and how) food is grown.
With this in mind, I decided to head out to swingstate Ohio to help get-out-the-vote in Columbus, Ohio. Now that I’m back in Brooklyn, I want to share just a couple of the sweetest moments of working with Vote from Home. (I was connected to them through friends at Vote Today Ohio who were also mobilizing to get people to register and vote early.)
On our last day in Columbus, my boyfriend John and I were tasked with heading out to track down problem cases – missing registrations, no social security numbers, no date of birth, that kind of thing. Our first stop was at Grant Hospital downtown—the maternity ward. When we got to Room 543 we knocked and a quiet voice invited us in. A young woman was sitting up in bed, beaming. Between her outstretched legs was her 12-hour old baby, Julian, bundled in blankets. As she signed her voter registration form, we chatted with her friend, cooed over her Buddha-esque baby, and thanked her for calling us. She would be out of the hospital Monday evening at the earliest, she said, and if we hadn’t shown up, she would not have been able to register. Thank you for helping me vote, she said.
Leaving the hospital, we headed out to an address on Kelton Street. From the partially filled out registration, we noticed that Virginia, the woman we would be meeting, was born in 1932. In a neighborhood east of downtown, we pulled up in front of a modest house. Through her screen door, I could see Virginia sitting on her couch. She was surrounded by stacks of opened mail, magazines, a can of soda. AMC was playing quietly on an old television. Her walker was at her feet. She called for me to come in. Visibly shaking, Virginia started apologizing for her condition –Parkinson’s, they think, she told me. Then, she gestured for me to sit down beside her and together we finished filling out her voter registration and her request for an absentee ballot. When it was time to sign, I held the clipboard, and slowly – letter-by-letter – she shakily signed: Virginia Alston. (The Vote from Home people plan to follow up and help her with her ballot).
Another favorite moment was when my younger brother Matt and I went to one of the halfway houses, this one for women coming out of jail. When we got to Alvis House, the manager said there was only one woman who wanted to get taken down to the early voting and registration center. So Matt and I piled back into our 9-seater van with a forty-something woman from the shelter named Candace—or Candy as she said we should call her. On our way to the voting center, we talked about the economy as we drove by some of the boarded up houses on Bryden Road. We waited with the van, while Candy went inside to register and vote. As we were driving back to Alvis House, I have to admit a part of me was feeling like maybe we hadn’t really done much, just clocking one vote. But that’s when she said, leaning in from the back seat: I just really want to thank you two. You just helped a first-time voter.
I suppose in an abstract way I’ve always understood that the voting laws are designed to make it hardest for poor people to vote, but I only have come to really understand it through this experience in Columbus.
Since voting registration is tied to your address, who are the people who have to re-register every election? They’re the people who get evicted, who get foreclosed on. They’re the mothers who have to head to battered women’s shelters, or the young people who bounce for apartment to apartment. They’re the men and women convicted of big crimes (and little ones) who find themselves in and out of jail. These are the people who have to re-register every year, not the families with 30-year mortgages who live in one home their whole lives.
During the whole week we were in Columbus–visiting halfway houses and barber schools, staffing community barbeques in low-income communities and going to homeless shelters–nearly 100 percent of the people we met wanted to get registered to vote. (A few took more persuading than others). Many of them didn’t realize that they had to re-register because their address had changed, and many of the rest of them thought they were already in the system and were surprised when we would check online with our iPhones and learn that weren’t.
Until we have a fundamental overhaul of our voting laws so that it’s as easy for the wealthy as it is for the rest of us to get registered (and stay registered!), this experience has made me commit to taking time every four years to help register people to vote. It seems like the least any of us could do to make our democracy less of a sham.
What’s On Your Plate?
Tuesday, October 7th, 2008, 1:44 PM
Elizabeth, Latham, Bryant, Ludie, and me at the What’s On Your Plate? documentary film wrap dinner.
Community Food and Climate Change Solutions
- Topics:
- Blog, Local Food, Organic Food & Farming
Tuesday, October 7th, 2008, 12:14 PM
Here at the CFSC conference at a panel on community food solutions to climate change. Heard from Deb Habib from Seeds of Solidarity, a vibrant family farm in Massachusetts. Her farm is completely solar and people powered. No fossil fuel powered machines for Deb.
“Is there enough? We always hear that question,” Deb said. “Of course there is. We on my farm are completely reliant on, and powered on, the sun. And the Earth receives more energy from the sun in one hour than the planet uses in energy in a whole year.”
Her message of abundance, if we tap into nature, is the message we need to hear. It’s the good news about nature’s ability to be resilient and that will help us address our growing climate crisis.
Performance Art on a Plate
- Topics:
- Blog
Monday, October 6th, 2008, 2:38 PM
Over here at Bite Central, we just got a note about a new blog from Nicole Peyrafitte and decided to check it out and are pleased to report back that we liked what we saw.
Nicole Peyrafitte was born into the fifth generation of a family of restauranteurs in the South of France, grew up cooking with her grandfather, and eventually went on to intern at several top-tier French restaurants. She is also the author of of the blog Collectages:Recordings of Foods & Attitudes. Her latest post features Oeufs Cocotte à la Crème, which she cooked for brunch on Sunday.
We all wish we’d been invited to the party, and as it turns out, you could be. Since 1995 Nicole has been using the stage as her kitchen drawing crowds as a performance artist who integrates video, paintings, and voice. Often her performances involve the live preparation of a dish which is then shared with the audience. Pay her site a visit to read about her latest appearances and find out where you can see her next.
–Jeanne
Line up of Climate Change Panels at Community Food Security Coalition Conference
- Topics:
- Take a Bite News & Events
Monday, October 6th, 2008, 2:36 PM
This week, the Community Food Security Coalition holds its 12th annual conference.
With colleagues from around the country, we’ve created a series of workshops on food and climate change and invite you to check them out: conference schedule.
Specific workshops include:
Climate Change and Food: What are the problems, and what’s at stake?
Monday, October 6 11:15am
An overview of how the predominant global food system is contributing to climate change; how climate is in turn impacting agriculture; and why the problem won’t be solved by more of the “same old thing” (industrial-scale monocultures for agrofuel production, etc.).
Moderator: Molly Anderson, Food Systems Integrity and CFSC Board. Presenters: Peter Mann, WHY; Molly Anderson, Food Systems Integrity and CFSC Board; Marluce Melo, Pastoral Land Commission, Via Campesina, Brazil; Leticia Galeano, Popular Agrarian Movement, Paraguay
Climate Change and Food: What are community solutions?
Tuesday, October 7, 11am
How can we tackle climate change and build sustainable food systems at the same time? What models and tools exist for building food and energy sovereignty, starting at the community level? How do we spread the word that community food security is part of the solution to climate change? Participants will hear about a diversity of approaches and models from the U.S. and around the world and will leave this workshop empowered to take action.
Presenters: Maria Aguiar, Grassroots International; Deb Habib, Seeds of Solidarity; Ken Meter, Crossroads Resource Center; Marluce Melo, Pastoral Land Commission, Via Campesina, Brazil; Jac Smit, Urban Agriculture Network
Taking a Bite out of Climate Change: Campaigns Addressing the Food and Climate Change Connection
Tuesday, October 7 2:15pm
With concerns about global warming escalating, movements around the world are embarking on creative campaigns to address the links between climate change and food. We’ll hear from leaders from some of these innovative campaigns who will engage us in spirited conversation and ideas or action. Among the questions we’ll talk about: What are strategies and entry points for action? What can we learn from the successes and setbacks of these campaigns to date? How can we better work together to promote a just and climate-friendly food system?
Moderator: Anna Lappé, Small Planet Institute. Presenters: Ben Burkett, National Family Farm Coalition, President, and Via Campesina Food Sovereignty Commission; Stephanie Demmons, Oxfam America; Danielle Nierenberg, Humane Society of the United States; Meredith Niles, Center for Food Safety; Andrea Samulon, Rainforest Action Network
Climate Change and Food: What are the next action steps for CFSC?
Wednesday, October 8 10:30am
A facilitated discussion among plenary speakers, participants from prior workshops in the climate track, and additional participants (all are welcome). Representatives of all CFSC committees are strongly encouraged to attend.
Co-facilitated by Stephanie Demmons of Oxfam America and Christina Schiavoni, WHY
If you can’t join us at the conference, please e-mail info@takeabite.cc and we’ll be happy to send you a write-up of the panels.
Taking Back the Tap (in the Face of a Drowning Economy)
- Topics:
- Food Industry News & Trends
Monday, September 29th, 2008, 7:14 PM
Maybe it’s because in the wake of the biggest financial crisis in our lifetimes it seems even more weird to pay for anything you can get for free (especially water) or maybe it’s because environmentalists and public health advocates have helped to spread the word, but for whatever the reason, sales are slipping for the bottled water industry.
Jenny Wiggins reports for the Financial Times:
“In the UK, bottled water sales volumes have slid 4.7 per cent and sales revenues have fallen 5.1 per cent in the 12 months to mid-August, according to research group Nielsen. This includes a 2.5 per cent drop in sales volumes of Evian and a 7.4 per cent drop in sales volumes of Volvic, both owned by French company Danone. In the US, where bottled water consumption is higher than in any other country, supermarket sales are at their slowest rate since bottled water became popular a decade ago.”
Check out the Take Back Your Tap campaign at Food & Water Watch to learn more and get involved.
Climate Change and Food Slow Food Nation Panel
- Topics:
- Take a Bite News & Events
Saturday, September 27th, 2008, 2:23 PM
In case you missed the Climate Change and Food panel at Slow Food Nation over Labor Day weekend, Fora.tv has posted the discussion moderated by Mark Hertsgaard.
Panelists included: Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club; Wes Jackson, Ph.D., author and President and Founder of The Land Institute; Aaron (Ari) Bernstein, MD, co-author of Sustaining Life with Eric Chivian, MD; Patrick Holden, Director of the Soil Association; and me — Anna Lappé. Check it out and let me know what you think by writing to me here at Take a Bite.
Cookthink Captures Anna’s Foodprint
- Topics:
- Local Food
Friday, September 26th, 2008, 2:27 PM
The peppy editors over at Cookthink.com just asked me to give my take on their culinary quiz. Check out my responses here. And while you’re over there, take a look at the site’s recipes, searchable by that one ingredient you happen to have a hankering for.
Over here at Take a Bite we’re encouraging people to think beyond their collective and individual carbon footprints, and consider their carbon “foodprint,” too.
Cookthink can help you make a positive impact by choosing locally grown and organically produced food. For a wee preview of my personal foodprint, here you go:
Take a Bite’s Anna Lappé Writes Back to TIME
- Topics:
- Hunger & Food Crisis
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008, 1:02 PM
Post-the Slow Food bash, TIME magazine published an article from Bryan Walsh: “Can Slow Food Feed the World?” In it, he repeated the now outdated claim that organic farming can’t feed the world. I wrote a response and much to my surprise (because they didn’t contact me), the mag printed it! Here’s what they published (and below what I sent them):
The Case for Slow Food
Thanks for your coverage of the Slow Food Movement [Sept. 15]. It is misleading, though, to claim that industrialized food “is the only way to economically feed a global population.” There is nothing economical about a system contributing a big chunk of our greenhouse-gas emissions. The drivers of global deforestation are large-scale agribusiness–not Sunshine heirloom-tomato farmers from Sonoma.
Anna Lappe, Brooklyn, NY
What I sent:
Dear Editor,
Thanks for your coverage of the 50,000-person strong Slow Food Nation pow-wow in San Francisco (“Can Slow Food Feed the World?” September 4, 2008), but let’s be clear: with all of the evidence about the environmental and human consequences of industrial farming, it is dangerously misleading to claim that industrialized food “is the only way to economically feed a global population nearing 7 billion.” There is nothing “economical” about a food system that is contributing to one-third of the devastating – and did I mention costly? – greenhouse gas emissions driving the climate crisis. Nor is there anything “economical” about the polluted waterways and impacted lives from the chemical contamination of the billions of pounds of active ingredient pesticides used every year in the United States and abroad.
Furthermore, Walsh takes another disingenuous jab at organic farming by claiming that the “Slow Food initiative might lead to turning more forests into farmland.” The drivers behind deforestation are large-scale agribusiness pushing into wetlands in Indonesia and rainforests in the Amazon, not Sunshine heirloom tomato farmers from Sonoma.
Anna Lappé
Take a Bite out of Climate Change
Brooklyn, NY
www.takeabite.cc
USDA Reports Increase in Number of Farmers Markets
- Topics:
- Local Food
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008, 12:12 AM
Maybe you’ve noticed one opening up in your neighborhood, maybe you spent last weekend visiting one. If so, you’d be joining the ranks of the tens of thousands of Americans who now live near farmers markets and get their straight-from-the-farmer food fresh there every week.
Amidst all the bad trends – from climate chaos to financial chaos – it’s great to celebrate a positive trend: The USDA just announced that the number of farmers markets across the country continues to blossom, reaching 4,685 in August 2008, up 6.8 percent from the last official count two years ago. The Department’s Agricultural Marketing Service only started officially tracking farmers markets a little more than a decade ago, and since then the number of markets has jumped by more than 3,000. What that means for you and me is that more and more of us have the chance to directly support our local food economy and get access to the healthiest foods at the same time.
“More and more consumers are discovering the wide array of fresh, locally grown produce available at farmers markets,” said AMS Administrator Lloyd Day.
Over the weekend, I got to meet a founder of one of these farmers markets, Maritza Owens. She started her market in East Harlem fifteen years ago. Back then, it was such a strange thing to be doing – a farmers market in Harlem! “Now, people are flocking to the market,” she told me. Her markets are now part of a broader effort to help improve food access for East Harlem residents, including the Go Green East Harlem cookbook. Guess who’s the cover model?
Growing Power’s Will Allen Honored with MacArthur Genius
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008, 9:53 AM
We know that to revolutionize our food system we must reconnect people, especially those billions of urban dwellers, to the food that nourishes them. There is no better leader in this movement than Milwaukee’s Will Allen. And now, that’s not just my quirky opinion, it’s a view that’s been confirmed by the mucky-mucks at the MacArthur Genius Fellowship who chose Will among this year’s honorees. Congratulations Will!
From the 2008 MacArthur Fellows description:
Will Allen is an urban farmer who is transforming the cultivation, production, and delivery of healthy foods to underserved, urban populations. In 1995, while assisting neighborhood children with a gardening project, Allen began developing the farming methods and educational programs that are now the hallmark of the non-profit organization Growing Power, which he directs and co-founded. Guiding all is his efforts is the recognition that the unhealthy diets of low-income, urban populations, and such related health problems as obesity and diabetes, largely are attributable to limited access to safe and affordable fresh fruits and vegetables. Rather than embracing the “back to the land” approach promoted by many within the sustainable agriculture movement, Allen’s holistic farming model incorporates both cultivating foodstuffs and designing food distribution networks in an urban setting. Through a novel synthesis of a variety of low-cost farming technologies – including use of raised beds, aquaculture, vermiculture, and heating greenhouses through composting – Growing Power produces vast amounts of food year-round at its main farming site, two acres of land located within Milwaukee’s city limits. Recently, cultivation of produce and livestock has begun at other urban and rural sites in and around Milwaukee and Chicago. Over the last decade, Allen has expanded Growing Power’s initiatives through partnerships with local organizations and activities such as the Farm-City Market Basket Program, which provides a weekly basket of fresh produce grown by members of the Rainbow Farmer’s Cooperative to low-income urban residents at a reduced cost. The internships and workshops hosted by Growing Power engage teenagers and young adults, often minorities and immigrants, in producing healthy foods for their communities and provide intensive, hands-on training to those interested in establishing similar farming initiatives in other urban settings. Through these and other programs still in development, Allen is experimenting with new and creative ways to improve the diet and health of the urban poor.
Anna and GOOD on green living in the city
- Topics:
- Blog
Friday, September 19th, 2008, 11:49 AM
Spent a sunny midday talking about how to “be green” in the city. High above the city’s energy-gobbling sky scrapers it wasn’t always a message that was free from its contradictions, but the gathered crowd, including folks from the city’s eco-orgs and eco-media as well as Fashion Weekfashionistas who paused from plotting the next party asked great questions and seemed genuinely interested.
The moderator was great and represented for GOOD, one of my favorite magazines.
City of Angels Mouths Off on Meat
- Topics:
- Meat Industry
Thursday, September 18th, 2008, 12:41 PM
Last week the Los Angeles Times opined about Rajendra Pachauri’s statement as chairman of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that cutting meat from our diets is the most effective personal act we can take to combat climate change.
We’re glad to see the message is getting out there.
Now, for the backlash.
“Who’s Going to Stand up for Broccoli?” Just Food!
- Topics:
- Local Food, Take a Bite News & Events
Monday, September 15th, 2008, 12:52 PM
Iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, and potatoes. These are the top three fruits and vegetables Americans consume, and we’re not talking about heirloom varieties grown in your backyard garden. We’re talking about what’s largely available and thus consumed by the vast majority of Americans.
Here in New York we are lucky to have Just Food, an organization that has been working for the last 14 years to ensure that all of us have access to good, locally produced food.
“When you pick up your Just Food CSA box of produce, I’m betting there’s a bit more variety than just iceberg lettuce, tomatoes and potatoes,” said Anna Lappé.
Last night she took the stage as Honorary Chairwoman at Let Us Eat Local, Just Food’s benefit and ceremony for the first annual presentation of the McKinley Hightower-Beyah Awards.
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, La Familia Verde community gardeners, urban farmer/activist Abu Talib from Taqwa Community Farm, and farmer/advisor Ted Blomgren of Windflower Farm were recognized for their dedication to working toward food justice for all in New York City. In the spirit of McKinley Hightower-Beyah, a tireless leader, community gardener, activist and educator, the award honors those who carry on his legacy in their work to nourish New Yorkers from all economic backgrounds with locally grown produce.
Congratulations to this year’s honorees, and may McKinley’s spirit continue to inspire your admirable work!
–Jeanne
Let’s Cultivate the Web: Farmers, Feeders, and Food Movement Friends
- Topics:
- Blog, Hunger & Food Crisis, Organic Food & Farming
Monday, September 15th, 2008, 12:51 PM
One of our favorite go-to’s for advice on eating locally, The Eat Well Guide, has published a book!
This may seem a little unexpected from an organization that thrives online, but Cultivating the Web: High Tech Tools for the Sustainable Food Movement brings the online bounty of the sustainable food movement into your hands.
Always with a finger on the pulse, our trusted friends over at Eat Well have pulled together a compendium of go-to resources, whether you’re a city dweller or a country mouse.
Consult Cultivating the Web for blogs for your daily digest, websites for organizations to watch, even strategies for mapping your local food route for your next road trip. For those looking to dive into the local food movement, there’s an inviting section on how to make the most of social networking sites, infiltrate the masses with homemade web videos, start a blog, or create a Flickr account to draw your audience into the movement. And, for those who are daunted by tech tools and gadgets, there’s a glossary.
We’re in this work to fix a broken food system together, and thanks to the Eat Well team, movers and shakers all of them, our voice just got a little louder. You’re just a click away. Move your mouse to www.eatwellguide.org to download your copy today.
–Jeanne and Anna
Hey USDA: What if I Were Your Kid?
- Topics:
- Blog, Hunger & Food Crisis
Monday, September 15th, 2008, 12:42 PM
I continue to be amazed that we — the wealthy country that we are — allow millions to go hungry. In this 22-second video, hear the questions from kids shut out of our food system, asking the USDA to take action.
Food, Action, and Global Warming
- Topics:
- Blog, Local Food
Monday, September 15th, 2008, 12:40 PM
Check out Debra Kahn’s piece on Climate Wire, “Can We Shorten the Lengthy Journey from Farm to Dinner Plate?”, quoting Anna and mentioning the Climate Change and Food panel she spoke on at Slow Food Nation.
Read the full article here. See some highlights below.
–Jeanne
“Part of the problem is how the climate crisis has been framed. We’ve focused so much on transportation and power plants, we’ve ignored the food system’s role in the crisis,” Lappé said.
For most of the big environmental groups’ global warming action campaigns, the focus for what we can do as individuals is typically on driving less, or buying a hybrid, replacing your light bulbs, or getting energy efficient appliances.
“Those suggestions don’t give me, and other folks who live in cities or who might not have the money to buy a hybrid, a lot of ways to engage with change,” Lappé said. “Whereas, like all of us, I eat every day, and my food choices can be a part of making a difference. My food choices can be… a way to connect me to this critical global issue.”
One Big Company Gets Bigger
- Topics:
- Food Industry News & Trends
Friday, September 12th, 2008, 12:07 PM
Earlier this month, the grain giant Bunge got a gobble-up green light: Back in June, Bunge and the Westchester, Illinois-based maker of corn sweeteners and starches, Corn Products International Inc., had agreed to an all-stock purchase.
Now after sitting through a requisite antitrust law “waiting period,” the companies can close on the multi-billion dollar transaction, provided both agree on the terms. (And that’s getting trickier as the tables have turned: Bunge made the bid earlier this summer when commodity prices–and Corn Products stock–were high). If passed, the deal will create a combined company with 32,000 employees and operations in 40 countries.
Bunge is one of those companies that has a heckuva lot to do with a lot we eat, but whose name you don’t know – yet. The St. Louis-based Bunge North America is just one of the operating arms of the global giant. “The world is our market – six billion people and counting,” says Bunge. They’re not kidding.
Founded in 1818, Bunge is a leading agribusiness and food company with operations, “stretching from the farm field to the retail shelf,” as they say.
Among its chief business operations, the company:
• manufactures fertilizer and animal feed for farmers;
• originates oilseeds and grains from the world’s primary growing regions and transports them to customers worldwide;
• crushes oilseeds to make meal for the livestock industry and oil for the food processing, food service and biofuel industries;
• produces bottled oils, mayonnaise, margarines and other food products for consumers;
• mills wheat and corn for food processors, bakeries, brewers and other commercial customers.
Why does this matter to you and me?
With this purchase of Corn Products International their reach will get that much larger, and with it their economic clout and influence over food and farm policy.
Oprah and the Delicious Revolution
- Topics:
- Blog, Take a Bite News & Events
Wednesday, September 10th, 2008, 4:27 PM
Celia Barbour quotes Take a Bite’s Anna Lappe in this O Magazine piece about sustainable and local food out on the newsstands today.
Barbour’s piece features the growing popularity of the sustainable food movement, emphasizing young non-farmers bit by the farming-bug, dropping the office casual and heading for the field, hoe in hand.
Anna talks about that inner voice that tells you what you’re hungry for, that voices that too often gets drowned out by the billions of dollars worth of media messages convincing us to chow on cheap fossil food.
When was the last time you heard that voice?
Biting into a late summer plum might be what sends you out to the field, too.
–Jeanne and Anna
UN Climate Change Expert Says: Eat Less Meat!
- Topics:
- Blog, Food Policy & Politics, Meat Industry
Wednesday, September 10th, 2008, 9:40 AM
Taking a page out of our Take a Bite out of Climate Change playbook, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, says tackling climate change through our diet choices is an easier adjustment to make than changing our modes of transportation, if we want to personally address global warming.
He told The Observer that we should each practice a non-meat diet at least one day a week, and then gradually reduce our meat intake over time.
(See #3 on our list Ten Ways to Take a Bite out of Climate Change.)
The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that meat production is responsible for one fifth of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, and that at the rate consumption is increasing we will double that production by 2050.
“In terms of immediacy of action and the feasibility of bringing about reductions in a short period of time, it clearly is the most attractive opportunity,” Pachauri told The Observer. “Give up meat for one day [a week] initially, and decrease it from there.”
Pachauri also stressed that we need to make changes in every sector the economy in relation to climate change. Diet is just a starting point.
Saveur on the Ground
- Topics:
- Blog
Thursday, September 4th, 2008, 11:20 AM
This weekend Jeanne is on the ground at Slow Food Nation in San Francisco where activists, cooks, and food lovers have gathered to enjoy tasty local morsels and stimulating conversation. Alongside the thriving garden planted in front of city hall are panel discussions, covering topics from overfishing to climate change (with Anna!) and the future of farming.
The passion that drives many of the more than 50,000 who have descended on San Francisco for this Labor Day weekend comes from the deepest appreciation for good, clean, and fairly produced food for all.
Jeanne is updating Saveur.com’s blog with reports from as many workshops, lectures, and tastings as she can get to. Check it out.
From South Korea to the South Mission
- Topics:
- Blog, Take a Bite News & Events
Friday, August 29th, 2008, 7:33 PM
Still a bit jet lagged from the haul back from Seoul to San Francisco, but I have safely landed and looking forward to the weekend festivities of Slow Food Nation. Check out the full schedule online. I’ll be speaking at Herbst Theater tomorrow and then attending Bryant’s cooking demo on Sunday.
Don’t Miss Vandana Shiva in Berkeley Next Week!
- Topics:
- Blog
Thursday, August 28th, 2008, 9:29 PM
If you’re in Berkeley, and haven’t gotten your fill on all things food post-Slow Food Nation, check out Vandana Shiva’s talk: Soil not Oil: Securing Our Food in Times of Climate Change. I’ll be headed back to New York City, but will be there in spirit.
Food Markets in South Korea
- Topics:
- Blog
Thursday, August 28th, 2008, 7:37 PM
all photos by jessica walker beaumont
We Are Wowed by Cooperation
- Topics:
- Blog, Food Industry News & Trends
Saturday, August 23rd, 2008, 10:17 PM
At an iCoop bakery
My mother likes to tell the story of neuroscientists who studied the state of our brains when we cooperate and when we compete. In one experiment, volunteers engaged in various activities, some that got them cooperating, others competing.
The results were at once surprising and clear: Our minds, they discovered, downright like to cooperate. In fact, the same regions of the brain that light up when we eat chocolate, light up when we cooperate.
If that’s true (and peer-reviewed papers say it is), then this biological fact goes a long way to explain why the group of four leaders in one of South Korea’s powerful consumer cooperatives here smiled so big and laughed so easily with each other during our conversation today.
Founded just over ten years ago, iCoop (Korean Solidarity of Consumers’ Cooperatives) already has 50,000 member households, with 68 regional offices across the country. The cooperative works with 4,500 farmer households who supply more than 1,000 locally and sustainable produced products to members through online sales and at stores across the country. The coop has 34 stores (with 10 more planned this year), including the bustling bakery in a residential neighborhood in Southwest Seoul where we meet (and eat) with them.
The cooperative’s vision is to connect consumers and producers – and in doing so, radically change people’s ideas of what it means to be a “consumer” and a “producer.”
Part of this re-education happens in their annual farm visits, they explained to us through our indefatigable interpreter.
“Consumers are always trying to buy as cheap as possible. Producers are always trying to sell for as much as possible,” said Oh Hang Sik, iCoop General Secretary.
Through their farm visits and education programs (last year, they brought 8,500 of their members to visit their farmers), the cooperative helps people to rethink these relationships: “Both consumer and producer realize that they share a common vision of sustainable agriculture that can provide safe food and a secure future,” explains Oh Hang Sik.
Added Lee Jeong Joo, a member activist and the president of their 68 regional offices: “We like to say: Ethical production through ethical consumption.” Each makes the other possible.
“We help our members have a shift in consciousness that sustainable agriculture is linked to our food sovereignty. This shift in consciousness is an important role of iCoop.” They see how consumers and producers can cooperate with each other to work toward this vision. In other words, they eat the chocolate.
A Brief Romp through a History of Rural Development
Saturday, August 23rd, 2008, 10:09 PM
Jieun, our interpreter, me, and Professor Jin-do Park
For our first meeting, we visit Jin-do Park in his offices near Chungnam National University.
Jin-do Park has worked for more than three decades as an economist on rural development in South Korea. Under the last President, Jin-do Park was an advisor to the national government on agricultural policy, before being so frustrated he started his own institute and regional development foundation, the Korea Regional Development Foundation.
“When I came out of university in the 1970s,” Jin-do Park explained, “Korea was still a rural society.” Nearly 60 percent of the population lived in rural areas. 40 percent of the country’s GDP was from agriculture. In just one generation, the massive push for industrialization has transformed the country.
Today, less than 7 percent of Koreans are farmers and just under 15 percent live in rural areas. One-quarter of South Koreans live in the city of Seoul. Not surprisingly, nearly 100 percent of ingredients for the processed foods most Koreans eat come from outside the country’s borders.
So, I think, if South Korea can renew its countryside, can reknit the farmer and consumer connection, than any of us can.
We Meet Seoul
- Topics:
- Blog
Saturday, August 23rd, 2008, 9:10 PM
I had braced myself for Seoul with warnings like this one from our guidebook: You have to accept Seoul for what it is… “an inoffensive, grey urban landscape that borders on the bland.”
But in our first day here, I’ve already been wowed, from an open-air music festival, which included a celebration of the hot pepper, of course; fruit stands filled with the concord grapes that are in season now; cyclists on the city’s bike path running along the River Han; a totally efficient, if a bit overwhelming labyrinth, metro; and the dozens of BBQ restaurants that line the pedestrian streets surrounding our hotel.
Mostly, though, I’ve already been struck by how much we’ve learned about how consumer, labor, and farmers movements here are working to bring to life a sustainable food system.
Fruit on the Street in Seoul
(all pics by Jessica Walker Beaumont)
Important New Paper on China’s Rising Consumption and Production of Meat and Dairy
Friday, August 22nd, 2008, 7:47 PM
Our friend and colleague, Mia MacDonald, has written a powerful new report on factory farming in China.
Check out the full report in English (China translation coming soon): www.brightergreen.org/files/brightergreen_china_print.pdf
Here’s Mia’s press release:
New York–based policy action tank Brighter Green’s new report, Skillful Means: The Challenges of China’s Encounter with Factory Farming, explores the emerging superpower’s “livestock revolution,” which is having serious impacts on public health, food security, and equity in China—and the world. The Beijing Summer Olympics are showcasing a resurgent nation, which only two generations after a devastating national famine is eating increasingly high on the food chain. In the past ten years, consumption of China’s most popular meat, pork, has doubled. In 2007, China raised well over half a billion pigs for meat.
Given that every fifth person in the world is Chinese, even small increases in individual meat or dairy consumption will have broad, collective environmental as well as climate impacts. Increasingly, what the Chinese eat, and how China produces its food, affects not only China, but the world, too.
“When I was a child, every person was allotted one pound of pork a month,” says Peter Li, a professor of political science at the University of Houston in Texas who grew up in Jiangxi province in southeast China says in Eating Skillfully. “We could not eat more than that. You could not get it. Now, though, more people have access to more meat and want to eat a lot of it.”
In yuan terms, meat is the second largest segment of China’s retail food market. China has also opened its doors to investments by major multinational meat and dairy producers, as well as animal feed corporations, including Tyson Foods, Smithfield, and Novus International. Western-style meat culture has gone mainstream. Fast food is a U.S. $28-billion-a-year business in China. McDonald’s, a major sponsor of the Olympics, had more than 800 restaurants in China, with at least a hundred more set to open by the time the games began. Four McDonald’s are operating in Olympic venues, including the press center and the athletes’ village.
“China is not yet a bone fida “factory farm nation” like the U.S.,” says Mia MacDonald, Brighter Green’s executive director and co-author of Skillful Means. “But the strains of its fast-growing livestock sector are becoming harder to ignore. In the U.S., a re-examination of the multiple human, environmental, economic, and ethical costs of factory farming is taking place. Such a process needs to get underway in China—before it’s too late.”
Although these realities won’t be fully obvious to the millions of people cheering on the Olympic athletes in China and across the globe, they demand attention:
• China’s livestock produce 2.7 billion tons of manure every year, nearly three and a half times the industrial solid waste level. Run-off from livestock operations have created a large “dead zone” in the South China Sea that is virtually devoid of marine life.
• In northern China, overgrazing and overfarming lead to the loss of nearly a million acres of grassland each year to desert.
• Diet-related chronic diseases now kill more Chinese than any other cause, and nearly one in four Chinese is overweight.
• More than 90 percent of some bacteria in Asia can no longer be treated effectively with “first-line” antibiotics like penicillin—due to their overuse in farmed animals.
• China can still feed itself. But this is likely to change as its meat and dairy sectors expand and intensify. The Chinese government is looking abroad, not only to international food markets but also to Africa, Latin America, and other parts of Asia for land on which to produce food for people and feed for livestock.
• In 2008, China surpassed the U.S. to become the world’s leading emitter of carbon dioxide (CO2). Per capita emissions of CO2 in China have more than doubled, from 2.1 tons of CO2 equivalent in 1990 to 5.1 tons today. Meat and dairy production have a direct relationship with global climate change: fully 18 percent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions stem from the livestock industry.
Even though the Chinese government seems set on emulating industrialized nations’ meat and dairy culture, a small but growing number of Chinese non-governmental organizations and individuals are questioning this path. To them food quality, not quantity, is important, along with issues of sustainability and animal welfare.
Report from Busan, South Korea: The Indigo Humanities Fair
- Topics:
- Take a Bite News & Events
Wednesday, August 20th, 2008, 8:42 PM
I spent last night’s dinner talking with a 19-year-old Korean who has been attending Indigo’s humanities reading program for a couple of years. For her, like many of the young Koreans I’m meeting here, Indigo is a lifeline: A community where they “get a breath of fresh air,” as one put it, away from the stress and competition of their hectic high school lives.
It’s hard to describe Indigo, and I’m only myself just beginning to comprehend its significance. Indigo is part-bookstore, part-publishing house, part-humanities educational program, part-social movement.
Started 20 years ago by Aram (her name means–”My name means Indigo), the organization runs an after-school program based on an interactive humanities curriculum and recently expanded into a beautifully designed eco-building and an “ecotopia” vegetarian restaurant (inspired by Hope’s Edge!) run by volunteer parents of students in the programs.
Narrow and tall, the organization’s new home was built around a Gingko tree that grows up through its middle and whose leaves you can see through each of the floor’s interior windows. A five minute walk to a mountain within the city limits and to the beach in the other direction, the building catches a breeze that naturally cools it despite the city’s hot summer weather.
I was invited to speak at this year’s book fair because Indigo published the Korean version of Hope’s Edge. Tomorrow, at my talk, every student will have read the book and come to my workshop with questions for me. The student I had dinner with last night will moderate the conversation.
Over kim chee and other delicious Korean food, she and I talked about the significance of Indigo for her. It’s not unusual, she said, for her and the typical student to study at school until 10 or 11 at night, six days a week, often on Sundays, too.
“We don’t get to see our families much,” she says, with a slight downturn of her eyes.
The educational system not only demands these long hours, but also strict obedience to a teaching style that prioritizes memorization above all else.
During our dinner conversation, a visiting American teacher pipes in to explain the contrast between Indigo’s methodology and the typical Korean school: Indigo’s classes are based on rigorous reading, yes, but also on critical thinking and interpretation. Indigo teachers encourage students to think for themselves. In contrast, at the typical school here, students will read literature or poetry alongside sanctioned interpretations, interpretations they then have to memorize; they’re tested on the official version. The teacher tells me about a poet who met with Korean students studying her work. She tried to take the test based on the official interpretation of one of her poems and got half the questions wrong!
Tomorrow, after my talk, I head to Seoul where I’ll be focused on research for my book, meeting with representatives of farmers movements here. With newspapers here still filled with news about the protests against American beef, it will be an interesting time to talk with farmers and consumer advocates about what “food sovereignty” means to them.
Here are pictures from Indigo’s reading room with myself and founder Aram and of the exterior of the Indigo building (my photograph certainly doesn’t do it justice!).
Anna and Aram
Indigo’s Green Building
Hitting the Road: Farmers Movements in South Korea
Monday, August 18th, 2008, 11:22 AM
I’m rushing out the door to the airport — via my trusty local Arecibo car service — where I will hitch a ride to South Korea. I’m headed first to a conference on engagement put on by the Korean publishers of Hope’s Edge and then to Seoul where I will meet with members of a global farmers movement, La Via Campesina, whose work embodies what they call “cool farming” and an alternative to fossil-fuel addicted farming.
I’ll be posting as much as I can from the road, in the meantime, check out the travels of our friends over at the WHO Project (that’d be White House Organic Project) who are jumping on board their veggie-oil-powered bus and winding their way across the country to meet up with the crowds gathering for Slow Food Nation!
Now, before I miss that plane… signing off.
Etihad Inflight Takes a Bite
- Topics:
- Blog
Sunday, August 17th, 2008, 11:22 AM
The irony was not lost on me: An inflight magazine — for Etihad Airlines no less — publishing an article about how to reduce the ecological impact of your food choices ["Global Eats: Eat for the Planet" about our work here at Take a Bite], but still… I was glad to see they were interested and you never know who you will reach. Inflight magazines are definitely perused by a captive audience!
Tasting Pavillion at Slow Food Nation
Friday, August 15th, 2008, 6:54 PM
The line up for the highly-anticipated Green Kitchen at the fast-approaching Slow Food Nation has been released! Chefs from the famous French Laundry and Chez Panisse, as well as authors and cooks from around the world, will take turns demonstrating their savvy skills at the Taste Pavillion at Fort Mason.
On Sunday, August 31, you can catch Anna’s co-author, the culinary maestro Bryant Terry, make his own edible contribution to this landmark tasting event. Check out Eater San Francisco’s coverage of the full line up here.
Bryant and Anna will sign copies of Grub after the cooking demo.
–Jeanne
The USDA Has Made Their Assesment, Now Make Yours
- Topics:
- Food Policy & Politics
Friday, August 8th, 2008, 1:14 PM
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced yesterday their “major scientific assessment” of the effects of climate change on the nation’s agriculture, land resources, water resources, and biodiversity. Now the public has been given 45 days to comment on the “Strategic Plan for Climate Change Research, Education, and Extension.” Read the plan for yourself, and speak up! Comments must be received by September 19, 2008.
Michael Pollan at P.F.1 Tonight!
Friday, August 8th, 2008, 1:14 PM
Want to check out one of New York City’s coolest art museums, the city’s latest urban farm, and see Michael Pollan talk all in one night? Well, tonight is your night: In collaboration with The Horticultural Society of New York, Michael Pollan, will be speaking tonight at P.F.1 (Public Farm One) in Long Island City’s P.S.1, Queens.
The urban farm installation will serve as a mouth-watering backdrop for Pollan, author of most recently In Defense of Food, who will talk about the importance of seeing the world from a “plant’s point of view.”
Ground-Breaking Lecture from Nobel Prize Winner on Diet and Climate
Tuesday, August 5th, 2008, 11:31 AM
We were so excited to learn that Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the IPCC and joint-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, will deliver the Compassion in World Farming’s annual Peter Roberts Memorial Lecture, named after the organization’s founder, this September, in London.
In the talk, “Global Warming: The Impact of Meat Production and Consumption on Climate Change,” Pachauri will focus on industrial farming’s impact on the environment and the impact of our industrialized diet on climate.
In London in September? Get your tickets now: here.
You can read more about the impact of agriculture on climate change in CIWF’s report ‘Global Warning: Climate change and Farm Animal Welfare.’
We’ll report more in September!
Round-Up Ready Sugar Beets to Make Your Mars Bar Sweet
- Topics:
- Biotechnology
Tuesday, August 5th, 2008, 11:24 AM
Blogger Rebekah Denn, of Devouring Seattle, dishes about Monsanto’s latest product: Round-up Ready sugar beets.
Denn calls on us, dear readers, to take a stand. Seven years ago beet seed vendors were ready to sell Roundup-ready beets to sugar-sweet companies like Hersey’s and Kelloggs, but fear of consumer revolt scared off the introduction of this genetically modified source for sugar crystals. Now producers like American Crystal Sugar think the consumer market has become complacent and used to the prevalence of biotech products in everything we eat.
If Monsanto rolls out modified beets, it will be the first new GMO product introduced to the market since genetically modified soybeans and corn entered the scene in the ’90s.
European countries do not allow GMOs to be sold, period. Kelloggs promises they will not market this new product to their European buyers, however here in the U.S. with our lack of GMO restrictions, our food is fair game. –Jeanne
See Our Response to NYT’s ‘If We Are What We Eat, Then Let’s Be Kind’
- Topics:
- Meat Industry
Tuesday, August 5th, 2008, 11:20 AM
Check out Anna’s letter to the editor in The New York Times responding to Nicholas Kristoff’s column, ‘A Farm Boy Reflects,’ from July 31. “It’s time that our tax dollars no longer finance the inhumane conditions — for workers and animals and the climate — of factory farms,” Anna Lappé, The New York Times, August 2, 2008.
Taste a Bite of Urban Ag
Friday, August 1st, 2008, 5:27 PM
With not one but two petitions (here and here) being launched to convince the next occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania House to transform the front lawn into a vibrant organic garden, it seems like forward-thinking San Franciscans are getting their hands in the dirt none too soon: Inspired by the lead-up to the foodie pow-wow, Slow Food Nation, gardeners dug up the lawn in front of City Hall and planted… food.
Does growing food in front of City Hall and the White House sound wacky?
Well, it won’t be the first time you could pick a parsnip on these green patches. Back in the 40s, SF’s City Hall sprouted food. And, over on the other side of the country, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt planted her own Victory Garden on the White House lawn.
Providing abundant healthy food to neighborhoods, knitting community together, and reducing that ever-growing carbon footprint are only some of the many reasons these initiatives are encouraging cities — even our nation’s capital — to embrace the grow-it-yourself trend.
Along with news about the White House Project, Eat this View, and the Slow Food Nation garden, we couldn’t help but notice other urban ag initiatives getting props in the nation’s press, too.
Take this TIME magazine article or New York Times piece about such initiatives, including our very own Added Value community farm in Red Hook, Brooklyn, sprouting produce from a former asphalt baseball diamond, supplying local restaurants and providing a farmers market for local eaters.
Denniston Wilks farms in East New York, Brooklyn (Photo: Todd Heisler/The New York Times)
“Hundreds of farmers are at work in Detroit, Milwaukee, Oakland and other areas that… have low-income residents, high rates of obesity and diabetes, limited sources of fresh produce and available, undeveloped land,” wrote Tracie McMillan in that New York Times article.
Some organizations have even figured out not only how to turn on city dwellers’ green thumbs, but how to turn a profit making an old lot grow. “On a fringe of Philadelphia, a nonprofit demonstration project used densely planted rows in a half-acre plot and generated $67,000 from high-value crops like lettuces, carrots and radishes,” says McMillan.
P.F. 1: A Farm Grows in Queens
- Topics:
- Blog, Local Food, Organic Food & Farming
Friday, August 1st, 2008, 10:20 AM
If you are in New York and you haven’t had a chance to check out P.F. 1 (Public Farm 1), I suggest you get there quickly to behold the wonders of a project that introduces sustainable urban farming to sustainable architecture. Housed in the courtyard of P.S. 1 in Long Island City, WORK Architecture’s P.F. 1 is the winning project of the museum’s 2008 Young Architects Program. The farm itself is a “folded plane” made of cardboard tubes that serve as a base for produce and plants to grow from. The structure is built out of entirely recycled materials, is completely solar powered, and uses captured rain water in its irrigation system. Revelers at P.S. 1’s legendary summer Saturday Warm Up party dance beneath the shade of the columns, admiring the potted herbs and ripening peppers “creating a sense of community around the shared experience of growing food.” In my experience, fresh produce makes people pretty happy, and if a farm can grow in Queens, maybe one can grow on your fire escape too. –Jeanne
The planters on the farm
Patrons of the Warm Up party mingle at the farm
Come out, get your produce on
Organic Valley’s Kickapoo Country Fair
Thursday, July 31st, 2008, 6:12 AM
We had an amazing time over the weekend in La Farge, Wisconsin at the Organic Valley country fair.
If you don’t know ‘em, Organic Valley is one of the most successful stories of cooperation in this county. Started in 1988 with seven visionary Wisconsin farmers, Organic Valley now boasts 127 produce farmers, 937 dairy farm families, 146 beef, 87 egg, and 26 pork producers, 14 juice and 12 soy producers, and 3 poultry growers.
Pretty amazing for a rag-tag group of young farmers!
This was the coops 20th anniversary and the fifth time they invited the local (and not-so-local) community to celebrate organic family farming.
Here are some pics from the weekend, including a shot of Viroqua Food Coop. If you ever find yourself two and a half hours from Madison and in need of a good meal, head to the coop and stay at the lovely Viroqua Heritage Inn B&B.
Workshop with Frances Moore Lappé at Organic Valley
We the Farmers Bus
Viroqua Food Coop
Sunflower Biodiesel Demonstration
Proud to be a Farmer
Organic Valley Festival
Obama Poster at Organic Valley Festival
Defining Sustainability in a Jargon-Saturated World
- Topics:
- Blog, Food Industry News & Trends
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008, 10:46 AM
I’ve never loved the way the word “sustainability” or “sustainable” rolls off the tongue, or the images that it conjures in the mind’s eye. But I find myself using it for lack of a better word to describe the kinds of change that we need. For this reason, I am always looking for new ways to describe what the word really means.
I like this one from Solitaire Townsend of Futerra Communications: “For me sustainable development doesn’t mean maintaining the status quo – it means positive disruption, improving the environment and quality of life.”
I’m interviewing her today for the book and look forward to getting more insight from her!
Visiting New Forest Farms
- Topics:
- Forests, Organic Food & Farming
Monday, July 28th, 2008, 9:25 PM
Mark Shepard of New Forest Farms
Rosehips
MSNBC on “Guilt-Free Steak”
- Topics:
- Blog, Meat Industry
Monday, July 28th, 2008, 9:13 AM
Check out the take on global warming over at MSNBC central. It’s been a few years, but finally people are starting to talk about factory farming and its climate change impact!
Al Gets the Meat Question
- Topics:
- Blog, Meat Industry
Monday, July 21st, 2008, 10:19 AM
Take a Bite friend, Jill Richardson, popped the meat question to Al Gore at the Netroots conference and got the message about meat into the national news. Wrote SF Chronicle blogger:
“Our favorite question: If meat causes more carbon emissions than cars, what should we do? Al said, “It is true that it would be healthier for us as if we consumed less meat.” How come that hasn’t been a more prominent? “I myself am a meat eater and perhaps that has something to do with it.” We’ve got to walk before we run, Al said. “None of us are perfect.”
Take a look at our Eat section to get some decrease-the-meat suggestions.
The Splendid Table Goes Local
- Topics:
- Blog
Friday, July 18th, 2008, 10:11 AM
We were thrilled to stumble on Locavore Nation, the blog for American Public Media’s The Splendid Table.
Over the next year, fifteen regionally-based bloggers will document their diets: the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of chowing on local vittles. Check out the blog to read (and listen) to their tales.
Read “Knowing Your Food Sources,” a recent post by Scott Swendsen that recounts his visit to Cloverleaf Dairy in Buhl, Idaho.
Take a Bite on Green Patriot Radio
- Topics:
- Blog, Take a Bite News & Events
Tuesday, July 15th, 2008, 10:11 AM
Listen here to Anna chat about “Greening Your Food” on David Steinman’s Green Patriot Radio. Anna touches on ways to keep your diet cool, fair trade and her own coffee addiction, and how traveling at an early age opened her eyes to the food choices we make as Americans.
Green Patriot Radio is dedicated to educating listeners about sustainablility and sustainable ways of living.
Back in the Saddle
- Topics:
- Blog, Forests, Organic Food & Farming
Friday, July 11th, 2008, 8:53 AM
I returned to the U.S. with images of 18-course G8 Summit dinners swimming in my head and the food price crisis continuing seemingly unabated. [See my mother, Frances Moore Lappe, on Democracy Now with Amy Goodman breaking it down.]
I also returned to read my colleague, farmer Jim Goodman’s, powerful reporting on the floods that swept through his community. [Read his diary at Living La Vida Locavore from Daily Kos blogger Jill Richardson.]
Meanwhile, though mainstream papers like the Financial Times are calling for a moratorium on corn-based ethanol, our country’s headlong rush and multi-billion financing of this environmental and social blunder continues unabated. [I talk about this with some esteemed colleagues and media heroine Laura Flanders on Grit.tv. Check out the conversation on Grit.tv and let us know what you think!]
Hiatus, Siesta… Whatever You Call It
- Topics:
- Blog
Monday, June 23rd, 2008, 2:43 PM
Dear Readers – I’ll be on a much-needed break to Spain for two weeks. In the meantime, please be sure to send me any interesting articles or ideas or questions and I’ll be sure to get back to you when I’m back in the country. — Anna and the Take a Bite Team
Action Alert: Bunge, Brazil, and Protecting Small Farmers
- Topics:
- Food Policy & Politics, Forests
Friday, June 20th, 2008, 10:43 AM
from take a bite contributor Jeanne Hodesh
Last week, thousands of indigenous people and small farmers in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul peacefully blocked roads, railways and invaded dams to draw attention to the global food crisis and policies that favor agribusiness over small farms. Despite the non-violent nature of their actions, six of the participants protesting in front of a Bunge soy-crushing facility were attacked with tear gas and rubber bullets, suffering severe injuries.
Rainforest Action Network is calling on us to take action and hold Bunge accountable for these actions.
You can click here for more information on how to take action, including joining the RAN action to fax Bunge CEO Alberto Weisser’s office, demanding that he take action to prevent attacks on peaceful demonstrators.
Day Two: Vandana Shiva and the Manifesto
- Topics:
- Blog
Friday, June 20th, 2008, 7:14 AM
More gelato. More wine. More inspiration: Went to the inspiring launch of the Commission on the Future of Food and Agriculture’s Manifesto on Climate Change. Their third in a series of anti-manifesto manifestos.
Manifesto on Climate Change
- Topics:
- Blog
Thursday, June 19th, 2008, 2:51 PM
Here’s a not-very lovely pic from the very lovely launch of the third manifesto from the Commission on the Future of Food and Agriculture. I’ll post notes from the launch with Vandana Shiva and others later tonight, but now I’m headed off to eat more delicioso Italian food.
Day One: The Pitfall of Forest Offsets?
Thursday, June 19th, 2008, 2:45 PM
“First do no harm.” Those were the insightful four words of Hippocrates’ principle of medicine. But it’s not such a bad principle for any intervention we make in health or in the environment.
One of the most popular (or at least the most public) forms of climate change mitigation, pulling carbon out of the atmosphere, has been the big push for tree planting. Flying on Virgin Atlantic? Offset your travel with trees. Picking up an Enterprise Rental Car? Offset your emissions with some trees.
But get this: That tree planting might not be so neutral for Mother Earth.
As John Paull, a researcher from Australian National University, said in one of today’s sessions: Many of these forestry efforts use massive doses of chemicals to grow those saplings and maintain those forests.
If you think forest certification systems are the answer to the pesky problem of pesticides in forestry, both the Forest Stewardship Council and the Pan-european Forest Certification Council allow chemical use.
[Correction: In the original post, I said that the PEFC would also allow genetically modified trees, according to Paull. But in a General Assembly decision in 2007, the PEFC adopted rules that GMO material cannot be included in certified material. Our thanks to a helpful blog reader.]
Paull quotes the Forest Stewardship Council standards, which state in Standard 6.6a: “Strive to avoid the use of chemical pesticides.” But the Forest Stewardship Council also directs foresters to comply with local law. So while the chemical Simazine is banned under FSC standards, for instance, in Australia the country-wide exemption for the chemical overrides this ban.
Furthermore, forestry chemicals are typically aerially sprayed, making it that much harder to contain contamination making it that much more likely that chemicals spread into waterways and other places we don’t want them to go.
Many of the chemicals used in forestry are also used in combination with each, increasing their potential toxicity and the question-mark factor about their potential to cause harm.
So what chemicals are in use? Paull listed them off: During pre-planting and at the early growth stages, herbicides like Atrazine can be combined with as many as twenty-five others to increase their impact. Faunacides, like 1080, that target browsing animals are also common. (At this point, Paull displayed images of some of these warm and fuzzy guys: “Are we going to heal the planet by killing wallaby’s or possums?”) Then, there are the insecticides that target native insects and, finally, the fungicides that can be applied for up to fifteen years, or more.
Quoting Mencken, Paull said, “For every complex problem there is a simple solution, and it’s wrong.” In other words, our strategy of tree planting as a carbon offset might seem a simple answer, but when we’re turning to chemical forestry, it may not be the eco-solution we’re hunting for.
Paull’s solution was an organic forestry certification. But while we may be far from achieving such a certification system, we at least can pressure the forestry certifying bodies to toughen up their positions. As Paull said, “Carbon offsets using chemicals in our forestry is trading on a lie, and the lie is that we can heal the planet with pesticides.”
Day One: Climate Change Insights
- Topics:
- Blog, Organic Food & Farming
Thursday, June 19th, 2008, 7:27 AM
Here in Modena the sun is out and the mellow town streets are filled with people — young and old, businessmen and teens — many biking casually down the tree-lined bike paths. (Maybe some of them are even riding the free bikes the city makes available to anyone who wants ‘em and I’m wondering why t American cities haven’t figured out how to be so livable?)
In case it was still unclear to me, I really knew I was at a different kind of conference when our box lunches included hunks of parmesan (we’re near the home of the stuff–Parma), mini bottles of the best balsamic vinegar I’ve ever had (also a specialty of the region), and spelt pasta with sprigs of fresh mint and basil. (All organic, of course). Plus, the beautiful green boxes, and the seemingly plastic containers inside of them, were all made from recyclable materials.
I spent most of today at a special session with experts from around the world presenting some of the most recent evidence about the adaptation and mitigation benefits of organic farming for climate change.
From Claude Aubert of the Association of French Members of IFOAM, we heard about the comparative energy intensity of industrial versus organic animal production. His estimate? Producing 1kg of “conventional” lamb emits thirty times more greenhouse gas emissions than producing the same amount of protein in organic soy.
Paul Hepperly, of the Rodale Institute, shared some of the Institute’s research measuring how much more energy is required in industrial agriculture in the production of synthetic fertilizer compared with the climate-friendly sources of fertility for organic farming.
Tobias Bandel from Soil & More International presented his firm’s initiative to create a system of carbon credits for compost made from green waste. Because compost decreases the methane that would otherwise be emitted from waste and because compost adds fertility to the soil allowing farmers to eschew greenhouse gas emitting fertilizer, Soil & More has been able to secure carbon credits for their composting process. Among its other big customers, Soil & More works with Cape Town to compost 70,000 pounds of municipal green waste a day, transforming it into high-quality compost. Not only does this process save the city money, because it cuts down on the waste the city has to deal with, but the compost saves the city in another way: Cape Town had been importing its compost; now it’s making its own.
Greetings from Modena, Italy!
- Topics:
- Organic Food & Farming
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008, 8:34 AM
It’s not supposed to be rainy this time of year in Modena, Italy (about an hour outside of Bologna), but it has been for weeks and it was when we arrived yesterday afternoon.
As many of the farmers have already mentioned here at the 16th annual International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movements, climate change isn’t just something you read about in books: You see it in your fields. One old friend I bumped into here described the fields of wheat she saw surrounding the roads on the way into town yesterday. The muggy weather and the rain has bent the stalks so much it looks as if elephants had sat down in the middle of the fields.
Last night an opening ceremony began for this gathering of people from more than 70 countries in Modena’s beautiful town square. The mayor and the provincial leader of this region of Italy greeted us, singing the praises of organic agriculture and small-scale farming. (I tried to imagine their U.S.-equivalents doing the same).
This morning, in a high-ceilinged white tent, with at least 700 others, I listened as Vandana Shiva, Carlo Petrini (founder of Slow Food) and others described IFOAM’s four tenets of Care, Ecology, Health, and Fairness. This afternoon, I’m heading to the second half of a workshop series on climate change and agriculture.
Bittman Takes a Bite out of Meat
- Topics:
- Blog, Meat Industry
Monday, June 16th, 2008, 3:33 AM
I’ve never really had to struggle with trying to imagine how to take meat out of the center of the plate, as Times writer Mark Bittman helps readers imagine today. With a mom who wrote the infamous vegetarian bible, Diet for a Small Planet, it was normal that meat never made it to our dinner table. But for those for whom eating less meat is a perplexing idea, Bittman’s piece is super helpful.
“The Roots of Hunger? A Scarcity of Democracy, not Food” A tribute to Frances Moore Lappe
- Topics:
- Blog, Take a Bite News & Events
Friday, June 13th, 2008, 10:56 AM
This year my mother, Frances Moore Lappe, was honored with the James Beard Foundation Humanitarian Award. This video was created for the Award ceremony and includes words of tribute from Wangari Maathai and my brother and me as well as footage from India, Brazil, and Kenya on our journey to write Hope’s Edge.
Inspiring Food Policy Action
- Topics:
- Blog, Food Policy & Politics
Thursday, June 12th, 2008, 6:59 AM
From take a bite contributor Deepa Ranganathan…
It looks like one of the most progressive cities in North America, environmentally speaking, isn’t a city at all. The town of Markham, Ontario (pop. 262,000) claims it’s the first municipality in Canada to craft a policy for buying more food from local farms.
In a speech at the 2008 Smog Summit in Toronto, Markham mayor Frank Scarpitti was categorical: “These actions will help support Ontario’s farm economy, address climate change, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and pesticide use, curb urban sprawl, protect Ontario farm lands and promote sustainable farming practices.”
The specifics: Markham has partnered with Local Foods Plus, a nonprofit that certifies local farmers and processors and connects them with buyers. In future contracts, the town will work with LFP to source at least 10 percent of its food from Ontario farmers and will increase that target by 5 percent per year. The new policy will apply to Markham’s community centers and civic center.
The town is already Ontario’s recycling capital, diverting 70% of municipal waste from landfills. And it just adopted a Zero Waste policy for its facilities, boosting biodegradable cutlery and 10% recycled paper products while eliminating plastic water bottles and polystyrene foodware.
All of which makes Toronto – located 19 miles directly south of Markham – look kind of bad. That city recently shelved a similar proposal, citing cost concerns and worries that elderly residents would have to forego bananas. According to a story in the Toronto Star, estimates suggest such a plan would boost costs by just 10 percent, and there would be no banana ban. “We don’t want to eliminate bananas,” Franz Hartmann, executive director of Toronto Environmental Alliance, told the Star. “Rather, we want the city to choose Ontario apples instead of apples flown from halfway around the world.”
Frances Moore Lappe on the Wall Street Journal Online
- Topics:
- Blog, Take a Bite News & Events
Wednesday, June 11th, 2008, 11:44 AM
Oprah and a Climate-Friendly Diet
- Topics:
- Meat Industry
Monday, June 9th, 2008, 5:37 PM
Think back, way back, to the year 1996. Then, with Oprah’s empire in what was then still its early years, America’s most-loved talk-show host, after hearing about the concerns of mad-cow disease from American hamburgers, dared to utter these words: “It has just stopped me cold from eating another burger!”
Those fateful words got her into serious hot water.
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, trade industry for the beef boys, claimed that her comments were sensational and alarmist: There have been no known outbreaks of the disease in the United States, in either cattle or humans, NCBA argued at the time.
Ultimately, Oprah won the Beef Association’s food disparagement suit, but only after having to spend gobs of cash and loads of time in a Texas court defending her freedom of speech.
So, it was interesting to see Oprah dipping her toes back into the meat debate, albeit a little more quietly. And this time around she’s got a positive spin: Oprah is in the midst of a 21-day vegan diet. (In case you’re unclear on the concept: that means, no meat). In Oprah’s case, it also means swearing off caffeine, sugar, alcohol, and gluten. Inspired by best-selling author Kelly Freston, Oprah says she embarked on this diet, in part, to examine why she’s attached to certain eating habits: She’s trying to eat with more “consciousness” and “spiritual integrity.”
“How can you say you’re trying to spiritually evolve,” she wrote on her blog, “without even a thought about what happens to the animals whose lives are sacrificed in the name of gluttony?”
Maybe over in Oprah-land, we’ll start hearing about the other ethical and spiritual aspect of this 21-day meat-free spree: that it’s a climate-friendly diet, too.
Regardless of whether she champions the climate-connection, she certainly has become a cheerleader for the chow.
“Wow, wow, wow!” Oprah gushed on her blog. “I never imagined meatless meals could be so satisfying. I had been focused on what I had to give up—sugar, gluten, alcohol, meat, chicken, fish, eggs, cheese. ‘What’s left?’ I thought. Apparently a lot. I can honestly say every meal was a surprise and a delight, beginning with breakfast—strawberry rhubarb wheat-free crepes.”
Let’s see if the second time around she gets lobbed any lawsuits for loving that rhubarb.
The Food Chain
- Topics:
- Blog, Food Industry News & Trends
Thursday, June 5th, 2008, 12:50 PM
The New York Times has a whole section on the food chain — and its viability. Check it out here.
If you’re in New York City next week…
- Topics:
- Blog, Take a Bite News & Events
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008, 1:54 PM
My friends and I are hosting a benefit dinner at iCi Restaurant in Fort Greene, Brooklyn on Wednesday, June 11th, 6:30pm.
The dinner will support Heifer China’s community rebuilding efforts in the wake of the devastating earthquake. All proceeds benefit Heifer’s China program, addressing the roots of hunger through sustainable agriculture and community development.
iCi Restaurant
246 Dekalb Avenue
Brooklyn, NY
$75 to $250 donation sliding scale
RSVP today, space is extremely limited:
rsvp@silentfive.com
Can’t join us, but want to make a tax-deductible donation? Visit www.heifer.org/helpchina
Good Farm Movement
- Topics:
- Blog, Organic Food & Farming
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008, 1:52 PM
A picture is worth a thousand words, so think the folks over at the Good Farm Movement.
Climate Change and a Diet for a Small Planet
- Topics:
- Blog
Thursday, May 29th, 2008, 11:04 AM
In his semi-monthly Capital Times column, Bill Berry shares a bite from my mother’s first book, Diet for a Small Planet: 1968 “was the year I decided to find out why people were hungry in the world. The experts were telling us that the population problem was the cause of scarcity. The truth was, we were feeding a third of the world’s grain to livestock, and with little return.”
Berry has linked her seminal question from decades ago to today’s biggie eco-question: What are we to do about climate change? Check out Berry’s ideas for an answer in “It’s the Meat-Eating, Stupid.”
And, while I’m mentioning my mom, I just got word that Gourmet has honored her as one of the 25 people who changed food in America. (Note the photo credit: That’s my mother planting trees with Wangari Maathai’s Greenbelt Movement in Kenya).
The ABC’s of Cheeseburgers and Climate Change
- Topics:
- Blog, Meat Industry
Tuesday, May 27th, 2008, 11:58 AM
In case you missed it, an ABC correspondent recently took the words right out of our mouth: “You are staring into the face of one thing scientists say you can do to fight climate change,” said journalist Dan Harris as bovine B-roll filled the screen.
“Leave this cow alone and eat less beef,” Harris continued. “According to the United Nations, 18 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions comes from sending beef and dairy products to your kitchen table.”
After an interview with In Defense of Food’s Michael Pollan further detailed the eco-impact of cattle, Harris added: “You don’t have to give up your cheeseburgers, but if we all reduced our meat consumption by just 20 percent, it would be as if we all switched from regular cars to hybrids. It would also be good for our health.”
Of course, not everyone was so happy with the ABC revelation.
Over at the Business & Media Institute, which works to “advance the culture of free enterprise in America,” staff writer Jeff Poor argued that Harris neglected to interview anyone from the beef industry. But what really got Poor is that Harris didn’t mention the enormous economic hit our country would face if we curbed cheeseburger consumption. Keep chomping those cheeseburgers folks, it’s a matter of national prosperity? Apparently.
Said Jeff Poor, “it’s hard to imagine the job losses and the subsequent economic impact throughout the country if Americans cut back their beef consumption by as much as 20 percent.” To bolster his bluster, Poor quotes a report from the National Cattlemen Beef Association’s Web site: “Direct and indirect employment in or related to the production and processing of beef supports over 1.4 million full-time-equivalent jobs in the U.S.,” the Cattlemen claim. “Cattle are produced in all 50 states and their economic impact contributes to nearly every county in the nation and they are a significant economic driver in rural communities.”
What Poor doesn’t mention is that those jobs, particularly in meat processing plants, are some of the most dangerous and underpaid in the country: Meat packers face injury rates twice as high as other manufacturing jobs and receive 30 percent less compensation than the average manufacturing job. In a 2005 report, Human Rights Watch issued its first criticism of a U.S. industry ever, reporting that working conditions in America’s meat packing plants were so bad that they violated basic human and worker rights.
Maybe if we shifted our economy to better agricultural jobs, producing food that’s healthier for our bodies and the planet, and paid those workers in the meat industry better wages and protected their basic security, and reduced our meat consumption, we’d not only be saving the planet, but we’d be saving lives, too.
Agribusiness Profit (Updated)
- Topics:
- Food Industry News & Trends, Meat Industry
Tuesday, May 27th, 2008, 11:49 AM
A few weeks ago, I posted a blog about the record profits of some of the biggest agribusiness companies while newspaper headlines blared about the global food crisis. Well, this just in: Surprise…profits continue to spike.
Bunge, one of the world’s largest grain processors, recently announced its quarterly profits were up 70 percent. At the end of last month, Archer Daniels Midland, agribusiness big gun and the country’s second-largest ethanol producer, announced its third-quarter profits had increased by 42 percent.
This food industry windfall, while the poor struggle to afford the most basic food items, feels eerily similar to the record profits of the oil industry, while people scrape the bottom of their piggy banks to fill their tanks.
Food, Fuel, and the Future of Farming: A Conference on Sustainable Agriculture
- Topics:
- Blog, Take a Bite News & Events
Friday, May 16th, 2008, 9:13 AM
I’m heading to Vermont and Wisconsin this summer for a bunch of food and climate change events as well as lots of conversations with farmers. Should be fun… and if you happen to find yourself in South Royalton, Vermont, come on by.
Organic Farming & Carbon Sequestration
- Topics:
- Organic Food & Farming
Thursday, May 15th, 2008, 5:56 PM
A really great interview with Rodale Institute’s Timothy LaSalle on OnPoint about carbon sequestration and organic farming. A great follow up to our Q&A with him. I’m headed down to Rodale next week. Looking forward to seeing this for myself.
Not a Scarcity of Food, but a Scarcity of Democracy: More on the World Food Crisis
- Topics:
- Hunger & Food Crisis
Thursday, May 15th, 2008, 3:39 PM
The food crisis continues and so do the conversations about what we should do about and what are the root causes. My mother adds her voice to the conversation on the Canadian CBC. You can watch it here. (It starts at minute 32:00).
Spies, Lies, and Burger King
- Topics:
- Local Food, Meat Industry
Thursday, May 15th, 2008, 9:16 AM
Eric Schlosser continues to remind us what good journalism looks like (and what good titles sound like).
In “Burger With a Side of Spies,” his recent explosive op-ed in The New York Times, Schlosser reveals Burger King’s hiring of undercover agents in a battle against the coalition working to improve wages for the farmworkers providing the fast food chain its produce.
An AP story reports today that Burger King has now fired two employees after it was disclosed that an executive was secretly posting blogs condemning the farmworker coalition.
The company also said it was going to discontinue the use of the private investigation firm Schlosser exposed. And, Burger King also said it plans to meet with the coalition to “find ways to ensure decent wages and working conditions for the region’s harvesters.” Workers-1, Burger King-0.
Makes you wonder what would have happened had Schlosser’s journalistic integrity not revealed the shenanigans of the company. (Read the op-ed and you’ll get a sense of just how creepy their secret spying was).
Newsday Takes a Bite
- Topics:
- Take a Bite News & Events
Wednesday, May 14th, 2008, 11:43 AM
Newsday’s Sylvia Carter chimes in on the messages of Take a Bite and the Cool Foods Campaign and includes a tasty recipe from our friend Peter Hoffman. Yum.
Big Day for Big Ag: The Farm Bill Vote
- Topics:
- Food Policy & Politics
Wednesday, May 14th, 2008, 9:40 AM
Check out our friend Tom Philpott’s lively discussion about whether the sustainable agriculture community should have encouraged a veto of this Farm Bill.
Tyson, the Farm Bill, and Lobbying
- Topics:
- Food Policy & Politics
Saturday, May 10th, 2008, 1:14 PM
Since 1995, a federal law has required that lobbyists must disclose any activities that could influence members of the executive and legislative branches. Thanks to that law, we now know that Tyson Foods, the world’s largest meat producer, spent nearly half a million dollars in the first quarter of this year alone to lobby on agricultural, trade, immigration, tax, and other issues. (From Jan 1 to end of June last year, the company spent an additional $550,000 of lobbying dough).
The focus of their big-bucks lobbying? Well, the Farm Bill, of course.
As you probably know, the nearly $300 billion hunk of legislation will set the stage for the next five years of food and farming policy and government subsidies. And it’s looking like thanks to the muscle of industry, this legislation (and our tax dollars) will still ensure big windfalls for companies like…drum roll please…Tyson.
Among the specific issues Tyson was going to the mat on: fighting against country of origin labeling that would require meat and other fresh foods be labeled with their source country. To me, Country of Origin Labeling is a no-brainer. To companies like Tyson, expanding quickly into Eastern Europe and China, the measure could be a big hit to biz.
(Tyson and other meat companies have been fighting COOL labeling, as its known, for years, including setting up organizations like the “Meat Promotion Coalition” to fight against the policy.)
Tyson was also actively engaged with lobbying the USDA and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to improve access for U.S. beef to markets in China, Japan, South Korea, and Mexico.
Tyson’s foray into aggressive lobbying is not new, nor has it always been entirely legal.
In 1997, the company pleaded guilty to charges of giving illegal gifts to USDA Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy, including tickets to Dallas Cowboy football games and scholarship funds to his girlfriend.
Reading the lobbying reports disclosed, by law, at http://soprweb.senate.gov, reveals that Jack L. Williams of Little Rock, one of Tyson’s s lobbyists indicted during the 1990s Espy scandal, is still on company payroll today.
Now, who said politics was dirty?
Blaming the Small Farmer for the Global Food Crisis?
- Topics:
- Hunger & Food Crisis
Friday, May 9th, 2008, 9:30 AM
Today’s Wall Street Journal has this front-page article about the global food crisis and the diminishing supplies of milk.
And, just in case you thought the global food crisis should be blamed on Big Ag making billions while the poor starve, or on the speculators who have flooded commodities markets with capital seeking refuge from the deluge of housing bubbles bursting, or on the industrial farmers in the U.S. who have converted 33 percent of their corn production to biofuels, the Journal has finally put blame where blame is due: squarely on the shoulders of small farmers.
(I’m hoping the sarcasm in that last sentence breaks through the blogosphere).
Yes, small farmers in New Zealand, who are so old fashioned they would like to hang onto local ownership instead of opening up their cooperative to foreign control, are now among the culprits for a global food crisis, according to the paper.
The irony is that the countries facing the worst food riots, and feeling the crisis most acutely, are those that have lost the local control of their food systems these New Zealand farmers are trying to hold on to. But these countries have lost that local control, not necessarily because they willingly turned it over to outside power, but often because they were required to do so in response to international loans contingent on market liberalization.
I just finished an advance copy of Paul Roberts new book, The End of Food, and he writes about some of the policies, forced on countries worldwide, that created such food vulnerability. Remember the East Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s? When that region reached out to the International Monetary Fund for assistance, the agency extended a $120 billion rescue package, with strings attached: The offer was tied to a requirement that the countries slash their tariffs on imported rice, as well as sugar, flour, soybeans, and corn. They did; they got the loan; the rest is history.
The vivid images of food riots dotting the planet have shown us the fragility of food systems that are so intricately tied to a global market with its wild speculation and extreme price volatility.
And now we have articles telling us we should really blame small farmers in New Zealand?
The World Food Crisis Dissected
Thursday, May 8th, 2008, 10:28 AM
Unless you’ve been stuck in a soundproof vault the past couple of weeks, you’d know the world is faced with one of the worst global food crises in history. Almost every day, the Financial Times on my doorstep has some new article about it.
I’ve been on radio, TV, and quoted in some papers about the roots of the crisis and have been scouring the news outlets for other views that help us make sense of it.
To date, one of the best pieces I’ve read is by John Nichols of The Nation magazine.
This morning, NPR’s Marketplace had an excellent segment about the food crisis in Haiti as part of a series they’re doing all week.
Red Meat Gets a Knockout Punch
- Topics:
- Meat Industry
Wednesday, May 7th, 2008, 12:08 PM
Red meat gets another hit this month in a study published in Environmental Science & Technology: Researchers found that knocking red meat off the plate and substituting it with vegetables, fish, or chicken can seriously decrease the climate change impact of your diet.
We here at Bite Central have been singing that tune for a long time and are glad to hear the chorus echoed in impressive science magazines.
According to the study, red meat production is roughly 150 percent more greenhouse gas intensive than producing chicken or fish.
As we note elsewhere on the site, red meat production is so carbon intensive for a number of reasons, among them:
- cattle are ruminants, which means they digest food in multiple stomachs and in multiple steps: first they convert raw material into “cud,” regurgitate it to chew it and eat it again. In the process, unfortunately, in the chambers of their stomach they produce methane, which they emit mainly through their noses. (I hear people mention cow farts a lot more than cow snorts… I guess gas is always good for a laugh);
- most cattle are raised in feedlot confinement, which creates such vast amounts of excrement that it can’t naturally be cycled through an agricultural system and instead is a major pollutant, emitting greenhouse gases;
- since these factory farmed cattle are raised in feedlots (and not on pasture), they must be fed, right? The climate change costs of the production of feed are also serious: from the emissions produced in making the synthetic fertilizers and pesticides to the emissions created when using them to the emissions from powering on-farm machinery and shipping all that feed to its final destination.
While I’m pleased to see these researchers take a stand on red meat critique, I was struck that the authors set up their argument as a face-off with local foods: A dietary shift away from red meat can be a “more effective means of lowering an average household’s food-related climate footprint than ‘buying local,” they wrote.
While they’re right that red meat consumption – and lowering it! – will be a key part of dealing with the climate impacts of our diet, this doesn’t mean we have to forsake our support of local foods.
We know that emissions from food transportation are just a small slice of the food sector’s global warming pie. In this study, for instance, the authors peg the percentage of greenhouse gas emissions from food transport at 10 percent of the sector’s total emissions. This is roughly in line with other figures I’ve seen.
But by saying that food transport isn’t such a significant aspect of greenhouse gas emissions from food is missing a key point the buy local movement makes: there are a multitude of reasons for supporting local food. It isn’t just about calculating the odometer of food items for their own sake.
We know that the choice for local isn’t just about choosing food with the lower mileage, choosing local typically means choosing foods grown sustainably, which is good for the climate. Local foods also tend to be fresh foods, which means less packaging and processing– also good for the environment. And when people choose “local meat” they don’t mean the local Tyson processing plant, they mean meat that has been raised on small-scale farms, not on feedlots, which is also, you guessed it, good for the environment.
So let’s take this study’s message to heart: Eating less red meat is a key part of the climate change solution… but let’s not forget that eating local is, too.
Our Southern Forests Pay the High Price for Big Gulps
- Topics:
- Forests
Monday, May 5th, 2008, 9:34 AM
When we think about the environmental impact of our fast food habit, we tend to think about rainforest destruction in far-off places: the loss of the Amazon, palm oil plantations in Indonesia.
Well, it turns out we don’t have to look too far. Forests in the southern parts of the United States are also being decimated to service our fast food addiction. Clearcut forests in our country’s south are supplying 60 percent of the nation’s paper demands and 15 percent of global demand, according to a recent study.
And it’s the paper demands of our fast food chains – think napkins, cups, wrappers – that have been among the biggest drivers of this loss. Thanks in large part to Big Gulps, Big Macs, Whoppers, and Chalupas, nearly half of the forested acres in the south have been decimated in the past several hundred years, from 356 million acres to 182 million acres today.
A new campaign by the Dogwood Alliance NoFreeRefills.org is targeting fast food chains to demand they reduce their impact on the environment.
We can do our part, too. Here are some tips for ways we can help decrease demand on our precious forests:
1. Use a travel mug or stainless steel water bottle rather than using disposable cups
2. Bringing your own bags to the grocery store or farmers market. You’ll save trees and carbon.
3. When you eat out, bring your own containers to carry leftovers home in. To-go-ware makes a nice stainless steel product.
Communing about Food at the Food and Society Conference
Thursday, May 1st, 2008, 11:18 AM
I’m offline for a couple of days communing with more than 500 people from around the country. This year’s Food and Society meeting is housed at the conference center in the Gila River Indian Community.
In her welcome, one of the community leaders told us about the ways the community is rebuilding its ability to feed itself and tapping its deep agricultural traditions. As a result of the decimation of local farming and water systems and the onslaught of American-style processed foods, the community has one of the worst rates of diabetes in the world: nearly 90 percent of the population is afflicted with diabetes. Dialysis for teenagers is just beginning.
Community leaders shared with us how reconnecting with traditional foods is helping reverse this trend. And after decades of struggle, the community just won one of the longest battles over natural resources in American history, reclaiming their power over their water and their ability to determine the fate of the land. So this location seemed a particularly apt place to bring together a community of people working to bring to life food sovereignty and making the connections between food, health, and justice.
Here’s a tasting of some of the wonderful people I’ve been hanging out with in the hot, hot desert outside of Phoenix:
- Claire Cummings, whose new book about the corporate control of the seed supply, Uncertain Peril, I read on the flight here and is now dog-eared and pock-marked with traces of my yellow highlighter. No surprise, then, that I highly recommend it!
- Sam Fromartz, of Organic Inc. fame, and I compared notes about our experience talking with folks in the food industry. He keeps an up-to-the-minute blog at ChewsWise.
- Bonnie aka “The Dairy Queen” — the beauty, brain, and braun behind The Ethicurean — was in full form and brought together an ad hoc group of food bloggers and media makers. We’re plotting. Stay tuned.
- I got a sneak peek of the table of contents for Bryant Terry’s new cookbook. He’s my good friend and co-author of Grub, and while, therefore, I may be a little biased, his book looks phenomenal! With a nourishing vegan reinterpretation of more than 100 soul food dishes, the recipes looks delicious and totally in line with our mission here to take a savory (or sweet) bite out of climate change.
- Curt Ellis, the filmmaker behind King Corn, which is now in wide release, and I discussed the creative power of documentary film. If you haven’t seen his King Corn yet, you have no excuse.
- I got to meet all of my fellow fellows.
- Brahm Ahmadi was inspiring as ever and it was great to hear the latest news about how his work at People’s Grocery is taking off.
- My dear friend, maverick farmer, and Grist food editor, Tom Philpott made an experience and we schemed about various Take a Bite and Grist partnerships.
- Over lunch one day, I learned about the secret behind the best compost in the world (shh: it’s the worms) from one of our country’s leading urban farming luminaries, Will Allen, founder of Growing Power
- On the way home, I got to hail a cab with another Will Allen, this one the author of War on Bugs, who was proudly sporting his Farms Not Arms t-shirt at JFK.
It was amazing to see everyone and to get recharged by the work everyone is doing. The starry night sky and steaming hot tub weren’t bad either.
Go Green! Cut Out the Red Meat
- Topics:
- Meat Industry
Monday, April 28th, 2008, 2:48 PM
Reuters writer Terri Coles interviewed me for this article on the meat-climate change connection. I thought it was interesting to note the poll that came along with it. Now, who knows how many people actually submitted a response, but among those who did more than two-thirds said they’d either quit eating red meat for a month, or already eschew the stuff, to combat climate change.
Getting Ourselves Back to the Garden
Thursday, April 24th, 2008, 5:25 PM
A spate of articles–from Michael Pollan’s Earth Day piece to one on the kitchen garden movement–encourage readers to get back to the garden.
Tapping into the gardener in each of us, these articles stress, is not only good for our health but good for the planet, too.
Of course, not all of us have gardens to dig into: My Brooklyn apartment is certainly not garden-friendly. Those of us garden-inclined, but city-bound, can transform our stoops, windows, or porches or tap into the abundant gardening possibilities popping up across the country. Here in New York City, thousands of gardeners get their fingernails dirty in community gardens in all five boroughs. Seattle Tilth has been helping folks in that slightly greyer city get into the garden, too.
During World War II, nearly 40 percent of the nation’s produce came from kitchen gardens. It’s long time for a new homegrown food revival.
Learn more at Kitchen Gardeners International: www.kitchengardeners.org.
Farming: The Original Green Collar Job
Thursday, April 24th, 2008, 12:33 PM
The candidates are overlooking the ultimate green-collar job
First posted on Grist.org | 22 Apr 2008
Amid the din of the Pennsylvania primary and Earth Day, it seems a fitting time to talk about where the Democratic candidates stand when it comes to Mother Earth. [more]
Palm Oil, Orangutans, and the Climate
- Topics:
- Food Industry News & Trends
Thursday, April 24th, 2008, 12:18 PM
The climate is not the only loser when it comes to deforestation in Indonesia; orangutans aren’t fairing so well either. Because of agribusiness encroachment to expand palm oil plantations into the country’s lush forests, Indonesia has become one of the world’s top four largest greenhouse gas emitters. Now, it seems, the pressures on the forests of Borneo and Sumatra, home to the world’s last wild orangutan populations, could lead to our primate cousins’ extinction within as little as ten years.
In a report released on Monday, Greenpeace connects the dots between expansion of palm oil plantations for food and biofuel, the loss of orangutan habitat, and Unilever, one of the biggest palm oil producers in the region.
In response to the report and a Greenpeace protest against the company, Unilever delivered this press release in which they threw up their hands. They’re just responding to the demand for palm oil, they say: “The problem is simply that demand of palm oil has exploded. This is due partly to growing demand from India and China and also due to the use of palm oil as a feedstock for biofuels in the energy sector.”
But Greenpeace claims that the company has breached its own accord for sustainability as a member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).
“By failing to apply and enforce RSPO principles and criteria to both traders and producers at group level, Unilever has failed to bring the rapidly expanding palm oil sector under control,” says Greenpeace. The international environmental organization recommends an immediate moratorium on oil palm expansion into rainforest and peatland areas. What say you, Unilever?
International Day for Biodiversity: May 22!
- Topics:
- Blog
Thursday, April 24th, 2008, 9:36 AM
Mark your calendars for May 22nd. This year’s theme for the International Day for Biological Diversity is
“Biodiversity and Agriculture”–just what the world needs now.
Activities around the world will highlight the importance of sustainable agriculture not only to preserve biodiversity, but also to ensure that we will be able to feed the world, maintain agricultural
livelihoods, and enhance human well being into the 21st century and beyond.
For more information and to find an event near you, visit: http://www.cbd.int/ibd/2008/
Yogis for a Sustainable Diet: Sharing a Message from Yoga Journal
- Topics:
- Organic Food & Farming
Thursday, April 24th, 2008, 9:29 AM
Yoga Journal takes on the Earth Day hype by offering its yoginis clear advice about how to make a difference when it comes to the food on your plate. See our site for more ideas.
Yogis for a Sustainable Diet
Amid all the hype surrounding Earth Day, a yogi can’t help but wonder how much he or she, acting individually, can make a difference. Of course, the answer is that every choice counts, including riding your bike to work, composting, recycling, and consuming less. However, the factor that can reduce your carbon footprint most dramatically is the choice that you make three times daily: what to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
In a 2006 United Nations study, meat consumption was cited as one of the most significant factors in global warming: Scientists declared that raising animals for food is responsible for more greenhouse gases than the entire transportation sector. And according to a 2005 University of Chicago study, adopting a vegetarian diet can shrink your carbon footprint by up to 1.5 tons of carbon dioxide a year. (In comparison, trading a standard car for a hybrid cuts about one ton.) Aside from the undeniable environmental benefits of eating such a diet, yogis may also consider the ahimsic benefits: A vegetarian diet spares the lives of more than 100 innocent beings per year.
This week, make a significant impact on your carbon footprint by establishing a plan to go veg several days a week (if not completely). Get guidance and some great recipes from this free Vegetarian Starter Kit from the editors of Vegetarian Times and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Patronize restaurants that tread lightly on the earth, or consider growing your own organic fruits and veggies in a backyard or rooftop garden. Finally, inspire us with your in-progress plans, or make a pledge to reduce your carbon footprint. Happy Earth Day!
Namaste,
Andrea Kowalski
Food Policy Council Training in Santa Fe, NM
- Topics:
- Food Policy & Politics
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008, 9:31 AM
Food policy councils have become one of the most powerful ways to shape our food system. I recently attended the New York State Food Policy Council listening session and it was inspiring to see representatives from so many of the different public sectors that are involved with food — from health and human services, to education, to agriculture, to labor.
If you want to learn more, there is still room available for people who wish to participate in the food policy council workshop on May 5th in Santa Fe, NM co-led by Mark Winne and Keecha Harris.
The workshop is appropriate for those who are in the early stages of food policy council development as well for those who have some experience in food policy council operation.
To register go to www.swmarketingnetwork.org.
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008, 6:36 AM
4/22/08 – RadioActive KRCL 90.9
Celebrate Earth Day with RadioActive
The Roots of the Food Crisis
- Topics:
- Hunger & Food Crisis
Sunday, April 20th, 2008, 5:17 AM
Raj Patel (Stuffed and Starved) and I got into the roots of the food crisis on the CBC this morning. Note the very San Francisco background for Raj–love those Victorians!
As I say at the end of the segment, the global food crisis should be a wakeup call that business as usual has not been working. Even before this crisis, the global food system was shutting out 850 million people who were going hungry globally, despite the fact that we were producing enough food for everyone to be fed.
What are the solutions? Raj and I share some in this segment. I also suggest taking a look at the work of the National Family Farm Coalition in sharing ideas for how we can learn lessons from the crisis.
Untouched by Man, Manhandled by PR: FIJI Water Goes Carbon Negative?
- Topics:
- Food Industry News & Trends
Saturday, April 19th, 2008, 5:31 AM
I’ve always found myself eerily drawn to the pink flowers on those cubic FIJI water bottles, but I never could quite stomach the eco-reality of buying water in Brooklyn that had been flown in from a tiny island in the Pacific Ocean.
Concerned that their actual customers might start feeling twangs of similar eco-consciousness, FIJI just announced – to considerable fanfare – that it’s going carbon negative… eventually. (Seems like “carbon negative” is the term of preference for the we’ll-one-up-you corporate branders).
FIJI has promised to reduce its product emissions by 25 percent and source half its energy from renewable sources by 2010. They also say they will partner with Conservation International on a reforestation project in the Yaqara Valley in Fiji to offset their remaining emissions by 120% over 30 years. If they keep their promise, they’ll be reducing their carbon footprint not just to zero, but to less than zero.
Reading Elle Magazine give the “gold star” for FIJI’s plans, it does make me wonder whether the company is really going to make any of these changes. Considering we’ve seen plenty of corporate PR splashes, without the follow through, we’ll have to keep our eyes on what the company actually does, not just what it promises to do.
And, anyway, wouldn’t it better for the planet, and the climate, if we didn’t buy bottled water in the first place? Tap water suits us just fine. Check out Take Back the Tap campaign from Food and Water Watch.
‘Scuse Me While I Eat The Sky: Advisory Member Weighs In on HuffPo
- Topics:
- Take a Bite News & Events
Thursday, April 17th, 2008, 12:13 PM
Our very own Kerry Trueman–blogger extraordinaire–writes about us, the Simpsons, and the falling sky. Read more here.
Who’s Hurting and Who Is Cashing in on the Spikes in Food Prices?
Thursday, April 17th, 2008, 6:31 AM
A recent Financial Times had a staggering map of the globe: Black dots marked each of the countries were there have been food riots because of the rising prices of food. Thirty dots in all. And a recent CNN report noted that “Riots, instability spread as food prices skyrocket.” These surging costs, warns World Bank President Robert Zoellick, “could mean ‘seven lost years’ in the fight against worldwide poverty.”
Meanwhile, I couldn’t help but notice which agribusiness company has just reported an 86 percent jump in its quarterly earnings. Cargill, one of the world’s largest private companies said that these strong earnings have been driven mainly by its commodities division and primarily because of the booming demand for biofuels and increasing demand in new markets, especially Asia.
Last year this global company posted a net profit of $2.34 billion. (They’re total sales last year were $88.3 billion). Just to put that in some context: $2.3 billion is the GDP of Belize.
Welcome to Take a Bite: Dive in, Dig In, and Dish Up
- Topics:
- Take a Bite News & Events
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008, 12:00 PM
Today is our big day over here at Bite Central. While we’re off toasting with our friends from the Center for Food Safety at the media launch at Blue Hill, take a look around and let us know what you think.
About the Site: We’ll be continuously adding tips, resources, and action ideas, so keep your eyes peeled on our blog where we’ll let you know what’s new.
Ongoing features: We’ll be posting new Q&A’s with invited guests every month, starting next week, and sharing those interviews with the folks over at Grist.org.
We’ll also be featuring a tip-of-the-month – a simple thing you can do starting on Earth Day, so send us your brilliant ideas.
Talk to Us! We would love to hear your have favorite resources, questions you’d like answered, or topics you’d like covered. Please email us or share your comments with others here.
From all of us at Take a Bite, thanks for checking us out.
Take a Bite on BlogHer
- Topics:
- Take a Bite News & Events
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008, 10:01 AM
Did this fun podcast with Elisa, one of the founders of the BlogHer community. I’ve always thought a good interview will like a good conversation, this certainly did.
One of the questions Elisa asked was submitted by someone in the community. How can we make sense of what’s good for us with all these different terms being tossed around: organic, sustainable, local, fair trade. What do they really mean and what difference do they make?
The terminology may feel like alphabet soup, but the principles of good eating–and I mean good for you and for the planet–are really quite simple: nutritionist Marion Nestle sums them up here in just a few words.
When it comes to choosing a climate-friendly diet the principles are pretty simple, too. Check out the resources on our site and the Center for Food Safety’s Cool Foods Campaign to help you – and your family – take a bite out of climate change.
UN to World: “No More Business as Usual”
- Topics:
- Organic Food & Farming
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008, 9:25 AM
The UNESCO report released today includes some bold words.
“Business as usual is no longer an option,” says the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology.
In its review of the past fifty years of agricultural science and technology, the report authors–representing five United Nations agencies–conclude that though these innovations may have increased productivity, “the sharing of benefits has been far from equitable” and “progress has been achieved in many cases at a high social and environmental cost.”
Factor those costs into the “productivity” measurement and I would question whether it makes sense to use that word at all to describe the last half-century of industrial agriculture. After all, anything can be productive, depending on what you (and what you don’t) measure.
The report recommends that agricultural science place greater emphasis on safeguarding natural resources and on “agroecological” practices, such as using natural fertilizers and traditional seeds, intensifying natural processes and reducing the distance between agricultural production and the consumer.
Celluloid Food for Thought
- Topics:
- Take a Bite News & Events
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008, 8:13 AM
In New York City this weekend? Join me for this fantastic film festival. Find out what you are really eating; how it affects your health, local and global communities, and the planet; where your food comes from, and why you should care… and see some of my favorite flics all at the same time.
SATURDAY, APRIL 19th
Cooper Union’s Wollman Auditorium
51 Astor Place at Third Ave
Directions: 6 Train to Astor Place
Opening address by Borough President Scott Stringer
12:00pm- The True Cost of Food and Black Gold
Post screening discussion with Scott Codey
3:15pm- Trailer for Asparagus: Stalking the American Life and Life and Debt
Post screening discussion with Anna Lappe
6:00pm- The Meatrix I, II and II ½ and King Corn
Post screening discussion with Director Aaron Woolf and Greg Schwartz
Brought to you by Nani Ola Productions
For more information go to www.foodfilmfest.com or call 347-439-4110
Sodexo Announces One-Year Anniversary of Its Recycling Program
- Topics:
- Food Industry News & Trends
Monday, April 14th, 2008, 12:14 PM
Sodexo, a multinational food and facilities management giant, recently marked the one year anniversary of a recycled paper napkin program introduced in 1,300 of its food service operations.
The rewards they document from their year of recycling are encouraging: According to the company, the program saved the equivalent of 23,000 trees; 10 million gallons of water; enough power to light 600 American homes for a year; 500,000 gallons of oil; 41 tons of pollutants were kept out of the environment; and 4,131 cubic yards of paper were diverted from landfills. And their Xpressnap program, rolled out to a smaller number of sites, cut the number of napkins used by 25 to 50 percent simply by dispensing only one napkin at a time. (What a concept!)
These results are a reminder that small changes add up. They’re also a reminder of just how much waste is unnecessary, but built right into the way we do business. And these numbers make us wonder whether Sodexo will roll out these programs to the rest of its facilities. Sodexo’s press release makes no mention of such plans.
I head to their corporate headquarters for an event next week. I’ll be sure to ask ‘em: Sodexo, how about it?
Celebrating Organic Farmers: The New Climate Change Heroes
- Topics:
- Organic Food & Farming
Monday, April 14th, 2008, 9:50 AM
The last time I was at Gustavino’s for a fundraiser a waiter accidentally dumped a Filet Mignon on my back. This time around the experience was a little less harrowing and a lot more vegetarian.
The first-ever NOFA-NY fundraiser went off swimmingly with beautiful organic gardenias sprouting up from the center of the tables and 200 guests dining on an all-local, all-organic feast.
I got to trade organic enthusiasm with Ellen Gustafson and Lauren Bush–the minds behind the FEED bag, which enters Whole Foods with a bang this Earth Day–and talk about the importance of getting kids onto the land and into the garden with Lake Bell and Keisha Whitaker.
It was a kick to be on the luncheon panel with local chef Peter Hoffman, organic farming guru and poet Scott Chaskey, and holistic doctor Woody Merrel.
Kathy Lawrence, the opera-singing, Chinese-language teaching, perennial gardening, former Executive Director of the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture and founder of Just Food, was there to pepper us with such easy questions as: What’s so wrong with our food system? And, can organic really feed the world?
You can hear emcee Christie Brinkley’s organic enthusiasm on this Entertainment Tonight segment taped on the fly at the event.
It was also great to see the enthusiasm for robust, organic farming. Plus, any chance I get to hear Christie Brinkley call Kathy Lawrence “Mother Nature’s BFF” is a good day.
Learn more about NOFA-NY and ways you can support their work, or find NOFA-NY sister organizations near you.
Big Organic Gets Bigger, Honestly
- Topics:
- Food Industry News & Trends
Sunday, April 13th, 2008, 1:06 PM
The organics sector is big business: it’s the fastest growing sector in the food industry. And the profitability of organic products is not lost on the big guys. Some of the world’s largest companies are snatching up organic businesses faster than you can say “Organic Twinkie.” Check out our colleague Phil Howard’s awesomely detailed charts here. And, Phil, add Honest Tea to the Coca-Cola product line.
Hey, Big Apple! Meet the Big Food List
- Topics:
- Take a Bite News & Events
Saturday, April 12th, 2008, 11:30 AM
In New York City and want to know about this week’s delectable local, sustainable food tastings? Curious about where you can get your hands in the dirt? Interested in food-related films, lectures, book readings? Check out our very own Jeanne’s weekly list for food happenings in the Big Apple.
Jeanne pulls together her what’s-what list each week and will shoot you an e-mail every Monday morning. Just have a pencil and your calendar ready. To get on the list, e-mail Jeanne [at] smallplanet.org.
No-to-GMO: It’s Not Just for California Anymore
- Topics:
- Biotechnology
Friday, April 11th, 2008, 2:26 AM
Residents in Montville, Maine passed the nation’s first binding resolution (outside of California, that is) to ban the planting of genetically modified crops. Check out the news here.
Helpful How-To’s from Howdini
- Topics:
- Organic Food & Farming
Thursday, April 10th, 2008, 10:35 PM
How To Tell If Packaged Food Is Organic:
Confused about what all those organic labels really mean?
I break it down for you.
How To Buy Eco-Friendly Local Foods:
Tips for reducing the distance from seed-to-plate.
“Climate Changes Your Business” Says KPMG
- Topics:
- Food Industry News & Trends, Meat Industry
Thursday, April 10th, 2008, 11:56 AM
KPMG’s latest report from its sustainability offices may have just won the “no-duh title of the year,” but it does take an interesting approach to the climate change question: What does climate change look like from the business side of the equation?
I’ve been asking this question a lot lately, attending food industry conferences to listen to how they frame the risk (and opportunity) that climate change provides. At that meat conference in Nashville, for instance, it was notable that global warming was on no one’s lips. At the Grocery Manufacturers Association Environmental Sustainability Summit, it was in almost everyone’s talking points.
In the KPMG report, the authors place the “food sector” in the “safe haven” section of their “perceived risks versus preparedness” matrix. (Nice job on this fancy-looking graphic. Like the color coding, guys). The top six sectors at particular risk from climate change? Aviation, healthcare, tourism, transport, oil and gas and the financial services sectors.
But the authors also make the point that even those ’safe haven’ categories like food, may not be so safe after all. Food and beverages, for instance, says one author, are “supposedly a low risk sector yet recent events have shown that this industry is highly vulnerable to climate related risks such as increases in agricultural input costs. The idea therefore that this sector is relatively safe from climate change effects is likely to reflect a significant under-estimation of risk.”
In other words, “safe” doesn’t mean much in an era of climate change.
What Good News about the Price of Food?
Wednesday, April 9th, 2008, 12:04 PM
I was on the WNYC this morning talking again about the price of food, what it means for the planet and for those of us who eat!
Listen here.
If You Plant It (Organic), They Will Come: A Milestone in Certified Organic Acreage
- Topics:
- Organic Food & Farming
Saturday, April 5th, 2008, 12:19 PM
For more than a decade, organic food has been the fastest growing sector in the food industry. With billions in annual sales, organic is no longer hippie fringe; it’s downright mainstream. In response to mounting consumer demand for organic, organic farmers are increasing their acreage big time. California Certified Organic Farmers, one of the nation’s oldest third-party organic certifiers, just announced that it passed half a million certified acres and reported 129 percent growth in its certified organic acreage in just the last two years. With less than 2 percent of U.S. cropland is organic, we still have a long way to go, but at least we can toast this happy landmark!
Good News on the Price of Food?
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008, 12:01 PM
Had an interesting conversation with Kim Severson from The New York Times the other day that ended up with this quote in the Grey Lady. I’m glad I was able to jump into the debate with these thoughts. As I said to Kim, I certainly don’t think it’s a direct line between risings costs of food and a more sustainable food system. We’re just seeing those who were already most vulnerable be the hardest hit by these prices spikes and those who were already making a windfall from the food system recording record profits.
Eat the Sky Meets Seattle
Thursday, March 13th, 2008, 7:38 PM
Tonight in Seattle, I gave my first Eat the Sky speech for the celebration of the 30th anniversary of Seattle Tilth, a community gardening institution in the gray city.
After, my friend and colleague Ethan Schaffer from www.growfood.org pulled together a gathering at Six Arms of local foodies, farmers, and food activists. The night ended with a not-so-local Cosmo at The Hideout and ultimately collapsing back at the hotel and falling asleep to the subtle swooshing of “Fasha,” my room’s pet goldfish. (What will boutique hotels think of next?)
The BBC, Biofuels, and Advisory Council Member Corrina Steward
- Topics:
- Biofuels
Monday, February 25th, 2008, 12:10 PM
Check out Corrina’s news alert here.
Getcha Grub On Blog
- Topics:
- Blog
Saturday, February 16th, 2008, 5:39 AM
Check out an archive of my former blog here.
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See below for a highlight of upcoming events.
- Guest Lecture by Anna Lappé
Friday, March 19 2010
Professor Nancy Romer
Brooklyn College, CUNY
Brooklyn, New York
