Kiko's Food News, 2.17.12

This NY Times article argues that the revival of craft manufacturing isn’t just a fad for hipsters–it’s a refinement of the excesses of our industrial era plus a return to specialization, which is inherent to capitalism: (full story)

I enjoyed reading 7×7′s profile on the CEO of Bon Appétit Management; they operate cafeterias that through 136.5 million meals a year bring the local-sustainable movement to more than 400 venues nationwide: (full story)

Organic food companies are cheering because their potential markets just doubled: the U.S. and the European Union are announcing that they will soon treat each other’s organic standards as equivalent: (full story)

California has introduced a cottage food bill, the California Homemade Food Act, AB 1616; similar to the “cottage food laws” in 31 other US states, it would allow for the sale of non-potentially hazardous foods prepared in a home kitchen: (full story)

Price increases across the North American food industry have turned off shoppers and led to weak sales for some packaged food makers; Kraft, among others, has introduced smaller package sizes with lower price tags to appeal to consumers with limited budgets:(full story)

Check out this Korean artist’s use of funky design to create containers that keep eggs, veggies and other food fresher (and possibly better tasting!) without refrigeration: (full story)

Kiko's Food News, 2.10.12

When a foodie and a non-foodie fall in love, cooking and eating aren’t always a shared experience; as we await next week’s annual celebration of couple-dom, this article  seems apropos: (full story)

The “mindful eating” movement is growing, rooted in the idea that eating slowly and genuinely relishing each bite could remedy our fast-paced American lifestyle, endless fad diets and the resulting path toward obesity: (full story)

A new CDC report found that 9 out of 10 Americans ages 2 and older consume more than the recommended amount of sodium each day; the leading culprits are not potato chips or popcorn but slices of bread and dinner rolls: (full story)

It was just a matter of time before lard made its comeback, overcoming stigmas associated with disgusting-ness and taking the spotlight on restaurant menus: (full story)

Monsanto aggressively touts its technology as vital to ensuring adequate food production worldwide, but this article digs into how they’ve held back the development of sustainable agriculture by expanding monoculture, increasing herbicide use, suppressing research and more: (full story)

And as one group of victims of Monsanto’s dominance, farmers who say they cannot keep genetically modified crops from their fields have brought a suit against them that’s sparking debate around the country with new petitions, ballot initiatives and lawsuits in the works: (full story)

Finally, a profile of a few of the family-owned, independent markets that have faced heightened competition from large supermarket chains but survive to fill an important need in their communities: (full story)

 

Kiko's Food News, 2.3.12

Low cattle supplies in 2012 (the herd is the smallest its been in 60 years) are expected to drive up beef prices for the second year in a row: (full story)

Tackling challenges of access to fresh and healthy food for all, a brother-sister duo have opened a new kind of grocery store at “the intersection of food justice and high-concept retail” in the Castleberry Hill neighborhood of Atlanta; as they say, “if Jay-Z and Kanye can create a lifestyle brand that people in urban and suburban areas aspire to, regardless of their actual income, why can’t we do that with organic food?” (full story)

Food Shift, an organization working to collect unwanted, good quality food from stores and bakeries and deliver the products to agencies that feed low-income people, is partnering with grocers to grow the amount of food that can be fed to people instead of wasted: (full story)

Replacing what used to be “a suitcase of papers on the back of an agronomist’s motorcycle”, iPads are making their way to coffee co-ops and farmers in East Africa, Mexico, and South America; they come loaded with training videos in a variety of languages related to everything from agronomy best practices to growing protein-rich mushrooms out of coffee production waste: (full story)

Alli from our grocery team, Emily Olson of Foodzie and Caleb Zigas of La Cocina share their tips for successfully launching a small food business: (full story)

 

Kiko's Food News, 1.27.12

Yes we all have different tastes–that’s what makes the world go round–but what is it that makes certain foods so polarizing? (full story)

Paula Deen’s unfortunate diagnosis with diabetes exposes the disconnect between what we see chefs cooking on TV and what viewers should actually be learning to cook: (full story)

One response to this disconnect between restaurant dining and health is Halfsies, a social initiative preparing to launch in Austin and NYC. It offers restaurant-goers a choice that provides a healthier portion size, reduces food waste, and supports the fight against hunger: (full story)

In order to devote more time to changing national food policies to help consumers, Gary Hirshberg is stepping down as the CEO of Stonyfield Farm and handing over responsibilities of the organic yogurt company to the former CEO of Ben & Jerry’s; his focus will be on U.S. agriculture policy, and fundraising to get Obama re-elected:(full story)

Almost a year after the earthquake and tsunami caused a triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, Japan is still struggling to protect its food supply from radioactive contamination. The discovery of tainted rice and contaminated beef have left officials scrambling to plug gaps in the government’s food-screening measures: (full story)

Korean as the new Thai, QR’s on packaging, and the full list of food trends witnessed at the Winter Fancy Foods show in SF two weekends ago:  (full story)

Kiko's Food News, 1.20.12

Backyard gardens grow the kookiest things: a Swedish woman lost her wedding ring in the 1990′s–guess where she found it last month?? (full story)

Hostess (of Ding Dong, Sno Ball and Ho Ho fame) has filed for bankruptcy and I’m torn as to how I feel about it. The nostalgist in me mourns the disappearance of my dad’s favorite childhood treats, but a much bigger side of me is celebrating changing consumer preference towards real food! (full story)

Still, some packaged foods giants apparently have money to burn: Kraft is rolling out a new cheese product called “Kraft Fresh Take” (sounds more like a news segment than a food!) and advertising it with a $50 million campaign: (full story)

And Burger King is testing out delivery at about 10 locations in Maryland and Virginia, targeting busy families by offering meals that can feed a small army; options include 10 cheeseburgers and 20-piece chicken tenders (all for $14.49), or 40 piece chicken tenders and two drinks (for $10.99): (full story)

The battle against food waste rages on, this time in the form of a new strip that can be adhered inside packaging to make strawberries shipped from overseas last two days longer: (full story)

“Mahele” is Hawaiian for “to share in the work is to share in the bounty”; at the 170-acre farm of that name on remote Maui, the harvest doesn’t belong to any one person, community members are invited to work the land, and when they’re ready to leave, they fill a bag with as much fresh produce as they need to feed their families: (full story)

If you save enough toothpicks from your deli sandwiches, maybe some day you can make one of these: (full story)

 

Kiko's Food News, 1.13.12

Three points for government involvement in our food supply and consumption this week. First, in an effort to sustain fishing for the future, the US will this year become the first country to impose catch limits for every fish species it manages; this policy, forged by the Bush admnisitration and finalized with Obama’s backing, marks an unusual collaboration across party lines: (full story)

Second, the USDA’s trying to play an active role in Americans’ day to day health: their new “SuperTracker” website offers three ways to track our diets: (full story)

And third, New York City’s Department of Health has decided that oversize restaurant portions are making New Yorkers fat, so they’re taking aim at the food industry in a new subway ad campaign launched Monday: (full story)

A growing number of grocers are signing up to have the packaged foods they sell evaluated and ranked for nutritional content.  But I’m with Marion Nestle on this one:  “it doesn’t matter whether one potato chip is slightly better for you than another….if you want to encourage people to eat healthy, you want to encourage them not to eat food products. You want them to eat real food.”: (full story)

Everyone has their favorite parts of favorite foods, whether it’s muffin tops or the white middle of an Oreo; increasingly, food fanatics are finding each other online, creating Facebook pages that focus on favorite parts of food (like “I love sticking my finger in the cake and eating the frosting”), and innovating around their favorite parts to create tools like the “bagel scooper” and “edge brownie pan”: (full story)

In what seems to me like a reaction to consumer aversion towards their over-roasted coffee beans, Starbucks is launching a “blonde” coffee line; interesting to see the big dogs changing their offerings due to preference for beans that taste truer to their pre-roast flavor (a trend we’ve witnessed here at the Market): (full story)

Todmorden, a town in England’s West Yorkshire, has a “cheeky” plan: they want to be first town in the country to be self-sufficient in food by 2018: (full story)

 

Kiko's Food News, 1.6.12

I was encouraged by Marion Nestle’s optimism when I heard her speak at Berkeley’s Edible Education course this Fall, but her prognosis for food politics in 2012 is cloudy: (full story)

One bright note is that with milk as a mark of new money in emerging economies around the globe, prices paid for it are higher and dairy farmers may earn and be rewarded the way they deserve to be:  (full story)

During the winter, a lot of the organic produce in our supermarkets come from farms in the Mexican desert; stress on the region’s water supply and natural environment calls into question how truly sustainable the organic label has become : (full story)

In an online study of consumers, chocolate was judged as significantly lower-calorie when it was described as “fair trade”, demonstrating how the label promotes an inaccurate assumption of lower calories than its competitors: (full story)

Grist offered an apt exploration of how Walmart’s sneakily-spun expansion into food deserts and general take-over of the American food system is making it more concentrated and industrialized than ever before: (full story)

Meanwhile, for SF residents looking to invest food dollars locally,  options will expand this year when Local: Mission Eatery opens their breakfast-centric cafe and market. With the exception of coffee, chocolate and sugar, ALL products will be sourced from Northern California: (full story)

Kiko's Food News, 12.30.11

As Americans show greater interest in eating local produce, an increasing number of farmers markets are staying open year-round; the number of winter markets (defined as those operating between November and March) jumped from 886 in 2010 to 1,225 in 2011 (New York impressively edges out balmy California with the most!) (full story)

Get On the Shelf, the latest idea from WalMartLabs (the retailer’s in-house social media think tank, a product of their April  acquisition of data mining firm Kosmix) is a new product competition that invites anyone to submit a product idea to the retailer for development: (full story)

And speaking of more packaged foods on the shelves, Manischewitz, the 123-year-old kosher brand, is for the first time creating kosher gravies, broths, crackers and more that appeal to gentiles: (full story)

Craft breweries nationwide have been replacing beer bottles with aluminum cans, and for good reason: cans help beer stay fresh by blocking light and keeping out oxygen better than many bottles, are more portable than glass, and lighter to ship–plus, a canning line has a smaller footprint: (full story)

Livestock receives an estimated 80% of the nation’s antibiotics, yet in a step backwards for protecting the public from rising antibiotic resistance, the FDA just announced its withdrawal of a decades-old proposal to limit the use of antibiotics in animal feed: (full story)

Mark Bittman simplifies the goal of “eating better” in 2012 to “eating more plants”, and offers recipes to make semi-veganism work for all of us–bon appetit! (full story)

 

Kiko's Food News, 12.23.11

I’ll be keeping cozy in front of the Market all day tomorrow (we’re open 9-5)–come say hi. I’d love to hear your feedback on what kind of food news you’ve liked reading in 2011…or leave your comments here!

Carol your way to hungry–so many holiday songs are about delicious food! (full story)

Kraft is planning to roll out some 70 new products in the first quarter of 2012, including two lines of dinner kits, energy and “mocktail” versions of its water enhancers, and Philadelphia Indulgence Spreads which mixes chocolate with cream cheese for dipping (no comment): (full story)

The list of startups at the intersection of technology and food keeps growing, and in a sea of names like Foodbuzz, Foodcaching, Foodia, Foodily, Foodista, Foodler, Foodoro, Foodspotting, Foodtree, Fooducopia, and Foodzie, it’s challenging to find an edge: (full story)

Learn why apples, cabbage, and eggs are among the produce that lasts longest in your kitchen, plus other ways to avoid throwing out produce gone bad (#1: steer clear of pre-cut fruits and veggies!) : (full story)

Check out these TV ads by McDonalds, Perdue, and other huge food companies that focus on farmers, giving them a sense of salt-of-the-earth hero worship: (full story)

Kiko's Food News, 12.16.11

With the mainstreaming of vegetarianism in recent discourse, it’s interesting to see how many vegetarians there actually are out there; in a phone poll taken last week, 33% of Americans reported that they eat vegetarian meals a significant amount of the time (and that number is in addition to committed vegetarians): (full story)

Ever wonder how far apart a lettuce patch has to be from farm animals to prevent bacterial contamination? The University of Maryland’s Center for Food Safety does, and this week they announced a $9 million research project to provide scientific guidance on the safest ways to grow, pack, transport and store salad fixings: (full story)

My mom raised me to fear 18-wheelers on the highway; now it’s time to brace ourselves for an even more harrowing scenario, as Kraft is pushing for 97,000-lb trucks called “bridge wreckers” to be approved in more states: (full story)

These mammoth trucks and their similarly scaled exhaust are among reasons why the global output of heat-trapping carbon dioxide has jumped by a record amount; the world’s efforts at slowing man-made global warming aren’t preventing greenhouse gas emissions from exceeding the UN’s worst-case scenarios: (full story)

And as the resulting climate change accelerates, weather in Maine is becoming less different from that in South Carolina, introducing opportunities for farmers in formerly disparate agricultural regions to start swapping best practices: (full story)

Jonathan Bloom, author of American Wasteland, gave insights into how Europeans waste less food due to how they’re set up for waste disposal and how they structure grocery shopping (our abundance of space for landfills and too-big refridgerators are our downfall!) (full story)

A friend turned me on to a blog called Frugal Dad this week; check out this infographic the dads whipped up, depicting the extent of consolidation in the food industry: (full story)

Kiko's Food News, 12.9.11

In this “Biggest Loser” video spoof by Food & Water Watch, the corporate fat cat is the inevitable winner unless the government steps in with farm bill measures that help keep independent farmers afloat and consumers from being obese:(full story)

Another way to use taxation to de-incentivize sugar consumption: research at Iowa State demonstrates that taxing manufacturers on their use of sweeteners would be more effective than taxing the finished sugary food: (full story)

Filet mignon and Jameson are the most shoplifted items in the US, and cheese is the most shoplifted in the world–don’t go getting any smart ideas, now! (full story)

The UN has completed its first-ever global assessment of the state of the planet’s land resources (what took so long??), finding in a report released Monday that a quarter of all land is highly degraded, and most available land is already being farmed (mostly in ways that decrease its productivity): (full story)

The government spent a record $71.8 billion on the SNAP (food stamp) program last year, or about 12 percent of the national grocery bill, underscoring the benefit’s importance as revenue for big grocers and explaining the fight by Kroger, Safeway, Supervalu, and other chains against cutting spending on them: (full story)

What if, as an alternative to food presentation or service, we could search for restaurant reviews focusing on the health and sustainability of its food as metrics? (full story)

Kiko's Food News, 12.2.11

Did you know the economic recession has led to an increase in the number of SF residents using food stamps each month from 29,008 in 2008 to 44,185 in 2010? This Bay Guardian story profiles the work of Food Guardians in increasing food access and awareness of healthy food for tens of thousands of San Franciscans in chronically poor health: (full story)

And you know I can’t resist a holiday food waste alert: Americans generate an extra 5 million tons of household waste each year between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, including three times as much food waste as at other times of the year. The Worldwatch Institute offers 10 simple steps we can take to make this season less wasteful (such as avoiding the tendency to unnecessarily stuff guests when hosting!) 

(full story)

We’ll have to be gracious on our own soon, as Café Gratitudes and Gracias Madre are closing their doors due to lawsuits from former employees: (full story)

An unlikely place to expose injustices faced by lunch ladies, a food network show highlighted these low-level school employees who cook daily in school cafeterias; one said she and her colleagues are held in such low regard that they’re not even allowed in the teacher’s lounge at the schools they serve: (full story) 
This humorously shocking infographic compares Walmart’s scale in sales, land use, and manpower in relation to other retailers, international GDP’s, and armies: (full story)

As if we need more reason to put salad bars in schools, a CDC report suggests that in 2010, about one in four high school students ate fruit less than once a day, and one in three ate vegetables once or less a day: (full story)

An interesting new small business concept for wine tasting: TastingRoom.com “reformats” wines from their original retail packaging into 50- and 100-milliliter, single-serving bottles. (full story)

Eat like a food expert: here’s a list of 7 foods they avoid, including corn fed beef and conventionally grown potatoes: (full story)

Kiko's Food News, 11.11.11

A neat example of how one culture’s unique cuisine can be enjoyed within the framework of what we know about healthful eating today: the Oldways African Heritage Diet Pyramid  has a prominent layer devoted entirely to collards, chard, kale and spinach! (full story)

What passes for honey in many grocery chains may not have the health benefits, as the majority of samples in a recent test had all of the natural pollen removed before bottling:(full story)

Occupy Big Food has created a petition to tell Butterball–the number one producer of turkeys in the US–that Americans are no longer going to purchase turkeys that are inhumanely treated; this Civil Eats article breaks down the truth about turkey production today: (full story)

A recent study at UC Davis found that people’s visits to fast-food joints increased along with their incomes, and that poor people were spending fewer dollars on fast food than lower-middle and middle-income Americans: (full story)

The idea that food may be addictive was barely on scientists’ radar a decade ago, but a growing body of medical research suggests that processed foods and sugary drinks aren’t simply unhealthy–they can hijack the brain in ways that resemble addictions to cocaine, nicotine and other drugs: (full story)

A former food marketing exec who spent over 15 years at companies like General Mills, Pillsbury, and Nabisco talks about how the processed food industry is trying to grow and defend their business by relying on self-serving research and other tactics: (full story)

 

Kiko's Food News, 11.4.11

The government has proposed the first changes in 15 years to its $11 billion school-lunch program, such as decreasing the starch and salt content in lunches; food companies including Coca-Cola, Del Monte Foods and the makers of frozen pizza and French fries have a huge stake in the new guidelines and many argue that it would raise the cost of meals and call for food that too many children just won’t eat: (full story)

Well, at least one school district is full speed ahead: the Chicago Public Schools announced that its main food-service company will begin buying and serving chicken drumsticks from birds raised in the local area without antibiotics. The deal will bring 1.2 million pounds of chicken to 473 schools per year, and makes Chicago the nation’s largest district to endorse feeding kids chicken that is antibiotic-free. (full story)

A study released this week revealed that U.S. children and teenagers are seeing far more soda ads than before, with blacks and Hispanics being major targets as marketers have expanded online. Black children and teens saw 80 to 90 percent more ads than white children, Hispanic children saw 49 percent more ads for sugary drinks and energy drinks on Spanish-language television, and Hispanic teens saw 99 percent more ads: (full story)

Mark Bittman aimed his discussion this week at those who think eating locally is an “elitist plot”. To counter those who believe they’re entitled to eat any food any time, Bittman argues that to grow what you can close to where you live and eat what you can grow is nothing new, certainly not elite, and necessary: (full story)

The New York Times highlighted a swarm of new butcher shops that are turning around the way meat is bought and sold in the US, including that of our friend Patrick Martins whose Heritage Meat Shop seeks out breeds of cattle or hogs other than those favored by industrial meat packers: (full story)

 

Kiko's Food News, 10.28.11

I was saddened to read that over half of Americans say they’ve recently gone a year without dining out, a luxury many of us take for granted. Only 49.3 percent of adults say they dined out between fall 2009 and fall 2010, according to recently released figures from the U.S. Census Bureau that expose the growing gap between our country’s rich and poor: (full story)

Speaking of luxuries, NYC convenience has come to SF: Seamless Web is a food ordering website with no need to pick up the phone, and free delivery; it’s been a staple of NYC offices since I worked there years ago, so I’m interested to watch how it shifts our own office meal culture: (full story)

And speaking of convenience in SF, the snazzy new Avedano’s Meat Wagon, parked in Proxy (the food lover’s cluster in Hayes Valley), carries meaty goods like NY steaks, chickens, ground lamb, bacon and hot dogs from 4505 Meats, sourced from the same producers who supply the beloved Bernal Heights butcher shop. (Fridays, in a nod to Catholic tradition, it will also carry fish sourced from sustainable seafood expert Kenny Belov): (full story)

This article in The Atlantic puts forth a compelling argument that industrialization is the primary cause of our depopulated farms and rural towns, and that federal subsidies should be geared toward farming that sustains natural resources instead of farming that depends on non-renewable, polluting substitutes: (full story)

And this one argues that expansion of supermarket chains into food deserts may not be the answer, since food dollars spent in retail giants will be sent off to their corporate headquarters, instead of in alternative food store models that could recirculate them within the community: (full story)

Breathing new life into old shells, the Shell Recycling Alliance of the Oyster Recovery Partnership works with restaurants throughout the mid-Atlantic to collect discarded shells from raw bars and dinner plates. The shells then become homes for tiny oyster spats, aka fledgling oysters, in hopes of replenishing the area’s bivalve population: (full story)

 

Kiko's Food News, 10.21.11

A class-action suit against General Mills targeting its line of fruit snacks including Fruit Roll Ups, Fruit by the Foot and Fruit Gushers alleges that they are “conveying an overall message of a healthful snack product to parents when, in fact, the products contain dangerous, non-nutritious, unhealthy partially hydrogenated oil, large amounts of sugar, and potentially harmful artificial dyes”: (full story)

But an end to food marketing to kids won’t be here too soon: allowing the brand icons from popular cereals to remain untouched is one of the concessions officials will probably make as they work to persuade food companies to curb junk food marketing to children (as Tony the Tiger would say, GRRRR!): (full story)

I was shocked by this exposé about the annual American Dieticians Association meeting. Who better than the conference’s corporate sponsors (Coca-Cola, Aramark, Hershey, PepsiCo, Mars, General Mills and others) to hold panels ranging from “A Fresh Look at Processed Foods” to “Are Sugars Toxic: What’s Wrong with Current Research?”: (full story)

Target has announced that it will sell only sustainable seafood by 2015. FishWise, who has been a resource for us here at Bi-Rite with our own seafood sourcing, is partnering with them to implement the project: (full story)

And evidencing the need for responsible seafood sourcing, a salmon-killing virus was seen for first time in the wild on the Pacific Coast (the contagion doesn’t affect people but is a scourge of fish farms). Offshore saltwater pens supply most of the Atlantic salmon sold in the US, and farms hit by the virus have lost 70 percent or more of their fish in recent decades, but until now it had never been confirmed on the West Coast of North America:(full story)

California’s olive oil production is skyrocketing and becoming competitive with Europe’s imports, as oil produced domestically can be fresher, purer and cheaper than the imports, while creating jobs and reducing fossil-fuel consumption: (full story)

Around one in seven people in the world is malnourished, but the solution isn’t just producing more food. For all of you visual learners, this story shows how we already produce too much, it’s just not going to the right places: (full story)

 

Kiko's Food News, 10.14.11

Campaigns for the labeling of food containing GMOs are gaining momentum, and polls show overwhelming consumer support for labels.  Still, neither Congress, the FDA, nor the USDA have been willing to respond, even though Obama was caught on camera promising to label GMO food (unprecedented for a sitting president)!(full story)

One of the campaigns, called “justlabelit”, debuted this parody of a family blindly eating a dinner they can’t tell what’s in: (full story)

Sesame Street is airing a special episode on hunger in America; in it Lily, a new 7-year-old girl muppet, talks about growing up in a home where there wasn’t enough food, helps Elmo and friends plan a food drive, and visits a community garden with new pals Elmo and Rosita to see how food can be grown locally: (full story)

A Huffington Post column debates the hypocrisy of anti-Wall Street protesters welcoming free Ben & Jerry’s pints, and eating McDonald’s and other “corporate” food; should we just be happy that this movement questioning economic justice means activists who may also push the envelope with food system issues? (full story)

Not your standard champions for the local food movement: Indie-singer Karen O was commissioned by Chipotle’s Cultivate Foundation to create a viral music video raising awareness about the economic hardship family farmers face in our industrialized  agriculture system: (full story)

Can the TOMS Shoes business model work with organic food? A New York food company is giving away a dozen eggs for every dozen sold: (full story)

Community Action Marin FoodWorks, a small batch co-packing company, is helping Marin farmers turn their produce into jellies, jams, sauces and salsas, giving them a shelf life far beyond the growing season and a value-added product to take to the farmers market in the winter time: (full story)

A new study that looked at indicators of impatience for the same population determined that impatient individuals are more likely to be obese than people who are good at waiting: (full story)

P.S. Want to see what Kiko’s up to when not writing food news? Etsy thought my “leave no leftover behind” mantra was worth blogging about: (full story)

Kiko's Food News, 9.30.11

Cooking is fun! Mark Bittman made a big statement in his NY Times Op Ed challenging the notion of junk food being cheaper than real food; by this argument, the primary obstacle to healthier eating is people’s resistance to cooking at home: (full story)

For your own cooking inspiration, you might try black pepper and these other hot “new” ingredients next time you’re whipping up a dessert: (full story)

CUESA sent a photographer to get an inside view of Catalán Family Farm, and turned it into this great photo story (our produce section wouldn’t be the same without the veggies and fruits that Maria and Juan send us!) : (full story)

They also announced the launch of the California Agricultural Almanac, a “central hub for information about vegetable, fruit and nut specialty crops in California. ” (full story)

Outlets that specialize in quick and cheap daytime meals have been experimenting with adding high-margin alcohol to their menus to combat the rough economy, but the logistics have been prohibitive and customers just aren’t reaching for a Cabernet with their Whopper: (full story)

Those Dutch are always pushing the innovation envelope: the new Park Supermarket will stock everything you’d find in a typical grocery store on 4,000 acres of agrarian land in Holland’s largest metropolitan region; instead of plucking your assorted vegetables and rice off a shelf, you’ll get them fresh out of the ground! (full story)

In a case of widespread food distribution spun out of control, the deadliest food illness outbreak in more than a decade has led to 16 deaths and many more sick from possible listeria traced to Colorado cantaloupes that were shipped to a laundry list of 25 states:(full story)

And the U.S.D.A. recalled 40,000 lbs. of frozen ground beef products shipped to Georgia because of possible contamination with E. coli O157:H7 bacteria. The frozen meat was produced by Palo Duro Meat in Amarillo, Texas, and shipped to two warehouses in Georgia for further distribution to institutions, including six public school districts: (full story)

 

Marion Nestle And Vandana Shiva: Different Paths To Similar Conclusions

Last week I had the honor of hearing two heroines of the food movement speak to live audiences about the issues they’re most focused on. Marion Nestle and Dr. Vandana Shiva spoke from very different [albeit both scientific] backgrounds, but told complimentary stories.

Marion Nestle, the picture of American domesticity and health!

Marion Nestle, the picture of American domesticity and health!

I’ve known Marion Nestle  as a scholar of food politics for years; her original background is in nutrition, and she has written many books, most recently finishing one about calories. Accordingly, she opened her speech at University of California, Berkeley (part of Michael Pollan’s Edible Education course series there) with the simple statement that excess calories are the challenge of our food system. The big irony about calories on a macro level is that, according to Nestle, about as many people are food insecure (i.e. going hungry) as are obese.

I was interested by what Nestle isolated as the three “deregulations”, which all happened right around the time I was born, and have since caused Americans to eat more calories:

1. Deregulation of agriculture: starting in the 70’s, restrictions on growing food were replaced by subsidies for commodity crop production
2. Deregulation of Wall St.: shareholders now held the power, and pressured business to grow; to do this, food companies had to sell more product to the same amount of eaters
3. Deregulation of food marketing, beginning in the early 80’s

Vandana Shiva, warm yet serious

Vandana Shiva, warm yet serious

One often repeated sound byte around here is how it’s less expensive to buy a box of fruit loops than it is to buy a piece of fruit–and think about all of the labor, manufacturing, packaging and transportation costs that went into that box! Nestle cited the advertising budget for the Fruit Loops  brand in 2009: $20 million! Then, taking the case further, she showed a box of Fruit Loops with the claim “2 grams of fiber!” brandished across the front. Sure, she argues, 2 grams of fiber is better than zero grams, but does just being betterfor you mean it’s good for you? She would argue not.

***

Whereas Nestle channels her fighting words towards food companies that market products to children, Dr. Vandana Shiva directs her fight against industrial agriculture. She opened her talk at Dominican University in San Rafael with the image of trees being bulldozed in the Amazon, and sighed “that’s not how farming was supposed to be. That’s how war was supposed to be.” Going further she asserted, “fertilizer should never have been allowed in agriculture; I think it’s time to ban it. It’s a weapon of mass destruction. Its use is like war, because it came from war.”

She discussed the history of hunger, which has existed for centuries but, she would argue, differently than it does today: Whereas traditionally hunger was a natural, localized result of war or drought, today it’s a global problem resulting from global agricultural economies. “All that industrial agriculture is doing,” she said, “is producing more commodities and monoculture–not more food.”Yes, Dr. Shiva brought an element of drama to this discussion; she was enchanting! Pointing to an amaranth plant next to her podium, drooped with the weight of its deep purple flowers, she said, “It’s not just one part of the plant you use–it’s the leaves and all. That’s the beauty of biodiversity.” (This notion certainly resonates with me, given my personal mission of eating every part of vegetables and plants, from squash skin to melon rinds to radish tops.)

Putting the heat on huge global packaged goods companies, she quoted a press release from Nestle [the multinational food company, not Marion!] that said “there is no way to feed the planet by going straight from farm to table.” Her face revealed her incredulity towards that statement, which suggests the opposite of the productivity she’s witnessed researching centuries-old farming cultures in India and the rest of the world.

Like Nestle, Dr. Shiva is “pro” food labeling. She’s throwing her weight behind the work being done to require that foods made with GMO products be labeled as such. When asked what regular people can do to push her cause forward, she said, “we need to turn our gardening work into seed saving work. We need an outrage against the ownership of life.” Most immediately, Dr. Shiva peaked our ears with a heads up on a False Promises Report that she’s going public with on October 6th; it will be a culmination of many years of her work. Stay tuned!

Kiko's Food News, 9.23.11

Have you heard the phrase “hypermarket”? It’s a new term for a supermarket plus department store; check out this shocking chart about just how “hyper” these can be: (full story)

Speaking of Wal-Mart, this is more consumer culture than food news per se, but too funny. Wal-Mart is being called a “magnet for American mayhem”; did you know that Sarah Palin once officiated a wedding at her hometown branch?(full story)

And as for the fate of a few chain (but not hyper) markets, the United Food and Commercial Workers union confirmed Monday that they had reached a three-year labor contract with Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons, averting a grocery strike that would have idled more than 54,000 workers across Southern California. If the strike had gone forward, many shoppers may have fled to the competition (and stayed there) as they did in 2003-04 strike: (full story)

Can the food industry and government work together to solve epidemics of obesity and chronic disease? The International Food and Beverage Alliance participated in U.N. meetings this week, but Marion Nestle illuminates how their intentions might have been more to prevent the U.N. from issuing a statement that says anything about how food marketing promotes obesity and related chronic diseases: (full story)

The federal government has mandated a healthier menu, and state and school officials are trying to figure out how to absorb the added costs. The U.S.D.A. plans on giving a reimbursement of six additional cents per lunch to those schools that offer more fruits and vegetables; will federal aid cover only the beginning of the program? (full story)

The Alameda Point Collaborative Urban Farm, a one-acre farm growing a variety of fruits, vegetables, herbs, eggs, honey, is an example of public benefit communities can reap from former military lands. In urban areas with less potential for growing food, base closings free up large swaths of land which can be used for farming: (full story)

Finally, a report card for food activists: Michael Pollan discusses how the food movement can claim more success in changing popular consciousness than in shifting political and economic forces. But since our government is subsidizing precisely the sort of meal for which they’ll have to pick up the long-term tab (in health costs), advocates of food system reform may appear in unlikely places: (full story)