Growers and Grocers

Any fruit that can be blended in a Starbucks drink and can be used to flavor body lotion has to be a hit, right? The pomegranate is the newest fruit to find fame in consumer products. According to Jane Porter of the Hartford Courant, the pomegranate is both versatile and trendy: “In the […]

Michael Pollan spoke about the U.S. Farm Bill as he promoted his book The Omnivore’s Dilemma. He urged Americans to talk to their representatives about their stance on the Farm Bill, which is due for renewal in 2007. “It should be called the Food Bill,” he said. The Farm Bill sets the policy that controls […]

A major Australian newspaper (Melbourne’s The Age) recently dedicated its entire food section to the subject of ethical eating. Much of the cover story is motivated by the grim realities of modern commercial food production and consumption outlined in the two new books The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan and The Ethics of What […]

I’m an itinerant traveler, a lover of literature, and a native New Yorker who’s currently based in Australia. I’ve also been a movie reviewer, a reproductive health researcher, and an independent bookstore owner.
I grew into an everyday cook a couple of years ago when I lived in the historic Central American town of Antigua, Guatemala. […]

An old Filipino proverb said, “There’s nothing that can’t be settled over a hot cup of coffee.” These words of wisdom are now proven true when former leaders of a Philippine government military unit and a communist rebel group set aside their differences to unite their village in an effort to rehabilitate the coffee plantation […]

Hello to Growers and Grocers readers! I’m back home in France after spending 6 weeks in Washington State. Here in France it’s almost la rentrée – time to go back to school and to get back to work. It’s also time for making resolutions — perhaps a more suitable moment than New Year’s – so […]

Chance conversation with a friend brought me to an odd place the other day. A farm, without a single barn. The conversation was about trying to set up our own cooperative, to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables, and was mostly that, just conversation. But she told me about an annual visitation day […]

Some people might look at the picture above and think: “What an idyllic scene.” I look at it and remember when my older brother pushed me in that lake when I was six years old. The picture is of the Marin French Cheese Company, located in Petaluma, California. We went there […]

Jeff Barnard of the Associated Press reports that Oregon and California salmon fishermen have seen declining numbers of fish in recent years. Scott Boley, a skipper of a salmon troller, a partner in Fishermen Direct Seafood and a member of the federal panel that selects the fishing season for ocean salmon, returned from three […]

First, an admission of guilt. I download television shows off the internet. Specifically, I download British shows off the internet, because other than stuff like Little Britain, they’re next to impossible to find in Canada. Recently, on the latest season of Gordon Ramsay’s series The F-Word, he featured UK food writer and television guy, Hugh […]