The Sunday News
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 why not make the resolution to keep up with all of the great blogs on the Well Fed Network?
The summer was scorching, and farmers all over Europe and North America are feeling the pain. For example, the honey harvest in Southern France was “catastrophique” according to the French agricultural news site Agrisalon (article in French only.) Flowers dried out and pollen grilled to death. What effect did the hot summer have on agricultural production in your area?
Global warming is hurting some agricultural sectors, but could be helping the bottled water industry – as long as water supplies hold out, at least. Sales of bottled water in US convenience stores were up 19.5% in the first quarter of 2006, reports Convenience Store News. Hey, that was winter! I imagine the trend continued through the searing summer.
I’m sorry to include another link in French, but the French press is reporting much more heavily than the American press on the European Union’s decision to suspend imports of American long grain rice as of Wednesday August 23rd. It appears that some genetically modified proteins slipped into rice exported from the US to Europe -– oops! Brussels is annoyed that American authorities took three weeks to inform the European Union of the problem, and has announced that the embargo will last at least six months.
Also from Europe, the Guardian takes a look at the new “indulgent offerings” served up by American fast food outlets. Apparently the fast-food backlash has created its own backlash, and hamburger joints are going all out to offer mega-meals again. “‘We listened to consumers who said they wanted to eat fresh fruit,” a disarmingly honest spokesman told the New York Times, “but apparently they lied.’”
But if you are reading this post, you are likely not about to snarf down a Burger King Stacker Quad, and all the news in this Sunday News column may seem a tad depressing. So take a last sip of coffee and enjoy a short video, “Beauty Food” . It’s not hard news, but it’s uplifting food for thought.
