Growers and Grocers

While most of us would love to go organic with our entire grocery basket, the cost is often very prohibitive. In my local grocery store a package of fresh strawberries might run $2.99, but its organic equivalent would set me back $4.99. Likewise, potatoes, apples, and other organic produce can easily cost double […]

The Salmon Safe Label
One of the most damaging side effects of agriculture is the soup of fertilizer, pesticides and sediment that flows from farmland after rain or irrigation. Salmon, one of the Northwest United States’ signature fishes, are particularly sensitive to water contamination: they need water that is clear, cold, and pure.* Streams and rivers […]

Mike Dunne of the Sacramento Bee recently profiled Suzanne Ashworth of Del Rio Botanical, a farm that grows multicolored heirloom winter squashes, including Stout Sopomas, Guatemalan Blues and Rampicantes twisting.  If you have never heard of these varieties, you are not alone. 
Dunne recognizes that many consider them to be “novelty foods.”  However, these squash varieties are “often better adapted […]

The purple tomato being developed by Oregon State University doesn’t sound like a Frankenfruit. It actually sounds like a great idea. According to the AP, the purple tomato hybrid was not created entirely in a lab, but gets its roots from a wild species found in South America. Scientists took seeds from […]

This weekend, September 30 thru October 1, 2006, Garden of Eve Organic Farm in Riverhead, NY is hosting the 3rd Annual Garlic Festival. Festival hours are from 10am-6pm, $2 admission, kids under 6 free. The festival promises garlic inspired foods, crafts, music, theater, and just plain garlic. Admission is free if you bring a dish […]

The Slow Food movement’s 80,000 members are busy these days. So are the bloggers who support them. The flavors, political ferment, and record attendance of 16,000 people in one weekend at Australia’s Taste of Slow Festival has been enthusiastically documented by bloggers the world over, including Mighty Foods, A Few of My Favorite […]

The recent news about California grown spinach, with (at last count) at least 150 people being sickened by E. Coli, and a Wisconsin woman DEAD, is unsurprising if you’ve been following trends in food distribution. Heartbreaking, yes, but unsurprising. The FDA simply does not have enough food inspectors on the ground to prevent things like […]

I had a bit of trouble obtaining a copy of Eat Here: Homegrown Pleasures in a Global Supermarket, by Brian Halweil. First, I checked my local library. Then I checked the local Barnes & Noble, who drove off all of the independent booksellers in my hometown a while ago. Then the not-so-local Borders. Finally, I […]

On 18 August 2006, Mike Johanns, US Secretary of Agriculture, announced that genetically modified (GM) rice that has not been approved for human consumption has leaked into the U.S. food supply. He said:
”The U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Food and Drug Administration have been notified by Bayer CropScience that the company has […]

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 […]