GMO farm animals for dinner
The FDA likes cloned and GMO treats
December 1, 2008
The animals might be regulated as drugs, not food. »
Turkey video
Thanksgiving dinner, in two minutes
November 26, 2008
Unless you’re going out for Thanksgiving dinner and therefore have nothing more to do than sit down and eat, Turkey Day can sometimes feel like kitchen servitude. Speed it up with Chow’s two-minute video of a turkey dinner being prepped, cooked, and served, including turkey, Brussels sprouts, potatoes, carrots, and cranberry sauce. Sorry, pumpkin pie isn’t included.
Thanksgiving tips, online
Use this megalist to solve your turkey-day probs
November 25, 2008
Need way, way too many online Thanksgiving options? Check out Cheap Healthy Good’s megalist of turkey-day links, covering every possible Thanksgiving topic from “Appetizers” to “Seating and Tablesetting” to affordable, healthy, and vegetarian turkeyfests. And don’t forget that essential category, “Troubleshooting.”
Fish farms may go organic
But there’s little ‘organic’ about industrially farmed fish
November 24, 2008
This week is turkey week, but last week fish was on the minds of the folks at the National Organic Standards Board. Under deliberation: whether to allow farmed fish to be certified as organic. As the Oregonian reported, the board approved organic certification for farmed fish under certain conditions. “As if there is something wholesome and natural about raising millions of fish in polluting net pens, and sweeping the seas of menhaden, mackerel, and other small fish to feed them,” groused the newspaper. Mark Bittman chimed in last week, too, with his condemnatory overview of the global fishing industry. “If the world’s wealthier fish-eaters began to appreciate wild sardines, anchovies, herring, and the like, we would be less inclined to feed them to salmon raised in fish farms,” wrote Bittman.
Cookbooks and tips
Local and seasonal cooking advice
November 21, 2008
So you want to eat locally and seasonally, but you’re having a hard time finding recipes and cookbooks that actually pair those ingredients together? Grist has a couple of articles with tips for you: an Umbra Fisk column collating some popular cookbook suggestions and an April McGreger piece on meal-planning at the farmers' market and pantry-stocking. Some of Fisk’s faves? Alice Waters’ The Art of Simple Food and Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.
Reading between the label lines
Labelwatch gives you the skinny on product labels
November 20, 2008
Want to save time spent reading labels in the grocery store? Check out Labelwatch, a website that compares label info on some 25,000 common food products. Granted, you may not feel like comparing, say, Chips Ahoy to Nilla Wafers, but you might want to see how all the various yogurts put out by the Nancy's Yogurt brand compare to each other. Labelwatch also lets you generate your own digital shopping lists.
Pharma food
Say ‘no thanks’ to edible drugs and chemicals
November 19, 2008
Barry Estabrook, one of Gourmet magazine’s environmental watchdogs, recently summed up the latest GMO news: crops that not only repel insects or resist herbicides, but produce drugs and chemicals. These “second-generation GMO crops,” as Estabrook calls them, aren’t meant to be eaten — but given pollen drift or just seed mixups, you could. Yum. Estabrook points readers toward a Union of Concerned Scientists petition demanding indoor-only cultivation of plants grown to produce chemicals and drugs.
More GMO corn, fewer babies?
Genetically engineered corn may affect fertility
November 19, 2008
In case you weren’t already worried about GMO crops, here comes news that eating GMO corn may reduce fertility. And, yeah, the more GMO corn the mice in the Austrian study ate, the worse their fertility got. Which kind of corn? A Monsanto variety that, according to Monsanto itself, is currently being grown on nearly 40 million U.S. acres.
Make it a local Thanksgiving
The Eat Well Guide can help
November 18, 2008
Take the local-and-organic challenge. »
Eco blogs
Get your megalist of eco-news here
November 17, 2008
Looking for a megalist of eco-aware blogs? Check out Organicasm’s “50 Must-Read Blogs for the Conscientious Organic Shopper,” which includes such blog categories as consumption, lifestyle, food, and “Ethics, Safety and Policy.” Culinate made the food list, along with Chews Wise and the Eat Local Challenge.
DIY herbs
Cut costs by growing your own fresh herbs all winter
November 14, 2008
Last week on Martha Stewart’s TV show, guest Leda Meredith (who’s also contributed to Culinate) suggested a good way to grow herbs all winter: indoors, in a strawberry pot placed near a south-facing window. Leda, who teaches at the New York Botanical Garden, also gives instructions for preserving herbs. Check out "Herbs 101" on Martha’s website for specifics. Find the video segments by going to the episode page and clicking on the segments “Preserving Herbs” and “Indoor Herb Plants” to the right of the page (you have to click on “Next” to reveal those segments).
Poor affordability
The low-income food trap
November 13, 2008
Two recent studies, Marion Nestle points out, explore the issue of whether the poor can afford to eat healthfully. Yes, says the USDA, if the poor live in areas with affordable whole foods. No, says Yale’s Rudd Center, because most low-income areas don’t have whole foods, much less affordable ones.
Soft drinks and school lunch
What’s healthiest for kids?
November 12, 2008
A new study, reports the New York Times Well blog, claims that reducing the availability of soft drinks in schools does little to improve overall student eating habits. The study apparently didn’t assess whether schools that cut back on pop also reformed their food offerings. But Well notes that a second study, from last year, points out that kids’ diets generally worsen over the summer break. Again, it’d be nice to know what those kids are really eating, both in school and out of it.
Political ag picks
Who will get to make food policy under Obama?
November 11, 2008
Who will Obama name as his new secretary of agriculture? Produce industry news site The Packer has a list of possible contenders. Meanwhile, subscribers to the Community Food Security Coalition's listserv are busy discussing possibilities for all kinds of federal food positions, including folks who aren’t career politicos: farmer Michael Ableman, Will Allen of Growing Power, and Tim LaSalle of the Rodale Institute. Want to join the discussion and lobby your Congressfolk for your faves? Subscribe to the COMFOOD listserv. And for those concerned about the food-politics appointment closest to the Obama family stomachs, Matthew Amster-Burton has personal faves for White House chef all lined up.
Root cellaring
The old ways are new again
November 10, 2008
For anyone watching her budget and trying to make wise food choices, a pantry is one thing, but a root cellar — now that’s where it’s at. Culinate blogger Harriet Fasenfest was among those featured in a New York Times piece on root cellaring this past week. Among the bits of advice offered for would-be squirrels was this by Anna Barnes of Champagne, Illinois: “Squash hung in a pair of knotted pantyhose stay unspoiled longer than others.” (One of us tried this over the weekend and is looking forward to a fall of unspoiled squash.)
HFCS studies
Yes, high-fructose corn syrup really is bad for you
November 7, 2008
Three recent studies indicate that, yes, high-fructose corn syrup is a nasty sweetener, linking the industrial sugar to kidney disease, liver disease, and weight gain. As the New York Times pointed out, “Foods made with high-fructose corn syrup are heavily processed and typically lack any meaningful nutritional value. And while the jury is out on the real effect high-fructose corn syrup has on obesity, we do know it’s a threat to the health of the planet.”
Kitchen streamlining
Make the most of your cooking space
November 6, 2008
Not every avid home cook has to put up with an eensy apartment kitchen. Deb Perelman, of the blog Smitten Kitchen, does — and she’s learned how to make it work. In her post “How to Max Out Your Tiny Kitchen,” she gives a long list of practical tips for keeping counters clear, buying only what you need, and making everything do double duty. Plus, her favorite items make good host gifts for friends who maybe really don’t need (or have space) for that fancy coffee press.
The cost of eating
How much do you spend on food?
November 5, 2008
As BusinessWeek pointed out recently, the average American really is worse off these days than before, with stagnating wages and rising food and fuel costs. “Take, for example, the price of a dozen eggs, which has risen 97 percent since 2001, from a nationwide average of $1.01 to $1.99,” the magazine pointed out. Which is why trying to eat food that’s both cheap and healthy — never easy — has gotten so much harder, as the couple behind the One Dollar Diet Project found out. Given that daily food-stamp allotments in the U.S. are just a few dollars per person, cheap food these days generally means even worse food than before.
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