The Green Fork is the official blog of the Eat Well Guide. Click here to Find Good Food.

Devra Gartenstein is the owner of Seattle’s Patty Pan Grill and the author of two cookbooks, Local Bounty: Vegan Seasonal Produce and The Accidental Vegan.  She also blogs at The Quirky Gourmet.

Bill Marler, the most prominent food safety attorney in the country, has published a list of what he predicts will be the biggest food safety issues during the upcoming year. He lists, among other things, the dangers we face from globalization, e coli, as well as cross-contamination between the human and animal food chains. But the most surprising item on the list is a food source that many of us associate with safety and integrity: local food. He writes:

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) groups and food coops need to demonstrate knowledge and practice of food safety, and be inspected. In addition to produce and meats/fish, prepared foods are currently unsupervised.

[Read more →]

Today’s Healthy Monday tip: Make a New Years resolution for you and the planet (yes you can do both!)

As we welcome in 2009, the opportunity to reevaluate and set goals to improve our lives (and especially our health) presents itself. Luckily, there is one key avenue that will improve your health while keeping the health of our planet in mind -eat less meat. Cutting your consumption will have tremendous positive effects on your overall health in addition to lowering your carbon foodprint. Check out Pooja’s piece from November to read further about the many benefits of consuming less meat. Nervous about cooking with unfamiliar vegetables? Not to worry, check out Meatless Monday for helpful hints and recipe ideas for cooking delicious vegetarian meals. [Read more →]

Happy New Year from the Green Fork! Here is an exotic twist on traditional collards (and some compelling arguments for eating them!) from Alison Arians of Alison’s Lunch. Don’t miss the video and recipes (you’ll have to click through). Thanks, Alison!

Eating black-eyed peas and collards on New Year’s Day is supposed to bring prosperity in the coming year. I’ve read that collards are supposed to symbolize greenbacks, and I guess black-eyed peas represent coins? Even if you’re not superstitious, in today’s financial climate, it’s probably wise to eat collards… I can think of several concrete ways that collards can boost your budget.

1. As vegetables go, collards are pretty darn cheap—so if you eat plenty of them, you’ll end up saving money! There’s some extra greenbacks!

2. We’re always reading about the health benefits of eating green vegetables—especially those in the Brassica family, like collards, broccoli, kale, and cabbage. A quick search of the web turned up a trove of health reasons to eat collards; they help prevent cancer, soak up nasty free radicals and eliminate toxic compounds, provide calcium for bone strength, and contribute folate and vitamin B6 for our blood vessels. So you’ll be saving all kinds of money by not going to the doctor’s office! Sheesh, collards are way cheaper than a triple bypass! [Read more →]

It might come as a surprise to many that our current food system and food choices are largely responsible for exacerbating the global climate crisis. Our friends over at Sustainable Table have recently featured an article by Anna Lappé in which she addresses the multiple facets connecting how our decisions regarding how we farm and what we put on our forks are affecting climate change. In addition to an in-depth examination of the main sources of emissions from agriculture, the article also includes tips on what you can do to help lower your carbon foodprint! Here’s a brief excerpt from the article:

In nature, plants transform the sun’s energy into food that provides a foundation for life. We humans are fueled by this transformation either directly (we eat the food) or indirectly (we eat the animals that have fed on this energy). It’s a clever cycle: it’s inherently abundant. But the industrialization of agriculture, picking up pace in the past generation, has flipped the natural abundance of farming on its head. Instead of producing energy, industrial agriculture consumes it, through the addiction to fossil fuel-powered machinery and petroleum-based agrochemicals. Industrial farms are often considered highly efficient, but only because these wasted inputs and devastating outputs—including the impact on climate change—are not accounted for. [Read more →]

This post, from Ari LeVaux of Flash in the Pan, the weekly food column that rocks our world, was originally posted on Alternet. Thanks, Ari!

When former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack’s name first surfaced as a possible Secretary of Agriculture, it triggered an outcry among progressive foodies. The Organic Consumers Association organized a massive campaign in which 20,000 emails opposing Vilsack were sent to the transition team.

The OCA prematurely declared this campaign a success, when Vilsack’s name appeared to have been dropped from consideration. High on hope, hype, and the smell of big-ag blood, a swarm of foodies rushed in to suggest reform-minded alternatives. But these hopes were tossed under the bus on Wednesday, December 17, when Obama formally announced Vilsack as his choice after all. [Read more →]

Food Banks still down A sad reminder this holiday season that many, many Americans are facing hunger and food banks are struggling to keep up with demand. If you’ve got the means to help out, now would be the time.

Defrauding foodies The Fair Food Foundation, launched less than a year ago to support urban agriculture projects and improvement to food access, is one of the many nonprofits shutting down after the man who handled their money, Bernie Madoff, turned out to be using that cash to run a $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

DIS - appointment? The sustainable food community’s reaction to this week’s announcement of Tom Vilsack for Secretary of Agriculture was probably best described by the Ethicurean as “‘a fairly universal ‘harumph’.” Look for a guest post reaction here tomorrow, until then, tide yourself over with this link from ABC Blogs.

Food diamond Robert D. Willix, Jr., MD CEO/CMO of Florida, a world-renowned heart surgeon, has created a new food guide, this in the shape of a diamond, with water as the center of a healthy diet. It also features lean protein in the form of grass-fed, hormone free meat and organic, hormone free dairy. We likes. (via PR Newswire)

food banks, hunger, vilsack appointment, secretary of agriculture, fair food foundation, madoff scandal, ponzi scheme, food diamond, robert d willix, jr

This post is from Tabitha Shannnon, an Eat Well Guide extern studying at Pomona College in Claremont, California, where she’s majoring in French and planning to study Public Health and Nutrition in graduate school. Whether it’s the infinite varieties of mangoes in the Amazon basin of Peru, lobster straight from the boat in Maine, glorious unpasteurized cheese in France, or all kinds of California organic produce, Tabitha loves to eat and promote local food!

It’s been almost a year since I boarded a plane for Paris, wide-eyed and ready to experience all that France had to offer, especially in the form of food. My sejour (stay) did not disappoint–the six months were full of culinary delights. I had the good fortune of staying with a French couple who were thrilled to promote their edible heritage, stuffing my roommate and me with bountiful dinners as they recounted histories of the produits de terroir (regional products) on our plates. [Read more →]

Here’s another one from Anchorage-based mother/baker/blogger Alison Arians of Alison’s Lunch. Thanks Alison — looks yummy!

It’s a cliché, but true…if something looks pretty on the plate, it’s more appetizing and appealing to the palate! I’m not one for constructing elaborate garnishes — carving radish rosettes and deep-frying sage leaves have never been my forte. But I do love to serve vibrantly-colored and contrasting dishes together! This has two benefits: the plate looks lovely and the meal is packed with nutrients!

A classic combination is orange vegetables with dark greens, as shown here. I can’t ever seem to get enough of this combination in the wintertime. When I’m planning a meal, I try and imagine what color the dish will be, and then think about what foods would provide good contrast–in flavor AND color.

And then there’s the economical side of eating lots of colorful vegetables! If you’re steering clear of hothouse strawberries and air-freighted asparagus by eating vegetables and fruits that are in season, they are going to be pretty affordable. Cheaper than chicken or beef, anyway! Plus, winter season vegetables are delicious, and our bodies seem happy to eat all those wonderful roots, tubers and hearty winter greens! [Read more →]

Today’s Healthy Monday tip: Make your holiday party a smashing (and sustainable!) success.

Tis the season for gathering with friends and family. If you are hosting a party, it’s important to be mindful of your carbon footprint, keep your expenses in check and be healthy! Even at these tough economic times, it’s feasible to please your guests and all eat well on a budget. One suggestion is to host a potluck, that way you aren’t stuck with purchasing and preparing everything, plus you get to share and exchange recipes with your guests.

1. Make soup. Make a trip to your local farmers markets and load up on butternut squash. It’s always a crowd pleaser and will go a long way. Here’s a very simple recipe from Epicurious, you can swap the chicken broth for vegetable broth for a vegetarian-friendly dish. [Read more →]

Pop quiz, USDA style The USDA has announced plans to begin random tests for melamine in kids’ foods, particularly those that contain meat and dairy products, throughout the US, to begin in two weeks and last for 12 weeks. (Hat tip to Civil Eater and aspiring farmer Naomi Starkman)

Yes, we can Over at Grist,Tom Philpott dares to wonder if the Obama Administration will step up to regulating GMOs, siting this damning Australian study (PDF) that found serious reproductive effects in mice that consumed GMO corn, which, as Tom points out, was largely ignored by the mainstream media.

Bush admin to deregulate farmworker hiring, cut wages In a middle-of-the-night bit of lawmaking, the Bush administration has made some major changes to the H-2A guest farmworker program, making it easier for employers to bring in foreign labor and lowering wage requirements. Worker advocates, including the UFW, are staunchly opposed to the legislation.

Smithfield gets organized Workers at Smithfields’ Tar Heel plant have voted to be represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. According to this Forbes piece, North Carolina is was the least unionized state in the US, and the Tar Heel facility is the largest pork-processing facility in the world, employing some 5,000 workers.

food news, food regulations, genetically modified food, melamine, usda, farmworker rights, food policy, smithfield, united food and commercial workers union