Ahoy! If you are in NYC this weekend, head down to Croton Point Park and check out the Clearwater Festival. It’s going on from 10am until dusk both Saturday and Sunday on the shores of the Hudson River, and highlights will include live music and singalongs, camping, boat rides, and the Clearwater Environmental Short Film Competition (check out the ten finalists and vote for the winners). WBAI/Pacifica Radio will be broadcasting live from the event.
Our friend Chris Hunt, a Clearwater board member and factory farm fighter, has this to say about the festival:
In addition to boasting an outstanding lineup of musicians in a beautiful park with striking river views, Revival affords attendees the opportunity to celebrate and support Clearwater, a pioneering grassroots environmental organization that has worked tirelessly to protect the Hudson River through advocacy and environmental education for more than 30 years. Having sailed on the Clearwater as a fourth-grade student, I can personally attest to the importance of the organization’s efforts; I’m proud to continue to support Clearwater as a volunteer and as a member of its board of directors.
But that’s not all! Eat WellCaptain Director Destin Lane (forgive me, it’s all I can do to stem back the tide of nautical/pirate puns) and a few of our fabulous interns will be manning a table in the activist area, where over 50 groups will represent a broad range of vital grassroots issues. To see who else will be there, click here, and don’t be a stranger–stop by and say hello!
When the Eat Well team headed upstate a few weeks ago, we were looking forward to getting out to some farms, meeting some farmers, learning more about their sustainable methods and eating some good food. I don’t think anybody anticipated seeing groundhog stew on the menu until the night before we took off, when our friend Severine sent us an email, telling us that her friend Erin, who works at Sisters Hill farm (and blogs about her work there at Farmer Erin blog) had trapped, killed and cooked one up for us.
How could we eat an animal as (sort of) cute as the one in that photo? As our good friend Kerry explained in her post about it, the groundhog needed to go–it’d been helping itself to the veggies Erin and her co-workers had so lovingly planted and tended for their CSA members. In fact, Erin said the groundhog (or woodchuck, whichever suits you–they’re synonyms) had laid waste to nine entire pea plants. [Read more →]
It’s up to you whether you you want to give the stuff up completely, but it’s good food for thought (ha ha) to know that reducing your personal consumption of meat is better for the environment and for your body.
You can reduce your carbon footprint significantly by eating less red meat (and dairy too) in particular, as ruminants produce about 150 times as greenhouse gases than fish or chicken. However, if you don’t want to kick the habit, grass-fed beef can emit up to 20% less methane than their grain-fed (and less healthful) counterparts. Sure, grass-fed is more expensive, but it’s a better product and besides, you should still eat less of it. For more information, check out this article from Sustainable Table about grass-fed beef. [Read more →]
But what’s his food policy? Congrats to Democratic Presidential Nominee Barack Obama. A few weeks ago, an interview regarding his agriculture policies was posted to the Tufts Comfood listserv. Jill Richardson, aka orangeclouds115 of Daily Kos, dissects his answers over at Golden Apple Press.
You say tomato…The great 08 tomato recall has expanded to the entire country, with 228 sickened by salmonella in 23 states. While Mexico tries to figure out what to do with all those leftover tomatoes, Slate asks how it got there. Dr. David Acheson of the FDA says: “[t]he goal is to trace it back to the farm and try to find out what went wrong.” Uh, yeah. Tough though, with a broken supply system.
S. Koreans have a serious beef The high school kids who questioned the US beef supply probably never guessed that their efforts would blossom into a massive movement against new president Lee Myung-bak, whose entire cabinet has since offered to step down. Check out these photos.
Brasilians fired up, too Activists have been on the move all week in Brasil, peacefully protesting monocropping, skyrocketing food prices and multinational control of agriculture. On Wednesday, protesters who stormed a WalMart-owned supermarket in Sao Paulo were met with rubber bullets and tear gas. Earlier that day, Via Campesina farmers briefly took over a eucalyptus plantation in Santa Maria. (AP)
Ok, seriously As if we needed another reason to condemn question the use of corn ethanol, Treehugger reports that scientists have linked the biofuel boom to what is expected to be a record-breaking dead zone in the Gulf this summer.
This is the first entry in a series of blog posts by Gwen Schantz, a former employee of (and eternal devotee to) the Eat Well Guide. Lately Gwen’s been traveling throughout the US and Canada, seeking out good food and collecting stories along the way. Gwen’s been making use of the Guide from the road, though she’s eagerly awaiting (as are we) the launch of our new interactive mapping feature, Eat Well Everywhere (coming this fall), which will make it easier than ever to find good food, well, everywhere.
There is only one natural foods store in Knoxville, Tennessee, and if it weren’t for my good friend the Eat Well Guide, I probably would never have found it. And that would have been a real shame, because it means I never would have gotten to eat at the Organic Roots Café.
Owned and operated by Yawah Awalowo, Knoxville’s queen of healthy eating, the Café is a natural foods oasis in the Tennessee’s fast food desert. And a tasty oasis, at that. I had the “kitchen sink” sandwich, which turned out to be perhaps the heartiest and most enjoyable vegan dish I ever ate. Like its name would suggest, the sandwich was filled with a little bit of everything in Ms. Awalowo’s kitchen (minus the sink), and with a side of organic blue corn chips and iced tea, lunch was complete. And completely delicious. [Read more →]
Take Out, the new film by Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou about an illegal Chinese immigrant scrambling to pay off his debt to the people who helped smuggle him into the US with tips from his delivery job, has extended its stay at Quad Cinemas after selling out last weekend.
The film opened to rave reviews from the Voice and the Times, but the most edu-taining take on Take Out comes from our friend Kerry Trueman at Eating Liberally.
As a former waitress and bartender (though one who’s biggest scramble was to make rent) I can’t wait to see this film, and I am to am loving all those “I’ll never tip poorly again!” reviews. Too often, laborers, from the ones who plant and harvest the veggies to the ones who plop your plate down, take a back seat to other aspects of sustainable food production. Tipping the take-out guy is a start, but to learn more about labor issues and immigration issues, check out the United Food and Commercial Workers’ International Union (UFCW), the Coalition for Immokalee Workers (CIW) and The Migrant Project.
We hear the film was shot on a budget of a few thousand dollars, so here’s to scrappy filmmakers serving up food for thought about social justice issues!
Green Fork devotees may recall that the day this blog launched, I was in New Orleans for the Jazz & Heritage Festival. It was my first time in the city and as I mentioned in posts about the New Orleans Food and Farming Network and the Crescent City Farmers Market, I was really inspired by the work that is happening there. But after all that, the icing on the proverbial cake, for me, was the Edible Schoolyard.
The morning I arrived for my tour of ESYNOLA, I was greeted by Director Donna Cavato and Chef April Neujean, who filled me in on the the program and its history. The Samuel J. Green Charter School had opened ten days prior to Hurricane Katrina, only to be shut down, rehabbed, and re-opened the following spring. A K-8th grade charter school with no testing requirements, SJG serves students who are predominantly African-American, 98% of whom qualify for federal free or reduced lunch/breakfast programs. Throughout the inside of the school, there is evidence of the program’s success, in the form of photos and examples of students’ work. Outside, of course, success is even more evident, but two years ago, the New Orleans Edible Schoolyard was little more than an idea.
Started in 2006, the Edible Schoolyard New Orleans (ESY NOLA), at the Samuel J. Green Charter School, is the second of Alice Waters’ Edible Schoolyard Projects. The idea of ESY NOLA sprouted back in December 2005, when Randy Fertel, son of Ruth’s Chris’s Ruth Fertel, met Waters and she expressed her desire to do something for post-Katrina New Orleans. Knowing that local educator Dr. Tony Recasner was an avid supporter of school gardening and experiential learning, Fertel suggested that Waters partner with Recasner on an Edible Schoolyard in New Orleans. By November of the following year, plans were in the works for the main garden, this small raised bed and another next to it became the temporary site for ESYNOLA, and gardening classes had begun. [Read more →]
What are you doing on Labor Day? We’ll be in San Francisco, at this summer’s must-attend foodie event, Slow Food Nation. Tickets went on sale last week, so grab ‘em while they’re hot. Speaking of hot, this East Coast heatwave is already inspiring West Coast daydreams, but just imagine the Bay Area filled with even more farmers, foodies, activists, musicians…all there to celebrate and support the sustainable food movement, just in time for the late-summer harvest.
Slow Food Nation will be the first-ever American collaborative gathering to unite the growing sustainable food movement and introduce thousands of people to food that is good, clean and fair through enjoyable, accessible and educational activities.
A heavy-hitting lineup of keynote speakers will include Wendell Berry, Marion Nestle, Carlo Petrini, Michael Pollan, Eric Schlosser, Vandana Shiva and Alice Waters. Musical guests (so far — more to be announced!) Gnarls Barkley; G Love & Special Sauce; the John Butler Trio; Medeski Martin & Wood; New Pornographers and Ozomatli are headlining the Slow Food Rocks (yes it does!) musical portion of the gathering. Then, of course, there will be the food…
Today’sHealthy MondayTip: Take a hike! Hiking is one of the most enjoyable forms of exercise, and unless you are flying or driving long distances to get to the trailhead, it’s one of the greenest, too. If you live in an urban area with a lot of smog, it’s also a safer way to get sweaty outdoors.
If you are new to hiking and don’t know where to go, this website claims to be the largest trail database in the world. US urbanites can look into LocalHikes.com for trails that are easily accessed from metropolitan areas. Many farms offer on-site tours, which can often be a bit of a hike too. Find one on our Guide — you get outdoors, learn about a local farm, and get some good groceries, while you’re at it. [Read more →]
For some, food shortage a political opportunity Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe, up for re-election later this month, is leveraging the hunger of the country’s citizens in an outrageous scheme where only those who can produce party registration cards get food aid. (ABC News)
For others, local food is worth a gamble California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick have engaged in a friendly bet over the NBA playoffs. The loser will donate food (California produce and wine or New England chowder, depending) to the charity of the winner’s choice. (ESPN)
Battered = Fresh On Monday, the USDA reclassified batter-coated frozen french fries (along with other “coated” foods, like chocolate-covered cherries) as fresh vegetables. Later that day, Bruce Cole had some fun with the decision on the Edible Nation blog.
And you thought is was the sugar The Center for Science in the Public Interest is pushing for a ban on food dyes, citing studies linking food dye allergies to hyperactivity and behavior problems in children. (Consumer Affairs)
Farmer activists get the FAO boot Basque farmer Paul Nicholson and other Via Campesina activists were removed from the press conference that marked the opening of this week’s UN food summit. (Spoiler: one brave small farmer telling the truth about transnational agribusiness, lots of men in suits putting their hands over the camera’s lens, and the unsettling realization that some business man is sitting at the small farmers’ seat at the table.) See the video at WSFTV.
Vegan Oprah Ms. Winfrey is two weeks into a 21 day cleanse diet, with no animal products, coffee or booz. Looks like that time she got sued by Big Beef has her too scared to talk about the industry’s contribution to global warming, but she is blogging about what she’s eating.
She could do KFC…in Canada – North of the border, KFC has bent to Peta will and agreed to more humane slaughter methods, as well as the addition of faux-chicken products to their menu. Their US counterpart looks “forward to learning whether our Canadian franchisee’s action has any positive benefit on the humane treatment of poultry.” (Associated Press)
It’s up to you whether you you want to give the stuff up completely, but it’s good food for thought (ha ha) to know that reducing your personal consumption of meat is better for the environment and for your body.
This is the first entry in a series of blog posts by Gwen Schantz, a former employee of (and eternal devotee to) the Eat Well Guide. Lately Gwen’s been traveling throughout the US and Canada, seeking out good food and collecting stories along the way. Gwen’s been making use of the Guide from the road, though she’s eagerly awaiting (as are we) the launch of our new interactive mapping feature, Eat Well Everywhere (coming this fall), which will make it easier than ever to find good food, well, everywhere.
Owned and operated by Yawah Awalowo, Knoxville’s queen of healthy eating, the Café is a natural foods oasis in the Tennessee’s fast food desert. And a tasty oasis, at that. I had the “kitchen sink” sandwich, which turned out to be perhaps the heartiest and most enjoyable vegan dish I ever ate. Like its name would suggest, the sandwich was filled with a little bit of everything in Ms. Awalowo’s kitchen (minus the sink), and with a side of organic blue corn chips and iced tea, lunch was complete. And completely delicious. 
The morning I arrived for my tour of 
Started in 2006, the Edible Schoolyard New Orleans (ESY NOLA), at the Samuel J. Green Charter School, is the second of Alice Waters’ Edible Schoolyard Projects. The idea of ESY NOLA sprouted back in December 2005, when Randy Fertel, son of Ruth’s Chris’s Ruth Fertel, met Waters and she expressed her desire to do something for post-Katrina New Orleans. Knowing that local educator Dr. Tony Recasner was an avid supporter of school gardening and experiential learning, Fertel suggested that Waters partner with Recasner on an Edible Schoolyard in New Orleans. By November of the following year, plans were in the works for the main garden, this small raised bed and another next to it became the temporary site for ESYNOLA, and gardening classes had begun. 
Slow Food Nation will be the first-ever American collaborative gathering to unite the growing sustainable food movement and introduce thousands of people to food that is good, clean and fair through enjoyable, accessible and educational activities.