food

default blog post image

The venerable anchovy

By [node:field_contributor] / On August 13th, 2008
This week I was interviewed for The Food Programme which airs on radio in the UK. Its subject was the anchovy, a marine fish humble in size but prolific in life. Most of us are familiar with anchovies only as dark, finger-sized fillets in olive oil. Their piquant flavour gives zest to hundreds of dishes from pizza to stuffed peppers to lamb chops. What is less well known is that their popularity as a cooking ingredient extends back thousands of years. Anchovies have been caught in commercial quantities in Europe since antiquity.
default blog post image

Ranching has something to teach us

By [node:field_contributor] / On August 8th, 2008
As the 21st century unfolds, it's becoming clear that we need more family farmers and ranchers on the land, not fewer.
default blog post image

What healthy fish look like

By [node:field_contributor] / On July 30th, 2008
  My daughters are 7 and 8 years old. Like many children of their age, they like fish but are deeply suspicious of anything that looks like it might once have been alive. For them fish means fish sticks or cakes, crusted in unnaturally orange breadcrumbs and slathered in ketchup gore. At a push they sometimes accept a piece of Marine Stewardship Council certified sustainable pollock from the North Pacific, but breadcrumbs are mandatory. Like many parents, I want my kids to eat fish for the health benefits but what goes into processed fish troubles me.
default blog post image

The changing meaning of large

By [node:field_contributor] / On July 23rd, 2008
Last Saturday I found myself in the local supermarket browsing for dinner. In the seafood section I spied a slim package with two pieces of plaice in it, a kind of flatfish rather like flounder. Each was little bigger than a dollar bill and weighed just four and a half ounces. What struck me about this package was a label that proclaimed they were ‘large' fish. The fillets in the packet could not have come from an animal more than 10 inches long. Moreover, these fish were certainly immature and had never had a chance to breed. But they were legal to sell.
default blog post image

Spiralling fuel costs ease pressure on fish

By [node:field_contributor] / On July 16th, 2008
Recent hikes in oil prices are hitting the fishing industry where it hurts most: on the profit margin. In the process, some fish stocks are getting a much needed respite from intensive exploitation. Fishers in Europe have blockaded ports in recent weeks to protest at rising fuel costs, claiming that they can no longer make a living.
default blog post image

The Price of Milk

By [node:field_contributor] / On July 7th, 2008
As I was making the morning's first cup of coffee and comforting the cat who spent the pre-dawn hours cowering during a cacophonous thunderstorm, the morning news brought a story about the organic milk that I was pouring into a mug at that very moment. Escalating grain prices are expected to prompt a steep rise in the price of dairy products - especially organic milk prices. Apparently, the more grain a cow eats, the more milk it produces. With current competition from biofuels, farmers are receiving record prices for those crops.
default blog post image

What's for Dinner

By [node:field_contributor] / On June 26th, 2008
Yesterday, the front page of The New York Times business section ran an article headlined: "Dow Chemical Raises Prices For Second Time in a Month." Citing energy and feedstock costs, Dow raised prices for its products some 25 percent, following an increase last month of 20 percent, the largest such raises in the company's history.
default blog post image

Eat Less Freight

By [node:field_contributor] / On June 24th, 2008
With gas prices rising to over $4.00 per gallon, long-hidden costs of the fuel embedded within our food system are beginning to show with higher prices at the supermarket checkout. The legacy of once-cheap oil, petroleum now pervades every phase of America’s food production. It’s used to make fertilizer and pesticides, to pump water for irrigation, to power tractors and other farm equipment, for ripening fresh fruits, for processing into cans and boxes, and, of course, for shipping foods from distant farms to our market shelves.
default blog post image

A Level Playing Field

By [node:field_contributor] / On May 11th, 2008
Everyone hates their taxes being spent on subsidies — unless it’s to subsidize their own industry. It’s time for an honest debate about the role of subsidies in a 21st Century economy and, at least, a restructuring to a more level playing field. Examples? When I served in California state government, the Schwarzenegger administration tried for three years to push through a solar incentive package.

Pages