Reprinted from the March 2010 issue of the Ester Republic

New England is known for a number of food traditions: lobster, clam bakes, brown bread, baked beans, and my childhood favorite, red hot dogs. Red hot dogs are most commonly encountered in Maine. They’re made fresh by local butchers without any nitrates or corn syrup, packed in real, dyed-red intestine casings, and sold in links. They are also sometimes called ‘red snappers’ for the sound they make when you bite into a freshly grilled one. The ‘red’ does not mean that they are spicy, like the red hots made in the South, just that they are fresh, juicy, and delicious, especially when served in a traditional New England-style, split-top hot dog roll (these guys will not break down the center like the style they sell here!). (more…)

Reprinted from the January 2010 issue of the Ester Republic.

One of the most potent of the seven* myths of industrial agriculture is the claim that biotechnology will eventually solve all of the problems that people like me point out about industrial agriculture. This is an especially potent myth, because it taps into our society’s collective reverence for, and general ignorance regarding, science and technology. Invoking genetic engineering invokes an optimism instilled in us by the Jetsons, the moon landing, and Star Trek, that all of society’s great problems can and will eventually be solved by the ongoing march of technology. To question technology is tantamount to heresy; as Michael Specter argues in his book Denialism, to do so is to stand in the way of our human potential. We should be rallying behind the geneticists who are trying to make progress towards a more food secure world, Specter asserts, not fear-mongering and beating the drums of backwards, inefficient agricultural technologies of the past. (more…)