I saw evil today, when I watched for the first time the now infamous video of cow abuse by workers at Hallmark Meat Packing Company. If you haven’t seen this, go with a strong stomach to the Humane Society of the US’s website at http://www.hsus.org/. The undercover video documents the reprehensible treatment of so-called “downer” cows – cows that for some reason are no longer able to walk on their own. Despite USDA guidelines that prohibit these disabled creatures from entering the food supply, daily quotas are clearly of greater importance to the meat packers, and they resort to whatever means necessary to get cows into the slaughterhouse: whether by dragging their struggling and howling bodies with chains or by pushing them with fork lifts and front loaders. (more…)

“Reducing this nation’s dependence on foreign oil” is nearly as common a political platitude as my other favorites “crossing the aisle” and “fighting the war on terror.” But the politics of energy are of particular interest to me, not surprisingly because of their relationship to food. This column, however, is neither about eating local nor farming practices that can eliminate chemical fertilizers as strategies for reducing the oil addiction (at least not explicitly). Instead, I want to spend some time speaking out against the most popular oil alternative: ethanol. (more…)

A quick note today on a story covered at the end of NPR’s morning edition: General Mills is apparently feeling the strain of rising corn prices as a result of the ethanol buzz. They reported that General Mill’s recent posted profits did not come without some fancy product shuffling. Not only did they reduce discounts and up the price to consumers on products like Cheerios, they also dropped the size of each box! Did anybody notice the change? No. (more…)

Reprinted with permission from the November issue of the Ester Republic.

As we walked through the front door of my almost-in-law’s home, my then-still-fiancée and I were greeted with crisis. “Theas no moah fresh sablefish, only frozen,” I heard my caterer proclaim as a cordless phone was thrust into my hand. I recognized his Cape Cod accent right away. The development was a disappointment, to be sure, but probably not a crisis. Sablefish is delicious, cheap, and responsibly fished under a community-based system of management. Frozen wouldn’t be as tasty, and would be harder for the chef to work with, but purchasing the frozen sablefish for the event, I mused, would be the ultimate display of commitment to supporting a local, responsible food resource.

My caterer, however, had a different idea. Remember the Tyson pen? “Frozen will taste horrible,” he proclaimed – “You want Barramundi. Its cheap, tastes like Chilean sea bass, and tops all the ‘sustainability’ lists.” Sigh. “No,” I responded, “we’re not going with a farmed fish.” I asked him to find out what other options were available from local waters and get back to me.

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