Sustainable Dish

Did you know that Denmark is the world’s largest exporter of pork? And on top of that, much of that pork is produced sans antibiotics! While American agribusiness has given the Danes lots of slack for their anti-antibiotic stance calling it a “failure”, the numbers prove otherwise. Check out Laura Rogers report on the Huffington Post.

Food brings us many things; memories, pleasure, guilt, nourishment. It is shaped by our culture and our beliefs, our families and friends. Eventually, we take all of that information and pass it on to the next generation. Jonathan Safran Foer, writing for the New York Times Magazine, expresses all of these ideas in a new Food Issue article.

“Two thirds of all High Fructose Corn Syrup goes into soft drinks.” “Each additional daily serving of soda increases a child’s chance risk for obesity by 60%.” Those are just a few of the gems that Fooducate picked out from UCLA’s Center for Health Policy’s recent study on soda consumption in California.

Gourmet Magazine’s demise sent shock waves throughout the food-focused world. While some pegged its style as pretentious, others defended the editorial skill and content. Either way, there is no question that Gourmet was ground breaking in its critique of modern agriculture and support of sustainable food. Read Grist’s opinion here, and check out Gourmet’s “Food Politics” section.

The Farm Bureau, showing a depressing amount of short-sightedness, is trying to knock down a new congressional bill to derail climate control. Apparently, the bill will mean higher fuel and fertilizer costs, hitting the heart of American Ag. Yes, fuel guzzling, hormone injecting, pesticide-spraying, Big American Ag. See the New York Times for more.

Michael Pollan was recently asked to speak at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Sounds simple enough, right? World renowned agricultural author goes to speak at world renowned agriculture school? Wrong. Read about the “controversy” that ensued in the Los Angeles Times.

The entire country of Ireland is banning GM products. Yes folks, while they have weaseled their way into 65%-70% of American food products, Ireland is cutting them out completely. It seems like if a country, a whole dang country, is banning GM products, maybe we should take a close look at why they are doing so.