Sustainable Dish

We tax cigarettes, we tax alcohol, we may even tax soda. Now the idea of taxing meat is being bandied about by Peter Singer, professor of bioethics at Princeton University in The New York Daily News. Is it a classist ploy or the earth’s environmental salvation?

Jonathan Safran Foer’s new book, “Eating Animals”, is the latest in a line of books espousing conscientious thought in eating. Elizabeth Colbert published a fantastic review in The New Yorker giving it both praise and due criticism. What I want to know is, does the author have anything new to say, or is it the same information Pollan and so many others have already published?

Nicole Hahn Niman strikes again with an op-ed in the New York Times defending small livestock farmers. In the face of a new report stating that GHG emissions from livestock may be as high as 51%, Hahn Niman states that small family farms aren’t the problem - de-forestation and industrial agriculture are.  I think she and Safron Foer (above) may have some disagreements on this one.

A man by the name of Islam Siddiqui has been nominated for the position of chief agricultural negotiator in the office of the U.S. trade representatives. You may know him from such frightening organizations as “CropLife America”, which openly blasted Michelle Obama’s organic garden.  Seems to be a blatant oxymoron; The New York Times reports.

Cocoa Krispies boosts your immunity! Wait, I take that back, and so does Kellogg. The cereal giant is reneging on its claim that Cocoa Krispies and other cereals boost health with added antioxidants. It’s a tough time out there for fake healthy food. See Advertising Age for the full story.

For the December edition of Consumer Reports, a plethora of cans, bottles and bags were tested for BPA – the results were not good. Fooducate gives a very clear breakdown of the problems associated with BPA (toxicity, brain damage, cancer), and Civil Eats gives some further insight.

All of our food may be produced by major agriculture corporations, but at least our wine’s still safe, right? Unfortunately, the top 30 wines sold in the U.S. all come from major producers who buy “grape juice” in bulk from various locations and slap a label on it. But don’t despair, small wineries still do exist, just look for “produced and bottled by” on the label and you’re in the clear. Read the full story on The Daily Beast.