As processed, packaged food makers increase market share of organics - now a $23 billion annual business - USDA bows to lobbying pressure, relaxes stringent standards to allow non-organic ingredients, additives, processing agents. National Organic Program, by not issuing growing, treatment, production standards, has created haphazard system that leaves private certifiers to set organic standards. And: USDA seeking replacement for Barbara Robinson, program's acting director (click 'See also').
By Kimberly Kindy and Lyndsey Layton
The Washington Post 2009-07-03 (entry)
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Flavor, seasonality, locality trump organic. Between pure organics and reckless use of chemicals is huge gray area where most farming is done. Ignore this and you ignore mission of supporting small farmers who grow wonderful food. In California, roughly 85 percent of farms are owned by individuals or families, 75 percent are smaller than 100 acres. Earthbound Farm, which grows organics, now cultivates more than 40,000 acres. And: Purity of USDA 'organic' label questioned (click 'See also').
By Russ Parsons
Los Angeles Times 2009-07-01 (entry)
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Through perky stock girl, rueful farm wife, 'Drift,' a meandering piece of dance theater, tells story of how plot of land in Augusta, Ga., evolved from a farm to a Piggly Wiggly supermarket to a church. Story, created by Cassie Meador, leaves viewers hungry for peaches.
By Rebecca J. Ritzel
The Washington Post 2009-06-29 (entry)
Women, turning to farming, get boost from popularity of farmers markets, buy-local programs, interest of well-heeled, eco-conscious shoppers. 'It's a great feeling to be able to grow food and to be able to share it with people,' says one, who started with vegetable garden and cow named Dinner. 'Being outside, growing food - it's just a great way to live.' More than one in every 10 U.S. farms is run by a woman.
By Lori Aratani
The Washington Post 2009-06-28 (entry)
At White House garden, Michelle Obama casts campaign for homegrown food as sensible eating strategy. She says that fighting obesity requires improving access to fresh produce in low-income communities, offering more nutritious food at schools, and overhauling how American families eat. She linked healthful eating to two major legislative initiatives: reauthorization of child nutrition programs, which fund school breakfast and lunch programs, and health-care reform. And: Watch the speech (click 'See also').
By Jane Black
The Washington Post 2009-06-17 (entry)
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Demand for beef falls 7 percent over one year -- equivalent of metropolitan Atlanta becoming vegetarian. Farmers plan to cut production of beef, pork, poultry, and milk, along with corn, wheat, rice, and peanuts. Meat lobby mounts ad campaign; Cargill renames budget cuts of beef. Publishes see opportunity to sell vegetarian-leaning cookbooks. And: Eating two ounces of beef and calling it dinner (click 'See also').
By Louise McCready
Gourmet/Politics of the Plate 2009-06-10 (entry)
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Intrepid eaters Jane and Michael Stern chew across U.S., gathering list of 'must eat' spots ahead of 'nutrition police,' whom they fear will make whoopee pies, fried chicken illegal. Along the way, they chronicle and sustain regional food traditions. And: Anthology of essays, notes from unfinished 1930s Federal Writers' Project shows that many regional classics were disregarded (click 'See also').
By Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg
The Wall Street Journal. (may require subscription) 2009-06-16 (entry)
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Needy family skips high-priced fruits, vegetables, choosing cheap fast food so dad can afford diabetes medicine.
"Food, Inc.," a mind-boggling, heart-rending, stomach-churning expose on food industry, makes case with methodical, relentless urgency of muckrakers trying to radicalize - or rouse - a dozing populace. And: Film shows we're living in a simulacrum, fed by machines run by larger machines with names like Monsanto, Perdue, Tyson that make everything (click 'See also'). We humans can win, but we should hurry, before Monsanto makes a time machine and sends back a Terminator to get rid of Eric Schlosser, Michael Pollan.
By Amy Biancolli
San Francisco Chronicle 2009-06-12 (entry)
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In early animation by Steve Judge, we're lectured by health-food-obsessed eco-goodnik - a direct tie-dyed forebear to his father figure in new ABC satire 'The Goode Family.' Inspiration stemmed from 1990 Whole Foods ad that said 'Surely you're thinking about what you eat, but what are you feeding your children?' And: Show works best when cultural potshots give way to more basic human needs, says reviewer (click 'See also').
By Michael Cavna
The Washington Post 2009-05-27 (entry)
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FDA hires three food industry veterans for its Office of Food Safety: Jim Gorny, executive director of the Postharvest Technology Research and Information Center, University of California-Davis and formerly of United Fresh Produce Association; Jenny Scott, of Grocery Manufacturers Association; and Kathy Gombas, formerly of Dean Foods as well as FDA - and wife of David Gombas, senior VP at United Fresh.
The editors
The Packer 2009-07-03 (entry)
Warren Buffett's middle son, Howard, fights global war against hunger after realizing that environment can't be saved if people aren't fed (click 'See also'). Among his foundation's Africa projects in progress: Obtaining for corn breeders royalty-free access to Monsanto's biotechnology for drought-tolerant seed, developing disease-resistant sweet potato, helping farmers sell crops to UN hunger-relief programs. Number of chronically hungry people expected to climb this year to 1.02 billion, up 11.5 percent from 2008.
By Scott Kilman and Roger Thurow
The Wall Street Journal. (may require subscription) 2009-06-28 (entry)
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Stephen Starr orchestrates months-long tour of Northeast's best pizza joints before opening his own pizzeria. It's venture number 19 for restaurant magnate who has transformed Philadelphia's dining landscape with Continental, Buddakan, Morimoto, and most recently Butcher & Singer. And: Roadfood's review of one stop - Pepe's Pizzeria Napoletana in New Haven, CT (click 'See also').
By Rick Nichols
Philadelphia Inquirer 2009-06-21 (entry)
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"From a conversation with Robert Kenner, director of 'Food, Inc.,'. Most shocking: 'We filmed a hearing...about whether we should label cloned meat. Not whether we should have it. Whether we should label it....The woman representing the industry said, 'We don't think it's in the consumer's interest [to label the meat] because it would be too confusing.' This is really a film about our rights. It's just terrifying.' Feeding the world: '...People are starving now. We're not feeding the world now and the system that exists now is a totally unsustainable system. It's based on gasoline and pollution and it cannot go on.' Perceived elitism: 'Right now it's elitist to think we can create a system where the food we feed a poor family makes them so sick that they need medicine for diabetes. There's something wrong with a system that makes food that makes them sick.
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— Jane Black, The Washington Post, 6/14/09
