Author: Shawn Hogan (Page 1 of 2)

http://munchies.vice.com/articles/its-time-to-start-hoarding-your-precious-italian-olive-oil

If you’re anything like me, this article could easily be re-named “The World is Ending.” 2014 will now be known as “The Black Year of Italian Oil” because of the series of devastating weather events which caused the Italian olive crop to suffer. Now, the price of extra-virgin Italian olive oil (you know, the good stuff) is expected to drastically rise. Not only that, but mis-labeling and misrepresentation is also predicted to soar. In an industry where 70% of extra-virgin Italian olive oil isn’t actual what it says it is, us Americans may not see the real thing for at least this coming year.

I fear that climate change may cause more weather events such as those that struck the Mediterranean to jeopardize specialty crops that are only grown in certain areas of the world. As we lose these specialty crops, we may lose some of the items which are at the root of cultural identity. Imagine Italy with no extra-virgin olive oil!

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/11/03/360434287/on-the-trail-to-preserve-appalachias-bounty-of-heirloom-crops

Interestingly, Appalachia grows the most diverse set of crops than any other region in the US. But like so many good things, this diversity is in danger. This diversity requires maintenance and people who are passionate about preserving it. As many seed savers are aging, the number of people with this passion are dwindling, though there is a new movement to increase these numbers yet again. The history of heirloom seeds in Appalachia stretches back through generations. Families have saved the seeds from their ancestors which may have first originated from Native American cultivations or from Southern Mexico.

This article highlights the Bloody Butcher Corn in particular and how it is beginning to become a more widely used crop. There is actually a restaurant that serves polenta made from the Bloody Butcher. The story of the Bloody Butcher Corn shows that we can preserve interesting varieties of foods that would have otherwise been lost if we focus on local food systems.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/11/16/364115200/big-data-companies-agree-farmers-should-own-their-information

There has been a triumph in how farms interact with the agribusinesses for which they supply and work. Farmer’s collect a lot of data on how much they plant, how much other inputs they use, and various other things in order to determine profit maximizing decisions for coming years. Until this recent agreement between businesses and farmers, businesses such as Monsanto, DuPont, John Deere, and Dow had access to much of this information. They had begun to offer data collection services which incited worries about who had access to this information. Although the article remains vague about whether or not these companies actually exploited their previous access, it assures that now there is a legal framework to prevent potential problems.

I’m not entirely sure how much of a victory this is, but one potential issue that was noted in the article is that these companies could have used famers’ data to speculate on commodities. That could definitely be a potential way for these companies to further exploit farmers. However, I applaud them for conceding to this new legal framework.

http://www.collective-evolution.com/2014/12/04/the-greenhouse-of-the-future-a-step-by-step-builders-guide/

Ever wanted to sustain your food needs fully? Live in an area where that might not be possible under traditional means? Find yourself needing some warm sun energy in the dead of winter? Then I have found a great holiday gift for you to give to yourself. I have tried to stay up to date on developments in Earthships which are entirely self sustained residences and there are extensive manuals on how to actually build them yourself. Now there is a similar manual, now extensive DVD, on how to build your own greenhouse. So if you don’t necessarily want or need to build an entire house, you can just get the food sustainability part of it.

Many of us live on properties with some sort of open field or unused grassy space. This could be a great summer project and then your family would have veggies from their own greenhouse year round. Imagine if all people with the space and means to do this, did…..

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/12/04/364745790/food-babe-or-fear-babe-as-activist-s-profile-grows-so-do-her-critics

Vani Hari, known from her blog as “Food Babe” is speaking out against unhealthy things in our food. Awesome, right? However, people with real credentials (Hari is primarily trained in computer science) and real knowledge on food (doctors, food scientists, nutritionists, etc.) have been openly criticizing her manipulation of the truth to create fear in her followers as well as massive contributions to her bank account. By collecting speaking fees and advertising for various non-GMO and similar organizations on her website, she has made her Food Babe title a full time career.

Although it’s great that Hari’s efforts have caused Kraft to remove their artificial orange coloring from their mac n cheese and Subway to do away with a common bread additive, I fear that someone with few credentials and a very clear profit motive may seriously impede other food movements. If we only focus on small additives in foods that we really shouldn’t be eating anyway, we will be distracted from the bigger picture. We will forget about the advertising that has created an obesity epidemic. We will ignore the unfair economics that are causing small farmers to go bankrupt. We will lose focus from the obscene pollution that comes from factory farming.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/12/05/368248812/why-did-vitamins-disappear-from-non-gmo-breakfast-cereal

This article discusses how the GMO-free movement in many breakfast cereals has caused these cereals to become void of vitamins like A, D, B-12, and B-2. It turns out that additives such as riboflavin that have failed to pass GMO-free tests and it is easier for companies to exclude the additives altogether than find natural vitamin solutions. Although this could be a signal that a GMO-free world may cause issues such as this, I think it is more of a signal that the natural ingredients we put in products should have vitamins and nutrients present. Perhaps the wheat that these companies use to make their cereals is GMO-free, but it’s probably also planted in a monoculture fashion on land that has been reaped of nutrients and minerals.

Perhaps the GMO-free fad has caused some processed foods to lose their vitamins, but shouldn’t that be a larger signal that maybe we should turn to eggs and organic fruit for breakfast rather than something out of a box?

http://grist.org/list/john-olivers-takedown-of-the-sugar-industry-is-pretty-sweet/

In this clip, John Oliver takes on the sugar industry and its power on the Western diet. He specifically discusses the proposed “sugar added” labeling and how the FDA is currently hearing arguments from various associations who would face problems if the proposal was put into law. One of the amendments to the proposal that was raised was that it should be expressed in grams rather than teaspoons with the fear that teaspoons are a more understandable measurement and people will be turned off from products when they understand how much sugar is actually added.

John Oliver, in all of his comedic glory, suggested that neither grams nor teaspoons should be the measurement of sugar added. Alternatively, packages should display sugar added in terms of circus peanuts (you know, those gross, semi-porous orange clumps of sugar…). He then suggested that we all ban together in a social media outrage and use the hashtag #showusyourpeanuts to demand that food producers include an easy way to visualize the amount of sugar they add to their products on the label.

http://grist.org/food/millennials-monsanto-wants-to-be-your-hipster-friend/

This just in: Monsanto has hired someone to undertake something that, even with a contract with one of the strongest private arms firms, they will not be able to accomplish. Vance Crowe was recently hired by Monsanto as the director of Millennial Engagement. This man is tasked with building a relationship of trust and cooperation with those who were born between the mid 80’s and 2000. This is the generation who participates in marches against Monsanto and includes the hashtag #monsantoevil in their tweets. This is the generation that is making organic, vegan, non-GMO, and local eating popularized. This is the generation that is beginning to question our food system and understand not to trust many of the products that our parents trusted.

By no means is every member of the “Millennials” totally averse to favoring Monsanto, but I think it’s fair to say that not many of us who have heard of Monsanto see them in a favorable light. In a way, I’m kind of glad Monsanto exists. It has been proven time and time again that having a common enemy unites people in some of the most effective ways.

http://www.vox.com/2014/10/17/6988377/threats-to-americans-ranked-ebola-isis-russia-furniture

This may not seem like a food related article at first, but I would like you to take a gander at what this article says is the fourth biggest (actual) threat to Americans and the number one biggest (actual) tied threats to Americans. Determined by actual statistical and academic analysis, not media hype, these three threats are respectively, climate change (fourth), heart disease, and cancer (tied for first). Notice that these three threats are all connected very deeply to the problems with our food system. Many of the issues we discuss in class contribute to the deteriorating health of Americans which can explain that heart disease and cancer are the number one and two killers of Americans. Food marketing, diet confusion, inability to access healthful foods, and poor working conditions in farms and production centers all are factors that play into the extreme rates of obesity and cancer that we see in the US. Heart disease and cancer are responsible for over half of all American deaths and definitely have far more of a chance of affecting you than does ISIS or Ebola.

Many of the issues we discuss also cause immense greenhouse gas emissions, deplete the water supply, contribute to deforestation and ecosystem loss. All of these problems that our broken food system has played a part in creating have helped to make climate change the fourth most real threat to Americans. In the words of the article, climate change is a “potentially dire” situation and “if you care about the world your kids and grandkids will grow up in, [you should be] pretty freaked out”.

So this raises an obvious question: Why is Ebola plastered all over the news while threats related to our broken food system are exceptionally more legitimate?

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/09/11/336330502/why-the-u-s-chills-its-eggs-and-most-of-the-world-doesnt

This article discusses yet another energy wasting difference between the US and many other countries: our less than necessary refrigeration of eggs. Since American food purchasing seems to revolve around aesthetics and much food legislation aims to tackle food health concerns that our culture seems to find the most scary, it is law that egg producers wash their eggs in standardized machines. The scary health concern I’m talking about is salmonella; and the law I’m talking about was created in 1970 when the USDA perfected “the art of wash.” Interestingly enough, this washing actually gets rid of a thin layer on the egg that naturally exists to keep water and oxygen in and keep bad bacteria out. Predictably, we have stepped into a natural process and said “we will replace this perfectly fine natural adaptation with our own technology that requires electricity and therefore, in most cases, use of fossil fuels.”

Although salmonella can be a valid threat, many European countries just vaccinate their egg-laying chickens instead of wasting the electricity. It turns out that the rate of egg related food safety issues is about the same. This is yet another example of how culture surrounding food can be misinformed and we waste valuable resources because of it.