The new documentary Food Inc is getting lots of press, and Kristof just gave it a plug. Would love to know people’s thoughts on this movie. From the outset, and I dont think the makers would object, the movie is slanted and I will write more this week on why i think so. The movie contains important information for the general consumer, but when it comes time to science, the environment and nutrition, we need to start digging deeper. We are talking about global food systems in all their complexity. Equating things to food miles, organic and grow your own food (!) are simple answers that dont address the need to feed 7 billion people in a sustainable and pro-nutritious manner.
Archive for the 'sustainable agriculture' Category
kristof is plugging Food Inc too…
Published June 22, 2009 agriculture , environment , organics and slow food , sustainable agriculture , u.s. food system Leave a CommentSnacks and Glints
Published March 29, 2009 agriculture , calories , ecogastronomy , environment , health , japanese food , junk food , obesity , organics and slow food , sustainable agriculture 1 CommentForging a Hot Link to the Farmer Who Grows the Food – cool article in the Times
Raj Patel wants you to Buy Japanese or at least, live in Japan
Teenagers near fast food = obesity. And Marion Nestle has some ideas on it. And she was in the NY times last week. Go Marion.
The new Food Inc movie. Can’t see it here in Nairobi but see it if it comes to a theater near you…
And another film called “Food Fight”. It is hard to keep up these days…
Best Trattoria in Rome? Let the Debate Begin. God, how I would die to be eating this food every night. Taking slow food to the profound letter. But hell, this the origin of slowness in all its beauty.
a vegetable garden on the south lawn
Published March 23, 2009 agriculture , organics and slow food , sustainable agriculture , u.s. food system 1 CommentThe new administration has broken ground for a vegetable garden of local, organic foods on the White House lawn. This idea, advocated by First Lady Michelle, should be credited to Slow Food USA’s president Josh Viertel and organic chef Alice Waters who have been pushing for our government to take notice and make changes how America’s food is produced and consumed. High time we have a government who is thinking about nutrition. A true seed of change indeed.
NY Times published a map of what will be planted. No beets for Barack but plenty of the fixings for Mexican food. Sounds like my kind of people.
There are some accompanying articles on organic food and its movement in the Times. And I must add that the vegetable garden article was the most viewed for three days in a row.
Just finished reading Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and her family. It was okay…had some interesting facts and stories, but a bit too Martha Stewart goes farmer for me. She along with her family left Tucson and the desert, to start a farm in Virginia and live off what they produce. If they couldn’t produce certain foods, they made a pact to not eat any foods that were not local, adhering to the now environmentally friendly, hip way of eating of a localvore. So, no bananas ever. No strawberries in December. No leafy greens in February. Admirable and difficult but some of the writing is a bit dumbed down. Her husband contributed small passages about sustainable agriculture and organic production, which i actually found more informative than Kingsoliver’s diary. A quick read and one that is interesting for all those soccer moms who want to “have a farm” in Africa…
