Posts tagged Food
Slow Food USA Membership Only $25 Through 10/15
Sep 23rd
Join the Food Fight! Through 15 October, Slow Food USA is offering membership for any donation of $25 or more (traditionally $60). It is a worthwhile cause which I have been a member of for many years now, and I truly believe that they are helping pave the way to a better food system here in the States and around the world.
“Slow Food USA seeks to create dramatic and lasting change in the food system. We reconnect Americans with the people, traditions, plants, animals, fertile soils and waters that produce our food. We seek to inspire a transformation in food policy, production practices and market forces so that they ensure equity, sustainability and pleasure in the food we eat.”
– Slow Food USA Mission
This discounted membership rate is to help Slow Food USA gain traction and introduce more people to its campaign and their need for help in “Supporting Good, Clean, and Fair Food.” Slow Food is hoping to grow their movement with 10,000 new members by offering this discounted membership. I hope you can join in. Vote with your fork!
http://www.SlowFoodUSA.org/JoinTheFoodFight
Vote for my Anthony Bourdain Essay: “Opposable Thumbs Up”
Aug 25th
Anthony Bourdain Medium Raw Challenge
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears! Er, your eyes, rather. And a few moments of your time. Anthony Bourdain is sponsoring a writing contest, which I felt quite compelled to enter. But I need YOUR help to win!
The winner stands to have their 500-word piece printed in the forthcoming paperback edition of Anthony Bourdain’s latest book, Medium Raw. The prompt was a seemingly simple question with a cauldron of complex possible answers: “Why cook well?”
To read my essay, “Opposable Thumbs Up”, and give it a boost of support, head to http://randyclemens.com/bourdain. You can (and should!) vote for my entry each and every day through 30 September.
Many thanks in advance for the votes! (And for kindly glossing over the unfortunate spelling mishap in paragraph 2. “Finger tops” should be “fingertips”. Sigh.) Please add http://randyclemens.com/bourdain to your internet bookmarks, or add it as a home page tab so you remember to vote early and vote often!
Food In The News: 8/14 – 8/20
Aug 20th
So, this may just be the answer to my less-than-frequent blog posts. I read an awful lot of articles about food, whether stumbling on them organically, or finding them via my friends on Facebook, Twitter, and the like. Every Friday, I’ll post the most interesting items I find for your approval, and maybe a book recommend if I’m in the middle of one. Read on!
Development Threatens One of World’s Oldest Fruit Seed Collections (Civil Eats)
228 Million Eggs Recalled Following Salmonella Outbreak (Associated Press, via Yahoo! News)
Why There’s More To Cookbooks Than Recipes (The Observer, guardian.co.uk)
Hunger and Obesity – Two Sides of the Same Broken Food System (Ecocentric)
Raw Milk: Northeast Organic Farming Association Fights Massachusetts Dept. of Agricultural Resources Herdshare Crackdown (The Complete Patient)
School Children Warned Against Energy Drink Boost (Eat, Drink, and Be)
Currently reading:
Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook
Anthony Bourdain
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Raw Almonds: FDA Passes The Buck To USDA
Mar 10th
OK, so here’s the story. Last month, I ranted blogged about the mandatory pasteurization of almonds, and actually sent the FDA a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request “looking to obtain any and all studies, information, public complaints or comments, illnesses reported, etc. that led up to the mandatory pasteurization of almonds.”
Well, the response is in –
Dear Mr. Clemens:
In response to your request of January 11, 2010 for information pertaining to mandatory pasteurization of almonds. [sic]
You may wish to contact the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agriculture Marketing Service (AMS) about this issue.
We have searched our files and found no responsive information.
Dear FDA: Stay Off My Nuts
Jan 15th
Raw Almonds
So, I’ve been trying to eat healthier over the past eight or nine months, and a lot of better choices have made their way into my regimen. No, not the usual low-fat/low-cal/low-carb crap that is pumped full of additives and promoted as a breakthrough panacea by health experts on Oprah before it is pulled from the market for causing death in lab rats. I’ve taken to eating much more nutritious, wholesome foods, and have tried to counteract my affinity for beer and cheese with regular servings of raw vegetables, leafy greens and the like.
Now, I’m certainly no Woody Harrelson all raw foodie or anything like that, but I definitely have placed more emphasis on eating minimally processed foods, which at the core of its definition would indicate a leaning towards raw ingredients. So, as I was scooping my raw organic almonds into a baggy from the Whole Foods bulk bins (prepared to pay a generous $15.99/lb for them too), I notice what I will from henceforth refer to as “the last straw.”
Just as I’m sealing up my expensive little bag, I see a sign alerting me that back in 2007 (where the hell have I been?), a ruling was made that required all almonds grown in the United States to undergo pasteurization, even those that are labeled as “raw.” WTF? Are they serious? And while “raw” organic almonds have to be steam pasteurized, conventionally grown almonds are often sterilized with propylene oxide, a compound that the FDA’s homies, the EPA, call a “mild [central nervous system] depressant” and a “probable human carcinogen.”
Oh yes, please, FDA, save us from the pure, nutritious, unadulterated bounty of earth by spraying it with a synthetic chemical wondergas that causes “moderate acute toxicity from inhalation, high acute toxicity from dermal exposure, and moderate to high acute toxicity from ingestion.” Phew, that was close! There could have been enzymes and beneficial bacteria on that nutrient dense almond. I feel much safer now — thank you! Read the rest of this entry »
