April 2012
2 posts
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Nokia Bonds Are Junk
Nokia’s declining fortunes lead to it’s bonds being rated as junk, after falling to No 2 mobile phone maker, behind Samsung:
S.&P. Downgrades Nokia’s Bonds to Junk - Brian X Chen via NYTimes.com
S.& P.’s announcement came as Samsung dethroned Nokia as the world’s No. 1 maker of mobile phones, which includes traditional cellphones and smartphones. Samsung sold 92 million phones over the...
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Effects of Climate Change Seen for Corn Prices -... →
stoweboyd:
Stephanie Strom via NYTimes.com
Researchers have found that climate change is likely to have far greater influence on the volatility of corn prices over the next three decades than factors that recently have been blamed for price swings — like oil prices, trade policies and government biofuel mandates.
The new study, published on Sunday in the journal Nature Climate Change,...
September 2011
2 posts
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How Can Paiche Be 'New' And 'Prehistoric' At The...
A ‘new’ freshwater fish is getting a buzz in South Florida, the Paiche, or arapaima, is popping up in hip restaurants and being toured as a sustainable alternative to sea bass and other fish.
Paiche is an air breathing fish, which makes it susceptible to harpooning, because they tend to remain near the water’s surface, where they hunt and emerge often to breathe with a ...
de Guia: Should Every Restaurant Have A Farm? No.... →
A sensible trend: farm-to-restaurant-table, where the farm is owned by the restaurant:
Liza de Guia via HuffPo
At Egg, the word “comfort” isn’t taken lightly, and diners who want a taste of the South done authentically and simply know to come, and keep coming back here. They’ve got homemade buttermilk biscuits & gravy, heaping servings of the tastiest grits, juicy fried chicken,...
August 2011
34 posts
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More Fallout From Irene
via Facebook
No CSA distribution this Wednesday - Hurricane destroys New Paltz area farms by Bed-Stuy Farm Share on Tuesday, August 30, 2011 at 6:41pm
I am writing with some very unfortunate news from Hector Tejada, the farmer at Conuco Farm. While Hurricane Irene made its pass through NYC with little harm, it has and continues to wreak havok on the Hudson Valley. Conuco Farm, your ...
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After Irene, Upstate New York Farmers Suffer in... →
The Hudson River valley’s farmers have been hard hit by hurricane Irene, and while the level of damage is not yet fully known the impacts are going to be long-term:
Lisa Foderaro via NY Times
From the Hudson Valley to areas farther north, along the Mohawk River and Schoharie Creek, New York growers, many of whose farms have been in the family for generations, were dealt a devastating...
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“Dozens of United States diplomatic cables released in the latest WikiLeaks dump...”
– - Mike Ludwig, New WikiLeaks Cables Show US Diplomats Promote Genetically Engineered Crops Worldwide
The policies of the US government is one of the many reasons that changing the food system is incredibly hard. Here, newly leaked cables show that US officials have been working on behalf of...
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An Open Letter To Ken Kleinpeter, Mid-Hudson...
I received an email from Judith LaBelle, president of Glynwood Farms:
Dear Stowe, HOW COULD NEW YORK STATE SUPPORT THE AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY OF THE MID-HUDSON REGION? If you have specific suggestions or recommendations, now is the time to put them forward! Governor Cuomo recently created ten Regional Economic Development Councils to develop plans for the use of nearly $1 billion in state...
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How They Got There: A Q&A With Rooftop Farmer... →
Q: Are you starting a revolution? Will I look out in ten years over Greenpoint and see rooftop gardens there and there and there?
A: I think what we are hoping to inspire is just the spread of green roofs in general. Whether or not the green roofs produce food is something that is individual to the building owner and the people involved. Certainly, this is a city that needs more green roofs....
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A Glut Of Farmer's Markets?
The rise of farmer’s markets seems to leading to contradictory economics. Some farmers says that the increased number of markets forces them to spread out over more markets to get the same sales as before, while new farmers feel forced into creating new markets because they are blocked from existing ones.
Katie Zezima, As Farmers’ Markets Boom, Some See a Glut in the Making
Farmers in...
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School Districts Rediscover Value of From-Scratch... →
Kirk Johnson via NY Times
Colorado, which has been the least obese state in the nation since federal health measurements of American girth began, is a leader in the back-to-scratch [cooking for schools] movement. Of the 100 or so districts nationally that have worked with Cook for America, a group that trains school cooks in healthier lunch-ways and ran Greeley’s boot camp, more than half...
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Seafood Watch vs. Yelp: Future of Social Food
Our panel proposal for SxSWi.
Event Interactive 2012
Format Dual
Organizer Rachel Weidinger – TechSoup Global
Speakers - Stowe Boyd ‐ Stowe Boyd & The Messengers
Description
The world’s food is hanging in the balance—the latest food tech only hints at what’s coming. This duo will explore the...
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Slow Food Almanac
via email
Dear friend, I’m happy to announce that the Slow Food Almanac is back. A recent addition to our movement’s publications, edition by edition it paints an increasingly effective picture of what we are doing in the world. Never before has the Almanac been so rich in stories that describe who we are and what we do—arguably better than lots of theory. “Slow Food and Terra Madre are our...
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Farmers Markets by the Numbers
Gretchen Hoffman, Farmers Markets by the Numbers
At farmers markets across the country, Americans are in search of fresh, healthy food. What they also find is an opportunity to connect with farmers and ranchers and strengthen the local economy. More and more, farmers markets are helping to make healthy food available to more people.
A look at the numbers help to paint the picture of the...
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stoweboyd if you eat broccoli while you’re pregnant, there’s a much better chance your baby will like broccoli http://t.co/JFcJ2JX 8/12/11 1:30 PM
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Putting Farmers First →
National Farmer’s Market Week is coming Aug 7, and things are booming at farmer’s markets:
Stacy Miller
According to the United States Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service, farmers receive only 15.8 cents of the average dollar consumers spend on food. Farmers markets are one place where farmers can retain a higher proportion of the food dollar, and earn a fair...
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“The last thing McDonald’s or any like corporation wants to see is a strong,...”
– - Mark Bittman, Can Big Food Regulate Itself? Fat Chance
Especially good that Bittman calls Michelle Obama the ‘self-appointed nutrition expert’ who is overjoyed at MacDonald’s grandstanding.
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Inflation In China As A Boost For Local Food...
The international connections of the world’s financial and food systems contributes to food insecurity in the US. A rise in food prices in China will have dramatic impacts:
Keith Bradsher, Inflation Climbs in China on Higher Food Prices
Inflation in China accelerated last month to its fastest pace in three years, with consumer prices up 6.5 percent from a year earlier mainly as a...
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The Price Of Good Food: Too High?
Jane Black recently was asked to pay $8 for a dozen organic eggs at a farmers’ market in Brooklyn:
Jane Black, How $8-a-Dozen Eggs Threaten Real Food Reforms
I agree with the message trumpeted by food-reform advocates that good food does and should cost more. But eight dollars is more than five times the price of a dozen conventional eggs and more than double that of organic eggs at the...
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Salmonella-Tainted Turkey Sickens Dozens As GOP... →
More rumblings following the gigantic recall of 36 million pounds of tainted turkey by Cargill:
Pat Garofalo via ThinkProgress
According to the Hill, “although the first illnesses [related to the current outbreak] were reported in March, it required months for federal regulators to trace the cause back to Cargill’s turkey.” And things are not likely to get better going forward, as House...
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Milwaukee: An Emerging Model for Smart Water and... →
Short introduction to the activities going on in Milwaukee as a pioneer in local good production, and the use of Lake Michigan’s water to make that work:
Steve Hamm via Building A Smarter Planet
Milwaukee is concerned about water because its traditional industries, including meatpacking, tanning, shoe making, beer brewing and heavy manufacturing, are all major water users. In addition, the city...
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Sewing, in Brooklyn, as a Way of Life - Liz... →
Story about Sarah Kate Beaumont’s efforts to make all her own clothes (more or less), as her interpretation of ‘slow clothes’.
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Cargill to Recall 35,709,675 Pounds of Fresh... →
Bill Maher
This just in - Cargill Value Added Meats – Retail (also referred to as CVAM-Retail) will announce a Class I Voluntary Fresh Ground Turkey Recall of approximately 35,709,675 pounds of ground turkey products August 3, 2011. The product may be linked to an outbreak of Salmonella Heidelberg. All recalled products were produced at the Springdale, AR plant: USDA Establishment Number...
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That truck driver you flipped off? Let me tell you... →
Dan Hansen
Let me tell you a little about the truck driver you just flipped off because he was passing another truck, and you had to cancel the cruise control and slow down until he completed the pass and moved back over.
His truck is governed to 68 miles an hour, because the company he leases it from believes it keeps him and the public and the equipment safer.
The truck he passed was...
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“One abandoned yard is a mess; 20,000 abandoned yards is an ecosystem.”
– - Michael Tortorello, Finding the Potential in Vacant Lots
A deep and wide exposition on the vacant lots of Cleveland Ohio and other cities, what municipalities are doing with their growing ‘land banks’, and the activities of various groups investigating and using lots in urban farming....
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Phosphate: A Critical Resource Misused and Now... →
The world’s food supplies are alarmingly dependent on the phosphate fertilizer that is hewn from the desert of the Western Sahara. The vast open-cast mine at Bou Craa delivers several million tons of phosphate rock every year down a 150-kilometer-long conveyor belt, the world’s longest, to the Atlantic port of El Ayoun. From there, it is distributed around the world and made into fertilizer. ...
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A Revolutionary Idea About Cattle Ranching -... →
Sensibly grazing cattle — moving them before they harm the land by eating down to the roots of plants — can restore grasslands, and provide protein based on little more than sun and water.
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Tainted Water Well Challenges Claim of Fracking’s... →
The reality is that fracking is inherently dangerous, and despite all the eager beaver oil and energy sector types that want to drill, baby, drill, there is no possible way if can be safe.
Ian Urbina, One Tainted Water Well, and Concern There May Be More
Instances of gas bubbling from fracked sites into nearby water wells have been extensively documented. The industry has also acknowledged that...
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"Locavesting": Investing In Main Street Instead Of... →
Great stories about how regional food producers created their own economic institutions to weather cash flow problems and investment needs.
Dannielle Sacks interviewing Amy Cortese, author of Locavesting
In your reporting, did you find evidence that communities that invested locally were more resilient during the recession?
Yes, absolutely. One of the best examples is Hardwick, Vermont,...
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Is Water A Public Good, Or Private Property?
Robert Lenzner, The Demand For Water Will Increase Five Times By 2050
As 70% of the globe’s population will live in urban areas by 2050 the demand for water will skyrocket some 5 times according to a must-read 37 page study on water(the new oil) just published by Citigroup. Think about it; water for flushing billions more toilets, watering flower beds everywhere and washing tens of...
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Giant grain firm buys up all British wheat in... →
Britain’s most powerful grain company jointly owned by Cargill and Associated British Foods bought and took delivery of all the available UK feed wheat last month.
The series of purchases by Frontier Agriculture, described by a number of traders as ‘unprecedented’, will reignite growing concerns among food manufacturers and campaign groups over the potential for giant trading companies and...
July 2011
30 posts
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New York Moves to Stop Foraging in City’s Parks -... →
If the urban foragers of New York want to find and eat foraged veggies, berries, and mushrooms, it will have to be outside of public land. No more Central Park Salad:
Lisa Foderaro via NY Times
New York’s public lands are not a communal pantry, they [New York parks officials] say. In recent months, the city has stepped up training of park rangers and enforcement-patrol officers, directing them...
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WatchMarcin Jakubowski, TED 2011 Fellow, talks about the Global Village Construction Set, which is being developed at the Factor e Farm, as an initiative in ‘open source ecology’. These are ‘the 50 different industrial machines that it takes to build a small civilization with modern comforts’. The project is open sourcing everything.
Obviously, this is a pillar of foodte.ch.
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Fast Food Makes People Fat
A new study shows pretty conclusively that fast food is a major and growing source of calories:
Meredith Melnick, Is Commercially-Prepared Food Responsible for Childhood Weight Gain?
In the study released today in the August issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, scientists looked at the eating habits of 29, 217 children aged 2 to 18 between 1977 and 2006. They recorded...
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Healthy Food Financing Initiative Moving Forward
The Health Food Financing Initiative — an outgrowth of the administration’s efforts to ensure childhood nutrition — is moving forward.
Angela Glover Blackwell and Peter Larkin, Growing American Jobs While Slimming Down Obesity
The federal Healthy Food Financing Initiative — for which the departments of Agriculture, Health and Human Services, and the Treasury have announced...
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How to get your city to allow backyard chickens |... →
Great backgrounder by Jill Richardson, laying out a step-by-step approach to getting your city to ‘not fear the cheeper’ (it’s here fault).
I like her advice about civil disobediance:
Civil disobedience might be the right way to move the issue forward in your city, as legalizing backyard chickens becomes much more pressing a question once several families have backyard flocks...
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Mark Bittman's Challenge: Tax Bad Food
Mark Bittman suggests a course of action that has some real promise. The way to counter the bad food epidemic in the US, he argues, is to tax egregiously bad food and subsidize good food:
Mark Bittman, Bad Food? Tax It, and Subsidize Vegetables
[…] the food industry appears incapable of marketing healthier foods. And whether its leaders are confused or just stalling doesn’t matter, ...
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Pine Trough Branch Farm — Reidsville, NC - Worth... →
Worth Kimmel writes about his efforts to reclaim former tobacco land and turn it to productive cattle grazing, using Holistic High Density Planned Grazing (HDG):
Shortly after the deliberation on soil fertility, and the first season of MIG, I attended the annual meeting of the American Devon Association. Greg Judy spoke about his results with mob grazing or what he formally called Holistic High...
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New Meaning Of Food Tech: Surveillance On The...
California — like many states — have cut back drastically on agricultural programs, including crime prevention, and hard times and expensive food lead to farm crime. In the absence of feet on the street, many are turning to low-cost surveillance equipment:
Jesse McKinley, Farm Felons Pick Off California Crops
Chris Wadkins, the president of the California Rural Crime Prevention Task...
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A Tale Of Two World Views
The juxtaposition of two different stories dealing with America’s poor food choices reads like two different world views in collision.
David Sirota fumes after Gallup announced Americans are eating fewer veggies:
David Sirota, Why Americans can’t afford to eat healthy
[…] healthy food could easily be more affordable for everyone right now, if not for those ultimate elitists:...
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Shashe Declaration: 1st encounter of agroecology... →
A group from 22 organizations based in 18 countries wrote the ‘Shashe Declaration’, challenging the world’s governments to push back on global agribusiness, and to work to promote small holder agriculture:
Agroecological farming as practiced by small holder farmers, and Food Sovereignty policies, offer the only reasonable and feasible solutions to these multiple challenges...