Why Most Food Could Never Be “Local”

Produce shop in Basel Switzerland

Eating “Local Food” is an appealing ideal in theory, but it runs into several “reality issues.”  As much as people might want locally produced food, there are practical issues of land availability, land costs, grower economics, water availability, and climate which sharply restrict the range of foods that could ever be practically grown as local [...]

Can Someone Explain “Organic Tobacco” to Me?

Is her cigarette Organic?

I was at a turf industry trade show yesterday talking to a salesperson from a company that markets Organic fertilizer to golf courses (they describe it as the “natural amino acids found in feather, blood, meat and fish meals”).  There are actually a lot of better, controlled-release nitrogen fertilizer options for turf, but I decided [...]

Eating Vegan: Where do You Get Your Protein?

beans are a great source of vegan protein

Second only to “I would die without cheese!”, folks ask all the time about where vegans get their protein. For someone accustomed to centering their dinner plate around a piece of animal protein, I can see how this might seem like a problem. You take that steak off of your plate, and you’re basically living [...]

Gluten-free Squash Pancakes

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I recently stumbled upon a great recipe for Spaghetti Squash Pancakes from Mollie Katzen‘s book, The Vegetable Dishes I Can’t Live Without. It’s a winner. Although the original recipe calls for spaghetti squash (quite delicious) and gives the option of using all-purpose flour or rice flour, the recipe can accommodate any kind of squash and [...]

“You Talk About ‘Industrial Farming’ Like It’s A Bad Thing!”

Farm Ownership Map (USDA Census of Ag 2007)

The phrase,”industrial farming” is something I see on lots of web posts and comment strings.  I’m guessing that this intentionally derisive terminology conjures up some pretty negative imagery for most people not directly involved with farming.  The use of this emotive term raises two questions for me: Is modern, “industrial” farming actually what people imagine it to be? [...]

Eating Vegan: Tasty Milk Alternatives

Cashew Milk. CC photo by Flickr user elanaspantry

Conventional dairy production is a lot different from the idyllic farms you see in those Happy Cow commercials on TV. Real dairy production forces cows to live in close quarters, involves nasty growth hormones, and is just a pretty cruel business overall. Milk’s quite easy to cut out of your diet, whether you’re using it [...]

Two Questions for Vegans

A honey bee, is it an OK part of crop production?

As I have been blogging on this site for a little while, I see some of the exchanges in the comment streams on other folk’s posts.  I was surprised to see that Vegans don’t use honey because it involves domsticated bees.  That has raised a few random questions for me.  (Full disclosure, I am a [...]