Eat. Drink. Better.

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In keeping with Honey Week here at Eat.Drink.Better, I started looking at the various ways individuals can help combat Colony Collapse Syndrome. One major impediment to the endeavor is that scientists aren’t really sure what’s causing the disappearance of honeybees. Theories range from viruses to environmental and agricultural causes. What we do know is that bees are disappearing at an alarming rate and that this will affect us in profound and irrevocable ways. One-third of the food we consume comes from pollinators. Bees are responsible for pollinating almonds, apples, soft fruit, and berries among other crops. Without them, we will lose more than honey (a tragedy in its own right!), we will lose a large portion of the biodiversity we now enjoy on our plates.

However, there are things we can do at home to help promote honeybees and their way of life. Read the rest of this entry »

Landi Simone the ‘Bee Lady’ of Gooserock Farm in Montville, New Jersey goes all out every year to help raise awareness about honey bees and their importance to our agriculture and eco-systems.

Landi, pictured here in her ‘bee bikini’, got together with fellow, bee buddy, Joe Treimel to show off their live bee apparel and accessories. Joe sported a bee beard. This all took place last weekend at the Essex County Environmental Center.

Read more about Landi and what is happening to honey bees in one of my earlier posts. Here’s a crazy story I saw yesterday morning on CNN.com about 12 MILLION honey bees that swarmed a Canadian highway after a truck carrying them flipped over!

My favorite honey & herb sauce . . . Read the rest of this entry »

The European Union has traditionally been more cautious of genetically-modified (GM) foods than the rest of us. They require more scientific study than other food safety organizations before approving individual seeds and ban a significant number of GM seeds as well. This stands in stark contrast to U.S. policies that encourage GM crop growing through subsidies. According to an article in the Christian Science Monitor, 92% of Minnesota’s 2007 soybean crop and 86% of its corn crop came from GM seeds.

Now, mounting pressure from both Europe’s farmers and global food aid organizations have caused the high courts of various EU countries to reconsider. Read the rest of this entry »

Michael Pollan, author of Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food, discusses biofuels, the food crisis and the future of sustainability in this interview with Yale Environment 360.

The new online green magazine is published through Yale University, and edited by Roger Cohn, the former editor of Mother Jones and Audubon.

Text of the conversation and an audio file are both available.

Needless to say, I was excited to see a message in my inbox from Willie Nelson!  Having met him and interviewed he and his wife last year (briefly), I was sure he was writing to tell me how great I am . . . but, while personally a little disappointing, I was glad to see that he was writing on behalf of Farm Aid Disaster Fund which is kicking into gear to help family farmers in the Midwest that have been by the disastrous floods.

I became involved in Farm Aid last year because I feel very strongly about the need to support family farms. I think regionally and responsibly produced food is perhaps the cornerstone of creating a healthier more sustainable existence. Farm Aid is doing some great work not only to help raise awareness about these issues, but in raising money to directly assist farmers as they grow and work to change the big agricultural system that is so dominant.

Read the rest of this entry »

Most mainstream business reporting on the agricultural sector has recently focused on the socio-economic impact of rice shortages in southeast Asia or the global price spikes throughout the food chain. But despite the misfortune wrought by desertification, drastic weather changes and other contributing factors, those who trade on the commodities market have seen food shortages as a boon.

Companies that have already benefited from buying up wheat, corn or soy futures are beginning to invest in farm land (from the corn fields of Indiana to cattle ranches in Argentina), storage facilities (such as grain elevators) and fertilizer companies. An article in the New York Times proposes that this financial interest will stimulate food production, thus stabilizing the supply.

But what does it mean for the future of food, beyond the immediate crisis? According to a financial adviser Read the rest of this entry »

Urban Agriculturalist is a series on the ways city and suburb dwellers use their land as a food resource.

With an ever shrinking topographical footprint and a population in perpetual flux, the modern city has some feeding issues. A recent article in The Globe and Mail described the frustration of farmer’s market organizers over the shortage of independent farmers who are able to open stalls. The demand, it seems, is far outpacing the supply on a small scale, but also on a large one: the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that 80% of the earth’s agriculturally-viable land is already farmed, but the earth’s population is expected to grow by 3 billion by 2050 (NASA via verticalfarm.com). With the impending expansion of an already existent disparity, what can we do to feed all people? Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a look at a few interesting headlines as the world deals with the food crisis and debates on food technology.

Food Aid Also Gives a Helping Hand to GMO Agribusiness
As countries around the world try to grapple with the food crisis, the Bush Administration’s The $770 million aid package causes a bit of a controversy by including language that would promote the use of genetically modified crops in food-deprived countries. (Chicago Tribune).

Agribusiness Profits Rise Dramatically Alongside Food Prices
An article in The Independent discusses how major players in the agriculture industry are enjoying record increases in profits, doubling in a three month period in some cases, from both the demand for food and biofuel. Investor speculation plays a significant part in the profits, as well as in driving up food prices. (The Independent).

More issues and updates. Read the rest of this entry »

I talked last week about how something that I struggle with as the cook/kitchen manager/stocker of our household is food waste–buying things with the good intentions of using them, only to find them two weeks later covered in mold or past the expiration date: food waste.  Interestingly enough, the New York Times ran an article this weekend on the excessive food waste that happens in American households.  With the cost of food skyrocketing, they’re not the only ones.

To be honest, the idea that we as a nation waste more food than some countries consume in a year is nothing new.  Freegans have made a point of living off others’ perfectly-good “waste” for quite some time now.

Read the rest of this entry »

A good friend sent me Daniel Gross’ post on Slate.com, “The Agony of the Food Snob.” The article is a bit self-deprecating, a bit of humor, and a bit of a poke to food snobs’ plight as food prices rise for all of us. At times the article points out the more stupid purchases that defy reason, and at others, it shows that none of us — save the very wealthy — is immune to the price increase.

The last line of the piece is truly a challenge to all food snobs, “We’re spending obscene amounts on food we don’t need at a time when so many others are genuinely struggling to pay for enough basic sustenance to get them through the day.”

I am not a food snob. I am also on a budget these days. Even so, I certainly enjoy the best foods of every season, and the relative abundance and the fact that I can afford to eat when so many can’t has been weighing on me. I needed to do something to help.
So, here’s how I answered the challenge. Read the rest of this entry »