Crop Trust executive director (and former Memphian) Cary Fowler recently sent out an email updating people on his organization's accomplishments for 2008 and plans for 2009.
Among the accomplishments, the most publicized was perhaps the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which houses seeds from more than 24,000 crop species worldwide. The vault is the back-up for national genebanks and will ensure seed diversity for the future.
Over the next three years, the Trust will also be rescuing 100,000 distinct crop varieties that "otherwise would face extinction. Who knows what valuable traits for heat tolerance, disease and pest resistance and nutritional qualities will be saved as a result!" Fowler said.
He also noted that the new U.S. Farm Bill authorized a $60 million contribution to the Trust's endowment.
Going forward, the Trust is looking for a far-sighted donor to help completely endow a crop, such as wheat (it's kind of important to life as we know it), and is spearheading a strategy to collect and conserve wild botanical relatives of food crops.
Said Fowler: "We will work steadily to fashion these efforts into a global system capable of protecting the biological foundation of agriculture for at least as long as we'll need food and agriculture. That's a long, long time."
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Winter Wonderland
I think this is hilarious: A town in Iowa has been using garlic salt to de-ice its roads.
The salt, which is being used in a suburb of Des Moines, was donated by a local spice producer.
Also, totally unrelated, I went to the post office today and boy, howdy, was it crazy. Drivers were acting like it was demolition derby time in their attempts to get to the drop boxes, the line inside was out of control, and the lobby do-it-yourself stamp machine was being commandeered by a woman with several packages.
Which is, you know, part of what it's there for. But it's definitely Christmas crunch time, that magical time before the holiday when everyone goes insane.
The salt, which is being used in a suburb of Des Moines, was donated by a local spice producer.
Also, totally unrelated, I went to the post office today and boy, howdy, was it crazy. Drivers were acting like it was demolition derby time in their attempts to get to the drop boxes, the line inside was out of control, and the lobby do-it-yourself stamp machine was being commandeered by a woman with several packages.
Which is, you know, part of what it's there for. But it's definitely Christmas crunch time, that magical time before the holiday when everyone goes insane.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Urban Chicken
Last week, after eating at Caritas Village and looking at their community gardens, a friend of mine pointed out a house in VECA with what looked like a number of chicken coops in the backyard.
I know of someone in Uptown that raises chickens, and a few months ago, I posted evidence of free-range chicken in East Memphis, too.
But what about downtown?
The Winston-Salem Journal had a story last week about how, in the age of "eating locally," city officials in downtown Greensboro has loosened regulations on raising chickens.
From that story:
"Earlier this year, [Amy] Williams and her boyfriend, Brian Talbert, found themselves fighting for the right to keep chickens. They also found themselves in the midst of a growing trend across North Carolina -- city dwellers who are taking "eating locally" beyond their vegetable gardens and farmers' markets by building coops and enjoying eggs from their backyard flocks. ...
In August, Talbert and Williams' efforts persuaded Greensboro city officials to loosen the ordinance covering backyard chickens and bees. Property owners with as little as 7,000 square feet of land can have hens -- as long as the coops are 25 feet from the property line and 50 feet from a neighbor's house. Roosters are banned. But chickens will lay eggs without the help of their male counterparts; they just won't be fertilized."
It's really an interesting story, with a lot of arguments for and against home-grown chicks, and it's an issue that may become more common with the economic situation. Of course, I don't know exactly what the laws are here ... I'm assuming it's against code ... but if I find out, I'll let you know.
I know of someone in Uptown that raises chickens, and a few months ago, I posted evidence of free-range chicken in East Memphis, too.
But what about downtown?
The Winston-Salem Journal had a story last week about how, in the age of "eating locally," city officials in downtown Greensboro has loosened regulations on raising chickens.
From that story:
"Earlier this year, [Amy] Williams and her boyfriend, Brian Talbert, found themselves fighting for the right to keep chickens. They also found themselves in the midst of a growing trend across North Carolina -- city dwellers who are taking "eating locally" beyond their vegetable gardens and farmers' markets by building coops and enjoying eggs from their backyard flocks. ...
In August, Talbert and Williams' efforts persuaded Greensboro city officials to loosen the ordinance covering backyard chickens and bees. Property owners with as little as 7,000 square feet of land can have hens -- as long as the coops are 25 feet from the property line and 50 feet from a neighbor's house. Roosters are banned. But chickens will lay eggs without the help of their male counterparts; they just won't be fertilized."
It's really an interesting story, with a lot of arguments for and against home-grown chicks, and it's an issue that may become more common with the economic situation. Of course, I don't know exactly what the laws are here ... I'm assuming it's against code ... but if I find out, I'll let you know.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
CSA (more locavore)
I should have included this yesterday, but it wasn't until someone e-mailed me that I thought about it.
I know of two local CSAs (community support agriculture). Subscribers prepay for a share of a farm's harvest at the beginning of the season and then get a box of produce once a week.
I don't think right now is the right time for this — what with winter coming and all — but if you're interested in doing something like this in the future, here are the websites:
Whitton Flower & Produce
Downing Hollow Farm
I know of two local CSAs (community support agriculture). Subscribers prepay for a share of a farm's harvest at the beginning of the season and then get a box of produce once a week.
I don't think right now is the right time for this — what with winter coming and all — but if you're interested in doing something like this in the future, here are the websites:
Whitton Flower & Produce
Downing Hollow Farm
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Locavores and Grocery Stores
USAToday has a story in their Money section today on how "locally grown" food might mean two different things to retailers and consumers.
With "locally grown" foods becoming more of a draw for consumers (because it supports local farmers and helps the environment with shorter shipping distances), grocery stores are devoting more shelf space to it. But what is local?
From the story:
"Wal-Mart, the nation's biggest retailer, considers anything local if it's grown in the same state as it's sold, even if that's a state as big as Texas and the food comes from a farm half the size of Manhattan, as in the case of the 7,000-acre Ham Produce in North Carolina."
The article also mentioned the belief that local foods are more safe but said that wasn't necessarily the case:
"While consumers may think locally grown food is safer, food safety experts say that's not clear.
Most food-borne illnesses don't get noticed because not enough people get sick to alert officials that an outbreak is underway. Undetected outbreaks are more likely with 'local' products delivered in small quantities and sold in a small area, says Robert Brackett, senior vice president of the Grocery Manufacturers Association."
On the other hand, during the great tainted tomato scandal this summer, the CDC ruled out Tennessee tomatoes as the cause of the outbreak. It was good to be able to go to the grocery store and see the Ripley tomatoes and know they were okay to eat.
I also read something recently — maybe it was this open letter by Michael Pollan — about tainted food from China and how we have don't have much control over the safety of imported food.
And I guess I just think that buying or selling local food — even when using that term as loosely as the grocery stores — is a good start.
With "locally grown" foods becoming more of a draw for consumers (because it supports local farmers and helps the environment with shorter shipping distances), grocery stores are devoting more shelf space to it. But what is local?
From the story:
"Wal-Mart, the nation's biggest retailer, considers anything local if it's grown in the same state as it's sold, even if that's a state as big as Texas and the food comes from a farm half the size of Manhattan, as in the case of the 7,000-acre Ham Produce in North Carolina."
The article also mentioned the belief that local foods are more safe but said that wasn't necessarily the case:
"While consumers may think locally grown food is safer, food safety experts say that's not clear.
Most food-borne illnesses don't get noticed because not enough people get sick to alert officials that an outbreak is underway. Undetected outbreaks are more likely with 'local' products delivered in small quantities and sold in a small area, says Robert Brackett, senior vice president of the Grocery Manufacturers Association."
On the other hand, during the great tainted tomato scandal this summer, the CDC ruled out Tennessee tomatoes as the cause of the outbreak. It was good to be able to go to the grocery store and see the Ripley tomatoes and know they were okay to eat.
I also read something recently — maybe it was this open letter by Michael Pollan — about tainted food from China and how we have don't have much control over the safety of imported food.
And I guess I just think that buying or selling local food — even when using that term as loosely as the grocery stores — is a good start.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Feed Lot
The NYTimes Magazine was all about food this week, including the cover story: an open letter from Michael Pollan to the next president of the United States, telling him why it will be critical to make reform of the food system one of the new administration's highest priorities.
"Unless you do," Pollan writes, " you will not be able to make significant progress on the health care crisis, energy independence or climate change."
A little more on why he says that:
"After cars, the food system uses more fossil fuel than any other sector of the economy — 19 percent. And while the experts disagree about the exact amount, the way we feed ourselves contributes more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere than anything else we do — as much as 37 percent, according to one study. ... [A] system that in 1940 produced 2.3 calories of food energy for every calorie of fossil-fuel energy it used into one that now takes 10 calories of fossil-fuel energy to produce a single calorie of modern supermarket food."
Pollan is the author of The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals and more recently, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto.
His proposed solution for the next president is simple in theory: "We need to wean the American food system off its heavy 20th-century diet of fossil fuel and put it back on a diet of contemporary sunshine."
(Of course, he seems to favor simplicity. In his latest book — which I thought very good, by the way — his proposed solution was: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.")
Pollan argues commodity farmers ought to be encouraged to grow as many different types of crops as possible, the country must train a new generation of farmers and help put them on the land, and the country should regionalize the food system.
On a related note, this is making me very ready for lunch.
"Unless you do," Pollan writes, " you will not be able to make significant progress on the health care crisis, energy independence or climate change."
A little more on why he says that:
"After cars, the food system uses more fossil fuel than any other sector of the economy — 19 percent. And while the experts disagree about the exact amount, the way we feed ourselves contributes more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere than anything else we do — as much as 37 percent, according to one study. ... [A] system that in 1940 produced 2.3 calories of food energy for every calorie of fossil-fuel energy it used into one that now takes 10 calories of fossil-fuel energy to produce a single calorie of modern supermarket food."
Pollan is the author of The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals and more recently, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto.
His proposed solution for the next president is simple in theory: "We need to wean the American food system off its heavy 20th-century diet of fossil fuel and put it back on a diet of contemporary sunshine."
(Of course, he seems to favor simplicity. In his latest book — which I thought very good, by the way — his proposed solution was: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.")
Pollan argues commodity farmers ought to be encouraged to grow as many different types of crops as possible, the country must train a new generation of farmers and help put them on the land, and the country should regionalize the food system.
On a related note, this is making me very ready for lunch.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Grocery Shrink Ray
The Consumerist routinely reports on what it calls the "grocery shrink ray," a trend of manufacturers reducing the size of grocery products while charging the same price.
But now it looks like even the grocery stores themselves are being hit by the shrink ray.
After years of SuperTargets, MammothWal-Marts, HumongoKrogers, grocery stores are beginning to slim down. (Maybe with all those smaller products, they don't need as much room?)
From a NYT story:
"Here in the northern suburbs of Pittsburgh, the grocery chain Giant Eagle opened a Giant Eagle Express last year that is about one-sixth the size of its regular stores. It has gas pumps, wireless Internet and flat-screen televisions in a small cafe, a drive-through pharmacy and an expansive delicatessen that offers sushi, rotisserie chickens and ready-to-heat dinners.
'It’s perfect,' said Dusty McDonald, a 29-year-old bank teller who was buying breakfast sandwiches recently for her co-workers at the Giant Eagle Express. 'It’s on my way to work. It only takes me 10 minutes to get in and out.'
But now it looks like even the grocery stores themselves are being hit by the shrink ray.
After years of SuperTargets, MammothWal-Marts, HumongoKrogers, grocery stores are beginning to slim down. (Maybe with all those smaller products, they don't need as much room?)
From a NYT story:
"Here in the northern suburbs of Pittsburgh, the grocery chain Giant Eagle opened a Giant Eagle Express last year that is about one-sixth the size of its regular stores. It has gas pumps, wireless Internet and flat-screen televisions in a small cafe, a drive-through pharmacy and an expansive delicatessen that offers sushi, rotisserie chickens and ready-to-heat dinners.
'It’s perfect,' said Dusty McDonald, a 29-year-old bank teller who was buying breakfast sandwiches recently for her co-workers at the Giant Eagle Express. 'It’s on my way to work. It only takes me 10 minutes to get in and out.'
The opening of smaller stores upends a long-running trend in the grocery business: building ever-larger stores in the belief that consumers want choice above all. While the largest traditional grocery stores tend to be about 85,000 square feet, some cavernous warehouse-style stores and supercenters are two or three times that size."
In some respects, it seems boutique-y. In others, it just sounds like they're trying to compete with gas stations.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Let Them Eat Cake?
Calling for a food revolution, participants of the first-ever Slow Food Nation convention are convened in San Francisco this week.
The revolution centers on eating fresh, whole foods grown in a sustainable manner.
From a story in USAToday:
"People need to reprioritize food — much as they did in the 1940s before processed fast foods took over, says Slow Food Nation executive director Anya Fernald. 'This is an event to birth a more political food movement. We're operating in a context where it's become blatantly obvious that we're eating ourselves to death in America.'"
Some have criticized the group's platform as being elitist, but they argue that you can either pay more in upfront costs for healthier foods or you can pay more for later health care costs.
Michael Pollan's recent In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto shares a similar thesis. His three rules of eating boil down to: 1. Eat Food, 2. Not too much, 3. Mostly plants.
I read it about a month ago and I haven't stopped talking it up since. Pollan's simple argument against the Western Diet — and its related diseases — was too persuasive (of course, right now as I type this, it's not even lunchtime yet and I'm eating a box of cherryheads, so take that how you will.)
The slow food convention organizers hope that other cities will host similar events. In the meantime, organizers plan to post convention seminars and lectures to YouTube in coming weeks.
Brussels Sprouts. If anyone cares, I roast mine with olive oil and kosher salt. When I'm not eating candy for dinner, that is.
The revolution centers on eating fresh, whole foods grown in a sustainable manner.
From a story in USAToday:
"People need to reprioritize food — much as they did in the 1940s before processed fast foods took over, says Slow Food Nation executive director Anya Fernald. 'This is an event to birth a more political food movement. We're operating in a context where it's become blatantly obvious that we're eating ourselves to death in America.'"
Some have criticized the group's platform as being elitist, but they argue that you can either pay more in upfront costs for healthier foods or you can pay more for later health care costs.
Michael Pollan's recent In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto shares a similar thesis. His three rules of eating boil down to: 1. Eat Food, 2. Not too much, 3. Mostly plants.
I read it about a month ago and I haven't stopped talking it up since. Pollan's simple argument against the Western Diet — and its related diseases — was too persuasive (of course, right now as I type this, it's not even lunchtime yet and I'm eating a box of cherryheads, so take that how you will.)
The slow food convention organizers hope that other cities will host similar events. In the meantime, organizers plan to post convention seminars and lectures to YouTube in coming weeks.Brussels Sprouts. If anyone cares, I roast mine with olive oil and kosher salt. When I'm not eating candy for dinner, that is.
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