A Thinking Reed

"Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed" – Blaise Pascal

Food

  • Radiation, ammonia, chlorine…yum!

    The Chicago Tribune reports on the various–and very appetizing–ways meat is treated to make it safe. (Via.) Read more

  • Saturday morning Southern-style tofu fry-up

    I’m in the process of making this recipe for crispy tofu with bourbon BBQ sauce, and it promises to be delicious. I found a helpful tutorial on frying tofu here. And I’m using Bulleit Bourbon for the sauce, a spicy bourbon with a fairly high rye content. Yum! Read more

  • Sustainable food and the importance of class

    Interesting article from Tom Philpott at Grist on the connections between cheap food and cheap labor, and the need for the sustainable food movement to address issues of class. Key paragraph: In short, an economy hinged on cheap labor needs cheap food. And that’s the structural problem faced by Slow Food and other would-be reformers Read more

  • Intelligent dissent on the food movement

    I’m obviously sympathetic to a lot of the proposals of Michael Pollan, et al., but some of what passes for criticism of our system of food production can come across as simplistic, naive, or nostalgic. That’s why I was happy to discover the blog of historian and author Maureen Ogle who, among other things, subjects Read more

  • Factory farming power grab in Ohio?

    Ohioans will vote Tuesday on a measure to amend the state constitution and create a board of political appointees that will set standards for the treatment of farm animals. The problem, as this Mother Jones article spells out, is that any such board would be outside the normal rule-making process, immune from public comment, and Read more

  • The agri-empire strikes back

    California beef producer Harris Ranch Beef Co. put the screws to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo when they found out Michael Pollan was scheduled to speak there, with the company chairman essentially threatening to withhold financial support in a letter to the university’s president. The result? Instead of a speech by Pollan, the university put Read more

  • Farmers vs. “agri-intellectuals”

    A while back, the American–the magazine of the American Enterprise Institute–published an article by farmer Blake Hurst called “The Omnivore’s Delusion,” taking to task “agri-intellectuals” like Michael Pollan who have criticized industrial farming. Here Tom Philpott points out some of the holes and omissions in Hurst’s argument. Philpott acknowledges that the sustainable food movement hasn’t Read more

  • I’ve been boycotting Whole Foods for years

    But mostly because of the prices and intolerable smugness. Link via JL Wall at Upturned Earth. Read more

  • Links: food, animals, the environment, etc.

    This piece from the Boston Globe looks at the tensions between an increasing sense of idealism among zoo officials–they want to treat their animals better and raise awareness of wildlife conservation–and the undeniable need to entertain zoos’ human visitors. James McWilliams writes on the recent report out of the UK which found that organic foods Read more

  • A berry enjoyable morning

    It’s been uncharacteristically pleasant weather here for July. Today we drove to Homestead Farm in Maryland for some pick-your-own produce (blackberries and some peaches). I commented on Facebook on the irony of doing something for leisure that others do as backbreaking labor. Seems a bit decadent. On the other hand, blackberries are actually pretty easy Read more