• View
• Edit
• Page History
• All Recent Changes
• Print

Darrens Blog

Food Blog Research

While I was searching for blog I came across this great portal if you will, for blogs pertaining to all aspects of the slow food movement in the U.S. It covers everything from cheese, wine, honey, mesquite, corn to people (big advocates of Slow Food) to the fairness of food workers. The latest blog was an update of the work of Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation and the work he is currently doing to have meat processors get what they deserve as human beings. He'll continue on to southern Florida to help out the tomato pickers who supply the nation's biggest fast food chains. He has been able to get his voice out there and is being heard. His cause is growing which will eventually be a great thing for everyone in our country. It can be seen here at http://www.slowfoodblog.org/.

Letter To The Editor

I found an article in SmartMoney Magazine and an online copy can be found here: http://www.smartmoney.com/mag/index.cfm?story=december2007-food
To the editor of SmartMoney Magazine,

I enjoyed reading the humorously written article entitled Spirited Giving: Wine by Raymond Sokolov published November 23, 2007 however I have a few thoughts to help improve this article and other food related stories. The aforementioned article explained how people can find good wines to give as gifts along with their associated prices and shipping regulations but it mentioned nothing about trying to locate and utilize more local and artesianally produced wines. They would be easier to procure and ship which would lead to less environmental pollution associated with conventional transportation and would help local economies. These and other factors are usually considered "hidden" and not looked at while consuming. I believe that it is imperative to get as much locally, clean (no poisons, GMOs, etc.) fairly (in terms of workers' rights) and sustainably (in terms of the environment) produced goods as possible to ensure a healthy and economical future for the entire world.

Sincerely, Darren Faulkner

Field Trip 12/12/07

On our action-packed field trip up to Kalona and Iowa City was a great learning experience. I had heard of Kalona Organics before but it was nice to actually see where it is and then visit it. They make great dairy products from local organic milk but I didn't know they do most of their processing in Wisconsin. Kind of local but not quite. It was still a nice visit and really interesting to see the milk bottling process. We then briefly visited an egg packaging facility that was run by Mennonites, also neat to see how they process farm products.

I've always enjoyed the New Pioneer Coop and now we got to see the inner workings of their bakery and get a better view of how they operate and all the great projects they have to promote local, organic sustainable food. Of course, the lunch was great and very reasonable. I don't mind having to pay more for that kind of food any way.

Wilson's Orchard was the last place we visited and it was very kind of the Wilsons to invite us into their home and tell us their story of producing apples and selling them to the general public. Although Mr. Wilson believes it isn't possible to grow organic apples in Iowa, we beg to differ. Still, they were very nice people and interesting to listen to.

Book Report

The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved: Inside America's Underground Food Movements by Sandor Ellix Katz

This book by culinary author and self-proclaimed fermentation fetishist Sandor Katz (who lives in an intentional community in TN) gives an overview and then details of all types of food movements in this country that are opposed to conventional global, soul-sucking agriculture and food production.

He covers: Local and seasonal food vs. consumerism, seed saving as a political act - saving your own seeds from year to year so you don't have to buy from evil large multinationals like Monsanto and send a clear message to not support them and their domination over all of the world's seeds, land and labor struggles, slow food, raw food, food and healing - he's HIV positive and gives his experience with trying to heal himself, plant prohibitions - how some plants are simply illegal to have and/or grow but mainly how you can't sell food unless it's been processed in a certain way, vegetarian ethics and humane meat, foraging, gleaning and dumpster diving, finally, water and its great importance to all of life.

In the beginning he speaks of a group of undisclosed people whom he knows somewhere on the west coast who gather every week to sell homemade goods to one another that are illegal according to the government, not because they contain illegal substances but are simply not produced in certified kitchens or use non-pasteurized milk and the like. He states that many people are doing this to silently revolt against the establishment and unfair paranoid rules.

His book is written with a very aggressive but personable style. Very sharp but full of good information and insights.

Attach:Microwavebook.doc - This is my attempt at scanning a few pages with an OCR. It didn't work out so well.