Food

My wife and I joined the Park Slope Food Co-op, the largest food co-op in the nation, about a year ago. Recently I came across an interesting graphic in their July 3rd newsletter on the Organic Industry Structure, a complex web of corporate ownership of organics companies, many of which started as independent. I tracked the graphic back to its source with Dr. Phil Howard, Assistant Professor
Community, Agriculture, Recreation and Resource Studies (CARRS), at Michigan State University. At his site I found even more fascinating graphics that are worth sharing (with his permission) for those interested in organic food and corporate America.

First off, let me start with a digression into "why organic?" I was a latecomer to the organics movement because in the beginning many claims made about organics were dubious. But, as the industry developed and my knowledge of it grew, I began to realize the worth of organic food. My first decision to lean towards buying organic was with meat for one simple reason. Most non-organic meat producers at the time used massive amounts of antibiotics in animal feed, a gross misuse of antibiotics that has contributed to the rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria, a serious health hazard. Organic meat USUALLY is raised without antibiotics, and by now some non-organic meats are raised without antibiotics, so really you have to look to see if your meat is specifically labeled "raised without antibiotics" to be sure. But we found organic meat more reliably raised without antibiotics and actually to be of much higher quality than the average store bought meat. The only kind of meat that is generally of better quality is kosher meat, which is of high quality, but I checked, and antibiotic use is not specifically forbidden in kosher meat.

From organic meat we noticed organic produce is often higher quality than non-organic. Or, more to the point, non-organic produce in NYC is generally horrible, while organic produce varies from horrible to great.

But the truth is there are other environmental and health benefits to organics. Not ALL such benefits claimed by the organics industry are real, but many are. The Union of Concerned Scientists recently printed an article on this that I refer readers to for details. Here I quote only the intro paragraphs, but the article goes into some detail:

Amid recent food safety scares and a growing interest in healthy living, increasing numbers of consumers are opting for organic foods. While there is no doubt that organic produce is better for the environment because it is grown without synthetic fertilizers and pesticides (which can deplete the soil and pollute both our air and water), the science has not been clear on whether organic foods are more nutritious than their conventional counterparts—until now.

This spring, The Organic Center (a nonprofit that promotes organic farming) released the most comprehensive comparison to date of the nutritional quality of organic and conventionally grown produce. The authors reviewed the findings of nearly 100 published studies on this topic and carefully matched 236 pairs of measurements for 11 specific nutrients in both organic and conventional fruits and vegetables. The organic produce was nutritionally superior in 61 percent of the cases.

You can learn more about the benefits and basics of organics elsewhere on the Union of Concerned Scientists website.

According to the Union of Concerned Scientists recent newsletter, the antibiotic resistant strain of Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) that has been an increasing problem in hospitals around the world is now infecting apparently healthy schoolkids outside of hospitals. This is a major development. Up until now anti-biotic resistance was only occasionally a problem outside of hospitals (so-called community-acquired" cases). This may be changing. According to the Centers for Disease Control, MRSA was responsible for almost 19,000 US deaths in 2005.

Another part of this development is also important. Evidence from Europe indicate that the community-acquired cases of MRSA are often associated with livestock operations. This is yet further evidence that the idiotic practice of pouring massive amounts of antibiotics into the feed of healthy animals is contributing to the public health risk of antibiotic resistant bacteria that treatens our children and people with a compromised immune system.

Global warming is hitting us already. It is no coincidence that some of the biggest storms and an unexpected number of storms are hitting us now. Nor are food shortages coincidence...nor are they caused primarily by biofuels. Extreme weather, an expected part of global warming, is hitting us hard, damaging crops around the world. Crops are established based on a particular climate. That climate has changed and it will take time for agriculture to adapt and infrastructure to be put into place. Time and money.

Global warming isn't our future. It is our now.

I have covered how the more optimistic scientists think we have 10 years (now more like 8) to deal with global warming before we are hit with the full brunt of it. Essentially that means we have that period to mitigate the eventual effects. Keep in mind that there will be some delay before the worst happens. That relative optimism is fading. Now even some of the most optimistic scietists are realizing that the models were wrong. Global warming is hitting harder and faster than predicted. Things are WORSE than the models predicted. Jim Hansen, possibly the top global warming scientist and the head of NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Sciences (where my wife works), has revised the estimate of how long we have to act to mitigate global warming down to one year. This is our last chance right now. Time has run out to act.

Lowndes County Democratic Party Annual BBQ
Start Time:
Jul 7 2008 - 6:00pm

Knights of Columbus Hall
306 N. St. Augustine Road
Valdosta, GA, 31601
United States

Lowndes County Democratic Party Annual Barbecue draws hundreds of Democratic activists from across south Georgia. Lowndes County Democratic Party headquarters is located at 1008 Slater Street, Valdosta, GA 31601. For more information, call LCDP HQ at 229-241-1694 or email lowndesdems_at_bellsouth.net or visit our website at http://campaignwindow.com/lowndescountydemocraticcommittee

Mayor Tom Barrett's Restaurant Roundtable
5/8/2008 at 5:00 PM

Milwaukee Youth Arts Center
325 W Walnut Milwaukee, WI 53212

Featuring more than 20 restaurants

Tickets will be sold at the door. You can RSVP here.

Made a discovery tonight, and it gets the approval of my 13 year old step-daughter: kim chi on a hot dog.

I am not a big hot dog fan, though every now and then they're okay. And my step-daughter and my 3 year old son like them, so every now and then we have chicken or turkey hot dogs. Hell, they're easy and the kids love them.

So I am always trying to find stuff to put on them to make them better, and of course that's half the fun of hot dogs. Good mustard of different kinds. Sauerkraut. Relish made from good sour pickles. Cheese (for real hard arteries). Onion. Etc. It's all good, though under it all it is still a hot dog.

This week I got some kim chi. I like kim chi, the hotter the better. You can't go wrong with pickled vegetables made red with hot chilies. But he kind I got was a milder version. Doesn't have as much kick, but you can better taste the vegetables. My intention was (and is) to make an Asian noodle dish with kim chi and udon. We'll see how that works. My step-daughter is enamoured with all things Japan, so it appeals to her and is an interesting experiment from my point of view.

Well, as I was making my hot dogs, and getting out the usual paraphernalia (mustard, sour relish, saeurkraut...) it dawned on me that the kim chi would be perfect. Never come across the idea before, but man it worked. Might not be as good if it was the real spicy Korean kind, but the slighly spicy, slightly sour combination worked perfectly with the quasimeat that is a hot dog.

I sense there is much campaign journalist fatigue and boredom. First we had Howard Kurtz bemoaning the fact Obama hasn't shown him much love.

Now we have CNN's Peter Hamby writing about Huckabee's trash talking Romney over friend chicken. Not policy, but FRIED CHICKEN.

"I can tell you this," he said, "any Southerner knows if you don’t eat the skin don’t bother calling it fried chicken."

"So that's good. I'm glad that he did that, because that means I'm going to win Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma … all these great Southern states that understand the best part of fried chicken is the skin, if you're going to eat it that way."

This from a guy that supposedly has his stomach stapled due to his past obesity?

Dude.

This is a recipe I have had for more than a decade, though only made it twice...and most recently with considerable modification. It is supposed to be similar to an ancient Roman ham recipe. When I cooked this recently for my department's happy hour (accompanied by egg nog) people loved it. Two people grabbed the remains and divided it up to take it home...and a third person just missed claiming it. The flavor mix of brown sugar, brandy and port in my modified version went perfectly with the ham.

Ingredients:

Precooked ham (I got a spiral cut ham for convenience and for better penetration of the flavors)

1/4 cup (approx) brown sugar

ground cloves

dried figs (or canned figs)

1/4 C. or more of fig juice (I used a combination of pomegranite juice, brandy and port)

Instructions:

1. since I am a big fan of marinating, I soaked the spiral cut ham in whatever liquid I use for cooking. Fig juice is used in the original. I decided to use pomegranite juice...then decided since I had some booze left over from an eggnog recipe, I added brandy and port to the mix. This combination was EXCELLENT with the ham. I soaked the ham for a few hours, but would prefer to do so overnight, turning the ham from time to time.

This eggnog recipe is supposedly from George Washington's day according to many websites (e.g. here). I include some modifications. This was a big hit at my department's recent happy hour even though we weren't able to age it more than 3 days.

Ingredients:

* 1 cup brandy (I used somewhat more)
* 1/2 cup sherry (I used port instead and might try madeira if I tried it again)
* 1/2 cup dark rum
* 1/2 cup whiskey (I used bourbon)
* 12 eggs, separated
* 3/4 cup white sugar
* 1 quart whole milk
* 1 quart heavy cream
* 1 quart vanilla bean ice cream
* 1 tablespoon freshly grated ground nutmeg

Instructions:

1. Mix the brandy, sherry, rum, and whiskey into a bowl. (I used port instead of sherry and I added a extra brandy...Madiera is something else I might try instead of sherry)

2. Separate egg yolks and whites into separate mixing bowls.

3. Beat egg yolks until light and frothy. Gradually beat in the sugar then the booze mixture. Next beat in the milk and heavy cream until thoroughly blended.

4. Using a clean beater, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Gently fold the egg whites into the yoly/sugar/booze/milk mixture.

5. Ideally you should age in the Refrigerater for 5 to 10 days. When I made it we only had 3 days to age it. Shake the container occasionally to keep the alcohol from separating.

Joy and I are taking a surprise trip to California to visit my family. My mother is getting on in years and has been ailing a bit. She's recovering, but I figure I should make sure she and my son have plenty of chances to interact. My son already has a special place for "Grandma" and I want to encourage that. Hopefully they have years to establish a bond, but they won't if we don't visit when we have the chance.

So, California is on my mind and, inevitably with me, where we plan on eating is on my mind. Which may lead to a few restaurant reviews...

Tito's Tacos
11222 Washington Pl
Culver City, CA 90230
(cross st. Sepulveda)

Cheap, delicious Mexican fast food.

When I first took my wife to meet my family in Los Angeles (her first time in California ever...for the record, everyone I have shown around Los Angeles likes it...) I explained there were certain things I just HAD to do, certain places I HAD to eat. Among them was an early trip to Tito's Tacos. This is a place that is on the way from the airport if you are heading into the bulk of the city, so it was high the list for first stop off the plane. She seemed a bit unclear why a stop at a random taco stand was a MUST for visting Los Angeles, but she took my word for it.

The second time she visited Los Angeles, I hadn't even mentioned what we should or shouldn't do. Our goal was organizing our wedding and all other considerations were pushed aside in my mind. As we got to our rental car and started the engines, Joy turned to me and said, "Tito's Tacos, right?" It had become HER first MUST do in Los Angeles. All it had taken was that first introduction and she was as hooked as I had been from years of addiction.