Good Stuff, peppers /2008/06/11/
Good Stuff, peppers | starbulletin.com | Features | /2008/06/11/
Good Stuff
Tired old stuffed peppers are worth a modern makeover as a way to bring a bright, vibrant vegetable to the table
Global Food Disparity: A Photo Diary
Cool pictures of families from around the globe.
Daily Kos: Global Food Disparity: A Photo Diary
Global Food Disparity: A Photo Diary
Why Bananas Are a Parable for Our Times
Why Bananas Are a Parable for Our Times - CommonDreams.org
Why Bananas Are a Parable for Our Times
by Johann Hari
Below the headlines about rocketing food prices and rocking governments, there lays a largely unnoticed fact: bananas are dying. The foodstuff, more heavily consumed even than rice or potatoes, has its own form of cancer. It is a fungus called Panama Disease, and it turns bananas brick-red and inedible.
There is no cure. They all die as it spreads, and it spreads quickly. Soon — in five, 10 or 30 years — the yellow creamy fruit as we know it will not exist. The story of how the banana rose and fell can be seen a strange parable about the corporations that increasingly dominate the world - and where they are leading us.
Bananas seem at first like a lush product of nature, but this is a sweet illusion. In their current form, bananas were quite consciously created. Until 150 ago, a vast array of bananas grew in the world’s jungles and they were invariably consumed nearby. Some were sweet; some were sour. They were green or purple or yellow.
A corporation called United Fruit took one particular type — the Gros Michael — out of the jungle and decided to mass produce it on vast plantations, shipping it on refrigerated boats across the globe. The banana was standardised into one friendly model: yellow and creamy and handy for your lunchbox.
There was an entrepreneurial spark of genius there — but United Fruit developed a cruel business model to deliver it. As the writer Dan Koeppel explains in his brilliant history Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World, it worked like this. Find a poor, weak country. Make sure the government will serve your interests. If it won’t, topple it and replace it with one that will.
How secure is our food supply?
How secure is our food supply?
How secure is our food supply?
New Zealand bars in world’s top 100
New Zealand bars in world’s top 100 - 08 May 2008 - NZ Herald: Life & Style News and Reviews from New Zealand and around the World
Bars from Auckland and Wellington both make a new list of the world’s top spots for a drink. Photo / Babiche Martens
Bars from Auckland and Wellington both make a new list of the world’s top spots to have a drink. Photo / Babiche Martens
No quick fix to soothe Asian rice shortage fears
ABS-CBN News Online (Beta)
No quick fix to soothe Asian rice shortage fears
Reuters - 4/27/2008 8:07:28 PM
Asia’s fear of impending rice shortages looks to have become something of a self-fulfilling prophecy and exposed the over-reliance of many of the region’s economies on food subsidies and other market-imbalancing steps.
Food Crisis Set to Get Worse - Experts
Food Crisis Set to Get Worse - Experts - CommonDreams.org
Food Crisis Set to Get Worse - Experts
By Haider RizviNEW YORK - The current food crisis causing hunger and starvation for millions of people across the world is not going to end as long as those who dominate the international grain markets remain unwilling to change their behavior, according to experts specializing in international trade and environmental economics.”
High Tech Agriculture Has Problems
Daily Kos: High Tech Agriculture Has Problems
So, I’m new to this blogging, this is my first diary. It looks like it is a quick way to learn that not everyone agrees with your opinion no matter how good it might sound.I have farmed in Wisconsin for 30 years, land that has been in my family since 1848. Farming has gotten pretty intensive, small farms with kids and dogs and sheep and chickens running around are mostly just a fond memory.
Seeing the World Through the Bottom of a Glass
Wine - Seeing the World Through the Bottom of a Glass
The internet is changing the world, one bottle at a time
What can wine tell us about the world? Plenty, it turns out. It is one of civilization’s oldest products. At one time it was a necessity, when food was served rotten and water was where you washed and evacuated. Now it is enjoying a resurgence. It is an agricultural product, and a unique one. You see, vineyards have kept records of temperature, yield, and ripeness-dates for centuries, giving us incredibly precise records that tell us reams about the global environment. It is also a luxury item, particularly at the top end. As such, its sale and purchase can tell us volumes about the global economy.
n Vino Veritas. A guide to New World Wines, part 1
European Tribune - n Vino Veritas. A guide to New World Wines, part 1
I dabble in wine and I have managed to make a living out of it in the last few years. Having been born in France to a family of hoteliers, I remember that as young as seven I was told the difference between a Bordeaux and a Burgundy and was made to sniff out many premier crus though I wasn’t allowed to even take a small sip (this I did under the table with my cousins whenever there was a family reunion.)