¡Join the fight!
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This is a food and farming nerd's dream. Check this out:
The USDA's Food Environment Atlas
It's an interactive map that can show you, U.S. county by U.S. county: the number of farmers markets, percentage of farmers markets, availability of grocery stores, farm-to-school programs, adult diabetes rates, childhood preschool obesity rates. It's an incredible document. Take a look.
The USDA has also released a report tracking American eating habits over the last century.
Tomorrow marks the first of many, many, many joint Department of Justice and USDA antitrust workshops, held to hear from Americans about possible antitrust violations in the seed industry.
With farmers, competitors, activists, and consumers all diving off the top turnbuckle on Monsanto's head for the next year, this is going to get bloody -- and Big Media knows it. Look what just came over the wire from the LA Times:
In Eau Claire, Wisconsin, yesterday, four-hundred and fifty people showed up to offer 10 hours of testimony on state bills that would legalize the sale of raw milk in the Dairy State.
According to WSAU Radio in Wausau, "scientists, government officials, consumers, and farmers were among those testifying," and apparently the pros outnumbered the cons in the audience. The pro raw milk side was organized in large part by dairy farmer Vince Hundt, who bought a ton of paper hats for supporters of the legislation. Read more...
Hi, Fair Food Fighters! I'm a film nerd who's been invited to talk about movies: movies about food, movies featuring food, and movies featuring people as food (what? We taste like chicken!).
Despite the sensory loss, movies are still suited to gastronomy; food's so symbolic it's easy to plot around it. Some food movies manage more plot than others, and some do food more justice than others, but even in movies where food isn't crucial, there's meaning behind the meal.
Take the mother of all food films: Babette's Feast. Read more...
The raw milk fight has been heating up over the last year, with various states moving to legalize sales of raw milk. Raw milk dairy farmer Michael Schmidt's fight and win in Canada has certainly been encouraging to raw milk enthusiasts, and the publication of David Gumpert's Raw Milk Revolution, seems to have turned up the heat under the raw milk story, too.
But if I were looking for bigger watershed moments that mightactually change national opinion (or spark a deeper conversation), I'd watch the raw milk legalization debate in Wisconsin right now. Read more...
