Another entry in the cola wars. I am simply astonished that people actually drink this stuff, and pay a fortune to do it. I don't talk about it much - I figure my attitude is not good and I'll just make people mad.
But anyway, it's an interesting article.
Showing posts with label articles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label articles. Show all posts
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Sunday, September 21, 2008
The Use of Lard
I found some good news to write about: lard is making a comeback.
Here's a link:
I've got a jar of rendered lard in my refrigerator. It really does make flaky pie crusts and crisp, clean fried potatoes.
Did you know it's healthier than butter?
Lard from a free-range pig - NOT a feedlot pig! - has less saturated fat than butter and it has omega-3's. In other words, not only is it not as bad as you thought it was, it actually provides needed nutrients.
Our hate-affair with lard can be traced to the industrialization of food. As our great-parents let industrial centers take charge of their food, the quality dropped precipitously. Not just the taste, either. These were the days of "The Jungle" and no regulation, leading to heaps of abuse - of both animal and human worker.
So when shortening was invented, and hyped as the latest, most sophisticated, "scientific" food, people flocked to it. Lard was dropped like a hot potato (a dry one).
But some people have caught on. We now know that shortening is a slow killer, while lard provides nutrients. And remember, in the interest of moderation, we shouldn't be eating gallons of any fat. It should be a small part of our diet.
To me, it's a no-brainer.
I haven't cooked with shortening for over 20 years, but neither did I cook with lard. For a long time, I used margarine and butter; for the last several years, I've just used butter. But since my CSA provided a slab of pig fat, with instructions on how to render it in to lard, I've been adding it to things.
It's all part of my desire to live more sustainably. To learn to use all of an animal that can be used - though yes, I'm still leery of the head. I've had beef tongue, but that's the extent of that experiment. (It's not bad, actually.)
We need to approach food industry claims with cautious thoughtfulness and a modicum of disbelief. In fact, I recommend a huge amount of disbelief and researching all the claims. I'm a scientist and I trust the scientific method. But I don't trust people with a stake in the results.
And remember that most claims are nothing more than the marketing department doing their job.
And go find some lard from a free-range pig and make a pie.
Here's a link:
I've got a jar of rendered lard in my refrigerator. It really does make flaky pie crusts and crisp, clean fried potatoes.
Did you know it's healthier than butter?
Lard from a free-range pig - NOT a feedlot pig! - has less saturated fat than butter and it has omega-3's. In other words, not only is it not as bad as you thought it was, it actually provides needed nutrients.
Our hate-affair with lard can be traced to the industrialization of food. As our great-parents let industrial centers take charge of their food, the quality dropped precipitously. Not just the taste, either. These were the days of "The Jungle" and no regulation, leading to heaps of abuse - of both animal and human worker.
So when shortening was invented, and hyped as the latest, most sophisticated, "scientific" food, people flocked to it. Lard was dropped like a hot potato (a dry one).
But some people have caught on. We now know that shortening is a slow killer, while lard provides nutrients. And remember, in the interest of moderation, we shouldn't be eating gallons of any fat. It should be a small part of our diet.
To me, it's a no-brainer.
I haven't cooked with shortening for over 20 years, but neither did I cook with lard. For a long time, I used margarine and butter; for the last several years, I've just used butter. But since my CSA provided a slab of pig fat, with instructions on how to render it in to lard, I've been adding it to things.
It's all part of my desire to live more sustainably. To learn to use all of an animal that can be used - though yes, I'm still leery of the head. I've had beef tongue, but that's the extent of that experiment. (It's not bad, actually.)
We need to approach food industry claims with cautious thoughtfulness and a modicum of disbelief. In fact, I recommend a huge amount of disbelief and researching all the claims. I'm a scientist and I trust the scientific method. But I don't trust people with a stake in the results.
And remember that most claims are nothing more than the marketing department doing their job.
And go find some lard from a free-range pig and make a pie.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Farm to Fork
The Local Harvest newsletter had a piece about this article in the New York Times, talking about the need for the government to establish a detailed tracking system for food. The Times editorial was written a couple of weeks ago at the height of the tomato scare. The author is pushing for this program, saying it's a good idea and the government needs to declare an emergency and get it set up immediately.
It's a lousy idea. It's worse than lousy. It's stupid.
The answer is not more consolidation, more paperwork, or RFID tags and barcodes on everything. The answer is decentralization. The answer is small community farms that feed the people around them. Most of the food in a grocery store is grown on large (huge!), monoculture farms, with fertilizer and pesticides and herbicides. The animals live in feedlots, are strictly confined, are fed corn (no matter what kind of animal they are) and are left to stand in their own feces until finally hauled away for slaughter. The food is shipped all over the country to central warehouses and processing plants where it is mixed with food from everywhere else, and from there to the kitchens of huge food conglomerates. It's prepped and processed and packaged and shipped again to supermarkets all over the country. Then to your kitchen.
By the time you get it, it's nearly impossible to know exactly what you have or where it came from. This is why misguided people are agitating for a strict tracking system. As if that will solve the problem.
I buy my meat from a CSA that is supplied by the ranches just over the hill. I buy my vegetables from a farm about forty miles from here. I buy milk from a local dairy that bottles it themselves without sending it to a central factory in Nebraska, someplace. If we get sick, it will be a simple matter to trace the problem.
No, I don't get everything from local producers. I know that's impossible. Humans have always traded for the things they need, but can't produce themselves. That will never end and I'm not suggesting it should. But our food system is a ridiculous example of carrying trade to the extreme. We need to rig a wrecking ball and tear it down.
A tracking system will fall heaviest on the small farmer, and be one more nail in the coffin for the hard-working people who are trying to grow healthy food for a local market. As usual, the conglomerates will just hire someone to take care of the paperwork and raise prices to cover the cost. The small farmer will go out of business because he can't afford to file all that paperwork or buy the electronic IDs to put in the food. It's all unnecessary for him - he can tell you in ten minutes where his product goes because he's supplying local restaurants and residents. There's no reason for a federal agency to track his food.
Farm to Fork is a terrible idea. It won't keep thousands of people from getting sick. We need to stop shipping our food to central plants and mixing it with food from everywhere else. If people get sick, the illness will stay localized and the source can be traced quickly.
Why is this so hard for people to understand?
It's a lousy idea. It's worse than lousy. It's stupid.
The answer is not more consolidation, more paperwork, or RFID tags and barcodes on everything. The answer is decentralization. The answer is small community farms that feed the people around them. Most of the food in a grocery store is grown on large (huge!), monoculture farms, with fertilizer and pesticides and herbicides. The animals live in feedlots, are strictly confined, are fed corn (no matter what kind of animal they are) and are left to stand in their own feces until finally hauled away for slaughter. The food is shipped all over the country to central warehouses and processing plants where it is mixed with food from everywhere else, and from there to the kitchens of huge food conglomerates. It's prepped and processed and packaged and shipped again to supermarkets all over the country. Then to your kitchen.
By the time you get it, it's nearly impossible to know exactly what you have or where it came from. This is why misguided people are agitating for a strict tracking system. As if that will solve the problem.
I buy my meat from a CSA that is supplied by the ranches just over the hill. I buy my vegetables from a farm about forty miles from here. I buy milk from a local dairy that bottles it themselves without sending it to a central factory in Nebraska, someplace. If we get sick, it will be a simple matter to trace the problem.
No, I don't get everything from local producers. I know that's impossible. Humans have always traded for the things they need, but can't produce themselves. That will never end and I'm not suggesting it should. But our food system is a ridiculous example of carrying trade to the extreme. We need to rig a wrecking ball and tear it down.
A tracking system will fall heaviest on the small farmer, and be one more nail in the coffin for the hard-working people who are trying to grow healthy food for a local market. As usual, the conglomerates will just hire someone to take care of the paperwork and raise prices to cover the cost. The small farmer will go out of business because he can't afford to file all that paperwork or buy the electronic IDs to put in the food. It's all unnecessary for him - he can tell you in ten minutes where his product goes because he's supplying local restaurants and residents. There's no reason for a federal agency to track his food.
Farm to Fork is a terrible idea. It won't keep thousands of people from getting sick. We need to stop shipping our food to central plants and mixing it with food from everywhere else. If people get sick, the illness will stay localized and the source can be traced quickly.
Why is this so hard for people to understand?
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Here We Go Again
Another beef recall.
When - when - are we going to stop this food industry madness? When will we go back to being responsible for our own food?
Oh never, I know. Not really for our own food, as in all the time, the only one responsible for planting, growing, harvesting, feeding, preserving, preparing, and anything else-ing, that we need to do for all our food. But we've got to break it down into smaller groups. Into regions, at least. None of this one-company-produces-billions-of-pounds-of-meat that go all around the country. And to the rest of the world, too.
What - don't they have cows in Asia?
Dude. I know they do.
Why do we continue to buy bags of loose greens when we know they've come from a warehouse that got lettuce from all over the country and piled them all together in a big bunch and stuffed them into bags?
When we know that if just one small batch of lettuce from one tiny farm anywhere in the country had a problem with their lettuce (say a minor e-coli bacteria-type problem) then every bit of the lettuce mixed with it and put in those bags, now has the same problem.
Why do we continue to buy it? Excuse me - why do you continue to buy it? 'Cause I can promise you, I don't.
Not even the organic stuff. I'll buy my own separate little head of lettuce and wash and tear it myself.
Sure I could still get sick, if I happen to buy the lettuce from the one tiny farm with a problem. But you won't. And neither will ten thousand other people around the country.
Put Big Ag out of business. Run - quickly - to your nearest CSA or Farmer's Market and buy all your food from them. Find CSAs that give you produce, meat, eggs, even milk. You'll probably need to join several to get everything that way. If you have to shop at a grocery store, shop at one that buys from local ranchers and farmers and buy the food that comes from the local source. Don't buy the food that comes from China or from the slaughtershouse six states away.
Do what you can. Just do it.
When - when - are we going to stop this food industry madness? When will we go back to being responsible for our own food?
Oh never, I know. Not really for our own food, as in all the time, the only one responsible for planting, growing, harvesting, feeding, preserving, preparing, and anything else-ing, that we need to do for all our food. But we've got to break it down into smaller groups. Into regions, at least. None of this one-company-produces-billions-of-pounds-of-meat that go all around the country. And to the rest of the world, too.
What - don't they have cows in Asia?
Dude. I know they do.
Why do we continue to buy bags of loose greens when we know they've come from a warehouse that got lettuce from all over the country and piled them all together in a big bunch and stuffed them into bags?
When we know that if just one small batch of lettuce from one tiny farm anywhere in the country had a problem with their lettuce (say a minor e-coli bacteria-type problem) then every bit of the lettuce mixed with it and put in those bags, now has the same problem.
Why do we continue to buy it? Excuse me - why do you continue to buy it? 'Cause I can promise you, I don't.
Not even the organic stuff. I'll buy my own separate little head of lettuce and wash and tear it myself.
Sure I could still get sick, if I happen to buy the lettuce from the one tiny farm with a problem. But you won't. And neither will ten thousand other people around the country.
Put Big Ag out of business. Run - quickly - to your nearest CSA or Farmer's Market and buy all your food from them. Find CSAs that give you produce, meat, eggs, even milk. You'll probably need to join several to get everything that way. If you have to shop at a grocery store, shop at one that buys from local ranchers and farmers and buy the food that comes from the local source. Don't buy the food that comes from China or from the slaughtershouse six states away.
Do what you can. Just do it.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Grass-fed
The USDA has passed some standards for grass-fed meat. I'm leary of anything this organization does, but these standards seem to be on the good side. Here are a couple of links:
The USDA release: http://www.ams.usda.gov/news/178-07.htm
A blog article by Bonnie Powell that gives us a good explanation:
http://www.ethicurean.com/2007/10/16/grass-fed-label/
The USDA release: http://www.ams.usda.gov/news/178-07.htm
A blog article by Bonnie Powell that gives us a good explanation:
http://www.ethicurean.com/2007/10/16/grass-fed-label/
Monday, September 10, 2007
Food ingredients
Just a quick note cross-posted from my writer's blog. An article in the Contra Costa Times recently pointed out the difficulty of tracing contaminated food back its source. This is one reason I don't buy any produce in bags and why I severely limit purchases of processed food. Here are a couple of quotes from the article (and the link. Hope it works):
http://www.contracostatimes.com/search/ci_6791221?IADID=Search-www.contracostatimes.com-www.contracostatimes.com
"Companies increasingly are paying others to make the foods we eat - or the ingredients in them - and then selling it under multiple brand names.""Generally, the identities of contract manufacturers remain secret for reasons of commercial confidentiality.So how can consumer learn where their food comes from?The truth of the matter is today, to a large degree, you can't. ...and efforts to improve on it have been beaten back," said Jean Halloran, director of food policy initiatives for Consumers Union."
See, this is what gets my goat. I prefer to know what's in my food. I like knowing, at least in a general sense, where the ingredients came from. 'Secret for reasons of commerical confidentiality'? Your contract manufacturer's have to be secret? What the hell for?
http://www.contracostatimes.com/search/ci_6791221?IADID=Search-www.contracostatimes.com-www.contracostatimes.com
"Companies increasingly are paying others to make the foods we eat - or the ingredients in them - and then selling it under multiple brand names.""Generally, the identities of contract manufacturers remain secret for reasons of commercial confidentiality.So how can consumer learn where their food comes from?The truth of the matter is today, to a large degree, you can't. ...and efforts to improve on it have been beaten back," said Jean Halloran, director of food policy initiatives for Consumers Union."
See, this is what gets my goat. I prefer to know what's in my food. I like knowing, at least in a general sense, where the ingredients came from. 'Secret for reasons of commerical confidentiality'? Your contract manufacturer's have to be secret? What the hell for?
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