Category Archives: Farm

Ugly Food

Don’t judge a book by its cover. Beauty is only skin deep. It’s what’s on the inside that counts. With the summer/local produce season upon us, I wanted to remind you that those expressions apply to produce as well as people. Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon, the folks who wrote the book behind the 100 Mile Diet, address this […]

June 8, 2007 | Also posted in History and Culture, Supermarket | Comments closed

Imported Waste

Friday, I talked to Yolanda Soto, director of the Wilson-Batiz Borderland Food Bank in Nogales, Ariz. Her food rescue group recovers millions of pounds of imported Mexican produce that would otherwise go to waste. As I’ve learned, importing produce is essentially a game of timing. Produce, as we all know, doesn’t last forever. Because items are subsequently shipped across the […]

March 12, 2007 | Also posted in International | Comments closed

Corn in Our Sides

It’s time to discuss using food for fuel. Let’s talk ethanol. In recent speeches, President Bush lauded ethanol as the way forward. This is certainly a big step for our President, albeit a false one. For starters, ethanol isn’t that green. First, one must factor in the pesticide and petro-chemical fertilizer runoff that’s a biproduct of growing corn. Second, ethanol’s relative inefficiency […]

January 31, 2007 | Posted in Farm | Comments closed

Weather to Waste?

If a cold spell kills a crop, is it food waste? Spurred by the California orange freeze, someone asked me that question this week. I’ve been pondering this “If a tree falls”-type puzzler ever since. First, let me say that I’m focusing on food that is squandered due to human decisions. Nevertheless, it’s hard to […]

January 17, 2007 | Posted in Farm | Comments closed