It's hard to overestimate the importance of food. Yet, sometimes it appears just as hard for food writers to avoid hype. It's all too easy for people who love food enough to write about food to lose themselves in breathless raptures over the deliciousness of forest foraged mushrooms or the power of artisanal pork to cure diabetes, resurrect rural economies and provide … [Read more...]
Land of milk and money
Fewer than 5% of all Americans drink raw milk. Yet, the question of whether Americans should be allowed to drink it at all is one of the hottest controversies between foodies and public health officials these days. As demand for milk that is neither pasteurized nor homogenized booms and more families try to acquire the stuff for the health benefits they believe that raw milk … [Read more...]
America’s most famous farmer puts America over his knee
It's not only Sarah Palin who thinks that America is the world's essential nation because Americans are exceptionally worthy. All too many of us Yanks continue to believe that we're the smartest, hardest working and most self-reliant people on Earth. And that God or evolution or just history has rewarded us with superpower status and super riches because we deserve it. Well, … [Read more...]
Joel Salatin and the straight poop on sustainable farming
A Pigaerator? What’s that? I’m glad you asked. Joel Salatin, Janaia Donaldson’s guest on this episode of Peak Moment TV, explains this, while providing many other fascinating insights Salatin's pasture-based agriculture on Polyface Farms in Virginia. To avoid the overgrazing so common in modern farm practices, animals are moved every day to fresh pasture, including their … [Read more...]
Local food for smart people
If you've read The Omnivore's Dilemma or seen the documentaries Fresh! and Food, Inc. then you already know that the problem with food today is that most of it is produced less for the benefit of eaters than for the profit of agribusiness corporations. But going on about confinement chicken houses or lakes of pig manure at factory farms might be kind of a heavy message for a … [Read more...]