The other night I watched the movie King Corn and was mightily impressed. What begins as a rag tag, grassroots documentary ends up as a large and impacting statement about agriculture and eating in the United States. What I learned: 70 percent of antibiotics in the U.S. are used on cattle to keep them healthy long enough for slaughter. Why? Because the bulk of their subsistence, various incarnations of corn, is harmful to them and eventually will kill them if they eat it long enough. I learned a lot about Iowa. They grow a lot of corn, and most of it is not edible. One of the sharpest comments in the documentary is from Michael Pollan, who makes many appearances and serves as ballast for the film. The irony, he says, is that the Iowa farmer can’t feed him or herself any more. Meaning they survive off govmn’t subsidies and the crops they grow, mostly corn, is used for corn syrup (nasty stuff), cattle feed, and ethanol.

Something about the way the two bumbling, aww gosh me? characters go about the adventure is also enlightening. In many ways they take the approach to farming that Michael Moore takes in his films. What do you mean you don;t pay for healthcare? What do you mean we will lose money on our corn crop without the goverment, and our corn is an inedible variety? A naivete that is endearing to those who can reveal the scariest of things. Check out the movie, learn how the Western diet has completely changed since the 1970s (that’s when the boundaries of farming evaporated in this country). Find out why we all have corn in our hair.

–Nick

Sprouting from various news and culture outlets, this is the news in food…

On Salon.com it is Pork Week and the staff of ever talented writers and critics have lent their animal wisdom to the subject of the pig. Sarah Hepola interviews Tom Colicchio and David Chang, two of the most infamous New York City restaurants masterminds, about their love of the other white meat. Peter Meehan writes of the trendiness of pork, and whether will it last? And Rebecca Traister writes of her personal journey curing her own meats.

The new issue of Edible Brooklyn is out and about in Brooklyn eateries and stores.

If you are in the San Francisco area on Labor Day Weekend go to Slow Food Nation, an event sponsored by Slow Food USA. Eat some of the best local produce and foods, sit in on lectures, and submerse yourself in the innovative ideas of food culture catered by people who care about good food.

Last but not least, check out the New York Times Magazine this weekend for a many page spread on Women farmers in the Northeast. Being a farmer has never been so sexy, and earnest.

–Nick

Wait, U.S Food and Drug Administration, you mean tomatoes aren’t the bad guys after all? But who is getting us sick then? Tomatoes were such an easy target. They were unassuming, easy to spot (big and bright red), and they didn’t complain much about being pegged as the perpetrators of our salmonella troubles. Why give up on tomatoes so easy, FDA?

You didn’t see Bush give up on Iraq when there were no weapons of mass destruction, did you? I am a little disappointed in you FDA. Well, go ahead, search again for the source, just as long as we keep Mexico in the hot seat. And while we are at it, what’s wrong with hundreds of tons of tomatoes rotting in the brutal Mexican heat? Nothing, I guess.

–Nick

Einstein is rumored to have said that if honeybees ceased to exist on this planet all human life would fold within four years (there are of course debates on the accuracy of this statement, whether or not he actually said it, whether or not life would actually collapse). But the implications of the statement are serious enough to at least consider what would happen if honeybees did succumb to what is called Colony Collapse Disorder. Honeybees pollinate the following foods: apples, nuts, avocados, soybeans, asparagus, broccoli, celery, squash and cucumbers. And lots of the really sweet and tart stuff, too, including citrus fruit, peaches, kiwi, cherries, blueberries, cranberries, strawberries, cantaloupe and other melons.

What would happen if we did not have these highly-organized, precisely-guided insects to pollinate these foods for us? We would have a lot less of the food and if, say, cantaloupes did still exist, they would become much more expensive. The foods would either have to be pollinated by other insects in farm laboratory settings, or the foods would have to be altered genetically to allow for self-germination.

Some scientists believe the disappearance of honey bees is due to a parasite, so have claimed to cell phones signals interrupting their homing sense, some have claimed that pollution in the air is basically making them want to abandon ship. In the New York Times last week there was an interesting article about the mathematical possibilities of the disorder. This may be the way it needs to be examined. Perhaps with many of our bees dying and abandoning their hives, we have to look to how to beat the numbers, and what is the final numerical potential on such a bees deathtoll. Scientists must also isolate the bees not affected by this disorder and examine there gentic make-up and behavior. The clues left by the living bees and the dead bees are the key to solving the mystery.

–Nick

The supermarket chain Tesco is under fire for its practices, or lack of, in several different countries. The Guardian U.K. writes about the newest complaints against Tesco. Add this to the conflicts over its selling of turtles in China, and the disemboweling of the turtles while still alive.

Celebrity chef, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, hijacked Tesco’s annual shareholder meeting and demanded the company meet his “five freedoms” for chickens sold by the supermarket chain. Whittingstall managed to round up 8.9 percent of the vote in favor of his new referendum and considered it a success even though to pass the motion he needed 75 percent. The Tesco chain did not look so kindly on his act of protest in the annual meeting. A representative for the company had this to say:

“We’re delighted that more than nine out of 10 shareholders who cast a vote agreed with us that Hugh’s motion was unnecessary and chose not to support it.”

As the third biggest retailer of in the world Tesco has gotten itself into all kinds of hot water. Another debate at the fore for the company is over its use of and payment to its workers in India. War on Want is fighting that battle.

The same jargon as expected came from the corporate offices of Tesco in response to Whittingstall’s protest. They claim there may be some issues but they must be worked through as an industry. Translation, we don’t have to do anything until it becomes a really big deal, or until other companies start to change and we have to compete. Let’s hope this happens because it is clear the capitalism is the most powerful indicator of change for vast companies, not necessarily a moral compass.

To see the video of the “Five Freedoms” outlined by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, go here.

–Nick

Nothing will spur a loved one into action like revenge and good old fashioned “I told you so.”

Chris Coleson, of Richmond, VA was overweight. But he wanted to lose the weight. When his wife presented her scepticism over whether Chris could lose the weight solely by eating at McDonalds, it became a challenge of sorts. Chris had found his weight loss calling. He ate at McDonalds only, ordering salads and wraps. By the end of a six-month stint he had lost 80 pounds, no small potatoes, even if those potatoes are deep fried and golden delicious. Chris had really shown his wife a thing or two.

Wives of the world take note of this story, and think big. Chris’s story is one of hope and determination (and perhaps he even added a few years to his life) but think of the possibilities for your own home as well. Tell your husband you don’t think he can mow the lawn for six months straight. Tell him you don’t think he can paint the house in under two months. Tell him you doubt he can really truly stop watching football and spend time with the kids. Just think of the possibilities, and remember, men respond to dares. We are bullish and aspire to defy the world. This is the way we operate.

–Nick

Does life imitate art, or art imitate life? We’ll never know, but in the meantime at least we can fight it out. At a recent dinner party for the promotion of Dinner Party Disasters: True Stories of Culinary Catastrophe, a new book by Annaliese Soros (the first wife of philanthropist George Soros) two guests turned each other into punching bags over politics. I do hope the avoidance of political discussion is included in that book somewhere.

–Nick

Once upon a time the idea of the future meant wondrous new machines, witnessing the limits of technology, the expansion of the human race, the refinement of current ideas. Today, however, the future is a more precarious idea, one fraught with dwindling natural resources, heavy imbalances in national food supplies, nuclear threats, overpopulation, etc, etc. One of the major sources of concerns, considering the recent food shortages and rises in price, is where will our food come from in the future? How will we protect it from the ever-more powerful storms pounding the earth? How will we ensure we all get to eat as our world population bubbles at the rim of sustainability?

A Columbia University professor is working on a solution. Hence the Vertical Farm, a stacked version of our present day farming practices. The idea is to build structures like sky scrapers that will grow the food for our future. The Vertical Farm, as claimed, will reduce mismanagement and abuse of farming lands, allowing our farms of today to go back to wilderness and reclaim their inherent vitality. The crops will be grown organically, will not be susceptible to storms and weather variance, they will produce crops year-round, and will reduce fossil fuel usage (no tractors or farm equipment).

The project, a massive idea, which smells mildly of snake oil, has been covered in many major media outlets and is the brain child of Dr. Dickson Despommier, Ph.D. Who knows, this could be the future of our food?

–Nick

Photo Credit: The Guardian U.K.

This is what is happening in Argentina as president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has implemented higher taxes on soy and wheat.

–Nick

I am a big fan of The Atlantic’s food wonderman, Corby Kummer. He writes on everything from apples to sardines with a panache and lay interest meant to inspire curiosity about the world of food around us. And now he has won the James Beard Award, again, for the fourth time, as noted in The Atlantic. I highly recommend a perusal through his articles on the magazine’s site.

–Nick