This morning it was reported that 228 people in 23 states have fallen ill to the salmonella tomato scare. Tomato eaters are warned against three varieties of tomato in particular: Roma, plum, and red round. But it seems clear all tomato varieties are taking a hit, and the economies that depend on tomato revenue, such as Mexico, have been hit the hardest. Those economies are now stalled with millions of dollars worth of produce and nowhere to ship it.
The FDA is having trouble tracing the source of the salmonella and consumers have been told not to eat tomatoes unless their origin is known. This brings to mind two of the biggest problems of our modern agricultural supply system. One, we, as consumers, don’t know where our food comes from. As mentioned in an earlier post, the Bush administration has vetoed the country of origin labeling bill (COOL) several times, and when it comes to one tomato versus another, we are left with no other option then to avoid all tomatoes sold for the time being. It’s a helpless situation for the consumer. The second problem is the inability of our own government to trace where our food is coming from. Is this worrying to anyone? It all screams for a more defined structure, or more localized growing programs with less shipping chaos. It also warrants a closer examination of the food we are importing and growing in this country, and the food with which we are stocking our grocery market shelves. On every level of the supply chain, right down to the grocery store, the ability should exists to check the safety of our food. If this comes down the supermarket chains employing their own food safety inspectors then that should be the case. To continue on the way we are in this day and age is to have too many people dependent on a system that is built like a massive version of the children’s game telephone.
Another reason to grow your own tomatoes. The New York Times reports that a recent outbreak of salmonella has caused McDonald’s, Wal-Mart, Burger King, Taco Bell, and others to pull tomatoes from their menus and shelves.
Have you noticed out of the corner of your eye a yellow and red truck crossing some busy avenue? Have you seen the same truck parked to the curb, a line forming at its open back window? This is the Wafels and Dinges (things) truck, a roaming food truck which has become the Where’s Waldo (the colors to match) of New York City. Deeply sympathetic to the Belgian way of life, and eager to spoon heavy globs of Nutella on each wafel, the truck offers two different varieties of wafels. One is called the liege and eats as if injected with subterranean pellets of sugar, which when warmed in the truck’s wafel presses turn a molten seducer. The other variety of wafel is more straightforward. The Brussels is a batter driven, deep squared, battle tank of a wafel, ready to accept any of the many toppings (strawberries, whipped cream, Nutella, dulce de leche, maple syrup, and Belgian chocolate fudge) the Wafels and Dinges truck has on hand.
For those of you who haven’t experienced Wafels & Dinges and live in the New York city area, please treat yourself and find the truck. Buy a Wafel and enjoy. The truck’s location can be roughly determined from its web site.
World leaders, including Iran’s much disliked Ahmadinejad and Zimbabwe’s Mugabe, gathered in Rome in an attempt to come to a consensus on the world food crisis. The BBC article published two days ago encapsulates many of the view points the leaders of these countries expressed. That production must rise in order to meet the growing demand for food worldwide. The goal, says UN Secretary General Ban Kimoon, is to boost production by 50 percent in the next 22 years. Many argued that tariffs and export restrictions in place in certain countries need to be loosened or abolished completely.
In other news, Monsanto, the monster agricorporation, who has about as many friends as Ahmadinejad, has vowed to help starving nations. The company has promised to produce a variety of seeds for soybeans, corn, and cotton that will be twice as bountiful as current seeds and require 30 percent less water. By 2030, the company says it will fulfill this goal. Strange, since many argue that Monsanto is one of the major causes of the food shortage for supplying the already starving (now more starving) nations with insufficient seeds that must be replanted and do not re-germinate, and for failing to teach proper irrigation techniques. Guess Monsanto has really turned a corner.
In the Guardian U.K., a fairly straightforward summation of how the food crisis happened and what the leaders of our countries are doing to ameliorate the situation.
They are calling a big summit to discover that we should have seen this coming and now that it is here, what do we do?
One of the unavoidable reactions will be a cut back on corn grown for alternative fuels purposes, which will probably not do much to change the cost of oil, but it will hopefully make food cheaper. Or at least it will stunt the rising prises.
Why is it that meat is the food of choice of wealthy nations? Is it a sign of success, the ability to eat meat? Does it convey some sense of dominance to be able to eat another animal–primal and crude, but true? Is it the result of marketing to the nations that are growing at a substantial speed? Does meat become a more feasible food source, in terms of production and shipping, once a country becomes wealthier?
America has long been the biggest meat eating country in the world. According to The Humane Society, we consumed a projected 222 pounds per person of meat in this country. That number has increased every year for the last 40 years. As our nation has become wealthier, we have bought and devoured more meat.
Now, however, China, a country that is growing at staggering speed, has chosen meat as it’s new food of the new incomes as well. The Guardian U.K. is doing a series on the effects of China’s new love of meat. Reporter Jonathan Watts talks with Zhang Xiuwen, a man who grew up hungry on a rural farm. Now, living in the city, and working as a tennis instructor, Zhang eats meat almost everyday with his family. The article is a illuminating look into hos much life has changed in China in the past 10 years. But it also look at what it means that China is eating more meat. James Rice, who is chief of operations in China for Tyson foods, says in the article that this will be the last year China will be self sufficient. After that, they will have to import goods. Western supermarket chains have already planted themselves in China, well-positioned to supply the growing country. What does this mean? Most likely it will mean a rise in demand for meat, and a continuing rise in cost. Particularly as the cost of ingredients (wheat, rice, grains) in the feed for our cattle rises as well.
Most products that come from pigs are not favorites of mine. Ham I can do without. Pork chops I steer clear of. Pork Loin not my cup of tea. But bacon–well, bacon is different. Bacon is the paragon of salty, crispy meat. It enhances almost every food, breaks down the barrier between breakfast and dinner, between I-hop cholesterol injections and fine dining. Bacon it could be argued is one of the most versatile, or at least adapted, foods out there.
Staying true to this versatility there are two uses of bacon that should be mentioned. They are both concepts, really, uses of bacon that attempt to herald a new dawn combining, in varying degrees, bacon, and the other favorite food, chocolate. The first reaction is to cringe, but once that fades, the sense that bacon, a salty, crunchy pork fat, and chocolate an intoxicating and exotic concoction belong together is hard to ignore.
Voges is a chocolate company based in Chicago with several stores in New York City. One of their chocolate bars is called Mo’s Bacon Bar and has in it Applewood smoked bacon, Alderwood smoked salt, and 41-percent cacao milk chocolate.
The other inventive combination of bacon and chocolate tilts the ratio coating bacon in chocolate. That snack like product is being sold by Marini’s in Santa Cruz, CA (not for sale on the web site). The Stranger, Seattle’s alternative weekly paper did a short piece about it.
An odd story and a video posted on the New York Times web site about a small West African berry called The Miracle Fruit plant that numbs the sour receptors on the tongue. The result: all things taste sweet, and, of course, someone has found an opportunity to parlay this into a party theme. But everyone has a great time.
The company that hosts the parties also happens to have a wordpress blog.
The Associated Foreign Press reported yesterday that U.S. beef is not welcome in South Korea, still. U.S. beef has been banned from import in South Korea since 2003, for fears of Mad Cow disease, but recently an agreement has been struck between the governments which will allow importing to resume.
South Korean citizens protested the agreement, up to 7000 took to the streets, and 37 were arrested. For now, the agreement rests in limbo, until South Korea finalizes the go ahead. The White house says it is confident imports will be allowed again, pushing aside South Korea’s concerns that the U.S. has not done enough to resolve the problems believed to cause Mad Cow disease.
Mad Cow disease it is believed is caused by feeding cows with the recycled bones and meat form infected cows.
In the New York Times today there is a quirky little essay about one woman’s wish for a pot that can cook anything. Laura Vapnyar is pushed by her teacher when she young. Wouldn’t she rather wish for work peace? No, she wanted a pot that can cook anything. What sounds like the entry to a children’s book turns to an essay on the the disappointment of cheesecake tasted for the first tine, on the literary dreaming of oysters, and the eventual enlightening experience of eating them for the first time.
