Videos

Southern Tomato Pie

/ Ren

In that flaky crust is a whopping three and a half pounds of tomatoes, cooked down with caramelized onions and herbs and cozily blanketed with an oh-so-Southern hit of mayo and a not-so-Southern-but-really-really-good dose of fontina and parmesan. More tomatoes sit on top—fresh instead of roasted—for a pretty visual touch alongside some leaves of basil. It’s a gorgeous pie, and to be perfectly honest, one of the best things to come out of our test kitchen all summer.

MAKES 1 10-INCH PIE
2 HOURS, 30 MINUTES

For the pie crust

1 1⁄4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1⁄2 tsp. granulated sugar
1⁄2 tsp. salt
6 tbsp. cold butter cut into 1⁄2-inch cubes
2 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. ice-cold water
1⁄2 tsp. white vinegar

For the filling and topping

3 1⁄2 lb. vine-ripe tomatoes (about 12), cored, seeded, and cut into 1⁄2-inch dice, divided
2 tsp. salt, divided
1 tsp. sugar, divided
1 tbsp. butter
1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced with the grain
1 tsp. picked thyme
2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1⁄4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1⁄3 cup packed whole basil leaves
1⁄2 cup mayonnaise
1⁄3 cup grated fontina
1⁄3 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
2 large Roma or heirloom tomatoes, thinly sliced and blotted dry with paper towels

Instructions

Make the pie crust: Place the flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium for a few seconds. Begin adding the butter one cube at a time. Continue until the flour is speckled and crumbly, about 4 minutes. With the mixer still running, add the water and vinegar until just combined. Do not overmix. Press the dough into a 6-inch disk, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and chill in the refrigerator overnight.
Bring the crust to room temperature and lightly butter a 10-inch metal pie pan. Preheat the oven to 400°. Dust your counter and rolling pin lightly with flour and roll the crust slightly larger than your pan. Lay the crust in the pan and press gently into its edges. Cut off the edges that hang over and discard. Freeze for at least 15 minutes or until you’re ready to blind-bake.
Lay foil or parchment paper on top of the crust and weigh that down with dried beans or rice. Blind-bake the shell for 30 minutes. Remove the pie weights and foil or parchment and bake 5 minutes more. Set the cooked crust aside as you prepare the filling.
Make the filling: Toss half of the diced tomatoes with 1⁄2 teaspoon salt and 1⁄2 teaspoon sugar. Set them over a colander to drain while you get everything else ready, at least an hour.
Lower your oven to 375°. In a medium sauté pan or skillet, melt the butter and then add the onion and 1⁄2 teaspoon salt. Cook over medium-low heat until deeply caramelized. This will take about 45 minutes. If the onion gets away from you and burns a little, add 1⁄4 cup of water to the pan, scrape up the overbrowned bits, and keep going. In the end, you have a scant 2⁄3 cup caramelized onion.
Toss the remaining diced tomatoes with 1⁄2 teaspoon salt, thyme, and olive oil. Spread in a single layer on a sheet tray with as much room separating the individual pieces as possible. Slide the tray onto the middle rack of your oven and roast for 30-35 minutes. You’re looking for the tomatoes to dry out and brown slightly.
Once all the individual components are done, stir together the onion, the fresh and roasted diced tomatoes, the remaining salt, sugar, black pepper, and basil.
Make the topping and finish the pie: In a separate, smaller bowl, stir together the mayonnaise, fontina, and Parmigiano. Spoon the filling into your blind-baked crust. Top with the cheese mixture and tomato slices. Bake in the middle of your oven for 30 minutes. You can serve this warm or at room temperature. Both have their virtues.

The Seeds of Vandana Shiva

/ Ren

Do we want what we grow and what we eat to be determined by a few giant corporations whose first and foremost agenda is profit before people and planetary well-being?

Imagine a world where small farmers are respected as experts in the processes of nature and are honored as stewards of our arable land.

What about a world where farmers are no longer replaced by massive machines force-feeding toxic chemicals into vast monocultures of GMO seeds?

The film is important because Vandana Shiva articulately and scientifically presents the alternative: Ecological agriculture that restores biodiversity, organic seed freedom, healthy soil, fresh water and clean air.

http://kck.st/1N9AOkN
 
How did the willful daughter of a Himalayan forest conservator become the world’s most powerful opponent of Monsanto? The Seeds of Vandana Shiva, a feature-length documentary, presents the remarkable life story of the Gandhian eco-activist and agro-ecologist, Vandana Shiva. A classic David versus Goliath tale, the film shows how Vandana, a brilliant scientist, became Monsanto’s worst nightmare and a rock star of the international sustainable food movement.

The Seeds of Vandana Shiva

Love At First Bite – The Ad Doritos Don’t Want You to See

/ Ren

Rainforests across Southeast Asia are being destroyed every day to make way for massive palm oil plantations, where workers, even children, are trapped in modern slavery to cultivate the vegetable oil. The clearing of these rainforests and peatlands are driving many species like the orangutan and Sumatran tiger to the brink of extinction, while also polluting the Earth’s atmosphere by releasing gigatons of greenhouse gases.

“PepsiCo has contributed $1,716,300 to oppose the passage of California Proposition 37, which would mandate the disclosure of genetically modified crops used in the production of California food products.”

Each year, PepsiCo buys 427,500 tonnes of palm oil. Given how high profile the Doritos Super Bowl campaign is, we’re using this opportunity to let consumers around the world know about PepsiCo’s irresponsible palm oil sourcing policy. there’s never been a better time to spread the message and make friends, family and colleagues aware of PepsiCo’s practices.

please sign the petition to PepsiCo

Watch the Exclusive Worldwide Premiere of Origins

/ Ren

Find out who’s hijacking your health…
and how to reclaim it!

Origins (movie)

About the Filmmakers

Pedram Shojai, OMD, is the founder of Well.Org, the editor of BeMore! Magazine, the author of Rise and Shine, and the producer and director of the documentary films “Vitality” and “Origins.” It was when he ran a large medical practice treating patients with the same lifestyle-induced ailments again and again, that Dr. Shojai began his mission — to help people understand the intrinsic connection between their lifestyle, their health and the vitality of our planet. He works to preserve our natural world and wake us all up to our fullest potential.

Mark van Wijk is a filmmaker based in Cape Town, South Africa. He studied Photography at Port Elizabeth Technikon, specialising in travel. After 4 years of travel he then made a natural progression onto film and television.

“The great outdoors gives me energy – the earth and nature inspires me in my work and in my life! Respect for all is my only rule! People need to understand that they are actually a part of nature and my dream is for my work to bridge the divide that civilization and technology have created”

The message in the film – Origins – kept me inspired throughout the entire project. I am so happy and privileged to have been able to make this film with Pedram and I believe it carries a message that all of us need to understand and live towards!

Katie Couric Hosts “Fed Up” in Charlottesville Tomorrow

/ Ren

It’s predicted that if nothing is done about this continuous cascade of sugar into the American diet, in two decades 95 percent of Americans will be obese or overweight. Couric says that if this unprecedented consumption of sugar is not curtailed, by 2050 one out of three Americans will have diabetes.

This clarion call for the use of common sense when it comes to sugar shouldn’t be dismissed as just the latest scare tactics from no-fun leaf-and-twig eaters. Studies show that because of rampant obesity among children today, youngsters are on track to be the first generation in memory to have a life expectancy shorter than that of their parents.

“The average American eats almost one pound of sugar and flour a day altogether,” Hyman said. “That amount creates a vicious cycle of addiction, where you crave more and eat more sugar.

“Studies that show sugar can be eight times more addictive than cocaine. Sugar, not fat, creates a triple whammy for weight — an increase in hunger and sugar cravings, an increase in fat storage and a decrease in metabolic rate.

“It is also the major driver of heart attacks, stroke, dementia, many cancers and, of course, type 2 diabetes.

Artificial sweeteners can actually be more addictive than regular sugar. Artificial sweeteners jack up your cravings, driving you to eat more food over the course of the day. Just say no to sugar and artificial sweeteners.”

“Fed Up” will be presented at 2 p.m. Saturday at UVa’s Culbreth Theatre. A discussion with Katie Couric, Dr. Mark Hyman and Dr. Christine M. Burt Solorzano will follow the screening. For tickets and a full schedule of films and events for the 27th annual Virginia Film Festival, go to www.virginiafilmfestival.org.

Related: Artificial Sweeteners Linked to Metabolic Disease

Food Chains

/ Ren

THE REVOLUTION IN AMERICA’S FIELDS

FC-Poster-Small[1]Food Chains exposes the abuse of farmworkers within the United States and the complicity of the multibillion dollar supermarket and fast food industries.

There is more interest in food these days than ever, yet there is very little interest in the hands that pick it. Farmworkers, the foundation of our fresh food industry, are routinely abused and robbed of wages. In extreme cases they can be beaten, sexually harassed or even enslaved – all within the borders of the United States.

Food Chains reveals the human cost in our food supply and the complicity of large buyers of produce like fast food and supermarkets. Fast food is big, but supermarkets are bigger – earning $4 trillion globally. They have tremendous power over the agricultural system. Over the past 3 decades they have drained revenue from their supply chain leaving farmworkers in poverty and forced to work under subhuman conditions. Yet many take no responsibility for this.

Their story is one of hope and promise for the triumph of morality over corporate greed – to ensure a dignified life for farm workers and a more humane, transparent food chain.

The narrative of the film focuses on an intrepid and highly lauded group of tomato pickers from Southern Florida – the Coalition of Immokalee Workers or CIW – who are revolutionizing farm labor. Their story is one of hope and promise for the triumph of morality over corporate greed – to ensure a dignified life for farm workers and a more humane, transparent food chain.

Food Chains premiered at the 2014 Berlin Film Festival and screened subsequently at the Tribeca Film Festival and Guadalajara Film Festival. Food Chains will be released nationwide November 21st. The film’s Executive Producers include Eva Longoria and Eric Schlosser.

Are You Loving It?

/ Ren

Young Oakland artists L.L.D.B., Pamela Arriera, and Taiwo Murray collaborated with AshEL SeaSunZ (of the green hip-hop group Earth Amplified) to write the track, using a beat created for the project by FX at Youth Uprising. Oakland video students at KDOL-TV helped produce the video, which was shot at People’s Grocery in West Oakland.

GMO OMG Film Released Today

/ Ren

“GMO OMG could be the film that bridges the knowledge gap for hundreds of thousands of Americans and allows us to reach that tipping point..” — Yahoo! Voices

GMO OMG director and concerned father Jeremy Seifert is in search of answers. How do GMOs affect our children, the health of our planet, and our freedom of choice? And perhaps the ultimate question, which Seifert tests himself: is it even possible to reject the food system currently in place, or have we lost something we can’t gain back? These and other questions take Seifert on a journey from his family’s table to Haiti, Paris, Norway, and the lobby of agra-giant Monsanto, from which he is unceremoniously ejected. Along the way we gain insight into a question that is of growing concern to citizens the world over: what’s on your plate?

Thin Line

/ Ren

“Every ten seconds,
someone dies from diabetes
and in the time it’s taken me to recite this poem
fifteen people have died.”

Watch Ivori Holson outline the harmful effects of a sugary drink diet in “Thin Line” written and performed by Ivori for the Bigger Picture project, a collaboration between Youth Speaks and UCSF’s Center for Vulnerable Populations.

Sugary drinks are the number one source of calorie’s in young people’s diets. Drinking one or two sugary drinks each day increases the risk of type 2 diabetes by about 25%. Nearly 1 in 2 children of color born in the year 2000 will get diabetes in their lifetime…unless we do something about it. Raise your voice and join the conversation about diabetes.

Soil Carbon Cowboys

/ Ren

Via Rural Madison

Intensive Grazing in Northern Vermont using tumble wheel electric fence.

Intensive Grazing in using tumble wheel electric fence.

Meet Allen Williams, Gabe Brown and Neil Dennis – heroes and innovators! These ranchers now know how to regenerate their soils while making their animals healthier and their operations more profitable. They are turning ON their soils, enabling rainwater to sink into the earth rather than run off. And these turned ON soils retain that water, so the ranches are much more resilient in drought. It’s an amazing story that has just begun.

 
“Why do I want to go out and spend thousands upon thousands of dollars every year on synthetic fertilizer when I can grow these crops for just the cost of the seed? They’ll make the nitrogen for me and then my livestock will come around and eat these plants, convert it to dollars for me to sell,” said Brown, a rancher from Bismarck, ND, which gets fewer than 17 inches of annual rainfall. “So, I’m getting all my fertilizer, basically for a profit because I’m making money off these crops.”

Farm-City, State

/ Ren

Farm-City, StateFarm-City, State asks the question, ‘What if an entire city could feed itself?’

Come join us as we explore Austin’s local food scene and see how it will grow into the future. How do you feed an entire city? These people have an answer and the feature film will explore scalability, distribution, consumer education and the future of food in Austin, Texas.

Learn about the characters in the local food scene that have changed the face of food in Austin over the past 6 years. Watch the journey of one local urban farmer that starts in a backyard and grows to a larger piece of land in East Austin. Enjoy the adventures of a family of 5 that sources local food for 30 days – and how they like or dislike it?

This dynamic adventure will help you understand where Austin fits into the local food scene that is sweeping the nation.

farmcitystate.com

Asian slave labour producing shrimp for US supermarkets

/ Ren

A six-month Guardian multimedia investigation has, for the first time, tracked how some of the world’s big-supermakets are using suppliers relying on slave labour to put cheap shrimp on their shelves.

The investigation has established that large numbers of men bought and sold like animals and held against their will on fishing boats off Thailand are integral to the production of prawns (commonly called shrimp in the US) sold in leading supermarkets around the world, including the top four global retailers: Walmart, Carrefour, Costco and Tesco.

Slavery is back and here’s the proof..


 
Learn more

Wrong Mine, Wrong Place

/ Ren

Tens of millions of salmon are beginning to return to the streams, rivers and headwaters of the Bristol Bay Fisheries Reserve in Alaska. They are in the final stage of completing a life cycle that began years earlier in the very same location and as long as the spawning grounds are intact and protected, these runs will continue to thrive forever.

 
But this vast, pristine habitat—home to one of the most important salmon fisheries in the world— is facing a catastrophic threat. Given massive discoveries of gold and copper deep below the surface of Bristol Bay’s headwaters, a foreign mining conglomerate called the Pebble Partnership plans to build North America’s largest open pit mine. Should toxic mining waste from the Pebble Mine find its way into the watershed, the effects would prove catastrophic to salmon and the entire ecosystem.

Learn more..

New certification tells you which restaurants give extra food to those in need

/ Ren

By Holly Richmond

Plenty of restaurants advertise the sustainable practices that went into making their food, but what about what happens to the unsold leftovers? Food Recovery Certified is a new program that tells you via a sticker on the front door if your fave lunch spot donates its extra food to those in need.

Food Recovery Certified is a project of The Food Recovery Network, a national network of college students taking cafeteria leftovers to homeless people. Founder Ben Simon started the group in 2011, at the University of Maryland. (The network’s saved more than 320,000 pounds of food from the dump in its first three years.)

Patriotism on a Plate

/ Ren

“Are we allergic to food or what’s been done to it?”

Do you know what you are eating? In this extraordinary personal account, Robyn O’Brien tells the story of how she started paying attention to what’s in our food. The answer may surprise you and it will certainly inspire you to be more deliberate about your food choices.

“In the absence of the truth, all of us stand helpless to defend ourselves, our families and our health, which is the greatest gift we have. Robyn O’Brien’s courageous pursuit is an example of how we can all do our parts to protect the health of our families.” —Erin Brockovich

Food Chains

/ Ren

Food Chains

There is more interest in food in the United States today than at any time in our history. Yet, there is very little interest in the hands that pick our food – the hundreds of thousands of people to whom we are all connected through our purchases at grocery stores, farmers’ markets and restaurants.

Food Chains explores critical human rights issues in American agriculture from wage theft to modern-day slavery and exposes the powers that perpetuate these un-American violations of human dignity. The film stars dozens of farmworkers as well as Eva Longoria (Executive Producer), Dolores Huerta, Eric Schlosser, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Barry Estabrook, and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.

Amplify Austin for Meals on Wheels and More

/ Ren
March 20-21, 2014

Amplify AustinMeals on Wheels and More

Did you know that the Austin area has the second fastest growing senior citizen population in the nation? This explosive growth means demand for Meals on Wheels and More’s life-sustaining services will continue to grow as the number of older adults living here increases. Your generous support of our mission helps us meet that need and allows our clients to stay in their own homes instead of living in an assisted living facility.

Changing the Way We Eat

/ Ren

Changing The Way We Eat

TEDxManhattan, “Changing the Way We Eat” will feature a dynamic group of speakers addressing issues in sustainable food and farming.  As in the past 3 years, TEDxManhattan will promote innovative work being done by groups large and small, for-profit and nonprofit, from around the country. Speakers include Top Chef judge Tom Colicchio, LAUSD Director David Binkle, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, and many others.

The event will be webcast worldwide live from New York City on Saturday, March 1, 2014 from 10:30am-6:30pm EST.

Rather than watch the webcast alone at your computer, why not host a viewing party; invite friends over so you can join the discussion and join the global Twitter conversation @TEDxManhattan (hashtag #TEDxMan) or engage on our Facebook page.

Cesar Chavez, American Hero

/ Ren

Senator Robert F. Kennedy described Cesar Chavez as “one of the heroic figures of our time.”

A true American hero, Cesar was a civil rights, Latino and farm labor leader; a genuinely religious and spiritual figure; a community organizer and social entrepreneur; a champion of militant nonviolent social change; and a crusader for the environment and consumer rights.

Cesar’s motto, “Si se puede!” (“Yes, it can be done!”), coined during his 1972 fast in Arizona, embodies the uncommon legacy he left for people around the world.

A first-generation American, he was born on March 31, 1927, near his family’s small homestead in the North Gila River Valley outside Yuma, Arizona. At age 11, his family lost their farm during the Great Depression and became migrant farm workers. Throughout his youth and into adulthood, Cesar traveled the migrant streams throughout California laboring in the fields, orchards and vineyards, where he was exposed to the hardships and injustices of farm worker life..

Cesar Chavez

Change how you eat, change the world!

/ Ren

Change how you eat, change the world!A better-food movement is spreading across our country. And you can be a part of it.

The new documentary, Food Patriots, follows average American families who are changing how and what they eat – and having fun doing it. You don’t have to be a farmer, earthy-crunchy or an activist. You just have to commit to eating 10 percent local and sustainable, and things will start changing.

We’ll be streaming this film on the Internet for FREE at 7 p.m. CST, Wednesday, Feb. 26th. Afterward, we’ll be holding a Twitter chat with the filmmakers, Consumers Union staff and other organizations on ways we can all get involved and make a difference.

Register here, and we’ll remind you before the film begins so you don’t miss it.
 

Sugar: The Bitter Truth

/ Ren

“The truth is that even though our foods have been scientifically manipulated to have lower amounts of fat (whatever type it may be), they (the food industry) are replacing those fats with carbohydrates or fructose, which doubles as fat and sugar. What’s more, he’s come to prove that the effects of fructose have nothing to do with calories, and everything to do with our body’s aversion to it.” -Chef Marcus Samuelsson

Robert H. Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, explores the damage caused by sugary foods. He argues that fructose (too much) and fiber (not enough) appear to be cornerstones of the obesity epidemic through their effects on insulin.

International Diabetes Federation

Rosemary Gladstar’s Fire Cider

/ Ren

 
Fire Cider

Fire Cider is a traditional cold remedy with deep roots in folk medicine. The tasty combination of vinegar infused with powerful immune-boosting, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-viral, decongestant, and spicy circulatory movers makes this recipe especially pleasant and easy to incorporate into your daily diet to help boost the immune system, stimulate digestion, and get you nice and warmed up on cold days.

This is a perfect remedy for someone who needs a fiery kick to his or her immune system.

Ingredients

1/2 cup fresh grated organic ginger root
1/2 cup fresh grated organic horseradish root
1 medium organic onion, chopped
10 cloves of organic garlic, crushed or chopped
2 organic jalapeno peppers, chopped
Zest and juice from 1 organic lemon
Several sprigs of fresh organic rosemary or 2 tbsp of dried rosemary leaves
1 tbsp organic turmeric powder
organic apple cider vinegar
raw local honey to taste

Directions

Prepare all of your cold-fighting roots, fruits, and herbs and place them in a quart sized jar. If you’ve never grated fresh horseradish, be prepared for a powerful sinus opening experience! Use a piece of natural parchment paper or wax paper under the lid to keep the vinegar from touching the metal. Shake well! Store in a dark, cool place for one month and remember to shake daily.

After one month, use cheesecloth to strain out the pulp, pouring the vinegar into a clean jar. Be sure to squeeze as much of the liquid goodness as you can from the pulp while straining. Next, comes the honey! Add 1/4 cup of honey and stir until incorporated. Taste your cider and add another 1/4 cup until you reach the desired sweetness.

 
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Citizen Voices Matter

/ Ren

@MidwestAdvocate

People in northern Wisconsin have worked to create a sustainable economy in the state’s iconic Northwoods. But their livelihoods could be threatened by environmental damage caused by a proposed open-pit iron mine.

This is the story of Hermit Creek, Landis and Steven Spickerman’s organic, family farm, which is located near the proposed mine site. In 2013, public officials ignored the community’s objections when they passed a law deregulating iron mining in the state, but you can help to make these voices be heard.

At the center of the debate over the use or protection of our natural resources is a coveted, 21-mile iron ore deposit that lies in Wisconsin’s Penokee Hills. The Gogebic Iron Range stretches between the community of Upson and Mineral Lake, and includes the headwaters of the Bad River, a beautiful, pristine and sacred river that supplies the ground and surface waters of a watershed that reaches across Ashland and Iron counties, the Bad River Tribe of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians’ reservation and Lake Superior’s largest wild rice beds in the Kakagon Sloughs. Lake Superior is the world’s largest freshwater lake.

The wooded hills and complex watershed not only supply the drinking water for private wells, but also are the basis for the agricultural, forestry and tourism industries. Those who are working for a sustainable economic future and to protect the Bad River watershed see an open-pit iron mine as something that may bring short-term jobs, but will cause long-term damage to the region. A mine is not a done deal, however. Please share this film and help others learn about this vision for a future economy that can sustain this and future generations.

Learn more about the proposed iron mine in Wisconsin’s Penokee Hills:
http://midwestadvocates.org/issues-ac…

How chemicals have invaded our lives

/ Ren

unacceptable-levels

“Unacceptable Levels is a hugely important film… Sadly, most Americans are misinformed or not informed at all about how many toxic chemicals we are being exposed to 24 hours a day. These toxins are making us sick and quite simply our lives are being threatened. We need to stand up and speak out. We must demand a healthy environment for ourselves and for our children. Unacceptable Levels poignantly reveals how chemicals have invaded our lives.”

Becoming The Change We Want To See—Austin’s Whirlaway Farm

/ Ren

Dear lovers of life’s diversity and lovers of freedom,

It is time to organise and concentrate our energies to liberate our seeds and our food from the toxic, greedy and lethal clutches of global corporations like Monsanto; from the laws the corporations are writing, stealing our democracies in order to steal our seeds and food, our health and livelihoods, our cultures and our lives. We need to break from the sense of powerlessness the corporations would like us to experience to make us believe they are all powerful and we have no power to change. But we do. We just have to combine our collective energies. We must become the change we want to see. -Dr. Vandana Shiva

Austin’s Whirlaway Farm & Garden has a dream of rehabilitation, reclamation and restoration .  Let’s help them realize it!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/994554692/whirlaway-farm-an-adventure-in-homesteading

A century ago in the United States, almost everyone knew how to grow, build, and make things. Produce was local, and there was an astonishing variety of it available. Gardeners and farmers alike saved seed and shared it with friends and neighbors. Food tasted different, because it was different. Things have changed. The art of growing, building, and making things by hand is being lost..

Whirlaway Farm

Encore: Wendell Berry, Poet & Prophet

/ Ren

A version of this program originally aired October 4, 2013.

In this week’s Moyers & Company, Bill Moyers profiles one of America’s most influential writers, a passionate advocate for the earth, whose prolific career includes more than forty books of poetry, novels, short stories and essays.

Wendell BerryWendell Berry, whom environmental activist Bill McKibben calls “a prophet of responsibility,” lives and works on the Kentucky farm where his family has lived for 200 years. In addition to being a man of letters, Berry is also one of action. In 2011, he joined a four-day sit-in at the Kentucky governor’s office to protest the mountaintop removal of coal.

“He is one of — if not — the great writer at work in American letters right now. He understood what was happening on this planet a long time before everybody else,” says McKibben.

“The world and our life in it are conditional gifts. We have the world to live in and the use of it on the condition that we will take good care of it,” Berry tells Bill. “And to know it and to be willing to take care of it, we have to love it.”

Wendell Berry: Poet & Prophet is a collaboration between Mannes Productions, Inc. and Schumann Media Center, Inc., headed by Bill Moyers, which supports independent journalism and media programs to advance the understanding of the critical issues of democracy for the benefit of the public.

Is This the End of Real Food?

/ Ren

 

The effects of eating genetically engineered (GE) foods are still largely unknown. The studies that led to the market release of certain genetically modified seeds were conducted by the same companies that manufacture the seeds themselves, and the raw data for these tests have not been released for the public to see. There have been independent, peer-reviewed studies that suggest that there could be harmful effects to human health caused by the use of GMOs and the chemical pesticides and herbicides that go along with them, but again, there has not been enough research done and the jury is still out. Also, without labeling GE foods, we cannot associate any health problems with people who ate them — because we do not know who ate them. Since the FDA has no way to track adverse health effects in people consuming GE foods, and because there is no requirement that food containing GE ingredients be labeled, there is no effective way to gather data on health problems that may be happening.

BuyTickets

26 Films Every Food Activist Must Watch

/ Ren

A tip-of-the-toque to Austin’s Chef Alain Braux

Films and short videos are a powerful way of increasing awareness of and interest in the food system. With equal parts technology and artistry, filmmakers can bring an audience to a vegetable garden in Uganda, a fast food workers’ rights protest in New York City, or an urban farm in Singapore. And animation can help paint a picture of what a sustainable, just, and fair food system might look like. Film is an incredible tool for effecting change through transforming behaviors and ways of thinking.

There are many incredible films educating audiences about changes being made – or that need to be made – in the food system.

Anna Lappé and Food Mythbusters, for example, just released a new animated short film on how “Big Food” marketing targets children and teenagers, filling their diets with unhealthy processed food products – and what parents, teachers, and communities can do to combat it.

In addition to Lappé’s timely and compelling call to action, Food Tank has selected 26 films – both long and short – to share with you. From the importance of land rights for smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa to the insidious dominance of fast food in an urban community in California, each of these films can inform and inspire eaters all over the world. We ask that you, in turn, share this list with your networks in order that they may reach an even wider audience.

Continue reading →

Wendell Berry on Fossil Fuels, Sustainable Agriculture and ‘Runaway Capitalism’

/ Ren

This week on Moyers & Company in a rare television interview, Bill Moyers talks to visionary author and farmer Wendell Berry to discuss a sensible, but no-compromise plan to save the Earth.

Calling for immediate action to end industrial farming and return to the sustainable farming methods of years past, Berry says: “People who own the world outright for profit will have to be stopped; by influence, by power, by us.”

Anna Lappé Exposes Big Food Marketing

/ Ren

Corporate Accountability International is partnering with Anna Lappé, the Food MythBusters and a coalition of leading food & farming groups to launch a short film about Big Food marketing junk to kids TONIGHT at 8 pm EST on foodmyths.org

The film exposes the fast-food industry’s aggressive marketing to children (driving an epidemic of diabetes & obesity) and shows how parents, communities, and teachers can stand up for a better food system and for real food.



The film will be followed by a live on-line conversation.

Corporate Accountability International
10 Milk Street, Suite 610
Boston, MA 02108
617-695-2525 (Main)
617-695-2626 (Fax)
http://www.StopCorporateAbuse.org/

Fortnight of Action for Seed and Food Freedom

/ Ren

Dear lovers of life’s diversity and lovers of freedom,

It is time to organise and concentrate our energies to liberate our seeds and our food from the toxic, greedy and lethal clutches of global corporations like Monsanto; from the laws the corporations are writing, stealing our democracies in order to steal our seeds and food, our health and livelihoods, our cultures and our lives. We need to break from the sense of powerlessness the corporations would like us to experience to make us believe they are all powerful and we have no power to change. But we do. We just have to combine our collective energies. We must become the change we want to see.

I invite you to unleash your creative energies during the Fortnight of Action for Seed Freedom and Food Freedom – 2nd October to 16th October.

2nd October is Gandhi’s birth anniversary. Gandhi left us the legacy of “Swaraj”- self-organised freedom and “Satyagraha”- the force of truth. Let us dedicate ourselves to celebrating 2nd October as the day for a worldwide “Seed Satyagraha”. A day when we defend Seed Freedom and Food Freedom by identifying every regional law written by corporations to undermine these freedoms by criminalizing diversity, seed saving and seed exchange, farmers innovations and farmers rights; whilst establishing illegitimate seed monopolies through patents and privileging of uniformity and monocultures.

After having identified laws for seed slavery, let us commit ourselves to not obey these unethical and brute laws which threaten life on earth, including our lives and the lives of our children. Gandhi had reminded us 100 years ago, that “As long as the superstition remains that unjust laws must be obeyed, so long will slavery exist”. We have a dream, and our dream is that every seed, every bee, every butterfly, every earthworm, every person, every child be free of manipulation and control, hunger and disease; that they evolve and co-evolve in freedom, well-being and health. We must not allow ourselves to be subjected to the superstition that Monsanto Laws must be obeyed. For the sake of Gaia’s laws, of life’s renewal in freedom and the laws of justice, it is our ecological and ethical duty to disobey Monsanto’s laws. And while resisting and not co-operating with destructive laws of seed dictatorship, let us celebrate Seed Freedom and Food Freedom through adopting The Law of the Seed and creating Gardens of Hope – seed sanctuaries – and GMO-free, patent free Seed Freedom Zones.

On 12th October we will self-organise to March against Monsanto across the world, like we did on the 25th May.

16th October is World Food Day. Monsanto and other Biotech giants have been foolish and arrogant enough to award themselves The World Food Prize they sponsor that day. Let us give Real Food Prizes to Real Food Heroes in our communities, who bring us real and healthy food instead. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, 72% of the food that people eat comes from small farms and gardens. We can make the 72% a 100% by saving Seeds of Freedom and planting Gardens of Hope everywhere. Industrial agriculture driven by corporations has destroyed 75% of the planet’s biodiversity resulting in hunger and disease. 1 billion are hungry, 2 billion suffer from food related diseases. This is not a food system that brings us life and health. It is a greed and profit-driven, commodity producing system that has unleashed death and destruction. We have to stop this destruction. There is no place for poisons and corporate slavery in the food system. We are what we eat.

Our seeds and food are vital to life. We cannot afford to allow the destruction of the planet and our health to continue. We cannot allow seed slavery and food dictatorship to continue. We must take back our seeds, our food, our freedom.

With love and strength to each and every one of you to evolve your highest powers and unleash your highest creative and collaborative energies, so that together we shape a food system that protects life on earth, our small farmers, our health and our future.

Vandana Shiva

Seeds of Death: Unveiling The Lies of GMO’s

/ Ren

The world’s leading Scientists, Physicians, Attorneys, Politicians and Environmental Activists expose the corruption and dangers surrounding the widespread use of Genetically Modified Organisms in the new feature length documentary, “Seeds of Death: Unveiling the Lies of GMOs”.

Willie Nelson Benefit Concert for Local Food Hub

/ Ren

Live & Kickin'

Willie Nelson & Family to Raise Funds for Local Food Hub with Benefit Concert

On Sunday, September 15, 2013, Austin’s country music legend Willie Nelson will headline a benefit concert for Charlottesville’s  Local Food Hub at the nTelos Wireless Pavilion. His son’s band, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, will open the show.

 

[vimeo 67133685]

Hungry for Change [Trailer]

/ Ren

Your Health is in Your Hands

Hungry For Change exposes shocking secrets the diet, weight loss and food industry don’t want you to know about. It features interviews with best selling health authors and leading medical experts (including 4 Food Revolution Summit speakers) plus real life transformational stories from those who know what it’s like to be sick and overweight.

More than 500,000 people are expected to watch this film in the next week, all for f*ree.

You can check it out here.

This Hungry For Change complimentary screening event includes the Full Length Film, Detox Recipes, Take Action Videos, and a Live Q&A call that will empower you to take action for health and wellness.

The event starts tomorrow.

Four Questions Voters Should Ask About Prop 37

/ Ren

We have a fundamental right to know what’s in the food we eat and feed our families. Tomorrow’s the day to vote it into law!

Clear facts about proposition 37

No Cost to Consumers

Companies change their labeling all the time, and independent research shows Prop 37 will not affect food prices. Read more »

Nurses Support Prop 37

Genetically Modified Organisms are linked to allergies, organ toxicity, and other health problems. The Food and Drug Administration has said “providing more information to consumers about bioengineered foods would be useful.” Read more »

No New Bureaucracy

Prop 37 is self-enforced and requires no new bureaucracy. The state official analyst has said any costs for enforcement would range from 1 to 3 cents per year for each Californian. Read more »

No Loopholes

Prop 37 requires labeling for genetically engineered foods for the groceries you buy. The initiative contains exemptions from labeling requirements for practical purposes, such as food served in restaurants. Read more »

Backed by Consumers

Prop 37 is supported by consumers, farmers, nurses and many more. It is opposed by Monsanto, Dow, and foreign chemical companies spending millions to confuse us. Read more »

Just label the damn food!

/ Ren

Our friends at Food and Water Watch have sponsored an entertaining and powerful new Yes on 37 video, featuring Danny DeVito, Bill Maher, Dave Matthews, Jillian Michaels, Kristen Bauer van Straten, Emily Deschanel, Kaitlin Olson, Glenn Howerton,  John Cho, Michelle Michaela and KaDee Strickland poking fun at the ludicrous arguments against our right to know what’s in our food.

We’re excited to have them join millions of Californians in demanding the right to know what’s in our food, even if our “puny little heads would explode.”

Please enjoy, share and DONATE to help us get the truth out to California voters. Remember, as goes California, so goes the nation!

Paid for by Yes on 37 For Your Right to Know if Your Food Has Been Genetically Engineered – Supported by Consumer Advocates Makers of Organic Products and California Farmers, Major funding by Mercola Health Resources LLC and Organic Consumers Fund. 5940 College Ave, Suite F , Oakland, CA 94618, United States

G.M.O.’s: Let’s Label ’Em

/ Ren

We have a fundamental right to know

what’s in the food we eat

NEW YORK TIMES, Sept. 15, By MARK BITTMAN

IT’S not an exaggeration to say that almost everyone wants to see the labeling of genetically engineered materials contained in their food products. And on Nov. 6, in what’s unquestionably among the most important non-national votes this year, Californians will have the opportunity to make that happen — at least in theory — by weighing in on Proposition 37.

Prop 37’s language is clear on two points: it would require “labeling on raw or processed food offered for sale to consumers if made from plants or animals with genetic material changed in specified ways.” And it would prohibit marketing “such food, or other processed food, as ‘natural.’ ” (For now, let’s ignore the vast implications of the phrase “or other processed food,” lest we become overexcited, except to say that the literal interpretation of that sentence has the processed food manufacturers’ collective hair on fire.)

Polls show Prop 37 to be overwhelmingly popular: roughly 65 percent for to 20 percent against, with 15 percent undecided. Nationally, on the broader issue of labeling, in answer to the question of whether the Food and Drug Administration should require that “foods which have been genetically engineered or containing genetically engineered ingredients be labeled to indicate that,” a whopping 91 percent of voters say yes and 5 percent say no. This is as nonpartisan as an issue gets, and the polls haven’t changed much in the last couple of years.

Unsurprisingly, Big Food in general — and particularly companies like Monsanto that produce genetically engineered seeds and the ultraprofitable herbicides, pesticides and other materials that in theory make those seeds especially productive — have already thrown  tens of millions of dollars into defeating Prop 37. On the other side is a relatively underfunded coalition led by California Right to Know, which collected the necessary million-plus (yes!) signatures to get the proposition on the ballot. Although television advertising has just begun and its advocates would never say so, at the moment the bill seems assured of passage. Excellent.

Read the rest..

Yes on 37!

The Problem with Genetically-Modified Seeds

/ Ren

Bill Moyers recently spoke with my personal hero Dr. Vandana Shiva on the latest battleground in the war on Planet Earth. I encourage you to pull up a chair and really listen to what is said here..

Visit the Just Label It! website to find out more about the current FDA policy, 8 things that you can do to get involved and how to spread the word.

If you live in California, Prop 37, a proposal to label foods with genetically engineered ingredients will appear on the state ballot on Nov. 6. Learn more about the campaign at the CA Right to Know website.

Read more about Senator Bernie Sanders’s (I-VT) proposed amendment to the 2012 Farm Bill that would have explicitly allowed individual states to require the labeling of foods containing GM ingredients. It got voted down last week in Congress.

source: http://billmoyers.com/content/labeling-gmo-foods/

The CAFO – MRSA Connection

/ Ren

Americans are under threat from antibiotic-resistant superbugs, making us vulnerable to common, once treatable infections (such as MRSA). A remarkable 80 percent of antibiotics sold in the U.S. are used not by humans, but by the meat and poultry industries so factory farm animals can grow faster and survive the crowded and unsanitary conditions found in Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs).

This is creating superbugs on the farm and humans are exposed in a number of ways, including when we handle or eat undercooked meat. Our life-saving drugs are becoming less effective when we really need them. Unfortunately, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has refused to take meaningful action to restrict the use of unnecessary antibiotics in livestock production.

The “natural” label has nothing to do with how an animal was raised.  The USDA requires only that no coloring or artificial ingredients are added to the final meat or poultry product and that it be “minimally processed” (although salt water can be added).

“Natural” meat or poultry products can definitely be given antibiotics in their feed or water while being raised—and can also be raised in confined spaces with thousands of other animals, given hormones and other drugs, fed animal by-products and subjected to many other unnatural practices.

Consumers should beware of several labels that are unapproved by the USDA, such as “antibiotic-free” and “no antibiotic residues”, that could mislead them to think a product was raised without any antibiotics, when in fact that may not be the case.  –Consumer’s Union

If you choose to eat meat, please be a conscientious consumer.  The best sources of clean, healthy animal products are generally those that are organic, grass-fed, often sold at farmers’ markets or CSA-style meat-shares (visit Eatwild,  LocalHarvest or Real Time Farms to find resources in your area).

Related articles

Chicken Canzanese, Toasted Fennel/Shallot Brown Rice

/ Ren

Originally a peasant dish (perhaps of stewing hen or rooster) from the Abruzzo region in Italy, Americans were likely  first introduced to this classic in a 1969 article from the New York Times.

My riff on America’s Test Kitchen’s modern adaptation (see video below) uses locally pastured chicken thighs, prosciutto, garlic, fresh herbs, chicken stock and white wine, all served over fennel-scented brown rice with toasted shallots and flat-leaf parsley..

Pollo Canzanese (serves 2-4)

4 large skin-on, bone-in, pastured chicken breasts
2 ounces prosciutto, cut into 1/4-inch dice
2-3 cloves garlic, slivered (not minced)
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 teaspoons sprouted wheat or spelt flour
1-1/4 cups dry white wine
3/4 cup homemade chicken stock
2 bay leaves (fresh preferred)
2 sprigs rosemary, stripped, leaves chopped (reserve the stems)
8 leaves fresh sage
3 whole cloves
juice of 1/2 fresh lemon
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon cultured butter, cold
freshly-cracked black pepper

Rinse chicken and pat dry. Refrigerate, uncovered 4 hours or overnight to help ensure a crispy skin when cooked.

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat until shimmering.  Add prosciutto and sauté until lightly brown, about 2 minutes.  Add garlic and sauté 1 minute more.  Use a slotted spoon to transfer the prosciutto and garlic to a side dish.

Return the pan to the heat and add the remaining tablespoon of olive oil.  Once the oil is shimmering, season the chicken with pepper and place in the hot oil skin-side down.  Allow the chicken to cook without moving until golden brown, about 5-6 minutes. Turn the chicken over cook another 5 minutes, again without moving.  Transfer the chicken to a side dish.

Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of olive oil/fat, reserving the remainder for the rice.

Sprinkle the flour into the pan and whisk continuously to form a light roux, about 1 minute.

De-glaze the pan with the wine, taking care to scrape up all the brown bits (the fond) from the bottom.

Add the cooked prosciutto and garlic back into the pan along with the bay leaves, sage, cloves, rosemary stems (without leaves) and red pepper flakes. Stir to combine.

Add the chicken to the pan, making sure that the volume of liquid is sufficient to rise to a point just below the crisp chicken skin.  Pour a little liquid off if there’s too much, or add a little stock if there isn’t enough.

Place the uncovered pan into a 325 degree oven and cook until the chicken is fork tender, about 1 hour.

Meanwhile, prepare the rice..

1 cup germinated brown rice, rinsed
2-1/4 cups chicken stock
2 tablespoons shallots, chopped
1 tablespoon reserved oil/fat
1 teaspoon fennel seeds, cracked
2 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf parsley

Toast the fennel in a heavy-bottomed saucepan set over medium heat until fragrant, about 1 minute.

Add the reserved oil/fat and shallots and cook until lightly browned, about 2 minutes.

Add the rice and stir to coat.

Add the stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until done, about 45 minutes.

To Finish and Serve

Remove the pan with the chicken from the oven.  Transfer the chicken to a platter and cover with foil.

Working quickly, put the chicken pan on the burner over medium-high heat. Pick out and discard the cloves, sage, bay and rosemary stems.

Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the lemon juice, chopped rosemary leaves, parsley and butter and whisk until smooth.

Line a platter with the rice and ladle the sauce over the rice.  Place the cooked chicken on top of the rice, drizzle with a little of the sauce and serve piping hot.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Here’s that video..

Just Label It!

/ Ren

More than HALF the foods at U.S. grocery stores are likely to contain genetically engineered ingredients, but you wouldn’t know it because the industry-run FDA doesn’t require labels for foods with genetically engineered (GE) ingredients  (also called genetically modified organisms  or GMOs).

In America, we pride ourselves on having choices and making informed decisions. Under current FDA regulations, we don’t have that choice when it comes to GE ingredients in the foods we purchase and feed our families. Labeling is essential for us to choose whether or not we want to consume or feed our families genetically engineered foods.

Focusing on transparency, trust, and truth, Gary Hirshberg (Stonyfield Farm President and Just Label It partner) pointed to the $30 million public relations campaign underway by the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance to fight the negative impression of big agribusiness, including the companies that produce GE seeds.  He emphasized that there should be a $30 million effort for transparency to build more truth and trust for consumers.  He noted Americans are looking for it everywhere, which is evidenced by the growth in organic food, farmers’ markets, community supported agriculture, and the amount of coverage in major publications, like the New York Times, about our food system.

Related articles

“We Are Farmers, We Grow Food For The People”

/ Ren

“On December 4, 2011, farmers and activists from across the country joined the Occupy Wall Street Farmers March for ‘a celebration of community power to regain control over the most basic element to human well-being: food.'”

The Farmers’ March began at La Plaza Cultural Community Gardens where urban and rural farmers addressed an excited crowd about the growing problems in our industrial food system and the promise offered by solutions based in organic, sustainable and community based food and agricultural production. This was followed by a 3-mile march from the East Village to Zuccotti Park, the birthplace of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

This is what happens when farmers join with their urban allies – Together we are Unstoppable! Please join the movement and spread the word!

Produced by Food Democracy Now!
Directed by Anthony Lappé, INVISIBLE HAND
In association with No Umbrella Films
InvisibleHandMedia.net

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Charcuterie – A Documentary

/ Ren

Another gorgeously-produced, compelling story from award-winning Austin director Christian Remde  – Charcuterie – A Documentary..

“Charcuterie is defined as the cookery of meat but in the past 700 years, it’s become so much more.  From the Pâtés and Terrines of France to the Salumi of Italy and Spain, the world of Charcuterie is rich with tradition.  This short documentary highlights two of Charcuterie’s rising stars, Lawrence and Lee Ann Kocurek of Kocurek Family Charcuterie in Austin, Texas.”

With their deeply-traditional, yet contemporary interpretations,  I can tell you from personal experience that Kocurek Family Charcuterie are artisans in the finest sense of that term.  From Chorizo Verde to Currywurst to Cheek-to-Cheek Terrine (and well beyond),  Lawrence and Lee Ann’s passion for their craft is evident in every morsel of their hand-crafted goods.  Find @KFACharcuterie at Austin area Farmer’s Markets or online at http://www.kocurekfamilycharcuterie.com/.  Pass the duck rillettes, please!   –Ren

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The GMO Film Project

/ Ren

“This is one to watch…”  says  Slow Food Los Angeles

“Today in the United States, by the simple act of feeding ourselves, we unwittingly participate in the largest experiment ever conducted on human beings. Massive agro-chemical companies like Monsanto (Agent Orange) and Dow (Napalm) are feeding us genetically-modified food, GMOs, that have never been fully tested and aren’t labeled. This small handful of corporations is tightening their grip on the world’s food supply—buying, modifying, and patenting seeds to ensure total control over everything we eat. We still have time to heal the planet, feed the world, and live sustainably. But we have to start now! “

For more information (and another great video!), please visit The GMO Film Project. To help see this important work completed, please visit Kickstarter.

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Day of Action! October 16th, 2011

/ Ren

October 16th, 2011 (World Food Day) is expected to be the largest nationwide day of action against genetic engineering in US history!

“As a citizen concerned about the health, environmental, ethical, and socio-economic hazards of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and industrial-scale factory farms or CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations), I feel strongly that consumers have an inalienable right to know whether the food we are purchasing likely contains GM ingredients or comes from animals confined in CAFOs.” —Millions Against Monsanto Petition

Related articles

Insalata Caprese (film)

/ Ren

Here’s a lovely little film that I ran across last night on Cooking Up a Story

Out of death new possibilities emerge…

Shot on location in an alternate universe between time and space, poetic moments of life are snapped into consciousness; the public market becomes a garden from which love springs forth.

INSALATA CAPRESE (12minutes)
Written & Directed by
Jesse Roesler
Executive Producer: David Matenaer
Starring: Matthew Amendt, Val Mudek and Barbara June Patterson

Queen of the Sun [Documentary Trailer, HD]

/ Ren

What are the bees telling us? Crank it up!

About the film

About the film

In 1923, Rudolf Steiner, a scientist, philosopher & social innovator, predicted that in 80 to 100 years honeybees would collapse.  His prediction has come true with Colony Collapse Disorder, where bees are disappearing in mass numbers from their hives with no clear single explanation.  In an alarming inquiry into the insights behind Steiner’s prediction QUEEN OF THE SUN: What Are the Bees Telling Us? examines the dire global bee crisis through the eyes of biodynamic beekeepers, scientists, farmers, and philosophers.  On a pilgrimage around the world, the film unveils 10,000 years of beekeeping, highlighting how our historic and sacred relationship with bees has been lost due to highly mechanized industrial practices.  Featuring Michael Pollan, Vandana Shiva, Gunther Hauk and beekeepers from around the world, this engaging, alarming and ultimately uplifting film weaves together a dramatic story that uncovers the problems and solutions in renewing a culture in balance with nature..

What’s up, @WholeFoods, #GMOs got your tongue?

Related articles
  • Movie Review: ‘QUEEN OF THE SUN: What Are the Bees Telling Us?’ (movies.nytimes.com)

Farm to Trailer

/ Ren

The word ‘organic’ gets tossed around a lot these days, but what does it really mean for consumers who are looking to eat well, but not spend a lot of money?

Farm To Trailer, a new documentary from local film producer Christian Remde highlights the award-winning Odd Duck food trailer in Austin, Texas and chef Bryce Gilmore’s use of only locally-grown, organic food for their menu. The film also examines the Farm To Table movement, how it’s effecting the Austin food scene and the benefits for consumers.

The film was really cool for me to watch, as it honors some of the very people and causes that I’ve come  depend upon for my own nourishment (indeed, it is where most of the food on this blog comes from).  Thank you, Christian!  Thank you, Austin!

Related articles
  • Farmers’ Markets in Austin (edibleaustin.com)

Help Bring Austin’s Fair Foodistas to Tampa!

/ Ren

If you have eaten a tomato this winter, chances are very good that it was picked by a person who lives in virtual slavery..

“Hey out there to all our allies and supporters,

We at Fair Food Austin are writing today to ask you, our supporters, to think about donating $25 to help students, young people, and low-wage workers from the Austin area attend an upcoming march being called for by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a migrant farmworker organization based in southern Florida.

We’re sure you all recall the Boot the Bell Campaign that the CIW won in 2005, where tomato pickers from Florida and their allies, including folks in Austin, boycotted Taco Bell for four years until the company agreed to stop human rights abuses, low wages, and ensure the end of slavery in their tomato supply chain.  Since then, the CIW and their allies the Student/Farmworker Alliance have together secured agreements with ten major global corporations (including McDonalds, Aramark and Whole Foods), many of which Austin played a crucial role in bringing to the table.  All these agreements work towards ending the poverty wages and abuses endemic to agriculture, and securing more dignity and power for working immigrant families, and have recently been joined and strengthened by agreements with some of the largest tomato growers in Florida!  Needless to say, their struggle has had ripple effects, and serves as an influence and model for other organizations, including Workers Defense Project here in Austin.”

read more..



Words like ‘freedom’, ‘justice’ and ‘democracy’ are not common concepts; on the contrary, they are rare.  People are not born knowing what these are. It takes enormous, and above all, individual effort to arrive at the respect for other people that these words imply. — James Baldwin

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Farmageddon the Documentary

/ Ren

“How much longer should we defer to a governmental agency that has consistently failed to perform its duties?  The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is charged with protecting the American food supply, yet not a week goes by without another food-related health scare seizing headlines across the nation:  listeria in pasteurized milk;  spinach contaminated with E. coli; and potentially unsafe meat from “downer” cattle (animals which are sick or injured and unable to stand).”

“These outbreaks are the results of decades of USDA policy decisions which favor corporations and industrial agriculture over small family farms and local production.  Intensive animal and crop operations can lead to sick animals and tainted vegetables entering the food chain, and regulations which would prevent these incidents are often overlooked when corporate interests are at stake.” –Linda Faillace

[Vimeo 16513455]

http://farmageddonmovie.com/

A film by by Kristin Canty

Featuring Joel Salatin, Jackie Stowers, Mark McAfee, Linda Faillace and Eric Wagoner

Farmageddon
123 Street Ave.
Somerville, MA 02144

Hemp-crusted Wild Alaskan Salmon, Yuzu-Ginger Glaze (and a call to action!)

/ Ren

Wild Alaskan sockeye salmon is pan-seared with hulled hemp seeds, then finished in a hot oven with a sauce of freshly-squeezed yuzu juice, organic tamari and fresh ginger, scallions and shichimi tōgarashi..

Hemp-crusted Wild Alaskan Salmon, Yuzu-Ginger Glaze

Adapted from a recipe by True Food Kitchen

For the Glaze

2 tablespoons freshly-squeezed yuzu juice
1 tablespoon raw palm sugar (to taste, optional)
1 tablespoon yuzu zest
1 tablespoon organic, traditionally fermented tamari
2-3 dashes ume plum vinegar (optional, balance against sugar if using)
1 teaspoon freshly-grated ginger
1/2 teaspoon shichimi togarashi

Put yuzu juice and sugar into a heavy-bottomed saucepan and bring to a low boil.  Lower heat and simmer until reduced in volume by about a third or until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.  Add remaining ingredients (except scallions and coriander leaves), reduce heat to low and simmer 20 minutes.

For the Salmon

Fresh wild Alaskan salmon fillets
Hulled hemp seeds to coat
Raw coconut oil
2 scallions, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon fresh coriander leaves, chopped

Coat salmon fillets with hemp seed then place in refrigerator for 30 minutes.   Heat coconut oil in a heavy skillet over medium heat until shimmering, then place hemp-coated salmon in the hot oil, presentation side down.

Sauté until light golden brown then gently turn over and pour yuzu-ginger glaze over the top.  Place pan with salmon in a 400 degree oven and roast until just done, about 8 minutes depending on thickness.

Transfer cooked fish to dinner plates, then add scrape pan juices into the yuzu-ginger glaze, add scallions and coriander leaves, stir and pour back over the salmon.  Serve immediately.

From Red Gold

“The Bristol Bay region of Southwest Alaska is home to the Kvichak and Nushagak rivers, the two most prolific sockeye salmon runs left in the world.  Foreign mining companies Northern Dynasty Minerals and Anglo American have partnered to propose development of what could be one of the world’s largest open-pit and underground mines at the headwaters of the two river systems.  Mine backers claim the Pebble exploration site is the second largest combined deposit of copper, gold, and molybdenum ever discovered, and has an estimated value of more than $300 billion.

Despite promises of a clean project by officials, the accident-plagued history of hard rock mining has sparked deep concern from Alaskans who love and depend upon Bristol Bay’s incredible wild salmon fishery.  Red Gold documents the growing unrest among Alaska Native, commercial, and sport-fishermen.  It’s a portrait of a unique way of life that will not survive if the salmon don’t return with Bristol Bay’s tide...”

For More Information:

Red Gold Film
www.redgoldfilm.com

Trout Unlimited Alaska
www.savebristolbay.org

Why Wild
www.whywild.org

Renewable Resources Coalition
www.renewableresourcescoalition.org

Earthworks
www.earthworksaction.org

No Dirty Gold
www.nodirtygold.org

The Pebble Partnership
www.pebblepartnership.com

Anchorage Daily News
www.adn.com

Anchorage Daily News, Pebble Blog
http://community.adn.com/adn/blog/61223

Related Articles
  • Fighting the Alaskan wilderness mine | Bobby Andrew and George Wilson Jr (guardian.co.uk)
  • The end of the greatest American fishery? (salon.com)
  • Jewelers Choose Salmon Over Gold (food.change.org)

Classic Chile Verde

/ Ren

Hefty chunks of heritage pork and white onion are seared in a spoonful of seriously hot lard (gasp!) then slowly simmered in their own juices with stock, roasted tomatillos, Poblano and jalapeño peppers, garlic,  cilantro and lime.  Served with fresh white corn tortillas on the side..

Classic Chile Verde

Classic Chile Verde (adapted by recipes by Diana Kennedy and Simply Recipes)

1 pound fatty pork loin or shoulder, cut into 3/4 inch cubes
1 white onion, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 fresh red or orange Anaheim, Poblano or other mild fresh chile (for color, optional)
2 fresh green Anaheim, Poblano or other mild fresh chile
1 fresh jalapeño pepper
1 cup fresh cilantro leaves, loosely packed
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon clean white leaf lard
2 cups homemade chicken stock
1/2 pound fresh tomatillos
1 teaspoon Mexican oregano
1 scant teaspoon freshly squeezed lime juice
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Remove the husks from the tomatillos and rinse under cold water to remove sticky residue. Split tomatillos in half across the equator and arrange cut side up in a foil-lined skillet.  Sprinkle lightly with sea salt then roast along with the green chiles in a 450 degree oven until softened and partially charred.  Set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, melt the lard in a heavy skillet over medium high heat until shimmering.  Add the pork, onions and red or orange pepper and fry without moving until deep golden brown on one side.  Use a tong or slotted spoon to turn the pork and onions over and continue to cook until well browned on the other side.  Reduce heat to medium low, add the garlic and cook one minute.   Add the stock and oregano cover and slowly simmer 60 minutes.

Peel the chiles, discard the stems and seeds and add to a blender or food processor along with the tomatillos and cilantro.  Pulse until mostly smooth, leaving a few small chunks.  Pour blended mixture into the pork and stock and stir to combine.  Simmer  partially covered, stirring occasionally until pork is fork tender, about 30 minutes.  Add lime juice and season to taste to salt and pepper.  Ladle into bowls and serve hot with freshly made corn tortillas.

This post is part of The Nourishing Gourmet’s  Pennywise Platter Thursday!

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Greenling – The Farmers’ Market Delivered

/ Ren

I’m pleased to announce that Mitch’s name (mitch***@gmail.com) was pulled from the virtual hat this morning as the winner of the $50 gift certificate from Greenling Organic Delivery!

Mitch, please email me with your address information and I’ll send you the card right away.

Thank you all for participating, and please be sure to check back soon for another giveaway!

This contest is now closed.

read on for a chance to win a $50 gift certificate..

With three major, year-around farmers’ markets offering a dizzying array of fresh fruits and vegetables, pastured meats, eggs, dairy, artisan cheeses, baked goods (and much, much more), there’s just no tastier place than Austin for the conscientious eater.

But what if you just can’t get to the market?  Enter the organic delivery service.. from Austin, North to Georgetown and South to San Antonio, “if it’s available locally and is organically produced or sustainably raised”, chances are that Greenling Organic Delivery has you covered.

Started in 2005, Greenling offers goods from more than 100 farmers, producers and artisans to thousands of customers (including me!) every week.  A member of Texas Organic Farmers & Gardeners Association and the  Organic Trade Association, Greenling is a major contributor to the success of the sustainable food movement.

Here’s what Skip Connett of nearby Green Gate Farms has to say..

Neat, huh?

In appreciation, I’m giving away one $50 Gift Certificate, valid anywhere Greenling delivers.  To enter your name in the drawing, simply verify your zipcode at Greenling’s website, then come back here and leave a brief comment about what good food means to you.  Contest is open to Texas residents, 18 years old or over, with a mailing address in Greenling’s delivery area.  I’ll draw one winner at random from the eligible entries one week from now.

Pretty Good Cheese for Most Normal People

/ Ren

“Pretty Good Cheese for Most Normal People” is the first line on the website of the Laurel Valley Creamery, a small, family-run operation in America’s heartland.  “This farm became part of our family in 1947 when Nick’s grandparents moved here from Boone County, West Virginia.  Betty and Fuzzy raised their four children, Rodney, Richard, Cathy and Christi here on the farm.  They   milked cows and raised food for both the cows and the family.  Fuzzy and Betty made their living here on the farm; to say they worked hard is an understatement. Nick grew up on the farm working with his grandparents, parents, aunt and uncles. Fuzzy passed away in 1994 and the farm began to decline soon after. In 2001 we moved onto the farm in a care taking capacity and began hobby farming.   In 2003 we purchased the farm from granny and in 2005 we began dairy farming, and in 2009 we began cheese making. We have in no way returned the farm to its former glory, but I hope we are well on the way.”

The Nolans are hoping to produce a feature-length documentary about what its like to try to carry on their family’s farming tradition and to help people renew their relationship with food production.

“From Grass to Cheese is a feature documentary that chronicles the ups and downs of a family-run dairy farm in Ohio during it’s first year of cheese production. From Grass to Cheese will tell the story of Nick and Celeste Nolan, their five children, and what it’s like to start up a family farm in the age of industrial agriculture..

..The current goal is to raise $28,000.00 to complete a feature-length documentary in 2011. This estimated budget would allow the filmmakers 1 to 2 trips per season to the farm (6-8 trips over a year), roughly 5 days per visit, during the first year of cheese production. The estimated budget for the film will help to cover costs including: rental gear, equipment purchases, gas, and in part, post production expenses such as editing, legal, promotions, and film festivals. Upon completion, the film will be sent to festivals and the filmmakers will seek DVD distribution. The film will also be distributed to farming/food advocates in order to spread the philosophies of community based farming..”


Jamie Oliver: Teach every child about food

/ Ren

“I believe that every child in America has the right to fresh, nutritious school meals, and that every family deserves real, honest, wholesome food. Too many people are being affected by what they eat. It’s time for a national revolution. America needs to stand up for better food!”

“I wish for everyone to help create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity”

Join the Revolution

Time’s Almost Up, People!

/ Ren

Act as though your life depends upon it..

“If you’re talking about PCBs, Agent Orange, Bovine Growth Hormone, water privatization, bio-piracy, untested/unlabeled genetically engineered organisms, or persecuting small family farmers”,  you’re most likely talking about Monsanto, the World’s Most Hated  Corporation..

There are about 3 seconds left to join OCA’s campaign to mobilize one million consumers to end Monsanto’s global corporate terrorism.

Sign the Millions Against Monsanto petition, demanding the corporation:

  • Stop intimidating small family farmers.
  • Stop force-feeding untested and unlabeled genetically engineered foods on consumers.
  • Stop using billions of dollars of U.S. taxpayers’ money to subsidize genetically engineered crops–cotton, soybeans, corn and canola.

Bonus! Get the facts about Islam A. Siddiqui, Vice President for Science and Regulatory Affairs at CropLife America (you know, those people who sent letters to Michelle Obama, chastising her for not spraying toxic chemicals on the White House’s organic garden) and current nominee for  Chief Agricultural Negotiator, Office of US Trade Rep.

Chocolate Maya Nut Cake

/ Ren

(you might also like this recipe for Mayan Banana Bread)

“With one tree able to produce as much as 400 pounds of food a year, using the Maya nut prevents rain forest clear-cutting to harvest other foods and increases populations’ food supplies. Dried, the Maya nut can be stored for up to five years — a lifeline for regions with frequent drought.

The Maya nut has high levels of nutrients including protein, calcium, fiber, iron and vitamins A, E, C and B…

It is also less susceptible to climate changes than the crops that had been brought in to replace it.”  -CNN

Chocolate Maya Nut Cake

Chocolate Maya Nut Cake

Adapted from a recipe by The Equilibrium Fund

1 1/2 cups sprouted wheat flour
1/2 cups Maya nut, ground
1/4 cup raw cacao powder
1 teaspoon aluminum-feee baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon true cinnamon
1/3 cup panela or other non-refined sweetener
1 cup strong coffee (use decaf if you prefer)
1/2 cup virgin coconut oil
2 teaspoons coumarin-free Mexican vanilla
2 tablespoons organic cider vinegar

Grease an 8″ deep-dish pie pan (or two 4-inch ramekins) with coconut oil.  Sift together the dry ingredients.  Combine the wet ingredients in a separate bowl, then slowly stir back into the dry ingredients.  Pour the batter into the pie pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 25-30 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.  Take care to not over-bake.  Allow to cool 15 minutes before inverting onto a large plate and glazing.

1 cup grain-sweetened chocolate chips
1 teaspoon coumarin-free Mexican vanilla
2 tablespoons warm, filtered water

Melt the chocolate in a pan set over steaming water. Whisk in vanilla and water, then spoon over cooled cake.  Garnish with coconut flakes, cinnamon and ground, toasted Maya nut.

The Equilibrium Fund in partnership with Alimentos Nutri-Naturales, BanRural, Rainforest Alliance, the Guatemalan Ministry of Education and the Guatemalan Ministry of Agriculture started the Healthy Kids, Healthy Forests Program in September, 2008..

Please visit The Equilibrium Fund to learn more

Giveaway: The Urban Homestead

/ Ren

We have a winner!

Congratulations, Sonya @ hemmingshalfdozen.com! Please send your shipping info to “ren AT ediblearia DOT com” and UPS should be ringing your doorbell in a few days.

Thank you all for participating, and be sure to check back soon for details on the next giveaway!

ps  I’d love to hear any ideas you might have for the next giveaway.  Thanks, everyone!

How You Can Start a Farm in Heart of the City

By Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen, Process Media

urban_homestead_250The Urban Homestead is the essential handbook for a fast-growing new movement: urbanites are becoming gardeners and farmers. By growing their own food and harnessing natural energy, they are planting seeds for the future of our cities.

If you would like to harvest your own vegetables, make homemade jam or bread, raise chickens or convert to solar energy, this practical, hands-on book is full of step-by-step projects that will get you started homesteading immediately, whether you live in an apartment or a house. It is also a guidebook to the larger movement and will point you to the best books and Internet resources on self-sufficiency topics.

Written by city dwellers for city dwellers, this illustrated, smartly designed, two-color instruction book proposes a paradigm shift that will enrich our lives, strengthen our communities, and helps save our planet.

Projects include:
• How to start seeds
• How to compost with worms
• How to grow food on a patio or balcony
• How to preserve food
• How to divert your grey water to your garden
• How to clean your house without toxins

OK, here’s the deal.  I really like this book, and I’m pretty sure you will too.  So much so, in fact, that I’m going to send one of you an autographed copy. But first, you have to go on a little scavenger hunt.  Nothing too involved, just enough to let me know that your interest is sincere (not if you’re only here for the freebie).  Cool?

To participate, go spend some quality time looking around at www.homegrownrevolution.org, then come back here and tell me (using the comment section below) about a project that you think this book might help you get started with.

I’ll choose one eligible entry at random, and ship the book to the winner at  any U.S. (only, sorry) address.  Contest ends in 1 week.

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Let the fire of liberty be lit

/ Ren

Via Hartke is Online

USDA Bets the Farm on Animal ID Program

By David E. Gumpert & William Pentland
The Nation

“NAIS, ostensibly intended to contain disease outbreaks among livestock, has sparked the most severe political backlash rural America has seen in decades. The controversy stems primarily from the backhanded way the government has imposed a deeply unpopular policy. By introducing NAIS as regulatory changes, the USDA has short-circuited the democratic processes designed to protect the public from government overreaching. Congress has never debated NAIS, and few elected officials have been held accountable for its consequences. The USDA has backed off the original plan to make NAIS mandatory and fully operational by 2009 and now describes the program as “voluntary.” While it may be voluntary on the federal level, the USDA has pushed states to make NAIS mandatory for their local farmers.

“Farmers like us, we don’t want handouts or disaster payments or loans,” said Kim Alexander, who raises livestock in central Texas. “We just want to be left alone to raise clean and healthy food for people who will pay a premium because they know it’s clean, healthy and local and not contaminated with a bunch of poisons.”

A handful of industry stakeholders have cast their shadow over nearly every component of NAIS–past, present and future. A consortium of industry leaders–Cargill Meat Solutions, Monsanto and Schering-Plough, among others–pushed for NAIS for more than a decade and finally won the USDA’s approval shortly after George W. Bush took office in 2001. The consortium, the National Institute for Animal Agriculture (NIAA), designed NAIS for the USDA.

Critics contend NAIS will be the death knell for small farmers, some religious minorities and organic agriculture generally in America. Although the program will amplify American agriculture’s influence in global markets, it will give commercial agriculture an unprecedented monopoly on the future of food–a brave new era of synthetic agriculture and genetically engineered animals.

This era is not beyond some remote horizon. It has already begun. On December 19, the leading cloned livestock producers announced a program designed to monitor meat and milk products from cloned animals as they moved through the food chain. NAIS is the “tracking system” the industry will use to commercialize cloned livestock on a mass scale.

NoNAISpiglaugh200

This post is part of Food Renegade’s Fight Back Fridays

Alexander Family Farm

All-natural, grass-finished, and pasture-raised beef, turkeys, chickens, lamb, and eggs. Eggs are available at the farm, Fresh Plus markets, Wheatsville Co-op, and Farm to Market Grocery.

3700 Victorine Ln., Del Valle, Texas, 512/247-4455. www.localharvest.org

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URGENT! Need for CLEAN Water for the Homeless in Austin, Texas

/ Ren

From Mobile Loaves & Fishes, Inc.

July 06, 2009

30 People Delivering Water to #Homeless In ATX From Their Cars. Can You Help?

We have a small army of folks delivering water from their own vehicles to the people who find themselves living on the streets of Austin, Texas.  Empowering people to serve in this way can really avert a disaster.  Dehydration can lead to some pretty devastating health issues.  The heat index in Austin is consistently 105 degrees and higher and puts all of us at high risk to dehydration particularly the homeless.  Here is how you can become a part of this growing army:

  • We have an unlimited supply of water and ice at our commissary in West Lake Hills (www.mlfnow.org/directions).  If you come tonight (July 6) at 6:30 PM you can be trained on how to access those supplies at your convenience.  All you need is an ice chest and your own vehicle.  If this time does not work for you let us know and we will accommodate your schedule, or
  • You can simply go purchase your own water to hand out.  I have seen case prices at around $3.77 per case.  Even if the water is not iced down it makes a big difference.  Water is water regardless of the temperature and provides fluid to our internal cooling system.  So just load up your car and hand water out to anyone who you see along the way that is in need.



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Unser täglich Brot

/ Ren

Before Food, Inc., Fresh The Movie and Food Matters came a film called Unser täglich Brot (Our Daily Bread), a behind the scenes look at industrial food production and high-tech farming. 

Alternately beautiful and frightening and shot entirely without dialogue, the film leads us through a lucid dream-like look at the immense systems that produce our food.  The crops, the animals, the people and the spaces..

I don’t think I moved an inch in my chair the whole time I was watching it, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since.  Stunning!

http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/127078/brot_t4_hi%5B1%5D.mov

Additional trailers and information:

http://www.ourdailybread.at/

http://homevideo.icarusfilms.com/new2006/odb.shtml

UNSER TÄGLICH BROT Hauptmotiv 2

Food, Inc. Opening Today!

/ Ren

Documentary filmmaker Robert Kenner uses reports by Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser and The Omnivore’s Dilemma author Michael Pollan as a springboard to exploring where the food we purchase at the grocery store really comes from, and what it means for the health of future generations.

“Food, Inc.,” an informative, often infuriating activist documentary about the big business of feeding or, more to the political point, force-feeding, Americans all the junk that multinational corporate money can buy. You’ll shudder, shake and just possibly lose your genetically modified lunch. — Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

Learn more

Rarebit Fiend

/ Ren

Each December when we were little, the family would drive the 25-or-so miles into downtown Chicago to see the displays on Michigan Ave,  Marshall Field’s 3-story Christmas tree and, of course, der Santa.  For me though, the biggest treat was always the late lunch in the main dining room at the Chicago Athletic Association, where I sat up straight (napkin properly in lap) and announced  to the (Saint-patient) waiter,  “I’ll have the Welsh Rabbit, please”.   Every single year.   Sweet, simple times, those.

Add a couple of poached eggs and some balsamic broiled tomatoes and call it dinner..

Adapted from a recipe by Alton Brown

Make a tiny bit of blond roux from flour and whole butter.  Whisk in worcestershire and stone-ground mustard.  Add beer (good ale or porter) and whisk until smooth.  Whisk in heavy cream and season with salt, pepper, cayenne and paprika. Fold in shredded sharp cheddar cheese and cook over low heat for several minutes, stirring frequently.  Serve cheese sauce over toasted ciabatta, foccacia or thick sandwich bread and top with poached eggs.

Dream of a Rarebit Fiend, ca. 1906

Rating  ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Slowing Down; Slow Food Austin

/ Ren

“Slow Food is an idea, a way of living and a way of eating. It is a global, grassroots movement with thousands of members around the world that links the pleasure of food with a commitment to community and the environment.”

“Slow food aims to be everything fast food is not”

Tell Supermarkets, No More Fishy Business!

/ Ren

You can help save the oceans every time you go grocery shopping. Consumers buy half their seafood at supermarkets, yet most supermarkets don’t consider where the seafood they sell comes from or how it was caught. Destructive fishing practices and overfishing are two of the gravest threats facing our oceans, and experts predict if current trends continue, global fisheries will collapse in 50 40 years.

Take action – Flex your power as a consumer. Tell the largest U.S. supermarket retailers to adopt sustainable seafood policies, stop selling destructively fished seafood, and provide informative labeling so customers, like us, can choose the most sustainable seafood and avoid the most imperiled fish. Don’t delay, ocean protection starts with all of us.

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