catbird’s world

In the most recent beef recall, mechanical tenderizing drove the e.coli deep into the meat, where cooking might not kill it. That kind of kills the whole idea of the consumer being responsible for cooking out pathogens. Personally, I expect my food to be untainted and safe. Based on the lack of public outcry over continual recalls of tainted food, not everyone does. (By the way, did you know there is also a large recall of hazelnuts right now because of salmonella?)

This very smart blog post talks about why grass-fed beef makes more sense from both a health and financial standpoint.

catbird :: Jan.02.2010 :: food :: Comments Off

My kids love Lucky Charms. Well, they love to eat the marshmallow Charms… the crunchy Luckys are apparently not so desirable. We* always end up with half a box of cereal-sans-marshmallows that gets tossed out or eaten by me.

So I had this idea. Why not make a replacement box of just marshmallows to add back in to your Lucky Charms after all the Charms are devoured? Perfect, right? You could eat the plain or add the to cereal. Who wouldn’t love that? And I’d call them Fortunate Trinkets**.

*By “we” I mean Anne, who always makes sure to have Lucky Charms for her nieces and nephews.
** Thank you for the synonym, Mason.

catbird :: Dec.29.2009 :: food :: Comments Off

At least once a week, my son comes home from school asking me to collect Box Tops for Education. At his school, the class that collects the most gets an ice cream party. Are schools that desperate for additional funds?

Seriously, if companies want to give money to schools, they should just do it. Not blackmail us into buying their heavily processed food products first before they will donate $.10 per box top to a school.

What’s the point of trying to get healthier foods and more fruits/veggies in schools if at home were encouraged (or bribed with ice cream parties) to feed kids processed food to get these box top things.

I repeat: if companies want to give money to schools, they should just do it.

As long as we have public schools, they should properly funded so that we don’t have to supplement with ridiculous programs like this one.

catbird :: Sep.27.2009 :: food, mommyhood :: Comments Off

At the tweet-request of @msmari, here are 5 things I think Whole Foods is doing right. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think WF is perfect. But I do think it’s miles ahead of other chain grocery stores.

1. Customer Service:
If you read my blog or tweets, you know I’ve had quite a bit of interaction with Whole Foods customer service. WF recognizes customers as key to the company’s survival and therefore treats them with respect, listening to suggestions or complaints and trying to rectify any problems. As a part of the WF customer service plan, they generate a feeling of (dare I say it?) community among customers through feedback channels, in-store events, and general friendliness of the staff. Good customer service is so important to a successful business and WF really gets it.

Where I live (in northern NJ) friendly grocery store employees are few and far between so I really appreciate the friendliness (real or contrived) of the people at Whole Foods.

2. Employees:
For the past 12 years that Fortune Magazine has been generating the Top 100 Places to Work list, Whole Foods has been on it. Ranked at 22, it isn’t the only grocery store on the list. Wegman’s is 5 and Publix is 88 and both of those have been on the list all 12 years as well. Do I think it’s all sunshine and rainbows to work there? Probably not, but they must be doing something right.

3. Local products and suppliers:
Whole Foods is doing a great job bringing in local products and suppliers. In almost every department, there are signs for locally caught, raised, or produced food. Sure, it might be better for me to drive to the various farms or artisan shops to get these products (emphasis on “might”), but as long as we have grocery stores, I’m glad there is one collecting local products under it’s roof for me.

4. Green Mission
Whole Foods has Green Mission Specialists and they actually do stuff. Like listen to customer requests for reusable containers for bulk foods, or setting up special bins for compostable waste in the dining area, or getting rid of plastic containers in the prepared foods area, or… well, you get the idea.

5. Sustainablity
Okay, I know it’s such a buzzword right now, but it is important. Whole Foods thinks about products from “farm to fork”. Might not be perfect yet, but at least they are *thinking* about it.

These are just five things I think Whole Foods is doing right. I’ll reiterate: I don’t think WF is perfect, but I do think it’s the least of all evils with regard to grocery stores.

catbird :: Aug.23.2009 :: customer service, food, green :: Comments Off

We love Whole Foods 365 Kettle Cooked Potato Chips. They are a delicious savory treat.

There is, however, a problem with the packaging. The copy on the back reads: “Snacking is a national past time [sic]“? Really? Snacking is a pastime, and a national one at that. No wonder why there is so much obesity in our nation, we’re all whiling away the hours munching snacks.

What happened to the Whole Foods Education Core Value which says “We can generate greater appreciation and loyalty from all of our stakeholders by educating them about natural and organic foods, health, nutrition and the environment.”

Promoting snacking as a pastime is definitely NOT educating people about health and nutrition. Snacking should be done in moderation when hungry; certainly not to pass the time.

While I know (or at least hope) people aren’t taking life advice from the backs of potato chip bags, I sincerely hope Whole Foods will change the copy on this product to reflect their Values.

catbird :: Aug.10.2009 :: food :: Comments Off

I’m on a quest to find a vitamin for my kids that has less sugar and extra ingredients than the horrible Disney Gummies (or any gummy vitamin) they have right now. (In my defense, Nate can be very persistent. Which isn’t much of a defense.) Luckily, Very Helpful Whole Foods Guy gave me some great suggestions and information. For example, any gummy vitamin will probably have a 2 a day dosage because it’s hard to get all the vitamins in and keep the gummy texture. All the more reason to skip the gummies.

Let’s be clear: I’m not 100% sure my kids need a vitamin but if they do, I am 100% sure it doesn’t need to taste like a candy treat.

First, Disney Gummies.
Other Ingredients:
Corn Syrup, Sugar, Grape Juice Concentrate, Modified Corn Starch, Gelatin, Citric Acid, Lactic Acid, Natural Flavors, Black Carrot Juice Color Concentrate, Purple Berry Color Concentrate (Maqui Berry Juice Concentrate, Sugar), Annatto Color, Coconut Oil Triglycerides, Beeswax.

Now, other better options.

Just Once Kids One Multistars
Other Ingredients:
Natural mineral or vegetable source fructose, dextrates [a mix of sugars derived from starch], natural orange, pinapple and cherry flavors, vegetable stearine, silica, magnesium stearate, citric acid.

So, these are the ones I chose. The VHWF Guy told me some people have trouble getting their kids to take these, but I was willing to take the risk (Van likes them, Nate hasn’t had them yet). The downside is they’re expensive and not many in a bottle. But on the upside, there is just one color, so no arguments between the kids.

All One for Kids Vitamin Powder
Other Ingredients:
Rice Bran, Lemon Bioflavonoids (Lemon Fruit), Lecithin (as Soy Lecithin), Choline (as Choline Bitartrate and Lecithin), Inositol, Hesperidin Complex (Citrus Fruit), Para Amino Benzoic Acid (PABA), Rutin

This is a vitamin powder that can be mixed with food or juice with no added sugar at all. This is my second choice, although I’m not sure whether adding an additional measure and mix step to my morning routine is feasible at this point.

Dr. Sears Little Champions Fruit Chews
Other Ingredients:
Fruit powder blend (apple fiber, apple and pear powder), apple juice concentrate, evaporated cane juice, maltodextrin [a polysaccharide produced from starch that's absorbed as glucose], calcium citrate, magnesium phosphate dibasic, soy lecithin, sunflower oil, Vitamin C (as ascorbic acid), glycerine, tri zinc citrate, carrageenan, citric acid, malic acid, natural color (friut and vegetable juice for color), natural flavors.

The dosage is two chews for children over 4, but these might be a good options for kids who insist on a chewy texture. (Although these aren’t gummies, they are more like Starbursts.)

And for comparison… Flintstones Complete (not gummies):
Ingredients:
Sorbitol, Dicalcium Phosphate, Magnesium Phosphate, Choline Bitartrate, Sodium Ascorbate, Ferrous Fumarate, Gelatin, Natural & Artificial Flavors (including fruit acids), Pregelatinized Starch, Vitamin E Acetate, Stearic Acid, Carrageenan, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (Soybean, Castor), Magnesium Stearate, Zinc Oxide, Niacinamide, FD&C Red #40 Lake, D-Calcium Pantothenate, FD&C Yellow #6 Lake, Aspartame†, Xylitol, FD&C Blue #2 Lake, Cupric Oxide, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Sucrose, Riboflavin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Acetate, Beta-Carotene, Monoammonium Glycyrrhizinate, Folic Acid, Potassium Iodide, Biotin, Vitamin D, Magnesium Oxide, Vitamin B12. Phenylketonurics: Contains Phenylalanine

catbird :: Aug.09.2009 :: food :: Comments Off

Here’s the challenge: Every day, pick one food product in your house or at the store and read the ingredients. Skip the nutrition information, just read the ingredients. Then decide whether you want to eat it and/or serve it to your family.

It’s so easy to be caught up in exaggerated health claims, convenience, or flashy marketing (not to mention pestering children) and lured into a purchase. Taking time to read the ingredients (not the nutrition information!) is a way to better understand what you are buying and take a pause from a possible impulse buy.

So take the challenge and read a label before you decide. You may choose yes, and you may choose no, but at least you’ll be making an informed, thoughtful decision. And that’s the most important thing.

catbird :: Aug.03.2009 :: food :: Comments Off

Here’s what happens when I drop the ball on reading ingredients and purchasing thoughtfully: I end up giving my kids really expensive candy fortified with vitamins.

Here are the ingredients for Disney Gummies Princesses:

Corn Syrup, Sugar, Grape Juice Concentrate, Modified Corn Starch, Gelatin, Citric Acid, Lactic Acid, Natural Flavors, Black Carrot Juice Color Concentrate, Purple Berry Color Concentrate (Maqui Berry Juice Concentrate, Sugar), Annatto Color, Coconut Oil Triglycerides, Beeswax.

Here are the ingredients for Fruit Jammers: Gummy Bears Fruit Snacks:

Fruit Juice from Concentrates (Apple, Pear), Corn Syrup, Sugar, Gelatin, Sorbitol, Malic Acid, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Mineral Oil*, Carnauba Wax*, Colors (Red 40, Yellow 6, Blue 1, Yellow 5).

So yeah, almost exactly the same, although, in a strange twist, the fruit juice comes first in the candy and third in the vitamins.

Sure, the vitamins are have, you know, vitamins, but this ingredient list horrifies me. Add to it the fact that gummies stick to your teeth, and — wow — what an awful product.

Oh, and here is the kicker: Disney Gummies Princesses cost $6.99 for 60 vitamins, which is a 30-day supply (for one child) because the dosage is 2 a day. Yes, you read correctly, 2 gummies a day. $7 a month. For fortified candy in the shape of princesses.

Needless to say, I can’t wait for these to be gone and I will never buy them again. Ever. Let’s all be conscientious shoppers and stay away from products like this that have little redeeming nutritional value when compared to the sugar content and branding exposure contained in them.

As a little horrifying gummy side note, when researching ingredient lists, I found a recipe for “YUMMY GUMMY BEAR EGGS”, a combination of scrambled eggs and melted gummy bears. AHHHHHHHHHH.

catbird :: Aug.01.2009 :: food :: Comments Off

I buy bulk food from Whole Foods about twice a month and each time I come home with my plastic bag full of rice, beans, popcorn, cous cous, or whatever, and transfer it into a glass jar. Sure, I could reuse those plastic bags for diapers, dog poo, or car trash, despite the light coating of grains and husks that always remain inside. But I always thought it would be great if I could take my own container with me to fill and eliminate the plastic altogether.

A quick call to customer service in the Millburn/Union store confirmed that I can bring my own container and have it weighed first. Having to visit customer service first each time is a clunky solution for both me and customer service. Which is probably why WF doesn’t promote doing this.

The better (really fabulously better) solution, I found out at the Whole Foods live blog, is one implemented by the the Green Mission Specialist at the Whole Foods in Santa Cruz: A program providing Ball jars to customers for a $2 deposit, to be used for purchasing bulk foods. Excellent!

While my emails to the West Orange and Millburn stores, sent through the Whole Foods web site, went unanswered (as of three weeks later. yep. three weeks), my phone call directly to the Green Mission Specialist at Millburn resulted in a quick reply.

Lisa Heimbuch, the Green Mission Specialist in Millburn sent me an email saying she wasn’t familiar with the program but would get more information. I followed up with the name of the Santa Cruz Green Mission Specialist and an offer to help in any way I can. In our last email, Lisa said she’d see about getting a similar program going in Millburn, and also see whether customer service can weigh my containers in the meantime.

Lisa was so enthusiastic and helpful — and seemed genuinely interested in implementing the program. I was impressed with her quick and personable responses, as well as her genuine commitment to the WF Green Mission.

Now for phase two of my plan…. get in touch with the West Orange store Green Mission Specialist.

It would be incredibly great if the second store to implement the Ball jar program was in NJ. Who will do it first… West Orange or Millburn?

Stay tuned!

UPDATE 5/23/09

I received an email from Lisa Heimbuch today about a new program at the Millburn/Union store:

I’m happy to tell you that we have come up with a program for you & your friends to be able to bring in your own containers for use in our bulk department. It’s actually very simple. The only thing you will need to do is to go to our Customer Service booth before you fill your containers. They will weigh the empty container & put two pieces of masking tape on it, one will have the tare/weight of the container & the other is for you to write the product item number on. When you are finished shopping you then will be able to go to any cashier & they will know how much weight to take off of your bulk purchase.

While this is similar to what I was originally told by customer service, I’m excited that it’s being called an actual Program, which means I can count on it every time I buy bulk foods. Maybe I’m irrationally excited about it, but anything that helps reduce the number of plastic bags in landfills sounds really great to me.

I hope everyone takes advantage of this program… and I hope other Whole Foods follow suit. (Do you hear me West Orange?)

catbird :: May.11.2009 :: food, green :: Comments Off

In some cosmic coincidence, on the same day I found out about Disney eggs, I also had to go to the grocery store to get a snack to take to Nate’s school tomorrow. Maybe it was because I had just read about Disney’s new venture into farming, but it suddenly seemed licensed cartoon characters were everywhere.

So there we are, in the dairy aisle of Shop-Rite, looking for some sort of yogurt to feed 11 five-year-olds. No Stonyfield Farms Squeezers. All the other tube yogurts had high fructose corn syrup and corn starch, which, I patiently explained to Nate, is icky and doesn’t belong in yogurt (and yes, I am certain the other shoppers were rolling their eyes). But Nate wasn’t listening….

He picked up Dora smoothies. Then Danimals smoothies. Then Trix yogurt. Then Scooby-Doo yogurt. Our usual Stonyfield yogurt in containers was right there, but Nate was blinded by cartoon marketing. When I nixed all his choices, he moved on to the Scooby-Doo cheddar cheese snacks, which, I’ll admit, we purchased.

Blurring the line between entertainment and food has several implications:

Children get the idea that they need to have their own special food

Media conglomerates have infiltrated virtually every aisle of the supermarket with the intent of marketing products directly to children and to parents who start to believe that they need special “kids food” for their children.

Do we? Not really.

Virtually any product you would buy with a character on it can be purchased in a regular version. Do cartoon characters entice children to eat certain foods? I don’t know. But I do know that kids don’t need to be enticed into eating yogurt, mac and cheese, crackers, cookies, juice, etc.

The imagination monopoly these characters have on our children is perpetuated

Cartoon characters such as Dora, Diego, or any Disney princess appear on any product you could want to purchase: clothes, bedding, toys, video games, books, toothbrushes, furniture, shampoo…. Maybe mealtime is a good place to give kids a break from the media marketing storm.

Our children’s health is impacted through over-processed and additive-filled foods

Take a look at what the “kid’s food” usually is: snacks, treats, yogurt-like products, highly-processed heat-and-eat food.

Of course, now Disney is taking it one step further with their Disney Eggs. I can’t imagine what a Disney Farm is like, but free-range, grass-fed, and organic are not ideals that come to mind. One more giant factory farm feeding chickens corn grown with petroleum-based pesticides. Just what we need. However, I digress. The point is that children don’t need eggs wrapped in Disney packaging and stamped with Disney characters, and cooked in the shape of Mickey Mouse. And as parents, we don’t need to spend the extra money to purchase these eggs. If you have extra money in your budget for eggs, make it free-range, organically fed eggs from a local farm. Please.

Our wallets are hit: branded products and “kid’s” products cost more

Compare the cost of kids yogurt to buying a big tub of yogurt and dishing it out into a bowl (or reusable container for school lunches). (Plus there is the added benefit of less waste.)

Many kids products come in a smaller size but cost the same or more as the regular version. Check out kids yogurt or smoothies or boxes of crackers or cookies for example.

Buying a “kids” version and an “adult” version of the same food just adds additional cost to your food bill.

While it would make life easier if licensed characters didn’t show up on food marketed to kids, I don’t see it happening. And, quite frankly, there are bigger issues with the food system that should be resolved first. But I do agree with Marion Nestle: “If food is nourishing and well prepared, it is entertainment enough and doesn’t need cartoons to entice kids to eat.” She calls for a boycott of food with cartoon characters which, today’s Scooby-Doo cheese purchase aside, I plan to wholeheartedly support.

As parents, we should all strive to feed our children and ourselves the most nutritious food we can. That means food, not “food.” If we take the time to read the ingredients of the food we buy, and, in fact, buy more ingredients to make our own food, we can make the best choices possible.

And even though it can be incredibly difficult to say no to a child clamoring for SpongeBob mac and cheese, Dora smoothies, or, yes, Scooby-Doo cheese snacks, we should fight the battle. While I fully believe it’s okay to say yes to a treat now and then, in daily life we would all be better off taking back control over our food.

catbird :: Mar.29.2009 :: food, mommyhood :: Comments Off

Last week at Whole Foods, I couldn’t find my usual Breakstone’s Whipped Butter. A helpful associate (that’s not sarcasm, the people at WF really are helpful) pointed me to 365 Spreadable Butter as a substitute. I guess, like me, this associate mistakenly thought “spreadable” and “whipped” were comparable terms.

Oh how very, very wrong we were.

The 365 label should read “365 Spreadable Butter Spread” since what is contained in the tub isn’t really butter. Here are the ingredients:

Organic butter (sweet cream), organic expeller pressed vegetable oil blend (canola, soy, palm fruit, sunflower and/or flax oil), filtered water, salt, organic soy lecithin (emulsifier), organic flavor (derived from corn).

For comparison, the ingredients in Breakstone’s Whipped Butter (salted) are:

Cream, salt

Did I even need to blockquote that? What is butter? It’s cream, churned up into butter. For salted butter, add salt.

So what’s up with the 365 “butter”? It’s got at least three ingredients on my “avoid eating” list: soy oil, soy lecithin (oooh but it’s organic! Now, that is sarcasm), and corn (see previous comment). This spread is everything that Whole Foods says they are against.

The Whole Foods web site says:

“We search for the highest quality, least processed, most flavorful and natural foods possible because we believe that food in its purest state — unadulterated by artificial additives, sweeteners, colorings and preservatives — is the best tasting and most nutritious food there is.”

Let’s see, this “butter” is processed, not in it’s purest state, and has artificial additives. While it could be argued that soy lecithin and corn flavoring are natural, I’m not so sure. I mean, how much processing does it take to make corn into flavoring for butter? How is that even possible? And, more importantly, why is it needed?

I’m disappointed in Whole Foods for producing and offering this product.

catbird :: Mar.08.2009 :: food :: Comments Off

Lucky me, I have two Whole Foods in close proximity: West Orange, NJ and Union, NJ. While the meat departments are about equal, the butchers are definitely not.

The Good: The West Orange Whole Foods butchers.

These guys know their stuff and aren’t afraid to share it. In fact, sometimes I even think they enjoy sharing their meat knowledge with me, but then again, that might just be my own personal delusion. While they aren’t warm and fuzzy (nor do I expect them to be) they are friendly, courteous, and respectful.

Any question I have, no matter how bizarre, annoying, or strange, is answered without any hint that they find the question to be bizarre, annoying, or strange. Almost every visit, I ask which meat is locally raised, what’s the difference between the cuts, and just how I should cook a bottom round roast anyway. At least once a month I ask about other meat from Simply Grazin’ Farm in Skillman, NJ. Yet, there is no sense that they are tired of my pestering, which, of course, I’m sure they are.

A specific example: Last time I was there I asked (for maybe the bazillionth time) about the local pork. The butcher couldn’t answer my question and called over the Head Butcher Guy who said he said he’d get the information from upstairs. Then, he actually got me information and had it waiting for me when I came back around at the end of my shopping.

The Bad: The Union Whole Foods butchers.

Well, not all of them, just the woman has been helping me for the past three visits. For some reason, I always feel as if I’m interrupting her with my annoying beef needs. With her curt replies and poorly hidden disdain for grass-fed beef, she likes to begin her answer before I finish asking a question. Her favorite response? “It’s all the same.” Which, quite frankly, I find hard to believe.

Her demeanor is so off-putting that it’s no exaggeration to say that I buy less meat when she is “helping” me. On my last visit (see below), I even didn’t buy everything I needed. In fact, she single-handedly cut my meat purchasing by two-thirds. Luckily for our protein intake, the fish guys are friendlier.

A specific example: When I asked for a pound of the grass-fed ground beef, she turned to her fellow butcher and said “I think for lunch I’ll go outside and eat some grass.” To which I replied “It might make you more palatable, too.” Well, I didn’t really, but only because she continued talking.

The Ugly:

Okay, even I’m not snarky enough to comment about the butchers’ attractiveness. And anyway, the real hotties are in the fish department.

catbird :: Mar.02.2009 :: customer service, food :: Comments Off

Oh, delicate little brown moth
Fluttering in my jar of organic rice
You’ve painted me a housekeeping sloth
And surely, we shall not meet twice.
For while ‘tis true I want to eat organic –
Only whole, healthy, grass-fed food
Grown without the use of pesticide –
Finding you there was so traumatic
That no matter what the greater good
Creepy-crawlies in rice I can’t abide.

It’s true organic farming is best
Unless there is no diversity of crops.
Then it’s just a corporate nest
A farm that’s just a prop
For another brand that produces crap –
“Food” with odd ingredients
And words we can’t pronounce.
Just an over-processed nutritional trap
We eat with blind obedience
And now we must renounce.

Oh, little moth, what to do isn’t simple!
Wish you well and welcome you in,
Or compromise my principles?
Either way, I cannot win.
On one thing, however, I’m very clear
As I empty my jar into the compost
Then on it soapily linger
As much as I hold all creatures dear
The thing I did first and foremost
Was squash you under my finger.

catbird :: Jan.27.2009 :: food :: Comments Off

A NY restaurant was keeping “George” the 20 lb, 80-140 year-old lobster as a sort of mascot, but PETA intervened on the lobster’s behalf and convinced the restaurant to release George into protected waters off the coast of Maine.

As George was being taken away in his pimped out ice-lined foam cooler, the other lobsters were pressing their antennae against the glass of the tank, wistfully. One four-year-old lobster was heard calling to PETA representatives, “What about me? I have my whole life ahead of me!”

catbird :: Jan.11.2009 :: food, socio-pop :: Comments Off

The Washington Post writes:

With the Chinese milk products-melamine scandal generating fresh headlines, U.S. health officials on Friday unveiled what they consider acceptable levels of contamination with the industrial chemical.

The bottom line: No amount of melamine is safe in infant formula.

For all other foods, only amounts less than 2.5 parts per million are risk free, U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials said.

I personally prefer my food to be… food.

catbird :: Oct.03.2008 :: food :: Comments Off

On Wednesday, the New Jersey Court ruled that factory farming practices cannot be considered humane just because they are widely used. This decision, reached unanimously, sets a legal precedent to end abuses of livestock on factory farms across the U.S. and comes as several other states are making similar rulings.

catbird :: Aug.01.2008 :: food :: Comments Off

Sometimes I can’t even believe what I’m reading is actually real.

“For the first time, the new rule allows the government to publicly release the names of the stores that have sold recalled meat and poultry posing the most severe risks to peoples’ health.”

Note that it’s a “rule” not a law.

“..the changes announced today would not have applied to the February recall, which was categorized as a slightly lesser risk to public health.”

Not a “most severe risk” although it was the largest recall ever in the U.S.

Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer stood by the new rule, pointing out that consumers are a bunch of idiots and can’t handle too much information: “‘We don’t want to unnecessarily scare the public,’ he said asserting that releasing information during recalls that have less serious health risks might confuse consumers.”

This must have left more people than just me scratching their heads in disbelief.

Wenonah Hauter, Food & Water Watch’s executive director said (and I heartily agree), “If a problem is serious enough to spark a recall, it is serious enough to give consumers all the information they need to avoid potentially dangerous products.”

The Consumers Union suggested (wisely) that the rule should include to Class II recalls and that the lists of places receiving tainted meat and poultry should also include schools and nursing homes.

Well, duh.

My personal theory is that the USDA doesn’t want us to know how many recalls there actually are. Sign up for recall notices by email.

catbird :: Jul.11.2008 :: food :: Comments Off

Just one day after reading that scientist James Hansen believes Earth is near the climate change tipping point, I read this interview with Michael Pollan in which he discusses farming, environmentalism, and ways to combat the current food and energy crises.

Pollan talks about the connections between, well, everything: what we eat and how it’s grown or raised and how those things are related to skyrocketing oil prices, food shortages, obesity and the increase in food prices. He outlines three things we need to do… I won’t spoil it for you but let’s just say it has to do with fewer subsidies and more solar-based agriculture.

Here’s a taste:

You can compare conventional beef production to a grass-based system of beef production, which is how we used to produce beef. Cattle are evolved to eat grass — they have rumens so they can digest it. So when they [cows] are getting grass, you have a really exquisite and sustainable food chain — where the sun feeds the grass, and the grass feeds the ruminant, and the ruminant feeds us. They are not competing with us for food, and it doesn’t take vast amounts of fossil-fuel fertilizer to produce that food. It takes none, until you start trucking the animal off of the ranch.

The problem with that system for the marketplace was that it’s a slower way to produce beef, and it takes more skill. It’s a lot easier just to put them on a feedlot, give them lots of corn, give them antibiotics so they can survive the corn, give them hormones to speed up their growth. Suddenly you take a two-year process and get it down to 13-14 months. Time is money, so we moved that way.

Wow. I think I have a little geek-environmentalist crush on Michael Pollan.

catbird :: Jun.26.2008 :: food, green :: Comments Off

U.S. law allows food manufacturers to label a food as something that it only vaguely resembles. For example, what is yogurt?

Yogurt is, according to Merriam Webster, is “a fermented slightly acid often flavored semisolid food made of milk and milk solids to which cultures of two bacteria (Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus) have been added.”

However, Dannon is allowed to label its Fruit on the Bottom strawberry as yogurt even though the ingredients are:
- Cultured grade A lowfat milk
- strawberries
- sugar
- fructose syrup
- high fructose corn syrup
- pectin
- modified corn starch
- natural flavor
- kosher gelatin
- purple carrot juice concentrate
- carmine and turmeric (for color)
- malic acid
- calcium phosphate
- active yogurt cultures including L. acidophilus

Compare to Stonyfield Farms Strawberries and Cream ingredients:
- Cultured Pasteurized Organic Whole Milk
- Organic Strawberries
- Naturally Milled Organic Sugar
- Pectin
- Organic Beet Juice Concentrate (For Color)
- Natural Flavor
- Six Live Active Cultures Including L. Acidophilus, Bifidus, L. Casei And L. Rhamnosus.

Even better, take a gander at Sky Top Farms maple yogurt:
- Organic Whole Milk
- Pure Organic Maple Syrup
- Active Yogurt Cultures (S. thermophilus, L. bulgaricus, L. acidophilus, bifidobacterium longum, bifidobacterium infantis)

So, which one sounds the most like yogurt, as opposed to “yogurt”?

I find it ironic — or maybe just sickening — that to get a Dannon “yogurt” that is actually closer (yes, just closer) to yogurt, you have to buy the one that says “All Natural”. What? That seems just crazy to me.

Oh, and another Dannon note: the ingredients of Danimals (Dannon’s smoothies for kids) aren’t even listed on the web site. Hum… I wonder why. Not really.

Kinda makes you wonder: Is your yogurt really yogurt? How about your bread? Your peanut butter?

catbird :: Jun.24.2008 :: food :: Comments Off

I finally figured out that we can compost our shredded bills and such. Cool.

We still don’t have usable compost. Sometimes I give the dog compostable food scraps instead since he is a much more efficient source. The poop composter generated soil for flowers and shrubs but the pyramid composter is still working on things (no doubt due to our lack of attention to mixture and such.)

catbird :: Jun.13.2008 :: food, green :: Comments Off