MetaFilter posts tagged with food and Agriculture

First, Catch Your Rooster

jason's_planet — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 22:57:45 -0800

“Oh my!” Elise had turned over their rooster and noticed its spurs. I just about had a heart attack — the spurs were nearly three inches long, curved and very, very sharp. But for the Grace of God that rooster could easily have sent me to the hospital. I was feeling a lot better about leaving that last bird, and was beginning to understand why Dominic and Rosa never killed their own chickens.

Messy, Painful, Bloody and Dirty

chrchr — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 23:32:07 -0800

Critics of modern farming practice have swayed popular opinion in recent years. Now farmers are talking back. Farmer Blake Harris takes critics of farming to task for misrepresenting his trade. Another farmer says it's not so simple.

An Inconvenient Hoof

Toekneesan — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 11:29:45 -0800

Opening this Friday in L.A, New York, and San Francisco, Food, Inc. is a documentary about the modern food industry that features Michael Pollan, Eric Schlosser, Joe Salatin of Polyface Farm, and Gary Hirshberg of Stonyfield Yogurt. Here's the trailer. And here's a New York Times article about the film. Also available, a participant's guide book. Currently scheduled for wider release on June 19th.

Spoiled: Organic and Local Is So 2008

patricio — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 15:03:27 -0800

Spoiled: Organic and Local Is So 2008 - Mother Jones asks what sustainable agriculture should really look like. Is it about food miles or should we all just eat less meat?

Farmer in Chief

homunculus — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 23:15:23 -0800

"Dear Mr. President-Elect, It may surprise you to learn that among the issues that will occupy much of your time in the coming years is one you barely mentioned during the campaign: food." Michael Pollan advises the next president on what he can and should do to remake the way we grow and eat our food. [Via]

Monsanto Milk

homunculus — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:00:33 -0800

Monsanto’s Harvest of Fear. "Monsanto already dominates America’s food chain with its genetically modified seeds. Now it has targeted milk production. Just as frightening as the corporation’s tactics–ruthless legal battles against small farmers–is its decades-long history of toxic contamination."

Not quite your Vonnegut

casarkos — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 09:50:26 -0800

Undercover video (warning: very graphic) released by the Humane Society reveals abuse of animals on the slaughterhouse floor and other code violations. In comparison, some (also graphic) documentation of cow slaughter under Certified Humane standards, and hog slaughter conforming to USDA guidelines (both from chef Chris Cosentino's blog, previously posted here)

There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch

Miko — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 13:59:15 -0800

King of Fruits, Tempter of Adam, Prize of Paris: It's apple-picking time. The apple's origins reach into prehistory. Thanks to tremendous genetic variance in each new generation, humans have cultivated a dizzying number of named varieties, as many as 17,000, of which 7500 are available as growth stock. In the past, different apples were prized for particular strengths: cider pressing, storage, cooking, drying, or eating out of hand. Despite this bounty, just 15 shelf-stable, shiny, easy-to-pick varieties account for 90% of apple sales today. But heirloom apple growers are working to preserve the old flavors of the Roxbury Russet, the Westfield Seek-No-Further, the Fallawater, the Limbertwig, the King Luscious...

Eat to live to eat.

dersins — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 10:02:43 -0800

"Find Good Food Near You. Want fresh, locally grown food, but don't know where to find it? The LocalHarvest community level map makes it easy to find sustainable farmers, farmers markets and Community Supported Agriculture projects (CSAs) in your area."

We’re too sophisticated to allow bioregional commerce.

ZachsMind — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 13:22:05 -0800

Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal by Joel Salatin. This Saturday will mark this article's four year anniversary. Frankly, I was mildly surprised not to have found it mentioned before in MeFi. It's a good read about a sad state of affairs; how our government is turning its own people into outlaws, because freedom has been traded in for an illusion of security. ...but then we already knew that. Don't we?

Bees

homunculus — Sun, 09 Jul 2006 22:04:19 -0800

The Vanishing. "Bees are in grave danger. So is our food supply. Why something so small matters so much."

Wheat

Gyan — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 13:33:14 -0800

The Story of Wheat

tomato, tomahto

allan — Sat, 11 Dec 2004 14:17:00 -0800

Tomatoes! They are delicious, or at least they used to be. First came ethylene ripening and monoculture which turned them into tasteless red baseballs, and taste was't the only problem. Then came this year's hurricanes which decimated the crops, driving prices up. And now, just when you think you've found a really tasty variant on the market with the wonderfully appropriate name of UglyRipe, the state growers board goes and bans them for being too ugly. If you agree that this sucks go and tell the guys in charge.

Man, that little red fruit sure does seem to cause a lot of trouble. Maybe we should try to smash them all.

Hog Heaven

MattD — Tue, 19 Oct 2004 05:21:19 -0800

Pork Farmers in Hog Heaven! Atkins and skyrocketing beef prices result in pork producers "experiencing demand far in excess of anything [they]'ve seen historically." Pork prices are very high on the spot and futures market but still a value relative to meat. Perhaps this will increase the demand for tasty Berkshire hog pork, the kind that pre-dates the breeding which produced the "other white meat."