Food Fight

Homegrown Evolution readers in the Los Angeles area can catch a free screening of a new documentary by Chris Taylor called Food Fight on Saturday November 8th at 3:15 p.m. at the Mann Chinese 6 (6801 Hollywood Blvd.). Food Fight centers on the influence of Alice Waters founder of Chez Panisse, a Berkeley restaurant that pioneered the use of fresh, organically grown foods and what later came to be called “California Cuisine”. In addition to Waters, Food Fight features interviews with food pundits Michael Pollan, Marion Nestle, Dan Barber and celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck. Homegrown Evolution viewed a preview copy and particularly enjoyed a segment on Chez Panisse’s mercurial chef Jeremiah Tower and the quixotic attempt by congressman Ron Kind to reform the last farm bill. While the California-centric local food movement portrayed in Food Fight can easily be dismissed as an elitist lifestyle for the wealthy, (it ain’t cheap to dine at Chez Panisse, any of Puck’s eateries or shop at farmers markets) Food Fight makes the case that we all pay a hidden cost for cheap processed supermarket food, namely obesity, diabetes and a host of other nutrition related maladies.

For more information and to view a preview go to www.foodfightthedoc.com

Bisphenol-A


Above, the bisphenol-A or BPA molecule, a type of plastic found in all kinds of products including baby bottles, plastic food containers, Nalgene bottles, some wines (from the plastic stoppers and the lining of fermentation tanks) and the lining in metal cans. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it’s safe, a viewpoint contradicted by at least 100 studies. The problem: BPA is a endocrine disruptor linked to a host of problems, according to some researchers, including cancer, obesity, childhood hyperactivity and the early onset of puberty in girls.

We’ve done our best around our little urban homestead to eliminate plastics from our lives, but where we still encounter BPA is in canned foods which we like to have on hand. Next time you pop open a can take a look at the inside–odds are there is a nearly invisible clear plastic lining which is where you’ll find the BPA. So with BPA we have yet another one of those throw up your hands in disgust, anger and desperation moments at the supermarket. What to do?

Canning your own food is one good option. We started doing this last year and it’s surprisingly easy. The Ball company’s website can get you started on that project. Drying and pickling foods are other alternatives. Also, not all processed food manufactures use BPA. Eden Foods, available at health food stores, skips the BPA.

Separating industry sponsored junk science from government policy is another important, though much more difficult step. Within the means of each of us is developing our own scientific literacy as individual citizens. Read the studies, write your government representatives and fire up that hot water canning bath.

The Poultry Review June 1908

For your reading pleasure we present the June 1908 issue of the Poultry Review, in its entirety, as a downloadable pdf here (via archive.org). Download a hi-res version of the Art Nouveau styled cover suitable for framing here. We picked up this obscure periodical at the American Poultry Association meet we went to over the weekend. Highlights of this issue of the Poultry Review include an article entitled “What Does it Cost a Year to Keep a Hen?”

“What does it cost a year to keep a hen? This was the conundrum propounded to the chairman of the Committee on Agriculture at Washington a few days ago. The congressman who asked the question was in a facetious mood, and the question was greeted with ripples of laughter. But it is no laughing matter to several millions of people in the United States. It is a more important question to the poultry keeper than the cost of our army and navy, the amount of the river and harbor bill, or even the fate of our foreign dependencies.”

The article goes on to tell how the Boston Herald took up the question and offered a prize for the three best answers, a testimony to how many people kept chickens at the time.

For those tired of poultry, an ad in the back of the Poultry Review asks, “Are you Discouraged with Chickens? If so, try the Ginseng Business. It will pay you LARGER, SURER, PROFITS, requires very little land and the least amount of work of any crop grown. Sells for $6.50 to $9.00 a pound.” Sounds like the $20 a pound Goji berries I saw at Whole Foods last week.

Like many magazines and newspapers today, the line between the editorial department and the business end is a little vague. Poultry Review, in fact, seems to be a thinly disguised ad for the “Philo System of Progressive Poultry Keeping” developed by its editor as an intensive method of raising chickens.

Now, who can identify the chicken breed on the cover? Leave us some comments . . .

So Much Poultry, So Little Time





Homegrown Evolution just got back from the American Poultry Association Annual Meet at the Ventura Fairgrounds. We know nothing about show chickens and we’re too exhausted to blog coherently, so we’ll let the pictures speak for themselves with just a few observations:

-If you don’t want to bother raising chicks, a poultry show is a good place to start a flock and talk to some knowledgeable folks. There were quite a few chickens for sale at reasonable prices.

-Someone needs to put together an urban version of the 4-H club to bring urban agriculture programs to the inner city. Maybe it’s already been done, but from what I’ve been told urban 4-H clubs are all about nutrition, science fairs, and maybe training guide dogs. Kids desperately need contact with nature and animals. Let’s grow some food! But we may need to hippify the uniforms a bit . . .

-When the economy hits the skids people start thinking about keeping chickens. I spoke to the editor of the always informative Backyard Poultry Magazine about this phenomena. She said that she tries to tell people that you should keep chickens in good times and bad (amen!), but that when the economy tanks Backyard Poultry’s circulation soars. We predict Ben Bernanke will put together a coop behind the Federal Reserve.

-And speaking of big things, Jersey Giants are bigger than the national debt.

Stay tuned for some scans of the June 1908 issue of the Poultry Review that we picked up at the meet.

Homegrown on Homegrown


Visit HOMEGROWN.ORG

The folks behind Farm Aid have launched a new social networking site, HOMEGROWN.org that readers of this blog will definitely enjoy. From their press release:

HOMEGROWN.org is now a place where we can learn from each other, share our questions, and show off how we dig in the dirt, grow our own food, work with our hands, and cook and share our meals – all things that we call HOMEGROWN.

  • Did you cook a kick ass meal with stuff from the farmers market?
  • Is there a mysterious veggie in your CSA box?
  • What is the soundtrack for your potluck dinner?
  • Are you thinking about growing okra?
  • What’s in your fridge right now?
  • Do you have a DIY tip to share?

That’s the spirit of HOMEGROWN.org. A spirit that will mean more visits to the farmers markets, more backyard BBQs, more dirt under nails…more talking, touching, smelling, tasting. It will mean a more fulfilling life that people everywhere will come to call HOMEGROWN.

Things you can now do on HOMEGROWN.org:

  • Post photos
  • Post videos
  • Create groups
  • Join groups
  • Create discussions
  • Join discussions
  • Link to your own blog
  • Create a new blog
  • Make new friends
  • Invite old friends
  • Promote events
  • Learn about events in your area
  • Create playlists
  • Post a member badge on your Facebook or MySpace page
  • and more…”

We’ve joined up (become our HOMEGROWN.org friends here) and we hope all of you readers will join up as well. The important step beyond the DIY activities on this blog and in our book is developing healthy and happy communities and joining together to build a better world. We wish HOMEGROWN.org good luck in networking our urban homesteads.