May 2010

How to Tell Where You Stand on GMO Labeling: A Handy Guide!

Last week, the Codex Alimentarius Committee on Food Labeling finished its meeting. Codex Alimentarius is a joint commission of two United Nations agencies, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). The committee meeting was in preparation for a full commission meeting that started on Friday. And one of their agenda items was to discuss a recommendation for adopting worldwide labeling standards for foods made from genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

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Prairie Organic Vodka Celebrates Two Smooth Years

Dean Phillips and his cornDean Phillips and his cornWas it just two short years ago that Phillips Distilling Company, the fifth-generation, family-owned Minnesota beverage company, launched Prairie Organic Vodka? It seems like years since I first noticed the gorgeous, slender bottle, remarking to my friends that Phillips had finally created something as beautiful as it was tasty.

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Finding Space in an Unlikely Place: Minnesota's First Rooftop Farm

These people don't look like farmers, I thought as I met some of the staff of The Cornerstone Group, a local real estate development company that manages both retail and domestic properties. Colleen Carey, Cornerstone's president, was dressed in gauzy white, while her colleagues wore suit jackets.

“We had a presentation this morning,” Colleen explained. “We don't normally dress like this.”

She quickly proved she and her staff were unfussy and practical. As they guided me along the building, Colleen picked up stray bits of trash and leaves as she went. We entered a utility room with a dauntingly steep metal staircase to the roof of Kensington Park building. Topside, we looked over Richfield's business district. The view wasn't great, but I hadn't come for that. What I wanted to see was the Cornerstone Rooftop Farm, the first of its kind in Minnesota.

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Foraging for Food Is a Way of Life for the Hmong

Imagine that you are from a place and a time where your life, your very existence, is inextricably linked to the land. Imagine that you know the environment around you so intimately that you can spot the swish of a lizard's tail in the undergrowth twenty feet off. That you can differentiate an edible plant from its poisonous cousin from touch alone. That by tasting the soil, you can divine what plants will and will not flourish. That you can disappear into the forest or jungle and emerge 60 minutes later with dinner for your family. That even though your family grows food on a farm, you often venture off with friends to gather what is offered in the wild. That some of your earliest memories are following your mother through the jungle as she bends and stoops to gather greens. That you remember hearing laughter as she and the other women banter back and forth between patches of wild edibles.

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Good Food is Not (Only) a Class Issue

A few alarming statistics:

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This Mother’s Day, Tell Mom to Go to Her Room for Breakfast in Bed

I begin with a confession. I’m a mother and I don’t like Mother’s Day. There. I said it.

I know I'm not the only one. Admit it. You, too, think Mother's Day is another contrived holiday, a la Valentines’ Day, that pressures normally reasonable people to (a) buy silly, impersonal cards, (b) send pesticide-ridden flowers, (c) take their loved ones to crowded restaurants at odd times of the day because all the reservations at normal meal times (like before 10:00 p.m.) have been overbooked for six weeks.

Or (d) do something really outrageous, like make mom eat breakfast in bed.

Don't get me wrong. I love the original intent of breakfast in bed, but the right setting with the right company is crucial to its success. (Imagine, if you will, a romantic, lakeside inn; a bed pilled high with pillows, down comforters, and sheets I will never have to wash; and a passionate, pleasing and playful BFWB. You get the picture?)

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Eat Local Honey and 7 Other Ways You Can Help Save the Bees

The USDA just released the survey results of winter honeybee colony losses, and the news is bad. Nationwide, the losses of managed honeybee colonies totaled almost 34 percent from October 2009 to April 2010 – an increase from the 29 percent loss reported in 2008-2009. The complete results of this survey conducted by the Apiary Inspectors of America (AIA) and the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is yet to be published, but the abstract is now available.

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Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with Rhubarbaritas and Stuffed Poblano Peppers

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I hate it when I invent something that’s already been invented. Maybe I’m not very original, or maybe I’m just a classic Johnnie-come-lately, but I seem to have a penchant for coming up with the best best BEST ideas only to be smacked down by the cool unforgiving hand of Google. I won’t get into the specifics of my past inventions, because I’m afraid I’ll start getting a reputation around here, but this last one, the invention that I invented specifically for you... well, we’re just going to have to sit down and talk about this because it really is good, and just because someone else invented it first is no reason to deprive you of my genius.

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Takeaways From the 2010 Kellogg Foundation Food & Community Gathering

I was excited to be included at this year's W.K. Kellogg Foundation Food & Community Networking Meeting, held from April 27 - 29 in Chandler, Arizona. Even before I got there, I knew I was going to be able to meet the people behind lots of amazing food-related projects and websites, hear about their progress, and connect on important issues. Advance materials from the Kellogg Foundation informed me that:

Food & Community is based on the precept that all segments of a community must work together to surround children with healthy food and routine physical activity in the places they live, work, and play.

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The Revolution Was Televised: Looking Back at Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution

Over the last two months, ABC aired Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, a six-episode reality series documenting the English chef's mission to improve school food in Huntington, West Virginia. (The preview episode was the subject for one of my previous posts for Simple, Good and Tasty.) Was it a success?

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