local food
When localism becomes nationalism
At the farmers market, I found something I didn’t expect—White supremacists.
To the Table, by Lisa Graham McMinn
McMinn, a sociologist and co-owner of a small farm, presumes a certain level of privilege among her readers: choose heirloom seeds; eat only fair trade chocolate; avoid plastic food containers; and buy eggs “from a local source, if possible, and/or from chickens raised outside eating grass and bugs.” Still, this book is an enticing reflection on the sacramental nature of preparing and eating meals.
Chicken keepers: Loving and eating animals
When you grow up with a grandmother who insists that you thank the hens every time you gather their eggs, gratitude becomes second nature.
Buy organic?
I'm as down on big organics as the next guy who makes homemade sauerkraut out of cabbage grown by his farmer wife. As Stephanie Strom details, the standards of organic certification could be much stronger, and most national organic brands are owned by the very mainstream companies they're standing in implicit objection to. Not exactly a recipe for systemwide reform.
Still, I think Tom Philpott's right: Michael Potter of the independent holdout Eden's Organics, Strom's primary focus, goes too far in slamming the certified-organic label as a "fraud."
Eating in ignorance
Reconciliation requires relocation. To see the effects of our food choices, we have to get close to the land.