Welcome once again for another week's round-up of eco-foodie news, tips, links & recipes. Each week I glean tasty bits from the various blogs & sites I follow outside of the Kos-verse and bring them together here for your perusal. If you have a good tasty bit to share let us know about it in the comments!
And this week's mystery gadget!
What is this?
News
Is the End of Salmon Near?
No matter which climate projections the researchers used, warmer waters spelled major trouble for the fish in the coming decades if people do nothing to help the fish. And the findings are likely to apply to a variety of salmon species up and down the West Coast, especially in California where temperatures are closest to the tipping point.
Honey Laundering: tainted and counterfeit Chinese honey floods U.S.(h/t to sidnora)
A third or more of all the honey consumed in the U.S. is likely to have been smuggled in from China and may be tainted with illegal antibiotics and heavy metals. A Food Safety News investigation has documented that millions of pounds of honey banned as unsafe in dozens of countries are being imported and sold here in record quantities. ...
Time to re-engineer meatpacking sector
But now, according to Bullard, consumers should be equally concerned with the huge market shares of the major meatpackers.
“When a problem at one major packing plant can disrupt the food safety and food security for millions of consumers, it’s time to reengineer our meatpacking sector,” he says. “If we don’t immediately begin reversing this trend towards more and more concentration in the meatpacking sector, which leads to the centralization of our nation’s food supply, our food supply will become increasingly vulnerable to widespread contaminations that could lead to serious and widespread health consequences and food shortages.
How Change is Going to Come in the Food System
The most promising food activism is taking place at the grassroots: local policy initiatives are popping up in municipalities across the country, alongside urban agriculture ventures in underserved areas and farm-to-school programs. Changing the way America feeds itself has become the galvanizing issue for a generation now coming of age. (A new FoodCorps, launched in August as part of AmeriCorps, received nearly 1,300 applications for fifty slots.) Out of these local efforts will come local leaders who will recognize the power of food politics. Some of these leaders will run for office on these issues, and some of them will win.
Serious Reads: Making Supper Safe by Ben Hewit
Issues of food safety have been making headlines in the past few years. From peanut butter to spinach, eggs to sprouts, it seems that even the most mundane and highly-processed foods can lead to widespread sickness due to food-borne bacteria. In such an atmosphere, it's easy to feel overwhelmed and uninformed about where our food comes from. Writer Ben Hewitt seeks to demystify how exactly food can make us sick, and the ways we can address this problem, in his new book Making Supper Safe: One Man's Quest to Learn the Truth About Food Safety.
Vegetable Gardens Are Booming in a Fallow Economy
Vegetable gardening has been on the rise across the country, according to Bruce Butterfield, research director at the National Gardening Association, driven by rising food prices and a growing contingent of health-conscious consumers. Garden-store retailers have reported increased sales over the past two years, he said, and many community gardens have waiting lists.
Farmigo: Tapping Into the Power of the Web to Bring You Fresh Veggies
Today, a service called Farmigo is launching as part of the TechCrunch Disrupt Battlefield, and it’s looking to make these CSAs more accessible, more popular, and more efficient — disrupting the way you set about buying your produce.
The site is essentially a platform for discovering, signing up for, and sharing CSAs. You can browse local dropoff points, viewing which foods each food producer is delivering. After choosing your producer and the items you want, you sign up for a regular subscription, which allows the producer to plan ahead.
The Five-Second Rule Explored, or How Dirty is that Bologna?
Accompanied by six graphs, two tables and equations whose terms include “bologna” and “carpet,” it’s a thorough microbiological study of the five-second rule: the idea that if you pick up a dropped piece of food before you can count to five, it’s O.K. to eat it.
Home & Garden
Saving Pennies or Dollars? Extra costs of lunch
How to Save Money when Dining Out
Make Your Pie Crusts Extra Crispy and Delicious by Using Vodka Instead of Water
I just want to add that this tip has come up frequently in discussions of pie crust in the What's For Dinner? diaries;) Lots of our regulars swear by it!
Cookware: What is Safe and What is Toxic?
A CSA for Medicinal Herbs
How To Remove an Ink Stain with Milk and Vinegar
Ample Harvest: A site that helps gardeners find local places to donate extra harvests
Sustainable Container Design for Fall Planting
Recipes
Creamy Goat Cheese Ranch Dressing
Corn Cakes with Goat Cheese and Bacon
Heirloom Tomato Gratin
Deconstructed Tomato Pesto Fettucini
Roasted Cauliflower with Brown Butter
Pan Bagnat
Brown Sugar Rosemary Walnuts
Pineapple, Greens, and Tofu with Roasted Chile Coconut Dressing
Almond and Plum Coffee Cake
Kolaches
7:05 PM PT: cross-posted to firefly-dreaming and Original Cin's