Good Food is Everybody's Business
While the interior aisles of an average supermarket are filled with rows and rows of mostly junk processed non-foods, there is one aisle I want to make a fuss over. For the sake of discussion I will categorically refer to it as “aisle 6”, the oasis of the inner supermarket.
In Tomatoland, which is based on his James Beard Award-winning article, “The Price of Tomatoes,” investigative food journalist Barry Estabrook reveals the huge human and environmental cost of the $5 billion fresh tomato industry.
When Slow Food activist David Mas Masumoto’s father has a stroke in the sprawling fields of their farm, the reality of his father’s mortality drives Masumoto to reevaluate the significance and meaning of farming in an information-driven, modern world.
Food varieties extinction is happening all over the world—and it’s happening fast. In the United States an estimated 90 percent of our historic fruit and vegetable varieties have vanished. Of the 7,000 apple varieties that were grown in the 1800s, fewer than a hundred remain.
Tom Winterrowd, who farms near Canby, Oregon, said that the minute he saw the announcement for the hog head cooking class he knew he’d be in it. Portland Meat Collective recently offered the class, bringing in Ben Meyer, the chef at Grain and Gristle Restaurant as the instructor.
In the wake of scandals involving contaminated milk and pork, efforts are on to ensure quality. China has vowed to improve food safety laws following a series of scandals involving contaminated milk and pork.
Truck Farm tells the story of a new generation of quirky urban farmers. Using green roof technology and heirloom seeds, filmmaker Ian Cheney (KING CORN, THE CITY DARK) plants a vegetable garden on the only land he’s got: his Granddad’s old pickup.
In tough economic times, it’s not unusual to see rural businesses close their doors. So the wide ray of hope shining from Wilmore, Kentucky, is nothing short of inspiring.
