Month: May 2012

PCC Natural Markets – Co-ops in the 21st Century

Walk into any of the nine PCC Natural Markets in Puget Sound and it’s clear your not in your parents’ (or grandparents, if you’re young enough) food co-op! No more cozy slightly run-down food markets with barrels of flour and bags of rice on the floor, around which barefoot children played tag while their parents debated politics and planned social actions against “the establishment.” Today, the PCC (as it’s fondly referred to here in Seattle) is every bit the contemporary supermarket. So what is so special about the nation’s largest natural food co-operative?

Mapping Our Food System – Circles Within Circles

Today’s food system is made up of four interconnected components: agriculture, the economy the social/political system, and the environment. As inputs, outputs, products, and labor move through these networks, each is intimately linked and influenced by the other.

Seven Books To Get You In the Garden

You’d have to have your head in the dirt to miss all the garden books in every bookstore and garden center, not to mention on the Internet. Inspiring for sure! But this selection is not your garden-variety garden books! We’ve chosen seven books from the GoodFood World personal library not to help you design, construct, and grow your garden. They are to inspire your thinking.

Kate’s in the Kitchen: Bistro-Style Lunch On a Budget – Big Savings

This week, I’m finally getting serious about budget-tracking! Fed up with my attempts at calculating the cost of my meals, I invested in an electronic kitchen scale. Suddenly it’s simple to weigh in metric when a recipe calls for it, and I don’t have to guesstimate the amount of nuts or berries to add when they list the amount in pounds instead of cups.

From Garbage to Garden

Sometimes when Samson Aberra is working in the garden, planting seedlings or replenishing his nursery, onlookers gather to watch him toil. What they don’t know is that Samson Aberra is not “toiling” — he’s barely working. In fact, he is doing what he loves: gardening. Samson’s garden lies next to the main highway running through the Ethiopian highland town of Dessie, located in the northeast of the country. The garden forms a triangle between the main road and a contaminated stream that meanders through the city in its journey to the low lying plains below.

Tom Baker: The Starter

Tom Baker (yes, that IS his last name) is an artisan baker and uses a wood fired “Earth Oven” to bake bread. He runs his business Loaf, a bakery and cookery school, from his home in Stirchley, Birmingham, UK.

It’s GMO War: The Monopoly vs. the People

Last Thursday evening I attended a GMO panel discussion at CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter College called GMO’s and Eco-labels: Getting More of the Story. Four distinguished panelists shared their knowledge from the front lines in battle against both Monsanto and the FDA about consumer right to know.