Tag Archives: Food

What can you do now about food?

This item horrified a lot of people: Animal miscarriages from new fungus or virus in Roundup-read crops? A reader asked:
What would you say to someone like myself who wants to make a difference but has no clue where to start? I think that is a big question with my generation.
Well, there’s the pumpkin dance. But you don’t have to start with that.

HFCS may be the easiest thing to start with, because it’s labelled. Don’t buy any product that has High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) in it. You’ll be surprised how many do. At restaurants, check the condiments, don’t use them if they have HFCS, and inform the wait staff why you’re not. When people ask why you’re doing all this tell them. Here’s some background on High Fructose Corn Syrup and Obesity.

This kind of thing is working: Hunts removes HFCS from all its Ketchups.

About pesticides, buy local and organic food, like at Whisk. Ask for local food at other stores. Help with a community garden. Join a CSA. Write a letter to the editor.

You don’t have to do all of these things; these are some ideas. Start small and just do something. Every little bit helps, and you’ll get more ideas as you go along. Your example will help others start.

Also, don’t feel bad about it seeming intimidating. On the one hand we have the most sophisticated marketing methods the world has ever known, fueled by megabucks from transnational corporations. On the other hand we have, er, a few college professors like Michael Pollan, a few farmers who observe and analyze like Joel Sallatin, a few poets like south Georgia’s own Janisse Ray, and so on. Even so, local and organic food is one of the few industries that has kept booming right through the economic downturn. People actually want food that’s good for them and tastes good!

Fortunately, around here we also have Georgia Organics! More about that later.

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Whisk pictures and videos

Gretchen buys meat, fresh vegetables, ginger, cereal, chicken, sausage, and bacon at Whisk Organic Market in Valdosta. Also Newman ginger cookies.

She says Gracie says people who come in often don’t understand organic fruits and vegetables aren’t always the most beautiful ones. But they’re tasty!

Here’s a playlist of videos of proprietor Gracie Crane Douglas talking about her store.


Gracie Crane Douglas and Whisk Organic Market, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 15 Feb 2011
Pictures and Videos by Gretchen Quarterman.

More pictures of Whisk Organic Market in a flickr set.

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Food tastes good as politics

Bryan Walsh writes in Time that Foodies Can Eclipse (and Save) the Green Movement:
Even as traditional environmentalism struggles, another movement is rising in its place, aligning consumers, producers, the media and even politicians. It’s the food movement, and if it continues to grow it may be able to create just the sort of political and social transformation that environmentalists have failed to achieve in recent years. That would mean not only changing the way Americans eat and the way they farm — away from industrialized, cheap calories and toward more organic, small-scale production, with plenty of fruits and vegetables — but also altering the way we work and relate to one another. To its most ardent adherents, the food movement isn’t just about reform — it’s about revolution.
Food is something that affects everybody, and now that people are starting to realize that the mainstream food supply is poisoned: Continue reading →

Tripper’s local flavors

Charlie Tripper’s restaurant says We Are Committed To LOCAL FLAVORS:
Whenever possible we us[sic] local meats, cheese and produce to provide our diners with fresh and dynamic flavors. Local products from the likes of Gayla’s Grits, Horner Farms, Sweet Grass Dairy and Thompson Farms allow Charlie Tripper’s to serve delicious and local farmstead fare year round. Menus are subject to change in order to accommodate seasonality and availability.
4479 North Valdosta Road
Valdosta, Georgia, 31602
229-247-0366
This post owed to Buddy Boswell.

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Healthy Moe’s?

Moe’s to get new, fresher menu By Jeremiah McWilliams, AJC, 13 Jan 2011:
The Atlanta-based burrito chain will roll out a new nationwide menu on Jan. 24, top executives told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Coming soon to 420-plus restaurants will be grass-fed sirloin steak with no added hormones. The pork will be hormone-free, steroid-free and grain-fed. Moe’s says its chicken will be hormone-free and not raised in cages, and the tofu will be organic.
Sounds good to me. Why are they doing this?
“The Moe’s consumers have told us this is something they want,” said Paul Damico, president of the brand. “We take that information seriously. They tell us they want fresh, they want sustainable.”
Voting at the checkout counter works!

They have three locations in Valdosta:

1525 Baytree Rd.
Valdosta, GA 31602
(229) 293-0663

3145 North Ashley Street
Valdosta, GA 31602
(229) 333-0649

1500 Patterson Street
Valdosta, GA 31698
229-259-2506

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PS: And I learned that Moe’s is based in Atlanta.

The Biotech Bully of St. Louis is having a Bad Year

Ronnie Cummins writes in Counterpunch, Coexistence With Monsanto? Hell No!
Monsanto’s Roundup, the agro-toxic companion herbicide for millions of acres of GM soybeans, corn, cotton, alfalfa, canola, and sugar beets, is losing market share. Its overuse has spawned a new generation of superweeds that can only be killed with super-toxic herbicides such as 2,4, D and paraquat. Moreover, patented “Roundup Ready” crops require massive amounts of climate destabilizing nitrate fertilizer. Compounding Monsanto’s damage to the environment and climate, rampant Roundup use is literally killing the soil, destroying essential soil microorganisms, degrading the living soil’s ability to capture and sequester CO2, and spreading deadly plant diseases.

In just one year, Monsanto has moved from being Forbes’ “Company of the Year” to the Worst Stock of the Year. The Biotech Bully of St. Louis has become one of the most hated corporations on Earth.

All that and paraquat doesn’t work on mutant pigweed, either. The whole “no-till” fable is unravelling.

The article mentions scientific studies about bad health effects of genetically modified foods, and goes on to warn of Monsanto maneuverings through the EPA and the Gates Foundation. Then he points to the European Union as leading the way: Continue reading →

Local food for sustainability

James Polk provides us some Food for Thought:
Let’s take a quick tally. 1) Locally grown food uses less fossil fuel getting to market, 2) fresh fruits and vegetables are healthier than packaged foods, and 3) buying locally grown food supports your local economy possibly keeping your would-be deadbeat friends employed.

My favorite reason to eat locally grown foods is the taste. Go to a farmers’ market and load up on freshly picked tomatoes, bite into a raw crisp green bean, take home some succulent zuccinni and eggplant to stir-fry – you’ll be hard-pressed to find a more delicious meal.

Yep. That and okra. Anybody need some okra?

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Farmland for Food, Wildlife, Flood Control, Air Quality, and Agrotourism

Gretchen found this one, too (think I can get her to blog?). Judi Gerber writes about Why Saving Farmland Is So Important:
…without local farms, there’s no local food, or, as the American Farmland Trust (AFT) puts it: “No Farms, No Food.”.

And it’s not even just food:

Farmland is green space, even though most people don’t think of it that way. It is a significant contributor to environmental quality. As AFT states, “Farm and ranch lands provide food and cover for wildlife, help control flooding, protect wetlands and watersheds, and maintain air quality. They can absorb and filter wastewater and provide groundwater recharge. New energy crops even have the potential to replace fossil fuels.”

And there’s more:

Farmland provides fiscal stability to local governments and boosts the economy. It does this by contributing to a community’s infrastructure and helps a local economy through sales, job creation, and support services or businesses.

One of the most unique of these support services is tourism, or more specifically, agri-tourism. There are plenty of places that people visit to see rural scenery or to enjoy the food or drink of a specific region including the wineries in California’s Napa Valley, or popular farm stays like those found in Italy, and increasingly, here in the United States.

There are some plans afoot about agrotourism in Lowndes County.

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