Locavore News by Elbert van Donkersgoed
Posted: December 10, 2009
Categories: Food in the News / News from Sustain Ontario
Perspectives on good food and farming
Welcome to Scottish Food & Drink Fortnight
Scotland Food & Drink was privileged to organise and re-launch Scottish Food & Drink Fortnight 2009, an already highly successful and popular two-week culinary food and drink extravaganza that took place across length and breadth of Scotland from 5 – 20 September. Previously known as Scottish Food Fortnight, this foodies’ delight unites people from all walks of life to celebrate and promote Scotland’s larder, providing the perfect platform for everyone who loves food and drink to learn more about it, discover new tastes and smells, meet our producers and champion quality Scottish produce that is often right on our very doorstep! Website.
Meat & cheat memoir
Restaurants across the country, including Chicago’s own Mado offer butchery demonstrations to sold-out locavore audiences, who sip wine while observing the breaking down of a whole pig. Chicago Sun-Times story.
Feast with a conscience
It’s estimated food in the average Australian shopping basket travels almost 71,000 kilometres. So, what’s a good locavore or slow food devotee to do when it comes to organising a Christmas feast? With tradition hanging in the balance, our task was to see if such a spread was realistic. To add to the challenge, we looked for organic producers, too. Sidney Morning Herald story.
Foodies’ Night In (#fni) – Locavore Edition
We are all set for the second Foodies’ Night In (#fni) and we are more than excited to let you in on a bit of the conversation – in advance. Here’s the scoop: For this afternoon’s Twitter-based party, cookingwithcaitlin.com has partnered with Lolli Bean’s, a specialty boutique that carries safe, eco-friendly, and organic products for babies. We are going to be talking all about supporting locally-produced foods, and, what this means to you specifically, what this means to your family, and what this means to the world at large. What are your thoughts? Twitter Party.
Recapturing the startup spark
Restaurateurs who defy the odds and launch an eatery that survives its first few years face a new challenge: How do you keep an aging business feeling fresh? Then there were the business decisions that didn’t turn out exactly as expected. The major one was a decision to move the bakery’s oven off-site to accommodate better, large equipment and growing volume. It’s something Carr-Hall laments to this day — even though it made for a higher-quality product. “The business changed,” he says. “People used to look through the glass and see us pulling out the bread.” CNNMoney.com story.
FishChoice
A website for commercial seafood buyers looking for sustainable seafood products provides access to a database of top quality seafood that has been ranked or certified by leading environmental groups. Sustainable Seafood is fish and shellfish that is caught or farmed in ways that maintain healthy populations and have minimal impact on the environment. FishChoice is a nonprofit, conservation minded, organization. Website
Is Farm-to-School a pipe dream?
Earlier last week, California Governor Schwarzenegger announced $6 billion would be cut from school funding. On the upside, the Child Nutrition Act, which governs the National School Lunch program — which feeds 30 million kids — is up for reauthorization this September. Article posted on the Zerofoodprint website.
Convention Center buying produce from local farm
The chef at the Chattanooga Convention Center was impressed with the Athens, Tenn., farming operation and will soon begin serving locally grown produce from the farm to Convention Center guests. Officials from the Convention Center visited Mayfield Farms last week to get a firsthand look at the operation and to see where the produce will be coming from. Chattanooga Times Free Press story.
Michael, row the boat and shoot
It was a taste for wild boar that spurred two San Francisco friends to form a hunting and dining club called the Bull Moose Hunting Society, the Times reported. Its 55 members now hunt boar, waterfowl and pheasant and get together for wild-food dinners. The next paragraph noted that many American chefs are passionate about cooking wild game, even if much of it cannot be legally served in restaurants. The writer could not resist noting that “Until recently, tree stands and camouflage were rarely mentioned in the same breath as, say, heirloom tomatoes.” John Harrigan writing UnionLeader.com.
Learning from Past Civilizations
To understand our current environmental dilemma, it helps to look at earlier civilizations that also got into environmental trouble. Our early twenty-first century civilization is not the first to face the prospect of environmentally induced economic decline. The question is how we will respond. As Jared Diamond points out in his book Collapse, some of the early societies that were in environmental trouble were able to change their ways in time to avoid decline and collapse. Six centuries ago, for example, Icelanders realized that overgrazing on their grass-covered highlands was leading to extensive soil loss from the inherently thin soils of the region. Rather than lose the grasslands and face economic decline, farmers joined together to determine how many sheep the highlands could sustain and then allocated quotas among themselves, thus preserving their grasslands. Their wool production and woolen goods industry continue to thrive today. Lester R. Brown writing for the Earth Policy Institute.
Locavore Movie Trailer
It is a film about the return to local food or Locavorism. Featuring farmers, families, and respected authorities and neo-pioneers in the movement, Locavore will educate, inspire, and create some food for thought. (Pun intended!) Trailer.