Tonight, I made dinner. I felt the need to make up for my last attempt at dinner when I saw something on the internet and thought it would be fun -- stupid internet. So tonight, I made a nice Greek-style chicken, rice, dilled carrots and a cucumber and tomato salad with tzatziki.
I've been thinking a lot about food this weekend. Aside from the garden always being on my mind, yesterday I spent quite a bit of time working on rebuilding my restaurant guide (for the newer review style see Don Mee, Bard & Banker and Floyds 2). Thinking about meals past and future made me quite hungry. When I went back to it today, I stumbled across a couple of food blogs I had no idea existed: the Victoria Buffet Blog and the Victoria Burger Blog. Locally, there is also The Little Piggy reviews -- I know about them but I tend not to check them too often as I find they come at the reviews from a much different perspective. Surfing further, I got sucked into the forums at Vibrant Victoria so I got little else done this evening.
Earlier in the day was also food-centric; this afternoon we watched The Future of Food -- nice because it helped us explain to Kiddo why the backyard garden is so important to us, beyond thestandard eco-speak she gets fed by media and through the curriculum. Of course, it also scares the hell out of me -- especially as I have relatives farming Monsanto grains. The most startling fact presented is that roughly 97% of all the varieties of seeds grown at the start of the 20th century are now extinct. Even allowing for a survival of the fittest mindset, assuming that some varieties wouldn't be suitable for North American climates, or that some varieties would essentially become invasive weed species, 97% is a lot to lose. As I said to Kiddo this afternoon, it's why I am planting some heritage varieties of seeds. I suspect Kiddo will be spreading that fact to her friends tomorrow -- I probably should check if it's accurate.
Showing posts with label documentary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label documentary. Show all posts
03 May 2009
09 March 2007
On Paper it Seemed Reasonable...
So.... last night, the NBC comedies were all repeats, as was CSI. Instead, at 8:00 I watched NOVA, all about Typhoid Mary and then I went out, and CBC was running Ideas, part two in its series Organics Go Mainstream (one of those times where I turned off the van but wanted to sit in the parking lot for an extra 5 or 10 minutes, listening).
What I found fascinating about both was the complications that came from government intervention.
Mary Mallon was quarantined without the benefit of a trial (and when she finally won a trial, she lost, out of fear for public backlash). She later won her freedom, but disregarded the conditions of her release, setting off another outbreak and ending in her being quarantined for the remainder of her life. The interesting part was the ethical issues of the way the Public Health Department was able to completely ignore Mallon's most basic rights in the first place.
In the case of organics, the questions come in the debate around the certification of farms and foods. The biggest debate has been over synthetic additives to processed food (purists argue that by definition, processed is not organic). But the argument that struck a note with me was one farmer who refuses to be certified, although he follows very careful sustainable practices. One thing he does, though, would likely disqualify him from certification: when he buys additional feed corn for his livestock and poultry, he buys local first, "organic" second. And this may be the next battle for organics, because it also ties in to global warming initiatives to reduce one's carbon footprint -- if you are consciously shopping for organic food but it is being shipped 3,000 miles to your local heath food market, it kind of defeats its purpose.
What I found fascinating about both was the complications that came from government intervention.
Mary Mallon was quarantined without the benefit of a trial (and when she finally won a trial, she lost, out of fear for public backlash). She later won her freedom, but disregarded the conditions of her release, setting off another outbreak and ending in her being quarantined for the remainder of her life. The interesting part was the ethical issues of the way the Public Health Department was able to completely ignore Mallon's most basic rights in the first place.
In the case of organics, the questions come in the debate around the certification of farms and foods. The biggest debate has been over synthetic additives to processed food (purists argue that by definition, processed is not organic). But the argument that struck a note with me was one farmer who refuses to be certified, although he follows very careful sustainable practices. One thing he does, though, would likely disqualify him from certification: when he buys additional feed corn for his livestock and poultry, he buys local first, "organic" second. And this may be the next battle for organics, because it also ties in to global warming initiatives to reduce one's carbon footprint -- if you are consciously shopping for organic food but it is being shipped 3,000 miles to your local heath food market, it kind of defeats its purpose.
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