food museum blog

Musings on Food Deserts, and Coffee Shops with Locked Outlets

Years ago we lived in a food desert, apparently. We were in DC, on Capitol Hill, right across from Eastern Market. OK, we didn't.  But the tiny, cramped grocery store we frequented--the aisle could accommodate only one skinny collapsible  stroller at a time---closed down soon after we arrived. So we relied on the Market for some things, and piled into a car to hit the traditional supermarket, several blocks away. 

We could buy yogurt and milk at the  liquor store, two doors from our house, mind you. 

But this was in such sharp contrast to the varied foods sold in small shops on the Lower East Side of New York, where we lived back in the early 70's. Cheese shops, green grocers, bagel joints, bakeries, Italian delis, fruit-sellers, and bodegas in adundance.

Meanwhile, the joys of cafe-sitting with one coffee all day while plugged into the Internet? Disappearing, perhaps. As more ( out of work) people crowd in and dominate tables, coffee shops, themselves struggling, are fighting back, according to this piece about New York in the Wall Street Journal.  Maybe laptoppers should be welcomed only at long counters equipped with plugs, with a time limit derived from a complicated formula based on food/drink consumed.

Further:

Food desert as defined by Wikipedia:  "A food desert is a district with little or no access to foods needed to maintain a healthy diet, but often served by plenty of fast food restaurants."

On food deserts from Chicago-based Mari Gallagher Research and Consulting.

Pig Factories and the Pig Flu

Much to do about hand-washing these days, while many wash their hands of any connection between factory farming of animals and possible unpleasant and unhealthy repercussions.

Flies figure heavily in this story. Flies, unsanitary conditions, polluted water.
Read this for some views not yet heard much on the nightly news.

Turkey Thoughts

Turkeys are firmly in the news these days, one of them, by-any-other-name-a-duck, still lurks in the shadowy corners of the White House. "Turkey" as a pejorative undoubtedly refers to the dim, single variety, over bred, breast top heavy creatures who can barely walk by the time we are ready to eat them. Wild turkeys, not so much. These are grand creatures with arcing feathers and throaty calls who competently lead their tribes through the woods.

Background turkeys breathing their bloody last have become all too familiar this month as former candidates for high office ( well, one---with ineptly and over bronzed cheeks,) cluelessly babble on in front of the carnage.

Some turkeys apparently are being replaced in a few shopping carts this year by chickens, though a big bird costs  only about $1.50 more over last year. Major grocery stores make very little or no profit on turkeys, because grocers know that you will buy big time the things that augment the  white and the dark meat.( Turkey producers were challenged somewhat by the higher price of corn this season.) Minnesota produces the most, BTW, this year, 49 million.

But what's with this" pardoning of the turkey" ritual, anyway? What crime has any fine, feathered turkey committed? John F. Kennedy supposedly looked at the turkey presented to the WH in 1963 and said, "Let's keep him." But it was George H.W. Bush who began the official pardoning routine.

Beyond poultry, did GHWB's move presage anything, like a pardon down the line?

( Pre-salt, pre-pepper, pre-rosemary?!)

Food News From All Over

Recent food reports tell us that A---women eat less in times of famine, as they provide for their children and husbands first, B---low carb diets, as well as the Mediterranean diet, work far better than low fat diets, and C--jalapeno peppers may be the salmonella culprits, and that $100 million in losses later tomato growers are looking at cooking up a mess of marinara sauce.
A--Duh!
B--Duh!
C--OK, not so obvious...

Oh, and this reported in The Guardian from Angela Hartnett, a Brit chef acquainted with Michelin stars, her own, that is: 
"What's the best/worst thing about the British food scene?
The best? Hmmmm. The worst is that we think we're now a nation of foodies and we're not. Oh, and I think it's really bad that good food costs so much and bad food is so cheap. That's wrong."

As noted in an earlier post, I am finally reading Barbara Kingsolver's book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, written with contributions from family members, and it truly is more than it seems. As many of you know, she recounts with sly humor a year of eating locally, most from their own 40 acres in Virginia, but also examines with graceful precision a range of food issues. The perils of cheap food, raising and dispatching animals, infusing unexpected recipes with veggies, organic vs sustainable et al, and more. A bonus: simple, straight-forward recipes, plus, an invitation to make cheese. I plan to try this asap.

Slaughtering News From All Over, Plus, A Teapot Scandal?

Grateful that I do not have 150 feet of intestines tucked inside, as do manatees, I see that the current crop of free healthy product magazines are recommending a huge roster of "cleansing" items this winter, none of which would be needed if the magazines' audience were eating as advised in the first place, right?

But I digress---a slaughterhouse video from Hallmark Meat Packing in Chino, CA, has prompted Los Angeles schools to withhold meat products from a company called Westland that buys meat from Hallmark, on the grounds that the "downer" cattle unable to walk towards their deaths were being dragged or pushed in, and thus might be suffering from diseases that could render their meat iffy for human consumption. Westland provides ground beef to the USDA's National School Lunch Program.  Many school systems around the US have chosen to reject meat from Westland, including some in Oregon and Florida.

( Meanwhile, rival groups in Kenya have been killing one another not only machetes, but also with bows and arrows. )

Japanese whalers, despite concentrated efforts to stop them, continue to slaughter whales with impunity, though Australian authorities now claim the video evidence they have will bolster their case against the spurious legal claim of the Japanese that they are taking whales for "research purposes."

Apparently The Teapot Museum of Sparta, NC, was the recipient of a $500,000 grant from the Federal Transportation office back in 2006, a fact now revealed to all and sundry with great derision. This report from 2007 says the planned new museum idea has been scrapped. Now as one who applauds any museum effort directed however tangentially at the subject of food, the stuff that sustains us, rather than at yet another monument to war and destruction, I must say that chunk of change would have been a fine first step towards the creation of the National Museum of Food & Farm on the Mall in Washington, DC. Read more about The FOOD Museum's proposal here.

Topps Goes Bottoms Up After Burger Recall

According to today's NYTimes report, the first hint that frozen hamburger patties from Topps Meat Company of Elizabeth, NJ might carry the E.coli bacteria came on July 5 when a girl in Pennsylvania sickened after eating one. Testing confirmed the bacteria to be present on September 7.  ( Over a month for these results??)

Yet the USDA apparently did not announce the recall of 21.7 million pounds of meat until September 25. Today Topps, in business since 1940, closed its doors and sent 87 employees home.

The Times stated that "Anthony D’Urso, the chief operating officer at Topps, said the company was unable to withstand the financial burden of the recall.

“This is tragic for all concerned,” Mr. D’Urso said in a statement. “In one week we have gone from the largest U.S. manufacturer of frozen hamburgers to a company that cannot overcome the economic reality of a recall this large.”"   I think he missed the part about being falling ill from eating his company's tainted products...

The USDA website has a different, somewhat more complex report on this.

Deputy Assistant Administrator for the USDA Office of Policy, Dr. Daniel Engeljohn, said the agency would require all beef plants to demonstrate they have E.coli: 0157: H7 under control, based on a checklist established in 2002.

He went on to say, limply, "We are notifying all slaughter and grinder establishments that it is their responsibility to ensure that these measures are in place. " 

(The words "slaughter and grinder" really stick in my craw, like a piece of tainted meat. Mass animal processing described in raw terms.)

Not Just China--Vietnam Suffers From Food Scares

A country  known for its healthy, veggie-rich cuisine is reeling from news reports of toxic domestically-raised soy sauce, cancer-causing chemicals saturating greens, and formaldehyde in the country's signature pho noodle soup.

Agrarian Vietnam, "where three quarters of people are farmers"  is being rapidly transformed into a "industrialized and market-driven economy," according to a report from Agence France Presse.

"A recent survey by the state-run Plant Protection Department found pesticides on 30 to 60 percent of the vegetables tested in Hanoi markets, including substances that are banned in Vietnam and other countries.

One of them was the insecticide metamidophos, which has been linked to health problems in China, Hong Kong, South Korea and the United States. Many farmers in Vietnam and neighbouring China use high doses of chemical fertilisers and pesticides to boost production in a cut-throat market where margins are slim, even though many know the substances pose health risks."

One farmer, Nguyen Thi Nhuong, admitted she and her family do not eat what she grows commercially.

"We have set aside a small part of our garden for vegetables that grow naturally for our daily use. We are afraid the chemicals will harm our health."

(Thanks to http://www.dgfoundation.org/programs/country-gateway-support.html for the photo of  Vietnamese farmers.)

China Bars American Frozen Chicken Feet

The bribe-taking food and drug regulator has been executed and a vendor of pork-flavored cardboard-filled steamed buns or baozi has been shut down as food authorities in China take charge.

And, while reports continue to come in here regarding tainted Chinese food imports, the Chinese government has decided to invoke the "people in glass houses" rule and more heavily scrutinize American products sold to China.

The AP reports today:

"Frozen poultry products from Tyson Foods Inc., the world's largest meat processor, were found to be contaminated with salmonella, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said on its Web site late Friday.

Other imports barred by China included frozen chicken feet from Sanderson Farms, Inc. tainted with residue of an anti-parasite drug, as well as frozen pork ribs from Cargill Meat Solutions Corp. containing a leanness-enhancing feed additive, the AQSIQ said.

A spokesman for Cargill denied the agency's claims, while officials at Tyson and Sanderson Farms were not immediately available to comment."

I cannot help but ask....Dear Martha: What do I do with a pound of frozen chicken feet, salt, pepper and a dream? Pls advise.

( Evidently slowly braised c. f's are common in dim sum restaurants and compare favorably with osso buco.. (??!)

( Thanks to http://www.alibaba.com/catalog/11123841/Chicken_Feet_Chicken_Paw.html  for chicken feet pic.)

Bean-Fed Fish

The U.S. has evidently signed a major contract with the Chinese who will purchase $3 billion worth of soybeans from American farmers, with more purchases to come.  As the soybean is one of the few beans that is NOT native to the US, this may sound implausible. But one of  the biggest Chinese food businesses is now aquaculture--feeding fish stocks to fish being farm raised is getting too expensive, and fish stocks are being rapidly depleted--so aqua growers are substituting soy protein for the food that comes naturally to most fish--other fish.

Does anyone know what this will mean for the fish, or for those who eat them?

( Logo is from the combined American Soybean Association and the United Soybean Board--for further info click on this: http://www.soyaqua.org/quickfacts.html)

Further from the Dept of Tainted Food--Forget Fido, Whaddabout Us?!

Apparently melamine-laced feed from our Chinese trading partners has been ingested by chickens, and hogs, and said critters have then been ingested by our fellow Americans.

According to the NYTimes, " The Agriculture Department and the Food and Drug Administration said that some 30 broiler poultry farms and eight breeder poultry farms in Indiana had received contaminated feed in early February and fed it to chickens within days of receiving it. All of those potentially affected chickens have since been processed.

The two agencies said they believed the likelihood of illness to people eating contaminated chicken was low because the contamination was most likely diluted. Without evidence of harm to humans, the agencies said they were not issuing recalls of any of the processed chicken products.

The Agriculture Department and the F.D.A. revealed last week that eight pork producers in seven states had purchased adulterated feed. Some 6,000 hogs were quarantined as a result in California, Kansas, North Carolina, New York, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah. Authorities are also in contact with a feed mill in Missouri that might have received adulterated products.

On Monday, Tyson Foods acknowledged that it had sent nearly 200 hogs that may have eaten feed containing melamine to a pork-processing plant. But the F.D.A. and the U.S.D.A. said they were not concerned that those hogs posed any risk to people, according to Bloomberg News. "

Italics above are mine--note the words "likelihood low" and "most likely diluted?"

Wow-- I am so utterly reassured now, aren't you? Ready to chow down on wings and ribs?