The Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act is moving through the House at a snail's pace.

On June 23 of this year, Rep. Dennis Kucinich introduced the Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act (H.R. 5577). The Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act is intended:

To amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, the Federal Meat Inspection Act, and the Poultry Products Inspection Act to require that food that contains a genetically engineered material, or that is produced with a genetically engineered material, be labeled accordingly.

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It’s that time of year again…your garden is overflowing and you can’t seem to eat fast enough! The zucchini and basil are multiplying faster than you can pick them and soon the tomatoes will start turning red right before your eyes.  It is time to do something about it. A great way to make good use of your surplus is to preserve your own food. If you have never preserved your own food, don’t fret, it’s easier than you think!
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It’s definitely healthy to drink more water, but that doesn’t have to mean buying plastic bottles of fancy water that’s shipped all over the world. Not only do these little bottles have a huge carbon footprint, they’re not healthy for us and they often represent violations of someone else’s right to water.

Marketers spend a lot of money to convince us that bottled water is superior to tap. That’s laughable, since so much of the bottled water on store shelves is just filtered tap water. I recently ran across an infographic that really spells out a lot of bottled water’s pitfalls:
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The world produces an insane amount of coffee each year, somewhere around 16 billion pounds.  The grounds are soaked in water, that’s the end of their life.  They are not really consumed, only used for a small fraction of their delightful oils and stimulating phytochemicals (read: caffeine).  If the grounds are lucky, maybe they end up in a garden or compost heap, but too often, they end up in the landfill.

Research shows that spent coffee grounds could become a viable, inexpensive and pleasant smelling source for biodiesel.

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What do you know about the fish you eat?

I don’t keep up with fish news that much, since I don’t eat fish, myself, but an issue I am increasingly hearing about is that fish pumped with too many antibiotics and other drugs are causing real health problems for the humans who eat them.

The newest report out on this topic, by Exponent Inc.’s Center for Chemical Regulation and Food Safety, discusses “new alarms” regarding “the potential long-term consumer health risks of imported catfish grown in contaminated water and treated with drugs banned for use in U.S. fish-farming.”

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This week, Congress is voting on the critically important and extremely timely “Consolidated Land, Energy, and Aquatic Resources Act of 2009,” (CLEAR Act). The stated purpose of the act was to promote clean energy while heightening safety standards surrounding offshore drilling and other problematic industries in the Gulf. Unfortunately, several important provisions, which would have furthered these stated goals, were dropped from the bill. The bill, which supposedly includes a Gulf of Mexico restoration program, would have banned the destructive and highly contentious practice of offshore aquaculture (also known as factory fish farming) in Gulf waters and would have promoted solar and wind energy on land. Unfortunately, Democratic leaders caved to political pressure and removed these significant provisions.

Why is Congress continuing to give industry unfettered access to the Gulf? Factory fish farms, for example, do not yet exist in offshore Gulf waters, although some are lobbying to put them there.
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The process of making wine is one of nature’s most mysterious and magical transformations, but with all that magic comes a ton of misconceptions, misunderstandings, and flat-out wacky claims. Think anything that comes in a bottle, has a cork, and contains alcohol is good for you heart? Do you flaunt the thick “legs” on the inside of your glass as a sign of top quality? Ever find yourself popping the cork on a bottle to let it “breathe” before you drink? If you answered yes to any of these questions continue reading to get the real juice behind five popular wine myths.
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I drew you all a picture. Don't laugh—I'm not much of an artist—but for today's purposes, I think it will do. I want to talk about pork, and all the different cuts of meat that come from the various limbs and layers and parts of a pig—and in order to do that, we're going to need a visual. So here it is: my rendition of the cuts of a pig:


I got the idea for this from Aidan Davin, a hog farmer from Rutland who sells his meat at the Provincetown Farmers Market. He has a big poster in front of his stand with a diagram of cuts on it, and almost everyone stops to wonder, ask questions, stare. I was there doing interviews for my radio show, and so when he caught me staring, we talked through the sections and the cuts that come from each one. So here you go—the primal cuts of a pig, and the fabricated, or retail, cuts that come from each one:

1. The Jowl

The jowl is the loose, lower, drooping part of a pig's cheeks. The animal has no bones in this area, and the flesh—which has a fair amount of fat—is generally cured and made into jowl bacon.

2. The Shoulder

The shoulder is generally broken down into two cuts: the shoulder butt, which contains the shoulder blade bone, and the picnic shoulder, which contains the shoulder (arm) bone and shank bone. The shoulder butt is also called the Boston Butt and can either be cooked as a roast, cured to make smoked daisy butt—similar to ham—or further broken down into butt steaks, ground pork, or sausage.

3. Fat Back

Fat back is a layer of fat about an inch thick that lines the animal's back. If the skin is left on, it can be fried into cracklings or pork rind. Without the skin, it is often rendered into lard for cooking, or made into salt pork.

4. The Loin

The loin contains the upper portions of the rib bones, the backbone, and the hip bone. It is the source of all sorts of familiar cuts, including Canadian bacon, country style ribs, boneless loin, loin and rib chops, baby back ribs, pork tenderloin, and crown roast.

5. The Ribs

Beneath the loin is the home of the spare ribs. This cut comes from the lower portion of the ribs, and also contains the breastbone.

6. The Belly

Arguably the most delicious part of the big, the belly is a fairly fatty area free of bones. It is either cut into slabs and left uncured—pork belly—or cut into strips, cured, and smoked to make bacon.

7. The Ham

The ham comprises the thigh and rump area of the pig. It contains the leg bone and the hind shank bone, and is generally cured and smoked to make what we think of as ham, although it can also be cooked fresh.

8. The Hock

The hock is the cut right above the hoof, between the tibia/fibula and the metatarsals of the foot. Also known as a pork knuckle, it doesn't have enough meat to be served on it's own. Instead, it's generally throw into soups or braising pots to lend flavor to vegetables.

So, there you have it. The cuts of a pig. If you want to hear my conversation with Aidan, click on over to the podcast—he goes into a bit more depth, and I think it will be worth your while. Otherwise, have a wonderful weekend, filled, I hope—if you're into that kind of thing—with plenty of bacon. I'll see you Monday, everyone.

Hurrah! The UN resolution declaring the human right to water passed today!

According to UN News Centre:
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We’ve talked about the chocolate question before, but that just scratches the surface when it comes to vegan desserts. Lately, I’ve been really craving that most decadent of chocolates: truffles!

Here are five delicious truffle recipes, including tips for veganizing, where necessary:
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When my fridge and counter-top are loaded with summer veggies, pasta becomes my go-to weeknight meal. It’s fast, easy, and incredibly versatile. You can turn just about any vegetable into a pasta sauce. Here’s how:

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As many as 2 billion people worldwide are iron deficient.  This is particularly a problem in developing countries, but it is by no means limited to them.  Iron deficiency is the number one nutrient deficiency in the US.

Researchers are searching for a bean that would boost iron consumption as a possible solution to the food crisis, as well as to provide better nutrition for all.

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We love foraging for food around here! Wild fruits, veggies, mushrooms, and weeds are free sources of local, healthy eats in a time when we could all stand to save a buck.

Have you guys run across Depression Era Cooking with Clara before? She’s a 94 year old woman who shares cooking tips from the Great Depression on her YouTube channel and in her cookbook. In the video below, she shows us how to clean and prepare gathered dandelions to create a nutritious salad:
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Over the past few years, I’ve noticed more and more poultry and eggs being marketed as “vegetarian fed.” While I’ve always wondered what this label means, now that I work on a farm, I’ve really started to question it.

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A new study out this month finds that tart cherry juice can help you get a better night’s sleep, but there are study limitations and it probably doesn’t have as strong of an effect as other methods for curing insomnia. Nonetheless, here’s another reason to enjoy some cherries or cherry juice today.

There are many health benefits of cherries. This fruit is a great source of vitamins, especially Vitamins A and C, and potassium. Thanks to the flavonoids they contain, such as pectin and anthocyanins, cherries can help in the prevention of heart disease, stroke and cancer. They can also help in muscle recovery and reduce inflammation, as well as decrease the risk of some common problems associated with aging (i.e arthritis, gout and rheumatism).

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Why haven’t natural “energy + alcohol” products received more attention?

One of the trends that has bothered me most over the last few years is the massive profusion of outrageously-flavored artificial-ingredient-packed energy drinks — even among responsible, generally-sustainability-aware young adults.
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Did you know that you can find Eat Drink Better on Facebook? If you’re not a fan, we’d love for you to click on over and connect with us! We’ve only had our fan page for a couple of months, and it’s already becoming a place where you guys have offered some great input and feedback on our posts!

Here’s what you had to say:
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I’ve known many vegetarians and vegans that subsist on processed foods. Giving up meat doesn’t necessarily make it easier to avoid the pitfalls of the Western diet, after all. Frozen veggie burgers, “chicken-less” nuggets, soy cheese, and seitan sausages often seem more convenient than cooking a meal of plants, grains, and beans.

But given that global meat production accounts for almost a fifth of all greenhouse gases, a store-bought veggie burger is probably more eco-friendly than a beef burger, right?

Not so says a recent story in Mother Jones. In this article, Kiera Butler points out that processed vegetarian food might be just as bad for the environment as meat.

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Young Girl Collecting Contaminated Pond Water to Drink

We talk a lot around here about healthy food and our food’s impact on the environment. Something we don’t mention as often is access to clean, safe water. I’m sure that part of this is because we’re all lucky enough to live in places where water isn’t an issue yet. You turn on the tap, maybe run it through a filter of some sort, and you’re ready to drink!

Having ready access to safe water makes it easy to forget that there are people all over the world that aren’t so lucky. At the end of July, the UN is voting on a resolution that would make clean water a human right, and you can help!
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Food and climate change don’t get discussed much together. Well, they do in certain circles, but not in the mass media. But our food system is a leading contributor to climate change, and is also one of the areas to be most strongly effected by climate change.

The following is an excellent video on the links between climate change and our food systems.

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