In the June 23 edition of Chemical & Engineering News, associate editor and my good friend Rachel Petkewich reports on innovations in chemistry that are helping to understand and promote the healthfulness of foods. Our own Lone Star State shines front and center in her story, with coverage of maroon carrots and Texas grapefruits.
On June 18, the Houston Chronicle published a surprising article in which Peggy Grodinsky reported on the struggle of Texas catfish farmers. Apparently there’s much to be praised in local catfish that’s well-raised, but word is slow getting out. “Evokes the taste of almonds” is certainly not a phrase I’ve previously heard associated with catfish, [...]
“Local Food” is the tenth-most-popular Topics page at The New York Times online! Check it out for a trove of stories, plus a helpful list of other locavore resources.
What costs even more than a gallon of gas? A pound of t-bone steak, according to a story yesterday on KUT News. Since most steer in the U.S. are fed corn, and corn prices are up due to demand for ethanol, beef prices are skyrocketing. What to do? Buy grass-fed. [...]
In yesterday’s New York Times, Dan Koeppel, author of “Bananas: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World,” braces us for cheerios floating alone in milk, one fewer perfect partner for peanut butter, and increased demand for potassium-rich potatoes. Perhaps unique in their story of globalization on the cheap, bananas, he argues, will soon [...]
In Saturday’s Dallas Morning News, freelance writer Kim Pierce reported on the state of Dallas’s downtown farmers’ market. With new leadership and the locavore movement to fuel it, its outlook is rosy, she suggests. I found the relationship between the food “dealers” — those who import harvests of bananas and other exotics — [...]
Last week over at Cincinnati Locavore, Valeree posted a great piece called “How to shop at a farmers’ market.“ It gave me some new ideas and put to words some others that I hadn’t managed to articulate myself. Check it out!
1. Buy a dedicated market basket – and stock it up. Mine, pictured here, is fully collapsible and the canvas comes off to be machine-washed. (I bought it for $14 at the Marshall’s at the new Mueller strip mall at 35N and 51st. While that’s not a local business, it’s very close [...]
A new study published in Environmental Science & Technology, a journal of the American Chemical Society, reveals that how food is produced — not how far it’s traveled — is the most important factor in evaluating its impact on global warming. So while a steak grown in Texas produced a lot less carbon dioxide [...]
In today’s Austin American-Statesman, freelance writer Meredith Hight reports on Greenling Organics, an organic food delivery company founded in and serving Austin. While Greenling’s mission is foremost organic, it also strives for local, says Hight:
Greenling generally tries to use local farms and products as much as possible. “Anything we can get locally, we do,” [...]
