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The Unholy Alliance?
Sometimes I have to tell myself not to be so paranoid. As you will have figured out by now, when it comes to food and health, I’m no fan of the government, Big Ag and the drug companies. Now a writer has developed some history that indicates we need to throw Big Banks into the mix as well. There’s no question that we’re an over-weight, over-medicated nation, but I hesitate to blame it on a “grand conspiracy” put in motion 100 years ago. Nevertheless, that’s the claim. You can read and decide for yourself. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/07/15/ellen-brown-discusses-money-system.aspx?e_cid=20120715_SNL_Art_1 When you consider today’s “insider relationships”, cronyism and the revolving door involving people at the…
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It’s a fact….
Several articles have come to our attention that we thought you might like to hear about, the first in the newsletter of Animal Welfare Approved. It’s a discussion of a study by the United Kingdom’s National Trust, which manages a bazillion acres of land and overseas both conventional and natural cattle production. The Trust wanted to get to the bottom line of the controversy over the effect on the environment by the two types of management. Big Ag there (and here) has launched a campaign claiming that actually feed lot production is easiest on the environment because the cattle are fattened more quickly….thus less methane gas emission. The Trust…and Animal…
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Good friends, good times, good cows…
We’re back after a swing through the northeast capped by a visit to Don and Heather Minto’s Watson farm in Rhode Island. The Mintos have a wonderful herd of Devon and also sell grass fed beef. Their hot dogs are the best I’ve ever tasted but their butcher won’t reveal his secret. After checking their herd we had dinner at an excellent restaurant in nearby Jamestown, something of a ritual for us. Watson Farm has one of the prettiest settings of any we know, right on the shoreline of Narragansett Bay. Now it’s back to work. Our pigs are ready for market and the next steer has been butchered and…
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By way of explanation….
Between power outages and visitors, blogging has had to take a back seat recently. Last night we invited Rappahannock chef Sylvie Rowand in to prepare dinner in the style of her native Reunion and our guests included two Germans, a Brit and a Norwegian. Globalization strikes Hume. But so did another power outage…right in the middle of preparation. Of course, the battery on the generator decided to quit so I had to make another round trip to the pump house in the pouring rain with jumper cables to get a boost from the Gator. (Incidentally, that rain felt wonderful!) There’s a limit to what the generator can power and we…
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The least patriotic food in America?
That’s the headline in the Washington Post and their answer is, yes, the hamburger. The article is in four parts: the burger itself, the bun, the fixings and equality. The bottom line is that fresh, nutritious, real food has increasingly been reserved for the more affluent. The poor are left with the artificial, cheaper, processed food…dressed up with salt and flavorings, packaging, and advertising. It was a problem Thomas Jefferson worried about 200 years ago, noting that the wealthy ate vegetables and the poor did not. The major points in the article: The burger. 85% of all the burger Americans eat come from just four giant food processors. They control…
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Glad that’s over….
We were without electric service the past several days thanks to a lightning storm that was the most spectacular display I can ever remember, at least over land. (A few crossing the Atlantic in my flying days were probably about the same.) But this storm came rolling over the Blue Ridge with a magnificent fury, the sky constantly illuminated with uninterrupted lightning across the horizon. I should have gone to the pump house and cranked up the generator but it was time for bed and, as our guests will tell you, nothing interferes with my bedtime. First thing in the morning we were greeted not only with the power failure…