[hat tip to Lou Proyect] I have some trepidation about posting this, because it’s important, but also a minefield where fat people are devalued and even demonized, and where cultural difference is swallowed up in unstated US white middle-class norms, and the medical pathology paradigm. It’s the NYT, but It’s still important. -SG NY Times [...]

Recent research indicates that organic farming can feed the world, and is actually making a significant difference everywhere. In the United States and Europe, universities are reporting that organically produced food will address the problems of hunger and poverty facing the world’s growing population. This is not a surprising finding for organic farmers and advocates [...]

Over on Facebook, I’ve pretty much -with very few exceptions – accepted Friend requests, and sent out a few of my own. Now I have like 13 million friends or something like that. The social meshworks largely represented there are based on ideological affinities like left, Christian pacifist, feminist, etc. Then there are family nets. [...]

Ever feel like you were playing checkers and the other guy was playing chess? That’s the impression I get when watching many of the recent spate of food documentaries. Activists announce that this or that is wrong with the food system; on the rare occasion when something appears to be getting done about it, the [...]

In my childhood, around 12, I became enraptured by the pseudo-philosophy of Ayn Rand, whose Fountainhead hero Howard Roark (played by Gary Cooper in the movie) raped the female lead, and in the book and the film, she ended up enjoying the rape because Howard was such a pure superman. Apparently, she has become hugely [...]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/magazine/28food-t-000.html The New York Times February 28, 2010 Food Field Report: Plow Shares By CHRISTINE MUHLKE Published: February 24, 2010 “Who brought their own wheelbarrow?” Rob Jones asked the group of 20-somethings gathered on a muddy North Carolina farm on a chilly January Sunday. Hands shot up and wheelbarrows were pulled from pickups sporting Led [...]