Post Script

"The next big thing will be vegetables."

So says celebrity chef Mario Batali, famous for his Romanesque appetite and all the girth that comes with it. The quote seems out of place, then. 

But get this: Mr Batali has shed some poundage and adopted a healthier, lighter diet. And he put together a new cookbook to share his new recipes with us; a cookbook that is heavy on the veggies.

"Eating as a pleasure is still a part of my life. Eating as a sport has faded away," he told the Chicago Tribune. 

Read a brief interview and profile of Batali's new Italian cookbook here.

That's one less nasty toxin to worry about ... and one more to worry about

Grist reports that a decade-long fight by consumer advocates has finally resulted in an EPA ban on the pesticide endosulfan. Similar to DDT, but perhaps more toxic, endosulfan has been banned in the European Union since 2007 but was commonly used in the United States on tomatoes in Florida and cotton in California and Nevada. Other items treated with the substance include melons, cucumbers, squashes, potatoes, apples, blueberries, eggplant, lettuce, pears, peppers and stone fruit.

Of course, this victory is offset by the worrying development in California; the pending and possible approval of methyl iodide as a pesticide to be used by strawberry growers. Methyl iodide is more toxic than the now-banned methyl bromide that it may replace.

Message in a bottle

An interesting read about the goods and the ills of bottled water can be found here at Fast Company. The author looks at many versions of the refillable water bottle, and considers why we don't always use them. Honestly, we've never seen an article about bottled water put together quite so well. We learned about systems we didn't know about before... like a grocery store "return-your-bottle" system that etches a message onto the bottle before it spits it out, refilled and inspiring. 

Here's an excerpt: "Consumers have proven that they will pay top dollar merely for the convenience of portable clean drinking water - even when it doesn't come from the springs of a remote Pacific island or the peak of some European mountain. Within the purchase price for premium water, there's plenty of room to pay for the refilling of the bottle with cheap, filtered local water while at the same time creating an economic incentive for stray bottles to find their way back into the system."

Via @greenbiztweets on Twitter.

Living a richer life, with less

The Kathleen Show interviews John Robbins, who left his Baskin-Robbins inheritance behind to live "a more authentic life."

We love The Kathleen Show. It's a bit like a crush.

Big Ag responds to superweeds with more chemicals

We blogged about Monsanto's super weeds back in early May, and now Grist.org addresses how the agricultural giants are handling the problem. Weeds are growing resistant to the chemicals in Roundup? Then the answer must be more chemicals!

An excerpt: "As application rates have ramped up, the superweed menace has become so obvious the mainstream press has taken notice. 'Superweeds Hit Farm Belt, Triggering New Arms Race,' declares a Wall Street Journal headline from last week. (...) Rather than spark a reassessment of the wisdom of relying on toxic chemicals, the failure of Roundup Ready has the U.S. agricultural establishment scrambling to intensify chemical use.

The Journal reports that Dow Chemical, DuPont, Bayer, BASF and Sygenta are 'together spending hundreds of millions of dollars to develop genetically modified soybean, corn, and cotton seeds that can survive a dousing by their herbicides,' most of which are 'many decades old' and highly toxic.' "

Sigh.

Fresh and local foodie? Here's your book

 If you buy your produce at the coop, farmer's market or you subscribe to a CSA, you want to make the best use of all that fresh, organic leafy goodness before it spoils.

That's why we love this new cookbook, stuffed with recipes to help you make the most of all those fresh ingredients. Eating Local: The Cookbook Inspired by America's Farmers features 150 recipes organized by main ingredient to help you figure out exactly what to do with all that zucchini or arugula.

And here's the kicker: "Eating Local also takes you on a wonderful editorial and photographic journey to 10 small farms across the country. An up-close look at these noteworthy small farms and the people who cultivate them reveals how hard work and a passion for sustainability yield wholesome and delicious products perfect for eating and living locally."

Oh, and the ultimate locavore/celebrity chef Alice Waters helped write it. Can't be bad!

Via Sur La Table.

Happy Bike to Work Week! (don't forget to grab your free coffee)

Need a good reason to take part in Bike To Work Week? We have several that involve the planet and your health. But if that's not enough to convince you, then perhaps you'll be tempted by the free coffee and baked goods at the Morning Commuter Stations around town.

See the list of station locations here, along with notices of related events around town.

WUWM spoke (pun intended) to some cyclist types. See video here.

No school means no lunch for some kids: Donate to our lunchbox food drive!

The school year is coming to an end, and for Outpost that means one thing: Our annual "Think Outside the Lunchbox" summer food drive. 

Partnering with Hunger Task Force, Outpost shoppers and owners can help us get healthy food to the kids who depend on their school meal program and could otherwise go hungry during the summer months.

Through August 31, Outpost shoppers can donate food in the barrels located in the lobbies of all our stores, give a cash donation at the register or even drop some spare change in the collection jar - every little bit counts and you'd be surprised how quickly it adds up.

Your non-perishable food is distributed to local emergency food pantries where it will reach the families who need it. Thank you in advance for your help! 

Food fight: Debating GMOs and organic

On the subject of food security, agriculture, poverty and hunger, there is little to no consensus. One side argues for GMOs and pesticides to help poor farmers increase their yield and improve their economy. The other side argues for an organic agricultural model, claiming that it can sustain the world. Who is right?

SEED Magazine has attempted to answer that question, or at least to hear both sides of the argument laid out. The editors recruited two academics to debate the issue:

• M. Jahi Chappell, ecologist and post-doctoral researcher at Cornell University focusing his studies on food security and sustainability.
• Robert Paarlberg, professor of political science at Wellesley College whose research interests are in international agriculture and biotechnology.

The debaters addressed the causes of hunger and the meaning of sustainable agriculture. The debate quickly became focused on one vital issue: the question of yield. According to SEED: "Paarlberg has mostly argued in favor of technology-intensive agriculture, going as far as to argue that elitist foodies in wealthy nations imperil Africa by spreading their anti-biotech sentiments."

Chappell's response is to argue that "the scientific foundations of organic and agro-ecological farming are sound. (...) Agroecology empowers small-scale farmers, he argues, and by shrinking farming's outsized ecological footprint - including its impact on wild biodiversity - conserves the public goods that benefit us all."

Read the full debate here.

California poised to approve toxic pesticide

An article in the San Francisco Chronicle alerted us to a decision by the state of California to approve registering methyl iodide as a pesticide in the state, "to the dismay of scientists and environmental groups, who say it is so toxic that even chemists are reluctant to handle it."

According to the Chronicle: "The chemical will become legal for growers to use after a 60-day comment period ending June 29 unless there is some kind of public outcry."

A spokesperson for the California Department of Pesticide Regulation said that while the chemical is indeed toxic, it is applied to the soil, not directly to the fruit, and all growers will have to set up buffer zones, limit their application rates and treat a small area at a time. No problems using the chemical as a pesticide have been documented, but very few studies have been conducted.

On the flip side, Susan Kegley with the Pesticide Action Network (nonprofit public interest organization) said the safeguards are insufficient. Quoted by the Chronicle, Kegley says, "This stuff just kills everything (...) it is a known carcinogen." Kegley told the newspaper that even low doses of methyl iodide have caused neurological damage and fetal death in laboratory animals.

Read the full Chronicle story here.