Alla Wolf Tasker convinces me about the sort of food obsession we really need

Am listening to/watching this:

IQ2 Debate: 

Our Food Obsession Has Gone Too Far

 This is a must and thoughtful watch.

I particularly enjoyed the contribution of Alla Wolf Tasker

who runs The Lake House down the road at Daylesford. 

I try to be an ethical consumer - have done for more than forty years.

I try to support local producers and processors and jobs.

I try to support the smaller business rather than corporatisation.

After listening to Alla, I am going to become even more quality conscious.

I am prepared to spend a little more of my limited income on quality and local.

While I am not an admirer of all things French,

I do admire the relationship there between consumer and producer.

If only Australia would.

~~~~~~~

I am including below a paper which is not connected to the above

but may be of interest to Tucker Lovers:

      

What did they do in Paraburdoo (it's in The Pilbara)?

Picture from here

As Cyclone Rusty bore down on Port Hedland and The Pilbara this week, reports came that residents were stocking up on alcohol as well as food.  A bit of a no-no really because if the worst befalls, it could be best to be sober and, besides, alcohol cannot be taken into the cyclone shelters.

I wonder if over there in The West they gave any thought to what they consumed in that boring time waiting for the cyclone to come and to go.

Tucker Lovers will recall that the eastern seaboard of the USA experienced Sandy in late October 2012.  A post-storm phenomenon occurred dubbed by the media as "Sandy Five".  Sandy Five is a reference to the poundage put on by New Yorkers as they chomped their way through the cyclone.

Not only did they chomp, they cooked, and they drank.  Read about that experience here.

...on the day of the storm, I obsessively followed food blogs, Twitter and Facebook where my food loving friends reported how they poured themselves into preparing elaborate meals, from boeuf wellington to home made pasta to Brasilianquindin. Even more interesting was to hear about the indulgence in alcoholic drinks, ranging from the obscure mid-nineteenth century cocktails to cheap wine, a phenomenon that was evidenced in the empty shelves at wine and liquor stores across post-Sandy Brooklyn. As the storm descended upon the city, our kitchen counter too became a non-stop food assembly line, churning out new dishes every hour or so. When the winds calmed down and left behind a devastated landscape, interrupted lives and severed power lines, many shared stories of rushing to the fast food chains to eat “fast” and “bad” foods in search of comfort.

In spite of photographs of empty shelves in Port Hedland, somehow this cookfest does not seem to me to relate as well to The Pilbara as to New York.  However, foodie Pilbarans might let me know if I am wrong and they might like to recount their culinary and alcoholic achievements for The Network.  

And, by the way, Pilbarans, what was your Cyclone Rusty weight gain or loss?

Food to fertiliser in New York? Is it happening anywhere in Oz?

Mayor Bloomberg announces compost program for Staten Island during State of the City speech

In a pilot program starting in Staten Island, homeowners will receive two sealed-top bins, a large one for curbside collection and a smaller one for their kitchens, and New York will pick up the scraps once a week, using composting to turn them into fertilizer for parks. The plan could be expanded to the rest of New York City.

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The way New Yorkers clean up after dinner would change forever if Mayor Bloomberg gets his way.
Instead of slopping their leftovers into the trash, homeowners will be tossing eggshells, chicken bones and other scraps into compost bins in the city’s first food recycling program, which was formally announced in Bloomberg’s State of the City address Thursday.

Starting with a pilot program on Staten Island, homeowners will receive sealed-top bins — large ones for curbside collection and smaller ones that can be kept in their kitchens — and the city will pick up the scraps once a week and use composting to turn them into fertilizer for parks, said city recycling czar Ron Gonen.
The city picked Staten Island for the pilot because it has so many single-family homes, but hopes to eventually expand the program citywide — where tiny kitchens and apartment buildings faced with sorting waste into a fourth category could be a tougher sell.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/bloomberg-pushes-food-recycling-article-1.1264917#ixzz2MJUp2dY2

Read about Fresh Kills Landfill once largest landfill - as well as man-made structure - in the world!

For more about Food Waste, please go here.

Buying or Baking this year? Consider Bumblebee and its good causes for Christmas Cakes, Shortbreads and Gift Hampers

GM Free Week of Action: World Food Day: Unite Against Hunger

Picture from here

This is the GM Free Week of Action and if you pop over here, you will find that Jessica Harrison has provided all sorts of information to keep you on the go and committed.

FOOD COMPANY LOBBY DAY

Wednesday 13 October 2010

 

Take 3 minutes out of your busy day

to email or phone the big food companies - 

telling them

"We want our food to stay GM free".

• To ask Pfizer/Wyeth for an immediate recall of GM contaminated infant formula S-26 Soy, ring their toll free number 1800552229 
• To lobby Health Minister Nicola Roxon asking her to fix our "rigorous" labelling laws so they really protect us.
• http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/issues/GE/taking-action 
• Contact Woolworths on 1300 767 969   http://www.woolworths.com.au/wps/wcm/connect/website/woolworths/contact+us/      contact-us
• Contact Coles: 1800 061562 or http://www.coles.com.au/Coles/Coles-Feedback.aspx
• Other companies  http://www.truefood.org.au/takeaction/?action=FOODCO
• Lobby the WA Agriculture minister on GM wheat at http://www.geneethics.org/actnow

Free copies of the 2010 True Food Guide 

which lists the companies committed to keep 

their products GM free

 are available from  

support@au.greenpeace.org or 1800815151 

SPEAK OUT AGAINST MONSANTO
Friday 15 October 2010
Meet at Flinders Street Station, Melbourne
Under the Clocks

Monsanto has begun a campaign to "change the opposition many Australia consumers have to genetically modified food". If you feel outraged, come along to speak on the open microphone and hear speeches from La Via Campesina representatives, angry mums and farmers.

One of the things the Week of Action does is act as bridesmaid and usher in the really big United Nations event, World Food Day organised by the Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

The theme in 2010 is United Against Hunger

So now it's over to you.

Locusts, sprays and bees: impacts on our food chain

In the last few days, I have posted here and here about the so-called locust plague and Eris O'Brien's viewpoint. The Stateline story is now up on their website.  You can look at it - and particularly note Eris O'Brien's thoughtful presentation - here.

My interest began with my friend Denis over at The Nature of Robertson who has done quite a number of posts on the locust situation which you will find by going here.  Denis's postings are quite extensive and explicit and I won't attempt to comment - but please read his posts.  They are important.

I do want to say that it is about time that we of the human species woke up to ourselves.  Who/what is the greatest threat to our wildlife, our food and water sources, our environment?  It is us.  Not the locusts.  Us.  We are a plague to our planet.  And we are not considering wiping ourselves out are we?  What we do have to do, though, is ask ourselves a few questions about what we are doing and what direction we are taking.  And we have to learn from the mistakes of our past.  And the most eloquent voice in all this was Rachel Carson.  Perhaps Carson was not the first.  However, in our times her voice has been the most significant, far-reaching and followed.

Australians, in particular, need to look at their own track record.  Point me in the right direction if I am wrong but I think we could take the cake for the biggest environmental vandals on the planet. We are up there with extinctions.  We are brilliant at land clearing.  We have a penchant for importing animals which become feral: the rabbit, the fox, the cane toad, etc.  They are the highly visible ones.  Go here for more information on our toxic importations.  Australians' use of pesticides, particularly in our food chain, continues with only limited abatement.  You might like to have a look at the article below.

Over at The Nature of Robertson, Denis asks:

I have a view about this which might not be popular, but if the Victorian Government told their electors that they were going to spray vast areas of the State with many different chemicals, nearly all of which are highly toxic to bees - what would the reaction be?

Finally, I would like to draw your attention to the bee.

The blue-banded native bee with a tomato blossom

Much is made of the European honey bee and the fact that Australia is now the only country in which there is a wild population. In fact, did you know that European honeybees collect 90% of available nectar and pollen but pollinate only about 5% of our plants?  In short, European honeybees are bludgers, free-loaders.  They can take their food without doing anything useful in return - like pollination.  The really hard yakka in the bee world in Australia is done by our very own native bees.

One of the things we might all consider is our gardens and how our small urban and suburban patches can make a positive contribution to Australia's ecology. Here I would like to put in a word for that great native bee attractor, the Native Frangipani.

When I lived in tropical North Queensland in the shadow of the World Heritage listed rainforest, I grew a beautiful specimen.  My neighbours were busy planting foreign palm species - and had to ask what my huge and beautiful (yes, it did get to be huge) tree was.  I believe it can be grown in quite diverse regions - besides the tropics.  Its beautiful, tiny, fragrant blossom attract those little black native bees well - like bees to a honeypot.  

I would ask that you have one more look at the Stateline program.  Look and listen and analyse what is being told to you in images and words in this locust segment.  It begins with Victoria's premier, John Brumby.  He doesn't say much - but it is clear that his presence gives this segment his imprimatur and adds to its stature.  Because of Brumby's presence, this gives status and stature to the locust story.  But how detailed is the information provided by the proponents of spraying?  I would say insufficiently detailed.  Insufficiently describing and circumscribing safety.  This contrasts with the detailed argument put forward by Eris O'Brien.

Related reading:

Australian Bee Lore and Bee Culture: Including the Influence of Bees on Crops and the Colour of Flowers and Its Influence on Bee Life [ 1912 ]

BEES FROM THE AUSTRALIAN REGION

Bees and honey (Australian industries series ; no. 16)

A classification of the bees of the Australian and South Pacific regions (Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History)

Commercial honey bees (Apis mellifera) reduce the fecundity of an Australian native bee (Hylaeus alcyoneus) [An article from: Biological Conservation]

BEES, CHIEFLY AUSTRALIAN SPECIES, DESCRIBED OR DETERMINES BY DR. H. FRIESE

A cluster of bees;: Sixty essays on the life-histories of Australian bees, with specific descriptions of over 100 new species,

The effects of the introduced honeybee (Apis mellifera) on Australian native bees (Occasional paper / National Parks and Wildlife Service)

The visual book of Australian bees (Bees in Australia)

Some Australian bees (Acad. of Nat. Sci. Proc)

On a collection of Australian and Asiatic bees (Bulletin / American Museum of Natural History)

Tree fern and honey bee: A study of aboriginal Australian ancestors of the Mapleton District

Further reading:

Beetle's big threat to bees and farmers

The exotic bee threat

Bee battle

Lilydale chicken & racism claims: racism and chicken do not go together

Miss Eagle is vegetarian - but occasionally cooks for her carnivore family.  At these times, Lilydale Free Range Chicken is often on the menu.  However.......

Over at Facebook, the National Union of Workers is campaigning...

The National Union of Workers is standing behind a Lilydale chicken worker who it suspects was sacked after he raised concerns to management about racist behaviour in the workplace. This is a community group dedicated to spread the word that this type of intolerance is unacceptable. The NUW strongly suspects that this reflects a pattern of workers' rights abuse.

A little racism with my chicken? I don't think so.

STORY UPDATE - 22 October 2010

Free chickens, caged workers

Poultry producer's workers claim intimidation

Poultry producer under investigation for worker mistreatment -

Lateline video clip

Poultry producer under investigation for worker mistreatment -

Lateline transcript

Heritage, Food and the Future

Picture from here

Isn't this the most gorgeous vegie patch you ever did see?

I love to wander over to Casaubon's Book, the blog belonging to Sharon Astyk.  She has fled the farm and is off to this vegie patch at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello to do something useful -  like low-energy food preservation, complete with tastings.  She will also be speaking about Jefferson's idea of a nation of farmers under the title of A Nation of Farmers: coming home to our land.  Here follows an abstract of her talk.  Her abstract and that of others can be found here.

Our present agricultural system depends on heavy inputs of increasingly expensive and scarce fossil fuels, and is exacerbating our current world food crisis. It warms the planet and depletes soil and water and contributes to every major problem we face. Meanwhile, 100 million people have joined the starving and one in every 10 Americans requires food stamps to sustain them. But that doesn’t have to be the case – agriculture could help us regenerate our society. We explore the possibility – and urgent necessity of creating a truly sustainable food system.

Now I'm sure the patch is not maintained by part-time gardeners.  It displays investment of labour, knowledge and dollars.  In many ways, it is a garden that is not easily replicated.

 And I have to confess.

I love the lushness of the jumble of things growing together -

be it ever such a humble and ill-informed project.

Arabella Forge and Frugavore: eating well and understanding where your food comes from

 

Tucker lovers, I want to draw attention to a new book which will hit the bookshops next month.  You might like to put in your request to your local Public Library to purchase the book hot from the press.  Publication details are:

Pub date: September 2010

RRP: $29.95

ISBN: 9781863954891

Imprint: Black Inc.

Format: PB

Size: 180 x 180mm

Extent: 240pp

In this book Arabella Forge covers all the territory of good, sensible, affordable and ethical food and eating.  She is well qualified.  Arabella  is a Melbourne-based nutritionist. She teaches regular cooking classes at CERES Environmental Park and Organic Wholefoods, focusing on traditional techniques. She has featured as a speaker at Slow Food forums and speaks frequently on radio about issues relating to food and health.

Mark your diaries, Tucker lovers, because Arabella will be in conversation with Catherine Deveny at Readings Hawthorne bookshop on Thursday 16 September at 6.30pm.  The event is free but Readings do like you to book so please RSVP by email: events@readings.com.au or phone: (03) 9819 1917.

There is a Frugavore website here and a Facebook page here.

Grow your own heirlooms, organically and simply - with Belinda's help

I first posted the words and picture below nearly six weeks ago. I decided to do a 'reprint' because Belinda has to-day done a marvellous post on Community Supported Agriculture. Community Supported Agriculture in the form of 'food in boxes' operates in Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide, and Melbourne.  In addition to these links, The Organic Food Directory tries to cover a fair bit of Australia.  Now I am certain to have omitted other 'food in boxes' schemes and organisations - so please email me at misseaglesnetwork(at)gmail(dot)com if you want to get linked from this blog.

What Belinda is writing so refreshingly of is how extensive the Community Supported Agriculture project can be. She says that "every single product traditionally sold at a farm gate or farmers market has the potential for adaptation to a Community Supported Agriculture model."  

Certainly, Belinda is working her darnedest to carve out her own niche within this growing economy - as you will see below.

That friend of mine Belinda from Belinda's Place is something.  This organised, organising, methodical woman  is in the category of Urban Homesteader.  She does it all from the Mud Palace at Ferny Creek in the beautiful Dandenong Ranges on the outskirts of Melbourne, Australia.  You can follow her doings and don't-ings in the aforesaid blog.  So for all you need to know, the contact details are above.  For the rest follow her on her blog.