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Ask TracyFood: should I freak out about genetically modified foods? 10 March 2010 11:05 pm

Posted by Tracy in : GMOs,Marion Nestle,agriculture,books,economics,environment,food safety,food snobbery,friends,geekery,health,history,politics,science,sustainability , View Comments

So I got a message from the splendiferous Ms. Lara earlier today:

Hey, Tracy! Someone on FB is arguing that GM crops are categorically horrible and bad and whatnot. Can you send me some informative links to help educate her (and myself!)? (I seem to recall you linked to an article about the death of an agriculturalist who saved millions of lives with his crops, so of course I thought of you…)

Many thanks to my favorite foodie!!
-L

Well. How could I resist the chance to go all run-on sentence on that? (more…)

Foto Friday: the last time I ate tuna. 30 October 2009 3:32 pm

Posted by Tracy in : Holland,Marion Nestle,Netherlands,books,consumerism,eating,environment,fish,food safety,food snobbery,health,not even vegetarian,photos,pictures,restaurants,sustainability,tuna , View Comments

It has been exactly four months since I last ate tuna. I believe this may be some kind of personal record; at the very least, it is the longest I can remember going without tuna since I cared to keep track of such things. Let me explain.

I love tuna; I think it’s incredibly delicious. Unfortunately, since because of that deliciousness it’s effectively an endangered fricken species, I try not to eat it too often, on account of how I’ll be a very cranky old lady indeed if large ocean fish are extinct in the next 40 to 50 years and I’m trying to do my part to reduce demand and all that. (Because I eat it so rarely, I’m not freaking out about the whole methylmercury problem, but it is horrific and I am eternally grateful to Marion Nestle’s What to Eat for the revelation that it’s not bioaccumulative.) Anyway.

I’ve been reading a bunch about tuna farming this week — real tuna farming, not “catch baby tuna in the wild and raise them in captivity” tuna ranching, but actual farming, baby fish hatched in captivity and everything, and my personal jury is still out, to put it mildly. I wanted to come to some kind of conclusion about this latest development in time to add it to this post, but it will have to wait for another time. In the meantime, I will continue my tuna-free streak. Luckily, the last time I ate tuna was so fantastic that it’s given me an even better motivation not to crack open the canned stuff — simply put, it’s going to be very hard to find another tuna meal this good. Behold:

So. Much. Tuna.
I’m guessing that’s a good quarter kilo of fish, at least.

(more…)

Food writing snarktacular! (For Christine) 30 October 2008 8:18 am

Posted by Tracy in : eugene,food safety,food snobbery,friends,oregon,school,work , View Comments

I sent this article to my Sugar Momma and her favorite Englishman in Davis, and she said nice things about it, like “Can I forward it to my family?” Flattery rules, and so I am posting this to show off (and so Christine has the option of sending a link instead of all my text).

Possible titles for this piece, depending on who I’m selling it to (in which case there’d be appropriate tweaks, blah blah), include: “Ex-Sundance Employee Tells All!” and “Confessions of a Cheesemonger.” (more…)

Monkey Monday: so much mystery meat! 29 September 2008 8:48 am

Posted by Tracy in : Marion Nestle,advice,consumerism,food safety,food snobbery,health,ingredients,meat,monkeys,mystery meat,news,politics , View Comments

Seriously, kids, was it International “Make Tracy Happy to Avoid Mystery Meat” Week and nobody told me? I just kept finding more and more news stories and blog posts to that effect. Also, on a metaphorical level, the TracyFood comment spam just kept pouring in — I broke 16,000 17,000 deleted comments over the weekend (number edited on Sunday morning after I started the post on Friday night). Woo? But seriously, all the scary meat news you can read:

22 September: Sucks to be a factory-farmed pig.

Last Monday, U.S. Food Policy alerted me to a news report about pig abuse at factory farms. The official Associated Press news piece is here, along with a video which I cannot bring myself to watch. You can click through to the full piece without being forced to watch the video, but (more…)

Monkey Monday: food irradiation, breakfast cereal, and more! 8 September 2008 1:46 pm

Posted by Tracy in : Marion Nestle,books,breakfast,food safety,geekery,good news,milk,monkeys,news,nyc,politics,random,restaurants,school , View Comments

Um, not necessarily in that order. Breakfast first, right? Right. Here goes. I had cereal for breakfast for the first time in a very long time today. Not oatmeal (it’s still way too hot for that), Tracy granola with yogurt, like I love, but something more in the muesli genre (hand-me-down free food from my parents) with milk. Turns out this was a bad idea, one which reminded me why I quit eating cold breakfast cereal. I’m just not a big fan of milk, unless it’s transformed in combination with something delicious, like tea or ice cream ingredients. (I’ll make an exception in the case of hot and fresh chocolatey baked goods, and tomato soup. For some reason I really love the contrast between a glass of cold milk and the savory acidity of hot tomato soup. But I digress.) If grains are going to be soggy, I want them warm, and soaked in delicious stir-fry sauce or something — old milk doesn’t count. So I was still hungry after forcing myself to finish the sad little bowl of milk-soaked oats and whatever. All told, cold breakfast cereal is still not my favorite: anything besides granola leaves much to be desired.

In other news of the disappointing, today the Ethicurean reminded me that the FDA now allows irradiation of spinach and lettuce. (more…)