Monkey Monday: Thanksgiving week continues. 21 November 2011 11:42 pm
Posted by Tracy in : comics,cooking,diet stress is a health hazard,eating,geekery,health,monkeys,news,nutrition,random,science , add a commentSo I got into the Thanksgiving spirit early with my epistolography yesterday, and I’ve got a few extra gratitude-themed posts planned for later this week (one of which is foreshadowed by a high-larious comic hidden in a link in this very entry!)
I feel like I’m turning into the NaBloPoMo homestretch, and that means I have to be extra-bonus careful not to fall into complacency, especially at the end of this week when I’ll be all distracted by holiday family action. Today I have been all distracted in general but a highlight of that distraction was that I now know I can make pierogies! This changes everything! Ok, not really, but (more…)
Monkey Monday: “Is this thing on?” 26 September 2011 10:22 am
Posted by Tracy in : consumerism,convenience,cooking,cross-posting,eating,economics,fast food,food snobbery,health,kitchen gear,photos,pictures,tea,time versus money , add a commentPretend I started out here with a hilarious bit about trying to remember how I used to do these posts — or don’t, if meta-self-referential cutesiness is sooo turn of the 00′s and hellooo we are well into the second decade of the 21st century now, dur-hurr… Also maybe read (or reread) that August 2011 New York Times Magazine piece about how David Foster Wallace maybe kinda sorta invented the language of the Internet but he was one of only a very few writers skilled enough to actually employ this style without being super-annoying, and now everybody does it, gah! But I digress.
Here are a few things from this past month that got my attention and couldn’t just be camera-phoned and summarized in a caption on Flickr. There’s a picture and a rant, but then there’s some short and sweet and funny stuff, I promise. (more…)
Monkey Monday: I made this. 3 May 2010 11:43 pm
Posted by Tracy in : economics,environment,geekery,health,monkeys,pictures,politics,school,sustainability , 2 commentsI surprised myself today by producing not one but two diagrams for my final paper on food policy for urban and metropolitan regions. One of them even helped me organize a whole host of food policy issues according to a definition of sustainability based on health, the environment, and economics, like so:
Sustainable urban-metropolitan food policy, sort of.
The big breakthrough was the realization that sustainability and its environmental, economic, and health aspects are not food policy goals so much as they are common unifying themes shared across many food system goals and the policies and programs designed to pursue them, if that makes any sense. Anyway, that diagram helped me do a pretty decent presentation in class this afternoon, despite my weak chalkboard-fu and the fact that I hadn’t finished the paper yet. The first six pages are really solid, and I’m actually look forward to doing more on that project, even as I put it on hold to do the final for my food processing and industrialization class.
I’ll be fine if I just breathe.
Also, I had a fantastic sea scallop, fava bean, and rhubarb appetizer at Braeburn tonight. Nom.
Bed now! And way less coffee, iced or otherwise, for me tomorrow. G’night!
The U.S. Childhood Obesity Task Force: a comment 26 March 2010 2:28 pm
Posted by Tracy in : diet stress is a health hazard,geekery,health,health at every size,nutrition,politics,writing , add a commentSo on February 9 of this year, President Barack Obama signed a Presidential Memo establishing a joint task force between the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Health and Human Services, and Education, directing those agencies to come up with a plan to address the “problem” of childhood obesity. The task force is part of a larger effort, led by First Lady Michelle Obama, with the uncontroversial but catchy name Let’s Move! and I have extremely mixed feelings about this project because I support almost everything about it except the fact that good things like improved school lunches and increased access to healthier food in underserved neighborhoods are being pursued in the name of ending obesity. Those mixed feelings are part of why I haven’t posted about Let’s Move until now—but also, I ran into a deadline. The Joint Task Force’s official Request for Information is accepting public responses until 11:59 tonight (and yes, that link will take you to much more information about the Task Force and a way to submit comments of your own). Here is what I wrote: (more…)
Ask TracyFood: should I freak out about genetically modified foods? 10 March 2010 11:05 pm
Posted by Tracy in : agriculture,books,economics,environment,food safety,food snobbery,friends,geekery,GMOs,health,history,Marion Nestle,politics,science,sustainability , 1 comment so farSo 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…)
