jump to navigation

Mixed feelings about Wal*mart’s sustainable agriculture plan 17 October 2010 3:31 pm

Posted by Tracy in : agriculture,consumerism,economics,local food,Marion Nestle,news,sustainability,WFPA , add a comment

Last Thursday, on Twitter:

@jorgeimontalvo Jorge I. Montalvo
Director, Strategic Initiatives, NYS Consumer Protection Board: food policy and consumer protection
Food folks: what do you think?: Wal-Mart Plans Drive to Buy More Locally Grown Produce: http://is.gd/g1Q9v

@tracyfood Tracy
Food geek, one-time-regular blogger
@jorgeimontalvo I have more mixed feelings about Wal*Mart’s “Global Sustainable Agriculture” plan than fit in 140 chars. Must. Blog. Soon.

Here, at last, is my post.

* * * * *

News stories, in roughly the order I saw them:

* * * * *

My first thought was, I’ll admit, a mix of kneejerk snobbery and “Solidarity Forever”: ew, Wal*mart. (more…)

Have you heard? 18 May 2010 3:52 pm

Posted by Tracy in : geekery,health at every size,hot mess,Marion Nestle,news,politics,random,weird , 2 comments

The Partnership for a Healthier America (who should maybe think about trading that “healthier” out for “thinner,” seeing as how they talk about fat as if it’s synonymous with bad health, sigh) and Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation (an industry group who at least have the honesty to put the weight obsession right in their name), in collaboration with Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move (about which I’ve already had a word or two on this blog), have brokered a deal wherein food companies promised to reduce the number of calories available per year in the U.S. food supply by 1.5 trillion calories by 2015, starting with a trillion fewer calories per year by 2012. Sounds pretty super-impressive, right? Those are big numbers! (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 far

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…)

Yet another (very) belated Monkey Monday post 20 January 2010 3:47 pm

Posted by Tracy in : consumerism,eating,fangirl,food snobbery,geekery,Marion Nestle,media,monkeys,news,nyc,politics,random,reading,school,writing , 1 comment so far

All right, it’s my first day of spring term, so I’d better close some browser tabs and make ready to go back to school. I think I’m getting into the right headspace: for instance, when I saw the Salon Food feature about whether Indian food will finally get trendy this year, my first thought was, “I wonder if (NYU food studies professor) Krishnendu Ray has seen this.” Only then of course it turned out that he was the very expert interviewed for the article. Go figure?

Likewise, I thought of Marion Nestle when I spotted the above-the fold front-page story about the FDA taking another look at bisphenol-A (BPA) in Saturday’s New York Times. Of course, she’s all over this story and the BPA issue in general. Personally, I’m just relieved to see coverage of this story beyond “here’s what you, personally, should do if you only care about the health of you and your family, forget the rest of the world.” (more…)

Monkey Monday: coming up for air edition 14 December 2009 8:08 am

Posted by Tracy in : events,fangirl,geekery,health at every size,Marion Nestle,news,nyc,politics,school,sustainability,video,work,writing , 3 comments

Hey, so it’s finals week from now until my last paper is due on the 23rd (which is an awful deadline and I sincerely hope to be done before then) and in the meantime I’ve been a big slacker which is why I haven’t posted and blah blah blah excuses excuses. Last week was ten thousand kinds of awesome, though.

On Monday morning, I went to an awesome event at The New School, celebrating the NYC FRESH initiative, which had not yet officially passed City Council, although it did on Wednesday. FRESH is Food Retail Expansion to Support Health, and it’s a mix of zoning and tax incentives for full-service grocery stores in certain underserved neighborhoods (Northern Manhattan, the South Bronx, Central Brooklyn and Jamaica, Queens). Not only must the stores devote a certain amount of square footage to fresh produce and other whole foods, they are required to accept EBT and WIC (which is really only common sense if they’re actually going to serve the lower-income communities that food retailers often avoid) and publically, transparently commit to good labor practices, so that people who work at those stores can afford to shop there. So awesome. And (more…)