CABINET // The Coldscape
Nicola Twilley, of Edible Geography, writes about the cold storage that makes the modern food industry, and much else beside, hum.
Robot Chefs taking over China’s Noodle Joints: A Chinese restaurateur in Beijing has invented a robot chef to make sliced noodles. The robotic noodle expert is taking China’s noodle bars by storm.
kind of looks like ultraman.
And in other news, there are sliced noodles.
Where Are All the "Food Libertarians"? - Reason.com
We need more people like Impulsivefarmer who can remind us just how bad the “good old days” really were. It wasn’t some golden age where everyone ate of the fruits of the fields and lived to a ripe old age in glowing health. Before the pure food and drug laws came on-line and were actively
Dissenting Opinion and in no way a Personal Attack.
I understand completely. It feels good. Somebody is looking out for us right? Protecting us from the evils of corporate farming. And, in many ways it has worked. Many diseases were completely wiped out. Of course this was over 60 years ago.
I do not trust the FDA or the USDA at all. Not because of what they accomplished in the past, it was marvelous. Because of what they are doing today.
They are corporate whores and I shouldn’t say that because I like whores. Whores are honest about what they do. The FDA and USDA are not. Today they are the gate keepers to the market. They allow corporations to spray processed foods with ammonia, pump them full of growth hormone and antibiotics, feed them gmo’s and put a stamp on it calling it safe. I disagree that this is safe for consumption and that feed lots and modern agriculture is safe and sustainable.
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Please feel free to dissent!!! One of the worst things about modern culture is that people self-censor what they read and listen to, and avoid content they don’t agree with. How in the world can we ever learn anything new and important if we automatically reject information and opinions that don’t agree with our beliefs?
That being said, I actually agree with a lot of your comments. Thanks to constant tinkering by Congress and pretty much every president, the FDA and USDA have been turned into organizations that are pretty much a joke these days. They’ve turned into little more than agencies which exist merely to stamp their mark of approval on just about anything developed by companies with enough money to
bribe‘lobby’ a congressweasle. For the past, oh, 10-20 years, the regulations coming out of those two agencies seem to be geared more towards supporting the multinational agribusiness companies and pharmaceutical companies, while at the same time instituting regulations that make it increasingly difficult for small, independent producers to compete in the marketplace, or prevent them from getting on the market at all.I dissent more on facebook than tumblr. I haven’t quite figured out tumblr the way I have figured out facebook. Plus, I’ve been told I should come with a warning label, “Take infrequently and sparingly.”:) So in general I try to limit myself to one foamy mouth rant a day, and it’s usually on facebook because it’s easier for me.
I have often wondered if people actually knew what was really happening and what was really in their food,”What would they do?” I remember my journey from Neocon to conservative democrat to libertarian to nothing. Generally people have to discover things themselves to change rather than be assaulted with information and opinions.
Over the years I have become better at tamping down the fervor and communicating from a place of acceptance and understanding. I often still fail at this.
Since my goal is to be inclusive and not exclusive I tend to let most stuff go with most people unless I feel someone is open minded. I’ve been cyber stalking your blog for awhile so I felt this was the case with you so I let loose a bit:)
Now if you think you can handle the full monty, you can check out my facebook profile and my real estate blogs. However, you have been warned!:) I save most of my righteous indignation for US and World fiscal policies and personal/civil liberties. Maybe after an easy day and several drinks you can wonder over. Just have the back button ready in case:)
Here, on tumblr, I just want to encourage people to grow their own food.
What goes around comes around, in more ways than one. I agree that the good old days were no picnic. I also think that corporates being beholden to nobody but shareholders, they need keeping an eye on. The big, big difference with industrial food is that small problems can affect thousands of people. If big industrial food had to pay the externalities, it wouldn’t be nearly as profitable.
(Source: loafman)
(via Woman’s Homemade Sauerkraut Highlights Cottage Food Fight in AZ)
Interesting; some US state food laws are as draconian as European seed laws.
At Lyfe Kitchen (the name is an acronym for Love Your Food Everyday), all the biscuits shall be dairy-free, all the beef from grass-fed, humanely raised cows. There shall be no butter, no cream, no white sugar, no white flour, no high-fructose corn syrup, no GMOs, no trans fats, no additives and no need for alarm: there will still be plenty of burgers. Lyfe’s ambition is to open hundreds of restaurants initially across the US.(via Do you want sprouts with that? (Wired UK))
A BAKERY firm whose factory was partly destroyed by a blaze after newly-cooked naan bread set fire to a “heat-proof” conveyor belt is suing its makers for £6.8 million in damages. The roof of United Central Bakeries (UCB), based at the Whitehill Industrial Estate in Bathgate, collapsed as flames ripped through the building. Burning naan bread on the production line set fire to a conveyor belt taking the produce from the oven to a packing area, leaving a third of the plant in ruins in November 2006.
Bakery sues conveyor belt firms over naan bread fire - Scotsman.com
The perils of industrial baking.
Having begun my food issues journey in Florida, the CIW’s ongoing fight to end slavery conditions and bring better wages to tomato pickers was one of the first food justice/ modern food system issues I learned about.The shirt on the left belonged to a young man who walked into the CIW’s office in November, 1996. He had been picking tomatoes in a field near Immokalee when he stopped to take a drink of water. A field supervisor accosted him, shouted “Are you here to work, or to drink water?”, and launched into him, leaving him badly bruised and bloodied — and determined to find justice. The young worker walked back to Immokalee, headed straight to the CIW office, and sparked a nighttime march of nearly 500 workers on the crewleader’s house. The marchers brandished his shirt as a banner, declaring “If you beat one of us, you beat us all!”, and helped launch a movement that changed Immokalee forever.
The shirt on the right belonged to a young man who walked into the CIW’s office last week. He had been working at a vegetable packing house, packing eggplants, about 10 miles from Immokalee when a supervisor approached him. According to the worker, the supervisor criticized his work, and he, thinking the criticism unjustified, answered back. A discussion ensued when, according to the worker and a witness, the supervisor hauled off and punched him in the face. Staggered, he swung back, but was knocked to the ground by the supervisor before others in the area stepped in to pull them apart. The worker was told to go home, clean up, and return the next day. Instead, he went to the CIW’s office, and filed a police report. He then went to the hospital, where he learned that the supervisor’s punch had broken his nose.
Do you know where your produce comes from?
Do vegans know where their produce comes from?
I ask this question whenever someone talks about “but omg the animals”
So very true. It matters far less what you eat than what it takes for you to get to eat it.
(Source: emeraldtriangleprincess)
(via What Sunken Sandwiches Tell Us About the Future of Food Storage)
So very high pressures can preserve food well; and if the pressure vessel fails?
