October 2011
1 post
Huh. Coupon use proves capitalism works? Yes, says...
Surprised by this quick post from @Jane_Black equating a coupon for produce with a validation of capitalism:
Capitalism has been somewhat discredited lately…But as Connecticut-based nonprofit Wholesome Wave proves, basic capitalist incentives can still be a force for good. In a survey released today, Wholesome Wave showed that offering incentives to buy fruits and vegetables helps low-income...
September 2011
1 post
It's official: Blogging hiatus.
Due to the (rather insane) amount of work I have on my plate, I’m taking a now-official blogging hiatus. It’s not clear to me that this will change much of what’s seen here—I’ve been on an unofficial hiatus for a while now—but figured I’d go ahead and be clear. If you’d like to know more about me or my work, you’ll get more immediate gratification by:
...
March 2011
2 posts
Savvy take on the problem w/term "food deserts,"...
My Detroit reporting bears out what this interesting blog post, from a U-Michigan grad student in planning, centers on: ‘Food deserts’ are used to center attention on a real problem (limited access to food in certain neighborhoods) by over-exaggerating it. I think it’s useful in terms of gathering attention, but it certainly limits discussion for actual solutions.
upshot of @marionnestle here: http://is.gd/b4xZQN?...
If between 11 and 15 percent of the price of food at the store goes to the farmer, farm LABOR is, at most, 5-6 percent of what we pay as shoppers. Worth mentioning, is all.
February 2011
4 posts
fyi: exc. infographics in @colorlines smart take...
Of note: the SMALLEST wage gap between white workers and workers of color, in food service, is about ten percent. (That’s $2,000 a year.) The BIGGEST gap? A difference of $16,000 a year — in processing.
What literary class ceiling? From ed. @ serious...
I know it’s not politic to grumble about how unfairly one may get treated on account of lacking a penis. But all this hoopla over bylines’ predisposition towards phalluses reminded me of an experience I had a couple years ago.
I’d just finished my two months of working in the fields in California. My experiences ranged widely, from being treated perfectly well while doing a...
someone finally said it: we can't vote with forks!...
best. food. book. this. year. PERIOD. @dayofhoney
Remember how people got all persnickety over the way Eat, Pray, Love—lyrical and compelling as it was—centered on a waspy upper-class writer who went wandering off to do yoga?
Imagine if someone took that close, compassionate, luminous writing and transposed it on top of a working-class Midwest girl, daughter of a single mom, who married an Arab reporter and moved to Baghdad just as...
January 2011
10 posts
WalMart sez: Our produce will be cheap, but not by...
Dollar stores are “eating [WalMart’s] lunch,” say WM execs, so they are pushing suppliers to keep costs down, according to this NYPost piece.
Notice the absence of any talk about keeping prices down by centralizing logistics and distribution, which is important given that the company’s announcement last week’ that its produce will be cheaper, but not by “asking...
exc. pc on water and ag in CA via @highcountrynews...
Cynical, I know, but: What if WalMart's...
When WalMart announced yesterday that it was going to abolish the price differential between healthy and unhealthy food, it didn’t explain any specifics about how that might happen. Corby Kummer over at the Atlantic wrote:
The announced target for added sugars will disappoint many who would like sodas and soft drinks abolished, and the soft-drink question came up immediately (okay, I was...
MI's southern roots run deep: only non-S state to...
WalMart to drop prices on fruits and vegetables...
Fascinating and—let’s be honest—brilliant political move on part of WalMart. Whatever you want to say about the company, it’s a pretty damn smart idea to endear yourself to the First Lady by making fresh fruits and vegetables affordable.
thinking about @Jane_Black 's post last week:...
Jane Black’s ruminations on the language of the obesity epidemic got me thinking. SHe writes:
The way we talk about [health] is important because labeling people as overweight and obese doesn’t necessarily motivate them to change their lifestyles. During our time in Huntington, we’ve noticed a certain fragility among people who are struggling to make changes to their diets. If they...
How to get families to be healthier: Put a lock on...
New study finds that placing a locking device on a TV, giving people scales and asking them to write down (i.e. pay attention to) what they eat results in….less TV, healthier diets and weighing one’s self more frequently. This does not result in weight loss, but apparently does not lead to weight gain, either.
There’s no clear outcome here, other than something pretty basic...
Target stores boosting their fresh food sales...
submitted a 6-page info request for USDA data back...
UK launches vouchers for healthy food; Could be...
Britain’s lawmakers introduced a program on Jan. 2 to offer 50-pound coupons for healthy food like frozen vegetables and low-fat yogurt, funded with nearly 250 million pounds (the equivalent of $390 million, U.S.) from the food industry.
There’s plenty of skepticism of food companies’ motives according to the Reuters piece covering the program—but I’m optimistic....
December 2010
7 posts
1/3 of Detroit's current vegetable consumption...
Interesting study suggests that 31% of current vegetable consumption in Detroit, and 17% of fruit consumption, could be grown on about 30 city acres. Given that roughly 40 square miles of the city is vacant—the equivalent of 24,600 acres—that’s a pretty interesting stat, no? If only I could get my hands on a copy of that journal article.
1 tag
Kudos to @IndraniNY for scooping the NYT by 2 yrs...
Here’s how big media works:
Intrepid reporter discovers interesting neighborhood story, like an incubator kitchen operating in Long Island City, QUeens that is fostering a whole cottage industry of small-scale commercial food businesses.
Then kitchen is on radar.
Two years later, a shift in funding sources for same kitchen, spurred by economic downtown, creates a revised narrative —...
What's a foodie? And (my) other thoughts on food...
Yesterday, Detroit’s NPR reporter Martina Guzman sat down with me to talk about food and class. You can find the original broadcast here, as part of the local public affairs program the Craig Fahle Show; I”m on right around the 1 hour 30 minute mark. The piece was also picked by the local All Things Considered broadcast—though I”m not sure it was posted online a second...
I'm on the radio, talking about food and class... →
@AnnieLowrey sort of hits the mark on food stamps...
Annie Lowrey over at Slate had a nice piece up on Friday about food stamps’ rising participation rates and their support among many conservatives, Strangely, Lowrey tosses off a bunch of one-liners about the inefficacy of America’s social programs—all without any backup whatsoever. That wouldn’t be a problem if these were true statements. But they’re not. Check it...
Tomato workers win big. The bigger problem:...
NYT hits the nail on the head by the end of this op ed:
Workers in Immokalee have defended their rights, but America’s fields are still too often open-air sweatshops. Farmworkers lack federal labor protections like overtime pay and the right to organize. Most states do no better.
Higher food prices are here, and don't expect a... →
What a lovely holiday present, no?
November 2010
13 posts
sunday AM: both liked and hated @janeblack 's...
About a year ago, I was in the middle of six weeks of undercover work at the country’s largest grocer, working the night shift in grocery. I made about $8.50 an hour, had rent just under $400, a 25-mile commute, and could only get part-time hours. And what I remember most viscerally isn’t that I was spending every extra cent on food—though, when I look back at my data, it’s...
"Pollan is drawing a picture of class privilege...
I’m loving this thoughtful, intelligent piece from Lisa Miller at Newsweek on class and food in America. One thing that gets short shrift, though, is this:
Claude Fischler, a French sociologist, believes that Americans can fight both obesity and food insecurity by being more, well, like the French. Americans take an approach to food and eating that is unlike any other people in history.
...
nice, succinct piece on food deserts in today's...
Simple, clear piece by Rob Walker on Walgreen’s effort to bring food into Chicago food deserts—though I’m skeptical that Walgreen’s is having the kind of success they imply if, as Walker explains, they’re unwilling to share any information about how it’s going. (A store manager told Walker that “customers love it.” Um: That’s vague and...
smart take on 3 food/funding reports via...
Nice digest of three hefty reports out this week dealing with how much produce Americans eat and why. Most interesting award goes to Produce for Better Health Foundation’s analysis of USDA subsidies: 55% go towards meat production, 10% to fruits and vegetables. (Note: PBH is the nonprofit arm of the fruit and veg industry, so not exactly the most impartial observer.)
My latest on urban ag: RT @TheAtlanticFOOD: 5...
My recent trip to NOLA for the CFSC conference yielded this quick guide to urban ag in New Orleans. Check out 5 Urban Farms Reshaping the Food World in New Orleans on The Atlantic Food Channel to hear about urban farm projects that bring Will Allen’s genius to the south; offer a commercial urban ag training program; help teens eat well by fiat; clean toxic soil with sunflowers; and measure...
tho i love smart food retail coverage like this...
One of my favorite food retail experts, James Johnson PIett—formerly of the Food Trust in Philadelphia, which is where I met him when I started covering food access in 2004— gets a nice write-up by Ari LeVeaux on the Atlantic Monthly’s web channel. It’s a good, quick overview of the issues facing folks trying t transform food retail, and even mentions one of Piett’s...
NPR's take on how to get grocery stores to push...
In addition to admitting that “even well-educated consumerse fall for marketing,” this piece serves as s nice little primer, in prose form, of marketing techniques that get us to go for the good stuff.
Thrifty food plan "not so thrifty" once labor...
Looking forward to reading this study showing that the federal food stamp allotments, once considered in light of basic labor economics, are not at all adequate. New USDA numbers show that most food stamp recipients today are working, on some form of disability or have no income whatsoever; less than 10 percent are on welfare. Also troubling: 42 percent were in households at or below half the...
great new resource on food access data at...
Michael Moss gets it: We need *real* journalism...
Ah yes: The USDA spends $5.3 million to back a dairy group promoting more (and more) cheese consumption. Same group pushes sketchy ‘research’ showing that dairy promotes weight loss, even as other (non-sketchy) studies demonstrate that most of Americans’ excess saturate fat intake comes from cheese.
And what does the USDA spend on nutrition education?
$6.5 million.
Great...
nice pc. on a Detroit produce truck via NPR ...
I”ve been a fan of Peaches and Greens for a while. What the piece doesn’t get into is another pioneering role they’re taking on: Distributing produce to corner stores, essentially taking n the same role for produce that Budweiser takes on for beer, jobbers take on for baked goods.
Trickle down foodie-ism? Not so much. And another...
Restaurant News’ website Monkeydish posted a neat little item about a Packaged Facts study they touted as showing that people were “going gourmet despite the recession.” This would lend credence to food movement folks’ argument that once people taste the good stuff, they simply reorganize their spending around good food instead of all those other things they spend their...
Consumers "go gourmet →
October 2010
20 posts
Underserved urban areas, abandoned by large...
Interesting: Business seems to think that supermarkets might make money in urban areas.
Via @atlanticfood: A nation of hamburger flippers:... →
Upside: we’re adding jobs. Downside: A big chunk of them are mostly cruddy-paying ones in restaurants.
When Detroit Says 'Eat Local,' It Really Means It... →
My take on Detroit’s food scene, featuring gorgeous photography from Marvin Shaouni
Foodless gets investigative grant from FIJ...
I’m pleased to announce that I’ve just received a bit of funding from the Fund for Investigative Journalism in DC, best known for backing Seymour Hersh’s exposé on the My Lai massacre in Vietnam.
Rare Vote on Fast-Food Union →
For the record: Greenhouse does top-notch labor coverage.
Needed: Food/Culinary History Research Asst
Award-winning investigative food journalist seeks top-notch reporting assistant(s) for book research. Work is unpaid. Seeking commitment of 10 - 16 hours a week, and a minimum of 10 weeks of work. Start date flexible, ideally in early November 2010, continuing into the late winter/early spring. You can be based anywhere provided you’re techie enough to handle some of the applications we’ll be...
Americans are eating more meals at home, but... →
1 tag
Exc. take on Whole Foods and school lunch by... →
3 tags
Detroit saved by hip foodies? Not so much. →
The Dining section’s cover today in the Times is an earnest but problematic depiction of local model-turned-developer-turned-restaurateur-turned-mayoral-appointee Phil Cooley as the savior of the city. It’s, well, interesting that, in a city where the population is over 80 percent black, the two “spokespeople” chosen by the Times are hip white dudes. (Toby Barlow, a writer...
Correcting; food stamps projected to be $500k this...
Correction to earlier post
Food stamps skyrocket @ nyc farmers mkts: $1k in...
Via Alexis Stevens, NYC Greenmarket
Brainstorm fr Mari Gallagher: To help families buy...