Colbert on Rising Food Costs

One day I hope to be not sick with the flu and cooking again!  Until then here is Stephen Colbert doing what he does so well...it's the bit with the kid that I loved most...

I'm Pro Goat and I Vote!

Apparently it's illegal to have goats in NYC, but in Berkeley it is fine. Just Foods newsletter was sent out today linking to this Huffington Post article about which cities are goat friendly along with these two really wonderful videos.

Honey I want to move to Oakland! How fun would it be to make urban farmstead goat cheese?

Crude Sacrifices

My friend Philip sent me this uber grim look at the tar sands in Alberta. Alberta, for those of you who have never been, is the Texas of Canada. Alberta has a lot of oil like Texas, but it also has something unique - tar sands. Which when I was growing up in Canada where useless because they still had not figured out how to separate the sand from the oil. Guess what? They figured it out and it's not a good thing... well at least not for people. It's dandy for the oil companies bottom line however. Damn those pesky people always getting in the way of profit!

Take a deep breath at give the trailer a look see.

Here is the link to the site and a synopsis:

Crude Sacrifice takes an in-depth look at how a northern community is treated by Canada and the province of Alberta as it relates to our government’s involvement with multi-national oil companies in exploiting and promoting Canada’s rich Tar Sands.

NYC Water

Way back in April of 2009 I wrote on this here blog thingy a post called Plastic Haters Unite
which was about the problem of plastic water bottles and also a call to arms to write or call the City and tell them to install more water fountains so people wouldn't have to buy bottled water.

I actually did write the city, but was certain that it was a waste of time (I can be such a Debbie Downer sometimes). So it was with great curiosity and wonder that I noticed last week at the market this weird looked large sink that had several faucets and a couple of drinking fountains attached to it. Surrounding this oasis were many volunteers handing out water drop shaped stickers that say: NYC WATER Brought to you by NYC environmental protection. With a web site address nyctapwater.org

I can't really take any credit for this new campaign the city has undertaken to ween people off their plastic water bottle habit, but I sure was happy to see it happening! It's also important that people know how safe, tasty and good our tap water is. There is no need for plastic water bottles, except the need of large corporations like Coca Cola to make a profit off of something that up until 30 years ago most people drank for free from, yes you guessed right, water fountains.

Here's the video from the NYC Tap Water project people and below it just for fun I'm re-posting The Story of Bottled Water video.

Sustainable Sushi Guide

I stopped eating sushi years ago, even though I love it. Many things steered me to this decision: the state of the oceans, over fishing, the lack of clear knowledge of what it is you are actually being served (fish are often named something they are not) the inability for most sushi restaurants to be able to tell you where and how the fish were caught, the GM soy beans (edamame), etc...all added up for me to the point where I felt it was no longer really an option to eat sushi out. Which is a drag cuz it is so damn tasty!

Anyway this little video is very informative and may make me reconsider my ban on sushi. Of course don't forget that it is easy and fun to make it at home, especially if you just make sashimi that way you don't have to deal with rolling it. Seaweed salad is also an easy and very nutrient rich accompaniment that is a perfect, cool, crunchy staple for your summer time fridge.

No Impact Experiment

555 Pound Boy's Mom Charged with Criminal Neglect - For Letting Him Over Eat?

This is just so crazy. The government of South Carolina has charged this boy's mom with a felony because he is so morbidly obese. Watch the interview with the lawyers - they say he spent his days at school eating at the school cafeteria, several lunches.

Why isn't the state suing the school for selling unhealthy junk food in their cafeteria? Why aren't the makers of trans-fat and high fructose corn syrup being sued for the way they market their disease causing non-foods to children? Seems to me there's a parallel with the cigarette industry here that needs to be explored in the legal realm...