Chipotle

At the Chipotle here there is a sign touting their "naturally raised chicken and pork". It says something like "Our Meat Doesn't Require a Prescription" and then goes on to say "no antibiotics" etc.

Did they stop to think of the logical implication? Does the rest of their meat require a prescription? Hmm.

I hear they are shifting towards offering naturally raised beef though, which makes sense because their pork supplier, Niman Ranch, has gotten into the beef business.

They also have teamed up with Joel Salatin, to source from his sustainable farm in Charlottesville. Whether or not this will lead to sourcing locally in other places remains to be seen, but the story highlights some obstacles to doing so ranging from a non-uniform product to food-safety equipment.

Which leads me to another thing I've learned in my work: if you want to source locally, you need someone dedicated to the project. You can't just send in an order form for 400 carrots, you need to be able to work with a lot of farmers with varied methods of production and often you need enough knowledge to help each farmer provide the product you need.

Salmon Virus Indicts Chile’s Fishing Methods

Also not tasty: farmed salmon. In fact, I think farmed salmon tastes absolutely putrid. Besides, that, every time you eat farmed salmon, you are probably contributing to the decline of wild stocks. I guess the question is: as consumers do we want expensive wild salmon occasionally or cheap farmed salmon all the time? Unfortunately, just all most animal-foods, the answer for most consumers seems to be "cheap! we don't care where it comes from!"

Eating polycultural

Dianne of the Migraineur embarks on "Omnivory Month," with the goal of eating a diverse diet

I love this project because most Americans get 72.1 of their calories primarily from dairy products, cereals, refined sugars, refined vegetable oils, and alcohol. Humans evolved to eat a diverse diet, mainly because a diverse diet is far more likely the cover all the nutritional bases than one reliant on standard American staples. I also have to wonder if food allergies have something to do with our excessive reliance on a few staple crops.

Also, I must say that farmer's market and CSAs are a great way to diversify your diet. At the market you can find all kinds of varieties of food that might not fit into the industrial food system well and most farmers will gladly give you tips on how to use each one. Last summer I wrote down all the new things I consumed. The list included red currants, kohlrabi, Japanese pumpkin, hubbard squash, Lebanese zucchini, perpetual spinach, misato radishes, parsnips, and thai eggplant. A CSA is probably even better because you end up with things that might not stand out at the market, such as the plain brown candy-roaster squash which opens up into bright-orange sweet flesh.

Melons

FDA Warns of Salmonella Risk with Cantaloupes from Agropecuaria Montelibano: The agency detains products from the Honduran manufacturer

Tasty...or not. Personally, I'm waiting to buy melons until they are actually in season here and this is just about the salmonella. It's also because, honestly, imported melons aren't that tasty anyway. If I'm going to eat something from thousands of miles away, it might as well be tasty, like chocolate. I have something of an economic equation in my head where the deliciousness of a product must outweigh the impacts of shipping it in from far away.

The melons here in early fall are incredibly tasty and beautiful, providing you pick the right one, which is an art to itself. This lovely yellow melon was from Moore Family Farms and was the perfect size for me.

Hipster-farmer music: Andrew Bird and CAFOs

I've seen Andrew Bird in concert three times. Yes, I like him that much. For the uninformed, Andrew Bird creates some incredible tunes using his violin and his own whistling. He also has a farm where he records much of his music.

No surprise then that his newsletter today linked to Stop the Mega Dairy, a campaign to stop a California (gosh do I hate on California ag enough?)- style megadairy from coming to Nora, IL. If you live in Illinois you should speak up about this.

Also, you should speak up about the proposed rule change which would allow CAFOs exemptions from air emissions reporting requirements under the Superfund and Community Right-to-Know laws.

Livewire: How did you come up with the title The Mysterious Production of Eggs?

Andrew: Well, it came from an old magic catalog. It's been in my head for years and kind of took on multiple meanings when I lived, for a few years, out in my barn. I had 26 chickens and I would go get their eggs for omelets in the morning and make coffee - I would write these songs. It's pretty amazing to hold this egg that just came out of the body of this animal and then go about cooking it and eating it. People just aren't used to having that direct connection.

First Song a song of Galway Kinnell's poem

Then it was dusk in Illinois, the small boy
After an afternoon of carting dung
Hung on the rail fence, a sapped thing
Weary to crying. Dark was growing tall
And he began to hear the pond frogs all
Calling on his ear with what seemed their joy.

Soon their sound was pleasant for a boy
Listening in the smoky dusk and the nightfall
Of Illinois, and from the fields two small
Boys came bearing cornstalk violins
And they rubbed the cornstalk bows with resins
And the three sat there scraping of their joy.

It was now fine music the frogs and the boys
Did in the towering Illinois twilight make
And into dark in spite of a shoulder’s ache
A boy’s hunched body loved out of a stalk
The first song of his happiness, and the song woke
His heart to the darkness and into the sadness of joy.

Why I should stay home today...

Yesterday, just as I was starting to feel the effects of an oncoming cold, my seminar had a lecture about behavioral responses to infections. Mice, lizards, and many other animals also feel tired, antisocial, and lose their appetites. I knew this, having worked with wild animals, but I didn't know that If you somehow override their desire to rest and eat less, mortality rates skyrocket. Also, if you suppress fever, it increases the duration of the infection.

The fasting aspect is particularly interesting given recent studies that show that intermittent fasting has many benefits, similar to those of more torturous daily calorie-restriction regimes. I guess the moral is: follow your instincts, since they have hundreds of thousands of years of evolution behind them. That means letting mild fevers burn and not buying into the whole 3-meals-a-day if you don't feel like it.

Unfortunately, I feel too lethargic to look up actually journal articles.

Garden Aesthetics

Josh Viertel, associate director of The Yale Sustainable Food Project