In the News

1. First Lady Firsts. First lady Michelle Obama gave a tour of the White House kitchen to a group of culinary students from Maryland on Sunday afternoon, just before the first official White House dinner. And the good news is, it looks like she's on our team! Yes, the first lady bared her foodie soul, taking the opportunity to back local and sustainably grown foods and healthy eating. Here's a snippet from the NYT article that shows her true colors:

When food is grown locally, she said, “oftentimes it tastes really good, and when you’re dealing with kids, you want to get them to try that carrot. If it tastes like a real carrot, and it’s really sweet, they’re going to think that it’s a piece of candy,” she continued. “So my kids are more inclined to try different vegetables if they are fresh and local and delicious.”

In addition, it looks as though White House chef Sam Kass could also be a potential mover and shaker in the realm of food system change. During an event last May, he vocalized his disappointment in the National School Lunch program, and advocated for healthier food choices in school cafeterias.

2. Beef, It's NOT for dinner. It's another case of the energy-sucking, high-polluting cattle vs. the American people. In previous posts, I've made mention of the high costs - both to the environment and our health - of our over-production and over-consumption of beef. Mark Bittman wrote several articles for the New York Times, urging us to eat less of the stuff, and also gave us hair-raising statistics of just how much energy and grain go into producing a kg of beef, and how much pollution and waste come out (see this post from June). This article does much of the same, but speaks of new data that shows, among other things, that grass-fed or grass-finished beef isn't necessarily more climate-friendly. In fact, according to scientists who presented their findings at a recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the climatic impact is often higher. It's a sad day for the burger, I know. But take heart, as one scientist suggested if we just decreased our overall beef consumption from 90 kg per person/year to 53 kg per person/year, we could feasibly reduce associated carbon emissions by 44%. So if anything, it's another reason to make beef a luxury item, something to be delved into only on special occasions.

3. City Chicken. In these tough times, more people are taking to raising chickens in their backyards to save a little dough. What's that you say? It's illegal to keep chickens in the city? Not necessarily. More and more cities are passing laws to allow residents fowl-privileges. If you remember, back in April Joe posted about his own chickens and the preponderance of "yard eggs" in the state. He included in that post a link to a related article in the Mobile Press Register. It's worth checking out if you haven't already.