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Food Conversations
Lively and relevant information on sustainable living from a variety of contributors.
Produce Safety and Preventive Controls: FDA To Lay Down Law on Food Pathogens
In my previous post, I skimmed the surface of the massive regulations which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has proposed to reduce human exposure to pathogenic organisms originating from fresh fruits and vegetables. The draft Produce Safety and Preventive Controls (for handling facilities) regulations are the first steps towards implementing the Food Modernization Safety Act (FSMA) of 2010.
Implementing the Food Modernization Safety Act: Fresh Fruit & Vegetables
How will the FSMA’s sweeping expansion of federal authority, developed for an industrial-scale, global production and distribution network, affect the rights of small and medium-sized farmers who reach their customers through produce auction houses, farmers markets and farm-to-school programs?
Implementing the Food Modernization Safety Act: A Broad Overview
After years of stalemate between public health, consumer, agricultural and food service interests on Capitol Hill, Congress approved the FSMA’s sweeping expansion of federal oversight in 2010. This post and the two to follow will provide basic background for answering key questions leading into a discussion of the merits of our increasingly centralized and standardized food production and handling systems.
Protecting the Viability of Organics from the Purists
This post delves deeper into how one false impression in particular is fueling the sense of loss behind organic’s mid-life crisis. Specifically, we’ll examine how the exclusion of synthetic materials, which some within the organic community would elevate to a cardinal principle, actually threatens to drive farmers out of certification, if not out of business entirely.
Understanding the Wisdom of Rachel Carson
For better and for worse, the popular understanding of organic agriculture in America is inseparable from the environmental and human health risks associated with pesticides.
Dry Beans: Toiling in the Fields
Dry beans have been cultivated by all the agricultural tribes of this nation and were quickly adopted by European colonists and spread to other regions of the world.
The History of Organic Agriculture: Final Installment
Part 11: I couldn’t resist this title for the concluding chapter in our history of organic agriculture. This lyric from the rambunctious odyssey of the Grateful Dead also conveys the myriad twists and turns that have carried organic agriculture from the countercultural fringe to the White House garden and shelves of Walmart.
How Modern Flour Made Local Grist Mills Disappear
Tom Henrich, volunteer miller at the historic Cedar Creek Grist Mill museum, a working hydro-powered mill near Woodland, Washington talks about what led to the demise of these mills in the early 1900′s.