The New York Times ran a special food-themed issue of its Sunday magazine a week back. It was kicked off by a fine piece by Mark Bittman, who observed quite rightly that the conversation being had in the magazine’s pages reflects America’s new, and healthy, interest in what they’re eating.
The mad travel schedule just doesn’t seem to let up. So here are a couple of post-cards from the road. First, I was lucky enough to join some of the finest US food justice activists at an event in New York City last week. There were many highlights, all of which you can see here, but the most sustained and deserved applause went to Gerardo Reyes Chávez, a leader and organizer for the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). You can hear his speech below.
I’ve worried before about my mammoth carbon footprint, particularly as I flit across North America giving talks. I’m convinced that the solutions to climate change proposed by George Monbiot in Heat are among the most sensible, with individual carbon accounts for everyone, and trading between each of us to balance out the disproportionate damage caused by people like me.
Photocredit WendyUsuallyWanders
Hail a new entry on the blogroll – the Food Riot Project. It’s a review of historical materials about women living in New York’s Lower East Side at the time of the 1917 food riots, and it’s lovely in so many ways. Least of all, it was sparked by an appearance of your author on NPR here in the US, but more importantly, the site’s a wonderful archive to dip into. Ultimately, it’ll all feed into a play that’ll be put on by The Anthropologists in Spring next year. Watch this space for more on that, and in the meantime, watch that space for more on the history of US food riots…
Another missive via the Retort group, this time from Greenpeace and one that I reprint not least because the “Fish Here Fish Now” line is so very apt.
Here’s a splendid reminder about the context in which ‘charity’ happens today, written by Jonathan Glennie whose new book, The Trouble With Aid, I’m very much looking forward to reading.
Next week sees World Food Day. Some of us will be trying to draw some indication about food policy out of the McCain and Obama camps by holding a big event in New York City. But in Asia, the Pesticide Action Network is telling it how it is, for nearly a billion people. Below, the press release for World Foodless Day.
EL SALVADOR: Increase in Poverty Driven by Soaring Food Prices
By Raúl Gutiérrez
SAN SALVADOR, Oct 6 (IPS) – In the village of Talchiga in northeastern El Salvador, 20 families live in wooden shacks with earth floors, have no piped water, electricity or sewer services, and suffer from high levels of malnutrition.
Yes, it has been an embarrassingly long time since I posted something of substance up here. I blame it on too much travel, and the flu. Sifting through the accumulated mail, the financial crisis is of course front and centre.
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