Image via Wikipedia I missed this last Friday when it played on the local PBS station...It's nice to be able to catch it later on the "intranets"... Bill Moyers and Michael Pollan...What a pair. A very in-debth exploration of food policy in America ensued. Here is just a part... BILL…
Food is a microcosm of the macrocosm. Eating the right food is part of the solution to the problems of climate change and global hunger.(1) Resurgence Magazine is focusing on Food this month. I often find myself drawn to the subject of food...Not necessarily for reasons that would appear obvious.…
The Center for Responsive Politics calculates that, by Election Day, $2.4 billion will have been spent on presidential campaigns in the two-year election cycle that began in January 2007, and an additional $2.9 billion will have been spent on 435 House and 35 Senate contests. This $5.3 billion is a…
Put that fruit juice down and grab a Coke. Haven't you heard? High-fructose corn syrup -- the ubiquitous sweetener found in everything from soft drinks to ketchup -- isn't bad for you at all. It's true, because I saw it on TV. The story behind the corn industry's cloying ad…
This link is as much for me as it is for you few folks who read these daily musings. Farmer in Chief By MICHAEL POLLAN Dear Mr. President-Elect, It may surprise you to learn that among the issues that will occupy much of your time in the coming years is…
Image by Getty Images via Daylife Hurricane Gustav continues plowing inland, and is now just a Category 1 hurricane. The storm surge has peaked and is falling in New Orleans and along the Mississippi coast. A storm surge of 12 feet was recorded at Northeast Bay Gardene, and surges of…
Image via Wikipedia The weather here has been very dry...at least until the past week or so. We have been having a spring-like amount of rain. After complaining for so long about the lack, it seems almost sacrilegious to say anything about the water we needed so bad. After months…
Up on the mountain behind my house, the wild blueberries are ripe and prolific. It’s public land, part of the Maine state-park system, so the berries are free for the picking. In a half-hour or so, if I’m lucky, I can fill a tin cup with enough berries for breakfast,…
It just goes to show you, when the government doesn't believe in regulations...Regulations go by the wayside and enforcement becomes mute... Whole Foods Market pulled fresh ground beef from all of its stores Friday, becoming the latest retailer affected by an E. coli outbreak traced to Nebraska Beef, one of…
Why Paul Roberts' End of Food deserves to be digested by policy makers and local-food activists alike | By Tom Philpott | Grist | Victual Reality | 08 Aug 2008 The Locavore's Dilemma Why Paul Roberts' End of Food deserves to be digested by policy makers and local-food activists alike…
The Pleasurable Choice Is the Ethical Choice I like to say that I'm not an an optimist, but I am a person of hope. That is to say, I cultivate the virtue of hope in myself. Hope takes account of the enormity and darkness of challenges and problems, and yet…
The Podcast I listened to yesterday that really caught my interest was this one... Tiny Texas Cafe Fills Up After Barbecue Award : NPR All Things Considered, July 18, 2008 · Barbecue is religion in Texas. Every five years, Texas Monthly goes on a quest for the Holy Grail —…
Around these parts most of our ripened fruit happened a month or better ago. The only thing still to come are the pecans in the fall. Even so the following resonates... The Suburban Life - Thinking Ahead - Editorial - NYTimes.com It’s a good year for blueberries. Decades ago, a…
I have never felt that the Corporate pushers of GMOs were looking out for anything other than their own profits. That has led me to look on their actions in an unfavorable light. While this has always been a personal "feeling", I find my concerns expressed very well by this…
I have subscribed to Michael Pollan's website to be sent updates to what's happening in his world. I received a notice that led me to a new environmental website...If you haven't seen it before, go check it out. Yale Environment 360: Michael Pollan on What's Wrong with EnvironmentalismThere are basically…
One of the email missives I look forward to comes in on it's own schedule each month. It is from Andy Griffin of Mariquita Farm called "The Ladybug Letter". Andy tells tales of his life in agriculture on the west coast...Funny stories, ironic stories...Stories of life...Great stories... The Ladybug Letter…
TED | Talks | Malcolm Gladwell: What we can learn from spaghetti sauce (video) Tipping Point author Malcolm Gladwell gets inside the food industry's pursuit of the perfect spaghetti sauce -- and makes a larger argument about the nature of choice and happiness.
Hmmm... Eat that?: Agriculture secretary's reassurance rings hollow in light of current industrial beef processing | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle "Every single carcass that's processed is inspected by a USDA inspector," Schafer told reporters in San Antonio. "That beef is stamped A-OK, and we want to assure our consumers here…
I wandered into this last evening... TED | Talks | Mark Bittman: What's wrong with what we eat (video) In this fiery and funny talk, New York Times food writer Mark Bittman weighs in on what's wrong with the way we eat now (too much meat, too few plants; too…
Just don't let the marketing guys see the results or we'll have a ton of "Fred's Berries" coming in from out of the country... The Blue Marble: Eat Local Foods, Grow Small Farms It's not just for elites anymore. A survey of Midwesterners finds that even average food shoppers are…
But it left the humidity behind for today at least...The weather station on the shelf tells me that as the sun sets in the west the temperature is still floating at 86°. Amazingly the humidity is reading 37%...Lord it's hot for May. The prognosticator on the radio during my drive…
Summer's back...Both the temperature and the humidity are back. No wanting to spend the morning in the backyard today. Though I must admit the birds seem to like the weather just fine. Loud greetings to the day were heard even through the closed doors and windows. Over the weekend we…
Bill Moyers Journal . Transcripts | PBS
May 2, 2008
BILL MOYERS:Welcome to the Journal.
I once asked a reporter back from Vietnam, "Who's telling the truth over there?" Everyone he said. Everyone sees what's happening through the lens of their own experience." That's how people see Jeremiah Wright. In my conversation with him on this broadcast a week ago and in his dramatic public appearances since, he revealed himself to be far more complex than the sound bites that propelled him onto the public stage. Over 2000 of you have written me about him, and your opinions vary widely. Some sting: "Jeremiah Wright is nothing more than a race-hustling, American hating radical," one viewer wrote. A "nut case," said another. Others were far more were sympathetic to him.
Check the Guide... Environmental Working Group || foodnews.org Be A Smarter Produce Picker — Get Our Free Guide! EWG always recommends buying organic, but we know you can't always find it. Our new Guide — now in its 5th edition — features the 12 fruits and veggies with the most…
Current Weather (on Wed 5:53AM CDT from Pearland Regional Airport) Partly Cloudy Temp: 72° Dewpoint: 66° Wind: SE 6 MPH What isn't shown in that snipit from my email is the humidity. Right now it is 94% and rising...Just think, we call this spring around these parts. You should see…
Paul Krugman's latest column focuses on food. Wander on over and check out his thoughts... Grains Gone Wild - New York Times These days you hear a lot about the world financial crisis. But there’s another world crisis under way — and it’s hurting a lot more people. I’m talking…
The first wealth is health. - Ralph Waldo Emerson If you are as skeptical as I am about most of modern medicine's miracle drugs, you might not want to read this book review. It will just reinforce what you already assume is the truth... Big Pharma's Golden Eggs - washingtonpost.com…
Another Reason To Be A Localvore... Did Your Shopping List Kill a Songbird? - New York Times Migratory songbirds like bobolinks, barn swallows and Eastern kingbirds are suffering mysterious population declines, and pesticides may well be to blame. A single application of a highly toxic pesticide to a field can…
The pace at work since the new year has been quite frantic. I find myself sleeping late almost every morning. It's cutting down on my musing time as I have my toast and coffee each morning. Some mornings it seems like I barely get through the email and important reader…
As we left Virginia behind today Mother Nature gave me a perfect picture postcard view of Mabry Mill. Actually the two colorful trees in the background are about the only two left in the vicinity with much color but they were in the right place at the right time for…
