Tonight the issue of MRSA, superbugs, and the overuse of antibiotics on factory farms made an appearance on CBS Evening News. There’s even a link on Katie Couric’s website on how to find “locally-grown, sustainable food near you.”
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I love this spot-on satire of the modern food commercial from New York restaurant The Pump Energy Food.
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As long as all the other boxes are checked I am totally down with the possibilities of this technology. The M.I.T. group working on this project imagines that it could be useful to large food chains that are required to provide consistent nutrition data to the public. I would like to see what some creative chefs could synthesize. I’m imagining huge, elaborate molecular gastronomy sculptures. This is how the fluid interfaces research group describes it:
Cornucopia is a concept design for a personal food factory that brings the versatility of the digital world to the realm of cooking. In essence, it is a three dimensional printer for food, which works by storing, precisely mixing, depositing and cooking layers of ingredients.
Cornucopia’s cooking process starts with an array of food canisters, which refrigerate and store a user’s favorite ingredients. These are piped into a mixer and extruder head that can accurately deposit elaborate combinations of food. While the deposition takes place, the food is heated or cooled by Cornucopia’s chamber or the heating and cooling tubes located on the printing head. This fabrication process not only allows for the creation of flavors and textures that would be completely unimaginable through other cooking techniques, but it also allows the user to have ultimate control over the origin, quality, nutritional value and taste of every meal.
What if it were fresh, local and organic products in those tubes? Maybe larger food chains would be more likely to consider using better ingredients if they could keep tight control of the portions. Or maybe it’s a sign of the apocalypse; I can’t tell.
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Still from the film by First Run/Icarus Films
Without dialogue, commentary or analysis the documentary Our Daily Bread, conveys powerful and emotional images from our industrial food systems. At moments I was in awe of the austere and sometimes beautiful mechanisms at work processing our food. At others I was in a more typical shock-horror state. To evoke wonder and awe while simultaneously evoking alarm and concern for the welfare of workers, animals and land– this makes the point that we live in a paradoxical era. We have august science, brilliance, and ingenuity at work for industries like the modern food system. But we also have widespread abuse of land, human health, and animal welfare. These two waves are connected, and Our Daily Bread helps to visualize this ecology of food, human science, and ethics using only stunning visuals.
Here’s a picture of the director Nikolaus Geyrhalter; his eyes seem piercing and precise, much like the visuals in the film.
Here’s the link to order the dvd from Amazon, and I’ve heard it’s also available as a .torrent file online…
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While I support in theory a tax on high-fructose corn syrup, I think raising public consciousness is going to be more important long-term.
Posted via web from Robert’s posterous
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1. Canned Tomatoes
Fredrick vom Saal, PhD, who studies bisphenol-A (BPA), says the linings of tin cans contain BPA, a synthetic estrogen linked to reproductive problems, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. The acidity in tomatoes causes BPA to leach into food.2. Corn-Fed Beef
Joel Salatin, co-owner of Polyface Farms says cattle evolved to eat grass, not grains. Farmers today feed cows corn and soybeans to fatten them faster. A USDA study found that grass-fed beef is higher in beta-carotene, vitamin E, omega-3s, calcium, magnesium and potassium; lower in inflammatory omega-6s; and lower in saturated fats.3. Microwave Popcorn
Olga Naidenko, PhD, with the Environmental Working Group says chemicals, including perfluorooctanoic acid, in the lining of the bag, are part of compounds that may be linked to infertility in humans. In animal testing, the chemicals cause liver, testicular, and pancreatic cancer.4. Non-organic Potatoes
Jeffrey Moyer, chair of the National Organic Standards Board says potatoes are treated with fungicides during the growing season, then sprayed with herbicides. Then potatoes are treated yet again to prevent them from sprouting.5. Farmed Salmon
David Carpenter, MD, wrote a study in the journal Science on contaminated fish. He says fish shouldn’t be jammed into pens and fed soy, poultry litter, and hydrolyzed chicken feathers. As a result, farmed salmon is lower in vitamin D and higher in contaminants, including carcinogens, PCBs, brominated flame retardants, and pesticides such as dioxin and DDT.6. Milk Produced with Artificial Hormones
Rick North, from the Campaign for Safe Food, says milk producers treat dairy cattle with recombinant bovine growth hormone(rBGH). And rBGH increases udder infections and even pus in the milk. It leads to higher levels of the hormone insulin-like growth factor(IGF-1). In people, high levels of IGF-1 may contribute to breast, prostate, and colon cancers.7. Non-organic Apples
Mark Kastel, from the Cornucopia Institute, says apples are sprayed very frequently. The industry maintains that these residues are not dangerous. But Kastel counters that it’s common sense to minimize exposure by avoiding the most sprayed produce, like apples.
Posted via web from Robert’s posterous
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Let’s do something with Kabocha squash and sing a romantic song… serious.
Posted via web from Robert’s posterous
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The Myth:
The Reality:
…and yet I still eat plenty of dairy. I’m afraid that eventually this cognitive dissonance will become too much to bare.
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High profile chefs in New York celebrating life moments with a camera crew– an afterhours gathering at WD0-50 turns explosive.
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