Why I’m voting Yes on Prop 37...

Nov 4, 2012 by

Why I’m voting Yes on Prop 37

In some ways, it just seems obvious: Why shouldn't we have the right to know what's in our food? We have the right to know how much fat's in our food, how much sugar, and what the other ingredients are...so why shouldn't we have the right to know if our food has GMO sources? While I have my own issues with the GM industry, it's easy to put those issues aside and vote yes for one simple reason: Consumers have the right to know what's in their food, period. But let's break this down a bit and look at this issue more deeply. First of all, why aren't GM products labeled in the first place? The short answer is because the FDA does not currently require it. In a controversial move in 2009, Obama...

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I Love Julia Child

Jan 4, 2012 by

I Love Julia Child

I'm teaching a course on food writing, and Julia Child of course is the hero de jour. Since this is my second time teaching this course and I'm the daughter of a chef, I have something slightly embarrassing to confess: I have never watched The French Chef until now. I'm ashamed, really--how could I have missed out on this pure pleasure for so long? But in a way I also feel so excited, because I get to experience her for the first time, like finding a friend you feel like you've known all along. I showed a short clip of this episode to the students in my food writing class today, where Julia shows us how to make non-traditional eggs. I just LOVE this episode--both for its relevance today, its topic (I love eggs), and...

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Edible Education: Food Politics with Marion Nestle...

Sep 24, 2011 by

Edible Education: Food Politics with Marion Nestle

If you're at all involved with the food movement, one question you have to constantly ask yourself is: How can we create equal access to healthy food, so the Slow Food movement doesn't become something only the elite have access to? I have easy access to lots of great food here in North Berkeley, which played a big part in my choice to move here. But at the same time, I'm very aware that the food I have access to is expensive and exclusive, and that the options I choose--even though I try to be frugal--would not be affordable for many families. Not to mention the fact that some families live miles and miles from grocery stores and don't have cars to get there. So where do you shop? At the corner store down...

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Edible Education: The Global Food Movement with Carlo Petrini...

Sep 24, 2011 by

Edible Education: The Global Food Movement with Carlo Petrini

I'm not sure if you've heard the buzz about the Edible Education course going on here at UC Berkeley, but somehow I got word of it and started attending the classes. I missed seeing one of heroes, Carlo Petrini, speak--and am especially bummed because it would have been a great chance to practice my Italian. The course was put together by Alice Waters of Chez Panisse fame, Niki Henderson from People's Grocery here in Oakland, and Michael Pollan, food journalist extraordinaire. The last two classes I've attended have explored race and economic issues in the food movement, especially connections between obesity, food insecurity, and minorities in the United States. Even though I love eating wholesome, organic food, these are the questions that really interest me: How can we re-shape our food systems here in...

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A Must Read: Farm City, by Novella Carpenter...

Feb 25, 2011 by

A Must Read: Farm City, by Novella Carpenter

With the up and coming Truck Farm project, which will soon pick up speed, I couldn't help but read this fabulous book by an Oakland neighbor, Novella Carpenter. It's a memoir, I suppose, but it's almost more of a travel narrative through the jungles of urban farming. Though gardening and beekeeping are no foreign hobbies of Carpenter's, her virgin foray into raising her own meat in the Oakland ghetto has the exotic surprises, disappointments, and delights of a globe-trotting reportage. In Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer, Carpenter guides us through the creation of her urban farm in a shady corner of Oakland. Fatal shootings occur down the street, police repeatedly whisk her car-dwelling neighbor away, and overgrown vacant lots surround the small house she rents. But it's the vacant lot and...

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Americorps for Gardeners–Check It Out!...

Feb 10, 2011 by

Americorps for Gardeners–Check It Out!

Are you looking to make a difference in the world? Interested in food issues, gardening, or children's health? If so, then you should TOTALLY check out FoodCorps! FoodCorps is seeking young men and women interested in food, agriculture, community organizing, education, health, and public service to serve in the first class of FoodCorps Members. The one-year term goes from August 15, 2011 and ends August 14, 2012. The goal of the program? To "increase the health and prosperity of vulnerable children, while investing in the next generation of farmers and public health leaders." Sounds awesome, doesn't it? If you're interested, go to this website to learn more information (http://food-corps.org/). And make sure to check out the video...

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Donate Your Truck and Make it Famous!...

Feb 8, 2011 by

Donate Your Truck and Make it Famous!

Do you have an older truck that you're trying to sell or get rid of? Consider donating your truck for an awesome cause and launch your truck into fame! Truck Farm (http://truck-farm.com/) is a nonprofit that gets local farmers to find used trucks, fill up the bed with dirt, plant a garden, and drive the Truck Farm around to visit kids in urban areas and teach them about where their food comes from. Truck Farm was started up by Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, the makers of King Corn, a Peabody-award winning documentary about the production of corn in the U.S. The Truck Farm pilot program started up in Brooklyn, New York last year and had folks like Michael Pollan and Alice Waters working on the project. Now Truck Farm's goal is to launch...

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Beekeeping in San Francisco

Feb 2, 2011 by

Beekeeping in San Francisco

Ever wonder if people keep bees in the city? Heck yeah they do! Everyone's buzzing about urban beekeeping these days, a popular new movement in cities. I found this great documentary about beekeeping in San Francisco--check it out for some inspiration and education. Beekeeping is legal in San Francisco, so make sure you check your city requirements before embarking on your own urban bee adventure. And if it's not legal, try to get involved with your local city council like Denver did (and I think Napa too) and change that! Here's a link to the San Francisco Beekeepers Association, for those who live in the city or are interested in keeping urban bees. Enjoy the...

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Kickin’ off Truck Farm, Nor Cal...

Jan 28, 2011 by

Kickin’ off Truck Farm, Nor Cal

If you're driving around the San Francisco Bay Area and you happen to see a truck rattle by with a garden blooming in the truck bed, try not to let it distract you too much. I wouldn't want you to get into a car accident. That'll just be me and the Nor Cal Truck Farm crew traveling around, heading off to visit some kids. Truck Farm, you ask? Yes, it's exactly what you're thinking: A truck with a garden in the back. Truck Farm is an exciting project dreamed up by my heroes Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis who won the Peabody award in 2007 for their hit documentary, King Corn. It all started in Brooklyn, New York in 2009, when Ian planted a vegetable garden in the bed of his grandfather’s 1986 Dodge...

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Chinatown–San Francisco

Jan 21, 2011 by

Chinatown–San Francisco

Whiskey, oysters, coffee, beef jerky. One of the things that most struck me most about my tour of San Francisco's Chinatown was this: the original diet of the San Francisco inhabitants before the Chinese immigrants arrived. I like to imagine a bunch of guys sitting at a make-shift table near the dock, chewing on beef jerky, a pile of pale oyster shells at their feet. It's 1848, and the bone-chilling fog is slowly breaking up under the cold sun. But it's clear enough to see the brig that just pulled into the dock this morning. Clear enough to see the man and woman, the Chinese Adam and Eve of San Francisco, that just stepped onto San Francisco soil. One guy elbows the other, knocking over his coffee tin. "Ya see that?" he says. And...

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Red Currant Spelt Muffini

Oct 3, 2010 by

Red Currant Spelt Muffini

No, that's not a typo in the title. Allow me to explain. There are no such things as muffins in Italy. I keep asking around: "Hey--do you guys know what muffins are?" And they do, but only as some distant creation formed in strange tins in the United States. "What do you call them?" I asked my boyfriend one Sunday, as I prepared a batch of muffins for his virgin experience. "We call them muffin," Guido replied. "But what do you call them in plural? When there's more than one?" "Muffin," he said, laughing. "But that's ridiculous," I said. "If you're going to use the American word, then you should have a plural form." I thought for a moment about Italian grammar. Since most foreign words like "film" and "computer" are masculine by default,...

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Why I have a crush on Jamie Oliver...

Oct 1, 2010 by

Why I have a crush on Jamie Oliver

If you live in the States, I'm a little jealous. Not just because you're closer to my family, but because you can watch a television show that I am completely in love with:  Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. I am not the kind of girl that watches television--in fact, I've never owned one until I moved in with Guido, and we only used our basic cable once to watch the World Cup (Hey, I'm in Italy, what can I say?). So, thank goodness for airline entertainment. I was fortunate enough to watch the Food Revolution while traveling over the Atlantic on the way back from the United States. After watching the forty-minute pilot episode, I was totally inspired and moved by Jamie's mission to transform the unhealthy eating habits in the United States. Now this...

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