What effect will organic food have on your wallet? Independent Online Shoppers reached the till with what they thought was a modest basket of organic groceries, only to be faced with an eye-watering total.
Scientists discover gene that controls tomato shape Xinhua U.S. scientists have identified a gene that controls the shape of tomatoes, a discovery that could help unravel the mystery behind the huge morphological differences among edible fruits and vegetables.
Broccoli or cauliflower? Los Angeles Times I have read many times that vegetables in the cruciferous family are very good for me.
March 15, 2008
Since early 2007, Congress has been working to renew a sweeping farm bill that provides billions of dollars of funding for agricultural programs. It's a ritual that gets repeated about every five years, and its main beneficiaries are usually the same: farmers who grow corn, wheat, and other commodity crops, and who are paid for doing so, and low-income people on food stamps.
But that club is about to get a new member. Although the content of the final bill, now making its final way through Congress, remains uncertain, individuals familiar with the negotiations say this time fruit and vegetable industries are likely to receive up to several billion dollars of indirect aid, including a big boost for school snack programs. If they do, it would be one of the most significant shifts in food policy in years.
Some analysts have applauded rising grain prices by calling this the "Golden Age of Farming." But while crops like corn, wheat, and soybeans are selling at record levels, they account for only a portion of the value of all U.S. crops. A slightly bigger chunk comes from fruits, vegetables, and nuts, which traditionally receive almost no federal subsidies and significantly less support for marketing.
Two growing problems underscore the need to narrow the disparity in funding, observers say. The first is the growing danger to crops. In California, a new pest, the light brown apple moth, recently fluttered into the state from Australia. Officials have estimated that an infestation would cause hundreds of millions of dollars in damage, decimating everything from avocados to oranges. Forebodingly, the moth was spotted in wine-rich Sonoma County last month; authorities plan to spend $75 million this summer dumping pesticides to eradicate it.
California has company in its misery. "With trade barriers lifted and global trade increasing," says Florida Department of Agriculture spokesman Terence McElroy, "our office is getting reports of at least one new pest or disease of significant economic concern per month." Warmer temperatures also create more fertile conditions for breeding.
The second concern is public health. Although prices for bread and baked goods have inched up, the increases have been relatively recent. Not so with fruits and vegetables: On average, their price rose 40 percent from 1985 to 2000. A University of Washington study, released in December, found that the price of low-calorie foods, such as fruits and vegetables, jumped nearly 20 percent from 2004 to 2006, whereas high-calorie items, including candy, actually dropped in price, making them even more palatable to consumers.
Share the Eye:
At Canada Blooms countrygardener.blogspot.com This year Canada Blooms theme is 'Flower Power', with psychedelic '60s theme and lots of emphasis on what they call "the eco-savvy future of horticulture in Canada." I can't say the show turned me on much, but it was good to see flowers in bloom.
Fennel petunias-garden.blogspot.com My first experience with fennel was in a restaurant in York, England. It was cooked with other vegetables and served with a meat dish. It was tasty and we asked to be sure what it was we were eating.
Sea of White blog.mahindrausa.com Well folks it’s official, we are chicken farmers. We got our first delivery of birds from Cobb yesterday.
still thinking about today...
reedd said...
Unfortunately more pests equal more pesticides and less organic farming. Organic fruits and vegetables are much better for human consumption than non-organic. Thank goodness for companies like Whole Foods markets where you can find more organic than conventional foods. Hopefully the US government now sees the health benefits of organic growers and will put in stipulations for funding for the smaller organic farms of America.
The price of fruit and vegetables has risen over the last year here in California. When I'm in the local store, I do see less fresh produce in people's carts and a lot more "junk" food.
The light brown apple moth does so foreboding. At the risk of being flippant, I'm trying to visual our current governor emerging victorious as "the terminator of the light brown apple moth". Many years ago, Governor Brown was the "conqueror of the fruit fly" infestation in California.
Perhaps we are the state of fruits and nuts after all.
I enjoy Peterman's Eye. It has become a daily ritual. Please keep it going.
I remember being a teenager, before I began to understand that "processed food" is an oxymoron. Now I'm middle aged and have three children, and the one thing I put more time, thought, and money into than anything else is ensuring that my family eats wholesome foods. These are the foods from "around the outside" of the grocery stores that I frequent - fresh dairy (raw, actually), vegetables, fresh meats, fruits. Nothing from the "inside aisles", where the processed food is sold. I'm a sucker for good fruits. I wish I could get maracuyu in this country, by the way. Best fruit I ever had, and I haven't had any since I came back from old British East Africa. Those were the days. But I digress.
Now I grow my own eggs (a chicken coop out in my forest - eight eggs a day). My kids don't eat anything that isn't a recognizable product of the Planet Earth. I try to buy from local organic farmers. It's difficult to get the foods that I know weren't nuked with petroleum-based pesticides, or Frankensteined with chemical fertilizers (what's wrong with cow scheit? We have plenty, don't we?). But I succeed, and the difference between my children and, say, the boy across the street (whose parents are indifferent to food) is plain. That poor little wastrel is two years older, ten pounds lighter, and completely mastered by my four year old daughter. He's at the doctor more times in a year than I can count, and his eating habits when he comes to our house are genuinely shocking. He won't drink milk, he won't eat vegetables, and if it doesn't rhyme with "nugget", he won't even try it. How can he be getting the genuine nutrition that he needs to thrive?
In my family, we catch mild colds on average once every 18 months. My children are positively shiny to the eye. Nothing can persuade me that the food going into my children (and me, and my wife) isn't the single greatest determinant of our good health. And it's not just the intrinsic nutrition of our diet, it's also what's NOT in the food that also matters. No chemical residues. No additives. No preservatives. In short, if it isn't food, my family's not eating it. It's very difficult, and very expensive, to reach a level of eating where (this sounds funny) the only thing that one eats is food. I wish everybody could eat like we do, but I despair of the impossibility of ever regaining the inherent dignity and integrity of a decent meal.