SnoDragon’s Recent Comments

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  Food as art? Yes, but also no!

  I disagree with Ted. Quite vehemently, actually. Food is sometimes art, but in schools it could be taught as a craft, much like shop class or ceramics. If you know how to make it, you can do it for yourself (Oh how much I wish I had taken car mechanics in high school!) and often do it better than those so-called "snazzy restaurants," which often or not pander just as much crap as the schools. Simple food, with quality (but not necessarily expensive) ingredients and well-executed is something that we can give our children and not have to worry so much about childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes.

  Unlike Waters, I think that the kind of food she's talking about (though maybe lighter on the arugula and grass-fed lamb and heavier on seasonal produce and cheaper but fresher cuts of meat) is certainly obtainable for less than $5 per child per day.

  I also really like the idea of using culinary school grads in school kitchens. I've got a lot of friends in the food industry and it is TOUGH to pay off those loans unless you start your own restaurant and are a resounding success at it. Plus, some might like it enough to want to stay!

  I agree with Tom on the educational aspects of changing our School Lunch programs and I hope to see school lunch someday mean more than hamburger casserole and tater tots.

  As for the Romans eating like Romans? Kids learn about nutrition not so much directly from their parents, these days, as from the advertisements they see on TV and the cheap restaurants (McDonald's, Burger King, etc.) that their underpaid, overworked parents frequent because they don't have the time to cook or the money for better restaurant choices. If school could teach kids (and parents, too!) that good food was more than grease and sugar, we'd really be on to something.

  Here's hoping...On For the first time in decades, a healthy school-lunch debate opens posted 8 months, 1 week ago 10 Responses

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  Local infrastructure and Cook for America!

  Wow, two really great solutions to big problems! I'm an advocate of creative and sustainable rural development and have long thought that reviving local butchers and meat lockers as well as things like community canning centers and places to flash freeze fresh produce would be good ideas as they would cut down on transportation costs, allow for small-scale usage, and help with the storage issues that arise when one grows or buys produce locally and/or in-season.

  As for the cooking-school-grad program (which I think should be called Cook for America!), I think it's a great idea. But there also need to be professionals trained in menu planning, budgeting, and nutrition in charge.

  I think Michael Pollan is absolutely correct in pointing out that by addressing many of our issues with food, we can solve or alleviate other problems caused by or indirectly affected by our industrial agriculture. I also strongly believe that a new agricultural policy should focus on smaller and medium-sized family farms and reward them for efforts toward sustainability, while making it harder for large, conglomerate factory farms to survive (or at least bringing their prices up, particularly of processed foods, to reflect real costs!).

  Thanks for another great article, Tom!On Think locally, act infrastructurally posted 10 months ago 15 Responses

• Click here to view comment in original post

  Local infrastructure and Cook for America!

  Wow, two really great solutions to big problems! I'm an advocate of creative and sustainable rural development and have long thought that reviving local butchers and meat lockers as well as things like community canning centers and places to flash freeze fresh produce would be good ideas as they would cut down on transportation costs, allow for small-scale usage, and help with the storage issues that arise when one grows or buys produce locally and/or in-season.

  As for the cooking-school-grad program (which I think should be called Cook for America!), I think it's a great idea. But there also need to be professionals trained in menu planning, budgeting, and nutrition in charge.

  I think Michael Pollan is absolutely correct in pointing out that by addressing many of our issues with food, we can solve or alleviate other problems caused by or indirectly affected by our industrial agriculture. I also strongly believe that a new agricultural policy should focus on smaller and medium-sized family farms and reward them for efforts toward sustainability, while making it harder for large, conglomerate factory farms to survive (or at least bringing their prices up, particularly of processed foods, to reflect real costs!).

  Thanks for another great article, Tom!On Think Locally, Act Infrastructurally posted 10 months ago 14 Responses

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  Organic potatoes need fridges!

  Just a quick comment: I buy organic potatoes that are not treated with whatever sprout-stifling chemical they use on conventional spuds. This means that unless they are kept in cold storage, the potatoes start to sprout and go soft within a week. And since most people don't use even the small 5 pound bag that quickly (unless you're planning on eating potatoes with every meal, which some might do), it really is best to refrigerate them. They take up about a quarter of my bottom shelf, but they last SO much longer, which is easier on the pocketbook AND cuts down on waste.

  Plus, you can plant them in your garden if you want!

  And here's a fun fact about the farmer I buy them from: instead of spending energy on refridgeration or a/c for his stored potatoes, this guy gets snow that is shoveled up and carted away from city streets and parking lots in the winter and packs it into these big metal boxes where it melts and freezes into huge ice blocks that keep his warehouse cool in the summer. Now how's that for energy efficient?!On Umbra on storing produce posted 1 year, 3 months ago 15 Responses

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  Whole Foods or whole foods?

  I still shop at a regular supermarket (I am after all, very poor and there isn't much in the way of farmers' markets around here until later in the season), but my indulgences are fresh fruits & veg, not electronics. Though I have racheted down spending on meat. I'm always amazed to see people walking around the grocery store with their carts full of processed foods, whereas the only processed food in my cart is generally bread and the ocassional box of cereal or plain pasta (sometimes I splurge on ice cream or frozen pierogies).

  Maybe if people learned to cook (even at the basic level that I'm at: baking and pan-frying meats & veg, steaming & blanching, liberal seasonings, few sauces) using fresh ingredients and took a little more time doing it, we wouldn't have so much value-added "food-like products" to spend oodles of money on.

  Then maybe we could eat better and more healthily and STILL have some extra pocket change to save up for that iPod, or to splurge on guilty pop chart pleasures on iTunes.On What people cling to when the going gets tough posted 1 year, 4 months ago 6 Responses