Comments paulhue has made

At least the kid in the photo has 100% juice. School food is absolutely horrible. Tom, when will you consider using school vouchers as a way for sophisticated parents to obtain control over their schools, rather than relying on a few guys on top of an enromous, billion-dollar, national pyramid to make the choices that a few of us want? Imagine how much power parents would have if they controled where their $12k annual per student check went?

Not that I can report here in the Detrot area that we private school parents have any better choices: even at the private schools, not enough parents here care or know about food for the private schools to serve anything that a food savy person would eat, or permit his kids to eat. But I have an easier task convincing a tipping point's worth of fellow students to request real food, than I would convincing a federal beuracracy! 

Why no wildcard?

I wish you guys would have tossed in one or more despicable samples, say from detested Starbucks, just to see where it would have come out.On A review of six Central American coffees posted 1 year, 7 months ago 18 Responses

Spinach, Big Ag, Hippie Farms, All Good

We have nothing to fear. Every year millions of Americans die from the diseases caused by and exacerbated by junk food (hydrogenated oils, dyes, preservatives, refined sugar, pesticides, etc.) -- but even those people live to be 80 years old. Eating the food that Tom and I advocate might not extend your life, but we are convinced that they will drastically reduce your chances of suffering from these "chronic diseases", and guarantee you will enjoy your food more. I see nothing to worry about, even if every few years "manure-based fertilizer" (which Tom and I advocate) or any other aspect of natural foods takes down some old person (the only person to die so far, predictably, was over 70 years old).

The benefits of eating these foods in terms of (perhaps) extending lives or (most certainly) improving life quality certainly more than out-weighs 0.1 old people dying each year (one every decade?). I thus reject Tom's urgent plea to avoid this e. coli risk by taking the special pains to switch from Mega Spinach to Local Spinach: there's nothing to worry about to begin with, so I see no reason to change.

I agree with Tom's advocacy of hippie-farm-to-table greens; I've eaten Tom's greens at his table that he picked that morning at his hippie farm. Is there a practical way to get such greens to my table in subburban Detroit every day of the year? No. Ten years ago getting any real greens to my table was a chore; now I can get real greens at WalMart. This means that we natural food freaks are winning. One baby step remains, and that is to get the people buying real greens now at WalMart to value hippie greens... when they can get them. But on a daily basis, working for Mr. Charlie, cleaning your house, regulating your kids, fixing your lawn sprinkler, ferrying your kid to and from soccer... and now you want me to bypass WalMart for my greens, and... what? Wait until Saturday morning during a 4-hour window and drive to the single location of my local farmer's market?

More likely, I reckon, is that places like WalMart will start contracting with local hippies for special, just-picked, local foods, once we get "the people" to take that one extra baby step.On Latest E. coli outbreak should prompt rethink of industrial agriculture posted 3 years, 2 months ago 8 Responses

Illegal Immigrants "Disenfranchised"?

Tom, please justify calling illegal immigrants, "a large disenfranchised army of undocumented workers". If you sneak into Canada, are you "disenfranchised" because the govt there won't let you vote until you meet its requirements to obtain citizenship? Your description is particularly absurd given the successful efforts of democrats and leftists to permit people with no IDs to vote, and to spend tax dollars printing ballots in spanish.

When you legally lived and worked in Mexico City for a few years, were you "enfranchised"? Could you have voted without an ID? Would you have been able to obtain a ballot in english?On How environmentalists can recast the terms of debate around immigration. posted 3 years, 7 months ago 25 Responses

Re: Even Poor People Make Choices

PS, Redjenny: 11 years ago I was a single parent living off of food stamps and other assistance, in a  rental townhouse sourrounded by Section 8 houses and a housing project just one block a way. Many of my friends were in similar circumstances. But I found a way to feed my kid natural and fresh food. I made my own baby formula (I'm a man, lacking mamary glands, dammit) from a health food store's bulk brewer's yeast, black strap molasses, etc. And jars of baby food by Gerber's aren't all that much more cheaper than the organic kind.

"Poor" people figure out how to get cigarettes, beer, fancy hairdos, cable TV, and nice duds; they can figure out how to survive without eating Snickers bars, honey buns, and Pepsi... if they WANT to. And if they ever do make healthful eating as fashionable as, say, Benson's and Hedges  or Rockafella jackets, I can guarantee you that those corner stores will cater to them.

My many experiances living with and working with poor people include attempts to GIVE "poor" people healthful food. And here I don't mean tofu with bean sprouts. I mean 100% fresh squeezed unpastuerized orange juice, or whole grain pizza with unsweetened tomato sauce made from scratch. Not a very successful enterprise, I am sad to report!On How the feds make bad-for-you food cheaper than healthful fare posted 3 years, 9 months ago 9 Responses

Even Poor People Make Choices

Redjenny: I agree that if you were a poor person who decided to eat healthfully, your funds and geography would present more obsticles than for affluent people. But this is true of everything. Have you ever lived amoungst poor people? I have spent many years residing in poor areas, and living with people who grew up poor. In the US, "poor" usually means people who have cars and money that provide them access to many objects and services that would be no more difficult to obtain than whole grain breads and baby spinach. Poor people cannot purchase DVD players or $100 sneakers in their neighborhoods, but such objects are common in poor areas; apples evaperated-cane sodas could be just as common. Already the Frito-Lay chips popular in poor areas no longer contain hydrogenated oils. This is not because the government created a program. Rather, people like Tom Philpott have convinced a critical mass of Americans to shun hydrogenated oils. Many poor people in the US every year drastically improve their lot, via their choices and actions. They can certainly improve their dietary choices. And when they do, their corner stores will start selling better food products.On How the feds make bad-for-you food cheaper than healthful fare posted 3 years, 9 months ago 9 Responses

Trans-fat riddle solved

Tom: Frito-Lay's trick lies in its exclusion of trans-fats from its chips, but not from its seasoning. Look at the ingredients of all of its non-flavored chips: no non-hydrogenated oils. (Hydrogenationg is the process that created a "tras-link in the oil fat chain). I suppose I'm an expert on this subject since I worked for about a year as an engineer at a Frito-Lay plant, and then went on to teach organic chemistry at a university.

I am a total health food nut, as you know, but I do not share you anger at these companies. I believe that they give the people what the people want. "The people" generally want mediocrity. Yet progress procedes unabated. We health nuts have more choices than ever. I can even buy and eat Frito-Lay products now... just not those with seasoning (trans oils are just one of many deplorable frankenstien molecules in the FL seasonong). FL even now has a natural line, which uses organic ingredients, and even all-natch flavorings.

The people have all the information at its disposal, if they are interested. On How can junk-food makers label goods laden with partically hydrogenated oil posted 3 years, 10 months ago 5 Responses

Raw Milk Rules

Here's one of many areas where we food freaks can appeal for political help from the evil, wretched Republicans. We're advocating here individual freedoms of producers and consumers to conduct business with each other. Whatever the risks of raw milk, as long as the product is accurately labeled, why should government employees interfer? Our quest here corresponds with official Republican dogma. Here's to organic, local, raw milk, butter, cream cheese, cottage cheese, and yogurt... and a free market.On Despite a recent crackdown, Washington State's raw-milk policy might point way forward. posted 3 years, 12 months ago 2 Responses