Portugal, please say "No!" to the McBifana.

I recently spent a few days in Lisbon, Portugal. I was walking one morning, and I came across this advertisement at a bus stop. I was very disappointed.

A bifana is a traditional Portuguese snack or light meal. It consists of a thinly sliced beef or pork steak placed between a sliced roll. By contrast, a McBifana is the exact opposite of a traditional food. It is a large, international, billion-dollar, food corporation that is coming in and trying to replace a food that is best made locally... by locals with local ingredients.

In reality, I support the free market, so I am not suggesting Portugal ban McDonalds. However, what I would love to see is the Portuguese avoid this food so McDonalds has to take it off their menu. Some things should not be in the realm of fast-food. Okay, pretty much nothing should be in the realm of fast-food if you actually care about quality food and health, but bastardizing a bifana is going a bit too far.

For a bit more information on a similar concept, I wrote a brief article on the Slow Food Movement that you can read here.

Bright Agrotech - Vertical Farming and Aquaponics

The Bright Agrotech team

My good friend's brother has co-founded a grassroots agricultural company seeking to help produce healthy, local, and sustainable food. Awesome! They have a great lineup of products and a great philosophy. Check out their website here: http://www.brightagrotech.com/

If you believe in their mission, and you have some extra cash, consider investing with them. Here is their KickStarter page: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/569973520/grow-up-vertical-farming-for-everyone

Joel Salatin on Local Food

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gBwCQspdwo

Joel Salatin, pioneering farmer of sustainable agriculture and icon of the local food movement in the United States, is one of my most inspirational mentors... who I've never met. Here he is in another interview discussing sustainable agriculture and local food. Brilliant, as always.

Battling the Dogma of Big Ag

I just wrote another article for AgriTrue. You can read the full article on their site (see link below). You can read more about AgriTrue here... unfortunately we have had some set-backs, but we are still working on making AgriTrue a reality.

Home Extension Agent Canning Demonstration 1932

http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/C/images/CO053.jpg

I just read an article at the Hobby Farms website, Grow Smart: Keep Food Safe. I was frustrated with it for a number of reasons, but the underlying theme of this article was that we should be scared to raise our own food. What better way to keep the food production in the hands of the big agricultural corporations than to instill fear in those of us that would challenge them? I would recommend reading this short article first (follow this link), and then come on back and see what I have to say about it.
The article documents an interview with Roy Ballard, Purdue Extension educator for agriculture and natural resources. The Extension Services were meant to disseminate information to local farmers and home producers to make their lives better. Unfortunately, it seems that they are becoming just another mouthpiece for Big Ag. Here are a few of his quotes and my issues with them:

“It doesn’t matter if you’re a commercial wholesale grower, hobby farmer, home gardener or direct marketer, the risk of food-borne illness is the same and the precautions that need to be taken are very similar.”
Really? Does he really believe that the risk of my eating a handful of blackberries I picked from the canes growing up the wall in my garden with nothing ever sprayed on them and never even being irrigated is the same as eating blackberries imported to the U.S., which were grown in Mexico, grown under who knows what conditions, sprayed with a variety of chemicals, and then shipped to the local grocer, stocked, and sat on the shelf for a few days before being bought? This fails the common sense test, and unfortunately, I think he really believes what he said.

Read the rest of the article here...

The Importance of Knowing Your Local Farmers

I just wrote another article for AgriTrue. You can read the full article on their site (see link below). You can read more about AgriTrue here... unfortunately we have had some set-backs, but we are still working on making AgriTrue a reality.

In the cooling room at Kenny's Farmhouse Cheese.

http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/bgdailynews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/f/af/faf2ae91-c2bc-5809-91b0-b7d5899c9ba8/4fbf94230386f.image.jpg

I recently read about a recall of over 14 tons of ground beef in Vermont. This got me thinking about a number of things.

First, this is a lot of meat. I wondered how many steers (or old dairy cows) it takes to make 14 tons of ground beef...

Read the full article here