food
Casaubon's Book
Category archives for food
Even in France…
Posted by Sharon Astyk on May 6, 2013 Fast food sales now outnumber sit-down restaurant food sales in the home of gastronomy: More than half of all French restaurant sales now take place, sacrilegiously, at fast food chains, according to a new survey by food consultancy firm Gira Conseil. This is the first time fast food sales have surpassed sit-down restaurant sales in…
Christine Ferber, Art, Obsession
Posted by Sharon Astyk on April 24, 2013 Rod Dreher has an interesting post (building on a NYTimes article) about the glories of the art of confiture and why the obsessive creation of food-as-art is worth doing: When I went to Paris a year ago with my niece Hannah, I brought back some confiture by Christine Ferber. She makes some of the most prized jellies…
If Climate Change and Population Growth Are Going to Push Food Prices Up by 50%, What Happens When you Add in Peak Oil?
Posted by Sharon Astyk on April 22, 2013 From the Japan Times: Former Irish President Mary Robinson’s foundation for climate justice is hosting a major conference in Dublin this week. Research presented there said that rising incomes and growth in the global population, expected to create 2 billion more mouths to feed by 2050, will drive food prices higher by 40 to 50…
Food-But-No-Fuel, Fuel-But-No-Food
Posted by Sharon Astyk on April 22, 2013 Interesting about the ways climate change will impact Saudi Arabia’s agriculture – already strained pretty much to the limit by inhospitable heat and drought: The difference between ETo and precipitation indicates that there may be a loss of soil moisture by 0.181 m/year (0.042–0.236 m/year) during the period of 2011 through 2050. Increase in temperature was…
No Cannibalism Is Kinda Counter-Intuitive, Isn’t it?
Posted by Sharon Astyk on March 13, 2013 Liked this bit from The Onion: And it’s not like it’s actually against the law, at least I’m pretty sure it isn’t. Oh, maybe it’s against some really antiquated laws in certain old New England towns from, like, the 18th century or something. But that’s my point: Would anyone today even care if we changed…
Coffee, Tea and Me
Posted by Sharon Astyk on December 7, 2012 One of the questions I get asked a lot by people new to food storage and local eating is “But what about my COFFEE!!!???” Unless you are fortunate enough to live in a coffee-growing region, (which a majority of my readers don’t) local coffee ain’t gonna happen – and while chicory has its adherents, I’m…
The No-Waste Food Preservation Plan
Posted by Sharon Astyk on September 19, 2012 40% of all food produced worldwide, and nearly half of all food produced in the US goes to waste. When you break down the realities of food waste, you see that in the developing world, much of the waste is due to lack of ability to preserve food – no refrigeration means that sheep you…
What To Eat Week
Posted by Sharon Astyk on May 8, 2012 it has been quiet around here because late last Tuesday we got a placement of two boys, C., 7 and K., 8. In the chaos of getting everyone settled, dealing with all the legal requirements, paperwork and appointments that a foster placement entails and getting them back to school, the blog has taken a backseat,…
Context is Everything
Posted by Sharon Astyk on April 16, 2012 “Context is everything. Breastfeeding is almost universally beneficial in infants, but in an elderly cardiac patient, it can be fatal.” – Spider Robinson Quite a number of readers suggested I respond to James McWilliams’ piece in the New York Times “The Myth of Sustainable Meat.” McWilliams has garnered quite a bit of attention by critiquing…
World Food Prices and the Price of Oil
Posted by Sharon Astyk on October 5, 2011 From the UN FAO, we can see that world food prices remain extremely high. We also, I think, when we conjoin this with oil prices can see that there is at least a significant correlation. So much of what has been done in agriculture over the last 75 years has served to tie oil and…