links: politics of the food supply, garden movie history, tarragon oil and more
I FALL OFF THE WAGON on sharing links that I love, putting them on Facebook but forgetting to publish them here on the blog. Mea culpa. Except today. A piece just posted yesterday on “The New York Times” website by Michael Pollan on this moment in our relationship with industrial food is so important that it moved me to behave better. I hope you will read it, and these other recent links:
“Vote for the Dinner Party,” the headline on Pollan’s story reads, says, and then the subhed: “Is this the year that the food movement finally enters politics?” It’s pegged to the looming vote on Prop 37, the California Ballot Initiative on the labeling of genetically modified food (which as Pollan points out is not some new invention, but something Americans have been eating for 18 years). But it goes much farther, because as he says:
“What is at stake this time around is not just the fate of genetically modified crops but the public’s confidence in the industrial food chain.” A must read (which will appear in print in the Sunday Times magazine).
more on prop 37, with an infographic
WANT TO READ MORE about Prop 37, and particularly about what companies support labeling and don’t–a shocking list, if you haven’t seen it before? (At present the powers against it have outspent those hoping to pass the measure by $34,000,000-plus to $4,000,000ish; scary. The infographic and more details are on the Cornucopia Institute website.) The California Right to Know website (source of the graphic up top) also details the case from the pro-Prop 37 point of view, as does Mercola.com.
first movie ever? made in a garden, in 1888
THINGS I DIDN’T KNOW DEPARTMENT: The first film ever made with a moving picture camera was shot by the camera’s inventor in 1888—in a garden. All 2.11 seconds of it can be viewed here. All from the non-profit Public Domain Review, where you can also hear Albert Schweitzer play Bach (circa 1935) and much more.
homemade tarragon oil, an easy herbal potion
ANOTHER QUICK HERBAL POTION for your kitchen: From the always-brilliant Heidi Swanson at 101Cookbooks.com (remember when I wrote about her last cookbook?) another genius touch: tarragon oil (and so easy). I know I’ll add this one to my repertory. You?
It’s actually a great and helpful piece of information. I am glad that you just shared this useful information with us. Please stay us up to date like this. Thank you for sharing. dbbecbdbkbeaddkd
Food security is global. We read with trepidation about your battle with genetic modified food and honest labelling while we have similar problems here in Australia. Yesterday (October 16th) was world food day and a more pressing reminder to be able to have transparency at all levels of our food supply isn’t possible. We need to vote with our feet regarding these simple basic human rights and as one of our basic needs, we need to shore up our food supply and make it as sustainable as we can to bring it back into the foreground as one of our needs rather than shove it away where it can be “mucked about with” as a mere want. Thank you for all of the links :)
Thanks for the link to the article by Michael Pollan. I hope prop 37 passes and spreads the idea across the country!
Dear Margaret,
Good luck with your beautiful fig. I hope it makes it through the winter and gives many more seasons of joy. I never said thank you for the wonderful workshop my sister and I took from you on container plantings last May. Now, that I am taking plants inside and storing things for next spring, I am reminded how all my pots looked so good this year! Even with the high heat and drought, it was a pretty summer for the potted trees and plants (with the addition of lots of water!) Thanks for sharing your knowledge. It really helped.
Barbara Novak
St. Louis, MO
You are welcome, Barbara, and so nice to hear that it went well! How sweet of you to let me know.