Will The Feds Bankrupt Small Farmers?

[Note: This article was originally published on Huffington Post on Nov. 7, 2013.  A public comment period for the Food and Drug Administration’s proposed food safety regulations referenced in the original article has expired, and the FDA ultimately decided to withdraw the proposed regulations for a pending re-draft.] The Good Food Movement is the fastest growing segment of Read more about Will The Feds Bankrupt Small Farmers?[…]

Whole Foods’ New Produce Ratings: Transparency Bears Fruit

[Note: This article was also published on Civil Eats, a journalism site that covers sustainable food issues.]

Whole Foods Market (WFM) is again at the forefront of the movement for greater transparency in food production and processing with its new comprehensive ratings system for fresh produce and flowers.

Dane County Farmers Market: Photo Gallery of a Capitol Idea

The Dane County market, also known at the Market on the Square, rings the state Capitol building in the heart of Madison from spring through fall (before moving to indoor quarters for the winter). It is described as the nation’s largest producer-only farmers market, and there is no reason to doubt this boast. Even on the foggy, muggy morning of Oct. 5, with a threat of thunderstorms in the forecast, the square was packed with throngs of shoppers. Enjoy this photo gallery of the market.

Good Food Cultivators: Fred Kirschenmann (Part II)

As a pioneering organic farmer, an academic at Iowa State University’s Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, and president of New York’s Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, Fred Kirschenmann is both a practical and intellectual leader in the Good Food movement. In the second of our two-part q-and-a, Kirschenmann discusses obstacles to change in our industrial food system as entrenched interests try to hold their grounds, and why he is hopeful that the rise of “food citizens” will bring change nonetheless.

Good Food Cultivators: Fred Kirschenmann, Organic Farmer and Intellectual Force

On a day when mainstream media outlets are focused on the dysfunctionality plaguing our political system, it is timely to provide a reminder that there are millions of Americans working tirelessly to affect positive change at the grass-roots level. Fred Kirschenmann — pioneering organic farmer, academic, and a leading intellectual force in the Good Food movement — is a shining example of that.

Cast iron cookware

The Continuing Kitchen Adventures of Cast Iron Man

I pack iron. Say hello to my little friends. Some men were born to battle. Some were born to run. I, apparently, was born to be a home cook. And these days, I do almost all of my cooking with a mighty arsenal of cast-iron cookware.

New York’s Stone Barns Center: A Good Food Photo Gallery

If you live in or visit the New York City area and care about sustainable food, then the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture should be on your agenda. To whet your appetite, please enjoy this slide show of photos from a recent stop at Stone Barns.

Craft Producers Adjusting to Spirits’ Growth Spurt

The Independent Spirits Expo held in Chicago Sept. 25 was a celebration of the rapid growth in the craft spirits sector. But a panel of industry insiders held earlier in the day discussed some of the challenges distillers face in addressing the growing consumer demand.

Frontier Whiskey Makers: The Original ‘Microdistillers’

With the Independent Spirits Expo coming up Wednesday (Sept. 25) in Chicago, what better way to warm up for one of the year’s biggest craft sampling events than with a tip of the hat to the nation’s original “microdistillers:” the frontiersmen whose stills produced the early bourbons and ryes that became the indigenous American liquors?

Elevating Good Food with Rooftop Farmer Jen Rosenthal

Jen Rosenthal’s first full year as the rooftop farmer at Uncommon Ground restaurant can be fairly described as a big success. By the time the roughly half-year growing season ends in a few weeks, Rosenthal and her team of mainly interns and volunteers will have harvested nearly a ton of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, greens, beans, herbs, and other produce, most of which is used in the restaurant downstairs.

Food Hub Survey Finds Growing Role, Ongoing Challenges

Food hubs, which provide aggregating, marketing and distribution services to regional food producers, are growing in numbers and influence, according to a survey report released Sept. 19, but still face a number of challenges.

Chicago Wurst Festival Photo Gallery

The first annual Chicago Wurst Festival, which features sustainably and locally produced foods, got under way Wednesday in downtown’s Daley Plaza with an appearance by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Click the headline to view a photo gallery from opening day, and cursor over the photos to learn more.

Chicago's Daley Plaza farmers market with Picasso sculpture

Chicago’s Wurst Festival: Oktoberfest with Good Food Oompah

The three-day Wurst Festival in downtown Chicago’s Daley Plaza this week will feature the key ingredients of any good Oktoberfest: sausages and seasonal beers. What makes this salute to encased meats stand out from most German-style harvest festivals in the U.S. is its emphasis on responsibly and sustainably produced foods from local and regional producers.

Tailwinds Craft Spirits Bring Tropics to Chicagoland

Discerning rum drinkers in the Chicago area may debate which locale produces the best variety. Some will say Puerto Rico, others Jamaica or Venezuela or Barbados or a variety of other nations in the Caribbean region. Now, at least a handful of Chicagoland’s craft spirits fans would include a new entry: Plainfield.

Honey Butter: Sustainable Fried Chicken in Chicago

Fried chicken has been described as comfort food, indulgence food, and fast food, but for the most part, any resemblance between fried chicken and sustainable food has been purely coincidental. That is hardly the case, though, for Honey Butter Fried Chicken, a new restaurant created by two of Chicago’s most talented young chefs, whose much-anticipated grand opening arrives Saturday (Sept. 14).

Bob Martin of Johns Hopkins University’s Center for a Livable Future in Baltimore, Md.

Good Food Cultivators: Bob Martin, Food Policy Advisor

Many people who serve as aides to farm state congressmen tend to be sympathetic toward the big agribusiness and food marketing companies that wield clout to influence federal agriculture policy. Bob Martin, now a senior policy adviser at Johns Hopkins University’s Center for a Livable Future in Baltimore, Md., went in the opposite direction.

Michigan State’s Spin on School Spirit(s)

The Artisan Distilling Program at Michigan State University opened a tasting room in July. The launch of the bar near the East Lansing campus fulfilled a longtime goal of MSU professor Kris Berglund, whose program had operated in a low-profile manner since he founded it in 1996. “We’ve kind of been the black ops guys,” said Berglund. “Now we’re coming out into the light a little bit.”

Oak Park Micro Brew Review

A Beerfest With a ‘Waste Not’ Theme

The star of the Micro Brew and Food Review Aug. 17 in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park was beer, of course. But as the photo gallery on this post shows, sustainability was also a major theme.

Master butcher Kari Underly

Breaking the Glass Ceiling With a Cleaver

Chicago’s Kari Underly is known nationally for her mastery of meatcutting. Now Underly, a third-generation butcher who grew up near South Bend in northern Indiana, is seeking to raise money to create the Range Meat Academy, which she says will be “the most comprehensive butcher training program in the industry.”