The Chicago Hum-dinger cocktail

Giving Your New Year’s (and Brunch) Bubbly Cocktails a Local Kick

New Year’s Eve approaches, and the mind turns to bubbly wine. And New Year’s resolutions. And I can tell you from experience that few things stimulate creative thinking about those resolutions than a sparkling wine cocktail spiked with potent distilled spirits.

The Big Jones Cookbook
Good Food Business Accelerator logo
The National Restaurant Association's Top 10 Food Trends for 2015
Academy for Global Citizenship Artist's Depiction

First Person: No, Really, #ThanksMichelleObama

Teens around the country have caused a buzz by tweeting photographs of unappetizing school lunches along with a sarcastic message: #ThanksMichelleObama. That hashtag attempts to put a negative spin on the very positive work Mrs. Obama has made her personal cause as first lady of the United States: to improve child nutrition, health, and fitness.

Sarah Katz

First Person: How Your Food Business Can Nourish Its Bottom Line Over the Holidays

Opportunity awaits you if you own a food-related business if you’re prepared to compete in the crowded holiday marketplace. If you want to have a successful holiday season, now’s the time to get started! Here are some tips.

Atina Diffley is an organic farmer, author, and food safety trainer

First Person: Abundant Clean Water and Optimism

Organic farmer Atina Diffley’s trip to provide food safety training to small farmers in West Virginia underscored the fact that water quality and quantity is a difficult challenge.

Kora Lazarski

First Person: How a Young Survivor Pursues a Natural Life Unmodified in a World of Change

A mosquito-borne illness picked up during a horseback ride in Haiti turned critical for contributing writer Kora Lazarski. It prompted her to think profoundly about the impact of man on nature, and ultimately led to the career she is pursuing in the natural foods and products industry.

Local Food Buyers Exchange — Midwest

Local Food Association Previews Its Nov. 6 Buyers Exchange Event in Chicago

The Local Food Association (LFA) is the only national trade association for those in the business of local food. And it will stage its inaugural event, the LOCAL FOOD BUYERS EXCHANGE – Midwest, on Thursday, Nov. 6 at Hyatt Regency O’Hare in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont.

Mother Jones: U.S. Commodity Farming System is a Massive Money-Loser

A column by Tom Philpott of Mother Jones magazine says the current U.S. agricultural system, heavily oriented toward producing massive amounts of commodity crops such as corn and soybeans, is a huge money-loser for farmers… and for American taxpayers.

Green Chicago Restaurant Coalition's Green Pumpkin Gala

First Person: Chicago’s Green Pumpkin Gala Highlights Restaurants’ Sustainable Commitment

The Green Chicago Restaurant Coalition is throwing its first annual Green Pumpkin Gala this Thursday. It will be fun with a purpose: to highlight efforts by many people engaged in the restaurant industry to make the nation’s food system more environmentally sustainable.

Henry Schwartz of MobCraft brewery in Madison, Wisconsin

Crowdsourcing Ferments Financing — and Recipes — for Wisconsin’s MobCraft Brewery

MobCraft, a start-up craft brewery in Madison, Wisconsin, has gotten some buzz lately because of their efforts at crowdfunding equity investment. But crowdsourcing has been integral to their operations — even their beer recipe development — since the get-go.

Kerri McClimen

Activists Ramp Up Efforts to Get Congress to Act on Overuse of Antibiotics on Livestock

Concerns about the routine use of antibiotics in livestock production is rising among consumers, prompting an increase in both market demand and supply of meat labeled as “antibiotic-free.” And efforts to get the attention of policy makers to this issue are increasing.

Enterpreneur panel at FamilyFarmed's Good Food Business Accelerator event
Chicago Independent Spirits Expo industry panel

Industry Experts Shared High-Proof Insights at Chicago’s Independent Spirits Expo

Craft spirits tasting events are, by their very nature, fun. But the annual Independent Spirits Expo in Chicago, the latest rendition of which was held Tuesday (Sept. 30), also has a highly informative side. A panel of industry experts ended with a roundup of insights on the outlook for the spirits industry in the years ahead.

Tiny But Mighty Popcorn's Gene Mealhow

Heirloom Popcorn Gets New York Times Spotlight With Focus on Iowa’s Tiny But Mighty

The rising interest in heirloom (or heritage) varieties of food — and the important role that popcorn producers such as Iowa’s Tiny But Mighty have played in that trend — has caught the eye of The New York Times.

Bourbon historian Michael Veach

Collaboration Seasons Chicago’s Beaver Dam Pepper Celebration: A Photo Essay

Collaboration among artisans and producers is a big part of the Good Food movement — and Good Food on Every Table attended the Beaver Dam pepper event and produced this photo essay showing how several of the food stands participating in the event incorporated the pepper into the foods they sold at the market.