Good Food on Every Table

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First Person: Building a food co-op — and positive change — in Chicago

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

by Grant Kessler, FamilyFarmed.org Grant Kessler is a food photographer and local food marketing consultant in Chicago who serves as marketing director for FamilyFarmed.org’s annual Good Food Festival and Conference. He also is a member of the team that is developing Chicago Market, a food co-op rooted in the principles of the Good Food movement. Read more about First Person: Building a food co-op — and positive change — in Chicago[…]

Kora Lazarski of SPINS

First Person: Approaching Protein Mindfully

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

by Kora Lazarski, guest contributor Kora Lazarski works in business development for Chicago-based SPINS, which provides retail consumer insights, analytics reporting and consulting for the natural, organic and specialty products industries. July is Protein Month at SPINS marketing studio.And whether we’re sampling cricket snacks and buffalo bars, visiting humane ranches in the Southwest, eating reindeer Read more about First Person: Approaching Protein Mindfully[…]

Accelerator Aims to Speed Good Food Growth

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

The Good Food movement needs more thriving farm and food businesses. Many farmers and entrepreneurs require help to develop the business skills and access to the resources they need to succeed. Enter FamilyFarmed.org’s new
Good Food Business Accelerator (GFBA), which aims to address those needs.

Tell Us About Your New Farmer Training Program

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

Consumer interest in Good Food is growing fast — so fast that it will be impossible to meet demand unless the supply of sustainably and locally produced food expands. One requirement for that expansion is assisting a new generation of young farmers to get established, and giving them the tools they need to succeed. If you are part of one or want to bring one to the world’s attention, please click the link and post a comment.

Article: Holland Sharply Reducing Antibiotics in Meat

Posted on by bob.benenson@gmail.com

An article published on the Next City website reports that the Netherlands is acting assertively to reduce the routine use of antibiotics on livestock “without any negative effects on production rates or profits.” Read a summary (with a link to the full story), and share your thoughts on the issue in the Comments. Good Food on Every Table is your Good Food site… join the conversation.

First Person: Everything Old is New Again at Weston’s Antique Apples

Posted on by bob.benenson@gmail.com

Interest in reviving heritage varieties of fruits and vegetables is on the rise. But for almost 80 years and for four generations, Weston’s Antique Apple Orchard has been keeping heritage apples growing in New Berlin, Wisconsin, located just 20 miles southwest of downtown Milwaukee. Genevieve Weston, whose great-grandfather established the orchard, gives her first-person account.

Apples await pressing at Virtue Cider's ciderhouse in Fennville, Michigan.

Raising the Bar on the Cider Trend

Posted on by bob.benenson@gmail.com

Hard cider can be described fairly as America’s native local drink, the most popular fermented beverage among the nation’s early drinkers. And while cider declined and today is a tiny sliver of the U.S. adult beverage market, sales and interest are surging all of a sudden.

Chicago Market logo

Chicago Market Seeks Co-operation With Ownership Drive

Posted on by bob.benenson@gmail.com

Chicago Market is a food cooperative project that just launched its first major public ownership/fundraiser campaign on Sunday. And no one can say that the co-op supermarket, proposed for the city’s North Side, is trying to elbow its way into an overcrowded commercial sector.

Good Food on Every Table is “On The Table”

Posted on by Jim Slama

[This article was also published on the Huffington Post website on May 14, 2014 and was co-authored by Bob Benenson.]

Building the Good Food movement is the core of FamilyFarmed.org’s daily work. So a discussion on the future of food was, shall we say, organic when FamilyFarmed President Jim Slama convened a group at his home on May 12 to participate in The Chicago Community Trust’s “On The Table 2014.”

Will The Feds Bankrupt Small Farmers?

Posted on by Jim Slama

[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

Posted on by Jim Slama

[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

Posted on by bob.benenson@gmail.com

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)

Posted on by bob.benenson@gmail.com

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

Posted on by bob.benenson@gmail.com

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

Posted on by bob.benenson@gmail.com

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

Posted on by bob.benenson@gmail.com

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

Posted on by bob.benenson@gmail.com

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’

Posted on by bob.benenson@gmail.com

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

Posted on by bob.benenson@gmail.com

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

Posted on by bob.benenson@gmail.com

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.