julia childless

Around the Blogs with Julia Childless

The question now is, what to do about this great withering away of the means of food production? The response from conventional economists is: Let the market fix itself. If people want local, pasture-raised meat and dairy, they’ll flock to the farmers market to buy it, and farmers will take their extra profits and invest in their own facilities. But people are flocking to farmers markets; the problem is, profit margins on small-scale farming remain so tight that few farms have cash to spare on such investments.

We’re moving towards a classic market failure: We see increasing demand for locally and sustainable grown farm products, increasing desire among farmers to meet that demand— and an infrastructural gulf separating them.

Time for the public to reinvest in food-system infrastructure | Grist

This sort of crystallized for me what bothers me about the idea that you can locavore your way out of food issues. The demand IS growing—even shutupfoodies folks like me prefer to hit the farmer’s market instead of the grocery store. But what happens when the local farmer can’t produce enough to feed the folks who want to eat the good stuff?

-Julia Childless

Cooking with WoW!

World of Warcraft Cooking!

I stumbled upon this bit of hilarity today: Need Food Badly? Cooking With WoW! which combines foodieism with online video gaming in a pretty amusing way—creating recipes for the things that characters eat. But then, they linked to The Tauren Chef (don’t ask me what a Tauren is, I don’t play WoW) that not only cooks like they do in the game—but sells you the privilege of doing so yourself.

Now you and your gang of raiders/pirates (say, “Arrr!”,) your guild, or your favorite Elite Chef can dine IRL (In Real Life) on all your favorite MMO foods like Beer Basted Boar Ribs and Spellpower Cookies.

Just picture it- your brave crew of weary warriors, casters, and cannon fodder gathers around the campfire after slaying that boss and his horde (again,) and what do all of you want? Some limp wimpy green salad? NO! You want comfort food! Hot and tasty DragonBreath Chili, Seasoned Wolf Kabobs, or Roast Raptor are just the stuff these crusaders need to banish the fatigue and get back to slaying!

Epic cooking, indeed.

-Julia Childless

Shut Up Bacon XXIV, Brian Boitano Style

I am one of those people you hear about sometimes that doesn’t even own a TV, so I was completely unaware that Brian Boitano has a Food Network show. However, I was made aware last night, and lo, when I went to the website, Brian Boitano was making bacon. For roller derby girls.

It’s like hipster bingo! Bacon + roller derby + South Park reference + ironically hip figure = magic.  Except I sort of love Brian Boitano. And roller derby. And, um, bacon.

Dammit.

-Julia Childless

On Job Creation—Local Fruits and Vegetables vs. Corn and Soybeans

Link: On Job Creation—Local Fruits and Vegetables vs. Corn and Soybeans

loveandzombies:

“It turns out that foods that are better for you may also be better for farmers and local job creation. A new study by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University found that expanding fruit and vegetable production in the upper Midwest could bring significantly more economic benefits than conventional corn and soybean production on the same acreage.

The study, by Iowa State Research Scientist Dave Swenson, looked at the potential for fruit and vegetable production in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. It identified 28 kinds of fruits and vegetables that farmers are able to grow in the region. Currently, much of the fruits and vegetables in the region come from other parts of the country or even outside the country.”

Lest I be accused of sniping too often, this is definitely good stuff. 

-Julia Childless

Biodynamic farmers connect to earth’s rhythms

Link: Biodynamic farmers connect to earth’s rhythms

loveandzombies:

“When vintner Randall Grahm chose the softly sloping hillside and time to plant his new pinot noir vines, he weighed all the things farmers usually consider: drainage, soil quality and weather.

Then he considered less orthodox factors: the cosmic and seasonal rhythms at play and how they might be harnessed to help the clippings take root.

Grahm, who owns Bonny Doon winery on the Northern California coast, is one of a growing number of farmers in the United States employing a holistic farming philosophy sometimes called “organic-plus.” Biodynamic farming views land as a self-contained living organism, encouraging respect for the soil’s integrity and eschewing not just chemicals but anything that comes from outside the farm.”

Posted without comment.

-Julia Childless