It is probably fairly obvious that this blog and my cooking are heavily influenced by Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma and Alice Waters’ inspirational career. I loved The Real Dirt on Farmer John and King Corn, so naturally I jumped at the chance to review a new food film, Food Fight, directed by Chris Taylor.

This documentary narrates the history of America’s warped industrial food system, with its roots in warfare technology and obsession with convenience over flavor. Through conversations with Michael Pollan, Alice Waters, Wolfgang Puck, and others, it traces the gustatory revolution quietly launched by Waters in Berkeley, California, more than thirty years ago. It follows her dedication to reclaim our food sources, celebrating flavor and the experience of eating really good food, through the creation of an organic, local food chain and the continuing challenges of making healthy, safe food affordable and accessible to all. Milwaukee, Wisc., food hero Will Allen, of Growing Power, is profiled explaining his work to bring fresh food to the inner city. Waters’ Edible Schoolyard program presents a solution to the growing problem of childhood obesity.

The film relates the uphill battle Congressman Ron Kind (D-WI) faced trying to reduce subsidies to mega agribusiness to instead fund nutrition and local food programs, and the non-coincidental link between opposing members of the Agriculture Committee and the billions of dollars in subsidies that go to their districts, and to their campaign funds. Lest all this seem discouraging, the film wraps up with a call to “vote with your fork,” by making conscientious decisions about what you consume daily. Until Alice Waters is serving arugula grown on the White House lawn to DC’s public school children, there is much to be done.

Watch the trailer on YouTube:

Southern California readers can catch the FREE Hollywood screening of Food Fight this Saturday, November 8, 3:15pm at Mann’s Chinese Theatre. Anyone else should join the Facebook group to be alerted of screenings scheduled in your area, and visit the website to learn more. Enjoy!

Today I am forgoing my usual morning routine to focus on a topic that is too closely tied to child health and nutrition, poverty. It can be overwhelming to think about the number of children going hungry today, in our own community and around the world. But there are also many organizations and great leaders working to combat the problem, and small steps you can take to help make a difference in just a few minutes. Here’s my own “Power of 8″ formula:

• Average trip into coffee shop for morning latte and pumpkin muffin: 8 minutes
• Average cost of latte and pastry: $8
• 86.1 million people in 80 countries rely on World Food Program assistance

In the spirit of “eating locally, acting globally,” I am contributing today to both a domestic and an international cause. Locally, I am supporting Share our Strength, a national organization supporting community programs to end child hunger, where $8 will provide a child three meals a day for a week. Globally, $8 will buy 32 school meals through the Friends of the World Food Program. Blog Action Day’s purpose is not just to spend a day highlighting the issue of poverty, but to “change the conversation” and create action. I will be revisiting my contributions on the 8th of each month, setting aside my coffee change to change the world. Oh, and for the rest of my 8 minutes, after donating to those two sites, I’ll be playing Free Rice.

Are you participating in Blog Action Day? Share your link below!

Blog Action Day 2007 post: Eat Organic. Save the Earth.

I’ve written before about our quest for artificial growth hormone-free milk that led us to sign up for milk delivery from our local creamery. Why hormone free? Artificial growth hormones (rBGH) have been linked to type II diabetes and cancer. While many of the major retailers have since banned rBGH milk from their shelves (kudos to Wal-Mart, Kroger/Fred Meyer, Chipotle), it is still being produced and distributed to our public schools. I am fortunate to be able to afford organic milk, but the majority of kids who rely on school meal programs don’t have that option. The USDA is about to reauthorize the Child Nutrition Act (CNA) so write today to urge them to give the schools the option of offering  artificial hormone-free milk to our schoolkids. Visit the Food & Water Watch action site RIGHT NOW to send an email. The comment period ends October 15, so comment and forward the link to your friends today!

(Note: the Food & Water Watch message does not ask USDA to mandate the choice, it merely asks them to allow schools to make their own choice.)

My favorite local coffee shop, Buzz, has delved into campaign politics with a spirited competition between elephant ears and donkey tails. Now, I’m happy to see elephant ears have made their way to the East Coast (although these are actually palmiers, not authentic elephant ears), but it’s fair to assume given our neighborhood that they’ll be taking second place come Election Day.

In more serious matters, Buzz is holding steady in first place (popular vote) in the Washington Post’s cupcake wars. Now, the reviewer gave Buzz mediocre ratings, and I am seriously questioning his judgment. That “funky” taste in the red velvet cupcake’s frosting? Cream cheese. As opposed to the sugar overloaded frostings of so many other, lesser pastry chefs. Buzz’s mini cupcakes were a hit at the toddler’s birthday parties and are our family’s preferred pastries. So, please, support Josh Short and vote early and often!

While CNN may have been distracted by some political events taking place in Denver and Minneapolis, all eyes in the locavore world were on San Francisco this past weekend, where Slow Food Nation attempted to show the world what eating real food means. Slow Food International was founded in Italy as a protest to the country’s first McDonald’s. It has become a controversial organization for numerous reasons, and while there is not much disagreement with its mission, many criticize the techniques and lack of political activism. I believe Slow Food events are important to highlight and celebrate the best of what’s locally available, but there is so, so much more to be done to make good food more readily available. I know those topics were addressed at the convention and I’m looking forward to reading more about them from bloggers who attended. My favorite “Slow Food” post of the weekend was this inspiring account by Sam of Becks & Posh of a day spent living the philosophy, not just listening to it.

For more about Slow Food Nation:

• A Mighty Appetite has a quick primer on the Slow Food organization
• Alice Q. Foodie has a great overview of the Slow Food mission and philosophy - plus daily recaps of Slow Food Nation. She touches on the affordability issue as well, saying:

Slow Food’s current stated goal is now “clean, fair food for all” - affordable is sometimes thrown in there, though that can be a bit of a landmine, because Slow Food is ALSO about fair payment to food producers for their artisanal goods. That, as we all know - can require one to part with a “fair” amount of money, and I don’t mean that in the social justice sense.

Participating in the One Local Summer challenge this summer let us focus on incorporating “slow” foods into our family’s daily meals, and we’ll continue to do so throughout the fall and winter even though the challenge has come to an end.

One of the pitfalls of learning more about where your food comes from is the fact that the more you learn about the commercial food chain, the more hopeless things can seem. But organic consumers are making progress in getting major corporations to voluntarily reject artificial growth hormones in dairy products (rBGH), from Chipotle to Walmart and Kroger. Take a minute to sign the Food & Water Watch petition thanking these companies and let them know their responsible actions are appreciated.

Rather than the usual doom-and-gloom Earth Day posts, I thought I’d highlight a few of my favorite earth-friendly companies and products this week. Sure, fast food is rarely a smart choice, but as busy parents, it’s virtually impossible not to give in to the lure of a quick and sure-to-please meal. Two of my favorite healthier fast food picks are Chipotle and Chicken Out.

I love that Chipotle:

• Serves only naturally-raised pork, and is investing heavily in bringing local pork producers on board;
• Serves as many organic beans as it can find (30% currently);
• Buys rBGH-free sour cream;
• Is steadily increasing its sourcing of naturally-raised chicken and beef;
• At many locations, recycles beverage bottles;
• Makes quesadillas for kids (an off-the-menu secret) and salads for the parents that give you the taste of a burrito with out quite as many calories.

And at Chicken Out (a local chain, similar to Boston Market):

• Serves all-natural, free-farmed local chicken;
• Sides include kid-friendly faves like chunky applesauce, sweet potatoes, and sesame-ginger green beans.

Choosing organic foods not only reduces the toxins you expose yourself to, it also helps protect the environment. Organic foods are grown without chemical pesticides, the residues of which remain in the soil and wash into our watersheds. Small family farmers will tell you that “organic” farming is nothing new — for the most part, they are simply continuing to farm the way their parents and grandparents did, with the basic premise that preserving the earth is critical to sustaining farmland. It is only in the past half century that the focus of corporate agriculture shifted to making more food faster and cheaper. While pesticides are regulated and foods offered for sale in the US have to meet “maximum residue levels,” less emphasis is given to monitoring the lingering effects of pesticide usage on the environment. Despite the growth pains of the organic industry, with small farms on one end choosing to forgo certification due to the cost and time involved, and large-scale operations on the other end stretching or evading the rules, growing consumer awareness and pressure is the only way to force the big players to reform their practices.

Locally, the misguided obsession with ethanol is reversing recent progress in cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay. While local consumers are increasingly looking for organically grown corn, there is no incentive to corn growers to behave responsibly when growing corn for ethanol.

To learn more, visit OrganicConsumers.org - and to find local, organic farmers in your area, visit LocalHarvest.org.

posted in honor of Blog Action Day 2007.