Wal-Mart says partnerships with local farmers have grown 50 percent over the past two years—not just in California, but in Wal-Mart stores across the country. This year, it plans to buy about $400 million worth of locally grown produce.
The company says it’s doing this mainly to save fuel costs, but the public relations value of being hooked in to the locavore movement is probably not lost on it.
Wal-Mart’s definition of locally grown food might be very different from, say, Barbara Kingsolver’s. Wal-Mart defines local food as any food grown in the same state. Which means an apple grown in Redding, California, can end up labeled as local when it appears in a San Diego Wal-Mart—more than 600 miles away.
There are plenty of books and websites that list every drink ever made. But quantity does not always mean quality. For those with a discerning taste for cocktails and their history, Gary Regan’s The Joy of Mixology should be the first place to look. The book includes drink recipes along with sections on proper technique and the philosophy of bartending. Regan doesn’t take himself too seriously, referring to himself as a bartender rather than a mixologist. After reading Joy, you may even be inspired to make your own bitters.
Hmm, let’s see, it’s got ludicrous technical specs, involves a live chicken in a box, and appears to serve no practical purpose. Yep, the bicycle in this video is clearly an art project. But it’s an art project that combines a bike with a waffle maker, and how great is that? Created by artist Tom Sachs and cultural pranksters the Neistat Brothers, the Waffle Bike is a Belgian-waffle-lover’s fever dream. With whipped cream on top.
Your cat kills more fish than you do. And that’s just inside the house. In a study that I suspect is being suppressed by the feline blogosphere, Australian scientists concluded that house cats pose a greater threat to fish stocks than people.
Really: According to the study, the “global cat food industry” consumed an estimated 2.48 million metric tonnes (about 2.2 million tons) of sardines, herrings, and anchovies, with American cats accounting for 1.1 million tonnes. As the pet food industry goes white-tablecloth, the study’s author says, cats are eating more fish that’s “suitable for direct human consumption,” instead of just scraps and trimmings. And she adds that the environmental criticisms of fish farming, which usually relies on wild fish for feed, should be aimed at cat food producers, too.
Fishing enthusiasts have long argued about the advantages of artificial lures versus natural bait. These days, however, the discussion has gotten more complicated. Some fishing experts in Maine are calling for a ban on nonbiodegradable rubber worms.
‘These soft rubber baits are everywhere,’ said Bob Van Riper, a regional fisheries biologist for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. ‘If you walk into any sports store they have a row of them in there. The problem is that when the fish eat these worms, they only break down marginally. The bottom line is they are taking in an artificial substance that does them no good.’
The worms can also end up polluting lake beds, and may affect other animals down the food chain. Fishermen love the rubber worms because they hook more fish—they have “more shape and more action,” anti-artificial-bait activist Bill Gagnon admits, and are often scented with attractive smells. But there’s another argument for their use: Studies have shown that using artificial bait in catch-and-release fishing reduces mortality rates. In fact, the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife may ban the use of live bait at certain fishing spots, because it increases incidences of “deep hooking” that damage fish that are released back into the water.
So, live bait or artificial bait? The answer, according to Bill Gagnon, is probably to require that artificial bait be biodegradable. But that would necessitate pressure on the manufacturing companies, either from the fishermen themselves, or from lawmakers. So far, no one’s biting.
Last fall in the Grinder, we highlighted the high-volume debate in Alaska over a proposed massive gold mine in the hills that empty out into Bristol Bay, a remarkable fishery that the New York Times says “produces about half of the wild salmon sold in North America.” The battle over the Pebble Mine has pitted gold against salmon, and it led to Tuesday’s referendum in Alaska over whether to strengthen protections for waters in which salmon breed and swim: Specifically, the initiative would have forbid toxic mine residue in such streams. The Times described it as “a chance to save one of the last healthy wild salmon populations left.”
Well, the votes are counted, and gold won. The initiative’s supporters say the legislation was demonized by industry, which spent possibly as much as $15 million arguing that the new law would shut down all mining in Alaska. The vote’s clearly a setback for the fishery, but even the mining company, Northern Dynasty Minerals, admits that the environmental battle over Pebble Mine is far from over.
Journalists get a lot of stupid story assignments, so it’s a pleasant surprise when something actually entertaining results. That may have been how the McClatchy Tribune’s Janet Franz felt when she had to write a story asking “What will the dining-out experience be like 20 or 30 years from now?” Her panel of experts included restaurateurs Jerry Kleiner, Miae Lim, and Carrie Nahabedian and chefs Grant Achatz and Homaro Cantu. Surprise, surprise: The only interesting answers came from Achatz and Cantu, starting with Achatz’s response to, “In 25 years, what should guests at fine-dining restaurants expect to see on their plates?” He says:
Nothing. Dining will become more and more virtual. The highest-end restaurants will use technology to produce dining experiences. False images of food will be projected onto tables and plates, and sights and sounds and other senses will be introduced to complete the experience.
Hey, who’s that yanking on my leg?
Franz then follows up with, “How will the dining experience be different?” “I think it’s going to be a lot more interactive,” Cantu muses. “Maybe you’ll make a phone call, and an alien ship will deliver the food to the table.”
The slightly sinister mystique surrounding absinthe (also known as the green fairy) has hit critical mass over the past year, with a number of products storming the United States amid a new legal open-mindedness about the drink. But only the ultrapremium Lucid purports to be “the first true, Grande Wormwood-based absinthe of its type since before Prohibition.”
Made at the Combier distillery in France’s Loire Valley, Lucid is a traditionally crafted (and naturally green) product that features no artificial additives, oils, or dyes. Compared to its competitors, Lucid boasts a surprisingly smooth and minty profile that perfectly complements the more rough-and-tumble fennel and anise flavors that drinkers of the beverage have come to expect. For those hoping to get into all the fussy elegance of absinthe-drinking, there’s no tastier way to make the plunge.
It’s easy to forget that processed meats like hot dogs and pepperoni aren’t the healthiest thing in the meat aisle. Kids love ’em, and preparation is minimal.
But the Cancer Project, an offshoot of the pro-vegetarian group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, wants to remind us that exposure to the nitrites and nitrates (not to mention fat and sodium) in processed meats has been linked to cancer. And the organization has produced a startling PSA to drive the point home. In it, children eat hot dogs and talk as though they’ve already grown up, discussing how their cancer is affecting their spouse and children.
The AP piece also contains the helpful information that, although the rumor that hot dogs contain animal eyeballs, hooves, and “genitals” is not true, they are allowed to contain pig snouts and stomachs (well, probably not the kosher ones), cow lips and livers, goat gullets, and lamb spleens. Fits right in with today’s vogue for nose-to-tail eating!
Malverde Beer is named after Jesús Malverde, a Robin Hood-style figure who is revered by drug smugglers in the western Mexico state of Sinaloa. It debuted in April and has been spreading to bars around western Mexico. The brewer plans to sell it in the United States, too.
The beer has appeared as Mexico is reeling from a spike in drug-related murders and the United States prepares to pour about $465 million into Mexican anti-drug efforts. Civic groups in Sinaloa have criticized the beer, and Wal-Mart of Mexico has refused to stock it.
At what point can you start naming spirits after crime figures? Robin Hood—that’s charming. Wasn’t he a beneficent animated fox? Then: Al Capone? Well, he murdered a lot of folks but that was nearly 100 years ago, and he’s kind of a cartoon gangster at this point. So, sure. Why not?
Then it gets stickier: What about naming a beer after Vito “Don Vito” Genovese, one of the key organizers of the modern American Mafia? Suddenly, we’re looking at victims who have sons, daughters, grandsons, and granddaughters still walking around. The Genovese organization still exists. This is probably the wrong side of the line.
Naming a beer after the Crips is definitely the wrong side of the line, although it does lend itself to catchy marketing slogans: “For a taste that’s refreshing and crisp, drink … Crips!”
Having nailed down the line, we can look at Malverde again:
Historians are unsure whether Jesús Malverde ever existed. But legend says he was born in the late 1800s and embarked on a life of crime in Sinaloa, robbing from the rich and giving to the poor during the reign of Mexican dictator Porfirio Díaz. He was executed by the Sinaloa state governor in 1909, the stories say.
Seems like a clear green light, so to speak. But the fact that modern traffickers revere him as a saint throws a monkey wrench into the calculation: Through no fault of his own, Malverde (if he ever existed) is a lively icon of the modern drug trade. That, by itself, seems to make naming a beer for the guy a Bad Idea. But Robin Hood? Cleared for takeoff!
