weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food
- Pop culture food spin-offs abound with two new cook books. There's 50 Shades of Chicken (right) for when you feel the need to truss something, and The Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook for when you want to indulge your landed gentry side.
- Shining light of the urban food movement Growing Power has announced a $5 million grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to fund “community food centers” aimed at relieving hunger in five of the nation’s poorest areas: Detroit; New Orleans; Forest City, Ark.; Shelby, Miss.; and Taos, N.M. As Grist reported: "Growing Power’s urban projects are frequently the subject of news reports, but the rural ones are rarely described. In the case of the Mississippi Delta, for instance, Allen says, 'Most of the land has gone over to industrial agriculture. It’s devastated those towns, because most of the people used to have their own farms.' Now, he says the area is plagued by drugs, much in the way many urban areas are. And that’s all the more reason why Growing Power’s model can make a difference."
- Rural food deserts really do exist. There may be wide open spaces, but not a decent grocery store in sight. “There’s a lot of people that don’t eat well here...There’s a lot of poor people, too.”
- Fishing in New England is declared a disaster: “Despite fishermen’s adherence to catch limits over the past few years, recent data shows that several key fish stocks are not rebuilding.... Low levels of these stocks are causing a significant loss of access to fishery resources with anticipated revenue declines that will greatly affect the commercial fishery.”
- One agricultural sector on the rise is wine. PBS Newshour profiled a community college in Walla Walla, Washington that has created a winemaking degree that "fosters economic, environmental and cultural sustainability in and around the city of Walla Walla where vineyards continue to sprout."
