Jimmu's blog

A sad, very sad reality

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 16:42:28 -0400

Western cultures believe in a the magic fix, the magic diet, the magic formula. One pill to fix to a...

Julie Logue-Riordan is the owner of the cooking school...

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 11:34:08 -0400

Julie Logue-Riordan is the owner of the cooking school “Cooking with Julie”. After living and working many years abroad in Asia and Africa, Julie now makes her home in Napa. In addition to running the cooking school Julie also is a Culinary Instructor for Copia. She is a Member of International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP), San Francisco Professional Food Society, Chaine des Rotisseurs and Slow Food. She took some precious time to answer my questions.

What do you remember about food when you were a child?

As a child I was fortunate as my father was an avid foodie. He would take a long diversion for the best peaches.

If I say Picnic, what do you think about?

A quiet place where all your senses bright, on a cotton blanket with fabulous artisan cheeses and a cool rose wine. And a dog to eat the leftovers.

What is your favorite food?

Does chocolate count? Actually it depends on where I am and the season. In Chaing Mai it would be Kao Soi and in Napa it would be Goats Leap cheese and of course one of our great red wines. Hopefully wine is a food!

What does good food brings?

Good food brings many benefits and best of all they are delicious. It is a great way to build friendships

What is a perfect meal?

A meal made with your own or locally grown produce and homemade bread.

Do you think it is possible to feed the world in a mindful and sustainable way?

I believe it is possible but it will take time there are lots of politics involved that makes it difficult. I’m encouraged regularly with people becoming aware and active even if it is only to visit their local farmers markets.

Is food only food? Or is it bigger than simple nutriments?

What we eat is what we are. Each time we eat or buy food we are making a statement about who we are and voting with our fork for the kind of place we want to live in.

What do you think are the problems today with food and children?

Children are given too many choices and are being marketed to.

If you could change one thing in the way we eat today, what wouldit be?

I would get rid of high fructose corn syrup.

Your fondest memory as a child about nature?

Fishing in streams, and hiking to pick berries. Nature is so rewarding.

What does spending time in nature brings you?

It revitalizes me in a wonderful way.

Do you have plants at home? Why?

I have a garden and grow tomatoes, herbs and flowers. I love having fresh veggies and fruits. There is nothing more satisfying than clipping some fresh herbs to add a special flavour to a dish.

If you could build your summer house anywhere in the world, where would it be? Why?

There are lots of wonderful places but my husband and I have dreamed of the south of France and in Sydney. Wine, food, and culture. Plus great weather.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is the time children spend playing in nature?

10 It is so important for children to know about nature even if it is only a park that they can get to.

When you go on vacation, where do you go? Why?

I like a change of scene to imerse myself in the local culture whether it be somewhere in Europe or Asia

If you could change one thing in the way cities and public buildings are designed, what would it be?

More public water fountains for people and dogs.

Do you think enough is done to bring children to nature?

I’m not sure, I don’t know much about any programs.

Do you think it is possible for human to grow in a mindful and sustainable manner?

It is possible and I try harder and harder each day!

Cousteau and Attenborough were my childhood heros. I watched and...

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 11:19:08 -0400

Cousteau and Attenborough were my childhood heros. I watched and followed them religiously. In fact, when Cousteau died, I reacted like any child when their super hero dies, he simply can’t. He is suppose to live forever. I experienced the “super-hero-is-in-fact-human” denial.

This morning in the UK newspaper Independent, a recent survey has David extremely worried and wonder how children will know how to take care of Nature since they are so disconnected.

“The wild world is becoming so remote to children that they miss out, and an interest in the natural world doesn’t grow as it should. Nobody is going protect the natural world unless they understand it.”

Two great headlines in the news today. Ban On Energy...

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:46:00 -0400

Two great headlines in the news today.

Ban On Energy Drinks

HILLSBOROUGH, N.J. (AP) ― They can be popular because they’re sweet, they give you a lift and they have hip-sounding names like Red Bull and Spike Shooter.

But school officials across the country aren’t as buzzed about caffeinated energy drinks as some of their students. They’re worried about young people gulping down too much caffeine—and getting so hyper that they lose focus on their studies.

“Being hepped up on caffeine can be a distraction to your learning,” said Joe Trybulski, principal of Hillsborough Middle School in central New Jersey.

The Hillsborough school, with more than 1,200 seventh and eighth graders, is among a growing number across the country that have banned or are considering banning energy drinks from their campuses….. click here for more.

Ikoma “Eco-City” to Cut Back on Vending Machines

Vending machines have come under fire lately for being bad for the environment, as inefficient 24-hour operation leads to significant amounts of electricity being wasted. Especially in Japan, there are over 5.4million vending machines (as of Dec 2007). Half of them are for beverages and it is said that if we eliminated ALL of them we could reduce at least ONE nuclear reactor (out of the total 55). Now, Ikoma City in Nara Prefecture is standing up and doing something about it.

The city is aiming to eliminate all non-essential vending machines from city facilities such as parks and gymnasiums within a 6-month period started in April, 2008. Currently, there are 39 cigarette and drinks vending machines in Ikoma, but the city is looking to get rid of as many as possible….. click here for more.

Schwarzenegger Terminates Trans Fat in Calif.

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 12:43:50 -0400

from ABC News California Becomes the First State to Ban Trans Fats By MOLLY HUNTER July 25, 2008...

So nice advertising from the San Francisco Zoo. Today, on the...

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 10:37:08 -0400

So nice advertising from the San Francisco Zoo. Today, on the The Cool Hunter website. The campaign is called “When San Franciscans connect with their animal” On the “about” section of the site, here is what we find:

From a young age, it’s an almost instinctive human emotion to want t connect with animals. As children, we’ve all fantasized what it must be like to have a tail. Or wings. Maybe even feathers. It’s this curiosity that fuels our imagination and makes us want to learn more about animals and their relationship to us.

Once activated, this curiosity never leaves-even later when we become adults.

Launching in 2008, the “our gallery site” is part of the Critter Quest interactive media campaign built out of the San Francisco Zoo’s mission statement of connecting people with wildlife, inspiring caring for nature and advance conservation action. Instead of just showing pictures of animals to get people to remember the zoo, we wanted to create opportunities to get Bay Area residents to re-connect with animals - as well as to remind everyone that the SF Zoo belongs to all of us.

I came upon a blog entry from an Australian about the book...

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 10:24:02 -0400

I came upon a blog entry from an Australian about the book Fatland. The book was reviewed in the NY Times in 2003.

At least from a business perspective, the fattening of America may well have been a necessity. Food companies grow by selling us more of their products. The challenge they face is that the American population is growing much more slowly than the American food supply — a prescription for falling rates of profit. Agribusiness now produces 3,800 calories of food a day for every American, 500 calories more than it produced 30 years ago. (And by the government’s lights, at least a thousand more calories than most people need.) So what’s a food company to do? The answer couldn’t be simpler or more imperative: get each of us to eat more. A lot more.

Critser doesn’t put it quite this way, but his subject is the nutritional contradictions of capitalism. There’s only so much food one person can consume (unlike shoes or CD’s), or so you would think. But Big Food has been nothing short of ingenious in devising ways to transform its overproduction into our overconsumption — and body fat. The best parts of this book show how, in the space of two decades, Americans learned to eat, on average, an additional 200 calories a day. In the words of James O. Hill, a physiologist Critser interviewed, getting fat today is less an aberration than ”a normal response to the American environment.”

In today’s NY Times, an article about the infamous High...

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 10:13:20 -0400

In today’s NY Times, an article about the infamous High Fructose Corn Syrup. HFCS is what many people have been pointing the finger at for quite some times. It is often how people differentiate Europe from America. The drastic increase of this substance’s intake is in direct correlation with America’s weight.

Most of the carbohydrates we eat are made up of chains of glucose. When glucose enters the bloodstream, the body releases insulin to help regulate it. Fructose, on the other hand, is processed in the liver. To greatly simplify the situation: When too much fructose enters the liver, the liver can’t process it all fast enough for the body to use as sugar. Instead, it starts making fats from the fructose and sending them off into the bloodstream as triglycerides. (From Fructose, Sweet but Dangerous)

From the article

In humans, triglycerides, which are a type of fat in the blood, are mostly formed in the liver. Dr. Parks said the liver acts like “a traffic cop” who coordinates how the body uses dietary sugars. When the liver encounters glucose, it decides whether the body needs to store it, burn it for energy or turn it into triglycerides.

But when fructose enters the body, it bypasses the process and ends up being quickly converted to body fat.

“It’s basically sneaking into the rock concert through the fence,” Dr. Parks said. “It’s a less-controlled movement of fructose through these pathways that causes it to contribute to greater triglyceride synthesis. The bottom line of this study is that fructose very quickly gets made into fat in the body.”

Fructose is not bad by itself, what has changed over the years is that the increase in consumption is in astronomical proportion. High Fructose Corn Syrup is in everything and mostly in soda, and drinks like gatorade, which kids drinks some many in a single day.

Panel OKs one-year ban on new fast-food restaurants in South...

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:52:00 -0400

Panel OKs one-year ban on new fast-food restaurants in South L.A.

The measure is part of an effort to address health problems in the area. Some question how such eateries will be defined.

By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

9:42 PM PDT, July 22, 2008

A proposal that would place at least a one-year moratorium on new fast-food restaurants in a broad swath of neighborhoods, mostly in South Los Angeles, won unanimous support from a Los Angeles City Council committee Tuesday.

If approved by the full council and signed by the mayor, the law would prevent fast-food chains from opening new restaurants in a 32-square-mile area, including West Adams, Baldwin Village and Leimert Park. The moratorium would be in effect for one year, with the possibility of two six-month extensions.

Ban on new fast-food restaurants

Opinion: Editorial - Banning fast food in South L.A.

The measure, proposed by Councilwoman Jan Perry, whose 9th District includes much of South Los Angeles, defines a fast-food restaurant as “any establishment which dispenses food for consumption on or off the premises, and which has the following characteristics: a limited menu, items prepared in advance or prepared or heated quickly, no table orders and food served in disposable wrapping or containers.”

Councilman Jose Huizar questioned that definition during the meeting of the council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee and requested clarification from city planners — particularly the definition of a “limited menu” — before the proposal goes before the council.

“McDonald’s has been increasing the number of items on their menu, so at what point would they exceed that definition?” Huizar said.

Councilman Jack Weiss said restrictions on fast-food restaurants in Westwood have caused problems for such businesses as Ben & Jerry’s and Smoothie King, which would not otherwise be considered fast-food outlets.

Restaurant lobbyists initially opposed the law. But Andrew Casana, a lobbyist for the Sacramento-based California Restaurant Assn., said his group is working with Perry and other council members and is waiting to see how they define fast food and plan to deal with lots that remain vacant after the law expires.

Perry said that after speaking with restaurant lobbyists, she amended her proposal to allow for “fast-food casual” restaurants, such as Subway or Pastagina, that do not have heat lamps or drive-through windows and that prepare fresh food to order.

Perry said she has been attempting to address the health issues associated with fast food, such as diabetes and obesity. She is trying to persuade supermarket chains and sit-down restaurants to open in her district, which has been especially hard hit with such health problems.

The Community Redevelopment Agency is offering grocers and restaurants incentives that include tax credits, electricity discounts and expedited reviews by the city Planning Department and Building and Safety Department.

“It’s important to offer incentives to bring restaurants into an area, especially an area that has suffered prejudices and stereotypes,” Perry said.

Councilman Bernard C. Parks, whose entire 8th District is within the affected area, attended Tuesday’s meeting and expressed support for the proposed law.

Huizar called for the city to do more to combat pervasive junk food advertising by educating children in South L.A. about healthy eating.

Julia Ansley, 66, a retired elementary school teacher who has lived in South L.A. more than 40 years, attended the meeting and said afterward that she was encouraged by the vote. “It’s much needed,” she said of the proposed ordinance. “Our community has been neglected by city planners.”

In April, the county Department of Public Health released a study showing that 30% of South Los Angeles adults were obese, compared with about 21% of adults countywide. South L.A. also has the highest incidence of diabetes in the county, 11.7% compared with 8.1% for the county as a whole.

A Times analysis of the city’s roughly 8,200 restaurants late last year found that South L.A. had the highest concentration of fast-food eateries. Per capita, the area has fewer eateries of any kind than the Westside, downtown or Hollywood, and about the same as the Valley. But a much higher percentage of restaurants in South L.A. belong to fast-food chains, and the area has far fewer grocery stores than other parts of town.

molly.hennessy-fiske @latimes.com

A dollar of prevention is worth $5.60 in cure

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:01:00 -0400

By Sarah E. White for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News If $10 were invested for every American each...

In 2007, the Big Fat companies (after the Big Tobacco) decided,...

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:58:34 -0400

In 2007, the Big Fat companies (after the Big Tobacco) decided, after intense marketing sessions, to publicly limit their advertising to children. The move was so bold that New York Times reported on it. That same year, Ad Council, the Government and the Big Fat teamed up for an awareness campaign on obesity - their solution - Shrek. Now Which? comes out with their latest report on how the Big Fat is only playing with numbers, taking from one place and adding to another. Their marketing budgets are not decreasing, far from it. They are just being re-allocated to new mediums, more modern and as deadly as TV.

The seriousness of all this makes me laugh. I keep picturing their meetings when they talk about how to keep selling and at the same time appeal to the public’s concern. If you want to have an idea of how it must be, check DirecTV’s new line up of commercial.

On Ad Council’s obesity awareness campaign website, there is a page listing all the partners. Among them are Coca Cola, PepsiCo, Kellogs, Kraft, McDonald, Del Monte, General Mills, Hershey, and Cartoon Network - who survives only because of those companies. Children for them are Billions and Billions in revenue. They will not only do everything to look like they are listening and care for children, but they will also do everything to make sure they maintain and expand that market. They will not lower their marketing budget, only re-allocate it. And increase it.

The first sign of a problem is denial. Deny there is a problem....

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:15:50 -0400

The first sign of a problem is denial. Deny there is a problem. Am I fat? Of course not, look around. I look like everyone else. Stores sell XXXL shirts because it is normal. Restaurants serve portions that big because it is normal. Fast Food stands are everywhere because they are so convenient and so tasty. I don’t have a problem. The rest of the world wants me to have a problem, but I don’t!

This is pretty much the level of conversation I have when talking about our food and health system.

In 1999, BBC wrote about people’s denial. Then Forbes wrote about it in 2006. This month, the Chicago Tribune talks about the perceptions of obesity are changing.

With larger people everywhere, individuals who are slightly overweight may now think of themselves as average and those who are heavier may think of themselves as having only a minor weight problem, the study’s authors suggest.

This year, we started to talk about Airlines charging by weight. People went nuts, saying that it was inhuman. I say we should do it. Or at least put a surcharge.

We keep talking about obesity and overweight with white gloves, making sure to crop out the faces of people on those fat images. I say put them on. Lets start to face what we have become. How much more disconnected from our body, from our health can we be?

On Good Food this morning, Catherine Friend talks about raising...

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:15:14 -0400

On Good Food this morning, Catherine Friend talks about raising sheeps and here latest book, The Compassionate Carnivore

WE Play! Trainings Coming to a City Near You

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:02:00 -0400

Just received this email from Kaboom. Kids Need Playgrounds! Learn how to make it happen at WE...

I grew up going to summer camp every year. Most of my best...

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:53:21 -0400

I grew up going to summer camp every year. Most of my best memories as a child are from those camps: a two week canoe trip, a week on the isle verte , and countless others. An idea, have your children spend some time on a farm, a sustainable farm. Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms, USA (WWOOF - USA) is part of a world-wide effort to link volunteers with organic farmers, promote an educational exchange, and build a global community conscious of ecological farming practices. Our organization produces a quarterly directory of more than 500 organic farmers in the United States who would like to host volunteers on their farm.

LOCAVORE is the 2007 Word of the Year for the Oxford American...

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:33:32 -0400

LOCAVORE is the 2007 Word of the Year for the Oxford American Dictionary!

For more information or for a great reading, check out The 100 Mile Diet or Plenty, written by Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon.

About the book:

Like many great adventures, the 100-mile diet began with a memorable feast. Stranded in their off-the-grid summer cottage in the Canadian wilderness, Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon turned to the land around them. They caught a trout, picked mushrooms in the forest, and mulled apples from an abandoned orchard with rose hips in wine. The meal was truly satisfying; every ingredient had a story, a direct line they could trace from the soil to their forks. The experience raised a question: Was it possible to eat this way in their everyday lives?

Back in the city, they began to research the origins of the items that stocked the shelves of their local super market. They were shocked to discover that a typical ingredient in a North American meal travels roughly the distance between Boulder, Colorado, and New York City before it reaches the plate. Like so many people, Smith and MacKinnon were trying to live more lightly on the planet; meanwhile, their “SUV diet? was producing greenhouse gases and smog at an unparalleled rate. So they decided on an experiment. For one year they would eat only food produced within 100 miles of their Vancouver home.

It wouldn’t be easy. Stepping outside the industrial food system, Smith and MacKinnon found themselves relying on World War II-era cookbooks and maverick farmers who refuse to play by the rules of a global economy. They bargained for sacred squash at a suburban Buddhist temple, discovered the true sweetness of honey, and learned the lost history of dozens of varieties of local wheat. What began as a struggle slowly transformed into one of the deepest pleasures of their lives. For the first time they felt connected to the people and the places that sustain them.
For Smith and MacKinnon the 100-mile diet became a journey whose destination was, simply, home. From the satisfaction of pulling their own crop of garlic out of the earth to pitched battles over canning tomatoes, Plenty is about eating locally and thinking globally.

The authors’ food-focused experiment questions globalization, monoculture, the oil economy, environmental collapse, and the tattering threads of community. Thought-provoking and inspiring, Plenty offers more than a way of eating. In the end, it’s a new way of looking at the world

On the Today Show this morning. Richard Louv and the importance...

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:17:00 -0400

On the Today Show this morning. Richard Louv and the importance of spending time in the wild.

In my mailbox today is the newsletter from the My Wonderful...

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:07:00 -0400

In my mailbox today is the newsletter from the My Wonderful World, an initiative from National Geographic. The campaign—backed by a coalition of national business and non-profit organizations— wants to expand geographic learning in school, at home, and in communities. “We want to give kids the power of global knowledge”.

Although focused on Geography, the theme of this month’s newsletter is Food.

Prepare for your backyard barbecue with geography. From eating local foods to beating rising gas prices to learning more about how and what Americans eat, My Wonderful World is out to give you geo-news you can use. Have a great summer—all 75,000 of you! Christopher Shearer, Director, My Wonderful World

The following are excerpts from the newsletter.

The Time Is Ripe

Nothing says “summer” more than sunshine, lazy days at the pool (or beach), and barbecue. Sweet corn on the cob, juicy watermelon, and hearty burgers are staples of the season. But this year more than ever, people are thinking critically about the choices they make when it comes to buying groceries. Attitudes are changing in response to increased fuel prices, recent natural disasters, disease outbreaks, and environmental concerns. These factors contributed to the thriving local-food movement, with farmers’ markets popping up across the country, organic-grocery chains like Whole Foods Market offering local fare, and even the most haute-cuisine restaurants committing themselves to local sourcing. This month, MWW challenges you to learn about the food system and consider the impacts of your family’s purchasing decisions. Start by visiting Local Harvest, a resource for finding local-minded businesses and farmers’ markets near you.

Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) offers unique, hands-on immersion experiences at organic farms around the world. Volunteers help farmers in their daily duties, learn about organic growing methods, and receive their stay and meals free of charge. Opportunities range from fruit orchards in England to olive groves in Argentina.

Foodie Dictionary

Feeling lost in the lingo of food issues? Here are a few key definitions to help demystify foodie jargon:

Slow Food—A countermovement to fast food, created in 1989 and that seeks to raise awareness of where our food is grown and how our food choices affect the rest of the world.

100-mile Diet—Challenges participants to eat only foods grown within a 100-mile radius of where they live. That’s right—if the salt and pepper in those shakers came from outside that distance, they aren’t going on your food.

Locavore—Someone who commits himself or herself to buying and eating locally, often using the 100-mile-diet guidelines. Locavores believe that less processing and shipping leads to more nutritious, eco-friendly, and tasty food.

This Wednesday, July 16, the “Today” show is scheduled to air a...

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:09:22 -0400

This Wednesday, July 16, the “Today” show is scheduled to air a special segment on family nature clubs with an in-studio appearance by Richard Louv, live from New York. The segment also features a filmed interview with Chip Donahue and his family-oriented nature club, “Kids in the Valley, Adventuring!” (KIVA). Started in Roanoke, Va., in January 2008, KIVA has already grown to include more than 170 families.

Out of the Kitchen, Into the Field

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 16:05:35 -0400

Some great Feminine inspiration. By Melissa Breyer “There is much work women can do on a farm with...