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food & poetry, but mostly the poetry of food

Food • Writing • Poetry

Greetings from Saskatchewan where the weather is bright and not too cold for walks among the chickadees and nuthatches who have, we flatter ourselves to suppose, been waiting for us and our pockets full of peanuts since last winter’s colony.

A little while ago I was having one of my food-obsessed conversations with someone and struggled to remember something I’d read about cholesterol in Gina Mallet‘s Last Chance to Eat: The Fate of Taste in a Fast Food World. I tracked it down in her chapter on The Imperilled Egg.

Dr [Donald J.] McNamara explained that [in 1968] a group of food scientists got together and thrashed out the idea of setting a safe cholesterol standard. Some thought the whole idea unnecessary, but others were adamant. So the debate went back and forth and finally a compromise was reached. The average human intake of cholesterol is 580 mg (per litre of blood) a day, so let’s just halve that. Make it 300 mg. ‘There’s not one bit of scientific evaluation in that number,’ Dr McNamara added.

This was amazing to me; I’ve heard and read a lot about the egg debate but never seen the fundamental RDA numbers contested so simply. She continues, “Cholesterol is created by the way the body processes food, not by foods like eggs that contain cholesterol… So, overnight as it were, and on the basis of an arbitrary calculation the egg was in trouble, deep trouble.”

(Of course the source of your eggs is a whole other question. As with anything we consume, we need to be aware of what our food was fed on. Eggs from battery chickens – fed on Omega-6 rich grains – will not be as nutritionally sound as from pasture or organically fed free-run chickens who can glean nutrients from varied sources and live healthier lives.)

Cholesterol – and the case of the imperilled egg – is only one of those areas where we’ve been battered by contradictory scientific opinions till we’re not sure which way is up anymore. Mallet affirms the anti-nutritionism position for which Michael Pollan has been slammed by, of course, food scientists:

People today are blasé about food science because they have been frightened into changing their diets so many times only to be told later that the scientists were wrong. For years, people believed in food science and obediently ate fibre to stave off colon cancer. Then, suddenly, they were told fibre makes no difference. Margarine was briskly touted as an excellent, healthy substitute for butter, cheaper too: and even though margarine has a disagreeable taste and ruins any dish it is cooked with, people obediently used it, thinking they were lengthening their life span. Now, of course, margarine is ringed with red flags as a trans fat, the deadliest of fats.

Some things dredged from my inbox.

My visit to Edmonton coincided, sadly without personal coincidence, with a visit by Michael Pollan. Elmarie kindly sent this interview between Pollan and Bill Myers which covers American food poverty and food-health issues the new president needs to address. The article referred to in this interview, An Open Letter to the Farmer in Chief, published in the New York Times back in October, also led to a new blog: the White House Farmer, where they’re trying to encourage the creation of a new post in the new White House.

Meanwhile, Bert sent me this bit of news from Italy, where ethnic eateries (actually non-Italian ‘foreign food’ which would include many fast food joints including one starting with M) have been banned from the Tuscan city of Lucca and are now being given the nudge from other municipalities including Milan. When in Rome, I guess, and that city is certainly plagued with more than its share of McDonalds outlets, including the one that sparked the Slow Food movement.

BBC Food has some seasonal vegetarian and vegan recipes up, in case you’re still rooting through a veg box.

And here’s some food-art Elizabeth sent me, which comments on food sources in a piece called Domestication.

All the ugly facts on the latest avian flu/mass slaughter of poultry in British Columbia are on the CFIA website.

And what sounds like a fabulous talk on a little-discussed fish is coming up, thanks to the Victoria Natural History Society, on Monday, February 23.
MARINE NIGHT: Are Lingcod Too Tasty for Their Own Good?
Lingcod are a common fish in our local waters, easily observed by scuba diving. They are also sought by many fishermen. Following methods developed by the Vancouver Aquarium, local divers have been conducting an annual survey of lingcod spawning in Gowlland Tod Park. Doug Biffard, a long time diver and member of SeaChange Marine Conservation Society, has compiled and summarized six years of spawning observations. The talk will cover aspects of lingcod biology, management, and population trends of the lingcod in Saanich Inlet. 7:30 p.m. Room 159, Fraser Building, University of Victoria. Everyone welcome.

Have been whistlin‘ through Alberta, helped along with the westerly wind that is blowing all the nice warm air over the mountains and into the prairies.

Last night it turned mean and whapped high speed salt and gravel in our faces when we stepped out into Jasper Ave

after the otherwise warm and cosy reading at Audrey’s Books, still an excellent independent bookstore in a shrinking universe of independent bookstores.

Thursday’s food day at Augustana was great: it began with one of my favourite speakers, Nettie Wiebe, who gave a splendid overview of the subject of food sovereignty, using to good advantage her multiple aspects as philosopher/ethicist, feminist, farmer, political candidate and ex-farmers’ union head. Starting with the theme of dis-integration, she gave a good overview of the unhealthy influence exerted by corporations, the loss of farmers’ cooperatives, failures in policy that removed the humanity from farming, the removal of accountability from wasteful and destructive means of food production, and much more.

And I was also very taken by the producers’ panel, presided over by the dean, Roger Epp

Representing grain and beef were Harold Warkentin and Wyatt Swanson

and dairy by Jan Slomp

They gave their sobering views on the state of business for Alberta farmers today; they were all grim on the scale of today’s farming, which puts huge swaths of land in the hands of too few farmers. Swanson talked about the upheavals in the beef industry which have been radical over the past thirty years: from an epic high of production and sales in the seventies and eighties, to the advent of feed lots in the eighties and nineties and the transition to a beef export business to the US, the collapse of Alberta beef processing, to the death blows dealt by the first BSE case in 2003 and the credit crisis last year. His family is entering the fifth generation of farming and he’s not sure how long it will be able to continue on the land.

Slomp gave a more optimistic talk, about his evolution from conventional high-yield dairy producer to enlightened producer. He spoke of the damage the green revolution had done to the Netherlands, causing insane fertilizer use and insupportable requirements for feed and medication where once farms were self-sufficient and self-sustaining. He feels his milk yields are impressive despite his decision to top using agrichemicals on his fields and cattle; he’s worked wonders on the water system on his land by pasture management; and he’s thwarted veterinary wisdom by refusing to use prophylactic antibiotics (normally used to prevent the mastitis that is chronic among overtaxed dairy herds). The result he says, is that he lives on a pristine piece of land with healthy animals and a profitable business.

Warkentin spoke about the complexities of seed breeding and the joys of developing new varieties to meet the challenges of growing. He produces high quality seed for other seed breeders (he gave a helpful explanation of seed qualities, which are diffferent according to whether you are developing seed or sowing it for crops) and has enjoyed experimenting with different varieties along the way. He took a firm stand on the question of GM crops; said he’d tested some Roundup-ready canola once, and decided to stay away from it after that. The risk to human health, he says, is too unknown, and he could breed seed with better yields through traditional methods. He gave an interesting bit of information about Alberta’s rat-free status. I’d heard long ago about the rat patrol that kept the numbers down along the border; what I hadn’t realised is that government policy on weasel trapping had also played a part: weasels take care of the rest of the rat population.

..weather’s good there in the… er.. early.. spring??? Please make it so.

I’m looking forward to seeing my Albertapals, and my whirlwind tour this week, including my class visit at the U of C, Wednesday’s reading at Red Deer College Library, what sounds like a fabulous food day on Thursday at the U of A’s Augustana Campus, and Friday’s reading with Bert Almon in Edmonton.

Here’s a movie I want to watch when I get home (thanks for mentioning it Tom!)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KYJ0dsd-x0]

Yesterday’s Sustainability Fair in the town of View Royal was small but perfectly formed, with displays about waste & recycling, composting, water conservation, land conservancy and other plans, achievements and services. The town has also created a fabulous document called Steps to Sustainability. You can choose from a sprawling list of things to do to live more ethically and sustainably, with helpful links to sources of more information. There are, as in all such lists, a few items I’d disagree with, but a lot more things I hadn’t thought about which would be easy to do.

For example, even apartment dwellers can vermicompost their kitchen scraps in a worm bin, which comes in small enough sizes (like this Worm Factory) to can sit on a balcony or porch. I don’t know how well red wigglers would endure northern winters but you could even bring them inside, as one advantage they have over other compost bins is that they keep smells down.

(If the View Royal list isn’t long enough for you, another way to inspire yourself with new resolutions can be found in this book, Change the World for Ten Bucks. Or you could celebrate Buy Nothing Day on a weekly or monthly basis instead of confining it to an annual event; if you’re really tough you could do as others have done and try it for a year.)

One of the items I wasn’t sure about on the View Royal list was the suggestion to save power occasionally by using candles. I’d heard there was some kind of environmental issue around candles, but I was surprised when I looked it up to discover it’s largely to do with the wick, which may contain lead, which means you’re creating lead vapour when you burn candles. There’s no ban on using lead in candle wicks in Canada, so we’re advised to be wary when buying candles; most of those made in North America (or sold at Ikea, surprisingly) are considered safe. BC Hydro’s fact sheet can tell you more, including how to test the wick for lead.

Bruce has just reminded me to mention the other half of the candles issue: there are health concerns over the hydrocarbons (burned and unburned) in candles, which are not designed to burn clean like a modern car engine or EPA wood stove, so the pollutants go straight into the air in your home.