Farming in America

Michael Pollan is probably one of the most widely known writers on food, sustainability and farming, but he is by no means the first (and maybe not the best). I've recently read two books that highlight that there is much more out there to read on the subjects. The first actually has Michael Pollan writing the preface, noting his intellectual debt to Wendell Berry, a Kentucky-based farmer and writer. His collection of essays, Bringing it to the Table: On Farming and Food, spans some three decades of writing and acknowledges along the way his debt to another writer before him, Sir Albert Hayward, revealing how a long line of writing and debate has occured over at least the last seventy years demonstrating that our current debate over organic versus conventional, agribusiness versus sustainability is nothing new. We have been lamenting the demise of the family farm since the 1950s, at least, and wondering whether the method of farming we have migrated towards is sustainable economically, ecologically, and socially for at least as long.

Which makes me wonder whether the renewed interest is sustainable itself, or is it a passing fad that will remain of interest to only a few, while the bulk of the population continues to remain (often blissfully) ignorant of the true state of agriculture and food production in America. And yet the other book I read, Lisa Hamilton's Deeply Rooted: Unconventional Farmers in the Age Agribusiness, somehow gives me hope, because she shows that life is tough, but manageable on farms that are outside the mainstream. I found it particularly attractive in her book that she is not as romantic about the family farm or the iconoclast. It strikes me that we can too easily romanticize the small-scale, family farmer who refuses to use GMO seeds or fertilize their fields with thousands of pounds of industrial nitrogen while collecting tons of cow manure in a concrete basin that poisons water tables. These are not tales from Hollywood movies, but real people who have made real choices about what their lives mean. The choices farmers make are not easy, and there are broader questions of the ability of a growing population to feed itself over the long term if all agriculture were to migrate back to a former paradigm or continue on its current path of "get big or get out."

The best part of these books is that they are deeply human stories that don't glorify the independent farmer as a white knight or a David seeking to fell agribusiness's Goliath with one blow. Rather, the books show that it is possible to go one's own way and maintain a sustainable life on a farm; it just takes choosing that lifestyle and ignoring the idea that well-being only comes from seeing the farm as factory, as opposed to the complex social system it should be recognized to be.

Our summer vacation

Our summer vacation is shaping up nicely, and will include a trip to Islay with tours of Bowmore and Ardbeg distilleries (we will also stop by Laphroiag, I imagine, since it's very close to Ardbeg). Then it's off to the Grampians and other parts of the Highlands for some hiking. I can hardly wait!

Defending Grass-Fed Beef: A Rancher Weighs in - Food - The Atlantic

Nicolette Niman (of Niman Ranch fame) defends grass-fed beef. Key passage: "zeroing in on a single environmental consequence is nonsensical. (Since rice farming contributes as much as 29 percent of the world's anthropogenic methane, one may well wonder why she is not urging us to cut back our rice consumption.) As with all foods, the environmental impact of beef varies widely, depending on many factors." Hail, hail! Let's stop using one data point to make sweeping conclusions. Her post is at the Atlantic: Defending Grass-Fed Beef: A Rancher Weighs in - Food - The Atlantic

Genetically Modified Crops

The US farming industry has fallen in love with genetically modified crops, in part because they have developed strains that are resistant to one of the most common pesticides (kill the bugs, keep the plant) and some can even produce their own resistance to pests. The National Research Council has issued a new report on this, as reported in today's New York Times.

The Raw Milk Debate: Don't Have a Cow - Food - The Atlantic

Most people probably haven't heard much about the debate surrounding raw milk, but it is an interesting one that pits those who think the less-refined a product is the better it is, and those who advocate a safety-first mindset. I would be curious to try raw milk (unhomogenized, unpasteurized), but it is illegal in Maryland in any form. I'd have to go to Pennsylvania to get it, if I even knew where, and the key issue is to find a supplier you trust. The modern market-place is founded on the principle that we don't have to know the producer of individual agricultural products well enough to establish trust -- we've replaced it for the sake of economy and scale with a regulatory system overseen by the USDA and FDA. The Atlantic has a good piece on it at the following link: The Raw Milk Debate: Don't Have a Cow - Food - The Atlantic

Fresh tomatoes -- year round

Fascinating article on the New York Times this past week on greenhouse tomatoes that provide ripe, flavorful tomatoes year-round. Despite all the efforts to make it as green as possible, the energy required for the lamps is an eye-opener.

Ardbeg Corryvreckan

I forget whether the new Corryvreckan is supposed to replace the Airigh Nam Beist or the Uigeadail, but in either case, this is certainly something different from the beefiest of Islay whiskies. The Corryvreckan has a light nose with some slight floral notes. Without water it is sweet on the tongue, with notes of menthol and charcoal. With water it has notes of burnt fruitcake and mild peat. This is a younger, fresher smelling Ardbeg. It gets smoother with water. It's powerful like other Ardbegs, but slightly tamer in some ways. It reminds me a bit of some young Bowmores, just without the plastic.

Pasta for dinner

I made a quick pasta dish for dinner tonight. From the Silver Spoon's pasta cookbook, this one is a simple meat sauce with small macaroni that basically is a quick bolognese sauce that takes less than thirty minutes to make. Make sure to reserve some pasta water to add volume to the sauce. I also added more milk than the recipe called for in order to ensure I had enough to coat the pasta.

A conundrum

The good folks (thanks Patrick!) at the Wine Specialist have secured me a bottle of Ardbeg Corryvrecken. Now the problem is when do I open these great whiskies, given how difficult it is to secure a bottle? Should I do an Ardbeg tasting? (The ten, Rollercoaster, and Corryvrecken?) Or one at a time. Truly a conundrum (and luckily one of the few I have to wrestle with these days!)

How Obama Sold the Farm - Food - The Atlantic

The Atlantic has an opinion piece about the new agricultural trade negotiator in the Office of the Trade Representative. The nub of the piece is the disappointment with Obama using a recess appointment to put a former pesticide lobbyist in the job. Read the piece on How Obama Sold the Farm - Food - The Atlantic, if only to get one opinion on the issue.