April 27th: Hello FoodAnthro readers, after a few weeks away, we have quite a collection of food news for your Wednesday:
In the New York Times, Chef Dan Barber looks into the practices and reasoning behind making kosher for Passover wheat. If you have ever read Mary Douglas on the abominations of Leviticus, you will find this fascinating: Why Is This Matzo Different From All Other Matzos? An unintended side effect of kosher law: better tasting food
A series from the Tampa Bay Times on whether or not farm-to-table claims in restaurants are true…or fake. Not like that Portlandia chicken sketch, for sure: At Tampa Farm-to-Table Restaurants, You’re Being Fed Fiction
The writers at the Southern Foodways Alliance on being in Mississippi while that state emphasizes discrimination again: The SFA Take: Everybody Knows About Mississippi…
Why do so many Chinese restaurants have similar names? The Washington Post investigates: We Analyzed the Names of Almost Every Chinese Restaurant in America. This Is What We Learned
In The Guardian, a long read about the history of sugar, our health, and nutritional advice: The Sugar Conspiracy
Gastropod released a fascinating podcast on the history of citrus and current threats to citrus groves in Museums and the Mafia: The Secret History of Citrus
There were reports on how bulk retailer Costco is trying to accommodate shoppers’ desires for organic foods: Costco gets creative to meet shoppers’ huge appetite for organics
RAFI has released a trailer for its upcoming documentary Under Contract, about the struggles of poultry farmers. It is embedded here, in an article responding to a NYT column about the cost of cheap meat: The New York Times: Animal Cruelty or the Price of Dinner
Studies have shown that fast food consumption is linked to higher levels of phthalates, which are used to produce plastics: If You Eat Fast Food You’re Getting a Generous Helping of Toxic Chemicals
An article in The New Yorker profiles Gustu, a restaurant in La Paz, Bolivia, and questions whether an upscale restaurant can also benefit the poor: The Tasting Menu Initiative
The USDA is proposing stricter animal welfare rules for organic meats: Agriculture Department is proposing stricter animal welfare standards for organic chicken and meat
As always, if you have a link you’d like to share, you may send it to LaurenRMoore@uky.edu
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