Food Culture

5 Ways To Celebrate National Farmers Market Week - The Kitchn

Find a market – According to the USDA, there are 5,274 farmers' markets across the country. Have you been meaning to check out your local market or take a field trip to a new one in your area? Search for farmers' markets at Local Harvest or the USDA.

via www.thekitchn.com

Is Gulf Seafood Safe? Eatocracy - CNN.com Blogs

As Europe Seeks to Ban Food Made From Clones, Some Makes Its Way to Market - NYTimes.com

ALBRIGHTON, ENGLAND — Many Europeans recoil at the very idea of cloning animals, but a handful of breeders in Switzerland, Britain and possibly other countries have imported semen and embryos from cloned animals or their progeny from the United States, seeking to create more consistently plump and productive livestock.

And although no vendor has publicly acknowledged it, meat or dairy products originating from such techniques are believed to be already on supermarket shelves.

The amounts are no doubt small and the sale appears to be currently perfectly legal. But the development is noteworthy on a continent that has long objected to genetically modified crops and where many people look at animal cloning as potentially dangerous, cruel — even immoral.

“Although no safety concerns have been identified so far with meat produced from cloned animals, this technique raises serious issues about animal welfare, reduction of biodiversity, as well as ethical concerns,” Corinne Lepage, a French member of the European Parliament, said earlier this month ahead of a vote there in favor of a blanket ban.

In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration declared in 2008 that food from cloned cattle, pigs, goats and their progeny was safe to eat. (Cloned sheep were left off the list, but their progeny were declared OK.) The U.S. Agriculture Department, however, has asked farmers to voluntarily keep all direct clones out of the food supply for an unspecified period so it can manage a “smooth and orderly” transition to market.

CONTINUE READING:  As Europe Seeks to Ban Food Made From Clones, Some Makes Its Way to Market - NYTimes.com

Community Supported Agriculture: Friendship through Food

PepsiCo Unveils Global Nutrition, Environment and Workplace Goals

PepsiCo today announced new global goals in the areas of nutrition, the environment, and workplace practices at its investor conference held at Yankee Stadium in New York.

The goals are designed to advance PepsiCo's commitment to deliver sustainable growth and they apply to the company's food and beverage businesses around the world, including Frito-Lay, Quaker, Pepsi-Cola, Tropicana and Gatorade. PepsiCo calls this commitment Performance with Purpose.

Cocoa Beans: The New Biomass?

Premium chocolate manufacturer Lindt USA and New Hampshire's largest electric utility, Public Service of New Hampshire (PSNH), have partnered to produce renewable power in New Hampshire. The chocolate company will provide PSNH with cocoa bean shells which will be burned to produce electricity.

 Lindt, based in Stratham, N.H., is one of the only U.S. chocolate manufacturers to manage the chocolate making process from raw material to final creations. During chocolate production, raw cocoa beans are roasted and crushed, with the resulting pulp blended with a variety of ingredients. As a result, the cocoa bean shells become a byproduct -- and in the state of New Hampshire they are a designated biomass fuel source. Lindt will now deliver the shells to PSNH's Schiller Station power plant in Portsmouth, N.H., to be used as a supplementary fuel source.

Olive Garden Seeks LEED Certification

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) today announced that it has begun a system-wide sustainable restaurant design initiative involving the use of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards in its restaurant design process for all new restaurants and, where feasible, restaurant remodels. The initiative is part of Darden's broader sustainability efforts aimed at limiting business impact on the environment while also enhancing the operational efficiency of its restaurants.

Darden's three largest brands - Red Lobster, Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse - are designing eight restaurants to achieve LEED certification from the United States Green Building Council (USGBC). The company plans to apply learnings from those eight restaurants to new restaurants and remodels across its portfolio in the future. 

The Olive Garden in Jonesboro, Ark., which opened for business last month, is the first of eight restaurants the company is designing to meet LEED standards. One more Olive Garden and two Red Lobsters are scheduled to open in 2010, followed by one Olive Garden, two Red Lobsters and one LongHorn Steakhouse in 2011.

Each new restaurant takes at least two years to develop, according to a Darden spokesman.

"Our goal with this initiative is to utilize each of the eight restaurants as a learning lab," said Suk Singh, senior vice president of development for Darden. "While we may not seek LEED certification for every restaurant we build or remodel, we can make a positive impact by learning from the eight restaurants where we are seeking LEED certification and applying best practices across our entire portfolio."

The Olive Garden restaurant in Jonesboro, Ark. that will be seeking LEED certification

Largest Producer of Hogs Appoints Chief Sustainability Officer

Smithfield Foods, Inc. (NYSE: SFD) today announced that it has promoted Dennis H. Treacy to senior vice president of corporate affairs and chief sustainability officer, as part of the company's long-term focus on corporate social responsibility and sustainability. 

Indeed, such a focus is clearly communicated on the company's homepage, "Good food. Responsibly."   

Mr. Treacy joined Smithfield Foods in 2002 and last served as vice president, environmental and corporate affairs.

"Our business has become much more complex as we confront increasing government regulation and rising public and customer awareness of corporate social responsibility practices and sustainability. We understand that our long-term success directly correlates with our ability to effectively address these factors and that these programs must be managed from a senior level within our organization. The appointment of Mr. Treacy to this new role demonstrates our continuing commitment to operate our company in a socially responsible and sustainable way," said C. Larry Pope, president and chief executive officer, in a statement.

Prior to 2002, Mr. Treacy served as director of Virginia's department of environmental quality, held several positions in the private sector and also served as assistant attorney general in the natural resources section of the Virginia attorney general's office.

Meat production and consumption are seen as large contributors to global warming, and several groups have advised that individuals and businesses need to scale back.  Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, who chairs the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), told BBC News over one year ago that the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated that "direct emissions from meat production account for about 18% of the world's total greenhouse gas emissions." The next largest contributor is transport, which accounts for 13% of emissions, according to the IPCC.

Clearly, with all eyes on the meat industry, Smithfield is taking a judicious position.

With sales of $12 billion, Smithfield Foods is one of the largest processor and marketer of fresh pork and packaged meats in the United States, and is the largest producer of hogs.