Scratch Food with a Side of Geek Mom and Pop Culture.
Because my brain sometimes comes up with weird associations, as I sit here, writing about Things I Read, for some reason I have the Masterpiece Theatre theme song playing in the back of my head. And then I free-flow to how Sesame Street used to have a parody spoof, with Cookie Monster, which got all…
This post won’t be for everybody, and that’s cool. After all, the real foodies among us have the option of butter instead of margarine. But if you’re vegan, or you’re contending with dairy allergies, butter is a no-go. My tale of vegan margarine begins with a commercial brand, the only vegan brand available, that my…
Photo by: Steve Ford I bet you saw one of the rehashes of the Stanford University paper in the news that said there was no point eating organic, because it wasn’t any healthier. Let’s talk. I love science and all, but I’ve discovered that scientists have started to make certain headlines to get attention and…
My friend Jennifer at Homegrown.org recently asked me to write up a 101 on making homemade pectin instead of using store-bought powdered stuff with dubious GMO ingredients.  I happily complied, since I’ve got the hots for scientific research of the food variety. 🙂 You can find the entire 101 article at http://www.homegrown.org/forum/topics/making-pectin-101
Despite the battles being wrangled over the right to label for genetically modified organisms, it appears that a fairly hefty percentage of food sales indicate that people appear to want to know, and perhaps commercial food manufacturers should take note that this is a growing business opportunity. Â It’s been a fairly interesting week for GMO…
A recent study in the Journal of Organic Systems conducted on the long-term health effects of consumption of genetically modified grains examined 168 pigs over a 22.7 week period. Â These animals were fed with three types of GMO corn, two of which were engineered to produce Bt, and the third which was engineered to…
Dr. Stephanie Seneff and Anthony Samsel have released a paper in Entropy suggesting that glyphosate’s toxicity to mammals may be understated–or misunderstood.  Glyphosate is a main chemical component of RoundUp weedkiller and is used quite heavily in commercial agriculture, particularly on the GMO crops that have been specifically designed by Monsanto to withstand RoundUp.  These glyphosate-laden…
If you haven’t been tracking the news, be prepared to get a little worried. The bee colonies that so many of North America’s food crops depend on are in a really, really bad spot. The one statistic that they’re all citing: that the bee populations are so low right now, even this year it would…
Picture by: Kashfia Rahman You may have already seen that hot dogs are on my general naughty list because milk is frequently included as an ingredient. Let’s face it, in commercial food production, the average cheapo hot dog is one step above pet food. We’re talking discard “meats” and fats and scraps and mechanically separated…
While the scientific jury might still be technically out on GMOs, there remains a very good incentive to buy organic, and even better yet, to grow your own if possible. It’s summed up in this picture right here… a demonstration of the absorption of a leaf of lettuce: I stipulate “best to grow your own”…