Friday, July 27, 2012

Batch of links

- What is your mealtime environment? Statistics have shown that eating as a primary activity has declined over the past decades, while eating as a secondary activity has increased – this means that today, people are more likely to eat while focusing their attention on something else. Photographer Miho Aikawa took a series of pictures of fellow New Yorkers eating dinner, which makes me feel like a voyeur intruding on others’ dinnertime habits. What struck me most was the number of people who are watching television while they eat, or who routinely settle for very uncomfortable positions (like eating at a coffee table instead of a dining room table). I know that a typical New York apartment doesn’t allow much space for a dining room, and I realize that some people work really long hours, but most of these pictures made me feel really badly for the people eating. How do you eat?

- Can the food movement save the environmental movement? Time had a good article on the subject that I neglected to share before. In it, Bryan Walsh posits that the green movement has failed to create enough changes, but foodies are causing those changes for other reasons: a return to sustainable, small-scale, local, organic agriculture focused on fruits and vegetables. Unlike changes made for environmental reasons, foodie-driven changes are done in many small mobilizations, as opposed to politics or laws affecting the whole country. These changes are brought on not by a sense of responsibility or optimism, but for reasons of health and pleasure. Here’s to hoping the food movement will be the right vehicle for achieving lasting environmental changes!

- While on the topic, here’s a good article on NPR about the rising demand for antibiotic-free, pasture-raised animals.

- It seems that there’s been a recent increase in the number of incidents involving people ingesting metal bristles from a barbecue brush along with their food. I first read about it on The Kitchn, but shortly thereafter it happened again. I’m wondering how big those bristles are, and whether this could be avoided not only by replacing worn brushes with scrubbing pads and such, but also by cutting smaller bites of food and chewing them properly before swallowing…

- Why don’t we consume dairy products from animals that aren’t cows? This Slate article points out that while there are 6,000 mammal species on Earth, Americans get 97% of their dairy from cows. I’ve occasionally seen goat’s milk at the grocery store, and we also have cheeses made from sheep milk or buffalo milk, and I’ve even heard about a fancy Middle-Eastern chocolate that had camel milk as an ingredient. But the options at the store are quite limited! It’s due mostly to historical habits and industrial convenience (cows are easy to raise and produce a lot of milk), but cow’s milk also has the advantage of being relatively bland, of having a fat percentage that we find acceptable in a drink and of being easy to transform into products like butter and cream.

- And finally, to end on a good note, 40 of the most powerful photographs ever taken: “A moving collection of iconic photographs from the past 100 years that demonstrate the heartbreak of loss, the tremendous power of loyalty, and the triumph of the human spirit.”

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