All about Parmigiano Reggiano & Parmigiano Reggiano Night

Last year I got a chance to visit a caseificio, or cheese maker where Parmigiano Reggiano is made. I had to go early in the morning so I could see the cheese being pulled from curds out of large copper vats. 

I also saw where the cheese rested, where it was bathed in a salty brine and the delicious smelling room where it was aged. And of course I got to try the cheese at various ages.

The main way to distinguish between different types of Parmigiano Reggiano is by age, 14-18 months, 24 months, which is most popular with Italian consumers and 36 months.

Generally speaking, 14-18 month Parmigiano is paler and fruitier, with notes of citrus and pineapple. 24 month Parmigiano is nuttier and more buttery. 36 month Parmigiano is drier and spicier. As it ages, the cheese develops more crunchy crystals and more intensity.

Here in the US we buy Parmigiano Reggiano grated or in chunks, but we don't usually pay much attention to the age, season it was produced or the types of cow's milk. In Parma I brought home Parmigiano Reggiano that was made from the milk of red cows or Vacche Rosse, and also some cheese made in the Summer from cows who graze at a high elevation. Recently I spoke with Nancy Radke, Director of the US information office for the Consorzio del Formaggio Parmigiano Reggiano about the different special varieties and how to best use the cheese for cooking, and here's what she told me:

"Available in the US in addition to Vacche Rosse, but with more limited distribution, is Bianca Modenese, a Parmigiano Reggiano made with the milk of the other historic breed, the White Modenese. There is one other single breed Parmigiano Reggiano, Solo La Bruna, which is made only with the milk of one of the first Alpine breeds used--the Brown Swiss. 

All of these cheeses are made with milks that have more casein. Higher casein means that longer aging is possible, which allows the cheese to develop a more complex aroma profile. The milk of these breeds is also just a bit more fatty, which makes for great mouth-feel. So when you combine great mouth-feel with complex aromas, great solubility, and a big umami persistent finish, you have the perfect eating cheese, which should be savored the way one would a fine glass of Barolo.

For all purpose cooking, grating, and shaving the 24-month is ideal. For snacking (especially for kids) or making long glorious shavings the 16- to 18-month is great, because it is the least friable and crystalline, so it has a creamier mouth-feel and won't crumble when shaved. The 36-month has the most umami flavor, friability,and solubility, so this is the cheese to grate over pasta, stir into risotto, blend into an Alfredo sauce, layer into lasagne and use in pasta fillings."

If you've ever had a hard time getting Parmigiano Reggiano to melt, now you know why!

Last year Italy was still reeling from the effects of a massive earthquake that destroyed millions of dollars worth of cheese. So the first Parmigiano-Reggiano night was a national celebration of both the cheese, which is a national treasure, and to aid the cheese makers. 

This year marks the second annual Parmigiano Reggiano Night, and it falls on Saturday, November 30th. It's a celebration of the cheese and virtual dinner party the world over. It's also a great time to learn how to taste the cheese try some Parmigiano Reggiano recipes, and get to know and appreciate the cheese. 

Family Cookbooks Roundup Review

I generally avoid reviewing "family cookbooks" because they tend to focus on food for children. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I don't happen to have any. Happily several new cookbooks also expand the notion of family and as a result serve a much broader audience. After all, our family should include all the people we care deeply about, not just those related to us by blood.

Whenever I'm in London I end up eating at Leon. In a city with frightfully expensive food, Leon serves what they call "naturally fast food." It's healthy, quick and inspired by flavors from all around the world. They source ingredients responsibly and so it's food that makes you feel good and that you can feel good about. Truly a winning formula. The latest book from Leon (there are two others) is Leon Family & Friends. The book has lots of basic kinds of recipes for things like roast chicken and hummus but also amazing stuff like Anna Hansen's Pumpkin & MIso Cheesecake. There are also some Thai recipes and cool stuff like six ideas for "things on toast" hot chocolate five ways, four risottos and three different versions of salmon cooked in parchment. The recipes are generally easy and appealing and suit kids as well as adults. Bravo! It's a particularly great book for anyone just starting out on their own with or without kids. It's a keeper. 

The Monday Morning Cooking Club book is really my kind of book. It's written by a group of Jewish women a "sisterhood" in Sydney Australia. Their recipes are so homey and comforting. There are tinges of Eastern Europe but also intriguing Indian, Moroccan and Persian recipes too. I want in on this group that cooks and shares Israeli Couscous Soup (inspired by a recipe my dear friend Marlena Spieler), Peach Mascarpone and Raspberry Trifle, Beetroot and Chickpea Salad, Quinoa Tabbouleh, and Viennese Apricot or Plum Dumplings. Australia like the US is a country of immigrants and the book tells their stories. The only potential down side to the book is that some of the recipes use grams as a measurement, not a problem if you have a scale however. It's a keeper.

An American Family Cooks is written by James Beard Award winner Judith Choate and her family; it's the recipes her extended family cooks. "Fancy, some not-so-fancy, and some just plain everyday" is how she describes the 100 recipes. These are very solid recipes by a family of foodies. I mean, who else starts Thanksgiving with fried eggs showered in $500 worth of white truffles? The notes with each recipe are really instructive explaining lots of details about techniques or ingredients. There's lots of Americana here, but also some Mediterranean style recipes too, things like Paella, Mom's Potato Gnocchi and Pate de Campagne to go along with Nana's Chicken Pot Pie, Boston Brown Bread and Dungeness Crab as well as Soft-Shell Crab. It's a good book, but not exactly ground breaking. Keeper? Depends on your cookbook collection.

Sunday Dinners: Food, Family, and Faith from our Favorite Pastors is also a compilation of recipes, but from pastors some of whom rely on butter-flavored vegetable shortening, Velveeta and canned pie filling and others who don't. While there are three appealing Vietnamese dishes and lots of American favorites like Scalloped Potatoes and Sunday Pot Roast, many of the recipes like Slow Cooker Macaroni and Cheese and Strawberry Cake made with a cake mix, strawberry gelatin and frozen berries are frankly not my style. If you know someone who would be inspired by wonderfully written stories of pastors and how food plays a role in their life and their family, this might be a nice book for them. 

Disclaimer: I received review copies of these books and this post includes affiliate links

Last Minute Thanksgiving Tips

Thanksgiving cocktail
Ruby Sparkler

Recipes from the archive
Chutney Cheese Puffs

Brussels Aprouts with Brown Butter and Hazelnuts 

Brussels Sprouts Slaw with Apple & Walnuts

Grapefruit Radicchio Salad

Savory Roasted Pears

Curried Butternut Squash Soup

Apple Crisp

Cranberry Coffeecake

Turkey help!
Turkey Talk-Line
1-800-BUTTERBALL (288-8372)
open from 6 am until 6 pm CST

What wines go with turkey?
Beaujolais Nouveau
Pinot Noir
Cotes du Rhone
Pinot Grigio
But really, drink whatever you like!

Learn about the holiday?
Laura Schenone's Thanksgiving timeline

Top 10 Thanksgiving leftover ideas

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Vanilla Purr Cambric Recipe

I'm a tea drinker and I love experimenting with it as an ingredient. I make hot chocolate with tea and use tea to smoke chicken. But I have to admit, I only heard the term cambric to describe tea made with milk, such as chai, at an event recently at the T-We Tea shop hosted by the California Milk Processor Board. It's an old fashioned term for a combination of tea, milk and sugar often served to children. But that doesn't mean you can't make it into something enticing for adults. 

The certified tea specialist and proprietor Christopher Coccagna made a number of wonderful drinks for Winter with tea and milk. Some of the drinks had alcohol in them and others didn't. Some used herbal teas and some used black teas. Some will definitely perk you up while others are perfect as a relaxing nightcap. There's really something for everyone, even kids and teetotalers. Check out the recipes for all kinds of luscious tea and milk drinks including Vanilla Mint Cambric, Lavender London Fog Latte and White Russian Caravan at GotMilk.

I'm not much of a bartender, but here's a recipe for a non-alchoholic cambric based drink I created, inspired by the event. I used puerh tea which has a very earthy flavor that is complemented by both vanilla and milk. The name is a play on "puerh" tea but also on the idea of milk making you purr like a cat! 

Vanilla Purr

Serves 2

1/2 cup strongly brewed puerh tea (about 1 Tablespoon for 2 minutes)

1 cup whole milk

1/2 vanilla bean

1 Tablespoon honey or more to taste

In a small saucepan, whisk together the tea, milk, and the seeds scraped from the vanilla bean, split lengthwise. Heat over low heat until steamy. Remove from heat. Strain the tea into a tea pot, and stir in the honey. Pour into two cups and serve.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: My thanks to the California Milk Advisory Board for inviting me to the event. I was not paid to write this or any other post. 

Bread for the World publishes 2014 Hunger Report

The faith-based anti-hunger advocacy organization Bread for the World today released its 2014 report on Ending Hunger in America.  This organization stands out for its economically sensible poverty-centered approach to thinking about the problem of hunger. 

It is right for such an organization to press for greater generosity in federal nutrition assistance programs (as Step #3 out of 4 steps).  But it also seems wise for Bread for the World to give jobs and education their proper place (as Steps #1 and #2). 

The #1 plank has the tag-line: "The best defense against hunger is a good job."

Report and audit from the Fair Food Standards Council

The Fair Food Standards Council this week published its first report and audit from the Fair Food Program.

This report explains the operations, monitoring, and auditing of the agreements that the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) has reached with selected major food manufacturers, restaurant chains, and food retailers.  Through these agreements, farm workers are able to protect their rights and earn a wage premium for part of their work (for example, they may earn a bonus per bucket on tomato harvest).  The report includes inspiring accounts of the difference these agreements can make, on issues ranging from getting paid for the full amount of time on worksite to protecting women from risk of rape by a crew boss. 

Previous posts on this blog describe my visits to the CIW in Florida in 2009 and 2012, which have affected how I think and teach about labor issues in the U.S. food system.  Barry Estabrook includes an engaging account of these labor issues in Tomatoland.

The new report on the Fair Food Program includes more detail than I have previously seen about how the fair food premiums are recorded, distributed, and audited.  I had been wanting to read about these audits, which increase my confidence in the pass-through mechanism for the premium -- the brand-name companies must pay tomato grower enterprises, which must pass along the correct amount to the workers (minus a specified deduction for the paper-work and transactions costs).  The CIW is able to reach such agreements with brand-name food and restaurant companies (which have a public reputation to protect), while it would have been more difficult to win agreement on a premium directly from the growers (who operate in a cut-throat competitive market).  I found it illuminating to see an exhibit with a photograph of an actual pay stub recording the premium.  Understanding this slightly convoluted system better, it is easier to think of it as a feasible business model worth expanding to other areas of U.S. farm labor.

Grocery Shopping for the Holidays

Grocery shopping this time of year can be stressful but it's also a great time to save on lots of pantry items, especially in the baking department. Whether you are looking for an organic turkey, a full Thanksgiving meal or the perfect holiday recipes, here are some tips to help you get the best deals. 

1. Cooking, Baking & Holiday Staples
This is the best time of year to find good deals on sugar, flour and even nuts and chocolate chips. Many stores also have chicken broth on sale right around now, even Costco. Scour the ads before you shop. I recommend the Safeway iPhone app, it's much better than clipping coupons. You can search for discounts on items you need and save when you shop. This year Safeway is offering a lot of holiday Wilton baking items and decorating kits. See what you can find at out your local supermarket.

Look for house brands like the Whole Foods 365 line and bulk bins for good value, and don't forget about fresh cranberries! They can be frozen and used later in the year. Other seasonal items include fresh Brussels sprouts, canned pumpkin, butternut and sweet potato purees. Whole Foods also offers easy build-your-own-brie with rounds of cheese and various toppings sold by the ounce. 

2. Thanksgiving turkey
A lot of people like heritage and heirloom birds, one source is Diestel organic birds. You can find where they are sold locally.  But you do need to order them ahead. Either call your local store or order online from Whole Foods. Expect to pay about $3 per pound. 

3. Help!
Yes, stores offer that too. While every food magazine has a Thanksgiving guide, so too do grocery stores. Here are some good ones to check out for recipes, tips, turkey guides and more.

Safeway Holiday Tips & Recipes  lots of recipes including cocktails

Whole Foods Best Holiday Ever plenty of recipes, serving calculator and even decorating ideas

Fresh Market Holiday Turkey Tips and Tricks roasting, brining and stuffing recipes

Wegmans Turkey FAQ includes videos on roasting and carving 

4. Delivery
Facing the parking lot at a supermarket this time of year can be daunting. If you have a large order, delivery can be cost effective. Some stores like Safeway offer special deals this time of year, like free delivery and a free turkey with minimum purchase of $200. Check out Instacart, Google Shopping Express for more online shopping options.

5. Whole meals or prepared food
For those who don't want to cook, there is a much less expensive option than dining out. Many stores like Whole Foods offer the option of ordering a whole holiday meal. Whole Foods all have a holiday table in store where you can order and get advice for planning or "rounding out" a dinner. Whole Foods also offers both gluten free pies and pies made in house. I tried the Whole Foods brown butter walnut pie recently at a dinner and can definitely recommend it.

What are your best tips for holiday grocery shopping? Share them in the comments section. 

Coca-Cola's "Cap the Tap" campaign

The MyPlate consumer education materials (.pdf) from the U.S. government wisely encourage folks to "drink water instead of sugary beverages."

The message from beverage companies is something else altogether.

Through its "Cap the Tap" campaign and related materials, Coca-Cola encourages restaurants to talk customers out of choosing tap water and instead to choose higher-profit items such as Coke, Minute Maid juice, Dasani bottled water, or an alcoholic drink. I read about this campaign recently in a hard-hitting post by Andy Bellatti at Civil Eats. A related link to Coca-Cola's CokeSolutions website appears to be broken now, but I found you can still read about the company's message for restaurants on Google Cache. [Note 11/18/2013: the basic link to CokeSolutions is working.  Bellatti points out by Twitter that the "Cap the Tap" graphic from that site is only available now in a Huffington Post screenshot.  Nice work.]

Bellatti also linked to this great, blunt, fascinating page by graphic designer Pen Williamson, with proposed posters that Coca-Cola could use to get restaurants to discourage healthy and inexpensive tap water as a beverage choice [Note: this sentence edited slightly Nov 15 afternoon]. The poster suggests, "provide tap water to guests upon request only."  I don't know if this poster or another similar poster was used in Coca-Cola's "Cap the Tap" campaign.

There is nothing the government can or should do to restrict this type of marketing to restaurants. Yet, I think it is terrible marketing from a nutrition standpoint, which gives us useful context as we interpret the public policy debate over the potential role of beverage companies as part of the solution to the nation's health and nutrition challenges.

WCRF policy strategies to reduce non-communicable disease around the world

The World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) this month published a new 2-page document (.pdf) summarizing the organization's recommendations on using food policy to address the problem of high rates of non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

The recommendations encourage clear nutrition labeling, healthy school meals programs, well-targeted taxes and healthy food subsidies, and restrictions on advertising for breastmilk substitutes and for unhealthy foods (especially to children).

The WCRF is an international not-for-profit umbrella organization for a network of cancer prevention organizations. WCRF literature reviews on dietary patterns and cancer risk are used by the U.S. federal government as one of several evidence sources for the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

The WCRF policy recommendations are bolder and more activist than some policy-makers would be ready to consider in the United States, but the WCRF approach nonetheless offers a lot of insight.  For example, a background document on law and obesity prevention (.pdf) carefully considers both advantages and disadvantages of legal approaches to addressing public health nutrition challenges.  It acknowledges not just the political power of food and beverage manufacturers to thwart such policies but also the constitutional protections for commercial speech and the serious concerns consumers may have about policy interventions that limit their autonomy.

For perspective on U.S. food policy debates, it is illuminating to hear an international perspective that is (not surprisingly) comparatively interventionist, but which at the same time fully recognizes the challenges and tradeoffs involved in such policy proposals.

 

Idaho Potato Quiz & How to Fluff a Baked Potato

Recently I was invited to learn more about Idaho's  number one crop, potatoes. I've written about potatoes before, so this time I've decided share some tidbits I learned on the trip in a trivia quiz format so grab a pencil and paper (no Googling for the answers!). This quiz is just for fun. More giveaways soon, I promise. 

1. Potatoes originally came from

A. South America

B. North America

C. Ireland

2. At one time potatoes were appreciated by royals in Europe for their

A. blossoms

B. skins

C. nutritional value

3. School kids in Idaho get time off from school for

A. Potato planting in the Spring

B. National Potato Day in the Winter

C. Potato harvest in the Fall

4. In order to be affected by any allowable pesticide residue, in one sitting you would have to eat

A. 1300 pounds of potatoes 

B. 130 pounds of potatoes

C. 13 pounds of potatoes

5. In Idaho potato farming dates back to

A. Prehistoric times

B. the early 1800's

C. the early 1900's

6. Potatoes have more potassium than

A. Bananas

B. Oranges

C. Both bananas and oranges combined

7. In Idaho russet potatoes represent 

A. 94% of all potatoes grown commercially

B. 84% of all potatoes grown commercially

C. 74% of all potatoes grown commercially

8. Which of the following is not a russet variety of potato

A. Shepody

B. Burbank

C. Marquis

9. Baking potatoes in foil

A. Does not hasten cooking

B. Steams them instead of baking them

C. Both A and B

Answers at the bottom of this post

In addition to having a greater appreciation for the work that goes into farming potatoes, I also learned something very practical--the right way to fluff a potato! Apparently I'd been doing it all wrong. 

After baking (no foil!), give the potato a nice massage to break it up a bit, but don't rip the skin. Pierce the top of the potato using a fork in a zig zag pattern. Now gently press on the ends. Voila! A perfectly fluffed potato. 

Disclosure: My thanks to Idaho Potato Commission for inviting me to visit with Idaho potato farmers and processors. I was not paid to write this or any other post on Cooking with Amy.

Answers

1. A

2. A

3. C

4. A

5. B

6. C

7. A

8. C

9. C

So, how did you do? Any surprises? 

Ruby Sparkler Recipe

Thanksgiving is a potluck affair at my parent's house. My folks cook the turkey and stuffing but the other dishes are up to the guests who arrive with appetizers, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, salads and dessert. Those who can't cook, are tasked with bringing wine or bread. Everyone contributes and has a chance at bragging rights. 

The feast always starts off with sparkling wine, except for last year when I mixed up a sparkling cocktail, the Aperol Spritz instead. This year, in addition to cooking as I always do, I've settled on a cocktail with port. Fonseca Bin 27 is a lovely and inexpensive ruby port, lush and filled with lots of ripe dark berry flavors. To lighten it up, a fizzy not too sweet sparkling wine is perfect. You want something good and bubbly but not too sweet. 

Another nice reason to use Fonseca Bin 27 is that for the holidays they have released a bottle with a limited edition Artist Label which raises funds for Waterkeeper Alliance, a non-profit organization that promotes and protects clean waterways worldwide, this is an important cause for Fonseca as they are committed to sustainable viticulture with respect to the Douro Valley in Portugal. This year the label features the work of artist Barnaby Furnas, whose paintings are exhibited in the various museums including the Museum of Modern Art.  Based on one of Furnas’ popular “rock star” paintings inspired by the music of The Velvet Underground, the painting’s vibrant hues are intended to echo the fruity intensity of BIN 27. No matter which bottle you choose, the port is sweet and luscious. It is also be lovely as an after dinner drink, especially with something chocolate.

This recipe originally was created by spirits writer David Wondrich, but I chose a slightly sweeter sparkling wine.  For more port cocktails visit PortCocktails.com

Ruby Sparkler

2 parts sparkling wine, something lightly sweet and fizzy such as Extra Dry Prosecco, chilled

1 part Fonseca Bin 27 ruby port, chilled 

Garnish of fresh berries or cranberries

Combine the sparkling wine and port in a Champagne flute, garnish and serve.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I was provided with samples of Fonseca Bin No.27. I was not paid to write this or any other post on Cooking with Amy. 

Greenhouse gas emissions flows

I recently had cause to remember and appreciate this 2008 graphic from the World Resources Institute (WRI).  Ordinarily, there is confusion between various statistics one reads about economic sectors (such as transportation, energy, agriculture), about economic activities and end uses (such as heating residential buildings, heating commercial buildings), and about gasses (such as carbon dioxide and methane).  The graphic still doesn't answer one of my questions -- I am trying to reconcile environmental accounts that (a) place food distribution with the corresponding manufacturing and distribution sectors or (b) attribute all of these costs to food itself.  Nonetheless, it is a good data visualization.

Maureen Ogle's history: In Meat We Trust

Maureen Ogle's new history of the meat industry is In Meat We Trust: An Unexpected History of Carnivore America (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).  I enjoyed the many biographical summaries of leading industrial innovators (from Gustavus Swift to Coleman Natural Meats) and their critics (from Upton Sinclair to Michael Pollan and Michael Jacobson).

The book's most sound overall theme is that American consumers appear to demand contradictory things (perfect safety and environmental sustainability and yet low prices and massive quantities).  Ogle appeals to consumers to become more informed rather than throwing stones from afar.  In part, I think these contradictory demands arise because different consumers have always had different opinions, including sometimes well-motivated support for and concern about meat in general and industrial meat in particular.  Ogle instead treats these contradictory opinions as the ignorant and schizophrenic demand of a single personified American "we."  For example,

"If meat's American history tells us anything, it is that we Americans generally get what we want.  Meat three times a day? No problem.  Meat precut, deboned, and ready to cook?  There it is....  Organic, grass-fed, local pork and beef?  All yours, as long as you don't mind paying the price or taking the time to find it....  We're a complicated group, we Americans, and we struggle to reconcile our conflicting desires and passions."

In the end, Ogle ends up deeply skeptical of food system reformers and admiring of meat industry innovators: "So, thanks, Big Ag -- and the USDA and family and corporate farmers -- for giving us the cheap food that has nourished an extraordinary abundance of creative energy."  Here is a favorable review and interview by Chuck Jolley at Drovers Cattle Network.

Sprout covers government shutdown and Farm Bill

The November issue of the Sprout (the Friedman School's graduate student publication) includes coverage of the government shutdown and the Farm Bill, along with recipes, edible poems, and a calendar of food-related events.

For the Farm Bill article, reporter Lindsey Webb quotes me explaining the extent of my inside knowledge and prognostication ability about the arcane world of House-Senate negotiations over the omnibus nutrition and agricultural legislation: "I have no idea what will happen next."

Living richly

Following an occasional thread on this blog, it is time for a more personal update on my family's decade-long experimentation in sustainable living. We are informed by the active online conversation about this topic, but we draw some different lessons as well.

First, my family begins with the awareness that we are rich.  It would be good for all but the very poorest Americans to begin from this proposition.  Many of us make unwise environmental decisions because we feel economically beleaguered -- constrained by jobs, family, and social expectations to commute by car, fly in airplanes, and eat environmentally expensive food.  Acknowledging that we are rich can liberate us to make the decisions that satisfy our consciences and truly bring us joy.  I rarely talk about faith on this semi-professional blog, but, among the four of us, including my wife and two children, we use religious language to describe this fact.  We know we have been blessed.

Second, our personal goal is not to experience hardship.  Over the centuries, many people have found great insight in taking a vow of poverty, but that is not for us.  We want to experiment with using fewer and fewer environmental resources in order to uncover the point at which we begin to feel materially poor.  Then we'll stop and think before proceeding further.

So, here is some of what we have learned so far about what resources are necessary to live well.

Shelter.  We have a 3-bedroom 2-bathroom free-standing house in a dense inner suburban neighborhood.  Clearly, this already makes us more prosperous than most people in the world, but it is a simpler home than most people in my professional circles have, and we have not yet taken steps toward selling our home and buying a smaller place.  In summer, we use no air conditioning, although air conditioning is common in Boston.  We have learned to open and shut our windows in summer on a schedule that keeps the house a pleasant temperature on all but about 7 days per year.  In winter, we keep the house at 50 degrees at night, and when we are away at school and work, and 61 degrees when we are at home.  The energy company tells us that we use 34% less gas than average homes in our neighborhood and save many hundreds of dollars each year.  We enjoy our slippers and sweaters and feel cozy. 

Food.  We eat nearly a vegetarian diet at home, but frequently have dairy products and occasionally fish.  Counting food from elsewhere, I eat some meat about 4 days per week.  My son eats meat with school lunch, and my daughter eats vegetarian at school.  We use some local food, and cook at home, but perhaps 90 percent of our food comes by way of the industrial food system.  We enjoy our food and feel richly fed all the time.

Transportation by car.  We own one 2000 Honda Civic, which we drive for short trips most days.  My wife bicycles to work, and I bike to a "T" station and then take the subway.  The children are old enough to go to school by bicycle or city bus.  Our car seldom has repair expenses, and the insurance company gives us a discount for low mileage.  Walking, cycling, and on the subway, we feel healthier, happier, and more connected with friends and strangers around us.

Transportation by air.  We realized that frequent travel by air for fun and work threatened to offset all of the gains our family made in shelter and food, leaving us with a carbon impact that exceeded national averages.  So, we gave up flying entirely for a time.  Despite being an active academic researcher, and despite having a new textbook to market, I haven't flown since the first week of May, 2013.  My university's website encourages faculty to reduce flying when possible, but in practice most researchers in my field spend immense resources on air travel to meetings and conferences.  This is strange if the meeting or conference addresses the problems of world poverty or sustainable food systems.  I had hoped to keep up my no-flying discipline for a year, but this week I could not resist adding a trip by air to my calendar for April, 2014, so my freedom from flying will last 11 months in total.  Since May, I've given presentations and attended meetings in DC, Woods Hole, Boston, Cornell University, and even by Amtrak to Ohio for presentations in Cleveland and Columbus, and I have forthcoming presentations in Albany and Philadelphia.  I've learned to work as effectively on the train as I do in my office, so train travel is both more pleasant and less time-consuming for me than air travel.  The rest of my family stopped flying even earlier, in April, 2012.  Our summer vacation in 2013 was a bicycle trip on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.  My family will go without flying for 25 months, after which we will take a vacation in summer 2014 that can only be done by air, a 6-week walking pilgrimage together that we have wished for many years. If that trip comes to pass as we hope, we know it is a blessing.  Our vacations still leave us in the ranks of the world's most privileged people, but it is both good environmentalism and good wisdom to take longer and more peaceful breaks rather than shorter and more resource-intensive vacations wedged between periods of excessive work for high pay.

What is the lesson from this self-experimentation?  We found we can reduce resource use by a large margin without any symptoms of deprivation.  As the community of friends around us grows stronger, working on the same simple living project, we may find it psychologically easier to take more radical steps in this direction.

For me, this experience provides crucial information about the possibility that our global family can thrive even during the forthcoming time of scarcity.  Far more than any technological development (such as GMOs or biofuels), what matters most for the future of the world is the capacity of those who are rich to use fewer material resources.  Because the rich of the world also are politically powerful, and unlikely to will themselves into poverty voluntarily, my hope for this capacity depends in part on whether higher-income people can use fewer resources and still recognize themselves as prosperous.  Quite possibly, the stresses the world faces will cause disruptions, crisis, famine, or war, but I think those events arise from our foolishness as social animals rather than from any material economic requirement we have for an adequate standard of living.  On a material basis, I have seen with my own eyes and felt in my own skin that people in rich countries can undertake drastically lower resource use in shelter, food, and transportation, and still live richly.

Fall Chocolate Salon Tickets Giveaway!

The Fall Chocolate Salon at Fort Mason in San Francisco offers a fantastic opportunity to try, buy and learn about chocolate in many forms from bars to confections to beverages. I've participated many times as a judge for the awards and moderating panels and discussions by some chocolate luminaries including people like Art Amano of Amano Artisan Chocolate and Gary Guittard of Guittard Chocolate Company. 

It's fun to see what some of my favorite chocolatiers are creating and and to discover new treats. 

Here are some of my top picks:

Amano Artisan Chocolates for their exquisite bars and luscious hot chocolate

Clarine's Florentines for the best florentine cookies ever

Charles Chocolate for his toasted nutty chocolate bars

Feve Artisan Chocolatier for their delicate confections like their award winning chocolate covered rosemary caramel

Neo Cocoa for delicate but intense truffle squares in flavors like zested lime and warm ginger root

Nuttyness for their chocolate covered marzipan bars 

New confections to try this his year include bourbon truffles from Charles Chocolates and pumpkin spice truffles from Neo Cocoa.

If you'd like to join me the Fall Chocolate Salon is offering two pairs of free tickets to the event this Sunday November 10th at Fort Mason open from 10 am until 5 pm. Just leave a comment telling me about your favorite chocolate. I will choose winners (2 winners will each receive a pair of tickets) this Thursday and your tickets will be held at the door. One entry per person. Be sure to enter your email address so I can contact you, no one will see it except me. Please only enter if you are available to attend. Good luck! Tickets are available for $20.

Amy

Macaroni & Cheese Cookbook Smackdown!

There are plenty of macaroni and cheese cookbooks, and some of them are quite good. So do we need another one? That was my question when I heard about both of these new books, The Mac + Cheese Cookbook and Melt. Coincidentally both books are from renowned Northern California food bloggers. 

Out first and in a small format is The Mac + Cheese Cookbook, 50 Simple Recipes from HOMEROOM, America's Favorite Mac and Cheese Restaurant. The subtitle really tells it all. These are recipes from Allison Arevalo (her blog Local Lemons is no longer being updated) and Erin Wade's darling restaurant in Oakland. While the recipes are creative, they are straightforward, uncomplicated and fairly simple really. The ingredients are good quality but not particularly expensive or exotic. The book rounds out the mac and cheese recipes with side dishes and desserts. 

It's not a traditional restaurant cookbook, but rather very practical. Some of my favorite recipes in this book are actually not mac and cheese but the Brussels sprouts with bacon and apple cider vinaigrette and the peanut butter pie. 

It's not a ground breaking cookbook, but a good choice for mac and cheese fans and beginning cooks. Want to find a vegan mac and cheese recipe? A version of mac and cheese with blue cheese and walnuts? Or a "trailer" version with hot dogs and crushed potato chips? This is your book. Visit their restaurant Homeroom in Oakland.

Melt The Art of Macaroni and Cheese was written by two food bloggers I know and adore, Stephanie Stiavetti, The Culinary Life blogger and Garrett Cord the blogger behind Vanilla Garlic. So I was particularly concerned when I heard about the book.  But that was before I got a chance to see it. It is groundbreaking. If The Mac + Cheese Cookbook is a lifestyle book akin to the brand Target--think a little retro in style, mainstream and accessible--then Melt is practically the opposite--it's extremely innovative, sexy, and exotic. Frankly, it's a game changer. It redefines macaroni and cheese through the use of artisanal cheeses, many generally relegated to cheese plates, to wild combinations and new categories like salads, soups and desserts composed of noodles and cheese. 

I have to admit while there are a couple of recipes in this book that don't appeal to me, (I can't quite wrap my mind around the combinations of cheese and seafood or pasta and fruit) but most of them are just plain genius. That said they will take planning ahead to source some of the ingredients. My bookmarked recipes to try include Tomato Soup with Star Pasta and Vella Dry Jack Crisps, Pumpkin Stuffed with Fontina, Italian Sausage and Fontina, and Bianco Sardo with Collard Greens Pesto over Penne. 

Stephanie and Garrett are hosting a Le Creuset giveaway in honor of the book. Find out where they are appearing or attend a book signing. 

So do we need another macaroni and cheese book? I'm going to say an enthusiastic YES! 

Disclaimer: This post includes Amazon affiliate links

Problems in industrial food animal production are only getting worse

The Center for a Livable Future at Johns Hopkins in October released an update on problems in industrial food animal production, five years after a landmark Pew Commission report in 2008.  Ralph Loglisci has a good overview at Civil Eats. 

Sadly, in most areas of concern, there has been no progress.  On many issues there has been backwards motion.

I found the new update report generally fair and sober.  (I took the closing appeal from Fred Kirschenmann for an "agriculture that mimics nature" to be an inspirational homily rather than a concrete scientific or food policy proposition).  I know that people in the animal production industries, and even many of my colleagues in the mainstream of the agricultural economics profession, will be tempted to classify the Pew Commission and its descendents along with radical environmentalist critics of the modern food system, but I see this report far more favorably.  At every turn, it offers informative explanations of the serious potential problems with unrestrained antibiotic use, disease monitoring, water and air pollution, animal confinement, and economic competition.

Because most of these topics are intensely contested and debated, perhaps the most interesting passages of the report explain how meat producers have been able to evade increased information collection.  On topics from antibiotic use to water pollution by CAFOs to contracts in poultry marketing, the industry resists efforts to share the information we need in order to judge these debates in a sensible manner.  For example:

Delivering Antibiotic Transparency in Animals Act (2013 to present)

The Delivering Antibiotic Transparency in Animals (DATA) Act, sponsored by Rep. Henry Waxman (D–CA), would amend the reporting requirements contained in ADUFA Section 105 to require drug companies to report additional sales data, and to require integrators to report data on antimicrobial use.

The bill would also direct the FDA to include additional information on reported data in the annual summaries, including breakdowns by route of administration and approved indication, animal species, and production class. The legislation, which was introduced in February 2013 prior to reauthorization of ADUFA, has not been enacted.

Antimicrobial Data Collection Act (2013 to present)

The Antimicrobial Data Collection Act, sponsored by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D–NY), would, like the DATA Act, require the FDA to include additional information on antimicrobial sales data in the annual summaries required under ADUFA. It would not, however, require any additional reporting of sales by drug companies or require reporting of antimicrobial use by integrators. It has not been enacted.

If private sector and government initiatives did a better job of addressing these environmental and health issues, our meat and dairy products might be somewhat more expensive, but we would be able to bear this price increase just fine.  Americans have room to reduce meat and dairy intake by a certain amount while still maintaining a very high nutritional standard of living.  Many of the foods that provide similar nutrients, such as alternative sources of protein and fats, are less expensive than meat.  It is therefore false that addressing important environmental and health concerns would be an unbearable hardship for any stratum of Americans, whether low-income or middle-income.  This is not about government overreach, nor is it about taxation to influence consumer food choices, it is simply about designing production systems that correctly account for environmental and health constraints, and then letting the free market set appropriate corresponding prices.

I'd be glad for any rebuttal, or tough questions about the main points of this report, but I found it highly persuasive. 

Media coverage of SNAP (food stamp) cuts

A temporary boost to SNAP benefits, which was instituted in 2009 as part of the federal government's response to the Great Recession, ended yesterday (November 1). This means that all SNAP participants, approximately 48 million Americans, have reduced benefits this year. For example, a 4-person family will lose $36 in monthly benefits. Overall, the cuts amount to approximately $5 billion in the 2014 fiscal year. Congress is contemplating further cuts as part of Farm Bill negotiations between the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Media organizations this week covered these cuts in slightly different ways, but generally agreed on the overall message.

The concern that SNAP participants will turn to emergency food sources such as food pantries was featured by Julie Siple at Minnesota Public Radio and by Marisol Bello at USA Today.

Perhaps surprisingly, media outlets that are considered more conservative or more market-oriented highlighted many of the same themes.  FoxNews did expand on AP coverage by giving high-profile space to a claim by Michael Tanner at the Cato Institute that lax eligibility requirements contributed to recent caseload increases.  Yet, that same story quoted Ellen Vollinger from the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) and also described the cuts themselves in stark terms, saying SNAP benefits were being "slashed."

In this sense, FoxNews provided essentially the same mix of views as did the Minnesota Public Radio story, which included an interview with Tad DeHaven of the Cato Institute, who emphasized that the 2009 increase was always intended to be temporary.  The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a think tank that is considered comparatively liberal, but whose reports are always careful with facts and largely free of spin, similarly acknowledged in a very informative report and press release that the 2009 increase was intended to be temporary.  I imagine that most journalists covering this story had read the Center's report.

A separate FoxNews story by Joseph Weber on October 30 claimed that a crackdown on food stamp fraud could "save millions," but the body of the article recognized that the potential savings from such efforts really may be quite small, amounting to less than 1 percent of total program costs.  Moreover, I could not find the FoxNews statistic in the "recent" USDA Inspector General audit report on which it was supposedly based.  The most recent related national audit report from the Inspector General appears to be this 2012 report (.pdf), which includes some praise for existing USDA efforts along with some suggestions for improvement.  The report concludes with a statement that USDA's Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) agreed with all the suggestions and planned to implement them by September, 2013, along with a statement from the Inspector General that this response was satisfactory.

Derek Wallbank and Alan Bjerga at Bloomberg News included fascinating coverage of related food retail business topics, including comments from retailers who are highly concerned about the benefit cuts and also those, such as Walmart, that may prosper in times when hard-hit consumers are even more price conscious.

I spent a good deal of time this week speaking to media about the SNAP cuts.  Because I had never before done a live television news interview, perhaps the most interesting was a conversation last night with Elaine Reyes of China's CCTV America network (my interview begins at minute 30:00).  I pointed out that the SNAP program is a particularly important part of the general social safety net in the United States, and that the economic recovery from the Great Recession has been slow, only recently beginning to provide improved private-sector opportunities for low-wage workers, so many people feel that now is a tough time for cuts.

In general, across the spectrum of coverage, I saw perhaps more balance and consistency than I might have expected.  Food stamp policy used to be fairly bipartisan, because the program was perceived more favorably in the United States than cash assistance programs have been perceived.  In the House of Representatives in particular, food stamp policy used to be decided through bipartisan conversations in the Agriculture Committee's hearing room, rather than fiery speeches on the floor of the House.  I wonder if the end of the budget shutdown has cooled some tempers and shown some limits to political rhetoric that really seeks to stick it to poor people.