Ms Piggy and the Owners (photo credit: the.piggery)

Those are some of the names of the sows that will be chopped up and delivered to homes in the NYC area this year. The Piggery is offering the first meat-only CSA in the Big Apple, and it is sure to get bacon lovers all hot and bothered.  Here’s the deal:

At the Piggery, animals are raised among the squeaking and squealing until they weigh about 250 pounds. Then they’re shipped to a USDA-certified slaughterhouse. The meat is returned to the farm, where Sanford and Marshall butcher, cure, cook and package it for customers in Ithaca and New York City.

Their top menu items include thick pork chops, bacon, creamy patés, sausages, salami, pulled pork and chorizo.

Customers can choose between a “whole hog” order which will cost $1200 per season, a half-hog at $600, and a quarterhog at presumably $300, although the website does not explicitly state its price.  A customer that goes half-hog can expect to get at least the following through the 24 week season:

I personally am dying to know what a Boston Butt is.

Now a key trait of CSAs is that the food is supposed to be local.  The Trumansburg-NYC trip is a stretch, clocking in at over 3 hours.  However, its a lot closer than the factory -farm meat that travels to the east coast via I-80 from the western skies. So for CSA lovers, it definitely is a judgement call.  And for the health conscious there is the matter of whether one should incorporate so much bacon fat into a diet.

The Naked Chef makes his debut at TED Talk. Now I love TED Talk, and I love Jamie Oliver, but I have to admit that Mr. Oliver comes off as a little strident, and just skims by shrill.  However, the chart in the beginning is one to know by heart, and some outtakes from his new show teaching folks how to eat are rather poignant.  Check it out:

Ads that make you go hmmmm

Tom Philpott gives an inside look at what makes the American food system a massive contributor to global warming and pollution.  And no, its not due to cow farts.

I still remember a few years back when there was a huge piece on heirloom garlic in California, where upscale grocers were stocking a dozen different varieties of garlic with “chocolate undertones” and “whiffs of rose”.

Well the mad scientists on the farms have a new designer product - chicken.  I’m all for naturally grown, well fed and well cared for chickens, even though I personally do not indulge in the bird these days.  But isn’t chicken supposed to taste like, well, chicken?

We can breathe safely now.

Yes, they’re coming, and life as we know it will never be the same.  Imagine all the innocent organic veggie sandwiches with avocado and roasted red peppers and NO ALFALFA.  The horrors.

As mentioned earlier, GM corn has now taken over 90% of the market - more than Internet Explorer’s market dominance in its heyday.  And its impossible to stop - GM corn seed can be carried by the wind to land and cross pollinate with organic - no corn is safe in America.

And now it is the poor alfaalfa sprouts’ turn. Harmless, unoffensive, never hurt anyone.  And about to be extinctified. But it’s not just veggie sandwiches that will suffer - organic alfalfa is a major feed source for organic cows.  So goodbye organic alfalfa could mean goodbye (or really, really, REALLY expensive) organic meat and dairy.

The USDA is accepting comments on its impending decision for the next two weeks.  The folks behind the fabulous documentary FRESH has a petition you can sign in solidarity with the Alfalfa.

Sadly, its not food pills you pop in the microwave and out comes a Thanksgiving feast.  Luckily, it doesn’t require GMOs.  All that’s required is some coding and a well populated database:

“Food miles, food safety, animal well-being and exceptional quality are important issues that guide my purchasing practices,” said Joe McGarry, an executive chef with Bon Appetit Management Company. “FoodHub allows me to use these factors to sort through the database and find the best suppliers.”

Sophisticated search capabilities allow buyers, both large and small, to instantly discover ready suppliers with a few clicks of their computer keyboard. Conversely, sellers can use FoodHub search features to identify new buyer leads and build targeted customer databases. All registered users can complete an online profile that includes a detailed description of their operation and preferred methods for doing business. FoodHub supports both direct market relationships and leverages existing distribution channels to encourage growth in regional food sales.

Meet FoodHub.  Membership for buyers is a cheap $100 a year.  Another reason why Portland is probably the most kick ass American city.

Biologists decided it was high time to test out those new fangled GM corn varieties that Monsanto has been pumping out and now account for more than 90% of corn grown in the US.  Sure, there has been industry tests, but the more analytically minded among us have a hard time swallowing results that were bought and paid for.

The initial findings are not promising:

We present for the first time a comparative analysis of blood and organ system data from trials with rats fed three main commercialized genetically modified (GM) maize (NK 603, MON 810, MON 863), which are present in food and feed in the world. NK 603 has been modified to be tolerant to the broad spectrum herbicide Roundup and thus contains residues of this formulation. MON 810 and MON 863 are engineered to synthesize two different Bt toxins used as insecticides. Approximately 60 different biochemical parameters were classified per organ and measured in serum and urine after 5 and 14 weeks of feeding. GM maize-fed rats were compared first to their respective isogenic or parental non-GM equivalent control groups. This was followed by comparison to six reference groups, which had consumed various other non-GM maize varieties. We applied nonparametric methods, including multiple pairwise comparisons with a

False Discovery Rate approach. Principal Component Analysis allowed the investigation of scattering of different factors (sex, weeks of feeding, diet, dose and group). Our analysis clearly reveals for the 3 GMOs new side effects linked with GM maize consumption, which were sex- and often dose-dependent. Effects were mostly associated with the kidney and liver, the dietary detoxifying organs, although different between the 3 GMOs. Other effects were also noticed in the heart, adrenal glands, spleen and haematopoietic system. We conclude that these data highlight signs of hepatorenal toxicity, possibly due to the new pesticides specific to each GM corn. In addition, unintended direct or indirect metabolic consequences of the genetic modification cannot be excluded.

Yeah I had a hard time wrapping my head around the jargon also.  The short of it is, GMO corn poisons the liver and kidneys.

This is scary, scary stuff.  Corn syrup is pretty much in everything we eat.  Westerners have massively high intake of corn, and in the US, the vast majority of that corn is GMO. Ten years down the road, will we be seeing liver and kidney failure of epic proportions?

I’ve encountered this before, but its really quite amazing how irrational people can be about farming and livestock:

That won’t fly with folks like D.C. resident Greg Stewart, who’s resisting the aspiring chicken farmers. “Their neighbors have no desire for any type of country or rural feel to where they live,” said Stewart, a 44-year-old real estate agent.

That is a pretty broad stroke of the pen to decree “Their neighbors have no desire for any type of country or rural feel”, but I can’t say its the first time I’ve heard someone object on those grounds.  Apparently there are many who stereotype farms and rural living as poor and unsanitary and backwards.  In particular, I hear this from older folks who they or their family escaped poverty by moving off the farms and into the city a half century ago.  Times have changed, but people are always slower.

Just so we’re clear the zoning law provides for control over sanitary concerns and noise complaints. No roosters and no noxious smells allowed.