The May/June issue of Mother Jones rocks. It's worth checking out. It contains an article, "No Bar Code" which is really an excerpt form Michael Pollan's new book, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. The focus of the piece is Joel Salatin. and his "beyond organic" Polyface farm. This book is the featured book discussion for the ECL book group. Join us for the discussion (via Yahoo! groups) beginning next Monday.
There's also another shorter piece about "redundant trade" that will quite frankly boogle the mind:
- Half of California’s processed tomato exports go to Canada, which ships $36 million worth of processed tomatoes to the U.S. annually.
- In 2003, New York shipped $1.1 million worth of California almonds to Italy, while importing $1.1 million worth of almonds from Italy.
- California sells $18 million worth of asparagus abroad. $39 million worth of asparagus comes into the state from other countries.
- International strawberry imports to California peak during the state’s strawberry season.
- 20% of California’s table grapes go to China, the world’s largest producer of table grapes.
Based in San Francisco, Jeanne Brophy writes about the culture and history of food at World on a Plate.
