When I’m bored sometimes I just like to read my own book while standing at the Downtown Farm Stand, eating a banana.
Seriously, thanks to the Star Press for covering the release of Where Am I Eating. Read reporter Ivy Farguheson’s story, “Where Am I Eating?”
If you are in the Muncie area on April 22nd - Earth Day - stop by the Farm Stand for an organic beer, free tree, and a signed book! More details on the Facebook event page.
EARTH University’s banana plantation isn’t your average banana plantation. They come up with unique ways to control pests and rodents that don’t always involve crap loads of chemicals.
You can find EARTH University bananas at Whole Foods. They are definitely one of the world’s coolest banana growers and their university is pretty amazing, too.
Workers in Chinese apple orchards earn a daily wage that their counterparts in the orchards of Michigan earn in 10 minutes. This and the lack of environmental regulation in China is why 75% of apple juice concentrate consumed in the U.S. is made from Chinese apples, and often have levels of inorganic arsenic higher than the FDA allows in drinking water.
My Minute Maid apple juice (right) may contain juice from apples from China, USA, Chile, Turkey, Germany, Austria, and Argentina.
I wasn’t the only one to see the disconnect in Dodge’s “God Made a Farmer” commercial. Funny or Die made God Made A Factory Farmer. You have to watch it. It would be funnier if it weren’t all so true. (Thanks to Micahel O’Donnell for pointing this out.)
Latino rights group Cuentame fixed the “white washing” issue in the ad. There are six million migrant workers in the U.S. and there are only about 3 million “farmers.”
God made a farmer to care for his lands, animals, feed His people, and, according to the Super Bowl commercial, to drive a Dodge Ram truck. It was one of the most talked about commercials of the evening, attempting to strike the chord in all of us that Mitt Romney (or any other politician) tries to strike when he wears a Carhartt jacket.
We are a nation of farmers a few generations removed from the fields. But today only 1% of Americans are actually farmers. We revere the image of farmers on TV commercials and in campaign speeches. The truth is there are 1 billion farmers on earth and 60% of them live in poverty.
In the past year I’ve worked alongside banana farmers in Costa Rica,…
Kelsey Timmerman adventured through the global food economy perfecting his machete technique. He was injured in a freak accident involving gamma rays and a GMO banana on a banana plantation. Armed with great powers and great responsibility, he now fights global injustice as the Banana Ninja!
You get up in the morning and go to the bathroom and reach over for the sponge, and that’s handed to you by a Pacific islander. You reach for a bar of soap, and that’s given to you at the hands of a Frenchman. And then you go into the kitchen to drink your coffee for the morning, and that’s poured into your cup by a South American. And maybe you want tea: that’s poured into your cup by a Chinese. Or maybe you’re desirous of having cocoa for breakfast, and that’s poured into your cup by a West African. And then you reach over for your toast, and that’s given to you at the hands of…
Here’s the Where Am I Eating cover! (I only had a low-res file, hence the pixilation.) A big thanks to Rule29 for the awesome design and to my parents for my rugged good looks. This bad boy will be hitting the shelves Earth Day (April 22nd).
The winter’s night sky was clear, one of those where you can’t see just stars but the galaxies they make up. The snow hid the ground’s flaws – the potholes, the sewers, the frozen dead squirrels. I took a breath as fresh as fresh air can be, and turned to my wife and said:
“Ah as fresh as a store cut slice of Arby’s roast beef.”
[insert record scratch]
Now, I’ve consumed my fair share of Arby’s roast beefs over the years, so don’t think I’m above them. But nothing about their paper-thin slices of beef makes me think of freshness. Have you ever held up a slice? The anemic piece of meet shaved off of some poor feedlot cow is nearly see-through.
