Things are a little bare out here in the mountains. We don’t have anywhere near the usual amount of snow. Since most of our water comes from snow melt, it will be a dry summer. It’s still beautiful though!

Less important than hunger, but important nonetheless, is the issue of taste. Industrial farming concentrates on producing food that can travel long distances without spoiling, the way that food tastes is a secondary issue, if it is an issue at all. If we were to rely on the Jolly Green Giant to produce all of the vegetables sold in markets, it would be a fair assumption to state that our children and grandchildren will never know what a good tomato tastes like. Diversity is sacrificed to the god of profit in large scale farming. We have already lost countless vegetable varieties on industrial farming’s watch, and many more are on the chopping block. For example, over 40% of the vegetables sold in North American and Mexican supermarkets were grown with seeds sold by the Seminis Corporation. In early 1999, due to lagging profits, they decided to stop carrying one-fourth of their commercial varieties. Without small farms and home gardeners, we would be stuck with a limited taste palette to choose from when deciding what vegetables to prepare for dinner and our children would be even further limited in their choices.

Of course, that is assuming we leave our children a planet that is still capable of producing healthful food at all. Industrial farming with its monoculture mentality is systematically destroying the land’s ability to provide for future generations. Our legacy to our children will be soil and watersheds that are contaminated with pesticides and herbicides, with a side order of dirty air caused by processing and moving our food. We are leaving them miles and miles of corn, soybeans and cattle feeding pens with their adjacent “manure ponds” instead of a countryside dotted with family farms.

for the beginning of this essay, please click on “She Loves”
to be continued…

Jack: If they want to drink Merlot, we’re drinking Merlot.
Miles Raymond: No, if anyone orders Merlot, I’m leaving. I am NOT drinking any %*%# Merlot!

The above line is from one of my very favorite movies, “Sideways”. If you love wine and you haven’t seen this movie, you really should rent it. It’s a fun evening of voyeuristic wine tasting.

According to wine experts, Miles Raymond’s love for Pinot Noir and hatred for Merlot actually caused a shift in the buying habits of wine drinkers! What a bunch of sheep we all are!!!

I actually really love Merlot no matter how Miles feels about it. Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of flat, uninteresting Merlot out there, but there is also a lot of complex lovely Merlot out there. In my opinion, Merlot is kind of a gateway drug to Cabernet Sauvignon. Some people, however, stay with Merlot and never move on. Some, like me, love both!

So because I am on a never ending quest to make your lives more interesting, I tasted a bunch of inexpensive Merlots in an effort to find a “Starter Merlot” that you could try without taking out a second mortgage on your house. You may have a more advanced palate than mine, actually it’s highly likely that you have a more advanced palate than mine, and so you may agree with Miles about Merlot. But maybe you’ll love it! Maybe this wine will start a life long love affair with Merlot and you will have me to thank! That would make all the wine drinking I’ve done on your behalf worth it. So, if you are so inclined, give this wine a swirl in your class. It’s a really nice Merlot for the price and would pair wonderfully with a steak or beef stew or even a burger. If you try it, let me know what you think!!!

xxoo,

RMW

This post is in honor of the letter “M” and part of Jenny Matlock’s Alphabet Thursday. For more melodious “M” posts, please click here http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/

Are you planning on serving a nice big steak to your sweetie for Valentine’s Day? Have you looked at the price of rib eyes? I think I’d really have to like someone a lot to spend $15 on a steak! But, if you have someone in your life worth taking out a second mortgage for, and if you have your heart set on a big old hunk of red meat, I have a wine recommendation that won’t break your budget too badly. It’s a really nice cab, complex, balanced with overtones of blackberry and vanilla and I found it in my local wine store for around $20. Typically, I look for less expensive bottles, but this one is worth it if you are having a nice steak and want a real treat. It drank more like a $40 bottle to me, so I thought it was a bargain.

Happy Sweetheart Day!

xxoo,

RMW

For the beginning of this essay, please click “She Loves”

But is a return to our pastoral roots of small family farms really the answer? It is as far as the pollution problem is concerned. Small farming operations typically don’t need the large amount of chemicals that industrial farming requires. Industrial farming is based on the idea of growing a lot of one commodity which is like an invitation to lunch for insects and diseases that thrive on that one item. Diversity is usually the rule on smaller farms making them less enticing and so better able withstand attacks from pests and diseases without chemicals. Livestock and crops grown together form a strong alliance against the need for chemicals. Michael Pollan makes a case in his book The Omnivore’s Dilemma for a return to the farm of the past where the grass feeds the cows and the cow’s manure feeds the grass.

Critics contend that industrial farming is an important component of our modern economy. It creates jobs and profits and assures the world of a cheap, consistent food supply. This is true to some extent in the world market. Dismantling industrial food production would be devastating to the economy as a whole. Strong local economies however, are essential to a strong national economy. By supporting local farmers, consumers can keep money in their communities. Movement of money is essential to the economy as Judith Schwartz states in an article in Time Magazine, “The idea is that if currency circulates more quickly, the money passes through more hands-and more people have had the benefit of the money and what it has purchased for them”. So, the farmer makes a profit, the local feed store makes a profit, the local hardware store makes a profit and all of those profits are taxed. Those tax dollars are a benefit to the economy and society as a whole. While it is true that large food corporations are also large employers, an argument can be made that smaller, more labor intensive farming operations actually employ more people per acre than mega farms that depend on machinery instead of people. Organic farming in particular is a more labor intensive process. For example, it takes more labor to remove weeds mechanically or by hand than it does to simply run a tractor through the field and indiscriminately spray a herbicide.

Also true is that industrial farming is amazingly efficient in producing large amounts of consistent, cheap food and the world is hungry. Industrial food suppliers, however, are not very efficient at getting all that cheap food to the hungry people of the world. Alleviating hunger in third world countries is an ongoing battle with no end in sight. In America, the war on hunger is being fought on many different fronts, but people still go hungry or don’t have access to enough healthy food to prevent disease. Cheap food is very often not healthy food. America’s inner cities have been called “food deserts” where the only food outlets available are convenience stores or fast food restaurants. For example, in Chicago over a half million people live without easy access to a grocery store

to be continued…