ColumnAdvertising tricks from the food world.

In this edition of Fit to Eat, we’re focusing on advertising and marketing: the good, the bad, the ugly and some gray areas in between. The very bad form award goes to one well-known seafood chain using the prospect of ocean species extinction as a marketing campaign to sell menu items; Chipotle, the burrito chain, enlists Willie Nelson to cover a Coldplay hit to highlight the company’s commitment to supporting small scale farmers; Yum! Brands, the grease factory that brings us Kentucky Fried Chicken and Taco Bell, is working state by state to make it possible for food stamp recipients to use their Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) dollars on fast food (I can see the billboards now); Con Agra is being sued in a class action for advertising its genetically modified corn oil as “100% natural”; and Dean Foods touts that its chocolate milk is made from…milk! Imagine that, real milk, coming soon to a school lunch tray near you.

“Save the Salmon” says Legal Sea Food, but not because salmon are an important part of the food chain, or because they are a sacred food to Native Americans, or because they are amazing creatures. Nope. Save them so that Legal Sea Food can sauté them with lemon butter sauce. Same goes for trout and crab. Yeah, it’s supposed to be funny, but environmentalists aren’t laughing.

Chipotle, the only national fast food chain that sources hormone and antibiotic free meats, produced this animated video of farmers going back to the old ways of doing things with Willie Nelson covering the haunting Coldplay song “The Scientist” in the background. Cynical marketing campaign or sheer brilliance?

Ever looking for new markets, Yum! Brands is applying for inclusion in the food stamp programs in several states. On one hand, it looks like a giant government subsidy for fast food, but the company says fast food is one of the few food options available to homeless food stamp recipients and others without kitchens or the ability to prepare meals.

Some clever lawyers turned the GMO industry’s own language against it, suing Con Agra for its use of the verbiage “100% Natural” on cooking oil that is likely to be made from genetically modified plants. Zeroing in on this definition of GMOs from Monsanto, “Plants or animals that have had their genetic makeup altered to exhibit traits that are not naturally theirs,” the lawsuit contends that consumers are being misled by labels that convey that the product is a natural, wholesome product.

Aiming its new high fructose corn syrup-free chocolate milk squarely at school lunch programs nationwide, Dean Foods unleashes a marketing blitz to tout the attributes of its TruMoo chocolate milk product, among which is the selling point that it’s actually milk! Nutritionists are split on whether or not chocolate milk should be allowed in schools. What’s your take?

This is the latest installment in Vanessa Barrington’s weekly column, The Green Plate,  on the environmental, social, and political issues related to what and how we eat.

The post Fit to Eat: News from the Food World – Marketing and Advertising Edition appeared first on EcoSalon.

A roundup of some of our favorite food related articles.

It’s no secret: here at EcoSalon we’re big on food. Eating it, dreaming about it, cooking it, reading about it, thinking about it, talking about it, and writing about it. We even have two weekly columns devoted to all things culinary. Why? Because no matter who we are or where we live, we all must eat.

Food touches so many aspects of our lives, far beyond just the dinner table. It’s intertwined in culture and politics, economy and tradition. What lettuce we buy at the grocery store can affect a farmer, a town and a watershed on the other side of the country. What country is marked on our bag of coffee can indicate how workers are treated. How much we eat and how much we throw away, says a lot about our consumer culture as a whole, and the lack thereof in other regions.

Given all of that, what we eat, where it comes from and how we eat it is in fact one of the greater defining factors of who we are as a society and how we think about the world and our fellow human beings. But food is also fun, and it’s an ongoing adventure to identify new things to eat and how to cook things, or to simply be reminded of a product that we may have overlooked.

In honor of food, and given that it’s the season for dinner parties and farmers market strolls, here are the top 10 food stories that you may have missed the first time around but are certainly worth a read, be they thought provoking political pieces, or just reminders of why we love food:

1. What Does $20 Billion in Wasted Food Look Like?

Did you know that in Britain alone $20 billion worth of food is wasted per year? That equals out to about a third of Britain’s groceries. But what exactly does $20 billion in food waste look like? The real visual just might get you seriously thinking about what food you keep and what food you throw away.

2. The Sexual Politics of Dinner

I grew up with a mother that made fantastic meals, in fact she is truly a lover of good food. Sometimes cooking is simply a task that needs to be completed, and when it comes down to it, men and women approach that task differently.

3. Living in Sin With Breads from Berlin

Bread. Good old bread. Gluten-free may be the current mantra of many, but this article is a good reminder that, serious food allergies aside, we shouldn’t be afraid of real food. Check out the complete list of fresh-baked, dark-brown breads and why they have a culinary, and nutritional, advantage.

4. What We Don’t Know Can Hurt Us

Most of us are well aware that vegetables are better than fries and whole grains far outweigh their processed counterparts, but how much do we really know about what we eat? Nutrition fads draw attention, but it turns out, that in seducing us with things like “fat free” and “low sodium,” we’re distracted from what’s really good for us, and the choices that we make because of it, could be detrimental.

5. 10 Street Eats

What’s a better way to explore a new place than by its food? The Green Plate columnist Vanessa Barrington takes us on a tour of 10 street foods, from Banh Mi to Burek, complete with recipes for those of us with minimal travel plans on the summer to do list.

6. Boost Your Brain With the 20 Smartest Foods on Earth

If these 20 foods aren’t on your “Keep on hand at all times” list, they should be. From avocados to oysters to eggs, these are the foods that make for powerful brain boosters and you should be putting on your daily, or weekly, menu.

7. No Excuses, Just Vegetables

A guest post from urban gardening extraordinaire Mike Lieberman, this article is a great reminder as to why we should all be making an effort to be growing more vegetables at home. Lieberman outlines the first important steps to home gardening, and highlights the most important: no excuses. Just do it!

8. The Facts About Food Dyes

Hold the sprinkles, please. Food dyes may have more side effects than you think. Linked to allergies, cancers and even hyperactivity, you may want to rethink what colorful items you’re putting in the pantry.

9. The Conscious Case Against Veganism

A vegan turned omnivore posits why the sustainable path may not lead to veganism, eliciting plenty of thoughts and comments from the EcoSalon community. The moral? “Conscientious consumption means eating and living ethically, not religiously.”

10. Just Cook: How to Integrate Cooking Into Your Daily Life

With all this talk of food, what’s the most basic way we can have an impact: cook consciously. Cooking keeps us from processed foods, saves us money and gets us to eat healthier. So what’s stopping you? Read this hassle free guide to ensuring that cooking – and cooking well – becomes a part of your everyday routine.

Image: Anna Brones

The post Top 10 Stories in Food You May Have Missed appeared first on EcoSalon.

The Green Plate is always combing the web to see what’s happening in the world of organic, sustainable, fair, and tasty food. From recipes, to food and agricultural policy, there are dozens of great sites that I depend on for my daily diet of information.

So here’s the Green Plate’s list of the best organic, smart, green, newsy, tasty, seasonal, sustainable food places on the web to share with you readers:

Group Blogs – Cooking:

Food 52 launched with a splash last fall by New York Times food writer and cookbook author, Amanda Hesser, and friend and fellow food writer Merrill Stubbs. It’s unlike any other site out there, in that instead of telling readers what to cook, it showcases the fine work of talented home cooks. It’s interactive, fun, well-designed, and full of tasty recipes. Readers can rate recipes and cookbooks, and from the recipes readers submit, founders are creating an online community cookbook and recipe database.

Started by New York food writer, Ed Levine, Serious Eats combines community, recipes, and food news into one of the most respected voices about food on the web. Though not explicitly green, the recipes and news on Serious Eats are about what’s current, and what people want to talk about, so there’s plenty that’s seasonal, veg centric, healthy, and well-sourced, right alongside articles on where to get the best burger in New York.

Culinate also has a strong community component along with recipes, news articles, cooking tips, interviews, recipes, podcasts, food news, and blog posts. It’s all about real food and is focused on an audience who cares where their food came from and how it was produced. The reporting and writing is always high quality.

The Kitchn, part of Apartmenttherapy.com, has writers across the country contributing recipes, product reviews, store spotlights, and news. There are also giveaways, cool kitchen tours and more, all served up with a strong editorial voice. The focus is on what people who care about good, real food are cooking and eating, so though not explicitly “green” there’s plenty there to chew on. And always great recipes and tips.

Group Blogs – News, policy, stories:

The New York Times Diners Journal blog features the work of many of the Time’s best thinkers on food issues, including Mark Bittman. You’ll find New York-centric news but also plenty about what’s going on all over the country trend-wise, plus Bittman’s tasty, simple, seasonal, veg-centric recipes.

Cooking Up a Story is an online television series (and blog) about people, food, and sustainable living. The videos spotlight farmers, artisan food producers, and other individuals who are bringing sustainable food to our tables. Many are unsung heroes and all are fascinating and inspiring.

Civil Eats is a blog with contributors around the country (full disclosure: I am one of them). You’ll find interviews with food activists and farmers, book reviews, recipes, gardening and farming tips, policy discussions, and all kinds of news. Many contributors are activists and movers and shakers in the world of sustainable fair food, so this is info from the front lines.

Sustainable Table is also home to The Meatrix and the Eat Well guide and it focuses on educating consumers on food related issues and building community through food. You’ll find shopping guides, recipes, and more on this invaluable site.

The Food Section of activist hub Change.org dishes up thought-provoking news on the issues that affect our food system. You’ll find articles skewering corporate misdeeds and great reporting on policy developments – plenty to chew on.

EcoCentric is the new home that combines Sustainable Table, Eat Well Guide, Daily Table, The Green Fork, H20 Conserve, and Network for New Energy Choices to cover the intersections between sustainable food, water, and energy. It’s a smart choice since food, water, and energy are all essential for our survival. The reporting is wide-ranging and interesting.

It’s no surprise that the Big Daddy of green blogs, Grist.org would be one of the most definitive food voices on the web. It’s been my first stop for years. The reporting goes beyond parroting and digs into the issues. With top-notch writers like Tom Philpott, Tom Laskawy, Bonnie Powell, and Paula Crossfield (also managing editor of Civil Eats), this should be the first place you go for policy news, stories from around the country, and the exposure of hypocrisy in high places of all sorts.

Speaking of Bonnie Powell, the blog she founded, The Ethicurean, is a must read for curated news from around the web, as it offers well-researched, original feature articles, and stories about cooking and farming.

Combining cooking and policy news, the The Atlantic’s Food Channel is all about smart food journalism.

With the gossipy, tabloid tone of the rest of the Daily Beast, Hungry Beast is a fun, but not-always-feather-light destination for news about food, recipes, and features.

Individual Blogs – Cooking:

Uber-blogger Elise Bauer of Simply Recipes migrated from the tech world to become one of the first full-time food bloggers. Her site is one of the web’s best treasure troves of home cooking.

Another early entry into the world of food blogs, 101 Cookbooks, is at the top of every blogger’s blog roll. Created by technological and media 2.0 whiz, Heidi Swanson, who is also a cookbook author and professional photographer, 101 Cookbooks is one of the most beautiful and useful food blogs on the planet. All of Heidi’s recipes are vegetarian and healthy, but she doesn’t really talk about it. It just is. I like that.

Engaging writing, gorgeous photography, and creative, delicious, doable recipes are the hallmarks of Smitten Kitchen. This is where I come for inspiration and just to bask in Deb Perelman’s beautiful food.

Individual Blogs – Policy and News:

Sam Fromartz, author of Organics Inc., one of the first books about “big organics” and how things REALLY work in the world of food policy and business, has a blog called Chewswise. It’s refreshingly idiosyncratic. You’re just as likely to get a recipe for Sam’s famous baguettes as a serious discussion about the farm bill, but there’s always something to provoke thought.

James Beard award winner and former contributing editor of Gourmet Magazine, Barry Estabrook reports on food politics in Politics of the Plate. Alternating between news bites of food stories from the web and the kind of hard-hitting features he became known for at Gourmet, Barry’s site is a great place to catch-up.

Josh Friedland’s The Food Section is a rich stew of food news culled from around the web, commentary, features, and new product news.

Now it’s your turn. Leave a comment and tell us about your favorite food stops on the web!

This is the latest installment in Vanessa Barrington’s weekly column, The Green Plate, on the environmental, social, and political issues related to what and how we eat.

Image: wickenden

The post Top 20 Organic, Sustainable, and Just Plain Tasty Food and Recipe Blogs appeared first on EcoSalon.