ColumnIt’s only April, but 2011 promises to be a big year for food issues in the news.

We’re not talking about big food (so long, Supersize). But food is big this year. From longtime recipe columnist Mark Bittman of the New York Times switching to a food issues beat, to the USDA’s approval of genetically modified alfalfa, to the possibility that foodies might save the green movement, edible stories early this year indicate big changes on the horizon in the world of food.

Foodies Might Save the Green Movement

As movements go, the food movement has relatively quickly become a mighty force that is both decentralized and diverse. According to Bryan Walsh, in a much discussed article in Time, this force might just save the environmental movement because the good food movement, which is about both pleasure and health, speaks to a broad swatch of Americans. How does activism around better, healthier food have anything to do with the environmental movement? Because the way we grow food is environmentally disastrous and resource intensive. Reforming and revolutionizing our agricultural practice in the service of better food can go a long way toward breathing new life into the environmental movement.

Mark Bittman Ends Minimalist column and Takes up Food Issues

After 13 years of writing a column aimed at making cooking more accessible to more people, New York Times columnist and cookbook author Mark Bittman throws in the ladle and starts a new column that focuses on food policy, environmentally sustainable eating, and diet and health issues.

This shift did not come as a surprise to those of us who have followed his personal journey from a rather standard meat-heavy diet to a way of eating that considers both the environmental and health costs of a meat-centric diet. But it’s huge news signaling that The Times is taking food issues very seriously. And that means readers are, too.

USDA Approves Unregulated GM Alfalfa

Earlier this year, the USDA approved the unregulated planting of GM alfalfa. Since alfalfa is an important feed source in the organic dairy industry and there is a high likelihood of contamination of non-GM crops,  this move could kill the organic label, putting many organic farmers out of business. Expect to see more action in the courts around this issue and increased calls for testing and verification of non-GMO foods.

Tomato Pickers in the Spotlight

Early this year, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), finally won an extra penny per pound for tomato pickers in Florida, a fight that has gone on between the CIW and growers and retailers for years. Journalist Barry Estabrook was nominated for a James Beard award for his work highlighting the plight of these tomato pickers in a famous story in Gourmet Magazine, and now he is about to release a book on the subject called Tomatoland. The plight of farm workers in America could be the next issue for ethical consumers and forward-thinking businesses. On Cesar Chavez Day, food service provider, Bon Appétit Management Company and the United Farm Workers of America (UFW), released an inventory documenting the laws and protections relating to farm work in America.

FDA to Reconsider Warnings on Artificial Food Dyes

Following years of studies indicating food dyes might cause or exacerbate behavior problems in children, the FDA is finally considering warning labels, something the food industry does not want to see. But many consumers and consumer groups like Center for Science in the Public Interest do want to see. Will the FDA follow the European Union’s lead and place warning labels on foods containing artificial colors? We will wait and see.

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.

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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.

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You gonna eat that? Research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that once planted in the wild, genetically modified organisms, such as bio-engineered fruit, grain or vegetables can change native, wild plant neighbors’ DNA. In the future, food activists worry, you might not even have a dietary choice.

A flurry of news stories, blog posts and Tweets have “cropped up” in recent weeks around this study and related events. Even teenagers are dialed into the debate over the merits and dangers of GMOs, says Jenny Kessler, who founded and directs the Garden Program at The Automotive High School in Brooklyn, New York.

Kessler teaches English, ESL and a class called “Food, Land and You.” Through this coursework or participation in the Garden Program, Automotive students learn about farming and industrial agriculture and gain hands-on experience cultivating and cooking food.

“Some of my students agree with economist Jeffrey Sachs that genetically modified crops should be used to alleviate world hunger now, since they can grow on depleted land in bad conditions,” Kessler says, “but most are concerned that GMOs aren’t tested enough before they enter our mainstream food supply. Or they worry that modified seeds and cross-pollination will make natural products scarce and expensive, or even extinct.”

The Garden Program group (as seen on Flickr.com/autogarden) wishes for – after a personal visit from Anna Lappe or Michael Pollan – better information about the effect of modified crops on human and plant health, and to inspire Americans to buy more locally produced food.

Basic reading:

“A report by a team from the United States and China appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, [where] researchers point out that gene flow between crops and their wild relatives is common and difficult to contain. They note concerns that wild plants could, as a result, gain genetically engineered resistances. And these could affect the natural balance in their environment.” –US News And World Report feature

“Bayer CropScience AG is responsible for financial damage sustained by Missouri farmers when their rice crops were contaminated by genetically modified seeds, the growers’ lawyer told a federal court jury in St. Louis”¦Testing of one of the “˜LibertyLink’ [rice] strains at Louisiana State University was completed in 2001. While there has never been a specifically identified contamination event”¦studies suggest an event of cross-pollination with ordinary rice or a mixing of regular and genetically modified seed occurred then.” –BoingBoing.net opinion, discussion

“The debate over genetically modified crops has flared up in India, where critics have stalled the commercial release of insect-resistant eggplant, despite recent approval from the country’s biotechnology regulatory committee.” –

Economist Jeffrey Sachs’ official bio, including recent news by and about him

EcoMeme, a column featuring eco news, tech and business highlights by new EcoSalon writer and columnist Lora Kolodny.

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