Vegetable Rights

In the Post Organic Movement World that we inhabit everything has rights. 

Silk moths are a famous example! As Wwariorr10 says on www.HavenandHearth.com; "Why can two gay silk moths not adopt many, many child silkworms? You people sicken my with your anti-gay policies! Are you as angered as me against the discrimination of homosexual silkmoths?" 

Yes, yes we are Wwariorr10! However, while the fight for gay silk moth rights, these weird beetles , and proper sheep shearing methods have captured the world's heart, some things in our society have nobody advocating for them! 

Beetles -haha I'm Ben look how clever I am.

A perfect example is seen below, in this SHOCKING PHOTO!

This is not a vegetable costume

 Even this thing, the Megazord of vegetables, seems to have succumbed to the plights of crumbling neighborhood infrastructure, a lack of a green spaces in its community, and staggering unemployment! If there are vegetables in your neighborhood that are in need of some FOOD JUSTICE plz read our blog! Then do whatever that blog entry tells you to do. 

Ok lesson learned.

Frozen Food

The FOOD JUSTICE movement that we identify with is a backlash to the fast foods, TV dinners, and unhealthy eating habits that many of us grew up with and has caused a huge obesity problem in America.  I often find myself wondering how these habits developed.  I've heard the usual explanations: Americans got lazy, there is less time as people commute longer distances to work, and that priorities have shifted away from home cooked meals.  A recent LA Times article, Clarence Birdseye: A Fresh-Frozen Foodie's Paradise, offered up a new explanation of the shift to frozen foods as a drive towards a wider food experience, freeing "the consumer from the small local farm".  It argues the ability to freeze foods and ship them around the world should not only be a food lover's dream but also increase food access for all people.  The flash freeze process defeats Mother Nature and allows you to use vegetables grown at different times of year in the same dish, making the sky the limit for any type of food combination or experience any time of year--even the harshest of winters.

Regardless of if you see frozen food as a force of good that enables exotic flavor combinations or bad and prefer to eat locally and seasonally, the article's point is that neither approach is feeding everyone. 

 

America still has a hunger problem and poor access to affordable food is paramount in causing this.  However, I don't find that the article gave enough credit to the local food movement.  Instead of seeing the capacity of Americans to embrace a new style of eating just as many have embraced the frozen food movement, the article pushes to the side a system fully devoted to local foods as inefficiencies and high costs are touted.  I however wish to hold on to my hope that local farms and backyard gardens can solve obesity issues as well as increase community access to food while making inroads on America's hunger problem.

 

A few other resources commenting on the state of food in America:

-HBO's The Weight of the Nation

-"American Grown" by Michelle Obama (look for a review soon!)

-Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Day, TV Show, and TED Talk

Beer of the Week: ≅Baltika 6

≅Baltika≅

Beer of the Week returns for the first time this summer. Gabriel Mathews, notorious LA bear,  recommended the European giant Baltika. Apparently this was the only beer the prison guards would let him smuggle into Kresty. Baltika No. 6 is their porter, I think Gabe only got this on holidays.

     
I'm not sure who this sultry blonde beach babe is, but she seems to really like Baltika. I found her all over the 'tenets when I searched 'Baltika'. Gabe prides himself in his 'indy'pendent taste and I can't imagine he would have been persuaded by the beach bronzed 'hips' found in this 'ter'rible advertizing, but people change after they go abroad. Who knows? Maybe this is what Gabe is into these days...  :(

Anyways, lets get on with the review. This week we have five reviewers, a new record!

Appearance

Dan: Like a rich mahogany.
Larkin: Looks like diet coke.
Noah: Like Noodleboys' coffee
Gylfie M: Black like the nite. 
Ben: Quite brown 

Smell*

Dan: I'm sick, but I suppose it smells like fruit.
 Larkin: I can't smell ever.
 Noah: My glass is tainted, it was not washed well enough. It smells awful.
 Ben: Like soda, but beer.
 Gylfie M: (He makes a cough noise, then laughs) Peachy (followed by more guttural sounds)

Taste

Dan: A fruity nose, followed by a complex aftertaste accentuated by rose buds.
Larkin: Diet coke, plus coffee, minus  the bitterness.
Noah: Burning, but a pleasurable burn. 
Gylfie M: Fruity and pleasurable
Ben: A typical porter taste with an acrid Russian kick.
       Noah and Gylfie: Whaaa its not like a porter at all. (in response to Ben)

Overall 

Dan: I like this.
Larkin: I like it, it's not very bitter
Noah: I don't support commies, especially not on the 4th of July.
Gylfie M: They aren't communist anymore. I would appreciate more bitterness in this beer.
        Noah: Gabe do you know anything about history the Ruskies are coming back!
Ben: Tastes like one of those Starbucks frappuccinos, but less good so I just want one of those.

La hermosa chica de Del Playa

Krunkability: is there any point?   :(

*Today Larkin revolutionized how we smell beer. Apparently smelling must be done with an open mouth. Its seems more like we are supposed to breath in the vapors, how strange!