I’m going to try a little experiment here to see whether I like doing it and whether readers like reading it. The experiment: To issue a news digest once a week or so that provides links to news stories that interest me and that are related to food and food policy. I’ll model it after my friends at Ethicurean.com.
Here’s the first installment. Let me know whether you find this sort of thing interesting or boring, helpful or a waste of time. The downside of such a post is that many if not most of the links will probably become outdated in fairly short order, but I’ll hope not.
Score one for the big guys. A new federal regulation forces the closure of three Kansas grocery stores (registration may be required) that sell only products eligible for WIC reimbursements. (That’s the federal Women, Infants and Children nutrition program.) Those are the only kind of stores affected by the new law.
Bakers get rise without gluten. The growing recognition of Celiac-Sprue has provided an opportunity for entrepreneurs (registration may be required) whose foods lack gluten.
Cooking sells food. The Kansas Rural Center has a new brochure for farmers markets that gives tips on how to present chefs at markets to educate customers and boost sales.
I really like this idea. I often get the feeling that the food blogosphere is concentrated in San Francisco, New York and other urban areas, so it’s nice to have a (news) source from the (food) source. Not that Ca and NY aren’t producers of food, but I think you know what I mean.
Apropos of the WIC store closures: http://www.dailyyonder.com/healthy-food-choices-scarcer-rural-areas-study-says
On the one hand, it’s sort of surprising that anyone would need a study to point out that poor people don’t have access to healthy food; on the other hand, it’s still dismaying.
Janet Majure // Jan 2, 2008 at 7:22 pm
Interesting link, Kei. Thanks. Thanks also for your perspective on news items. I wondered whether such a list might be too parochial for the larger world, so I’m glad to hear a coaster like you likes the midland perspective. You may be right about the blogosphere, although that may just be a byproduct of population concentration.