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I wish you could have seen these beauties in person -- they were a sight to behold. Teeny tiny cauliflowers of several varietals from Weiser Family Farms. I saw them at the Sunday Long Beach Farmers' Market, but if you are in Southern California do yourself a favor and track them down ... they attend sixteen markets in the LA area, and also sell amazing potatoes, carrots, and other root vegetables.
Do you ever wish we could order hamburgers like we do coffee drinks? "I'll have an irradiated, hormone-laden, cloned burger from a cow that's been fed genetically modified corn, please."
The FDA yesterday issued a statement saying that eating meat or drinking milk from cloned pigs, goats, and cows is considered to be as safe as food from conventionally-bred animals that are now in our food system. This statement is a "draft risk assessment" and the FDA is allowing public comment until April 2, 2007.
FDA officials have also stated that, if cloned animals are allowed into the food system, they will not be labeled as such because they technically don't see a risk in eating these animals. So while over half of Americans surveyed have stated that they would be unlikely to buy meat or milk from animal clones even if the FDA found such products to be safe, it is likely that no one eating conventionally raised meat will have a choice.
This sentiment runs parallel to opinions of genetically modified foods in that most Americans do not approve of genetically modified foods in our food system, and 94% are in favor of labelling genetically modified foods. Despite these statistics, a majority of us eat genetically-modified foods on a regular basis, since GM foods have been allowed by the FDA and are not required to be labelled.
Cloning is an expensive procedure, and for the time being most in the industry foresee cloning to be used for creating bulls for breeding rather than meat we would eat. Those bulls would then be used to create offspring, making the food that we eat one generation away from a cloned animal.
Why is cloning of cows, goats, and pigs for meat and milk such a bad idea?
It encourages a monoculture. Whenever issues like this come up, I first turn to Michael Pollan to see his point-of-view. This morning, the San Francisco Chronicle had a statement from Pollan that said that cloning animals gets us one step closer to a monoculture in the animal world. "And wherever you have a monoculture, it's exquisitely vulnerable to all kinds of shocks, in this case disease. To keep a paddock full of genetically identical animals healthy would take more drugs. This seems like a big thing for the pharmaceutical industry more than anyone."
It's taking a risk with one of our most basic foods: milk. Milk is the first food that our children eat. It's considered to be a nutritious way for us to get calcium and nutrients. Anyone else think that maybe we should practice cloning on a food that's not at the root of American diets?
The benefits may not outweigh the risks of adding a new technology to our food system. I have only read vague generalizations about the possible benefits of cloning. The beef industry likes the idea of cloning because it "removes the guesswork from breeding" and purportedly could "produce a desirable end product for consumers." The cynical side of me wonders what the benefits really are, and why this is being pushed for by the meat industry. Until further benefits are proven, I would be against adding cloning technology to the conventional meat and milk supply.
If the FDA does end up approving cloning, then what's our alternative? Do we just throw in the towel and become vegetarians? Do we give up and know that we will have to eat meat from cloned animals? Everyone's decision on this is going to be different. However, for now, I believe that my choice will be to continue a bit further down the road I've been headed for a while: only to buy meat from farmers who I can ask about their breeding techniques, or to only shop for meat at supermarkets and butcher shops with a commitment to not buying meat from cloned animals. No irradiated, hormone-laden, cloned burger from a cow that's been fed genetically modified corn for me!
Sources, Essays, and Studies:
What's Next: Anna Lappe, World Changing (via Ethicurean)
The issues: Cloning, Sustainable Table
With FDA's approval, cloning could benefit both producers and consumers, The National Cattlemen's Beef Association, November-December 05.
Letter from Senator Patrick Leahy, et al to Dept of Health and Human Services
FDA Declares Cloned Food to be Safe, NPR, December 28 06.
Food Biotechnology: A Study of US Consumer Attitudinal Trends, International Food Information Council, 2006.
Public Perceptions of Genetically Modified Foods, Food Policy Institute, October 2003.
FDA Press Release and full report, December 2006.
Center for Food Safety statement
FDA Tentatively Declares Food From Cloned Animals to Be Safe, NY Times, December 29 06.
FDA calls meat, milk from clones safe for eating, SF Chronicle, December 29 06.
What are the best new things that you tasted this year?
You can find out my top 10 at Bay Area Bites.
HONORABLE MENTIONS: Fatted Calf breakfast sausage meatballs at Sam's "Breakfast for Dinner Party", a very special sake with Fatemeh, housemade mozzarella at Delfina (with the two aforementioned bloggers and couple more of my favorite people for my birthday - I'm a lucky girl), lotus root chips at the Medicine Washoku dinner, fried clams at The Clam Box of Ipswich, roast chicken at Zuni Cafe (this was my first year I tried it!), calabacitas taco at La Super Rica Taqueria, panna cotta with citrus and ras al-hanout at Lucques.
Other top ten lists can be seen at Gastronomie and at World on a Plate.
There's one day left to bid on the amazing Menu for Hope III event, which has already raised over $40,000 for the U.N. World Food Programme.
Sam has done and outstanding job keeping all of the West Coast prizes together, but today she went above and beyond the call of duty. See today's post to find out the odds of winning each prize - something that a numbers geek like me really loves to see. Of course, the odds will change throughout the day, but it helps to see what prizes need more bids.
(What did I bid on? UW50, UW43, and my long shot: UW48)
You have until tomorrow at 6 pm PST to put in your bids if you haven't done it yet!
This is a little embarrassing for a graduate of Shuna's knife skills class to admit, but this is my thumb. With four stiches in it. From improperly cutting a lemon.
I'm in Southern California again, and yesterday I took a field trip to Little Saigon.
In 1997 when Princess Diana died, my mom and I started a joke between the two of us. Whenever something was really obvious or overplayed, we would ask "Did you know Princess Diana is dead?" in a macabre reference to the fact that *everyone* knew Princess Diana was dead. We still do it to this day, and it cracks both of us up.
I think that the similar question today would be "Did you know a terrific no-knead bread recipe was printed in the New York Times?"
The question I have been getting the most these days, after "How are you?", is "Where are you?". You probably know through recent comments and posts that I've been spending a lot of time back and forth between Southern California and San Francisco.
As much as I love San Francisco, it seems the only way to keep my sanity lately is to be on the move - constantly busy, and constantly changing the scenery.
Though most of the time I fly Jet Blue between here and Long Beach, I take the chance whenever I can to drive up Highway 101. Those who are the pedal-to-the-metal types take Highway 5 and brag about how quickly they can get from Los Angeles to San Francisco. I, on the other hand, am a meanderer. I only drive when I have time and won't be stressing about getting home, and often split my driving over two days, as I have some great friends with two fantastic kids who live halfway up the state.
Highway 101 holds a lot of memories for me. When I was in college with a new car, friends and I would drive a couple of hours up for an adventure in Santa Barbara or Solvang or Pismo Beach. When I first moved to San Francisco from Huntington Beach, my good friend Rachel and I made the drive on 101. I used it to drive home to my family in the dark days after September 11, 2001. And I happened to drive up Highway 101 on the day that J. and I had our first date. I have driven it when I couldn't wait to get to my final location, and also when the journey was in the drive. Driving on 101 grounds me. It reminds me of where I came from and where I am trying to go.
These days, the drive can be bittersweet, but it also helps to feel comforted in the memories.
Driving through the bountiful farm land and vineyards along 101 -- in the Salinas Valley and the Central Coast -- helps center me ideologically as well. Some of my best brainstorms have come from this drive, including hashing out the "10 reasons to Eat Local" post. It also doesn't hurt that the food along Highway 101 is plentiful on each exit, and there are farmers' markets to entertain me every day of the week.
So the answer to "where are you" today is that I am home. Home with my new chair. Home with my view of the dog park. Home with my friends who keep me as occupied as I want to be. Home with my farmers' markets. Home with Rainbow Grocery. Home with Pesce and Darbar and Gourmet Carousel. Home in San Francisco.
More information about food on Hwy 101 can be found in my 2-part Bay Area Bites post:
Title from the old nursery rhyme "To market To market":
To market, to market to buy a fat pig;
Home again, home again, jiggety-jig.
To market, to market, to buy a fat hog;
Home again, home again, jiggety-jog.
To market, to market, to buy a plum cake;
Home again, home again, market is late.
To market, to market, to buy a plum bun;
Home again, home again, market is done.
To market, to market, a gallop a trot,
To buy some meat to put in the pot;
Three pence a quarter, a groat a side,
If it hadn't been killed it must have died.
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