Musings

Late summer Ohio soybeans.

New one on me! Proponents of the carbohydrate economy argue for basing our material culture on plants, plants transformed into textiles, chemicals, and, especially, energy.

Pardon me, but isn’t petroleum plants? Transformed plants, but plants nonetheless…. Ironic….

The American Prospect’s new article by David Morris, “The Once and Future Carbohydrate Economy,” discusses how this movement will revive farms and farming, and redistribute the locus of production across the landscape—at least those parts of it that can make big agricultural contributions. The biggest selling point for the carbohydrate economy, as near as I can tell, is that it is sustainable, first and foremost, and second, that it will reduce pollution.

However, I think this ignores the huge petrochemical inputs to modern, monocropped, high-production agriculture, which the carbohydrate economy would have to be based on to meet production demands, not only in the field, but in getting the goods to market or factory, and transforming them into those touted carbohydrate economy products.

Can you really buy Morris’s optimistic prediction?

The carbohydrate economy has the worldwide potential to catalyze a cooperative farmer movement that displaces the traditional farmer-versus-farmer battles. Traditionally, the carbohydrate has battled other carbohydrates for market share. High-fructose corn sugar versus sugar cane. Brazilian soybeans versus U.S. soybeans. In the future, producers of carbohydrates can cooperate to capture another huge, untapped market: hydrocarbons.

Mark me unconvinced. You?

BTW, if we adopt the CE, we better figure out how to get all those Latin American illegals integrated into our labor system! We’re gonna need ’em!

Posted at 6:11 PM | Comments Off on Carbohydrate economy

“Frog-baby” at ABG.

Whale meat is not something I normally ponder. However, I encountered Nancy Shoemaker’s article “Whale Meat in American History“—posted for free by the History Cooperative—and, voila!, for a moment I do ponder it….

Dr. Shoemaker points out that while whales play an notable role in American history (think Yankee whalers, whalebone stays, pre-petroleum whale-oil trade), we don’t do much with them any more (a bit of research, a few killed by Native Americans).

I think Shoemaker goes a bit off track when discussing the cultural complexities of taste and palate (we’re a nation who doesn’t eat whales, and core American culture considers them basically not-food, while the Japanese and others do eat them). This is the land of anthropology, a terrain sometimes poorly understood by historians.

Over the past several hundred years, especially in the past three decades, the whale-eating divide has emerged as a tense global struggle—one that cannot be understood within the existing interpretive frameworks typically applied to post-Columbian world history. (p.6)

Shoemaker’s greater error, though, is to argue that whale management and the International Whaling Commission are such a key part of global ecology dialogue. Overall, I think Shoemaker’s connection between US cultural attitudes toward whales and global policy conflicts is overblown—whales are only a weak factor in either global ecology or international differences of opinion.

Posted at 5:16 PM | Comments Off on Whale meat

How many times do you eat chicken each week? The NY Times says that while in 1960 the average annual per capita US consumption was 28 lbs, now it’s up to 87 lbs. It’s cheap, so why not?

Here’s why: many commercial chickens eat feed with arsenic in it, to control parasites. And that poison is passed on to you!

Fortunately, antibiotic-free chickens haven’t consumed arsenic. Plus, Tyson Foods chickens haven’t been fed it. However, assume fast-food chicken has it, although not all does. And the skin has far higher arsenic levels than the meat.

BTW, try the Chicken Dijon recipe I just added over in the “Food fun” section. Gee, I wonder how much arsenic is in turkey….

On another note, I can’t help thinking the timing of DeLay’s announcement that he’s resigning, now, after a recent primary win, is all about DeLay’s own interests, and none about doing the best for his constituents or the public in general (interesting Washington Post article on this issue). Big thumb’s down. Question: is this the kind of ethics that other Christian fundamentalists espouse?

Speaking of self-serving behavior, IRS data shows that indeed Bush’s tax cut on investments has padded the wallets of the rich, according to the NY Times. Note that “Among taxpayers with incomes greater than $10 million…whose average income was $26 million, paid about the same share of their income in income taxes as those making $200,000 to $500,000 because of the lowered rates on investment income.” In another story, the NY Times reports that “Most Americans have taken a pay cut since 2002.”

The picture is not pretty.

Posted at 9:43 PM | Comments Off on Arsenic chicken

Weather report: A nasty front’s bearing down on us; meteorologists predict flooding, possibly overnight, probably tomorrow.

Lion report: Today’s sample of dandies were mostly seed-poof globes; I saw very few still yellow. In a week, though, the rain, I think, will bring on a new crop.

Cooking plan: when the new crop is out, pick and wash a potful of dandy greens, then sauté with butter and garlic, like you would spinach. Salt and pepper. “Enjoy.”

Posted at 7:36 PM | Comments Off on Dandy-lion

Not wormwood

Read about absinthe, that wormwood (Artemesia absinthium) and herb distillate long gone from store shelves across the world, and the displaced New Orleans native named Ted Breaux who is trying to recreate it, in the March 13 New Yorker (sorry, there’s no link to the story, written by Jack Turner). Breaux, a chemist by trade, has aquired a few ancient bottles of absinthe from a dealer who buys them from estates, so he knows what it tastes like—well, 100 years after distilling!—and uses 19th century equipment in a French distillery to make his reproduction.

Apparently, the consumption of absinthe really took off in the late 1800s in France when vineyard production nose-dived—and wine prices rose. However, by the early 1900s, the wormwood component of absinthe was blamed for both “inspirational powers” and “psychoactive properties,” and sale of absinthe was eventually banned.

Thujone is sixty percent of wormwood oil, and the absinthe highs are attributed to it. Breaux, however, tested some ancient absinthe samples, and found almost no thujone, which is removed in the distilling process. The same is true of his modern product.

Newly added to my “try this sometime” list: true absinthe.

Posted at 4:35 PM | Comments Off on Wormwood fiction

Several years ago, John took me to CA to celebrate my b-day, and we spent my day visiting the Getty Museum in LA, and we saw this incredible platter tucked away near the bathrooms. I’m still enamored of it!

Posted at 8:19 PM | Comments Off on Silver platter

There’s no other workable conclusion. It must be the end of the weekend: the leftover homemade pizza is gone. R U ready for Monday?

Posted at 7:59 PM | Comments Off on Lingering leftovers

Tamales and atole for breakfast.

Nixtamalization is a process discovered by the Aztec and Maya civilizations of Mesoamerica….*

False.

So superior is nixtamalized maize to the unprocessed kind that it is tempting to see the rise of Mesoamerican civilization as a consequence of this invention, without which the peoples of Mexico and their southern neighbours would have remained forever on the village level.*

Please!

Archaeological data suggests the lime-treated ground maize dough was being made and eaten when the largest Mesoamerican settlements were villages.

Overall, however, I do find useful information in this volume, and am glad to have it. Still, foodies must be careful that their received knowledge has a basis in science—and the rest of the real world!

* From entry “Nixtamalization” in Alan Davidson’s The Oxford Companion to Food (1999, Oxford University Press), page 534.

Posted at 6:20 PM | 1 Comment »

Some time ago we visited the 99 Ranch Market up on Buford Highway and found this lovely label. 99 Ranch Markets are a chain that began in the 1980s in California. They sell not only groceries—with signs in many languages and sometimes just pictures, e.g., a pig image over the pork and a cow over the beef—but also housewares. Beware the labels here, too, and stick with the images!

I think of translation as a filter, sometimes amplifying and sometimes reducing the quality of information transferred, but generally not exactly the same as the original, especially when you consider denotation and connotation. All too often this fact is overlooked, especially by monolingual people (who by definition don’t have enough experience with translation issues). Think of all the American fundamentalist Christians who have never read the bible in anything but translation. What do they know about what meaning was really intended? How can they make their own critical assessment of the text?

Posted at 5:28 PM | Comments Off on Translation confusion

One topic floating around these parts, highlighted by Rebecca’s editor’s comments in a recent “Atlanta Magazine” (yes, the one with Clark Howard on the cover!), is cheap behavior. You know, like when my husband spends an hour cruising the web to detect the cheapest gas prices in town, then an hour cruising out to that station to fill up a 14-gallon tank!

Still, if you need some “party wine” around your house, or want a budget alternative for daily consumption, if you can get to a Trader Joe’s try a bottle or two of Charles Shaw wines. Because their California prices are $1.99, they quickly picked up the nickname Two Buck Chuck—very clever, eh?

Anyway, you can’t deny that Two Buck Chuck is a deal (hey, most stores give a case discount on top of the already low price!), so give your cheap side free rein to try this one if you haven’t already!

Our sadness, here in Atlanta, is that the nearest Trader Joe’s is in Cincinnati, although we keep hearing rumors that Atlanta will get a store soon! Our fingers are crossed!

Posted at 8:17 AM | Comments Off on Cheaper, cheapest?