Rachel Laudan

Farmers are now good news.  When I was a kid they were not.  They were hicks, people with dirt under their fingernails. Now they are honored.  But which farmers?  Here’s the incredulous response from Food, Mommy, from a farming family in Kentucky (I love to follow blogs from working farmers). Apparently to many of the [...]

By arbitrarily removing salt and sugar from their rightful place as chemical compounds, the USDA eliminates hundreds of products that are traditionally cured with one or both of these chemicals. So, in the obfuscating terminology of the USDA, an Iberico  ham that is so well-preserved with salt that it can hang for two years is not cured while one that has [...]

    The New York Times a couple of days ago had a long and well researched article on the slowing of Mexican migration to the United States. Yeah. Mexican is getting wealthier.  In fact Mexico is now 80% urban, something that has a lot to do with this.  Peasants eking out a living on [...]