Food media is at it, again, this time (as every year) in the “shorties”, the annual event “honor[ing] the best of social media”.

Winner in food is, currently, Niall [...]]]>

Food media is at it, again, this time (as every year) in the “shorties”, the annual event “honor[ing] the best of social media”.

Winner in food is, currently, Niall Horan, a 18 year old singer. And, funnily enough, a namesake of his from Dublin.

He’s also the “hottie of the year” (seriously?), a “hero” (10s of thousands of cops, military members, doctors, EMT, and others laugh in disgust), a singer (funny if your chosen profession gets MUCH less votes than your ability to eat things) and “green”.

Down at 4th place is Hannah, the genius behind “My Drunk Kitchen“, the “Epic Meal Time” crew  at 5th, and (ewww) Bitchin’ Kitchen which, while an abomination upon mankind and as disgusting as McDonalds or Roadkill Cafe at least deals with food.

Ladies, gentlemen, this is why we can’t have anything nice in this world. When idiotic teen heartthrob singers can get more recognition in #food than weird cooking videos, the world is screwed.

What I am a little confused about is [...]]]>

noma

I am as thrilled as most of my brothers and sisters in the service of ideas and cuisines that have now become arranged under the monicker of New Nordic that Plate decided to dedicate a whole print issue to the topics we deal with every day.

What I am a little confused about is the “why now” part of the equation. It’s not like it’s new. Sure, noma’s success has propelled the idea into the stratosphere, not the least due to Rene’s ceaseless work in formulating the rules of the cuisine along with giving it a name, but this kind of food isn’t new. In fact, it’s been around for so long, might as well just call it Nordic Cuisine and be done with it.

Talking about “loyalty” is a hot topic these days. And most people have their own idea what it means. In restaurant terms it’s anything from customers telling friends to go, customers who defend “their” restaurant [...]]]>

Talking about “loyalty” is a hot topic these days. And most people have their own idea what it means. In restaurant terms it’s anything from customers telling friends to go, customers who defend “their” restaurant on blogs, networks, and forums, and customers coming back. To CNET, apparently, “loyalty” means to have images loading enabled. Which I don’t. So their little tracking bug 1-pixel won’t tell them if I read their emails or no. So under the subject line of “Is this goodbye? We’ll miss you…” I got this niftily aggressive note about being a stranger. Does it make me want to come back? Not really. But, of course, email is cheap…

True, Taylor is a GMO [...]]]> People are outraged now that President Obama appointed none other than former Monsanto lobbyist and flag carrier of the GMO movement, Michael Taylor, to food czar – more than two years ago. Sometimes it takes a little waiting… And well they should be. But not for the reasons everyone cries.

True, Taylor is a GMO advocate. Taylor pushed an agenda which allowed companies like Cargill and Monsanto to deploy genetically modified crops and to – in steps two to five – use those genetics and their patents to sue small farms out of everything they had, essentially creating a monopoly.

Also true, this isn’t Taylor’s first stint with the goverment and while the USDA Food Safety guy he swung big words but implemented scarcely any actual changes, despite Marion Nestle’s blog claiming the opposite a few years back.

But that’s just the particulars. The true issue here is with the administration’s repeated and anger-inducing push to put industry insiders into a watchdog’s place. Anyone ever working (or being a “guest” of) a prison knows that, yeah, you let some inmates do some jobs that allow them to interface with their kind and you, but the guys with the guns better not be of the general population kind. Obama just gave a gun to the guy who drinks wine with the prison’s most notorious inmate overlord every weekend.

I believe even a cursory glance over Taylor’s track record and pronouncements will make this very clear: Taylor doesn’t care about anyone but his industry buddies. Sure, he’s a former FDA lawyer gone private gone Monsanto gone USDA gone private and from there back to the FDA, which might look like he’s a man of both sides but, alas, this is not true.

Taylor is sneaky. He pushed a move in which the cost and oversight of food safety is moved away from federal budgets and groups to state ones. Knowing full well that states in dire straits will first cease enforcement of what looks like white collar crimes (until an E. Coli eye gets poked out, then there’s some lipservice and all goes back to normal) and that states like Texas or Montana will never, ever, work against their corporate BigAg overlords, he essentially handed Monsanto and Co. free reign.

Taylor also shows his true colors with his lawyer-like “let’s deal with the risk proportional to cost” approach in which “big ticket” items are addressed and “acceptable losses” are – while not voiced – a constant undertone.

A good food czar does four things:

• create an oversight and enforcement plan that reins in the big dudes while supporting the small ones instead of placing big dude requirements on small dude operations, essentially killing them
• places the population first, at all times. If that means less Monsanto and Cargill so be it.
• as a mediator he doesn’t have to be adversarial with big business. But never, ever, should he be friendly with them
• and, finally, he knows the insides of the millions of small food producers better than anything else. As a friend of mine, a dairy farmer in Wisconsin, once said: “If four hundred small farms go under it’s a statistic, if ConAgra lays off 1200 workers it’s a tragedy and Washington reacts.”

Taylor was a bad choice. Not because he pushed GMO and not because he is Monsanto. But because he has ties to one side of the equation and none to the other. Next time, Mr. President, how about an academic, not a lobbyist?