I was saddened to read that over half of Americans say they’ve recently gone a year without dining out, a luxury many of us take for granted. Only 49.3 percent of adults say they dined out between fall 2009 and fall 2010, according to recently released figures from the U.S. Census Bureau that expose the growing gap between our country’s rich and poor: (full story)
Speaking of luxuries, NYC convenience has come to SF: Seamless Web is a food ordering website with no need to pick up the phone, and free delivery; it’s been a staple of NYC offices since I worked there years ago, so I’m interested to watch how it shifts our own office meal culture: (full story)
And speaking of convenience in SF, the snazzy new Avedano’s Meat Wagon, parked in Proxy (the food lover’s cluster in Hayes Valley), carries meaty goods like NY steaks, chickens, ground lamb, bacon and hot dogs from 4505 Meats, sourced from the same producers who supply the beloved Bernal Heights butcher shop. (Fridays, in a nod to Catholic tradition, it will also carry fish sourced from sustainable seafood expert Kenny Belov): (full story)
This article in The Atlantic puts forth a compelling argument that industrialization is the primary cause of our depopulated farms and rural towns, and that federal subsidies should be geared toward farming that sustains natural resources instead of farming that depends on non-renewable, polluting substitutes: (full story)
And this one argues that expansion of supermarket chains into food deserts may not be the answer, since food dollars spent in retail giants will be sent off to their corporate headquarters, instead of in alternative food store models that could recirculate them within the community: (full story)
Breathing new life into old shells, the Shell Recycling Alliance of the Oyster Recovery Partnership works with restaurants throughout the mid-Atlantic to collect discarded shells from raw bars and dinner plates. The shells then become homes for tiny oyster spats, aka fledgling oysters, in hopes of replenishing the area’s bivalve population: (full story)