Cupcakes Suck

Just what we need, Americans paying less money for unhealthy food. And yelp. Kill me.

http://sfist.com/2010/08/25/greedy_groupon_subscribers_lead_to.php

It’s Over

I failed you. Easter, both the cooking and the people, took up all my time, and I didn’t blog shit.

I didn’t even hardly take any pictures.

But guess what, we’re moving forward.

Today on the California Report they were talking about how the new healthcare legislation is going to affect Central Valley farmers. I am sympathetic to all independent farmers, organic or not, but the outcry about their new burden is the wrong outcry. It makes me sick that we, as a nation, stare at the prices on supermarket shelves, nodding approvingly when they go down, squealing like stuck pigs when they go up even fractionally, without a thought to the true cost of that food. The billions of lost tax revenue for government subsidy and environmental cleanup could go to our schools, our bridges, our arts and our sciences: we are getting screwed for Monsanto. We talk about farm laborers, legal or not, like a commodity. We spend millions on fucking dog toys and we can’t acknowledge, as a society, that these human beings are entitled to a living wage and access to health care.

But chicken parts are 79 cents a pound, so it’s ok.

Listening: Radio Paradise: listen, and give them some money!!

Support Michelle Obama!

This is too much. The Mid America CropLife Association- a lobby group for GMO producers among other things; the worst kind, in other words- sent this around last week:

>Did you hear the news? The White House is planning to have an “organic” garden on the grounds to provide fresh fruits and vegetables for the Obama’s[sic] and their guests. While a garden is a great idea, the thought of it being organic made Janet Braun, CropLife Ambassador Coordinator and I shudder. As a result, we sent a letter encouraging them to consider using crop protection products and to recognize the importance of agriculture to the entire U.S. economy.

So here’s the deal, people, you know how this works. Here’s the online petition:

[Um, click here.](http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/wh_garden/?r_by=-1980621-3eR0YFx&rc=mailto)

And if you’d be so kind, please [click here](http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/) and email the first lady, letting her know that she’s a rockstar and we love not only the garden, but her finger in the eye of agribusiness.

Listening: “The Psychic” The Crash Test Dummies God Shuffled His Feet

Captain Obvious Hired By NY Times

Stop the presses for [this headline in the NY Times today](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/health/policy/10food.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss):

>U.S. Food Safety No Longer Improving

Holy crap, I’m amazed.

You can read Captain Obvious’s assessment yourself, but *my* favorite moment was when
>Dr. Tim Jones, state epidemiologist in Tennessee, said that many of the easy improvements in the nation’s food-safety system had been made.
>“You can only tell people so much to wash their cutting boards and wash their hands,” Dr. Jones said. “I think we’re running out of things to do to make dramatic improvements.”

As if **that’s** the problem. How about not processing 40% of anything in one place? So that way, when the company succumbs to profit over civic duty- with a healthy dose of help from the USDA- not everybody in the world has to stop eating pistachios (or peanuts or tomatoes or spinach)?

Listening: Depeche Mode “Personal Jesus” Violator
That’s how I roll.