Alice Waters: “I feel that good food should be a right”

Alice Waters changed the culinary discussion when she started Chez Panisse in 1971 based on her strong belief in the importance of fresh, local food. To critics who say she is elitist, she responds in this three-part interview with CBS News’ 60 Minutes that everybody deserves wholesome, pesticide-free food.

March 19 Meeting For New Essex County Members

This Thursday, March 19, we’ll be holding another Essex County new member meeting for the 2009 CSA. This is your opportunity to ask all your questions about the farm and community-supported agriculture.

The meeting will be held from 7:30-8:30 pm at the Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit in Verona, which is our distribution site for Essex County. If you can’t make that one, future meetings will be held at the same time and place on Tuesday April 7 and Thursday April 23, Tuesday May 5 and Thursday May 21. Click here for directions to Holy Spirit or e-mail us for more information.

Send A Message To The USDA

A few weeks ago, Leonard told you about a group called Food Democracy Now. It successfully got a friend of organic farming, Kathleen Merrigan, to be nominated for deputy secretary of agriculture. Now it has a new challenge for us: Tell the U.S. Department of Agriculture that it can’t open the way to genetically engineered foods until we see more data about their safety.

Tomorrow night, March 17, is the deadline for submitting comments on proposed rule about GE crops known as Docket Number APHIS-2008-0023. Food Democracy Now wants the current rule, which it is calling the “Monsanto loophole”, withdrawn and its environmental impact statement released to the public.

If you’re still in the dark on GE crops, which Food Democracy Now says can already be found in 60% of packaged foods sold in the U.S., the group wants you to take a look at a documentary called “The Future of Food.” I’m embedding the first few minutes of it below; the rest can be found on YouTube.

And if, after watching this, you’re ready to send a message to the USDA, you can get started here by clicking through the docket link to the “Add Comments” tab.