The Dairy Show

FSNYC Screening of Big River

I was at a Food Systems Network NYC meeting a few months ago that was about the NYC watershed.  It was an issue I hadn't really thought about before.  Apparently the water for NYC comes from two places the Croton and the Catskills reservoirs.  Whiles there are far from the city, the city has to make sure that what goes on around these bodies of water does not contaminate them.  Specifically their are agencies that work with farmers to make sure that their farming activities don't lead to pollution of the water.

This is more than just a local issue, its applicable to water supplies all over the country and the world.  In there latest film, Big River, Curt Ellis and Ian Cheney, the creators of King Corn, take a look at what effect their acre of corn has on the water supply as far away as the Gulf of Mexico.

On March 15th, the Food Systems Network will continue the discussion of the importance of water at their annual fund-raising event. The evening kicks-off with a networking cocktail hour, featuring craft beers, New York State wines, and local snacks, followed by the Manhattan debut of Big River and  a panel discussion. Filmmakers Ian Cheney, Curt Ellis and Aaron Woolf will be joined on the panel by Hudson Valley farmer and MacArthur Genius award-winner Cheryl Rogowski and Senior Vice President of Scenic Hudson Steve Rosenberg, to discuss the film as it relates to NYC and the region.

Monday, March 15, 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM (Screening at 7:00 PM)

Brecht Forum
451 West Street
(btwn. Bank and Bethune Sts.)
Manhattan

Tickets
FSNYC Members - $25
Non-members - $35

Tickets may be purchased here.

Slow Food NYC Presents: The Art of Eating In

On Saturday Night, March 20th stay in with Slow Food NYC and Cathy Erway, author of The Art of Eating In: How I Learned to Stop Spending and Love the Stove , as she discusses the eco-conscious reasons for eating in, and how to fit cooking into your everyday schedule.  Cathy will demonstrate easy-to-make recipes from her book while we talk about ways to reduce waste and the volume of disposables in take-out food; edible and nutritious plants that you can forage for in parks; and how to throw dinner parties that are low-stress and low-effort for the host. We'll also be discussing the aftermath of the Week of Eating In challenge hosted by Huffington Post Green, which more than 1,000 people have pledged to do for the week of Feb 22-28. Come join the party and eat in with us!

Proceeds from this event will benefit the programs of Slow Food NYC.

Location: Astor Center – 23 East 4th St. (at Lafayette St.); Manhattan [Site]

Time: 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Tickets:
www.astorcenternyc.com/class-slow-u-the-art-of-eating-in-with-cathy-erway.ac

Slow Food Members - $25 (use promotion code SFNYCMEM)
Non-members - $35 (use promotion code SFNYCNON)

Great News for Pizza

There's was great news in the world of pizza yesterday when Grub Street, the blog of New York Magazine reported that Anthony Mangieri is finally resurfacing.  Anthony the former owner of Una Pizza Napoletana closed shop a couple of months ago, because he wanted to try out life on the west coast.  He made probably the best neopolitan style pizza in NY.  Not only were the technique and ingredients great, but his passion made it even better and worth the $20 or so dollars it cost. 

To relate this post more to Dairy, I'll tell you that Anthony was using Buffalo Mozzarella on his pizza, made by its only US producer, which is located in northern California, so I imagine he'll continue at the new place.

I wish Anthony good luck on his new place, scheduled to open in May and I can't wait to try it on my next visit to SF.  Maybe we'll even get Anthony to do an episode of The Dairy Show!

Slow Food NYC Presents: The Locavore Hunter

We've got a pretty interesting Slow U coming up on Saturday March 13th.  Check out the description belo and the article and video from the New York Times about the Locavore Hunter, Jackson Landers. Then buy tickets here.

Description:

Do you find yourself looking for sources of meat that are local, free range, hormone and antibiotic free?  Whitetail deer are roaming rural and suburban New York and New Jersey in record numbers and may be as 'free range' as meat can get.

On March 13 from 2 to 5pm, join Slow Food NYC for an afternoon with locavore hunter, writer and instructor, Jackson Landers.  Learn the basic information that an aspiring locavore hunter needs to know to start hunting deer for food.  Techniques will be discussed that allow even apartment-dwelling urbanites to hunt, dress, age and butcher their own meat for the cost of a few tools and a hunting license.  No pickup truck required.

Jackson will also demonstrate how to butcher a venison hindquarter and a back strap using only the utensils and appliances found in a typical kitchen, while the staff at Jimmy's 43 will assist in cooking the back strap and select hindquarter cuts for the class to try.

Proceeds from this event will help support the activities and programs of Slow Food NYC.

About Jackson Landers:

Jackson attended Hampshire College and Virginia Commonwealth University.  He took up hunting as an adult in order to obtain meat without supporting factory farms.  Jackson teaches complete two day courses for adults to learn everything necessary to hunt deer, including basic marksmanship on a rifle range, a live field dressing demonstration and butchering.  Students cook and eat the deer that they helped to dress.  His classes have been the subject of an article in the New York Times, a video documentary in the Times' web edition, coverage on NPR and he will also be featured in an upcoming HBO documentary, directed by Barbara Kopple.  He is the author of 'Deer Hunting for Locavores' and is currently working on a second book about hunting and eating invasive, non-native species.     

Jackson lives near Charlottesville, Virginia with his wife, and two small children.  Ages 3 and 6, they refuse to eat broccoli or green beans, but enjoy flipping through National Geographic and speculating as to what the hippos and giraffes might taste like.

Tickets available at Brown Paper Tickets. 

Katie Couric is on a roll

Katie Couric of CBS news seems to doing a lot of stories on food policy and public health related issues these days.  In her latest online show called @KatieCouric, she does an extensive interview with Dr. David Kessler, former FDA commissioner and author of the book The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite, and Eric Schlosser, journalist and author of Fast Food Nation.

As I suggested, this interview is quite long, at about 48 minutes, but very informative. This video is a great introduction to learn about some of the issues with our food system and how it contributed to 60% of adults US being overweight and 30% of US children.  It also offers good insights into how we should be thinking about what caused our problems and how we might solve them.

During the interview parallels between the war on smoking and of changing eats habits are discussed.  Dr. Kessler says that we knew that the campaign against smoking was working when children were asking their parents to stop smoking.  He says that now wouldn't it be great if we could educate kids about good eating and have them saying to their parents "Please don't take me to that fast food restaurant."

For summary of the video check out the post on Civil Eats, or watch the whole thing below.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Let's Move

Last week the White House and the First Lady unveiled there new plan to combat childhood obesity.  This is a very serious problem as in the past 30 years the prevalence of childhood obesity has grown to 30% of the population. 

There are two main parts to the White House Initiative.  First the President has established the creation of a childhood obesity task force and second the first lady will head up a new public relations program called Let's Move.  The goals of the programs are to ensure access to healthy, affordable food; increase physical activity in schools and communities; provide healthier food in schools; and empower parents with information and tools to make good choices for themselves and their families.

The Let's Move website, is definitely worth checking out, because is filled with great information about the program and links to other resources.    This looks like a great comprehensive program that is tackling the issues from many different angles and over the next few weeks, I'll put up some posts to highlight different aspects of the plan..  I'm very impressed by how many different organizations are involved from the FDA, to USDA, to public schools, to the American Academy of Pediatricians.  This type of multidisciplinary approach makes me optimistic that this program could work. 

Food Curated Presents: Dickson's Farmstand Meats

Liza Mosquito de Guia (@SkeeterNYC) produces fantastic videos about local food over at FoodCurated.com.  Her latest feature is on Dickson's Farmstand Meats.  This new butcher shop in the Chelsea Market is a real butcher shop and gets all its products from the local area.  I recently shot an interview with Betty Fussell in the shop for a Dairy Free project I'm working on and you'll hear more about soon.

The folks over at Dickson's are really great and Liza's video's do a nice job of telling their story.  Watch the video's below (after the jump) and check out Liza's others at FoodCurated.com. 

Special Edition 5-Marea's Perfect Panna Cotta

Watch it on the iPhone

Jamie Oliver wins TED prize

Jamie Oliver is the British chef who has come to America to tackle obesity and related diseases.  On his new show called "Jamie's Food Revolution", which premieres March 26th on ABC he visits "America's Unhealthiest city" Huntington West Virgina in order to teach the community about food and to try to get them to change that way they. 

On February 10th he won the this years TED prize (Technology, Entertainment, Design).  The prize comes with $100,000 and "a wish to change the world".  Which according to the TED website is supposed to mobilize the community to effect change.  Jamie's wish was

"for your help to create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity."

Hopefully this prize and the upcoming television show will indeed help make an impact in the improving the way people eat and fighting obesity.  To watch Jamie's TED speech, see below.

New Organic Milk Standards Require Pasture!

According to this post from the Cornucopia institute, today the USDA adopted new stricter regulations for organic animal products. Under the new regulations, in order to label products with the organic seal, animals must be out on pasture for the whole growing season or a minimum of 120 days and have access to the outdoors year round.  During their time on pasture 30% of the animals dry matter intake must come from grazing pasture.  

These new regulations, while not perfect, are a major advancement in ensuring that milk labeled organic comes from animals that are not continuously confined to dry lots.  It will be interesting to see the effect these new regulations have on some of the "big organic" brands.

While these regulations will make it so that the cows producing organic milk come closer to the vision that many consumers have about happy cows out on pasture, remember that these regulations only require producers to ensure that animals are getting 30% of their dry feed from pasture.  If you want closer to 100% grass-fed milk, you are still going to have to look for it specifically.  So I still recommend seeking out and meeting your local farmers to find out how they raise their animals.