CT Food Producers Student Forum

Ellie and Tressa are leading a student forum this semester on CT food producers:

In this forum, we will learn about food growers and producers in CT. We will take weekly fieldtrips to visit farms, dairies, restaurants, bakeries, and factories to develop an understanding and appreciation of Connecticut made foods and the processes in which they are produced. There will be readings each week relating to the places we visit and workshops about making bread, cheese, preserved foods, etc. The site visits and workshops will be a practical application of the assigned readings. Participants will also be required to help organize and run the weekly Wesleyan Farmers Market.

If you're interested, contact teaton at wesleyan.edu.

Trackable Bananas

(check out the animation featuring the above banana)

So the other day I was eating a banana (my mom's on an all veggies/fruit/beans diet so suddenly I'm faced with a bounty of healthy things to eat) and I was surprised to discover that I had the option of virtually visiting the farm on which it was produced. Each banana has a sticker with the number of its farm of origin, and you can go online to view a webpage full of info including the farm's organic certifications. There's also an option to view the farm on Google Earth (perhaps slightly creepy, but also kindof cool). My banana was from Hacienda Pérez Quiñonez, located the province of El Oro in Ecuador. (see link)

Anyway, I know that's way more than you probably ever wanted to know about my eating habits, but I thought it was really cool. Usually, finding out where your food comes from requires extensive investigation, and it was nice to be handed that information with the food for a change. At first I was a little skeptical (given the dirty history of big fruit companies and that I'm generally suspicious from reading No Logo) but then I realized that I was confusing United Fruit (now Chiquita) with Standard Fruit (now Dole). Maybe I'm wrong, but I think Standard Fruit has a less violent history than United Fruit's history (which includes a banana massacre). Anyway, this Wikipedia article was pretty informative and brought back hazy memories of the Foreign Policy class I took in high school, so that was fun.

Some things:
-Dole Organics Website
-Banana Wars (you can read portions on google books...)

"Reducing your carbon footprint just got a whole lot tastier!"

Climate Change Chocolate wrapper (with tips)

Over winter break I spent a decent amount of time at Borders (it's my very not-guilty pleasure to peruse the art history section there and pretend I know what I'm looking at). Anyway, you know how they always have a bunch of crap at the front, designed to seduce really impulsive shoppers (basically, me)? Well, they really got me with Climate Change Chocolate. When you buy a chocolate bar, made by Bloomsberry & Co, terrapass purchases 133 lbs of carbon offsets (which is equivalent to an average person's CO2 output per day). At first I was like hey, okay, fine...but chocolate is imported, and that eats up a bunch of fossil fuels blah blah blah...except that the website says "the carbon emissions associated with the production and distribution of the chocolate bar has been balanced out." Hmm! Perhaps this is an example of a way we can maintain certain aspects of our lifestyle while still being eco-friendly. As much as I'm a huge proponent of eating locally, I realize that most people (including myself) would be more than a little reluctant to give up chocolate (btw, Climate Change Chocolate really is tasty). But then again, it doesn't seem like this product is a big seller (it was 50% off when I bought it, which makes me feel like Borders wanted to get rid of them). I'm pretty sure you can get it at Whole Foods, just FYI.