So yesterday I had the pleasure (?) of attending the Vancouver Food Policy Council’s Town Hall meeting. Honest confession, I had no idea what I was attending going into it. I thought that I was attending a meeting that would basically describe to me that what the Vancouver Food Policy Council’s (I’m not even sure I have that right) Food strategy plan was going to be and maybe get some public feedback on it. I was so so wrong. It turned out to be a candidates for the City of Vancouver’s upcoming elections chance to have a town hall meeting (duh), and voice their opinions and have a chance to spread their message for the upcoming municipal election.

Okay, so I thought, great I’ll be entertained by some lively debate and political theatre, sounds like a good Wednesday night, I love the West Wing and a sturdy discussion on the real issues that matter, even if it is just at the municipal level (Yes haters, I know the municipal level is the one that most directly affects our lives, but let’s face it, its also one of the most powerless).

So anyways… question #1 was… “Would you support the Vancouver Food Strategy, (which we worked so hard on) and… blah blah blah…?)

Way to start it off on a loaded question, moderator… WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD SAY: “NO I DON’T, IT SUCKS”?

I was out at this point. Seriously? THAT’S THE QUESTION YOU’RE GOING TO START WITH? No wonder not too many serious major category candidates attended.

How about this question: “Did we just waste a sh*tload of money and time on a makework project that pays lip service to poor people not getting enough food?” It’s just as loaded a question… which btw, I think only half of the candidates replied with any knowledge too, so maybe its a good weeding out question…

But I’m ranting at this point. The responses were a casual form of ass slapping and back patting, with occasionally a hint of somebody having actually read the Vancouver Food Strategy (caveat: I haven’t read it, but I’m basing this blog post on my perception of the candidates responses to the qeustions)

In the end, I love political theatre, its my favourite form of theater, and some of the candidates actually did show a strong commitment to the ideals and involvement and belief in the need to devise a strategy to deal with food insecurity in our city, but I couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed, because I really wanted to have a discussion on the food strategy’s failings and strengths, but that was my fault more than theirs. Oh well, I guess I’ll add it to the list of 20 other things I need to read in my spare time…

So this happens…

The Strange History of ‘Mad Honey’

“The dark, reddish, “mad honey,” known as deli bal in Turkey, contains an ingredient from rhododendron nectar called grayanotoxin — a natural neurotoxin that, even in small quantities, brings on light-headedness and sometimes, hallucinations. In the 1700s, the Black Sea region traded this potent produce with Europe, where the honey was infused with drinks to give boozers a greater high than alcohol could deliver.”

Not only is it a high, its a weapon of war!

“Indeed, in 67 B.C. Roman soldiers invaded the Black Sea region under General Pompey’s command, and those loyal to the reigning King Mithridates secretly lined the Romans’ path with enticing chunks of mad honeycomb. The unwitting army ate these with gusto, as the story goes. Driven into an intoxicated stupor by the hallucinogenic honey, many of the flailing soldiers became easy prey, and were slain.”

A honey that can drive you mad eh? I wonder how it would go with a little Bourbon and Lemon.

“We know that if you eat more than one spoonful of honey including grayanotoxin, you are at risk of mad honey poisoning,” Turedi says. “In spring and summer, the honeys are fresh and may include more grayanotoxin than in other seasons.” If that doesn’t dissuade the adventurous foodie, then Turedi says to limit intake to less than a teaspoon, “and if you feel some symptoms associated with mad honey, you should get medical care as soon as possible.”

Hmm… That. Does. Not. Sound. Appealing.

Be right back, on my way to Turkey

Soo mechanized burrito making is a thing now?

BURRITO MAKING DEATH MACHINES. ALL HAIL OUR NEW ROBOT OVERLORDS

I don’t even know where to start on this…On the one hand, you get a consistently made burrito, but on the other hand, at what point does mechanization get a little too out of hand and the human element is completely removed from the fast food system? Does it really reduce cost? And at the end of the day, the burrito maker is only a small part of the whole process of you know, running a fast food joint. Eventually its going to get to the point of us just eating next to vending machines. (On a side note, Japan has some really amazing vending machines where you can really buy anything. Totally unrelated non sequitur)

Plus, when i get my food constructed in front of me, sometimes I want more or less of something, otherwise I’d just buy something out of the vending machine.

This: “Last but by no means least, a huge challenge to robot burrito-making is that the inputs are poorly structured. The last time I went to Chipotle, I ordered a burrito with “uh, some carnitas I guess, but not too much—just a bit—yeah, that’s great, thanks.”” Will make any robots (and some humans) days just a little more miserable. Can robots contemplate suicide? I wonder. What would be the advantage of creating self aware burrito making robots? Besides for of course, a trememdous waste of resources, the thought of an army of chipotle sauce wielding bots hunting down the last survivors of humanity troubles me more than it should…

I was watching the trailer for this documentary coming out..

A Place at the Table Trailer

And a line from it stood out to me: “If another country was doing this to our kids, we would be at war”. And that really struck me.

How is America, the RICHEST country in the world having so much problems feeding it’s own people? Is the problem in the food supply chain? Does it exist with income distribution? Perhaps the answer is a matter of not just equitable food distribution but maybe that of political will? Is this a failure of a distribution system, economic system or a lack of a political will to do something about it? Should politics even be considered in this equation? How do we solve this? Is it a matter of just spending more on social welfare or is that not a sustainable option? This ties into the idea of a messy situation.

Oh hey, its on Netflix? Guess what I’m watching tonight….

Ohhh Sriracha…

From: http://qz.com/132738/the-highly-unusual-company-behind-siracha-the-worlds-coolest-hot-sauce/

http://qz.com/132738/the-highly-unusual-company-behind-siracha-the-worlds-coolest-hot-sauce/

Read a very interesting article about the growth into prominence of Sriracha hot sauce, interesting point I never thought of:

“Sriracha sales last year reached some 20 million bottles to the tune of $60 million dollars, percentage sales growth is in the double digits each year, and it does all this without spending a cent on advertising….

Today hot sauce is an emerging global business. The industry, which is among the10 fastest growing in the US, now rakes in over $1 billion a year in global sales. “

Wow that’s a lot of hot sauce! What’s even more, that’s a lot of chillis!

“One of the few data points Tran will reveal about Huy Fong is that it processed some 100 million pounds (45 million kilograms) of fresh chilies last year over the course of its harvest season, which lasts only 10 weeks and provides for the entirety of the company’s yearlong Sriracha sales.  ”We can only grow as quickly as our ability to harvest chilies grows,” Tran said.”

With the massive increase in the hot sauce business, what’s the increase in demand for chillies? Do they source differently? Not Huy Fong (who produces Sriracha) who has only one producer:

 “So Huy Fong’s Rosemead factory sits only an hour away from Underwood Family Farms, which has been the company’s only chili supplier for the past 20 years.”

Interesting to note, Huy Fong has not spent any money on advertising or marketing, according to the article, and come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Sriracha ad anywhere. In fact, I can’t even remember the first time I ever saw a Sriracha bottle, it’s seemed to just always have been there. I wonder how many chillis they go through in a year?

Mmmm sugar… some would say the cause of and solution to some of life’s biggest problems. I admit it, I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, I rather skip the desserts and head straight to the libations, but I can’t deny how vital sugar is as a taste enhancer in well, pretty much everything.

I had an opportunity this weekend to attend Pursuing Impact: A symposium on international development, hosted by the UBC Centre for Community Engaged Learning. (http://bccic.ca/event/pursuing-impact-symposium-international-development). It was a fascinating day of listening to interesting speakers and their experiences working in various communitites around in the world in Community based learning and work activities.

One thing in particular stood out to me, a speaker from Oxfam Canada mentioned their GROW campaign, which serves to raise awareness on the impact of land grabs on farmers and rural communities in order to grow sugar. Some interesting quotes from the Oxfam Canada Behind the Brands Campaign: http://www.oxfam.ca/grow/act/behind-the-brands

“The global sugar trade is worth about $47 billion. The world produced 176 million tonnes of sugar last year. The food and drinks industry accounts for more than half of it.

Land grabbing is a bitter secret in the sugar supply chains of some of the world’s biggest food and beverage companies. Poor communities across the globe are in dispute or even being kicked off their land, without consultation or compensation, to make way for huge sugar plantations.”

Now that’s a lot of sugar. And that’s probably going to be a lot of land grabbed.

Here’s another interesting sheet: http://files.oxfam.ca/docs/btb/sugar-and-land/Land-and-Sugar-Fact-Sheet-Small.pdf for more information if you’re interested.

And if you’re interested in seeing what you can possibly do to help, by lobbying drink companies, or aiding Oxfam Canada, here’s the web page

http://www.oxfam.ca/grow/act/behind-the-brands

So I was reading this article recently…

http://modernfarmer.com/2013/10/caffeinated-revolution-drinking-good-coffee-columbia/

And it never occurred to me that Colombians were drinking bad coffee. When you think of Colombia, what do you think of? Coffee, right? (Well and other things, but that’s outside the scope of this discussion, and from what I’ve heard, not really relevant in Colombia nowadays)

The images of Juan Valdez and his burro offering you a cup of steaming (albeit, not really that good) coffee spring to mind when you think of Colombian agriculture, and yet:

“Pedro Echavarria: The crappiest coffee you drink is on coffee farm, it’s true: 99 percent of the time if you’re offered coffee, they give you a sugarcane beverage called agua panela with Nescafe added to it.”

And if you think about it, it kind of does make sense, all the work goes into the growing of the coffee, and yet, there is less knowledge about the process of roasting and brewing a good cuppa joe. Which makes you wonder sometimes about what else farmers around the world are missing out about their wondrous product because they are so focused on growing a product that they don’t actually have the opportunity to sample the best examples of how their product are enjoyed? What if Banana farmers never had the chance to sample a finely baked banana bread, or a banana cream pie? Come to think of it, maybe none of them ever have? What else would we be missing out on because we grew a certain crop?

Or maybe this is just a matter of local tastes and demand? When I lived in Costa Rica, they drank good coffee. Or maybe it’s because I was in an office full of gringos that liked to drink good coffee, that’s why we got the good stuff. I remember growing up in Asia, there wasn’t much in the way of a coffee culture, but then again, nowadays there is a booming coffee culture in the region, so perhaps its because of the boom in good coffee culture that has resulted in the increase in coffee quality. Or maybe it’s because now they can justify charging $5 a cup vs $1 a cup. Has profit margin driven the increase or is it because of quality increase?

Definitely points to ponder