Agriculture, Food Policy, Slow Food Movement

France has the AOC (Appellation Origin Controlle), Italy has the DOP, and Iowa has Riki Saltzman's project for identifying Iowa place-based foods - Maytag blue cheese, Muscatine melons, and more. Check out this March 2007 article on her project.

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KenMeter1.mp3

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KenMeterJefferson.ppt

(50MB MP3 54 min) details the amount of money extracted from the local economy by commodity ag production (corn,soybeans, livestock) and contrasts this with the amount of money that left the local economy to buy food for people to eat. Ken gives the details on who gets rich and who gets poor in todays commodity ag economy. In this talk, Ken analyzes economic data for the counties surrounding Grinnell, Iowa, showing that commodity agriculture lost more than $300 million in the last seven years, while people of the region paid over $850 million for food to eat.

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Potager du Roi - Antoine Jacobsen.mp3

(8.8MB MP3) This vegetable garden and fruit production facility established by King Louis 14th covers 20 acres or so, is stunningly beautiful and features one of the world's largest collections of espallier fruit trees. Hear how produce was made available year round before the fossil fuel age. November, 2006, at the plant fair, Domaine de Beauregard, just outside of Paris (home to another beautiful and historic grand potager)

"There is a communion of more than our bodies when bread is broken and wine is drunk. That is what I say when people ask me, "Why do you write of food, and not of love and war?"" -MFK Fisher

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affinage.pdf

(5MB PDF) Report on cheese aging (Affinage) from a Wisconsin cheesemaker who went to France.