Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Village Voice Blog about Our Dinner


Check out the Village Voice food blogger's take on our dinner.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Endless Feast Fiesta at iCi


Last night, more than 100 friends, community members, and family (mom, stepdad, brother!) got together at my neighborhood favorite restaurant, iCi, to celebrate the farm in Red Hook that we showcase in The Endless Feast Brooklyn episode. Lovely, delicious local food was enjoyed by everyone--we even got to sample Six Point Craft Ales brews (featured, along w/ iCi and other local providers in the show), dining alongside the brewmasters themselves. After a dinner which included iCi's not-too-be-missed grits and greens, we gathered in the restaurant's back garden to screen the 22-minute episode. (If you're in NYC, check out the show on June 24 on Channel 13 at 5:30pm.)
from last night---Elizabeth (l) and Ludie (r) from Green Gourmet, mom and me.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Our Friend On The Lot

Our friend, the amazing filmmaker Shalini Kantayya, has been chosen as one of the 50 finalists to appear On the Lot, a new FOX reality TV show. Her film, A Drop of Life, is the chilling story set in the near future in India about the privatization of water. Watch Shalini's interview about it here: http://films.thelot.com/films/17992.

Monday, May 21, 2007

YOU CAN HELP PRESERVE THE INTEGRITY OF THE ORGANIC SEAL


Hey everyone - the National Organic Standards Board has just proposed allowing 38 new non-organic substances in organic-labelled foods. They have a public comment period about this decision open until 5pmEST tomorrow. If you want to learn more about the proposal, visit http://www.cornucopia.org/. My two cents is below if you want to add yours:
To comment, go to http://www.regulations.gov/, search for AMS-TM-07-0062, and submit your comment by clicking on the bubble on the right of the screen ("add comment").
I am writing as a conscious eater to lodge my concerns about the approval of 38 new non-organic agricultural products to be allowed in organic foods. Through my recent work speaking to audiences across the country about sustainable agriculture and organic production, I heard again and again the consensus among U.S. consumers that they want strict standards for organic foods, and that when they see the USDA label the expect those strict standards to be in place.

If there are to be additions of conventionally produced substances into the allowed list, there must be thorough independent unbiased review of the environmental and health impacts of the practices used to grow these crops, raise these animals, and make these products. To date, my understanding is that the NOSB has not received adequate, unbiased information on these additional substances .

Thank you for upholding the integrity of the standard.
Anna Lappe, Brooklyn, NY

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Small Schools Are Cool

youth of today

I had fun this morning conducting a cooking workshop for youth at June Jordan School for Equity in San Francisco. My friend Savannah Shange is one of the committed teachers there.

Monday, May 14, 2007

the kanye west of the food justice movement

the bryant terry of the music industry (center)

check out an interview with me on culinate. the photograph of me was taken by my good friend yamini nayar in b-r-o-o-k-l-y-n.

Kanye has that PMA

Friday, May 11, 2007

Mom Takes Over the World (Well, Sort of)

Check out this announcement from the bold-sounding World Future Council. My mom is one of the founding members and she's in Hamburg now for the official launching of the Council. I'm pasting in the press release (below). Signing off as a proud daughter... Anna


The Future Starts This Week in Hamburg
The World Future Council is Ready to Go.
London/Hamburg, 7 May 2007. The World Future Council (WFC) has reached its full complement of 50 eminent global pioneers, representing all continents from the world of business, politics, civil society and the arts. Now, this strong new voice is about to get even louder.In the future, the WFC will be able to draw on the expertise of the former President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, The Hon. Arthur N.R. Robinson. He has received the Parliamentarians for Global Action"Defender of Democracy Award", the Order of the Caribbean Community and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. And in 2002 he was honoured with the Peace Leadership Award from the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.

Joining Robinson as the latest in a long line of prominent figures to join the Council, are Prof. Rae Kwon Chung, Director of the Environment and Sustainable Division of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger,Director of the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law,Mairead Corrigan-Maguire, Co-founder, The Peace People and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Jared Duval, National Director of the Sierra Student Coalition, the author Dr. Riane Eisler, President of the Centre for Partnership Studies, Wes Jackson, Co-founder and President of The Land Institute, Baroness Helena Kennedy, President of the School of Oriental and African Studies (London University) and Member of the House of Lords, UK.

The new councillors will meet with the founding members at the WFC Founding Congress, which begins with a celebratory launch at 10 a.m. on the 10th of May 2007 in the city hall, Hamburg, Germany.

At the ceremony, Ole von Beust, the Mayor of Hamburg, will officially welcome the Council to the city. The initiators of the World Future Council, Jakob von Uexkull (founder of the Right Livelihood Award) and Herbert Girardet (author, environmental expert and film-maker), will outline the aims of the WFC, and also speaking about their involvement in the Council will be interim members of the WFC Executive Committee, Bianca Jagger and Beate Weber.The Council will then go into session until Sunday to set the course forthe WFC's future work. The members of the World Future Council will present the results of the founding congress as well as the Hamburg Call to Action to the G8 and the EU at the main press conference at 11 a.m.on Sunday, 14th May.

The Aims of the World Future Council The World Future Council is a strong new voice in the global arena,which draws on our shared human values to champion the rights of future generations, and working to ensure that humanity acts now to safeguard a sustainable future.Despite having the means to tackle many of the problems we face, the existing global system of governance has so far seemed incapable of addressing them, often failing to adopt available solutions. Supported by an international staff, the WFC's 50 Councillors will propose ethical guidelines for national and international policies.Detailing how they will go about implementing the proposals, Jakob von Uexkull said the Council will help "introduce these into national parliaments via the e-Parliament, a global online network of democratically elected parliamentarians. Our first in a series of major ongoing campaigns will be on tackling global climate change."
Press Contact: Robert Turner
robert@worldfuturecouncil.org

Friday, May 04, 2007

If You See Something, Say Something

I checked out this exhibit at Hunter College last night with my friend Danny. Lots of cool exhibits, but these two were my favorite: The Guerrilla Nutrition Label folks are out to re-label products on supermarket shelves with labels that tell you about what's really important on the inside. So far, their stock includes labels for high-fructose corn syrup, trans fats, and sodium benzoate (a food additive/preservative). Print them out and head out to your nearest grocery store yourself.
I also loved the Rejected Letters to the Editor. As someone who has had lots of rejected letters to the editor, this project spoke to my heart. Particularly hilarious was the page on the site that shared the conversation stream in a listserv for letter-to-the-editor editors reacting to the project.
I always like to myself that we all can play a role in shaping the media we see, hear, and read. One of the best feedback loops newspapers have are the letters that we -- the readers (aka consumers) -- send in. Though the vast majority of them never get published, these letters still they provide important info for the paper. Now, we've all got a vast repository for all of those unpublished ones.

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Green is the new Black

We just got word that GRUB has won the Nautilus Book Award in the food/cooking/nutrition category!

The Nautilus is a unique book award, recognizing authors and titles that contribute to our society’s awareness and well-being, and that embrace spiritual and ecological values such as compassion, sustainability, simplicity, and global peace.

Hey we got that PMA (part 2)

Bryant's Gotta Have It

spike lee posing for a photograph

Last night I met one of my artistic heroes--none other than Mr. Shelton Jackson Lee. Before screening Acts II and III of his documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, the San Francisco International Film Festival honored him with its Film Society Directing Award. After a really weird q and a with film critic Wesley Morris, Spike sat down three rows behind me.

Here was my chance.

After jumping some velvet contraption that was meant to keep me away from him, I introduced myself, gave him a copy of Grub, and had him sign my copy of Spike Lee's Gotta Have It.

This is one of my favorite books and has served as a constant source of inspiration. I actually kept a copy on my desk the whole time I was writing Grub. In addition to the full screenplay for Spike's first film She's Gotta Have It (which he hates now), it contains his journal before and during the making of the film. It's so inspiring to see him go from a rail-thin new kid on the block in the mid '80s to one of the most important filmmakers working today.

Spike has that PMA.




Tuesday, May 01, 2007

"Hey we got that PMA." --Bad Brains


So I was in Barnes and Noble (I know, I know) the other night in Oakland looking for Think and Grow Rich to give to my friend Jason Harvey for his birthday. Before I left, I had to make my usual stop by the cookbook section to a) see if they had copies of Grub in stock and b) surreptitiously face them forward if they weren’t already. I was happy to find several copies of Grub facing forward on the top shelf of their “featured cookbooks.” Thanks Barney!

As I was leaving, a beautifully designed cover of a cookbook on the new arrival shelf caught my attention. When I opened up the book and thumbed through, my eyes welled up with tears of joy. I was delighted to find a cookbook that most closely resembles the vibe that I imagine for my next book—artistic, modern, and fun. I finally found my muse--Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson.

Heidi is a San Francisco-based photographer, cookbook author, designer, and creator of the website 101 Cookbooks. She loves art and food. Check her out.

Heidi has that PMA