Free Republic

It is interesting how, in the aftermath of the past year’s run-up in oil prices, we have been hearing less and less talk of “globalization” from the chattering classes. Why is this? On the surface, there are several reasons. First, the topic high oil prices presents an easy segue to bring up the annointed’s favorite mantra: green technologies and the need to continue de-industrializing America. We can all get high-paying “green” jobs to replace the textile, manufacturing, computer programming, and bio-tech jobs which have been developed in the United States and then shipped offshore. And the high oil prices themselves...

First, from the top of the Democrat Party, we had Howard Dean banning fried food at the Democrat Convention and authorizing only approved food colors. Of course, the caterers correctly thought Dean was a moron, and told him so. Now the Left Coast chapter of the Fraternal Order of Oral Limitations (FOOL), which enforces food consumption regulations as well as speech control laws, has decided that people in South-Central are too fat and unhealthy so they want a moratorium on any new fast food joints.

This may be my 12 launch in ten years, all new crew. We have about 50 video recipes by some really great chefs, we have almost 300 more to upload over the next month and we are shooting new content. If you are a foodie who would like to rant and rave let me know, seeking fun bloggers.

Prime Minister Brown tells families: 'Stop wasting food' Yes, you read it right... the head of a prosperous, democratic government scolded his subjects about food wasting. People are starving in China! Of course, as children we all wanted to sass to our mothers, "Then let's put the leftovers in a box and mail it to them!" Which would have gotten us a now-illegal spanking. And that is what this is all about... governments that treat us like children. A nanny state mentality. Could it be that when government takes over raising children through public schooling, provides a safety net wherever...

Nutritionist and author Jonny Bowden has created several lists of healthful foods people should be eating but aren’t. But some of his favorites, like purslane, guava and goji berries, aren’t always available at regular grocery stores. I asked Dr. Bowden, author of “The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth,” to update his list with some favorite foods that are easy to find but don’t always find their way into our shopping carts. Here’s his advice. Beets: Think of beets as red spinach, Dr. Bowden said, because they are a rich source of folate as well as natural red pigments that may...

UH-OH: Secret report: biofuel caused food crisis. Secret report: biofuel caused food crisis Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian. The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body. . . . "Political leaders seem intent on suppressing and ignoring the strong evidence that biofuels are a major factor in recent food price rises," said Robert Bailey, policy adviser at Oxfam. Perhaps they...

In a move backers are calling a “pilot test,” the Democratic Party convention in Denver this August has banned fried foods from the premises. “Republicans are telling the American people that our comprehensive healthcare plan is infeasible, that it will ‘break the bank,’” Howard Dean, Democratic National Committee Chairman, asserted. “That just shows the myopia of the right wing when it comes to caring for the health of the American people.” “A lot of our nation’s health problems start with a poor diet,” Dean contended. “Fried foods are among the worst things people can eat. If we can put a...

Clint Brown began planting vegetables at age 4. His then babysitter, a retired gentlemen with an interest in gardening, got him started. Now 17, Clint has his own gardening business -- a venture that began four years ago with a bumper green bean crop and success at the Le Mars farmer's market. "He sold them so fast,"said Audrey Brown, Clint's mom. "I think that's what got him hooked." Clint's gardens are on his parent's Audrey and Steve Brown's farm west of Merrill. In April 2006 Clint got serious about his gardening business by building his first high tunnel structure, which...

The world can have carbon control or it can have food and energy security. The former means reduced energy supply while the latter requires greatly expanded energy supply, which in turn, for at least the next 3 or 4 decades, means substantially greater carbon expansion. A few rich nations, accustomed to energy and food security for about 50 years now, want carbon control to prevail. The rest of the world seeks food and energy security since billions of people today have little of either. Roughly about 600 million people live in societies or polities (not nations) where carbon control is...

Global Intrigue + More Will Escalate Food Prices Drastically: What Will A Loaf Of Bread Cost Next Year? RFFM.org Guest Commentary by Joyce Morrison The mere thought of a food shortage in America is unthinkable…or is it? Headlines read, “Planting season weather perplexing for farmers.” “Weather may cut yields,” “Further spike in food costs feared due to floods,” “Food shortages,” -- these are headlines preparing us for the fact we will no longer have the cheapest, safest food in the world. All spring the breadbasket of America has been deluged with floods, wind storms, tornados, heavy rain and hail. Illinois...

Day in and day out, I get served slop in a bowl for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I guess it’s not so much slop as it is dry hard pellets that taste like cardboard and lamb. So imagine my surprise when my old man pulled his chair up to the computer and surfed over to blissful biscuits to order me my very own Heaven Scent Pizza. I drooled uncontrollably as my father read me the ingredients…whole wheat flour, carrots, celery, parmesan cheese, garlic, basil, etc. No additives whatsoever. Sure it didn’t have any lard, but this pie tastes and smells...

June 2007 May was just about as demented weather-wise as a month can be! First—the cold, reinforced by drought, then wind and more wind. Rain, more cold, and some more wind from a different direction! It sort of felt like maybe we were actually in Auntie Em’s house, spinning round and round, being pelted by rain and buffeted by wind coming from every direction and wondering what in the world was going to happen to us. What few plants survived the frost, and didn’t succumb to the drought, gave up in the face of an extremely long and miserable nor’easter....

I'm getting some hot sauces shipped to me over the next couple of days, and wanted to get some opinions from folks who have either tried them or in some ways experienced them. One set I'm getting is from Dave's Gourmet, i.e. the guy who created the "Insanity sauce" and the "ultimate insanity sauce". The batch I'm getting is the spicy 6 pack which is Roasted Pepper & Chipotle Sauce, Roasted Garlic Hot Sauce, Scotch Bonnet Sauce, Insanity Sauce, Cool Cayenne Sauce and Hurtin Jalapeno Sauce. Has anyone here ever tried any of these sauces and does anyone have an...

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s Jacques Diouf charged that “Americans grow fat while the world starves” and demanded a “redistribution of food.” The problem stems from capitalism, Diouf said. “Under capitalism, pure greed runs rampant,” he asserted. “Food that should be going to the undernourished poor in the Third World is being sold to obese Americans for profit.” Diouf suggested that world hunger could be ended if food were parceled out based on need. “Everyone should get the food he needs, whether he is able to pay for it or not,” Diouf declared. “Those who are able to...

Please remember folks --- this article is from 2006! June is here, and along with it, summer. Gone are the soft pastels of flowering vines such as jasmine and wisteria. The bolder, brighter summer colors of orange trumpet vine and the tropical colors of mandevillas are on their way. The soft, new greens of spring have been replaced by the harder greens of maturing leaves. Crepe myrtles and gardenias and hydrangeas are showing off their colors. Now that the things we hate about warm weather are back in full force-all the mosquitoes, sand gnats, yellow flies, and various other nasty...

It’s like some surreal scene directly from the pages of an Ayn Rand novel. These are the knuckleheads that created the hunger problem. People like Robert Mugabe, who took the breadbasket of Southern Africa and turned it into a disaster area. He is in attendance, and has actually blamed the West for his country’s food shortages.

For all you foodies out there A friend of mine sent me a link to his website. It's all about southern cooking, here's a sample Monday, April 28, 2008Jim 'n Nicks Bar-B-Q: You Can Smell Our Butts for Miles Tell the truth. Is Jim 'n Nicks slogan now in your top five of barbecue restaurant slogans? I would bet number one, hands down. After eating at Jim 'n Nick's, the food and service will most certainly be on the top of your list. We stopped in the Prattville, Alabama store on our way south from Tuscaloosa, AL to our home...

5 foods it's cheaper to grow If grocery prices have you thinking about cutting costs with a garden, you may be on the right track. But be careful what you plant; a garden could raise your food costs. Whether you save by gardening depends largely on where you live, what you grow and how well you resist slick gadgets and miracle solutions. If you're looking to save money rather than to start a hobby, here are five garden crops likely to give you the best return: What about tomatoes? They require moderate care and vigilance, and in short-season climates, you...

China food product Consumer Alert. 26 May 08 - Sunkist Fruit Gummies sold via Dollar Tree Stores. Moms....watch the video via Old Glory Radio.

My apologies to all for the lateness of this post --- it has just been a week from you now where here. As we all morph into this holiday weekend, I would like to remind you all to take a moment to remember why this is a "holiday" weekend. Yes, we're all going to enjoy our cookouts and the 3 day weekend (well some have 3 day weekends) but I do ask that each of us take a moment and salute those for whome this weekend remembers.

Whether you hate them or not, this video of a new product tasting at Anheuser-Busch was an interesting experience. I came back from Saint Louis with an interesting video of a private tasting of Anheuser-Busch’s Budweiser American Ale. Before I get to the video, a couple of observations. It’s been a while since I can recall an extension of the Budweiser name, but just as A-B is positioning flagship brand Budweiser as The Great American Lager, their October-release Budweiser American Ale also waves the flag. You can read into this whatever you please, but with well over 125 years of...

A man awaiting trial on a murder charge is suing Benton County, Arkansas, complaining that the “skimpy rations” he has been fed in the county jail caused him to lose more than 100 pounds during eight months in jail. “I used to be a sturdy 400-plus pounds,” Laswell boasted. “Now, I’m practically skin and bones. It’s cruel and unusual punishment.” Laswell is being assisted in his suit by the ACLU. “This is but another sorry example of the pattern of torture and abuse that has overtaken the U.S. penal system under the Bush Administration,” said ACLU spokesman, Bertram Petty. “Starving...

Wow! What an arctic blast! Can you remember a colder Good Friday and Easter? It wouldn’t be so bad if it had been cold all along, but to be in the high eighties and then wham! Frostbite! And then, to add insult to injury, it stayed miserably cold with repeated heavy frosts until at least the tenth of April! Condolences to all of you who had your warm season gardens planted. The weather will swing in the opposite direction like a demented weathervane soon enough and we will be miserable with the high temperatures. Sure doesn’t look like we’re going...

Put on the defensive by charges of “elitism,” Democratic presidential contender Senator Barack Obama (Ill) insisted that he can appeal to people in all walks of life. “Those who say I can’t connect with the diverse peoples of this country don’t know the real me,” Obama said. “To say that I don’t understand the point of view of the blue-collar man is absurd. I, myself, have often worn a shirt with a blue collar. There are pictures of me in a blue shirt at campaign rallies. So, don’t tell me I don’t know what it is like to wear a...

May is a wondrous month, bursting with life and growth and energy, with color and scent and sound, a bittersweet taste of what the Garden of Eden must have been like before the fall from grace. Flowers are coming into their own, birds are nesting and hatching their young, puddles are full of tadpoles. Everything is celebrating the passing of winter and preparing for the long, hot summer ahead. With it’s perfect weather, May is the month to enjoy just being alive. May is time to plant the vegetables that need warmer weather. The soil temperature needs to be at...

A couple of weeks ago I emailed the following to my FL congress crittters. How high must fuel and food costs go before you reverse your opposition to domestic oil drilling and support for Soviet style ethanol tariffs and subsidies? Here is what Sen Bill Nelson (Rat - Fl) had to say: "Dear (Jacquerie), Thank you for contacting me regarding drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. I oppose drilling in the Arctic Refuge. As a native Floridian, I realize the importance of protecting our natural habitats and preserving environmentally sensitive lands. Just as I oppose drilling off Florida, I...

Five weeks ago, we adopted a healthy 6 month old cat from our local PetSmart. He had been in foster care since he and his kitty siblings were found when they were six to eight weeks old. He was in fine condition, and we met his foster mom who seemed honest and sincere in trying to find the right home for a kitty she clearly loved. Anywho, the cat developed a cold within a few days of coming to live with us. I think he was shaking the cold when he started having much worse troubles. He stopped eating, and...

It's time for Cooking Reality and on Hell's Kitchen we've got Family night and Chef Ramsey mad at one contender for no discernible reason. In Top Chef-it's yellow, turned-on asparagus and a Polish sausage dish with no polish sausage. A review of the episodes aired on this cooking show the week of 4/25/08.

Little Rock—During his recent trips to Little Rock, Arkansas, Presidential candidate John McCain visited Little Rock’s Whole Hog Café, a popular barbecue stop for locals. The Whole Hog Café, a seven time winner of the best barbecue by the readers of the Arkansas Times, was a suggested stop by McCain’s travel companion former Arkansas’ Governor Mike Huckabee. The lure of the smoking pork drew McCain to the smokers in the back. There, he witnessed the cooks preparing slabs of pork ribs for the smokers. McCain, an avid fan of barbecue, was enthralled with the dry rub spices used by the...

Presidential contender, Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has been taking flak for his 20-year association with Reverend Jeremiah Wright of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ. Wright is now making a tour of media outlets to “try to set the record straight.” “Commentators like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh would have their audience believe that I am un-American,” Wright complained. “Listen, when I said ‘God dam America,’ I was trying to urge the nation to make an investment in the expansion of clean hydroelectric power and flood control. I mean, coal-fired electricity is contributing to global warming. And we all saw...

I have had a week from Hades and will be perfectly honest with you all.........I completely and totally FORGOT about this thread yesterday. And so you all have my heartfelt apologies. My brain is pretty much just mush at the moment and so I am just going to share some of my favorite links.Edible LandscapingYou Grow GirlNational Home Gardening Club

Chef Ramsey cusses on in "Hell's Kitchen" as the contenders continue messing up. The girl's team finally wins one and a fellow who tried desperately to quit finally is fired by Chef Ramsey. While over at Bravo TV the Top Chef Chicago hosts a Chicago Bears' tailgate party. The would-be Top Chefs prepare tailgate meals that, in some cases, make no sense. With a visit from the original Chicago Bear and Refrigerator Perry. All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

As I noted in a recent column on the perils of ethanol and other biofuels, using food for fuel is wrought with difficulties. One of them is hunger, which is on the rise throughout the Third World, largely due to biofuel production. As a result, discontent is brewing, food riots and hoarding are becoming the norm, and governments are finding themselves facing an increasingly hostile and hungry populace. An International Herald Tribune article (linked at Drudge) spells out thelooming disaster in startling detail (emphasis added): "It's the worst crisis of its kind in more than 30 years," said Jeffrey Sachs,...

Taking an early morning walk this time of year is a singular treat, like Dorothy stepping out of Auntie Em’s house into the color and sound of Oz. The same things that are always there, only instead of Winter‘s drabness, Spring’s full and glorious color. Each walk is accompanied by a symphony of birdsong, a riot of color bursting everywhere. Fallen jasmine blossoms scatter themselves on the ground like the famed yellow brick road, and blooming things pop up everywhere like the fabled Munchkins. And then, as if the colors and sounds aren’t enough, just to add a little spice,...

Don't eat at McDonald's on South West Marine Drive in Vancouver. Listen. I love McDonald's, both for their food and for what they stand for philosophically. I thought that Super Size Me was a piece of anti-capitalist, anti-beef propaganda. But when you're in Vancouver, skip the McDonald's on Marine Drive. That's because the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal has ruled that one of the employees there has a human right not to wash her hands when working in their kitchen. Beena Datt claimed that she developed a "skin condition" that meant she couldn't wash her hands in compliance with McDonald's...

First, there were growing reports of school children being underfed and not getting enough calories, fats and sugars to enable them to grow well and learn, as a result of efforts to feed them ‘healthy’ foods. Now, an investigation of nursery preschools has uncovered tragic findings: nearly all nurseries are feeding toddlers so little fat and calories, and such excessive amounts of 'healthy' fiber, fruits and vegetables, that they are putting the children at risk for stunted growth and nutritional deficiencies. Mistaken beliefs about healthy eating are now endangering our youngest children. A terribly disturbing study was released a few...

NJ has thousands of far more pressing problems,but... a NJ Assemblyman wants to ban the sale of high-caffeine beverages to "underage" consumers. It never stops !!!

Reviews of two cooking show contests now ongoing-Fox's "Hell's Kitchen" and Bravo's "Top Chef". Both shows feature would-be chefs but the tasks, judging and prizes are as different as night and day. The Top Chef features air,earth,fire and water entrees while Hell's Kitchen is same old, same old with the Chef wearing too much makeup sent home. Plus a review of this past week's Miss USA pageant, the audacity of one contestant, the winners and runners-up and the judges whose pics will scare the hell out of you. All with pictures you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

April is a debutante’s ball for green and growing things! Young foliage garbs the trees in gauzy, pastel gowns of gold and green and russet, like a watercolor by an old master. Their subtle color is a poignant reminder and a future foretaste of the fall’s bold leaves of orange and yellow and rust. The wild azaleas will be blooming soon, their delicate apple blossom pink petals shining through here and there and their honey sweet fragrance filling the air. The violets, from the large purple ones with heart shaped leaves to the tiny, almost invisible white ones with lance...

So Gordon Ramsey is back and he's still cussing. "Hell's Kitchen" 2008 premiered on 4/1/08 and fifteen would be chefs were introduced to the viewing audience and one hapless fellow, the ONLY one without an official cooking background, was sent packing. We've got a review along with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet. Also, Guest Writer Michelle almost kills herself but she only ended up making a big stink.

Seed swapping Q. I have a backyard vegetable/fruit/herb garden, and every year I wind up with lots of leftover seeds, more than I can possibly plant next time around, yet throwing them away seems like an awful waste. Is there any established way to share, trade, or recycle seeds? - Jacey, WY A. Absolutely. Seed-sharing has been an officially time-honored tradition since at least 1989, when Canada and Britain founded their respective “Seedy Saturday” and “Seedy Sunday” swaps. And in the US, the last Saturday in January is “National Seed Swap Day,” so start saving your seeds up for January...

Check out this ad in a Mexican magazine named "Quien" from this month: http://lauramartinez.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/imagenfinal.jpg I like Absolut vodkas, but I won't buy them anymore. They've got competition in the regular and flavored markets, and the competition will benefit from this idiocy. Maybe I'll buy some Kalashnikov vodka instead: http://www.vodkakalashnikov.com/home.htm

I have had it with manufacturers that don't match up products that go together with identical amounts. We all are familiar with the old 8 hot dogs and 10 hot dog buns conundrum. Well, now I have another situation - I love the 12 packs that hold a dozen soft drinks but my refrigerator has a specific space made for soft drinks but (you guessed it) it only holds 10 cans. For heavens sake, whey can't they match? Is that too much to ask?

Wow! February was sure a weather rollercoaster. Not just for us, but for most of the country, and indeed the world, with record snows and cold temperatures recorded in many places. So much for glo-bull warming! Face it, scientists-who-think-you-know-everything! Weather is weather, and mankind has no control over it, no influence on it whatsoever. We can record it, and complain about it, compare this year to that year. Bottom line is—the weather and the climate cycle as they will, hotter sometimes, colder sometimes. Wetter sometimes, dryer sometimes. All the hype, whichever way it goes, sounds suspiciously like a retelling of...

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, I know.......many folks are still covered in snow others are facing other horrendous weather issues. They are all in our thoughts and prayers. HOWEVER - at 1:26 Eastern this afternoon Spring officially begins. Trying to find articles about the first day of spring was practically an impossibility. Oh sure, there were some out there but most of them were real downers, so I decided today might be a great share some of our favorite gardening websites. The categories of gardening and seed catalogs on my favorites list are both as long as my arm, but I grabbed...

Hey all! Since my computer decided to eat a couple years worth of my articles, and I’m too lazy to dig out the papers and retype them, I thought I’d just give you a rundown on my greenhouse and answer some of the questions a few of you have been kind enough to ask! I don’t have any formal training, other than a few years of horticulture classes in high school FFA. My grandparents and parents gardened, and I grew up following them around on the farm. I do have a great love for the land and of growing things,...

The one bit of encouraging news for small dairies has been the growing market among health-conscious consumers for unpasteurized milk and dairy products like yogurt, butter and cream... Small dairies have rushed to meet this need via a completely new business model. Instead of selling milk in bulk to processors who offer take-it-or-leave-it prices of $1.50 to $2 a gallon, some small dairies sell directly to consumers at whatever price the market will bear, typically from $5 a gallon to as much as $10 a gallon. At those prices, dairy farmers actually begin thinking in terms of a long-forgotten word:...

The "safety" argument can be extended so that pretty much anything is justified. The New York Department of Agriculture and Markets has in the last few weeks helped demonstrate the problem more vividly than any of us ever could imagine, though. While the agency has been preparing its legal arguments over the last few weeks in preparation for trying to throw Barb and Steve Smith into jail for insisting on proper search warrant protection, Ag and Markets has quietly been playing another game with two other New York raw milk farmers, Jerry Snyder and Chuck Phippen—depriving them of their right...

March is blustery days and bright sunshine and rain and the smell of warming soil. It seems a magical thing—soil is always there, so how come the right combination of sun and rain and warmth lets us know that it’s time once again to garden? The technical name for the way the soil smells is geosmin—literally earth smell, but magic is close enough. Geosmin is a magic all gardeners are well aware of and accept without question, no matter what you call it. In reality, the smell is caused by a type of bacteria that grows in the soil, called...

Look at the forth page. It states, "I also evaluated the second series using the computer algorithum PolyScore (v. 6.0). It evaluated the chart as No Deception Indicated, and calculated the probability of deception as being less that .01 on a scale of .00 to 1.00.This was inconsistent with my numerical analysis."