Food Forward 1 Million Pound Bash!

(The Food Forward Team!)
I was lucky enough to attend Food Forward’s celebration party for the harvesting of thier 1,000,000th pound. That’s 1,000,000 pounds of fruit going to the needy and hungry of SoCal since Food Forward started only 3 years ago!!! As FF said recently in their Fresh Juice newsletter, “Can we get an AMEN...and a glass of orange juice...and maybe a little Vodka thrown in for good measure?!”


Food Forward is a total favorite of the Edible Skinny as they are nothing but a win-win-win-win. Volunteers get to spend couple of hours in the California sunshine picking fruit and climbing trees (Hooray!). SoCal Food Banks such as SOVA and MEND Poverty receive desperately needed fresh fruit and veggies. The people who donate their trees get a tax write off for the market value of fruit that would otherwise go to waste. And the tree is healthier for being picked of excess fruit. All in all totally amazing!

Food Forward's also got some amazing things in the works, programs that are nothing short of (wait for it, wait for it….) Amazing!

• SIPPING TO SHARE THE ABUNDANCE - Three local LA restaurants (Mezze, Wood & Vine, and the Charleston) are generously donating 50% of the price of a featured citrus-inspired cocktail to Food Forward from Friday Aug 24th and Sept 24th. If you’d like to meet the Food Forward crew they’ll be doing Happy Hours to Fight Hunger on Friday August 31st at Wood & Vine (6280 Hollywood Blvd. Hollywood) from 6-8pm and at The Charleston (2460 Wilshire Blvd. Santa Monica) on Friday Sept 7th 6-8pm (they already did Mezze earlier this month).

• FARMERS MARKET RECOVERY PROGRAM - the Farmers Market Recovery Program is a new initiative by Food Forward to administer a volunteer based, reliable, systematized collection of produce from farmers at the end of markets that would otherwise go to waste, 100% of which will then be donated to agencies serving those in need. In just three afternoons since starting this month their "Glean Team" gleaned over 3,200 pounds of top grade produce from the Santa Monica and Studio City Farmers Market – 100% of which has gone to agencies just 3-5 miles from the markets themselves. For anyone interested there’s still a couple of volunteer spots open at the Santa Monica Wednesday market – each position offers a monthly stipend and is the perfect way for students, stay at home moms n’ dads, or food-savvy folks with free Wednesdays to get involved in fighting hunger in the communities. For more info and to request an application, please email fmrecovery@foodforward.org

• Also, Executive Director/Founder Rick Nahmias was named a US delegate to the Slow Food Conference 2012 in Turin Italy, and will be traveling there in October to spread the Fruity Gospel on behalf of Food Forward!

Amazing!!! (Totally needed to add one more in!)

Passion for Plastic

Wrote an article for Verge Magazine (a Canadian Eco Travel Magazine) on the plastic do-gooder couple Anna Cummins and Marcus Eriksen of the 5 Gyres

Passion for Plastic

An organization founded in love, the 5 Gyres is researching the world's plastic problem.
Most people don’t follow plastic to its final resting place, but Marcus Eriksen and Anna Cummins do—even if that grave happens to be in the middle of the ocean. Bona fide adventurers, they’ve battled hurricanes, sailed boats made of plastic bottles from California to Hawaii, and invested their honeymoon money into raising awareness about their number-one passion: plastic pollution.
Our ocean footprint was first documented in the 1990s, when Captain Charles Moore discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Located in the North Pacific Gyre, a circular pattern of currents in the ocean’s basin, the amount of plastic that had accumulated in the patch was the size of Texas.

As more people learned of the patch, questions about plastic and the ocean started floating around. Eriksen and Cummins took it upon themselves to find answers. Together, they founded the 5 Gyres, a non-profit organization that conducts research and communicates about the global impact of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans.

“We began the 5 Gyres because there was no one exploring the other four gyres to see if plastic existed there,” says Eriksen. His interest in plastic began during the first Gulf War. Housed in Kuwaiti ditch, he made a promise to a fellow Marine: if he made it out alive, he would build a raft and sail it down the Mississippi. But when he returned to the States, his foxhole vow was placed on the back burner while he focused on getting his PhD in Science Education.

It wasn’t until 10 years later, when the United States returned to the Middle East for another oil war that Eriksen decided to follow through on his oath. His Huck Finn journey on a raft of plastic bottles down the Mississippi took five months, during which he saw the destructive nature of plastic.

“I could always see trash. It was disgusting,” he recalls. He had finally found a war worth fighting. Eriksen began giving talks at schools and museums and when he arrived in the Gulf, he contacted Captain Moore’s Algalita Marine Research Foundation in California to continue his work.
He first met Cummins at Moore’s 60th birthday party. As a high school teacher instructing a class in environmental policy, Cummins had joined Moore’s research team in Guadalupe after seeing the Captain talk. (“I was blown away: I had no idea there was a massive amounts of trash in the Pacific,” she says.) The pair connected again at an environmental education event and Eriksen offered Cummins a job at Algalita.

“Over that first meeting we sketched our ideal situation; in retrospect it was the beginning of our non-profit,” says Cummins. The 5 Gyres was born and later, the couple began dating. During their JUNKride program, an awareness-raising bike ride from Vancouver to Tijuana, they were married. In the intimate ceremony, Cummins wore a plastic wedding dress.

Check out the entire article at http://www.vergemagazine.com/project-spotlight/5-gyres

Californians Get the Right to Decided to Label GMOs or Not

In November of 2012 the state of California will ask its voters whether they believe GMOs should be labeled or not. The California Right to Know GMO Labeling ballot initiative have announced that they have collected the necessary 850,000 signatures to get the issue on the ballot.

Genetically Modified Organisms are experimental plants and animals that have been genetically engineered in a laboratory with DNA from other plants, animals, bacteria, and viruses. Although GMO ingredients are found in 80% of packaged foods in the U.S., they have not been proven safe as the long term consequences of GMOs on our health and environment have not been adequately investigated.

93% of Americans think that genetically engineered foods should be labeled.

In celebration of collecting nearly a million signatures the California Right to Know will hold a rally in Norwalk (Los Angeles County) on Wednesday May 2nd, in support of turning their signed sheets in to the state. Supporters of the GMO ballot initiative will be wheeling in petitions in carriages to represent the importance of this issue to children and future generations.

Free goodies will be given away to any volunteers that show up including stuff from Nature's Path's, Label GMOs, the Institute for Responsible Technology, Food Democracy Now!, Organic Consumers Association and several others.

For those interested in attending California Right to Know is asking supporters to arrive at 10 am on Wednesday May 2nd with signs, baby strollers, and balloon at: 2400 Imperial Highway, Norwalk
Norwalk, CA 90650

California Right to Know plans to deliver their petitions at 11.

KCRW Pledge Drive Feeding Families in Need

For those not living in LA area you might be unaware that KCRW is an LA institution.
KCRW is Southern California's leading National Public Radio affiliate, featuring an eclectic mix of music, news, information and cultural programming. The station boasts one of the nation's largest arrays of locally produced, nationally distributed talk program content. Now like most NPR stations twice a year KCRW does a pledge drive, a pledge drive where if you donate you can get station premiums like mugs, t-shirts, and Grizzly Bear CDs (KCRW has been called the most influential music station in America).

But another option that makes KCRW the coolest is that another station premium is that you can help families in need by providing 40 meals with LA Regional Food Bank for a donation of $10 a month or more. Last pledge they were able to give 80,000 meals to those in need and during their summer pledge drive this time around they're hoping to hit a target number of 150,000.
Pretty freaking cool, and they play awesome music too (like Grizzly Bear)!

PS So donate, duh!

Sfumato!!!

It's not a food post, but if you just happen to have been tirelessly waiting for the adventures of an art-loving, one-toothed, 1,000 year old vampire who’s obsessed with John Singer Sargent’s painting the Daughters of Edward Boit to come out, my first novel, Sfumato, was just published as a multi-format ebook by Smashwords!!!

For anyone game, it’s free to download. Would Love to hear what you think!

LA Food and Wine Festival

The Second Annual Los Angeles Food & Wine Festival was this weekend and I was lucky enough to attend Saturday's Lexus Grand Tasting. With 300 wines from 200 of the world's most prestigious wineries it was quite the imbibing event, but not in the standard way. Usually at these events the Reds are the showstoppers, but this year with sweltering heat anything cold was the star of the show (for a wine event the line for a glass of Stella Artois was ridiculous ).

Some of the alcoholic highlights where:

The guys are over at 7 Grand shaking some Mint Juleps, Knob Creek, simple syrup, a sizable spring of mint, and an ice cube that crowded the entire glass.

Hitting every single Bubbly available including Champagne Delamotte, Champagne Lanson, and Champagne Perrier Jouet.

JUSTIN Isosceles. Yes it was Red, and yes it was sweltering, but it was totally worth it, it's JUSTIN.

Along with the booze, 30 Celebrity Chefs will showcase their culinary skills and provide delicious and decadent tasting samples of their cuisine. The pickings were a little sparse for the Vegetarian/Vegan crowd (I get it, if you're spending $150 on a ticket you expect some meat) but the Susan Feniger was there for the non-face eating crowd. Her Border Grill offered a Summer Bean Salad Tostadita with Cilantro Aioli, Avocado, Fresh Origins Micro Verdolaga (it also came with Heirloom Bacon but they made my sans for Veggie style).



All the flatware for the event was proved by Knork, a Kansas based company, that trying to revolutionize our food utensils. A combination fork, knife, and spoon (but in a fancy way so please do not mention a Spork around them) it's got a fingertip platform, beveled outer tines and a heavier, balanced design that allows you to cut food more easily.

Haribo Gummy Bears and Artificial Flavors (the EU vs. the US of A)

My friend photographer Kris Shires is obsessed with Haribo Gummy Bears. But becoming a new mom (she was expecting when this email was sent) has made her examine everything that she eats. Upon a recent visit to Europe she discovered the Haribo uses natural flavorings and colors (or colours as they say over there) in Europe while their counterpart in America is full of artificial flavorings and colors. Unhappy with this news she decided to send the company an email (and at 1:18 in the morning no less):

-Original Message- From: Kristina Shires
Sent: Friday, January 27, 2012 1:18 AM
To: info@us.haribo.com
Subject: Contact (www.haribo.com)
I was was recently in Spain and noticed that the Haribo gummy Bears in Europe are made with all natural flavors AND colors. Why is this not the case with the Gummy Bears Sold in the US, which are made with artificial colors and flavors? I am really disappointed that the high standards set in Europe do not seem to apply over here.

Europe has always been more stringent when it comes demanding "cleaner" food. Especially after a 2007 a study funded by the EU Food Standards Agency (FSA) drew a link between temper tantrums, poor concentration, and allergic reactions such as asthma and rashes, to chemical food additives. Unfortunately until Americans start speaking up for cleaner food this is the standard response we'll receive.

From: INFO <info@us.haribo.com> Date: March 20, 2012 7:29:18 PDT To: Kristina Shires Subject: Haribo Response
Dear Kristina,
Thank you for your email.
Haribo Gold-Bears that are sold in Europe are not too different from the Gold-Bears that are sold in the U.S. The recipes are the same. With the exception of Haribo in Europe not using artificial coloring and flavors and the additional flavor/color (green apple flavored bear), there is no difference.
Thank you for your interest in Haribo.
Regards,
Chantele Beads Haribo of America, Inc.

So, as always, if you want what's put in our food to change, speak up! We as consumers always have the right to clean food but only if we ask for it!