The Ethicurean has been nominated for a TreeHugger.com Best of Green award, in the Food & Health category . The Best of Green Awards recognize “the people, companies and ideas doing the best in walking the sustainability walk within their respective fields,” and the candidates are suggested by readers and winnowed by the editors. Then you get to vote . Starting today and running until Friday, April 2, 2010, you can vote once... 

This is part 2 of a series on improving market-based seafood sustainability initiatives, inspired by a recent article published by an international team of researchers in “Oryx: The International Journal of Conservation.” (See Oryx volume 44, pp. 45-56 doi: 10.1017/S0030605309990470 . Summaries available from Science Daily , AFP .) Part 1, ” Why seafood wallet cards can be the wrong bait for consumers ,” looked at the... 

A perfect shitstorm: On some farms, animal manure can be a valuable asset, a way to improve the soil in the fields. But for today’s massive factory farms — and, increasingly, the nation’s air and waterways — manure is a huge liability, reports the Post’s David A. Fahrenthold. Decomposing manure from factory farms is the U.S.’s fastest growing source of methane, while the nitrogen it contains is partly responsible for... 

Cracking down on methane labs: When animal manure decomposes, it releases methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide (on a mass basis). To avoid these emissions, some are installing manure digesters, in which bacteria convert the waste to methane gas. The methane is then burned in an internal combustion engine or a gas turbine to create electricity, resulting in a lower overall greenhouse gas emission rate and low-cost electricity.... 

For the past few weeks, I’ve been watching the snow drift down with deceptive lightness, only to accumulate in deep piles (18″ and counting here in northeastern Ohio) that have well and truly buried any remotely green thing on the ground. While it’s lovely to sit inside and watch winter’s show, I also find myself reaching for the seed catalogs. Winter may not depress me as it does some people, but now and again I long... 

Seafood guides and other consumer-based campaigns are an important part of the quest for sustainable seafood and healthy oceans, but so far they have not shown enough positive results: bigger efforts are needed. That’s the main conclusion of a new article, “Conserving wild fish in a sea of market-based efforts,” published by an international team of fishery experts in ” Oryx: The International Journal of Conservation .”... 

Many months ago, thanks to a vigorous, multi-level campaign, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) secured pledges from big buyers like Burger King, Subway, McDonald’s and Whole Foods to pay an extra penny a pound to Florida’s tomato harvesters, bringing the per-bucket wage from 50 to 82 cents. (Workers earn about $50 on a good day, without health insurance or other benefits.) But the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange refused to allow... 

Another reason to dislike the N-word: Fertilizer overuse creates many problems, like aquatic dead zones , resource depletion and blue-baby syndrome . One impact that has been mostly out of sight is soil acidification. A group of scientists from China, the UK and the US has been examining soil in China, where synthetic nitrogen fertilizer use increased by 191% between 1981 and 2007 (with application rates generally higher than in North America and... 

When it comes to comfort food — especially comfort food that is wrapped in “tradition” like the Jewish deli — change can cause a lot of discomfort. People want what they think will make them feel better. They want what they are used to eating, whether that means a chilled soup in the middle of winter, pickles made from imported cucumbers, or sandwiches piled high with delicious fatty meats. So it’s not surprising that the... 

Every time I’ve looked out the window this week, I’ve felt a childlike glee at the sight of all the snow piled up. A whopping 18″ dropped in 24 hours last weekend, a few more inches covered that earlier this week, and more is in the forecast. I really sympathize with the folks further south ( south! ) who have had twice as much snow and nowhere near the amount of equipment to deal with it all; after five years of living in... 

Three months have passed since my last update on Local Roots Market in Wooster, Ohio. Back then, were on the cusp of opening at last. What’s happened in the meantime? A lot . Following the close of the Downtown Farmers Market at the end of October, Local Roots Market opened as an indoor farmers market on November 7 with a roomful of tables for local produce and baked goods as well as individual freezers for producers’ meats. Customers... 

A simple little iPhone app launched a few days ago that demystifies the ingredient lists of processed food. Called “Don’t Eat That” ( link to App Store ), it’s a database of information on more than 1,500 food additives and ingredients, broken out into red-lettered lists for those that are believed to be carcinogenic or unhealthy for children; are known allergens; and/or are likely to be derived from genetically modified... 

The potential for disaster surrounds us every day. The aftershocks of the earthquake in Haiti may seem too big for many Americans to grasp, but we too should have a plan for possible local emergencies such as severe storms that wipe out our power supply for days, earthquakes, long-term illness, or unforeseen personal economic crises. Because when something catastrophic does occur, food security becomes critical: how can you keep yourself and... 

When government officials hear the words “backyard livestock,” they tend to worry about disease outbreaks and sanitation crises. And for good reason, as improperly managed animals — including dogs and cats — can be the source of all sorts of public health problems. When it comes to asthma, however, recent science is hinting that early childhood exposure to domestic animals can actually protect against the chronic condition, so... 

A monkfish (Wikimedia Commons) In the January 2010 issue of Food & Wine magazine , former New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni visits top-rated Le Bernardin (3 stars from Michelin, 4 stars from the New York Times) and acts like an ass to the sommelier as he eats his multicourse meal*. If you’re into restaurant drama, or food and drink pairings, you’ll probably…  Read More →