Since early spring, the foodie and business worlds have been all a-twitter about Whole Food’s proposed takeover of natural foods competitor, Wild Oats. The story just got even more interesting when the note Whole Foods was passing in class got intercepted by the teacher (aka, The AP). The New York Times reports:

“The Federal Trade Commission documents revealed that Whole Foods planned to close 30 or more Wild Oats stores, a move that the company believes would nearly double revenue for some Whole Foods stores…

Many of the details in the documents, which F.T.C. lawyers filed electronically, were not meant to be released publicly, but words intended to be inaccessible were actually just electronically shaded black. The words could be searched, copied, pasted and read in versions downloaded from court computer servers. Court officials realized the mistake and replaced the filing with a version using scanned pages of the edited documents. The Associated Press downloaded the document from the public server before it was replaced by an edited version.”

According to the document, Whole Foods set rules barring food suppliers from direct sales with Wal-Mart. Additionally, documents labled “Project Goldmine” predicted that the buy-out will send 80-90 percent of Wild Oats shoppers to Whole Foods. Shoppers will then be at the mercy of Whole Foods who, without competition, can drive up prices even more than they already have.

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Chickpeas, also known as Garbanzo beans, are those little flesh colored legumes that come in a Goya can. Sometimes they’re mashed into a creamy paste by Sabra - or some other inferior brand of hummus. At least that’s what I thought until tonight’s dinner.

I went over to a friend’s apartment to make supper, and along with fresh green beans, ripe tomatoes, and multiple bulbs of garlic, she whipped out a bowl of what looked like dried out raisins. “They’re heirloom chickpeas,” she said. “My sister got them for me.” What? On closer inspection these brown spheres did resemble a bean, but definitely not the plump spheres I occasionally tossed into green salads. But that’s just the thing about heirloom vegetables. Most of the vegetables found in supermarkets are bred (or genetically modified) to 1. look pretty 2. stand up to the long distances they travel from farm to table. Heirlooms are, as their name suggests, an older variety of a plant that has been largely knocked off the agricultural playing field. If you’ve ever wondered why heirloom tomatoes often look so ugly, it’s because they pre-date our cultural obsession for fat, uniform - and tasteless - produce.

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So a Reuters reporter emailed me last week. She had seen my Jew & the Carrot post “Could I play for the other team?” in which I mused about whether I could go back to eating meat after almost 20 years of being a pescatarian. She asked whether she could interview me for a story she was writing about “Compassionate Carnivores,” and vegetarians who are thinking about eating meat once again because of the more humane methods now being used in farming.

She interviewed Mollie Katzen, of Moosewood cookbook and restaurant fame. She interviewed Isa Chandra Moskowitz, TV personality, vegan punk rock spokeswoman and cookbook author. And she interviewed me. What’s more, I’m the first to be quoted in the article, and she gave me equal time with these two food world luminaries.

Katzen and Moskowitz are food personalities. While those who know me certainly would say I have a personality too – and even a strong one at that – I am not even a blip on the foodie radar screen. I certainly don’t have a cookbook or TV show to my name. I am just a journalist-turned natural foods chef who is still trying to get my business up and running. I am truly honored to be in such great company.

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I’m guest editing over at Jewcy blog The Daily Shvitz this week talking about - you guessed it: food.  (A hearty mazel tov to Jewcy for inviting Lara Rabinovitch, who also writes for the Jew and the Carrot, to be their food columnist!)

I thought this post about a Manischewitz’s Recipe Contest would be of interest on The Jew and the Carrot.  Check it out below (x-posted at Jewcy), and don’t forget to check back to Jewcy throughout the week for more food for thought.

“From their super sweet wine to their kugel-ready egg noodles, Manischewitz is likely the most recognizable kosher food brand out there, not to mention the hipster Jew’s drink of choice. As a self-respecting foodie, I would never choose their wine over a dry Cabernet from Baron Herzog (who recently went “sustainable” by the way). But I respect Manischewitz’s ability to - like my aunt Minnie at the Kiddush table - elbow their way to the front of the pack.

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There’s only one thing better than knowing a cheesemaker. It’s when his cheese is ready and he invites you over for a rare tasting. That’s how I found myself recently on the Q train heading deep into Brooklyn to visit my friend Jamie Forrest (and his family), aka webmaster “Curdnerd” on the cheese blog of the same name. After a nine-month gestation, Jamie’s hard Jura cheese was ready, and I was one of the lucky few selected to sample this latest of his cheeses, similar in its nutty flavor to Comté. Jamie makes his excellent cheeses with raw, unpasteurized milk which he procures through his membership in a milk club (for more on the benefits of raw milk, see this past week’s New York Times article on the debate; for more on the benefits of raw milk cheeses, go to France). Jamie and his wife keep a kosher kitchen, so all his cheeses are both (unofficially) kosher as well as organic. A modern day alchemist of sorts, Jamie shares his thoughts with us here on the science and art of cheesemaking.

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Last week, The Jew and the Carrot blogger, Eric Schulmiller, posted his response to  James McWilliams’ recent NY Times op-ed that stated some startling news for sustainably-minded foodies to ponder:

Researchers at Lincoln University in New Zealand, no doubt responding to Europe’s push for “food miles labeling,” recently published a study challenging the premise that more food miles automatically mean greater fossil fuel consumption… Most notably, they found that lamb raised on New Zealand’s fertile pastures and shipped by boat to the U.K. consumed 688 kilograms of carbon dioxide emissions per ton. By contrast, stock produced within the U.K.’s poorly adapted pastures consumed 2,849 kilograms per ton. In other words, it is four times more energy efficient for Londoners to buy lamb imported from the other side of the world than to buy it from a producer in their backyard. ”

Touche, anti-localvores, touche.

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(Thanks for this guest post from Jessica Schessler of SHI)

Slash and burn is one of the leading causes of rainforest destruction in Central America. Sustainable Harvest International is working to curb this destruction, while improving the lives of families living in these regions. I’ve been fortunate enough to intern with SHI for the summer and have learned a great deal about their work.

SHI has worked with more than 850 families in the past 10 years, and has saved tens of thousands of acres of tropical forests from slash-and-burn destruction. What is my favorite part of this effort? Not only does SHI save acres and acres, but they do it by teaching local farmers sustainable uses, such as “organic vegetable gardens, wood-conserving stoves, community loan funds and a host of other projects…” So not only is SHI helping out the environment, but they are improving the health and economic lives of the people living in it.

For the rest of the summer it’s easier than ever to support SHI, through Stonyfield Yogurt’s Bid With Your Lid campaign! Vote online and send in specially marked yogurt lids with your vote for SHI and help allocate a portion of $40,000 to SHI, while collecting cool prizes. For more information on SHI and how to vote, visit Stoneyfield.

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Hasidic reggae master  Matisyahu will be among the excellent line-up at the upcoming Farm Aid 2007 concert and festival at Icahn Stadium on Randall’s Island on Sunday Sept. 9th… and they say Jews don’t farm…

In addition to music, the actual Farm Aid festival will include fresh examples of New York’s sustainable & organic bounty, which will be collected on a caravan around the state leading up to the concert, as well as opportunities for education and action to improve our food system.

This year’s Farm Aid will be focusing on the New York City food system and the connections between urban and rural with a series of community and policy events leading up to the concert throughout New York City. Stay tuned for more specific information on this exciting series.

Two long months with hardly any rain. That is the dire situation we have been facing this season. Our CSA provides shares to 85 families in the Washington, DC area.  Long ago this past April, we missed a month’s worth of rain, kicking off a season of high and dry windy weather. This has been tough on everything and everyone around.  During this season’s severe extended drought we’ve been dealing with a 2-pronged “war”. On one hand, we must keep every new seedling and translant happy and moist, on the other, we must keep the deer at bay.

The deer come out around mid-August every year as their food runs out in the forest. This season, they were here in July. Entire plantings of green beans, sweet potatoes and edemame, were gone. Badly eaten were the new and still tender tomato and cucumber plants.

Earlier in the season we cought 6 groundhogs over the course of a month and a half, and safely transported them to a wooded area a few miles away. Now we have an early deer problem, and a drought like we’ve never seen before.

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Last year, American Jewish Life Magazine identified Hazon as one of the “Hottest” Jewish organizations out there (natch).

This month, our food work is all over their new Green Issue!

- Learn AJL’s take on kosher, organic meat (and check out that green cow) here.

- Read about Tuv Ha’Aretz, Hazon’s Community Supported Agriculture Program here.

- Find out how sexy Jewish farmers are (note The Jew and the Carrot shoutout!) here.

Even without the copious Hazon coverage, AJL’s smart, witty writing makes it a new favorite.  Check them out at http://www.ajlmagazine.com/

I read the other day that consumption of fresh mozzarella vastly goes up when it’s tomato season. OK, guilty. Who can resist that all-time summer favorite combo, with fresh basil?

But our Jewish Film Festival caused me to think about a long forgotten dish that is especially good for tomato season. In a scene from the Israeli film, “Aviva, My Love,” that I just saw last weekend, the main character, Aviva, was at her professor’s house. He apologized he had nothing in the fridge. She looked inside, and found eggs and a handful of tomatoes (I guess no one told those Israelis that tomatoes aren’t supposed to be refrigerated.) In the next scene, the professor is chowing down on shakshuka.

Shakshuka’s origins are up for debate. I always thought it was Yemenite, but some argue that it’s Ashkenazi in origin. And how you make it is up for debate, too. All I know is that on my third trip to Israel, when I arrived tired and hungry from over 20 hours in transit, my Israeli aunt made me this dish. I had never had it before, but I never forgot it. It was some of the best eggs I had ever had. Call it Israeli comfort food. Read more »

The secret to the feminist revolution is in a vegan cupcake.

Brooklyn born, Isa Moskowitz, is the founder and co-host of the Post Punk Kitchen, a public access cooking show that features recipes like sushi, coconut cream pie, and matzoh ball soup, all sans meat, dairy, eggs, honey, and other animal products.”

Despite its niche focus, PPK became a hit, and Moskowitz has enjoyed the attention of animal-welfare magazines like Satya, as well as slightly more, ahem, mainstream publications (e.g. The Washington Post and The New York Times). Building on PPK’s success, Moskowitz and her co-host Terry Hope Romero launched a website with a recipe archive and an almost unbelievably active forum that connects ostracized pink-haired teenagers and vegan feminists from around the globe. The website claims: “All we believe in is punk rock and tofu.” Cute, but I have to wonder what Ms. Moskowitz thinks of all the food miles her heavily-processed tofu products have traveled….

Read the full post over at Lilith Magazine’s blog where I write about women and food.

Photo of the pistachio rosewater cupcake originally from the: Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World Blog

And now, for your chewing pleasure, two bites of interesting foodie news, both courtesy of New York Mag’s blog, Grub Street:

Meat and Books - Brooklyn’s uber left wing bookstore, Vox Pop is now serving char-grilled ribs, bison burgers, and rabbit to customers from Thursday-Sunday.  Books on feminist theory and progressive politics coupled with beefy burgers?  It seems kind of off, but for those hungry bibliophiles who can’t stand the thought of eating meat at their favorite alterna-bookstore, Vox Pop also serves grilled portobello caps and tofu patties.  Read the story here.

“Whole Herring vs. Whole Foods” - The Museum of the City of New York recently held a panel called, “Jewish Cuisine and the Evolution of the Jewish Deli.”  Unfortunately, the panel uncovered that the deli has evolved to a point of near-extinction.  The answer presented?  Follow the Slow Food model of “eating what you want to save,” and patronize those remaining pastrami havens. Read the article here.

For more on Jewish delis, check out Jcarrot reader, David Sax’s, great blog SaveTheDeli.com

Yesterday, in the New York Times, was an op-ed by journalist and author James McWilliams, about the true impact of the local food movement on the global environment. In the article, McWilliams, himself an enthusiastic member of a CSA, reports that,

“Researchers at Lincoln University in New Zealand, no doubt responding to Europe’s push for “food miles labeling,” recently published a study challenging the premise that more food miles automatically mean greater fossil fuel consumption. Other scientific studies have undertaken similar investigations. According to this peer-reviewed research, compelling evidence suggests that there is more — or less — to food miles than meets the eye.”

These studies, McWilliams writes, actually prove that once factors other than “food miles” are entered into the equation (such as a farm’s water, energy and fertilizer/pesticide use; packaging, etc) the total carbon footprint of food purchased from half way across the world is often actually lower than that purchased from locally-grown sources. Quoting a noted New Zealand environental researcher, McWilliams notes that locally grown food, “is not always the most environmentally sound solution if more emissions are generated at other stages of the product life cycle than during transport.” McWilliams goes on to urge fellow local-food supporters to view these findings not as a threat, but as a challenge to look at the food system in a new way, as both environmentalists and pragmatists.

There is certainly a large challenge present in this article. For one, it could generate unfavorable press for the local food movement when certain elements of McWilliams’ presentation are taken out of context, or are manipulated for political purposes. For some of us, this information might force us to reconsider whether the other values of local foods (taste, freshness, supporting local farmers, community development, worker’s rights, to name but a few) would still compel us to choose the low-spray apples we buy from the local farm, or, as John Mackey of Whole Foods would claim, we’d be better off buying certified organic ones from across the country.

It’s a discussion worth beginning, even if our answers lead to more questions.

FYI, here is McWilliams’ original article from the Texas Observer, on which the NYT piece was based.

And here are some other perspectives on this issue.