Statement From Wayne Pacelle On Decision to Phase Out Gestation Crates In CO
(December 19, 2007)—Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States, released the following statement in response to the plans of the Colorado Pork Producers Council to phase out the confinement of breeding pigs in gestation crates in the state:
“We applaud the announcement by the Colorado Pork Producers Council to phase out the confinement of breeding pigs in gestation crates in Colorado, and transition to group housing systems over the next ten years. There are nearly 150,000 breeding sows in gestation crates in Colorado, and they deserve some semblance of basic humane treatment such as the ability to turn around and extend their limbs.
While Colorado’s pork industry has taken an important step in the right direction, other sectors of agribusiness must do the same. Approximately 3.8 million egg-laying hens in Colorado are confined in barren, wire, battery cages, in which each bird has less space than a single sheet of paper to live her entire life. Egg producers should make a similar commitment, given that these two confinement systems raise the same basic moral issues. We support industry reforms and corporate policies on these practices, but there is no substitute for legal standards that codify the most basic humane treatment of farm animals.”
Colorado joins Florida, Arizona, and Oregon porducers that already prohibit gestation crates. The largest pig producer in the world, Smithfield Foods, is phasing out its use of gestation crates. Maple Leaf Foods, Canada’s largest pig producer, is doing the same. And many major food retailers are moving away from supporting gestation crates and battery cages. Wolfgang Puck is ending his use of pork from crated sows and eggs from caged hens. Burger King, Hardee’s, and Carl’s Jr. have started phasing in pork and eggs from producers that don’t use gestation crates and battery cages. And just this week, Compass Group, the world's largest food service provider, announced it is implementing a cage-free egg policy in the United States.
Monday, December 24, 2007
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Pioneers of Packaged Food
Good, healthy and delicious processed foods come in many different kinds of packages and containers that protect the food from invading microbes and make them safe and available year round. This wasn't always true, of course. Either food was fresh or the food posed dangers, and the foods we've all come to enjoy whenever we want were only there when nature allowed them to be.
While several kinds of protective techniques, packages, and containers exist, the two most prominent methods of processing food are still canning and freezing.
The first acknowledged attempt at pressure cooking occurred in 1679 when French physicist, Denis Papin, who is most noted for his work with steam power, invented the “Steam Digester” in an effort to reduce the time needed to cook foods. This airtight cooking vessel used internal steam pressure to increase the boiling point of water, and as a consequence cooked foods faster.
Nearly 100 years later towards the end of the 1700's the Napoleonic wars raged. As Napoleon pushed forward into Russia, the retreating Russian army left a stripped and ravaged countryside. Food was nearly impossible to come by and as a result, Napoleon's army was suffering more casualties from scurvy, malnutrition, and starvation than from enemy muskets. The French government offered 12,000 francs to anyone who could develop a method of preserving food.
Nicolas Appert, an obscure candy-maker, brewer, and baker took up the challenge. He had a theory that if fresh foods were put in airtight containers and sufficient heat applied, they would keep. After 14 years of experimentation, he won the prize--given to him by Napoleon himself.
Appert packed his foods in bottles, corked them, and submerged them in boiling water. Without realizing it, he sterilized them, stopping bacterial spoilage.
Before the Frenchman became known for his inventions, Appert tried his hand at many occupations. He began as a hotelkeeper, became a brewer, switched to chef and later was a confectioner in Paris.
The House of Appert became the first commercial cannery in the world. Remarkably, this was nearly 50 years before Louis Pasteur proved that heat killed bacteria.
The British responded directly to this development. If Napoleon's troops were able to extend their marches by carrying preserved nutritious supplies, His Majesty's forces must be prepared to do likewise. In 1810, King George III granted Peter Durand a patent for his idea of preserving food in "vessels of glass, pottery, tin, or other metals or fit materials." Durand solved the problem of bottles breaking in transit. Using tin-coated steel, Durand developed the "canister" with a soldered cover. Soon all over Britain people were eating "embalmed" meat, as they called it.
The can was born.
An ambitious young man in London, England, William Underwood was intriqued by the idea of canned food. He apprenticed at Cross & Blackwell's factory before moving to Boston in 1819 to open William Underwood & Co. In 1821 he established a canning plant overlooking Boston Harbor. Underwood canned all kinds of products: vegetables, fruits, and condiments. He produced grape and mushroom catsup, jams and jellies, and mustard. In 1828 he shipped milk to South America. In 1835 he imported tomato seeds from England, grew his first crop, and preserved it. This was the beginning of canning in the United States. In 1860 he purchased the rights to advanced sterilization methods, and during the Civil War he canned roast beef for Union soldiers. Underwood (as in "deviled ham") is America's oldest canning company.
Clarence Birdseye
Nearly a century later, a man named Clarence Birdseye was on an expedition in Labrador for the U.S. Geographic Service. While on the expedition, he noted that duck and caribou frozen in the extreme cold of midwinter were better than those frozen in the spring or fall. Knowing that mere freezing and cold storage would not preserve the quality and taste of the food, he concluded that the secret lay in rapid freezing at extremely low temperatures. He watched the Eskimos' rudimentary quick-freeze methods, a process by which items are frozen at such a speed that only small ice crystals are able to form, and noted that quickly frozen fish retained flavor and texture better than fish frozen slowly. In an early experiment in freezing vegetables, Birdseye, in order to provide fresh vegetables to his family in this remote area, froze cabbage for later use.
Back in the United States, Birdseye developed his "Multiplate Quick Freeze Machine" -- a crude operation. It consisted of a new garbage can of corrugated iron containing a layer of steel plates and fitted with coils carrying a refrigerant of sodium chloride brine. Food was placed between the steel plates, frozen at -40° F and kept there for five weeks.
By 1925 Birdseye was in the frozen food business. His first product was frozen fish fillets, at the business he called The General Seafoods Company. He experimented with the process of quick freezing food that he had learned while in Labrador. He later said, "My contribution was to take Eskimo knowledge and the scientists' theories and adapt them to quantity production." Birdseye then applied his quick-freezing principle to meats, poultry, fruits, and vegetables.
Birdseye made two major contributions to the concept of freezing food-the importance of freezing food so rapidly that there would be no damage to its cellular structure (affecting taste, texture, and appearance) and freezing food in a package that could be sold directly to the consumer.
Initially unsuccessful with consumers, frozen food has since become an indispensable part of the American diet. The Birds Eye operation now thrives as part of Dean Foods Vegetable Company.
While several kinds of protective techniques, packages, and containers exist, the two most prominent methods of processing food are still canning and freezing.
The first acknowledged attempt at pressure cooking occurred in 1679 when French physicist, Denis Papin, who is most noted for his work with steam power, invented the “Steam Digester” in an effort to reduce the time needed to cook foods. This airtight cooking vessel used internal steam pressure to increase the boiling point of water, and as a consequence cooked foods faster.
Nearly 100 years later towards the end of the 1700's the Napoleonic wars raged. As Napoleon pushed forward into Russia, the retreating Russian army left a stripped and ravaged countryside. Food was nearly impossible to come by and as a result, Napoleon's army was suffering more casualties from scurvy, malnutrition, and starvation than from enemy muskets. The French government offered 12,000 francs to anyone who could develop a method of preserving food.
Nicolas Appert, an obscure candy-maker, brewer, and baker took up the challenge. He had a theory that if fresh foods were put in airtight containers and sufficient heat applied, they would keep. After 14 years of experimentation, he won the prize--given to him by Napoleon himself.
Appert packed his foods in bottles, corked them, and submerged them in boiling water. Without realizing it, he sterilized them, stopping bacterial spoilage.
Before the Frenchman became known for his inventions, Appert tried his hand at many occupations. He began as a hotelkeeper, became a brewer, switched to chef and later was a confectioner in Paris.
The House of Appert became the first commercial cannery in the world. Remarkably, this was nearly 50 years before Louis Pasteur proved that heat killed bacteria.
The British responded directly to this development. If Napoleon's troops were able to extend their marches by carrying preserved nutritious supplies, His Majesty's forces must be prepared to do likewise. In 1810, King George III granted Peter Durand a patent for his idea of preserving food in "vessels of glass, pottery, tin, or other metals or fit materials." Durand solved the problem of bottles breaking in transit. Using tin-coated steel, Durand developed the "canister" with a soldered cover. Soon all over Britain people were eating "embalmed" meat, as they called it.
The can was born.
An ambitious young man in London, England, William Underwood was intriqued by the idea of canned food. He apprenticed at Cross & Blackwell's factory before moving to Boston in 1819 to open William Underwood & Co. In 1821 he established a canning plant overlooking Boston Harbor. Underwood canned all kinds of products: vegetables, fruits, and condiments. He produced grape and mushroom catsup, jams and jellies, and mustard. In 1828 he shipped milk to South America. In 1835 he imported tomato seeds from England, grew his first crop, and preserved it. This was the beginning of canning in the United States. In 1860 he purchased the rights to advanced sterilization methods, and during the Civil War he canned roast beef for Union soldiers. Underwood (as in "deviled ham") is America's oldest canning company.
Clarence BirdseyeNearly a century later, a man named Clarence Birdseye was on an expedition in Labrador for the U.S. Geographic Service. While on the expedition, he noted that duck and caribou frozen in the extreme cold of midwinter were better than those frozen in the spring or fall. Knowing that mere freezing and cold storage would not preserve the quality and taste of the food, he concluded that the secret lay in rapid freezing at extremely low temperatures. He watched the Eskimos' rudimentary quick-freeze methods, a process by which items are frozen at such a speed that only small ice crystals are able to form, and noted that quickly frozen fish retained flavor and texture better than fish frozen slowly. In an early experiment in freezing vegetables, Birdseye, in order to provide fresh vegetables to his family in this remote area, froze cabbage for later use.
Back in the United States, Birdseye developed his "Multiplate Quick Freeze Machine" -- a crude operation. It consisted of a new garbage can of corrugated iron containing a layer of steel plates and fitted with coils carrying a refrigerant of sodium chloride brine. Food was placed between the steel plates, frozen at -40° F and kept there for five weeks.By 1925 Birdseye was in the frozen food business. His first product was frozen fish fillets, at the business he called The General Seafoods Company. He experimented with the process of quick freezing food that he had learned while in Labrador. He later said, "My contribution was to take Eskimo knowledge and the scientists' theories and adapt them to quantity production." Birdseye then applied his quick-freezing principle to meats, poultry, fruits, and vegetables.
Birdseye made two major contributions to the concept of freezing food-the importance of freezing food so rapidly that there would be no damage to its cellular structure (affecting taste, texture, and appearance) and freezing food in a package that could be sold directly to the consumer.Initially unsuccessful with consumers, frozen food has since become an indispensable part of the American diet. The Birds Eye operation now thrives as part of Dean Foods Vegetable Company.
Friday, December 21, 2007
Recover With A Hot Toddy
If you're like a third of the people we know right now (ourselves included), you've got a cold. Although the medical community encourages increasing one's fluid intake when the plague sets in, it's unlikely that boozy drinks are on the list of approved beverages. Regardless, we've been craving warm, cozy drinks all week.
One of our neighbors swears by the hot toddy..Click here for this cool article
One of our neighbors swears by the hot toddy..Click here for this cool article
Purchasing Griddles
When properly cleaned and maintained, griddles have a life cycle of between seven and 15 years, depending on the model and its usage.
Before purchasing a new griddle, operators should consider a number of factors, including:
Figure out how often the operator will use the griddle and the anticipated production capacity. If the griddle will run a couple of hours a day, a heavy-duty model may not be necessary. If the operator will use the unit to prepare more than 25 percent of the menu items, consider a more durable griddle.
The plate size and thickness will help determine how much food goes through the griddle at peak times. The thicker the griddle plate, the more heat it holds.
Also, take into account the griddle size. In some kitchens, a narrower griddle with more depth can save a foot of hood space.
Determine which type of surface material best suits the menu. Some units offer grooved plates that provide a seared appearance on meats.
Decide if manual or thermostatic controls are necessary. While manual controls provide users with more latitude in terms of regulating temperature, thermostatic controls can be easier to use for novice cooks.
Examine how the griddle handles grease and product fall-off. Check out the grease trough location and the width of the chute to ensure it can handle the challenges of the menu. Some models provide a back grease trough, in addition to side and front troughs, to better accommodate high-volume use.
Consider whether the griddle will be mounted, freestanding or used on a countertop. Refrigerated bases are another option worth considering for smaller kitchens with limited space.
One expert estimates that griddles stand idle about 70 percent of the time in full-service restaurants. Griddles with snap action-style controls only provide gas to the unit when it’s needed, saving energy.
Look at the unit’s cleaning requirements. Some griddle surfaces are easier to clean than others that may require more time and labor. While standard griddle surfaces need to be scrubbed and seasoned, more costly chrome griddles are simply scraped and don’t require seasoning.
Before purchasing a new griddle, operators should consider a number of factors, including:
Figure out how often the operator will use the griddle and the anticipated production capacity. If the griddle will run a couple of hours a day, a heavy-duty model may not be necessary. If the operator will use the unit to prepare more than 25 percent of the menu items, consider a more durable griddle.
The plate size and thickness will help determine how much food goes through the griddle at peak times. The thicker the griddle plate, the more heat it holds.
Also, take into account the griddle size. In some kitchens, a narrower griddle with more depth can save a foot of hood space.
Determine which type of surface material best suits the menu. Some units offer grooved plates that provide a seared appearance on meats.
Decide if manual or thermostatic controls are necessary. While manual controls provide users with more latitude in terms of regulating temperature, thermostatic controls can be easier to use for novice cooks.
Examine how the griddle handles grease and product fall-off. Check out the grease trough location and the width of the chute to ensure it can handle the challenges of the menu. Some models provide a back grease trough, in addition to side and front troughs, to better accommodate high-volume use.
Consider whether the griddle will be mounted, freestanding or used on a countertop. Refrigerated bases are another option worth considering for smaller kitchens with limited space.
One expert estimates that griddles stand idle about 70 percent of the time in full-service restaurants. Griddles with snap action-style controls only provide gas to the unit when it’s needed, saving energy.
Look at the unit’s cleaning requirements. Some griddle surfaces are easier to clean than others that may require more time and labor. While standard griddle surfaces need to be scrubbed and seasoned, more costly chrome griddles are simply scraped and don’t require seasoning.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Sustainable Aquaculture
Supplies of wild fish from rivers and oceans around the globe are dwindling, even as the demand for fish worldwide is growing. Aquaculture, or fish farming, is fast becoming the most convenient way for consumers to get fish. But, as Jan Sluizer reports, aquaculture is a new frontier in the modern world, fraught with promise and with challenges.
Scientists, researchers, environmentalists, and fishermen are all in agreement with Corey Peet, an aquaculture research analyst at California's Monterey Bay Aquarium. There is a global fisheries crisis and if current practices continue, wild fish will be completely gone from the oceans in 40 years. "Seventy to 80 percent of fisheries are fished to capacity or over-exploited," he explains, "and one strategy to try to mitigate this problem is to grow the fish ourselves."
Tim O'Shea's farmed fish comes from Mexico, Belize and Scotland. The San Francisco-based fish broker sells to local restaurants and markets. Believing that the key to successful fish farming is water quality and fish density, O'Shea has a face-to-face relationship with all his farmers, and insists on walking through each fish farm to get a personal understanding of the practices employed. "How is it harvested? How is it processed?"
O'Shea says a good fish farmer must know and pay attention to the whole life cycle of a fish. "The illness of animals being grown in domestic cases is all about monitoring stress, by and large," he explains, "and so you're really attentive to mimicking natural patterns as much as you possibly can. That's what makes a good farmer; one who really looks to and thinks about what would this fish be doing naturally in its normal cycle? How can I duplicate that as well as I possibly can?" He says all these factors relate directly to the quality and value of what consumers get on their plate when they walk into a restaurant or a market.
Please visit the complete story here Sustainable Aquaculture
Scientists, researchers, environmentalists, and fishermen are all in agreement with Corey Peet, an aquaculture research analyst at California's Monterey Bay Aquarium. There is a global fisheries crisis and if current practices continue, wild fish will be completely gone from the oceans in 40 years. "Seventy to 80 percent of fisheries are fished to capacity or over-exploited," he explains, "and one strategy to try to mitigate this problem is to grow the fish ourselves."
Tim O'Shea's farmed fish comes from Mexico, Belize and Scotland. The San Francisco-based fish broker sells to local restaurants and markets. Believing that the key to successful fish farming is water quality and fish density, O'Shea has a face-to-face relationship with all his farmers, and insists on walking through each fish farm to get a personal understanding of the practices employed. "How is it harvested? How is it processed?"
O'Shea says a good fish farmer must know and pay attention to the whole life cycle of a fish. "The illness of animals being grown in domestic cases is all about monitoring stress, by and large," he explains, "and so you're really attentive to mimicking natural patterns as much as you possibly can. That's what makes a good farmer; one who really looks to and thinks about what would this fish be doing naturally in its normal cycle? How can I duplicate that as well as I possibly can?" He says all these factors relate directly to the quality and value of what consumers get on their plate when they walk into a restaurant or a market.
Please visit the complete story here Sustainable Aquaculture
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