Here we are, all deliberating the national net loss of jobs due to the economy, when it looks like hundreds (if not thousands) more are going to be lost due to drought not long from now.  In California, the now regular heat waves have resulted in—gasp—a deficiency in precipitation.  With this, officials are saying that water rationing in the affected regions is going to have to be put into place.  The first realm to take the cut?  Farmland.  So while homes will be provided with enough water to meet their cooking needs, the farms won’t have enough to grow food with.  Of course, if the farms aren’t operating, the farmhands aren’t working.
And then that brings me to the bigger question: What’s more important, securing a better economy or saving the world from global warming?  Who laid the chicken?  Was it the egg?  I’m not even going to get started on answering that one…

-Serena

Tomorrow (Saturday, March 21st) there will be a special local food event at the 2009 Virginia Festival of the Book in Charlottesville, Virginia. It will be held at the Charlottesville Cooking School at 2 p.m. and again at 4 p.m.

The event will be a presentation of the book Cooking Fresh from the Mid-Atlantic with a Panel Discussion: "The Flavor of Local."

Featured speakers will include Gail Hobbs-Page, owner and cheese maker at Caromont Farm Artisan Cheeses, Megan Weary, owner of Roundabout Farm and CSA, Fran McManus, editor of Cooking Fresh from the Mid-Atlantic and Martha Stafford, owner of Charlottesvile Cooking School.

Contact the folks at the Charlottesville Cookong School for more information.

The Virginia Festival of the Book is always a festival to look forward to, and this local food event makes it extra-special this year!

-Karen

Like chowder? Excuse me, CHOWDA? Well if you do, and you are in New York City tomorrow and want to support local foods then head to Jimmy's No.43 for the first annual Chowder Slam. Along with well, chowder, you can get New England draft beers for $20 at the door, to benefit the New Amsterdam Market.

Swing by from noon to 5 PM tomorrow. Go for lunch, a snack, or an early bird dinner!

-Jess 

This is some scary Big Brother-esque stuff: the proposed National Animal Identification System, or NAIS, would effectively be able to track every single livestock animal in America.  Yes, your pet hen that lays beautiful, brown eggs on a daily basis counts.  And so does Billy the bison, whom your dad has in the backyard.  Or the two cows that your aunt keeps in order to have fresh, raw milk at hand.  One animal or one thousand, a pet or a piece of meat, it doesn’t matter to the agency in charge of enforcing this act.  And the agency definitely doesn’t seem to have any qualms about inserting an electronic chip into your animal.  Though the ultimate purpose of the technological tracking system is to keep Americans safe (from the sudden onset of animal-based diseases), studies show that the U.S. already has a similar system in place that is pretty effective as is.  And how weird is it that satellites in space would be able to pick-up on where your pets or local farm animals are, right to the spot?  From the little that I know about NAIS, it seems like a bad idea to me.  To form your own opinion, check out this informative, three-minute video here.

-Serena