The marketing of food to children

THe marketing of food to children and to their parents started with the advent of television - especially saturday morning cartoons - check out these bits from a 1961 Bugs Bunny and Friends show where Bugs and his friends sell Post cereals, Tang juice crystals and more... Be sure to really pay attention to the dialogue - when Bugs tell children directly to ask teir parents (the ultimate nag factor) for Tang at breakfast!

Bugs Bunny Show- Rocky and Mugsy
by MatthewHunter

Les Jardins Urbains

En travaillant sur la préparation de mes cours sur l'alimentation (MANGERAUTREMENT) j'ai trouvé un nouveau service d'aliments biologiques et locaux qui est dorénavant disponible dans la région du grand Montréal. Les Jardins Urbains offrent un service de magasinage en ligne et livraison à domicile. En plus la cueillette de la grande partie des fruits et légumes se faite jour même de la livraison (en saison bien sur). Si vous chercher à améliorer votre assiette tout en vous souciant de l'environnement et de l'agriculture locale - en voici une bonne opportunité!

The development of food preferences

Many of our food preferences are results of our exposure to foods throughout our lives. The experiences that we associate with certain flavours, tastes and odours shape our memories and expectations of future food experiences. Some of the strongest of these imprints come from childhood and recent research shows that many of our food preferences are formed before we are born. In a Feb 2005 article in Pediatrics for Parents, Julie A. Mennella expores some of the issues and shows how a mother's diet strongly affects her child's taste preference - before birth and throughout breastfeeding.

Jamie Oliver walks the walk!

I would like to give up some props to Jamie Oliver for his stand in the U.K. and abroad for food issues and farm animal welfare. For a celebrity chef to put his popularity and reputation on the line by preaching such a radical gospel - and to survive is something else entirely. This surely speaks to Jamie Oliver's enormous popularity as well as his team's ability to package such "marginal" messages in such as way as to make them palatable to us (the sign of a great chef).

Here are links to some of Jamie's best activist messages from his shows, blog and site.

Jamie's Fowl Dinners : Jamie walks us through the process of raising and slaughtering poultry...In front of an audience of diners who will share the results of this journey.

Jamie's Ministry of Food : Jamie takes his message of consuming whole food, cooking at home and eating good wholesome meals out on the road to teach people how to put tire to pavement an get moving in the right direction

Jamie's School Dinners and Jamie's Return to School Dinners : these are the shows that started it all. In trying to improve the quality of food in school cafeterias - Jamie Oliver started a public protest that prompted nationwide British legislation and new school food programs...

If you are curious - you can probably find some of these episodes on the web...not that I would support such an illegal copyright infringement..;-)

Seasonal eggs?

When we talk about eating locally, organic, fresh and in-season, we mainly think about fruit and vegetables. Not much thought is given to other foodstuffs such as grain products, meat, fish and dairy, however there is some evidence that even these foods have a certain seasonality to them While the seasonality of grain products is obscured by the fact that they are easy to store dried at normal room temperatures for extended periods (4-8 months), the seasonality of meat products and dairy is not immediately obvious. In a recent article in the New York Times, Susanne E Friedberg examines how eggs are naturally a seasonal product (chickens lay eggs mainly in the spring, so that their young chicks have a greater change of survival in the summer months) and (in a follow-up article) how our modern egg production and cold storage methods have made this trend dissipate. In addition to this modern method of storeage, farms are forcing hens to produce eggs are very high rate - rates that in some cases endanger the health of the layen hens themselves. In gourmet cuisine, chefs are turning to eggs from free-range and naturally foraging hens, as these chefs are aware of the marked difference in the quality of the eggs. Is it any surprise that laying hens that are pushed so hard that they are barely alive produce low quality eggs? This issue is not only an issue of animal welfare - but an issue of your nutrition.

The videos below illustrate the idealised version of the egg production process from the Discovery Television show How It's Made (produced here in Québec) (first video) and the reality of some industrial egg production facilities (second video).

WARNING: DO NOT WATCH THE SECOND VIDEO IF YOU ARE DELICATE OR SQUEAMISH

Diet Coke is 99% water - this is good?

On August 20 2007, Steven Levitt (author of the bestselling Freakonomics) posted an interesting blog on the New York Times which shows us the systemic change in the food industry and how they manage to make almost any negative "avoidance" related medical news into a way to charge us more for less. Since we now put a premium on "clean", "pure" bottled water (and spend billions od dollars on it annually) Coke has started selling Diet Coke on the fact that it is mostly just water. I am certain that Coke pays more for the can than the contents - makes you feel kinda like they are trying to pull one over on us....

Professor F Rankfurter's lab of horror

A great little Flash animation from Jamie Oliver's school lunch program in England. Here we see a great communicator talking straight to consumers (kids) in a language they love.

Visit Professor F Ranfurter's lab of horror if you dare!
Our next generation is growing up on this crap food. We have to mobilise and demand that the school cafeteria programs serve food that is less about making profits for the catering companies and more about proper whole food and nutrition for our younger generations! Check out the documentary and how it sparked debate, legislation and change in the British school dinner program HERE

Foie Gras - the controversy

Many animal rights groups are strongly opposed to the current
industrial production and consumption of foie gras - considered by
many a delicacy. Groups such as PETA, Farm Sanctuary, Anonymous for
Animal Rights have protested and led to legislation in many parts of
the globe banning the sale or production of foie gras by the
traditional gavage method. Many Montréalers go to great lengths to
enjoy their foie gras fix, with popular niche restaurants serving foie
gras poutine (http://www.restaurantaupieddecochon.ca/) and other
versions.

Despite many Montréaler's strong social and ethical consciences, foie
gras is a great example of "out of sight - out of mind". It's time to
open our eyes to the treatment of the animals that we choose to eat -
for the way we treat our animals reflects greatly upon the way we
treat our fellow humans.

Farm Sanctuary - an farm animals rights group in the U.S. has started
a campaign against traditional gavage-type methods of foie gras
production. They have very well documented arguments against tis
practice that you can research further here: http://www.nofoiegras.org/about.html

On a more positive note for onmivores who would like to continue to
enjoy this delicacy with a clearer conscience -food scholar and chef
Dan Barber shows us how top quality foie gras (good enough to win its
Spanish producer a prestigious French food award) can be produced
ethically and with respect - check out his presentation at the Taste3
2008 conference

The great food revolution

Here's a great four part series from CBC and Radio Canada television which looks at the new food revolution and how attitudes about food, market forces and consumption of food have changed in the past 50 years. The series originally aired on CBC TV March 19th and 26th and will be airing on Radio Canada in french on April 02-06.

THE GREAT FOOD REVOLUTION






You can fill out the surveys and compare your answers with those of other Canadians, watch the full episodes and check out the recipes and resources. Another great report from our national public broadcaster. And who thinks we spend too muc public money on the CBC???