Political Media Review

In 2001, Hollywood actor and hemp activist Woody Harrelson and a group of friends set out on a tour of the West Coast to raise awareness about sustainable living. Traveling in a bio-fueled bus and on bicycles, Harrelson and his entourage headed down the Pacific Coast Highway, stopping at university campuses to promote natural, organic living.

In mid-January, I received a mass email asking me to donate $10 for bottled water and other supplies for participants in an important immigrant rights march in Phoenix.

This morning I bought a 11″ X 7″ glass Pyrex baking dish at the Co-op store. I’m preparing to make the Molasses Cornbread. jae steele’s Get It Ripe has got me on a roll in the kitchen!

“This vegan cookbook is for everyone,” says the young author and registered holistic nutritionist. There she is on the cover, vibrant, eating strawberries. With enthusiasm and generosity, she offers what she has learned from working on organic farms, in kitchens, and through her studies and involvement with food.

Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation hit The New York Times’ “Bestsellers” list, and was praised by powerful publications such as The New Yorker, Newsweek, The Christian Science Monitor, and The Washington Post. Fast Food Nation presents the history and horrors of this industry’s journey from its sparse beginnings to become a symbol of American success, including purposefully advertising to children, union busting, and bribing government agencies.

Previous consumer pressure has resulted in the passage of government regulations that ensure food producers provide more information about their products. Food labels must contain ingredient listings and basic nutritional information breakdowns, animal flesh (i.e., “meat”) is quality graded, as are some restaurants, depending on the city in which one lives. But this information is largely provided to allow individual consumers to make more informed choices as to the type and quality of the food they intend to purchase. Nowhere on most supermarket items and restaurant menus is there information provided as to the costs that others must bear for the food products themselves to be produced, distributed, and ultimately consumed or wasted.