More pork
Dear Supporter Last week’s podcast on Jews and the pig with Jordan Rosenblum raised lots of questions. Aside from a brief mention of Marvin Harris’ debunking...
Forbidden: Jews and the Pig
Perhaps the only thing most people know about Jewish dietary laws is that pork is forbidden. A new book asks why the pig — rather than any of the other...
Eat This Newsletter 265: Past and Future
Hello Some items look back, some look forward, but isn’t that always the way? Food and Energy Gunnar Rundgren’s essay Eating Oil will probably not be to...
Food facts are not the answer to fear of foods
Hello “What kind of food system do we want for the future? What kind of questions should we be asking? Whose questions matter? What kind of questions matter...
Eat This Newsletter 264: Curated
Hello Three long reads for you today, on which I will mostly refrain from comment. And one that I did read, in order to comment, although there is also a...
Food, folklore and St Brigid
St Brigid of Kildare is one of the three patron saints of Ireland and has a strong connection with food and farming. St Brigid’s day falls on 1 February and...
Eat This Newsletter 263: Connectivity
Hello I’m struck, once again, by the connections it is possible to make with very little effort. Sugar craving, cheap ultraprocessed calories, cheap food for...
Eat This Newsletter 262: Forage
Hello Not much news this week. People seem to be preoccupied with other things, among them the price of eggs. Here’s a chart that touches on the matter, from...
Eat This Newsletter 261: Consistently flawless
Hello Dietary guidelines face “an unfair fight from the start”. No such thing as officially organic cannabis. Family-owned fast food is sketchier. And, what...
Eat This Newsletter 260: Consolidated
Hello, and Happy New Year Two pieces about food and place, two pieces about the perils of industrial food, and one blast about why the food system is as...
Eat This Newsletter: Call a Sprat a Sprat
You could call it doggedly pursuing the truth wherever it may lead. You could also call it borderline obsessive. Whatever you call it, here is a piece only...
Eat This Newsletter 259: Ring out the old
Hello Just a few things from the between times. Gildas From a far-flung correspondent comes news of a “a bar here in Sydney called Gilda’s in Surry Hills,...
Sensual, Salty, and a Little Bit Spicy
Hello No apologies for once again casting my net in the fruitful waters of Basque cuisine and history. There is a pintxo — those tasty bites of stuff on a...
Eat This Newsletter 258: Gifted
Hello Gearing up to wind down. I’ve one more podcast episode in store before I take a short break, during which I will try to keep the newsletter coming each...
Eat This Podcast: Better Diets for All
“In a way,” says Corinna Hawkes, “the multinational food industry is providing solutions for women.” Her point is that demonising industrial food, for...
Eat This Newsletter: Trust busted
Hello I’m sorry I linked to the piece on slavery in Aporia magazine. In my defense, I will say that I did note both my disquiet and that I had not had time...
Eat This Newsletter: Taken on Trust
ETN 257: Taken on Trust Hello Sometimes I just can't pursue the stories I link to in the kind of depth I would like. This is one of those times. I hope that...
Eat This Podcast: Bennett’s Law
Hello What foods do poor people buy when they have a bit more money? First, they change from coarse grains — things like sorghum or millet — to fine grains,...
Eat This Newsletter 256: Lengthy
Hello Bumper fun this week with a selection that includes four long reads. Save them for a rainy day and they should see you through to next week’s podcast...
Eat This Podcast: The Cost of a Healthy Diet
Let’s assume that people understand what they ought to eat to keep themselves healthy over the course of their lives and that the nutritious food to deliver...