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Food Dialogues - Chicago

Yesterday, I had the privilege of participating in a panel discussion on food transparency hosted by the US Farmers and Ranchers Alliance in Chicago.  The panel was hosted by Ellie Krieger, the "celebrity chef" and host of Food Network's Healthy Appetite, and New York Times best-selling cookbook author.  The panel included the head chef from Marriott, a VP from the Food Marketing Institute, a former deputy secretary of the USDA, former CEO of Cascadian farms, three "conventional" farmers, one organic farmer, and myself.  I learned a lot from the discussion with these folks at dinner the night before and during the discussion itself.  I suspect you will too.

 

Urban Chickens

A USDA report on urban chickens (from a survey conducted in four US cities): 

 

Overall, 0.8 percent of all households (0.6 percent of all households excluding single-family homes on 1 acre or more) owned chickens. Chickens were ownedon 4.3 percent of single-family homes on 1 acre or more. Excluding single-family homes on 1 acre or more, the percentage of households with chickens ranged from 0.1 percent in New York City to 1.3 percent in Miami.
While less than 1 percent of households had chickens, nearly 4 percent of households without chickens planned to have chickens within the next 5 years, illustrating the growing acceptance of urban farming (range: 2.0 percent of households in New York City to 7.4 percent in Denver).
Overall, about 4 of 10 respondents were in favor of allowing chickens in their communities and would not mind if their neighbors owned chickens (44.4 and 39.3 percent, respectively). These percentages were inversely related to the age of the respondent. Denver had the highest percentage of respondents in favor of allowing chickens in the community (62.5 percent).
Although over half of respondents (55.6 percent) believed that chickens in urban areas will lead to more illnesses in humans, about two-thirds of respondents in Los Angeles, Miami, and New York City and three-fourths of respondents in Denver believed that eggs from home-raised chickens are better for you than eggs purchased at a grocery store. Denver respondents were the least likely to believe that chickens in urban areas will lead to more illnesses in humans.

The Food Demand Survey (FooDS) - June 2013

I previously blogged about a new survey project that started up last month.

The results of the June survey are summarized here. 

A few summary findings: 

  • Meat demand appears to be down relative to May
  • People have heard more about GMOs and less about Bird Flu in the last month  
  • The biggest food challenge remained "finding affordable foods that fit within my budget." 
  • We had some new results on natural foods that I discussed earlier. 

Criticizing Technology

If you don’t want to see skeptics and libertarians “taking the side” of “big corporations,” don’t base your criticisms of them on false assertions and pseudoscience. Get your facts straight at the outset, and don’t argue beyond where they will take you. Skeptics don’t have any particular love for industrial giants, either, but what we don’t tend to do is use reasoning that guarantees a certain outcome, regardless of the evidence. Here’s how most reactionary, Luddite thinking works:
1. Assume any new product or technology is guilty until proven innocent.
2. Deny any evidence that could prove it innocent as fabricated.
3. Dismiss critics as deluded or paid off.
4. Invent a conspiracy to explain a lack of mainstream scientific support.
This kind of reasoning is absolutely impervious to reality, and it can be used support any position, no matter how absurd. Whenever you see an insular arguments like this, it’s almost guaranteed to be wrong. Don’t assume what you’re trying to prove–unless you’re trying to prove you’re an idiot. You shouldn’t confuse questions about the science with questions about a particularcompany, and don’t embrace any argument, no matter how appealing, until you are sure of its validity.

That's from Daniel Bier at the Skeptical Libertarian Blog.