The Food Issue - New Food Ideas - NYTimes.com
The Food Issue - New Food Ideas - NYTimes.com
In the last five years, 532 patent requests — two-thirds of them from Monsanto, BASF and Syngenta — have been filed on the genes intended for use in crops designed to withstand environmental stresses. “We're talking about a grab on strategic genes in the world's most important food crops,” says Hope Shand, the research director for the watchdog organization ETC Group. “This simply shouldn't be allowed.” Jonathan Bryant, the director of North American business for BASF, which in 2007 signed a $1.5 billion deal to collaborate with Monsanto on the development of drought-tolerant crops, calls the patents “a very small protection amongst a sea of opportunity.” The continued consolidation of intellectual property combined with the sort of corporate cooperation currently being enjoyed by BASF and Monsanto is considered a recipe for disaster by some. The anti-genetic-modification activist Vandana Shiva, whose New Delhi-based Navdanya group builds seed banks for the sharing of climate-resilient crops,says consolidation isn't just bad economics and bad social policy; it's bad science. “As a physicist,” she says, “I can tell you that it is crazy in times of unpredictability to have centralized uniformity. If you are going to have climate chaos, what you need is lots of diversity, and you want that diversity in lots of places, in a very decentralized way.” — JOCELYN CRAUGH ZUCKERMAN
CULANTHROPY:
Two years ago, the New York City chef Christine Carroll was painting a New Orleans high school with a post-Katrina volunteer group when she realized that she was no painter. But she could cook; so could everyone she knew. And New Orleans needed nourishment. Once home, she started organizing CulinaryCorps, a charity that recruits squads of chefs and culinary students for weeklong trips to New Orleans, where they might be asked to cook dinner for a Habitat for Humanity crew one night and the still-stoveless residents of the Lower Ninth Ward the next. Mornings are spent volunteering: teaching elementary-school kids about growing vegetables or helping to recover flood-damaged cookbooks from venerated restaurants. The focus is not just on feeding the hungry but also on keeping the city's food traditions alive. “We give them our version of shrimp and grits, and then when they come back for seconds, they share their secret family recipes,” says Carroll. Of the 75 chefs who have gone through the program, two have moved to New Orleans to make culinary philanthropy — or “culanthropy” — a full-time project. Next year, Carroll says, she hopes to take her Sauciers Sans FrontiËres idea to places like Appalachia and Puerto Rico. — ADAM FISHER
SKY VEGETABLES:
Last April, after winning a competition at the University of Wisconsin School of Business, Keith Agoada, who was then still a student, decided to turn his sustainable-urban-farming plan into a business and created Sky Vegetables. The concept takes advantage of the “fields” of flat rooftops found atop supermarkets by using that space to grow crops. Agoada says Sky Vegetables will have benefits beyond sustainable local produce. The plants and greenhouses will absorb sunlight, making it easier for supermarkets to cool their buildings; in the winter they will add insulation. And an heirloom tomato grown a few feet up from the aisle in which it's sold won't come with any guilt-inducing air miles. The farms will use rainwater for irrigation and solar panels for some of their energy needs. No greenhouses have been installed yet, but Agoada and his partner say they hope to begin construction on a prototype next year; they are currently talking to supermarkets in the Bay Area. — LIA MILLER
In the last five years, 532 patent requests — two-thirds of them from Monsanto, BASF and Syngenta — have been filed on the genes intended for use in crops designed to withstand environmental stresses. “We're talking about a grab on strategic genes in the world's most important food crops,” says Hope Shand, the research director for the watchdog organization ETC Group. “This simply shouldn't be allowed.” Jonathan Bryant, the director of North American business for BASF, which in 2007 signed a $1.5 billion deal to collaborate with Monsanto on the development of drought-tolerant crops, calls the patents “a very small protection amongst a sea of opportunity.” The continued consolidation of intellectual property combined with the sort of corporate cooperation currently being enjoyed by BASF and Monsanto is considered a recipe for disaster by some. The anti-genetic-modification activist Vandana Shiva, whose New Delhi-based Navdanya group builds seed banks for the sharing of climate-resilient crops,says consolidation isn't just bad economics and bad social policy; it's bad science. “As a physicist,” she says, “I can tell you that it is crazy in times of unpredictability to have centralized uniformity. If you are going to have climate chaos, what you need is lots of diversity, and you want that diversity in lots of places, in a very decentralized way.” — JOCELYN CRAUGH ZUCKERMAN
CULANTHROPY:
Two years ago, the New York City chef Christine Carroll was painting a New Orleans high school with a post-Katrina volunteer group when she realized that she was no painter. But she could cook; so could everyone she knew. And New Orleans needed nourishment. Once home, she started organizing CulinaryCorps, a charity that recruits squads of chefs and culinary students for weeklong trips to New Orleans, where they might be asked to cook dinner for a Habitat for Humanity crew one night and the still-stoveless residents of the Lower Ninth Ward the next. Mornings are spent volunteering: teaching elementary-school kids about growing vegetables or helping to recover flood-damaged cookbooks from venerated restaurants. The focus is not just on feeding the hungry but also on keeping the city's food traditions alive. “We give them our version of shrimp and grits, and then when they come back for seconds, they share their secret family recipes,” says Carroll. Of the 75 chefs who have gone through the program, two have moved to New Orleans to make culinary philanthropy — or “culanthropy” — a full-time project. Next year, Carroll says, she hopes to take her Sauciers Sans FrontiËres idea to places like Appalachia and Puerto Rico. — ADAM FISHER
SKY VEGETABLES:
Last April, after winning a competition at the University of Wisconsin School of Business, Keith Agoada, who was then still a student, decided to turn his sustainable-urban-farming plan into a business and created Sky Vegetables. The concept takes advantage of the “fields” of flat rooftops found atop supermarkets by using that space to grow crops. Agoada says Sky Vegetables will have benefits beyond sustainable local produce. The plants and greenhouses will absorb sunlight, making it easier for supermarkets to cool their buildings; in the winter they will add insulation. And an heirloom tomato grown a few feet up from the aisle in which it's sold won't come with any guilt-inducing air miles. The farms will use rainwater for irrigation and solar panels for some of their energy needs. No greenhouses have been installed yet, but Agoada and his partner say they hope to begin construction on a prototype next year; they are currently talking to supermarkets in the Bay Area. — LIA MILLER
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