Food Systems

A Better Banana? Organic vs Non-Organic Bananas.

~ Nicholas Tippins
real banana with seeds
Real Banana

This is a real banana. Two weeks ago, I stood on top of a truck with a machete in the rain, intent on harvesting a bunch of wild bananas I’d found on a back road. A few swings, and slice! The bunch fell to the ground like a crashed spaceship. My friends and I gathered them quickly (not wanting to get drenched), so we barely noticed that there was something odd about them. When I sliced one open, however, I noticed a great difference from the bananas I was used to eating: it was filled with pea-sized black seeds. “Aha!” Axel said. “This is a real banana.”

As it turns out, the tree we’d found was a direct descendent of the first wild bananas human beings ate. Continue reading →

Food Nannying For the Poor? Restrictions on Organic and Healthy Food in Food Assistance

~ Nicholas Tippins ~ 2 Comments
wisconsin organic food choices restricted for WIC and food assistance.
Food assistance program. Photo by USDA.

Wisconsin’s Women, Infants and Children’s Program “Approved Foods” brochure is cheerfully decorated with stock photos of vegetables and smiling children. Inside is a well-intentioned (or well lobbied) and utterly misguided attempt to… what? Help people? Make sure those in food assistance programs eat healthy food? Or cheaper food? Continue reading →

Sweet Freedom: How to Find Slavery-Free Chocolate

~ Nicholas Tippins
Sweet Freedom: How to Find Slavery-Free Chocolate
Sweet Freedom: How to Find Slavery-Free Chocolate

No, we’re not talking about chocolate that’s free because slaves made it. We’re here to say “no” to exploitation in the name of tasty treats.

Over 40% of the world’s chocolate is produced by child slaves. There are now an estimated 1.1 million child slaves working in the chocolate industry. “These children typically come from countries such as Mali, Burkina Faso, and Togo. Destitute parents in these poverty-stricken lands sell their children to traffickers believing that they will find honest work once they arrive in Ivory Coast and then send some of their earnings home. But that’s not what happens. These children, usually 11-to-16-years-old but sometimes younger, are forced to do hard manual labor 80 to 100 hours a week. They are paid nothing, receive no education, are barely fed, are beaten regularly, and are often viciously beaten if they try to escape. Most will never see their families again.” Continue reading →

Documentary: The Dark Side of Chocolate (Video)

~ Nicholas Tippins ~ 1 Comment

The Dark Side of Chocolate investigates child slavery in the Ivory Coast and other countries that produce cacao, the main ingredient of chocolate. Journalists go undercover with hidden cameras and assumed identities to get the inside story, including interviews with child traffickers and on-the-job footage of those who work to rescue these children.

Note: Email subscribers may have to visit the website to watch the video.

Why Almond Butter Is So Expensive (And That’s A Good Thing)

~ Nicholas Tippins ~ 1 Comment

Why is almond butter so expensive?

Why is almond butter so expensive now? This is what I thought as I returned the glass jar to the shelf of the co-op last summer. It was my first summer working full-time on a farm, and I watched my newfound perspective inform my reasoning. California… drought… almonds… aha!

Almond butter is so expensive because there’s a drought in California, where most of America’s almonds are produced. A no-brainer for anyone connected to their food. But I was just beginning to learn the consequences of the food choices I was making, and most Americans are still in the dark.

Continue reading →

Misleading Food Labels and Their Villainous Henchmen

~ Nicholas Tippins ~ 3 Comments
Photo by Mike Mozart. Misleading food labels.
Misleading Food Labels. Photo by Mike Mozart

The food industry uses all sorts of chemicals in the pursuit of cleanliness. Isn’t it a little ironic that their way of misleading consumers is, well, dirty? Words that mean one thing to the general public often mean something very different to food producers and the USDA. These differences have been deliberately exploited to get you to believe you are making a healthier or more ethical choice by buying a more expensive food product that was made no differently from the rest. Enter misleading food labels. Let’s uncover a few. Continue reading →