Three random items to close out the week . . .
Bedside Reading . . . for the Next Few Years
My friend Donna Gershenwald sent me this amazing list of 100+ books about the food industry that “everyone who eats” should read. The list, put together by Take Part and solicited from its Food, Inc. community, covers everything from classics like The Omnivore’s Dilemma to the ever-popular Chickens in Your Backyard: A Beginner’s Guide. I realized with dismay that I’ve only barely scratched the surface of this list. Looks like it’s time to head over to Amazon.
Another Item for the “This is Why You’re Fat” File
Charles Kuffner of Off the Kuff had this stomach-turning link on his blog last week. It’s a list of 83 “gut-busting restaurant challenges for free food,” i.e., restaurants that will give you a meal for free if you can polish off astounding amounts of food in a set time period. Think 4 pound sushi roll –aptly named “the Godzilla” – or a bowl of pho so big you can bathe in it. . . .
For the curious, that’s two pounds of meat and two pounds of noodles per bowl of pho. The soup may be Vietnamese but these sorts of eating contests seem quintessentially American, don’t they? (And not in a good way.)
School Gardens Under Attack?
Finally, the state of California has recently come under fire from the U.S. Department of Labor with respect to school gardens located within the state. According to a complaint filed last week in federal district court, the DOL claims that “schools with food-producing gardens requiring student labor totaling more than 1.5 hours per week per child fall squarely within the purview of the federal Migrant and Seasonal Worker Protection Act (MSPA)” and that “students working in such gardens as part of the required school curriculum are legally entitled to the same protections as any other agricultural worker.” The complaint goes on to enumerate these protections, which include the posting of worker rights in the language predominantly spoken by the student population, fair hourly wages and the maintenance by schools of payroll records. A spokesperson for California Attorney General Kamala Harris dismissed the complaint as “ridiculous and overreaching” and says that the AG will fight the lawsuit vigorously. You can read the full complaint here, and the DOL press release here.
Have a great weekend, everyone! More Lunch Tray on Monday . . . .
Mrs Q says
You got me! 🙂
Stephanie says
Me Too! I was just about to repost to my fb page… LOL!!!
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Ha! Glad I got someone! I only had a few minutes to come up with something plausible-sounding . . . 🙂
AGeorgsaon says
Good one!