FERN’s Friday Feed: So many lunches …
Welcome to FERN’s Friday Feed (#FFF), where we share the stories from this week that made us stop and think.
The case for lunch
The New Yorker
“However you rate lunch, it is probably the original meal—for much of history, procuring food and finding fuel to cook it with took so long that people were unable to eat until several hours after waking up. At the same time, the amount of physical labor early humans performed required them to consume the bulk of the day’s calories as soon as they were available,” writes Lauren Collins. “Per Samuel Johnson’s dictionary, the word ‘lunch’ likely derives from ‘clunch’ or clutch,’ meaning ‘as much food as one’s hand can hold.’ A lunch can be quick and convenient: tomato soup, grilled cheese, poke bowl, burrito, tuna salad, leftover pad kee mao, or office-microwaved miso salmon. Or it can serve as a redoubt of leisure and even decadence in an ever-optimizing world: the simmering Sunday ragù, the midday Martini, the vacation table laid at two o’clock and not abandoned until the heat fades. So many lunches, so little time—hot lunch, cold lunch, liquid lunch, naked lunch. Lunch is the Thanksgiving of meals, neither underwhelming nor extra luxurious, adapting easily to various contingencies and configurations. It is what you make of it, whether you’re lingering over mignardises at Le Grand Véfour or scarfing down last night’s beans.”
Blood ranch
Offrange
“Modern science and healthcare require increasingly large quantities of blood,” writes Stephan Sveshnikov. “Mammal blood from familiar farm animals is used in everything from routine hospital lab tests to cutting-edge virology research. Sheep blood is the cheapest and most widely available, but goat blood, bovine blood, and rabbit blood are all commonly used, along with mouse, chicken, and more. Of course, this all begs the question: Where is the best place to get vials of sheep blood? … [A] logical place to look for animal blood might seem to be a slaughterhouse. After all, over 40 million tons of blood are generated by slaughterhouses in the U.S. every year. … As it turns out, though, about 70 percent of slaughterhouse blood in the U.S. is discarded. In fact, blood is the main source of pollution in the millions of gallons of slaughterhouse wastewater generated annually, most of which ends up in waterways.”
This Ohio farm community is a mecca for the ‘MAHA mom’
The New York Times
“Ms. Lauchlan and her husband were one of the first couples to buy a home in 2018 at Aberlin Springs, an ‘agri-community’ in southwest Ohio, commuting distance from downtown Cincinnati. The development includes almost 100 homes that sell for up to $1.5 million, constructed around a farm that feeds the residents — with a farm store that sells a $22 beef tallow balm alongside fresh sourdough and eggs. A luxury outgrowth of the hippie commune, the neighborhood has become a mecca for the ‘MAHA mom,’” writes Caroline Kitchener. “At least some elements of this vision appeal to a broad cross section of Americans. Rooted in a movement concerned with harmful chemicals and food additives, idyllic depictions of homestead living are attracting Instagram followers — and home buyers — from both ends of the political spectrum.”
Fresh lettuce in the Yukon? Believe it.
The Walrus
“[W]hile agriculture might seem a no-go so far north, a small, resourceful band of farmers and producers is proving otherwise. In fact, you might be surprised by what can be coaxed from the land,” writes Rhiannon Russell. “That shift—toward local control over what communities eat—is happening across the North. Remote regions are looking for ways to feed themselves on their own terms, from a Manitoba program that pays hunters to supply their communities to a Yellowknife ‘farm store’ stocked with fresh staples. In the Yukon, it means scouring for pockets of fertile land. Or climate-controlled cold storage to keep potatoes on shelves long past harvest. Or turning to greenhouses—greenhouse space in the Yukon and Northwest Territories grew nearly 55 percent from 2016 to 2021, more than twice the national pace. Some are even making their own soil.”
How RFK Jr.’s war on junk food could backfire on vulnerable Americans
The New Republic
“Last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration submitted a joint Request for Information to … ‘help establish a federally recognized uniform definition’ for ultraprocessed foods, to … pave the way for addressing health concerns’ associated with their consumption,” writes Grace Segers. “Food and Drug Administration commissioner Marty Makary acknowledged in a recent interview … that ‘maybe we won’t get it right on the first definition—because there’s no perfect definition.’ Makary added that there would be ‘implications’ for programs like free school meals and SNAP. ‘When we are using taxpayer dollars, we’ve got to make better decisions,’ he said. But creating a unified definition for ultraprocessed foods may be a difficult endeavor. Certain foods, such as potato chips and frozen meals, are easy to identify as ultraprocessed. But other ultraprocessed foods include commercial whole wheat bread and flavored yogurts, items that might be considered ‘healthy’ at first blush.”