"barryestabrook" news and stories

Gourmet's Barry Estabrook finds that more food producers are addressing the issue of sustainability. The following is an excerpt of his findings published on Gourmet.com.

Carnivore's Delight

It's not often that you'll find this space singing the praises of vertical integration in agriculture, but I was heartened to read this week that Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm (the subject of a September 2002 profile in Gourmet who became the national face of sustainable food production after being featured in Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma) had bought the small, 70-year-old slaughterhouse in Virginia that processes his grass-fed cattle.

This is good news because small meatpacking operations in this country have been closing in droves, unable in many cases to comply with stringent USDA regulations designed for the enormous facilities that handle most American meat today. As a result, sustainable livestock farmers have had to truck their animals over great distances, or in some cases cease raising cattle, sheep, and hogs altogether for want of an approved slaughterhouse. T&E Meats, as Salatin's company is known, will continue processing his animals and also those of nearby small producers.

I'm going to knock on wood, but I dare say Salatin may be part of a trend here. Earlier this spring, two other grass-fed beef producers, White Oak Pastures in Georgia and Paicines Ranch in California, opened their own slaughterhouses.

The story continues at Gourmet.com: Politics of the Plate: A Clear Conscience

Gourmet's Barry Estabrook investigated why this season's most sought-after catch is suddenly scarce. The following is an excerpt of his findings published on Gourmet.com.

Life is not good here. The fish are not running. And things are going from bad to worse. Due to the extremely low king return, fishing anything is entirely and wholly out of the question."

That dispatch was sent early this week from Jack Schultheis, operations director of Kwik'pak Fisheries, a processor of salmon caught out of the lower Yukon River in remote western Alaska, to Jon Rowley, who handles communications for the small, Eskimo-owned company. (Rowley is also a Gourmet contributing editor.)

In the last year or so, Yukon River kings have become the "new" Copper River salmon, the most sought-after catch-of-the-day at top-end seafood restaurants because of their unusually high oil content. For a while, it looked like everyone was winning. The salmon were moist, tasty, and healthful. Exports to the Lower 48 provided vital income (sometimes the only income) for struggling native Yup'ik fishing families that use earnings from the fishery to purchase gasoline (currently $7.60 a gallon up there) for necessary subsistence activities such as hunting moose and gathering berries. And, better yet, the stocks were sustainably managed.

Then disaster struck. So few king salmon returned to the Yukon River this month that fishery managers ordered drastic cuts to subsistence fishing. There will be no commercial harvest.

The story continues at Gourmet.com: Politics of the Plate: Tough Times for the King of Kings

Gourmet's Barry Estabrook investigated the hows and whys of salmonella's introduction to the produce we eat. The following is an excerpt of his findings published on Gourmet.com.

How in the hell does salmonella get inside a tomato?

Excuse the bluntness, but that question has been much on my mind this week in the wake of the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) warnings against eating raw red tomatoes. The agency took action after 145 diners in 16 states were sickened by tomatoes tainted with salmonella, a bacteria carried in the intestines of animals and humans.

After making several calls and receiving no satisfactory answer to my simple question, I finally reached David Gombas, senior vice president of food safety and technology at the United Fresh Produce Association, a trade organization. He frankly admitted that while there are a number of potential ways for salmonella bacteria to get from some animal's intestines into your fresh salsa, the exact mechanism remains a food-safety mystery that the industry would dearly love to solve. This explains why outbreaks of the disease are so common. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) says that more than 3,000 Americans have been sickened by tomatoes in 24 different outbreaks since 1990, a number that looks even more sobering when you realize that the Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that only 1 in 30 salmonella cases ever gets reported.

The story continues at Gourmet.com: Politics of the Plate: Rotten Tomatoes