"conference" news and stories

After the first day of the BlogHer conference, everyone was having a great time and enjoying meeting other bloggers. The food bloggers were having the most fun (according to those of us who met up, of course), despite the fact that the food hardly improved at all the second day. The biggest change was that fresh fruit was offered at each snack/meal, which everyone seemed to appreciate. But even though were talked about the food, everyone was more interested in learning about other blogs and what things inspired people to start blogging in the first place.

Along with the established bloggers, like those from Simply Recipes, Kalyn's Kitchen, Chez Pim, Cupcake Bakeshop, Gastronomie-SF and so many others, there were lots of people who simply read blogs and wanted ideas and advice on how to start their own. Here is a quick rundown of our tips for starting a food blog:

Sarah had a point when she said that conference food is pretty much always fattening. I am currently at the BlogHer conference, along with a few other people from Weblogs, Inc., and even though the company is wonderful, I can say less for the food. When a hotel prepares fried food for a large group, it is inevitably greasy and heavy, so it was unfortunate that the meals centered on that. Lunch on the first day included fried chicken and dinner was a buffet of fried foods, like egg rolls and dumplings, as well as kebabs slathered in various sauces. There was no salad option at dinner, although there was a cheese plate. Any dinner dissatisfaction was quelled by the open bar, though I did hear some slightly dissatisfied murmuring about the fact that Pepsi, and not Coke, was the hotel's soda of choice. Many women opted for calcium-fortified water instead.

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Alton Brown served as keynote speaker for the recent Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Annual Meeting in Orlando. Brown talked about the need for the food science community to communicate more openly with consumers, according to FoodNavigator-USA. At the same time, he stressed the consumer's responsibility to eat in moderation, saying "There are no bad foods, only bad eaters." The IFT site also has some notes on Brown's speech, as well as a variety of other press releases on other topics from this year's meeting. Other topics included the health benefits of beer; eating behind the wheel; and removing acrylamide from foods like potato chips and coffee. Audio recordings are also available, for a fee.

A recent medical conference in Brussels featured discussion of the health benefits of beer, which supposedly range from improvement of heart health and fighting osteoporosis to protecting against type II diabetes and staving off cancer, according to The Publican. The chairman of the discussion was professor Jonathan Powell of the Medical Research Council human nutrition unit in Cambridge. According to a story in The Times, Powell said that many of the health benefits attributed to wine are actually related to the alcohol itself. The Times article goes on to report on findings that beer may also help create a healthier balance of good and bad cholesterol. As you might expect, most of these findings are associated with beer drinking done in moderation.

McDonald's senor global supply chain manager, Gary Johnson, stressed the importance of establishing traceable beef programs worldwide. Consumers want to know where their food is coming from, he said, and consumer trust is of paramount importance to all businesses, especially those in the food industry. The call for action comes in light of the fact that the British beef industry is still recovering from the massive loss of consumer confidence it suffered following a mad cow outbreak in the mid 1990s. It is also, in part, due to the success of the Australian beef industry in implementing a system to track all beef cows back to their farm of origin. Johnson called for future programs to be modeled on the Australian example.

While there are some farms who take it upon themselves to offer traceable beef, many in the cattle industry oppose these measures, largely on the grounds that it would be too expensive to implement and maintain. If  a national or global plan were in place, however, consumers and businesses would rise to meet the price changes. "Any extra expense to introduce traceability today represents an essential investment in the security of the future safety of the food supply, [Johnson] said."

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