"farmers" news and stories

Burger King stalls on increasing tomato pickers' salaries

by Ellen Slattery, Posted May 9th 2008 @ 9:00AM

Lately, there have been some raised eyebrows in BK's direction, mainly because they won't agree to pay their tomato pickers an extra penny per pound of tomatoes.

The tomato pickers have to pick 125 buckets worth of the fruit in order to get $50-60 per day, and work 10-12 hours in the hot Florida sun. The new measure would only cost BK an additional $300,000 per year, out of their $11 billion yearly revenue.

Other fast food joints have already agreed to pay their workers more, but BK continues to stall. Some people are afraid that tomato growers would wind up with the money, instead of the pickers, and others are worried the new agreement will violate antitrust rules.

But the shadiness doesn't stop there. BK execs admitted that they have a relationship with Diplomatic Tactical Services, a security firm with a creepy, amorphous name, which helps BK spy on its clients.

Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, recently wrote an op-ed for the Times on the subject, shedding light on BK's Big Brother tactics.

I always knew there was something hiding behind that awful molded plastic King in the commercials...

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Filed under: Business, Newspapers, Food News, Fast Food

Authenticity for olive oil

COMMENTS 2

by Shayna Glick, Posted Jan 22nd 2008 @ 11:05AM

Europeans are crazy about labeling where a product is from. In some cases, wine for instance, it is more common for the product to be named after its originating region than it is to be named after what's actually in it. From now on, olive oil will have more specific labeling requirements as well.

The Coldiretti farmers union pressed the Italian government to pass a new law to include information on the label about where the olives were actually picked and pressed. They were upset about olive oils which claimed to be Italian but used olives from other country's around the Mediterranean. The new labeling information must also include what percentage of different olives were used in each product.

A consumer group called Codacons has endorsed the new law. They say that it helps to protect the consumer from fraud and poor quality olive oil. I say the more information on a label the better. Just make it clear and easy to read. Just because I want to know as much about the product I'm buying as possible doesn't mean I want to spend all day doing it.

[Via ColdMud]

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Filed under: Farming, Business

Kua Txob Tuav Xyaw Dos

COMMENTS 8

by Jonathan M. Forester, Posted Jul 30th 2007 @ 6:09PM

I was looking at the Aug./Sept. 2007 issue of Saveur magazine and reading a great article about Hmong farmers in California by Andrea Nguyen, one of my new favorite writers. (If you want to subscribe or buy and download the issue click here.) The Hmong are a semi-nomadic people who have lived in parts of China and Southeast Asia for centuries. Always on the move, recently a large portion ended up leaving Asia and immigrating to the US, especially California, where a great many are farmers growing their fantastic produce. While traveling in Asia I had the chance to try some Hmong cooking. Their cuisine relies on extremely fresh produce and meats that are cooked simply and full of flavor. One thing that I really enjoyed was the Chile-Scallion relish called Kua Txob Tuav Xyaw Dos (pronounced koo-AH za too-AH sher daw.)

It's a spicy, tangy, herbal, slightly salty, rough paste that is used as a relish and condiment. Always made fresh each day and put on the table the relish is put into soups and stir fries, used to boost up the spice level to your own preference, and served by itself as a garnish for plain or sticky rice.

The best way to get the best consistency to the paste is to do it by hand in a mortar and pestle. Preferably a nice solid one like a Thai mortar and pestle. They are an immense and heavy piece of stone that sits solidly on your counter so that you can let the solid pestle thump satisfactorily down on the ingredients. I realized after reading the recipe that I had the few, simple ingredients growing in my garden. It's easy to make and only takes a few minutes. Time to make the Kua Txob Tuav Xyaw Dos.

Recipe and photos after the jump.

Filed under: Food Gadgets, Cooking Live with Slashfood, Ingredients, How To

Starbucks pays more for coffee than other retailers

COMMENTS 8

by Nicole Weston, Posted Jan 19th 2007 @ 3:03PM

Starbucks, contrary to popular belief, does not pays less for their coffee than other coffee buyers, using their size to bully their suppliers into meeting extremely low prices (like one here-unnamed major retailer does). In the past year, Starbucks paid about 36% more than the average price per pound of coffee beans, shelling out $1.42 for every pound of beans they bought.

Does this definitively prove that Starbucks is making the world a better place for all coffee growers and that there will be no starving farmers working coffee plantations in the world? Of course not. The latter problem can't be helped because that low average price means that there are companies paying far, far less for their products. What this does mean is that Starbucks is making positive policies that will benefit growers in the long run, setting a higher standard that other buyers will, hopefully, meet at some point.

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Filed under: Farming, Business, Food Politics, Drink Recipes, Coffee Shops

Pomegranates are taking over the world

COMMENTS 3

by Bob Sassone, Posted Dec 11th 2006 @ 3:03PM

Last night I was reading the latest issue of Vanity Fair (the one with Dreamgirls on the cover and a really stupid "women aren't funny" article by Christopher Hitchens inside), and I suddenly got a really strong scent of pomegranates. I had no idea where it was coming from until I flipped through the magazine and saw an ad for a pomegranate drink, and it had one of those "lift and smell" flaps that you usually see in cologne ads. Now they're doing it with food and drink. Interesting. Anyway, the smell was overwhelming (in a good way), even when I finished reading the mag and threw it out. I smelled it all last night when I was in bed.

Pomegranates are all the rage now. They're amazingly good for you, they taste good, and there are lots of things you can do with them. The Boston Globe explores the phenomenon.

Filed under: Trends, Newspapers, Health & Medical, Ingredients