In America, we have havens for mistreated farm animals, such as the Farm Sanctuary. But they tend to focus on large, fuzzy mammals, such as goats and cows. In England, however, a group of dedicated knitters has been providing aid and comfort to battery chickens — birds that have outlived their egg-laying years and would normally be slaughtered — that have been purchased and slated for adoption as pets.
As the BBC recently reported, the knitters have been making sweaters for the chickens, which tend to lose their feathers under the stress of caged factory life. The birds wear the jumpers — complete with buttons — for two weeks until new feathers grow in.
That's what many fear about genetically engineered alfalfa. Organic farmers grow alfalfa as a forage crop for livestock, but genetically engineered crops can pollinate organic crops, making them non-organic. No organic forage, no organic livestock. No organic livestock, no organic milk.
That scenario has already played out in corn and canola, at least in some regions. A seed scientist at an organic seed company told me it's virtually impossible to find corn seed from the midwest that has avoided GM contamination. As a result, this company buys its organic corn seeds from a remote region of the Southeast. The same is true of rapeseed (canola) in Western Canada.
To avoid this fate with Round-Up Ready Alfalfa, 200,000 people have submitted comments to the USDA criticizing a draft environmental impact statement on the GM crop by the agency, which had recommended approval of the crop.
This battle has been brewing for sometime. In 2006, the Center for Food Safety (CFS) sued the USDA for failing to conduct an environmental impact statement, as required by law, before deregulating the crop. The federal courts sided with CFS and banned GE alfalfa plantings until USDA analyzed the impacts of GE alfalfa on the environment, farmers and the public.
Strangely, that environmental impact statement concluded, "There is no evidence that consumers care about GE contamination of organic alfalfa" -- even though it would no longer qualify as organic if it were contaminated. Stranger still, considering that organic milk is the leading organic product sought by consumers.
Regardless of what you think about genetically modified crops, the question is whether a crop should be approved that could threaten the organic status of another crop. In this case, it's not just a crop, but the animals that depend on the crop for forages and the consumers who want the products produced by those animals. None will be organic if the feedstock is contaminated.
Today is the last day to submit a comment on the issue. Center for Food Safety has more information here.
I've been battling insomnia lately (and losing.) As a result, I've been feeling too tired to cook much. But I would hate to leave you in the culinary lurch so I thought I'd share some of the food blogs, sites, and cookbooks that I find most inspiring in the hopes that some of them will inspire you, too. Please share any books, blogs and sites you recommend via comments as I'd love to expand my stable of go-to sources.
Online
The internet has definitely changed the way I approach finding recipes and vastly expanded the possibilities.At this point, I'd say most of what I cook is inspired by something I saw online. Here are some of the places I check regularly.
101 Cookbooks - a great option for super healthy, tasty, creative vegetarian recipes written by Heidi up in beautiful Marin County. She's also got a great aesthetic so the pictures are tasty, too.
Simply Recipes - a nice, solid source for good recipes - lots of variety, always tasty written by Elise. I like the focus on family recipes.
Food Blogga - good source for a wide variety of recipes (meat and vegetarian). Susan posts frequently so there's always something tasty-looking to check out.
Recipes for Health - this is a selection of recipes with a focus on healthy, tasty, vegetable-focused dishes that is written for the NYTimes.com by Martha Rose Shulman. (I have to admit that I sometimes make these recipes less healthy by adding more cheese than they call for, etc.)
Smitten Kitchen - I only discovered this blog a few months ago and have already cooked a number of things from it. Writen by Deb in NYC. How she manages to post so often with an infant is a mystery but I'm glad she does!
Bitten -- Mark Bittman's food blog on the NYTimes.com. There are often interesting, new things posted here as well as old standards. Lately, he seems to have a lot of guest bloggers posting but I like his posts best.
La Tartine Gourmand - this is hands-down the most beautiful food blog I read. Written by Bea, a french ex-pat who lives in MA with her husband and adorable little girl, it is truly an aesthetic pleasure. I have to admit that I have not yet cooked or baked anything from it yet but it is definitely a feast for the eyes.
Epicurious - this is a great resource -- it's made up of recipes from Bon Appetit, Gourmet and a few other sources. I usually turn to this when I have some ingredient I need to use or if I have a vague idea of a recipe and want concrete examples.
Food Blog Search - Although I sometimes resort to Google, I like this search option better because it allows me to search only food blogs, returning more specific and higher-quality search results.
Cookbooks
But there is also something to be said for the printed word! For one thing, it's incredibly helpful to have the actual recipe in front of you on the counter while you're cooking instead of having to run back to the computer (for those of us who are too lazy to hook up the printer...) These are some of my very favorite cookbooks.
Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone - this is like the bible of vegetarian cookbooks - very thorough, easy to read and delicious. Written by Deborah Madison, formerly of the Greens restaurant in San Francisco. One of my favorite things about it is that it's written for people who eat meat, as well as those who don't (it does make a difference!)
The Joy of Cooking - conventional as it may seem, this is my go-to resource for questions, basic recipes, etc. I have the updated version which is WAY better than the old one and includes lots of tasty ethnic foods in addition to the everything else under the sun that is included in the original version
From The Cook's Garden - this cookbook is one of my favorites - I want to cook every single recipe in it. It's written by Ellen Ogden who used to run a seed company in Vermont (since sold) and her love and knowledge of vegetables shows through on every page.
Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet - this book is delicious on several levels - the photos, the recipes and the writing are all incredible. It's sort of half travelogue, half cookbook with the most amazing photos you've ever seen. I've been in love with South East Asia ever since I first visited in college and am grateful for the wonderful recipes in this book that take me back there without having to spend 18 hours on a plane... Naomi Duguid and Jeffrey Alford, the author and photographer, have published a number of other scrumptious books like this including one on flatbreads of the world and one about China that look equally delicious and intriguing.
The Williams Sonoma Collection - I have three of the cookbooks in this collection (soups, breakfast, and cookies) and love them all, despite their slightly corporate-y nature. I like them because they are accessible yet delicious, short (longer cookbooks have the downside of being overwhelming...), filled with good recipes (there is not a one that does not look good to me), and I love the layout - great photos and easy to read.
The Silver Palate and The New Basics Cookbooks - these are good, solid cookbooks that offer tasty meat and vegetarian options and a lot of very tempting desserts.
Beard on Bread - almost every (successful) loaf of bread I've baked has come from this wonderful little cookbook. James Beard's writing makes the daunting process of baking yeasted bread seem not only manageable but also enjoyable. His simple yet thorough instructions got me through my first ever loaf (his basic homestyle bread) and I always come back for more good recipes.
Beard on Pasta - my mom gave me her copy of this along with his bread book years ago and it's served me well the few times I've made pasta from scratch. Not surprisingly, I like it for exactly the same reasons I like the bread book.
Other
Sunset - this magazine is right up my alley. In addition to food, it covers gardening, home projects and travel (all focused on the southwest with a big emphasis on California.) They've also gotten more and more focused on sustainability and local ingredients of late. I have found a number of excellent recipes in this magazine. Although I subscribe to the magazine, I also search the recipes on their site at times, too.
Eatwell Farm CSA's Newsletter - since we've been doing our year of local cooking, the recipes that are included in the newsletter that comes with each produce box from our CSA has been very handy.
Friends and Family - the other obvious place I find inspiration is from the foods my friends and family cook. There's nothing like eating something delicious to make you want to try it out on your own.
This fall my sister got a serious “baking bug” and made everything from delicious ginger carrot layer cakes, biodynamic quark cheese cakes and pavlova, to whole wheat shortbread and a tiramisu (“pick me up” in Italian) that lived up to its name so much so that I was tipsy after I ate a piece and couldn’t sleep!
So when she brought a jar of her plum jam over, I knew it was time to bake sones and put the kettle on.
I’m excited to say that this recipe has been passed down for four generations, changing and evolving along the way. My mother has been making variations for as long as I can remember. If you stop by her house in the afternoon, you may be lucky enough to be served these scones with her home made black berry jam and whipped cream.
whipping the cream
Although these are not vegan, they are 100% local, which for me is thrilling. I love knowing who made the butter and ground the flour and I wonder if my grandmother did too.
Grandma’s scones
3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour, plus more for shaping scones
1 tablespoon baking powder
3 tablespoons maple sugar (grandma used white sugar)
1 teaspoons sea salt
2 oz unsalted butter
zest of one lemon
1 cup whole milk
2 eggs, beaten
Whipped cream and jam to serve
making scones
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.
Sift flour, baking powder, maple sugar and salt into a medium size bowl. Cut butter into flour using your finger tips until well combined. Mix in lemon zest.
Whisk milk and eggs together and set aside 1 tablespoon to use as a glaze. Stir wet ingredients into flour-butter mixture and carefully mix until just combined.
Turn out onto a well floured surface and gently press dough until its about 3/4 inch thick. Use a small glass, about 2 inches in diameter to cut out 15 scones. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet, brush with egg-milk mixture and bake 20 minutes.
brushing with glaze
freshly baked scones
To serve cut in half, spread with jam and top with cream. Enjoy with a good cup of tea.
There's a pathological impulse that leads to excessive complaining about the personal details of one's life on the internet. Somehow, it's a natural forum. I'm bravely attempting to spare you all that. So I'll only mention briefly my recent carpal tunnel surgery, the resulting discomfort, complications and three week limit on activity, moving immediately to a full-on food porn post featuring 21 recent cupcake experiments: one for each day of my projected recovery period.
They say in jail that you only do two days: the day you go in and the day you come out. I kind of feel jailed, or at least sidelined for this period, but they don't get cupcakes in jail. Or maybe they do. Either way, I wanted to go into my confinement on a bang with this Mexican chocolate cupcake made with stone ground Taza chocolate. This is a new offering from Taza and it's the chocolate I was waiting for from them, perfectly spicy with brash vanilla, a hint of citrus and the wonderful rustic texture Taza's getting famous for. Amped up with a little stone ground cornmeal to echo the Taza texture, a little extra cinnamon and a dusting of crushed cocoa bean and shaved chocolate, this is one of my dream cupcakes.
For day two, something more delicate and restorative. I fell in love with the combination of rose and lychee last summer and have been playing with it ever since. Chopped lychees and rose petal jam cupcakes topped with rosewater frosting will do the trick.
Day three is all about comfort and warmth. Turkish Smyrna fig cake with hazelnut coffee buttercream hightop fits the bill.
For four, I need to perk up. A shot of Grand Marnier with the balanced Theo Ivory Coast chocolate makes for a familiar, if fancy, chocolate orange combination that is set off spectacularly with strawberry frosting. During these winter months I've been playing with fruits in their preserved forms more than fresh, trying to honor seasonality while still getting flavor. One thing I discovered was the potential in freeze-dried fruit that I had previously written off for its strange texture. Ground into a powder and incorporated in frostings, creams, chocolates and batters, the fruit flavor comes through with fantastic clarity, fresh and bright tasting.
Day five is time to get some spice back into life. The hints of exotic fruit, tea and spice in this cake really shine with dark brown sugar, sticky with molasses. And the addictive ganache, inspired by Pichet Ong, well that just flat out shines.
Day six belongs to amaretto cream cheese cupcakes with fresh grated cinnamon and toasted almonds. I've been playing with using creamy substances like faux cream cheeses, sour cream, crème fraîche, ricotta and strained yogurt in cake--there is lots of fun potential in it, yielding really tender, rich crumb.
For day seven, I'll continue a four day streak of boozey cupcakes and catch a nip with these black walnut truffle cupcakes with bourbon frosting and chocolate chunks. Black walnuts in and of themselves have a pleasantly rich alcoholic note so it's tricky to find balance with the bourbon, but a little seems to highlight the natural flavors in the nuts.
First day of the second week: blueberry chocolate mousse cupcakes. Again, astronaut-style freeze dried blueberries are powerfully flavorful in this cake batter, accented lightly by a little bit of lavender, dried from my garden last summer. It's nice to be using up the last bits of dried herbs stored from the end of the season as the plants return to life under our mild spring skies.
Day nine goes to the kind of cupcake that got me through the winter. Jaggary (coconut palm sugar) cake with lemongrass frosting and toasted coconut offers flowers and fruit even on the grayest day.
Day ten marks the double digits. Time to celebrate. There's little better than spicy chocolate in my book, but this chili-spiked chocolate cupcake filled with peanut butter mousse, spread with spicy peanut butter frosting and covered in cardamom ganache has the plain old chili and chocolate beat like a dirty rug. It's over the top, sure, but sometimes you need to go there.
Rein it in slightly for eleven, but only just. Super-spiced chocolate pumpkin cupcakes made with heaps of fresh ground cinnamon chips, nutmeg and mace. The pumpkin and liberal quantity of melted chocolate make this a super soft cake that manages to stay airy while still having density in its crumb. The cinnamon chocolate mousse doesn't hurt either.
Day twelve: can't get enough nutmeg. Did you know I grew up nutmeg-less? My dad is allergic to the spice and we never had it in the house. It's only been recently that I've really been gotten into nutmeg and ever since getting a nutmeg grinder I can't be stopped. No more skinning my fingers trying to microplane nutmeg. If you like nutmeg, you need one of these gadgets, they are brilliant. And if you like nutmeg and are using pre-ground, you're in for a major case of love at first sniff when you switch to fresh. Nutmeg looses the majority of its flavor very quickly once ground, so fresh is the way to go. Fresh nutmeg with caramel and chocolate is even better.
Thirteen is a far from unlucky experiment. Making fresh nut milk for baking is easy enough and delicious to boot. Packaged nut milks are so pale in their flavor after you've had fresh. I like cashew milk for baking and it goes really well with South Asian spices like in this garam masala cashew milk chocolate cupcakes with cashew cream coconut frosting.
Two week mark! In addition to playing with "milks," the sugar component to cupcakes is wide open for further exploration. Barley malt has promise, especially in combination with dark, dark chocolate like this Venezulean from Theo. The malt has a more earthy sweetness that can take on the sweet blast of a buttercream and not be overwhelming. A drizzle of cinnamon ganache is just the warm note to top it.
Day fifteen strikes me as a discouraging day. I expect to be feeling really pretty good, but still not quite up to whisking. It's a good day to explore a cupcake I want to work but doesn't quite. I love the scent of cocoa butter and wish there were a really good vegan white chocolate that lots of high quality cocoa butter, real vanilla bean and fair-trade organic sugar. In the absence of this product, I've been making my own, which is not up to snuff and probably never can really be without the proper equipment. Still, I'm exploring the flavors of white chocolate more successfully in forms where it's just a flavor and not an end unto itself. Hence, the white chocolate cupcake.
Sixteen: simple and sweet, with a twist. Chocolate strawberry cupcake with vincotto ganache. I'm enamored of the idea of strawberry and balsamic and it certainly can work, but with vincotto nothing is forced at all. It's a natural affinity that is complex without being demanding.
Day seventeen might be time to take a major shot in the arm. Turkish coffee'll do that trick, so this pistachio cardamom cake with Turkish coffee ganache will be a perfect pick me up.
Keep the healthy fats and protein coming on day eighteen with this lemongrass peanut flour cake with ginger coconut frosting. Peanut flour can be found in many Asian markets, or make your own fresh at home in the food processor, just watch that you don't end up with peanut butter. Gentle pulses and cold nuts help.
Nineteen is so close to the end I can taste it and it tastes like cocoa nibs. After using nut flours in cakes, my thoughts turned to cocoa nibs and I pulverized some to make a course flour, which I used instead of cocoa powder or chocolate. The result is intriguing. It's definitely cacao flavor, not chocolate, but I like that. The sweetness was added back in with hazelnut praline frosting and balance kept by adding a darkly bitter chocolate ganache, hazelnut shards and crushed raw cacao bean.
Day twenty is freedom is on the horizon. Let us welcome it with haiku: lemon cream cupcakes raspberry puree frosting chocolate butterfly
Day twenty-one, three week review and the doctor will release me from my binds! So we end much as we began: guajillo chili chocolate cupcakes with chocolate peanut butter mousse, a final idle decilacy before really getting back to work again.
Resulting contamination of non-GE and organic alfalfa hay and seed would devastate livelihoods and organic industry
The National Organic Coalition (NOC) today announced that more than 200,000 people submitted comments to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) critiquing the substance and conclusions of its Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) on Genetically Engineered (GE) Alfalfa. Groups, including NOC, Center for Food Safety (CFS), Organic Consumers Association, Food & Water Watch, CREDO Action and Food Democracy Now, mobilized their communities to help generate the unprecedented number of comments.
In addition, more than 300 public interest organizations, farmers, dairies, retailers and organic food producers from the U.S. and Canada delivered a strongly worded letter to USDA, calling upon it to deny approval of Monsanto’s genetically engineered, Roundup Ready alfalfa (GE alfalfa). The letter cites the inevitable contamination of organic and non-GE alfalfa hay and seeds and threats to the viability of organic dairies, livestock, and meat and dairy producers as reasons for urging the denial. NOC, Organic Valley, Whole Foods, National Cooperative Grocers Association, CFS and others agree that it would be irresponsible government policy to approve GE alfalfa in the absence of legal requirements holding companies accountable for GE contamination, as is currently the case.
In 2006, CFS sued USDA for its illegal approval of Monsanto’s GE alfalfa. USDA failed to conduct an environmental impact statement (EIS), as required by law, before deregulating the crop. The federal courts sided with CFS and banned GE alfalfa plantings until USDA analyzed the impacts of GE alfalfa on the environment, farmers and the public. Today marks the deadline for submitting public comments on the draft EIS, which recommends approving Monsanto’s GE alfalfa.
USDA’s EIS claims that organic consumers do not care about GE contamination of their food, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Consumer surveys show that 75 percent or more of respondents repeatedly say that they do not want to eat GE contaminated food and cite their desire to avoid GE food as one of the top five reasons for buying organic.
“GE alfalfa threatens the very fabric of the organic industry,” adds George Siemon, one of the founding farmers and CEO of Organic Valley. “Organic consumers want seeds and products to remain unpolluted by GE.”
Independent, empirical studies and past experience show that containment of GE pollen and seeds is not possible GE alfalfa pollen can travel six miles or more in the air, via bees or other pollinators. Seeds can also travel long distances on harvesting equipment and on the boots and in the trucks of people who work in fields and transport hay and seeds. More than 200 known cases of GE contamination have been documented within the last decade. The most serious and immediate cases of contamination are in canola (rapeseed) crops. Due to widespread contamination, canola crops and oil can no longer be marketed as organic or non-GE in Western Canada.
“The continued deregulation of GE crops threatens our food supply and the diverse organic and conventional farming systems that have fed the world’s growing population for centuries,” said Lisa J. Bunin, Ph.D., Organic Policy Coordinator at Center for Food Safety. “It is unconscionable for USDA to increasingly allow the concentration of our nation’s seed supply in the hands of a few GE companies that produce a limited number of novel, pesticide-promoting seed varieties.”
Despite the inevitable contamination from GE alfalfa, the EIS disavows this harm and places the entire burden for preventing contamination on non-GE farmers, with no protections for food producers, consumers and exporters. “If Roundup Ready Alfalfa is permitted to be sold commercially, the ripple effect would wipe out many organic and non-GE businesses, from organic seed and forage growers to organic dairy farmers and retailers,” said Liana Hoodes, Director, National Organic Coalition. “Every American’s right to cultivate, sell and eat non-GE and organic food would no longer exist.”
Even though the EIS acknowledges that GE alfalfa would increase Roundup herbicide use, since the vast majority of alfalfa farmers do not use any herbicides at all (93 percent), it omits the fact that planting GE alfalfa would require many farmers to use Roundup for the very first time. This would result in the spread of toxic chemicals in regions where such toxins were previously non-existent. Over the past 13 years, the planting of GE crops has significantly increased herbicide use on corn, soybeans and cotton – by 383 million pounds. GE alfalfa deregulation would markedly add to that high toxic burden on the environment.
“Our genetic gene pool is extremely valuable, and we can’t afford to destroy it by handing it over to the biotech companies,” warns Conventional South Dakota alfalfa seed and hay grower, Chuck Noble. “If we’ve learned anything from Europe’s potato famines when millions starved to death, humans need seed variety to protect against blight and famine. Genetic engineering severely compromises that diversity.”
Read the letter from farmers, organic producers and NGOs opposing the deregulation of GE alfalfa
Read the Center for Food Safety’s comments to USDA
To receive updates on GE alfalfa and action alerts for other food issues, consumers can visit Center for Food Safety (www.truefoodnow.org) and join the True Food Network community.
About the National Organic Coalition
The National Organic Coalition (NOC) is a national alliance of organizations working to provide a “Washington voice” for farmers, ranchers, environmentalists, consumers and progressive industry members involved in organic agriculture. NOC seeks to work cooperatively with, and add value to, existing organic and sustainable agriculture organizations, networks and coalitions to ensure a united voice for organic integrity.
Filed under: GE Crops, Legal Actions, Organics, Politics and Policy
News this week that the United States had come out in support of giving endangered Atlantic bluefin tuna protection under Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) was hailed as a major victory by environmental groups. “The Obama administration’s decision to support a CITES Appendix I listing of Atlantic bluefin tuna could be a real game changer for the species,” said Susan Lieberman, director of international policy at the Pew Environmental Group.
A CITES Appendix I listing would ban international trade in bluefins, most of which are now imported by Japan. The final decision will be announced when representatives of 175 signatory countries to the convention meet in Doha, Qatar, between March 13 and 25.
But the same groups are hoping that the upcoming CITES meeting will address concerns about eight shark species that haven’t received the media attention lavished on the high-profile bluefin, but which in some cases hover even closer to extinction.
Of particular concern are three species of hammerhead sharks and oceanic whitetip sharks, whose fins are the prime ingredient in shark fin soup, an increasingly popular dish in upwardly mobile Asian countries. Some 73 million sharks are killed each year just for their fins.
Currently, shark fishing is virtually unregulated in international waters, although the United States and other countries have put controls in place in their territorial waters. “In international trade it’s anything goes—a free-for-all,” said Lieberman. “It’s the Wild West out there. The attitude is, ‘Help yourselves.’ Unfortunately there are not enough sharks out there for everyone to help themselves.”
Spiny dogfish are another shark species of concern. Having eaten their way through codfish populations, the British (primarily) have turned to dogfish as the main ingredient in their iconic fish and chips. And there are worries that demand for its meat will take the dogfish down the same road as badly depleted cod.
“This is the first time CITES is looking at a highly commercial and valuable group of shark species,” said Lieberman. “In some ecosystems the trade in sharks is reducing their numbers to the point where they are almost gone, if not gone.”
As the top predator, sharks play a crucial role in the ecosystems they inhabit. If you remove sharks, according to Lieberman, populations of other, smaller predatory fish can explode, setting off a cascading effect as they prey on other fish. “We’re seeing some coastal places where the whole ecosystem crashes.”
The petitioners are hoping that the shark species of concern will be listed under Appendix II of the convention, a less limiting measure than the Appendix I listing being sought for Atlantic bluefins. “Appendix II is what I call the sustainable-use appendix. It says that it’s fine to use a species commercially, as long as it’s sustainable and legal,” said Lieberman.
It hardly seems like an extreme step. In fact, it could be argued that all animals we consume should be taken in a sustainable and legal manner, regardless of their population status.
Now, international attention has shifted to China, a major user of shark products. It has not declared where it stands on a CITES, but Lieberman is optimistic.
Whatever the decision, it’s time these magnificent predators that have prowled the oceans for 400 million years get the fisheries management respect they deserve.
Click here for a more detailed post on the blight of Atlantic bluefins.
Oscar winner* Mo'Nique stars in a Let's Move! PSA; Food, Inc.; Julie & Julia; and Precious; Avatar; Beyonce, Jay Z, Dreamgirls... The 82nd annual Academy Awards will be handed out in Hollywood tonight. As many people know, there's a mini movie theater at the White House, where President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama--and the Obama girls, and even Bo--can watch the latest Tinseltown offerings, even before the films have been released.
Food, film, and the Oscars often intersect at the White House, whether it's in the movies that are screened, or thanks to the actors who visit, or thanks to the new focus on making raw and arty in-house movies. For instance, just this week, the White House released an Oscar-worthy documentary short about President Obama having lunch with real folks in Georgia, but somehow it didn't get a nod from the Academy. (Above: Time magazine awarded President Obama a fake Oscar when he won the Nobel Peace Prize)
Mo'Nique, the actress whom many critics believe will win tonight's Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance in the film Precious, recently made a PSA for Mrs. Obama's child obesity campaign, Let's Move!. The video encourages fitness (the video is above; if it's not visible, click headline at top). Update: Mo'Nique won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar.
In Precious, Mo'Nique gives a harrowing performance as the psychologically and sexually abusive mother of the title character, who is an obese teenager who is also raped and impregnated by her father. Mo'Nique's career has previously been built on her being a ravingly funny fat rights activist; she spent many years proclaiming herself "Fat and Fabulous," and even had a reality TV show on Oygen network, Fat Chance, that celebrated plus-sized women. But after losing about 40 pounds last year, Mo'Nique has turned over a new leaf. Let's Move! has a specific focus on non-white populations, which Mrs. Obama has started to discuss publicly, because blacks and Hispanics have a higher prevalence of obesity than whites. Mo'Nique is highly relatable.
The foodiest Oscar-nominated movie screened at the White House in 2009 was Food, Inc. (nomm'd for Best Documentary Feature), directed by Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein, which takes a hard, frightening look at America's industrial food system and food safety. The much happier dramedy, Julie & Julia, about legendary American chef Julia Child and the industrious blogger who tried to recreate all her recipes in a single year, was reportedly a White House fave. Meryl Streep is nomm'd as Best Actress for playing Child, and she's competing against Gabourey Sidibe of Precious. (Above: President and Mrs. Obama in the White House movie miniplex, wearing 3-D glasses)
One Oscar nominated movie the Obamas didn't watch at the White House: The multiply-nomm'd Avatar, directed by James Cameron. The First Family attended a private screening on New Year's Eve while on winter vacation in Hawaii, when a local movie theater was shut down to accommodate them.
Oscar winners and nominees at the White House Neither President Obama nor Mrs. Obama have actually gone on the record with their popcorn picks for Oscar-nominated actors, movies, or songs. Last Friday's regular afternoon White House press briefing--the most likely time when an industrious reporter could pose an Obama Oscar question to Press Secretary Robert Gibbs--was cancelled at the last minute. Gibbs will no doubt fill America in on if the Obamas watched the award presentation, and for whom they were rooting on Monday.
The Obamas know most of the people who will be at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood this evening for the award ceremony, because there was big Hollywood support for Candidate Obama during campaign season. Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson (Best Supporting Actress for Dreamgirls) has lately replaced Earth,Wind & Fire as the (White) House Band, and this week, Beyonce, Hudson's co-star in Dreamgirls (which garnered the most Oscar noms of any film in 2007), caused something of a scandal here in DC when a photo of her sitting in the Situation Room at the White House (with Jay Z) surfaced on the Internet (above).
And of course Mrs. Obama is the honorary chair of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. The Academy Award associated actors on the committee include:
*Sarah Jessica Parker: The actress best known for Sex and The City is a presenter this evening at the Academy Awards, but Parker has never received a nod from the Academy. She was at the White House on Feb. 25, however, for the reception for the Presidential Medal of the Arts, which took place in an East Room ceremony. Multiple Academy Award winner Clint Eastwood was an honoree, but he wasn't at the ceremony, as was Bob Dylan, a 1999 Oscar winner for his song Things Have Changed, but he wasn't at the ceremony either. But he'd just been at the White House on Feb. 9, for at the latest installment of the White House Music Series, In Performance At the White House, which was devoted to songs from the Civil Rights era. (Above: Parker at the White House; large photo is Dylan after his performance, shaking hands with the President as the First Lady looks on)
*Forest Whitaker: Oscar winner, Best Actor 2006, for The Last King of Scotland. Whitaker visited the President at the White House in April of 2009, on World Malaria Day, to discuss global response to the disease. This year, Whitaker was also the voice of one of the Wild Things in Where The Wild Things Are, which was screened at the White House, and which President Obama chatted about to a gang of kids during a lunchtime school visit to Vier Mill Elementary School in Silver Spring, Maryland.
*Kerry Washington: Never nomm'd for an Oscar, Washington starred alongside Whitaker in his Oscar-winning role. She'll be at the White House on Monday, to emcee a reception hosted by President and Mrs. Obama for International Womens' Day.
*Alfre Woodard: Best Actress nominee, for Cross Creek in 1983. Woodard was a guest at the State Dinner for India, along with multiple Academy Award winner Steven Spielberg. David Geffen, a movie exec and music mogul who has had many Oscar-winners in his various projects, was also at the dinner, and sat at Mrs. Obama's table. (Above: Woodard and Spielberg, with actor Blair Underwood at the State Dinner)
*Edward Norton: Two-time Oscar nominee for Primal Fear (Best supporting Actor) and American History X (Best Actor nominee). Norton is also a producer of and the narrator for the documentary By The People: The Election of Barack Obama, directed by Amy Rice and Alicia Sams (which did not get nomm'd for any Oscars). Norton was last at the White House for the White House Music Series, during the classical music concert in November.
Read about Hollywood money and politics here, at OpenSecrets.org, which just handed out its Money-in-Politics Oscars. The Academy Awards air on ABC tonight, starting at 8:00 PM ET, 5:00 PM PT. Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin host.
*Photos: President Obama Oscar photo was created by Time magazine; White House theatre and Bob Dylan photos by Pete Souza/White House; other photos via Reuters.
Day ten marks the double digits. Time to celebrate. There's little better than spicy chocolate in my book, but this chili-spiked chocolate cupcake filled with peanut butter mousse, spread with spicy peanut butter frosting and covered in cardamom ganache has the plain old chili and chocolate beat like a dirty rug. It's over the top, sure, but sometimes you need to go there.
The National Organic Coalition (NOC) today announced that more than 200,000 people submitted comments to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) critiquing the substance and conclusions of its Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) on Genetically Engineered (GE) Alfalfa. Groups, including NOC, Center for Food Safety (CFS), Organic Consumers Association, Food & Water Watch, CREDO Action and Food Democracy Now, mobilized their communities to help generate the unprecedented number of comments.
The foodiest Oscar-nominated movie screened at the White House in 2009 was 
Neither President Obama nor Mrs. Obama have actually gone on the record with their popcorn picks for Oscar-nominated actors, movies, or songs. Last Friday's regular afternoon White House press briefing--the most likely time when an industrious reporter could pose an Obama Oscar question to 
And of course Mrs. Obama is the honorary chair of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. The Academy Award associated actors on the committee include:
