Cereal Killer on The Loose

This sounds like real trouble

“The Ug99 fungus, called stem rust, could wipe out more than 80% of the world’s wheat as it spreads from Africa, scientists fear. The race is on to breed resistant plants before it reaches the U.S.”

A ‘time bomb’ for world wheat crop – Los Angeles Times

The best sauce in the world is hunger.

Depression Food is not so Depressing

I’m posting this for those who have never known real hunger. On it’s face it appears to be a doleful monologue about how to make do with pedestrian ingredients when you are so poor that eating money might seem cheaper than exchanging it for food. However, having spent more than a decade of my childhood eating stuff like this. I can assure you that, if you ever happen to be forced into similar circumstances, you will find that hot dogs and eggs can make a joyful repast when when eating nothing is the alternative.

The best sauce in the world is hunger.

Depression Food is not so Depressing

I’m posting this for those who have never known real hunger. On it’s face it appears to be a doleful monologue about how to make do with pedestrian ingredients when you are so poor that eating money might seem cheaper than exchanging it for food. However, having spent more than a decade of my childhood eating stuff like this. I can assure you that, if you ever happen to be forced into similar circumstances, you will find that hot dogs and eggs can make a joyful repast when when eating nothing is the alternative.

The best sauce in the world is hunger.

UN says eat less meat to curb global warming

Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recommends that we eat less meat because

“of the huge greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental problems – including habitat destruction – associated with rearing cattle and other animals.”

He goes on to say that it’s easier to change eating habits than it is to change how we get about.

Yeah, right.

UN says eat less meat to curb global warming

The best sauce in the world is hunger.

UN says eat less meat to curb global warming

Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recommends that we eat less meat because

“of the huge greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental problems – including habitat destruction – associated with rearing cattle and other animals.”

He goes on to say that it’s easier to change eating habits than it is to change how we get about.

Yeah, right.

UN says eat less meat to curb global warming

The best sauce in the world is hunger.

Bug-Eating Still Makes Me Buggy

I was in 5th grade the first time I became aware that people ate bugs for reasons other than wanting to make someone else vomit. It was the beginning of the school year and our social studies class was doing one of those “What I did over the summer vacation” time-wasting exercises. While I was trying to figure out how to spin my exciting summer of sitting in the basement watching TV, one of my better-heeled classmates regaled the class with a talk about his trip to South America and his discovery that people eat ants because they like them. Of course, he nailed the presentation by producing a can of chocolate covered ants and handing out samples to anyone brave enough to try them. (I did not.)

I eventually overcame my fear of eating any kind of bug and have eaten baked and fried grasshoppers, fried meal worms and smoked ants. But each of the half-dozen or so times I engaged in entomophagy, the gustatory experience was underwhelming: the flavor and texture of the bugs did not justify the work it took to get passed the fact that I was eating animals that I has become acculturated to see as associated with plague, pestilence and (in the case of ants ) the flensing of the carcasses of dead squirrels and battlefield mortalities.

But hey, don’t let the unpleasant images that I associate with insects and eating wreck your appetite for vermin. Why not surf over to Sunrise Land Shrimp where Dave offers a variety of services designed to help you overcome your culturally inspired aversion to eating things that you have learned to protect yourself from by

• sealing all foundation cracks
• spraying all areas of infiltration and infestation with insecticide
• placing all dry goods in tightly sealed containers
• stomping with foot in heavy boot and etcetera

I know it is not rational to be put off by a dish of “bean worm” (above) but be totally okay eating some other animal. And as someone who likes to think of himself as pretty rational, the contradiction is mildly embarrassing. But that’s alright, I’ll live with it. Besides, I’m probably not half as rational as I think I am.

Anyone care for a plush cup cake?

The best sauce in the world is hunger.

Bug-Eating Still Makes Me Buggy

I was in 5th grade the first time I became aware that people ate bugs for reasons other than wanting to make someone else vomit. It was the beginning of the school year and our social studies class was doing one of those “What I did over the summer vacation” time-wasting exercises. While I was trying to figure out how to spin my exciting summer of sitting in the basement watching TV, one of my better-heeled classmates regaled the class with a talk about his trip to South America and his discovery that people eat ants because they like them. Of course, he nailed the presentation by producing a can of chocolate covered ants and handing out samples to anyone brave enough to try them. (I did not.)

I eventually overcame my fear of eating any kind of bug and have eaten baked and fried grasshoppers, fried meal worms and smoked ants. But each of the half-dozen or so times I engaged in entomophagy, the gustatory experience was underwhelming: the flavor and texture of the bugs did not justify the work it took to get passed the fact that I was eating animals that I has become acculturated to see as associated with plague, pestilence and (in the case of ants ) the flensing of the carcasses of dead squirrels and battlefield mortalities.

But hey, don’t let the unpleasant images that I associate with insects and eating wreck your appetite for vermin. Why not surf over to Sunrise Land Shrimp where Dave offers a variety of services designed to help you overcome your culturally inspired aversion to eating things that you have learned to protect yourself from by

• sealing all foundation cracks
• spraying all areas of infiltration and infestation with insecticide
• placing all dry goods in tightly sealed containers
• stomping with foot in heavy boot and etcetera

I know it is not rational to be put off by a dish of “bean worm” (above) but be totally okay eating some other animal. And as someone who likes to think of himself as pretty rational, the contradiction is mildly embarrassing. But that’s alright, I’ll live with it. Besides, I’m probably not half as rational as I think I am.

Anyone care for a plush cup cake?

The best sauce in the world is hunger.

Fish Hooks Man With Worm

By now many of you have seen this creepy story about the man who alleges that he was infected with tapeworm after having eaten allegedly undercooked salmon. Those of us who love raw and rare fish recoil from the idea that something we love, crave even, could possibly be a harbinger of something as horrible as a fracking tapeworm. But the truth is that it is possible to get tapeworm from eating raw and rare fish. So please be careful!

Lawsuit says eatery to blame for 9-foot tapeworm

The best sauce in the world is hunger.

Fish Hooks Man With Worm

By now many of you have seen this creepy story about the man who alleges that he was infected with tapeworm after having eaten allegedly undercooked salmon. Those of us who love raw and rare fish recoil from the idea that something we love, crave even, could possibly be a harbinger of something as horrible as a fracking tapeworm. But the truth is that it is possible to get tapeworm from eating raw and rare fish. So please be careful!

Lawsuit says eatery to blame for 9-foot tapeworm

The best sauce in the world is hunger.

Hunger Art

If A Hunger Artist has been quiet it’s because I’ve been cooling my heels in London and have, until now, been too busy trying to make sense of this place to post.

Today I ran across a painting by Max Beckman at the Tate Modern (which is housed in an old power station but could easily be mistaken for a gigantic crematorium) that seems to have gotten so deep into my skin that I will probably be only a little bit surprised if something horrible and bone-cracking hatches out sometime between now and the next sunrise.

The painting, titled Prunier after the Parisian restaurant of the same name, shows three people eating mess of lobster as if they are eating the last meal of their lives. And they very-well might be doing just that. Beckman, a German, painted this while he was living in Holland where he had fled to avoid having to live under the govenment of Hitler. But then the Nazis took Holland, and by the time Beckman painted this in 1944, food rationing had taken it’s toll and most people were very hungry indeed.

The best sauce in the world is hunger.