Three new reads

Today, I finally put up a few more Read All About It columns. Here you can read quick book reviews on dozens of books we've reviewed over the past few years; possibly you'll find you next great read. Since there are quite a few up, I'll let you know the most recent ones are Flesh and Bone, Songbirds, Truffles, and Wolves, and In Defense of Food.

The review for In Defense of Food includes a hypothetical discussion with your great-grandmother about "Go-gurt Portable Yogurt Tubes" that I find to be hilarious (one of the tenets is that you shouldn't eat food your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food). More sobering is just how much of the items we eat, really are not food; instead they are food-like products pushed by big corporations with the sole intent of increasing profits. Read the book and you'll see.

As an example, I saw in the paper yesterday that Monsanto has started a group that wants to force the removal of the statements on dairy products that state that no rBGH or hormones were used on the cows. Not too surprising, they've found that they can't compete if all the information is presented. So they start lobbying to remove the information because consumers can't make wise decisions on their own. More surprisingly, is that for most foods they've already hidden the truth. Did you know that when Mad Cow disease (BSE) was rampant, a small company wanted to test every cow for BSE, but the USDA would not let them. Why? Large corporations were afraid that, to compete, they would have to test every cow, too, and they could not afford it. Note that your health or safety was not part of the decision.

Anyway, enough ranting. You can, and should, find out for yourself.