Best farm-to-table, healthy eating, and food news blogs like The Salt?

January 17, 2015 12:04 AM

What are your favorite blogs about farm-to-table, food system, and healthful food news? (NOT looking for recipes)

I really enjoy NPR's The Salt. Are there any other blogs that you can recommend that talks about healthy food trends or similarly breaks down food science topics in an engaging and easy to understand way? I'm particularly interested in topics that have to do with healthy eating, benefits of farm-to-table, fun facts about vegetables/produce, GMO debates/news, etc. Not looking for recipe blogs.

Thanks!

posted by bluelight to Food & Drink (7 answers total)

Milkwood permaculture's blog has smaller chunks of instruction (edible weed foraging, growing mushrooms) alongside features and discussion on small scale farming and urban permaculture. It has an Australian / arid land focus but I think it translates well. Check out the archives.

The Artist as Family - two adults, two kids and a dog- just completed an 18 month bicycle tour of the east coast of Australia. They used the journey as a way of exploring monoculture food systems vs wild food, the commons in general, hospitality, slow transport and more. Again, a lot of great stuff in the archives.

And a shout out for some friends converting a 40 acre beaten out property in the South East of South Australia into a small scale farm on permaculture principles (there's a bit of a theme going on here). Joel and Sophie just come out of the primary observation phase and are slowly getting livestock established. I think that over the next years their blog will be a thoughtfully written document about the process of establishing a sustainable farm.
posted by pipstar at 1:09 AM on January 17, 2015 [2 favorites]

Link to NPR's The Salt
posted by cda at 8:20 AM on January 17, 2015

Food Matters is a blog by a long-time journalist who covered agriculture in Atlantic Canada. Many of the posts assume you are either from there or know enough of the local culture or economy to get why certain things are important, but if that doesn't push you away, he collects lots of good stories and offers the perspective of a longer view on the industry than most people writing about it now who've just gotten into the food scene in the last decade or so.
posted by Space Coyote at 9:27 AM on January 17, 2015

I regularly read these from my Feedly reader. Some are policy/justice-based, some are more personal opinion/reflection. All are fun and interesting to read.

More policy or topic focused
Food Politics: Current news in American food policy, by Marion Nestle

Greenhorns Blog: Updated often, with a focus on young farmers in the US

Smith Meadows Farm: Forest Pritchard wrote Gaining Ground

Other food interests
Edible Geography: Fascinating reads for food + geography

Four Pounds Flour: How about historical food trends?

Specific farm blogs
Applewood Farm: Hudson Valley farm run by Brooklyn restaurateurs. Delightfully fun to read.

Wayward Spark: Pacific Northwest-based farm, honeybees and farmers markets and interesting food science things
posted by paradeofblimps at 9:50 AM on January 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

I love Fat of the Land. PNW foraging and items of food interest. Very occasionally has a simple recipe, but that's not the blog's focus, more a way to give ideas for how to use something you've unearthed in the mountains or along the coast.
posted by weeyin at 10:16 AM on January 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

Nth-ing Edible Geography.

I don't know how often Food Corps members update their blogs, but this is a nice geographically array within the U.S.

Lastly, I've been meaning to check out which of these food justice folks has a blog / twitter / social media presence.
posted by spamandkimchi at 12:45 PM on January 17, 2015

Also National Geographic has a food-focused blog that includes posts from awardwinning journalist Maryn Mckenna who is doing an investigative series on the use of antibiotics for farm animals.
posted by spamandkimchi at 2:58 PM on January 17, 2015