By Adam Rabiner
Independent film makers and documentarians have been making critical movies about the food industry for the past decade. Food Inc., one of the first big budget movies in this vein came out in 2008 and ushered in a slew of films that has investigated the many facets of modern food production, distribution, and consumption. Our series, Plow to Plate, has been bringing many of these films to the Park Slope Food Coop since September 2009. Over 70 reviews of these films have been reviewed in this newsletter.
Commercial giant Netflix has finally caught up. Its series on famous restaurateurs, Chefs Table, now in its third season, mostly pays homage to cooking shows but also occasionally addresses more serious issues. Last year it released Wasted! The Story of Food Waste hosted by Anthony Bourdain and this past January it debuted a new series, Rotten, which explores more of the themes of our series. Rotten tells the not so sweet truth about the honey supply in episode one, focuses on The Peanut Problem in episode two, and profiles seafood, dairy and chicken farming, and the garlic industry in the remaining four segments. Bonus points! Plow to Plate organizers have even secured a speaker associated with the film to come for a Q & A following the screening.
The Peanut Problem is about the dramatic increase in various food allergies, over the past twenty years or so, across a wide range of countries, and especially in children. About 5.9 million children in the U.S. have food allergies, or about one in thirteen kids, including the children of two of the experts featured in the episode, Ming Tsai, a Boston chef whose restaurant is famous for its explicit and clear menus and researcher Ruchi Gupta, M.D., M.P.H., of Lurie Children’s Hospital and Northwestern University.
Like Colony Collapse Disorder, discussed in the first episode, Lawyers, Guns & Honey, the reason for this phenomenon is something of a mystery. Experts don’t really know why bees are disappearing or why people are increasingly allergic but have floated a hypothesis that it may have something to do with changes to the human microbiome or the collection of microorganisms that reside in the gut, resulting from a more sterile environment. But since increased allergies are global, this theory implies that there are few countries left where kids still play in the mud.
It turns out that there is one country where peanut allergies are less common, Israel, and the cause of this exception is an unlikely hero, Bamba, an all-natural peanut butter corn puff, like a Cheese Doodle in texture if not flavor. This discovery led to a reversal in the conventional wisdom which had been to avoid the eight key food groups that cause allergic reactions: shell fish, tree nuts, eggs, milk, fin fish, soy, wheat, and peanuts. Because of Israelis’ relative tolerance to peanuts, the prescription now is to slowly but surely increase exposure to potential allergens.
The Peanut Problem sounds trivial to those who can down these healthy, crunchy, and tasty treats with abandon. But the case of Mohammed Zaman, a restaurant owner in England whose attempts to cut costs by replacing almonds with peanut powder resulted in the sickening of at least one customer and the death of another, underscores its seriousness. Zaman is now serving time in jail for manslaughter.
Others are also running into serious legal problems due to food allergies. In a recent New York Times article, In Allergy Bullying, Food Can Hurt, children who bullied others with food allergies have been charged with assault and battery and felony aggravated assault. In a case similar to Zaman’s, Panera has been sued because a rogue employee hid peanut butter in a grilled cheese sandwich.
Perhaps it’s time for the Park Slope Food Coop to start carrying Bambas.
Independent film makers and documentarians have been making critical movies about the food industry for the past decade. Food Inc., one of the first big budget movies in this vein came out in 2008 and ushered in a slew of films that has investigated the many facets of modern food production, distribution, and consumption. Our series, Plow to Plate, has been bringing many of these films to the Park Slope Food Coop since September 2009. Over 70 reviews of these films have been reviewed in this newsletter.
Commercial giant Netflix has finally caught up. Its series on famous restaurateurs, Chefs Table, now in its third season, mostly pays homage to cooking shows but also occasionally addresses more serious issues. Last year it released Wasted! The Story of Food Waste hosted by Anthony Bourdain and this past January it debuted a new series, Rotten, which explores more of the themes of our series. Rotten tells the not so sweet truth about the honey supply in episode one, focuses on The Peanut Problem in episode two, and profiles seafood, dairy and chicken farming, and the garlic industry in the remaining four segments. Bonus points! Plow to Plate organizers have even secured a speaker associated with the film to come for a Q & A following the screening.
The Peanut Problem is about the dramatic increase in various food allergies, over the past twenty years or so, across a wide range of countries, and especially in children. About 5.9 million children in the U.S. have food allergies, or about one in thirteen kids, including the children of two of the experts featured in the episode, Ming Tsai, a Boston chef whose restaurant is famous for its explicit and clear menus and researcher Ruchi Gupta, M.D., M.P.H., of Lurie Children’s Hospital and Northwestern University.
Like Colony Collapse Disorder, discussed in the first episode, Lawyers, Guns & Honey, the reason for this phenomenon is something of a mystery. Experts don’t really know why bees are disappearing or why people are increasingly allergic but have floated a hypothesis that it may have something to do with changes to the human microbiome or the collection of microorganisms that reside in the gut, resulting from a more sterile environment. But since increased allergies are global, this theory implies that there are few countries left where kids still play in the mud.
It turns out that there is one country where peanut allergies are less common, Israel, and the cause of this exception is an unlikely hero, Bamba, an all-natural peanut butter corn puff, like a Cheese Doodle in texture if not flavor. This discovery led to a reversal in the conventional wisdom which had been to avoid the eight key food groups that cause allergic reactions: shell fish, tree nuts, eggs, milk, fin fish, soy, wheat, and peanuts. Because of Israelis’ relative tolerance to peanuts, the prescription now is to slowly but surely increase exposure to potential allergens.
The Peanut Problem sounds trivial to those who can down these healthy, crunchy, and tasty treats with abandon. But the case of Mohammed Zaman, a restaurant owner in England whose attempts to cut costs by replacing almonds with peanut powder resulted in the sickening of at least one customer and the death of another, underscores its seriousness. Zaman is now serving time in jail for manslaughter.
Others are also running into serious legal problems due to food allergies. In a recent New York Times article, In Allergy Bullying, Food Can Hurt, children who bullied others with food allergies have been charged with assault and battery and felony aggravated assault. In a case similar to Zaman’s, Panera has been sued because a rogue employee hid peanut butter in a grilled cheese sandwich.
Perhaps it’s time for the Park Slope Food Coop to start carrying Bambas.