Wednesday's Food Section day in many newspapers, and today they're chockful of recipes for the United States' annual food feast, Thanksgiving. Worth a look for folks concerned about global matters, and not only because the savoring of succulent treats is a human universal.Strong in some stories is a a message of socially responsible cooking. Cooks're to choose their holiday bird not just because it's the plumpest, their greens not just because they're the greenest. The challenge, rather, is to buy off the beaten path -- to choose a foodstuff because it's unusual, a strain that Big Food's squeezed off the supermarket shelves. Look then, for "heritage turkeys"; cook, then, with "heritage eggs."
This ought to be more than a marketing gimmick. According to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization, 1 out of 5 species that used to thrive in the world's barnyards now is endangered. It's a problem of biodiversity not less significant than the threats in the wild discussed in meetings like that of the International Mechanism of Scientific Expertise on Biodiversity in France this week.
Seems this year the holidays're a time to eat all around the food chain.
