Friday Feature: Blogs on the politics of food

So, in the tradition of many other bloggers, I've decided to choose one day a week to highlight other resources out there, including books, blogs, and organizations, that are dedicated to healthy living. I'm calling it the "Friday Feature." The amount of resources on the internet and in bookstores can be overwhelming, so I'm hoping this will help narrow it down to the particularly useful ones.

This week's Friday Feature is focused on food blogs. There is an endless number of food blogs out there, and even more cooking blogs. So, in the interest of time and space, I've chosen three essential blogs that report on food and, more specifically, on food politics. These websites are great to read if you are concerned about issues of food safety, federal funding for food programs, and nutrition research. They also feature quite a few stories of food "renegades" who are fighting to change the food system, including inspirational gardeners, lunch ladies, and politicians. Here are the blogs...

Civil Eats: If you had to choose just one website to read about food politics, I would choose this one. The blog is updated regularly, and features a whole host of writers from various organizations. The stated mission of the site is to "promote critical thought about sustainable agriculture and food systems as part of building economically and socially just communities," and I believe it does just that.


Food Politics: This website is written by Marion Nestle, a professor at NYU who has authored a whole host of books on food politics and how to choose healthy, safe foods. She's a well-known and outspoken critic of industrial agriculture, but she isn't over-the-top about it. She posts about all sorts of food news, from recent food recalls, to controversial food policies being enacted by our lawmakers.


Fed Up With Lunch: This blog is written by an anonymous Chicago public school teacher, who spent one year eating school food with her students. She photographed every meal, and blogged about the (sometimes disgusting) foods that were served. Now that the year has ended (and she has no desire to continue eating the school lunches), she writes about other issues of school food and federal funding for healthy food initiatives.