Food & Drink

Why are Brazilian coffee-growers striking and burning sacks of coffee?

"In Brazil, which produces a third of the world's coffee beans, farmers are striking over falling prices and burning sacks of coffee in protest. Why are coffee-growers feeling the strain? [..] Many Brazilian and Colombian farmers invested to boost production of arabica in response to the high prices of 2011, which has added to the oversupply and further depressed prices. And good weather in Brazil means that this year's crop has turned out to be unexpectedly large. That is why Brazil's farmers are striking, and are demanding more protection, in the form of fatter subsidies, from the state." Continue reading →

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Buying Booze With Bitcoins: Yes, I Took One For the Team

"So, it turns out buying electronic cyberbeer is practically indistinguishable from everyday pint purchasing. The only difference was that instead of handing over a tenner or your VISA card, you have to stop sexting or Instagramming the crisps or whatever, and scan a QR code using the Bitcoin wallet app on your smartphone. Yup, not only has Stephen Early found a good use for Bitcoin, he has also managed to do the same for QR codes — formerly a technology with literally no practical applications whatsoever. I can’t be bothered googling who is in charge of the UK’s digital infrastructure but whoever it is, they need to snap this guy up and give him the keys." Continue reading →

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Which States Are Most Drunk on Wine Taxes?

"I shared some fascinating details the other day about how federal taxes inhibited the development of America’s beer industry. And I’ve used a story about buddies sharing beer to illustrate the dangers of redistribution and class warfare. But this blog hasn’t paid much attention to wine. Well, thanks to this new map from the Tax Foundation, that oversight has been addressed. I reckon the politicians in Kentucky don’t have much use for those effete, wine-sipping bi-coastal elites?" Continue reading →

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French president auctions off wines in austerity fire sale

"The expected price of the wines range from 20 euros to 2,500 euros ($25 to $3,235) per bottle and include top-end offerings such as a Chateau Latour dating back to 1936, a 1990 Petrus and a slew of 1985 Romanee wines. The cellar at the Elysee was established in 1947 during the presidency of Vincent Auriol and now holds 12,000 bottles. Burgundy and Bordeaux wines will dominate in the auction but there are also offerings from Alsace, the Loire and the Rhone valley. Demand for wine from France, the world’s leading wine producer by value, is high especially from well-heeled buyers in China and the United States. China is the world’s biggest importer of Bordeaux wines." Continue reading →

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EU retreats from olive oil ban after wave of ridicule

"Barely a week after it was announced for 'hygiene' and 'consumer protection' purposes, the EU commissioner in charge, Dacian Ciolos, rushed to the same press room to announce he was withdrawing the measure. The proposal would have banned jugs and dipping bowls of olive oil in restaurants from next year and was meant to prevent restaurant-goers from being served any old inferior oil. It had been pushed by big olive-oil producing countries. Critics immediately said it would push small artisan producers of olive oil out of business and was ignoring the fact that fraud mostly takes place before the oil is bottled and not at the restaurant table." Continue reading →

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Wine producers go hi-tech to protect against fraud

"Making sure a glass of wine is everything it promises on the label was once a relatively simple process: hold against the light, tilt and observe the shade, swirl a little and give it a good sniff. But with the ever-increasing global consumption of wine now attracting the attention of fraudsters, wine drinkers are soon just as likely to be advised to whip out their smartphones. A quick scan can give the consumer a direct link to the supplier’s website to verify the label, trace the wine’s journey from vineyard to glass and provide information about the winery. New technology and international cooperation are now enabling producers to outsmart the fraudsters." Continue reading →

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Fracking could ruin German beer industry, brewers tell Angela Merkel

"The Brauer-Bund beer association is worried that fracking for shale gas, which involves pumping water and chemicals at high pressure into the ground, could pollute water used for brewing and break a 500-year-old industry rule on water purity. Under the 'Reinheitsgebot', or German purity law, brewers have to produce beer using only malt, hops, yeast and water. 'The water has to be pure and more than half Germany's brewers have their own wells which are situated outside areas that could be protected under the government's current planned legislation on fracking,' said a Brauer-Bund spokesman." Continue reading →

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Feds Shake Down Farmer For Free Raisins

"Marvin Horne, 68, stopped giving the government his raisins in 2002 and now 'owes the U.S. government at least $650,000 in unpaid fines,' in addition to '1.2 million pounds of unpaid raisins, roughly equal to his entire harvest for four years.' Horne violated Marketing Order 989, passed during the Truman administration, 'a federal regulation meant to solve a problem from the era after World War II, which created the national raisin reserve. The program gives the U.S. government a heavy-handed power to interfere with the supply and demand for dried grapes' and takes 'away a percentage of every farmer’s raisins' without paying for them." Continue reading →

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Let Them Eat Grass – The Food Freedom Revolution

"The foods the farm produced have never harmed anyone and there is no scientific evidence that proves it could harm anyone. The State is acting like mafia saying, 'Do things our way, pay us for allowing you to feed yourselves, but still in a few years, we will bankrupt you and close your farm.' The families who own the Hershberger family farm are independent, caring for themselves. They have harmed no one, there are no victims, no crime. They act to protect themselves because governments are not protecting the food supply. In fact, they aid and abet the poisoning of our food supply." Continue reading →

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Cops Booed, Pelted With Objects After Arresting Ice-Cream Bicycle Chef

"During last Friday night's ride, Miami Police officers were booed and pelted with objects after arresting local chef Aleric 'AJ' Constantin for selling ice cream out of the back of his bicycle. 'I basically spent a day and a half in jail for selling ice cream,' Constantin says. Around 10 p.m., one of the officers approached Constantin just as he was selling some ice cream to a fellow cyclist. The cop asked the chef if he had a license to sell his dessert. Constantin handed over his driver's license and said that all of his paperwork was in order. Moreover, he had permission from the Filling Station to be there. But that wasn't good enough for the officer." Continue reading →

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