This was in the New York Times today and has been on my mind all day after reading it. Please take a read of the highlights below:
January 19, 2008
An Oil Quandary: Costly Fuel Means Costly Calories
By KEITH BRADSHER
KUANTAN, Malaysia — Rising prices for cooking oil are forcing residents of Asia’s largest slum, in Mumbai, India, to ration every drop. Bakeries in the United States are fretting over higher shortening costs. And here in Malaysia, brand-new factories built to convert vegetable oil into diesel sit idle, their owners unable to afford the raw material.
This is the other oil shock. From India to Indiana, shortages and soaring prices for palm oil, soybean oil and many other types of vegetable oils are the latest, most striking example of a developing global problem: costly food.
The food price index of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, based on export prices for 60 internationally traded foodstuffs, climbed 37 percent last year. That was on top of a 14 percent increase in 2006, and the trend has accelerated this winter.
In some poor countries, desperation is taking hold. Just in the last week, protests have erupted in Pakistan over wheat shortages, and in Indonesia over soybean shortages. Egypt has banned rice exports to keep food at home, and China has put price controls on cooking oil, grain, meat, milk and eggs.
According to the F.A.O., food riots have erupted in recent months in Guinea, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan and Yemen.
“The urban poor, the rural landless and small and marginal farmers stand to lose,” said He Changchui, the agency’s chief representative for Asia and the Pacific.
A startling change is unfolding in the world’s food markets. Soaring fuel prices have altered the equation for growing food and transporting it across the globe. Huge demand for biofuels has created tension between using land to produce fuel and using it for food.
A growing middle class in the developing world is demanding more protein, from pork and hamburgers to chicken and ice cream. And all this is happening even as global climate change may be starting to make it harder to grow food in some of the places best equipped to do so, like Australia.
In the last few years, world demand for crops and meat has been rising sharply. It remains an open question how and when the supply will catch up. For the foreseeable future, that probably means higher prices at the grocery store and fatter paychecks for farmers of major crops like corn, wheat and soybeans.
There may be worse inflation to come. Food experts say steep increases in commodity prices have not fully made their way to street stalls in the developing world or supermarkets in the West.
Governments in many poor countries have tried to respond by stepping up food subsidies, imposing or tightening price controls, restricting exports and cutting food import duties.
These temporary measures are already breaking down. Across Southeast Asia, for example, families have been hoarding palm oil. Smugglers have been bidding up prices as they move the oil from more subsidized markets, like Malaysia’s, to less subsidized markets, like Singapore’s.
No category of food prices has risen as quickly this winter as so-called edible oils — with sometimes tragic results. When a Carrefour store in Chongqing, China, announced a limited-time cooking oil promotion in November, a stampede of would-be buyers left 3 people dead and 31 injured.
Cooking oil may seem a trifling expense in the West. But in the developing world, cooking oil is an important source of calories and represents one of the biggest cash outlays for poor families, which grow much of their own food but have to buy oil in which to cook it.
**** for the full article see www.nytimes.com ****
Eat Smart
Aaron
Jan 13, 2008
THE A LIST: Stuff I Like to Share: Montgomery Inn BBQ Sauce
Those who know me, know I love good BBQ. I prefer a red sauce to a mustard based sauce. It has come to the point now where i simply will not eat sauce that is not Montgomery Inn. I order mine via friends that live in the area and or via the website. The ribs, sauce and handmade ice cream sent via FedEx is like a box from Santa! Here is the story of the Inn and the famous sauce. If you are in the area - YOU HAVE TO EAT at one of the joints.***Here is the link so you can buy online:
http://www.montgomeryinn.com/IN THE VILLAGE OF MONTGOMERY, OHIO, on the first day of November 1951, the early dawn heralded the arrival of Ted Gregory, the new proprietor of "McCabe's Inn," subsequently rechristened "The Montgomery Inn."
Montgomery, Ohio at the time was in the midst of a building boom, and the neighboring farmlands would soon be covered with new houses. Until that historic day, this peaceful village had seen but one newsworthy great, Charles Dickens.
Dickens had passed through Montgomery during the 19th century and had rested at the stagecoach stop, Sage's Tavern, which was next-door to the newly expanded Montgomery Inn. He had been quoted as saying that this was a lovely area and a great spot for an inn. Ted Gregory, had the same idea, and established The Montgomery Inn.
Ted and his wife, Matula, agreed that this would be an ideal area in which to settle and raise a family. There soon followed four children: Tom, Dean, Vickie, and Terry. With the advent of all the new construction in the area, the "Inn" became well known as a drinking emporium, but not for its food because the kitchen was leased out to some amateur restaurateurs. For that reason, Matula, who had blossomed into a great cook (with the help of Ted's parents, both former hotel chefs), would cook Ted's meals at home and then deliver them to the Inn. One day, she prepared barbecued ribs and created her barbecue sauce.
Matula always cooked a surplus of food because there was constantly a crony or two of Ted's hanging around the bar that would gladly join him for dinner. The ribs and sauce were so great they drew rave notices from all who tried them. Eventually a local journalist dubbed Ted "The Ribs King" and rightly so. Over the years, and with the coming of age of Ted and Matula's children, Montgomery Inn was expanded to include new opportunities.
In 1989, a sparkling new diamond was built for the Queen City's crown, the "Montgomery Inn at the Boathouse." This magnificent facility, which sits on the banks of the Ohio River in downtown Cincinnati, is a totally modern and complete restaurant rivaling the finest in the United States. It offers a natural, breathtaking view of the Ohio River and its boats, the Cincinnati skyline, the Mt. Adams district, the Kentucky Shoreline, Sawyer Point and the Bicentennial Commons.
As the business of the two restaurants grew, new businesses began to sprout. Requests for catering at private homes and corporate events began to flourish, and now Montgomery Inn is
catering events from coast to coast.
As more and more customers enjoyed the flavor of the secret-recipe barbecue sauce, demand for Montgomery Inn's products was increasing at a frantic pace. In 1990, Montgomery Inn began selling its secret-recipe barbecue sauce and mouth-watering ribs to local grocers, and current demand has pushed distribution to a 300-mile radius of Cincinnati!
With so many guests visiting the restaurant from numerous cities around the United States, Montgomery Inn started shipping its ribs and sauce coast to coast. Its mail order division now ships more than 20,000 packages annually to rib lovers around the country.
According to Restaurants & Institutions Magazine, the restaurant industry's leading trade publication, Montgomery Inn is the #1 independent rib restaurant and the #1 independent restaurant featuring barbecue in the entire United States.
According to R&I's findings, the two Montgomery Inn restaurants in Cincinnati are the top two independent restaurants in the U.S. and are listed as the only two independents from the same area in America's top 100!
The rest, as they say, is history. The ribs and sauce made the inn world-famous. The Children have grown and are now supervising all the different businesses that have emerged from that one tiny tavern on the corner.
Montgomery, Ohio at the time was in the midst of a building boom, and the neighboring farmlands would soon be covered with new houses. Until that historic day, this peaceful village had seen but one newsworthy great, Charles Dickens.
Dickens had passed through Montgomery during the 19th century and had rested at the stagecoach stop, Sage's Tavern, which was next-door to the newly expanded Montgomery Inn. He had been quoted as saying that this was a lovely area and a great spot for an inn. Ted Gregory, had the same idea, and established The Montgomery Inn.
Ted and his wife, Matula, agreed that this would be an ideal area in which to settle and raise a family. There soon followed four children: Tom, Dean, Vickie, and Terry. With the advent of all the new construction in the area, the "Inn" became well known as a drinking emporium, but not for its food because the kitchen was leased out to some amateur restaurateurs. For that reason, Matula, who had blossomed into a great cook (with the help of Ted's parents, both former hotel chefs), would cook Ted's meals at home and then deliver them to the Inn. One day, she prepared barbecued ribs and created her barbecue sauce.
Matula always cooked a surplus of food because there was constantly a crony or two of Ted's hanging around the bar that would gladly join him for dinner. The ribs and sauce were so great they drew rave notices from all who tried them. Eventually a local journalist dubbed Ted "The Ribs King" and rightly so. Over the years, and with the coming of age of Ted and Matula's children, Montgomery Inn was expanded to include new opportunities.
In 1989, a sparkling new diamond was built for the Queen City's crown, the "Montgomery Inn at the Boathouse." This magnificent facility, which sits on the banks of the Ohio River in downtown Cincinnati, is a totally modern and complete restaurant rivaling the finest in the United States. It offers a natural, breathtaking view of the Ohio River and its boats, the Cincinnati skyline, the Mt. Adams district, the Kentucky Shoreline, Sawyer Point and the Bicentennial Commons.
As the business of the two restaurants grew, new businesses began to sprout. Requests for catering at private homes and corporate events began to flourish, and now Montgomery Inn is
catering events from coast to coast.As more and more customers enjoyed the flavor of the secret-recipe barbecue sauce, demand for Montgomery Inn's products was increasing at a frantic pace. In 1990, Montgomery Inn began selling its secret-recipe barbecue sauce and mouth-watering ribs to local grocers, and current demand has pushed distribution to a 300-mile radius of Cincinnati!
With so many guests visiting the restaurant from numerous cities around the United States, Montgomery Inn started shipping its ribs and sauce coast to coast. Its mail order division now ships more than 20,000 packages annually to rib lovers around the country.
According to Restaurants & Institutions Magazine, the restaurant industry's leading trade publication, Montgomery Inn is the #1 independent rib restaurant and the #1 independent restaurant featuring barbecue in the entire United States.
According to R&I's findings, the two Montgomery Inn restaurants in Cincinnati are the top two independent restaurants in the U.S. and are listed as the only two independents from the same area in America's top 100!
The rest, as they say, is history. The ribs and sauce made the inn world-famous. The Children have grown and are now supervising all the different businesses that have emerged from that one tiny tavern on the corner.
A BIG thank you to Erin and Elaine
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