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From the category archives:

Talking Points

Thumbnail image for Jamie Says Fail, I Say Win!

Jamie Says Fail, I Say Win!

by paulkamon 01.17.2012

Last night, while scouring the Internets for an idea on what to do with a butchered chicken carcass after removing all the good meaty bits other than making stock, I stumbled upon this little bit of McDonald’s inspired awesomeness.

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Thumbnail image for Shark Finning Jeopardizes Ocean Ecosystems

Shark Finning Jeopardizes Ocean Ecosystems

by BC Brew 01.10.2012

^ NDP Fisheries and Oceans Critic, Fin Donnelly, launches shark fin import ban petition at C Restaurant. (L to r, Claudia Li, Dr. Chris Harvey-Clark, Fin Donnelly, Rob Stewart, Cécile Yuen, Robert Clark)
Sharks are sublime creatures. For 400 million years they have survived on Earth, evolving to become the oceans’ supreme hunters and shaping the [...]

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Thumbnail image for BC Farm Project Attempts to Value Natural Capital

BC Farm Project Attempts to Value Natural Capital

by BC Brew 12.19.2011

^ Ecological Services Initiative launches at Granville Island.
A significant flaw in our economic system is how natural capital is not assigned any direct monetary value. This means, for example, that while a wetland produces clean water and controls flooding, the only economic value is seen in converting it to agricultural or industrial use. However, the [...]

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Thumbnail image for Book Review: “Meat: A Benign Extravagance”

Book Review: “Meat: A Benign Extravagance”

by Todd Caldecott 11.28.2011

Recently I was given a review copy of Simon Fairlie’s new book entitled Meat: A Benign Extravagance, published by Chelsea Green (2010), right around the same time I wrote what some might consider a rather controversial blog on the subject of meat here on Urban Diner. The issue of eating meat is a touchy one, especially here in [...]

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Thumbnail image for Food Freedom Alert: Rally for Dairy Farmer Michael Schmidt

Food Freedom Alert: Rally for Dairy Farmer Michael Schmidt

by paulkamon 11.01.2011

On Wednesday, November 2nd at 9 am there will be a rally for Food Freedom outside the New Westminster Supreme Court (651 Carnarvon Street) in support of dairy farmer Michael Schmidt who has been on a hunger strike for the past 33 days fighting contempt of court charges imposed upon him for distributing raw milk [...]

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Thumbnail image for Climate Change Challenging Specialty Coffee

Climate Change Challenging Specialty Coffee

by Mette-Marie Hansen 10.19.2011

(Images by: Mette-Marie Hansen)
Our climate is changing. This might not be shocking news to you over your morning coffee, but as a coffee buyer, I get to meet farmers and producers who are facing the difficulties of a changing climate year round.
It is the small business’ job to rant about [...]

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Prohibition Lesson

by Editor 10.17.2011

If you missed the premiere of “Prohibition”, the three-part, five-and-a-half-hour documentary film series directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick that tells the story of the rise, rule, and fall of the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the entire era it encompassed, there is a fantastic website click here that [...]

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Thumbnail image for Is the World Ready for White Sturgeon Caviar from the Fraser River?

Is the World Ready for White Sturgeon Caviar from the Fraser River?

by paulkamon 10.04.2011

Is Sechelt going to be the caviar capital of Canada? The Sunshine Coast’s Target Marine Hatcheries, the producers of Northern Divine caviar think so, and have invested over $5 million dollars over the last 11 years to prove it.

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Thumbnail image for BC Box Wine

BC Box Wine

by John Clerides 09.22.2011

Most wine articles are confined to the back pages of the newspaper, or published in trade or tourist focused publications. They tend to focus on how great we are, where to go and what to do, rarely do articles get published on the business of wine. When Gordon Hamilton wrote an article on changing buying [...]

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Coffee Certifications

by Mette-Marie Hansen 09.19.2011

“Is Your Coffee Fair Trade and Sustainable and Organic?”
I just got this question from a concerned consumer, and she was raising valid questions about well known certifications and buzz-words. The question is simple, and doesn’t require more than a yes-or-no, but as much as I love coffee, I love the opportunity to discuss and explore [...]

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Thumbnail image for Selling Out – Part 2

Selling Out – Part 2

by Jacob Galbraith 08.31.2011

(Read “Selling Out – Part 1“)
I walked away from the orientation sessions with a comprehensive knowledge of three things: the benefits packages, breakfast pastries, and the peripheral interests of several people I would never speak to again. At the outset I understood that I was signing up for a culture shock, but the environmental contrast [...]

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Thumbnail image for A Short History of the Human Diet

A Short History of the Human Diet

by Todd Caldecott 08.30.2011

(Image by Banksy)
Human evolution has been a gradual process over millions of years, from our earliest ancestors that diverged from other primates over four to seven million years ago, to the modern Homo sapiens of today.  We first begin to bear some semblance to the modern human as Homo habilis and H. erectus 2-3 million [...]

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