Six on Food: ‘Hash, South Carolina's greatest contribution to barbecue canon; Our Food System Is Very Much Modeled on Plantation Economics’;The surprising truth about Indian food; Here’s How Americans Coped With ‘Wheatless Wednesdays’ in WWI; Baked C
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"In some circles, that sort of hash flexibility has its limits. Remember Elliott Moss’ easygoing attitude toward various hash decisions? Charleston chef BJ Dennis doesn’t share it.
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“There’s so much flavor in this,” Dennis said recently while chopping up the braised head of a pig provided by a friend in St. George. As it cooked down in its own fat, the bubbly sound of ears and a snout converting to gelatin became the background music for Dennis’ impromptu demo session, conducted over a stove instead of hot coals.
“You don’t need onion or garlic,” he continued, seasoning the meat with black pepper and adding a bit of barbecue sauce. “It’s just everything from the head. This is strictly South Carolina.”
All in the head
When Dennis’ hash is done, visual evidence of cheeks, tongue and eyes has been obliterated by cooking and chopping. But the offal’s legacy looms magnificently in the hash texture. “Someone who knows is going to be like, ‘where’s that gelatinous mouthful?’” he says of what he considers counterfeit hash, made solely from shoulder that didn’t sell the day before.
Still, if what’s now available in commercial settings is a stark departure from the dish worked out on eighteenth-century rice plantations, it’s true to the original’s intentions. After all, it solves an economic problem."
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‘Our Food System Is Very Much Modeled on Plantation Economics’
Janine Jackson interviewed the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Ricardo Salvador about the coronavirus food crisis for the May 8, 2020, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.
New York Times (4/11/20)
"Janine Jackson: Listeners have likely seen the images: farmers dumping milk, smashing eggs, plowing produce under. At the same time, in the same country, people line up at food banks, unable to access or afford nutritious food.
At the nexus of the health crisis and the economic crisis of Covid-19 is a food crisis. And it’s along every dimension, from farm laborers to restaurant workers to hungry people. As with so many things, the pandemic didn’t create the problems, but it’s making them harder to deny.
Ricardo Salvador is senior scientist and director of the Food and Environment Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. He joins us now by phone. welcome to CounterSpin, Ricardo Salvador.
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Ricardo Salvador: Thank you very much. It’s a pleasure to be here.
JJ: If we could just talk, first, about the supply chain itself. What is it about the food system we have, that makes it a reasonable or necessary response to the crisis for some farmers to plow vegetables under that people could be eating?
RS: It has to do with the structure of agriculture, and I think your question is very well-framed. It actually is a logical thing for most farmers to plow under their food, rather than try to deal with a food system that is very specialized, that operates at very large scale. It’s very concentrated. And it operates along a few well-established channels. So it’s important to understand what those channels are, to then understand why it’s logical for farmers to do what is being reported, as well as to understand that this issue of food waste is a serious problem. And it is not exclusively on farmers. It’s an issue of the structure of the system.
So those channels I’m referring to have to do with the primary ways in which we all eat. Generalizing broadly: Prior to the pandemic, we all ate one of two ways. Either we went out someplace where somebody else took care of all the details; we don’t have to worry about what’s in season, how it’s grown, how it’s prepared; we just ask on a whim for whatever we’re in the mood for, somebody prepares it, it’s delivered to us, somebody cleans up after us.
And that system is supplied by a channel, a sector, in the food system, which is called food service. And it operates almost invisibly to the majority of us. But if you do see it, you see it in service entries and back alleys, with semi trailers delivering frozen food or packaged food in particular quantities that are suitable for the restaurant, cafeteria, the other institutions that deliver the food in the way that I described.
And, by the way, we spend most of our money for food that comes to us in that particular channel—I mean, most of the money that we spend for food, we spend for food at restaurants, or food that we eat out.
Then the other channel is the one that is overwhelmed right now, because it’s actually having to do both its own job, as well as to backstop for all the foods that we normally would be eating when we go out. And this is the grocery channel. And it’s important to understand that each of these channels have their own distribution networks, their own packaging methods, their own volume, transportation. And that if you prepare for one, you’re not prepared for the other."
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This particular form of self-care, however, has taken flour millers and grocery retailers by surprise. Whether virtual or in a store down the block, store shelves throughout the country are seeing a severe shortage of flour. While this absence is not due to a physical lack of flour at the moment—the food system is simply not equipped at the moment to handle this much at-home baking, as most flours are sent to commercial bakers or restaurants—it has nonetheless triggered more panic buying and left even fewer bags of flour available for those looking to bake their daily bread. This is certainly an unprecedented moment for Americans in the 21st century—but mention the phrase “flour shortage” to any American baker in 1917 and they wouldn’t even flinch."
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Since Kroger's announcement, more than 75,000 people in the United States have died. Three times in the last week, daily fatalities in the United States have exceeded 2,000 people.
Among the dead are Kroger employees. On April 11, "Kroger sent out a statement that four Kroger employees at different locations in metro Detroit had died." Across the country, dozens of grocery store workers have died, and thousands have tested positive.
Now, as workers continue to put their lives on the line, Kroger has told its workers that their "hero pay" will end this Sunday, May 17. A Kroger employee in Oregon shared their thoughts on the decision with Popular Information:
We're all pretty mad. How can you mandate we all wear masks but reduce our pay? I have to have my temperature checked every morning but they're going to reduce our pay? We're making this company crazy money right now and they acknowledged what were doing is dangerous but they're still going to reduce our pay? Doesn't make sense.
Kroger defended the decision in a statement to Popular Information. "The temporary Hero Bonus is scheduled to end in mid-May. In the coming months, we know that our associates’ needs will continue to evolve and change as we all work together to gradually and safely reopen the economy," Keith Dailey, Kroger’s group vice president of corporate affairs, said.
Kroger spends hundreds of thousands on TV ads "thanking" its associates
As Kroger quietly phases out its pay increase for associates, it continues to run a national TV ad "thanking" its associates.
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To our Kroger Associates:
For the long hours and late nights.
For the miles traveled and the shelves restocked.
For making a difference in our customers' lives.
For doing so much more than your job.
Everyone at the Kroger family of brands and our customers say, "Thank you."
In a time when daily life feels a bit uncertain, your hard work is keeping America fed.
Kroger's $12 million man
In a Youtube video posted last Thursday, Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen expresses empathy for the pressures imposed on Kroger's workforce. "Tough times like these can cause increased anxiety and stress. For our associates, we have services available… And you can also help by being kind to each other. You may not know what someone else is going through. But kindness and a smile are easy to give, even when you have a mask on." McMullen said.
As CEO, however, McMullen is paid not in kindness but in cash, stock, and options. In 2018, the most recent data available, McMullen received total compensation of $12,037,872. According to the company's SEC filing, the median Kroger employee was paid $24,912. That means the ratio of McMullen's pay to the average employee was 483 to 1.
Although the details of McMullen's 2020 compensation plan are not yet available, much of it is "performance-based." In prior years, one of McMullen's performance metrics was "Reduction in Operating Cost as a Percentage of Sales, without fuel." So by ending the "hero bonus" for hourly employees, McMullen may be increasing his own salary."
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