About

ABOUT THE FOOD TIMES, INC.

thefoodtimes.org is a service of The Food Times, Inc., a New Jersey nonprofit corporation. The organization is operated exclusively for charitable and educational purposes within the meaning of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and is applying for its tax exemption letter from the IRS and charitable registration from the State of New Jersey.

ABOUT THEFOODTIMES

thefoodtimes is a public service project that seeks to transform our understanding of the modern food system. By gathering and distilling existing food news and information, it links the dinner on our plates to our bodies, our communities, the economy and the health of the world we leave to our children.

OUR SOURCES

Thefoodtimes curates news and information and links to the work, worldwide, of journalists and scholars. The relationship is symbiotic: thefoodtimes provides a public service; news organizations reach a larger readership. Together, our work is journalism at its best: a powerful force of change and of benefit to all.

News is transient. Newspapers decide whether to make their archives available, and for how long. If you find a broken link and need the complete story, we encourage you to contact the original news source.

KARLA COOK, EDITOR

I’m a food journalist and have worked for newspapers as a staff writer and editor for more than 20 years, during which I developed the philosophy of thefoodtimes. After taking a short break for full-time motherhood, I resumed writing as a freelancer for The New York Times. You can reach me at karlacook at thefoodtimes.org.

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Kelly Feeney

Wendy Kaczerski

Diane Landis

Steven Schultz

Roger Shatzkin

Laura Troyer

Mary Yanni

BOB MONSOUR, WEB BUILDER

By day, I develop and support other web properties. By night, I've been working with Karla to bring her food news dreams to cyber-life. A former software developer-turned businessman-turned university administrator, and now back to software developer, this site, and others I've built, have kept my inner geek alive. I built this site upon the MovableType platform. I've also built the sites for Princeton's Center for Innovation in Engineering Education, and Princeton Academy of the Sacred Heart.


Frequently Asked Questions

What is thefoodtimes?

It is a public service website that gathers, distills and links existing food news, information and features to explain how food affects quality of life, the market and pocketbook, the political landscape and our environment.

How did it start?

I’m a news addict, and have been a newspaper food journalist for more than 20 years. But newspapers are losing readers and staff, being bought and sold and merged as costs rise for newsprint, labor and transportation.

At the same time, food has grown past its newspaper section borders. Certainly it is recipes, and sustenance and joy. But its role is much larger. Food powers our world. Food is second only to air on our hierarchy of needs. We work to eat. It is community, culture, policy and politics. It is money and power and religion; it is escape and comfort. For those with diet-related disease, it is the enemy. It divides the FDA and USDA over nanotechnology, herbal supplements and genetically modified organisms. It drives the global economy.

A Google search for "meatloaf recipe" yields 1,520,000 hits, yet granite countertops are mere monuments, with prepared food sales reaching 48.5 percent of the total food expenditure for households in 2005. A highly efficient factory farming system feeds the world, but shows alarming lapses in food safety; that same system is implicated in climate change, the demise of robust rural life and elimination of fish stocks in a growing "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico.

Food is art, and it's funny, too: Why, asks my little girl, did the lobster blush? After a moment, she delivers the punch line: Because he saw the salad dressing!

With thefoodtimes, I hope to bridge the chasm between the realities of our food system and the pastoral fantasy of consumers. I want to show readers how our own decisions and those of our neighbors affect the big picture – how we shape what is grown, sold and eaten in our own town, our own school or university and in the larger market.

Further, I hope to move my beloved profession toward a new community of readers.