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Lecture 1: Introduction
Appendix: Journalism
Feature Article
It Takes a Texas Village to Raise Spinach
How a local Asian community came together to fight for their way of life.
by Lauren Wolf, November 2009
Source: http://www.texasmonthly.com/2009-11-01/webextra16.php
Last week upwards of 50 members of a Southeast Asian community from the small town of Rosharon,
Texas quietly filed into the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission meeting. They filled in the rows on the
left side of the room, and patiently listened to the commissioners discuss the first five agenda items.
When agenda item number six was announced, murmurs dispersed through the group. Looking up at a
flat screen television presentation of the issue at hand some smiled, while others pointed at the picture
of a flowering green plant. This is their story about water morning-glory.
Over the past several decades this Asian community has populated the town just south of Houston in an
area they refer to as The Village. Many of the original residents are refugees who fled the violence of the
Khmer Rouge communist party in Cambodia in the ‘70s and ‘80s. They came to the country with
nothing, settled in Texas, and began farming crops including water morning-glory, more commonly
known as water spinach, a traditional vegetable in Southeast Asian cuisine. Unbeknownst to these
farmers, in 1990 the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department included the plant on their list of “Harmful or
Potentially Harmful Exotic Fish, Shellfish and Aquatic Plants.” Due to its propensity to grow and spread
quickly in waterways it was considered a noxious weed that could pose a threat to the ecosystem. The
list made water spinach as illegal as piranhas, electric eels and the dreaded, oxygen-sucking water
invader, hydrilla.
Despite its prohibition the water spinach industry flourished for 13 years until 2003, when TPWD game
wardens, along with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, raided 17 Houston-area grocery stores. No
tickets were issued, but nearly 2,000 pounds of water spinach were confiscated, and the Asian
community was alerted to the illegality of the exotic species that defined their source of income. TPWD
held two public meetings with Cambodian growers and the Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce of
Houston to explain the exotic species rules and gather information from growers. Johnny Bopho, a 41-
year-old immigrant from Laos, started farming and wholesaling water spinach in The Village around the
time that the community realized it was illegal. “They tried to stop it in 2003, but at a meeting in
Houston they told us to keep doing what we are doing,” he said. In November 2003, a briefing on water
spinach was held before the Parks and Wildlife Commission, but other than a suspension of issuing
citations, only general information about the presence of water spinach was discussed and no
regulations were passed until the risk assessment of this exotic species could be determined.
Over the course of the next five years exceptions were made to the rules surrounding water spinach and
TPWD continued to conduct surveys and research to determine the potential of the plant to grow in the
wild. During that time water spinach continued to prosper as an industry making over one million dollars
a year, and the number of Rosharon farmers rose from some 60 growers to around 80 growers with
roughly 200 employees. Bopho’s business, B&K Lucky Farm, grew quickly. “People grow water spinach
because it is very demanding in the Asian market, not just for Cambodians or Laotians or Vietnamese.
It’s Chinese, Filipino, and all different Asian cultures that eat it,” he said.
Last May the issue was once again brought before the TPW commission, gaining strong opposition from
The Honorable Ralph H. Duggins, a commissioner from Fort Worth. Despite the research presented by
Earl Chilton, the Aquatic Habitat Enhancement program director for Inland Fisheries Division of TPW,
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Commissioner Duggins argued about the risks involved in allowing people to grow it. “We evidently have
not been enforcing our rules. But we are now saying it is okay to possess it. And so people can attempt
to grow it on their own, or pitch out in the back, in a canal, which is where it can proliferate,” he said.
Duggins returned with arguments at the next meeting in August in Fort Worth, but this time he had
done his homework. His chief concern touched on the potential for the average daily temperature in
Texas to rise due to global warming, thus creating a perfect environment for water spinach to grow in
the wild outside of greenhouses. The next day during the public hearing, 15 speakers, some water
spinach farmers, and some owners of Asian food markets testified before the commissioners. A petition
with more than 180 signatures was presented from The Village. The chairman of the commission, The
Honorable Peter M. Holt, tabled the decision in order for more information to be gathered for the
decision making process.
Bopho, the Rosharon farmer and wholesaler, remembers that it was after this meeting that he lost
business in the Dallas area—the area where Duggins is from—because store owners were worried about
being cited for purchasing and selling water spinach without a permit. “I lost 20 to 30 thousand dollars
of my profits and had to lay off employees,” he said. “It’s going to take some time to get that back.”
Luckily Bopho would not have to wait long. In October a white paper on the status of water spinach was
prepared for the TPW commission, and the report signaled that water spinach was indeed a low-risk
exotic species with little potential to harm the ecosystem with proper regulations.
On November 5, with eyes wide and looking at the image of a water morning-glory blossom on the
presentation screen, the people from The Village listened intently to the proceedings on agenda item
six. Saloeurn Yin, a water spinach grower who gave testimony during the August meeting, addressed the
commission. “I am growing water spinach so that I can support my family. In hard times like this it is
important for the community to come together to help each other out. This is what happened in
Rosharon,” she said. “Many of us escaped persecution from the Khmer Rouge and settled here for a
better life. Texas has been good to us.” A vigorous round of applause at the end of Yin’s speech drowned
out the thanks from Chairman Holt. Bopho’s testimony was then read by an interpreter.
“Some of us have been able to send our kids to college. We have cars, we have homes and we have
been able to fulfill the American dream. Without these regulations we will have to shut down our
business.” The words were strong in the silence of the room. Another round of applause drowned out
the Chairman. Before the commissioners could complete the vote, Commissioner Duggins had one last
word, a plea for cooperation from the growers so that the Texas ecosystem would remain free of wild
water spinach. And then the vote.
With all those in favor, the room burst into applause. The people of The Village hugged each other—
they even hugged the staff member holding the door to let people out. Great sighs of relief were heard
one by one as built-up tension was released. Now they could follow the rules. Their way of life was
permitted. Their Southeast Asian heritage was sustained. Gathering outside in front of TPW
headquarters they summoned a cowboy hat-clad TPWD law enforcement officer to get in their group
photo. With the American and Texas flags waving in the breeze on the poles behind them, together the
people of The Village smiled in celebration.

Travel Article: Destination

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Toronto's restaurant scene is as multicultural as its residents

Source: http://www.travelbite.co.uk/travel-directory/bon-voyage/article/toronto-s-restaurant-scene-is-as-multicultural-as-its-
reside. Posted 4/28/2011 12:00:00 AM

If you are planning a holiday to Canada in order to visit Toronto you are in for a treat if you have a
particularly varied palette.
There are so many different cuisines on offer here for you to sample that you are sure to agree the city
has a truly multicultural restaurant scene.
Whether you fancy a taste of the far east, Europe or something a little closer to the location of your
Canada holiday you can be sure of finding it somewhere.
A great way to kick off your break here is to head for a bite to eat in Cabbagetown. This part of the city is
a Heritage Conservation District that is home to a significant number of Victorian properties, providing
you with a glimpse of what Toronto looked like more than a century ago.
There are also plenty of cafes to choose from here if you wish to sort out your hunger before going on to
explore the area further.
One particular favourite is Jam Cafe, where you will find an exciting menu promising chic dishes and
plenty of exquisite wine.
Here you will be able to tuck into some internationally-inspired fare, such as escargots and gnocchi,
while there are also many homegrown dishes.
If you want a true taste of the country while on Canada holidays then why not try some elk? It is served
at this eatery everyday and as one of Ontario's native species you can't get more local.
Don't be surprised if it takes you a while to peruse the wine menu either, as there are many bottles to
choose from, while you could also return for one of the wine-tasting events that are regularly held.
Next on your tour of the Toronto restaurant scene should be a trip to Greektown. Contrary to the image
conjured up by its name, this area of the city is home to a notable restaurant that serves cuisine from
the far east.
Danforth Dragon boasts a menu of Hakka dishes. This food originates from south-eastern China and it is
believed that Toronto holds the accolade of having the greatest variety of these restaurants outside of
Asia.
If you like to experience tastes from around the globe then make sure you stop in here, where you can
sample chicken coriander soup and chilli chicken. The dishes may surprise you as they have more in
common with curry than traditional Szechwan cuisine.
Should you find yourself on Bayview Avenue during your trip then make sure you stop in at one of the
pastry shops for an exquisite sweet treat. As you will quickly discover, there is more than one such cafe
to be found here and you are certain to be torn between which mouth-watering desserts you sample.
Rahier Patisserie could prove to be the winner once you see the abundance of cakes, tarts and cookies
there are to choose from. Colbert may be one dish you are keen to sample - a coconut dacquoise with
white chocolate and coconut mousse. Meanwhile, the Degas is a chocoholic's dream, made from dark
chocolate mousse, a brownie and milk chocolate cremeux.
Once you have sampled one of these delectable cakes, you may even agree that it is of as good quality
as the Patisseries of Paris or Bruges.

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After you've treated yourself to some cake, you may be in the mood for a coffee. Bull Dog Coffee on
Granby Street could be worth a visit if that is the case. The bar claims to be the only one of its kind in the
city to offer latte art, where smooth microfoamed steamed milk is used to create a pattern or picture on
top of the crème that lies on the surface of an espresso.
Following all this indulgence, you may be keen to take your culinary journey up a gear by doing a little
celebrity-spotting.
Head to Yorkville for your best chance of doing this, where you will also be able to sample some more
gourmet cuisine and grab a cocktail or two.
Restaurants like Spruntini Ristorante are favourites with the rich and famous, with musicians Bryan
Adams and Mandy Moore and film stars Jackie Chan, Neve Campbell and Queen Latifah all having dined
there.
Here, the multicultural theme continues and you will have your pick of Mexican, Thai, Chinese, Italian
and Indian fare.
Indeed, as you will quickly discover diving into the restaurant scene while on Canada holidays will see
you enjoying a trip around the globe while armed with only a fork.

Travel Article: Roundup

Indulgence in New Orleans: A guide to 7 classic desserts
By Me g a n H i l l on N o v em b er 2 , 2 0 0 9
S o u r c e : h t t p : / / m a t ad o r n e tw o r k. c om / a b r oa d / i nd u l g e nc e -i n - ne w - or l e a n s - a- g ui d e - t o- 7 -
c l a s s i c - de s e r t s /
NEW ORLEANS’ INTERNATIONALLY famous cuisine is decadent and indulgent, mixing the best flavors
from its many ethnic influences with the soul of the city.
But in New Orleans, you should leave room for dessert. These seven are among the city’s most famous
and most widely available treats.
1. Bread pudding
While not unique to New Orleans, many of the city’s restaurants have perfected their own version of
this delicious use for stale bread. At its most basic, the dish involves drizzling melted butter over
leftover bread chunks and baking it with sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, beaten eggs and raisins. It’s usually
served hot and soaked with rum or whiskey sauce.
2. Pralines
You can credit the French for introducing this candy, now ubiquitous in New Orleans. Pecans are
suspended in a creamy mixture of sugar and butter that is so rich you probably can’t eat more than
one. They’re available, usually wrapped individually, at many gift shops in the city and come in a few
varieties like chocolate and rum. If you don’t want to sound like an outsider, say it “praw-leen.”
3. King Cake
While king cake is eaten mostly during the Mardi Gras season, you can find it any time of year if you
look hard enough. There are many variations with different fillings, but a king cake is essentially a
huge cinnamon roll with sprinkles and generally iced in Mardi Gras colors—purple, green and gold.
Most king cakes have a small plastic baby inside, said to represent the baby Jesus, as Mardi Gras is
actually rooted in Catholicism.
4. Beignets
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It’s pronounced “ben-yay,” which is French for fried dough. This dessert’s charm is in its simplicity, as
it’s nothing more than deep-fried dough covered in a mound of powdered sugar. Buy an “order” of
three donuts with a cup of café au lait or chocolate milk.
It’s famously available at the bustling French Quarter tent of Café du Monde near the Mississippi
River, but there are a few other spots where you can indulge on what many locals call “coffee and
donuts.” Just don’t inhale when you take a bite.
5. Doberge cake
No New Orleans birthday is complete without a doberge cake. A New Orleans baker adapted the
Hungarian dobos torta and gave it a French-sounding name, and doberge was born. The cake consists
of multiple layers of cake and pudding—usually chocolate or lemon—topped with rich icing. Oh, and
it’s pronounced “dough-bash.”
6. Snowballs
Snowballs—or snoballs—are definitely not the same as snow cones. Snowballs are like fresh powder,
and the juice doesn’t sink to the bottom of the cup like with crunchy snow cones. The New Orleans-
invented SnoWizard machines shave down blocks of ice for the perfect consistency.
Around New Orleans in the summer, snowballs stands are packed. Each offers dozens of flavors, from
wedding cake to superman to margarita and more. You can get them “stuffed” with soft-serve ice
cream or drizzled with condensed milk. Yum.
7. Roman Candy
Roman Candy, a chewy taffy sold in vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, has been made and sold by the
same family since 1915. You can find the original mule-drawn wagon in random places across the city,
but your best bet is the Audubon Zoo. Long, thin sticks of the candy sell for 75c and come wrapped in
wax paper.

Opinion
Vegetarianism is a major step for environmental change
By James E. McWilliams
Monday, November 16, 2009
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/15/AR2009111502210.html?

I gave a talk in South Texas recently on the environmental virtues of a vegetarian diet. As you might
imagine, the reception was chilly. In fact, the only applause came during the Q&A period when a
member of the audience said that my lecture made him want to go out and eat even more meat. "Plus,"
he added, "what I eat is my business -- it's personal."
I've been writing about food and agriculture for more than a decade. Until that evening, however, I'd
never actively thought about this most basic culinary question: Is eating personal?
We know more than we've ever known about the innards of the global food system. We understand
that food can both nourish and kill. We know that its production can both destroy and enhance our
environment. We know that farming touches every aspect of our lives -- the air we breathe, the water
we drink, and the soil we need.
So it's hard to avoid concluding that eating cannot be personal. What I eat influences you. What you eat
influences me. Our diets are deeply, intimately and necessarily political.

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This realization changes everything for those who avoid meat. As a vegetarian I've always felt the
perverse need to apologize for my dietary choice. It inconveniences people. It smacks of self-
righteousness. It makes us pariahs at dinner parties. But the more I learn about the negative impact of
meat production, the more I feel that it's the consumers of meat who should be making apologies.
Here's why: The livestock industry as a result of its reliance on corn and soy-based feed accounts for
over half the synthetic fertilizer used in the United States, contributing more than any other sector to
marine dead zones. It consumes 70 percent of the water in the American West -- water so heavily
subsidized that if irrigation supports were removed, ground beef would cost $35 a pound. Livestock
accounts for at least 21 percent of greenhouse-gas emissions globally -- more than all forms of
transportation combined. Domestic animals -- most of them healthy -- consume about 70 percent of all
the antibiotics produced. Undigested antibiotics leach from manure into freshwater systems and impair
the sex organs of fish.
It takes a gallon of gasoline to produce a pound of conventional beef. If all the grain fed to animals went
to people, you could feed China and India. That's just a start.
Meat that's raised according to "alternative" standards (about 1 percent of meat in the United States)
might be a better choice but not nearly as much so as its privileged consumers would have us believe.
"Free-range chickens" theoretically have access to the outdoors. But many "free-range" chickens never
see the light of day because they cannot make it through the crowded shed to the aperture leading to a
patch of cement.
"Grass-fed" beef produces four times the methane -- a greenhouse gas 21 times as powerful as carbon
dioxide -- of grain-fed cows, and many grass-fed cows are raised on heavily fertilized and irrigated grass.
Pastured pigs are still typically mutilated, fed commercial feed and prevented from rooting -- their most
basic instinct besides sex.
Issues of animal welfare are equally implicated in all forms of meat production. Domestic animals suffer
immensely, feel pain and may even be cognizant of the fate that awaits them. In an egg factory, male
chicks (economically worthless) are summarily run through a grinder. Pigs are castrated without
anesthesia, crated, tail-docked and nose-ringed. Milk cows are repeatedly impregnated through artificial
insemination, confined to milking stalls and milked to yield 15 times the amount of milk they would
produce under normal conditions. When calves are removed from their mothers at birth, the mothers
mourn their loss with heart-rending moans.
Then comes the slaughterhouse, an operation that's left with millions of pounds of carcasses --
deadstock -- that are incinerated or dumped in landfills. (Rendering plants have taken a nose dive since
mad cow disease.)
Now, if someone told you that a particular corporation was trashing the air, water and soil; causing
more global warming than the transportation industry; consuming massive amounts of fossil fuel;
unleashing the cruelest sort of suffering on innocent and sentient beings; failing to recycle its waste; and
clogging our arteries in the process, how would you react? Would you say, "Hey, that's personal?"
Probably not. It's more likely that you'd frame the matter as a dire political issue in need of a dire
political response.
Vegetarianism is not only the most powerful political response we can make to industrialized food. It's a
necessary prerequisite to reforming it. To quit eating meat is to dismantle the global food apparatus at
its foundation.
Agribusiness has been vilified of late by muckraking journalists, activist filmmakers and sustainable-food
advocates. We know that something has to be done to save our food from corporate interests. But I
wonder -- are we ready to do what must be done? Sure, we've been inundated with ideas: eat local,
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vote with your fork, buy organic, support fair trade, etc. But these proposals all lack something that
every successful environmental movement has always placed at its core: genuine sacrifice.
Until we make that leap, until we create a culinary culture in which the meat-eaters must do the
apologizing, the current proposals will be nothing more than gestures that turn the fork into an empty
symbol rather than a real tool for environmental change.
James E. McWilliams, an associate professor of history at Texas State University at San Marcos and a recent fellow
in the agrarian studies program at Yale University, is most recently the author of "Just Food."

Advice (Source: http://www.thefooddoctor.com/Low-fat-salad-dressing-is-bad-for-you:-Study-claims-calorie-

light-versions-contain-fewer-health-benefits-Ahealth_press_saladoil/)

Low-fat salad dressing is 'bad for you': Study claims calorie-light versions contain fewer
health benefits
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2162401/Low-fat-salad-dressing-bad-you.html#ixzz217uYqETG
A new study claims that while low-fat salad dressings contain less calories, they also have fewer health
benefits. Choosing a low-fat dressing for your salad might help you keep your weight down because it
has fewer calories – but you could lose some other health benefits, a study shows.
It found higher-fat dressings help the body absorb more carotenoids, compounds in vegetables linked
with a reduced risk of illnesses including cancer and heart disease.

Carotenoids represent one of the most widespread groups of naturally occurring pigments. These
compounds are largely responsible for the red, yellow, and orange colour of fruits and vegetables, and
are also found in many dark green vegetables. The most abundant carotenoids in salad vegetables
include carotenes, lycopene, lutein and zeaxanthin.
Carotenoids are fabulous antioxidants, helping to protect the body’s cells from the damaging effect of
free radicals. Carotenes and lycopene are well known for their ability to help guard the skin from sun
damage while lutein and zeaxanthin play an important role in protecting vision. Some members of the
carotenoid family are also "provitamin A" compounds. This means the body can convert them into
retinol, an active form of vitamin A. Since vitamin A is important for growth and repair, eyesight,
reproduction and immunity, carotenoids can support these functions too.
However, carotenoids, like vitamin E, D and K are fat soluble nutrients. This means they need to be
eaten at the same time as something containing fat in order to be properly absorbed in the digestive
system. A salad with low fat dressing might seem like a healthy option, but without the presence of fat,
the absorption of many of the nutrients in the salad will be hindered.
So, to get the best out of your salad...
 Use a teaspoon of high quality, cold pressed omega oil as a salad dressing – Good choices include
flaxseed oil, hempseed oil and extra virgin olive oil
 Add a tablespoon of nuts or seeds to salads
 Combine your salad with a portion of oily fish such as a mackerel, sardines or salmon
 Make your own healthy salad dressing by combining three parts omega oil with one part vinegar
(cider or balsamic vinegar are good choices) in a clean glass bottle, shake well and then add your
own choice of garlic, onion, shallot, herbs, spices, mustard and/or honey to taste