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Somehow any piece of breaking news on the local food/restaurant front seems small and insignificant compared to the reports coming out of Mexico: Pig farming will kill us all!
OK, I exaggerate: The swine flu outbreak is merely, according to the World Health Organization, a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern.” Capital letters are never good; it’s a pronoun just waiting to attach itself to something nasty. WHO also told reporters the virus has pandemic “potential,” a word usually filled with so much hope and promise, like when discussing the upside of the ‘Skins first-round draft choice. Y&H is officially worried.
- Eating Liberally asks Marion Nestle if we shouldn’t be concerned that Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork producer, could be taken over by a massive Chinese company owned by the state, the same folks who brought us so many other tainted food products. After all, EL notes, Mexican officials believe the swine flu may be linked to the “clouds of flies that thrive in the manure lagoons of the Smithfield-owned industrial hog operations in Vera Cruz.”
More news following the jump.
- Tom Sietsema at the Post reports that Mark Furstenberg will be opening a new restaurant this summer dedicated to street foods from around the world.
- Morou Ouattara sent out an e-mail yesterday, saying that Farrah Olivia will not be closing on April 29 as previously reported. Balducci’s, the current landlord for Ouattara, has “allowed us to remain open while they figure out what is best for all parties concerned, in regards to our current location.”
- The FDA warns not to eat those alfalfa sprouts! There’s a salmonella outbreak tied to them.
- And perhaps the most important piece of news today: You can’t get swine flu from eating pork.
Photo by Olddanb