Food Stories
A couple of weeks ago, we had nice conversation about organic garlic, grown in China and purchased here in the USA. Although the garlic was indeed flavorful, the distance it traveled to reach my plate left a bad taste in my mouth. Fortunately, the wild blackberries around Reno are ripe. It seems fitting not only…
You might not be organic, sustainable, fair trade, or free range, but you try to make sure your shopping is. When it comes to fish, you know it’s a healthy choice, but are also aware of the impact of industrial fishing practices. Perhaps you’re even aware of Blue Ocean Institute’s unique Guide to Ocean-Friendly Seafood.…
Wholesome. It’s one of the first words that comes to mind when someone says “milk.” What about milk isn’t wholesome? It is a basic product of mammalian life that–when delivered from mother to offspring–is unassailably pure. It is so fundamental and unadulterated that its nature and constitution are seldom questioned. Which is why it caught…
These beer cozies are made from reclaimed Patagonia wetsuits. They fit bottles and cans, and are perfect for post-session rehydration situations. Get yours today and start saving the planet immediately.
The industry in question is the agroindustrial genetically manipulated monocrop chemicalification conglomerate. It’s a mouthful, which is why folks in this business like to refer to themselves as representatives of “conventional agriculture,” companies like Monsanto, Dow AgroSciences and DuPont Crop Protection. Let’s leave aside for a moment the fact that our friends in the agroindustrial…
A blister formed on the palm of my hand, between my forefinger and my thumb. I always thought I had tough hands. I mean, I’m supposed to be a professional rock climber and my hands are supposed to be like leather right? But not this part, not at all. This part’s soft and tender,…
At my margarita deck party here on the Solstice, of which I remember little, Tommy C had told Scotty D that this one obscure crag had three good routes, each a number grade apart. Scotty thinks he might have remembered that they went left to right, easy to hard. Our friend Ammon later told Scotty…
This summer, Patagonia teamed up with non-profit environmental and social justice group, Louisiana Bucket Brigade (LABB), to assist with a project massive in scale and ambition: to track the full impact of the greatest ecological disaster in American history, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of Spring 2010. The impacts of this disaster extend well beyond…
There’s alotta milk in a latte. Fact is, coffee bars in the U.S. serve more milk than they do coffee. So in my quest to understand what all goes into my coffee, I ended up taking in a fair amount about milk. If so much milk is going onto coffee, shouldn’t the quality of the…
“Remember that spicy, peanuty sesame noodle thing you make? We want that again!” requested Sue this past spring. Sue had allowed me to stay in her house in Yosemite West for no less than 37 weeks over the course of a decade, and although it had been a few years since I had cooked for…
When JT and I were in the desert of Algeria, our Touareg guides, after preparing an elaborate four-course meal for the two of us, would prepare their own and then eat it from a single big bowl. They’d sit on the ground, in a tight little circle, each with their own spoon, sometimes no spoon…
We leave for Sicily tomorrow and I have to admit that despite new-route potential on 300-meter-tall Mediterranean seaside cliffs, I’m almost as excited to eat and drink wine. I read in the Lonely Planet guide that, “Most Sicilian dishes fall into the category of cucina povera (cooking of the poor), featuring cheap and plentiful ingredients.”…
Here’s a recipe that every dirtbag should learn to make; it’s exotic sounding, yet relatively simple to make from basic, easy-to-find ingredients. Also, since it requires nothing much more than a fry pan, spatula, bowl, and plate, this one can be made in your van or campsite. I first became familiar with the ubiquitous Spanish…
When Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, began writing about GMOs in the early 2000s, he started by asking a reasonable question: “What does a clothing company know about genetic engineering?” The answer, he said: “Not enough.” And neither does anyone else. In the proliferation of GMOs, Yvon saw a serious threat to wildness and biodiversity.…
Today, we’re pleased to share our latest short film, Unbroken Ground, directed by Chris Malloy (180° South) and presented by Patagonia Provisions. It stems from the belief that our food can and should be a part of the solution to the environmental crisis—grown, harvested and produced in ways that restore our land, water and wildlife.…
I’d like to introduce Patagonia’s friends and customers to the work of GreenWave, if you don’t already know it. GreenWave and its 3D ocean farming program have received much attention lately from the national press, including The New Yorker, CNN and NPR. Bren Smith, founder and executive director of GreenWave, gave a TED talk that…
In recent years, we’ve seen a boom in production and sales of organic foods worldwide. The global organic food market is expected to grow by 16 percent between 2015 and 2020, a faster rate than conventionally-grown foods. This seems like good news—but in truth, organic farming makes up just a tiny fraction of the global agriculture…
We’re happy to welcome Stonyfield to the B Corp community. When Patagonia was young we felt kinship mostly with companies in the outdoor industry and our friends who worked there. Two companies we admired in the then unfamiliar territory of food included Ben & Jerry’s and Stonyfield, which grew out of an organic farming school…
Working closely with Rodale Institute, Dr. Bronner’s and other key allies, we created Regenerative Organic Certification to establish a new, high bar for regenerative organic agriculture. The certification is the result of a lively and cooperative effort among a coalition of change-makers, brands, farmers, ranchers, nonprofits and scientists, all with a clear goal: to pave…
Si el presente status-quo de erosión de suelos, contaminación por carbono y calentamiento planetario continúa, estamos ante tan solo 60 cosechas más antes que podamos dejar de cultivar el 95% de los alimentos de los que dependemos los humanos para vivir. Al mismo tiempo, la manera de prevenir esta calamidad está al alcance de la…
For almost 20 years since the “organic” certification first passed, there has been a debate surrounding growing methods. Some foods are grown in soil, and others are grown hydroponically in large buildings and under lights. There is a reason for both growing methods, but it is important that they be labeled differently. Since the 1920s…
“For us, the tide is the boss,” says Adam James of Hama Hama Oysters, a fifth-generation, family-run shellfish farm on Washington’s Puget Sound. “In late August and September, we’ll be out there on the beach harvesting at 3 or 4 a.m., and when the sun finally comes up you can’t help but pause. It reminds…
Looking back on the USDA meeting in Jacksonville, I am left with anger, grief and a sense of urgency that we keep moving forward. The meeting of the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) was an historical turning point for the National Organic Program (NOP). It was a watershed moment. “All of the organic philosophy is…
As the seventh generation of her family to farm the same land, working from sunup to sundown comes naturally to Heather Darby. The fourth profile in our Workwear series takes a look at the perpetual motion required to be both a research agronomist at the University of Vermont and the backbone of a 200-year-old, certified…
On Saturday, at Natural Products Expo West, the Regenerative Organic Alliance unveiled our new certification. Here is an excerpt from my speech and make sure to watch our video. In 2012, we started Patagonia Provisions, a food company focused on products sourced in innovative ways that benefit and regenerate the planet. And the more we learn about food,…
When I was a kid, the Connecticut River was my Yukon. I spent many days working alongside the river or canoeing its islands and backwaters in search of crabs, snapper, blues, ducks and alewives—amazing silvery fish that brave the depths of the Atlantic to feed and grow and then return to these meandering brooks to…
When you sit down to write an eye-catching essay about seafood, your first instinct is to go with one of the sleek and sexy creatures that have historically captured the human imagination. Salmon battling 20-knot currents to reach their spawning grounds at the headwaters of the world’s mightiest rivers. Bluefin tuna charging faster than thoroughbred…
If the present status-quo of soil loss, carbon pollution and planetary warming continue, we’re looking at just 60 more harvests before we can no longer grow 95 percent of the food we humans rely upon to live. At the same time, the way to prevent this calamity is at hand: regenerative organic agriculture. This is…
A conversation with regenerative agriculture pioneer Charles Massy
The promise of regenerative organic agriculture. “The problem is that we’re all taught to farm up,” David Oien says, leading me into a field of low-growing plants that I will later learn to recognize as lentils. I try to think of what alternative there might be to farming upward. Outward? As I puzzle over this,…
Standing Up Against Industrial Fish Farming That Would Forever Alter A Unique Australian Beachbreak The day we arrived on King Island we drove out to Martha Lavinia Beach, where we stood in the dunes and watched waves running down the beach—long left-handers breaking so fast they were almost impossible to surf. However, Martha Lavinia wasn’t…
In the last 20 years, the expansion of salmon farming in open-net pens has led to the loss of half the wild salmon population in Norway. On average, 200,000 farmed fish escape from open-net pens and many of them swim up rivers in Norway and breed with wild stocks, contributing to species decline. According to…
A soil junkie explains no-till practices for regenerative agriculture.
As seen in the November 2019 Journal. For the recipe behind Carston’s Spicy Magic Sauce, scroll to the end of the story. Although my tongue felt as if it might melt, Carston Oliver assured me I was not, in fact, going to die. “That’s just the capsaicin,” he told me, as he calmly ordered some…
A Conversation with Leah Penniman, Author of Farming While Black.