What were most important food stories of 2010? Rural Web site takes issue with magazine's list

The Atlantic recently published its list of the top 10 food stories of 2010, but something important was missing: rural America. "The only farmer (and only farm) the magazine mentions is First Lady Michelle Obama and her White House garden," Bill Bishop and Richard Oswald write for the Daily Yonder. "When it comes to 'food policy,' according to The Atlantic, rural America doesn’t exist." Bishop and Oswald developed their own list of the 10 most important food stories of 2010 and agreed on just three stories from the Atlantic's list: the egg recall, the battle over genetically modified food and the ongoing debate over the food safety bill.

Headlining the Yonder's list of most important food stories is the new proposed regulations that would remake the relationship between livestock raisers and meat packers issued by the federal Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration.The Yonder also includes peak phosphorus (we're running out of it), food monopolies, seed-industry worries, the dairy implosion, land prices, the rural grocery crisis, Gulf Coast fishing, the Humane Society of the United States war with livestock producers and meat processors, and speculation in grain and grain elevators.

"It’s probably not too much of a surprise that there is little overlap between The Atlantic's list and The Yonder," Bishop and Oswald write. "The Atlantic’s list of important stories includes 'foraging,' for example." The Atlantic's first story was "The Meat Trend," which associate editor Daniel Fromson explains as "foodie passion for cured meats, braised veal cheeks, jammy bone marrow, and do-it-yourself butchering." Highlighting the rural/urban divide, Bishop and Oswald conclude of the meat trend: "In much of Yonder, butchering and curing meat isn’t so much a trend as what you do in the fall." (Read more)