King Arthur's Goat-Herder
By Andy Griffin, Edible San Francisco
It seems that every country enjoys the culinary delights of goat but America. Even in the age of boutique multiculturalism, goat meat still hasn't hit the grill. Andy Griffin asks why and finds part of his answer in our language. 'We eat beef, not cow... pork, not pig.' Without a euphemistic label for goat, it's tough to overcome Americans' squeamishness. Other reasons are rooted in American cuisine's British heritage, which associated eating goat with peasants, and the cowboy tradition that turned beef into a symbol of 'freedom.' Although immigrants are stoking demand for goat, alas few American goats are actually bred for the job. -- Eric Kelsey
http://www.ediblesanfrancisco.net/ESF/Summer2007/kingarthur.html

Beat a Woman? Play On; Beat a Dog? You're Gone
By Sandra Kobrin, Womens eNews
As Michael Vick is skewered by the media, National Football League, and animal-rights groups for dog-fighting, Sandra Kobrin looks at the deeply disturbing reality that professional sports players often get off light when it comes to domestic abuse. Across professional sports leagues, there's no shortage of examples in which domestic abuse charges are dealt with by the leagues by issuing small fines or rare suspensions. Unfortunately, writes Kobrin, these cases don't evoke the same outrage that Vick's atrocious abuse of animals has. -- Julie Dolan
http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm?aid=3285

The Sultans of Spuds
By Matt Jenkins, High Country News
While narcs keep tabs on drug runners in the American Southwest, a different cartel a thousand miles north is finessing markets and strong-arming farmers, only this cartel's closely guarded business is potatoes. Matt Jenkins profiles the efforts of the United Potato Growers of America, which formed in 2004, to discipline the unruly potato market by restructuring corporate contracts and using satellite imagery to make sure that farmers uphold their end of fair-market deals. -- Eric Kelsey
http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=17171

We Make the Path by Walking
By Clifton Ross, Race, Poverty, and the Environment
In Bolivia, the rise of green cooperatives may curb the loss of indigenous traditions and environmental degradation caused by mining practices. The La Paz café Mama Naturaleza, for example, is using ancient, sustainable farming techniques such as 'insecticides from tobacco and llama manure.' Some critics worry, though, that these coops are suffering from the paternalism of government largesse, which could hinder the internally self-sufficient, or 'endogenous,' development that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is popularizing in Latin America. -- Anna Cynar
http://urbanhabitat.org/node/533