This letter to the journal Nature outlines the safety risk of antibiotic resistance due to horizontal gene transfer from GMOs and points out that this is not the only risk that needs to be urgently addressed by the authorities. ------ Ampicillin threat leads to wider transgene concern Sir: We are concerned by the suggestion, in your Editorial "Don't rely on Uncle Sam" (Nature 434, 807; 2005), that the US Food and Drug Administration does not consider the presence of the ampicillin-resistance gene in Syngenta's unapproved variety of genetically modified Bt10 maize to represent a safety problem. This is not the view of the UK government's scientific advisers (the DEFRA Antimicrobial Resistance Coordination Group), who state that some important veterinary pathogens remain susceptible to ampicillin (K. L. Goodyear et al. J. Antimicrob. Chemother. 54, 959; 2004). They state that there is "extremely low or no detected resistance in certain bacterial species", so that "any occasional transfer of resistance genes to these organisms would be a very significant event". If, as a result of such horizontal gene transfer, it became necessary to use more modern antimicrobials to treat animal disease, they write, "then there could be significant consequences for the consumer through the food chain". The risk of horizontal gene transfer from genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is not a theoretical one. One study found that, after Bt genes in plasmid form were incubated in the saliva in a sheep's mouth for a few minutes, they could still transform Escherichia coli bacteria so that they developed antibiotic resistance (P. S. Duggan et al. Br. J. Nutr. 89, 159$B!](B166; 2003). In addition, it is worth noting that the ampicillin-resistance gene in Bt10 maize and other genetically modified crops is a remnant of the bacterial plasmid inserted into these varieties, and would therefore function very efficiently if taken up by bacteria as a result of horizontal gene transfer. Once the Bt10 maize incident has been dealt with, we feel there should be a review of the general question of horizontal gene transfer from GMOs. There is no reason to believe that any health implications are confined to antibiotic-resistance marker genes; they could, for example, equally apply to the inserted Bt toxin genes present in all genetically modified Bt crops. However, the transfer of antibiotic resistance is the only such risk currently being addressed by the authorities that regulate GMOs. We consider that the case-by-case approval approach used by the authorities does not adequately address such problems, which are common to all GMOs. Gundula Azeez Soil Association, 40-56 Victoria Street, Bristol BS1 6BY, UK

Found this: Cost Plus, Inc. plans to close 26 of its World Market stores and exit eight markets. Cost Plus will still operate 270 stores in 98 markets covering 30 states following the store closings. The eight media markets the Company plans to exit include: Cincinnati OH, Fort Lauderdale FL, Fort Wayne IN, Memphis TN, Minneapolis-St. Paul MN, Rochester MN, Omaha NE, and Rockford IL. Individual stores to be closed include: Mesa (1349 Alma School Road Mesa, AZ), Ontario (4421 Mills Circle Ontario, CA), Vallejo (105 Plaza Drive Vallejo, CA), Pembroke Pines (11960 Pines Boulevard Pembroke Pines, FL), Stonecrest (8140 Mall Parkway Lithonia, GA), Fayetteville (240 Pavilion Parkway Fayetteville, GA), Hoffman Estates (2780 Sutton Road Hoffman Estates, IL), Rockford (6650 East State Street Rockford, IL), Fort Wayne (4310 Coldwater Road Fort Wayne, IN), Germantown (20904 Frederick Road Germantown, MD), Bloomington (4250 West 78th Street Bloomington, MN), Maple Grove (12209 Elm Creek Blvd Maple Grove, MN), Minnetonka (11240 Wayzata Blvd. Minnetonka, MN), Rochester (1200 16th Street SW Rochester, MN), Roseville (2401 Fairview Ave., North Roseville, MN), Woodbury (8268 Tamarack Village Woodbury, MN), Southaven (6535 Towne Center Crossing Southaven, MS), Omaha (201 North 78th Street Omaha, NE), Papillion (7549 Towne Centre Parkway Papillion, NE), West Omaha (17101 Davenport Street Omaha, NE), Western Hills (5555 Glenway Avenue Cincinnati, OH), Tri-County (11747 Princeton Pike Springdale, OH), Kenwood (8121 Montgomery Road Cincinnati, OH), Collierville (4600 Merchants Park Circle Collierville, TN), Market at Wolfcreek (2825 N. Germantown Parkway Memphis, TN) and Tysons Corner (2051 Chain Bridge Road Vienna, VA). It's sad news for the cities losing stores because World Market carries some hard-to-find international gourmet items. Cost Plus also operates an online store at worldmarket.com but the gourmet items are only sold at its bricks-and-mortar locations.

Sharon, I did use the recipe and method in Charcuterie. I found that the last step, which is steaming the pastrami for a couple of hours, really helps cut the saltiness, the first batch I sliced and froze, and didn't steam. It was far too salty. David, Elery has a MasterBuilt electric smoker. It's in my garage, so he uses it year round. My garage is not heated, and the electronic display doesn't like it when it's under 35F or so, so we have to remove it, take it inside and warm it up, then put it back on. Thankfully, it's easy to do. We smoked the pastrami over cherry wood, the last one we did with apple. Why did we choose those types? Because I pruned the apple and cherry trees last spring and that's what we had. I think Jessica was referring to the deli because of my reference to pastrami... Annie

The wacky world of fake food As long as there have been cooks, there have been foods made to look and sometimes taste like other foods By EMILY NUNN Chicago Tribune Article Last Updated: 10/22/2008 01:46:02 AM PDT Bac-Os, Quorn Dogs, Cool Whip, near beer, sea legs, fish balls, Tang and Vienna sausage. That's a pretty vile menu. But it's great food for thought for anyone who wishes to consider the existence of food impersonators in our midst. Why must man make mock food? Especially since it tends to be eminently more mockable than the food being mocked? (Take mock lobster please  if you need a good example; one version is made from soybeans, then molded and painted lobster red, and sold at May Wah Vegetarian food in New York's Chinatown, along with a lot of other moxamples.) "Because we can," said John L. Stanton, chairman of the department of food marketing at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia. It seems like the most obvious answer. "Man has always sought to create, whether it's an atom bomb or a cheaper piece of meat. If we can make meat that is cheaper, we will," he said. And according to Australian food historian Janet Clarkson, who is proprietor of the site, theoldfoodie.com, as long as there have been cooks there have been foods made to "look and sometimes taste like other foods," as she puts it. Mock food is one of Clarkson's favorite topics, and her period of interest falls somewhere between the time man grew bored with mere hunting and gathering and the days when he began full-throttle synthesizing, processing or preparing such food and drink as turkey bacon, soy milk, city chicken, Cremora, Cool Whip, cheese-food "singles," movie popcorn "topping," mock tuna salad made of tofu with soy mayo, and burgers made of nuts and vegetable-based bolts. She pointed out some of the reasons mock food was made in the past: · "To deceive. Often this means to impress. Of course it backfires badly if the ruse is discovered," she said, offering the Samuel Pepys diary entry for Friday 6 January 1659/60 as an example: "I went home and took my wife and went to my cosen, Thomas Pepys, and found them just sat down to dinner, which was very good; only the venison pasty was palpable beef, which was not handsome." How embarrassing. Clark also mentions: · Faux food created for religious or other ethical reasons, such as the fake meat served at Lent throughout the ages. · Faux food for fun, as in illusion foods ("in medieval times ... a meatloaf called yrchouns, meaning either urchins or hedgehogs  they were stuck all over with slivered almonds to indicate spines. No one was fooled but everyone enjoyed the artistry"). · Faux food as a substitute in times of scarcity ("During the American Civil War, particularly, the range of (coffee) substitutes was creative in the extreme," said Clarkson: e.g., acorn, chicory and okra coffees). · And faux food for reasons that are "lost to us today," she said. "There are instructions for mock cock's comb in some 17th-century cookbooks." Not to mention recipes for mock asses' milk. Eeeeek. All these reasons still exist in the world of food fakery today. And so do some of the foods: marzipan fruit, an ancient example of mock food as pure whimsy, is still around and as adorable as ever; near beer, drunk by teetotalers and certain religious groups, is a more palatable version of small beer, drunk by children and just about everybody else in early American history, because the water was risky. And today we also have fake food for health/diet/intolerance reasons (Egg Beaters, Lactaid, NutraSweet/Splenda, etc.). Not to mention replication/simulation-for-profit reasons. "For me," Clarkson said, "the interesting question for each mock food is: Was it intended to deceive?" If so, it's best to be clear about it from the get-go if you're going to be a successful food faker. "Foods that try to trick people always fail," Stanton said. One recent example is Kraft guacamole. In 2006 a woman sued the company for fraud after noticing that it didn't taste very "avocadoey." In fact, it contained less than 2 percent of the fruit. But unlike, say, peanut butter, which laws have decreed must contain 90 percent peanuts, guacamole, a relatively new staple in the American diet, had no such requirements. Kraft claimed it only intended to be selling a "flavored" dip, and the company subsequently changed the name of the stuff to Dip-Guacamole Flavor. We'll willingly accept the poser as just as good as the pose-ee, as long as the poser isn't pointedly lying to us. NutraSweet has never pretended to be sugar. So we add it to our coffee without complaint or much suspicion. But if margarine-makers made claims to butterhood, it would certainly have been more vilified than it is today. "Who's to say, by the way, that whipped cream is better than Cool Whip, just because it came along first?" Stanton added. And a lot of mock food eaters feel the same way about their mock tuna salad, soy mayonnaise, "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!," mock turtles (the soup and the turtleneck, actually), Miracle Whip and mocktails. One of the most familiar and iconic examples of mock food, of course, is benevolent rather than malign: the Ritz Mock Apple Pie, which contains not a single apple but does contain 36 Ritz crackers, sugar, water, cinnamon, butter or margarine, cream of tartar, and lemon juice, all of which is baked in a crust. According to Jean Anderson, in her "American Century Cookbook," Ritz's pie, which was introduced to the American public in 1934, smack in the middle of the Great Depression, has since become the most requested recipe at the Nabisco company. A similar formula for apple pie from large soda crackers appeared as early as 1872, and pioneers were also known to bake a mock apple pie while on the trail, when they had very little fresh food. Like the delicious-sounding fried mock oysters that early American settlers made from corn, it has served people throughout American history as a form of comforting self-deceit that always accompanies hard times; it's a means of emotional survival. On the other hand, the horrifying mock crown roast recipe we found, allegedly from a 1949 cookbook called "Interesting Recipes ... From Canada Meat Packer's Food Clinic," seems more interested in marketing than in comforting anyone. The recipe directs cooks to sew together 1-2 pounds of Maple Leaf Wieners to simulate standing crown roast, then stuff the resulting ring of wieners with sauerkraut or creamed cabbage and wrap it all in bacon. A more noble form of marketing is used by restaurateur Karyn Calabrese, Chicago's vegan priestess. The menu at one of her vegan restaurants, Karyn's Cooked, includes dishes that mimic meat using wheat gluten, textured soy protein, tempeh, seitan, tofu and other mock-meat building blocks. The "meat" dishes  such as Slab of Ribs, Home Style Meatloaf and Steak Sandwich  take their cue from ancient Buddhist cuisine, whose meat analogues are today considered the finest meat substitutes in the world. Naturally, the question many non-vegans ask her is: What is the impulse to eat meat when you object to it? It seems a little like watching pornography: just because you're not participating doesn't mean you're not guilty in your heart, right? "It's a cultural lure," said Calabrese. "I serve 'ravioli,'" she said, "but they're made of turnips and the filling is macadamia nut cheese. Who do you think would buy it if I said, 'I have a plate of turnip and macadamia nut cheese.' Who do you think would venture to eat that? But if I offer them ravioli, it's something they can relate to." "I make a raw apple pie at my restaurant," she continued, referring to her all-raw cafe, Karyn's. "What's making it mock or fake? That it doesn't contain egg and sugar? Well, I like to call it the real deal  all that other stuff is fake." Which, philosophically speaking, seems to be the attitude that most faux-food devotees  whether they consume Tofurky, Liquid Smoke, Egg Beaters, unchicken, SmartDogs, Caviar Dreams ("seaweed caviar capsules") or mock apple pie through the centuries. It's all about perception. And perceptions are changing: A recent Associated Press story pointed out that in the United States the demand for fake food  specifically fake meats  is on the rise, especially those made from soy. (The Soyfoods Association of America Web site reports that sales increased to nearly $4 billion from $300 million from 1992 to 2007.) And at a time when food prices also are on the rise, worldwide hunger is front-page news, and we have dangerously overfished the ocean, it seems unsurprising that people might have a growing desire for foods that put less stress on the food chain. (Especially the animal-rights organization PETA, which recently offered $1 million to the first person to make the first in-vitro chicken meat and sell it to the public by June 30, 2012.) A German Internet-based project called Future Food (futurefood.org) is already making plans to accommodate that desire. Project leader Kurt Schmidinger said that Future Food's focus is on the "possibilities for replacing animal products with ... vegetarian meats, non-dairy drinks and egg replacements" as well as "in-vitro meat, or cultured meat," a process that he describes as, "for the time being, still a dream." While Future Food's dream is to shorten the food chain from plants to humans by taking the animal out of it, their targets are not just vegetarian, religious and health-conscious markets but also the general public. Fake foods are a venerable part of our past, and they're growing in the present, so it seems natural to wonder: Are we headed for a future of fake and simulated food? Either way, it might not be a bad idea to learn a few mock-versions of your favorite foods right now. And remember: Philosophically speaking, if it's real to you, it's real food.