Joy of Desserts: Use fresh eggs in your desserts? Don't miss this!

Use fresh eggs in your desserts?

Don't miss these talks (dates/times at bottom of post) by whistle blower and chicken farmer Carole Morison, featured in the "Food Inc." documentary, if you are in the Greater SF Bay Area. And if you're elsewhere, then read on and get informed!

By talking to the creators of the Academy-Award nominated documentary "Food Inc.," Morison risked and lost her Maryland poultry farm’s contract for taking on an industrial Goliath.

Alexis Koefoed, proud owner of Soul Farm, one of the Bay Area’s few pastured chicken farms, nearly lost it to an arson fire, yet persists despite struggles to make ends meet.

Two feisty women. Opposite sides of the country. Incompatible farming methods. What convinces them to join forces to advocate for sustainable local food systems? Let’s just say the formidable opposition didn’t get the memo on how tough women are.

Author and journalist Michael Pollan ("In Defense of Food," "Omnivore’s Dilemma") credits Carole Morison as being a courageous advocate for healing the food system. "She has worked in the belly of the agribusiness beast and had the courage to speak out about it," said Pollan, who will introduce Morison’s talk tonight in San Francisco's Ferry Building.

"Alexis and Carole are in an ideal position to take lessons from the fields to help reshape America’s kitchen table values," he said.

"After 23 years raising chickens, Soul Food Farm is the first place I saw chickens raised on large pastures without cages, antibiotics or environmental damage,” said Morison. "Just as inspiring was seeing the surrounding urban area participate in the success of a farm through programs like Soul Food Farm’s CSA; it gives me hope that the benefits of sustainable farming can be enjoyed by more consumers, workers and communities."

After exposing the food, labor and environmental damages exacted by industrial farming in the Academy Award-nominated film "Food Inc.," Morison lost her contract and no longer farms. Currently an activist for the rights of family farmers, she co-founded the Delmarva Poultry Justice Alliance, is on the steering committee of the National Poultry Justice Alliance, and now works as an agricultural consultant specializing in local food systems.

If you're going:

April 20, 6:30 p.m. –“Inside the Hen House,” a panel discussion introduced by Michael Pollan, ("In Defense of Food"), moderated by Anya Fernald (organizer of inaugural Slow Food Nation, 2007). Participants: Carole Morison, Norman and Aimee Gunsell of Mountain Ranch Organically Grown. SF Ferry Building. Reservations.
April 21, 7:30 p.m. – An Evening with Extraordinary Farmers Panel discussion, moderated by author Lisa Hamilton (Deeply Rooted). Participants: Carole Morison; Tony Malmberg, from Union, Oregon; and farmer Jered Lawson, founder of Pie Ranch. UC Berkeley Campus, 101 Morgan Hall. $5 donation. Reservations.
Earth Day, April 22, 4 to 6 p.m., Benecia High School, Hayley Horn Auditorium, 1101 Military West Rd., Benicia. Come one, come all.
April 24, 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. – "Developing Local Farm Systems," a talk by Carole Morison, sponsored by Slow Food, Solano County Chapter, Winters Community Center. Reservations.