FERN’s Friday Feed: The dream of a crowded table

"I believe in forgiveness and giving grace. I do not believe in offering myself up for a beating, whether physical or spiritual. To set a welcoming table in a truly New South, we must actively work to nurture others and aim toward justice together, for everyone who is being oppressed and belittled," writes Silas House. "We must listen. The South of my dreams is a crowded table of many different colors and accents. Stacked on the table are platters full of the food I grew up with and delicacies I have never known before. My husband and I will be treated like everyone else. My cousins will be there. Their hearts and minds will have opened up to new songs and new dances. Everyone won't think the same way, but they will all bring love, first and foremost. That's the table where I want to break cornbread together."

"The first rule of wellness food is: it shouldn't look like food. You might recognize some elements of the food as food, but there should be plausible deniability—they could just as easily be not-food," writes Jessie Gaynor. "Those zucchini ribbons could be part of a floral arrangement. The raw cacao might be mulch; the kelp appears freshly plucked from a reef. It's key to avoid any association with consumption. These dishes can and should be savored, as one might savor the feeling of a spring breeze across the skin."

"In this episode [the first of two] cookbook author, chef, and teacher Andrea Nguyen travels to New Orleans with producer Christian Adam Brown to find the origins of Viet-Cajun food, a popular fusion that has been appearing at restaurants all over the United States. Join Andrea and Christian as they visit with several Vietnamese American restaurateurs to learn how they envision their own identities within the vibrant food culture of New Orleans."

"In 1884, the water hyacinth delighted audiences when it made its North American debut at the Cotton States Exposition in New Orleans. With its delicate purple flowers and glossy leaves, the Amazonian plant was poised to become the new frontier of ornamental gardening," writes Shoshi Parks. "But … [w]ithin 20 years, it had overtaken waterways across the South, threatening long-established trade routes … As Southerners waged a never-ending botanical battle, a second crisis brewed … Around the turn of the 20th century, inexpensive meat, a product of American prosperity that had long been available to even the poorest immigrants, was suddenly in short supply … The only one way to solve both problems at once, argued Louisiana Representative Robert F. Broussard, was to embrace hippopotamus ranching."

"The real function of the modern farm bill," writes Luke Goldstein, "is to deliver windfalls to industry by subsidizing cheap commodity grains, mostly corn and soybeans used for animal feed, that sell below the cost of production to agribusiness, fast-food chains, and global exports. Oil and gas companies are also major beneficiaries of subsidized corn production, used in ethanol and biofuel. And the structure of the subsidies tilts the playing field in favor of the biggest factory farms and middlemen monopolists."