The UC Food Observer chooses some important stories for you to read each work day. On today’s menu:

 

1. “The Mysterious Charms of Helen’s Kitchen.” William Browning writes about how a restaurant holds a Mississippi town together. Lovely and lyrical. Appearing in Eater.

 

2. Farms and fisheries are the frontier of human trafficking. Tracie McMillan (@TMMcMillan) writes about slavery in the “global supply chains of agriculture, fishing and aquaculture” for NPR’s The Salt.

 

3. ICYMI…Read our new Q&A with nutrition researchers and educators Lucia Kaiser and Dorina Espinoza. They talk about their research in SNAP education and what public policies might improve nutrition and food security. Their work is part of UC’s Global Food Initiative.

 

4. Meat: What’s Smart, What’s Right, What’s Next. Nathanael Johnson (@SavorTooth) produces an in-depth, must read series for Grist. Johnson provides a first-hand account of watching a cattle slaughter, discusses how to make meat “greener,” interviews Temple Grandin…and more. Thought-provoking.

 

5. Bittman: “Wage Justice Is on the Menu”…Watch the latest in the California Matters video series from Mark Bittman, via the University of California. He interviews Saru Jayaraman, who is co-founder and co-director of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC-United) and the director of the Food Labor Research Center at University of California, Berkeley. Read Bittman’s column on the topic in the New York Times.