Good to get that out of the way. In case you were worried.
Modern Farmer recently considered the prevalence of evil Monsanto memes, and why the company seems to have perennial public relations problems:
If you set aside for a moment from the usual debate about whether GMOs are bad or good, a curious fact emerges. For a rich and powerful company that seems to excel at nearly everything it does, Monsanto sucks in one important aspect: spin control.
The director of Babette’s Feast, Gabriel Axel, died last weekend. Based on a story by Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen), the film is a quiet, beautiful film about food, art, and their transformative power. If you haven’t seen it, you should; if you haven’t seen it in a while, watch it again. The Criterion Collection website offers several resources related to the film, including links to rent or purchase a copy. And it’s available on Netflix.
Also, don’t miss this essay, “Babette’s Feast, A Fable for Culinary France,” from Accounting for Taste: The Triumph of French Cuisine by Priscilla Parkhurst Ferguson (University of Chicago Press, 2004).