Word: northeaster
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...years, Zhao has worked as a miner in China's northeast, where much of the coal that drives the country's booming economy is mined. That longevity makes him a lucky man. Being a coal miner in China is one of the world's most dangerous jobs. Officially, about 5,000 of his fellow workers died in mining accidents last year. Unofficially, nobody knows how many were killed. In the space of a single week late last year, gas explosions and accidents in four mines left nearly 100 miners dead. Li Yizhong, head of the State Administration of Work Safety...
...dawn of the Industrial Revolution and in the U.S. later. China is the world's biggest consumer of coal, its factories and homes using nearly a third of total world production. Much of that coal is dug in tens of thousands of mines scattered across the windblasted ocher hills northeast of Beijing. It is here--more than in the textile factories of the south where Western activists complain of sweatshop conditions--that Chinese pay in blood for their country's economic success. The official death toll fell some 20% last year, but as with many government statistics in China...
These days, in the final weeks of winter, it would be unfair to ask Whole Foods to sell predominantly local produce at my store, because so little can be grown in the Northeast right now. But even during verdant summertime, the vast majority of products sold at my Whole Foods (fresh or otherwise) aren't from the Northeast. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that the packages in which most Whole Foods groceries are sold say nothing about the food's origin. For instance, in the freezer section you can find Whole Foods' Whole Kitchen brand Breaded Eggplant...
...Whole Foods spokeswoman told me the eggplant was grown in Florida, which is too bad because eggplant grows easily in the Northeast. But in the company's defense, very few customers care whether their food is local. Most who do, shop at farmers' markets. Also, there's not even a standard definition of what local means. To Nabhan, who inspired many local activists with Coming Home to Eat, it means eating within a 250-mile radius of his Arizona home. Many who blog at a site called eatlocalchallenge.com aim for a stricter "100-mile diet...
That made me wonder if purely local eating was even possible--or healthy. Could I get everything I needed from the Northeast? What would I have to give up? For gustatory reasons, I long ago stopped eating out of season--I have no interest in those hard Canadian tomatoes my Whole Foods was selling in February. But would I have to forgo coffee? What would replace my breakfast cereal? How much would all this cost? I wasn't sure. So like everyone else, I went to Google...