RFK Jr finally addressed explosive diarrhoea in the USA but, as Helena Bottemiller Evich explained, “To be clear, the outbreak (or rather outbreaks) are not under control”.

[W]e are nearing 12,000 cases of parasitic illnesses. This is not under control. This is a disaster.

It has become clear that the current outbreak is actually at least six outbreaks, some of which are not tied to Taylor Farms. For example, North Carolina is having an outbreak of its own that seems to be linked to parsley and cilantro as well as lettuce.

While I am going to keep an eye on developments in the US, I thought it would be worth taking a look at Europe. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has a handy explainer on cryptosporidiosis, which links to the most recent Annual Epidemiological Report, for 2020. That reveals a drop in overall cases, the result of Covid and the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, and also that the rate of reports for children aged 0–4 years had fallen to one third of the average for the previous five years. Five countries accounted for 65% of all confirmed cases, and Germany alone accounted for 28%.

There’s a handy dashboard that breaks down numbers by country. The map is slightly misleading, because the number of cases is related to the population. Expand the table on the left and you see that tiny Luxembourg is the cyclosporiasis hotspot for Europe, though Belgium, Ireland, and Iceland get an honourable mention. Despite the high number of cases in Germany, the population rate is not that high.

I guess we are doing reasonably well with cryptospora over here. It maybe even under control.

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Also relevant to this week’s newsletter, Can Fixing Dinner Fix the Planet? with Jess Fanzo.

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Extra virgin olive oil, as a formal classification, owes its existence to the disastrous state of Italian olive oil in the 1950s. At that time, esterification, a chemical process designed to extract the last drop of oil from the crushed olives, was permitted. It could also be used to extract oils from all manner of unlikely sources, and those too found their way into “olive” oil.

When extra-virgin was first codified, only around 20% of oil qualified. Today, you would be hard pressed to find any oil on sale that does not claim to be extra virgin. Is that any guarantee of quality? Not really, says Professor Carl Ipsen, author of a forthcoming new book tentatively entitled A True History of Olive Oil. In it, he traces the evolution of olive oil from its early role as a lubricant of industrial development, when less than 1% was considered edible, to today, when it is almost exclusively used for food.

Notes

1. Carl Ipsen’s website contains links to some of his publications, including From Cloth Oil to Extra Virgin: Italian Olive Oil Before the Invention of the Mediterranean Diet, the essay that won the Sophie Coe Prize in 2021.
2. Here is a transcript. Thank supporters of the podcast.

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I’m proud to revisit an episode from 2022, in which two country directors of the charity Give Directly told me how cash transfers in Rwanda and Malawi make a real difference to the lives of poor people there. The reason is Give Directly’s Pods Fight Poverty campaign, which aims to raise $1,000,000 for families in Rwanda. They’re more than 10% of the way there, and I hope this podcast can add to the total.

The reason I made the episode in the first place was to ask whether cash enables people to improve their food security and nutrition. As I heard, it does, which is why I am happy to be part of the campaign.

Notes

1. Please consider making a donation.
2. Miriam Laker Oketta and Esnatt Gondwe Matekesa both stressed how evidence guides Give Directly’s activities. The website’s section for research on cash transfers provides summaries.
3. The specific study Miriam Laker-Oketta referred to is Benchmarking a WASH and Nutrition Program to Cash in Rwanda.
4. Here is the transcript.
5. There’s a lot of economics literature on the problems of gift giving. Tim Harford offered some guidance.

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It can be hard to remember the food blogs of yesteryear, when everyone knew everyone and the actual recipes were usually easy to find, unencumbered by endless cruft. Luisa Weiss discovered blogs relatively early, and soon became one of the most-read food bloggers. She was also part of a lively, supportive community, regularly reading and conversing with more than 40 other food bloggers. One thing led to another and she found herself first in cookbook publishing and then with a contract to write her first book, a memoir with food. Two cookbooks followed. We met in Berlin to talk about all that and more.

Notes

1. Here’s a link to Luisa Weiss’ website.
2. She also, and this is both impressive and useful, managed to salvage all of the original The Wednesday Chef when it’s original host, Typepad, decided to close everyone down earlier this year.
3. Here is the transcript.
4. Banner image liberated from an archive copy of The Wednesday Chef.

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