Batch of links

- What to consider before selling a recipe.

- Hostess has announced it will be closing, though another company might take over production of its confections. That being said, you can always make them yourself, at which point it’s no longer junk food.

- An article by Mark Bittman titled The Food Movement Takes a Beating. Here’s an excerpt I like: “Money, lies and mistakes crushed the forward-thinking votes in California, but these are battles lost in a war that will be won. The notions that we need to know what’s in our food and that food should not be harmful have not been defeated. It’s a question of finding the right strategy.” (And hopefully, after this, I’ll stop talking about Prop. 37.)

- The aptly titled Obama’s Game of Chicken, or how the administration tried to stand up to Big Food in defense of independent farmers, then either lost or gave up. Here’s an excerpt: “Farmers are still expected to own their own land and to bear all the risks of investing in facilities, like chicken houses, just as they did when they sold into fully open and competitive markets. But almost all the authority over how they run their farm and what they earn now belongs to the companies. ‘A modern plantation system is what it is,’ said Robert Taylor, a professor of agriculture economics at Auburn University who has worked with poultry farmers for close to three decades. ‘Except this is worse, because the grower provides not just the labor, but the capital, too.’”

- The Center for Disease Control warns about rampant, dangerous use of antibiotics on livestock, but unfortunately lacks the legal authority to do anything about it.

- And finally, because I want to end this on a good note: various requests made by presidents to the White House chef for Thanksgiving. I’d like to have dessert with the Obamas this year!