Home, free Laura Ling anxious for "fresh food"
This morning, I watched the live coverage of the return of American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee from North Korea with a grateful heart.
Ling and Lee were arrested while on assignment at the Chinese-North Korean border in March and sentenced to 12 years hard labor for "hostilities against the Korean nation and illegal entry."
"The past 140 days have been the most difficult, heart-wrenching days of our lives," Ling said at their homecoming, her voice cracking.
Lisa Ling said of her sister, "She's really, really anxious to have fresh fruit and fresh food. She said there were rocks in her rice. Obviously, it's a country that has a lot of economic problems."
I've heard it said that food safety sometimes has to take a backseat to food security. However, the agreed-upon WHO definition of food security is "when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life."
All food producers should recognize their responsibility to the world's food security.
Those who don't share my dream of feeding the world can at least recognize the value of safe food to paying customers, like the home and free Laura Ling.
North Korea's Kim Jong-il 'eats live fish' claims former chef; so do others
Kim Jong-il enjoys raw fish so fresh "that it is still moving" washed down with fine French wines and brandies.
Kenji Fujimoto, a 56-year-old chef, who is in hiding in Japan after fleeing North Korea, and is set to publish a book called I Was Kim Jong-il's Cook, says,
"He particularly enjoyed raw fish so fresh that he could start eating as its mouth is still gasping and the tail is still thrashing. I sliced the fish so as not to puncture any of the vital organs, so of course it was still moving. was delighted. He would eat with gusto."
But a bites.ksu.edu reader says,
I was an English teacher in South Korea a couple of years ago, and one of my colleagues once told me about how she was treated to a dinner with something similar. The fish was still live, but laid out on the plate with its side cut into sashimi pieces. She said the fish looked at her while she contemplated digging in (I don't think she did, in the end).
