Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Soda-Club and SodaStream are the obvious and best in my opinion choices for home soda making solutions www.makeyoursoda.com is a site I recommend to learn more about soda making and get a discount on your purchase as well

Hi I realize this is pretty late in the game to post but esmesbell mentioned the Cheerios smell in Buffalo, NY. It's from the General Mills Plant on the canal. They alternate between Cheerios and Coco Puffs.

The only saving grace of my family's yearly road trips to California was passing through Gilroy, the garlic capital of the world, and the worst smell I've ever experienced was Lodi, which we never passed through again. Imagine every form of animal byproduct just waiting to pervade your senses for days.

I definitely think grass fed beef tastes much Earthier than conventional beef, in other words it tastes like ground and dirt. It might just be something to get used to but in all honesty, I didn't love the taste initially. But, I interviewed Bill Kurtis about his grass fed beef ranch and his dedication to the cause made me want to reconsider.

Hillary
Chew on That

Not to mention e.coli which is much more common, and a direct result of eating foods their digestive systems are not meant to handle. Of all the articles in that post, Mr Ozersky's is the most subjective, and frankly, as accomplished and distinguished an eater he is, I don't need him to tell me what I think is more delicious.

@NickP - most Kobe beef is grain fed and given even less room to move than a standard grain fed cow. That's how they get all their marbling and become more tender.

Environmental issues aside, when it comes down to taste, it's a matter of opinion. If you like your beef fatty and tender, you prefer grain-fed. If you like your beef a little more "wild" and gamey tasting, leaner, and chewier (not necessarily a bad thing), then you probably prefer grass-fed. I like both at different times, depending on the preparation. I'm not much of a steak person - the one preparation where grain-fed beef's tenderness and fattiness really shines - so I more often than not prefer grass-fed.

Burgers are a great example of where using grass-fed beef is an advantage, because you can add back as much fat to it as you like - best of both worlds. Kobe beef burgers, on the other hand, are an odd concept. What's the point of having all that marbling and tenderness in the meat if you're exposing it to a process (grinding) that will render even the toughest cut of meat tender anyhow? I'm glad to see less and less Kobe burgers on menus - it was all just marketing based on the name.

Seeing as Mr. Ozersky is generally quite astute on such matters, I can only guess that he was misquoted or not fully quoted.

Thanks for telling me what tastes good. I guess I misremember enjoying all those grass-fed burgers. And I guess all that hype about Kobe beef must be empty hype.

And I appreciate knowing that it's better for the environment to jam cows into barns and force-feed them unnatural foods so they can create unusable manure.

Oh, how complex the world is!

@everyone: I changed it to "taste" if that clears things up. By saying "better" though, I didn't mean for it to be taken as "healthier." I purposefully made it broad because Josh touches upon its taste, environmental impact, and general praise without really delving much into any one of those aspects. His answer...doesn't say much, really, besides that he prefers corn fed over grass.

The whole New York Times article, on that note, does not delve deeply into any subject (not that that was its aim, I guess) and any one of those "myths," especially the beef one, could use further research. Perhaps a better way to summarize it would've been: "Does Barry M. Popkin think juice all that good for you? Does Josh Ozersky think grass-fed beef tastes better than conventionally raised beef? Does David Kamp think arugula is all that special?"

and better for the cow.

I also drink a huge amount of soda. I looked at the sodamaker but it was really expensive. I thought there has got to be a cheaper way. Finally I found plans to make a home made system that is WAY cheaper than the sodamaker -- I can make seltzer for less than 2 cents a liter! Here is where I found the plans to build your own soda and seltzer system in about 10 minutes for less than $100 bucks.

www.makesodaandseltzer.com

It's serving me well and I am making some delicious sodas! And I don't end up using all that plastic, or even worse, shipping all that water!

mmm, every time I drive past the Nabisco factory on 208 in fair lawn, nj I always roll down the windows and take in a big whiff. mmmm, cookies

Here in Lexington, KY we have a JIF factory and when they are roasting peanuts it's a wonderful thing... even despite the latest scare! I used to live about 3 blocks from it, and I really miss that neighborhood.

Decatur, IL - has an ADM plant that makes cornstarch and the whole town smells like corn flakes.

Its neither a good nor a bad smell.... just corny and ubiquitous.

I prefer my own local autumn "large scale" smell of roasting green chiles on nearly every parking lot surface in town. Tingly nose-burning wonderment...