It’s also a labor story, following the plight of workers who sort through our trash for low wages.
Dear Reader,
There’s no shortage of subtopics when it comes to eats. From restaurant reviews and interviews to business articles and food porn, reporting on this stuff is like gorging at a buffet. Even the cholesterol coverage can be strangely satisfying, comforting even. And so here we are, the food and dining issue (as they formally labeled these seasonal spreads in the ’80s), and we like to think that we performed in the most Dignified way possible (sorry for that, sometimes I can’t help myself).
What I mean by that is we stayed true to the tradition of favoring neighborhood joints over hot spots du jour, hardly caring about which places so-called influencers say we absolutely must check out. Influential mongers we work with excluded, of course, and with that said, be sure to dip into this week’s feature eats piece by Marc Hurwitz. It’s a cornucopia of authentic flavor to savor, not to mention enough local travel grub tips to keep you riding the commuter rail with armfuls of leftovers into the new year.
And then there is the other feature, by Cole Rosengren, about a far less visible side of mass consumption culture. The latest installment of our ongoing coverage with the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism about recycling in this region, it’s also a labor story, following the plight of workers who sort through our trash for low wages.
Over the course of working on this issue, I flipped through similar eats issues in my collection of alternate newspapers going back 50 years, more than a few of which I worked on. Some of those ran several hundred pages in the money days, and I couldn’t help but notice that they rarely considered the side of the hospitality industry that’s neither sweet nor very savory. And so in looking to correct that course, we strive for our coverage of this topic to include the perspectives of people at every notch on the food chain.
Not to be woke for the sake of being woke, but to be real, and to paint a more accurate picture.
CHRIS FARAONE, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
A Queens, NY native who came to New England in 2004 to earn his MA in journalism at Boston University, Chris Faraone is the editor and co-publisher of DigBoston and a co-founder of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. He has published several books including 99 Nights with the 99 Percent, and has written liner notes for hip-hop gods including Cypress Hill, Pete Rock, Nas, and various members of the Wu-Tang Clan.
