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Our first time in Cabo San Lucas, situated on the southernmost tip of the Baja California peninsula, we knew it would be more margaritas and less Mayan ruins. This is a sun-and-fun getaway for Americans: you can use dollars interchangeably with pesos, you’ll find both Costco and a luxury shopping mall, and it seems almost every visitor we spoke to owned a time share. And if you don’t own a time share, there is someone with a clipboard who would like to speak with you.

In case you haven’t heard, Tijuana is the next big thing in food. Not only have people in the know been frequenting Baja for years, but the media finally caught on, too. Anthony Bourdain, Rick Bayless, and Andrew Zimmern made recent trips with camera crews in tow, and media darling Javier Plascencia was profiled by the New Yorker and the New York Times for innovative cuisine served in a modern glass box above the city’s rainbow-colored bungalows.

Do you know about your local Edible magazine? I have always valued the Edible publications for uncovering local food stories without the typical magazine advertising noise. Highly respected writers report on food issues for less money than they’re used to because they support the mission. The restaurants and organizations that care most about local, organic, and sustainable food congregate on Edible’s pages, creating supply chains when the typical ones just won’t do, and holding events to bring the community around the campfire. It is in turn our job as concerned consumers—tired of cheap, frozen, unhealthy commodity food found in most eateries—to support and promote them, be it dining in their establishments or passing on what we’ve learned to friends at a backyard barbecue. This past weekend I attended the Edible Institute annual conference, and was inspired by all the work people are doing to create positive change. Here, some highlights.

We hope you enjoyed our 3-part video series on local, organic, and sustainable food in San Diego! Now for something a little different: a cooking segment that shows you how to make one of my favorite dishes, classic Ligurian pesto.

Organic food is what we are meant to be eating. It contains no additives, preservatives, fertilizers, or pesticides—widely associated with various types of cancer. It is not genetically modified—widely believed to cause organ damage and other serious health problems. It has not been sterilized with radiation or ammonia, like most fast food meat. Organic farms are required to constantly test both their products for nutrients as well as their irrigation water (non-organic farms use “sewer water” that can contain biosolids like heavy metals, lawn pesticides, gas, detergents). Convinced yet?

In the second installment of our three-part video series exploring local, organic, and sustainable food in San Diego, we pay a visit to fishmonger and local personality Tommy Gomes at Catalina Offshore Products. Click here to watch the video.

In the first installment of our three-part video series exploring the challenges of serving local, organic, and sustainable food in San Diego restaurants, we sit down with Jay Porter at his two North Park eateries, The Linkery and El Take It Easy. Click here to watch the video.

I hate to disappoint those who are seeking a gluttonous New Orleans food tour dripping in butter and hot sauce (okay, there’s a little of that), but this post will be a little different. I made the trip as a guest of Rachel’s Network, an alliance of women that supports female leaders who want to be agents of change for environmental protection. Some highlights: Mayor Mitch Landrieu talked to us about the city’s reliance on the oil industry, a local fisherman steered us through the bayou (which loses the equivalent of a football field of marshland per hour), architects cooperating with Dutch water control experts walked us through the Ninth Ward (devastated by Hurricane Katrina) to see the new “green housing” pioneered by Brad Pitt, and—I didn’t forget you, foodies—we dined with Chef John Besh, who is decidedly an agent of change in his own community.

Per Se, Jean Georges, and Blue Hill at Stone Barns have been visited, and a couple of them left me wishing I’d spent my money elsewhere (though one did indeed take the prize). But now to the fun stuff: Dining at critics’ darlings like Torrisi and the Breslin, eyeing up Veritas’s new chef (will he prove his three stars from the New York Times?), and debating Thai chicken wings at the Las Vegas import Lotus of Siam (you might want to stick to Vegas).

After somewhat disappointing meals at both Per Se and Blue Hill at Stone Barns, I was ready to throw in the towel and eat hot wings for the rest of the trip since, clearly, the Fancy Category wasn’t cutting it. Little did I know the winner would be, yes, a fancy restaurant—Jean Georges’s flagship on Columbus Circle—but for its decidedly affordable two-course $38 lunch offered Monday through Saturday (dinner is $98 for three courses).