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Agriculture Policy and Food Safety

This is the second in a series based on the Berkeley paper that covers agriculture policy's impact on food safety, health, and the environment.

Excuse me while I step up on the soapbox. Ahem. I’ve been chided before about being too political on my food blog. More recipes, Woman! But the thing is, food is all tied up with politics, and there are a few things we eaters need to understand about this. For our own safety. So we can make better choices. This is a pretty short primer on the basics, but there are a lot of great links in here that can help you get the full picture of our food system.

How does food policy impact the safety of what we eat?
I mean, it’s just legislation, right? Laws that are supposed to keep the food supply safe. The basis for these laws was established in 1906 by Theodore Roosevelt in response to the publication of Upton Sinclair’s book, The Jungle. Ironically, one of these laws, the Meat Inspection Act, was supposed to eradicate the use of “4-D” cattle in meats, meaning dead, diseased, decaying and downed. Over 100 years later we are still facing the same issues.

The other act, the Pure Food and Drug Act, was designed to insure the safety of drugs and non-meat food items. However, the two agencies overlap. A raw egg, in the shell, is the responsibility of the FDA. Once the shell is broken, the USDA is in charge. If a processed sandwich is to be inspected, the USDA would have jurisdiction over the meat, the FDA over the bread. Makes all kind of sense, right?

Learn what you need to know about food safety, policy and what you can do as a consumer after the jump.

So, the system doesn’t work. Worse, it’s not even enforceable.
Case in point, 2007 had a record number of meat recalls, followed closely in 2008 by the largest recall ever. Thus far, absolutely no action has ever been taken to penalize these companies. The two USDA inspectors who failed to report the downer cow incidents at Hallmark/Westland are currently only suspended — with pay. Further, neither agency actually has the authority to demand a recall, unless the recalled item is infant formula.

Politics also get directly in the path of food safety.
Many of the people who run the FDA and USDA, agencies that are designed to enforce food safety, also worked in the industries that these agencies are supposed to police. In fact, as of 2006, the chief of staff at the Agriculture Department used to be the beef industry’s chief lobbyist. Further, the head of the FDA was most recently an executive at the National Food Processors Association. It is indeed, the proverbial case of the fox watching over the hen house.

Farm Policy plays a major role.
Finally, from a farm policy standpoint, our food system is vulnerable. Important legislation such as the farm bill, recently being rewritten, encourages a highly centralized system that relies heavily on imported foods. Less than two percent of imported foods were inspected on entry to the country in 2006.

Farm policy also rewards the farmers in this country for only growing eight commodity crops through a system of subsidies. This near monoculture has been made worse by the misguided focus on ethanol production from corn. Farmers who grow any foods other than the commodity crops are ineligible for subsidies. Thus, we increasingly rely on imported foods for items that can easily be grown locally — our agriculture system just makes this less profitable for farmers to do. In fact, in 2004, less than four percent of total US cropland was planted with fruits and vegetables.

The same farm policies that were put in place under Earl Butz, also fostered a system of “Get Big or Get Out.” The number of farms since 1900 has declined by 63 percent, while the size of farms has increased by 67 percent. The result is a highly centralized system. The risk in such a system is that the product, be it meat or spinach, that is tainted is processed at a central location along with thousands of pounds of non-tainted product. The resulting contaminated shipment is then sent across the country. Instead of an easily traceable and localized illness, citizens across the country will be sickened.

This is how legislation, policy and politics directly impact what ends up on your plate. This is why you can’t separate “pork” politics from the pork chop. But, what is a consumer to do? You do have rights, of course, and choice. Remember that we still live in a demand-generated economy. If the demand grows, and farmers who produce crops other than the big eight can thrive, our food supply will improve as a result. It will take time, but there are many things you can do as a consumer to make this happen.

Here is how you can use your rights:

• You can exercise that right to track your representatives’ votes on the farm bill and food safety issues.
• You can write to your reps and tell them your concerns.
• You can source meats, milk and eggs direct from the farmers who raise food animals ethically and naturally, and process them safely. If you cannot afford to buy in bulk to save money, you can team up with other families and make it an affordable, lower cost than buying at the store.
• You can buy produce direct from your farmers market or a CSA.
• You can stop buying processed foods.
• You can stop buying fast food that is heavily subsidized by our agriculture system.
• You can cook at home and benefit from a family meal.
• Finally, you can stay informed on how and where your food is produced and make your own choices.

Agriculture Policy and Your Health

by Expat Chef

What if we all woke up tomorrow and said, “Today is the day I will eat right.” Oh, and we actually did it. The first thing we’d figure out is that there is a massive food shortage for a healthy diet even in a country where two-thirds of us are overweight.

Food shortage in the land of milk and honey? You betcha, for real food at least — 1.2 servings of milk per person per day less than recommended. Two servings per day of whole grains per person are not available, and about one serving a day of both non-starchy vegetables and fruits are absent as well. Additionally, most fruits and vegetables have to be imported.

Second, for what food supply there is, many Americans would simply not be able to afford that healthy diet. The price of fruits and vegetables have increased 118 percent from 1985 to the new millennium. Fats and oils have only increased 35 percent in that same time span, meaning, the cheapest foods are the least nutritious and most calorie dense. They are also the majority of the food supply due to farm policy.

How Legislation Can Make Us Fat
Farm policy rewards farmers for growing commodity crops, basically only eight types of crops; corn, soybeans, wheat, rice, cotton, barley, oats and sorghum. Growing “speciality” crops like fruits and vegetables – foods that Michael Pollan insists should be the majority of our diets — makes a farmer ineligible for a subsidy, even if he only grows a small amount of fruits and vegetables on his land. Even the name “speciality” implies that these crops are a rarity, and they are according to U.S. food policy. As a result, only four percent of U.S. crop land was dedicated to growing fruits and vegetables in 2004.

The dependency of farmers on subsidies does not help the situation. While the large-scale industrial farms reap unnecessary extra profit in the form of subsidy “handouts,” small farms are squeezed heavily by a system that only pays them about nineteen cents for every food dollar spent. The vast majority of the profits do not go to the farmer, but to the food industry that processes, packages, advertises and transports the finished “product.” In fact, some 77,000 processed food products, many of which contain primarily cheap inputs like refined flour and sugars like high-fructose corn syrup with flavors and colors and added “nutrients.”

These convenient and less expensive foods have increased the number of calories per individual, per day available in our food system to 3,800. Normal caloric intake per average adult should be closer to 2350. Yet, for the additional portion size and caloric density, there is far less nutrition than unprocessed, “real” foods.

It is a broken system, and the victims of it are the small farms and the lower income families that cannot afford better foods. Quite often, the inability to afford (or have access to) better food choices, can lead to obesity and health-related issues — again for those who can least afford health care and medical bills. An estimated $75 billion a year is spent treating obesity-related diseases, half of these costs are borne by publicly-funded programs like Medicaid. As a result, we taxpayers bear much of the brunt of the true costs associated with the short-term profits of cheap and subsidized foods even as the food industry yields more profits.

Additionally, many of Americans who can afford better food, choose not to, preferring these processed versions of real food, or preferring to spend less of their budget and time on buying and preparing food. The table below shows what consumers actually buy from the choices available at the store. The current rise in food prices with the increase in fuel costs and use of commodity crops for ethanol, will not only increase processed food prices, but will do little to help the situation of making healthier choices more affordable.

The situation does not have to exist. Here are some things we, as consumers, can do to change things for the better:

1. Write your Congressmen and women and tell them you want a farm bill that makes sense and supports both “specialty crop” farmers and healthy food programs that will offer low-income families access to better food.
2. Join a CSA or shop at your farmers market, giving hard-working farmers 100 percent of your food dollar. LocalHarvest.org has a great search tool to help you find local food sources near you.
3. Purchase ethically- and naturally-raised meat direct from a family farm. Most use a USDA-certified, but small, local butcher, offering healthier and safer meats for consumers and the environment. Learn more about the perils of industrial farms and meat production so you can be aware as a consumer.
4. Items like eggs, milk and cheese can be found locally from small farms. Look for these items in addition to fruit, vegetables and meats. Sustainable Table has a good search tool if you want to find sources near you for specific products.
5. Support urban agriculture efforts in your area by donating time or money to gardens that supply healthy food for low-income families. Start a community garden project in your neighborhood or school, to share in the growing of your own healthy food and community.
6. Cook more at home. It is possible to have real food without being a slave to your oven, and you will also reap the social rewards that come from a real family meal. Shared time with family members in preparing meals is a great time to talk and be involved in one another’s lives.
7. Value food. Take the time to enjoy and share a meal, understand that what your put into yourself and your family is the fuel for a healthy life. Choose wisely and enjoy well.

Source material for this document can be found in “Agriculture Policy is Health Policy,” by Richard J Jackson MD MPH, Ray Minjares MPH, Kyra S Naumoff PhD, Bina Patel BA, University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health  Berkeley, California 94720-7360.  Developed with the Support of The Kellogg Foundation  September 16, 2007.

Ponderings of a Freezer Hugger

by Expat Chef

Lately, I’ve had the urge to hug not a tree, but my freezer. You see, stashed inside this unimpressive white box is meat. Real meat that came from animals that made more real meat in the way that animals do. As opposed to, say, strands of DNA being inserted into an egg in a laboratory somewhere.

I’ve stayed calm and quiet on the whole cloned animal thing, since it looked as if common sense would prevail and cloning would not. I guess I should know better than to under, or rather, overestimate the FDA. So here we are with cloned meat being approved. No labeling required as yet, either.

Now, the no labeling thing is not a shock. Big Dairy and Monsanto are currently waging state-by-state war against “no growth hormone” labeling. Thus, not having cloned meat or milk labels either is par for the course. Indeed, It’s been status quo to keep consumers pretty much in the dark about the origin of our food, even though we know where our TVs, blenders and (non-edible) underwear were made. In fact, we probably DO know where our edible underwear came from, which would be one of the few edible items we can buy that are labeled. If you’re into that kind of thing. Which I'm not.

The overwhelming question in my mind is “Why?” As in, “why cloning?” It’s simply not necessary. Animals have not had any trouble breeding on their own (except for commercial turkeys which is a good lesson here), and farmers have managed selective breeding for some time with artificial insemination. Why turn to an expensive process that has a high fetal mortality rate and can cause issues for the surrogate mother?

Another “why” is why hasn’t the industry embraced this new technology either? Likely because of consumer disgust with the concept, also because of the lack of approval for it on the international level which would limit the sale of the products to U.S.-only. It’s very odd to find myself on the same side of an issue, for differing reasons, with Big Ag. But cloning is just that kind of issue.

The only beneficiaries I can identify would be the biotech companies and those who hold the “patents” on “desirable” genetic material, which further removes the idea of an animal being an actual sentient and natural being toward being just a “product.”

Regardless of the mechanism, limiting the gene pool is never a good idea. Since 1900, we’ve lost 75 percent of the diversity of our food plants. Some GMO varieties threaten that remaining diversity. Additionally, farmers whose neighboring crops were cross-pollinated by GMO crops have been sued for “planting” a patented seed. Livestock diversity has been equally decimated effectively without the “help” of cloning. Many breeds of livestock raised in industrial agriculture can neither breed or survive outside of the factory farm environment.

Diversity is one of nature’s defenses to survive great changes in the environment. Changes such as the ones our planet will experience with global warming. Why should we put our own survival at risk by willfully eradicating some of the very genetics that could help us all survive the changes?

Going to Grow Your Own?

by Expat Chef

I've been reading All New Square Foot Gardening and planning. This is my year to end the curse of the "Black Thumb." Yes, it is true, EVERY houseplant I have ever had dies. Merely crossing the threshold of my home and handing me said plant is issuing it a death sentence.

No more, I say. Tired of looking to my child's expensive private day care to put in a school garden program, I've decided that we should have a small garden at home. I've never been one to believe that kids are going to learn everything they need to know in school, anyway. Education starts at home, and this year, extends to the backyard.

Shut Up & Eat?

by Jen Maiser

Amy Stewart's commentary on NPR's All Things Considered this week was a topic of conversation among ELC blog authors this week.  While Ms. Stewart believes that we should all "shut up and eat," I hardly think that many of us will be following her directive anytime soon.  Michael Pollan often speaks about the magic of voting with our forks.  Unlike major, huge, unsurmountable issues that our world faces, food issues are something that we all decide on many times a day.  I personally choose to put my hard-earned money in the hands of local farmers and local cheesemakers and local artisans over international conglomerates and mega-corporations. 

Ms. Stewart suggests that instead of focusing on where our food comes from, we should try taking public transportation or turning down the thermostat.  Most of us who are conscious enough to focus on where our food comes from don't turn off that consciousness when it comes to these sort of things -- we tend to tread lightly on the earth in many ways.

While I suspect that Ms. Stewart was trying to be sensationalist and contrarian about some of the pedantic, minutia-oriented conversations that can occur around food (and that many of us tire of at some point), I don't think that an overarching declaration against eating local is the answer.

Below, you'll find some opinions from other ELC authors around the nation.  Check them out -- I think they're fantastic.

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from Liz (Maine):

No doubt local eating is old news where you live in California, the land of plenty. But it is an absolute triumph that the rest of America is finally paying attention to what goes on its dinner plate. Please don't begrudge us Mainers or Michiganders or Minnesotans for finally catching on to what you savvy Californians have known all along: that fresher foods taste better. What's more is that we're finding we can produce our food just as well, if not better than your fine state, cutting out the factory farms, middlemen, and days of travel on the way.

I don't often dole out advice, Amy, but it seems like you need to either find some non-foodie friends or start talking up some new cause. If it goes well, the rest of us should be buzzing about it in 2013. Until then, I will continue to celebrate the foods of my state with my friends and family. Don't worry, I'll make sure not to invite you to the dinner party.

Finding Justus

by Expat Chef

I can’t go home again, or at least not without a million memories good and bad flooding my mind and heart. After high school, I spent quite a bit of time seeking to be anywhere else but there. Even 22 years later, it still takes a lot for me to return to that small town community less than an hour away. Usually it’s a call from one of my best friends. Last trip, however, it was a call to the dinner table at Justus Drugstore.

When you are lucky enough to live in a small city with more than a couple James Beard award-winning chefs in it, it seems pretty odd that you’d go 40 miles north to a former drugstore in the main square of a small town to dine. Frankly, small town fare up there is usually a diner or two, or fast food on the fringes near the highway. Not exactly cutting edge cuisine territory even if it is the perfect terrior to source the food from.

Right to Know: Interesting Update

by Expat Chef

Seems Pennsylvania's governor, Ed Rendell, has decided to review the state's Department of Agriculture's decision to ban labeling of dairy that is hormone-free or rBST-free. The directive was led by the state's Department of Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff and passed despite the FDA allowing said labels that help inform consumers' choice.

The review follows a huge public outcry over the decision in a state that is the fourth-largest dairy producer in the nation. You can learn more about the current status of the issue in a Post-Gazette article.

A very interesting point in the discussion is that Dennis Wolff is not just the Secretary of the state's Department of Agriculture, but also a dairy farmer himself. Wolff formed formed the Food Labeling Advisory Committee which made the decision. The committee met only once, and had other dairy producers in its roster.

The Right to Know

by Expat Chef

It seems perfectly logical that we all should have a right to know what a substance is before we put it into our body and where it came from. I mean, I can look on my alarm clock and find out where it was made, and I'm not going to eat it.

Yet, food labeling legislation (COOL, or Country Of Origin Labeling) has consistently been postponed and delayed at the federal level since it was first included in the Farm Bill from 2002. It's no wonder so many of us worry when the few allowed and voluntary food labels that can help consumers make good choices are obscured.

Twelve years ago, the FDA approved voluntary labels for marking dairy products as being free from rBST or rBSH hormones. Most have to include the disclaimer that there is no reason to believe this hormone-free milk is any better, but for those of us who care, the choice is there. And, it remained there even as Monsanto (maker of the growth hormone) tried to pressure the FDA to disallow this labeling. The FDA wisely resisted Monsanto's request.

Another Harvest Season Passes

by Expat Chef

It seems like each year I do the Eat Local Challenge that it becomes a greater part of my life. Not only does the amount and types of foods that I buy locally increase each year, but I feel myself becoming more deeply connected to this way of life.

I tried my hand at putting up foods for winter, mainly freezing and seed saving, although my current tactic is stockpiling vast amounts of sweet potatoes, pumpkins and squash. (I actually have even more now). I just finished preparing many of the season's last vegetables as nine quarts of soup and stashing that in the freezer for a cold winter's feast. However, the one thing I did not try my hand at during September's challenge was canning. I wanted to, I just could not find the time amidst all the weekly cooking and little one running around.

This does not stop me from stockpiling information along with my pumpkins. I took some time to ask an expert, Julie Smith of Treehouse Berry Farm, for some good advice for a beginner like myself. Julie and her family have an orchard and can and sell a huge variety of jams, salsas, preserves and jellies at my local farmers market. They also make homemade lollipops to which my child became addicted. Julie was kind enough to answer a few questions for me despite a tremendously busy season of canning, wholesale business and fall festivals. We finally caught up and she shared some great tips for all of us inspired by this year's September Challenge.

Question: Canning is kind of a lost art. What is the most important advice you could offer someone who is just learning to can and preserve? How did you get started?

Going Old School

One of the daunting aspects of preserving food is the sheer volume of food you are dealing with. I bought every local apple I could get my hands on and "stored" them in the fridge until they could go no longer. It was time to make the applesauce. The time required to peel and core and slice that many apples was just not showing up in my calendar. And then I saw it. The gadget. Yes, a unitasker. But what a beauty. Straight out of 1800s. This handy little thing locks down to the counter and zipped through the apples in ten minutes. No cord required, no batteries. Just pure hand-crank bliss. The applesauce was pretty darn good, too.

Cinnamon-Vanilla Applesauce
12 gala apples, or enough to get 5 cups of peeled, cored slices
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeds scraped out with the back of a knife
2 Ceylon Cinnamon sticks (or use regular cinnamon sticks)
3/4 cup 100% apple juice or no-sugar added cider
1 tbs. Lemon juice

Put all of this in a pot, especially all the vanilla seeds and the pods. Simmer on medium-low heat for about 30 minutes. Taste, and adjust with sugar if you have to for desired sweetness. I usually don't have to depending on my apples. Remove vanilla pod and cinnamon sticks. Mash with a potato masher to desired consistency. Tastes best cool the next day. Freezes well.

Dark Days of Winter Challenge

by Expat Chef

Laura at Urban Hennery is proposing to all of us locavores a challenge to keep eating local even in the winter ahead. For those of us who put up a few things for the months ahead during the September challenge, this will be an excellent way to show off your canning and preservation skill and the results. The challenge is basically to continue to create one meal a week using mostly local ingredients until end of year. Please go check out the link and let her know if you are interested in participating.

The challenge brings to light a fear of every locavore who is as addicted to local foods as so many of us become. There is a point in February where I become antagonistic toward cooking because I can't get my local ingredients. Thus, the challenge will be a welcome diversion. It's should also be an empowering experience, knowing that if you can source a local meal in the dark of winter, you have become an accomplished locavore.

Winter has always presented a bit of a challenge to me in past years. I hope we fare a bit better this year now that we have purchased the ginormous freezer and it will be stocked with local meats, grains and vegetables. I also have a stockpile of winter squash so large it is nearly embarrassing. Many of these varieties can last up to 100 days if stored in a cool, dry place. Sweet potatoes also store well for quite a while.

I might be up to this challenge. While quantities dip, you can still source eggs, milk and cheese during the winter. If nothing else, we can manage an omelette and some pancakes with local honey for a meal!

Saving the Harvest — for Generations to Come

by Expat Chef

A couple weeks ago we went to pick up our CSA bag. Part of the week's harvest included an small melon with a light green rind. It smelled crisp and citrus. I can't even remember the name of it. As we placed it in the car, the farmer said, "Hey, be sure to save the seeds on this for me. They cost me a dollar each."

He gave my husband instructions on how to save the seeds. When my husband cut into the melon, the texture and flavor were just like the smell. It was a very interesting fruit. He did as the farmer asked, and saved the seeds. When he counted them, he said, "You know, there's like $150 in here." The next week we returned the seeds to our farmer, keeping a few to try and plant ourselves.

Summer Freeze

by Expat Chef

This September, the Eat Local Challenge is offering a whole range of ways to participate in the ELC September Challenge. With so many ways to participate, we can all join in the experience.

One of the ways to participate this year is to leahrn how to preserve your locally grown food for winter. It’s easy enough to do for many foods. You don’t even have to buy special equipment or learn to can. You just need a bit of time and freezer space.

I decided to try this approach this year after watching a friend of mine struggle with the vegetable side dishes for a 100-mile diet Thanksgiving. There's not much around for fresh veggies in late November other than sweet potatoes. What I do not use on the Thanksgiving table can easily be added to the turkey leftovers for a Turkey and Vegetable Soup, perfect for those chilly late fall days.

How It All Adds Up

by Expat Chef

One of the things I have loved about the Eat Local Challenge (ELC) is that the more I participate, the easier and better it becomes. It's sustainable, too, as we can each define it and build it to fit the local environment in which we live. Best of all, is what ELC has brought to my life.

I found myself sitting at a lunch dedicated to local foods last week. The event was a stop on the Sustainable Table's Eat Well Guided Tour. The tables were filled with local foodies, activists, and farmers, some of whom produced the very food on our plates. I felt such great joy as we went around the room and each of us, not just our guests, shared our vision and experience of eating local. My heart swelled as I saw the actualization of our shared vision. Living proof that sustainable food systems work and are healthy for all who participate. Were it not for Jen Maiser and ELC, I would not have had this rich and wonderful experience.

Celebrating the Last of Summer's Best

by Expat Chef

Ah, tomatoes. Between the farmers market and our CSA, we have around eight pounds of these gracing our table weekly. I rarely have a plan when I buy them. I just know that we will eat them somehow.

August is the best month for tomatoes, the peak of season. As this month winds down, so does the tomato crop. My advice, and I follow it wholeheartedly, is to enjoy them while I can.

I love the different flavors of heirlooms with just basil, balsamic and olive oil and some fresh mozzarella, but if you are going to prepare these beauties, here are a few of my favorite ways this season.

Fresh Salsa
3 large tomatoes, cored, seeded and diced
1 small red onion diced
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 green pepper or mild green chile, seeded and diced
1 red pepper, seeded and diced
1 jalapeno, cored, seeded and diced (2 for hot)
1/2 tbs. vinegar
1 tsp. lime juice
kosher salt to taste

Once everything but the garlic and cilantro has been chopped and measured and put in a bowl, take about 1/3 of the mixture and place in the workbowl of a food processor. Add the whole garlic cloves. Pulse until chopped fine, but not total puree. Add the mixture back to the bowl, add the cilantro and adjust the salt to taste. You can adjust the heat by adding an extra pepper (or using more mild green chile), or even using a hotter variety of pepper, right up to a habernero, if you can take the heat. I also like to use yellow, orange, green and red tomatoes for extra color and flavor instead of all red ones.

Roasted Ratatouille

by Expat Chef

No, I haven't seen the movie. But I've known about Ratatouille for a lot longer than the Pixar version. It's one of those long-standing classic dishes, but until recently, I could not tell you why the dish made so much sense. Not until last summer at the farmers market while I was shopping what was fresh and in season for mid-summer.

Consider what is in season right now: tomatoes, peppers, onions, eggplant, okra, zucchini, yellow squash, garlic. All in season, all together, all in the one recipe. Makes perfect sense to build a dish around those ingredients, right? I just never got that point. The recipe existed before the corner Megamart with anything and everything regardless of season. It was built around the vegetables that were available, fresh, and in grown in one's garden. Simple. Rustic. And delicious.

Organic Farming: Sustainable and Efficient

There's a great study on Live Science that shows how organic farming produce just as high, and in some cases higher, yields than industrial agriculture. The study debunks the myth that industrial agriculture is more efficient in short term and especially long term production. Over time, the quality of the soil that is preserved by sustainable, organic methods actually increases the yield in comparison to industrial practices.

The only benefit to industrial practices is the savings in labor and the convenience, which both have tremendous costs in damage to the environment. It's an enlightening study, and a quick, informative read.

A Note From Our Farmers

While buying local is a great thing to do to reduce one's carbon footprint, and to support sustainable small farms, there is a lot more you are getting in the process than just food.

We try to buy eggs either through our CSA, or the local ones that are sold at the store. Both varieties taste great and are from pastured hens. One of the producers includes a note in each carton that lets you know how the "girls" are doing that week.

Choosing Local, One Thing at a Time

by Expat Chef

An interview with Tim Schlitzer, Executive Director, Food Routes Network and Buy Fresh Buy Local.

Chances are if you live near one of its 50 chapters in 17 states, you've seen a "Buy Fresh Buy Local" sign. Sighting one of these is a great way to know you are near a source of an active local food network.

"It's not a brand," he says. "It's just continuity that can be identified." You see, brands, according to Tim, mean a label. A set definition. Rules. Eating local is for a person and a community to define for themselves. An approach not unlike that of the Eat Local Challenge.

Honey, Honey

One of my favorite local ingredients to cook with is honey. It has great versatility for everything from salad dressing to ice cream, vegetable dishes to just plain on bread. Unlike most sweeteners, honey contains antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and amino acids. Honey is known to have antimicrobial properties and some people believe that consumption of local honey can help with allergies.

Along with its good properties, honey can also contain dormant botulism bacteria endospores, which can be hazardous if fed to an infant. The endospores can become active in an infant’s immature intestinal tract and lead to illness. For this reason, honey should not be fed to infants.

A Local Confession

by Expat Chef

I have to confess, I bought non-local peaches. I even bought them at the farmers market from a grower who usually sells peaches he grows. We lost 95 percent of the peach crop this year. He’s struggling. He and a few others carpool to Texas to buy fruit to sell here in order to stay in business.

So, a quandary exists. We have to have fruit in a balanced diet for our child. Do I buy fruit from the store where larger shipments probably use less fuel per fruit? Or, do I buy the same non-local fruit from my local farmers to keep them in business until next year’s harvest? Where’s the “local rulebook?” Has a flag been thrown?

I don’t know. But the farmer sure looked grateful when I bought the peaches and told him I would keep checking for his blueberries that are late this year.

Bitter Cold Hurts a Sweet Harvest

by Expat Chef

Store-bought berry on left dwarfs the local berries on right, but only in size. The winner in taste is still local, despite a tough season.

We got very spoiled last year. Each week of summer meant bringing home a basket filled with blueberries, blackberries, and fresh peaches. It was heaven. I was anxiously awaiting a bumper, early fruit crop with the record temperatures in March. And then the freeze hit over Easter. I awoke to snow on the ground the first weekend of my local farmer’s market. Three days of record lows created havoc with plants that had an early start.

A Mixed Bag of Greens

by Expat Chef

We had a rough spring with that loathed cold snap. It hurt all the farmers. Our CSA is starting nearly a month late. We see the grower at the market selling a few things he does have, that are not enough yet to fill the CSA bags for a week.

I bought some chard and kale from him. But as we walked away, he ran after us.

“Hey, you forgot your onions and radishes, oh, and some of these.” he said, running off before I could protest. The weather is not his fault. It's all part of the deal with a CSA. We're in it together. I wanted to pay him. But, since he won't take the money, all I can do is keep posting on eating local. Spread the word. Help it grow, and stay committed even in the wake of a record-breaking bit of record heat and cold in the span of a week.

Got Grass?

by Expat Chef

On my way home from work, I pass not just one, but two California “Happy Cows” billboards. Given that I live in the Midwest, and I can find a cow standing in pasture less than 20 minutes from my city in any direction, I’m not all too clear on why I should be seeing ads about the mental state of cows in California. I’m also not certain why someone spent $17 million in 2001 alone to tell me how happy the cows are. I mean, many of the cows here look happy to me.

Especially the ones that make my milk. They pretty much live on a pasture most of the time. They get milked only a couple times a day, no hormones or antibiotics. They eat grass, lie in the sun and basically do all the things happy cows should be doing. I even have a photo of the actual cows that make my milk posted here. So, see for yourself. Do they look happy to you?

Must Have Been The Weather

by Expat Chef

I am pretty disappointed that we could not do the Pennywise Eat Local Challenge here. We were having this great early spring, it all looked just right for fresh produce, early in the season. Then out of nowhere, well, the Northwest actually, came this freeze with three days of lows in the teens. Brutal. So many lost plants and replanting. I woke up to the first open day of farmers markets to snow on the ground. The Midwest is a hard place to be a farmer indeed.

Here is it May, and the past weekend at the farmers market yielded little in variety for vegetables. I did find all my herbs and plants, but otherwise, the early spring lettuces were nowhere to be found unless you count the greenhouse-grown plants for sale. I did find two large plants of leaf lettuce for $2.00 each. The grower said I should get about four cuttings, making my investment $4.00 for eight heads of lettuce. Not bad.

FDA Knew About Risks

by Expat Chef

If you have seen the front page of most newspapers, then you know that the FDA was aware of the problems that led to the spinach and peanut butter contamination for some time before the outbreaks.

In the case of the Salmonella in the peanut butter, the FDA knew of the issues as early as 2005. When FDA inspectors requested documents from the ConAgra plant, they were refused. The FDA inspector left and the issue was not followed up on.

While the spotlight is being thrown onto the FDA, with reason, there are others who need to be called into question.

Where's My Beef (Coming From)?

by Expat Chef

A pig walks into a spinach field in California. A two-year-old in Idaho dies. Somewhere a cow gives birth to an exact replica of its sire. We buy a new freezer.

How can these events be related? With a nod to Michael Pollan, let me trace the events back to the source.

On Sept. 20, 2006, Kyle Allgood of Boise, Idaho died from eating food contaminated with E. coli O157:H7. Over 200 people in 26 states were sickened and two others died. This type of food poisoning is normally only associated with consumption of contaminated meat. The contaminated food source was spinach.

The spinach was grown in the Salinas Valley of California, and harvested just weeks earlier. It took a long time to trace the source of contamination. However, according to Dr. Reilly of the California Health Department, the outbreak was most likely caused when a feral pig walked into the spinach field after visiting a cattle feedlot nearby. The pig had the bacteria in its system and had carried on it some of the cattle manure from the feedlot.

Green Eggs and Lamb

by Expat Chef


Above: Beautiful green and brown eggs are dwarfed by the huge goose eggs. both available through Pinwheel Farms in Lawrence.

Want some of the most beautifully colored eggs this Easter, but don’t have time to dye them? No problem, just stop by the Pinwheel Farm in Lawrence, Kansas where you can get a mixed dozen of colors from soft, warm brown to light sage, blue-green and olive. The best part? The chickens do all the work.

I loved the fresh brown eggs we used to get from our neighbor when I was a kid in rural Missouri. The beautiful brown shells and bright orange, firm yolks were almost worth reaching under the chicken for. Almost. The rest of the memory is of pecking beaks and chicken poop, I am likely scarred for life. Not enough to call the 24-hour Alektorophobia hotline, but we chicken-phobes can all rest better knowing operators are standing by to take our call. These days, I like my farm fresh, brown eggs washed and in a carton.

But, green eggs? These I had to see. I called Natalya Lowther to get directions to her farm. I could barely hear with my kiddo screaming in the background. Ms. Lowther was polite. Instead of saying, “My, woman, can you not control that child?!” She said, kindly, “Oh, do you have a little one? She will love the baby lambs.”

I loved the fresh brown eggs we used to get from our neighbor when I was a kid in rural Missouri. The beautiful brown shells and bright orange, firm yolks were almost worth reaching under the chicken for. Almost. The rest of the memory is of pecking beaks and chicken poop, I am likely scarred for life. Not enough to call the 24-hour Alektorophobia hotline, but we chicken-phobes can all rest better knowing operators are standing by to take our call. These days, I like my farm fresh, brown eggs washed and in a carton.

But, green eggs? These I had to see. I called Natalya Lowther to get directions to her farm. I could barely hear with my kiddo screaming in the background. Ms. Lowther was polite. Instead of saying, “My, woman, can you not control that child?!” She said, kindly, “Oh, do you have a little one? She will love the baby lambs.”

What you need to know about buying eggs

by Expat Chef

Eggs can be found in several colors besides white or brown. The shells can be pink, speckled, blue or even green. The color of the eggshell has nothing to do with the flavor or the nutritional value of the egg. Both of these depend on the diet of the chicken, how it is raised and the freshness of the egg. There is a lot of confusion, however, with all the terms regarding eggs. Caged, Cage-free, Free Range, Pastured, Vegetarian-Fed, High-Omega-3 … what does it all mean?

The information out there does not make the learning curve any easier. For example, the American Egg Board, sponsored by industrial chicken and egg farming, states that “The nutrient content of eggs is not affected by whether hens are raised free-range or in floor or cage operations.”

by Expat Chef

Eggs can be found in several colors besides white or brown. The shells can be pink, speckled, blue or even green. The color of the eggshell has nothing to do with the flavor or the nutritional value of the egg. Both of these depend on the diet of the chicken, how it is raised and the freshness of the egg. There is a lot of confusion, however, with all the terms regarding eggs. Caged, Cage-free, Free Range, Pastured, Vegetarian-Fed, High-Omega-3 … what does it all mean?

The information out there does not make the learning curve any easier. For example, the American Egg Board, sponsored by industrial chicken and egg farming, states that “The nutrient content of eggs is not affected by whether hens are raised free-range or in floor or cage operations.”

Spring Greens

by Expat Chef

Finally! I did not think I could get tired of winter squash, but I am sick of orange and brown and really ready for local green. Green grass, green leaves, greens. The arrival of early spring means the heartiest of greens will be in season and at the farmer’s market soon! These early spring, nutrient-dense veggies include items like kale and kohlrabi. To celebrate my anxious anticipation for my farmer’s market to open, I thought I would post a couple recipes for spring’s coming bounty.

I just got a new recipe idea from Ali at The Cleaner Plate Club blog on making Kale Chips. Here’s my version.

USDA's Crazy Chicken Dance

by Expat Chef

Under the heading of things that make you go "What the ...?!" is this latest headline from the wisdom of the USDA. New rulings will allow us to import chicken from China. Yes, China where there are outbreaks of Bird Flu that have cost human lives, 29 outbreaks already this year.

To make matters more confusing, the USDA is proposing sending the chickens to China for processing, then importing them back after processing, and this is CHEAPER than processing the chickens here. How is a round trip to China for poultry that is grown here cheaper than processing the birds here? Especially when the poultry industry already produces chicken under questionable conditions in order to keep prices down.

You have to wonder if the USDA has our health and safety in mind when you read things like this. This is an organization the is supposed to protect the quality and safety of our food supply and those of our nation's food producers.

It just makes no sense. I'll be looking for my chickens at a local farm, where I can watch the processing if I choose to. It won't require a passport for me or the chickens.

Eating Local: More important than ever

by Expat Chef

When a friend of mine who had moved to China got pregnant, I was determined to send her something for the new baby. I was certain that she would not have the same convenience of supermarket-sized Baby World type stores there. I just knew she desperately needed Baby Stuff.

Funny thing. As I toured just such a huge store, I kept choosing items from the shelves only to turn them over and see, "Made in China." I got desperate. After an hour of tearing through "Super Mega Baby Mart" I began to lose my grip on reality. Seems like anything "baby" in the U.S. originated in China. Just to be sure, I checked the soles of my own child's feet. I have the scar, I can PROVE she was made here, but you never know ...

The 100-Mile Pie, Well, Almost

by Expat Chef

Just when I thought the Eat Local Challenge was over, I got an email from our local paper’s food editor. I had offered any assistance from our eatlocalchallenge.com site, if needed, and I also wanted to compliment her on the eating local series of articles that were recently published. They were great articles, just what you would expect from a food section that had won a James Beard award. She inquired what local foods would be part of my Thanksgiving. I told her I planned on creating a sweet potato pie recipe.

Is it over?

by Expat Chef

I woke up Saturday feeling a bit lost. The feeling continued even as I took my little one to the park to play. Across the lot, the children’s farmstead and petting zoo was empty and locked up tight for the winter.

She looked longingly across the way. “I want farm,” said the sad little voice.

“So do I, honey, so do I,” I said.

You see, last weekend was the last of the farmer’s market days for the season, and the last of the children’s farmstead days as well. Both of these things had been a huge part of our weekends for months now. Seems like nothing went right the whole rest of the weekend. Life just wasn’t normal. How could all this be over?

Applefest

By Expat Chef

I try to get friends and family involved in local food events. My latest
attempt was one I perhaps, inappropriately, titled, “Applefest.” Fest implies
some kind of celebration and revelry. In fact, that was exactly what the
event promised. Food and a special farmers market put together just for the
weekend:

“The Cider Mill Cafe will be open and Jasper (noted local chef) will be cooking biscuits and gravy, pancakes and sausage and grilled Italian Sausages with peppers and onions for lunch!

Enjoy Local apples, exotic mushrooms, fresh flowers, exotic meats, and the Cider Mill Country Store will be open for cider donuts, apple cider, apple butter and preserves, Lost Trail Soda and so much more!”

Sunday began dark, gray and rainy with a cool wind. “Hey,” I thought, trying
to be an optimist, “it won’t be crowded and it feels like fall!” Yeah, right.

As it turned out, no one showed, not even the farmers. Seems they had had a
poor turnout the day before. The most exotic meat I found that day was the
sausage in my biscuits and gravy, which in consolation, were really good. At
first, I felt bad that I had dragged us and our friends (who were shivering
in shorts and t-shirts) out for a non-event early on a rainy Sunday morning
that otherwise would have been a perfect sleep-in day.

But then, something incredible happened. Our kids were running around
excited by the giant vat of apples being washed and put into the cider mill.
“Apple! Apple!” my little one yelled and pointed. The smell near the cider
press was crisp and sweet. The kids climbed and played on the hay bales and
picked out pumpkins.

Inside the market area, my child picked her own bag of apples by leaning over and taking a bite. Yes, through the plastic. And then she went after a whole gallon of cider. I stopped her before she gnawed another bag of apples. She’s an ambitious eater. She watched the cider donut-making through the glass with the same rapt attention most kids only reserve for Spongebob.

Her energy was irresistible. Three pumpkins, ten pounds of apples and a half-gallon of cider later, we rolled away from the all-but-deserted cider mill, happy and warm despite the day’s chill. We drove off in search of the local winery just down the road, vowing to volunteer for its harvest next
fall.

For the last weeks my child has run to the produce drawer every time I’ve
opened the fridge shouting “Apple! Apple!” Every piece of fruit, even grape
or pear, is proudly proclaimed as an “Apple!”

I realize, while trying to pry her out of the fridge before every piece of fruit is pulled out and sampled, that the day really was a celebration afterall.

My mom used to make homemade applesauce every year with the fall harvest. Her recipe is a bit of an ordeal, running the apples through a food mill. She left skins on to give it a pink color, and added quite a bit of sugar. Still it tasted fresh and amazing compared to the jar variety.

Below is my easier, lower sugar, take on the recipe.

Apple-Cider-Sauce

4.5 lbs. Apples of your choice (I used gala), peeled and sliced
2 cups no-sugar added apple cider
1 cinnamon stick
1 star anise (optional)
2 tablespoons lemon juice, plus more to taste
1/4 tsp. Cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cardamom (you can also use Cake Spice blend)
1/4 cup sugar

Combine the apples, cider, cinnamon stick, and lemon juice in a large Dutch oven. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to medium. Cover the pot and simmer for 25 minutes until the apples are tender.

Remove star anise and cinnamon stick. Mash to desired consistency with potato masher, then simmer uncovered for another 10-15 minutes until the mixture is the desired thickness.

Remove from heat and mix in sugar and spices. Adjust tartness with additional lemon juice if desired.

Now, couple notes: I used early season apples that are more tart. You may want to add the sugar gradually and use less. You can put this through the food mill, but why? If your family does not like things spicy, or is not fond of the anise flavor, omit the star anise and stick to cardamom and cinnamon, but smaller amounts. I like spicy.

You can find the Expat Chef in her kitchen, knife in hand, contemplating the next ten pounds of apples, four pumpkins, butternut and acorn squash.

Grass-Fed Beef, Spinach-Fed Humans

There is an interesting connection between the strain of E. coli found in the contaminated spinach and the diet of beef and dairy cattle. Apparently, this particular strain only exists in the manure of grain-fed, not grass or hay-fed, cattle. Another good reason to raise better beef.

Read more here and here.

Lettuce Be Informed

By Expat Chef

I was cleaning and prepping arugula and mixed greens this weekend for a Sunday dinner. My husband, ever attempting to be a comedian, joked, “Did you get the E. coli all washed off?”

You know, that’s not funny. So I just replied, “Well, if we get sick, I sure know who to go look for.” And I do because I bought the greens at the farmer’s market from the same farmers I see every week.

It was not really an issue that I thought about much, the importance of knowing the source, until news stories like the Bagged Spinach Incident occurs. Someone died. There were similar issues with a Hepatitis A outbreak and scallions in November of 2003.

The Harvest

By Expat Chef

If you are the kind of person who does not like getting homemade food gifts from friends, maybe you just don’t have the right friends. Last weekend I turned 40, and my “adopted” Italian family brought me two huge jars of tomato sauce, and four quarts of peaches sliced and frozen — all from their Italian grandparents’ backyard in rural Kansas. Four pounds of fresh homemade pasta sealed the deal as THE BEST food gift ever.

As painful as turning forty is mentally, this year’s Eat Local challenge has really given me an appreciation for my birth date.  What time of year could possibly be better than early harvest time? The summer’s last luscious bounty filled the market tables alongside the first of the apples and hard squashes. There is something amazing about this overlap of seasonal produce. It almost feels like cheating to have both summer and fall at once.

The weather reflects the same perfection; cool nights and warm, not hot, days with a light wind. The kind of day that makes you never want to go inside until the last ray of sun is gone. It’s such a brief and wondrous time of year. As sad as it is to see the summer fade, knowing that winter is coming and my farmer’s market will close at the end of this month … I can’t help but love the harvest season. Perhaps, like each fruit and vegetable of the challenge, consumed at its brief peak of ripeness, this harvest, too, is meant to be appreciated all the more for the coming winter.

Many thanks to all of you who participated in this site, I really enjoyed the summer's challenge! Thanks to Jennifer for putting this together.

You can find the Expat Chef in her kitchen inventing every new recipe imaginable with her favorite squash: pumpkin.

Roots

By Expat Chef

Every Saturday, I take my daughter to the Farmer’s market. She loves riding in the backpack, watching the people, looking at the fruits and vegetables. I hear her gleeful shout for “More!” as soon as she sees the blackberries and blueberries. We fill our basket, talk to the farmers. One family waits for us each week, saving my little girl a slice of fresh cantaloupe and cherry tomatoes. And while I know we are shopping to feed ourselves in the week ahead, I am also coming to feed my soul.

In 1975, I arrived here in the Midwest, along with my sister, our two flea-ridden cats and a couple suitcases. Everything we had in the world. I was scrawny and disheveled, and old beyond my ten years. It was my seventh move, fourth family situation, and the culmination of a four-year custody battle. The battle involved accusations of neglect and malnutrition, use of child support funds as income. It wasn’t pretty.

But you don’t realize all that when you are a kid. You walk yourself home from school at age 6, let yourself in the door, and find whatever food there is in the house to eat. It wasn’t much. Frozen McDonald’s hamburgers, corn flakes, peanut butter, powdered milk. A real treat was a can of ravioli. A rare sit-down meal was minute rice and boil-in-the-bag Salisbury steak. Which was far better than the chipped beef variety.

By eight, I took to trying to “create” my own treats. This usually involved bisquick “pie crusts” and jello pudding. Yes, I used the oven. Alone. But, that was pretty much how I did everything.

And then life changed.

We went home with my father and stepmother to a house on forty acres. My sister and I were reunited with my brother after three years apart. I had a family.

When I look back on those few years, I see them all wrapped in a golden light. I hear laughter, and I remember, most of all, doing everything together. There was dinner on the table as a family every night. Nothing was boiled in a bag. If it was frozen, it was once fresh and we had prepared it and stored it. There was whole milk in the refrigerator. As much as you could drink. If food is love, then I was surely worshipped.

A farm is a wonderful place for a child with a hungry body and soul. Looking back, I now realize I was “eating local” before it became a movement. It was just how we had to live. The nearest grocery store was 30 miles away. The closest restaurant was a truck stop 20 miles away. We had a one-acre garden that produced so many tomatoes, my stepmom resorted to making her own ketchup. Our eggs were a quarter-mile walk away. We took them out from under the chickens, no styrofoam container. We went to a nearby u-pick strawberry patch in June. Visited the orchard for peaches in late summer, and again for apples in fall. We canned, made jam, pies, preserves, sauces, pickles. We had a freezer full of beef, inch-thick steaks, from my great-uncle’s cattle farm. My stepmom made bread. And she did this despite an hour commute to a full time job in the city.

I had forty acres with woods, and four dogs and a cat to explore them with. It was there, in the fresh air, open land, and the fertile ground of a real family, I finally put down my first tentative roots. The roots grew strong. And fortunately quickly, as life changed again and again.

My father is gone now. My siblings scattered as adults. I’ve moved at least ten more times. My stepmom now distant and altered by past events. Yet it is those few tentative roots that I cling to, what I hold dear as my role model for how a family should be.

And food is love. Fresh, beautiful produce. Healthy food that sustains you. The food I find at the market, from the farm community that I grew up in, the only place I ever called home as a child.

I try to share this with my daughter, my new family. To give her something of the richness that helped me grow my few strong roots. And, just as a starving plant sends forth new roots in search of water, I too have sent forth new roots. Drawing to me friends as my family of choice. I like to bring them into my home. To hear our children playing together, filling the house with laughter and the richness of togetherness. I bring them to my table. I feed them with the fresh foods from the market, the best way I can prepare them. It is love.

You can find the Expatriate Chef in her kitchen, facing a 40th birthday and, I hope, a huge carrot cake.

A Meaty Issue

By Expat Chef

I quit eating beef for a while. It wasn’t so much the fear of mad cow disease, but more disgust at the idea that ruminant animals who were designed by natu