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Low cost labor and untaxed fuel cause migrations of frozen fish

By Marc

Some of the world's sea creatures make incredible migrations to feed or mate.  Tuna, for example, swim back and forth across the Atlantic or Pacific.  In the globalized economy, some fish go on long migrations even after they have been frozen.

The new book "Bottomfeeder," by Taras Grescoe provides a fascinating look at the state of the world's oceans (I reviewed the book over at The Ethicurean). The book is a compelling combination of nature, history, politics, and culinary arts.  If you want to understand more about why certain fish are rated "best," "good," or "avoid" on lists like the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch list, "Bottomfeeder" is a must read.

Near the end of the book, Grescoe visits a fish processing facility in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.  Some of the fish that go through the plant have been on long migrations before arriving and some fish continue their migration after processing.

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.

Little bites of hope

by Julie Cummins

The elections this week reminded me to keep my hope alive. I don’t think this is an appropriate place for political endorsements, so I’m not going to make one. But I want to tell a story about how Super Tuesday reinforced my belief in what we’re doing here at Eat Local Challenge.

I avoided thinking about the primary until a few days before the vote. I would get to it in my own jaded and curmudgeonly sweet time. I was feeling indifferent and even hostile about the electoral process. It wasn’t until I saw a campaign video, though, that I understood my own state of mind.

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.

----

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.

Fair Trade vs. Eat Local?

by Jen Maiser

In an editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle's Sunday paper, William G. Moseley takes a swipe at the eat local movement in an article titled "Farmers in developing world hurt by 'eat local' philosophy in U.S."

While I respect Mr. Moseley's attempt to bring any attention to the admirable fair trade movement, his finger is pointed in the wrong direction.

Eat Local advocates are often painted as coffee-shunning, chocolate-declining masochists who eschew absolutely everything that is not local.  The truth is much less compelling in print, so the moderates among us are not often in the spotlight. 

The World Trade Organization, U.S. farm subsidies and local food

By Marc

Here's something unexpected:  the World Trade Organization (WTO) -- one of the most powerful forces for globalization and international homogenization -- might actually help the local foods movement in the United States. 

A little while ago I wrote about how planting restrictions in certain farm subsidy programs.  These restrictions impede the creation of a local food system by requiring farmers to permanently withdraw from the program if they grow fruits and vegetables on the program land.  Clearly, no one should receive corn, soy or cotton subsidy payments for land that is used to grow fruits and vegetables, but I think it makes no sense to permanently penalize farmers for trying to grow crops that people who live nearby might want to purchase.

It turns out that the WTO might have a problem with those planting restrictions. It is another example of the messiness that exists at the intersection of international relations and domestic politics.

A recent FarmPolicy.com newsletter explained the WTO's concerns and the implications for U.S. farm policy in great detail.  In less detail, the WTO agreements strive to eliminate all trade-distorting subsidy programs (subsidies that give certain producers an advantage over others), thus allowing something resembling "free trade."  In WTO documents, farm subsidies are classified into three "boxes" according to their trade distorting effects  "Blue box" payments are the most trade distorting and are essentially forbidden by the trade agreements; "amber box" payments are marginally distorted and are subject to a limit;  "green box" payments do not distort trade and therefore have no limits. 

Gary Paul Nabhan: Deepening Our Sense of What is Local and Regional Food

Editor Note:  Gary Paul Nabhan is one of the main reasons that I started this multi-year quest to eat local.  His book, Coming Home to Eat, gives us clear reasons about why to eat locally grown food.  I was thrilled this week to receive a post submission from Dr. Nabhan. This essay is sure to refocus my eat local energies, as it may yours, as Dr. Nabhan challenges us to look even more deeply into where our food is coming from.

Deepening Our Sense of What Is Local and Regional Food
By: Gary Paul Nabhan, RAFT founder

Now that Time magazine has done a cover feature article on the local foods movement and a book on the same topic by bestselling author Barbara Kingsolver and her family has climbed up the New York Times top-ten non-fiction list, we might want to ask what actually is it that we want to promote by using phrases like “Buy Fresh, Buy Local”. I can assure you that there will be increasing criticism of the so-called local food movement, building on the Hudson Institute’s feeble attempt to discredit it last fall in a variety of newspapers, with added absurdities being published in The Economist and by the American Farm Bureau. On the other hand, a reputable ethicist, Peter Singer, fears in his co-authored book The Way We Eat that 1) an emphasis on purchasing foods locally in U.S. communities will disadvantage needy producers in foreign countries-- as if India’s producers of Basmati rice actually gain much of the retail dollar spent on their rice in the U.S.--- or 2) the unethically raised beef or chicken will suddenly take over farmers markets and CSAs---as if Conagra and Tyson execs will soon be hanging out in overalls selling antibiotic-laced breast meat on Saturdays at their local farmers markets. I can predict, however, that more substantive critiques will arise, and I, for one, welcome them. It is time that we deepen our sense of what we mean by local and regional, offer others better reasons as to why these concerns matter, and steadfastly resist any pressure to endorse simplistic formulas such as a 100-mile diet or an in-state diet.

Here are some ways we can deepen what we promote by the terms local and regional:

Psst,...did you hear about the spinach?

By Jennifer BB

There hasn't been a national freak out the way there was  last year around the recall of E. coli infected spinach but food recalls are still occurring and there have been two within the last month.  The first was a recall at the end of August related to spinach infected with Salmonella and the most recent was last week's Dole recall of E.coli infected mixed salad greens.  Discrete signs at our local Wegman's Supermarket and a Google search gave me the low down on the latter but I'm left wondering if this is just becoming ordinary news these days.  "What beautiful weather we're having, hey, shame about that spinach recall." 

Detroit News: Foreign Food & COOL Labeling

by Jen Maiser

The Detroit News has an interesting story about Country-Of-Origin-Labeling (COOL) for meat, produce and peanuts that is set to go into effect a year from now if a scheduled federal mandate goes through.  We already have COOL labels on our seafood, and this would move to beef, pork, lamb, veal, produce and peanuts. 

Not surprisingly, the meat industry and other large producers are not happy with this mandate (which was a part of the 2002 Farm Bill).  They are also claiming that the mandate will be "confusing for customers".  The spokesman for the National Meat Association says, "Animals slaughtered in the U.S. weren't necessarily born here... Under the current proposal, the labels would have to reveal everywhere they've been. The labels could end up looking like passports."

Well, not the meat that I buy!

Read the rest of the article here.

(via Marion Nestle's new blog, What to Eat)

Federal rules stymie local food efforts in Iowa

By Marc

"About 32,000 acres could supply Iowans with five servings a day of fruits and vegetables for three months out of the year, according to Iowa State University economists. Iowa farmers will harvest nearly 14 million acres of corn in 2007."  That's the sidebar message in a Des Moines Register article brought to my attention by the invaluable FarmPolicy.com newsletter.

Iowa farmer Gary Boysen grows sweet corn, peppers, tomatoes, cantaloupes and other produce on 65 acres near Harlan.  He sells his produce at nearby supermarkets and Wal-Mart.  And he would like to be growing more fruit and vegetables for Iowans.  However, a big obstacle is standing in his way:  federal agricultural rules.

If farmers want to plant fruit and vegetable crops on land enrolled in USDA subsidy programs, they must permanently give up the possibility of receiving benefits. Not just for the period when they are growing non-program crops.  Permanently. 

Farm Bill Round-Up

by Jen Maiser

Curious about this week's news regarding the Farm Bill?  The Ethicurean has published an excellent round-up of news around the nation including straightforward reports and commentary.

Last Friday, the House passed a Food and Farm Bill with 231 in favor, 191 against. Nineteen Republicans voted in favor of the bill, while 14 Democrats voted against it. Thanks to a last-minute tax-adjustment proposal, the vote was a lot closer than most farm bills (in 2002, the House version passed 291-120). The official name of the Food and Farm Bill is the "Farm, Nutrition, and Bioenergy Act of 2007" and its identifier is H.R. 2419.

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.

Food and Farm Bill Notes

By Marc

Two important Food and Farm Bill items related to local eating in this week's blogs and news:

First, at Chews Wise, Samuel Fromartz (author of Organic, Inc., a critical look at the growth of organic agriculture) explains how the Food and Farm Bill can help organic farming (or, in the case of crop insurance, stop penalizing organic farmers), and gives suggestions on how you can help.  One way is by signing the Environmental Working Group's petition to Congress asking for more support for organic farming.  EWG has been near the forefront of the organic food movement for years and their farm subsidy database is shining lots of light on who really receives farm subsidies.  They want to submit the petition on July 15.

Second, Michele Kayal, writing for the Associated Press (via The Intelligencer & Wheeling News-Record), summarized how the Food and Farm Bill could help strengthen local food networks.  A summary of her article after the jump.

It's Food and Farm Bill Time

By Marc

Almost a year ago I posted Legislating Local Foods, an introduction to the Food and Farm Bill (also called the "Farm Bill," a highly flawed nickname). The Food and Farm Bill can have a positive impact on local eating in many ways---through programs that encourage purchases of local foods by schools, support for fruit and vegetable growers, funds to publicize Farmers Markets, to name a few.

Congress is writing the 2007 Food and Farm Bill during the summer, with a goal of a final vote before October. Subcommittees of the House Agriculture Committee are almost finished with their respective parts of the bill. After subcommittees finish their work, the full Agriculture Committee will combine them into the complete package, make amendments and deletions, and send it to the full House for debate, amendment and a vote.  No one is quite sure what will happen when it reaches "the floor."  Will House Speaker Pelosi (D-CA) allow amendments from non-members of the Ag Committee?  Or will she call for a vote immediately?  Dan Owens, at the Blog for Rural America has some thoughts on that question.

The Senate is a few weeks away from their committee sessions on the Food and Farm bill.
 

Deborah Madison on Culinate: Local and Organic

by Jen Maiser

Culinate has published a compelling article by Deborah Madison in which she outlines her choice of local and organic when possible.  I think that you'll find most of the authors on this board agree that, when possible it's best to choose local and organic.  And I personally, don't love to see the two pitted against each other as it's some sort of an either/or contest.  All of this is nicely summarized in Ms. Madison's piece.  I hope you'll check it out.

An excerpt:

I am not a fan of the insipid-tasting organic produce that fills the aisles of supermarkets. The real question is not so much organics versus local as much as it is Big Organics from far away versus the local organic food from your farmers’ market or CSA. That’s the real choice, and I’ll choose my local organic offerings every time. Why? They taste better, they’re fresher, they didn’t travel 1,500 miles (or more), and the plant varieties are more interesting.

Michael Pollan's Links

by Expat Chef

I signed up for emails from Michael Pollan's site based on a tip from a very reliable source that he may, just may be coming to our city for a speaking engagement. The first of the emails I got from the site lists the following recommended resources for finding out more about the farm bill. I am posting the email as written in his text:

"I've been getting a lot of questions from readers about the Farm Bill-- what sort of changes I'd like to see, and how people can get more involved. Since I'm a journalist, not an activist or policymaker,  I don't feel qualified to offer specific policy recommendations.  But for those interested in learning more about the Farm Bill and following the debate, I've put together some resources you might find useful. These will also be posted on the 'linking' page of my website, here: http://michaelpollan.com/link.htm. From what people in Washington tell me, we shouldn't underestimate the power of letters, calls, and emails to our representatives."

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.

What’s best for your body is worst for your wallet

By Julie Cummins

During the Eat Local Challenge last year, there was a lot of discussion in the blogosphere about how expensive it is to eat locally produced food. Some people called it elitist, even snobby. This was hard for me to swallow, because the Eat Local Challenge was heartfelt and meaningful for me. But the exaggerated words do contain a grain of truth: a local diet does cost more and is more difficult to come by than the standard American fare. What troubles me most about this grain of truth is how far astray our food system has gone.  How could eating locally grown food—something that was once a given—now be so out of reach that it’s called elitist?

The Past, The Present, The Future of Food

by Jen Maiser

As mentioned yesterday, the UC Berkeley School of Journalism hosted an exciting event last night: Michael Pollan and John Mackey in dialogue about food issues.  If you read blogs by other writers in the San Francisco area, you will notice a plethora of comments about the event last night.

Why the excitement?  It's a rare thing when we see a CEO of a major corporation sit in a room of possible detractors and open himself up to questions and unscripted dialogue.  So rare, in fact, that an auditorium with 2,000 seats sold out in less than a week. 

As the event opened, John Mackey asked how many people in the room had read The Omnivore's Dilemma.  To my eye, at least 2/3 of the audience raised their hands.  This was a room that was engaged, savvy, and ready to hear what Mackey had to say.

John Mackey and Michael Pollan - Live Webcast Tonight

by Jen Maiser

The hottest ticket in town tonight is the John Mackey and Michael Pollan event at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.  Those of us who follow food politics watched with interest last summer as The Omnivore's Dilemma kicked off a series of letters between the author, Michael Pollan, and John Mackey -- the CEO of Whole Foods.  The event is sold out, but you can watch the live webcast courtesy of UC Berkeley.  With the number of bloggers who are planning to attend, you will surely be reading posts about the event this week.

Letter 1:  Mackey to Pollan
Letter 1 Response:  Pollan to Mackey
Letter 2: Mackey to Pollan
Letter 2 Response: Pollan to Mackey

Jennifer Maiser is the editor of the Eat Local Challenge blog and the author of Life Begins at 30.

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 ...

Michael Pollan at Mondavi Center (11-29-06)

Eating local has influenced areas of my life beyond food.  Take gifts.  I’m not a fan of acquiring more stuff, especially if the stuff was made a million miles away.  So my mom and I have a new tradition.  We take each other out to see plays, hear music and participate in cultural events.  This year for my birthday we heard Michael Pollan speak the Mondavi Center at UC Davis.  Awesome gift, Mom.

Did you know you are 10 times more likely to have a conversation at a farmers’ market than you are at a grocery store?  Or that Americans get 80% of their diet from 4 or 5 plants?  By the way, if you guess that two of them are corn and soy, you’re right.

He also noted that we ship sugar cookies to the Danes and the Danes ship sugar cookies to us, and asked wouldn’t it be cheaper if we just swapped recipes?

He was funny, the talk was riveting, and here’s a recap of some of what he said (based on notes I wrote on my program in the dark with a faulty pen).

Thinking locally

by Julie Cummins

I spend more time thinking about food than I spend eating it. I shared dinner with a friend the other day, and at the end she commented that it was nice to hang out with someone else who could pass a couple of hours talking about nothing but food. I said, "We didn't talk about food the whole time!" But when I looked back on our conversation, I realized that she was right. Food pervades my consciousness the way oxygen permeates the air.

I went to three food-related talks in the last week and a half. From the local to the global, they gave me even more food for thought. Here's a summary what I learned about local eating:
1. Eating local is a privilege
2. Eating local helps transform the global food system
3. Eating local is not the only answer; policy change must accompany changes in consumer behavior
4. The 2007 Farm Bill is the biggest opportunity we've had in a long time for a change in food policy.

The True Cost of Food, a video from Sierra Club

posted by Sara Zoë

Sierra Club has produced a nice little animated movie about all the extended costs of commercial food that consumers aren't paying. My only problem with the movie is at the end, when the customer is buying food at the farmers' market, the lettuce is only $.30 a head! That's not a living wage for a farmer!

Here's the website for the True Cost of Food education campaign - looks like you can request a dvd or vhs version and discussion guide - (at the moment the links to download the full-length version aren't available - the link above is to the 7-minute version). I'm excited about all the activist materials they've made freely available surrounding this issue.

found via Vermont Localvores

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.

Eat Local Conversation on NPR

by Jennifer BB

Today's Talk of the Nation--Science Friday features a great conversation on eating locally and the whole local versus organic issue.  Brian Halweil, author of Eat Here:  Reclaiming Homegrown Pleasures in a Global Supermarket, is one of the panelists.

I only heard the last 20 minutes of the live broadcast but there was some interesting reflections by folks across the country on the issue.  For instance, one person said his food bill went up when he went to organic food and another's went down when she went to local food.

The archive of the show will be available after 6:00 pm EST today and you can get the download here.

Putting Local Eating into Federal Legislation

By Marc

The current food system, with its ubiquitous corn products, feedlots, and multi-thousand mile transportation networks, did not "just happen" through the wonders of the free market.  It has been shaped by government agriculture, transportation and trade programs, like the interstate highway system, crop subsidies, water projects, federally-funded export programs, health regulations, and so forth.  And since policy was important in creating the current system, policy can influence its evolution to something more sustainable.   

Congress and the Executive Branch are always tinkering with agricultural programs, as recently documented by the Washington Post in an ongoing series.  For example, if a House member needs to bring home some pork to help his bid for the Senate, some customs duties can be diverted to provide checks for ranchers in his district.  Or if a powerful Senator wants to help out the catfish industry in his state, a letter to the Agriculture Secretary can secure a rule change.

Local food: the afterlife

by Suzanne Miller

Since joining the Eat Local Challenge last year, I’ve focused on growing, harvesting and eating local food.  The fun stuff.

But not all the food I buy or grow ends up on my plate.  I cut off carrot tops, cull the cauliflower and peel the potato.  And then…?

Recently my Eatwell CSA newsletter talked about the farm’s compost, which is made from food waste gathered in the Bay Area.  This snippet caught my eye:

“Keeping food waste out of the dumps is very important.  In the dump, food waste decomposes and produces methane, a greenhouse gas.”

I emailed Eatwell and asked what I should do with my scraps.  The answer?  A stern “Compost! And if you fail, try, try again!”

My husband looked with unease as I hauled out white 5-gallon buckets for my annual “what the hell” compost attempt.

But this time, I decided to do something different:  bokashi, or “effective micro-organism” compost.

Fighting for Small Farms

South Central Farm, the 14-acre urban garden serving the needs of a low-income area of Los Angeles, is still fighting to save the farm from developers. You can help by participating in South Central Farm International Solidarity Days. I've posted an update with all the details at the bottom of my original post on their plight.

Update, 5 July:

They are bulldozing the farm. I'm ashamed of my city today.

You can still help. From the South Central Farmers:

If you do only one act of solidarity, then call or e-mail L.A. city council woman Jan Perry. Ask Ms. Perry to work with the people of Los Angeles and broker a win-win deal for the farmers, the land developer and the city. Implore her to help negotiate the sale the land to the farmers. councilperson.perry@lacity.org  or jan.perry@lacity.org and telephone here 213.473.7009.

Her bio can be found here. She states she is committed to green space. I guess we'll see.

The full story about the farm and news coverage.

This entry is cross-posted at mipmup.

image credit: South Central Farm

Cracking the Eat Local Code

by Holly

Patrick posted some of his end o' ELC thoughts a while back, but I've been stewing on mine for a while.

I had surprisingly mixed feelings at the outset of the challenge, after my initial burst of "right on!" when Patrick mentioned the idea. I tend to be a bit compulsive, and until I relaxed and let myself have spices from who knows where, and olive oil from California, I was feeling a bit caged. I think this is in no small part because we are still finding our place in our new city.

An Hourglass of Pollution: The Uneven Burdens of Trade

By Marc

One of the goals of the Eat Local Challenge is to raise questions about what we eat. Who produced the food?  What methods did they use?  Where does it come from?  How did it get here?  And what sorts of envirionmental impacts are incurred along the way?  Answering these last two questions requires a closer look at the international goods distribution system, something that is so diffuse outside of the major port regions that it usually fades into the background. 

The international goods distribution system is a complex multi-modal network (roads, shipping lines, airports, railroads).  Most goods arrive in the U.S. on huge ships loaded with containers that can be mounted directly onto rail cars or truck beds for transport to warehouses or repacking centers.   The highest density of activity is around the major ports, and the impacts are concentrated on whoever lives and works nearby.  A good way to visualize this is as an hourglass.  Container ships bring goods from all over the world.  They converge on a narrow region (the port), where the goods are transferred to trucks and trains. The trucks and trains travel away from the port on a tightly-packed network of freeways and railroad tracks, and then spread out across the nation.   

Save South Central Farmers

by mipmup

After a month of enjoying the pleasures of eating locally-produced food, basking in the light of my open refrigerator which holds an abundance of beautiful seasonal vegetables, it was truly with a heavy heart that I heard others in my area may not be so lucky. The South Central Farm is a 14-acre urban garden serving the needs of a working-class (or as the site describes it "impoverished") neighborhood. Unfortunately, the farmers are being threatened with eviction at any minute because, according to ABC News, "...the owner Ralph Horowitz...plans to pave the area and develop it; some speculate he may build a Wal-Mart."

Eating Local in Schools - Recent Articles

By Marc

Within the last few days, I have run across several articles about programs that provide local foods for school lunches or programs to teach children about gardening.  Programs like these could do wonders in many ways:  they provide healthy meals at an important time in a person's development, they teach children where their food comes from, and perhaps could even raise the status of farming as an occupation among today's youth.

Here is a summary of the articles, with locales ranging from Southern California to Iowa to Ghana, Africa.

A Local Yokel Browses the Bulk Section

by Suzanne Miller

My local food coop has a fabulous bulk section.  Fair-trade coffee, lots of organic grains, hard-to-find flours, herbs and spices… the selection is fabulous.  And someone there has a sense of humor:  the bin number for refined white sugar is 6666.  Hee.

I like buying in bulk.  It reduces food waste and packaging.  The prices are great.  I buy as much as I need and if I’m feeling really on top of my game, I bring my own glass jars from home and skip the plastic bags.

So I thought it would only be natural for the coop to label the origin of the bulk products.   Buying locally and in bulk?  Double whammy goodness.

Well, I was wrong.

The Revolution will not be shrink-wrapped!

          

by Jeanne Brophy

The May/June issue of Mother Jones rocks. It's worth checking out. It contains an article, "No Bar Code" which is really an excerpt form Michael Pollan's new book, The Omnivore's Dilemma:  A Natural History of Four Meals. The focus of the piece is Joel Salatin. and his "beyond organic" Polyface farm.  This book is the featured book discussion for the ECL book group.  Join us for the discussion (via Yahoo! groups) beginning next Monday.

There's also another shorter piece about "redundant trade" that will quite frankly boogle the mind:

• Half of California’s processed tomato exports go to Canada, which ships $36 million worth of processed tomatoes to the U.S. annually.
• In 2003, New York shipped $1.1 million worth of California almonds to Italy, while importing $1.1 million worth of almonds from Italy.
• California sells $18 million worth of asparagus abroad. $39 million worth of asparagus comes into the state from other countries.
• International strawberry imports to California peak during the state’s strawberry season.
• 20% of California’s table grapes go to China, the world’s largest producer of table grapes.

Based in San Francisco, Jeanne Brophy writes about the culture and history of food at World on a Plate.

The State Drink of Virginia is Milk

by Jasmine

Virginia lists Milk as the state beverage.  The Virginia General Assembly passed the bill declaring this in 1982.  You would think that means that dairy is an important industry that the government would want to support.  However, according to Barnie Day, Virginia's dairy herds are diminishing at record numbers as the state continues to import milk. 

Milk production in Virginia was $275 million in 2005 yet dairies continue to struggle.  The only listing I found for Virginia milk that did not contain rBGH - Bovine Growth Hormone went bankrupt in the beginning of 2004.  As for large milk production both H. P. Hood and Maryland and Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative have plants in my food-shed, they are both huge corporations accepting milk from producers up and down the East Coast. Shenandoah's Pride has been bought out by Dean Food