July 16, 2008
Getting beyond the 'Organic' label!
Things are turning in a great direction in some places. I recently spoke with the owners of Sunrise Farm in White River Junction, VT about how their season is going. Shares in their CSA are up yet again and consumers are excited about local food! People in the Upper Valley (that's the Connecticut River between NH and VT) do a great job of supporting their local farms. The folks at Sunrise Farm care deeply about the way they grow food, and still follow organic principles, but, for a number of reasons, they have decided to let their official USDA 'Organic' certification lapse. Interactions with their customers are very important and the trust that has developed between the farmer and the eater has trumped the rubber stamp. Read about their thoughts on going beyond Organic.
June 21, 2008
It's the beginning of summer! Skip that trip to the supermarket and get your self to a Super [farmer's] Market! (sorry)
The number of markets have grown from 1,755 farms in 1994 to 4,385 in 2006 so there may be a market near you now when there was not one before. Look for the signs and bring them some cool stickers to let the farmers know you care. They are getting your vote!
June 13, 2008
Attack of the killer tomatoes! Well, not quite, but it had a good ring to it. I'm not sure there is a whole lot to say about this story, except that it is not surprising.
This from Marketwatch:
"A problem for consumers is identifying where a tomato is from. It is a hurdle and criticism the FDA is grappling with as it tries to find the source of the rare strain of the bacterium salmonella St. Paul."
Now the message I take away from this story is BUY LOCAL. The cynic in me thinks that the FDA is going to 'grapple" with this by applying more sticky labels to each piece of fruit. (You ever try to peel one of those off of a really ripe tomato? Argh!)
April 27, 2008
Oil in my food? Yep, food gets shipped a long distance these days. Shipping food takes a great deal of energy, and the energy du jour is oil. But, there will be more economic incentive in Europe for food grown closer to home now that the European Commission will begin charging for emissions on freight coming into the European Union. (Though not till 2012, darnit) This makes it more expensive for peppers to come from Argentina, and water from Fiji. (the Fiji water cracks me up)
Hey, I have to pay more for my food? *^&#*$!
Well, maybe. If you want strawberries in december (for those of us in the northern hemisphere), then with the new rules in place you would probably pay more because they will be shipped from somewhere warm. If you want strawberries in the springtime, they will probably be regular priced since they would hopefully come from the same continent. (but golly, without them sitting in an airplane, they will tastier!)
Note: This is only proposed for europe right now. But, if we (the US) wanted to economically stimulate farmers close to home, and reduce pollution, we should consider introducing similar policies. Cap and trade solutions for pollution seem promising, but are certainly going to require some examination..
April 8, 2008
There has been a big spike in the price of grains recently. This is due in part to a higher demand for corn based ethanol. (good in principle, bad in practice) Another factor contributing to the increase in prices is that some of the farmland in the midwest is in The Conservation Reserve Program which pays farmers to leave fields fallow. This is a great idea.
Wait a minute, is 3 votes a day saying that some place should NOT be farming? Well, yes. Homogenous landscapes are rarely good whether it is an endless line of suburban developments, or an endless line of cultivated wheat fields. Your local ecology needs an intermediate level of diversity in order to remain healthy. This allows a cross section of organisms to exist in an area, thereby keeping any potential pest outbreaks in check. This is the theory behind the insect reserves at some wineries in California. Rather than a sea of grapes, there are small gardens within the vineyard with wildflowers and other plants that encourage beneficial insects.
In this NY Times article, we see that conserving farmland can be very controversial in the midwest where it means that a farmer may not be able to take full advantage of a profitable season. But, what are the long term consequences? The previously wild field will lose its established diversity when it goes under cultivation again. This could open the surrounding area up to a potentially devastating outbreak of one type of pest.
What if our small farms in suburban areas were still thriving instead of being paved over?
What if the farming methods in the midwest did not create such a homogenous landscape?
April 7, 2008
Political climates, regulations, and standards all seem to swing back and forth between two extremes. During the late 1800's, there was rapid industrialization of our food system. Growers and processors took liberties with the responsibility of providing food by ignoring common sense cleanliness, and cutting corners. Perhaps this was due to the increasing disconnect between the farmer's field and the diner's plate as each person's job in the food chain became more and more specialized. What resulted were stringent laws largely protecting the public from atrocities such as those published in Upton Sinclair's 'The Jungle.' Having regulations is good, but what if the same regulations are now preventing farmers from doing something radical by not following the pattern of industrialization of our food? In Poland, old farming methods are having a difficult time competing with conventional agriculture because the small farmers cannot afford the certifications and upgrades required to enter the current market. Yet, they are growing a pesticide free, synthetic fertilizer free, low carbon emission, local product. Why regulate these farmers out of existence? Yes, if I go to a market, and buy a head of lettuce or a pound of beef, I want assurances that the product is safe, but if I know who that farmer is, and they know me, they will be more invested in their customer, and truly accountable for their actions. Would those personal relationships be enough to keep our food safe? I like to think so. Human decency and personal accountability is alive and well in many small communities. By voting with our forks, we could keep those small farms going, and in return receive top notch produce and a fine landscape in which to live. Regulations and farm subsidies are tilted too far in favor of mechanized, large scale farms. There should be room for interpretation in the laws for innovative small farms which are by all logical accounts meeting safety and cleanliness standards. This bias needs to swing back the other way, and support the small farms which keep our landscapes green, and grow better produce for you.
March 9, 2008
If everyone ate like an American..
Commodity farmers are doing pretty well right now since the global demand for general foodstuffs is very high. Sometimes it seems strange how people on the continent of Africa can cause grain prices to rise in the U.S., but it's pretty similar to what happened to tortilla prices in Mexico when the U.S. started doing a bunch of corn based ethanol development. Though in this case, it is actually population growth, a few bad draughts and a need for more food food.
How does this effect us?
Besides the higher prices we are paying for food, there will probably be a bunch of land brought out of conservation and into production to meet demand. Depending on how this is managed by the average farmer, this could be good and bad. Good because some rural farming communities may get a sorely needed boost. The price of a crop goes up, so that means the farmer may make a bit more money. But, bad because the big growers may try to meet the demand by using marginal land that was put into conservation. The land was probably put into conservation because it was in an ecologically sensitive area, so, pulling it out of conservation may cause some unfortunate consequences for the ecosystem. (Though, chances are, that if the farmer is being effected by global grain demand, it's a giant farm in the mid west...) If you buy local, unprocessed foods at this time you can put that higher than average food cost back into your community. Rather than concentrating the strain on a few big growers who we may not trust to make a good decision, help out your local farmer, and keep small farms viable!
Another reason food prices are getting higher, besides higher demand, is because of a higher fuel cost. Remember, it takes a lot of oil to grow our food. Yes, tractors, trucks, and airplanes all need petroleum, but fertilizers and pesticides do too. Buying organic and local foods does not contribute as much to this need for oil. One radical solution to high fuel costs is animal power. Now, I'm not saying we should return to the 1800's, but picture a solar powered tractor that produced fertilizer as it moved through the field, every year it divided into a brand new tractor, and became an appreciating asset as it got older. Hold the phone! Amazing! Too good to be true! Wait,...Its a horse... For smaller farms, this is a viable solution. With gas at $4.00 a gallon, a horse seems pretty cheap.
January 30, 2008
Meat-O-Rama
Did you know that the average American consumes nearly 200 pounds of meat a year?! While meat is a common source of protein, we don't need anywhere close to this amount of meat to satisfy our nutritional requirements.
Why is consuming this much meat problematic?
Uh... heart disease for one....
Conventionally grown meat is a very resource intensive food. It requires lots of: land to grow grain for feed, oil to transport the feed grains, water for the animals, land to store the animal poo and oil to transport the meat product from places which tolerate manure lagoons. However, the true costs of this food don't get translated to prices at the grocery store because the meat food-chain is heavily subsidized by our farm bill. Animal waste is also less regulated than human waste. If the meat industry had to pay for the proper disposal of animal waste just as cities do with human waste, the cost of producing meat would become very apparent.
This from the NY Times: "2.2 pounds of beef is responsible for the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide emitted by the average European car every 155 miles, and burns enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for nearly 20 days." For more information, check out the New York Times article: Rethinking the Meat Guzzler. It comments on the increase in the consumption of meat in the world and the effects it has on the environment, and our bodies.
Non Sequitur. Do you like cartoons? This one is fun and educational! (and it won a bunch of awards)
Using the movie The Matrix as a model, this fantastic series of short cartoons reveal truths about our meat industry. Follow our heroes Moophius, Leo, and Chickity as they fight off villains from Agri-Corp and save family farms! The MEATrix.
Yes, at times it is a little over the top, but, so was the original Matrix.
November 26, 2007
"Sensing that concerns over genetically engineered foods are subsiding, beet producers have cleared their growers to start planting biotech beets next spring."
“Basically, we have not run into resistance,” said David Berg, president of American Crystal Sugar, the nation’s largest sugar beet processor. “We really think that consumer attitudes have come to accept food from biotechnology.”
So we the consumer have 'come to accept' biotech foods huh? What? Just like we have come to accept foul air, suburban sprawl, and dangerous chemicals in our food and consumer goods? These guys are looking out for their own bottom line, NOT your health, NOT the health of our environment.
Get out there and start resisting! Don't let giant corporations tell YOU what to buy! Vote With Your Fork and support products from organic growers. Let Hershey, Kellogg and other processors know that you will not buy their products if they support biotech crops.
November 4, 2007
A Michael Pollan article on the current state of the farm bill.
While there has been some movement in the latest bill towards supporting 'specialty' crops ('Specialty crops are the fruits and veggies we are supposed to eat 5 times a day) the farm bill still largely subsidizes mega-farms growing the corn, wheat, soy, rice, cotton which are the building blocks for the avalanche of diabetes inducing junk food. A proper bill would provide incentives to allow healthy food to be cheaper than junk food. It would allow rearing animals on grasslands to be more economical, compared with raising animals on confined feeding operations and then subsidizing the cleanup of manure lagoons polluting the waterways. New Zealand dismantled subsidies for farmers a long time ago and they now have a well established, profitable and environmentally friendly agriculture system. Sensible economic policies have allowed farmers to become more independent, diversified and efficient.
A gem from the Pollan article in regards to recent complaints about the state of farming in the US:
'Representative Collin Peterson of Minnesota, chairman of
the House Agriculture Committee, told The San Francisco Chronicle last
summer. “But frankly most of those people have no clue what they’re
talking about. Most people in the city have no concept of what’s
going on here.”
It seems more likely that, this time around, people in the city and all
across the country know exactly what’s going on — they just
don’t like it.'
October 21, 2007
As farmland is being converted into housing subdivisions, people are discovering pesticide residues left over from early farming practices. In the early 1900s they used to take a powder of lead and arsenic, mix it with water and spray it all over the crops. (Didn't they read 'Arsenic and Old Lace' and realize the stuff could kill people as well as bugs?) Then DDT came on the market and DDT based pesticides became the hot item. Seventy five years later, the soil STILL contains those early pesticides. "We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children." Gee, thanks for wreckin' the car dad...
Stories like this should make us question the safety of new food and agricultural technologies and press for greater testing BEFORE they are used on a large scale.
October 20, 2007
A Schoharie County farmer's struggle with getting local carrots to New York City schools. There are a number of logistical challenges with substituting an alternate food supply to large organizations, but they are not insurmountable! By the way, those bullet shaped pre-bagged 'baby carrots' are just regular sized carrots which have been whittled down...
October 15, 2007
The former president of the american farm bureau writes an op-ed about the latest negotiations on the new farm bill. He points out that the current subsidies discourage sensible long-term planning for crops because the farmers are insulated from normal market pressures. The subsidies have dramatic effects on world trade of commodity crops too. Careful consideration of the new farm bill is essential to ensure positive agricultural practices and trade policies that are good for the american farmer.
September 27, 2007
There are fantastic local food movements all over the country! This past week in Unity, Maine, the Common Ground Fair celebrated its 31st season. This fair is very special for a number of reasons, but it's food guidelines are what have drawn attention. All of the food served at the fair is Organic and at least 50% of all finished food products must be grown and processed in Maine.
This from the Autumn issue of Maine Organic Farmer & Gardner: "The purposes of the Food Area are to promote organically grown Maine foods and to offer a wide variety of wholesome foods at reasonable prices. Vendors in the Food Area help to inform and educate fairgoers about the nutritional value and health benefits of Maine's organically grown foods, and to familiarize them with the Maine Organic Farmer and Gardner Association's (MOFGA) activities in this area."
Wow, pretty progressive stuff for a country fair! What about the fried dough and cotton candy? Well, because of the above rules, the food vendors at the fair have some really tasty and unique fair fare. Fear not, there is fried dough, but, no powdered sugar. (sugar cane does not grow in Maine) So, for alternative toppings they have whole jugs of 100% pure Grade A maple syrup and wild blueberry sauces! It is damn tasty.
What about the cotton candy? Well, none of that to be had, but instead they make the ever so delicious Pie Cone. The Pie Cone™ is a crisp cone suggestive of pie crust and is filled with classic fruit (such as apple, wild Maine blueberry, strawberry-rhubarb), cheesecake, and various other dessert fillings. Everything about it is wonderfully edible (no paper stick holding the wad of cotton candy) so, there is less waste too. Also damn tasty, and as far as I can tell, can only be found in Maine.
The beautiful (and delicious) regional adaptations that occur because of the simple guidelines are phenomenal. Organic lamb kebabs, fruit smoothies sweetened with honey, cranberry juices and home-made lasagne noodles really give this fair a flavor of it's own. Meanwhile, by shaking off the usual mass produced, trucked-across-the-country foods, they have generated revenue for local economies and helped maintain a beautiful agricultural landscape around the region.
If you are hosting an event, consider sourcing your food and supplies from local, organic vendors. The special consideration you lend to food choices will give your event a unique appeal, and have people talking about it long after they have gone home. It will also give them a great reason to come back for seconds...
September 18, 2007
Today Dole Food Company found that a package of Dole
'Hearts Delight' salad mix tested positive for E. coli. This has triggered
a recall of bags of Dole's 'Hearts Delight' salad mix with a "best
if used by" date of September 19, 2007, and a production code of
"A24924A" or "A24924B,".
Hey, wait a minute, didn’t this happen LAST summer? Didn't 3 people
die and hundreds more get sick from the same problem, which is basically
‘poop in the food’? Oh yeah, they were going to do something
about that...
This from the AP: "A recent Associated Press investigation found
that government regulators never acted on calls for stepped-up inspections
of leafy greens after that outbreak, and regulations governing farms in
the fertile central California region known as the nation's "Salad
Bowl" remain much as they were."
Oh right. Whoops. Well, a little bit of food poisoning builds character...
This from the AP: "Symptoms include severe abdominal pain and bloody
diarrhea; some people can have seizures or strokes and some may need blood
transfusions and kidney dialysis, while others may live with permanent
kidney damage."
Whaddya mean, whoops!? This is serious stuff! Seizures, blood transfusions?
E.Coli outbreaks can be really dangerous for your health. It may not be
your standard "call in sick to work and hang out in the bathroom
for 12 hours" style of food poisoning. With the advent of feedlots,
some researchers have found that there are increased
risks of environmental contamination by E.Coli
Well, at least we can track the tainted spinach; I mean lettuce (hard to keep track of what is tainted these days) back to a specific farm right?
This from the AP: "The romaine, green leaf and butter lettuce hearts
that went into the blend were grown in California, Colorado and Ohio."
...And then it was shipped to Canada where they found the tainted bag.
Seems pretty crazy how spread out our food supply can get. This outbreak
shows why it is a good reason to keep farms small and well controlled,
animals free of growth hormones and our food local. It’s hard to
know where tainted food came from when it is composed of products from
several states or countries. By buying local and from small farms there
is a better chance that the individual farmer is thoroughly invested in
his customers.
August 27, 2007
Tomatoes are in season! Get out and try what can be an amazing culinary experience. They are a fruit which can open one's eyes to the world of heirloom crops. Why you say? Well, when you've had a good tomato, you KNOW you've had a good tomato. No bones about it. The juiciness, sweetness, with a smidgen of tartness, the melt-in-your mouth taste tells you that you got a good tomato. People go nuts about 'em. The thing is, you don't normally get a good tomato experience unless it's been eaten darn near the time you picked it, so its not going to be a beefsteak tomato that came to the U.S. on a slow boat from Holland. The beefsteak tomato has become our common supermarket tomato because it stores well, ships well, and looks good on a shelf. What? How bout the taste? Don't they breed tomatoes and so they taste good? Well, the 'they' in the supermarket case is a big businesses which needs a consistent product, year round and fills the niche of 'tomato.' They do it quite well, but, it is at the cost of having a watery, hard, tasteless product. Fortunately, some people did realize how good tomatoes can taste and they bred them for all the amazing flavors you can think of. Brandywine, Black Krim, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Cosmonaut Volkov (best name ever...) Black Cherokee and Early Girl are just a few Heirloom varieties with exceptional taste. Check out the NY times for an article on the wonder of the many different varieties of tomatoes.
What's heirloom? Well, an heirloom is "a valued possession passed down in a family through succeeding generations." So, way back in the day when somebody was growing tomatoes, they came across one which was really really good. So, they saved the seeds from that plant so they could grow it, and eat it again. The next season, they planted the seeds they saved and grew another one, saved those seeds, and so on. On through the generations people passed down the seeds of a variety of plant they valued for a particular trait. But, with the advent of industrial agriculture, many of these varieties were forgotten about. Plants were selected not for taste, but because they could fit in a machine or withstand a transcontinental train ride.
But, today people are rediscovering the varieties our ancestors once grew! It's like uncovering a gold watch in your grandpa's attic. While tomatoes can steal the spotlight for the 'heirloom' classification, there are many other crops where you can get heirloom seeds. Seeds of Change specializes in preserving unique seeds to retain the biodiversity of our food supply. Corn and carrots can have an amazing range of colors, sizes, shapes and tastes when we investigate heirloom varieties. If this sounds interesting, you can also check out Fatal Harvest for some great photos of heirloom varieties and essays on how industrial agriculture changes our landscape.
(Yes, it is a fruit, technically a berry; but according to the Supreme court in Nix v Hedden in 1893, it is a vegetable. whew.)
August 17, 2007
For many many years, if you wanted red meat, you got beef. Now, buffalo, otherwise known as the American Bison are making a comeback. Adding buffalo to the menu is great for diversifying our food chains and may reduce some of the demand for beef which is largely raised with confined animal feeding operations. Many argue for vegetarianism because meat is an energy intensive way to get protein, and is surrounded by ethical questions. However, some places can raise grass fed animals in a sustainable and humane way. Buffalo are particularly good because they are still a fairly wild critter, and have not been bred to consume the vast quantities of corn like our standard cattle. This has many ranchers raising buffalo entirely on grass, just as the buffalo have always done. Raising buffalo in this manner is good for the buffalo because it allows them to follow their natural instincts to roam and graze grass instead of cramming them into a confined animal feeding operation and loading them with corn. These free range animals will likely be healthier and need fewer antibiotics because they are not in such close proximity to other animals, and are eating higher quality foods. Grass fed meat also has health benefits for the consumer in the way of reduced saturated fat and more omega-3 fatty acids.
However, some new buffalo ranchers which have primarily raised cattle in the past, have a tradition of 'finishing' their animals on grains. Feeding them on grain in the last few months before slaughter produces 'marbling,' ie. fat streaks in the meat. This perversely gains higher marks with the USDA grading system, even though this 'marbled,' fatty meat is actually less healthy for consumers. The ranchers also like grain finishing because all this fat increases the animals weight and therefore increases the price the rancher will get per head. (remember, you buy meat by the pound whether it is fat, or muscle) This is not a positive practice because it brings raising buffalo closer to conventional beef operations which are rife with environmental and animal treatment problems.
So, yep, buffalo is an alternative red meat and many places
raise it in a sustainable, humane way.
Is it local? Ask around! Buffalo once roamed all over the US and can be
raised in places from Golden Gate Park, CA to the tip of Long Island,
NY, so chances are good that if you ask at your markets, you can find
a buffalo near you. If you choose to eat buffalo meat, keep it local and
make sure it is grass fed.
Here is an article in the NY Times about how Buffalo are on the table again.
August 14, 2007
All over the country there are small farmers who have some fantastic produce ready for sale, right now! It's near the end of the summer, and there could not be a better time to stop by your local farmer's market to sample the flavors of summer. Check out this article about the great produce in Michigan. They point out that your standard chain supermarket will probably not carry any local produce because the local farmers don't produce enough to interest wholesalers. But if you make the extra effort to get to the farmer's market, you will be rewarded with exquisite flavors that can only come right off the vine.
August 12, 2007
Voting With Your Fork is working! With your increased demand for eggs raised in a more ethical manner, cage free eggs are now a larger part of the supply. There is an article about it on the NY times. This never would have happened 10 years ago. Good work! While the current system of 'cage free' is certainly not perfect, the extra attention being paid to animal welfare is definitely a step in the right direction.
August 10, 2007
The 'Farm Bill' did not used to be the money pit it is today. Just after WWI, it functioned fairly well. During WWI, the country ramped up production of agricultural goods. However, at the end of the war, there was a surplus of commodity crops, so during the depression, the price fell to near zero. The government stepped in and created the Farm Bill to guarantee a target price for a commodity crop. (Corn, Soy, Wheat, Rice, Cotton) If the price fell below that target price, the government would loan the farmers the difference, so that they would not have to sell into a weak market (thereby reducing the price further). Farmers held onto the crop, which prevented the market from being saturated and caused the price to rise. Afterwards, the farmer could sell the crop into a better market, and pay back the loan. If prices did not go up, the government could buy the crop and put it in the national grain reserve. The reserve could be used to gradually release crops to the market to even the price of the commodity. The system worked great because it guaranteed a stable price to farmers and a stable price for consumers. Since the farmers paid back the loans, the program cost the government almost nothing.
Any why is that twinkie so cheap?...
In the 1970's Earl 'Rusty' Butz, disassembled that version of the New Deal farm bill, and changed the system from loans to direct payments. This effectively allowed farmers to sell their grain at any price since the government would make up the difference. Large grain buyers like Cargill and ADM have not surprisingly had a hand in crafting the farm bills to lower the price of grain to make it very competitive on the world market. Instead of supporting farmers, the government was now subsidizing corn and other commodity crops. These commodity crops are then used as the building blocks for cheap, processed foods. The most unhealthy calories in the grocery store, which are also the least expensive.
Write to your congressperson and tell them to change the farm bill so that it supports small organic farmers!
(from an interview with Michael Pollan on Talk of the Nation, Science Friday, also Omnivore's Dilemma)
July 31, 2007
Looks like the 2007 farm bill is not quite an improvement...
More news on the latest farm bill
July 29, 2007
Does anyone find it odd that we refer to 'conventional' agriculture as the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides? The use of those in agriculture is a relatively new phenomenon. The original convention was to use manure and crop rotation to improve and sustain agriculture. Is there a more appropriate name for the synthesized chemical intensive agriculture?
July 27, 2007
Recently there have been a number of horrific problems with the globalization of food. The disconnect between the food source and ourselves makes for a deadly detachment which has cost people their lives. The upside is that our global food chains have come under greater scrutiny. There have been some movements to increase food security such as when china recently beefed up its food safety rules. However the poisonings which have taken place are only going to occur more frequently as our food system gets more complex and unwieldy to regulations. We need to keep our food chain short and simple to safeguard our health.
July 25, 2007
The next farm bill is up for debate! This has a huge effect on how food is priced in America.
Voting on the latest farm bill
Do you have: comments? Questions? Concerns?.News you want posted here?
please write to: 3VotesADay at Gmail dot com.
