La Vida Locavore is the blog for anyone whose crazy life includes planting, growing, weeding, fertilizing, raising, picking, harvesting, processing, cooking, baking, making, serving, buying, selling, distributing, transporting, composting, organizing around, lobbying about, writing about, thinking about, talking about, playing with, and eating food!
Agriculture
Chair: Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
- Max Baucus (D-MT)
- Michael Bennet (D-CO)
- Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
- Bob Casey (D-PA)
- Kent Conrad (D-ND)
- Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
- Tom Harkin (D-IA)
- Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
- Pat Leahy (D-VT)
- Ben Nelson (D-NE)
- Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)
- Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)
- Thad Cochran (R-MS)
- John Cornyn (R-TX)
- Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
- Mike Johanns (R-NE)
- Dick Lugar (R-IN)
- Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
- Pat Roberts (R-KS)
- John R. Thune (R-SD)
Appropriations
Chair: Daniel Inouye (D-HI) Ag Sub-Committee
Chair: Herb Kohl (D-WI)
- Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
- Dick Durbin (D-IL)
- Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
- Tom Harkin (D-IA)
- Tim Johnson (D-SD)
- Ben Nelson (D-NE)
- Jack Reed (D-RI)
- Robert Bennett (R-UT)
- Christopher Bond (R-MO)
- Sam Brownback (R-KS)
- Thad Cochran (R-MS)
- Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
- Arlen Specter (R-PA)
Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions
- Chris Dodd (D-CT)
Agriculture
Chair: B Collin Peterson (D-MN)
V. Chair: B Tim Holden (D-PA)
B Joe Baca (D-CA)
- John Boccieri (D-OH)
B* Leonard Boswell (D-IA)
- Bobby Bright (D-AL)
B* Dennis Cardoza (D-CA)
- Travis Childers (D-MS)
B Jim Costa (D-CA)
- Henry Cuellar (D-TX)
- Kathy Dahlkemper (D-PA)
B Brad Ellsworth (D-IN)
- Debbie Halvorson (D-IL)
B Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-SD)
- Steve Kagen (D-WI)
- Larry Kissell (D-NC)
B Frank Kratovil (D-MD)
- Betsy Markey (D-CO)
B Jim Marshall (D-GA)
P Eric Massa (D-NY)
B Mike McIntyre (D-NC)
- Walt Minnick (D-ID)
B Earl Pomeroy (D-ND)
- Mark Schauer (D-MI)
- Kurt Schrader (D-OR)
B David Scott (D-GA)
B Zachary Space (D-OH)
- Timothy Walz (D-MN)
- Frank Lucas (R-OK)
- Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
- K. Michael Conaway (R-TX)
- Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE)
- Virginia Foxx (R-NC)
- Bob Goodlatte (R-VA)
- Sam Graves (R-MO)
- Timothy Johnson (R-IL)
- Steve King (R-IA)
- Robert Latta (R-OH)
- Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO)
- Cynthia Lummis (R-WY)
- Jerry Moran (R-KS)
- Randy Neugebauer (R-TX)
- Phil Roe (R-TN)
- Mike Rogers (R-AL)
- Jean Schmidt (R-OH)
- Adrian Smith (R-NE)
- Glenn Thompson (R-PA) *=House Organic Caucus member B=Blue Dog Democrat
Appropriations
Chair: Dave Obey (D-WI) Ag Sub-Committee
Chair: P Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)
- Sanford Bishop (D-GA)
* Allen Boyd (D-FL)
- Lincoln Davis (D-TN)
*P Sam Farr (D-CA)
*P Maurice D. Hinchey (D-NY)
P Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. (D-IL)
P Marcy Kaptur (D-OH)
- Jack Kingston (R-GA)
- Rodney Alexander (R-LA)
- Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO)
* Tom Latham (R-IA) *=House Organic Caucus member
P=Congressional Progressive Caucus
Education and Labor
P Chair: George Miller (D-CA)
- Jason Altmire (D-PA)
- Robert Andrews (D-NJ)
- Timothy Bishop (D-NY)
P Yvette Clarke (D-NY)
- Joe Courtney (D-CT)
- Susan Davis (D-CA)
P Marcia Fudge (D-OH)
P Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)
P Phil Hare (D-IL)
- Ruben Hinojosa (D-TX)
P Mazie Hirono (D-HI)
- Rush Holt (D-NJ)
- Dale Kildee (D-MI)
P Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)
P Dave Loebsack (D-IA)
- Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY)
P Donald Payne (D-NJ)
- Jared Polis (D-CO)
- Robert Scott (D-VA)
- Joe Sestak (D-PA)
- Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH)
P John Tierney (D-MA)
- Dina Titus (D-NV)
- Paul Tonko (D-NY)
P Lynn Woolsey (D-CA)
- David Wu (D-OR)
- Buck McKeon (R-CA)
- Judy Biggert (R-IL)
- Rob Bishop (R-UT)
- Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
- Michael Castle (R-DE)
- Vernon Ehlers (R-MI)
- Luis F Fortuno (R-PR)
- Brett Guthrie (R-KY)
- Peter Hoekstra (R-MI)
- Duncan D. Hunter (R-CA)
- John Kline (R-MN)
- Kenny Marchant (R-TX)
- Tom McClintock (R-CA)
- Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA)
- Thomas Petri (R-WI)
- Phil Roe (R-TN)
- Todd Russell Platts (R-PA)
- Tom Price (R-GA)
- Mark Souder (R-IN)
- GT Thompson (R-PA)
- Joe Wilson (R-SC) P=Congressional Progressive Caucus
It's not just Monsanto who doesn't like Food, Inc. Oh no. For example, check out SafeFoodInc.org. Sounds kind of related to Food, Inc., right? And maybe it's about food safety? If you click around the website you'll see things like "Food Inc Myths and Facts:"
"Food Inc." contains an astonishing number of half-truths, errors and omissions. By clicking on the topics below you can learn more about issues raised by the film that concern you.
One of the questions on the Myths & Facts page asks: "How are broiler chickens raised? What kind of space and lighting is included in broiler houses?" Well, the movie shows you a broiler house. It's nice that the website reinforces that the animals aren't kept in cages, but the movie never makes that claim in the first place. And the dead chickens you see in the movie? Those aren't props. The SafeFoodInc website makes it sound like broiler houses keep the animals safe and comfortable, but as you see in the movie, it keeps many of them dead.
Who's behind the site? They don't exactly say... at least, not on the "Who We Are" page of the site:
We are an alliance of associations that represent the livestock, meat and poultry industries. Together, our members produce more than 90 percent of U.S. beef, pork, lamb, veal, turkey and chicken. We are proud of the way we care for our animals, our employees and the environment. We are also proud of the nutrition, safety and good taste that our products offer.
I found the website from the American Meat Institute on Twitter, so I would assume they are among those behind the site. The links page provides links to: American Meat Institute, National Cattlemen's Beef Association, National Chicken Council, National Meat Association, National Pork Board, and the National Turkey Federation, plus a link to Monsanto's anti-Food, Inc site. The "Contact Us" page has emails for each of those listed above, excluding Monsanto. Nice.
In addition to the meat industry effort, there's the Center for Corporate Front Groups Consumer Freedom. They have an anti-Food Inc article up on their site too. It seems that they just saw the movie, so we can expect "better" stuff from them in the coming weeks. For now all they had to say is that food activists are saying the same old stuff with no new messages and that organics are expensive. Thanks, CCF.
For a better (and more accurate) review of Food, Inc., I recommend checking out Kim Severson's piece in the NYT. She quotes LVL friends Severine von Tscharner Fleming and Naomi Starkman. Severine (the filmmaker/farmer who is making the documentary The Greenhorns) is quoted as saying: "All we have are these little canisters of film, and we're launching them at a fortress" (Go Sev!) Naomi said: "I want people to feel like they can do something. You make a choice three times a day on what you want to eat. That is power."
The film opens in major cities on June 12. We're just days away now!
UPDATE: I forgot to include one more anti-Food, Inc. site - Brownfield Network's article "New movie is critical of U.S. food system." Love how they call Pollan's bestselling book "Omnivore's Delight." (Nice catch by Dave Murphy of Food Democracy Now.)
UPDATE #2: As noted by JayinPortland in the comments, one of the "third party experts" that contributed to the Safe Food Inc site is Dennis Avery of the Hudson Institute. And what is the Hudson Institute?
The Hudson Institute... a right-wing and corporate funded think tank (with funders like: American Crop Protection Association, Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill, ConAgra Foods, CropLife International, DowElanco, DuPont, Exxon Mobil, McDonalds, Monsanto, National Agricultural Chemical Association, and Syngenta Crop Protection).
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