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
I'll admit it. If there's such a thing as a Marion Nestle groupie, then I am one. I was absolutely thrilled when Alternet asked me to do an article and interview with Marion Nestle about her new book (together with Malden C. Nesheim), Feed Your Pet Right. In my article, I called it a new kind of expose, one that tells shockingly good news. More below.
UPDATE: Just a thought... I'm getting skewered in the comments over at Alternet (which I totally don't mind) but I thought an additional explanation would help clear things up. The attitude the book takes about commercial pet foods is based on the fact that no matter which complete-and-balanced food you choose, your pet will be nourished properly and won't develop a disease from nutrient deficiencies. Obviously, there's a difference between slaughterhouse waste of factory farmed animals and local, humane, ethical meat, just like there's a difference in the factory farmed meat humans eat and the stuff you get from your local farmer. And, obviously, the local, organic, humane, ethical stuff is always better. But at least, with commercial pet food, pets aren't suffering from diet-related illnesses on a massive scale, other than perhaps repercussions of eating too much and exercising too little. And a relatively ignorant pet owner won't have a hard time grabbing a bag off the shelf at the grocery store and feeding their pet a diet that won't kill them.
Our fiesta was a success! Last night, I served my family a vegan Mexican meal made entirely from recipes from the book Viva Vegan! by Terry Hope Romero. As I've mentioned before, the recipes in the book are from around Latin America, not just Mexico. However, I was trying to re-create what I enjoyed eating in Jalisco, Mexico. The beautiful thing about this book is that it's written by a Latina and it's actually pretty authentic. Previous posts about this cookbook can be found here and here.
Our fiesta
Below, I describe making posole, refried beans, blue corn tortillas, and sopes, as well as my family's reaction to the food.
Today's the day for our big Mexican fiesta, but I did a little cooking yesterday. My inspiration is the cookbook Viva Vegan! by Terry Hope Romero, which encompasses all Latin food and not just Mexican. You can read Part 1 here (with my first impressions, shopping experience for the ingredients, and my experience making tortillas from scratch).
This diary includes: Finding and buying organic blue corn masa harina for tortillas and two recipes from the book: horchata and roasted tomatillo salsa.
I've barely been back from Mexico for a week and already I'm jonesing for the amazing food I ate there. I decided that now is a perfect time to pick up the Latino vegan cookbook Viva Vegan! by Terry Hope Romero, and get cooking. This will be a multi-part series because there is so much in this book I want to eat, I can't fit it all into one meal. Or, as the case may be, fiesta. Today's diary covers first impressions of the book, grocery shopping, and making homemade tortillas.
My very own made-from-scratch tortillas!
Tortilla soup (my own recipe, since it wasn't in the book)
When I finished reading Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer, I felt sick to my stomach. And that's the way one should feel about any accurate account of the way most meat is produced in this country. That said, I don't want to lead would-be readers of this book to say "I don't want to know" and then avoid reading such a complete and nauseating account of where most meat comes from. If you eat meat - especially if you eat meat you didn't raise and slaughter yourself - it is your responsibility to read this book.
The basis for this book was one of the most amazing speeches I've ever heard. You know the type I mean - presentations like Al Gore's powerpoint on global warming that became An Inconvenient Truth. The speaker may have nothing more than a microphone and perhaps a Powerpoint, but the audience is transformed. Suddenly, an idea that the audience did not understand (and perhaps did not even know they were interested in) becomes so clear that everyone in the room feels like they can see it, hear it, and touch it. In this case, that speech was given by Eric Holt-Gimenez of Food First in October 2008 and it was about the global food crisis. I guess I was not the only person who was so deeply touched because Holt-Gimenez went on to turn the speech into an entire book with co-author Raj Patel and help from Annie Shattuck. The full title is Food Rebellions! Crisis and the Hunger for Justice.
That said, the book is quite academic, and reading it does not compare to the transformative experience of hearing the authors speak. (Patel and Holt-Gimenez can go head to head in a public speaking contest any day and I really don't know who would win. Both are amazing.) But the book does provide all of the facts underlying the amazing speech in a logical and readable format.
Eating History: 30 Turning Points in the Making of American Cuisine by Andrew F. Smith was the third of three books I recently read that trace American food and agricultural history (the other two are The War on Bugs by Will Allen and Kitchen Literacy by Ann Vileisis). As I said before, the three books provided complementary information to give readers a full picture of how our food and agriculture came to be as they are today. That said, if you have to skip one of the three books, skip this one.
The 30 turning points chosen traced several different plotlines - manufacturing, packaging, and transportation advances; war; the making and defining of gourmet food in America; the roles of nutrition reformers; and the role of marketing. Surely those broad categories leave out many of the 30 chapters in the book, but they also encompass quite a few of them. In some parts, the book reads like the TV show "Unwrapped," and it's written from an impartial point of view (thus not criticizing a number of developments that play roles in making food less healthy). In most cases, I feel that it was probably just fine to provide an unbiased view (as the book is intended as a history book, not a call to action), but in the section on genetically modified foods, "unbiased" turns into "overly favorable" and in fact, wrong.
I've got a problem. I'm here in Berkeley, not far from where Frances Moore Lappe (mother of Anna Lappe) originally found the inspiration for Diet for a Small Planet and I'm supposed to be promoting my own book. Except what I really want to do is promote Anna Lappe's new book, Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do About It. I've been gushing about it since I first opened it and read the introduction a few days ago. I brought it here as plane and BART reading, and to be honest, I didn't have great expectations for it. Food and climate change has been an obvious and open and shut matter for me for a long time - so why would we need an entire book on the subject?
Kitchen Literacy was so good that I am embarrassed I did not read it before now. The full title is Kitchen Literacy: How We Lost Knowledge of Where Food Comes from and Why We Need to Get It Back by Ann Vileisis. It came highly recommended by several people I trust (including JayinPortland) and now I know why. But by a lucky accident, I read this in conjunction with two related books that also trace U.S. agricultural and food history - The War on Bugs by Will Allen and Eating History by Andrew Smith. I HIGHLY recommend reading the three together as they build a brilliant synergy in tracing developments in science, public opinion, government regulation, and propaganda. I feel like now I really understand how we got from a sustainable, local, organic food system back at our nation's founding to where we our today.
I am also amazed at how connected my own family's history is to the food and agriculture history of our nation. If you trace the development of our family farm from 320 acres to 13 times that in the span of 50 years (while labor needed went down from 5 people to 2) and our ultimate abandonment of the farm in the 1990's, my grandfather's career as a soil scientist with the USDA, my great aunt's career as a Home Ec teacher, and even my mom's love of the Food Network, and my own work as a promoter of sustainable food, we are all inextricably linked to America's food history.
I just finished reading The War on Bugs by Will Allen (not the Will Allen of Growing Power - a different Will Allen) and I can't recommend it highly enough! This was a book that Allen was uniquely qualified to write. He grew up on a farm, and then went into the Marines where he was an atomic, biological, and chemical warfare paramedic. Following his years in the Marines, he went to college and - as part of his education - did research in the tropical forests of Peru, living among forest farmers. He says, "The ability of these [Peruvian] farmers to produce surpluses without chemicals in an environment ravaged by pests started me thinking that maybe the miracle chemicals that the sales men pushed were not so necessary after all." After college, Allen went back to farming. Upon taking a pesticide and fertilizer applicator's course at a local college, he found out that the chemicals commonly sprayed on farms were "modified versions of the nerve poisons and antipersonnel weapons that I learned about when studying chemical warfare in the Marine Corps."
So - with his firsthand observations of food grown without chemicals and his knowledge of the toxicity of common farm chemicals - Allen went to work finding out where our dependence and trust of pesticides came from in the first place. His findings actually surprised me. I knew part of the picture, which I wrote about in my own book. I don't think my book was inaccurate, but Allen fills in a lot of details and really makes it clear what happened and how.
One word: yum. When I was offered a copy of this book, Vegan Cookes Invade Your Cookie Jar by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero, I said yes mainly because I love one of the authors (Isa Chandra). She's done a few other cookbooks but she's also got several free recipes online at The Post Punk Kitchen and I've tried a few. It's not for no reason that she's a bit of a cult favorite among vegans.
So here's the review: The book's great. I love it. The cookies include all of the classics plus innovative varieties like Tahini Lime Cookies and Sweet Wine Biscuits with Sesame. Plus it starts with sections on ingredients and equipment that make clear what you need, why you need it, and when and how you can substitute. They even include a gluten free flour recipe that you can use to replace regular flour. That's wonderful because, let me tell you - if one dietary restriction is harder, once you start mixing and matching dietary restrictions you're really screwed. Vegan cookies? Sure. Gluten free? No problem. Vegan and gluten free? Umm, eat some fresh berries for dessert. So I like it that this book actually provides an option there.
Tonight we used the book to make brownies. I thought about doing it together with my boyfriend's kids but I didn't want them to catch me putting tofu in the brownies. I made a few substitutions. I used applesauce instead of canola oil to reduce the fat and 1 tsp arrowroot powder instead of 1 tbsp corn starch because we didn't have any corn starch. The result is fantastic. They are a bit fluffier and more cake-like than I'd like in a brownie, but they are better than ANY boxed mix you will ever find. The only way to beat them would be to use a from-scratch recipe with tons of eggs and butter. Or maybe they would be better if you follow the recipe as written instead of substituting like I did. And I have a hunch that with some experimentation, you could find a way to make them denser and fudgier using avocado.
UPDATE: One more thought: You don't need to be a vegan to use the recipes in this book. You can't taste the tofu in the brownies. And most people don't eat bacon-flavored cookies, so it's not like any meat eater would be giving something up by eating a vegan cookie. All in all, it's a painless way to cut down your carbon footprint without noticeably giving anything up. The only aspect that might be annoying to non-vegans is that the recipes call for ingredients you might not keep in the house (like soy milk).
This is coming a little bit too late, even for you last minute shoppers. But maybe you can go hit the after Christmas sales, or exchange all of the Chia Pets and Snuggies you receive for some of the books on this list.
If you haven't read them:
The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
These are the first two books ANYONE should read about food. They make so many points so clearly. It's not just about the information that is in them, but about how well they are written and how the reader feels as he or she reads them. These books make people "get it." If you're trying to "convert" a difficult relative who keeps serving you cranberry sauce out of a can at every holiday, buy them these. And if they aren't the reading type, get them a copy of Food, Inc. because that's kind of like these two books in one, except in movie form.
After someone has read those, here are the next 8 books that should be on their bookshelf:
3. The War on Bugs by Will Allen: Where did industrial ag come from, REALLY? And why DO we use pesticides? This book traces it all the way back to late medieval Europe, and then very carefully chronicles the rise of pesticide use in the U.S. Whereas other books (including my own) go back to World War 1 or 2, Allen goes back to the 1800's by reading farm journals from those times. Totally fascinating, and mandatory reading.
4. Teaming with Microbes: A Gardeners Guide to the Soil Food Web: Why does organics work? What is happening, from a scientific point of view, in the soil and above ground? This book tells it all in such a clear way that even non-scientists and non-gardeners can understand it. If you're giving a book as a gift, give this to a gardener. Non-gardeners really just need the Cliff's notes version of this info.
5. Bottomfeeder by Taras Grescoe: Want to understand seafood? Read this. The book was described to me as "The Omnivore's Dilemma of Fish" and it truly is. If you eat fish or shellfish AT ALL, read this book. It will make you mad though. It will also put a serious crimp in your ability to enjoy seafood.
6. Stuffed and Starved by Raj Patel: Patel is one of my absolute favorite speakers and writers. He's been all over the world and he clearly shows what's going on not just in the U.S. but around the world. Why are a billion people starving and a billion people overweight? What's the cause of such inequality. That's what this book explains.
7. Appetite for Profit by Michele Simon: Read this one no matter what, but ESPECIALLY read it if you have kids. And give it as a gift to anyone you know who has kids. Simon tells exactly how marketers and food companies are screwing us while simultaneously trying to look like the good guys. Much of the book's content focuses on children, although the book is not exclusively about kids and marketing to kids.
8. The End of Overeating by David Kessler: Why would an intelligent adult who wants to be attractive and healthy binge on an entire pint of ice cream or bag of chips, despite a strong desire not to? Why do some of us just totally lose control around junk food? Kessler goes into the actual neuroscience behind this and then tells exactly how the food industry exploits that. Amazing!
9. Recipe for America by me: I can't help adding this to the list even though it's probably a taboo to do that. But the book will give you a basic understanding of the legal system that governs food and what is already happening (or isn't happening) to try and change it.
10... What do you recommend? Please add your own favorite foodie books in the comments!
Food, Inc. the book (by Peter Pringle) has nothing whatsoever to do with Food, Inc. the movie - other than that they are both about food. The full title is Food, Inc.: Mendel to Monsanto - The Promises and Perils of the Biotech Harvest. I highly recommend the book, with a caveat. The book covers the debate over GM crops with a reasoned, science-based analysis. Often it seems that rather than giving you his own point of view, Pringle describes the arguments and actions of both sides of the debate and allows the reader to decide for him or herself who is right. However, some conclusions are impossible to avoid. For example, in several anecdotes, the U.S. government is caught entirely with its pants down, totally failing to adequately assess the safety of GM crops before allowing them to be grown. Furthermore, Pringle often provides adjectives to describe the players in the debate, making his own point of view very clear. He calls the biotech firms (particularly Monsanto) "arrogant" but then paints anti-biotech activists as radicals.
Here's my caveat though: I believe the content of this book is essential reading, but I disagree with the author's ultimate assessment of biotechnology. In the tail end of the book, Pringle says:
[GM foods] are scientific creations full of both promise and potential hazard. These experimental foods deserve respect from those who discover them, call for more caution from those who regulate them and grow them, and finally, at the end of this real food chain, demand close study by those of us who eat them.
My main critique here is that, from reading the book, I do not believe Pringle has an adequate background in the science of sustainable agriculture (or perhaps ecology or agriculture in general) and thus, I believe that he overestimates the promise of GMOs. Assessing GMOs also requires assessing alternative solutions to the problems GMOs are intended to address. The question is not only "Do GMOs solve a problem?" but "Do GMOs represent the BEST solution to the problem?" This book makes it clear that the science of genetic modification is not quite ready yet for prime time. I am all for science for science's sake, but I believe that agroecology is the best and fastest way to solve the world's food problems at present. If, some day, biotech presents a better, safer solution than agroecology, then I will revise my point of view. In the meantime, those who want to solve the world's problems will get their best bang for their buck (and their fastest results) via agroecology, not biotech.
Christine Heinrichs is an expert in rare breeds of chickens, and her book How To Raise Chickens: Everything You Need To Know shows it! She gives you the basics of chicken housing, feed, and health care, but she also provides in depth history of chickens, descriptions of seemingly every breed known to man, and how-tos for breeding and showing chickens. I'll be honest: my favorite part of the book was the pictures. The book's large, glossy pages are covered in the most gorgeous pictures of chickens you could ever hope for. Long before I finished reading the entire book, I paged through it looking at the pictures, periodically stopping to show my boyfriend my favorite breeds. I jokingly referred to the book as "my chicken porn."
As for how the book rates for guiding a first time chicken owner through the process, it covers a number of basics that you (or I) will need to know. The book brings up a number of incredibly valuable issues, but does not necessarily tell the reader that one way or another is correct. For example, do you want a chicken tractor (movable chicken housing without a bottom) or will that leave your chickens too vulnerable to predators? Perhaps instead you should use the deep litter method of raising chickens - keeping chickens indoors during hot or cold months, with several inches of litter underneath them that will compost with their manure and allow them to forage for bugs and take dust baths as well. Because chicken housing is partially influenced by the amount of space you have available and the predators and climate where you live, it may be best to read through the options and then ask a neighbor who has chickens to weigh in on what's recommended where you live.
The book is much more instructive when it comes to subjects like food and hatching chicks. Heinrichs specifically tells you what to feed the birds when, and how to care for eggs and chicks before and after birth. She provides information for those who wish to make their own chicken feed, as well as recommendations for when and what types of commercial feed your chickens should eat. She does not take a stance on subtherapeutic antibiotics, merely mentioning that they are used in raising chickens and that some people oppose their use.
For those who are not serious chicken breeders or who don't plan to show their chickens, the details on breeds, breeding, and showing chickens may be too much. (Furthermore, I wonder what information important for a newbie chicken owner was skimmed over or left out while the book focuses on preserving rare breeds.) Still, it's nice to have as reference because you never know if or when you might need it. For city dwellers where roosters are not permitted, breeding chickens is more or less off limits. However, you might wish for your small flock of chickens to double as pets and in that case, some of the less common breeds described in the book might appeal to you.
Overall, this book is a great fit for those within the food movement who would like to preserve rare varieties of food, including livestock. The commercial chicken industry shows no sign of moving away from Cornish/Rock crosses for meat and Leghorns for eggs, so it really is up to the backyard chicken owner and small farmer to preserve other breeds of chickens. Genetic variety is nature's insurance, so this important task should not be overlooked.
Today I posted a piece on the food blog Zester Daily called "Trained to Get Fat." In it, I focused quite a bit on David Kessler's new book The End of Overeating. Kessler goes through the biological reasons WHY humans overeat, and then explains precisely how food companies and marketers exploit that tendency to ensure that we frequently DO overeat.
