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
On The Today Show, Matt Lauer hosted dietitian Elizabeth Ward to discuss how to make "healthy" food choices on a road trip. Virtually the only measure Ward used to evaluate what was healthy was how many calories is in it.
She started out with breakfast at McDonalds, stating she was a big proponent of eating eggs. She recommended scrambled eggs and an English muffin. (This item doesn't actually appear on the menu, but these ingredients are served at McDonalds -- maybe she was suggesting making a special order, or throwing out the rest?)
For the record, scrambled eggs at McDonalds, which one could easily mistake for being comprised of well, eggs, actually contain the following:
Pasteurized whole eggs with sodium acid pyrophosphate, citric acid and monosodium phosphate (added to preserve color), nisin (preservative). Prepared with Liquid Margarine: Liquid soybean oil, water, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, salt, hydrogenated cottonseed oil, soy lecithin, mono-and diglycerides, sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate (preservatives), artificial flavor, citric acid, vitamin A palmitate, beta carotene (color).
The article goes on to talk about her recommendations at KFC, Taco Bell, and Burger King. For the record, you can find healthy food during road trips by using the travel tool at Eat Well Guide. I'm driving from Pittsburgh to Vermont today and I used that site to find a few natural foods stores and restaurants along my way.
The other day I noted that the Humane Society was congratulating Wendy's for switching a mere 2% of their eggs to cage-free. Turns out Wendy's isn't alone. Burger King, Hardee's, Quizno's, Carl's Jr. and Denny's are each going to buy about 5% of their eggs as cage-free. I interpret this as a "shut up and get off my back" move by the fast food chains to placate the Humane Society without getting bad press and protests at their restaurants. It seems that McDonald's wasn't even willing to go that far to get HSUS to back off - they'd rather "study the issue" for 2 years first.
In fact, the VP of Corporate Social Responsibility at McDonald's had the chutzpah to say "I have been to our laying facilities and I am proud of them. The birds are protected well." Protected by cramming 10 of them into each battery cage, giving each hen less room than a sheet of paper? Oh they are protected all right. In huge, windowless rooms with 100% protection from the elements and from coyotes or any other critter that might want to harm a chicken. You might say that prisoners in maximum security prisons are "protected well" too.
Quite frankly, I'm disappointed that the Humane Society is going to settle for this - any of this. If they care about the chickens so much, don't they care enough to keep negotiating for more than just a 5% switch?
Let these restaurants know that we can spot hypocrisy when we see it:
Burger King is making us an offer we can't refuse. Which do you want more, an artery-clogging Whopper, or a Facebook friend? Now, if you ditch 10 friends, they'll give you a free burger. Then they send your ex-friends a message saying you like Whoppers better than you like them. Gross.
Let me just say now: If anyone un-friends me for a Whopper, then we weren't meant to be friends in the first place. However, I am not a vengeful person and if you un-friend me, I do not wish upon you any of the health problems those burgers may cause, nor do I wish for you or your children or grandchildren to live in a world devastated by the environmental degradation necessary to make those burgers.
Also: If any of you men out there are interested in me, wearing the new meat-scented Burger King fragrance is not a way to woo lovely vegetarian ladies like myself.
UPDATE: Bill Scher informed me of a few more of Burger King's unhealthy antics. They have searched the world for "Whopper Virgins" - people who have never heard of the Whopper - to have those people do a taste test. Ugh. Why must we export our culture's worst aspects to places that we haven't wrecked yet? Burger King has also started playing with YouTube... posting video of people eating the "Octo Stacker" - a burger made with 2 buns, 8 patties, 9 pieces of cheese and 16 pieces of bacon.
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