Lazy Sunday Sampler Platter

by: Jill Richardson

Sun Mar 22, 2009 at 04:51:38 AM PDT

Mark Bittman shares a recipe for oven baked steel-cut oats. Yum! I'm trying this.
Need more details about the new White House garden? How about a map and pics of the groundbreaking.
I have a new goal for my food career. Check this out - tourists to Tuscany will pay big bucks for the privilege of cooking with Michael Pollan. Oh yeah, after my book becomes a New York Times bestseller (lol) I want to be invited as the celebrity guest to an Italian food resort!
Natasha Chart reports on a super-sweet bill in the Montana state government that forces biotech companies to obtain a farmers' permission before sampling crops on their land. Nice! It's already passed the House... just has to get past the Senate now.
Civil Eats features a fantastic piece on farming in Namibia.
How Much Water Do You Really Use? This site rocks! Did you know it uses 37 gallons of water to make a cup of coffee, 33 for a soda, and only 9 for a cup of tea? But all that ain't nothin' compared to the 634 gallons required for a hamburger!
A gardener describes her garden library. If you're looking for some good books on gardening, this might be the place to go for suggestions.
Scientific American weighs in about MRSA on hog farms with their article "Our Sick Farms, Our Infected Food."
Marion Nestle comments on Disney characters advertising food. I'm with her - let's keep our cartoons and our food separate. The last two pics in the post make a very clear point - Sponge Bob hawking baby carrots AND Burger King. If we're teaching our kids to choose the food that Sponge Bob eats, like carrots, does that mean that Burger King is good for you too?
Wow! Slow Food and Michael Pollan met with the CDC! If only the freakin' House Ag Committee was so receptive to their message...
Marion Nestle reports on the USDA's plan to test ground beef at packing plants 4 times a month (PDF). I like this idea... sort of. Four times a month seems pretty weak to me, considering the volume of ground beef one of these plants can make in a single day. I'd be very happy if the proposal was to test the meat 4 times a DAY instead.
As if you didn't have enough to look for on food labels already, now you might start seeing a sustainable water certification. Nice idea, but why can't we just drink the stuff out of our taps?

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Salmonella Typhimurium Outbreak started Labor Day and it is now almost Inauguration Day

According to the CDC, as of Wednesday, January 7, 2009, 388 persons infected with the outbreak strains of Salmonella Typhimurium have been reported from 42 states. Among the 372 persons with dates available, illnesses began between September 3 and December 29, 2008, with most illnesses beginning after October 1, 2008. Patients range in age from <1 to 103 years; 48% are female. Among persons with available information, 18% were hospitalized.

So, we have a shelf- stable product (like cereal or peanut butter) or a frozen product (chicken nuggets) or refrigerated product (eggs or cheese) that are all kept for an extended period and shipped all over the United States. It is also a product that is consumed by infants and people over twice my age. Oh yes, and the 388 people thus far counted share the same genetic finger-print of Salmonella Typhimurium in their stools.

Yet, local and state health departments, and the CDC, have made no announcement "publically" what product has sickened nearly 400, put 75 in the hospital and killed a woman in Minnesota. Do they really not know what the product is? Are they worried that the product identification needs to be perfect so there is no comparison to last year's tomato/pepper Salmonella outbreak? Is public safety in the balance? Or, do we simply need better, more timely information so an outbreak can be determined early, the correct product identified and pulled from our shelves.

As I have said too many times, we need to improve surveillance of bacterial and viral diseases. First responders - ER physicians and local doctors - need to be encouraged to test for pathogens and report findings directly to local and state health departments and the CDC promptly. Right now, for every person counted in an outbreak there are some 20 to 40 times those that are sick but never tested. The more we test, the quicker we know we have an outbreak and the quicker it can be stopped.

These same governmental departments, whether local, state or federal, need to learn to "play well together." Turf battles need to take a back seat to stopping an outbreak and tracking it to its source. That means resources need to be provided and coordination encouraged so illnesses can be promptly stopped and the offending producer - not an entire industry - are brought to heal.

"Change is coming" - right?

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FDA'S Stealth Policy Reversal On Animal Antibiotics Could Lead to Superbug Disaster

by: LA Locavore

Wed Dec 10, 2008 at 18:00:31 PM PST

(Thanks to LA Locavore for this fantastic diary! - promoted by Jill Richardson)

Barack Obama is inheriting Ag policies and food safety policies that have been the subject of huge debates for years, and the FDA has just pulled off a whopper of a policy reversal to add to the mix. They're following the lead of other Bush regulatory bodies, which are scrambling to codify old policies in the Lame Duck microseconds that remain before Obama takes office, but FDA's stealth reversal stands to permanently alter the US food chain and profoundly endanger public health.

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Mississippi - Still the Fattest State

by: OrangeClouds115

Tue Jul 15, 2008 at 08:00:00 AM PDT

The ten fattest states are (in order of their 3-year averages, with their 2007 numbers in parentheses):
1. Mississippi (32.6% obese; 68.1% overweight or obese)
2. West Virginia (30.3% obese; 68.0% overweight or obese)
3. Alabama (30.9% obese; 66.6% overweight or obese)
4. Louisiana (30.7% obese; 65.2% overweight or obese)
5. South Carolina (29.0% obese; 65.3% overweight or obese)
6. Tennessee (30.7% obese; 67.4% overweight or obese)
7. Kentucky (28.7% obese; 69.1% overweight or obese)
8. Oklahoma (28.9% obese; 65.1% overweight or obese)
8. Arkansas (29.3% obese; 65.6% overweight or obese)
10. Michigan (28.2% obese; 64.3% overweight or obese)

I betcha if someone with better statistics skills than me did the math, they'd find that these were some of the states with the highest poverty and the highest rural populations.

Skinniest states
1. Colorado (19.3% obese; 55.7% overweight or obese)
2. Hawaii (21.7% obese; 56.8% overweight or obese:
3. Connecticut (21.7% obese; 59.2% overweight or obese)
4. Massachusetts (21.7% obese; 58.9% overweight or obese)
5. Vermont (21.9% obese; 58.8% overweight or obese)

Find more info here.

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