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
Bikeloc's duo of Robert DuBois and Aaron Zueck's two wheeled journey across America paused last weekend for a potluck dinner at Marty & Kris Travis' Spence Farm in Fairbury, Illinois. Spokes-men (literally) for the local food movement, the pair have embarked on a cross-country bicycle tour to meet farmers, advocates, and everyday people calling for a more sustainable food system in this country. They've chosen potluck dinners as their vehicle to share food and stories with the people that they meet in the communities they visit. Starting out in April in Hardwick, Vermont, Robert, of Washington, DC and Aaron, from Brooklyn, NY will end their adventure in September in San Francisco, California.
Detroit is empty. It is black and violent, poor and foreclosed, a gutted out postindustrial wasteland. Dilapidated houses and hollowed out factory yards serve as rotting corpses strewn across the landscape, bearing testimony to an industrial apocalypse. Such is the contemporary popular imagination of a city once known as the Paris of the West.
Within the contemporary food movement, Detroit is well known as an an important site of food justice activism. In a city in which 500,000 out of 900,000 citizens are food insecure, a multitude of grassroots projects have emerged to rebuild Detroit into a sustainable urban environment for the future. Thus, What better place to host the second US Social Forum (USSF) than Detroit? This is exactly what the planning committee of the USSF thought when it selected Detroit as the host city, and recognized it as a "solution city" that is building on its history of solutions to rebuild the city for a sustainable future. Yesterday I dialed in and listened to one of the USSF call-in information sessions being held this month in Spanish and English. Here is what I learned...
Tucked in a corner of the grand casino at Aria, the heart of MGM Mirage's brand new CityCenter project, is Julian Serrano. Yes, it's Spanish. Yes, it's tapas. And yes, the food here is fantastic!
OK, I must admit I was a little afraid of trying this place. I backed out of a reservation for my dad's birthday over a bad review. I was second-guessing myself when I was thinking of the reservation for my birthday (well, the day after, but I celebrated) tonight.
However, all my doubts were thrown out the window once a friend and I went into Bradley Ogden and began to take in the casually elegant ambience. This place is so luxurious, yet so comfortable! And yes, the same goes for the food.
Cross Posted at Daily Kos, Docudharma, Firefly-Dreaming and Progressive Blue.
No more snow job photo diaries out of me. Since it is midwinter and everyone can use a little break from the cold, I think a little Brazilian Modern is in order.
How about you? Join me below for more photos and see an amateur review of my South American trip from last year.
The previous diary was easy pickins' on a clear blue sky day. This represents something a bit more challenging, trying to capture the snow as it is falling.
It's not so easy and I really should have worn a hat and some gloves. But if your in the mood for another snowy park, than take a walk below the fold for a beautiful park in a blizzard.
OK, I'm sure some of you have loved my recent reviews of some of Las Vegas' finest dining establishments... And some of you have just been rolling your eyes and wondering when I'll step out of Fru-fru-land and get to the burgers and fries.
So guess what?
IT'S BURGER TIME, PEEPS!
I want to share with you two of my favorite burger joints, one on Strip and one off Strip. Both are fantastic, but neither will destroy (what's left of) your 401(k).
When my father's birthday was approaching in December, I knew I wanted to do something special to celebrate. So what to do? Where to go? What should we eat?
Then all of a sudden, I had an idea. Yes, this was the place. ;-)
How about a high school class that takes students from the inner city, most of them from poor families, to the butcher shop to show them where the meat comes from, and to farms to show them where their food is grown? And has them run large gardens to grow food for themselves and their families?
They also read articles by writers like Michael Pollan and Wendell Berry and watch documentaries like Food, Inc. The teacher has them work at a farmers' market and do volunteer work with the food-challenged.
This class is run out of the Automotive High School in Brooklyn and is one of the most popular classes offered. Perhaps because the teacher also takes them to a farm where they get to make apple cider and apple pies, feed the pigs, and sweep up cow manure. In short the students learn that their food doesn't just come from packages in the supermarket and from McDonalds and Burger King.
This sounds like a really neat course that I wish had been offered decades ago when I was in high school. If I had taken it, I might have chosen to go into farming myself.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I hear it all the time. Supposedly, dining in Las Vegas sucks. Supposedly, there's nothing original about Vegas eats. Supposedly, one can't live and eat sustainably in Vegas. And supposedly, one can't eat well on a budget.
Well, let me put your "supposing" to rest once and for all!
OK, OK, we'll just talk about cheap eats today. (The rest I'll cover later in the series.)
Hello and Happy Thanksgiving. These photos and stories appeared elsewhere last night. I hope you and yours get a chance to enjoy this all natural ingredients story on your holiday.
Next Wednesday the most famous Christmas Tree In New York City lights up where there was once a Botanical Gardens. Up in the Bronx at the New York Botanical Garden it is already beginning to look a lot like Christmas. On Saturday The Eighteenth Annual Holiday Train Show pulled into town and you can enjoy the delights of a miniature Rockefeller Center Christmas tree already at this favorite for children of all ages.
The star of this New York holiday favorite may seem like the model railway trains chugging through a glass house but children also get to experience the architecture of New York, past and present. Children are inspired by handmade art that is created from plant materials such as bark, moss, twigs, berries, and pine cones.
Below the fold is a photographic guide from start to finish of this year's Holiday Train Show for your children to enjoy and a few old New York stories for you. It's a family outing that definitely has GreenRoots.
In these tough economic times, the last thing you'd think you'd see someone doing would be to open a new restaurant, especially a fancy one. If you heard someone was doing this, in a new, untested location, and had spent a million bucks on tenant improvements to a newly-constructed ultra-green office building over the past year, you might start to question their sanity.
But then, you'd have to come and experience the vision and nearly-ready-to-open reality of Gather, an organic cafe and restaurant providing access for all to the sustainable food movement, "Seasonal farm food among friends... where people can always find something healthy, reasonably priced and deeply satisfying to eat."
Follow me over the fold for a sneak peek from last night's preview tasting, some background about the setting and the vision, and how we can bring about a revolution, one bite at a time.
John and Jackie Stower run the Manna Storehouse in LaGrange, Ohio. Last December their organic food coop and homeschool were raided by a SWAT team, who invaded their home with guns drawn, held them and their family captive for six hours, and confiscated a large amount of food. No charges were ever filed. The Buckeye Institute is helping the Stowers sue the The Lorain County General Health District, the Ohio Attorney General's Office and the Ohio Department of Agriculture. The trial will open October 8 and 9 at 8:30 am.
Canning fresh fruits and vegetables as a cheap and effective method of preserving large amounts of food dates back to the Napoleonic Wars in late 18th century France. While its origins are military in nature (regular supplies of food were scarce in winter), and demand for mass-produced tinned food skyrocketed due to military demand during World War I, it is important to note that you can can cans or glass jars in the comfort of your own home.
As we talk about climate change and the ways in which we can reduce CO2 emissions worldwide, I feel that the important discussions about carbon treaties and international mandates need to be accompanied by concrete ideas as to how everyday people will be able to live healthy lives in a world where fossil-fuel intensive practices and products will come at a much higher price than we are currently accustomed to. Preserving our locally grown and harvested food at home is not only a great way to eat delicious food year-round and have fun with friends, but it significantly reduces the carbon footprint associated with mass-produced and globally transported food.
Hi everybody, I've been wanting to post over here for a while, so this seems to me a good cause to step into the locavore zone...
Two weeks ago, on September 3, a fire at Soul Food Farm in Vacaville, California, burned down two chicken houses with 1000 baby chicks trapped in it, the old 1880s barn, thirty acres of pasture for the meat birds, beautiful oaks, and all the old plum trees. Alexis and Eric Koefoed, who in the late 1990s had bought the farm that had been untended for 30 years, had been poised to launch their CSA of free-roaming and pasture-raised chickens for both eggs and meat in October. Like most small farms, they were operating without a safety net, so the fire was absolutely devastating.
In a true outpouring of support and community, fundraising dinners, raffles and a chicken house building workday have been scheduled, but to keep operations going, any small and large cash donation is needed and welcomed.
You can donate by clicking this link to PayPal; those who dislike PayPal can also mail a check made out to Soul Food Farm, 6046 Pleasants Valley Rd., Vacaville, CA 95688.)
In these tough economic times, the last thing you'd think you'd see someone doing would be to open a new restaurant, especially a fancy one. If you heard someone was doing this, in a new, untested location, and had spent a million bucks on tenant improvements to a newly-constructed ultra-green office building over the past year, you might start to question their sanity.
