Processed Food Industry Shows USDA Who's Boss in the Cafeteria

by: euclidarms

Thu Nov 17, 2011 at 04:50:29 AM PST

First it was potatoes. Now it's pizza. The processed food industry is reaching out to its friends in Congress to scuttle new USDA guidelines that were supposed to make school meals healthier.

House and Senate negotiators have approved agriculture appropriations language that would allow the tomato paste on pizza to be counted as a vegetable serving under the USDA's new school meal guidelines. Count this as the result of lobbying efforts by processed food giants ConAgra and Schwan Food. Schwan is one of the world's largest purveyors of frozen pizza and pitching for its sauce is Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, where Schwan is based.

Senate Posts New School Lunch Score: Potatoes 1, USDA 0

by: euclidarms

Mon Oct 24, 2011 at 04:16:42 AM PDT

In an unprecedented act of meddling in school lunch rule making, the U.S. Senate last week approved by unanimous consent a measure that forbids the U.S. Department of Agriculture from limiting the amount of potatoes in the national school meals program.

Mainstream media got it wrong: This was not a defeat for the Obama administration or for first lady Michelle Obama. Rather, it was a clear case of congressional double-speak, overturning a mandate Congress itself gave the USDA seven years ago to conform school meals with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The Senate action reverses the work of food science experts at the Institute of Medicine, who had spent years at the USDA's behest drafting the new guidelines Congress had ordered.

Some Thoughts on the Political Environment in 2011

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Jan 04, 2011 at 23:27:24 PM PST

Over in the White House, Obama's looking for a new Chief of Staff, and one name that has been floated is Tom Vilsack, although most people think he's going to pick a Wall Street crony instead. If, for whatever reason, Vilsack leaves USDA, the name I've heard floated to replace him is Blanche Lincoln. Obviously, neither of these scenarios are good.

Getting back to Congress, we're now really getting close to the 2012 farm bill debate. It's here. Congress actually began working on the 2012 farm bill in 2010, but now that we've all got food safety and child nutrition behind us, we can all begin focusing on the farm bill as well. However, Frank Lucas (R-OK), the new House Ag committee chair, says he wants to put off really working on the 2012 farm bill for a while so he can first engage in oversight hearings.

I'm pretty sure that the EPA is going to be a target of those hearings. For whatever reason, Big Ag suddenly thinks that the EPA is going crazy and overstepping its bounds. The likely reason they say this is the EPA's action on carbon emissions. Big Ag has a major tendency to say "A (which doesn't bother me) leads to B (which I don't like), so I'm going to fight A." In this case, they are worried that if the EPA goes after emissions from power plants now, they might go after ag in the future

Another bit of bad news I've heard is the proposal to decrease the acreage enrolled in conservation programs. Several conservation programs involve paying farmers to NOT plant on areas with grasslands or wetlands, etc, to preserve wildlife habitat and to protect waterways from farm chemical runoff. Traditionally, conservation programs are underfunded, so planning to cut them seems absolutely insane.

The basis for their logic is an ongoing fight we've seen between sellers of commodities like corn, wheat, and soy, who benefit from increased commodity prices, and buyers of those commodities (like factory farms), who hate when commodity prices go up. I've watched this fight - which often centers around ethanol, the assumed cause of commodity price increases - for a few years with amusement. But it won't be funny if they settle their differences by taking acres out of conservation programs, which means plowing up grasslands and wetlands and planting them in MORE CORN.

Meanwhile, over at USDA, Vilsack has called for "coexistence" between conventional, biotech, and organic farmers. He doesn't like to see farmers suing one another, nor does he like one farmer dictating to another how to farm. And those are nice sentiments, really, but how do you propose to "coexist" when one farmer's GE corn blows pollen into all of the neighboring fields, some of which might be organic? Or when pesticide from a "conventional" farmer drifts onto a neighbor's organic crop? There's no easy way out here if you're looking for a way to coexist.

If you're hoping to reform the food system, here's what I think needs to be done now. I would expect roughly NOTHING from Congress. Nothing good that is. I think we need to keep our eye on Congress and make noise if they try to prevent the Obama administration from implementing any good policies. We also need to make noise if Congress puts forward very bad ideas in any upcoming legislation. I doubt we'll get much change for the positive in the farm bill, but we should advocate loudly for conservation programs.

I think we need to focus on making positive change in two areas. First, let's concentrate on the Obama administration and see if we can push USDA, the FDA, and EPA in good directions. You might also work within your own state for political change. And second, let's work on non-political reforms to the food system because that's probably where we'll make the most progress right now. Volunteer in your kid's school garden or in a local gardening group. Get involved in your community. Even just inviting friends over for a meal of fresh, ethically produced food is a great way to take action. Before people get active politically, often they need to get involved by falling in love with fresh food, or their farmers' market, or gardening. We need to engage more people like that, so that more people have a real stake in our movement. Then, when the political situation changes, we'll have more people on our side to speak out.

Food safety bill headed to president's desk

by: desmoinesdem

Tue Dec 21, 2010 at 16:28:53 PM PST

Anyway, President Barack Obama is expected to sign the food safety bill soon. Consumer and sustainable agriculture advocates worked hard to strengthen this legislation. Now watchdogs need to keep an eye on the rule-making process and enforcement of the inspection and recall provisions.

Food safety bill "back from the dead"

by: desmoinesdem

Sun Dec 19, 2010 at 17:41:54 PM PST

Today Jamie Dupree reported that the Senate took the food safety language from the "continuing resolution" on spending that had already passed the House and added it to "a House-passed Cash for Clunkers" bill. The Senate then approved the new bill by unanimous consent. Amazingly, no Republican gummed up the works on that, not even the food safety bill's deadly enemy Tom Coburn. The bill now goes back to the House, where Dupree says approval is expected this week.

UPDATE: The Hill's Alexander Bolton and Matthew Jaffe of ABC News report on the Senate maneuvering.

I had almost given up on this bill passing. It's not perfect, but it's a good step forward.

Committee Turnover in Congress

by: Jill Richardson

Wed Nov 03, 2010 at 21:17:41 PM PDT

I've also gone through and made a list of which Blue Dogs stay and go. And many more are going than staying. This election - and the loss of so many Blue Dogs to Republicans - made the Democratic party better, but it made the Congress worse.

The biggest impact will be to the House Ag committee. Out of 27 Democrats that went into this election, 21 of whom were Blue Dogs, only 12 will be returning to Congress, 10 of whom are Blue Dogs.  

Committee Turnover in Congress

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Nov 02, 2010 at 18:59:23 PM PDT

The following is a list of members of Congress, by committee, who will not be back in January either because they lost, retired, or ran for a different office than the one they had before.

Senate

Agriculture:
Blanche Lincoln (Walmart-AR) - Lost to John Boozman (R)

Ag Appropriations:
Robert Bennett (R-UT) - Lost in primary
Kit Bond (R-MO) - Didn't run, replaced by Roy Blunt (R)
Byron Dorgan (D-ND) - Retiring
Arlen Specter (D-PA) - Lost in primary

House

Agriculture: (Farm bill, Food safety-USDA)
John Boccieri (D-OH) - Lost
Bright, Bobby (AL-02) - Blue Dog, lost
Travis Childers (D-MS) - Blue Dog, Lost
Kathy Dahlkemper (D-PA) - Blue Dog, Lost
Brad Ellsworth (D-IN) - Blue Dog, Ran for Senate, lost.
Debbie Halvorson (D-IL) - Lost
Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-SD) - Lost
Steve Kagen (D-WI) - Lost
Frank Kratovil (D-MD) - Blue Dog, Lost to Andrew P. Harris (R)
Betsy Markey (D-CO) - Blue Dog, Lost
Earl Pomeroy (D-ND) - Blue Dog, Lost
Zachary Space (D-OH) - Blue Dog, Lost

Ag Appropriations:
Sanford Bishop (D-GA) - Blue Dog, Lost
Allen Boyd (D-FL) - Blue Dog, Lost to Steve Southerland (R)
Lincoln Davis (D-TN) - Blue Dog, Lost to Scott DesJarlais (R)

Education & Labor: (School lunch)
Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH) - Lost to Frank Guinta (R)
Joe Sestak (D-PA) - Ran for Senate
Michael Castle (R-DE) - Ran for Senate, lost in Primary
Phil Hare (D-IL) - Lost. This one hurts.

Energy & Commerce: (Food Safety-FDA)
Roy Blunt (R-MO) - Won for the Senate
Steve Buyer (R-IN) - Retiring
Bart Gordon (D-TN) - Blue Dog, Retiring, seat won by Diane Black (R)
Baron P. Hill (D-IN) - Blue Dog, Lost to Todd Young (R)
Charlie Melancon (D-LA) - Blue Dog, Lost
George Radanovich (R-CA) - Retiring
John Shadegg (R-AZ) - Retiring
Zachary T. Space (D-OH) - Blue Dog, Lost
Bart Stupak (D-MI) - Retiring, seat won by Dan Benishek (R)

Food Bills in Congress

by: Jill Richardson

Sun Aug 15, 2010 at 00:24:57 AM PDT

Food Safety:

• S. 3669: Food Safety Enforcement Act: To increase the penalties for "knowing violations" when food is misbranded or adulterated. Introduced by Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT) with 2 co-sponsors.

• H.R. 6024: The E. coli Traceability and Eradication Act: "To develop an effective sampling and testing program to test for E. coli" in ground beef. Introduced by Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) with 7 co-sponsors.

School Lunch:

• H.R. 5806: The Eat Local Foods Act: To add local foods to school lunch. Introduced by Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME) with 15 co-sponsors.

• H.R. 5812: Creates a grant program that allows schools to buy local fruits and veg instead of taking the USDA commodities they are given for school lunches. Introduced by Peter Welch (D-VT) with no cosponsors.

Commodity Subsidies:

• S. 3701: Rural America Preservation Act: Closes loopholes and tightens payment limits on agricultural subsidies. Introduced by Sen. Grassley (R-IA) and Sen. Feingold (D-WI).

Ethanol

• S. 3736: Allows states to opt out of the requirement of putting corn ethanol in fuel. Introduced by Sen. Inhofe with no co-sponsors.

Rural Development:

• S.3710: Broadband Program Reauthorization Act: To improve broadband service and coverage around the U.S., especially in rural and tribal areas. Introduced by Sen. Murray (D-WA) with no co-sponsors.

• S. 3745: Rural Infrastructure Improvement Act: Adjusts the median income used to determine eligibility for USDA rural development programs. Introduced by Sen. Blanche Lincoln, no co-sponsors.

Miscellaneous:

• H.R. 5984: The Cooking Helps Elevate Futures Act (a.k.a. The CHEF Act): To establish a pilot program teaching inmates to cook. Introduced by Rep. Laura Richardson (D-CA) (no relation) with 1 co-sponsor.

• S. 3758: Establishes a maximum "somatic cell count" (i.e. amount of pus) allowed in fluid milk. Introduced by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), no co-sponsors.

• S. 3693: A bill to pay the black farmers the settlement they got from the USDA for discrimination. Introduced by Sen. Grassley (R-IA) with no co-sponsors.

• H.R. 6057: Farm Credit Expansion Act: Expands eligibility for Farm Service Agency loans. Introduced by Rep. William Owens (D-NY) with 1 co-sponsor.

• S. 3656: Mandatory Price Reporting Act: A bill "to improve the reporting on sales of livestock and dairy products." Passed the Senate.

13 House Republicans won't express support for school lunch program

by: desmoinesdem

Sat Mar 06, 2010 at 17:39:21 PM PST

H.Res.362 [...] expresses the House's support for the goals and ideals of the National School Lunch Program and "recognizes that our pupils deserve access to high-quality, safe, and nutritious meals in school." It passed 403-13, every Democrat and 155 Republicans, including the entire GOP congressional leadership voting in favor.

The roll call reveals the shameful list of 13 Republicans who voted against this resolution: Todd Akin (MO-02), Paul Broun (GA-10), Jason Chaffetz (UT-03), Jeff Flake (AZ-06), Virginia Foxx (NC-05), Scott Garrett (NJ-05), Doug Lamborn (CO-05), Cynthia Lummis (WY-AL), Tom McClintock (CA-04), Ron Paul (TX-14), Ted Poe (TX-02), James Sensenbrenner (WI-05), and John Shadegg (AZ-03).

Usually when a House vote is that lopsided, I can count on Representative Steve King (R, IA-05) to be on the embarrassing end of the roll call. However, I'm happy to report that even the occasionally mean-spirited, uncompassionate, clueless, dare I say cartoon-villain-like King recognizes that "our pupils deserve access to high-quality, safe, and nutritious meals in school."

Senate Agriculture Committee will get new leader next year

by: desmoinesdem

Tue Feb 02, 2010 at 11:44:32 AM PST

Assuming Lincoln loses, either to a Democratic primary challenger or to a Republican in November, the Senate Agriculture Committee will be needing a new chair in January 2011. Currently, Democrats are expected to retain a majority in the Senate, which would put Debbie Stabenow of Michigan in line to chair the Agriculture Committee. Republicans have a slim chance at winning enough seats to take over the Senate this November. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia would be the likely new chair, since is the ranking Republican on the committee now, but it's possible that the GOP caucus could shuffle things around.

Government Works: Putting America Back To Work

by: Curtis Abbey

Sat Nov 14, 2009 at 09:07:00 AM PST

A year ago it was chaos, it looked as if the economy was going to implode. Like many generations before us we learned the lesson that an unregulated market builds bubbles. On the inflate many get rich off of transaction fees and rising asset values. When the bubble pops the negative feedback loops or vicious cycles are devastating. We saw the transferred devaluations move from housing values to Wall Street securities and from there to all sectors of the economy. Autos, small banks, 401ks, mutual funds, university endowments. It wasn't clear when the wave would stop but we knew something had to change. The government's normal economic tools were used up after too many bubbles and they were wrong in scale for the job. As a last resort the government stepped it up with once in a lifetime moves like TARP and the ARRA also known as the stimulus. Yet 9 months after the stimulus was passed it's critics are fiercely attacking it. They say it's not working, it's wasteful, it should stop.

Food safety bill may not clear Senate this year

by: desmoinesdem

Sat Oct 10, 2009 at 12:52:02 PM PDT

The Senate has been bogged down in the debate over health care reform, and Harkin said his staff is tied up working on other must-pass bills. He said he hoped to have the committee take up the bill in December, but he assured her the issue wouldn't die.

"We're going to get it done," he said.

Recent food scares linked to peanut butter and other products have spurred interest in Congress in increasing the FDA's authority. Michael Taylor, a senior adviser at the FDA, told the victims and their families that the agency was poised to tighten its regulation of foods if Congress would just pass the legislation. "The forces have come together," he said. "Society is finally ready to deal with this problem."

Speaking about food safety legislation last month,

Harkin said he expected the committee's bill to be a modified version of legislation introduced by Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill. Like the House bill, Durbin's legislation would give the Food and Drug Administration more authority over the 80 percent of the food supply - everything but meat and poultry - that the agency regulates. The administration would be required to inspect processors more often, and processors in turn would face new regulations for controlling against pathogens.

But the Durbin bill omits a key feature of the House-passed bill: a $500 fee on processors to offset the cost of increasing the administration's budget.

Scott Faber, a lobbyist for the Grocery Manufacturers Association, told Philip Brasher of the Des Moines Register that he thinks this bill has less than a 50/50 chance of getting through Congress. The Grocery Manufacturers Association supported the food safety bill the House approved in June, but Faber observed, "As we get closer and closer to the [2010] election it makes it harder to move legislation."

New Food-Related Bills in Congress

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Oct 06, 2009 at 08:31:18 AM PDT

Dairy
H.R. 3674: Milk Import Tariff Equity Act - This is a GREAT bill that would slap a tariff on the Milk Protein Concentrates (MPCs) that come from other countries to undercut American dairy. This was also introduced into the Senate as S. 1542 by Chuck Schumer.

School Lunch
S. 1737 by Sen. Al Franken, to increase the number of children eligible for free school lunch. The companion bill is H.R. 3705 by Keith Ellison of Minneapolis.

S. 1693: The Safe Food for Schools Act by Kirsten Gillibrand. This bill seeks to correct current flaws in the government that have proven troublesome in keeping tainted food out of school lunches.

H.R. 3625: Food Marketing in Schools Assessment Act by Carolyn McCarthy. This bill calls on the Secretary of Education to study and report on the marketing of food and beverages in elementary and secondary schools.

H.R. 3277: Student Breakfast and Education Improvement Act by Gwen Moore of Wisconsin. This bill provide grants to expand the school breakfast program.

Food Safety
S. 1527: Unsafe Meat and Poultry Recall Act introduced by NM Senator Tom Udall. This bill gives the USDA authority to recall tainted meat and poultry.

H.R. 3624: The Poison-Free Poultry Act by Steve Israel. This bill bans the uses of roxarsone (an arsenical) in poultry. Roxarsone has already been banned in Europe for 10 years.

Food Stamps
H.R. 3587: Nutritious Food for Health Families Act by Mark Schauer of Michigan. This bill reduces the interval between issuances of food stamp benefits from a maximum of 40 days to a maximum of 17 days.

Labeling
H.R. 3317: Trans-Fat Truth in Labeling Act by Steve Israel. This bill requires labeling of trans fats even when amounts are under 0.5g. Currently, if a product contains less than 0.5g of trans-fat, it is allowed to claim itself trans-fat free.

Dead Zones
H.R. 3650: Harmful Algal Blooms and Hypoxia Research and Control Amendments Act of 2009 by Brian Baird of Washington. This bill is to research and reduce the algal blooms that lead to hypoxic conditions and dead zones in our waterways. And to reduce the algal blooms, we must reduce agricultural and municipal run-off.

Biochar
S. 1713: Water Efficiency via Carbon Harvesting and Restoration (WECHAR) Act, introduced by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Breastfeeding
H.R. 3626: The Exemplary Breastfeeding Support Act by Carolyn McCarthy of New York. This bill is to support and promote breastfeeding.

Seeds
H.R. 3299: Seed Availability and Competition Act by Marcy Kaptur. This bill is "To require persons who seek to retain seed harvested from the planting of patented seeds to register with the Secretary of Agriculture and pay fees set by the Secretary for retaining such seed, and for other purposes."

Racism and Discrimination
H.R. 3623 by Rep. Artur Davis of Alabama. This bill provides compensation for claimants in the infamous Pigford case, a case in which the USDA discriminated against black farmers. Some farmers have been compensated already, but far too few received compensation, and the issue is still outstanding.

Ron Paul Crazy Stuff
H.R. 3395: Health Freedom Act. This bill would basically remove any limitations on what supplement manufacturers could claim on their labels. Wanna say vitamin C cures AIDS? Go for it. Under this bill, someone would have to take you to court and prove that you were wrong in order to make you take that off your label.

Will Congress force EPA to approve higher ethanol blends?

by: desmoinesdem

Mon Sep 21, 2009 at 06:00:00 AM PDT

Sens. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) are reportedly considering (sub. req'd) offering amendments to [a major appropriations bill to] force the Environmental Protection Agency to raise the blend level [for ethanol in gasoline] above the current 10 percent maximum as an amendment to the EPA appropriation bill. The corn-state senators would like to see blend limits raised to 15 percent, and E&E reports that it looks likely that the potential amendments would block funding for the EPA if they don't move forward on raising the blend limit. [...]

But the EPA faces opposition to increasing ethanol levels in gasoline from environmentalists, livestock producers, refiners, and other groups. Concerns have been raised about whether most engines can handle higher blends, and recent studies indicate that the use of ethanol may increase global warming. The general impression among opponents of the higher blend is that it doesn't really benefit anyone other than the corn lobby.

I hope Congress will let the EPA make this determination based on all the relevant factors. I understand that senators like to protect major industries in their home states, but increasing the ethanol blend limit isn't even universally good for farmers. As Sheppard indicates, conventional livestock producers could end up paying higher prices for feed.

An Update on Congress (Including a Batshit Crazy Bill by Ron Paul)

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Aug 06, 2009 at 06:00:00 AM PDT

• The Senate debated Ag Appropriations
  
• The House debated the Food Safety Enhancement Act (I wrote about this last week but the link here gives you the official transcript).
  
• And debated it some more.
  
• The CBO (Congressional Budget Office) wrote up a report on the Food Safety Enhancement Act
  
• Sen. Schumer wants to get milk protein concentrate out of our dairy products (yay!!!)
  
• Sen. Udall of New Mexico introduced a bill that would authorize the USDA to mandate a recall of tainted foods.
  
• Ron Paul introduced a bill about health claims on food labels.

  The Ron Paul bill reads as follows:

  The Federal Government may not take any action to prevent use of a claim describing any nutrient in a food or dietary supplement (as such terms are defined in section 201 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 321)) as mitigating, treating, or preventing any disease, disease symptom, or health-related condition, unless in a final order of a Federal court following a trial on the merits finds clear and convincing evidence based on qualified expert opinion and published peer-reviewed scientific research that--

  (1) the claim is false and misleading in any material respect; and

  (2) there is no less speech restrictive alternative to claim suppression, such as use of disclaimers or qualifications, that can render the claim non-misleading.

  Translation: If this bill were to pass (it won't), you would be able to label a package of Twinkies to say that they cure AIDS, so long as nobody takes you to Federal court and proves that you're lying. And even then, the result might be that you are allowed to keep the claim so long as you add a disclaimer like "Scientific evidence has not found any evidence that this is true."