La Vida Locavore is the blog for anyone whose crazy life includes planting, growing, weeding, fertilizing, raising, picking, harvesting, processing, cooking, baking, making, serving, buying, selling, distributing, transporting, composting, organizing around, lobbying about, writing about, thinking about, talking about, playing with, and eating food!
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
The Cornucopia Institute has a new action alert out. They are asking us to write the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) to request that organic soy lecithin MUST be used when available in all USDA certified organic products. Comments are due by Monday, April 20th.
Instructions on commenting, details on this issue, and a sample letter are below.
The almond issue has been brewing for a while. Or, rather, steaming and getting sprayed with toxic gas. What am I talking about? A while back some genius decided that from now on all U.S. almonds can't be raw. Now, they might SAY "raw almonds" at the store, but they were actually treated either with steam or with a toxic gas (propylene oxide). And I hear that the steam treatment is prohibitively expensive.
As you can imagine, raw almond lovers said, "No deal." I was among them. But I'm lucky - the new rule allowed an exemption for anyone selling almonds direct to consumers and I buy my almonds straight from the farmer at my market. Of course, I don't think it's OK for everyone else to get screwed over while I sit back and munch on my raw almonds.
This week brought news of a defeat in court by the almond farmers who sued over this. Details below...
(Note that even Kastel often tells me that MOST organic producers are good people who follow the letter AND spirit of the law. It's a few bad but technically organic apples that we are trying to ferret out and decertify here.)
A few months ago (when nobody cared about anything except for the election), the USDA put out some proposed rules for organics. The rules mostly pertained to dairy but there were a few other provisions thrown in that have nothing to do with dairy at all. I would like to believe these rules reflect good intentions by the USDA. I would like to believe that they show the USDA wants to prohibit factory farms from calling themselves "organic" and that is why they proposed the rules.
Unfortunately, if these rules go through unchanged, about half of legitimate organic dairy farmers will no longer qualify as organic. And the comment period ends tomorrow.
Today I learned some good news about organic dairy. Well, good and bad. The good - no, great - news is that the USDA took a step towards putting factory farm "organic" dairies out of business by issuing new rules that would disqualify them as organic. The bad news is that the proposed rule is so flawed that we can't even advocate for it.
First of all - if you are concerned about your own milk, check out Cornucopia Institute's dairy scorecard. They assure me that MOST organic milk does meet the high standards we expect them to, and their dairy scorecard is crucial to any consumer who wants to know for sure that their organic milk is organic.
That said, there are some bad apples (namely, Horizon and Aurora). The new rules strive to put them out of the organics business by requiring organic dairies to allow the cows to graze on grass for a significant part of the year. This is also great news for milk drinkers because when the cows eat grass, their milk contains a healthy nutrient called CLA. The problem with the proposed rule is that it would also put an estimated HALF of legitimate organic dairies out of business.
Forgive me for leaving out the details for now - I've read through them and my head is spinning. It's clear that organic dairy farmers are needed to weigh in on the proposed rules. The other problem with the rule is that it includes rules for organics other than dairy (beef, honey, and fish).
It seems to me that our major requests as of now are three:
First, separate the dairy rules from other livestock rules so that we can get the changes we need in dairy without slowing that process down with controversy over other foods;
Second, allow the National Organics Standards Board (NOSB) to weigh in on fully on the proposed rule (apparently the USDA issued this proposed rule without running it past NOSB);
Third, please extend the comment period on this proposed rule so that the organic community has time to decide what needs to be done and communicate that back to the USDA.
Currently there's a comment period open until mid-December. I will continue to cover this issue and I will certainly let everyone know once we foodies have a unified message to send to the USDA in our comments.
I just got a very alarming action alert from The Cornucopia Institute. And we've got until Monday - BEFORE the election - to take action!
The Cliffs Notes version is as follows: Pesticide-soaked, GMO soy is STILL allowed to be used to make soy lecithin for ORGANIC foods. Even 100% USDA certified organics. That's because they are allowed up to 5% of non-organic ingredients in certain cases, and soy lecithin is one of those allowed cases. Now tell me if that ain't a load of bullshit!
To Take Action: Go to the Regulations.gov site (it's docket AMS-AMS-08-0083 but the link should take you straight there) and click to add comments. Suggested comments are below - you can use them and put them in your own words.
Last year, the USDA decided that all raw almonds grown in the U.S. (which basically means all raw almonds) must be "pasteurized" before they are sold (with an exception for raw almonds sold directly farmer to consumer). Then they can be sold labeled as "raw" even though they have been treated by either steam or a carcinogenic gas.
Recently, a group of almond growers sued. The Cornucopia Institute has been following this issue since it arose, and they have filed a FOIA request seeking certain documents about almond pasteurization. From the Cornucopia Institute's press release on this:
Since the passage, in spring 2007, of the controversial rule mandating pasteurization of raw almonds grown in California, policy analysts at The Cornucopia Institute have made numerous requests for public information from the Almond Board of California (ABC). Repeatedly, the Almond Board has failed to turn over documents they allege prove the effectiveness of pasteurization and the comparative nutrition, quality, and safety of pasteurized almonds and raw untreated almonds.
"We have taken this step because we have been frustrated by the Almond Board and the USDA's unwillingness to share the science behind the rule, the science that purports to show that treatment with either a toxic fumigant or steam heat is safe and does not affect the almond's taste and nutritional qualities," said Will Fantle, research director for The Cornucopia Institute, a Wisconsin-based farm policy group.
More below, and thanks to The Cornucopia Institute for sticking up for farmers and consumers everywhere!
In the last year, a new rule has come down the pike for raw almonds: they must be pasteurized with either steam or toxic gas. Apparently the steam method is prohibitively expensive, making toxic gas the most feasible method available to most growers. Those of us who enjoy eating raw almonds as a delicious source of protein are very frustrated about this.
Today, the Cornuocopia Institute put out a press release about a lawsuit against the USDA over this (and they quoted me as an angry consumer!!!)
WASHINGTON, D.C. - A group of fifteen American almond growers and wholesale nut handlers filed a lawsuit in the Washington, D.C. federal court on Tuesday, September 9 seeking to repeal a controversial USDA-mandated treatment program for California-grown raw almonds.
The almond farmers and handlers contend that their businesses have been seriously damaged and their futures jeopardized by a requirement that raw almonds be treated with propylene oxide (a toxic fumigant recognized as a carcinogen by the EPA) or steam-heated before they can be sold to American consumers. Foreign-grown almonds are exempt from the treatment scheme and are rapidly displacing raw domestic nuts in the marketplace.
Tens of thousands of angry consumers have contacted the USDA to protest the compulsory almond treatment since the agency's new regulation went into effect one year ago. Some have expressed outrage that even though the nuts have been processed with a fumigant, or heat, they will still be labeled as "raw."
I love the Cornucopia Institute. If you're ever looking for a good place to donate, please consider them. They do amazing work. Also, if you're looking for truly raw almonds, they can be attained by buying direct from a farmer. I've got a few at my farmers' market and I think the going rate is $10/lb. Email me if you want me to send you some.
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