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
My experience with our country's drug policy (and I expect yours too) is like the story of the blind men touching the elephant. Each man touched a different part of the elephant, and when asked to describe it, one described the elephant's side, one described its tail, others described its ears or its trunk, but none of them were able to understand or describe the entire elephant. Ryan Grim's new book This Is Your Country on Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America is the tool you need to understand the entire elephant of America's drug history and its drug policy.
Definitely check out this piece on Eating Liberally about nutritionism. That's the term that I think Michael Pollan probably coined referring to the obsession with eating all sorts of vitamins but forgetting to focus on whether or not you're eating real food.
One of the pioneers of the organics movement talks about what the word organic has meant over the past 30+ years. Very enlightening - especially if you (like me) didn't even exist 30 years ago :)
Two of my favorite bloggers together in one diary! Yay! Marion Nestle did an interview at Obama Foodorama about Obama's new puppy and pet food politics. (And speaking of Pet Food Politics, I highly recommend Nestle's book of that title and I'm looking forward to her next book about what pets should eat too!)
Calling all Mountain Dew lovers! Fooducate tells all about Yellow #5. The most upsetting fact on the list? Organic foods CAN contain this artificial food dye. What?!
It might be an April Fool's joke, but Grist has a great article called The straight dope on local, organic weed. And you know what? I don't care if they are trying to be funny. I think the point is right on. As a San Diego resident ("I can see Mexico from my house!"), the Mexican drug cartels are a little too close to home for me and I would LOVE if the U.S. took away a major source of their funds by legalizing marijuana and allowing Americans to grow and smoke our own weed.
On the question of legalization, I say that the "gateway drug" argument is entirely invalidated by the fact that alcohol and cigarettes are legal, so clearly our society has nothing against the legal consumption of bad-for-you gateway drugs. Legalizing pot would boost the economy, reduce the number of people in our jails, and allow our cops to focus on more important things. And legal or not, I think that local and organic is the way to go :)
According to Meatingplace, the USDA wants more safety regulations on delis and butchers. Apparently retailers don't do a good job with record keeping, making it hard to trace problems once they occur. The article also noted that "a person is seven times likelier to die from listeria after eating deli meat produced by a retailer than by a federal plant."
Civil Eats has a nice post about foraging for morel mushrooms. I've never tried foraging for morels but I sure enjoy eating them!
What are you to do if you're a locavore in Phoenix? Civil Eats has a few ideas. (As a frequent visitor to AZ myself, I'd recommend to any tourists, DON'T eat the ornamental oranges, but DO eat prickly pear fruits. Just, um, don't actually touch the prickly pear cactus yourself. I've tried. In addition to the big, visible pricklies there are tiny, invisible ones on there too.)
Marion Nestle comments on antioxidants as a marketing tool. I'm with her on this - fruits and veggies contain antioxidants. You don't need a label to tell you that.
The Green Fork features a fantastic review of Whole Grains for Busy People, a cookbook that definitely seems work checking out.
The Atlantic tells about life after a gastric bypass. All I can say is that it sounds absolutely miserable. Of course, I doubt anyone has too much fun within the first two weeks after ANY surgery, gastric bypasses included. For the writer's sake, I hope life - and eating - get better with time.
Great one by Ezra Klein. He says (about "organic" Oreos): "These cookies think you're very stupid." Indeed.
Blackwater wants us to call it Xe (pronounced "Zee") and AIG is contracting with PR firms to give its image a boost. Small surprise that the peanut industry is also jumping on the rebranding and PR bandwagon. Of course, in this case I kind of don't blame them. AIG on the other hand...
I was sad that my brother wasn't alive for Obama's inauguration, but man... if there was ONE THING I wish my brother would be alive for, it would be this. California, deep in debt, is finally broke enough to do something that makes total sense: legalize pot and tax the shit out of it.
The plan is to legalize it for people over 21 (like alcohol), to save money from policing and locking up pot heads, and to make money from a marijuana tax. Tom Ammiano is the brave (and SMART) man who introduced the bill, AB 390. The tax would be $50/oz.
Ammiano, a Democrat in his third month as a state lawmaker, said taxes and other fees associated with regulation could put more than a billion dollars a year into state coffers at a time when revenues continue to decline. (Source)
I'm talking about marijuana, of course! Sure it's not typically something you eat - unless you're making brownies (in which case you should invite me over) - but it still falls loosely under the topics covered on this site. It's a plant. It grows. And I don't see why a plant should be illegal. How can human laws ban nature? (Well - that's a whole 'nother topic because clearly we try to overrule nature with our laws all the time!)
Obama just picked out his "Drug Czar," Gil Kerlikowske, the Seattle Police Chief. Like many, I'm hoping that this selection signals a new era of drug policy that will involve leaving the potheads the hell alone. The article Czar Struck: Obama's Brilliant Pick for Drug Czar says:
And nationally, Kerlikowske could be a drug czar who pushes to lift the federal ban on funding needle exchange, stops the medical pot raids in California, overhauls our nonsensical anti-drug commercials, and enthusiastically seeks funding for drug-treatment programs.
The brilliance of Obama's pick for drug czar is not just finding someone who is open to new strategies, but someone who nonetheless holds undeniable qualifications as a cop. Nobody can claim Kerlikowske is a public-health nut who doesn't know the impact of drugs on the streets. Like many Americans, he agrees that drugs should be illegal. But he understands the place for low priorities and public health-and he's willing to step back where enforcement alone has failed.
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