Pesticide Lovers on the Offensive

by: Jill Richardson

Thu May 21, 2009 at 20:00:00 PM PDT

At least... that seems to be the message of the infamous CropLife Association, the same group of dumbasses that I exposed for writing Michelle Obama once and pleading with her to soak her veggies in poison so that her two daughters could grow up as cancer- and Parkinsons-prone as every other child in America. Hat tip to Tom Philpott for finding this letter writing campaign on their site.

In the meantime, Gov. Rendell of PA has jumped on the garden bandwagon, as has Vermont (VT's garden will be organic... no word yet about PA). Sorry CropLife. Organic is in for gardens this year. Pesticides are SO last century!

Sampler Platter 05.16.09

by: Jill Richardson

Sat May 16, 2009 at 09:33:25 AM PDT

• Obama Foodorama covers the First Lady's commencement speech at UC Merced in CA's Central Valley, a town that's a great example of the rural recovery efforts this country needs.

• Can you tell the difference between pate and dog food? Many Americans can't. I'm almost afraid to take that taste test because I would be so upset with myself if I couldn't tell the difference!!

• Oy vey, a conservative commentator decided that feeding healthy food to the poor is a waste of food. Natasha Chart doesn't agree. My comment about the conservatives: AND THEY CALL US ELITIST???

• Hooray! Chicago bans baby bottles with BPA! Now, please, can everywhere else ban them too? In fact, can we just ban ALL BPA?

• Civil Eats looks at the USDA's numbers of new farms and asks what is a farm? A backyard flock of chickens that lays $1000 of eggs in a year? What about 60,000 cows that stand in the dirt and eat feed grown elsewhere? Most of us would probably say both of those aren't farms, but to the USDA they are.

• The Ethicurean took a trip to the Sustainable Foods Institute in Monterey, CA and told us all about it on the blog.

• Oh please. The National School Boards Association opposes healthier school lunches. Why? Why??? What kind of screwed up society do we live in?

• Alternet posted its zillionth plea for us to quit eating so many factory farmed animals. I really hope somebody besides myself is reading these.

• Another great one from Alternet asks if the farm that grew your organic food is a humanitarian nightmare. Yet another reason to buy food from a farmer you know.

• Cheerios are a drug! So says the FDA, based on Cheerios' claim to help lower bad cholesterol. If it says it does that, it is a drug, and must be regulated as such. Clinical trials, anyone?

• Ghent, Belgium, declares meatless Thursdays.

• Why is Lays promoting "local"? Tom Laskawy has a few ideas.

Case of the Mondays Sampler Platter

by: Jill Richardson

Mon Mar 23, 2009 at 07:47:44 AM PDT

• Ezra Klein got his reservations to celebrity chef Mario Batali's restaurant Babbo far in advance, awaited the day, and... it was just okay. Which makes me wonder if I should just keep my fantasy of dining at the French Laundry as a fantasy so I can assume it's really as good as I think it is.

• The Atlantic has lots to say about compost.

• Mark Bittman weighs the value of the organic label. I like his conclusion that some day we should produce food as if animals and the land mattered. He says:

  Some of that food will be organic, and hooray for that. Meanwhile, they should remember that the word itself is not synonymous with "safe," "healthy," "fair" or even necessarily "good."

• Obama Foodorama makes a profound point about the White House garden: The White House itself was built by slaves, and now Michelle, descended from slaves, is its First Lady. That adds a layer of meaning to those pics of her digging in the dirt at the groundbreaking.

• Have any questions about the fats in food? Marion Nestle answers.

• Alternet lists the Top 10 Aphrodesiac Foods. Now THERE'S a nice, free activity during this crappy economy!

• Also from Alternet: dumpster diving.

• Spain's got a new plan to give free fruit to school children. So do we, in our Fresh Fruits & Vegetables Program, but it's still in a pilot phase in only a few schools per state. Weak!

• Check this out: 100 Blogs for the Frugal Gourmet. Just what I need right about now, although I don't think I need a blog to tell me that my staples of oatmeal, whole wheat toast, spinach omelets, yogurt, roasted veggies, and fresh fruit are cheap and delicious.

• A network of women farmers in India are fighting the climate crisis by going organic.

A White House Garden's Nice, but How About Funding Farm to School?

by: Jill Richardson

Fri Mar 20, 2009 at 06:00:00 AM PDT

I can't help but get swept up in the excitement over the symbolism of the garden as well as the publicity it will bring to gardening and to eating fresh, local food. However, with Obama's position as the most powerful man in the world, I'd like to see him do more. Five years ago, Congress authorized a National Farm to School Program - but failed to fund it. Five years have gone by with no change. Now a major piece of child nutrition legislation is going through Congress so the timing is perfect. With his garden, Obama will bring change to the few lucky youngsters from Bancroft Elementary, but what about the rest of the nation?

Obamas bringing back the victory garden

by: desmoinesdem

Thu Mar 19, 2009 at 17:55:30 PM PDT

On Friday, Michelle Obama will begin digging up a patch of White House lawn to plant a vegetable garden, the first since Eleanor Roosevelt's victory garden in World War II. There will be no beets (the president doesn't like them) but arugula will make the cut.

While the organic garden will provide food for the first family's meals and formal dinners, its most important role, Mrs. Obama said, will be to educate children about healthful, locally grown fruit and vegetables at time when obesity has become a national concern.

In an interview in her office, Mrs. Obama said, "My hope is that through children, they will begin to educate their families and that will, in turn, begin to educate our communities."

Twenty-three fifth graders from Bancroft Elementary School in Washington will help her dig up the soil for the 1,100-square-foot plot in a spot visible to passers-by on E Street. (It's just below the Obama girls' swing set.) Students from the school, which has had a garden since 2001, will also help plant, harvest and cook the vegetables, berries and herbs.

Almost the entire Obama family, including the president, will pull weeds, "whether they like it or not," Mrs. Obama said laughing. "Now Grandma, my mom, I don't know." Her mother, she said, would probably sit back and say: "Isn't that lovely. You missed a spot."

I have little to add, but I wanted to bring this to the attention of the La Vida Locavore community. Thanks are due to Michael Pollan for putting this idea forward in an "Open Letter to the Next Farmer in Chief" in the New York Times Sunday Magazine last October. Obama read Pollan's piece and paraphrased points from it in an interview with Time magazine.

Pot Luck: We're Famous In Italia!

by: Jill Richardson

Mon Mar 16, 2009 at 19:00:00 PM PDT

Mrs. Michelle Obama, First Lady and Locavore

by: Curtis Abbey

Wed Mar 11, 2009 at 13:21:26 PM PDT

Michelle Obama's Agenda Includes Healthful Eating

THE television cameras were rolling, the journalists were scribbling and the first lady, Michelle Obama, was standing in a soup kitchen rhapsodizing about steamed broccoli. And homemade mushroom risotto. And freshly baked apple-carrot muffins.

Mrs. Obama was praising the menu last week at Miriam's Kitchen, a nonprofit drop-in center serving this city's homeless. And she seized the moment to urge Americans to provide fresh, unprocessed and locally grown foods to their families and to the neediest in their communities.

"You know, we want to make sure our guests here and across the nation are eating nutritious items," said Mrs. Obama, who served lunch to several homeless men and women and delivered eight cases of fresh fruit to the soup kitchen, all donated by White House employees.

Michelle Obama Supports Local Food

by: Jill Richardson

Mon Feb 23, 2009 at 10:17:41 AM PST

The first lady took the opportunity to put in a pitch for local and sustainable food and for healthy eating, a recurring theme of hers during the campaign and since she arrived in Washington.

When food is grown locally, she said, "oftentimes it tastes really good, and when you're dealing with kids, you want to get them to try that carrot."

"If it tastes like a real carrot, and it's really sweet, they're going to think that it's a piece of candy," she continued. "So my kids are more inclined to try different vegetables if they are fresh and local and delicious."

This is the second time Michelle Obama has been outspoken about her support for foodie issues. Last week at the USDA she said:

I was also particularly pleased to hear that [Secretary Vilsack is] working on creating these wonderful gardens here at the USDA...

It's a very good thing--and, kicking off this effort to build these gardens all over the world, in all the facilities of the USDA, because I'm a big believer in community gardens, both because of their beauty and for their access to providing fresh fruits and vegetables to so many communities across this nation and the world.

Appetizer Sampler Platter

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Feb 19, 2009 at 16:58:15 PM PST

• Michelle Obama visited the USDA. My take away from the NY Times blog coverage was the fact that the USDA's new garden will grow fruits and veggies to donate to DC soup kitchens. If the original USDA press release about the garden mentioned that, I certainly missed it.

• West Hollywood passed a resolution supporting California's upcoming foie gras ban, which goes into effect in 2012. An interesting story I picked up at Slow Food Nation was of a man who didn't forcefeed his geese at all. He just waited until they stuffed themselves silly in preparation for winter and got foie gras from them all the same, minus the goose torture. So given that the forcefeeding isn't even necessary to get the foie gras, I'm for the ban.

• Natasha Chart writes a fascinating piece about using mushrooms to clean up toxins in the environment. Fascinating! Now... how about we actually start doing that here?

• U.S. Food Policy writes about the Institute of Medicine's thoughts on salt and reducing sodium intake.

• Take a Bite Out of Climate Change reports that many UK hospitals are going veg. It's a way to save money (and put the savings into patient care) while saving the earth too.

• The Ethicurean writes about a family whose kids pitched in for their own college fund by growing and selling veggies.

• Civil Eats writes up local food in Minnesota. Yes, believe it or not, you can even grow stuff in states that are really, really cold.

Michelle Obama Visits USDA, Vilsack Makes Appalling Comments About Food Safety

by: TheObamaFoodorama

Thu Feb 19, 2009 at 13:14:28 PM PST

But as the Mother in Chief, would Michelle feel quite so blessed if she knew Tom Vilsack's real views on food safety? While speaking to a group of growers at the US Rice Federation last week, Vilsack illustrated perfectly that he has absolutely no interest in protecting any Americans from death by contaminated food, but rather that he's solely interested in profit:

"How would you like to be in the peanut business today?" Vilsack said. "At the end of the day, (food safety) is about preserving the income opportunities for farmers and ranchers...We've got to make sure the food supply is safe. That's how you preserve markets."