Iowan Activist Puts Midwest Face on Sustainable Food Movement

by: Curtis Abbey

Wed Mar 25, 2009 at 13:13:33 PM PDT

But he wants you to know, "in no uncertain terms," that he is not a foodie. Foodies are people who obsess about the perfect apple tart. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But for Murphy, the fight for good food isn't about pleasure or aesthetics; it's about justice and survival.

Is that a fair definition of a foodie? If so, I guess I'm not a foodie.  

Monday Evening Sampler Platter

by: JayinPhiladelphia

Mon Mar 23, 2009 at 16:00:00 PM PDT

• A new restaurant near the University of Texas at Arlington, which uses locally grown, organic ingredients as much as possible, has a no-set-price policy, and asks customers to discreetly pay (in an envelope) afterwards for what they thought the meal was worth.  The idea is based upon an existing Salt Lake City non-profit community kitchen's model.  Can it work for a commercial establishment?  So far, the restaurant is coming up just short, although it's only two months old and the business itself is always a rough one.

• The City of Berkeley, CA may soon transform all of its parks and open spaces into habitats for bees, in an effort to reverse the recent global decline of pollinators.

• If you're in Kansas, you can vote for the best food in the state from now until March 31.  Unfortunately, restaurants must be at least a decade old in order to be considered, so that rules out Lawrence's Local Burger for at least the next 7 years.  I'm sure there's something else worth considering in Lawrence, though...

• USDA will update its Plant Hardiness Zone Map later this year, for the first time since 1990, to reflect the climate-change induced shifts of planting zones northward.

More below the fold...

What kind of cook are you?

by: zic

Wed Mar 18, 2009 at 07:55:14 AM PDT

Find out by taking the NYTimes quiz, What's you're cooking personality?

Tuesday Afternoon Sampler Platter

by: JayinPhiladelphia

Tue Mar 17, 2009 at 12:00:00 PM PDT

• An op-ed in today's San Francisco Chronicle takes on the way our government develops dietary guidelines.  Ouch -

  Here is a daily diet that meets [current] nutrition guidelines: Breakfast: 1 cup Fruit Loops; 1 cup skim milk; 1 package M&M milk chocolate candies; fiber and vitamin supplements. Lunch: Grilled cheddar cheeseburger. Dinner: 3 slices pepperoni pizza, with a 16-ounce soda and 1 serving Archway sugar cookies.

  This helps explain why 12-year-old schoolchildren develop thickening of their carotid arteries to the brain, and 80 percent of 20-year-old soldiers, dying in combat, are found to have coronary artery heart disease.

• Idaho may become the next state to change assets tests in order to allow more people to become eligible for food stamps.

• The Nature Conservancy purchased the 4,136-acre Shasta Big Springs Ranch in California, including the entire 2.2-mile length of Big Springs Creek, in an effort to restore salmon in the Klamath River system.

• A group of medical and fisheries experts in Canada are making a health and environmental argument to reduce fish consumption in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

• Is the Grocery Manufacturers Association part of a frightful (boo!) "socialist experiment", too?  Or are they just hypocrites?

  Although a spokesperson for the Grocery Manufacturers Association broadly welcomed the news that the legislation had been put forward, he criticized the proposal that industry should pay for plant inspections. He told FoodNavigator-USA.com: "We believe that food safety is a right that all Americans have...and that it should be paid for by Congress appropriating general funds."

  How about paying some taxes then, guys?

Monday Evening Sampler Platter

by: JayinPhiladelphia

Mon Mar 16, 2009 at 18:26:29 PM PDT

• A couple of really cool interactive tools from Periscopic; all kinds of maps, graphs, historical data, etc on the state of Pacific salmon - State of the Salmon, and the Visual Marine Stewardship Council web tool

• NOAA Fisheries Service proposed last week to list Pacific smelt as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act.

• The Corvallis Environmental Center in Corvallis, OR (home of Oregon State University) is organizing a tour of local homes who keep chickens and ducks.

• The first salmon-eating Columbia River sea lion was just killed at Bonneville Dam last week, under a new policy that will relocate or kill up to 30 sea lions from Bonneville this year.

• The Klamath, California-based Yurok Indian tribe is in discussions with wildlife experts and state and federal officials to re-establish condor populations in Oregon, where the largest North American land bird hasn't been seen in over a century.

• The US government on Saturday permanently banned downer cows from our food supply, replacing the temporary partial ban that has been in place for the last 5 years.

Sunday Sampler Platter

by: JayinPhiladelphia

Sun Mar 15, 2009 at 10:00:00 AM PDT

• Although no meat packers or producers will admit to being a part of them, tests have already been carried out at commercial feedlots and USDA has just approved an E. Coli vaccine for use on cattle.  This is "a new weapon against a foodborne disease that wouldn't be a problem in the first place if cows were raised properly can cause serious illness in people and even death."

• Eat Well Guide is holding a contest and offering prizes to Spring Breakers who choose to "Eat Well Everywhere" this month.  Which is a prize in itself, of course.  Oh, do I have stories on top of stories about awful road food...

• The new and updated edition of the Environmental Working Group's "Shopper's Guide to Pesticides" is online, offering a list of which foods are the best and worst in terms of pesticide residue levels when grown 'conventionally'.

• A program being offered by Cornell University's Cooperative Extension of Wyoming and Cattaraugus/Allegany Counties (NY) on beginning a successful small farm begins this week.  The course for prospective new farmers is now open for registration, and can be attended for the entire series or by the individual session.

• Stephanie P. at The Ethicurean lets us know that not everything sleeps when the ground freezes, telling us of some growers she's met since arriving in Vermont and their many methods.

• Twenty-seven Canadian municipalities have already disallowed the sale of bottled water on and in municipal property and buildings, and in a vote last week the Federation of Canadian Municipalities passed a resolution asking all other cities and towns throughout Canada to do the same.

• A British company will soon be building a giant microwave oven to cook wood into charcoal, in the next step towards industrializing 'biochar'.

• Researchers affiliated with the University of Missouri-Columbia are looking for participants in a survey "to learn more about people's attitudes about and practices of food preservation".

Bill Introduced To Ban BPA

by: JayinPhiladelphia

Sat Mar 14, 2009 at 13:07:00 PM PDT

The move came a day after Sunoco, the gas and chemical company, sent word to investors that it is now refusing to sell bisphenol A, known as BPA, to companies for use in food and water containers for children younger than 3. The company told investors that it cannot be certain of the chemical compound's safety. Last week, six baby-bottle manufacturers, including Playtex and Gerber, announced that they will stop using BPA in bottles.

Note the bolded part.  That's where we have to go next - can we actually take the next step (as Europe has), and test chemicals before they're introduced for widespread use in common everyday products?

BPA is a known endocrine disruptor commonly used in the production of many household items, from baby bottles to plastic food containers to soup cans to dental fillings; and exposure via tap water and house dust is now also thought possible.  Many studies have linked long term, low-level BPA exposure to everything from increased risks for obesity by triggering fat-cell activity, to diabetes, heart disease and an increased risk of developing breast cancer later in life from fetal exposure.

Tests have found toxic levels of the chemical in products, including those marked as "microwave safe."

The amounts detected were at levels that have caused neurological and developmental damage in laboratory animals. The problems include genital defects, behavioral changes and abnormal development of mammary glands.

What is the definition of "microwave safe", btw?

Here's the link to my last BPA piece here.  I'll try to find the text of these bills and update with links when possible.

Update: I found the legislation, links and summary below the fold...

Farmers market at City Hall: the next step in the further greening of Palo Alto, Calif.

by: raatz

Thu Mar 12, 2009 at 22:39:22 PM PDT

Friday Night Sampler Platter

by: JayinPhiladelphia

Fri Mar 06, 2009 at 19:25:09 PM PST

• Under growing public pressure, six major companies will stop selling hard plastic baby bottles containing the dangerous industrial chemical BPA; in a major victory for human beings, and the first of what will hopefully be many losses for pseudo-scientific shills who place corporate profits over human health.

• In other BPA news, recent tests have found the toxic hormone-mimicking substance exists in at least 96% of soft drinks tested in Canada -

  Dr. vom Saal says there is also a growing body of scientific literature, based on animal experiments, that has found harmful effects due to BPA at concentrations up to 1,000 times below Health Canada's safety limit.

• The Federation of Canadian Municipalities will vote Saturday on a proposal urging cities and towns across Canada to ban sale of bottled water within / on municipal facilities and properties.

• Vancouver, BC's City Council voted unanimously on Thursday to allow urban backyard chickens, and hopefully soon a group of citizens of Salem, Oregon will be able to overturn that city's current ban as well.

• A new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, published in the journal Bioscience, concludes that the greatest threat to Northwest salmon are invasive species -

  The study, which was published in the journal Bioscience, is sure to be controversial because much of the Northwest's multi-billion dollar salmon recovery work is centered on improving habitat, mitigating the damage of power-producing dams and curtailing commercial or recreational fishing.

  This report argues the greatest threat to fish are non-native species like crappie or bass that can eat up juvenile salmon as the make their way downstream from their birthplace to the ocean.

Remember PCA?

by: JayinPhiladelphia

Fri Mar 06, 2009 at 16:15:17 PM PST

* A dead mouse stuck to a glue trap. "The mouse appeared to have died recently," the report reads.

* "What appeared to be rodent excreta pellets too numerous to count were observed in the cabinet under the sink in the south most kitchen."

* "In the cabinet north of the dishwasher ... I counted approximately 27 rodent excreta pellets."

* "Another dead mouse was found just outside the south most doorway of the kitchen. ... This mouse also appeared to have recently died."

* "What appeared to be a bird's nest was observed in the wall/ceiling metal support beam at southwest corner of the mezzanine area."

* Processing machines had buildup of "gooey" peanut paste.

* Numerous roof leaks.

In an ironic twist, it turns out that a Texas State Health Inspector regularly drove past the Plainview, TX PCA plant that the state didn't know existed on his way to other jobs -

A state inspector drove by the Plainview plant regularly on his way to other jobs, but he never entered the facility.

"I find it inconceivable that an inspector could pass the plant and not know food was processed there," Estes said. "We need a mechanism where people are aware of what's happening in their communities."

Also, an AP article from yesterday notes how easy it was for PCA to fool inspectors into believing it was licensed -

Jack McCasland, environmental inspector for the Plainview-Hale County Health Department, said plant officials led him to believe the licensing process was under way when he visited the facility before it opened.

"To be honest, I never really thought to follow up on it," McCasland said. "It just never occurred to me that they wouldn't be (licensed)."

PCA Update: VA Plant Had Long History of Rodents, Mold on Peanuts

by: JayinPhiladelphia

Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 03:29:35 AM PST

In Virginia, tests for salmonella have come back negative. But inspection reports revealed evidence of rodents and other unsanitary conditions at the Peanut Corp. plant in Suffolk. State inspectors repeatedly found evidence of rodents at the plant since Peanut Corp. bought it in 2000, according to inspection reports.

As recently as October, a Virginia inspector found "an accumulation of black, green and yellow mold" on blanched peanuts and 43 containers each holding 2,000-pounds of peanuts. The plant manager told the inspector after the discovery that those peanuts would be destroyed if not used for animal feed and oil stock.

That must be the new Rainbow Mold flavor.

Also, following up on the news from a week and a half ago of the new salmonella find at PCA's Texas plant, salmonella poisoning cases linked to products from PCA's Texas plant have moved beyond just Colorado, and on into Oregon -

Oregon health officials have confirmed a new case of salmonella infection, and for the first time peanuts sold in bins are the likely culprit. The peanuts came from the Peanut Corp. of America's Plainview, Texas, plant, which has been linked to a salmonella outbreak.

The recall continues to expand, and more below the fold...

Albany County (NY) Passes Local Food Purchasing Policy

by: JayinPhiladelphia

Sun Feb 22, 2009 at 22:26:20 PM PST

ALBANY - County lawmakers, in what was described as a first of its kind policy in the region, approved a measure Monday night to buy locally-grown food for the jail and nursing home.

Latham Democrat Tim Nichols, the lead sponsor, said if the "county dedicates just 10 percent of its food purchases" for the two facilities, "local farmers would share some $270,000 in county dollars annually."

That's a pretty significant sum that would otherwise have gone elsewhere.  Of course, I believe we need to move that number much higher, but that's great news for Capital District and Hudson Valley farmers, and a very good start towards heading to where we need to be.  It's definitely time we begin to take seriously the task of strengthening local food systems, not only through the purchases of individual citizens and restaurants, but also by taking advantage of the buying power of institutions and government.  It's a very virtuous cycle - keeping as much of our money as possible circulating throughout our own communities benefits everyone who lives there.  

Hundreds of thousands of dollars in the hands of regional farmers is going to be of much more benefit to local businesses and governments, than would that same amount of money being dumped into some Cargill black hole halfway across the country.  A corporate bank account a thousand miles away isn't going to get its hair cut in Troy, or take its family out to dinner in Schenectady on a Friday night.

More below the fold...

Seven Beaten To Death For 'Raiding' Garden

by: JayinPhiladelphia

Sun Feb 22, 2009 at 17:00:00 PM PST

An excellent piece in The Sunday (UK) Times touches upon the current food situation in Zimbabwe, as Robert Mugabe and his disgusting little minions feast at a luxury hotel as part of a week long birthday celebration for the man who turned Africa's breadbasket into Africa's basketcase...

A crowd of 2,000 was expected to feast on beef in sauce or roast chicken, rice and vegetables last night, with serenades from a variety of musical acts at the Rainbow Towers in Harare.

...here's a glimpse at how bad the situation is for the rest of the people of Zimbabwe -

So desperate is Zimbabwe's food crisis that seven thieves were recently beaten to death for raiding neighbours' vegetable patches, according to the state-run Herald newspaper.

More below the fold...

Let Them Eat Cholera

by: JayinPhiladelphia

Fri Feb 20, 2009 at 18:17:30 PM PST

If you're Zimbabwe's 'President' Robert Mugabe, you throw yourself a $100,000 feast of which Marie Antoniette would have been proud -

Johannesburg/Harare - More than 100,000 US dollars is expected to be spent on Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe's 85th birthday party next week - while more than half his country's population lives in dire poverty.

Africa's oldest leader turns 85 this Saturday, with a lavish party to follow on February 28.

Meanwhile, on that same day across the rest of the country, millions of Zimbabweans will be subsisting mostly upon sadza, the same nutritionally bankrupt, imported, highly-processed cornmeal porridge they subsist on every day, if they can get anything to eat at all.

Here's to the day (which can't come soon enough) that Robert Mugabe is no longer making life a living hell for the good and proud people of Zimbabwe.  If only they had oil, eh?

Peanut Corp. was a "time bomb," had sanitation problems as early as 1980s

by: DarrellNC

Sun Feb 15, 2009 at 11:00:26 AM PST

Today's Washington Post has a front-page story--about the rise and fall of Peanut Corporation of America.  The most devastating tidbits come from a former buyer for a major snack company, David Brooks.  Apparently, the conditions that eventually led to the salmonella outbreak had been prevalent in the company's operations for at least 20 years.

On three occasions in the mid-1980s, Brooks inspected PCA's Gorman plant to determine whether to buy its peanut products, he said. Each time, he gave the plant a failing grade.

"It was just filthy," said Brooks, who has since retired from the food business. "Dust was all over the beams, the braces of the building. The roofs leaked, the windows would be open, and birds would fly through the building. . . . It was just a time bomb waiting to go off, and everybody in the peanut industry in Georgia, Virginia and Texas -- they all knew."

This was back when Hugh Parnell, Sr. still ran the company.  He sold it in 1994, but Stewart Parnell bought it back in 2000 and added the Georgia and Virginia plants later on.  Like father, like son.