Sampler Platter 05.23.09

by: Jill Richardson

Sat May 23, 2009 at 15:42:28 PM PDT

• New York is trying to bring grocery stores to food deserts. Yay! If they find a successful method of doing this, let's hope other cities steal their ideas.

• Interested in what Americans ate during the first Great Depression? Apparently beavers and squirrels were on the menu (hat tip to GastroNomalies)

• Vilsack plays dumb. Swine flu? Never heard of it. He only knows about the H1N1 flu. Riiight.

• Meanwhile, while the swine flu story is over for most of us, it's not over at the implicated Mexican Smithfield operation, which is still very invested in proving its innocence. Especially because its being sued.

• Why a school farm? The Atlantic has some ideas.

• Ever tried Mongolian cuisine? Most of us have probably never even thought about it. I had the opportunity to try some - once - and oh my god, I turned that opportunity down. When I lived in China I had 2 friends from Inner Mongolia. After a trip home, they returned to Beijing with a "treat" for me - some "Mongolian dairy snacks" as they put it. And that was NOT something I was interested in eating. The "snacks" were approximately the size and shape of Cheetos but they were white and looked moist. And there was no freaking way I was putting them in my mouth. I ate dog and testicles in China, but I had to draw the line somewhere. My friends wanted to see me taste them but I awkwardly explained that I wanted to share them with other Americans so I'd taste them later. Fortunately, the food described in this article sounds a bit more appetizing.

• BlogHer is having a foodie conference.

• Yay to the Center for Food Safety, who says that reliance on biotech in a food aid bill is a step in the wrong direction.

• IATP cleverly writes about "seeing the forest through the corn." With a title like that, you KNOW they are talking about Iowa - and a forest in Iowa that is home to many endangered and threatened species.

• In Israel, owls are replacing chemicals to do the job of pest control. Very cool!

Sampler Platter 05.06.09

by: JayinPortland

Wed May 06, 2009 at 14:50:13 PM PDT

• Another victory for the precautionary principle - Monsanto has just lost a court ruling in Germany, in which they were attempting to overturn the country's ban on a variety of their genetically-modified corn.

• Deborah Lehmann at School Food Policy (which is quickly becoming one of my favorite blogs) writes about the importance of putting the "school" back into school lunches.

• An article in the New York Times takes a look at how agribiz giant Smithfield is rapidly bringing factory hog farming to Eastern Europe -

  In Poland, there were 1.1 million hog farmers in 1996. That number fell 56 percent by 2008, as the advent of modern farming methods transformed agriculture, according to the Polish National Agricultural Chamber.

  [...]

  The impact on the environment is even more marked. With almost 40 farms in western Romania, Smithfield has built enormous metal manure containers to inject waste into the soil. "We go crazy with the daily smell," said Aura Danielescu, the principal of a school in Masloc, who closes her windows tight.

More below the fold...

Old News Sampler Platter

by: Jill Richardson

Wed Apr 22, 2009 at 06:00:00 AM PDT

• Former President Clinton admits "We blew it" on global food.

  Clinton said much-needed food crops were treated "like color TVs" instead of a vital commodity that could aid the world's poor.

  Soooo true. Now how you gonna clean up the mess?

• Hmm, apparently eco-friendly shrimp actually exists. Seafood lovers, take note!

• Here's a report from the UK about the role of supermarkets in sustainability.

• A must-read article about racism in slaughterhouses sent to me by TheFatLadySings.

• Another must-read, from The Rodale Institute: Organic Farming May Be the Best Route to Global Food Security.

• This past December, workers at a Smithfield plant won a MAJOR victory when they formed a union. That victory took them 16 years to accomplish.

• The World Bank's 'Wrong Advice' Left Silos Empty in Poor Countries. If these international institutions keep screwing up, does that mean that countries can stop listening to them?

• Animals can be certified organic, so how about people? One pediatrician decided to find out.

  Dr. Greene said he was inspired to go all-organic after talking to a dairy farmer who noted that livestock got sick less after a switch to organic practices. He wondered if becoming 100 percent organic might improve his own health.

  Three years later, he says he has more energy and wakes up earlier. As a pediatrician regularly exposed to sick children, he was accustomed to several illnesses a year. Now, he says, he is rarely ill. His urine is a brighter yellow, a sign that he is ingesting more vitamins and nutrients.

Mexico Stops Importing U.S. Meat

by: Jill Richardson

Mon Dec 29, 2008 at 16:00:00 PM PST

Mexico Suspends U.S. Meat Imports

Mexico has suspended meat imports from 30 processing plants in 14 states, including Smithfield Packing Inc., which is based in North Carolina.

The news was released on the U.S. Department of Agriculture Web site.

Smithfield is the world's largest pork slaughterhouse.

According to the Associated Press, other companies that will be affected by this move are Tyson Foods, Inc., Cargill Inc., ConAgra Foods Inc., and Swift Foods Inc.

The ban could greatly affect Tyson because high feed prices have already strained its profits and Mexico represented 23 percent of its international sales in 2008.

Authorities believe the suspensions may be in retaliation for the U.S. putting a country-of-origin labeling law into effect earlier this year in response to concerns the safety of imports.

The country-of-origin labeling law mandates the separation of foreign cattle and pigs in U.S. feedlots and packing plants.  Foreign animals are also now required to have more documentation about where they come from and have tags that indicate they are free of mad cow disease.