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
Have you folks seen Sally Fallon's awesome cookbook, Nourishing Traditions. She's with the Weston A. Price Foundation, which is listed on the promotional page for the film, "Fresh," here: http://www.freshthemovie.com/m...
The book has recipes and the margins are filled with fascinating food facts and quizzes. The front has a powerful summary of research based nutritional information.
This group has done a great job of demonstrating shared interests between the food movement and farmers. (See Joel Salatin's endorsement of Sally Fallon's work here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... Their research data emphasizes nutritionally dense foods. They're great at overcoming corporate myths for vegetable transfats and hydrogenated oils and against saturated fats from eggs, dairy/milk, pork, and poultry, which they show to be crucial to our health. They're leading in the fight for raw milk and against soy. Got Silk? Oooops. You better check out what the Weston A. Price foundation has found out about it. (Have yo seen the bumper sticker: Babies need milk, not beans!)
Washington Post garden columnist Adrian Higgins today lends his voice to the growing movement behind backyard chickens in the nation's capitol with a front-page spread in the paper's Home section.
Wanna see something funny? Check out The Good Egg Project, Sesame Street's newest sponsor and the American Egg Board's homage to itself. Ya think they maybe have a bit of an image problem lately?
I had entirely too much fun reading through that site.
After navigating through a quick sequence of pictures so sappy that Air Supply songs should be playing in the background, we head on into the facts and figures section. Learn our process!
With such gems as this...
The conventional system is designed for the welfare of the hen as well as for production efficiency.
...I don't think I'll ever criticize them again! What do you know? They are doing what they do for the welfare of the hens, first and foremost! :)
Something else you may not have known: I am Prince Charles and Prince Rogers Nelson. Which one I look like on any given day just depends upon what I have for breakfast (eggs?) that morning. Have you ever seen both of us in the same place at the same time, btw? I didn't think so. Now you know why. And you also know that the 208 American egg farmers with flocks of 75,000+ hens really "place top priority on [the birds'] comfort, health and safety"...
Oh, and as always - Pot Luck is an open (pastured?) thread.
Yesterday's announcement by the Food Safety Working Group (FSWG) was written up in the Washington Post. Basically, they decided to have a "go-to" person for food safety at the FDA, a deputy commissioner for food safety (Michael Taylor, former Monsanto lobbyist). Aside from that, they focused on a few specific things. Salmonella in eggs and poultry, E. coli in beef (particularly ground beef), and safety for leafy greens, tomatoes, and melons. So far, the FDA already issued a new rule for eggs. The rest is all set to happen in the future. Essentially, they are leaving a very broken system in place and slapping a few band-aids on it.
Prop 2 passed in California last November, but that wasn't the end of the fight for animal welfare laws. The animal ag industry got their butts kicked and they are trying to gain grown after the fact. Now the egg industry saysa literal interpretation of Prop 2 allows them to keep hens in cages. The Humane Society disagrees. And the California State Assembly is considering a bill (AB 1437) to require all eggs sold in the state (not just the eggs laid within the state) to comply with Prop 2. That's a great idea, actually, because it puts CA egg producers on a level playing field with egg producers outside the state.
Meanwhile, in Ohio, the animal ag industry has a brand new tactic to prevent Ohio from passing its own "Prop 2." They want to create a state board that determines animal welfare standards, a measure backed by the state's Democratic Governor. One thing I've learned is that industry doesn't support ANYTHING if it's not in their best interests. That makes me tend to believe the Humane Society's criticism of the creation of a state animal welfare board:
Big Agribusiness' attempt to amend Ohio's constitution by creating an industry-dominated council to oversee farm animal treatment is poor policy and an attempt to thwart meaningful reform. This proposed council is a blatant attempt to stall efforts to halt inhumane confinement practices for veal calves, pigs and other animals on factory farms - systems that are so restrictive that the animals are often prevented from engaging in basic movements such as turning around and extending their limbs.
We have been asking the Ohio Farm Bureau to engage in serious dialogue on these issues for months, but not only have they refused to respond to our initial proposal, but they now want to enshrine their favored oversight system into the state constitution...
It's a special interest power grab that is designed to circumvent the input of all Ohioans into the process and divert attention from serious reform.
This is a fight that will continue to play out around the country and in Washington, DC. Animal ag is spending a lot of money to lobby against animal welfare laws at the federal level, even though there is absolutely no momentum to do anything on the issue in Washington. New York, California, and Ohio seem to be the big battleground states for animal welfare at the moment, and Ohio is the next place we will probably see a ballot measure similar to Prop 2.
I've been thinking a lot about these types of topics lately, that is the industrial agruculture system and the local/direct to consumer agriculture system and how those two systems differ in their production and animal husbandry practices as well as the markets they supply. I applaud the restaurant chains that Jill highlighted in Egg McCruelty, for shifting at least some of their egg sources from cage facilities to cage free facilities, and I too think they should source a higher percentage of their eggs from cage free farms, ideally 100%. Although, McDonalds is a bit behind the curve, compared to the advances of their competition.
The other day I noted that the Humane Society was congratulating Wendy's for switching a mere 2% of their eggs to cage-free. Turns out Wendy's isn't alone. Burger King, Hardee's, Quizno's, Carl's Jr. and Denny's are each going to buy about 5% of their eggs as cage-free. I interpret this as a "shut up and get off my back" move by the fast food chains to placate the Humane Society without getting bad press and protests at their restaurants. It seems that McDonald's wasn't even willing to go that far to get HSUS to back off - they'd rather "study the issue" for 2 years first.
In fact, the VP of Corporate Social Responsibility at McDonald's had the chutzpah to say "I have been to our laying facilities and I am proud of them. The birds are protected well." Protected by cramming 10 of them into each battery cage, giving each hen less room than a sheet of paper? Oh they are protected all right. In huge, windowless rooms with 100% protection from the elements and from coyotes or any other critter that might want to harm a chicken. You might say that prisoners in maximum security prisons are "protected well" too.
Quite frankly, I'm disappointed that the Humane Society is going to settle for this - any of this. If they care about the chickens so much, don't they care enough to keep negotiating for more than just a 5% switch?
Let these restaurants know that we can spot hypocrisy when we see it:
A very happy "tweet" went out on Twitter today thanking Wendy's for switching to cage free eggs. It led to a congratulatory press release from the Humane Society that talked about the evils of battery cages and praising Wendys for its bold, ethical move. Except for one detail... when you READ the press release, you find out that Wendy's is only making the switch for TWO PERCENT OF ITS EGGS!!!!!!!
Hens in a battery cage, making 98% of Wendy's eggs.
The other 98% still come from hens in battery cages, described by HSUS as follows:
Arguably the most abused animals in all agribusiness, nearly 280 million laying hens in the United States are confined in barren, wire battery cages so restrictive the birds can't even spread their wings. With no opportunity to engage in many of their natural behaviors, including nesting, dust bathing, perching, and foraging, these birds endure lives wrought with suffering.
Because of animal welfare concerns, countries such as Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, and Austria have banned battery cages. The entire European Union is phasing out conventional cages by 2012.
Wendy's, this is really disingenuous. It's fantastic that with your large demand you are improving the lives of many chickens, no doubt, but if you truly believe in the cruelty of battery cages and the need to address the issue, why are you only going 2% of the way? Probably to garner press releases like the one that I stumbled upon, without the expense of actually making real change. That's my hunch.
Here are the tasty morsels on my plate this morning:
F is for France! The school lunch blog F is for French Fry reports that children in a French school dined on cucumbers with garlic and fine herbs; Basque chicken thigh with herbs, red and green bell peppers and olive oil; couscous; organic yogurt and an apple. You know, real food. This fantastic lunch cost $8.23 to produce, but the students pay less than half the cost (or less if they are from low-income families). THAT is what it looks like to care about the health of your children.
I've been doing a series based on the USDA's numbers on historical food consumption in America. These numbers aren't perfect. They probably don't capture what home gardeners grow and eat, I would guess. But they are based on total U.S. production minus exports and waste plus imports.
For similar data on fruits, go here.
For data on vegetables, go here.
The original USDA ERS data is here.
From the "What Are They Smoking?" department, this just in: The U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, said yesterday that he is "very confident that the food available to customers here in China is high quality and safe." (Also reported here.) The comments by Ed Schafer included no mention of the melamine contamination crisis in China that sickened thousands of infants there.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong reports finding illegal levels of melamine in eggs imported from China. The levels, as high as 4.7 parts per million, are nearly twice the US limit for melamine in food for human consumption (except for a 1 ppm limit for infants). Notably, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, along with the Food and Drug Administration, has regulatory authority over eggs sold in the U.S.
Meanwhile, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has reported that the American Egg Board hatched an illegal plan to fight the proposed law with a $3 million so-called "general consumer education" campaign funded by mandatory fees collected from egg producers, also known as commodity checkoff "taxes." By law, these funds - more than $20 million a year for the egg industry - can only be used for research, education and marketing. Political activities including attempts to influence legislation are explicitly forbidden. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is supposed to provide oversight on the use of these funds, yet HSUS has released documents showing that the USDA is not doing its job.
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