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
THIS is what I've been waiting for. The dirty details on the egg operations that sold the tainted eggs. Bill Marler got to it first, in case you want to check out what he had to say. I've got excepts below on what - exactly - the feds found when they checked out the egg factories that sold the tainted eggs.
In short, at Wright County Egg, they found holes in the buildings where other animals could get in, wild birds, standing water, rodents (a MAJOR risk factor for salmonella), escaped chickens, live and dead flies, live and dead maggots, and lots of poop (piles of manure 8 feet high!).
There were also some problems in the feed mill, which makes sense if the salmonella came from the feed. Birds were all over the place in there, and there were holes in several food containers. Plus some "avian like feces." No surprise, the FDA tested for salmonella and found plenty of it in there.
The report for the Hillandale, the other farm (the one not owned by DeCoster), was much less exciting. There's still a bit of manure, rodents, open holes in the structures, standing water, and lack of record keeping, but it's clearly not as bad as the DeCoster operation.
Today, the FDA issued inspection reports on the two egg farms involved in a recall of half a billion eggs for salmonella contamination, Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms. Conditions were, shall we say, less than optimal.
The inspectors found manure piles up to 8 feet high, holding doors open and giving wildlife access. "Wildlife" included live rodents, wild birds and a plague of flies, live and dead, including their larvae (maggots). "Additional problems included overflowing manure pits, improper worker sanitation and wild birds [a potential source of avian influenza] roosting around feed bins," reports the New York Times.
The investigators also found salmonella bacteria in chicken feed and in barn and walkway areas, and in water used to wash eggs at a Hillandale facility. It isn't clear, yet, which came first: the salmonella or the egg.
There's more dirt on DeCoster. Recall that in 2000, Iowa named him a "habitual violator," a title that prevented him from opening any new livestock facilities for five years. So he got others to start a new business that couldn't be traced back to him. Then, once his habitual violator title was gone, he took ownership of it. (This is similar to what he did - but got caught for - in Ohio.)
There are some other articles on DeCoster's criminal past in the LA Times and the Des Moines Register. I love the title of the Des Moines Register piece: "DeCosters in Iowa: A checkered legacy." Checkered? How about outright criminal?
So are local eggs safer? Newsweek says "not necessarily." The article is kind of lame. All food carries some risk. Duh. But no small producer who only sells locally will cause 1400+ cases of salmonella across the country and tank the entire egg industry.
I was just on On Point on NPR. As the show ended, I had a few last points I wanted to make but couldn't. So I will make them here.
We had the owner of a very large egg farm on the show, a man who I have no doubt is a wonderful, ethical person who is doing absolutely the best he can to produce quality, safe eggs. And he was making the point that there's nothing wrong with industry consolidation and with one farm having 6 million chickens.
Another guest was Caroline Smith DeWaal of Center for Science in the Public Interest, who spoke about the long delay in getting food safety regulation in place, as well as some of the confusion between having food safety regulated between different federal departments and agencies.
Well, no pun intended, but this is a "chicken and egg" problem. When you have this kind of consolidation with these huge farms, you also have a class of producers who can afford to influence Washington - and influence they do. So then their industries are not well regulated. In this case, you've got food safety split between departments, which is by design - it makes the regulators less efficient. FDA is chronically underfunded. That's by design too.
This isn't just with eggs, it's with all food. And that brings me to another point. One caller brought up vegan diets as a way to avoid eggs. But how about a way to avoid food? Vegans eat too, and the foods they eat also come from highly consolidated industries controlled by relatively few companies with lots of political power.
A very telling example of the problem comes from arsenic pesticides. These were popular after the Civil War until around the 1930's. At that point, food poisoning cases mounted up and many, if not most, Americans suffered from mild to severe symptoms of arsenic poisoning. In the 1950's, DDT came in to mostly replace arsenicals. The other day I looked to see when arsenicals were finally banned. The answer: they weren't. The EPA tried to have a go at banning many of the remaining legal arsenicals in 2006, and by 2009, the cotton industry had successfully lobbied them to continue allowing one of the pesticides they wanted to ban.
Some chemicals are banned. Some industry practices are banned. Some food safety procedures are in place. But until we stop this running game where the regulators are constantly behind industry because industry is lobbying government, we're still doing a lot of harm to ourselves and our environment. It's nice to ban one pesticide, but what's the use if a new toxic pesticide takes its place. It's great to put in place procedures to prevent salmonella outbreaks, but what food safety problem will happen next?
As for the question of producing safe eggs on large farms, I have no reason to assume that Stephen Herbruck, the farmer on the show, wasn't telling the truth that his eggs are safe. They likely are. But are they as healthy as possible? And what's the environmental impact of his model of business? I don't mean to target him - he seemed like a wonderful person - but there is a consequence in flavor, in health, and in environmental impact to the way we produce our food right now.
When I was in Cuba, where most food is produced sustainably on relatively small farms and then sold locally, a Cuban told me she thought eggs from the U.S. "taste like plastic." A chicken in a backyard flock provides fertilizer and eggs, and does so while disposing of bugs and kitchen scraps, thus reducing the amount of commercially grown food the chicken needs to eat. And, according to tests by Mother Earth News, these eggs will be quantifiably healthier than those you buy at the store. Is just having safe food the only standard you want, or do you want healthy, tasty food too?
Also, I have one last point. There was some talk that "you get what you pay for" and consumers want cheap eggs so they are getting them. Well, a look at historical egg prices shows a different picture. Farmgate prices for eggs have been stagnant, and the average egg farmers' profits have been zero or even negative over the past several decades. No wonder they need the volume provided by 6 million hens if they are getting so little profit (if any) per egg! But the share of the egg price that retailers take has been going up and up. Consumers ARE paying more for eggs with each passing year. That money just isn't going to the farmer. If consumers are paying more for eggs, shouldn't they be getting something more for their money? I'd rather see that money go to farmers so they can make production safer, more humane, and more sustainable, not to the retailers so they can stuff it in their pockets.
Over half a billion recalled. From egg operations owned by perpetual law breaker Austin "Jack" DeCoster. If you read this site regularly, there's probably little I can say about this that you don't already know. Especially if you read Tom Philpott over at Grist too, because he has done such a stellar job of reporting on this. I also recommend listening to Patty Lovera and David Kirby on yesterday's Democracy Now. But, if you still aren't satiated, you can check out my long article on Alternet ("Out of Control Egg Producer Flouts Regulations: Consumers Deal with 500 Million Salmonella-Tainted Eggs") with the FULL story on the egg issue.
If the egg recall is anything like the peanut butter recall, we are days or maybe weeks from being treated to disgusting detailed descriptions of the conditions inside the egg operations to blame for this. It's very likely that even if the cause of the salmonella was the feed after all, the egg operations are completely filthy and any descriptions of them will induce nausea. But for now, all we've got is speculation that it's the feed.
In Utah, a family is suffering horrible consequences of our society's willingness to irresponsibly drug food-producing animals. Roxarsone, an arsenical, is commonly added to chicken feed. For a family in Utah with a backyard flock, the arsenic went into the chickens - then into the eggs - then into the family's kids.
This is an issue I've been trying to research lately. I've added compost made with chicken manure to my own soil. Is it laced with arsenic? I've got samples of both the compost and chicken manure sold at my local nursery and I'm trying to have them each tested for arsenic. I've found one lab to test them for $31 (the manure) and $51 (the compost), prices I can hardly afford, but they can only test down to 12ppm. Arsenic is not allowed in drinking water over 0.010ppm.
UPDATE: I've been informed in the comments that roxarsone is not used in layer feed, only broiler feed. That means that a) this family screwed up by giving their chickens the wrong feed (which is a risk you take if you put roxarsone in ANY chicken feed) and b) manure from broilers will have arsenic in it, so don't use that in your garden. Of course, whaddya think they sell in garden stores? All of that broiler poop's gotta go somewhere...
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.
