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
Attention, pet owners: You are the beneficiaries of an extraordinary gift.
Five acres of serene, forested land in Oklahoma have been donated for a memorial sanctuary where, at no cost to owners, every pet that has fallen ill or died due to dangerous pet food will be remembered with a personalized memorial stone. The sanctuary, named "Vindication," is located at Keystone Lake in Oklahoma and is expected to open this June. The donor hopes that Vindication will comfort grieving owners.
As we are bombarded with hourly updates on Tiger's harem, China uncovers more melamine-tainted milk powder. Shanghai Daily reported yesterday that employees from a Chinese dairy company have been taken into police custody on suspicion of selling tonnes of melamine-tainted milk powder.
Three people from the Shaanxi Jinqiao Dairy Co, in northern Shaanxi province, have been detained and accused of producing and selling toxic food, Chinese state media reported yesterday. The police operation comes just over a year after a nationwide contamination scandal involving the lacing of milk powder with the industrial chemical killed six and sickened an estimated 300,000.
I wrote extensively on this last year having lost my girl Labrador, Bessie, to renal failure. Though this time, one year on, it seems that China is attempting to do a house cleaning but we must remain vigilant. I for one will eschew Chinese food products for quite some time.
A research paper published in the September issue of Pediatric Nephrology reveals that current limits on trace amounts of melamine in baby formula increase the risk of pediatric kidney disease, therefore are too high. Melamine is the industrial chemical that hospitalized thousands of Chinese children in 2008 when it was intentionally added to milk in large amounts.
Researchers found that cases of pediatric nephrolithiasis nearly doubled with when infants were exposed to less than 0.2 mg/kg per day of melamine. That is the World Health Organization's recommended "tolerable daily intake" (TDI) for infants. That finding also calls into question the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's somewhat lower limit of 0.063 mg/kg for infants because we do not know how much lower than 0.2 mg/kg one has to go to reach a "no observed adverse effects level" or NOAEL. Another finding, that the risk from melamine increases "with the duration of exposure," calls into question FDA's limit for adults and older children, also. So far, however, the FDA and the Department of Agriculture (which share food safety responsibilities) and the news media have been silent about the study.
Here's a story to will chill your heart. With the dust - and court cases - seemingly settled on the deadly melamine/baby milk powder scandal from late 2008, Shanghai Daily today reports that fruits and vegetables tested in cities across China were found to be: "laced with pesticides."
How's that again? Pesticides in vegetables? And all along Monsanto & all have been telling us that pesticides are safe.
The incredible thing is that the article in question was posted on the staid Chinese state media! The story pulled quite a few punches. Admitting that the Greenpeace China report had found
"widespread traces of pesticides - including some that are banned"
on fruits and vegetables tested in stores in Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing, it added - even more scarily - that
"the key source of the problem may be produce coming in from outside the city, which is hard to regulate."
This time last year our 7 year old Labrador died. As did other beloved pets around the world, from melamine tainted pet foods. My daughters asked me to post a reminder of her fate and as a warning to pet owners that may be still be unaware of the dangers of melamine tainted pet food products. Bessie had a good life but died far too young. She was born the same year as my youngest daughter, in 2000, and both grew up on the kitchen floor and in the garden, so to speak, they were inseparable. Then towards the end of last February Bessie started to tire easily, she stopped going to the beach with my partner for her morning walks. We thought she had eaten poison in the farming fields nearby (Irish farmers put out tons of poison for the foxes, a dangerous practice IMHO) During the last days of March she began to fade slowly and the vomiting began suddenly, a small amount at first then the next morning, in the living room, a great green lake formed by her side. I took her to the vet and I was advised to let her stay there a couple of days for tests.
Organic Consumers Association offers up an excerpt from Toxic Sludge is Good for You. It's one of my favorite books, and I highly recommend checking out the excerpt - if not the entire book. Reading it makes you feel like you turned the light on and just now discovered that you'd been fumbling in the dark before now.
Natasha Chart is into Pigs Gone Wild. No, it's not a sick video of pigs on spring break. Apparently wild pigs in Texas as causing $52 million per year in crop damage.
Should Bay Area residents choose local pork or Midwestern pork? The Ethicurean has a full-fledged debate with Bonnie calling for eating local and Samin Nosrat taking the other side.
Well, it hasn't got away, not just yet. If you recall, Fonterra, the NZ company that had a 40% plus share in Sanlu, the Chinese dairy company behind the scandal (I'd say there were more than one but that's me) is not alone! Turns out another New Zealand dairy company is involved in a safety inquiry involving milk products in China, the Otago Daily Times reports.
Chinese food safety authorities are reportedly investigating an additive used in a premium brand product of Mengniu Dairy, China's leading dairy producer. The additive, called osteoblast milk protein (OMP), "uses ingredients imported from the Waikato-based Tatua Co-operative Dairy Company," the New Zealand-based newspaper reports.
I smell a large rat here. Shifting the blame perhaps?
"A report by Inner Mongolian quality inspectors after a field trip clearly states the quality and safety of OMP," Mengniu said in a statement. However, China's food safety watchdog has launched an inquiry into the products of Mengniu, as well as Dumex, which is part of the Danone Group.LOL! Danone? Now where did we hear that name lately??
I'm glad that Obama doesn't plan to deal with food safety problems the Chinese way. China has sentenced 2 men to death over the melamine-in-milk scandal. The melamine sickened at least 300,000 children and killed at least six. One of the men sentenced to death was a dairy middleman, convicted of selling 600 tons of "protein powder" tainted with melamine to dairy companies.
Additionally:
Three other defendants, including a top dairy company executive, were sentenced to life in prison, another defendant received a suspended death sentence, and 15 others were given jail terms ranging from two to 15 years.
I think the most telling quote in the article is this:
"I feel sorry for them, but they are just scapegoats," said Liu Donglin, 28, who said his 21-month-old son suffered from kidney stones after drinking tainted milk formula. "The ones who should take the responsibility are the government, like the quality supervision bureau and the Health Ministry. I spent nearly $3,000 taking care of my son and the government only compensated me with $300."
China's food supply is awash with the industrial chemical melamine. This much we know. Dangerous levels have been detected not only in milk and eggs, but also in chicken feed, wheat gluten, chocolate, sweets and God knows what else (partial list here), and given the pervasiveness of melamine it simply means that it is almost impossible to avoid in processed foods. China knew about the link between the sick babies and melamine-laced formula months ago, well before the Summer Olympics in Beijing, but did not investigate until external pressure left them no choice. One would think they would have learned their lesson with the pet food scare last year in which thousands of pets lost their lives, including my Labrador who died in agony due to renal failure.
The trial: Tian Wenhua, the 66-year-old former general manager of the now bankrupt Sanluin stood in the Shijiazhuang Intermediate People's Court whose trial ended on the 31st of December but no verdict was announced.
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.
New discoveries including six different brands of ice cream marketed in Lagos and Ogun States that were tainted with toxic chemical, melamine, has raised fresh concerns over safety of dairy products and its link with increasing kidney failures across Nigeria.
The recent discovery of abnormal quantities of melamine in some ice creams and bulk milk powders marketed in the country has raised fresh fears over safety of dairy products. It has left many critics wondering whether the toxic chemical has been in the system long before now and responsible for the increasing cases of kidney failure.
Bulk milk powder, usually imported from China, is used in making almost all confectioneries from bread, meat pie, cake, candy, chocolate, ice cream, yoghurt, biscuit, sweet to mention but a few.
In recent times, melamine, a plastic-making industrial compound that was added to milk powder to cheat quality tests, has been found in cartons of milk and some dairy exports in China. It has also been shown that the chemical sometimes accidentally leaches into the food supply in low levels, from things like plastic dinnerware. It can also seep in from some pesticides and fertilizers.
The FDA just can't get its story straight on how much melamine is in the U.S. food supply and how much of a threat it poses to Americans. According to the Associated Press, the FDA has been sitting on test results that reveal low levels of melamine in infant formula produced by U.S. companies. Melamine contamination of milk produced in China caused the deaths of four Chinese infants and hospitalized more than 50,000 infants.
After reading A Hungry Thanksgiving for Many Americans by OrangeClouds115, I started thinking that in spite of the fact that many will be going hungry on Thanksgiving (like every other day) how may of us who will be eating, will be getting exposed to unsafe food (like every other day) ? We are told we have the safest food supply in the world. Do we really?
I suppose it depends on the comparison. Somalia? Kenya ? In developing countries close to 2 million children die every year from contaminated food and water. So I guess we can say we have a safer food system than theirs, wow! How do we fare compared to other industrialized countries?
John McCain and Barack Obama need to answer some serious questions. In a year marked by a world wide food crisis, melamine tainted food, energy shortages, climate change and an international credit crisis, we are not lacking for problems needing a solution. Personally I think agriculture should be a prominent issue in every political media event and in every discussion. As always the attention is instead focused on meaningless issues, like Bill Ayers and Sarah Palin's wardrobe. Damn it, get a life!
Candidates are seldom pressed for answers or details on their promises. A couple of examples, Obama promises health care for everyone, close to 50 million Americans without health insurance, and folks like me, I have insurance, but a $10,000 deductible doesn't really make for much of an insurance policy, will my coverage will be the same as his ?
While Palin continues to swiftboat Obama instead of debating pressing issues like the economy and food safety the Chinese melamine contamination scandal has forced western food producers to think carefully about products which might contain any form of milk or protein, from biscuits and cake mixes to high-protein energy bars, chocolate-coated treats and sweets like white rabbits and eclairs.
Companies worldwide have been scrambling to establish independent testing of their products after it emerged that Chinese testing was utterly unreliable. Melamine was found in candy in four Connecticut stores this week, a state official said Wednesday. Days after contaminated White Rabbit Creamy Candy was found in California, Connecticut Consumer Protection Commissioner Jerry Farrell Jr. said tests found melamine in bags of the candy sold at two New Haven stores, a West Hartford market and an East Haven store.
How much Melamine can your body tolerate? Results below, with a comprehensive list of banned products so far.
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