Cooking Up a Story

Raised On Grass: Pastured Fed Animals

Cooking Up A Story — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:30:18 +0000

Cooking Up a Story: Stories

New to the life of farming, a middle-aged couple make a career change to becoming sustainable farmers. First mentoring under Joel Salatin, they now raise pasture fed cows, pigs, chickens, ducks, lambs, and sheep.

I started to really think about the food the animals I ate were fed, after I saw “King Corn” and talked to Curt Ellis.

As I was breaking down the equipment and packing it all away, I said, more or less to out loud to myself, ‘I ought to do a story on pasture fed cows’. Curt was right there, responding, ‘You should!’. I nodded my head, thinking, Okay, I’ll look into it.

The looking didn’t come right away. But evidently the forces in the world were at work, for not too long after, I finally started reading “Omnivore’s Dilemma” . The second chapter was all about Michael Pollan visiting Polyface Farm where Joel Salatin raises his animals as humanely possible and on pasture. Not concrete, not alongside thousands of others, not full of injections, and not 100% grain fed. Sounded like a good idea to me. But Mr. Salatin was nearly 3,000 miles away. It wasn’t going to work, at least not right away. In the meantime, I started to read his book, “You Can Farm,” and I liked what he was doing and wanted to learn more.

In the meantime I met with Michele to talk about films and food. I mentioned to her I wanted to do a pasture fed story and she immediately lit up and told me about the Abundant Life Farm
buyers club, for that’s where she got her meat, and it was all grass fed and pasture raised.

So I gave the Jondles a call and found quite a story. Not Joel Salatin’s, mind you (but they did mentor under him!), but their own story that was quite compelling. What a wonderful environment they’ve created for their animals. The pigs get to root under brush and tree, the chickens get to scatter, and the cows and lambs run at will. In fact, when Marilyn opened the gate for the cows to go to a fresh area of pasture, they ran and kicked up their heels! What a sight that was. I’m not an animal psychologist, but these are happy cows!

A website that is dedicated to news and facts surrounding grass fed food is EatWild. Yes, pasture fed meat is more expensive, but I believe it’s healthier to eat, and more humane for the animals as well.

Check out the recipes from this show: Mom’s Potato Salad; Easy Baked Chicken

—Rebecca

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Svalbard Global Seed Vault

Cooking Up A Story — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:00:13 +0000

March 12, 2010 Sometimes called the Doomsday Vault, built inside a mountain located in a remote area of Norway, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is designed to reliably store the world’s remaining samples of important agricultural seeds over extended periods of time. Given the year-round, chilly conditions of the surrounding arctic permafrost, the seeds (no GMO’s are allowed at this time) are kept at an ideal temperature just above 0 degrees F through mechanical cooling powered by a single 10 kilowatt compressor. Should the power go out, the highest temperatures inside the vault would still fall below freezing (27 F), providing up to 200 years of adequate refrigeration, presumably enough time to fix just about any problem.

Designed to hold up to 4.5 million seed samples, the seed vault is intended to conserve agricultural diversity for future plant breeding and research. Crop diversity is so important to agriculture because it provides the pool of biological resources to draw upon when environmental conditions significantly change over short periods of time. Crop diversity is nature’s diversified portfolio, helping to insure long-term survival of a species by conferring certain strengths within a variety, under a given set of environmental conditions— for example, from pests, drought, or other climate change related issues—a survival edge over its related breathren. It also provides the necessary diversity of the gene pool for farmers and plant breeders to further refine. In the past 100 years, many varieties of crops have been permanently lost, no longer growing in farmers fields, nor saved as samples in any known gene banks.

Aproximately 1400 gene banks throughout the world hold seeds, (and for species that do not produce useful seeds such as bananas, potatoes, apples, etc. ); gene banks are not well suited for long-term storage being susceptible to funding issues, poor management, and infrastructure problems. Since February 26, 2008, the seed vault accepts seeds from these institutions, and depending upon the species of seeds, can safely store their samples for periods ranging between 1000-20,000 years. Some species do not survive such long storage, even under ideal conditions, and may only last about 50 years.

Currently, the seed vault holds over 500,000 agricultural seed samples.

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Seeds Of Life: Hybrids and the Emergence of Seed Monopolies

Cooking Up A Story — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:00:34 +0000

CUpS: Food News

Throughout much of agriculture, a remarkable span of 10,000 years, farmers were largely the stewards of the land and the crops that they grew. Seeds collected from one year’s harvest were selected, stored, and used again for successive growing seasons. As Frank Morton, an organic seed breeder explains in this segment of the Seeds Of Life series, the role of the farmer at the center of agriculture began to change with the advent of hybrid seed development beginning with hybrid varieties of corn in the 1930’s.

Hybrid seeds are created out of two separate parent lines, each (parent) line, incapable of producing the desirable plant characteristics themselves. Only the seeds of their offspring, provide the desired mix of traits, measured by characteristics, such as : crop yield; protein content; oil quality; disease resistance, and other characteristics. Most importantly, especially to the commercial seed companies, the plants grown from these seeds do not produce useful seeds for further use. Once grown, the plants themselves are dead ends; no further selection under the farmers control can be made to create better crops for the future. Giving new meaning to the term “free enterprise”, hybrid seeds can only be purchased from the commercial seed companies (those in control of the proprietary parent lines); nature’s inherent generosity, circumvented.

Frank Morton, Willamette Valley Organic Seed Breeder; Wild Garden Seed

As Morton points out, beginning in 1965, a period he refers to as, the end of the golden age of plant breeding, there was a push to bring crops that could be made into hybrids, onto the market. This is what attracted the giant chemical companies into the seed business, hybrid technologies, and later biotechnology innovations, conferred the special ability to prevent farmers from saving and reusing seed, making their investments in seed technologies, and closely related chemical products, almost full-proof investments. Land grant universities that formerly conducted plant breeding research under the public domain, and made seeds available to commercial seed companies for sale to farmers, began to shift toward proprietary research to serve private interests instead*.

This is all part of an unfolding story, since after World War Two, there has been a massive consolidation of seed, chemical, and related industries to promote global trade. By virtue of size, certain economies of scale offered protection against new entrants into the marketplace, along with the ability to control prices both at the buying and selling end of the value chain. This ushered in the modern industrial food system, one of the most concentrated set of industries in existence today, and to which, the current Obama administration Justice Department is examining toward possible antitrust litigation.

Although hybrid seed technology helped shift the control of seed production to the seed companies, the introduction of transgenic seed technologies with the extension of patent protection rights dramatically transferred the control of seeds to these massive corporations, the full implications, have not as yet, been fully realized.

As Claire Hope Cummings writes in her book, Uncertain Peril: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Seeds, whoever controls the supply of seed, controls the world’s food supply. Should such concentrated power be allowed to reside within the private realm, or is food so fundamental a right, only governments representing the public interest be allowed to retain ultimate jurisdiction over such a resource?

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A Important Case of Preserving Food Sovereignty and Avoiding Green Revolution Calamity

Cooking Up A Story — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:00:52 +0000

March 109, 2010; Don’t overlook Malawi! In Seedling Magazine, a recent article about this tiny east African country that faces big battles ahead with how it feeds its people, and whether it can forestall the pressures of “Green Revolution” style assistance from the international community. At stake a nation, how it can reliably feed itself, and to do so, without undermining its food sovereignty, and its fragile environmental underpinnings. Are proposed high tech solutions with required dependency upon high cost farm chemical inputs, and GM hybrid seed technologies, the right agricultural approach for poorer nations? Who gets to decide?

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The Art of Food Photography

Cooking Up A Story — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:00:38 +0000

Cooking Up a Story: Stories

The pictures can be tantalizing. Some even cause us to stop and stare. Join us for a behind the scenes look at a food photographer and his team, as they create sumptuous images out of fresh ingredients that seem to jump off the page.

We’re surrounded by images through billboards, television, magazines, the internet…the list is long. And since food is a part of everyone’s life, in some form or another, many of those images are about food. Some are blah, some are tantalizing, and some go unnoticed. But the ones that do grab my eye make me wonder and I begin to dissect. Why did they choose that background, who designed the arrangement, how did get that cheese get to look so yummy, and the lighting, how was it lit? These questions lead me wondering exactly what is happening outside of that frame.

I visited a food photographer’s studio to find out for myself. And boy, was it an education.

The day I spent at Ed Gowans Studio, he was doing a shoot for the Pear Bureau Northwest. In my naiveté, I thought everything was done by the photographer. Wrong. It’s a team effort. Besides the photographer there is a food stylist, or two, and the client pulled up her sleeves and was involved too. Each food item was prepared from scratch on site. Everyone put their 2 cents in. They took as much time as was needed for each shot, and then moved on to the next. It was a full day. Food that is prepared for filming purposes are not intended to be eaten. Food photography is one of the most difficult specialties of commercial photography, getting food to look just right on camera involves considerable skill and experience to get it right.

Ed Gowans with Client Christie Mather of the Northwest Pear Bureau Examining Image Monitor

I feel a kindred spirit with people like Ed and his team. They’re not just technicians, they’re artists. While there are so many images we are bombarded with daily, when it comes to images of stunning beauty, and artistry, there can never be enough!

Recipes from the show: Pear Bread; Ed’s Tangy Eggless Caesar Salad

—Rebecca

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Meet a Farmer: Joya Parsons, Chicken Farmer

Cooking Up A Story — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 04:15:08 +0000

March 07, 2010 Exposed to her parents interest in horticulture as a young child, Joya Parsons grew to embrace her green thumb. “By the time I reached my early twenties, I was bitten by the horticulture bug.” Her interest in growing things was played out on the land her parents went on to buy in the 90’s.

Joya Parsons and Toffee, a Ameraucana pullet; photo courtesy Joya Parsons

But wait, it wasn’t just vegetation. Parsons brought chickens to the farm – broilers for meat and several heritage breeds for their eggs. In Angela Tunner’s article, she goes on to talk about a typical day, some misunderstandings about free-range chickens, and the future of chicken farming…

“The other future for chicken farming is decentralization. It is many smaller farmers raising birds in a socially and ecologically sound manner, in the sunshine and on a natural diet, and with enough room to move. It is healthy birds, healthy farms and healthy communities. But it is going to take a lot of community support to get chicken farming back there. Currently, the industrial model has the upper hand and continues to expand while small, independent chicken farmers suffer from a lack of infrastructure, like rural slaughterhouses and shipping to larger markets. The only way the second vision is going to become a reality is if the consumer demands it and supports it with their buying power.”

Remember to support your local (chicken) farmer!

Thanks to @kubileya and @angelatunner

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Waste Land: Does the Large Amount of Food Discarded in the U.S. Take a Toll on the Environment?

Cooking Up A Story — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:40:06 +0000

March 4, 2010 Now if this isn’t a waste:

“According to the Agriculture Department, each year Americans toss more than 25 percent, of all domestically produced food. A 2009 study showed that a quarter of U.S. water and 4 percent of U.S. oil consumption annually go into producing and distributing food that ultimately ends up in landfills”

The recently published article from Scientific American goes on to say

“Once this food gets to the landfill, it then generates methane, a greenhouse gas 23 times as potent as carbon dioxide in trapping heat within our atmosphere. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, landfills account for 34 percent of all methane emissions in the U.S.—meaning that the sandwich you made and then didn’t eat yesterday is increasing your personal—and our collective—carbon footprint.”

After reading something like this it gets me to thinking how I might better improve my personal food waste. Leftovers from dinner? Eat them for lunch or create something different from it for the next night. Making a meal and have bits of pieces of carrots, lettuce, onion, and the like? Hold some for a soup stock. If you know someone with backyard chickens, perhaps they could use your unused greens. Forgot about that casserole you made 2 weeks ago? Composting isn’t too hard, or maybe start a worm bin. Sometimes it’s just a matter of changing a few habits on this road to living a more sustainable lifestyle.

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Seeds of Life: The Organic Seed Breeder

Cooking Up A Story — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:10:05 +0000

CUpS: Food News

“Seed breeding is basically taking the process of evolution and turning it into a more controlled process” —Frank Morton

Frank Morton, Organic Seed Breeder; Wild Garden Seed

As the Seeds of Life series continues, embattled farmer, Frank Morton, a Willamette Valley organic seed breeder shares his expert knowledge of how plant breeding techniques have evolved, and the importance of the selection process in producing organic seeds that carry the desired mix of plant traits.

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Crunchy Tuscan Kale Salad with Lemony Oil Dressing

Cooking Up A Story — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 12:00:24 +0000

I came across this recipe back in 2007, attached to an article/restaurant review in the NY Times. In that article, Melissa Clark echoed my own skepticism about a raw kale dish; I was no stranger to the winter green staple, but thought of it as coming out of a sauté pan with garlic and butter and balsamic vinegar, or in a soup or baking dish combined with other tasty things, like comfy root vegetables and white beans. I had not thought of it as a main ingredient and certainly not edible in its raw state. When I thought of chewing raw kale it was of a long, laborious process, ending probably in a sore jaw and not much in the way of satisfaction.

But, Melissa’s description of the simple yet intensely satisfying combination of earthy flavors and textures – and assurance that the Tuscan (or Lacinato) kale was indeed tender enough to be satisfyingly eaten raw, especially when sliced into thin ribbons – enticed me to try it.

I was totally won over. I may not have actually stood at the counter and eaten the entire bowlful the first time I made it, but pretty close. It was such a delightful surprise – a perfectly balanced combination of crunch from the kale and bread crumbs, with the garlic, salty cheese and sharp citrus of the dressing. The next time I made it I added more garlic and had more cheese and toasted bread crumbs available, as I found myself always wanting just a bit more of that bite.

I have introduced it to many a friend – taking it to potluck dinner parties or forcing co-workers to try a bite at lunch – and even the most doubtful have liked what they tasted. My friend Sandra ate it nearly every day during one winter, her kale planted so thickly that it was available outside her back door nearly until spring. She claimed addiction. She served it back to me sometimes with her own experimental additions; toasted pine nuts and bits of homemade sundried tomatoes, even sometimes thin ribbons of red lettuce when nearing the end of her kale supply. It’s a great dish that way, amenable to variation depending on mood or palate, or what happens to be in the pantry.

While I like (and sometimes use) these additions, I confess I prefer the fewer number of ingredients that I first encountered, letting each one have its full share of flavor in each bite.

Ingredients:

1 bunch Tuscan (Lacinato) Kale
1/3 cup toasted, coarse breadcrumbs
1-2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/3 cup grated cheese, preferably Pecorino Romano (see notes)
3 T. extra virgin olive oil, plus some to garnish as needed
Fresh juice of one lemon
¼ tsp kosher salt
1/8 – ¼ tsp. red pepper flakes (to taste)
Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Instructions:

Trim bottom 2-3 inches of bottom kale stems and discard. Slice kale leaves, including ribs, into thin ribbons (1/4 inch or so). You should have 4-5 cups.
Fresh bread crumbs are best. Toast bread until golden on both sides and then tear it into pieces and pulse in food processor or blender only until it forms coarse crumbs.
With a mortar and pestle or the side of a knife, pound garlic into a paste with the salt. Place in a small bowl with the cheese, oil, lemon juice, pepper flakes and black pepper, and whisk to combine. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.
Put kale in large bowl, pour the dressing over and toss thoroughly (dressing is very thick because of the cheese and so needs lots of mixing to get all the kale covered. Using hands for this is a good method).
Let the salad sit for a minute, top with bread crumbs, more cheese, optional toppings (see note).

Yield: Serves two to six – seriously.

Misc. Notes:
Pecorino Romano is best with its sharp saltiness, but regular Romano, or even good quality Parmesan will work fine.

For some additional tastes and textures, the salad can be topped with finely chopped, sun-dried tomatoes, toasted pine nuts or walnuts, or chopped black olives. Or all of the above.

Recipe and post Courtesy of Peggy Acott

A fifth-generation Oregonian, Peggy Acott has been actively supporting garden and farming programs in the Portland area for over ten years, as Portland Nursery’s Community Outreach Director, and as a founding board member of the Learning Gardens Institute. More of her writings and photography can be found on the Portland Nursery Community Outreach site.

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Temple Grandin: The world needs all kinds of minds

Cooking Up A Story — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 18:42:05 +0000

February 28, 2010 It seems Temple Grandin is on her way to becoming a household name. Earlier this month she was featured in a bio-epic on HBO, which was written about on the New York Times. Her story of growing up as an autistic child and her accomplishments – one which involves humane treatment of livestock – deserve the attention she has been getting. Add to the list a recent recording of her talk at TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design). What makes her different, according to Grandin, is “I think in pictures, I don’t think in language”.

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Organic Dairyman: Director’s Cut

Cooking Up A Story — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 12:00:09 +0000

CUpS: Stories

Rosie (and the girls), 12 years old and still milkin!

This is the director’s cut version, a story about Jon Bansen, a 3rd generation Oregon dairy farmer who switched from conventional to organic dairy farming in 2000. The Double J Jersey 450 acre farm is located about 20 miles west of Salem.

Originally, this story was divided into two parts, his roots in agriculture as a 3rd generation dairy farmer (Organic Dairyman: A Family Tradition), and his life after converting to an organic practice (Organic Dairyman: The Farmer). More than just the combining of both parts into one, it also contains a new open, and the pacing throughout is more consistent with the slow pace of his natural environment.

It’s impossible to have a conversation with Jon Bansen without asking about his favorite cow Rosie. She’s now 12 years old (she was 9 in the film), and for an active producing cow, well beyond the average productive years for a dairy cow. And yet, Bansen proudly shares, Rosie is producing 120% of capacity compared with the rest of his 165 jersey cow herd. By contrast, Bansen explains, the average conventional dairy cow will last about 4 years, and during their first two years, will not produce any milk at all. To Bansen, organic cows are healthier, and remain on average, productive longer, than their conventional counterparts because of the differences in how they are treated, and their access to open pasture for grazing.

Organic milk offers additional advantages to consumers in the form of higher nutrient levels, such as Omega 3 fatty acids; better taste (I’ll personally vouch for this one); and is free of antibiotics, and growth promoting hormones. In conventional dairy operations, cows often do not have access to pasture for grazing, instead they spend much of their lives in confinement lots, and are fed conventional feed that according to Bansen is both unnatural, and stressful to their stomachs, and to their overall lives.

Just recently, the USDA enacted tougher requirements for organic livestock practices, to ensure that animals receive a considerable amount of their food from pasture grass, and lead more natural lives, without undue confinement. Organic agriculture, and by extension, organic livestock management embraces a holistic view of farming that seeks to work with nature, not against it. The new access to pasture requirements will likely effect more organic dairy operations in the West and Southwest where larger herd sizes (300+ cows) will no longer be economically viable due to the amount of grazing land needed . The majority of organic dairy farms are located in the Northeast and Midwest, and contain much smaller herd sizes.

From the USDA site, these are the main components of the new rule:

Animals must graze pasture during the grazing season, which must be at least 120 days per year;

Animals must obtain a minimum of 30 percent dry matter intake from grazing pasture during the grazing season;

Producers must have a pasture management plan and manage pasture as a crop to meet the feed requirements for the grazing animals and to protect soil and water quality; and,

Livestock are exempt from the 30 percent dry matter intake requirements during the finish feeding period, not to exceed 120 days. Livestock must have access to pasture during the finishing phase.

For organic dairyman, Jon Bansen, the consistent health of his Jersey cows, their added years of milk production, a sustainable approach to the ecosystem of his farm operations, and his continued economic well being as a member of the Organic Valley farmer owned co-op, despite the recent economic meltdown, and a nationwide decline in organic milk production, he appears to be optimistic for the future of organic dairy farming.

Rosie too, says, moo!

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And Finally, Man?

Cooking Up A Story — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 00:49:32 +0000

“Mankind’s closest relatives – the world’s monkeys, apes and other primates – are disappearing from the face of the Earth, with some literally being eaten into extinction.”

One of the world’s leading primate authorities, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), issued a new, and alarming report, Primates In Peril: The World’s 25 Most Endangered Primates 2008-2010 (PDF), on the dire state of primates throughout the world. Of the 634 known species of primates, almost half are now facing extinction. There are a number of varying pressures that threaten these species: the slash and burning of forests for agriculture; hunting (by humans) for bushmeat; habitat loss; climate change; charcoal and firewood collection; urbanization, and other causes.

Indeed, the biggest threats to the world’s primates is habitat loss, in particular, the burning of tropical forests. Scientists estimate that (at least) 20% of the amount of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming are a direct result of the burning of these forests.

The report provides some optimism for hope. If the forests can be protected from further destruction, with human interventions and care, these primates can survive. “If you have forests, you can save primates,” said CI scientist Anthony Rylands, the deputy chair of the IUCN Primate Specialist Group. “The work with lion tamarins shows that conserving forest fragments and reforesting to create corridors that connect them is not only vital for primates, but offers the multiple benefits of maintaining healthy ecosystems and water supplies while reducing greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.”

There is a complex, and rich interplay between primates and their environment that provides a foundation for sustainable ecosystems that continue and evolve over time. That such a large percentage of primates, our nearest nonhuman relatives, are in such immediate peril, does not bode well for humans, unless we actively engage to reverse the tide.

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Twice Baked Irish Potatoes with Stout Onions and Kale

Cooking Up A Story — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 12:00:54 +0000

Cooking Fresh with Ivy Manning—In the Kitchen

First, Ivy Manning visited with Shari Sirkin, of Dancing Roots Farm, and learned more about kale. Now it’s time to take that kale into the kitchen and create something delicious and easy to make, with ingredients that are commonly found in most kitchens! Full Disclosure: I made this dish for my family—it’s wonderful!

“What’s your favorite potato story?” Gene Theil, the spunky potato farmer nicknamed “ Gene the Potato Machine,” asked me one crisp November morning as I chose from his table of russets. I drew a blank. “Everyone has a potato story,” he assured me. It finally dawned on me: colcannon. My grandmother used to make the satisfying mash of kale or cabbage and potatoes for me when I was a kid. She said its origins came from necessity when times were tough in Ireland. Women would add kale, cabbage, or even seaweed to their mashed potatoes to stretch the meager harvest;– the greener the colcannon, the tougher the times. Gene was happy to hear that he was right again, we all have a potato story. My love of simple but comforting colcannon inspired this satisfying variation of double- stuffed potatoes; it’s a sort of Irish soul food, if you will.

Ivy Manning: From The Field To the Kitchen

Fresh Ingredients:

4 large russet potatoes, scrubbed (8 to 10 ounces each)
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon olive oil, divided
1 1/2 cups thinly sliced onions (about 1 large)
1 cup Irish-style stout
1 bunch lacinato kale or Russian kale(about 3 ounces)
1 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon mustard powder
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup grated cheddar cheese

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Rub the potatoes with 1 teaspoon of the oil and place directly on the oven rack. Bake until they squish easily when gently squeezed, 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring frequently until they begin to brown, about 15 minutes. Add a splash of the stout and scrape up any browned bits. Continue to cook, occasionally deglazing the pan with the stout until the onions are deep brown and nearly all of the stout is used, about 30 minutes total.
Tear the tough ribs and stems away from the kale and discard or use for stock. Roughly chop the leaves and add half the kale to the onions, tossing with tongs to wilt the leaves. Add the remaining kale, toss, cover, and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat.
With a serrated knife slice off the top quarter of each potato. Use a soup spoon to scoop out the flesh, leaving a 1/4-inch-thick shell on the bottom and sides. Mash the flesh with the buttermilk, butter, and mustard powder. Gently fold in the onion-kale mixture and season with the salt and pepper. Mound the mixture into the potato shells, sprinkle the tops with the cheese, and place on a baking sheet. Bake until the cheese is melted, about 20 minutes, and serve warm as a side dish or a vegetarian main course.

Recipe & Family Story Courtesy of Ivy Manning
Download this recipe (PDF)

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An Iowa Farmer on the Meaning of Sustainability

Cooking Up A Story — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 17:37:55 +0000

February 20, 2010 Denise O’Brien has begun a new series on the Blog for Iowa website about sustainable agriculture. O’Brien (co-founder of Women, Food & Agriculture Network) and her husband Larry Harris have been growing organic produce for over 30 years and sell through their Rolling Acres CSA. She will be discussing the different issues that tie in with sustainable agriculture – food security, local and regional food systems, and politics as well:

“Sustainable agriculture has come a very long way and it is becoming a big player in the agriculture scene in Washington D.C. and I must say, agribusiness is not happy. Agribusiness will not move over and give sustainable ag a seat at the table very easily. Many people have fought hard for sustainable ag to get where it is today but we have so much farther to go.”

h/t Dave Murphy of @food_democracy

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From the Field: Kale

Cooking Up A Story — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 12:00:03 +0000

CUpS: Cooking Fresh

Ivy Manning; cookbook author and culinary expert talking to Shari Sirkin about Kale.

In an effort to learn where our food comes from, and to inspire more fresh, seasonal cooking, this two-part video series, with Cookbook author Ivy Manning, goes into the field, and back into the kitchen, for a round-trip exploration of Pacific Northwest kale. In this segment, Manning visits Shari Sirkin of Dancing Roots Farm in Troutdale, Oregon to investigate Kale from a farmer’s perspective in the midst of harvesting it. Next week— Ivy Manning goes into the kitchen to demonstrate how to prepare an incredibly tasty meal, using this fresh kale, and a few other simple ingredients. Manning also shares the following written thoughts about Kale:

Tuscan black, cavalo nero, lacinato, dinosaur. One of my favorite vegetables goes by many names, and by any name, it tastes sweet. At least in the coldest months of winter. That’s when the deep blue-green, ostrich feather-shaped leaves of this, and all varieties of kale are at their most abundant and flavorful.

Just as everything else in the garden is languishing in the cold, the brassica oleracea family (which includes flowering kale, white, red, and curly kale varieties) thrives in the nippy weather, supplying our kitchens with a fresh, tender green when we’ve had our fill of root vegetables. I first learned of lacinato kale working in Italy, where the leaves where stripped from their tough stems, chopped and shoved by huge handfuls into pots of minestrone. “Cavolo nero, it likes to be cooked with beans. It’s a bean-green,” I was told by the chef I was assisting.

Field of Kale-Dancing Roots Farm

I took the chef’s word and used lacinato kale exclusively in soups, simmering it until it became a silky slip of a green. Until one day, I had a hankering for Southern greens over cornbread. I didn’t have collard greens on hand, but I did have a fresh bunch of lacinato kale, so I cooked as I would collard or mustard greens—sautéed in bacon fat with onions, garlic, and a pinch of chili flakes. Lacinato cooked in a quarter of the time collards usually take, and the deep, rich flavor and almost meaty texture had me smitten. The “bean green” easily slipped its way into my culinary repertoire as a favorite winter vegetable with endless applications. It’s great in soups, yes, but try it sautéed in olive oil or bacon fat and garlic with a pinch of red pepper flakes, blanch it and add it to stuffing, wok-fry it and dress it with sesame oil and soy sauce, marinated it raw in vinaigrette for a winter salad– the possibilities are endless. Before you head into the kitchen to become acquainted with these tall dark and handsome leaves, you’ll want to keep a few things in mind:

Choose small to medium leaves, and avoid bunches of lacinato kale that have yellowed or wilting leaves.
Wash the leaves in a sink full of cool water. If you find any powdery bugs on the underside of the leaves, dissolve a few tablespoons of salt in the water and soak for ten minutes; the bugs will jump ship.
Store all kale varieties in a plastic bag in the coldest part of the refrigerator and use it within a few days—kale will begin to break down and loose its fresh flavor quickly.
Tear the dark leaves away from the tough center rib/stem; the rib/stems do not break down while cooking. Use the rib/stems for stocks or compost.

Stayed tuned for the companion Cooking Fresh video— To the Kitchen: Twice Baked Potatoes with Kale!

Ivy Manning is the author of The Farm to Table Cookbook and The Adaptable Feast. She also writes the “Vegetarian Flavors” column in the Oregonian FoodDay and is a frequent contributor to Cooking Light and Bon Appetite magazine. Visit her website and blog.

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Urban farmers fight to keep animals in city

Cooking Up A Story — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:24:16 +0000

February 17, 2010 As the interest in growing and raising your own food gains momentum, those in Calgary, Canada, are finding themselves going against city regulations. The Responsible Pet Ownership Bylaw

“doesn’t allow people to keep livestock within city limits. Livestock means chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese and pheasants, as well as horses, pigs, cattle and sheep.”

Paul Hughes, who was charged with illegally keeping chickens in his backyard, hopes to raise awareness about backyard chickens. Ultimately he’d like the bylaw changed and reflect those of some of his southern neighbors in Seattle, Portland, New York City, and Vancouver.

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Raj Patel: Food Sovereignty

Cooking Up A Story — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 12:00:08 +0000

Cooking Up a Story: Food News

Part 2: Raj Patel, author of The Value of Nothing, explains what food sovereignty means, and why people around the world are fighting to have a say in their own food system. This is as much a fight for social and economic justice as it is a fight to protect the environment, along with the ability of communities, states, and nations to determine their own food and agriculture policies.

Using Haiti as a tragic example of misguided U.S. foreign policy, the country used to grow their own rice before our international trade policies helped Haiti to become more dependent on other nations to feed their own people.

Lest one begins to think food sovereignty only applies to developing nations, Patel explains it’s a problem here at home, as well. He refers to the plight of the tomato pickers in South Florida to be paid a living wage. During the winter months, most of the fresh tomatoes consumed in the U.S. comes from these tomato fields. The Immokalee tomato pickers have faced cruel and exploitative working conditions for years; 1/4 of them live below the poverty line. Over the years, about 1000 South Florida Immokalee pickers have been freed by authorities from what can only be described as modern slave conditions. In this example, how do we define food sovereignty as it relates to economic exploitation? In the name of free market enterprise, how far as a nation do we allow economic exploitation of our own people, and by extension, through our foreign policies and international trade laws, impose our free market values against the interests of other sovereign nations? From such a system, who truly profits, and who truly loses?

In Patel’s analysis of this struggle, food sovereignty is a deep problem that impacts social, environmental and economic concerns. He argues, our free market driven economy only exists because of the huge subsidies that are extracted from nature, and disproportionately, from women—the true costs inflicted upon the environment and upon societies remain largely a separate tab, unclaimed, and continuing to mount.

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Organic Livestock Recieve Emancipation Proclamation from USDA

Cooking Up A Story — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 19:22:18 +0000

February 15, 2010 On Friday, February 12, the USDA issued its final ruling for Access to Pasture organic certification requirements for all organic livestock producers. The National Organic Program (NOP) began in October of 2002, and up until the present was designed to ensure that pasture and ruminant animals received adequate access to pasture grass, (for ruminants) the primary food their bodies are designed (by nature) to consume. Unfortunately, the requirements were interpreted by some operators in ways that clearly undermined the ability of these animals to receive the necessary amounts of outside access to pasture; these new rules directly address those earlier deficiencies. For those wishing to see a side by side comparison of the existing rules and the final rules may download this PDF prepared by the USDA.

This new ruling will ensure among the following key requirements as outlined on the Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance website:

It becomes law on June 17, 2010. Existing operations will have to be in compliance by June 17, 2011. New operations certified after June 17, 2010 must be in compliance before certification.
Animals must graze pasture during the grazing season, which must be at least 120 days per year and obtain a minimum of an average of 30 percent dry matter intake over the course of the grazing season.
Roughages used for bedding must be organic.
Temporary shelter is OK for some management and healthcare procedures and special events like a 4H fair.
Producers must have a pasture management plan and manage pasture as a crop to meet the feed requirements for the grazing animals and to protect soil and water quality.
Livestock for meat are exempt from the 30 percent dry matter intake requirements during the finish feeding period, not to exceed 120 days. Livestock must have access to pasture during the finishing phase.

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Oregon Food Bank Needs Your Help: Blog For Food 2010 Campaign Begins

Cooking Up A Story — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 12:00:01 +0000

Blog For Food February 15-March 15, 2010

From February 15 through March 15, 2010, the Blog For Food Campaign, a coordinated effort of participating Oregon bloggers, seeks to help Oregon Food Bank (OFB) raise funds to address the rising (and alarming) levels of hunger and food insecurity in the state.

Sadly, Oregon has joined the ranks of four other states (Mississippi, Maine, Oklahoma and Missouri) with the highest percentage of hunger (very low food security) in the nation. The latest data released from the USDA shows that between January 2006 and December 2008, almost 7% of Oregon households faced periods of time when they went hungry without being able to purchase food. This data doesn’t reflect the most recent period from 2009 to the present, where the economic downturn has increased sharply. According to the OFB website, the USDA data indicates: “nationally, 49-million Americans, including nearly 17-million children, lived in households that were food insecure in 2008 – up from 36.2 million in 2007 and 33.2 million in 2000.”

It should be pointed out, in the compiling of this statistical data, the USDA attaches labels that describe the following ranges of food security:

Source: USDA Economic Research Service

Oregon Food Bank is the central support hub of a statewide network of more than 900 local partner agencies that serve all of Oregon, and Clark County in Washington. OFB and its state network now distributes record amounts of food to families reeling from the economic throes of one of the deepest recessions within living memory.

For those wishing to contribute money, please add this note “blog for food” in the section “In Honor of” on the Food Bank donation page (the second form page), so that the campaign totals may be accurately compiled.

For those around the country wishing to help their own local food bank, Feeding America has a Food Bank Locator.

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U.S. Adopts National Organic Standards: Victory for All, but…

Cooking Up A Story — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 12:00:59 +0000

[Editor's Note: This is part six of Mark Keating's ongoing history of the origins and evolution of organic agriculture; how the organic community and the USDA eventually came together to create the national organic standards; their subsequent implementation; and the fallout felt through to the present day.]

“Democracy is the worst form of government you can live with, until you’ve tried all the rest.”—Winston Churchill

How the Purity of Product Came to Triumph Over the Integrity of Process
The USDA rolled out its first proposal for national organic standards in late 1997 and within weeks the verdict was decisive: universal repudiation, to put it mildly. The Department typically received scores, maybe a few hundred public comments on its draft regulations. The torrent of comment on the organic standards poured in by the thousands per day and ultimately exceeded 275,000 with maybe 4 having anything complimentary to say. A realist by nature, USDA Secretary Dan Glickman found religion and promised to do right the next time around. Indeed, the Secretary was so sensitized by the backlash that he committed the USDA to issuing a second draft proposal for additional comment before finalizing the standards.

Reflecting his good faith, the Secretary appointed the widely respected Kathleen Merrigan as Administrator of the Agricultural Marketing Service to lead this initiative. When asked what made the concert promoter Bill Graham special, Grace Slick of the Jefferson Airplane commented that “He was one of them and he was one of us.” Merrigan (now the Deputy Secretary of Agriculture) earned similar standing; she was solidly connected in DC as a whip smart Hill staffer who gained the trust of the grassroots community while drafting the Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA) (PDF). The USDA also brought in Keith Jones, a savvy veteran of the Texas Department of Agriculture’s successful certification program to run the day to day operations of the National Organic Program (NOP). The Secretary made it clear that he wanted the job done and done right before he left office at the end of the Clinton Administration. Once he signaled support, the mid- and upper-level bureaucrats who had gone through the motions for five years on the first proposal became much better at returning phone calls and solving problems.

What did the organic community find so objectionable in the first proposal? Pretty much everything. The provisions for managing crops and livestock seemed paper-thin and lacked the rigor and complexity that people associated with the private and state certification programs. For example, livestock could receive 80% organic feed and still be certified when existing certification programs had raised the bar to a 100% requirement. Provisions for confining livestock were so vague that the public concluded that USDA couldn’t think outside the factory farm box. The crop standards featured an “order of preference” approach that allowed farmers to implement less desirable practices if preferable ones proved too difficult. Was USDA suggesting that organic meant settling for less than the best? The proposed standards also seemed riddled with deficiencies and loopholes that increased the risk of prohibited synthetic substances slipping into the system.

Beyond concerns that the standards were flimsy, organic veterans were very disturbed by what they saw as a power-grabbing USDA exceeding its statutory role, especially at the expense of certifying agents. The so-called farmer-based certification programs had legitimate Founding Father/Earth Mother status in the organic community and the OFPA was supposed to protect their authority and autonomy. Instead, the USDA’s proposal imposed firewalls that would drive working farmers out of the certification review process. Additionally, certifying agents would lose the right to use their private seal to certify to additional requirements. This struck many as a blatant infringement of their registered trademarks and commercial free speech rights but the USDA insisted that private seals would undermine the principal benefit of a consistent national standard. All in all, the USDA’s first proposal validated the deep-seated fear that the Department was incapable of wrapping its mind around the zen nuances of organic production and certification and was not at all receptive to advice from those who could.

Without a doubt the greatest perceived transgression in the USDA’s first proposal was its supposed allowance of genetic engineering, irradiation and sewage sludge in organic farming. The presence of these quintessential bête noires confirmed that USDA had sub-contracted writing the standards to Monsanto with the intent to either kill organic agriculture outright or make it a new corporate profit center. Vitriolic references to the “Big Three” came to dominate public comment and spearhead an avalanche of form letter responses. Working Assets members alone submitted an amazing 30,000+ comments through the check-off option that the company included on monthly statements. Much more significant than the form letters, though, were the100,000+ unique comments, often exceptionally detailed and constructive, that the USDA received. These comments as well as the reconvening of the National Organic Standards Board in early 1998 paved the way for unprecedented public participation in the regulatory process as the USDA began putting together its next attempt at national organic standards.

In retrospect, it’s easy to see the exercise in group think that the fallout from the first proposed standards became. USDA screwed up the job? Sure, that sounds just like them, so throw out everything they suggested. Who’s in charge now? We’ve got a quarter million experts to tell us what to do. Power to the people! The first proposal was too loose and leaky? We can screw those standards down so tight that no prohibited substance will dare show its face on an organic farm! This unfolding dynamic revealed an especially problematic fact about organic agriculture and the certification process: not many people understand how they genuinely work, though a great many people like to think that they do. In a nutshell, organic agriculture entails the flexible application of biological and mechanical practices that nurture soil, plant and animal health by mimicking a natural system. Certification attests that the system that the farmer adopts is consistent with organic principles and will protect the natural resources on and beyond the farm. However, the public comments demanded a more rigid, absolutist approach with all the dos and don’ts spelled out in the standards. This mindset risked placing the purity of the product ahead of the integrity of the process.

Lost in the rush to judgment on the USDA’s proposal was the fact that it more closely resembled existing certification standards and practices than the imaginary understanding sought by many commenters. The USDA proposal had some egregious flaws but most were surgically correctable, such as raising the organic feed requirement to 100%. The crime of the century known as the Big Three turned out to be over-hyped, too. The USDA had indeed suggested allowing two genetically modified materials, but dropping them from the subsequent proposal was sufficient to correct that mistake. Regarding sewage sludge and irradiation, the USDA wasn’t advocating their use but simply seeking comment on the feasibility of allowing them. The NOP staff knew well that allowing either would be a non-starter with the organic community, but other federal entities including the Office of Management and Budget exercised their prerogative to raise the subject for public comment.

If ignorance drove the public response to the “Big Three”, then denial accounts for its reaction to the proposal’s crop and livestock production practices. Organic consumers often have excessively idealistic and pastoral notions about what the standards require and prohibit. While many groovy things happen on organic farms, there are also practical considerations dictating that farmers do what is necessary to get their work done, hopefully profitably. That doesn’t mean that standards are ignored when the going gets tough, but it illustrates why the order of preference approach was not so alien. It reflects an understanding that if we can’t always do what’s best, we should at least do the best we can. In the system of continuous improvement paradigm that supports organic agriculture, doing the best we can at all times is more important than doing the best thing at any one time. The ongoing relationship between the farmer and the certifying agent with the standards providing guidance is what allows an organic farm to progress over time.

Burning the USDA’s first proposed rule for national organic standards at the stake didn’t sink the regulation that ultimately emerged, but it definitely pushed the results away from process certification towards product certification. The second proposed rule published in March 2000 and the final rule (the one we live with today) from December that same year were solid organic standards but they became much more prescriptive and restrictive. For example, NOP staffer Grace Gershuny – an experienced organic certification specialist – contributed a historically accurate compost standard for the first proposal that was straight-forward and perfectly workable. Bathwater and baby alike went out the window and the final rule contained (and still does) a one-size-fits-all quantitative protocol that not one individual commenter requested or that had ever been used in the history of organic certification. The rule also incorporated scores of categorical prohibitions against using prohibited substances that have made material evaluation a nightmare since we know that it’s impossible to prove a negative. Democracy in action? Yes, and we can only console ourselves with Winston Churchill’s observation that “Democracy is the worst from of government you can live with, until you’ve tried all the rest.”

Despite the bumpy ride, Secretary Glickman and the senior leadership of the USDA were smiling ear to ear at the unraveling on the USDA national organic standards on December 21, 2000. The organic community was smiling, too – leadership from both the grassroots community and the Organic Trade Association were on hand to praise the standard as the highest in the world. The general vagueness of the first proposal had been thoroughly clarified, the tangible shortcomings upgraded and the Big Three, especially any genetically engineered product or ingredient, were categorically prohibited. The pendulum had swung hard from a process standard towards a product standard, but the newly collaborative relationship between the organic community and the USDA augured well for its implementation. It had been a long, hard (though remarkably entertaining and frequently amusing) slog from the day when an earlier Secretary of Agriculture had suggested that conversion to organic agriculture would result in mass starvation.

There was little comprehension that day how significantly the outcome of the Gore v. Bush case that had been decided across town nine days earlier would sidetrack the implementation of the new initiative.

Mark Keating has worked in the natural, sustainable, organic and local food movements since 1982. His work experience includes stints in commercial food service, farm labor, retail sales and marketing, state and federal civil service, non-profit advocacy and academia. While at the USDA between 1999 and 2004, Mark helped draft the national organic standards for crop and livestock production and spent two years working to develop and promote farmers markets. An inveterate believer that naturally raised and locally distributed food offers the best opportunity for human health and planetary survival, Mark lives in the Kentucky Bluegrass with his wife and their daughter.

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Temporary Stay Against GM Introduction Granted to India’s “king of Vegetables”-the Aubergine

Cooking Up A Story — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 01:07:48 +0000

February 10, 2010 Jairam Ramesh, India’s minister for environment and forests, announced yesterday that India would impose a temporary moratorium on the introduction of a genetically modified Aubergine (eggplant). Bt Brinjal, would have been the first genetically modified food allowed for commercial cultivation in India. The Aubergine had been modified with a gene from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (BT), to control insect boring pests. Critics of transgenic food crops are concerned over food safety and adverse environmental impacts, and believe that had the Bt Brinjal strain been approved, it would have opened the floodgates for cultivation of other GM crops in India.

” Aubergine has been grown for more than 4,000 years in India, where it is known as “the king of vegetables”. It is the most consumed vegetable in the country after the potato and India is the world’s second largest producer of aubergines after China.”—Guardian UK

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Thermal Banking: Cold Storage

Cooking Up A Story — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 12:00:01 +0000

The thermal banking technology that Steven Schwen uses in his innovative greenhouse (see Sustainable Energy: Thermal Banking Greenhouse Design) applies not only to conservation of heat, but to cold storage and refrigeration. In this short companion video, Schwen discusses his plans for an ice house at his farm in Minnesota, and how this project is a logical extension of his energy conservation strategy. When completed, the ice house will provide cold storage and a comfortable place for packing his produce during warm summer months.

The Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program’s mission is to advance—to the whole of American agriculture—innovations that improve profitability, stewardship and quality of life by investing in groundbreaking research and education. SARE is proud of its connections to farming communities across the country and encourages those who wish to learn more to visit SARE. SARE is funded by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA.

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Let’s Move!

Cooking Up A Story — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:34:13 +0000

February 09, 2010 Let’s Move!, the new initiative that was kicked off today at the White House by first lady Michelle Obama, Will Allen (Growing Power), Judith Palfrey (president of the American Academy of Pediatrics), and Willis “Chip” Johnson, mayor of Hernando, MS. The purpose of the initiative and website is

“to solve the epidemic of childhood obesity within a generation.”

Quite the challenge, but worth the effort!

h/t @ObamaFoodorama

Go to White House Press Release…

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Virginia Farm Bureau: Farmland Preservation Update

Cooking Up A Story — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:30:57 +0000

February 08, 2010 Virginia has recently spearheaded efforts to preserve working farmland. One key method to preserve farmland is to pass the farm to the next generation. In order to help current farmers through this transition, the State has created agriculture license plates to raise money for workshops – thus keeping the small farm active, viable, and in the family.

h/t @susancato

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Seed Catalogs: A Gardener’s Muse

Cooking Up A Story — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:31:48 +0000

February 08, 2010 If you are a food grower, it’s that time of year, again! Either you’re anxiously awaiting your seed order delivery, or you’re still pondering what will I grow this year. It doesn’t really matter if you only have a few pots on the patio or several beds in the backyard…planning and planting is imperative. And so goes it for this journalist, Sara Lipka. With a love of seed catalogs and a keen urge to grow food, she (and her boyfriend) find some ground via his alma mater, and begin the process – to not only grow food for themselves, but primarily for the school kids!

“We paged through the catalogs again and again. Carwile’s Virginia Peanuts, it turned out, had been given by a traveler to an eight-year-old boy around 1910. St. Valery carrots, sweet and tender, dated back to 1880s France. Black Mexican corn was derived from an Iroquois variety. And the tomatoes—oh, the tomatoes. The pages of delicious descriptions were so tempting that in order to keep from getting overwhelmed or carried away, I had to stop. Close the catalog. Take a deep breath.”

What a great idea! Maybe this will catch on for other farmers-without-land and schools-without-farmers.

via @Atlantic_Food

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Farmer Don-In His Own Words

Cooking Up A Story — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:00:58 +0000

Carnival Squash

Part of the reason pesticides are widely used in agriculture comes down to the general preferences of the average American consumer. Farmer Don, a local Portland farmer who grows and sells a variety of fresh foods explains the fussiness some people exhibit toward fruits and vegetables—they won’t buy if something is blemished or has any insect holes. As he tries to explain, imperfection is a part of nature, and an insect boring into (say) an apple causes only a cosmetic harm. Using less pesticides reduces the risks of contamination to the surrounding environment, and also less exposure to farm workers, and ultimately to eaters.

Check out this related video about farmer Don: Sunflower Seeds Forever

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Temple Grandin: Humane Treatment of Farm Animals

Cooking Up A Story — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:50:41 +0000

Dr. Temple Grandin, Associate Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University talks about her approach to helping livestock handling facilities provide more humane treatment of farm animals. This is an excerpt from her talk delivered at the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Sustainable Foods Institute in Monterey, California, in May of 2009. Her understanding of farm animals has led to a revolution in their care and handling, and has helped the entire industry improve their handling facilities, and provide more consistent humane treatment to livestock.

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Nutri-Grain legal challenge has ‘no merit’, says Kellogg

Cooking Up A Story — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:14:38 +0000

February 4, 2010 A class action lawsuit has been brought against The Kellogg Company for allegedly engaging in deceptive advertising practices regarding its Nutra-Grain Bars it claims are healthier to eat because of their ingredients.

The company is being sued in the US District Court of Southern California for violations of the Lanham Act, Unfair Competition Law, Common law of Unfair Competition, False Advertising Law, and the Consumer Legal Remedies Act. In their adverts, the company suggests that Nutri-Grain bars allow you to ‘Eat Better All Day’ because they contain calcium and whole-grains, but the plaintiffs insist that those claims are invalidated by the presence of trans-fats, which contribute to diabetes and heart disease.

This is part of an ongoing industry-wide practice of adding supplements (in the form of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients), often accompanied by high levels of sugar, and promoting these products and juice drinks as being healthy food choices. Michael Pollan speaks directly to this marketing practice in his book, In Defense of Food, and also in this short video for CUpS: Food News before a live audience.

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As We Sow: The Corporate Farm

Cooking Up A Story — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 12:00:05 +0000

I started “documenting” in 2001, not “making a documentary” exactly, because I really didn’t know what it was going to end up being. The New York Times had run a series of articles about the disappearance of small towns across the Midwest, about communities drying up and farmers forced off the land. I wanted to understand what was happening, and I wanted to hear it from the farmers themselves. More…

A Protest Sign In Iowa

What are the results and realities of the continued concentration of agricultural production, marketing, and retail? “What kind of a society are we going to leave for our children,” asks a farmer turned activist, “if we allow the continued consolidation—not only in agriculture—but in every aspect of the American economy where all of the wealth and power are being concentrated into the hands of a very few?”

Jan’s career in television and film production spans some 35 years. Over that time she has produced, directed, and written commercials, corporate programs, network pilots, and co-produced two feature films. Through her marketing and communications consulting company, JW Creative Solutions, Ltd., she works with a myriad of corporate clients to plan, develop, and execute communications, marketing, and corporate education programs. As We Sow was Jan’s first documentary, (and not the last) and she continues to document food and farm from her no-so-rural perch in Brooklyn, NY. For additional information about her film, or to purchase the DVD, she can be contacted at janweber(AT)aswesow.com and at her As We Sow website.

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Raj Patel: The Value of Nothing-an Overview (video)

Cooking Up A Story — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:00:56 +0000

CUpS: Food News

Part 1: Raj Patel, food activist, scholar, and author of two important books: Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System and his new book (now on the New York Times Best Seller list), The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy shares his views about our market driven economy, and what he sees as a necessary direction forward for civilization to survive, and people and communities to flourish.

In his previous book, Stuffed and Starved, Patel examined the global food system, and the transnational corporations that ultimately control the price and availability of the food we buy in the supermarket. From giant food processors to goliath food distribution and transportation companies to global agrichemical and seed companies, the bigger the corporation, the greater their potential competitive advantage by managing costs through economies of scale, and through the ability to exercise monopolistic might and political power. In key sectors of the global food system, the cost of entry demands a substantial degree of largesse—money. Do these advantages result in substantial benefits to the farmer, to the eater, to local communities, to the environment?

To Patel, the answer sadly, is a resounding, no! We have created a system that delivers cheap calories, but cheap we discover contains only the illusion of being cheap. The price we pay for this market driven, industrial agriculture system exacts a deferred subsidy from the planet (in the form of increased atmospheric greenhouse gas accumulations, and other forms of environmental degradation), and according to Patel, also, a disproportionate subsidy from poorer nations (the global south), and from women whose work is undervalued and often unpaid. Economists refer to these costs as externalities. These are largely hidden costs that are not incorporated into the price of the final product, nonetheless they represent real costs that eventually come due.

In Patel’s new book, The Value of Nothing, he hones in on what it means to have corporate monopolies that can manipulate both price and supply, coupled with a “free market” philosophy that hijacks government oversight and public protection, where the price of something bears little relation with its true value.

Patel argues that corporations, driven only to achieve profits, do not try to satisfy real human needs. For example, Patel presents us with the true cost of a hamburger, not a $10 hamburger (that would be considered to many, pricey enough) but a $200 hamburger! How can that be? When you factor in all the externalities, including the loss of biodiversity, the clear cutting of vast areas of rainforests to raise cattle to supply ample meat to the fast food industry, the fertilizer and fossil fuel needed to grow and transport corn for animal feed used to feed cattle, and other costs—it adds up to being a real whopper.

Of course, this isn’t just about hamburgers, or the cattle industry in general—Patel explains further, it’s the global south that subsidize the price of food in our industrial food system. The full bill will be presented over time in the form of greater weather variability, increased drought, reduced agriculture production zones, increased food and energy prices, increased poverty and greater food insecurity, and increasing levels of diet related illness: diabetes; heart disease, cancer, and other chronic afflictions. These maladies are not mere future predictions, many of these problems already exist, and have increased in severity over the last several decades, attributed in part, to our global food system.

One of the fascinating elements in The Value of Nothing, how we hold to our ideologies (despite recent, clear, and almost incontrovertible evidence) that the “free market” approach is no substitute for strong government regulation and oversight over industry, and no justification in the belief that markets, left to their own devices, will self-gravitate toward greater economic order and efficiency. Indeed, within the Newtonian world in which our planet is a residing member, where the natural forces of gravity do still apply, the evidence supports the contrary view of unregulated (and nontransparent) markets leading to economic bubbles, disorder and without—just in time—massive government intervention, societal collapse.

The false beauty of unfettered markets, and laissez-faire government policies toward industry—reinforces the decidedly dangerous and misguided belief that corporations will act responsibly within the larger context of achieving their goals and advancing their economic interests; and (voila!) the public good will be served. More realistic a view (at least from the public interest perspective), Patel writes of the Weendigo, a mythical race that consumes everything in its path; never satiated, all consuming, until finally, it devours its own life support systems. Patel argues, the transnational corporation (the artificial man) is the modern day Weendigo, built from the ground up to accomplish one thing: deliver profits, without cease.

There is a unique role for government to play—to set the rules of the game, and enforce those rules vigorously and fairly. To moderate the rapacious nature of the “artificial man”— the corporation. To insure a balance between the pursuit of profit and preserving the equality of opportunity; between overseeing the engine of commerce and work, and the protection of our fragile ecosystems upon which all of life, including our own, depends for survival.

Patel refers to a World Bank study, Agriculture at a Crossroads (PDF) that addressed the principal question posed by Robert Watson, its chief scientist about how to feed the world in 2050 with a projected population of 9 billion people (today we are at 6 billion)? The study concluded, according to Patel, “…a need to shift away from the current industrial system of agriculture because it doesn’t adequately value natural resources.” The point Patel clearly makes thoughout his book, within the larger framework that includes our present day food system, but also the wider economy at large, we need to reexamine how we value our national resources, our communities, the work that women do throughout the world, and in general, how we address the needs of the most vulnerable in society.

This interview was filmed at Powell’s Books, in Portland, Oregon.

Next time: Part 2 Food Sovereignty

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