Carlton, Oregon. Andrew Rich’s early passion for wine first evolved out of his love for French culture. Later, as an editor for a travel magazine where he also wrote the magazine’s wine column, he enthusiastically immersed himself into the broader wine culture. In 1987, after making the almost inevitable decision to cross-over into winemaking, Rich enrolled in a enology program in Burgundy, France.

Andrew Rich 2008 Roussanne

Mr. Rich says contracting with different grape growers offers him variety he would not otherwise have, as an example, “It gives me the opportunity to source pinot noir from different growers so we have different soils, different expositions, different clones, different age vines, and that gives me a much broader palette to work with for my pinot blends after the wine has been in barrel for say 14 months.”

Tasting Room, The Carlton Winemakers Studio

Since 2002, Andrew Rich has been producing wine at The Carlton Winemakers Studio, a cooperative space where independent winemakers share access to the specialized equipment, storage, and (mobile) bottling facilities needed to autonomously produce, and bottle their own wines.

For Andrew Rich’s 2010 vintage, there were two main wine categories that he produced:

• Willamette Valley Pinot Noir and smaller quantities of sauvignon blanc
• Columbia Valley Rhone style wines: Roussanne, Syrah, and a blend he calls “Coup d’état”

Rich makes roughly 5000 cases of wine annually.

Visit Yamhill Valley Wines for their “Wines of the Valley” series that features the history, quality and diversity of the Yamhill Valley’s flourishing wine industry. For the introductory video, along with the video series list, check out the first post on CUPS: The Yamhill Valley Wine Region of Oregon

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Originally published June 12, 2009 It’s that time of year to get your buckets ready and go pick your own fruit and/or vegetables. There’s nothing tastier than a fresh picked strawberry. In fact, I have to say, it’s almost like eating a different fruit— ones that are fresh picked versus the standard fare in the supermarket. The biggest secret of all, at least in my area around Portland, the u-pick strawberries are substantially less than the price at the store.

I urge you to find what is available in your region and have a go at it. I took 2 of my boys last weekend and returned with over 13 pounds of strawberries! There are lots of varieties, Hood being one of my favorite. We snacked on them first, then I made a pie, and, last, I put the rest in the freezer for future enjoyment. Or you could make small batch strawberry jam – just enough for a couple of jars and easy enough to do in an hour. Here’s a link for finding u-pick strawberries in your local area.

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Newberg, Oregon. Oregon wine producer and custom grape grower, Dick Shea, came into farming later in life from an entirely different career path. He chose his Oregon vineyard property (Shea Wine Cellars) after six months of careful research, deciding upon a 140-acre pasture in the Yamhill-Carleton District in Newberg. In 1990, when he purchased the property, the only pinot noir grapes being commercially grown were in two other nearby areas, Eola Hills and Dundee Hills. At the time, this unproven location was a bold decision because the pinot noir grape is finicky, and requires just the right mix of soil and climatic conditions in order to commercially grow them successfully. It’s also a grape that is in high demand, and suitable land is in short supply throughout the world.

Although Shea started out as a custom grower supplying his wine grapes to a small cluster of winemakers in Oregon and California, he also began to produce his own wine. After building a winery in 2007, his wine production rose considerably to 6500 cases (in 2009); his acreage of grapes that year also produced 22,000 cases of wine for the winemakers who purchased his grapes.

Shea is mainly interested in working with likeminded winemakers who are creating notable styles of wine from his pinot noir (and Chardonnay) grapes. Working closely with his buyers, decisions made in the vineyard as the grapes are growing will influence the final outcome of the wine.

“When you pick, the level of ripeness that you are getting in the fruit, how much fruit we hang, how many leaves and which leaves we pull to let sunlight into the fruit, all those things will impact the eventual character of the wine. There’s other things obviously that are done in the winery but it starts in the vineyard,” says Shea.

Early on, Dick Shea was forced to replace all his pinot noir vines because of exposure to the phylloxera fungus, and like farmers the world over is no stranger to dealing with risk:

“This is agriculture. We have been through a lot of challenges, that was the biggest one (dealing with the fungus issue), we had to replace all of the 140 acres. And, we have had our short crops and early rains, but we have gotten through them all, and we love the business. We always root for good years, but we love the whole complexity of it, the ride has been a lot of fun.”

Visit Yamhill Valley Wines for their “Wines of the Valley” series that features the history, quality and diversity of the Yamhill Valley’s flourishing wine industry. For the introductory video, along with the video series list, check out the first post on CUPS: The Yamhill Valley Wine Region of Oregon

The post An Oregon Wine Grower: From Wall Street to Vineyard Farm appeared first on Cooking Up a Story.

It may come as a small surprise to some, Deborah Madison, culinary chef, veteran cookbook author and founder of the legendary Green’s Restaurant in San Francisco, considers herself but a beginner gardener.

Nonetheless, the idea for her latest book, Vegetable Literacy, grew out of natural curiosity when she began to ask herself certain questions about the plants she watched growing in her garden. As Madison says in An Interview with Deborah Madison: Vegetable Literacy, she “became interested in the principles that unite plants, herbs, and flowers into certain families”, and how many of the common plants we consume, not only are related, members within an individual family can be used together as complimentary ingredients for cooking.

In the interview above, Deborah Madison talks about some of the botanical families, and their edible members that are organized by chapter in her book. Below is a partial list of chapters from Vegetable Literacy mentioned in the video, along with a sampling of their individual members:

1. The (Former) Lily Family: Onions and Asparagus: includes chives, cipolllini, garlic, green onions, among others.
2. The Mint Family: Square Stems and Fragrant Leaves: includes anise hyssop, basil, bee balm, sage, and more…
3. The Cabbage Family: includes arugula, bok choy, mustards, radishes, and much more.
4. The Sunflower Family: includes absinthe, artichokes, sunflowers, tarragon, etc..
5. The Cucurbit Family: includes buffalo gourd, cucumbers, melons, winter squash, and more.
6. The Grass Family: Grains and cereals-includes barley, frikeh, oats, rice, wild rice, and more.
7. The Legume Family: Peas and Beans-includes alfalfa, split peas, black-eyed peas, lentils, mesquite, and many others.

Disclosure: CUPS received a complimentary book in preparation for this interview.

The post Vegetable Literacy: Deborah Madison Describes Some Plant Families appeared first on Cooking Up a Story.

“Organic is growing. Biodynamic is growing. The LIVE program is growing. Sustainability is not just one program or orthodoxy winning the battle, but we are all on the same train heading in the same direction, we have just all chosen to sit in different cars.” [...Despite some differences between programs] “90% of what we believe is the same across all of the sustainability programs.”—Ted Casteel, founder of the LIVE program that serves the Pacific Northwest region.

With advanced degrees in European History, Ted Casteel and his wife lived in France and Italy for 18 months before moving to Michigan, and teaching history at a local university for several years. A native of Oregon, when Dr. Casteel decided to relocate his family back to his home state, it meant making a career change.

Bethel Heights Vineyard, Salem, Oregon

The idea for the LIVE program (Low Input Viticulture and Enology) came about in the early 1990’s when it became clear to Ted Casteel there needed to be both an education and independent certification program based upon solid, science-based principles to promote sustainability practices to other producers. Casteel believes that the Oregon wine industry benefits as a whole when its individual producers participate within the framework of one of the existing certifying programs, be it organic, biodynamic, or the LIVE program. “In the long run we will have healthier farms and a healthier industry if we are successful. The goal in the end is to enroll everybody, and we are 40% of the way there [for the Pacific Northwest region],” said Casteel.

Since 1998 when the LIVE program began, it has continued to evolve as a flexible program based upon 3 foundational principles:

1. A reduction in the use of off-farm inputs such as pesticides, fuel, fertilizers, etc.
2. Promoting biodiversity of life including vibrant life within the soils.
3. A certification process that holistically applies to the entire farm and winery, not just the vineyard itself.

Vineyard manager, Ted Casteel walks a path along the vines.

The LIVE program is not an end process in itself, and what Ted Casteel hopes to leave for prosperity, he says,

“At the end of my days here, that I will leave this farm a more sustainable place than it was when I started, and my kids will thoroughly understand this is not an endpoint but a process you learn, its an educational program more than anything else and its always challenging. Every year brings with it a new pest, a new challenge, something that we can’t really foresee, that we have to have a way of dealing with, a method of dealing with it, and that’s what the LIVE program tries to do.”

Visit Yamhill Valley Wines for their “Wines of the Valley” series that features the history, quality and diversity of the Yamhill Valley’s flourishing wine industry. For the introductory video, along with the video series list, check out the first post on CUPS: The Yamhill Valley Wine Region of Oregon

The post LIVE: A Sustainable Program for Wine Growers and Wineries appeared first on Cooking Up a Story.

Cooking and Gardening with Twelve Families from the Edible Plant Kingdom, with over 300 Deliciously Simple Recipes

Deborah Madison Holding Carrot Bunch.
photo courtesy of Deborah Madison
©2013 All Rights Reserved.

Despite growing up on mostly a plant-based diet, Madison never considered herself a strict vegetarian. When she became more of a public figure as a result of her books, she felt a personal obligation to distance herself from promoting that lifestyle, and declared publicly not to be a vegetarian. “I didn’t want the focus to be on pushing something away, on not eating meat, I’m always more interested in trying to work with situations, and having everybody at the table, and now I think that has started to happen,” Madison explained during our interview.

Vegetable Literacy is first and foremost a cookbook. But it offers us so much more than just wonderful recipes for making plant based meals. Madison’s book delivers a treasure trove of edible plant members, identified, described, and thoughtfully expounded upon, within each of the 12 edible botanical families selected for the book. And while on the surface, many of us who see ourselves more as cooks than gardeners may know what to do with fresh carrots, we might not realize that within the same family (carroway seed, anise seed, dill, cumin, coriander, and more), there exists a complimentary range of ingredients that also can be added to the dish. Or how about this exotic sounding recipe, Creamy Cardoon Soup with Thyme that combines Cardoons from the sunflower family with thyme from the mint family?

Vegetable Literacy celebrates the familial wonder of the garden, and the variety of ways plants can be used together in the kitchen, providing a kind of decoder ring, translating the almost infinite possibilities of the garden into the practical realm of cooking.

Stay tuned on Wednesday for part 2 of our interview with Deborah Madison as she describes several of the 12 edible plant families in her book.

The post An Interview with Deborah Madison: Vegetable Literacy appeared first on Cooking Up a Story.

Carleton, Oregon. Sparkling wines are relatively new in the Willamette Valley. Only a tiny number of wineries within this region are producing wines with carbonation, mostly using the high-quality, French “Methode Champenoise” process where a secondary fermentation occurs in the bottle, as opposed to the cheaper method of just adding carbon dioxide gas to the wine after bottling. Chris Berg, the current winemaker for the Laurel Ridge Winery, is one of the few local winemakers who specializes in making “Methode Champenoise” style sparkling wines.

View Outside Laurel Ridge Winery, Carleton, Oregon.

Berg, who also produces wine under his own label, Roots, from pinot noir grapes grown on his nearby 20-acre vineyard, became interested in the culinary arts after high school, but then switched over to becoming a winemaker. For Berg, winemaking has similar objectives to cooking: “You take your raw ingredients and add your spin on it, without trying to detract from the product itself”. As he continues, ”With me and champagne [style wines], I like it for the excitement of where it starts, to where it finishes, and helping it along, trying not to take away from what it was originally.”

Inside Laurel Ridge Winery

Chris Berg says that a good sparkling has to tell where it comes from, “be it a vineyard down the street, or the Willamette Valley”, a good sparkling wine provides a “sense of place”. Second, the varietal characteristic, either a pinot or a chardonnay, must be identifiable in the flavor. And finally, stylistically, how well the sparkling wine measures up to the final objectives for that vintage. Does it have enough creaminess, and well rounded flavor? Or, if the objective is for it to be “vibrant and lively,” with a more focused flavor, does it have enough of those characteristics?

Visit Yamhill Valley Wines for their “Wines of the Valley” series that features the history, quality and diversity of the Yamhill Valley’s flourishing wine industry. For the introductory video, along with the video series list, check out the first post on CUPS: The Yamhill Valley Wine Region of Oregon

The post Making Sparkling Wines in the Willamette Valley appeared first on Cooking Up a Story.

McMinnville, Oregon A step in the winemaking process that is often overlooked, is the role of the barrel maker, referred to as the cooper. Rick DeFerrari, of Oregon Barrel Works, started learning how to make barrels back in 1992 where he apprenticed at the century old French cooperage François Frères in Burgundy.

Most wine barrels are made from oak and DeFerrari uses primarily French Oak and Oregon Oak woods. “All of our French wood comes from government owned land. The French have done a good job of managing their oak forests. Finland and France are the only 2 European countries that have an increasing land base for forestry. And all the wood is meticulously manicured; when the French government gets ready to sell a piece of land, they have an auction and the highest bidder gets those trees.”, says DeFerrari.

Two staves to be used in barrel making

Mr. DeFerrari explains his barrelmaking process in greater detail:

“We bring container loads of stave wood in from France. The staves are rough sawn. They’re random lengths, they’re about a meter in length, and any where from about 2 inches to about 4 1/2 inches wide. From there we’ll cut them to lengths, we’ll plane a curve on the inside and plane a curve on the outside, and then we’ll joint the wood making it kinda wider in the middle and narrow at each end, and having that bevel so it fits that radius of our barrel.

“We’ll start with the barrel open, what we call the rows. So all the staves are arranged, and again, there are set number of staves in a barrel since all the staves are random widths. What we know, we know the circumference of the barrel we want to build, and so we’ll put in the exact number of staves to make that circumference.

Interior of wine barrel during the toasting process

“After we get the rows raised we’ll actually heat the barrel up, wrap a cable around it and slowly pull it together with a little bit of water to bring it together and make all those joints marry together [editors note: as you'll see in the video]. It’s a pretty important part to get them so that they’re really adhered to one another and pressed together. After we do that we’ll continue toasting the barrel – and the winemaker will specify what kind of toast we’ll do on that barrel, so we’re custom making everything for wineries. And basically that’s a time, temperature, and a little bit of visual – like okay that’s a medium plus, that’s a medium toast – so there’s some variables in there.”

Once finished, the barrel is delivered, ready for use.

“The grapes have natural tannins in them, but it’s going to pick up tannins from the wood barrel. You’re building color, you’re building mouth feel, you’re building aromas, and you’re building flavors when you store in a barrel,” says Rick DeFerrari.

Visit Yamhill Valley Wines for their “Wines of the Valley” series that features the history, quality and diversity of the Yamhill Valley’s flourishing wine industry. For the introductory video, along with the video series list, check out the first post on CUPS: The Yamhill Valley Wine Region of Oregon

The post The Old World Craft of Barrel Making appeared first on Cooking Up a Story.

trisaetum Winery, Vineyards, and Gallery, Newberg, Oregon. For James Frey, the art of winemaking is quite literally another art form that he endeavors to perfect.

Both in his paintings that line the walls of his winery, and the wines from a particular vintage that he (and co-winemaker Greg McClellan) blends together into a finished style, his wines are perceived within a rich palette of colors. They are as finely attuned to his own sensibility of taste, as to the finished canvasses upon which the final dollops of color have been added. The brush laid down, the painting now completed— so too, the final blends chosen, accented toward expressing the full potential of that wine’s vintage.

Mr. Frey explains the duality of being a painter and a winemaker; in essence, of an artist who works in two different mediums that draws upon an overlapping sense of aesthetic:

 Photo courtesy of Lynn Torrance Redlin

“When I’m approaching a painting, I don’t want to paint just in blue. In fact, if I’m using blue, I don’t want just one shade of blue, I want 8 different shades of blue, I want to paint with reds and yellows, greens and oranges.

The same thing happens when we put together a bottle of wine. We don’t want a single note, a single color let’s say, and so the palette that we use as an artist effects the palette that I taste my wine with. And so, I’m looking for lots of different variety in the barrels of wine that I have, so that when I put together a blend, it’s not just one note.”

Each barrel has its own special components for a variety of reasons. In addition to the types of fermentation tanks that are used (wood and stainless steel), there are different clones of pinot noir, and different soils within the Willamette Valley region that result in a variety of different flavor characteristics for the pinot noir grapes. At trisateum, the blending process is the final stage of winemaking after the barrels have aged for a period of 12 to 18 months, and the wine is then ready to be bottled. From the 120 barrels of pinot noir for a given year, a particular style will be blended together, as Mr. Frey further explains:

Winemakers James Frey and Greg McClellan
in the barrel cave.

“There might be another wine we are trying to make that year of pinot noir that would have dark fruit, that would have more structure, maybe a little more tannin, maybe ages a little bit longer— a wine that you maybe want to drink after 2 or 3 years. Those kind of barrels we’ll tag, and those we’ll try to blend into that particular type of wine. So the blending process is really going through the entirety of our cave, segmenting barrels into particular styles with particular characteristics and then trying different combinations until we get the 8 different pinot noir’s that we think are perfect for the vintage.”

Visit Yamhill Valley Wines for their “Wines of the Valley” series that features the history, quality and diversity of the Yamhill Valley’s flourishing wine industry. For the introductory video, along with the video series list, check out the first post on CUPS: The Yamhill Valley Wine Region of Oregon

The post The Art of Blending Wines: From Barrel to Bottle appeared first on Cooking Up a Story.

Remy Wines, McMinnville, Oregon. Remy Drabkin grew up in a community where exciting new winemakers were helping to shape the nascent wine industry in Oregon. Her first job at age 13 was working the harvest for one of the Oregon pioneers, Ponzi Vineyards. Remy always knew that she wanted to become a winemaker herself, and at age 25, she started Remy Wines.

Remy’s Vineyard specializing in Sangiovese, Barbera, Lagrein, and Dolcetto grape varietals.

Her approach to natural winemaking fits within the David Lett philosophy of manipulating the wine as little as possible during the winemaking process, instead, closely managing the grapes as they grow in the vineyard, and choosing varietals that do well in the microclimate of the Dundee Hills area where her vineyards reside.

The “Remy” label is very focused on Italian varietals that come from a single vineyard, and are not blended with other varietals. As a winemaker that considers herself a traditionalist, she’s also open-minded and experimental, and the later qualities, Remy especially expresses through her second label, 3 Wives. Remy characterizes 3 Wives as more playful wines, and that she adds new variaties over time to that labels list.

Visit Yamhill Valley Wines for their “Wines of the Valley” series that features the history, quality and diversity of the Yamhill Valley’s flourishing wine industry. For the introductory video, along with the video series list, check out the first post on CUPS: The Yamhill Valley Wine Region of Oregon

The post A Young Oregon Winemaker appeared first on Cooking Up a Story.

Eyrie Vineyards, Dundee, Oregon. David Lett may not have single-handedly put Oregon wine on the world map, but he was certainly one of its earliest, most prescient, winemaking crusaders that helped establish the wine industry in the state. As Jason Lett said during the interview process of his late father who passed away in 2008:

“My father had a reputation for being a bit of a retro-grouch. Here was this forward thinking person who came and brought these grapes to a place where they had never been grown, that captured attention around the world in international competition, and yet at the same time, he was a real traditionalist. He believed that the less you monkeyed with the wine in the winery, and the more attention that you paid to the grapes in the vineyard, the better the wine would be”.

Even to this day, Jason went on to say, the philosophy of “natural winemaking” is still far from being the dominant mindset of the industry but it is slowly growing new adherents.

One of the Oldest Pinot Noir Grapevines on Eyrie Vineyards

In keeping with the tradition that his father (and his mother, Diana) set, Jason Lett who took over Eyrie in 2005, has begun growing an additional grape varietal on Eyrie Vineyards—Trousseau— that comes from the foothills of the Alps, in eastern France.

When I asked Mr. Lett about what he saw for the future of the Oregon wine industry, he responded, in part:

“Oregon, I think, only makes less than 1% of the country’s wine, but I think we are 2nd or 3rd in the country, in terms of the number of vineyards we have here. Simply because there are so many small artisan producers here, who are growing the grapes themselves, making the wine themselves, the wines have great personality and they have a great sense of place. I hope that Oregon continues to follow that model in the future. And, I have every confidence that it will.

Visit Yamhill Valley Wines for their “Wines of the Valley” series that features the history, quality and diversity of the Yamhill Valley’s flourishing wine industry. For the introductory video, along with the video series list, check out the first post on CUPS: The Yamhill Valley Wine Region of Oregon

The post The Oldest Pinot Noir Vines in the Willamette Valley appeared first on Cooking Up a Story.

Series Sampler

In this video sampler, the first in the Yamhill Valley Wine Series (see below for more details), we provide a brief glimpse of some of the upcoming stories that will be published over the next 5 weeks.

You may not be able to precisely locate the Yamhill Valley Wine Region of Oregon on any state map, but it unofficially resides within the larger Willamette Valley, the most fertile agricultural zone, and the largest wine producing area, in the state. There are approximately 200 wineries within the Willamette Valley, a geographic territory that extends from the cities of Portland to Eugene— about a 100 miles long and 60 miles wide that covers an area more than 3 million acres in size.

Cooking Up a Story has partnered with the News-Register Publishing Company in McMinnville, Oregon to independently produce 10 short videos that showcase a wide sampling of the exciting wine producers, grape growers, and wine artisans that comprise this unique region of the world. Our explorations include a visit to the oldest Pinot Noir grapevines in the state, and to a Oregon pioneering wine family where the second-generation has taken over the reins. We also visit with a young winemaker who is pushing the boundaries for growing unusual grape varietals, and talk with a cooper that produces custom designed wine barrels made of local Oregon and imported French oak woods.

The full series schedule is listed below.

Eyrie Vineyards, McMinnville, Oregon

• The Yamhill Valley Wine Region of Oregon (series sampler) (2:06)
• The Oldest Pinot Noir Vines in the Willamette Valley (3:10)
  Eyrie Vineyards
• A Young Oregon Winemaker(2:21)
  Remy Wines


Pinot Noir Grapes

• Blending Wines: trisaetum (3:02)
  trisaetum Winery, Vineyards, and Gallery
• An Artisan Wine Barrel Maker (2:19)
  Oregon Barrel Works

Publish Date: Tuesday, June 4

• Sparkling Wines (2:42)
  Laurel Ridge Winery

Publish Date: Thursday, June 6



Andrew Rich Vintner, Carleton, Oregon

• LIVE: A Sustainable Program for Wine Growers and Wineries (2:39)
  Bethel Heights Vineyard

Publish Date: Tuesday, June 11

• An Oregon Wine Grower: From Wall Street to Vineyard Farm (2:13)
  Shea Wine Cellars

Publish Date: Thursday, June 13

• Other Fine Wines: Roussanne (2:37)
  Andrew Rich Vintner

Publish Date: Tuesday, June 18

• Oregon 2nd Generation Wine Producers: Sokol Blosser (2:30)
  Sokol Blosser

Publish Date: Thursday, June 20

About our Yamhill Valley Wine Series partner: YamhillValley.com is the website companion to “Discover Yamhill Valley”’ publications, which are distributed by the News-Register Publishing Co. of McMinnville. Also found at YamhillValleyWines.com, the website’s “Wines of the Valley” series features the history, quality and diversity of the Yamhill Valley’s flourishing wine industry. Wines of the Valley combines videos produced by “Cooking Up a Story” with staff articles written for the News-Register and the Oregon Wine Press.

The post The Yamhill Valley Wine Region of Oregon (video) appeared first on Cooking Up a Story.

Jeanne Carver describes how she and her husband’s ranching business had to come up with a new marketing approach to address declining markets and competition from overseas. As you see in this short video, their new approach was to create and market a value-added product, turning their sheep’s wool into valuable yarn.

Their strategy revolved around four key activities:

1. Identify the product and its market potential.
2. Determine the type and level of processing needed for your product.
3. Create a marketing package and message.
4. Develop a plan for how to market and sell your product.

Oregon's Imperial Stock Ranch: 2 Sheep Eating

The post Value Added Marketing: Wool Yarn into Apparel (Video) appeared first on Cooking Up a Story.

This is an extra video from the original Food.Farmer.Earth story about Kathryn Yeomans and her pop up restaurant event titled The Chef, The Farmer, and the Pop-Up Restaurant. It’s the first time that I saw a Douglas Fir snow cone freshly made (or for that matter, anything edible made from the Douglas Fir tree), and though simple enough to make, it seemed unusual, and somehow appropriately festive for the occasion.

For those who may be interested, the USDA has some interesting information (Douglas Fir Plant Guide) about Native American use of the Douglas Fir tree for food and health related remedies.

The post Douglas Fir Snow Cone Intermezzo appeared first on Cooking Up a Story.

Part 3: In my previous post, I skimmed the surface of the massive regulations which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has proposed to reduce human exposure to pathogenic organisms originating from fresh fruits and vegetables.

The draft Produce Safety and Preventive Controls (for handling facilities) regulations are the first steps towards implementing the Food Modernization Safety Act (FSMA) of 2010. When finalized, the FSMA will provide FDA with unprecedented authority to regulate produce farmers, handlers and distributors operating domestically or shipping into the United States. From setting quality standards for agricultural water to restrictions on applying manure, from imposing rules to maintain farmworker hygiene and exclude wildlife from fields and facilities, FDA will oversee the production and handling of fresh fruits and vegetables literally from farm to fork.

The FSMA and FDA’s current draft regulations are predicated on the belief that reducing the risk from food borne pathogens requires a highly technical, centrally managed system based on universal enforcement of scientifically-validated standards. This is the same understanding that underlies other federal and state food safety programs, such as those mandating the pasteurization of fresh milk prior to sale and maintenance of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) plans for meat processing facilities. We have seen a clear connection between these regulatory programs and the aggressive concentration of the dairy and meat sectors which has resulted in countless small farmers exiting production. Does FSMA implementation foretell a similar fate for local fruit and vegetable producers and handlers?

Sustainable food advocates were acutely sensitive to this risk as FSMA moved through Congress and came away generally satisfied with the protections ultimately included in the law. There are two variables – annual sales volume and whether the produce is sold to an end user or a “middle man” such as a processor or wholesaler – that determine farmers’ compliance requirements. The fact that FSMA acknowledges a distinction between selling to end users (whether directly to consumers or to restaurants, schools and other institutions which process and serve immediately) and the wholesale market testifies to the increasing if still limited leverage that local and sustainable food proponents now exercise in Washington, DC.

First of all produce that is rarely consumed raw such as potatoes and winter squash, is not covered by FDA’s current draft, and produce farmers who gross less than $25,000 annually are completely exempt. More significantly from a commercial perspective, the proposal provides a partial exemption for fruit and vegetable farmers who average less than $500,000 in annual gross sales of which more than half of the product sold is sold to ‘qualified end users,’ defined as consumers and restaurants or retailers either in-state or within 275 miles of the farm or facility. Qualifying farms will be exempt from the proposed produce safety standards and will be not be subjected to mandatory inspection, although FDA retains authority to inspect based on potential safety concerns. Farms that qualify under this exemption will, however, be subject to significant recordkeeping requirements including their production and handling practices as well as identifying their qualified end users.

However FDA crafts it final regulations, anyone who grows, handles or markets fresh fruits and vegetables is going to see the way they do business change, and possibly quite seriously. Here are some general precepts which can contribute to common-sense solutions which will benefit farmers and consumers alike:

• Pathogen reduction cannot be the exclusive objective for a food safety standard. Setting the reduction, or worse yet elimination, of all potentially hazardous food pathogens as the sole benchmark of success is an invitation for the ends to justify the means. For example, eliminating all wildlife habitat is not an acceptable strategy for managing risk for pathogens potentially spread by wild animals. At the farm level, protecting against food borne pathogens requires a site-specific approach that is not compatible with the controlled, uniform environments for which HACCP is suited. The Wild Farm Alliance does excellent work on assessing the compatibility of wild habitat and agricultural production from the food safety perspective.
• We cannot test our way to acceptable food safety. Dependence on testing protocols, no matter how well designed and enforced, cannot protect against systemic lapses and breakdowns that result in illnesses attributable to food borne pathogens. Testing must be a component of an effective food safety program but it can never replace intelligent and responsible human oversight at every stage of the production, handling and consumption processes. Excessive dependence on testing is also fast track for depleting the invaluable resources of time and money from small operations and creating an unnecessary economy of scale for larger operations.
• Concentration in and of itself carries tremendous risk. There are many ways in which scale drives risk. For example, pooling produce from multiple farms can result in contamination of the entire load if even one of the sources has an inadequate safety program. Food safety is only one of several obvious reasons why we should be especially concerned that the United States is increasingly importing its fruits and vegetables from overseas. (How about irreversible loss of farm land for another reason?)
• No raw food product is inherently risky in and of itself. While every food presents a unique set of food safety challenges, it’s equally true that we are capable of managing risk appropriately. Creating excessive barriers to the production and marketing of certain products, such as salad mix, which are recognized to present unique challenges, is simply avoiding problem for which viable solutions exist.
• Overextended regulation and intervention will harm all players in the food system. Bear in mind that there are actually two steps to complying with a regulation: complying with the specific provision and subsequently documenting that compliance. It is often the second step, which involves the application, inspection, testing and recordkeeping and routine contact with the regulatory authority which swamps the actual measures necessary to satisfy the regulation itself. It is imperative that FDA avoid establishing regulations which overburden and subsequently choke out the small and medium sized producers who are driving the local food movement.

Public input will have a significant impact as FDA moves forward on finalizing the Produce Safety and Preventive Controls proposals and forthcoming components of the FSMA, such as the provisions for imported fruits and vegetables. Local and sustainable agriculture advocates played a significant role in shaping the underlying law and continued engagement is crucial to insure that this perspective is reflected in the final regulations. Among many other organizations tracking the FSMA implementation process, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition provides useful updates. The FDA public comment period closes on September 16, 2013.

Mark Keating has worked in the organic, sustainable and local food movements since 1982. His work experience includes commercial food service, farm labor, retail sales and marketing, state and federal civil service, non-profit advocacy, academia, journalism and conducting organic inspections. While working for the USDA National Organic Program between 1999 and 2002 Mark helped draft the national organic standards for crop and livestock production. He spent two more years with the USDA Marketing Services Branch working to develop and promote farmers markets. Mark also worked for the NOP in 2010. An inveterate believer that organically raised and locally distributed food offers the surest path to human health and planetary survival, Mark, his wife and their daughter live alongside the Pequest River in New Jersey, the Garden State.

The post Produce Safety and Preventive Controls: FDA To Lay Down Law on Food Pathogens appeared first on Cooking Up a Story.

The Creative Filmmaking Process

Part 2: Independent filmmaker, Deborah Koons Garcia talks about her latest film Symphony of the Soil, and how she brings together animation, watercolor images, and original music to provide a better understanding about soil, and draw the audience closer to nature.

Garcia believes that people are naturally interested in how things work. Despite this inherent curiosity, there’s an artistry involved in the filmmaking process, for a film to successfully engage an audience on a deeper, emotional level.

There’s a certain majesty that occurs throughout Symphony of the Soil, reminiscent at times, of a very different film, Dances With Wolves. The wide-open landscapes, the emotional grandeur of the music, there’s also a wistful connection to an earlier human period, when the Native Americans and the buffalos roamed free, living in harmony with nature.

This film is exceptional, not only for the quality of information that is provided by the many different experts in the movie, but for the way in which all the individual elements are assembled into a coherent story. Symphony of the Soil transports the viewer to another world, and to return—armed with more knowledge, and maybe even, a little more humanity.

Not bad, for a film about the soil.

The post Symphony of the Soil: Interview with Deborah Koons Garcia-2 appeared first on Cooking Up a Story.

Part 1: It may be fitting that a near two-hour film devoted to the subject of soil would begin from the perspective of outer space looking down upon the Earth. For as we learn in the beginning of the movie, most of our planet was formed out of lifeless mineral rock through which a thin layer of soil first emerges. Life springs forth, thus.

Deborah Koons Garcia’s exceptional, new film, Symphony of the Soil, pays loving homage to the beauty and the wondrous mystery of soil, celebrating not just the incredible soil diversity filmed on four of the world’s continents, it also rejoices in the knowledge of leading scientists, and farmers whose careers have been devoted to better understanding this profoundly essential living medium.

As the film begins, microbial ecologist, Dr. Ignacio Chapela, stands upon a mountaintop in Norway, as he tells us, “Life supports me on this precarious ledge where we can see life gaining upon the mineral basis of the planet. The nutrients of the rock being transferred into the living layer that is the soil that supports the plant and other life. And building up life to make soil thicker and thicker, as life complexes upon itself.”

Garcia’s protagonist is the soil itself; not only does it embody life as comprised of billions of bacteria, and other living organisms that break down matter into organic nutrients, soil provides a living substrate upon which plants can grow. In contrast to dirt, which is without life, and must be supplanted with fertilizers and other chemical inputs as a viable medium for plants to grow, the abundance of soil on our planet also enables more complex forms of life to exist, and to thrive.

Soil—we are told—is extremely rare in the universe.

Symphony of the Soil is a joyous excursion into the scientific realm, presenting a level of understanding of just how vital and unique a role soil plays in supporting planetary life. Garcia takes us on a global journey to see how different soils are formed in nature, helping to reveal some of the mysteries and interesting properties that define the various soil types.

Most remarkable of all, is how much fun this film is to watch, and to appreciate that the world of soil can be such a fascinating character onto itself. For so ubiquitous an entity around us, most of us know, so precious little about it.

At least, until we watch the film.

Coming next: In part 2 on Thursday, Deborah Koons Garcia talks about the creative process that went into the making of this documentary.

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From one organic dairyman’s perspective, it all begins with the health of the soil. As Jon Bansen explains in this short video, by relying upon the manure from his cows, along with some additional inputs, he is able to keep his soil healthy, and by doing so, produce nutritious grass that his jersey cows depend upon much of the year for their food. For Bansen, healthy soil ultimately translates into tastier, and more nutritious milk.

Scientists are learning more about the critical role of important nutrients in foods toward possibly delaying (or even preventing) the later onset of certain chronic diseases, including: cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, high blood pressure— all chronic illnesses commonly associated with Western cultures.

Jersey Cow Enjoying the Pasture; Double J Jerseys Farm

Grasses from nutrient rich soils are naturally higher in Omega 3 fatty acids and other antioxidants, and pasture fed animals gain some of this benefit through pasture grazing. An historical look over the past 50 years, reveals the steep rise of Omega 6 fatty acids in the daily diet that are associated with grain fed animals, processed foods, fast foods, and most oils; over the same time frame, a decrease in dietary levels of Omega 3 fatty acids, both necessary nutrients for the body, both must come from outside food sources, but in much more equal levels to each other. Those ratios have substantially changed in recent years, from 1:1 relation to as high as 17:1(Omega 6′s to Omega 3′s).

There is some scientific evidence that suggests the typical Western Diet that is low in Omega 3 fatty acids (a natural anti-inflammatory agent for the body), and with higher levels of Omega 6 fatty acids, may adversely stimulate the immune system to trigger the inflammation process to occur. Chronic inflammation may be one of two key underlying mechanisms that cause (over time) the western disease clusters referred to above.

The Omega 3 fatty acids is one example of the important role that critical nutrients may play in protecting human health in the broader context of proper diet, regular physical exercise, stress reduction, family and social connectedness, genetics, and reducing environmental exposure to toxins, and other synthetic compounds.

The post Organic Dairyman: It All Begins with the Soil (video) appeared first on Cooking Up a Story.

Growing food comes with its own inherent risks. One of them, who ultimately gets the food that’s grown, you or the wildlife?

A big problem for most home gardeners is how to keep insects like aphids, mites, and caterpillars from eating and destroying a crop. Growing insectary plants would be a good start. It’s purpose is to attract beneficial insects which feed upon insects that might be damaging your garden.

Master Gardener, Jen Aron

The post Introducing Insectary Plants for Your Garden (video) appeared first on Cooking Up a Story.

In my previous post, I sketched the enormous stakes involved as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) re-writes federal food safety regulations for fresh fruits and vegetables. It might be more appropriate to say “writes” such regulations, since the current laws, which date to 1938, are structured as guidance and significantly limit FDA’s enforcement authority. That will fundamentally change once FDA completes drafting new regulations to implement the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). The public can review and comment on the first sections of FDA’s proposed regulations through September 16.

Whatever final form they take, these regulations will greatly expand FDA’s authority to determine how commercial produce farmers and vendors operate. FDA will oversee where, when and how manure may be used as a fertilizer, determine which records farmers must maintain to document compliance and set the fees and conditions for on-farm inspections. For the first time, FDA will have the same mandatory recall authority for fruits and vegetables which USDA currently exercises with meat, poultry and egg products.

The incentives for enhancing produce safety are obvious: food borne pathogens pose serious, even lethal health risks and fresh fruits and vegetables are recognized vectors for their transmission. Driven by concerns about consumer safety and litigation, many large produce distributors and retailers already require farmers to comply with a process-based, third-party verified safety program comparable to FSMA. At the same time, fresh produce is a principle catalyst behind the renaissance of local and sustainable food systems blossoming across the United States which is creating dynamic new marketing opportunities for existing and new entry farmers. Whether shipped around the world or raised on a neighboring CSA, fresh produce inevitably entails some food safety risks, but sensibly managing those risks will look nothing alike.

How will the FSMA’s sweeping expansion of federal authority, developed for an industrial-scale, global production and distribution network, affect the rights of small and medium-sized farmers who reach their customers through produce auction houses, farmers markets and farm-to-school programs? Will the mushrooming legwork and paperwork necessary to document compliance drive these operations out of the system and perhaps out of business as other federal agricultural regulatory initiatives have? How effectively and responsibly will FDA exercise its authority over the more than 100,000 separate entities which it estimates will have to fully comply with FSMA requirements? We’ll dedicate this post to outlining the nuts and bolts of the current draft FSMA regulations and shift to a broader analysis of their implications for food safety and local food systems next time.

The FDA’s current proposal covers the first two components of FSMA: Standards for Produce Production (Produce Rule), and Food Safety Measures for Facilities that Process Food for Human Consumption (Preventive Controls Rule). Both rules address food safety risks from microbial pathogens such as E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella and Listeria and have no bearing on health concerns related to residues from pesticides, antibiotics or genetically modified organisms. The rules do not affect the application of composted human manure, referred to legally as biosolids, which remains under EPA jurisdiction. The Produce Rule establishes science – based minimum standards for the field-based growing, harvesting, packing, and holding of produce while the Preventive Controls Rule applies to requirements for handling facilities that manufacture, process, pack, or hold human food. When fully implemented, the FSMA will require that imported produce comply with the requirements in the Produce and Preventive Control Rules, but FDA has yet to propose how such compliance will be enforced.

Historically, the FDA has relied on a surveillance-based approach to food borne illness in which it monitored specific outbreaks and then worked backwards to identify the source of contamination before removing any remaining potentially contaminated produce from the marketplace. The Agency currently possess the authority to inspect all field- or facility-based food operations without prior notice, but a historical lack of resources has meant that such inspections have been infrequent and haphazard. In a major shift, the Produce and Preventive Control Rules will feature a preventive approach in which farms must comply with minimum (as determined by FDA) safety standards and handling operations must develop and implement a written preventive control plans. This new model parallels the Hazard Analysis of Critical Control Points (HACCP) system which USDA uses to identify, isolate and correct food safety non-compliances in the meat processing facilities it inspects.

The Produce Rule will only apply to fruits and vegetables normally consumed raw, such as apples, carrots, lettuce, onions, and tomatoes and exempts items such as potatoes and squash which are typically cooked. It identifies high-risk categories for potential contamination of crops by food borne pathogens including agricultural water, biological soil amendments of animal origin, farmworker health and hygiene, domesticated and wild animals. The Produce Rule uses the term biological soil amendments of animal origin to refer to manure-based fertilizers and establishes different requirements for using such materials depending on whether or not they have been composted or otherwise treated to reduce pathogens. FDA specifically states that its proposed regulations will not conflict with the compost and raw manure standards which USDA enforces on certified organic operations. The Produce Rule also includes a rigid protocol for producing edible sprouts including sanitizing treatment of seed before sprouting and testing of spent irrigation water for pathogens because FDA has long targeted these foods as a high risk vector for food borne pathogens.

It is likely that, in addition to pure processing facilities, many farms covered by the Produce Rule will also have to comply with the Preventive Controls Rule. Under the Preventive Controls Rule, a facility must maintain a written food safety plan, and to keep records of preventive controls, monitoring, corrective actions, and verification. Only an individual qualified either through training or experience could write such plans would require updating every three years, or more frequently if there are problems. As with farms which raise fruits and vegetables, food processing facilities would receive more frequent and thorough inspection by FDA under the proposal.

That’s an awful lot of information to digest and reflects just the tiniest tip of the iceberg behind FDA’s Produce and Preventive Control Rules which run to a combined 1,200 pages. You do have until September 16 to share your perspective with FDA, so your summer reading should be covered. Next time we’ll take a look at who will be covered when the FSMA takes effect – the sustainable agriculture community successfully lobbied to have broad exemptions included – and wrap up with some comments about public policy versus personal choice as tools for safeguarding our food supply.

Mark Keating has worked in the organic, sustainable and local food movements since 1982. His work experience includes commercial food service, farm labor, retail sales and marketing, state and federal civil service, non-profit advocacy, academia, journalism and conducting organic inspections. While working for the USDA National Organic Program between 1999 and 2002 Mark helped draft the national organic standards for crop and livestock production. He spent two more years with the USDA Marketing Services Branch working to develop and promote farmers markets. Mark also worked for the NOP in 2010. An inveterate believer that organically raised and locally distributed food offers the surest path to human health and planetary survival, Mark, his wife and their daughter live alongside the Pequest River in New Jersey, the Garden State.

The post Implementing the Food Modernization Safety Act: Fresh Fruit & Vegetables appeared first on Cooking Up a Story.

In part 2, Dr. Susan Katz, Chair of the Environmental Health Work Group of the Oregon’s Physicians For Social Responsibility (PSR) outlines some of the basic steps to avoid consuming products that contain “obesogens”, chemicals suspected of causing overweight and obesity in humans.

List of Suspected Obesogens

Practice Prevention, Obesogens -pdf (courtesy of the Collaborative On Health and the Environment.)

Animal studies

• Bisphenol A (BPA) (found in some plastics,
  carbonless copy paper and can linings)
• Perfluoroalkyl compounds (used in nonstick
  cookware and water-repellent and stain-resistant
  fabrics)
• Organotins (used in agriculture and industry, used
  as wood preservatives in marine areas)
• Dithiocarbamates (found in cosmetics and
  agricultural products)
• Nonylphenol (found in cosmetics and household
  cleaners)
• Fine particulate matter (air pollutant from burning
  fuels and wood, from road dust, aerosols and other
  sources)
• Organophosphate pesticides (used for termite
  control, in home garden products, and in some pet
  collars)
• Atrazine (pesticide used in agriculture that can
  contaminate drinking water)
• Nicotine

Human studies

• DDE (a breakdown product of DDT, a persistent
  pesticide that is now banned)
• PCBs (persistent chemicals used as lubricants and
  flame retardants, now banned)
• HCB (a persistent fungicide, now banned)
• Oxychlordane (a persistent pesticide, now banned)
• Beta-hexachlorocyclohexane (a persistent
  insecticide, now banned)
• Dioxins and furans (persistent chemicals formed by
  incineration of PVC plastic and other substances)
• Maternal smoking during pregnancy

Both animal and human studies

• PBDEs (flame retardants that are still used in
  consumer products)
• Phthalates (found in some plastics)

Additional Resources:

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):
  National Biomonitoring Program Summary information on most of the chemicals found in the human biomonitoring samplings (Updated March 2013)
• The Collaborative on Health And The Environment (CHE):
  Portal to Science A comprehensive listing of resources, and free access to up-to-date information about individual environmental toxicants.
• Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility
  The Environmental Health Work Group seeks to educate healthcare professionals and the general public on environmental health threats, and provides information to help protect individuals and communities from exposure to toxic substances.
• Environmental Working Group:
  Top 50 rankings of foods containing pesticide residues from worst to best for popular fresh produce items. The top 5 on their list for containing the highest levels of pesticide residues:

1. Apples
2. Strawberries
3. Grapes
4. Celery
5. Peaches

• BPA free Canned Food List (blog)
• A Toothless Law on Toxic Chemicals (New York Times)
• Warnings From a Flabby Mouse (Nicholas Kristof, New York Times)
• Safe Chemicals Act of 2013: Led by Senators Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
• US National Library of Medicine
  National Institutes of Health
  Obesogens: An Environmental Link to Obesity (Environmental Health Perspectives)
• Yale Rudd Center For Food Policy & Obesity
  Weight Bias & Stigma: “Despite increased attention to the obesity epidemic, little has been done to stop the bias and discrimination that obese children and adults face every day.”
• Study: Physicians Less Likely to ‘Bond’ with Overweight Patients (John Hopkins Medical) “Lack of empathy may lead to ineffective care, disregarded weight-loss counseling, and patient dissatisfaction.”
• Chemicals That Promote Obesity Down the Generations (NPR Living On Earth, January 2013)
  A terrific radio interview with Bruce Bloomberg, professor of developmental and cell biology at the University at Irvine, about the emerging evidence of a class of chemicals called “obesogens”, the term his team coined in 2006.

The post Widespread Obesity: Are Certain Chemicals Also a Big Contributor (part 2)? appeared first on Cooking Up a Story.

“Today, more than 84,000 chemicals are on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) inventory of chemicals in the U.S., and an average of more than 700 new chemicals are introduced each year. The existing law regulating the safety of these chemicals—TSCA—is so broken that the Government Accountability Office placed it on its list of “high risk” areas of the law in a 2009 report. As a result, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found more than 212 industrial chemicals in Americans’ bodies, including at least six known carcinogens and dozens that are linked to cancer, birth defects, and other diseases.

—Safe Chemicals Act of 2013

In part 1 of this interview, Dr. Susan Katz, a retired pediatrician, biochemist, and present Chair of the Environmental Health Work Group of the Oregon’s Physicians For Social Responsibility (PSR) talks about some of the new research on “obesogens”, the specific class of chemicals that appear to promote weight gain in humans and possibly other mammals.

As the prevalence of obesity worldwide has roughly doubled since 1980 to present levels (over 1 in 3 U.S. adults are now obese), even among medical professionals—physicians, nutritionists, and other specialists, obesity is often seen as mainly a result of these two factors: poor diet and sedentary lifestyle.

While it is generally understood that individual heredity plays a distinct role in determining ones likelihood toward becoming overweight or obese, in the simplest of terms, those who consume more daily calories than their bodies can readily use, the excess calories are stored within the fat cells (their fixed number and size determined during fetal development), the more calories stored, the more weight that’s gained.

Overconsumption of sodas, fast food, and other highly processed foods are widely seen as greatly contributing to the problem of obesity and overweight.

But what if there’s more to this story that may account for the steep rise in the overweight and obesity rates that have occurred over the past 30 years?

As Dr. Katz explains in this video, no one is arguing that diet and lifestyle choices are not important factors, but there’s been a flurry of new scientific evidence to suggest that certain chemicals we are being exposed to from our environment, and in the food we eat, may also be a major contributor to the weight gain problem. Even more alarming, there is early evidence to suggest that epigenetic effects, that is, exposure during pregnancy of the developing fetus to a certain class of chemicals called “obesogens,” may cause permanent metabolic changes, and changes to fat cells (their number, distribution, and size) that will preordain (or shift the balance toward) a person becoming overweight or obese, throughout their life. Worse still, even though epigenetic effects do not alter the DNA itself, their effects may be passed down to future generations.

No one knows the longterm effects of chronic, low level exposure to a growing list of modern industrial chemicals found in human populations that didn’t exist 50 or 100 years ago. Perhaps, until better understood, policymakers will consider the emerging scientific evidence, and choose to err on the side of safety by restricting their use.

In the meantime, only time will tell, how big a problem we may have heaped upon our plate.

Coming Thursday, part 2: Dr. Katz offers practical advice on ways to reduce exposure to some of these potentially dangerous chemicals, and shares some reliable resources where to turn for more information.

The post Widespread Obesity: Are Certain Chemicals Also a Big Contributor? appeared first on Cooking Up a Story.

Spring is a good time to plant buckwheat as a cover crop.

Cover crops are a variety of plants that are grown prior to planting food crops and they are grown to benefit the soil. Traditional farmers have been using cover crops for years, but it’s a method that is not often carried over to the home gardener. Master Gardener Jen Aron talks about one of her favorite cover crops: buckwheat. It’s easy to grow and matures in six weeks. Like many other cover crops, buckwheat increases soil health, provides organic matter, and often attracts beneficial insects.

Master Gardener, Jenn Aron Pulling Out the Cover Crop from Her Backyard Garden

Jen Aron, owner and operator of Peaceful Gardens, sustainable landscape design. OSU Extension Master Gardener, certified in Permaculture Design, have been teaching sustainable agriculture and Permaculture throughout the Portland area for the past two years, volunteer countless hours educating the Portland community about urban agriculture and sustainability.

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Even a quick perusal of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) current proposal to improve the safety of our nation’s fruit and vegetable supply confirms that the era of Big Government is most definitely not over.

The regulations which FDA has proposed to implement the first two of the five components mandated by the Food Modernization Safety Act (FSMA) will dramatically expand federal authority over hundreds of thousands of farms and food handling operations around the world. One can certainly make the case that FDA’s task is both timely and warranted: the standards under revision haven’t fundamentally changed since 1938 and the lethal risks attendant to food borne pathogens are a serious matter.

However, we know from experience, and especially with agriculture, that sweeping, comprehensive federal regulation presents both advantages and disadvantages. For example, the U.S. Department of Agriculture credits its Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point program with improving the safety of our meat supply, yet innumerable small meat processors have closed up shop rather than assume the extensive compliance requirements it imposes. What is the nature of our current risk from food borne pathogens, how effectively will FDA’s proposal address that risk, and what will be the cost to farmers and consumers? This post and the two to follow will provide basic background for answering these questions and lead into a discussion of the merits of our increasingly centralized and standardized food production and handling systems.

Reports of the fatalities and hospitalizations connected to the latest outbreak of foodborne illness have become a staple of our sound bite, twenty-four hour news culture. Particularly devastating events, such as the 2011 listeriosis outbreak traced to cantaloupes from a Colorado farm which resulted in more than thirty deaths, endure as cautionary lessons for the entire country. Summary data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control conveys a sense that we are almost inevitably destined to be directly affected; it estimates that 48 million Americans suffered a foodborne illness annually with 120,000 requiring hospitalization and 3,000 dying. After years of stalemate between public health, consumer, agricultural and food service interests on Capitol Hill, Congress approved the FSMA’s sweeping expansion of federal oversight in 2010. The FDA is accepting public comment on its current draft regulations through May 16.

The CDC data suggests a genuinely national crisis, and certainly those who have suffered or seen a loved one suffer a debilitating, even fatal illness due to a foodborne illness must see the system as having failed. However, raw data on public health devoid of context can highlight deficiencies within the current safety standards while obscuring successes which we may take for granted. In a vast, culturally diverse and highly mobile society comprised of more than 300 million citizens, how safe can we make our food supply and what are we prepared to sacrifice for incremental gains in doing so? How much government control over how our food is produced and handled are we willing to accept? The ongoing refinement and implementation of FSMA will largely answer these questions.

Next time, we’ll tackle the nuts and bolts of the FSMA’s proposed requirements for fresh fruits and vegetables and food processing facilities.

Mark Keating has worked in the organic, sustainable and local food movements since 1982. His work experience includes commercial food service, farm labor, retail sales and marketing, state and federal civil service, non-profit advocacy, academia, journalism and conducting organic inspections. While working for the USDA National Organic Program between 1999 and 2002 Mark helped draft the national organic standards for crop and livestock production. He spent two more years with the USDA Marketing Services Branch working to develop and promote farmers markets. Mark also worked for the NOP in 2010. An inveterate believer that organically raised and locally distributed food offers the surest path to human health and planetary survival, Mark, his wife and their daughter live alongside the Pequest River in New Jersey, the Garden State.

The post Implementing the Food Modernization Safety Act: A Broad Overview appeared first on Cooking Up a Story.

How to Make a Saké Simmered Salmon Dish

Gabe Rosen of Biwa Restaurant in Portland, Oregon, demonstrates how to make a Saké Simmered Salmon.

Made In America: SakéOne Premium Saké

At SakéOne, Greg Lorenz is one of less than a handful of saké brewers in the country. He’s trying to build a domestic market for premium saké. We visit the SakéOne brewery to see how this ancient Japanese beverage is made.

A Brewmaster’s Tips For Drinking Premium Saké

Brewer Greg Lorenz of SakéOne shares a few tips for drinking premium saké.

The Weekly Roundup

• How Farms, Restaurants, and Grocery Stores are Designing Waste out of the Food System (Good blog)
• Obama Administration Seeks to Overhaul International Food Aid (New York Times)
• Symphony of the Soil (Hollywood Theatre)

A new feature length film from director Deborah Koons Garcia. “Filmed on four continents, featuring esteemed scientists and working farmers and ranchers, Symphony of the Soil is an intriguing presentation that highlights possibilities of healthy soil creating healthy plants creating healthy humans living on a healthy planet.”

• Fast Food Workers in New York Stage Surprise Strike (Progressive Press)

According to this article, most fast food workers earn the federal minimum wage of $7.25/hour. In New York City, how is a worker earning $11,000 per year able to survive? By the way, the fast food industry as a whole takes in about $200 billion in gross earnings. How do you spell “livable wage jobs”, these protesters are seeking a minimum of $15/hour.

• Drink Like “Mad Men” with 6 Exceptional Cocktails (Yummly Blog)
  Do you want to drink like the characters in “Mad Men”, the hit AMC television series? Well, good luck keeping up, but here’s a list of cocktail recipes you can use to recreate those iconic 60′s era drinks at home.
• Paltrow’s recipes “cost $300 a day (Courier Mail)
  For those able to place a higher value on food, actress Gwyneth Paltrow has written a new cookbook just for you. Perhaps it should be be titled, “Reality Check: How to Cook Frugally on Just 3 Ben Franklin’s a Day”.

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