Heritage Radio Network and thoughts on BBQ and What to Eat?

Sounds like some right wing Christian thinktank, but thankful it's a Bushwick based radio station that's all about food and food related topics.

Today while blogging and doing research I've been listening to Urban Foraging. These guys and gals are a hoot.

I couldn't get the entire episode to play, but the segments played fine. I just finished listening to Extracting Flavors from Ingredients a chat with Will Goldfarb (dessert chef and owner of Room 4 Dessert) hosted by Zakary Pelaccio, Jori Jayne Emde.

The highlight of the conversation for me was the discussion of smoke, liquid smoke and how grilling and barbecuing things are carcinogenic.

My potentially annoying side note to this is that after having survived July 4th BBQ's I realize that between smoking cigarettes, consuming factory farmed meat, drinking GM high fructose corn syrup with gay abandon that most people really are either blissfully unaware of the dangers lurking in our food and to a larger extent in our food system or, they know, but just don't care.

Which makes me wonder, why do I care? I wish I had an answer for that, I wish the whole thing was simpler, but alas it isn't.

My favorite comment about my food habits from this weekend was the delightful and very generous hostess of one BBQ I went to who, when offering me a platter of hamburgers (some with bright orange American "cheese") and hot dogs on white buns, said:

"Oh just have one! I know you're all bitchy about food, but..." then she re-thought the offer and moved on to more enthusiastic eaters.

This theme is appearing in my life: what can I eat? Or probably more honestly put, what will I eat now that I know what I know about our food and our food system. A few days after seeing Food, Inc. I was on the subway reading Pollan's Botany of Desire as a bookmark I was using a postcard for Food, Inc. when my stop came I got up to exit and dropped my book the postcard fell to the floor as I bent down to pick it up an young Indian woman sitting across from me saw it and said excitedly:

"Oh I saw that at the Film Forum yesterday! Did you see it? I loved it...it was great, but now, I don't know what to eat."

Jon Stewart in his interview with Robert Kenner the maker of Food, Inc. echos this comment with: "I saw your movie and now i don't know what to eat."

Neil has banished himself from the hospital where he works cafeteria and complains now all the time: " There is nothing to eat!"

Which has started a healthy trend; I know make sure Neil has a lunch to take to work with him. It's cheaper and he knows from whence his food came.

Not sure where this particular digression was meant to go, other than to say I wonder how this will all play out?

As someone who soaks himself in information about the dire state of our environment and the relationship big agriculture, chemical companies, government subsidies and our general food culture plays in creating it, you have to wonder how long can it last? How long can we go along buying the same old deadly foods before something happens?

Certainly big business will fight tooth and nail to maintain the status quo because it makes them powerful and rich. In a recent panel discussion Anthony Bourdain confronts Alice Waters and tells her that all that matters, basically, is that it's cheap and tastes good and everything else is irrelevant.

Obviously where I stand on this is clear. I find it hard to even listen to Bourdain speak as he just seems to horribly out of touch and willfully stupid. However, he represents a large portion of the population.

So what to do? For me all I feel I can do is to continue to read and understand as much as is possible what the moral, ethical and environmental impact is on the way we eat and the way food is made and from there, make decisions on how and what I will eat.

This weekend made it clear to me that even people who know better are in no hurry to change the way they eat. It's deeply personal, ingrained and very hard to change something you have been doing all your life.

Change comes very slowly. My hope is that urbanfoodguy and all the thoughts/ideas/information here in might, just might and help change hurry up a little bit!

Watch the video and see what we're up against:

Nicholas Kristof weighs in on Food, Inc.

Sorry to sound like a broken record, but if you haven't seen it you really should, Food, Inc. will change the way you thinking about eating for the rest of your life.

The other day I was on the subway reading Michael Pollan's Botany of Desire, for my bookmark I am using a promotional postcard from Food, Inc., when I got up to exit the train it dropped to the floor, I picked it up and as I was exiting a young woman who had seen what I had dropped said to me:

"Oh did you see that? I saw it at the Film Forum last night, it's really good, but now I feel like there is nothing I can eat!"

A funny choice of words because it's almost exactly what Neil has been saying since we saw it.

It's hard having to be so aware all the time about what you eat and where it comes from. My hope is that some of the cheap and cheerful restaurants that we like to go to will get the message and start including simple things at first like organic eggs, dairy and maybe chicken or a grass fed burger. There are a handful in the East Village who already do, I keep meaning to write to my favorite restaurants and encourage them to make the switch.

I guess if I want to go out and for there to be something to eat I shouldn't wait any longer!

In the mean time here's Kristof at the New York Times.

Run don't walk to see Food, Inc.

Food, Inc. is a movie everyone should see.

We need to, all of us, understand very clearly that food safety, our health, the health of the planet are not things Government in this country has traditionally been concerned about, it's not interested in taking care of us, it's interested in taking care of Monsanto, Perdue, Tyson et al. no matter what the cost.

I posted the trailer a while back, but you should also check out their website for more information and actions that you can take.

Even if you've read Omnivores Dilemma, and much of the movie goes over similar territory, it is much more devastating to see the visual reality of CAFO's and the industrial meat farming then it is to read about it.

Please do not wait, go and see this film now, it is so important that we, the people who already understand what is at stake, create a tipping point in order to get this very important message to a broader audience. It's not just about food, it's about the planet, it's about our humanity and how they are all being threatened by the pernicious and evil system of "making" food in this country. It has to stop, I'm here to recruit you! It will take every person we can find to make this change possible.

The first thing we can do is create change with our food choices, buy local, support farmers, buy organic, avoid GM foods and factory meat.

OK, thanks, soap box is now put away.

Sunday Scraps

Having spent the last couple of days contemplating my first BBQ experience since childhood and my first ever pulled pork recipe I feel it my obligation to point you over to Huffington Post where there are several interesting pieces, the first one on how humans are basically vegetarians.

The other is their over view of 7 bloggers review of Food Inc., which opened this Friday in NYC at the Film Forum, I'm going to see it on Monday. You may remember I posted the link to the trailer here a while back.

It's also worth the time to check out the review of Food Inc in the New York Times, which calls it the scariest movie of the year.

This is great a story about so many of my favorite things: Canada, the environment and plastic. You know I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about how we have all backed ourselves into a plastic corner and how plastic isn't biodegradable? Well at least that's what I always thought, turns out it does biodegrade it just takes 1000 years.

A very brilliant young man has won the Canadian Science Fair in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada by showing how it can be done in, oh 6 weeks.

My crazy concern is how to we get to all that plastic that is already buried, or the stuff floating in the ocean. Mostly though I just think we need to figure out a way to make naturally biodegradable non-fossil fuel plastic, we should get this 16 year old working on it!

Joel Salatin: The Revolution will be Farmed

Easter Sunday at 5 o'clock I was sitting in a lecture hall at Columbia University waiting to hear a visionary farmer talk about the future of food, actually to be more precise his talk was about the Price of good food and can we feed the world. He gave two talks which were both organized by the good folks who made the new documentary film Fresh check out their site for upcoming events, they have been very busy and wonderfully creative in mobilizing foodies here in New York to raise awareness of their film. Tomorrow is a Six Points Craft Ale and Mast Brothers chocolate tasting at Mast Brothers chocolate factory which I would love to go to!

Click here to get tickets and more information.

In addition to this tasting there are still a few farm to table dinners coming up so definitely check them out.

I've been mulling over in my head what exactly to say about Joel Salatin, who you might better know as the guy Michael Pollen wrote about in his seminal work Omnivore's Dilemma. Joel also makes an appearance in Food Inc. He owns Polyface Farms near Staunton, Virginia.

Mr Salatin is a force of nature, an incredibly smart, passionate, articulate farmer and activist who has some very insightful and scary information about how our food is grown and the phenomenal cost of our "cheap" fossil fuel based monoculture corporate agriculture.

Most likely if you are reading this here you don't need me to go on about it any more. The similarities between Wendell Berry (whose book Bringing It To The Table I'm currently reading) and Mr. Salatin are quite striking.

The essay I read just before the lecture was written in 1971 it was about the Governments war on small, local slaughterhouses, a topic Mr. Salatin also spoke about. It's interesting to me to see how this conflict has been going on for well over 40 years now and how the federal government has in those forty years done everything in it's power to destroy the lives and livelihoods of small farmers. To replace honest hard work and quality with cheap, dangerous destructive and inferior mass production. To destroy a body of knowledge about our land with knowledge about pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers that are all fossil fuel based and it probably goes without saying, are killing our land.

Joel wrote a book which is for sale on his website that I am going to order it's called:

Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal: War stories from the local food front.

I highly recommend you go and see the movie Fresh, but I suppose more than anything I have to say to you is to go out and have a conversation about food and farming with someone who doesn't already know about the problem. It's time we all started expanding the conversation.

Here's Joel in action.

When a Hamburger is no Longer Benign

I was reading this article this morning in the New York Times and I had to take a break because it was so freaky and upsetting. It reads like a horror story. The heading of the article: Trail of E. Coli Shows Flaws in Inspection of Ground Beef. Then it goes on to tell the story of this poor 22 year old dance instructor who becomes paralyzed from the waste down after a 9 week coma which all started because she ate a burger that her mother grilled for her.

The movie Food Inc. follows Barbara Kowalcyk who has become a "food activist" since her 2 1/2 year old child Kevin dies from E. Coli he got from a hamburger bought from a Jack in The Box. She now is fighting to give the USDA the power to shut down plants that repeatedly produce contaminated meats.

Here's the most spin chilling, yet somehow not surprising paragraph from the article:

Unwritten agreements between some companies appear to stand in the way of ingredient testing. Many big slaughterhouses will sell only to grinders who agree not to test their shipments for E. coli, according to officials at two large grinding companies. Slaughterhouses fear that one grinder’s discovery of E. coli will set off a recall of ingredients they sold to others.

The fact that the government lets this happen, that the government who is aware of these practices is so unwilling or unable to regulate and properly over see basic food safety is beyond shameful it's criminal.

I could go into a big political diatribe, but instead I'd just say that if you are going to buy ground beef or really any meat you should get it from a very good source, meaning specifically a butcher who you know and trust and hamburger should be ground sirloin, one piece of meat that is then ground. It should not be hundreds of pieces of random cow spit from a huge machine in a factory, ground altogether and finally shit out onto little styrofoam squares ready to be covered with plastic and sent to your local fast food chain or grocery store.

In New York City I'd recommend Marlow and Daughters.

No ones life should be destroyed or ended because they ate a hamburger. I mean this is something that happens in poor countries right? This can't happen here? The patties that this poor 22 year's mom made that nearly killed her, were produced and marketed by the giant food corporation Cargill and packaged as: American Chef’s Selection Angus Beef Patties

Food Inc.

Happy Earth Day!

I'm including both this extended "credits" trailer and the fast action cinema trailer. Finally a movie that tells it like it is, I hope we listen. This is all the stuff and more that I have been ranting about here for the last year. Apparently from something gleamed in the other trailer my criticism of products and images of industrial farms is something Monsanto and the Agri-Biz folks would like to make illegal! Yes you read that correctly, telling the truth about agribusiness should be against the law. Or at least in the Bush/Cheney cabal's Orwellian world view it should be. That's really American isn't it? I guess the First Amendment isn't really so important now is it? Criticizing big industry should be a crime, yeah right, let them poison the planet and make us sick and also make it so we have no recourse? How fucked is that?

The sad news really is Vilsack the new Monsanto toady appointed to the Department of Agriculture is just more of the same. I just spent about a half hour going over every new appointment at the department of agriculture and I am happy to say that even though the Department is headed by Mr. Monsanto the rest of the appointees seem to be reasonable people, a few obvious political appointees of people who help get Obama/Biden elected and the rest industry professionals. No one's resume that I read had any corporate affiliation listed, which doesn't mean that they don't have any, it just means it isn't listed. Overwhelmingly Democratic, I hope this signals change we can believe in. My anger over the destruction of our food systems over the last 8 years (and well before I'd start with Nixon) makes it impossible for me at this point to really be to hopefully that any government will have the dedication, resources, will power and desire to take on big agribusiness in the radical way it needs to be done.

Thankfully there does seem to be an increasingly large number of people all over this country that are waking up to the horrific reality of how dangerous and unhealthy corporate food is.

My wish this Earth Day is a return to sustainable farming practices and a renewed awareness and dedication, by everyone, to support healthier, locally grown (when possible and practicle), organically farmed (or beyond) not factory based foods.

Food Inc. - Trailer - [HD]1080p

Let the revolution begin!

Are you DEMANDING better quality, regulated, safe, wholesome food? It's never to late, although sometimes these days it feels like it. Write your favorite restaurant and demand organic chicken and dairy products, it's a start towards a sustainable and healthy future. I'm going to write a letter and send it off this week to all the local restaurants I like to go to (even though due to unemployment I'm not really eating out much any more).

Are We Post Meat?

My friend Philip sent me this, I think it's a great article, I think eliminating animal factory farms is essential, but I don't think having the world all go vegetarian is realistic. Buy from farmers, eat meat on occasion, balance and moderation. Check out all the links in this article and you'll be busy for an hour.

10 Signs Vegetarianism Is Catching On

By Kathy Freston, AlterNet. Posted November 30, 2009.

Martha Stewart promotes a vegetarian Thanksgiving? Recently, much attention has been lavished on the horrors of factory farming and the advantages of a meatless diet. On Thanksgiving, I spent some time taking stock of my life and the world around me and, as we’re supposed to do over the holiday, giving thanks for all the joys -- little and big -- in my life. One of the larger joys for which I am giving thanks is all of the recent attention that has been lavished on a topic that is near and dear to my heart -- the cruelty and environmental harm involved in raising animals for food.

I struggled to cohesively construct an article about some of the many recent and important developments on this topic, but there is just too much. Instead, I decided on a top ten list (a tip of the hat to David Letterman) -- the 10 most interesting articles on the farmed animal welfare front.

So without further ado:

1. World Bank scientists conclude that eating meat causes more than half of global warming (conservatively).

World Bank agricultural scientists Robert Goodland, who spent 23 years as the Bank’s lead environmental advisor, and Jeff Anhang, a research officer and environmental specialist for the Bank, argue convincingly that more than half of all greenhouse gas emissions are attributable to our desire to eat chicken, pigs, and other farmed animals. That’s right: Add up all the causes of climate change, and you find that eating meat causes more than everything else combined.

Honestly, this was the biggest point for me: How can I possibly take the environment seriously if I’m still participating in what is -- by far -- the biggest contributor to warming?

Which might explain:

2. Prominent Stanford biochemist pledges to focus ALL his energy on promoting veganism.

Most of us have heard of Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. RK Pachauri from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and his lectures all over the world promoting vegetarianism. Now along comes Dr. Patrick O. Brown who, as reported in (of all places) Forbes, will spend the next 18 months focused on “put[ting] an end to animal farming.” Explains Dr. Brown, “‘There's absolutely no possibility that 50 years from now this system will be operating as it does now… I want to approach this as a solvable problem.’ Solution: ‘Eliminate animal farming on planet Earth.’”

3. Al Gore is taking notice.

Although Gore’s Global Warming Survival Handbook noted that “refusing meat” is the “single most effective thing you can do to reduce your carbon footprint” (emphasis in original), Gore had not spoken publically about the issue. Now he has -- repeatedly. For example, on Larry King recently, Gore explained that “the impact of meat-intensive diet is a significant factor” in warming the planet, that “the growing meat intensity of diets around the world is bad for the planet,” and that “the more meals I've substituted with more fruits and vegetables, the better I feel about it…” The truth is becoming less inconvenient, thankfully.

4. Celebrated author of Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close publishes riveting book based on three-year investigation of factory farming.

Jonathan Safran Foer has been widely hailed as one of the greatest novelists of his generation, was one of Rolling Stone's “People of the Year,” and Esquire's “Best and Brightest” -- and after just two extraordinary works. As Nobel Prize for literature novelist J.M. Coetzee puts it about Foer’s latest work, “The everyday horrors of factory farming are evoked so vividly, and the case against the people who run the system presented so convincingly, that anyone who, after reading Foer's book, continues to consume the industry's products must be without a heart, or impervious to reason, or both.”

In his interview with Mother Jones Magazine (the entire interview is worth reading), Foer points out that Americans “now eat 150 times as much chicken as we did 80 years ago,” and that it “takes between 6 and 26 calories to make one calorie of meat. It is an incredibly inefficient protein because we are cycling through all of these other grains that humans could eat.”

5. Actor Alicia Silverstone and Chef Tal Ronnen on the New York Times bestseller list.

For some weeks now, Chef Tal Ronnen’s Conscious Cook and actress Alicia Silverstone’s Kind Diet have joined Foer and former model agent Rory Freedman (whose book convinced home run slugger Prince Fielder to adopt a vegan diet) on the list with books that make the case for vegetarian eating. You may recall Ronnen from his appearances on Oprah, which caused Oprah to exclaim, “Wow, wow, wow! I never imagined meatless meals could be so satisfying.”

6. Martha Stewart promotes a vegetarian Thanksgiving.

As my friends at Ecorazzi put it, “Martha Stewart has proved once again why she’s a pioneer in the kitchen. Having someone with as much sway as the famous host show people that the big feast doesn’t have to include meat to be successful is huge. Even better, she took the opportunity to educate her audience on factory farming industry -- with help from author Jonathan Safran Foer (of Eating Animals) and filmmaker Robert Kenner (Food, INC.).”

7. Egyptian mummy heart disease in LA Times

I’m not sure it belongs in my top 10 list, but I found it extremely interesting that “CT scans of Egyptian mummies, some as much as 3,500 years old, show evidence of atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, which is normally thought of as a disease caused by modern lifestyles...” What on earth could have caused it? I think I know: “The high-status Egyptians ate a diet high in meat from cattle, ducks and geese, all fatty.” If only the ancient Egyptians had the wisdom of Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn!

8. Honesty at the Turkey Pardoning

First Obama talks about factory farming and animal rights as a candidate. Then he puts in a garden at the White House. Now he’s adding some honesty to the annual turkey pardoning -- talking about the fate of other birds, the fact that it’s a fairly new ceremony, etc.

Might he have celebrated a vegetarian Thanksgiving? The White House isn’t saying, according to Gail Collins of the New York Times in her delightful Thanksgiving Day contemplation of the turkey pardoning. Okay, I’m kidding a bit (could he really get away with having a veggie Thanksgiving, given the power of Agribusiness -- as documented in this sad piece on FoodConsumer.org), as was Collins of course, but the honesty at the event is refreshing, and we do have the first President who understands the harms of factory farming and who is taking global warming seriously.

9. Cargill launches dairy-free cheese!

The largest privately held company in the United States (six times the size of McDonald’s) has just launched “a 100 percent non-dairy cheese analogue for pizza and other prepared food applications” that “replicates the functionality of dairy protein and replaces it fully at an outstanding cost advantage for the manufacturer.” According to Cargill, “its appearance, taste and texture perfectly match those of processed cheese” and it “also offers health advantages as it contains reduced calories (less fat and no saturated fats) and… a unique opportunity for vegans to enjoy a product that has the characteristics and taste of cheese but without any animal-derived ingredients.” It’s also Halal and Kosher.

10. Yet another study is exposing the horrid treatment of workers by the all-powerful meat industry.

A recent six-part piece in the Lincoln Journal-Star documents the horrid conditions endured by slaughterhouse workers. Sadly, nothing has changed since Human Rights Watch released their report on the industry, “Blood, Sweat, and Fear,” six years ago. Then and now, researchers have documented “systematic human rights violations embedded in meat and poultry industry employment.” It’s becoming all too obvious that if we care about worker rights, it makes sense to go vegan.

For information on making the switch to vegetarianism, please check out my previous post, “A Beginner’s Guide to Conscious Eating.”

Kathy Freston is a health and wellness expert and a New York Times best-selling author. Her latest book is The Quantum Wellness Cleanse: A 21 Day Essential Guide to Healing Your Body, Mind and Spirit. Freston promotes a body/mind/spirit approach to health and happiness that includes a concentration on healthy diet, emotional introspection, spiritual practice, and loving relationships. Kathy’s recent television appearances include The Oprah Winfrey Show, Ellen, The View and Good Morning America. www.kathyfreston.com

Dolphin Steak Anyone?

It's rare there are three documentary films that I have seen that are all nominated for an Oscar, my personal favorite was Burma VJ, but Food Inc and the winner The Cove were equally as compelling and all three have important stories to tell that we all need to hear.

I've posted all of these trailers on here before, but here they are again. The makers of The Cove are using their win last night to help heighten the pressure on the Japanese government to stop the horrific practices of killing dolphins for mercury tainted meat or to sell them to marine amusement parks. Check out their site for more details on how you can help.






And the winner is:

Roasted Rhubarb and Cardamon Loaf

So just as I get ready to go to see Food, Inc., I wanted to post this recipe I've been developing.

It miffs me as to why every rhubarb and many cranberry recipes that I have come across call for orange juice in them. These two sour wonders are North East stalwarts and in my ongoing attempt to try and keep it local, as much as I can, I wonder, given the plethora of recipes that all make orange an intrinsic part of the recipe, is it possible to make something with these delicious fruits (well, yes technically rhubarb is a vegetable in the sorrel family, but we all eat the stalk as a fruit) that doesn't have orange in it?

Here is what I came up with: a dense, sweet loaf cake with lots of sour, sweet rhubarb chunks that surprise you every now and again with their wonderful pucker, the orange juice is replaced with the rhubarb sugar juice that you get when you roast these sour stalks with a little sugar.

Roasted Rhubarb and Cardamon Loaf

Preheat the oven to 375 F

Trim, rinse and cut into 2" chunks a pound to a pound and a half of rhubarb, toss with a generous 1/2 cup of organic cane sugar* and 6 green cardamon pods.

Place in a baking dish and roast for 25 minutes.

While the rhubarb is cooking, butter and flour a loaf pan.

Sift together in a medium bowl 2 cups all purpose flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda and 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder.

In a big bowl beat 1 large egg, gradually adding 1 cup organic cane sugar (I use my Kitchen aid for this but hand held beaters or a whisk all work fine).

When the rhubarb is finished cooking, remove the cardamon pods and discard them, using a slotted spoon remove the rhubarb chunks to a bowl, being careful to drain as much juice ff as possible.

Pour the "juice" that was expressed from roasting the rhubarb into a measuring cup. Add enough boiling water to the "juice"until you have a total of 3/4 of a cup of liquid. To this hot liquid add 2 T of unsalted butter (it's quicker if the butter is room temperature).

Stir until the butter has melted.

Starting and ending with the dry ingredients alternately with the juice/water/melted butter add to the egg/sugar mixture until well incorporated.

Fold in 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts (optional) and the reserved rhubarb spoon into the prepared loaf pan.

Place in the middle of the preheated oven and cook for about an hour or until a tester comes out clean.

Cool on a rack for 15 minutes before inverting.

Serving suggestions:

Spoon over each slice some stewed strawberry/rhubarb compote with a dollop of unsweetened whipped cream.

After a couple of days if you still have some left you could make an awesome trifle with this as your base, alternating fresh strawberries with a heavy custard, whipped cream, stewed rhubarb...the options are endless and you didn't even have to use an orange after all!

* the rule of thumb is 1/2 cup of sugar to 1 pound of rhubarb, I used a pound in developing this, but being the rhubarb fiend that I am thought it could have more! Which is why I say 1-1/2 pounds in the recipe.

The cake is quite sweet so if you do add a more generous amount of rhubarb I wouldn't add a full 1/4 cup extra of sugar as the ratio above would suggest, maybe a tablespoon or so as the sourness of the rhubarb is essential to adding contrast this easy, local, loaf recipe.

Of course I need to point out my own inconsistency here, cane sugar is hardly local, but I feel like each little gesture helps and by not adding citrus to this it is one less thing that has to be flown in from afar.

Maybe next year I need to grow sugar beets?

A discussion of GMOs

Just the other day my friend Jane sent me a newsletter from Whole Foods that had a questionnaire in it about how people feel about GMOs (genetically modified organisms).

Now today I see Tom Philpott from Grist has done an article on GMOs that basically says Monsanto et al., control all the information, so anyone who wants to get their seeds to do independent work, can't, or if they can they are afraid to speak out because they are afraid of losing their funding.

Right there that says everything I need to know, when there is no freedom of information or when the information is so closely gaurded then you have to wonder what the GMO makers have to hide?

Again, go see Food, Inc. it talks about Monsanto's business practices and those alone should turn any decent person off of wanting to support a corporation who has so willfully destroyed the lives of so many farmers.

Revolution Is In The Air

I actually just saw this on Alice Water's Facebook page:

Food Inc. has been nominated for an Oscar and is the highest selling dvd in America! Revolution is in the air...

Good news indeed.



And don't forget to check out Hungry For Change.

The Sweet Smell of Success

or something close to it. Read this great article about the decline of Hight Fructose Corn Syrup in today's New York Times:

Here's my favorite part:

What started as a narrow movement by proponents of natural and organic foods has morphed into a swell of mainstream opposition, thanks in large part to tools of modern activism like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter and movies like “Food, Inc.” and “King Corn.”

As a result, sales of the ingredient have fallen in the United States. Charlie Mills, an analyst at Credit Suisse, says that the combined United States sales of high-fructose corn syrup for Archer Daniels Midland, Tate & Lyle and Corn Products International were down 9 percent in 2009, compared with 2007. A further decline is expected this year, he says.

Maker of Food, Inc. on Jon Stewart

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Robert Kenner
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Jason Jones in Iran

We Have A Right To Know

Great new video by Robert Kenner (Food Inc).

Watch it then spread the word here.

Save Green Thumb

This just in...as a member of a community garden this is very important and I sure do plan to show up on Tuesday!

RALLY TO SAVE GREENTHUMB!

TUESDAY APRIL 5, 2011

12:00 NOON • CITY HALL

Download the press release PDF on our website, NYCCGC.org.

Proposed Federal Budget Cuts Threaten Funding
of New York City’s Community Gardens

In response, the New York City Community Garden Coalition (NYCCGC) is leading a RALLY at City Hall and calling upon our elected officials to fight to save Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding. Gardeners and supporters from across the city will assemble on the steps of City Hall on TUESDAY, APRIL 5 @ 12:00 NOON, rallying to SAVE GREENTHUMB!

View/Download Press Release
Contact: Sean-Michael Fleming Cell: 347-933-4523

Joining NYCCGC will be many other community garden supporters, including: Black Urban Growers, Bronx Land Trust, Citizens Committee for New York City, Earth Matter NY, East New York Farms!, EcoStation:NY, Farming Concrete, Food Justice Project, Green Guerillas, Just Food, La Familia Verde Garden Coalition, Manhattan Land Trust, More Gardens!, and Project Harmony, Inc.

Since 1978, GreenThumb has nurtured community gardening in New York City, assisting over 600 gardens and urban farms and their collective 20,000 members with material and technical assistance. GreenThumb is fully funded by the Federal HUD Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program with a modest budget of around $800,000 in Fiscal Year 2011— less than half of 1% of New York City’s current $200 million allocation.

The US House of Representatives’ 2012 budget calls for the elimination of funding for the CDBG program for the remainder of FY 2011, and a 60% slash to overall CDBG funding — that could translate to the elimination of GreenThumb, or at least a devastating cut to its budget!

Community gardens are important to new Yorkers, providing much needed green space to neighborhoods lacking in parkland. They promote environmental education, encourage local food production, nurture intergenerational and intercultural friendships, and help reduce crime by being the eyes and ears of our communities. As more and more people discover their benefits, it is absolutely imperative to protect and increase resources and funding for GreenThumb — the lifeblood of community gardening in New York City.

NYCCGC calls on government officials to guarantee the survival of the GreenThumb program:

• We demand that the Federal Government protect CDBG funding, not only for GreenThumb, but for all CDBG projects in new York City and across the nation;
• We strongly urge our City, State and Federal representatives to advocate for the protection of ALL CDBG funding;
• We call on the NYC Office of Management and Budget to make sure GreenThumb receives its full share of CDBG funds disbursed to new York City to maintain current operations;
• We encourage the City administration to take steps to use tax levy funds for GreenThumb operations to ensure a diversified funding stream.

another side of the Vilsak debate

Here is an article that I am copy and pasting from the Huffington Post. It is far more diplomatic then I usually am, but even so, it warns we need to cautious and "alert".

Worth the read I think.

And I promise for the next few days it'll all be about recipes and festive holiday spirited fun!

Obama's Choice of Vilsack: AgriBusiness as Usual at USDA?

Subdued approval greeted President-elect Obama's choice of Tom Vilsack for Secretary of Agriculture last week. This came from mainstream environmental groups, such as Sierra Club, and even organizations that have been critical in the past of the Iowa governor's policies. Vilsack comes across in nearly all of the stories written last Tuesday and Wednesday as a solid choice, someone reliable from a farm state who understands farmers.

But, a day or two later the complexion of the Vilsack nomination had changed somewhat. First, the announcement was made in a slightly odd fashion, leaked out ahead of time, as though the Obama transition team were expecting some flak for their choice. In addition, Vilsack -- notably -- had removed himself from the running before jumping back in just prior to his selection by the president-elect.

Today, the lukewarm reception Vilsack initially received has turned into real heat as the Obama transition team finds itself in the fire over the former Governor's appointment. President-elect Obama identified Vilsack as representative of the kind of "new leadership" Washington needs. But now, even those who initially greeted the nomination with some enthusiasm are wondering if Vilsack isn't a signal of business as usual at the USDA, and beyond.

First of all -- as Politico reports -- there is the farm subsidy money that Vilsack has received over time from USDA. According to the piece, from 2000 to 2006, Vilsack and his wife collected $42,782 in subsidies from USDA. In addition, "Vilsack is a partner at a lobbying law firm (Dorsey & Whitney) that trumpeted his advice to clients on agribusiness development and renewable energy -- a job that appears to bump up against Obama's promise to bar appointees from working on issues related to their employment for two years." The former Governor recognizes the conflict of interests, and claims he will do everything he can to address the problem, and if he must, he will forgo the payments.

If only that was the sole reason to question the choice of Vilsack; $42K may not be enough of a figure to inspire concern. Vilsack's positions on biotechnology and ethanol are far more troubling.

For those of us who have serious health and environmental concerns about genetically engineered (GE) crops, cloning, and industrial agriculture in general, it would be difficult to pick someone with a worse track record. Vilsack was even named "Governor of the Year" by the Biotechnology Industry Organization for his "support of the industry's economic growth." Small wonder. Under Governor Vilsack, the state of Iowa invested millions of dollars of taxpayer funds in dubious biotechnology start-ups, such as cow cloner Trans Ova Genetics ($9 million) and pharmaceutical corn developer, ProdiGene, Inc. ($6 million). Iowa's investment in ProdiGene was particularly unfortunate. The company not only proved a financial failure, but in 2002, an Iowa cornfield that became contaminated with the company's genetically engineered pharma corn had to be destroyed. One hopes Mr. Vilsack has learned from this experience. He also supported (some say instigated) a bill in 2005 that pre-empted cities and counties from regulating GE crops more strictly than the state or federal government. On biotechnology policy, Vilsack is far from the visionary we had hoped for.

Vilsack has also been a big supporter of ethanol, as is President-elect Obama. On this issue, they're clearly in synch, but their enthusiasm is terribly misplaced. The latest science demonstrates clearly that corn-based ethanol exacerbates rather than mitigates global warming, while so-called "cellulosic" ethanol from crop waste and prairie grass (which might have value, the jury is still out) is years away from commercial use. Even some of ethanol's strongest supporters in Congress, like Senator Tom Harkin, have come to question corn-based ethanol. President-Elect Obama and Mr. Vilsack should make elimination of federal subsidies for corn-to-ethanol -- which now total several billion dollars per year -- a top priority.

However, Vilsack has made some promises that are easy to rally behind. He says he supports biotech firm liability in cases of contamination episodes. He has also said that USDA should require companies to demonstrate no harm to markets for conventional and organic crops before approving new GE crops.

All this would be welcome, but so far, there is little to indicate that Mr. Vilsack would be the watchdog so promised. There is increasing disappointment in the choice, so we must watch his actions to see if he deserves the public's trust. If he fails on any pledge, it's up to consumers, farmers, and lawmakers to hold his feet to the fire. Ultimately, it is the President-elect's food, farm and energy policies that will guide the USDA in the new administration. While not perfect, there is much promise in these policies.

There were high hopes that Obama would choose a Secretary who would bring real change to the beleaguered USDA. Though more progressive candidates were passed over, Tom Vilsack may not prove to be the AgriBusiness-as-Usual choice that his record would suggest. Some who know him say he is a good listener, and we should not rule out the possibility of change. A president elected on a platform of change needs to implement it nowhere more urgently than in food and farm policy. This nation needs nothing short of a New Green Deal to reverse the Bush administration's abysmal food safety record and assault on the environment through its promotion of industrial agriculture. Although we remain hopeful with the choice of Tom Vilsack, we also have to remain very alert.

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Subdued approval greeted President-elect Obama's choice of Tom Vilsack for Secretary of Agriculture last week. This came from mainstream environmental groups, such as Sierra Club, and even organizati...

Subdued approval greeted President-elect Obama's choice of Tom Vilsack for Secretary of Agriculture last week. This came from mainstream environmental groups, such as Sierra Club, and even organizati...