Gone Fishin’
- Topics:
- Blog
Thursday, January 12th, 2012, 11:06 AM
The blog is on hiatus for maternity leave. For current news and updates about Diet for a Hot Planet, Anna Lappé, and other Small Planet news, please visit www.smallplanet.org.
Hackers Unite to Visualize a Healthy Farm Bill
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- Blog
Monday, December 19th, 2011, 1:01 PM
From our friends at Environmental Working Group, posted 12/16/11:
Making sense of the complex farm bill is the first step in bringing much-needed change to America’s badly broken food and farm system.
Advocates for good food get fed a Washington, DC diet of constant government austerity excuses when it comes to reforming the nation’s broken food and farm system. Apparently, it doesn’t matter that better policies – such as providing better quality food in school lunches – would pay long-term dividends in the form of healthier kids and lower health care costs. When pressed to address healthy food priorities, both parties’ standard response is the predictable, “There simply is no money.”
At the Environmental Working Group, we know that’s nonsense.
We follow the money, and we dig deeply into misguided agriculture policies to expose the real story. There’s plenty of money; it’s just going to the wrong places for the wrong reasons – such as the lavish payments that go to highly profitable mega farms whether they need it or not.
Gross inequities like this are on prominent display in EWG’s farm subsidy database, but pictures and graphics often speak much louder than words. With debate on the 2012 farm bill looking to begin in as little as a month’s time, EWG participated last week in our first-ever “Farm Bill Hackathon.” The competition was organized by Food Tech Connect to develop tools and visualizations to help convey to the public the complexities and relevance of the farm bill and America’s food system. Beth Hoffman of Food Tech Connect described it this way:
Over the weekend the Farm Bill Hackathon brought together (in person and virtually) 120 designers, data scientists, developers, marketing professionals, food policy experts and USDA employees to “hack” one of the most important pieces of legislation in the U.S. – the farm bill. Over the course of 12 hours, five graphics and four tools were produced, addressing issues as diverse as support to new farmers, the effect of subsidies on global hunger and how to crowd source Meatless Mondays.
Taking first prize was a piece titled Farm Bill of Health, which is based on new EWG data showing how little federal spending supports fruit and vegetable consumption. We’d like to thank the designers, GRACE and the Center for a Livable Future for all their hard work on the Farm Bill of Health. Food Tech Connect’s “infographic of the week,” titled Cotton vs. Carrots, was also based on EWG data and analysis.
We hope these infographics will help illuminate the absurd trajectory of federal agriculture policy. With the 2012 farm bill close at hand, making sense of the complex $400 billion legislation is the first step in bringing much needed change to the badly broken food and farm system.
Nominate for Natural Resources Defense Council Growing Green Awards
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- Blog
Thursday, December 15th, 2011, 5:47 PM
The Natural Resources Defense Council’s Growing Green Awards honor individuals who have demonstrated original leadership in the field of sustainable food. Through this national award, NRDC will recognize extraordinary contributions that advance ecologically integrated farming practices, climate stewardship, water stewardship, farmland preservation, and social responsibility from farm to fork. Applications must be submitted by TOMORROW, December 16, 2011.
Get your nominations in of your favorite living food hero. Comes with great cash and press rewards.
The Food and Environment Reporting Network Launches
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- Blog
Monday, November 28th, 2011, 4:17 PM
For Immediate Release: November 28, 2011
Contact: Sam Fromartz, Editor-in-Chief
202.423.8779-c; sam@thefern.org
Naomi Starkman, 917.539.3924-c;
naomi@thefern.org
THE FOOD AND ENVIRONMENT REPORTING NETWORK LAUNCHES
Independent, Non-Profit, Investigative News Organization to Focus on Food, Agriculture, and Environmental Health
–
Premiere Story Profiles Successful Citizen Movement to Halt Pollution by New Mexico’s Powerful Mega-Dairies
New York, NY—The Food and Environment Reporting Network, Inc., an independent, non-profit, non-partisan news organization that produces investigative reporting on food, agriculture, and environmental health for distribution to major media outlets, today launched with its first story in the award-winning western magazine, High Country News. The report takes a hard look at pollution by the powerful dairy industry in New Mexico and how one man became the driving force behind a movement that brought the state’s mega-dairies to heel. The story can be found on www.thefern.org and hcn.org/milkandwater.
“Our stories will fall under the classic mandate of investigative reporting–to reveal corruption, abuse of power, and exploitation wherever it happens; to expose activities that the powerful work to keep hidden or to explore subjects that are just too complex for the breaking news cycle,” said Editor-in-Chief Sam Fromartz. “We’ve chosen to focus on food, agriculture, and environmental health specifically because we feel these are under-reported subjects that touch people’s lives every day.”
Several more investigative stories commissioned by the Food and Environment Reporting Network will break news in the weeks to come, appearing in mainstream publications, such as The American Prospect and The Nation magazines, as well as major daily newspapers. “Crucial to this work are the relationships we’re forging with regional and national media partners, who are clearly interested in our model and the work we’re producing,” Fromartz said.
“Over the past four decades, coverage of food and agriculture has waned in the mainstream press at the same time as the impact of a more industrialized food system on public health has become increasingly severe,” said Ruth Reichl, editorial board member of the Food and Environment Reporting Network, Editorial Advisor to Gilt Taste, Editor-at-Large at Random House, and former Editor-in-Chief of Gourmet magazine. “Without detailed investigations into food and agriculture, our understanding of humanity’s impacts on the environment is incomplete and related policy changes ineffective.”
The dairy industry is New Mexico’s largest agricultural sector and an influential lobbying force. The state’s dairies average 2,000 cows each, the largest mean herd size in the nation. In her piece, “Milk and Water Don’t Mix,” Stephanie Paige Ogburn reports for High Country News: “Although the state Environment Department has long worked with dairies to reduce pollution, change has been slow: Almost 60 percent of the state’s dairies have polluted groundwater with manure runoff, yet not one has begun the required cleanup.” Detailing how a self-described hermit named Jerry Nivens, his allies, and one Environment Department employee helped to pass some of the most progressive dairy-related water regulations in the West, Ogburn describes how New Mexico may now inspire other states to take the responsibility for limiting industrial farm pollution into their own hands.
About the Food and Environment Reporting Network
The Food and Environment Reporting Network experience in writing and publishing is represented by its Board of Directors, which includes Editor-in-Chief Samuel Fromartz, author, freelance journalist and a former Reuters business editor; Allison Arieff, a contributing columnist for The New York Times, contributing columnist for The Atlantic Cities, and editor of the Urbanist magazine for SPUR (San Francisco Planning & Urban Research Association); and Ralph Loglisci, a leading food policy media strategist. Former board members Katrina Heron and Naomi Starkman were involved in the organization’s founding and development. Tom Laskawy is the Executive Director and manages the organization; Paula Crossfield serves as the Managing Editor.
The Food and Environment Reporting Network’s editorial board includes Brian Halweil, editor of Edible East End and co-publisher of Edible Brooklyn and Edible Manhattan magazines; Katrina Heron, Editor-at-Large at Newsweek/The Daily Beast and previously Editor-in-Chief of WIRED and a senior editor at The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and The New York Times magazines; Ruth Reichl, Editorial Advisor to Gilt Taste, Editor-at-Large at Random House, and former Editor-in-Chief of Gourmet magazine; Elizabeth Royte, author of the critically acclaimed books, Garbage Land and Bottlemania; and Charles Wilson, co-author with Eric Schlosser of the number one New York Times children’s bestseller Chew On This: Everything You Don’t Want to Know About Fast Food.
A registered 501(c)3 non-profit corporation based in New York, the Food and Environment Reporting Network was founded in October 2009 and began operations in January 2011. It is funded by the generous support of the The 11th Hour Project, McKnight Foundation, Clarence Heller Foundation, Columbia Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
Fracking of Delaware River Basin Vote Canceled!
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- Blog
Monday, November 21st, 2011, 12:47 PM
We wanted to share the good news from our friends at Food & Water Watch:
Dear friends,
Amazing news: thanks to the recent surge of grassroots pressure, the vote to allow “fracking” of the Delaware River Basin has been cancelled! The drinking water for 16-million people has been protected, and a major win has been scored for the climate.
It was thrilling to watch the movement rise up to save the Delaware River. With the support of a powerful coalition, thousands of you put some serious pressure on your governors and signed up to join the massive rally on the day of the scheduled vote. We think it was the largest coordinated campaign against fracking in history.
And here’s the thing: your action did not go unnoticed. People power worked as it should. After receiving thousands of calls and emails, Governor Jack Markell of Delaware has definitively said he will vote no on fracking the Delaware — tipping the balance of votes on the 5-person commission and likely leading to the meeting’s cancellation.
News this good deserves to be shared — let’s spread it. Click to share it on Twitter, on Facebook, or just forward this email on.
To dive deeper on what this all means, check out what our friend Josh Fox (the director of Gasland) had to say:
“You stopped fracking in the Delaware River Basin for now. You won this round. It is not a complete victory but it is a huge victory. You brought us back from the brink of total devastation.
What cancellation means: The DRBC doesn’t hold a meeting to vote down their regulations. I’ve only ever seen them vote to approve things. Which means they cancel the meeting if they no longer have 3 out of 5 commissioners voting in favor of fracking. Which is exactly what they have done. They don’t cancel meetings often, let alone votes…
This is not a complete victory by any means. We still do not know when the DRBC will reschedule their meeting. Could be ten days, could be a month, could be a year. So stay tuned and stay ready. We will let you know. We will have many more battles before we stop fracking completely in the Delaware River Basin and throughout the nation and the world.”
The movement is on a roll now. Last week, we helped stop the Keystone XL pipeline in its tracks, and now we’ve put a solid pause (which might well lead to a full stop!) on fracking of the Delaware River. Just weeks ago, pretty much all of the “experts” thought the Keystone pipeline was a done deal, and the “conventional wisdom” is that there’s no stopping the fracking rush. We’re proving the experts wrong and turning conventional wisdom on it’s head — and we have no intention of stopping any time soon.
So the trainings on Sunday and the action on Monday are both still on. Here’s how Josh Fox explained this morning: “We have just had a major victory, that is true. But there is immense suffering happening and irreparable damage being done across Pennsylvania, across the US and across the world from fracking…we must push ahead.”
If you were planning to join the trainings or the rally, we hope you’ll still take the journey. And if you were on the fence or if this is all news to you: we hope you’ll find a way to get to Trenton and celebrate with us.
To get more info on Monday’s celebration/action in Trenton NJ, stay tuned to the Save the Delaware coalition website.
To get more info on Sunday’s action training sessions in New York City and New Jersey, check the page from our friends at Delaware River Keeper.
Make no mistake: we need to ramp up our collective skills and strengthen our connections now more than ever. I can’t wait to see what we’ll win next.
More soon,
Phil Aroneanu for the 350.org Team
Remembering Wangari
- Topics:
- Blog, Forests, Take a Bite News & Events
Tuesday, November 15th, 2011, 3:28 PM
“Service,” by Wangari Maathai, from Replenishing the Earth
We all have a need to feel at ease and in harmony with ourselves and the environment we live within. Many of us discover that it isn’t material things that provide this. In my own life, I have observed that well-being and satisfaction are achieved through compassion, the giving of oneself, serving others, and sharing. We aren’t material beings; we are filled with spirit. . . . Kikuyus used a gourd, in which they carried porridge or beer, as an offering or gift. Whoever received the gourd would polish it with oil before returning it. Over time, the gourd would become beautifully
varnished by this repeated polishing. The deeper the color of the gourd, the more generous you had been—and the more connected you remained to the world around you. . . .
These gestures of giving capture both the spiritual and the practical elements of gratitude and respect for resources. Our connections to the planet and each other are reinforced simultaneously. The spirit of not wasting, because we assign value to something, is found in many traditions, but not often expressed. We could benefit from spending more time polishing our gourds for each other.
The Story of Broke
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- Blog
Wednesday, November 9th, 2011, 10:10 AM
The Story of Broke couldn’t come at a better time with over 200 Occupations happening all over the country, right before Thanksgiving and with the election coming down the pipe. See Annie Leonard’s new short film here. If you want to get involved with Participatory Budgeting in New York, please visit http://pbnyc.org/. From now until March 2012, the residents of Districts 8, 39, 42, and 45 get to spend $6 million of public money.
The Story of Broke
The United States isn’t broke; we’re the richest country on the planet and a country in which the richest among us are doing exceptionally well. But the truth is, our economy is broken, producing more pollution, greenhouse gasses and garbage than any other country. In these and so many other ways, it just isn’t working. But rather than invest in something better, we continue to keep this ‘dinosaur economy’ on life support with hundreds of billions of dollars of our tax money. The Story of Broke calls for a shift in government spending toward investments in clean, green solutions—renewable energy, safer chemicals and materials, zero waste and more—that can deliver jobs AND a healthier environment. It’s time to rebuild the American Dream; but this time, let’s build it better.
Will people Un-Occupy Big Food?
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- Blog
Tuesday, November 8th, 2011, 10:27 AM
Find out more information here: http://occupybigfood.wordpress.com
Follow them on Twitter: @occupybigfood
“Secret” Farm Bill
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- Blog
Monday, November 7th, 2011, 2:52 PM
Concerned about the Secret Farm Bill being drafted behind closed doors and the billions of dollars that may be cut to conservation and nutrition programs by the Super Committee? I am!
Take a break TODAY and make some phone calls and let the four people who are pushing this forward know how you feel. Food Democracy Now! has pulled together these numbers for you, some background on the issues, and an idea of what to say.
Pick up the phone and make your calls now. I always find it so nerve-wracking to make these calls, but trust me: you’ll feel GREAT once you hang up knowing you may have helped to change the course of history.
In all cases, except Stabenow’s, I talked to real people. Hopefully their lines are getting flooded today. Will you join me?
Senate Ag Committee Leadership:
Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) – Chair of Senate Agricultural Committee – call: (202) 224-4822
Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS) Ranking Member Senate Agriculture Committee – call: (202) 224-4774
House Ag Committee Leadership:
Congressman Frank Lucas (R-OK) Chair House Committee on Agriculture – call: 202-225-5565
Congressman Collin Peterson (D-MN) Former Chair House Committee on Agriculture – call: (202) 225-2165
CLICK here to sign the petition!
Un-Occupy Big Banks: Move Your Money on Saturday, November 5
Monday, November 7th, 2011, 1:18 PM
Cross posted at Civil Eats on November 4th, 2011
Last weekend, I joined more than 30 people who braved blizzard-like conditions to assemble in a square across from Occupy Wall Street’s encampment at Zucotti Park to speak up about connections between big food and the Occupy movement. There was a food activist from Iowa, a farmer from upstate New York, students and professors from NYU, a union electrician, a nutritionist (who said she was there because “if the food system isn’t working, I can’t do my job”) and more.
Many carried plastic-covered signs with slogans like “Beat the System” and, my favorite, a line from Tom Philpott’s excellent article: “Our Food System is a Big Fat Monopoly.” As the rally ended—cut short by 30-degree temperatures, blinding snow, and 30-mile-an-hour wind gusts—I shared my commitment to do one, easy thing this week in support of the 99 percent: To move my money out of the hands of Citibank.
This week, tens of thousands of people are pledging to move their money out of the pockets of the financial institutions that got us into this mess and into the hands of credit unions and banks we can believe in.
When I first heard about this campaign, spearheaded by grassroots activists along with national groups ranging from the Rainforest Action Network (where I’m on the board of directors) to MoveOn.org, I thought—and I admit this with a good dose of embarrassment—“Good idea, but what a pain. I mean, I’d have to change all my automatic bill payments and open new accounts.”
But, of course, it’s probably a bit more than a pain to spend cold, wet nights—like last Saturday—sleeping on the hard cement of outdoor parks. If hundreds of people can make that sacrifice—all day, all week, for weeks—I think I can handle doing some busywork to move my money. And so I am. On Saturday, November 5, the national day of action to move your money, I’m closing my Citibank account, the one I opened 15 years ago on the same block as my first Brooklyn sublet. And I’m joining tens thousands of others when I do.
And it’s going to feel good. See, I’ve had twinges of regret for years, every time I heard about some new act of egregious Big Bank behavior. I just got used to turning a blind eye. But then the financial meltdown, the Big Bank bailout, and now this collective call to action and my attitude started to change and my eyes started opening.
Consider, for instance, that Citibank just agreed to pay $285 million to settle a lawsuit, essentially admitting to misleading investors about toxic mortgage-backed securities, although the bank officially neither admitted nor denied that it had done anything wrong. How convenient. Meanwhile, ProPublica, which has been digging into the machinations of Citi and other Big Banks, argues that the bank is on the line for much more and much worse.
But also keep in mind what Citibank has been doing with my, and our, money all these years and what it has to do with the food movement that turned out at Occupy Wall Street this past weekend. Turns out, Citibank has been busy. Here’s a taste. The bank has been:
– Investing in major agricultural projects in developing countries, what many critics call a modern-day land grab;
– Financing the leading Chinese agribusiness company and development of China’s chemical industry;
Bank of America customer? Keep in mind the bank is one of the lead underwriters of the coal industry. Rainforest Action Network is encouraging people to close their accounts and let BofA know that the bank should be moving its investment dollars away from dirty coal and toward clean, green renewable energy. Says RAN:
The bank routinely underwrites hundreds of millions of dollars in loans to…two of the biggest coal mining companies in the Powder River Basin that are desperately trying to secure a… facility to ship coal overseas…
As if all this weren’t enough to push us over the edge, I got a letter from Citibank several weeks ago—maybe you got a similar one from your Big Bank?—in which the bank informed me that clients who keep less than a $6,000 account balance—that’s me—would start seeing a monthly $15 fee on their statements. In other words, if you’re not rich enough to keep a big balance, you have to pay Citibank to keep your money while they spend it in their bailout-resulting, environment-destroying financial decisions.
I haven’t even been giving $15 a month to my favorite social action organization, yet I was sitting quietly while Citibank informed me they were going to take it from me and my captive bank account? (If you think Citibank’s policy was egregious, Bank of America announced it would start charging $60 a year to use its ATMs, a policy, which, thanks to public outcry, the bank just reversed).
Enough. I am done. Done with Citibank, done with feeling guilty when I get my monthly statements in the mail; done with feeling bad when I see my ATM card in my wallet. So on November 5, I plan to join with others across the country as I walk into my local Citi branch and close my account. I’ll tell them why, add my voice to the pledges here, and cut up my card. Then, I’ll head home to check out my new bank accounts online at Amalgamated Bank, the bank of the labor union movement. (You can find community-oriented banks and credit unions near you here and tips about how to move your money and not mess up your finances here.)
Finally, I’ll commit to giving that $15 a month (which, mind you, Citibank was going to take from me) to one of my favorite groups working on behalf of the 99 percent. All this will take a little paperwork and a little time, but nothing I can’t handle. And then, I’ll be free—and it’ll feel great. I hope you’ll join me.
The Food Movement Must Occupy Wall Street
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- Blog
Saturday, October 29th, 2011, 11:30 AM
by Kristin Wartman, Food Writer
The Food Movement Must Occupy Wall Street
If you are paying attention to Occupy Wall Street–and by now most people are–the anti-corporate message is coming through loud and clear. Most participants at the events now spreading across the country say they are no longer willing to let powerful corporate interests determine the course of their lives. These Americans realize that a participatory democracy is essential.
As it stands today, 75 percent of the population are obese or overweight and many are chronically ill with diet-related diseases. They are also largely dependent on an increasingly unhealthful and contaminated food supply that is heavily controlled by corporate interests. It’s obvious that this is our moment to drive a very important point home: Upending corporate control of the food supply is a fundamental change that must occur if the “99 percent” are to be healthy participants in a true democracy.
This could be a catalyzing moment for the food movement with a real chance for average Americans to see and hear the connection between corporate control of the food supply and our nation’s health crisis. Indeed, the declaration of Occupy Wall Street addresses issues the food movement has been working on for years. The declaration states, “They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.”
Author and activist Naomi Klein has been an outspoken advocate and participant in Occupy Wall Street. When asked how it connects to the food movement she said, “The protest is about the corporate takeover of democracy of our lives in every way. The food movement is inherently anti-corporate and it is inherently about rebuilding a real economy.” She continued, “The food movement is where a lot of the leadership is. Occupy Wall Street is not just about banking legislation. The food movement is paving the way for what needs to happen in manufacturing and I think it’s all connected.”
Marion Nestle, Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University agrees. “Of course Occupy Wall Street connects to the food movement,” she said. “If we had a healthier financial system, we might be able to fund better food assistance, universal school meals, a rational and effective food safety system, and production agriculture that promotes sustainability and affordable food that is healthier for people and the planet. The food movement needs to be there and its voices heard.”
While powerful players like Goldman Sachs and Fannie Mae were on the lips of nearly every American after the 2008 financial crisis, the names of industrial agriculture corporations remain largely unknown. But consider how much power they wield. Take Monsanto as an example. When Monsanto began selling its genetically modified Roundup Ready soybeans in 1996 only two percent of soybeans in the U.S. contained their patented gene. By 2008, over 90 percent of soybeans in the U.S. contained Monsanto’s gene. This is especially alarming given that soybeans account for the largest source of protein feed and the second largest source of vegetable oil in the world. According to the USDA, in 2008-09, the farm value of soybean production was $29.6 billion, the second highest among U.S. produced crops — and soy is ubiquitous in processed foods. It ends up in the meat, milk, eggs, and farmed fish many Americans consume (as a result of it being in animal feed) as well as thousands upon thousands of packaged foods usually in the form of soy protein isolate, soy isoflavones, textured vegetable protein, and soy oils. Soy accounts for a fifth of the calories in the American diet.
Monsanto has also produced genetically modified seeds for corn, canola, and cotton with many more products being developed including seeds for sugar beets and alfalfa. (To see how ferociously Monsanto protects its patented seeds watch the Oscar-nominated documentary Food, Inc.) As for corn, the highest valued U.S. produced crop, 93 percent of it is genetically engineered. Physicist and internationally renowned activist Dr. Vandana Shiva points out that the notion that genetically engineered food will improve the food supply and improve nutrition is a myth. “These are illusions that are being marketed in order for people to hand over the power to decide what to eat to a handful of corporations,” she said in an interview on her Website.
Another corporation with broad reach and control over the foods we eat is Cargill, which rivals Monsanto in its control of the food supply. It is the largest privately held corporation in the nation, owning Cargill Pork and Cargill Beef, the second largest beef producer in North America. According to Anna Lappe’s book Diet for a Hot Planet, Cargill also owns dozens of subsidiary businesses, is one of the largest commercial cattle feeders in the U.S., the world’s biggest processor, marketer, and distributor of grains, oilseeds, and other agricultural commodities, and controls 80 percent of the European market for soybean crushing with a similar share for animal feed manufacturing.
If you eat any processed or packaged food, or anything from a typical restaurant or café, you can guarantee that Monsanto or Cargill played a role in those foods somewhere along the line. As Dr. Shiva points out in much of her work, these companies contribute to the toxification of our food supply. It’s not only the lack of nutritional value in many of these highly processed foods, but also the actual toxins that are added to genetically engineered foods. Bees, butterflies, cattle and other animals have been dying as a result of these crops, so how are they affecting humans? (You can listen to Dr. Shiva discuss this here).
If America’s health crisis is any indication, corporate control of the food supply is taking the ultimate toll. American children born in 2000 are the first generation not expected to outlive their parents as one in three is likely to develop diabetes in their lifetime, with those rates even higher for black and Latino children. The corporate monopolies over the food supply and the government’s role in facilitating corporate control translates into control over the health of the American population.
Occupy Wall Street illustrates a basic tenet of democracy; we must participate for it to function properly. We must also participate in our food system to develop local food economies that function with our interests in mind. Our first steps must be learning and teaching others about where our food comes from and how to access healthy food. We must also boycott companies like Monsanto and Cargill whose sole interest is profit, not our health or protecting the environment.
Writer, activist, and academic Raj Patel said that while Wall Street is certainly behind many problems with the food system, there is an even deeper connection between the two. “At its best, the food movement is about learning to see the politics in our everyday lives and then to take a stand against injustice,” he said. “That’s what Occupy Wall Street is doing–creating a space to learn, demand, exchange and organize.”
Occupy Wall Street understands that the corporations cannot be allowed to control our political systems. Similarly, when corporations control the food supply we are left with an unsafe and unregulated food supply and a population in the midst of a dire health crisis as a result of corporate carelessness and greed.
This post originally appeared on Civil Eats
10/28 Lunchtime Panel: HOW SAFE IS OUR FOOD SUPPLY?
- Topics:
- Blog
Friday, October 28th, 2011, 9:29 AM
“Eat Their Words” Panel Hosted By Consumer Reports Brings Together Noted Food Writers to Discuss The Media’s Role in Shaping a Safer Food System
WHO:
Marion Nestle, New York University professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, and author of many influential books, including Safe Food: The Politics of Food Safety.
William Neuman, New York Times reporter on food safety, politics, and industry.
Bill Marler, prominent attorney for food safety cases and founder of FoodSafetyNews.com.
Urvashi Rangan, Ph.D., Director, Technical Policy and Safety, Consumer Reports, a nationally recognized expert and a frequent contributor to mainstream media news on food safety. She will moderate the panel.
WHAT:
How safe is the food supply in the United States? Salmonella in chicken, Bisphenol-A (BPA) in canned food, bacteria in bagged salad; over Consumer Reports’ 75 years, our lab tests and critical reporting has informed the public of these and other dangers lurking in our food supply.
As a part of its 75th Anniversary celebration and Exhibit at Grand Central Terminal, Consumer Reports will host “Eat Their Words,” a panel discussion which will include nationally known food-safety experts and journalists who have helped propel marketplace and regulatory changes to make our food supply safer.
The exhibit will include demonstrations and an exclusive look at how Consumer Reports tests thousands of products each year.
The panel, as well as the rest of the exhibit, will be completely free and open to the public.
WHEN:
Friday, October 28, 12 p.m.–1 p.m.
WHERE:
Grand Central Terminal’s Vanderbilt Hall; 87 E 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017
An interactive exhibit of Consumer Reports’ history and future will be on display at Vanderbilt Hall in Grand Central Terminal on October 28–29, 2011.
For more information, visit the Web site here.
Real Food Challenge takes off
- Topics:
- Blog
Friday, October 28th, 2011, 3:36 AM
Students united to transform food system:
Not just 20% real food by 2020. At least 20% real food by 2020.
The Get Real campaign, for instance, is off and running. It’s aimed at getting college presidents to sign our new Real Food Campus Commitment–and we’ve just had out first victory: the President of St. Mary’s College in Indiana signed this week! http://www.wndu.com/localnews/headlines/Saint_Marys_first_school_to_sign_real_good_commitment_132568798.html
http://video.alabamas13.com/v/47561100/real-food-challenge.htm?q=real+food
Californians Urge Healthy Food and Jobs Focus in Fast Tracked Farm Bill
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- Blog
Wednesday, October 26th, 2011, 9:34 AM
http://www.ewg.org/release/californians-urge-healthy-food-and-jobs-focus-fast-tracked-farm-bill
CONTACT: EWG public affairs 202.667.6982; ssciammacco@ewg.org
Oakland, Calif. — More than 60 public health, nutrition, food, farm and environmental groups representing hundreds of thousands of California citizens are urging Gov. Jerry Brown and the state’s congressional delegation to support healthy food reforms as the Congressional super committee crafts a new five-year farm bill.
Environmental Working Group is a leading sponsor of the advocates letter and petition, along with Center for Science in the Public Interest, Roots of Change, Prevention Institute, California Center for Public Health Advocacy, Pesticide Action Network North America and Food and Water Watch.
“In this difficult budget environment, we must invest our money where it will generate the greatest good,” Kari Hamerschlag, a senior analyst at Environmental Working Group, said. “That means investing in conservation, research, nutrition, local and organic food and fruit and vegetable production and promotion. These programs will save us billions in health care costs, while creating jobs, supporting family farmers and protecting our valuable water and soil resources for future generations of farming.”
“We can find billions of dollars in tax payer savings by limiting support to the largest most profitable farming operations that do not need our help,” Hamerschlag said.
The letter and petition, delivered on National Food Day, Monday October 24, demonstrate a broad consensus in California, the largest grower of vegetables, fruits, and nuts, that top priority for federal funding should go to local food production, nutrition, research and conservation programs.
The petition has been signed by more than 16,000 California citizens. It urges the California delegation in Washington to stand up for healthy and sustainable food and farming policies. Advocates plan to descend on Congressional offices over the next few weeks to press their case.
The advocates’ letter and petition highlight the importance of protecting healthy food programs and promoting diets rich in fruit and vegetables and healthy beverages as a way to save billions in costly medical care. They assert that “poor diet and inactivity cost California more than $20 billion a year and the nation at least $150 billion annually in medical cost.”
“This petition should clarify for our political leaders that food and farming must move back to the center of our national agenda, ” said Michael Dimock, President of Roots of Change. “Our health, economy and ecosystem demand it. If we don’t ensure healthy food, farms, ecosystems to support our nation’s people in the next farm bill, Occupy Wall Street could become Occupy Walmart, Cargill and every other “big food” entity.”
“Small investments in conservation and rural development leverage additional private dollars that together deliver huge benefits for farmers, rural communities and consumers,” said Pesticide Action Network senior scientist Margaret Reeves. “These programs help farmers keep our air and water clean, and they also help farmers protect pollinator and soil resources that are essential for the continued production and sale of abundant, healthy food.”
“California is the country’s number-one agricultural producer-we need to get those fresh fruits and vegetables onto the plates of every man, woman and child in California,” said Juliet Sims, a Program Coordinator at the Prevention Institute. “The farm bill delivers nutrition assistance for low-income people who are really in desperate need, and it will help increase access to healthy foods across the state.”
Quick and dirty: Congress may rewrite the Farm Bill in two weeks
- Topics:
- Blog
Wednesday, October 26th, 2011, 2:00 AM
http://www.grist.org/farm-bill/2011-10-24-will-lawmakers-rewrite-the-farm-bill-in-less-than-two-weeks
by Tom Laskawy
24 Oct 2011 8:09 AM
A two-week Food Bill rewrite stacks the deck against good-food advocates. Last month, I wrote that prospects for reforming the Farm Bill were dim. My prior assessment is turning out to be outrageously optimistic.
Typically, passage of the Farm Bill occurs every five years and involves a lengthy process of hearings, constituent meetings, and (sad but true) many a high-priced meal on the tab of some lobbyist or other—followed by detailed negotiations between the House and Senate Agriculture Committees. It has also often been seen as an opportunity to—as one recent action alert put it—change the food system by supporting small farms, investing in rural economies, and “supporting more diversified farming and livestock systems, healthy food access, conservation, and research.”
The next reauthorization was not expected until late in 2012—if not 2013—but through an unexpected turn of events, it may be decided much faster, and with even less input from the good food movement than the last one.
And when I say faster, I mean at warp speed. Earlier this week, according to the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, the House and Senate Ag Committees suddenly announced that they would write the entire 2012 Farm Bill in the next two weeks.
This new Farm Bill will also be smaller, thanks to the deal cut to avoid a government default over the summer. In the wake of that agreement, Congress convened a “super committee” of House and Senate negotiators that’s required to come up with a plan by this Thanksgiving to cut $1.2 trillion from the deficit over the next decade. Of that total, $23 billion must come from the USDA budget—a number recently recommended by House and Senate Agriculture Committee leaders. There is panic in the fields of Big Ag at such a drastic reduction in farm and food spending.
As well there should be: The prospect of a small group of negotiators who are not beholden to traditional farm interests working behind closed doors to slash farm spending might strike some as a sign that our long national industrial agriculture subsidy nightmare is over. But as Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group (EWG) and an advocate for farm subsidy reform, told me, it’s likely that we will get a “secret farm bill” with “no accountability” for those involved.
No one knows exactly how it will turn out. As one source close to the process told Grist, “there are people betting on all” possible scenarios. But one thing is certain; negotiators are desperately trying to maintain the annual flow of $18 billion in subsidies to the largest farmers who produce commodity crops like corn, soy, and cotton. And while there will certainly be losers, you can count on the fact that there will also be winners.
This is reflected in the proposals currently circulating in Congress, specifically over a set of subsidies known as “direct payments.” Originally designed as a temporary means to get around World Trade Organization restrictions on government support of private industry, direct payments go to large farmers based on past farm yields and acreage. It’s the classic “cash the check whether you grow something or not” kind of subsidy that drives food reformers crazy. Direct payments have particularly benefited large-scale soy and cotton farmers from the South, and were thought to be facing the ax.
But as The New York Times reported, rather than pocketing the savings, farm state reps have proposed a new subsidy in its place—and it may not be much different from the old one. It’s known as a “shallow loss” subsidy, and it would protect commodity farmers from small drops in prices. You know, just to take the edge off.
And while direct payments cost $5 billion per year, if crop prices drop from current levels, the new “shallow loss” program could cost around $4 billion per year. No wonder ag economist (and admitted subsidies critic) Vincent Smith of Montana State University described the proposal as a “bait and switch” on NPR recently.
EWG’s Cook is concerned about another potential problem with the proposed new subsidy. With the current set of farm payments, groups can track exactly how much government support individual farmers receive (as EWG does with its Farm Subsidy Database). But with the “shallow loss” plan, says Cook, “the subsidy lobby” is creating a new “income-guarantee entitlement aimed at the biggest commercial operations” that will likely be “totally opaque to the public.” Which means no more tracking who gets how much.
In sum, the super committee process has caused what is often (by congressional standards) an orderly process to devolve into a legislative free-for-all. Whatever happens, the outcome is likely to be hidden by a fog of backroom deals and—this being Congress we’re talking about—bitter recrimination.
Adding to the uncertainty, there’s the very real possibility that the super committee will fail to come up with a deal. In that case, a set of cuts will be automatically triggered, which might leave agriculture subsides more or less intact (though the same may not be true of the USDA’s food safety system).
We already know that land and watershed conservation programs will face the worst cuts. And the House GOP wants to kill the small-farmer friendly “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food” initiative as well. It seems clear that Big Ag is embracing former Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel’s advice not to let a good crisis go to waste by aiming a body blow at reform in general and sustainable agriculture in particular.
It’s hard not to be cynical about a process whereby powerful corporate interests divvy up taxpayer dollars like so much pirate’s booty. To switch (and mix) metaphors, Big Ag is circling the limos around its giant pile of cash and hoping for the best. If nothing else, the current farm subsidy “debate” is Exhibit A of the need for Americans to Occupy the Food System—though perhaps this big-time money grab can be read as a sign that Big Ag actually fears the growing Occupy Wall Street movement.
Meanwhile, the EWG, along with the NSAC, are asking people to call their representatives to try to head off the worst kind of deal. And while there’s no telling how this particularly nasty bit of sausage making will turn out, it’s a fair bet that only agribusiness will like the taste.
A 17-year veteran of both traditional and online media, Tom is a Contributing Writer at Grist covering food and agricultural policy. Tom’s long and winding road to food politics writing passed through New York, Boston, the San Francisco Bay Area, Florence, Italy and Philadelphia (which has a vibrant progressive food politics and sustainable agriculture scene, thank you very much). In addition to Grist, his writing has appeared online in the American Prospect, Slate, the New York Times and The New Republic. He is on record as believing that wrecking the planet is a bad idea. Follow him on Twitter.
Students and campus food workers unite for Food Day
- Topics:
- Blog
Tuesday, October 25th, 2011, 3:34 PM
http://www.grist.org/food/2011-10-24-food-workers-on-food-day
by Chris Bohner
24 Oct 2011 3:26 PM
Northwest UNorthwestern University dining hall workers celebrating new contract as part of the students’ living wage campaign.”They took our knives and gave us scissors to open bags of frozen food. I want my knives back so I can cook again.” That’s what a kitchen worker at a prominent university told me recently at one of a dozen of gatherings around the country convened by our union, Unite Here. The idea was to bring food service workers and college students together to discuss the intersection of food and work in anticipation of Food Day, a national day designed to “bring together Americans from all walks of life to push for healthy, affordable food produced in a sustainable, humane way.”
Unite Here, where I work as director of the Sustainable Food Project, is the largest organization in the country representing food service workers. And we’re heartened to see campus dining workers who want to cook again — to make food from scratch using real ingredients. Instead of being tasked with heating and serving processed and pre-prepared meals, they want to use their skills in the kitchen to cook food they’re truly proud to serve.
“Food is love,” said one cook at a university in Chicago. “Bringing in packaged food … is sort of an insult. We actually want to chop, we want to make sauces and make our own stocks, we want to make food with our hands.”
But this widely felt sentiment is only one reason we’re drawing attention to food service workers on Food Day. After spending so much time in campus kitchens, we know that workers are important allies in transforming our food system and we want to bring that to the foreground of this important national event. They’re allies in part because they have so much at stake: Food workers are among those most affected by the food crisis. They are frequently underpaid and they suffer from food insecurity and diet-related illnesses at alarming rates:
– The annual median wage for food workers on college campuses in 2010 was $17,176, which is substantially below the federal poverty level of $22,050 for a family of four.
– Nearly one out of four food service workers live in food insecure households, and 31 percent are at risk for diet-related illnesses like diabetes, stroke, and heart disease — the highest rate of all occupations in the United States.
– Because they’re paid poverty wages, 13 percent of food service workers lived in households that utilized food stamps at some point during the last year, nearly double the national average.
To make the food system work for food service workers — and all workers in the food chain — we must address one of the root causes of the crisis itself: the growing levels of poverty and economic inequality in the United States. In higher education, where Unite Here represents food workers at over 100 college campuses, an alliance of students, workers, and food activists is stepping up to take on this challenge.
Harvard students and workersHarvard dining workers and students gathering for planning of Food Day.At Northwestern University, students and workers built relationships that formed the basis of a vibrant and ongoing living wage campaign. The result was not only substantially increased wages and benefits in the dining halls in 2011, but also a new student culture that recognizes food workers as central to campus life. At Georgetown University, students and faculty played a crucial role in helping food workers organize their first union in 2011.
Food service workers represented by unions earn 26 percent more in pay than food workers without a union, or $5,512 a year. That may not seem like big money for some, but for workers below the poverty line, it’s can go toward fresh and healthy food for their families.
Food service workers bring tremendous assets to the movement for real food. In addition to diversity and energy, they bring a unique vantage point from which to monitor the safety and quality of food. When we’ve asked workers about food quality in campus kitchens, we’ve heard stories from people instructed to place “Organic” labels on conventional produce, falsify food expiration dates, keep food at dangerous temperatures, and serve lots of food that’s simply bad.
But without protection from retaliation from their employers, workers fear speaking out about these practices. Union contracts help provide such protections, underscoring the point that strengthening the rights of food workers can also help address concerns about food safety.
We know that a national day of action, like Food Day, won’t change our food system overnight. But we also know that it has helped move forward a dialogue between food workers, students, and university faculty about how to change our food system. This open dialogue has helped to break down many barriers and to connect diverse communities — benefits that will be felt long after Food Day is over. And as we see it, that’s a recipe for long-term change.
Chris Bohner is the director of Unite Here’s Sustainable Food Project. For more information on their Food Day events, and to follow the dialogue about sustainable food and worker justice, click here.
Corporate Accountability Int’l Turns Up the Heat on McDonald’s
- Topics:
- Blog
Tuesday, October 25th, 2011, 9:59 AM
Yesterday, October 24th, was the first annual Food Day, and people across the U.S. are taking action to promote healthy, affordable and sustainably produced food. In recognition of Food Day, Corporate Accountability International members and activists are turning up the heat on McDonald’s to end its harmful marketing of junk food to kids.
Will you celebrate Food Day by “>Submit a photo petition and show McDonald’s that you stand with health professionals in calling for real change.
CAI will deliver your photos and your concerns directly to McDonald’s executives and franchise owners in the weeks ahead.
Don’t have a camera? Don’t worry!Comments (0)
Food Day is here.
Monday, October 24th, 2011, 11:55 AM
After months of organizing by countless people, there will be more than 2,000 events from coast to coast—ranging from small house parties to massive festivals — for Food Day. Local governments are seizing the opportunity to announce new food policy initiatives. The National Archives will be hosting a Food Day Open House just feet from our country’s most important founding documents. There will be an “Eat In” in Times Square, with guests like Morgan Spurlock, Mario Batali, and Marion Nestle, and with a meal prepared by Ellie Krieger of the Food Network.
But more important, Food Day is poised to inspire hundreds of thousands if not millions of Americans to change their diets for the better, and to push for improved food policies.
If you are already planning to participate in a Food Day event, this is what I ask you to do: Please take still photos of your event, tag them with “Food Day” on Flickr and join our Flickr group. And, if you can take a short video of your Food Day event, please upload them to YouTube and tag them with the words “Food Day.” The Food Day staff will favorite these videos so they show up on the Food Day YouTube Channel. You can also collect signatures for the Food Day petition asking Congress for better food policies.
If you haven’t found a Food Day event near you, visit FoodDay.org use the map or type in your zip code. (Be patient as events take time to load in the map—a lot of people are visiting right now!) And of course you can keep up with Food Day by liking it on Facebook, following CSPI on Twitter, or by using the #FoodDay hashtag to participate in the national conversation.
Food Day continues to get great publicity, such as these articles in The Washington Post, the Boston Globe, the Minneapolis Tribune, and the Portland Oregonian or in the Atlantic. You may have also seen this TV spot-featuring Morgan Spurlock-from our friends at the Cooking Channel, or this one from our friends at the wellness cable channel Veria Living.
What? Food and Farm Bill Over in 13 days?
- Topics:
- Blog, Food Industry News & Trends, Food Policy & Politics, Forests, Hunger & Food Crisis, Local Food, Meat Industry, Organic Food & Farming
Friday, October 21st, 2011, 11:12 AM
October 20th, 2011
National Sustainable Agriculture
Only once every 5 years do you have the opportunity to truly transform our food and farm system through the federal farm bill.
On Monday the Agriculture Committee leadership proposed to rewrite the food and farm bill in 2 weeks from today – yes you heard that right, 2 weeks – this is usually a year plus process and they want to do it in 2 weeks?! This would be the fastest food and farm bill decision-making process in history.
Please act today for a chance you have only once every 5 years to reform our food and farming system and protect our natural resources.
If you care about the health of America’s soil, water, and land; promoting organic practices and conservation; helping a new generation of struggling small and mid-sized farmers get their start; rebuilding local and regional food systems; or developing new markets and healthy food access – now is the time to speak up. If you want to see a healthier, more secure, environmentally sustainable, and prosperous America – now is the time to speak up.
This proposal would wipe out over 40 percent of the funding increases for conservation and environmental initiatives achieved in the 2002 and 2008 food and farm bills, setting the clock back and “un-greening” the farm bill. Moreover, it is unclear what the proposal would do to the fair and healthy farm and food system programs won in 2008 with your help, but in need of being renewed in the new farm bill. It could potentially wipe out all of those gains as well.
It just takes a minute to call:
• First check if your Senator and/or Representative sits on the Senate Agriculture or House Agriculture Committee
• If your Senator or Representative sits on either of these three committees: call the Capitol Switchboard and ask to be directly connected to your Senators’ and Member of Congress’s office: 202-224-3121. Or go to Congress.org and type in your zip code, then click on your Senators and Member of Congress’s name and the contact tab for their phone number.
• If the line is busy, please leave a brief message on the voicemail.
The Message: I am a constituent, calling Senator/Representative _____ to deliver this message (use one or more of these talking points):
• The proposed farm conservation cuts are too big and should be reduced. In particular, the Conservation Stewardship Program funding should be retained and Wetlands Reserve Program funding should be restored.
• Farm commodity program reform should include caps on the amount of subsidy any one farm can receive. Loopholes allowing multiple subsidy payments to single farms should be closed. Conservation requirements should be attached to all forms of revenue and crop insurance subsidies.
• The farm bill must reinvest at least $1 billion a year in innovative, job-creating programs for rural economic development, local and regional food systems, renewable energy, organic farming, and young and beginning farmers.
*According to published accounts, the leaders of the Agriculture Committees are proposing cuts of $6.5 billion to conservation programs, $5 billion to nutrition programs, and $15 billion to commodity subsidy programs. The conservation cuts would be on top of the $2 billion already made by Congress in the appropriations process.
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From Hunger Action Network
Call you Congress member today (202 224-3121) and tell them:
No deficit reduction plan can work if it does not rebuild our economy by protecting Medicaid, food stamps, unemployment insurance and other basic safety net programs. And it must create jobs. Such a plan must have increased revenues from upper-income households and profitable corporations, and savings from cutting unneeded military spending.
The Senate is about to take up a Agriculture Appropriations bill, in which the Republicans will seek to make cuts to the food stamp / SNAP program. Senator Gillibrand, whom we talked to last week, is leading the fight nationally to protect SNAP, so all she needs is a call to thank her (202 224-4451). Sen. Schumer, whose staff we met with this week, says he is also opposed, but a call to him would help convince him to take more of a leadership role. He is not signing onto a letter that Gillibrand is circulating to protect SNAP(202 224-6542)
The tougher fight is expected in the House, where the House leadership supports steep cuts in food stamps and other low-income programs.
You could also include in your message support for a Farm Bill that invests in healthy food, strong conservation programs and family farms, not corporate agribusiness.
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The Farm Bill Is a Food Bill
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rajiv-narayan/the-farm-bill-is-a-food-b_b_1020469.html
Where the farm bill allocates resources to funding food stamps on one hand, it also incentivizes the purchase of unhealthy foods. In the most recent farm bill updates, it appears as though the back-room appropriations are moving in the favor of subsidies. While both direct payment programs and nutrition programs are looking at cuts, a mechanism for replacing subsidy cuts with a new funding regime has already surfaced. Unfortunately for the food side of the farm bill, it’s become increasingly difficult to advocate for change. In the past, the farm bill has been traditionally held to industry interests. Now, the super committee process may shut out democratic input altogether if the bill is written in the coming weeks by a handful of legislators for the purpose of bypassing floor debate.
Because the farm bill is so rarely written, it becomes important to reclaim its status as a food bill. Even if parts of the package are at odds with the part of the bill that works to create a healthy food system, the latter still comprises 70 percent of the legislation. It remains to be seen whether the super committee process will allow some food for thought.
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Farm Bill Battle Heats Up
http://www.kfgo.com/agri-business-news.php?ID=9424
WASHINGTON (DTN) – Fights began breaking out Tuesday among agriculture interests over what the super committee might do with the farm bill, even though no one knows how the leaders of the House and Senate agriculture committees are planning to move ahead with the proposal that they sent to the super committee on Monday.
One of the fights over super committee ag cuts and farm bill plans is whether to cut spending on food programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., Senate Agriculture ranking member Pat Roberts, R-Kans., House Agriculture Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., and House Agriculture ranking member Collin Peterson, D-Minn., sent the super committee a letter Monday saying they would agree to up to $23 billion in farm program cuts over 10 years, and that they will send the super committee a more detailed proposal by Nov. 1 on what they are seeking.
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Key farm groups back revenue plan
DANIEL LOOKER 10/19/2011 @ 4:58pm Business Editor
http://www.agriculture.com/news/policy/key-farm-groups-back-revenue-pl_4-ar20037
Three influential farm groups Wednesday urged the House and Senate agriculture committees to replace the main existing commodity programs with a revenue-based risk management plan that would pay for some losses not covered by crop insurance.
Today’s letter to the chairs and ranking minority members of the ag committees was signed by the American Soybean Association, National Corn Growers Association and National Farmers Union.
All three have their own farm bill proposals but they’ve united behind the idea of replacing existing farm programs, including the often criticized direct payments, with a program helps farmers only when they have losses in revenue.
The groups said that federal budget realities “make it imperative to find a viable risk management approach that can replace several existing programs, including Direct Payments, Countercyclical Payments, SURE, and the ACRE program.”
“…under a revenue-based program, compensation for losses that exceed a certain threshold would only be made as they are incurred, on all production, and only on a portion of the loss,” the groups point out. “This stands in contrast with the current Direct Payment program under which farmers receive payments regardless of whether they produce a crop or incur a loss. Also, many producers participate in the crop insurance program at levels that require losses of 30 percent or more before they are compensated. With the elimination of other elements of the farm safety net, a program is needed to offset part of these losses should they occur.”
They also voiced “strong support” for keeping the existing crop insurance program. Any revenue program “should be designed to complement rather than overlap or replace this key part of the farm program safety net,” they said.
Food and Power: a Need for Diversity, a Call for Courage
- Topics:
- Blog, Take a Bite News & Events
Thursday, October 20th, 2011, 2:21 PM
From GRACE’s Ecocentric blog
by Margaret Riche | 10.08.2011
This blog post is written by Margaret Riche, our Hunter College Public Service Scholar.
On the evening of September 22nd, an eager audience filled the historic Great Hall of Cooper Union, where the stage was dotted with blooming flowers and potted plants. Addressing the crowd where Abraham Lincoln, the suffragettes and the founders of the NAACP had spoken before her, Francis Moore Lappé quoted Cezanne and told us: “The day will come when a single carrot, freshly observed, will set off a revolution.”
We were gathered to celebrate “four decades of the food movement” and among the foliage were good food legends Frances Moore Lappé and Dr. Vandana Shiva. The event, “Feeding Hope: Living Democracy,” marked the 40 year anniversary of the release of Lappé’s book, Diet for a Small Planet. This revolutionary work was the first of its kind to highlight the connection between human practices and worldwide hunger. Her startling statistics, which demonstrated the wasteful, unsustainable nature of current livestock production, often serve as my talking points in the “why are you vegan” conversations I seem to always be having. Lappé’s insights have proven critical to the movement for food justice and 40 years later, I was curious about what she suggested moving forward.
Vandana Shiva told us that “the agricultural tools of industry come from the mindset of war, where diversity is seen as the enemy” and she railed against the “false promises of GMO (genetically modified organisms).” She warned us that “if we don’t make change, there’s only one future. No future.”
The dynamic Lappé did not disappoint and offered up to the crowd a contagious optimism. Author of 18 books, co-founder of Food First, the Small Planet Institute and Small Planet Fund, Lappé is an eloquent, tireless advocate for the planet and its inhabitants. Standing before a crowd of supporters, she drew battle lines in the war for sustainability and equity, telling us “we can chose life or we can chose death.” As if reading my mind, she reflected on the recently executed death row inmate Troy Davis. She told us that “the dominant mental math of the day is fundamentally life-denying.” Her words rang true for several head-nodders throughout the crowd.
The concept of living beings as dispensable objects (where cows are referred to as “protein disposal units”) is just one example of the filter through which humans understand (or misunderstand) concepts of biodiversity and interconnectedness. Lappé refers to this lens as the “scarcity mind,” where relationships built on fear and distrust support a system of inequitable power distribution. It is exactly these power relationships which inform access (or lackthereof) to abundance. Lappé called on us to cultivate an “eco-mind,” where we constantly strive to understand the interconnected nature of social, environmental and ecological issues. She spoke of food’s ability to forge these connections and of the movement’s goals of equitably dispersing power through acts of creating and sharing. Lappé advocates for what she calls a “living democracy,” which includes a “culture of engagement, aligned with nature.” This living democracy requires that those in the movement “work on our backbone” in taking on influential institutions that monopolize power. According to Lappé, “nature abhors a monopoly.”
It is this nuanced understanding of power relationships that make Lappé and Dr. Shiva such vital leaders in shifting the dominant paradigms of consumption. A true legend and orator, Dr. Vandana Shiva‘s perspective is one of a philosopher, physicist and feminist. She is the founder of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology in India. Born in the city of Dehran Dun, located in a valley at the bottom of the Himalayas, Shiva has advocated brilliantly for women throughout the Global South and for the thousands of Indian farmers disenfranchised at the hands of corporate agri-business. Dr. Shiva recalled organizing seed banks throughout India through a famers’ network she founded, known as Navdanya. She told us of her work preserving the much needed biodiversity of native Indian seeds, as well as reclaiming traditional agroecological practices.
Addressing the underlying issues surrounding food production, Shiva drew a similar parallel to Lappé’s between dominant psychology and perceived scarcity. Shiva warns against the “monocultures of the mind” that come from the “systemic flaws” that favor corporate control of resources. She told us that “the agricultural tools of industry come from the mindset of war, where diversity is seen as the enemy” and she railed against the “false promises of GMO (genetically modified organisms).” She warned us that “if we don’t make change, there’s only one future. No future.” As a researcher, author and pioneer, Vandana Shiva could say from experience that “food is the site of new freedom” but she warned that it is “also the site of new dictators.” In looking to the future, she reminded us of the power of the commons, where shared resources of food and knowledge could mutually benefit everyone. Even in the face of the current unbalanced concentrations of power, she assured us that life always triumphs over death.
In the question and answer portion of the evening, Lappé and Shiva addressed some issues of strategy. According to Francis’s daughter Anna, who moderated the panel, sifting through questions passed to the stage on notecards, many people asked if there are too many distinct groups and whether the movement needs a larger organization. Lappé took the mic and repeated one of the themes of the evening- the need for diversity. She warned us that a large organization would depend on outside support, as opposed to self-organizing power. This self-organizing power is emblematic of Lappé’s vision of democracy. She likened all of the different efforts to beads on a necklace, and said that all we really need is a string. What is the string, she asked? “The string is life. The string is freedom. It is the connection between the farmer, the chef, the butterfly and the earth worm.” When asked how she maintained her optimism, Lappé smiled and cryptically replied, “if we really are living consciously as an ecosystem, it’s not possible to know what’s possible.” I found myself smiling too as the evening began to wrap up, with Lappé making one last call for courage. Surrounded by flowers and illuminated by stage lights, she called on us each to be that “small flame in the dark room, where one lamp lights the next.”
Here’s to forty more years of wisdom and to a freer future of sustainable food.
10/17 Tar Sands Action in NYC
Wednesday, October 12th, 2011, 10:55 AM
A group of New York-based arrestees from the Tar Sands Action in Washington D.C. this summer are working to bring the energy and passion of the Tar Sands Action to our home here, in New York City.
We hand delivered signed copies of this letter to the OFA office. Here we are in front of the Obama Headquarters in NYC:
If you have any questions or want more information about the action, email them at TarSandsActionNYC@gmail.com
Please help us stop these disastrous projects by signing the letter and joining the action.
If you don’t already know about the Keystone XL pipeline or fracking in the Delaware River Basin, here’s the rundown:
The Keystone XL pipeline, which would run from the Alberta tar sands in Canada to Texas, is the fuse to the largest carbon bomb in North America. According to NASA climate scientist James Hansen, if the oil in the Alberta tar sands is burned it’s “essentially game over” for the climate. As a coastal city, New York is directly threatened by the rising oceans and extreme weather caused by climate change.
Fracking, a novel method of natural gas extraction, also poses a dire threat to communities in New York City. Fracking permanently poisons the drinking water of nearby communities, releases cancer-causing emissions and creates radioactive waste. Fracking in the Delaware River Basin, which supplies water to New York City, Eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, could begin as early as this fall. The magnitude of this threat cannot be exaggerated: 15.6 million people get their water from the Delaware River.
President Obama does not need Congressional approval to block these projects. The State Department is responsible for approving or denying the Keystone XL pipeline permit and Obama can instruct the Army Corps of Engineers to vote against fracking in the Delaware River Basin.
Happy World Food Day Sunday, 10/16
- Topics:
- Blog
Tuesday, October 11th, 2011, 2:52 PM
In honor of World Food Day, American Jewish World Service, Oxfam Action Corps NYC, The Hunger Project’s Young Professionals Committee, and Union Theological Seminary are hosting a film screening at 4 pm on Sunday, October 16 in the James Memorial Chapel at Union Theological Seminary.
The film, “Hunger in a World of Plenty,” addresses why, in world that has enough resources to feed 12 billion people, nearly one billion people are chronically hungry. Following what will be the United States premiere of the film, Vice President for Africa Programs Dr. Idrissa Dicko (The Hunger Project), Director of Education and Community Engagement Stephanie Ives (American Jewish World Service) and Senior Campaigns Advisor Rohit Malpani (Oxfam America) will discuss topics addressed in the film and ways in which attendees can take action on a local level. After the film and discussion, guests can sample tastings of recipes prepared for Oxfam America on the occasion of World Food Day by noted chefs Giada De Laurentiis, Mark Bittman, José Andrés, and the Mennonite Central Committee.
RSVP is requested at http://worldfooddaynyc.eventbrite.com/. Doors open at 3:30 pm.
This event is cosponsored by Bread for the World, the Brooklyn Food Coalition, Buddhist Global Relief, DIG (Development in Gardening), FeelGood Columbia University, the Hunger and Environmental Nutrition Special Interest Group of the Greater New York Dietetic Association, the International Youth Council, Small Planet Institute, United Methodist Committee on Relief, and WhyHunger.
Don’t Let Industry Kill the Healthy Food Marketing Guidelines
Friday, October 7th, 2011, 2:19 PM
Please consider signing onto this petition!
In 2009, Congress directed several federal agencies to form the Interagency Working Group (IWG) on Food Marketed to Children to develop guidelines for companies that market food to kids. The IWG proposed a strong set of guidelines earlier this year.
Unfortunately, the food industry and media companies are lobbying the President, his Administration, and Congress to prevent the IWG from finalizing the marketing recommendations. Yet, with the help of advocates like you, over 28,000 parents, health organizations, and others submitted comments supporting the proposed guidelines.
While the First Lady and the Administration have made childhood obesity a priority, they are considering pulling the marketing guidelines given the significant political pressure from the food and entertainment industries.
Please write to President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama (and the IWG agencies) today to encourage the Administration to finalize and release food marketing guidelines as Congress requested.
Recipients
President Barack Obama
First Lady Michelle Obama
Secretary Thomas ‘Tom’ J. Vilsack
Director Thomas R. Frieden
Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg
Chairman Jon Leibowitz
The Harder They Spin: What USFRA Wants Us to Believe and Why It’s Still Not the Truth
Wednesday, October 5th, 2011, 12:48 PM
Cross-posted at Civil Eats
October 5th, 2011 By Anna Lappé
I recently wrote about attending the Food Dialogues, a national “conversation about food” hosted by the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance (USFRA), a new trade association funded by some of the biggest players in the food industry—including the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Dupont, and Monsanto. There have been a number of comments on my post. I wanted to respond to one in particular from Hugh Whaley, USFRA’s General Manager.
Whaley takes issue with how I characterize the makeup and mission of the USFRA, writing:
Contrary to those who suggest, imply or state otherwise, USFRA is NOT a policy organization. USFRA is America’s farmers and ranchers who are committed to continuous improvement in how food is grown and raised to provide healthy choices for people everywhere. Our mission is to build consumer trust in today’s agriculture…all forms.
The farmer- and rancher-led organizations that are affiliates of USFRA have all sizes, shapes and production methods represented by their members. Small, medium, large; organic, natural, conventional.
To understand Whaley’s spin on who and what USFRA stands for, it might be helpful to share a little background on Whaley himself and how USFRA fits the mold of a common food-industry PR strategy.
For nearly 13 years, until March 2009, Whaley was an executive at the communications firm Osborn & Barr, founded in 1988 by former executives at Monsanto. While the company was its founding client, the firm has brought on other agricultural clients, including John Deere, United Soybean Board, the Cattlemen’s Beef Board/National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, and the National Pork Board—all of which are current USFRA affiliates.
During Whaley’s tenure, Osborn & Barr helped to launch American Farmers for the Advancement and Conservation of Technology (AFACT). Like USFRA, AFACT describes itself as a group “organized by farmers.” In the case of AFACT it was allegedly created “to defend members’ right to use recombinant bovine somatotropin,” or rbST, Monsanto’s artificial growth hormone sold to dairy farmers under the brand name, Posilac.
Though it was presented as a group speaking for farmers, AFACT was created in part by Osborn & Barr, which had been handling the Posilac account since 2007. AFACT’s formation came at a time when Monsanto was reeling from campaigns by real farmers and consumer advocates against the artificial growth hormone. Responding to concerns that ranged from the health of dairy cows pumped with the hormone to possible human health effects rbGH, Yoplait, Dannon, Cabot Cheese, and other companies had by 2009 stopped sourcing milk produced with Posilac. Grocery chains had started to eliminate it from their store-label milk, according to Food & Water Watch.
Similar to the spin about AFACT, Whaley describes the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance as “farmer- and rancher-led,” with affiliates of “all sizes, shapes and production methods.”
Yes, USFRA technically represents a range of farmers and ranchers, but only because much of its total budget—$11 million a year or $30 million depending on who you ask—comes from federal “check-off” commodity marketing programs. These programs, now covering 19 different commodities, compel all or most producers of these commodities, no matter the size, to pay into promotion programs. Beef ranchers for instance must pay $1 per head on domestic sales. The money adds up: In 2007, beef check-off programs spent more than $90 million.
You might not have heard of these programs, but you’ve probably seen their ads. Check-off dollars fund campaigns like “Beef: It’s What’s for Dinner?” “Pork: The Other White Meat” as well as dubious marketing efforts like the 2010 dairy industry partnership with Domino’s Pizza to amp up cheese use on its pies.
So because USFRA gets a good chunk of its budget from the biggest commodity check-off programs—like beef, cotton, eggs, and pork—Whaley is technically accurate: Farmers of all sizes do pay into this marketing campaign, but whether the Alliance represents diverse interests is a different story.
When I asked Laura Batcha, the Vice President of the Organic Trade Association whether the Alliance reflects their members’ interests she said: “We don’t believe the Alliance is communicating the benefits of organic agriculture.”
The bottom line is the USFRA is being funded, in part, with organic producers’ money without their consent or participation, since many organic producers are required by law to pay into these check-off programs. “While organic producers and handlers have been paying into these check-offs for years, we have yet to see the funds be used to promote organic food and agriculture,” said Batcha. “It’s essentially taxation without representation.” In fact, sustainable and small-scale farmers have been fighting in the courts against the legality of check-off programs, for precisely this reason.
Fred Stokes, founder of the Organization for Competitive Markets and a cattle rancher in Mississippi, concurred. The Alliance doesn’t “‘represent all farmers and ranchers,’” he said, “These are the people who put family farmers and ranchers out of business! This is an alliance only of groups that preach ‘get-big-or-get-out’ and ‘efficiency through vertical integration.’”
It’s also an alliance, Stokes noted, that gets a healthy portion of its budget from big business, too. As members of USFRA’s “Premier Partner Advisors Group” Monsanto, John Deere, and chemical giant Dupont each have pledged $500,000 a year.
So what is the platform USFRA is pushing? Whaley says I missed the mark here, too, writing:
None of the issues discussed during the Food Dialogues can be answered strictly in black and white terms. That’s why continued dialogue is so important. Making grandiose (positive or negative) statements about any form of agriculture won’t achieve solutions or help Americans make sound and informed food decisions.
I agree with Whaley in one sense: Food systems are complex and more dialogue is certainly needed to figure out the best approaches to creating a safer, more affordable and sustainable food supply. But, I would argue that some food issues are black-and-white and taking a clear stand on these issues is the only way we will achieve such solutions.
To give several examples directly relevant to USFRA membership:
I believe everyone should have a right to know if the food they’re eating contains genetically engineered organisms (GMOs). So do most Americans who overwhelmingly want the right to know what’s in their food. Yet, USFRA’s industry partner Monsanto has been leading the fight against GMO labeling in this country, despite the fact that most other countries with commercialized GMOs require it, even China.
I believe we should be doing everything possible to protect the effectiveness of antibiotics—one of the most important tools in our public health toolbox. So do most Americans. Yet, as much as 80 percent of antibiotics in the U.S. are used not for human health but in factory farms, often for growth-promotion. A broad coalition is calling for restrictions on these non-therapeutic uses of antibiotics, citing mounting concerns about antibiotic resistance, while many USFRA affiliates have been spearheading the fight against such restrictions.
I believe we should be actively working to phase out the most toxic pesticides in agriculture, those known to cause cancer, disrupt hormones, or impair brain functioning. So do most Americans. Yet, members of the Alliance, including the National Cotton Council and the National Corn Growers Association, have been actively fighting against regulations that would help us move in that direction.
I believe our tax dollars should be incentivizing healthy food production and healthy food access. So do most Americans. Yet, members of the USFRA are among the key forces lobbying for payments to commodity producers, including those, like corn growers, that are not even producing food for people. Forty-four percent of corn last year went to ethanol production; nearly half was diverted to animal feed; much of the rest went to high-fructose corn syrup. (Thanks in part to the success of this lobbying, from 1995 to 2010 the 15 members of the board of the National Corn Growers Association—a USFRA board member—received subsidies totaling $12,048,167, while 62 percent of American farmers, and nearly all organic producers and fruit and vegetable growers, received no federal subsidies at all).
Finally, I believe that protecting our nation’s water is one of the most important issues of our time. So do most Americans. Yet, many in USFRA leadership roles are among the key players fighting federal policy that would promote tighter regulation of water pollution, especially from “conventional” agriculture’s nitrogen fertilizer runoff and industrial livestock waste.
Many of USFRA’s board, including the American Farm Bureau Federation, National Pork Producers Council, Cattlemen’s Beef Board/Beef Checkoff, and the National Corn Growers Association, as well as USFRA partner, The Fertilizer Institute, work together under the auspices of the Waters Advisory Council. The Council may sound like an environmentally minded organization, but as The New York Times reports, it’s a “lobbying outfit” for some of the country’s “largest industrial and agricultural concerns.”
These are just some of food’s “black-and-white” issues. Without indication otherwise, we’re left to assume the USFRA’s position on these critical food issues reflects that of its membership—and is out of step with the real concerns of many, and in many cases most, Americans.
Whaley also suggests I misrepresented who was able to ask questions at the Food Dialogues at the four sites, noting:
Questions were taken for all four of our panels from in-person audience members, from people on Twitter and from questions posted on our two websites. It is really unfair to say questions for the event only came from industry. The questions represented many voices…
Questions may have come in from Twitter and Facebook, but, as I wrote in my original post, at the New York City event I attended, and where we in the media were asked to write down and hand in questions for the panel, only one person got to ask a question: He was a rep from the National Pork Council, a USFRA affiliate. Only one attendee got to ask a question from the D.C. event that was shown at our venue: It was Jay Vroom, head of the agrochemical trade group, CropLife America. Whaley may contend questions represented many voices; it didn’t seem that way to me. But see for yourself. The Food Dialogues are available online at http://www.fooddialogues.com.
Wangari Maathai and the Real Work of Hope
Tuesday, September 27th, 2011, 2:11 PM
From Anna & Frankie:
We join millions grieving for Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai. She altered the course of our lives, and our one solace is in knowing that she has changed — and will continue to change — the lives of millions of others. She taught us about the work of hope.
In the early 1970s, Wangari — the first woman PhD in biological sciences in East Africa — saw the Sahara desert creeping south into Kenya. In just one century, the country’s forests had shrunk to less than five percent of what they once were. Wangari knew that Kenya’s entire ecosystem was threatened, with devastating results.
So Wangari decided to take action. On Earth Day 1977, she planted seven trees to honor seven women leaders in her country, and with that act, launched the Green Belt Movement. When she began, the Kenyan forestry service, established under the British, scoffed at her. “What? Untrained village woman planting trees to reverse the encroaching desert? Oh no, that takes trained foresters!”
“The foresters were not amused,” Wangari told us, with her signature grin, when we met her in Kenya to learn about her movement firsthand in 2000. “I told them, ‘We need millions of trees and you foresters are too few, you’ll never produce them. So you need to make everyone foresters.’ I call the women of the Green Belt Movement foresters without diplomas.”
In the intervening decades, the Movement’s tree-planting village women turned Wangari’s seven trees into 45 million across the country. And the Movement’s “kitchen garden” campaign brought greater food security, too. “When you go home,” village elder Lea Kisomo, told us, looking straight into our eyes, “tell your people that we Kamba people had lost our culture, especially our food security, but now we are going to regain it. What we’ve lost, we’re getting back.”
But as we talked with Green Belt Movement members in their homes, we realized that our first impressions of Wangari’s real impact was wrong — or not wrong, exactly, but not big enough: Yes, the Green Belt Movement was about reforestation, but as Wangari engaged further in the work, she realized that in order to protect forests, a transformation was needed in the minds of the members: In this way, the true battle is not about the environment, as such; the real battle takes place inside, when “ordinary people” make that internal shift — as terrifying as it might be — to realize their power.
“We broke the code,” Wangari told us as we sat with her in a Green Belt Movement guesthouse. “We told the women: ‘Use the methods you know, and if you don’t know, invent.’ They would use broken pots. They would put the soil and seeds there and watch as they germinate. If they germinate, well and good; if not, try again.”
In other words, she told the women to trust themselves.
As the result of her work, tens of thousands of village women who had been taught to defer to chiefs, husbands, colonial authorities, multinational corporate marketers, and to disparage their own traditions and common sense gained courage. They learned to say: We have the solutions. We can take responsibility. We can transform our villages and our nation — and our world.
Saying good-bye to Wangari as we left Kenya in 2000, we were inspired, but worried: her movement’s resources were shaky, a big international donor had just pulled out and she and her leadership were under threat from government retaliation. Shortly after we returned home, Wangari was jailed — not for the first time — for her resistance to illegal logging.
We could never have imagined, let alone predicted, the changes that just a few years would bring: In 2002, Wangari swept into Parliament, out-polling her nearest opponent 50 to 1. Soon, she was named Deputy Minister of the Environment, and women danced for joy in the streets of Nairobi. And then, in 2004, we heard the remarkable news: Wangari had been honored with the Nobel Peace Prize.
In Kenya we met many women wearing the Green Belt Movement’s simple t-shirt adorned with the slogan: “As for me, I’ve made a choice.” So simple, yet so powerful, are those words: To create the world we want, Wangari always embodied, we must choose to act, even if there is no evidence assuring success — even if we face ridicule, oppression, and loss. Hope, she taught us, is not for wimps. It is not what we find in evidence, it is what we become in action.
And so, as we grieve along with countless others around the planet, we remember these simple words of the Movement and what the planet calls us to do: Not to be assured that we will succeed, but that as Wangari did with those seven trees in 1977 — and for the rest of her life — that we make the simple, profound choice to act.
Who’s Behind the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance and Why It Matters
Monday, September 26th, 2011, 2:24 PM
Cross-posted on Civil Eats, September 23rd, 2011 By Anna Lappé
On Thursday, September 22, the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance (USFRA), a new trade association made up of some of the biggest players in the food industry—including the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Dupont, and Monsanto—hosted what they called “Food Dialogues” in Washington D.C., New York City, U.C. Davis, and Fair Oaks, Indiana.
The USFRA describes the Food Dialogues, and their broader multi-million dollar media campaign, as an effort to amplify the voice of farmers and ranchers and help consumers know more about “how their food is grown and raised.”
Sounds good, on first blush.
Most of us are in the dark when it comes to the story of our food. And, farmers and ranchers—the people working hard every day to bring us our food—are nearly invisible in mainstream media. But dig into the Alliance’s membership, and its impetus for forming, and you start to wonder whether it truly represents the voices of grassroots food producers or whether this well-funded media campaign is agribusinesses latest attempt to push back against well-documented and well-publicized concerns about the environmental and health consequences of industrial agriculture.
When I asked a rep from Ketchum—the public relations firm hired by the Alliance—what motivated these groups to come together, without skipping a beat, he answered: Food, Inc. and movies like it. “People see Food, Inc.,” he said, “And think everything in that movie is accurate.” But, he continued, the film only presents one side of the issue and USFRA members feel they didn’t “have a voice in it.” Now, as the Ketchum rep put it, USFRA wants to “clear the air” and “get a national dialogue, a conversation, going.”
There are two big holes in this argument: Robert Kenner, the director of Food, Inc. did try to get industry voices into the film. And, while USFRA members may not like it, Food, Inc. is an accurate, if unpleasant, account of our industrial, toxic food system.
When I mentioned that Kenner approached many food companies to get their perspective, and they refused to go on camera, the PR rep said: “I’ll be honest with you: this is a change with how they’ve done things in the past. They’re trying to open their doors up.”
While these industry players may be saying they want to “open their doors up,” it seems only on their terms. Certainly the Food Dialogues yesterday gave a semblance of impartiality: Highly-credentialed journalist Claire Shipman of Good Morning America moderated from a satellite location in D.C. and celebrity chef John Besh hosted the panel in New York City.
But the reality was an orchestrated framing of the message about “modern agricultural production” from the perspective of big business. In the staged kitchen set at the New York City, the questions from the “audience” included only one: a pre-arranged question from the head of the National Pork Board. In D.C., Jay Vroom, from the agrochemical trade association CropLife America, was handpicked to join in the “conversation” and lob a softball question to John Besh about chefs and portion control.
Earlier this year, a trade publication explained that this image campaign, and others like it, not only aims to counter Food, Inc.’s “misconceptions” about food, but also to convert all those “Pollan-ated” minds. (Reading Michael Pollan is apparently unnerving to the food industry and it should be to the rest of the public, too.)
This media campaign, the industry publication continued, is also intended as a “preemptive strike” against “a long list of new regulations and restrictions coming out of the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Food & Drug Administration, ranging from tighter rules on pesticide applications to a potential ban of routine, preventative use of animal antibiotics.”
Take a look at the policy priorities of USFRA members and you’ll see exactly that: Most of its affiliates are hard at work, lobbying on Capitol Hill to weaken the very regulations that the consumers the USFRA itself surveyed say they care most about: Pesticides and antibiotics, for instance, as well as artificial hormones in animal production, and air and water pollution.
As one of its current policy priorities, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), a USFRA board member and the marketing organization and trade association for the beef industry, is fighting for the Defending America’s Affordable Energy and Jobs Act. If passed, the Act would limit the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.
Yet, as many in the environmental community have pointed out, the EPA’s regulation of carbon dioxide pollution is key to addressing global warming in the absence of strong climate policy. This USFRA member attack on climate legislation shouldn’t be surprising considering the Alliance is working with Frank Luntz, the political strategist who has helped foster climate change skepticism. In a strategy memo leaked to the media in the early 2000s, for instance, Luntz advised Congressional Republicans that the best tactic to undermine public support for climate legislation is to cast doubt on the “scientific certainty” surrounding the issue.
To give you another sense of where USFRA membership stands, consider that the NCBA, along with other Alliance members, is actively fighting a policy that would reign in antibiotic abuse in livestock production. Called the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act, and sponsored by Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), the Act, according to the Cattlemen’s Association, is unnecessary: The industry already uses antibiotics “judiciously” to prevent disease.
Rep. Slaughter and other backers of this policy stress that research shows most antibiotics in livestock production are not given for disease prevention, but delivered at “sub-therapeutic levels” to speed growth—and therefore increase profit. And, as experts at the Government Accountability Office reported earlier this month, the inaction of the USDA and FDA to regulate antibiotic use, especially in animal production, is a serious threat to public health. It was chillingly ironic that the study came out on the heels of another major recall of Cargill ground turkey linked to antibiotic-resistant Salmonella.
Lest you think the Cattlemen’s Association is out on its own on this fight, other USFRA affiliates that are vocal opponents of regulating antibiotics in livestock production include the Dairy Farmers of America, National Pork Producers Council, American Egg Board, U.S. Poultry & Egg Association.
Another USFRA affiliate and board member, the National Corn Growers Association, is also battling policies that would help us protect public health. In a May 2011 statement delivered to the House Committee on Agriculture and on Natural Resources, Rod Snyder, the Corn Grower’s Policy Director and chair of the Pesticide Policy Coalition, dismissed the use of the Endangered Species Act’s to control toxic pesticides, describing the policy as “dysfunctional.”
He called for the Administration to “immediately suspend implementation” and continue with business-as-usual, regulating pesticides under the Federal Insecticide Fungicide Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). But stress the importance of using the Endangered Species Act, explaining that FIFRA is “notoriously weak” and “industry-friendly.” According to advocates, the pesticide lobby, including USFRA members like the Corn Growers, wants to keep regulation under FIFRA because they know how to “sidestep and subvert it.”
While I believe the majority of our nation’s ranchers and farmers are respectful stewards of the land with the public’s best interest at heart—they’re working hard to reduce their environmental impact and address pesticide, artificial hormone, and antibiotics overuse—the USFRA clearly is not representing them. Instead, a look at the Alliance affiliates reveals that it is made up of, and funded by, the biggest players in the food industry, including those who profit most from toxic agricultural chemicals, polluting farming and food processing practices, and concerning animal welfare policies. No wonder, then, that that limiting protections from toxic pesticides and pushing back against antibiotic regulation are just two of the current policy priorities of USFRA affiliates.
The USFRA is working hard to present itself as a voice of farmers and ranchers interested in a conversation with consumers. I’m all for open, honest conversation, but let’s not be duped by polished PR into thinking that’s what the Alliance and its inaugural Food Dialogues is intended to be.
This Saturday, 9/24 – Fair Food Festival in Brooklyn
- Topics:
- Blog, Take a Bite News & Events
Thursday, September 22nd, 2011, 9:50 AM
Community/Farmworkers Alliance presents Fair Food Festival
Saturday, September 24th, 2011 in Downtown Brooklyn!
Bring your friends and family for:
- Workshops
- Film Screenings
- Games
- Art
- Children’s Musical Story Time and March
- Live Music!
- Hourly rabble-rousing in front of Trader Joe’s featuring a musical hoedown, free samples of justice, children’s march, balloon blast and customers revolt!
The event is based at The Commons, in Brooklyn, from 10am to 6pm, with regular visits to (actions at!) the local Trader Joe’s, just three blocks down. The Commons is at 388 Atlantic Avenue (btw, Bond and Hoyt Streets). For a full schedule, visit the Community / Farmworker Alliance website.
The event will culminate with our biggest action of the day at 4pm – a Spectacular Brooklyn Trader Joe’s Rally!
The CIW’s Campaign for Fair Food improves wages and working conditions for Florida tomato pickers by calling on major buyers of tomatoes to pay one penny more per pound-which would nearly double farmworkers’ wages-and to implement a code of conduct in the supply chain.
All across the country, Fair Food activists have been urging Trader Joe’s to ensure that their tomatoes are picked by workers who earn a decent wage and work in humane conditions. Trader Joe’s continual refusal to sign onto such an agreement has disgusted customers nationwide, leading many to criticize Trader Joe’s usage of the “Wal*Mart Model” of low price and low wages.
If you have any questions or would like to get involved, please contact CFA at: farmworkersolidarity@gmail.com
Check out www.cfa-nyc.org for Community/Farmworker Alliance news and events!
The event and day of action is hosted by Community / Farmworker Alliance and co-sponsored by NESRI, East New York Farms, ROC-NY, Brandworkers, Small Planet Institute, South Bronx CSA, Brooklyn Food Coalition, Bed-Stuy Farm Share, Prospect Park CSA, Just Food, Domestic Workers United, the Poverty Initiative, and Workers United.
Moving Planet NYC – Global Day of Action
- Topics:
- Blog
Wednesday, September 21st, 2011, 12:50 PM
NEWS ADVISORY
September 24 Moving Planet NYC – Global Day of Action
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 20, 2011
Contacts: Will Araujo, 212-349-6460, waraujo@nypirg.org
Mark Dunlea, 518 860-3725, dunleamark@aol.com
Global Day of Action at UN on Sat. Sept. 24 to Move Beyond Fossil Fuels
Thousands will join the Vice President of the Maldives, a delegation of indigenous leaders, and NASA scientist James Hansen for a mass ride and rally in front of the UN this Saturday.
New York, New York— Thousands will rally on bicycles, unicycles, on foot and by public transit this Saturday, September 24th, as a part of the “Moving Planet” day of action to move beyond fossil fuels. More than 170 countries and 700 US cities will take part in the day of action calling for solutions to climate change, with photos from all of the events broadcast above the flagship NYC event.
WHAT: “Moving Planet NYC:” a massive rally in front of the UN General Assembly to call for action on the climate crisis. The event is part of a global day of action to move beyond fossil fuels.
WHO: 2,000 concerned cyclists, students, faith leaders, community groups. Partners include NYPIRG and 350.org. Speakers include Vice President Mohammed Waheed Hassan of the Maldives, renowned climate scientist Dr. James Hansen, Laura Flanders of GritTV, and a delegation of indigenous leaders from across the US.
Co-sponsors include: 350.0rg, NYPIRG, Beyond Oil NYC, Carbon Tax Center, Climate Week NYC, Conversations with the Earth, Earth Day New York, Earth Matters, Environment Action Association, Environmental Task Force (Congregation Saviour, Cathedral Saint John the Divine), Faith Leaders for Environmental Justice, Food and Water Watch, Frack Action, Green Cents Solutions. Green Maps System, Human Impacts Institute, Manhattan Greens, Manhattan Young Democrats, NYC Climate Coalition, No Impact Project, Oxfam Action Corps, NYC Climate Coalition, NYC Friends of Clearwater, NY Society for Ethical Culture, Oxfam Action Corps, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Riverkeeper, Sane Energy Project, Small Planet Institute, Slow Food NYC, Solar 1, Times Up!, Transportation Alternatives, United for Action, WaterDefense
WHERE: The UN’s Dag Hammarskjold Plaza on 47th Street and 2nd Avenue, Manhattan
WHEN: 2pm, Saturday, September 24th.
VISUALS: Thousands of people and bicycles, a live slideshow display of images from events across 167 countries, moving performers including dancers and cyclists, and signs calling for 100% clean renewable energy, solutions to climate change, and a move beyond fossil fuels. To find walk/ bike departure sites: http://movingplanetnyc.blogspot.com/p/find-ride-or-march.html . Photos of the rally will be posted at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/moving_planet_nyc/. Live tweeting the rally @MovingPlanetNYC
“Moving Planet” is a global day of action where rally goers will move their bodies to demonstrate their commitment to moving beyond fossil fuels. In New York, simultaneous rallies will occur in Buffalo, Syracuse, Cortland, Albany, New Paltz, Purchase, Ithaca, Potsdam, Rochester, Skaneatles, Kisumu, Troy, Poughkeepsie, Lowville, Plattsburgh, Red Hook, and many, many more. Click here for a full list.
Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org, sees the massive day of action as the natural result of years of inaction, “The planet has been stuck for too long–governments doing nothing about the biggest problem we’ve ever faced. This is the day when people will get the earth moving, rolling towards the solutions we need. People in record numbers are waking up to the fact that since too few of our elected leaders in Congress are actually leading, we’re going to have to.” This event is 350.org’s third global day of action.
Questions? Want to interview an organizer of Moving Planet NYC? Contact: Will Araujo, 212-349-6460, waraujo@nypirg.org.
The Nation: What Next for the Global Food Movement?
- Topics:
- Blog
Wednesday, September 21st, 2011, 10:00 AM
http://www.thenation.com/issue/october-3-2011
The Food Movement: Its Power and Possibilities
by Frances Moore Lappé
Forty years after food activism took off around the globe, corporatism is stronger than ever. But so is the grassroots push for control over our work, land, and seeds.
Why Hunger Is Still With Us
by Raj Patel
A truly democratic food system will need to rewrite the rules of our financial system.
Resisting the Corporate Theft of Seeds
by Vandana Shiva
The biggest threat we face is the control of seed and food moving into a few corporate hands.
It’s Not Just About Food
by Eric Schlosser
Food is a good place to start to make change—but it’s only a start.
How Change Is Going to Come in the Food System
by Michael Pollan
As the food movement has discovered, winning over the media, or even the president, is not enough.
The Production Conundrum
by Samuel Fromartz
As Zambia’s experience shows, solving hunger is not just about growing more food. (Subscribers Only)
Walmart’s Fresh Food Makeover
by Bridget Huber
Can the retailer known for its poverty wages solve the problem of urban “food deserts”?
Farm Bill 101
by Daniel Imhoff
As Congress gears up to reauthorize the farm bill next year, the stakes are high. (Subscribers Only)
Who Says Food Is a Human Right?
by Anna Lappé
Olivier De Schutter, the UN’s special rapporteur on the right to food, makes the case in this Q&A.
Venezuela’s Radical Food Experiment
by Paula Crossfield
Seeking “food sovereignty,” Hugo Chávez puts oil wealth toward a local, sustainable food system.
10 Percent Fewer Calories at Olive Garden? That’s Not Even the Bread Basket
- Topics:
- Blog
Tuesday, September 20th, 2011, 4:39 PM
by Anna Lappé
Yesterday, to much fanfare, the First Lady announced that the Darden Group—owners of Red Lobster and Olive Garden, among other restaurants—will voluntarily improve their menus, cutting calories and sodium and making healthier options available for kids. In an allegedly bold move, the company is committing to cutting calories and sodium on its menu by 10 percent over five years.
Let’s imagine what this means if you’re dining out at Olive Garden one evening. You’ve got an appetite, so you order your favorite, the fried calamari appetizer. For an entrée, you go for the braised beef and tortelloni dinner and for dessert you treat yourself to the Zeppoli with chocolate sauce and a Caffé Mocha. Worried about your calorie count, you skip the beer and go for a Bella Limonata, not realizing its calories match or surpass most beers.
The grand total? 3,930 calories, nearly twice as many as you should be eating in an entire day. Fast forward five years, and if Darden sticks to its word—which, keep in mind, there is no guarantee the company will—that meal would set you back 3,537 calories, or 177% what you should be eating for an entire day. (And that’s not even counting a few nibbles from the bread basket).
Now, I’m no stickler for details but it seems, folks, like this is little cause for fancy press conferences and pats on the back, especially when it comes with the publicity glow of the First Lady.
Turn to sodium content—the other area the company said it would be targeting—and the story is similar. That meal you’re having delivers 5,405 mg of sodium; three and a half times what the majority of us—especially the elderly and people with high blood pressure—should consume according to the federal government. Yes, Darden Group said it also plans to reduce sodium content, but also voluntarily and by a paltry 10 percent. So, in five years, that meal of yours would still clock in at just over three times your total daily recommended sodium.
This is not just a trifling detail. Sodium overconsumption is clearly linked to a staggering increase in heart disease and stroke across the country. So worrisome is sodium consumption, in fact, that last year the Institute of Medicine recommended mandatory limits on salt in packaged and restaurant foods. Said Michael Jacobson, the Executive Director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, on the release of the report: “Limiting salt in packaged and restaurant foods is perhaps the single most important thing that the Food and Drug Administration could do to save hundreds of thousands of lives and save billions of dollars in health-care expenses.”
Yet despite the fact that Darden’s commitments are far from earth-shattering—the cynical among us might even suggest this fanfare distracts from the mandatory and more serious reductions that would actually improve public health—the promises got big coverage. As of this morning, 583 related news articles from the Wall Street Journal to the Los Angeles Times reported on the announcement. In the biz, this is called “earned media.” All those eyeballs reading about Darden? That’s free publicity. Reading about Darden alongside flattering pictures of the First Lady and happy-looking Darden customers? That’s priceless free publicity.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m happy the First Lady has focused on improving public health and addressing the epidemic of childhood obesity. The national diet-related health crisis is certainly serious, but precisely because the stakes are so high we need to be clear about what is progress and what is PR; wimpy, voluntary changes are exactly what the industry wants to get credit for. Indeed, the partner on Darden’s publicity stunt is the largely industry-funded Partnership for a Healthier America.
Darden’s announcement is just the latest in a long line of similar proclamations. Remember, Walmart’s “big” news back in January that it was making moves to reduce sugar and sodium in “thousands” of packaged products by 2015?
As public health advocate Michele Simon reported at the time, we should pause to remember not just the similar promises, but the history of broken promises, too: McDonald’s committed to cut trans fats, but didn’t; Ruby Tuesday’s promised to list nutrition facts on its menus, but didn’t; soda companies promised to change the beverages they sold in schools, they haven’t. Furthermore, to the extent these moves defuse the demand for more stringent regulations, all the more reason for concern.
Yes, maybe the Darden Group will reduce calories and sodium content by 10 percent in 5 years, but maybe not. And even if it does, the move only scratches the surface of the changes that would need to sweep their menus to make dining at their restaurants good for you. In the meantime: split the appetizer, take half the entrée home, drink water… and do you really need that Zeppoli? That’ll put you back only 1,120 calories, nearly three times fewer than in that original meal. Hey, maybe you should have a press conference?
Book ‘em in Brooklyn at page-turner fest
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- Blog
Thursday, September 15th, 2011, 4:24 PM
Originally published: September 14, 2011 4:12 PM
Updated: September 15, 2011 3:23 PM
By WENDY SMITH. Special to Newsday
Brooklyn Book Festival. This year’s event will bring more than 200 authors to downtown Brooklyn on Sept. 18, 2011.
Besides being the hippest place on the planet (according to those who live there, anyway), Brooklyn boasts enough writers per square block to — well, to constitute a formidable lineup of native talent for the sixth annual Brooklyn Book Festival, which offers some 100 events scattered across multiple sites downtown from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. Among the stars are Brooklyn-resident Pulitzer Prize-winners Jennifer Egan and Jhumpa Lahiri, as well as out-of-towners Russell Banks, Mary Karr, Terry McMillan, Joyce Carol Oates, Tom Perrotta, John Sayles and many more. Check out the complete listings at brooklynbookfestival.org; all events are free but some require tickets, distributed one hour in advance at festival booths on Borough Hall Plaza. There’s something for every taste, including a raft of kid-friendly attractions.
We’ve chosen five highlights.
1. 9/11 Lit
WHAT Ten years after the Sept. 11 attacks, Madison Smartt Bell (“The Color of Night”), Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer (“Perfecting”), and Amy Waldman (“The Submission”) explore how 9/11 continues to echo in fiction, and how we tell stories after a crisis.
WHEN | WHERE 10 a.m.; Borough Hall Community Room, 209 Joralemon St.
2. Climate change
WHAT First an earthquake, then a hurricane: rattled New Yorkers can find out what Mother Nature might have in store for us next from authors Christian Parenti (“Tropic of Chaos”), Mark Hertsgaard (“Hot: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth”) and Anna Lappé (“Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do About It”).
WHEN | WHERE Noon; Borough Hall Courtroom, 209 Joralemon St. (tickets required)
3. Children’s classic
WHAT Author Norton Juster and artist Jules Feiffer chat with publishing historian Leonard Marcus about how their classic children’s story “The Phantom Tollbooth” was born a half-century ago in Brooklyn Heights.
WHEN | WHERE Noon; St. Francis Auditorium, 180 Remsen St. (tickets required)
4. Gumshoes
WHAT Private eyes are as popular as ever, but they don’t look like Humphrey Bogart anymore. Eoin Colfer (moving on from his bestselling Artemis Fowl young adult series) and Walter Mosley (moving on from his bestselling Easy Rawlins detective series) discuss the 21st century spin they put on this classic genre with their PIs Daniel McEvoy (“Plugged,” Colfer) and Leonid McGill (“When the Thrill Is Gone,” Mosley).
WHEN | WHERE 3 p.m.; St. Ann and the Holy Trinity Church, 157 Montague St.
5. Larry McMurtry
WHAT Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist McMurtry and screenwriter / producer Diana Ossana, who won Academy Awards for their “Brokeback Mountain” screenplay, share insights into writing, moviemaking and more. Tickets required.
WHEN | WHERE 4 p.m.; St. Francis Auditorium, 180 Remsen St.
The Yes Men Present The Yes Lab for Creative Activism!
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- Blog
Monday, September 12th, 2011, 10:49 AM
For years, the Yes Men have been tinkering with side-splitting mischief as a way to fight injustice. Our latest film about those efforts, The Yes Men Fix the World, won lots of awards and was released all over the planet… but it simply did not fix the world.
So a year ago, we decided that showing what we do wasn’t enough: we needed to help people to actually do it themselves. We called our idea The Yes Lab for Creative Activism. It’s a factory for meaningful mischief, and a system for helping organizations and individuals carry out Yes Men-style actions on their own, to get media attention for important issues. But the Yes Lab is more than that: it also aims to help YOU take action on issues of social importance.
Today, after a year of testing and nearly a dozen successes, we’re proud to announce that the Yes Lab is ready for prime time! It’s got a set of cool tools in development, that will soon help YOU get involved in new Yes Lab projects, and even to launch them. And it’s got a new home at NYU, with space, lots of eager participants, and an ambitious new structure that will soon be cranking out many new projects.
The trouble is that in spite of all that, we still have zero budget for the first round of projects themselves! And that’s why you’re reading this now. We’re asking for $10,000, to make the all-new Yes Lab the lean, mean, change-making machine it can be. Any amount raised over $10,000 will bankroll projects beyond the first round.
FastCompany publishes my response!
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- Blog
Friday, September 9th, 2011, 4:00 PM
Two weeks ago, I fired off a response to an article attacking organic food that was published in FastCompany. I sent a copy to the editor who published and the journalist who wrote the original article.
Today, FastCompany publishes my response! You might have read what I wrote already when I posted it below but check out the article on FastCompany for commentary.
Redefining Sustainability: Harvard University?
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- Blog
Friday, September 9th, 2011, 10:47 AM
From the Harvard Crimson
September 06, 2011
Redefining Sustainability
By SANDRA Y.L. KORN
Yesterday, hundreds of Harvard’s dining hall workers, security guards, and custodians marched through Harvard Yard demanding “sustainable jobs.”
All three of these groups of workers are negotiating union contracts with the University this fall. In their contract negotiations with the University, workers have asked for more than wage raises or better benefits. Instead, Harvard’s employees have asked that the University embrace a new movement that defines “sustainability” not only in terms of the environment, but in terms of jobs.
Despite contractual wage increases, the average Harvard dining hall worker lost $900 in wages, between the past academic year and the one before, due to working fewer hours, according to the Student Labor Action Movement. These losses significantly affect workers already straining to afford food and rent, at rising prices.
Most dining hall workers are laid off during the summer and during J-term, and struggle to find summer jobs. However, many hour cuts have taken place during the school year itself, leaving dining hall workers with less than full-time work at Harvard. They must find second jobs or depend on other income just to pay their rent or raise their kids. Their jobs at Harvard are not sustainable ways of living.
Moreover, Harvard University Hospitality and Dining Services cuts these hours by employing practices which are environmentally unsustainable. Dining hall workers report that the University purchases anincreasing amount of packaged and pre-prepared food, which is cut, baked, or cooked off-site and shipped to Harvard pre-made.
Not only does this necessitate the environmentally unfriendly costs of packaging and transportation, it also reduces the amount of work that Harvard’s dining hall workers must do to prepare food, which separates them from the food production process and reduces the number of hours they can work.
So, as they explained in a leaflet handed to incoming freshmen on move-in day this fall, entitled “Sustainable Food and Sustainable Jobs,” participating workers are asking that tasks like cutting vegetables and baking bread be brought back in-house to increase workers’ hours and make the dining hall food as sustainable—and fresh and tasteful—as it used to be.
The relationship between the labor movement and the green movement has been rocky at times in the past. For example, in the interest of job creation, the Teamsters union supported President Bush’s plan to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in 2004. Similarly, the United Auto Workers has opposed proposals to raise Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards for cars, fearing that increased production prices will lead to job losses.
This tension stems in part from the perception of the green movement as privileged, elitist, and removed from the realities of working class life. Today, though, coalitions like the BlueGreen Alliance advocate for “green jobs,” and organizations such as Labor Network for Sustainability seek to inspire those in the labor movement about environmental issues.
At the same time, sustainability activist groups, especially those which focus on students, have begun revising the traditional definition of “sustainability” to incorporate workers’ rights. For example, Real Food Challenge, a student movement to redefine “real” food as food which “nourishes producers, consumers, communities, and the earth,” includes the wellbeing of both farm workers and food service workers as part of its definition of real food. Harvard’s Food Literacy Project and HUHDS both plan to sponsor events for Food Day, which presses for sustainable and humane food to “support fair conditions for food and farm workers.”
Harvard’s workers are currently engaged in one of the first campaigns to unite the environmental movement and the labor movement on college campuses. Now, workers who want to prepare and serve high-quality food serve as the strongest advocates for greener dining halls. Environmentalists who view fair work practices as a component of sustainability now support workers in their campaign for full-time work. And student activists (like me) who care both about the environment and labor rights can form large coalitions that press for true systemic change in the food system.
So when you see posters, buttons, or leaflets around campus calling for “sustainable jobs,” don’t just think about organic food. Think about Harvard’s dining hall workers, security guards, and custodians. Think about full-time jobs. Think about the environmental movement and the labor movement working together at last. And think about how Harvard’s workers are redefining sustainability in a campaign that brings together students, workers, and activists in one unified fight.
Sandra Y.L. Korn ’14, a Crimson editorial writer, lives in Eliot House.
NEW! Nourish Short Films DVD
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- Blog
Thursday, September 8th, 2011, 12:47 PM
Just in time for back-to-school, Food Day, and the fall harvest season! Nourish Short Films is an engaging collection of 54 bite-sized videos about the story of your food.
Filled with insightful commentary and beautiful visuals, the DVD features exclusive interviews with best-selling author Michael Pollan, British chef Jamie Oliver, Edible Schoolyard founder Alice Waters, eco-chef Bryant Terry, healthy food advocate Anna Lappé, pediatrician Dr. Nadine, and other voices from the food movement. The short films explore an encyclopedia of food issues, from seasonal eating and home cooking to edible education and the Farm Bill. See the Menu of Short Films.
Josh Viertel, president of Slow Food USA, says, “These shorts bring to life a vision of a world where food is good for the people who eat it, good for the people who grow and pick it, and good for the planet.”
Use these thought-provoking videos to open conversations and inspire meaningful change in your community, school, or home. Learn more and order today.
Milk Not Jails — Demanding a new urban-rural relationship
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- Blog
Wednesday, August 31st, 2011, 9:30 AM
If rural New York’s economic survival depends on my habits, I’d rather drink their milk than go to their prison.
Donate to our Kickstarter Campaign today!
The prison construction boom of the 1980s and 1990s found many economically depressed, rural towns that were hungry for the false promises that prisons brought to their local economies. Today, over 350 rural towns across the nation are home to a prison. Over 75% of New York’s prisons are located in rural areas.
Today, rural New York is facing two economic crises:
1. Dairy farmers are being forced to sell of their herds and shut down their businesses, because federal agricultural policy is putting farmers in a situation where they are losing money to produce milk.
2. Prison employees are fighting to keep empty prisons open amidst a major state budget crisis. Located in depressed, rural towns, these prisons often provide the most stable, best paying jobs in town.
Which crisis do you want to help avert?
MILK NOT JAILS is a consumer campaign to mobilize NY residents to support the dairy industry and the long-term sustainability of the rural economy. It is a political campaign to advocate for criminal justice and agricultural policy reform that will bring about positive economic growth. MILK NOT JAILS insists that bad criminal justice policy should not be the primary economic development plan for rural New York.
Demand a new urban-rural relationship.
CA State Senate bans BPA in children’s feeding containers!
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- Blog
Tuesday, August 30th, 2011, 5:41 PM
Great news: just moments ago, the California State Senate passed Assembly Bill 1319 with a 21-12 vote. For years, tens of thousands of people have worked tirelessly to ban the toxic Bisphenol A from children’s feeding containers. So this is a huge victory for our children.
The Senate vote is crucial, but it is not the final step. Next, we must ensure that Governor Brown signs the bill – and we need your support to keep up our efforts.
Thousands of people signed the petition in support of the bill, and made hundreds of constituent calls to targeted legislators. These efforts have made a huge difference and helped the bill narrowly pass the Assembly and now the Senate.
But the fight isn’t over: The powerful chemical industry has done everything it could to kill this bill, and they won’t quit. We must counter their efforts with grassroots support! For four years in a row, the chemical industry has killed this common-sense health protection with fear tactics, phony science, and millions of dollars. Together, we can ensure this time that our children win!
If you want to donate $5 to furthering this campaign, click here.
Three Strikes You’re Out: The Attack on Organic Food and Why It’s Wrong
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- Blog
Monday, August 29th, 2011, 4:05 PM
August 29th, 2011 By Anna Lappé
News flash: the chairman of the board of one of the largest food companies in the world—whose tripling in profits from 2009 to nearly $43 billion in 2010 was generating from selling mainly processed foods produced with inputs from industrial, chemical farms—is “skeptical” of organic food, reports FastCompany.com.
Don’t you think someone who made $10.7 million in 2010 from a company whose profit primarily depends on chemical agriculture might have a bias in the matter? Yes, it would be understandable to think Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, Chairman of the Board of Nestlé, might. It also might be understandable to want to know what others, those without such a financial interest in the food status quo, think about the viability of non-industrial agriculture. But in the FastCompany.com article, like other press that pooh-poohs organic farming, those who disagree, if they’re mentioned at all, are portrayed as marginal or unqualified to speak to the issue.
In FastCompany.com, the other side is represented by unnamed (and unquoted) “nutrition professors and some food scientists.” No offense to nutrition professors and food scientists, but what if you had, instead, learned that the viability, efficiency, and safety of industrial agriculture is being questioned not only by professors and some food scientists but by countless agronomists, food security experts, economists, epidemiologists, public health experts all around the world? What if instead of “nutrition professors and some food scientists,” you heard about the numerous peer-reviewed and meta-studies that contradict Brabeck-Letmathe’s claims.
You’d be more informed, that’s for sure, and you might just begin to see the spin behind Brabeck-Letmathe’s messaging. He has three main talking points to defend fossil fuel-, chemical-, and water-intensive industrial agriculture. Brabeck-Letmathe raises each with strategic discipline: First, he claims that organic farming is a luxury; secondly, that it doesn’t produce food that’s any better for you; and finally (and much worse) that organic food can kill you.
This three-part spin-doctoring should start sounding familiar. I’ve been hearing it reported by uncritical media for more than a decade, dating all the way back to a 20/20 episode with John Stossel in 2000 and to the op-ed pages of one of Canada’s top newspapers, the Globe and Mail. In 2008 Brabeck-Letmathe told the paper, “We cannot feed the world on organic products.” That same year he delivered the same line to the Financial Times. Today, he tells FastCompany.com: “There’s no way you can support life on earth if you go straight from farm to table.”
Yet, numerous studies on the efficiency and future viability of industrial agriculture—especially in an increasingly resource-constrained and climate-unstable planet—keep proving the opposite is true: we cannot support life on earth unless we shift away from industrial agriculture systems.
Consider that in the United States alone, 27 percent of our nation’s farmland is dependent on fossil water from the Olglalla aquifer and we’re depleting it at a rate so fast that in a few decades there could be none left.
Or, consider that chemical runoff from industrial farms throughout the Midwest, especially synthetic fertilizer, creates a Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico every year that kills off aquatic life on the ocean floor and can grow to the size of New Jersey.
Or, consider that one of the three macronutrients industrial farmers rely on for fertilizer, phosphorus—found in the phosphate-bearing rock mainly in Morocco, China, South Africa, Jordan, and the United States—is increasingly rare. Some experts suggest we’ve already passed peak phosphorus; we will find it increasingly difficult to mine for the stuff. And, every ton that we do secure produces five tons of radioactive waste. Today, the U.S. is home to more than one billion tons of this waste now stored in 70 locations, some towering as high as a 20-story building and some as large as 720 football fields.
Meanwhile, studies have found that ecological farming practices, of which organic agriculture is one, can significantly improve water usage efficiency and eliminate farmers’ dependence on petroleum-based chemicals and synthetic fertilizer ingredients, including phosphorus.
And what to make of Brabeck-Letmathe’s second talking point: “From a nutritional point of view studies show no nutritional difference from bio [or organic] to other foods.”
We certainly need more studies assessing the nutritional differences between food items, but research is already turning up positive results—for organic foods. We already know, for instance, that studies of children’s consumption of organic versus conventional foods found those eating organic foods had lower detectable pesticide metabolites. We also know that last year’s President’s Cancer Panel noted that many chemicals used on industrial farms are known or suspected carcinogenic or disrupt our hormone systems, mimicking testosterone or estrogen. The Panel’s recommendation? Stay away from foods raised with pesticides, hormones, or antibiotics. Without calling it by name, the panel was saying: Be safer, go organic.
Finally, Brabeck-Letmathe adds the zinger: Not only is organic food not more nutritious: “it’s more dangerous.” Organic foods in Europe are “often fertilized with livestock manure,” he says, “and people don’t always realize they need to wash it thoroughly.”
More than ten years ago, Dennis Avery, from the Hudson Institute-funded Center for Global Food Issues, made the same attack on 20/20. Avery warned then that organic produce is likely infested with “nasty strains of bacteria” because it is “fertilized with manure.” A wide-eyed Barbara Walters asked, “I’ve been buying organic food. It is more expensive. But it isn’t dangerous?”
Yes, to the typical consumer—and FastCompany.com reader or 20/20 viewer—fertilizing crops with manure probably sounds gross. But Brabeck-Letmathe and Avery conveniently neglect to mention a few things: First, while some organic farmers do use manure as fertilizer, they must do so following strict guidelines so that potentially dangerous bacteria—the kind that has Brabeck-Letmathe so worried—are naturally eliminated. Plus, manure is not the only source of fertilizer for organic farmers. In fact, it’s not even the preferred source. Many organic farmers use no manure at all, preferring instead nitrogen-fixing crops like legumes that naturally pull nitrogen from the atmosphere and make it bioavailable in the soil. Often called green manure, the organic farmer integrates these fertility methods with many others.
These two also neglect to mention that industrial farms also fertilize fields with manure, only without any regulation or oversight. And then, there’s sewage sludge. Industrial farmers can use it; organic ones cannot. (By the way, Avery’s misstatements on 20/20 were eventually retracted by producers online. But I wonder how many people saw the televised episode and how many read the retraction?)
In the FastCompany.com article with Brabeck-Letmathe trotting out this tripartite critique of organic food, he concludes by saying that the demand for organic food has hit a peak. “It will stay the same… I don’t think it will grow much more than it is.”
Need I remind you who you’re listening to? The Chairman of the Board of Nestlé, a man who makes millions of dollars a year selling the world on Nestlé products, including everything from Cinnamon Toast Crunch to Butterfinger and Laffy Taffy and increasingly prepared and frozen foods. In other words, someone with a stake in ensuring that few of us turn to real, whole, organic foods or, even, cook for ourselves anymore. (As the U.S. Chairman and CEO of the company said recently, he was “feeling good about its focus on frozen foods” since, “cooking has become a lost art in the United States.”)
Maybe what we hear in FastCompany.com is a note of Brabeck-Letmathe’s defensiveness? After all, the growth of the movement of food producers allied with consumers who are rejecting short-sighted industrial agriculture, choosing to cook real food, and connecting in direct relationship with farmers means one thing to Nestlé: Loss of market share.
And while Brabeck-Letmathe would like you to believe that demand for organic food is coming just from “elite, wealthier” consumers in the U.S. and E.U.—and, indeed, leveling off here, he couldn’t be more wrong. The movement of eaters choosing organic foods and of food producers embracing agroecological practices is not just gaining ground in the U.S. and the E.U., but all around the world, from the foothills of the Himalayas to the plains of Central Brazil and the outskirts of Seoul, South Korea. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. For a man like Brabeck-Letmathe, that must be scary stuff.
Justice Begins With Seeds
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- Blog
Friday, August 26th, 2011, 1:00 PM
September 16-17, 2011, San Francisco (Pre-conference events Sept. 12-15)
Friday, September 16, 2011 at 9:00 AM – Saturday, September 17, 2011 at 6:00 PM (PT)
San Francisco, CA
Summit at the Women’s Building and other locations in the Mission District, San Francisco
California Biosafety Alliance www.biosafetyalliance.org
About:
We are at a time of many crises. And in the face of all the global challenges before us, the domination of the food supply, and the contribution of the current food regime to climate change, numerous environmental crises, humans rights abuses and displacement of people to name a few, makes it perhaps the most pressing issue before us.
To control food is to control people. To destroy topsoil is to destroy the most elemental thing upon which we all depend. And to convince people that this system is the only way and that there is no other option is one of the most pressing myths before us that needs to be shattered.
The conference: JUSTICE BEGINS WITH SEEDS will be a space for movement building to actively address the the symbol of the corporate food regime: genetically modified food, address the many layered implications of GE/GMO food, and build strategic coalitions and deeper collaborations amongst diverse stakeholders more widespread political action addressing GMOs in varying levels throughout the state of California.
The conference will focus on hands on workshops and panels on how to build alliances, how to start a rights based campaign, and how to get involved with GMO labeling initiatives throughout California. People from different organizing contexts will have the space to discuss, share strategy and build the movement to address the corporate food regime, encouraging people to actively take on the issue politically.
Pre-conference keynote event:
Vandana Shiva: September 13th in the evening
World-renowned environmental leader and thinker. Director of the Research Foundation on Science, Technology, and Ecology, and founder of Navdanya, promoting diversity and use of native seeds, she is the author of many books, including Staying Alive: Women, Ecology, and Development (South End Press, 2010) Soil Not Oil: Environmental Justice in an Age of Climate Crisis (South End Press, 2008), Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability, and Peace (South End Press, 2005),Water Wars: Pollution, Profits, and Privatization (South End Press, 2001), Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge (South End Press, 1997), Monocultures of the Mind (Zed, 1993), and The Violence of the Green Revolution (Zed, 1992).
Keynote Plenary panelists:
Friday, September 16th morning: Local and global implications of genetically modified seeds.
Ignacio Chapela: UC Berkeley microbial ecologist and mycologist
Anuradha Mittal: Oakland Institute executive director
Marcia Ishii-Eiteman: Pesticide Action Network North America senior scientist
Friday, September 16th afternoon: Agricultural biodiversity and the real solutions we need
Adelita San Vicente: Semillas De Vida A.Z.
Dave Henson: Occidental Arts and Ecology Center executive director
Michael Dimock, Roots of Change president
Saturday, September 17th morning: Where we are, learning from the past, and moving forward
Carl Anthony: Breakthrough Communities co-director
Jeffrey Smith: Institute for Responsible Technology executive director
Eric Holt Gimenez: Food First executive director
Mari Margil: Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund associate director
Saturday, September 17th afternoon: Linking perspectives and building the movement
Gayle Mclaughlin: Mayor of Richmond
Andrew Kimbrell: Center for Food Safety executive director
Claire Hope Cummings: Journalist and Author of Uncertain Peril
Miguel Altieri: UC Berkeley professor of agroecology
Panel and Workshop Speakers:
Track 1: GM Seeds: Global Threat, Local Struggles
Dr. Alejandro Espinoza: INIFAP Mexico, Union de Cientificos Comprometidos con la Sociedad
Dr. Antonio Turrent: Union de Cientificos Comprometidos con la Sociedad (Mexico)
Dana Harvey: Mandela Marketplace
Carlos Martinez: Ecoviva
Colin Rajah: National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
Dr. Elena Alvarez-Buylla: Instituto de Ecologia-UNAM, Mexico
Juan Pablo: Indigenous voice on seed sovereignty
Katherine Zavala: International Development Exchange
Luis Magana: Comite de Defensa del Maiz Criollo
Maria Catalan: Catalan Farms
Phil Bereano: AGRAwatch
Rucha Chitnis: Women’s Earth Alliance
Tezo Tezozomac: South Central Farmers Cooperative
Track 2: Understanding the Landscape: Legal, Political and Business Challenges and Opportunities for Change
Doug Mosel: GMO Free Mendocino and farmer
Gayle Mclaughlin: Mayor of Richmond
John Avalos: San Francisco Supervisor
Mari Margil: Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund
Mark Squire: Non-GMO Project and Good Earth Foods
Michael Dimmok: Roots of Change
Philip Heiselmann: California Attorney for sustainable food and food safety
Rana Chang: House Kombucha
Rebecca Spector: Center for Food Safety
Albert Straus: Straus Family Creamery
Zea Sonnabend: California Certified Organic Farmers
Track 3: Building the Movement: Goals and Strategies
Adam Scow: Food and Water Watch
Ashley Schaeffer: Rainforest Action Network
Aaron Lehmer: Bay Localize
Claire Hope Cummings: Journalist and Author of Uncertain Peril and other books
Dave Murphy: Food Democracy Now
Doria Robinson: Urban Tilth
Doug Mosel: Farmer and Consultant to the former Mendocino campaign to ban GMOs
Heather Whitehead: Center for Food Safety
Jeffrey Smith: Institute for Responsible Technology
Jeff Conant: Global Justice Ecology Project
John Wick: Marin Carbon Project
Oscar Grande: PODER
Pamm Larry: Label GMOs in California 2012
Rey Leon: Latino Environmental Advancement and Policy Institute
Mary Ensch: Seedlings
Mateo Nube: Movement Generation
The California Biosafety Alliance is a cross sector, multilevel and inter-ethnic alliance of individuals and organizations working together to engage in broader outreach around genetically modified (GMO) food issues and to bring together strategic coalitions of diverse stakeholders to advocate for a GMO free food supply, as a means of pushing for a shift from an industrial food model, to a model of local resilience. GMOs are a symbol that represent the industrial food system and a key point that needs to be addressed in order to address and shift away from the industrial food model.
Our vision is to get the multi-faceted number of issues with GMOs, ranging from health, to social justice, to environmental destruction, to a major contributor to climate change though topsoil degradation and numerous un-factored externalities, to corporate consolidation, to enter the framework of various groups that have not traditionally focused on the issue of GMOs as a central theme and point that needs to be addressed to push for a systemic shift in the current corporate food regime.
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Endorsers:
AGRA Watch: project of the Community Alliance for Global Justice
Bay Localize
Breakthrough Communities
Californians for Pesticide Reform
Center for Food Safety
Comite de Defensa del Maiz Criollo
Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF)
Food Democracy Now!
Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy
Food and Water Watch
David Campos: San Francisco Supervisor District 9
Gayle Mclaughlin: Mayor of Richmond
Global Exchange
GMO Free Los Angeles
Guerreros Verdes (Mexico)
International Development Exchange (IDEX)
Institute for Responsible Technology
Institute of Near Eastern and African Studies (INEAS)
Latin American Alliance for Immigrant Rights (ALIADI)
Latino Environmental Advancement and Policy Institute
Mandela Marketplace
Movement Generation
Navdanya
National Organization for Women (NOW)
Oakland Institute
Oakland Food Connection
Occidental Arts and Ecology Center
Organic Consumers Association
Pequenos Agricultores de California (PAC)
Pesticide Action Network
Pesticide Watch
PODER
Rainforest Action Network
San Francisco Urban Agriculture Alliance (SFUAA)
Semillas De Vida (Mexico)
Sin Maiz no hay Pais (Mexico)
South Central Farmers Cooperative
Women’s Earth Alliance
Hundres of Activists Take Over Gov. Brown’s Facebook Wall
- Topics:
- Blog
Thursday, August 25th, 2011, 3:18 PM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 25, 2011
CONTACTS:
Paul Towers, Organizing and Media Director at Pesticide Action Network, ptowers@panna.org, 916-216-1082
Sarah Parsons, Senior Organizer at Change.org, sarah@change.org, 860-402-0516
***PRESS RELEASE***
HUNDREDS OF ACTIVISTS TAKE OVER GOV. BROWN’S FACEBOOK WALL
750+ activists use social media to tell the California governor to ban the use of the cancer-causing pesticide methyl iodide
SACRAMENTO, CA – Hundreds of people have bombarded California Governor Jerry Brown’s Facebook and Twitter accounts urging him to immediately ban the use of the cancer-causing pesticide, methyl iodide. More than 750 people have written on California Governor Jerry Brown’s Facebook wall and tweeted at him over the past 48 hours, with more messages being sent every hour.
The news comes as activists staged mock fumigations on the steps of the Capitol in Sacramento and delivered a Change.org petition with more than 30,000 signatures to the Brown administration.
Methyl iodide – a pesticide linked to cancers, kidney problems, thyroid disease, late-term miscarriages, and other health problems – was approved for use in California by the Schwarzenegger administration in December of 2010 despite widespread opposition. After outcry from the environmental, science, and farm worker communities, Gov. Brown promised to “take a fresh look” at the approval of methyl iodide in March of 2011. Four California farms have obtained permits to use methyl iodide permits, but Gov. Brown still has made no commitment to discontinue the use of the pesticide in the state.
“The impressive outpouring of support from concerned citizens underscores the concerns of independent scientists – that methyl iodide is too toxic and too uncontrollable to be used near farm workers and neighboring communities,” said Paul Towers, Organizing and Media Director at Pesticide Action Network (PAN), an environmental non-profit. “With peak fumigation season fast-approaching, the Governor needs to take swift action to prohibit the use of the cancer-causing chemical.”
The outpouring of social media messages came as the result of a social media day of action organized by PAN and Change.org, the world’s fastest-growing platform for social change. The organizations urged people to tweet and post on Gov. Brown’s Facebook page on August 23, and messages continue to be sent today.
“The response to this social media day of action exceeded all of our expectations,” said Sarah Parsons, Senior Organizer at Change.org. “It was amazing to see Gov. Brown’s constituents completely take over his Facebook wall with their anti-methyl iodide messages.”
Many people shared very personal stories highlighting their desire for the governor to take action immediately.
“Governor Brown, please keep California’s strawberry fields and communities safe from the cancer-causing pesticide, methyl iodide,” wrote Huntington Beach, CA. resident, Jennifer Ford. “As a farmers’ market manager and health coach, it’s key that we keep chemicals out of our amazing locally grown food as much as possible.”
To view Governor Brown’s Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/jerrybrown?sk=wall&filter=1#!/jerrybrown?sk=wall&filter=1
To view Governor Brown’s Twitter handle:
http://twitter.com/#!/search/%40JerryBrownGov
To view the latest signatures on the methyl iodide campaign on Change.org: http://www.change.org/petitions/fumigation-season-is-here-we-need-action-on-methyl-iodide-3
Journalists interested in contacting the Brown administration should try:
Gil Duran, Press Secretary
Gil.Duran@gov.ca.gov, 916-445-2841
Evan Westrup, Deputy Press Secretary
Evan.Westrup@gov.ca.gov, 916-445-2841
Elizabeth Ashford, Deputy Press Secretary
Elizabeth.Ashford@gov.ca.gov, 916-445-2841
Christopher Reardon, Chief Deputy Director of the California Department of Pesticide Regulation
creardon@cdpr.ca.gov, 916-445-4000
ConAgra Sued Over GMO ‘100% Natural’ Cooking Oils
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- Blog
Wednesday, August 24th, 2011, 2:58 PM
by Michele Simon | Aug 24, 2011
Opinion, Food Safety News
If you use Wesson brand cooking oils, you may be able to join a class action against food giant ConAgra for deceptively marketing the products as natural.
These days it’s hard to walk down a supermarket aisle without bumping into a food product that claims to be “all-natural.” If you’ve ever wondered how even some junk food products can claim this moniker (witness: Cheetos Natural Puff White Cheddar Cheese Flavored Snacks – doesn’t that sound like it came straight from your garden?) the answer is simple if illogical: the Food and Drug Administration has not defined the term natural.
So food marketers, knowing that many shoppers are increasingly concerned about healthful eating, figured: why not just slap the natural label on anything we can get away with? That wishful thinking may soon be coming to an end if a few clever consumer lawyers have anything to say about it.
While various lawsuits have been filed in recent years claiming that food companies using the term natural are engaging in deceptive marketing, a suit filed in June in California against ConAgra could make the entire industrial food complex shake in its boots.
The plaintiff claims he relied on Wesson oils “100% natural” label, when the products are actually made from genetically modified organisms.
GMOs Not Exactly Natural, So Says Monsanto
Ironically, the complaint cites a definition of GMOs by none other than Monsanto, the company most notorious for its promotion of the technology. According to Monsanto, GMOs are: “Plants or animals that have had their genetic makeup altered to exhibit traits that are not naturally theirs.”
The complaint also quotes a GMO definition from the World Health Organization: “Organisms in which the genetic material (DNA) has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally.”
Four Wesson varieties are implicated in the case: Canola Oil, Vegetable Oil, Corn Oil, and Best Blend. And it’s not just on the label that ConAgra is using the natural claim, but also online and in print advertisements. (Additional silly health claims on the website include “cholesterol free”–vegetable oils couldn’t possibly contain cholesterol anyway.)
The complaint describes the extent of ConAgra’s deception, alleging the “labels are intended to evoke a natural, wholesome product.” And further:
The “100% Natural” statement is, like much of the label on Wesson Oils, displayed in vibrant green. The “Wesson” name is haloed by the image of the sun, and the Canola Oil features a picture of a green heart.
A green heart — you just can’t get any healthier than that. However, as registered dietitian Andy Bellatti told me: “These oils are high in omega 6 fatty acids, which in excessive amounts are actually bad for your heart.” Guess they left that part out of the green heart icon.
Supermarkets Chock-full of GMOs
But what makes this lawsuit especially intriguing is its potentially far-ranging impact. According to the Center for Food Safety: “upwards of 70 percent of processed foods on supermarket shelves — from soda to soup, crackers to condiments — contain genetically-engineered ingredients.” While it’s unclear how many of these products also claim to be natural, given all the greenwashing going on these days, it’s likely to number in the thousands.
Specifically, up to 85 percent of U.S. corn is genetically engineered as are 91 percent of soybeans, both extremely common ingredients in processed foods. Numerous groups including the Center for Food Safety have been calling attention to the potential hazards of GMOs for years. From their website:
A number of studies over the past decade have revealed that genetically engineered foods can pose serious risks to humans, domesticated animals, wildlife and the environment. Human health effects can include higher risks of toxicity, allergenicity, antibiotic resistance, immune-suppression and cancer.
Not exactly the stuff that green hearts are made of. The legal complaint also notes that on its corporate website (“but not on the Wesson site that consumers are more likely to visit”), ConAgra implies that its oils are genetically engineered. The company concludes: “Ultimately, consumers will decide what is acceptable in the marketplace based on the best science and public information available.”
But by being told the oils are “100% natural,” consumers can no longer make an informed decision as they are being misled.
Which reminds me of a great quote from Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser: “If they have to put the word ‘natural’ on a box to convince you, it probably isn’t.”
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Michele Simon is a public health lawyer specializing in industry marketing and lobbying tactics. She is the author of Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back, and research and policy director at Marin Institute, an alcohol industry watchdog group.
BREAKING: Bill McKibben in jail — and how you can help!
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- Blog
Monday, August 22nd, 2011, 1:05 PM
Dear friends,
We thought you should know that as of today over 150 people, including Bill McKibben, have been arrested at the White House.
Bill is still in jail as I type this — but here in DC spirits are high and resolve is strengthening with each passing hour. For the past three days, large groups of Americans have joined a non-violent civil disobedience action at the White House. The goal is to send President Obama a simple message: “Stop the Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline.” The protests will continue over the next two weeks — and what the activists in DC need more than anything is the knowledge that there is a massive global movement backing them up.
There are three ways that you can stand in solidarity from wherever you are:
1. Sign the petition to President Obama to reject the Keystone XL Pipeline — we’ve already rocketed past our initial goal of 35,000 signatures and are hoping to add as many names as possible before we deliver it to White House officials on September 3rd.
2. Send in a solidarity message or photo to the people taking action at the White House.
3. Take part in Moving Planet — a worldwide climate rally on September 24 — and move beyond all fossil fuels in the loudest, most beautiful way possible.
You probably know that building the Keystone XL pipeline is a terrible idea. The oil it will carry from Canada’s tar sands will travel all the way from northern Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico. Think: oil spilling all over America’s heartland. Think: way more CO2 all over the atmosphere, since the tar sands are among the most carbon-intensive of all the fossil fuels. With so many strikes against the Keystone pipeline, it’s understandable that folks are so fired up and willing to put their bodies on the line to stop it. 350.org isn’t organizing the action in DC, but there’s a separate website to find out more about the two weeks of daily sit-ins at the White House (today was just day #3).
When nominated for President in 2008, Barack Obama promised that his administration would ensure “the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal…and that our nation [would be] restored as the last, best hope on Earth.” It’s not a protest I feel like I’ve been watching unfold here in DC — but a big and beautiful reminder of that vision.
With rising hope from DC,
Will Bates for the 350.org Team
P.S. Our friends in DC just made an beautiful video about Day 1 of the action — click here to watch it!
Tar Sands Protest Countdown! Will Obama do the right thing?
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- Blog
Thursday, August 18th, 2011, 12:52 PM
A watershed moment for Obama on climate change
By Bill McKibben, Published: August 16
Ain’t eBay grand? For $10 you can buy a sack of 50 assorted Obama ’08 buttons, and that’s what I’ve been doing. If you look closely, you might see them this weekend on the lapels of some of the global warming protesters holding a sit-in outside the White House.
Already, more than a thousand people have signed up to be arrested over two weeks beginning Aug. 20 — the biggest display of civil disobedience in the environmental movement in decades and one of the largest nonviolent direct actions since the World Trade Organization demonstrations in Seattle back before Sept. 11. (Among the first 500 to sign up, the biggest cohort was born in the Truman administration, followed closely by FDR babies and Eisenhower kids. These seniors contradict the stereotype of greedy geezers who care only about their own future.)
The issue is simple: We want the president to block construction of Keystone XL, a pipeline that would carry oil from the tar sands of northern Alberta down to the Gulf of Mexico. We have, not surprisingly, concerns about potential spills and environmental degradation from construction of the pipeline. But those tar sands are also the second-largest pool of carbon in the atmosphere, behind only the oil fields of Saudi Arabia. If we tap into them in a big way, NASA climatologist James Hansen explained in a paper issued this summer, the emissions would mean it’s “essentially game over” for the climate. That’s why the executive directors of many environmental groups and 20 of the country’s leading climate scientists wrote letters asking people to head to Washington for the demonstrations. In scientific terms, it’s as close to a no-brainer as you can get.
But in political terms it may turn out to be a defining moment of the Obama years.
That’s because, for once, the president will get to make an important call all by himself. He has to sign a certificate of national interest before the border-crossing pipeline can be built. Under the relevant statutes, Congress is not involved, so he doesn’t need to stand up to the global-warming deniers calling the shots in the House.
But the president does need to stand up to the fossil fuel industry, which has done its best to influence the decision. Since the State Department plays a role in recommending a decision, the main pipeline company helpfully hired the former national deputy director of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign as its lead lobbyist. WikiLeaks documents emerged recently showing U.S. envoys conspiring with the oil industry to win favorable media coverage for tar sands oil. If you were a cynic, you’d say the fix was in.
Still, the final call rests with Barack Obama, who said the night that he clinched the Democratic nomination in June 2008 that his ascension would mark “the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.” Now he gets a chance to prove that he meant it. In basketball terms, he’s alone at the top of the key — will he take the 20-foot jumper or pass the ball? It’s a rare, character-defining moment. Obama can’t escape it simply by saying that someone else will burn the oil if we don’t. Alberta is remote, and its only other possible pipeline route — to the Pacific and hence Asia — is tangled in litigation. That’s why the province’s energy minister told Canada’s Globe and Mail last month that without the Keystone pipeline Alberta would be “landlocked in bitumen,” the technical name for the heavy, gooey tar that is its chief export. Critics may argue otherwise, but Obama’s call is key; without it, that oil will stay in the ground for at least a while longer. Long enough, perhaps, that the planet will come fully to its senses about climate change.
It’s hard to predict what will happen. Earlier this summer Al Gore tossed up his hands in despair: “President Obama has never presented to the American people the magnitude of the climate crisis,” Gore said. “He has not defended the science against the ongoing withering and dishonest attacks.” Yet it’s hard to give up on the image of the skinny senator from Illinois and the young people who were his most fervent supporters — young people who, according to pollsters, wanted a climate bill by a 5-to-1 margin. That didn’t happen, of course; for now, the Keystone pipeline is the best proxy we have for real presidential commitment to the global warming fight.
Hence the buttons. Many of us will be wearing them while we sit outside his house, in an effort to show that we’re not, exactly, protesting. We’re trying to rekindle some of that passion from his groundbreaking campaign. We’re trying to remind ourselves and the president how good it felt to be full of hope.
The writer is the Schumann distinguished scholar at Middlebury College in Vermont and has helped organize Tarsandsaction.org.
Slow Food for $5? Take back that “Value Meal”!
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- Blog
Wednesday, August 17th, 2011, 2:06 PM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Emily Walsh / Slow Food USA / 718-260-8000 x154 / emilyw@slowfoodusa.org
Slow Food vs. Fast Food?
- The $5 Challenge, Slow Food USA’s
New Campaign, to Take Back the ‘Value Meal’-
BROOKLYN, NY (August 17, 2011) – Today, in response to a lack of access to fresh fruits and vegetables, people eating more fast food than home-cooked meals, and increasing rates of diet-related disease, Slow Food USA launched The $5 Challenge campaign. The organization, a national non-profit working for good, clean and fair food for all, is encouraging people across the country to cook slow food that costs no more than five dollars per person. Slow food – the opposite of fast food – is food that is good for those who eat it, good for farmers and workers, and good for the planet.
“Slow food shouldn’t have to cost more than fast food. It’s time we take back the ‘Value Meal,’” said Josh Viertel, president of Slow Food USA.
On Sept. 17, the campaign will launch with a Day of Action where people can attend any one of the hundreds of slow food gatherings nationwide. To participate in The $5 Challenge, all one has to do is pledge to cook a slow food meal for five dollars or less, or attend a local event. These events and meals can take any form: some people will host potlucks where they bring food that costs them less than five dollars to prepare. Some people will cook for a crowd and charge five dollars or less at the door. Some people will cook for themselves or their family. The only thing meals need to have in common is to reflect slow food values and to cost no more than five dollars per person. Those taking the challenge are also encouraged to register their events and to share their stories at SlowFoodUSA.org/5Challenge.
The $5 Challenge is a response to the First Lady’s challenge to the nation to end the childhood obesity epidemic in a generation. In addition to Michelle Obama, a handful of other influencers such as celebrity chef Jamie Oliver and author Michael Pollan have increased public concern about the impact the industrial food system has on our health and the environment. The campaign is a way for everyday people to build and to share their own solutions.
Locally, The $5 Challenge will give individuals an opportunity to come together, to share a meal and to begin a conversation about what needs to change with food in their community. Nationally, the campaign will bring attention to the challenges many people face in trying to feed their families healthy, sustainable food—from a lack of access, to the rising price of fruits and vegetables and the falling price of soda and junk food.
“Right now, we have policies that make it harder to feed our children fruit than Froot Loops. But everyday, against the odds, people find ways to cook real food on a budget. We need to make cooking and eating that way a possibility for everyone,” added Viertel. “If you know how to cook slow food on a budget, The $5 Challenge is a chance to teach someone. If you want to learn, it is a chance to get started. And it is a chance for us all to unite and begin pushing for the change we need.”
For more information, to share a recipe or to find or host a meal, visit SlowFoodUSA.org/5Challenge. Creative event ideas and recipes will also be available on Slow Food USA’s social media networks at Twitter.com/SlowFoodUSA and Facebook.com/SlowFoodUSA.
About Slow Food USA
Slow Food USA is a national non-profit that believes food and farming should be sources of health and well being for everyone. Through national advocacy, local projects and bringing people together through the common language of food, Slow Food members and supporters are making it easier to access real food that is good for us, good for those who produce it and good for the planet. Slow Food USA’s network includes more than 250,000 supporters, 25,000 members and 225 chapters. To learn more, or sign up for our mailing list, visit our website, www.SlowFoodUSA.org.
My mom’s new book, EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think, to Create the World We Want
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- Blog
Tuesday, August 16th, 2011, 12:34 PM
“Powerful and inspiring, Ecomind will open your eyes and change your thinking. I want everyone to read it.”
— Jane Goodall
“Solutions to global crises are within reach,” says Frances Moore Lappé. “Our challenge is to free ourselves from self-defeating thought traps so we can bring these solutions to life.”
In EcoMind, Lappé helps facilitate a much needed shift. She argues that much of what is wrong with the world, from our eroding soil to our eroding democracies, results from ways of thinking that are out of sync with human nature and nature’s rhythms. Humans are doers, she says. But our capacity for doing is undermined by seven “thought traps” that leave us mired in fear, guilt, and despair—none of which are motivators to action.
Chapter-by-chapter, Lappé takes us from “thought trap” to “thought leap,” and with each momentous transition, challenges morph into opportunities. Drawing on the latest research in climate studies, anthropology, and neuroscience, she weaves her analysis together with stories of real people the world over, who, having shifted some basic thought patterns, are shifting the balance of power in our world.
It turns out that gap between the world we long for and the world we thought we were stuck with can be bridged after all—if we can learn to think like an ecosystem. EcoMind shows us the way.
ISBN 1568586833. Pre-order it here.
ACTIVISTS TAKE OVER HERSHEY FACEBOOK CONTEST ON NATIONAL S’MORES DAY
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- Blog
Thursday, August 11th, 2011, 3:25 PM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 10, 2011
Contact: Amanda Kloer, Change.org, (404) 451-6580 or amanda@change.org,
***PRESS RELEASE***
ACTIVISTS TAKE OVER HERSHEY FACEBOOK CONTEST ON NATIONAL S’MORES DAY
Chocolate lovers campaigning on Change.org speak out against Hershey’s profiting from child labor in the cocoa industry
WASHINGTON, DC – Fair trade chocolate activists are infiltrating Hershey’s s’mores-themed photo contest on Facebook today by uploading images of themselves asking Hershey to buy chocolate made without the rampant child and slave labor in the cocoa industry.
Their action, organized on the social action platform Change.org to coincide with National S’mores Day, comes as part of a broader campaign calling on Hershey to Raise the Bar on cocoa. More than 15,000 people have joined a campaign on Change.org calling on Hershey’s to fight child labor in the cocoa industry by using Fair Trade chocolate. Now, activists are using Hershey’s own Facebook contest to continue their protest.
“Consumers across the country are taking photos of themselves asking Hershey for child labor-free s’mores in celebration of National S’Mores Day,” said Tim Newman, Campaign Director for the International Labor Rights Forum. “They’re using Hershey’s own Facebook contest to tell the company that we want s’mores that respect workers and children.”
Earlier this summer, Raise the Bar asked concerned consumers across the country to make videos of themselves placing ‘consumer alerts’ about child labor in the chocolate industry on Hershey’s products in their local supermarkets. Individuals left these ‘consumer alerts’ with smartphone-enabled QR codes on the displays which read: “Hershey’s chocolate is tainted with child labor.” Click here to watch a video of this action.
“For the first time, customers have the power to use social media and other technological tools to demand change from companies,” said Change.org Senior Organizer Amanda Kloer. “It’s activism like this which can really fight the ongoing labor abuses in the cocoa industry.”
Raise the Bar is a coalition formed by Global Exchange, Green America, the International Labor Rights Forum and Oasis.
Live signature totals from Change.org campaign:
http://www.change.org/petitions/hershey-raise-the-bar
Journalists interested in speaking with Hershey about the campaign should try:
Kirk Saville, Public Relations Department, The Hershey Company, (800) 468-1714
Resources on RaiseTheBarHershey.org:
http://www.raisethebarhershey.org/consumers-use-smart-phone-codes-in-supermarkets-to-campaign-against-child-labor-in-hershey-bars/
Does Chevron really think we’re that stupid?
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- Blog
Wednesday, August 10th, 2011, 7:03 PM
Chevron’s attempts to greenwash its image while doing nothing to take responsibility for its environmental and human rights abuses around the globe continue unabated. Rainforest Action Network has re-launched ChevronThinksWereStupid.org to provide concerned citizens like you with a fun and engaging platform to call out Chevron’s misleading PR campaigns.
At virtually the same time that the re-launch was happening, something quite unusual happened: An oil company admitted liability for an oil spill it had caused in a developing country. No, not Chevron in Ecuador, but Shell in Nigeria. Shell will likely end up paying several hundred million dollars to clean up its oil spills in the Niger Delta.
It just so happens that Chevron operates in the Niger Delta as well, and has caused its share of environmental degradation and human suffering. Has Chevron taken responsibility for the damage it has done there? No. But the company did give away a bunch of mosquito nets in Angola.
As part of its plan to prove what a fantastic corporate citizen it is, Chevron gave away a few thousand mosquito nets. To our knowledge, mosquito nets absorb absolutely none of the oil Chevron has spilled – and the impacts of oil operations in some parts of Angola are so severe that most of the sand on the shores is black in color and the beaches cannot be used.
Chevron has promised funding to restore the damaged ecosystem, but has yet to act – except for donating those nets, an act that Chevron loudly trumpeted on Facebook and in the media.
This is exactly the type of preposterous greenwash and misleading corporate PR that we were calling out when we teamed up with the Yes Men and Amazon Watch to spoof Chevron’s “We Agree” campaign. RAN launched ChevronThinksWereStupid.org so that you could join in on the spoofing fun, and now we’re extending our call for submissions indefinitely. So get your spoofin’ hat on and head on over to ChevronThinksWereStupid.org. Have fun!
Is this my NPR Marketplace last straw?
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- Blog
Wednesday, August 10th, 2011, 2:24 PM
A few months back, you might remember, I (along with many of you) was aghast about Marketplace coverage about organic agriculture.
In a one-sided and misleading segment, producers patched together the case that we can’t possibly feed the world with organic farming–a regurgitation of a myth the agricultural chemical industry is only too happy to have you hear, ad nauseum.
Listening to this Marketplace segment, you’d never know that there is a growing global consensus that has come to the opposite conclusion: with diminishing fossil fuel reserves, depleted fossil water sources, disappearing sources of phosphorus and destroyed topsoil–all the result of industrial agriculture–the only way we can possibly feed the world is by redirecting our resources toward sustainable farming systems.
Now, this: Marketplace runs a puff piece about the rooster feather fashion trend crimping the style of fly fishermen who now have to compete for the colorful feathers with tweens and hipsters: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/04/11/pm-rooster-feathers-prized-by-fishermen-are-now-popular-in-hair-salons/
Hey Marketplace: Why is it that a blogger on HuffPo gives me more dirt on this same story than your esteemed crew? From Toni over on HuffPo we learn that the poor roosters delivering these plumes live in squalid conditions and are slaughtered post-plucking–not exactly the feel good, eco-friendly vibe you get from the distributor’s website.
Read on… and think twice before you add one of these feathers to your locks: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/toni-nagy/the-fatal-price-of-feathe_b_913748.html
Saving Jeju Island and more…
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- Blog
Wednesday, August 10th, 2011, 10:41 AM
Reposting a letter from a friend fighting the good fight in Korea stopping US naval base construction. Inspiring work keeping our government accountable and working to end militarization — climate change’s number 1 contributor — everywhere!
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Dear friends,
I just returned from an intense trip to Korea where I visited Gangjeong village on Jeju Island where the villagers there are fighting to stop the construction of their naval base. Thank you to many of you who have signed the petition to President Lee urging him to stop the base. During a candlelight vigil, I told the villagers that nearly 3,000 people from 46 countries have signed the petition, and that Avaaz, the major online petition group with 10 million members has also circulated a petition.
On my way back from Korea, I pitched an oped to the New York Times/International Herald Tribune. This morning, they published my piece, which is a coup since this is the first major international coverage of their struggle in a top tier paper. The villagers and activists there are overjoyed with the piece and hopefully it will bring much more needed attention to their plight.
Here it is:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/06/opinion/06iht-edahn06.html?_r=1
While in Gangjeong, I interviewed villagers–farmers, fishermen, women sea divers, the village chief–and many others including a former national assembly member, women’s groups, peace activists supporting the villagers, and Sung-hee Choi, the fearless woman who has been in prison since May. It was very disturbing to learn the deep levels of corruption–including the “vote” for the base by 87 people done by clapping, which was unprecedented.
Thanks to many of you who have signed the petition. If you haven’t, you still can: http://signon.org/sign/save-jeju-island-no-naval
Here’s a picture of me with one of the haenyo from Gangjeong.
Thanks for your solidarity,
Christine
Consumer Rights Victory as US Ends Opposition to GM Labeling Guidelines
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- Blog
Tuesday, August 9th, 2011, 1:02 PM
Twenty Year Struggle Within Global Food Safety Body Ends with Consumer Rights Milestone
Move Clears Way for Greater Monitoring of the Effects of GM Organisms
Consumers International (CI) and its member organizations, including Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports, celebrated victory today as regulators from more than 100 countries agreed on long overdue guidance on the labeling of genetically modified (GM) food.
The Codex Alimentarius Commission, made up of the world’s food safety regulatory agencies, has been laboring for two decades to come up with consensus guidance on this topic.
In a striking reversal of their previous position, on Tuesday, during the annual Codex summit in Geneva, the US delegation dropped its opposition to the GM labeling guidance document, allowing it to move forward and become an official Codex text.
The new Codex agreement means that any country wishing to adopt GM food labeling will no longer face the threat of a legal challenge from the World Trade Organization (WTO). This is because national measures based on Codex guidance or standards cannot be challenged as a barrier to trade.
This will have immediate implications for consumers. Consumers International’s lead delegate at Codex, and a senior scientist at Consumers Union, Dr. Michael Hansen, stated: “We are particularly pleased that the new guidance recognizes that GM labeling is justified as a tool for post market monitoring. This is one of the key reasons we want all GM foods to be required to be labelled – so that if consumers eat modified foods, they will be able to know and report to regulators if they have an allergic or other adverse reaction.”
Edita Vilcapoma of the Peruvian consumer group ASPEC, representing Consumers International at the Codex meeting in Geneva, said: “Peru’s recent introduction of GM food labeling faced the threat of a legal challenge from the WTO. This new Codex agreement now means that this threat has gone and the consumer right to be informed has been secured. This is major victory for the global consumer movement.”
The agreement also recognizes the enormous health monitoring benefits of giving consumers transparent information about the presence of GM foods. The labeling milestone is particularly welcomed by CI member organizations in Africa, who have been fighting on behalf of their consumers for the right to be informed about GM food.
Samuel Ochieng, President Emeritus of Consumers International and CEO of the Kenyan Consumer Information Network said: “While the agreement falls short of the consumer movement’s long-held demand for endorsement of mandatory GM food labeling, this is still a significant milestone for consumer rights. We congratulate Codex on agreeing on this guidance, which has been sought by consumers and regulators in African countries for nearly twenty years. This guidance is extremely good news for the worlds’ consumers who want to know what is in the foods on their plates”.
–
Note to Editors
Consumers International (CI) is the only independent global campaigning voice for consumers. With over 220 member organizations in 115 countries, we are building a powerful international consumer movement to help protect and empower consumers everywhere. For more information, visit www.consumersinternational.org
The Codex Alimentarius Commission was created in 1963 by FAO and WHO to develop food standards, guidelines and related texts such as codes of practice under the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme: http://www.codexalimentarius.net/web/index_en.jsp
Food & Freedom Ride!
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- Blog
Monday, August 8th, 2011, 12:43 PM
On Sunday August 7th, 13 members of the Live Real community joined Civil Rights leaders in Birmingham, AL to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Rides and launched their 12-day journey.
This generation is doing something about our broken food system!
On the ride, they will be meeting farmers whose livelihoods have been threatened by Monsanto, meat processing workers facing unfair working conditions, and Native youth who are working to restore traditional foodways. They’ll end their trip celebrating the urban agriculture revival in Detroit.
They’ll also take the Youth Food Bill of Rights on the road, meeting with communities and calling on Congress to take action for a fair 2012 Farm Bill.
Here are five ways to join the ride:
~ Follow them on twitter: @liverealnoworg #foodandfreedom
~ “Like” them on facebook: Live Real
~ Visit their blog for daily updates
~ Join in person! Check out their schedule
~ Pledge $50 or more on their kickstarter, and they’ll send you a postcard from every stop on the way!
ROC-ing My World!
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- Blog
Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011, 10:58 AM
The Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York emerged out of organizing by the surviving workers of Windows on the World, the restaurant on top of the World Trade Center North Tower.
First came Colors, a cooperatively owned restaurant in Lower Manhattan. Restaurant Opportunities Center of NY was formed soon after as a way to expand their mission: to protect restaurant workers’ rights and protections. Along with its advocacy — fighting for paid sick days for restaurant workers in New York City — ROC-NY also honors “high road” restaurateurs who create respectful and just workplaces.
Tirelessly, every day, the staff at ROC-NY are working to ensure that anytime one of us goes out to eat in New York, we don’t have to worry about the working conditions of the people who serve us our food or wash our dishes. Find out if your community has a ROC by visiting ROC United.
Cleaver Co. Gets my love
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- Blog
Monday, August 1st, 2011, 1:50 PM
Mary Cleaver and the entire team at Cleaver Co. bring to life some of the most delicious and sustainable meals I’ve had in the city. They’re also dedicated to supporting many of the food justice organizations in the city, including being generous supporters to our Small Planet Fund event every year.
A poem for Eagle Street Rooftop Farm
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- Blog
Friday, July 29th, 2011, 2:29 PM
Eagle Street Rooftop Farm, with views of the United Nations and the East River, is a spectacular farm that combines growing great food and building community with fabulous weekly programs. Learn more at rooftopfarms.org. (“Annie” is Annie Novak, co-founder of Eagle Street and a New Agtivist.)
L.E.S. G.I.R.L.S. C.L.U.B.
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- Blog
Thursday, July 28th, 2011, 2:45 PM
The Lower East Side Girls Club was founded in 1996 to address the historic lack of services available to girls and young women on the Lower East Side. Their Farm Girls CSA offers affordable, healthy, and locally sourced farm foods to participating members. They have three Entrepreneurial Training & Social Venture Programs: Sweet Things Bake Shop, La Tiendita, and Celebrate Café, where girls make crafts, bake sweets, and learn job skills.
Looking forward to 2012, I am eagerly anticipating the opening of their new 30,000-square-foot Girls Club. Thanks for making New York a better place for us all!
I <3 Just Food
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- Blog
Wednesday, July 27th, 2011, 12:24 PM
For the series “Grist dared me to make a change,” Grist challenged me to write love poems to my favorite green groups in NYC. Click on my poem below to see more about my dare and what other people are challenging themselves to do!
Thanks to Just Food, a New York City nonprofit started in 1995:
More than 100 Community-Supported Agriculture programs now bring fresh vegetables to roughly 30,000 people living in all five boroughs.
Hundreds of people throughout New York learn about all aspects of urban agriculture through a newly launched innovative two-year certificate program, Farm School NYC.
Dozens of community gardens have been supported to start chicken coops.
We can keep bees in the city. (Just Food helped pass the city policy making it legal to keep these sweet and endangered buzzing farmer’s friends.)
And more!
Green crush: A jug of organic wine, a loaf of local bread, and thou
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- Blog
Tuesday, July 26th, 2011, 11:50 AM
New York City, my home for the past 15 years, can be gritty and grimy. Its characteristic summertime smell of sweltering trash is a far cry from fragrant flowers and fresh cut grass, but I love this place in all its smelliness and crowded-subway glory.
I especially love it for the hope that springs up — like the relentless green that grows in cracks in the concrete — in our community food projects, urban farms, and community gardens across all five boroughs.
I love it for the creativity here — not just the latest off-Broadway musical, but in the creativity and commitment of the tens of thousands of New Yorkers who work every day to make sure that everyone has access to good, healthy food.
So for my Grist-inspired dare, I decided to bare a little love: For one week, starting July 25, I’ll be sending out poems to a selection of our city’s greatest food heroes: to the amazing projects, city efforts, local businesses, and community-based organizations devoted to transforming our food system.
My little missives will be tokens of thanks to those who get their hands dirty for us, who pick our lettuce and pluck our plums, and who work behind the scenes to advocate for better food policy, access to healthy foods for all, and fairness for food workers.
Through haiku, limericks, sonnets, and free verse, each of my various communiqués will be reminders for all of us to thank those who work tirelessly every day to heal our terribly broken food system, bringing some of those flowers, green space, and good food to a city — and a country — that desperately needs it.
So stay tuned in to Grist… and find out who gets a little love. You can show a little love to Grist, with a donation.
My first love letter was to What’s On Your Plate?, the captivating journey of two intrepid friends who set out to learn the truth behind the food on their plates. Along the way, they discover how communities can work together to ensure more of us have access to healthy, fresh food. It’s a great film and an inspiring project. Learn more at whatsonyourplateproject.org.
States to control spending to end childhood hunger?
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- Blog
Tuesday, July 26th, 2011, 10:30 AM
Vermont Governor making strides to end childhood hunger with nutritious, locally grown, and affordable food. Read his thoughtful ask here.
“We will ask the USDA to change its commodities program, so that rather than having to ship in food from the national stockpile, we will get vouchers to purchase local nutritious food. This will allow schools and food programs more control over what they buy, and support our amazing local farmers, without costing a penny more.” — Governor Peter Shumlin
Grants to support Stronger and Healthier Regional Food Systems
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- Blog
Monday, July 25th, 2011, 10:30 AM
USDA is investing a series of grants to support strong and healthy regional food systems. Check it out to see whether your state or region is on the list of the new grant money coming to town!
The USDA is matching $1.3 million in 25 grants to 19 states. See the announcement of the winners here.
The Wallace Center at Winrock International today announced 17 new awards it will grant under its Wallace Healthy Urban Food Enterprise Development (HUFED) Center. A total of $630,000 in awards will be granted to 17 groups who propose innovative and entrepreneurial approaches to resolve barriers to healthy food access among the poorest in the country. Read more about it here!
USDA supports local ‘food hubs’ nationwide
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Friday, July 22nd, 2011, 10:30 AM
Below pulled The Packer
—-
Call it Craigslist, farmer style.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture launched an online resource to support the nationwide development of food hubs — resources to help small and mid-sized producers work together to gain access to larger buyers and more business.
It centers around two popular trends: locally produced food, and eating food from small farms. Food hubs help producers, buyers and transporters find each other in a region, and several small businesses working together can tap into larger opportunities they can’t earn alone.
Jim Barham, agricultural economist for the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service, used the example of a hospital.
Hospitals need a large supply of food, regularly. It is the kind of customer that usually can only afford to deal with large, corporate suppliers. It can’t afford to send people to inspect and buy carrots from one farm and apples at another, Barham said.
Enter the food hub. If the local carrot grower and apple grower have already made produce available at a hub, and the hub has some truck companies on board, they can guarantee customers a large, regular supply of food with variety. They can start selling to larger customers like hospitals, Barham said.
Barham said food hubs need not not exclude large companies. In fact, he said, they can help where smaller suppliers cannot.
“Food hubs are geared to support local growers, but not exclusively,” he said. “They often use larger producers as a stopgap to ensure that they will always have the volume to meet buyers’ needs.”
The process can have appeal for the larger produce buyers too.
“Produce buyers are elated to work with regional food hubs,” Barham said. “It gives them access to product that they’re having difficulty getting from regular distributors.”
Barham said Sysco, Houston, works with some food hubs across the nation as aggregation hubs. It doesn’t need to do the on-farm pickups from smaller growers when they already have their produce pooled together.
The online resource is provided by the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service, as part of its food hub partnership with the Wallace Center at Winrock International, National Good Food Network, National Association of Produce Market Managers and Project for Public Spaces. It’s also tied into the USDA’s wider efforts with its local-driven Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food campaign.
The resource site hosts information from USDA agencies and other research organizations, and a directory of identified food hubs and financial resources. Beyond buyers and sellers, the website has potential use for entrepreneurs, advocates, researchers, media and even policymakers. As the department expands its understanding of the food hub business model, the website’s contents will evolve.
Barham said the AMS is preparing a more comprehensive resource guide for food hubs, to be released later this year. That guide will feature more non-government resources and research, provided by research institutions and the other food hub partner associations.
It will also offer advice for new food hubs, like what is working well for other hubs and what isn’t. Barham said he is inundated by people asking about food hubs — their startup costs, the warehouse space, the leasing space, what insurance is needed, or what food safety protocol they should expect from producers.
Barham said he expected that wider resource to be on the USDA secretary’s desk by September or early October.
Farm to School: Lunch Table gets more healthy
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Thursday, July 21st, 2011, 11:27 AM
NASHVILLE, Tenn., July 12, 2011 – Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan today highlighted the importance of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act and announced the findings of USDA’s first Farm to School report during the 2011 School Nutrition Association national convention. Merrigan delivered remarks to thousands of school nutrition professionals at the three-day event which provided an opportunity to discuss the Obama administration’s efforts to improve the health and nutrition of meals served through the National School Lunch and Breakfast programs. Download the whole report here.
“By working closely with school nutrition professionals, the Obama Administration is promoting initiatives that provide kids with access to nutritious foods and information to teach them healthy eating habits that will last a lifetime” said Merrigan. “Farm to school programs are a great way to bring more fresh, local produce into school cafeterias and support local farmers as well. Many schools are also using Farm to School programs to teach students where their food comes from through nutrition education.”
They are starting the program first in Florida & Michigan. Hopefully First Lady Obama will push this further! Her blog all about her food initiatives here.
Environmental Working Group’s new Meat Eaters Guide to Climate Change & Health
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- Blog
Monday, July 18th, 2011, 11:39 AM
Today, Environmental Working Group released its new Meat Eaters Guide to Climate Change and Health! In it, they take a hard look (a lifecycle analysis, actually) at the links between meat and greenhouse gas emissions. This is the most comprehensive and definitive online consumer tool to date looking into the environmental, climate and health impacts of the production and consumption of meat. I really trust the thoughtful research they do.
For those who know me well, you know that I believe strongly in the power of the fork.
While EWG’s conclusion is not that your fork will solve it all (no one thing will solve anything!), the guide helps consumers make better choices by ranking protein foods on their full carbon footprint. It also examines other environmental and health factors that clearly show that wasting less and eating less less, leaner and greener is the best choice for your body and the planet (which are, of course, intimately connected). Ultimately, the guide finds that all meat is not created equal. Here’s a link to the site – be sure to check out our consumer wallet card, the lifecycle infographic and great summary brochure, too: www.ewg.org/meateatersguide/
If you still love your meat, all is not lost. The Guide provides many health, environmental and animal welfare reasons to choose healthier, leaner, greener meat and dairy products that come from organic, pasture-raised, grass-fed animals. It’s less fatty, less toxic and provides more Omega-3 fatty acids, which are critical to good health. By eating less red and processed meat overall, you can effectively reduce your toxic exposure since toxins accumulate more in fat. While it may cost more (a whole other issue!), when you buy less meat overall, its easier to afford the healthier and greener options – and there are more and more of them all the time!
Hope you’ll visit the site (http://www.ewg.org/meateatersguide/), take the quiz, get more information for good recipe sources on meatless dishes and, to bring it all home, and take the pledge to eat less meat (on Mondays, if that suits you).
Vote for Real Food Challenge!
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- Blog
Thursday, July 14th, 2011, 1:03 PM
Please consider voting for Real Food Challenge to win $100,000. The Real Food Challenge is making healthy, fair and sustainable food a reality across the country. They work with incredible student leaders who are passionate about making change at their school. The goal? Shift $1 billion of existing college food budgets away from industrial factory farms and to healthy, local, organic and fair trade alternative. We are BIG fans!
Check out this 90-second learn more: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkqMMLljedQ
1) VOTE!
It’s super simple online: http://www.vh1.com/shows/events/do_something_awards/2011/the-do-something-award/
Login via Facebook or with your email (they haven’t spammed me, don’t worry)
After voting it gives you the option to post on Facebook or tweet about it—please do, and make sure to include the link to the voting page (and my name) in your post!
2) BOOKMARK IT!
Voting stays open until August 11th and you can vote every day. (and please do!)
Make the voting page your Homepage, so every day when you surf the web you can make sure to vote again!
Usually you can set your Homepage by going to FILE > PREFERENCES….then hitting the “General” tab. Just copy and paste!
3) SPREAD THE WORD!
FORWARD this email to your colleagues, friends and family! Treat it like a chain letter. 
Who doesn’t love to surf and vote when they’re board at work??
Join our Facebook EVENT and then invite all your FB friends: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=163355357071093
Word of mouth, Gchat statuses, Google+, myspace, livejournal, fousquare…whatever–go nuts!
Food Heaven Made Easy w/Wendy & Jess
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- Blog
Thursday, July 14th, 2011, 12:21 PM
Check out this new series aimed at transforming the relationships between people and their food. Wendy & Jess take us on a monthly cooking adventure in order to improve the diet and health of community members.
The series will be airing on Brooklyn Community Access Television (BCAT) every 4th Thursday at 2pm on Cable Vision 68, Time Warner 35, RCN 83 and Verizon 43. You can also watch the episodes on their website — watch the first episode where they set out to prove that it is possible to feed a family of four for under $10! Check it out for recipes, videos and nutrition/cooking information as well as an interactive community conversation board.
MEDIA, KIDS AND OBESITY: IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT COUCH POTATOES
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- Blog
Tuesday, June 28th, 2011, 12:52 PM
I’m so glad AAP is taking a stand against advertising to kids. Marketing that creates desire for its products is a real threat to the development of children.
Below is a release on a study appearing in the July issue of Pediatrics, the peer-reviewed, scientific journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).
For Release: Monday, June 27, at 12:01 a.m. ET
MEDIA, KIDS AND OBESITY: IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT COUCH POTATOES
A mounting body of research is showing that kids’ media use may be linked to their weight, partly because the sedentary act of watching television and movies or playing on computers and mobile devices can displace other activities that burn more calories.
But too much media exposure can also affect children’s weight in other ways, according to a new policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), “Children, Adolescents, Obesity and the Media.” The statement appears in the July 2011 issue of Pediatrics (published online June 27).
According to the statement, ads for junk food and fast food increase kids’ desire for these foods. Studies also have shown that snacking increases while watching TV or movies. And late-night screen time can interfere with sleep, which puts kids at higher risk for obesity.
“We’ve created a perfect storm for childhood obesity – media, advertising, and inactivity,” said the statement’s lead author, Victor Strasburger, MD, FAAP, a member of the AAP Council on Communications and Media. “American society couldn’t do a worse job at the moment of keeping children fit and healthy – too much TV, too many food ads, not enough exercise, and not enough sleep.”
The statement contains recommendations to help pediatricians mitigate the effects of media on children’s and teens’ body weight, including:
- Encourage parents to discuss food advertising with their children as they monitor children’s TV viewing and teach them about good nutrition.
- Continue to counsel parents to limit total, non-educational screen time to no more than two hours per day, and avoid putting TV sets and Internet connections in children’s bedrooms.
- Work with community groups and schools to implement media education programs in classrooms, child care centers and community centers.
- Be aware that children with high levels of screen time also have more stress, putting them at risk not only for obesity but for a number of other conditions such as diabetes, mood disorders and asthma.
The policy also recommends that pediatricians work with other child health advocates at the local, state and national levels for: – a ban on junk food advertising;
- restrictions on interactive food advertising to children via digital media;
- funding for research into the health and psychosocial effects of heavy media use in children; and
- more prosocial media platforms and resources for children that encourage them to choose healthy foods.
“Thirty years ago, the federal government ruled that young children are psychologically defenseless against advertising. Now, kids see 5,000 to 10,000 food ads per year, most of them for junk food and fast food,” said Dr. Strasburger.
The AAP has long recommended that pediatricians ask two questions about media use at each well-child (or well-adolescent) visit: How much time is the child spending on screens each day? And is there a TV set or Internet connection in the child’s bedroom?
“Having the conversation around these two questions can go a long way toward a thoughtful approach to each family’s – and each child’s – media use, and that can quickly translate into healthier choices and healthier weight,” Dr. Strasburger said.
BETTER SLEEP THROUGH MEDIA MANAGEMENT
Preschoolers who watch violent media content, and those who use more media in the evening, are more likely to have sleep problems, according to the study, “Media Use and Child Sleep: the Impact of Content, Timing and Environment,” published in the July 2011 issue of Pediatrics (published online June 27). The study of more than 600 children aged 3 to 5 years also showed that, while daytime viewing in general did not contribute to sleep problems, violent content viewed during the day was associated with significantly increased sleep problems. Evening media use, on the other hand, was associated with significantly increased sleep problems regardless of content type. Children with bedroom TV sets averaged an additional 15 minutes of evening use each night and an additional 12 minutes of violent content viewed during the day. The types of sleep problems reported by parents included trouble falling asleep, nightmares, waking during the night, trouble with morning alertness, and daytime sleepiness. Early childhood sleep disruption in other research has been associated with obesity, behavior problems, and poor school performance. The authors recommend that pediatricians advise parents to reduce children’s evening media use and viewing of violent content, and to remove televisions and other media devices from the child’s bedroom.
ARE PEDIATRICIANS SCREENING FOR DEVELOPMENTAL DELAYS?
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) supports the use and importance of developmental screening, and recommends that all children receive standardized screening as a part of well-child care. Despite research and increased policy, no national surveys have assessed whether pediatricians are using these screening tools. In the study, “Trends in the Use of Standardized Tools for Developmental Screening in Early Childhood: 2002-2009,” in the July 2011 issue of Pediatrics (published online June 27), an AAP Periodic Survey of Fellows found the percentage of pediatricians using one or more screening tools more than doubled between 2002 and 2009 (from 23 percent to 47.7 percent). Despite this increase, approximately half of the pediatricians reported that they do not routinely use the recommended screening tools for patients younger than 36 months. With growing evidence of the benefits of treatment, early screening is crucial to the identification of autism and other developmental disorders and intervention for these disorders. Current initiatives directed toward professional education, including Bright Futures initiatives, and improved payment for developmental screening can further promote the use of these tools in practice.
HELPING ADOLESCENTS TRANSITION TO ADULT HEALTH CARE
Changing doctors is never easy. When you’re a teenager new to advocating for your own health care, or one who has a chronic illness like diabetes or cystic fibrosis, it can be even more challenging to make the transition.
A new clinical report provides detailed guidance to pediatricians, family physicians, and internists to support all adolescents, including those with special health care needs, as they transition to an adult model of health care. The clinical report, “Supporting the Health Care Transition From Adolescence to Adulthood in the Medical Home,” from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) and American College of Physicians (ACP), is published in the July 2011 issue of Pediatrics (published online June 27).
“Pediatricians have asked how to incorporate better transition supports into their busy practices, and the new clinical report with its detailed practice-level guidance will help show them the way,” said Carl Cooley, MD, FAAP, co-chair of the group who authored the report. “All youth and young adults deserve seamless access to a primary care medical home and any necessary specialty care through all of life’s transitions.”
“Finding adult primary and specialty care providers for youth with chronic conditions has been a challenge for pediatricians, youth and families,” said Paul J. Sagerman, MD, FAAP, co-chair of the authoring group. “As ‘best practice’ for both pediatric and adult clinicians, the new clinical report will improve access to adult health care.”
Ideally, children should transition to adult-oriented health care between the ages of 18 and 21 years. For adolescents seeing a pediatrician, the transition will involve choosing a new physician, transferring medical records, and communicating treatment histories and insurance information. Although adolescents seeing a family physician may stay in the same practice, they may still need to transfer specialty care to adult subspecialists.
“All adolescents face unique health issues and have complex needs when it comes to care, but this is particularly true for teens dealing with chronic disease or disability,” said Roland Goertz, MD, MBA, FAAFP, president of the AAFP. “Having a medical home can provide stability during this time of change, and this report provides excellent guidance for family physicians and their care teams to help young people and their families follow a healthy path to adulthood.”
The transition requires help from the doctors on both sides, including preparing the adolescent to take charge of his or her own health care. Most young people with chronic illnesses will survive into adulthood and will need to find physicians who are trained in treating those conditions.
“Internal medicine specialists and subspecialists are often not prepared for the medical and social support needs of young adults with chronic or rare health conditions,” said Michael S. Barr, MD, MBA, FACP, ACP’s Senior Vice President, Medical Practice Professionalism & Quality. “This paper calls for all transitions in care to be based on adequate preparation, proactive communication, and early engagement of patients, families, and referring and accepting physicians in the process. The paper also provides strategies and formulas to overcome common challenges.”
The report represents an extension of a 2002 consensus statement on health care transitions for young adults that was co-authored by the same three national medical organizations. An algorithm to walk physicians through the transition process is included. The report also coincides with the launch of a new National Health Care Transition Center. The center is funded by the U.S. Maternal and Child Health Bureau in the Health Resources and Services Administration, which works with pediatric and adult primary care practices to develop tools to implement the specific guidance outlined in the report. For more information, visit http://www.gottransition.org/
The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 60,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults. For more information, visit www.aap.org.
Michele Simon, JD, MPH
Author, Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back
www.AppetiteForProfit.com
http://twitter.com/Appetite4Profit
frogTV: The Story of a Frog, His mutation, and Your Health
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- Blog
Monday, June 27th, 2011, 4:19 PM
Check out this new channel, frogTV, of great videos for kids teaching all about pesticides with the help of Triball, a mutated frog. I’m always looking for ways to communicate with different audiences, starting with the kids! Every good movement has to take care of its children’s education, especially for mother earth. Here’s what they say about themselves; I took notice!
“An ordinary creature would go unnoticed. An ordinary news outlet would go unheard. But because the threat of chemical pesticides to poison our environment and damage our health is so great, a mighty leap forward must be taken.
Meet Triball. Triball will go the distance as our hero and the centerpiece of FrogTV. This news network will launch a movement of informed and inspired people who demand change.
Become a part of the FrogTV movement. “WATCH the webisodes to find out how chemical pesticides are threatening our health. LEARN the science behind the sodes. And DO your part by subscribing to receive FrogTV updates every Froggy Friday, and choosing organic food that’s produced without the use of chemical pesticides.
Welcome to FrogTV. See the world as Triball sees it – with a new eye for action and change.”
Food, Democracy & Resilience
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- Blog
Monday, June 27th, 2011, 11:52 AM
Food, Democracy & Resilience, a special event featuring:
· Nic Paget-Clarke, who will present his new book And the Echo Follows and engage us in an inspiring discussion of what we can learn from social movements around the world
· Carlos Marentes of the Via Campesina global farmers movement
· Jorge Valero, Venezuelan Ambassador to the United Nations
Come hear stories and see vivid images from around the world demonstrating how communities are resisting predominant models of agriculture and trade and forging their own alternatives based on their particular cultural and ecological contexts. Learn how all of these stories and experiences weave together to form a vibrant global movement for food sovereignty—and how we are all part of it.
When: Monday, June 27th, 6:30-8:30 PM
Where: Wollman Hall at The New School (66 West 11th St, between 5th and 6th Avenues, Manhattan)
This event is free and open to the public. Reception and book signing to follow.
Check out the Facebook page for this event at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=173010229427647.
About the book: And the Echo Follows brings the concept of food sovereignty to life by sharing the stories, insights, and images of the people who are putting it into practice every day. We hear from Maori activists in New Zealand who are resisting further colonization in the form of biopiracy of their native flora and fauna, indigenous knowledge, and even their own DNA. We hear frompeasant leaders of Mali who are making up for the failure of the government to regulate agricultural prices through innovative selling cooperatives andreserves. We hear from community leaders of Venezuela and Bolivia, where for the first time, peasants and indigenous peoples are at the helm of a process of social transformation based on participatory democracy. These stories, together with vivid images and historical context, form a fascinating web of interconnections and commonalities that Nic Paget-Clarke has masterfully woven together in this work. And the Echo Follows is a timely arrival for those who are yearning to tackle food issues in their broader political context. For more information on the book, visit the publisher’s page and the Facebook page.
What Dow Chemical Doesn’t Want You to Know About Your Water (VIDEO)
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- Blog
Monday, June 13th, 2011, 10:29 AM
By Anna Lappé
Published June 7th, 2011 on Civil Eats
Earlier this year, I was contacted by a PR firm working for Dow Chemical to contribute a 60-second video for The Future We Create virtual conference on water sustainability the company launches today. As a vocal advocate for strict regulation of toxic chemicals—especially for food and farming—I was surprised the company would approach me. Dow is the country’s largest chemical maker, and profits handsomely from developing some of the world’s most polluting products, many of which are widely used in industrial and consumer goods as well as agriculture.
In the video I submitted, which you can watch here, I stress that one of the greatest threats to clean water is chemical contaminants—and that Dow Chemical has a long history of water pollution. The PR representative e-mailed to say “unfortunately we can’t use your video,” but that she would be happy to include me, still, if I would consider re-recording it. When we discussed what that would mean she said, no “fingerpointing;” they wanted a “positive, inclusive discussion.”
I believe in inclusiveness and engagement, but I also believe we must pursue those principles within a context that is honest. To do otherwise is to participate in what is popularly called “greenwashing,” painting a veneer of environmentalism on an otherwise unchanged product or practice—a corporate strategy many of us are all too familiar with.
In this spirit, I felt it would be disingenuous to engage in a conversation about water sustainability, for a campaign paid for by Dow Chemical, without pointing out the direct relationship between Dow’s core business products—a source of its $8 billion in profit last year—and toxins in our environment.
At the same time Dow launches this initiative, the company is actively fighting multiple lawsuits from communities who contend their water has been polluted by the company, including from its hometown manufacturing plant in Midland, Michigan. In 2007, the EPA detected the highest level of dioxin ever discovered in the country’s rivers or lakes in waterways near Dow’s global headquarters. Dioxin levels in some places were a thousand times higher than the residential standard, according to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. A recent study found women living in Midland, as well as Saginaw and Bay counties, have significantly higher rates of breast cancer; dioxin was to blame. A class action lawsuit is pending.
“In the backyard of Dow’s corporate headquarters, the company for decades through philanthropy, public relations, and politics has made the choice to push back at every regulatory level instead of addressing their dioxin contamination of 52 miles of freshwater and Lake Huron,” said Michelle Hurd Riddick of the Saginaw Bay grassroots environmental organization, Lone Tree Council. “The company has mastered the art of greenwashing while poisoning a whole watershed and getting away with it.”
Community members in another Midland—Midland, Texas—filed suit earlier this year against Dow and three other companies for contaminating groundwater there with hexavalent chromium. Barred from use in the European Union because of its toxicity, hexavalent chromium is a known carcinogen. The EPA’s own hazard report notes that exposure, including through contaminated drinking water, “may produce effects on the liver, kidney, [and] gastrointestinal and immune systems.”
Dow also continues to drag its heels and fight regulators in order to continue production of some of its most toxic and water polluting products.
In 2000, for instance, the EPA announced it was phasing out approval of Dow’s insecticide, and potent neurotoxin, Dursban for new home construction in the United States because the product is linked to serious illnesses and even death in children. Five years later, the chemical was still in use in U.S. homes. And in 2003, Dow settled a $2 million lawsuit with the state of New York, the largest penalty ever in a pesticide-related case, for repeatedly violating an agreement about proper advertising of Dursban and making misleading safety claims.
Dow is also a leading manufacturer of Bisphenol-A (or BPA), used in numerous consumer products such as baby bottles, children’s toys, and the linings of food cans. It’s a particularly dangerous chemical, with proven toxicity even in low doses, especially in utero. The National Institutes of Health’s National Toxicology Program has found the chemical may increase the risk of certain cancers and alter brain development. The chemical, a synthetic estrogen, has also been linked to reproductive and hormonal problems. New research is showing that a vast majority of Americans is exposed to low concentrations of BPA not only through consumer products, but from surface water, too.
The future we should be creating is one in which everyone has access to clean water. No one should worry whether their water is tainted with endocrine disruptors, carcinogens, or neurotoxins—produced by Dow or any of the country’s other biggest chemical manufacturers. Dow has the power, and resources, to do more than create a faux “inclusive conversation” about water sustainability. The company should discontinue its most toxic products and pay to clean up communities it has contaminated. Until it does, I will not be complicit in its greenwashing.
Taking on Dow Chemical
- Topics:
- Blog
Monday, June 6th, 2011, 5:01 PM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 6, 2011
Dow Chemical Greenwashing Campaign Exposed
Watch the Video America’s Largest Chemical Maker Doesn’t Want You to See
When a Dow Chemical PR firm asked author Anna Lappé to contribute a video about the future of water for Dow’s flashy new “virtual conference ” called “The Future We Create,” she was delighted to provide them with exactly what they had asked for.
In her 60-second submission, Lappé stressed that toxic chemicals are one of the biggest global threats to water and people, and that Dow itself is one of the biggest sources of such threats. The PR company swiftly rejected the video, but they didn’t give up: they asked Lappé to record a new video. “Dow, as a huge corporation with resources, is sponsoring that ["Future We Create"] effort, which you have to admit is pretty cool,” the PR firm wrote to Lappé.
“What would be pretty cool,” Lappé replied, “would be if the company put even a fraction of the resources it spends on marketing into cleaning up communities whose water it has polluted.”
Lappé is launching her rejected video today on a YouTube channel that will also include videos from the public about the future they’d like to create.
At the same time Dow launches their “virtual conference,” the company is actively fighting multiple lawsuits from communities-including Dow’s own hometown of Midland, Michigan-alleging the company has polluted their water. More information on Dow’s history of water contamination, and on organizations fighting for clean water, will shortly be available at www.afuturewecreate.com.
“The future we should be creating is one in which no one has to worry about whether the water they drink is tainted by carcinogens, endocrine disruptors, or neurotoxins manufactured by Dow,” said Lappé.
The Yes Lab, a project of The Yes Men that helps activist groups carry out media-getting creative actions on their own, assisted Lappé in developing her response.
For more information or for interviews, please contact Anna Lappé, Small Planet Institute, 917-476-4896, anna@smallplanet.org (website: www.smallplanet.org).
# # #
Anna Lappé is a leading expert on sustainability and a national bestselling author, most recently of Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do About It. She is a founding principal of the Small Planet Institute and Small Planet Fund and an active board member of Rainforest Action Network.
June 6, 2011
Dow Chemical Greenwashing Campaign Exposed
Watch the Video America’s Largest Chemical Maker Doesn’t Want You to See
When a Dow Chemical PR firm asked author Anna Lappé to contribute a video about the future of water for Dow’s flashy new “virtual conference ” called “The Future We Create,” she was delighted to provide them with exactly what they had asked for.
In her 60-second submission, Lappé stressed that toxic chemicals are one of the biggest global threats to water and people, and that Dow itself is one of the biggest sources of such threats. The PR company swiftly rejected the video, but they didn’t give up: they asked Lappé to record a new video. “Dow, as a huge corporation with resources, is sponsoring that ["Future We Create"] effort, which you have to admit is pretty cool,” the PR firm wrote to Lappé.
“What would be pretty cool,” Lappé replied, “would be if the company put even a fraction of the resources it spends on marketing into cleaning up communities whose water it has polluted.”
Lappé is launching her rejected video today on a YouTube channel that will also include videos from the public about the future they’d like to create.
At the same time Dow launches their “virtual conference,” the company is actively fighting multiple lawsuits from communities-including Dow’s own hometown of Midland, Michigan-alleging the company has polluted their water. More information on Dow’s history of water contamination, and on organizations fighting for clean water, will shortly be available at www.afuturewecreate.com.
“The future we should be creating is one in which no one has to worry about whether the water they drink is tainted by carcinogens, endocrine disruptors, or neurotoxins manufactured by Dow,” said Lappé.
The Yes Lab, a project of The Yes Men that helps activist groups carry out media-getting creative actions on their own, assisted Lappé in developing her response.
For more information or for interviews, please contact Anna Lappé, Small Planet Institute, 917-476-4896, anna@smallplanet.org (website: www.smallplanet.org).
# # #
Anna Lappé is a leading expert on sustainability and a national bestselling author, most recently of Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do About It. She is a founding principal of the Small Planet Institute and Small Planet Fund and an active board member of Rainforest Action Network.
Join an upcoming Food Sovereignty Tour to Bolivia, France or Mexico with Food First & Global Exchange
- Topics:
- Blog
Monday, June 6th, 2011, 3:13 PM
Food First has been traveling the world for 35 years, working in solidarity with our international allies to end the injustices that cause hunger. Now we invite you to join us, and help build the global movement for food sovereignty. Brought to you by Food First in partnership with Global Exchange, Food Sovereignty Tours facilitate life-changing cultural exchanges with the farmers, activists, policymakers, and consumers fighting for justice, democracy and sustainability in the food system.
Explore your global food system…
BOLIVIA: Food Sovereignty & Climate Change
August 6 – 21, 2011
Bolivia is one of the countries least responsible for global climate change—yet it is one of the most exposed to its effects. Luckily, Andean farmers have a long history of coping with climate variability. By drawing on this ancestral knowledge and collaborating with agricultural NGOs, they are working to adapt their farming and herding systems to the new climate realities. On this tour you will gain rare access to rural communities, local NGOs, producers’ associations and social movements working for food and climate justice in Bolivia. You will also visit some of the most spectacular landscapes in South America. Click here for more details.
Registration closes June 10th!
FRANCE: Food Sovereignty & Artisan Production Sept 15 – 25, 2011
France is known the world over for its rich culinary traditions and agrarian history, rooted in the specificity of place—a concept the French call “terroir.” Despite the strong push for industrial agriculture in the twentieth century, many small producers retain their commitment to sustainable food production. And French consumers, with a high awareness of the hazards of industrial and GM food, are creating powerful alliances with farmers to create healthy food systems. This tour of central France—Loire Valley and Auvergne regions—will connect you to French rural life and to the energetic French movement for food sovereignty. Click here for more details.
MEXICO: Conserving Oaxaca’s Food & Agriculture Heritage
December 20 – 27, 2011
The holidays are a special time to visit Oaxaca, especially to experience its renowned food culture. As part of our Food Sovereignty delegation to Oaxaca, you will have the opportunity to experience Christmas in Oaxaca, as well as the “Night of the Radishes,” a unique festival celebrating food, farming and creativity. On this tour, you will learn first-hand about the threats to rural livelihoods such as environmental degradation, out-migration and contamination of native seeds by imported GMOs. You will also learn how peasant organizations are working to strengthen local food systems, while playing an important role in the global food sovereignty movement. Click here for more details.
For more information about Food Sovereignty Tours contact Tanya at tkerssen@foodfirst.org or by phone (510) 654-4400 ext. 223
Please pass this information along to your friends, students, colleagues, include info about the program in your newsletters, or on your events calendar and help us spread the word!
Visit www.foodsovereigntytours.org for more details
What’s NPR’s Beef with Organic?
- Topics:
- Blog
Wednesday, May 4th, 2011, 7:52 PM
Down in Washington DC today, Eric Schlosser, Georgetown University, Washington Post, GRACE, and a number of others helped pull together an amazing conversation about the Future of Food–from a riveting talk by Prince Charles (and yes, his accent does sound princely) to a no-holds barred Marion Nestle and tough questions to Secty Vilsarck, the conference was feisty and insightful. So I found it particularly ironic that while I got dinner on the table I heard an NPR Marketplace segment that trotted out all the tired myths we’ve heard from the chemical-oil-biotech industrial ag players and sympathizers about why sustainable farming can’t feed the world, without any complexity.
As I wrote on the NPR website…
I was highly disappointed that this segment presented a contested position—sustainable farming cannot feed the world—as fact, when there is a growing global consensus that the opposite is true: it is naïve to believe we can feed the future by relying on the resource-extractive, energy-intensive, water-abusing methods of industrial agriculture.
It was interesting that this piece would air the same day as the forward-thinking “Future of Food” conference organized by the Washington Post and Georgetown University, Eric Schlosser, and others.
Many speakers at that conference presented very different takes on the best way to feed a growing, and hungry, planet.
Perhaps most relevant to this story were the presentations by Prince Charles and the scientist Dr. Hans Herren, who called upon us to take heed of the recommendations of the hugely important, but underreported, IAASTD Report.
The groundbreaking study brought together 400 experts who worked for 4 1/2 years to explore the most efficient, productive, and sustainable strategy for feeding the world. The conclusion—quite the opposite of the one reached by those quoted in this segment—stated in no uncertain terms that we must move away from chemical- and fossil-dependent agriculture, which by the way includes biotech.
Business as usual is not an option, was the radical consensus. Instead, small-scale and mid-scale agroecological farming holds our best hope for feeding the world safe, healthy food, all without undermining our natural capital.
I expect solid reporting from NPR, and I assume you expect it from yourselves, but I am afraid this segment failed to meet your own standards.
Green for Queens Earth Day Fair
- Topics:
- Blog
Wednesday, April 27th, 2011, 12:03 PM
I always love participating in local events in New York City. Over the past couple of months, I’ve had the pleasure of speaking at a handful of NYC events and they have each been fabulous. On May 15th, I’m looking forward to heading to Queens to give a talk at the 2nd Annual Queens Earth Day Fair. Activities include a Wildlife Children’s Theater, worm composting, edible ecosystem, snakes and lizards, and cooking (all for kids)! For adults, there will be information, workshops, and exhibits. I will be giving my talk at 3pm followed by a Q and A and book signing. I hope you can join me!
Click here for more info.
Congratulations Molly!
- Topics:
- Organic Food & Farming
Tuesday, April 26th, 2011, 12:09 PM
Dear friend and colleague Molly Rockamann is honored as a Young Leader by the NRDC!
Society Notebook: Hungry for Change
- Topics:
- Blog
Monday, April 25th, 2011, 2:31 PM
With local, organic and sustainably produced food all the rage, the big food processors and factory farm associations are running scared. This is the message author Anna Lappe brought to Space Gallery in Portland on April 15 as part of the venue’s annual Food+Farm series. Read the full article here.
“Why Nature Needs Rights” Event with Vandana Shiva
- Topics:
- Blog
Tuesday, April 19th, 2011, 10:47 PM
On April 21st, David Harvey will moderate a very important conversation with Vandana Shiva, Maude Barlow, Cormac Cullinan and Pablo Solonand – co-authors of the new book, The Rights of Nature. The authors will discuss how to transform our relationship with the environment to address climate change and related problems like natural disasters.
Event details:
Why Nature Needs Rights
April 21
06:30PM – 08:30PM
City University of New York (CUNY)
365 Fifth Ave at 34th St
New York, NY
$6/$10/$15/ free for Brecht Forum Subscribers
To learn more about the event (and to RSVP) click here.
RAN launches infographic about corporate tax dodgers
- Topics:
- Blog
Saturday, April 16th, 2011, 10:49 PM
Did you know: If the dirtiest dozen banks and oil and coal corporations payed the full corporate tax rate (35%), that would amount to $62 billion. More than enough to cover the proposed federal cuts of $38 billion.
The Rainforest Action Network just launched this great infographic about the “Dirtiest Dozen” corporate tax dodgers. Take a look here and make sure to spread the word. Tweet or facebook it: #INFOGRAPHIC: If top banks, oil and coal paid their fair share in taxes it would avoid need for budget cuts. Really. via@RAN
Where the Sustainable Food Movement is Cooking! Westport, CT
- Topics:
- Blog, Local Food, Organic Food & Farming
Thursday, April 14th, 2011, 11:24 AM
Thanks to everyone who turned out on such a glorious bright blue day for the event on Sunday in Westport.
It was energizing for me to hear from Dan Levinson about all the great initiatives underway there — from school and community gardens to community-supported agriculture farms, to a network of restaurants who support area farmers. I also got to meet one of the forces behind the exceptional new organization Wholesome Wave and see my all-time farmer hero, Annie Farrell–plus I was generously given two loaves of the best bread I’ve ever tasted. Not a bad deal!
Michel Nischan (Wholesome Wave), Abhaya Kaufman, Anna Lappe,
Dan Levinson (Green Village Initiative)
Diet For a Hot Planet Paperback Launch at NYU
- Topics:
- Blog
Thursday, April 14th, 2011, 11:06 AM
I’m gearing up for the paperback launch of Diet for a Hot Planet Monday at NYU. The event will connect the dots between agribusiness and global warmingand be a stimulating conversation moderated by Mia MacDonald.
I’m delighted we’ll be joined by NYC Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito, Anim Steel of Real Food Challenge, and Angelines Moncha Alba Lamb of Slow Food USA. We will be discussing how the Farm Bill, local food policy, and the national “good food” movement can help us build a food system that will ensure everyone has access to healthy food and will cool the planet in a climate unstable future.
Where: Kimmel Center, 60 Washington Sq. South, Shorin Performance Studio, Room 802
When: April 18th, 2011 at 6:30pm
RSVP here
Portland book talk this Friday!
- Topics:
- Blog
Wednesday, April 13th, 2011, 12:16 PM
On Friday I will be heading to Portland, ME for a book talk at SPACE gallery. SPACE is a nonprofit gallery and performance space with a mission to present contemporary, emerging and unconventional arts, artists, and ideas. My talk is part of a Food+Farm series the gallery is sponsoring. Other events include an urban farming workshop, a film screening and a young farmers’ mixer. Exciting stuff! Read more here.
Details for the book talk:
Date: Friday April 15, 2011
Time: Doors open at 7 pm, program starts at 7:30 pm
Location: 538 Congress St. Portland , ME
The event is free and open to all ages!
Unit One Residency at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- Topics:
- Blog
Wednesday, April 13th, 2011, 11:06 AM
Ida and I had a fabulous time in Urbana-Champaign a the University of Illinois where we got to be scholars-in-residence. The indefatigable Molly Rockamann joined us for the stay and entertained Ida endlessly, of course.
Each evening I hosted a talk with students in the Unit One residence hall and was inspired by all of the interesting work happening on the campus, including the student farm and the hard work of food service bringing tastier eats into the dining halls.
Ida particularly loved our daily sojourns to the dining hall where, in the week we were there, it seemed she gained the toddler 15.
Thanks to all who organized our visit and to all the residents who made us feel at home!
ACT NOW! Save the Farm Bill
- Topics:
- Blog
Monday, April 4th, 2011, 5:08 PM
The White House is negotiating a budget deal that would take a huge bite out of Farm Bill mandatory funding for programs that support on-farm conservation and wetland protection!!
Help fight this by sending this note, drafted by The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, to Chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Senator Debbie Stabenow.
Subject Line: It’s Your Farm Bill
“Dear Senator Stabenow,
I urge you to push back on any budget deal that ties your hands going in to the 2012 Farm Bill debate. Budget cuts to essential conservation programs today will limit their funding for years to come. Don’t yield your authority to write your farm bill. These are decisions that by congressional budget rules should be made by the Agriculture Committee, not by the Appropriations Committee. Please accept no cuts to Farm Bill conservation programs in the current negotiations over the government funding bill.”
It’s bad enough that food and agriculture has already suffered grossly disproportional cuts in discretionary funding in the two short-term budget deals signed into law. But now it appears the Administration may be willing to give up additional USDA discretionary program funding and also raid farm bill mandatory conservation funding, treating conservation programs as convenient give-aways in the budget negotiating process with the House.
If cuts to current and future Farm Bill funding need to be made they should be made by the Agriculture Committee in the context of the next Farm Bill or, if need be, in budget reconciliation. If cuts are to be made, then everything should be on the table including the $5 billion a year that is spent on direct payments – payments that go to farmers and landowners without regard to need or even crop price levels. An appropriations budget deal that singles out sustainable agriculture programs is shortsighted and unfair.”
The Battle for Biodiversity: Monsanto and Farmers Clash
- Topics:
- Blog
Wednesday, March 30th, 2011, 12:12 PM
Two weeks ago, Monsanto announced the latest genetically engineered crop it hopes to bring to market: a soybean rejiggered to resist the herbicide dicamba. Read the rest of the article here.
Connecticut Food and Farming Discussion this Sunday
- Topics:
- Blog
Monday, March 28th, 2011, 1:47 PM
If you are in the Connecticut area, join me this Sunday at the The Unitarian Church in Westport for a book talk and signing at 1pm. The event will include participation from several local organic farmers and “farm-to-table” chefs (including the Dressing Room’s Michel Nischan and Le Farm’s Bill Taibe).
The event is free of charge and open to the public! Click here for more info.
Location: 10 Lyons Plains Road, Westport, CT 06880
100 Books on the Food Industry
- Topics:
- Blog
Monday, March 28th, 2011, 1:32 PM
TakePart.com, the digital branch of Participant Media who produced the documentary Food, Inc., compiled a list of 100+ books to “engage, inform and inspire anyone who wants to know more about our food industry-from industrial agriculture and the obesity crisis to migrant farm workers, pesticides, and urban farming.” (Diet for a Hot Planet made the list!)
Check out the other books that were selected here.
Joan Gussow’s Garden Recovery
- Topics:
- Blog
Monday, March 21st, 2011, 10:23 AM
Check out this inspiring video that recounts the devastating flood and subsequent rebirth of Joan Gussow’s garden. (Within two months of the storm, the season’s crops were thriving!)
Heifer in Greater New York Annual Pass on the Gift Gala to Benefit Haiti
- Topics:
- Blog
Monday, March 21st, 2011, 10:00 AM
On April 5th, I will be teaming up with musician Dan Zanes to co-chair Heifer in Greater New York’s Annual Past on the Gift Gala! Join us at the Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn to help make farming an ecologically sustainable and economically profitable activity in Haiti. Your support will help Heifer increase the food security and household income of 12,000 families – 6 original families and 6,000 through Heifer’s Pass on the Gift process.
Purchase your tickets here.
No Farms, No Food Rally in Albany
- Topics:
- Blog
Thursday, March 10th, 2011, 2:52 PM
The American Farmland Trust will hold its second annual No Farms No Food Rally & Lobby Day on March 30th. Let’s join forces to ensure our legislators know how important farms are to our state.
Round trip bus transportation from New York City to Albany will be available.
Register here.
Read the Report: Global Warming and Pasture-Raised Beef in the U.S.
- Topics:
- Blog
Thursday, March 3rd, 2011, 2:52 PM
A new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists offers important recommendations for lowering emissions from U.S. beef production. U.S. pasture beef producers could reduce the sector’s annual global warming impacts by as much as 140 million metric tons. Read the whole report here.
2012 Food & Farm Bill NYC Listening Session
- Topics:
- Blog
Monday, February 21st, 2011, 2:49 PM
This Wednesday, February 23, the Community Food Security Coalition will hold its NYC Farm Bill listening session. Join the conversation (and spread the word) – this legislation will impact us all!
Location: Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens:
191 Joralemon Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201
between Court and Clinton streets
RSVP here OR call CFSC’s Washington, DC office: (202) 543-8602
Share your “food rule” with Michael Pollan
- Topics:
- Blog
Sunday, February 20th, 2011, 4:46 PM
Last year Michael Pollan published Food Rules, a short book offering 64 rules for eating well. The book was such a success that Pollan is adding some news ones.
Pollan wants you to share your favorite food rule! Submit your food rule here. He’ll choose three rules from within the Slow Food network and give those people signed copies of the book.
(The deadline for submission is February 27th)
Brooklyn Public Library: Good Food Series
- Topics:
- Blog
Sunday, February 20th, 2011, 4:40 PM
Brooklyn Public Library kicks off its “Good Food” series this month. Check out the great lineup below. Click here for all of the details.
Good Food: Lobster Love, Sushi Secrets, and How We Can Save the Seas with Smart Eating
Saturday, March 12, 4:00PM
Good Food: Food Lovers’ Guide to Brooklyn Flea
Saturday, March 26, 4:00PM
Good Food: Fixing School Lunch
Saturday, April 9, 4:00PM
Good Food: Frank Castronovo and Frank Falcinelli in Conversation
Saturday, April 30, 4:00PM
Gone Fishing!
- Topics:
- Blog
Friday, February 4th, 2011, 5:23 PM
We will be offline for two weeks. Keep fighting the good fight. –Anna and Jessica
Bija Vidyapeeth Publishes 2011 Calendar
- Topics:
- Blog
Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011, 5:24 PM
Bija Vidyapeeth, Vandana Shiva’s farm in Deradhun, India offers courses and events centered around biodiversity, sustainable living, organic farming and more. Take a look at the amazing course offerings for 2011.
State of the World Is Here
- Topics:
- Blog
Tuesday, February 1st, 2011, 5:23 PM
Check out this Guardian article about the annual State of the World report with my two cents.
As ever, the State of the World is a fabulous resource for all of us exploring the root causes, and the root solutions, of hunger.
Why We Should Question Walmart’s Latest PR Blitz
- Topics:
- Blog
Thursday, January 20th, 2011, 10:19 PM
Walmart made big news yesterday with a press conference alongside the First Lady to announce new company commitments. Most of the mainstream media coverage of the Walmart announcement seemed to buy the company PR that it was taking valiant steps to improve the affordability and health qualities of the food it sells. Among these commitments, Walmart said it will be working with food suppliers to reduce sodium, sugars, and trans fat in certain products by 2015; developing its own seal to help consumers identify healthier products; and addressing hunger by opening Walmart stores in the nation’s “food deserts.”
Do these Walmart promises really hold big upsides for health and food insecurity?The Times seemed to think so, running with this headline: “Wal-Mart Shifts Strategy to Promote Healthy Foods.” (Am I crazy or does that read remarkably like the Walmart press release: “Walmart Launches Major Initiative to Make Food Healthier and Healthier Food More Affordable”?) Had The Times been aiming for accuracy it might better have titled the article: “Walmart Launches PR Campaign Promoting Promises to Win the Hearts and Minds of Urban Consumers.”
With little critical coverage in the mainstream media, we are left to ponder the impact of these Walmart commitments ourselves. Thankfully, we have the wisdom of experts like Marion Nestle, author of Food Politics and What to Eat, to shed light on these claims. (Check out her take here). One of Nestle’s most important points is that Walmart’s promise to develop its own front-of-package seal is a clever preemption of work underway at the Institutes of Medicine and FDA to “establish research-based criteria” for such packaging and create regulations for the entire industry, with real oversight.
Let’s dig deeper and look carefully at what the company is saying it is committing to doing. Specifically, Wal-Mart is pledging to “reduce sodium by 25 percent, eliminate industrially added trans fats, and reduce added sugars by 10 percent by 2015″ in some of the processed foods that it carries.
Impressive? Not so fast.
First, consider that it’s not unusual for a can of soup to contain as much as 2,291 mg, or more, of sodium. (For perspective, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend we consume just 1,500 mg a day). We need to reduce that sodium figure significantly more than 25 percent on many of Walmart products before we dare call them “healthy.” As for trans fats, public health advocates have long been advocating for all food producers to eliminate trans fats across the entire food supply. Finally, a 12 oz. can of Coke, for instance, bought at Walmart–and which the company notoriously pushes at steep discounts–will already contain 39 grams of sugars, the upper limit of what is often suggested as the total daily consumption for non-diabetics. In other words, Walmart’s nutritional commitments are really about making the unhealthy processed food it sells marginally better, at best; at worse, it’s offering the veneer of healthfulness to foods that should be considered bad for us.
These nutritional promises are not only weak in their aspirational goals; they’re also non-binding, which means we’ve got to take the company on its word. These nutritional promises are not only weak in their aspirational goals; they’re also non-binding, which means we’ve got to take the company on its word. (The White House’s Sam Kass has stressed that all these proposals can be verified in an “open, transparent” manner. But with Walmart’s history of backroom deals–like its lobbying with other retailers against strict meth laws–I’m dubious).
Corporate driven, non-binding promises like these are also the oldest trick in the food industry PR playbook. Just ask Michele Simon author of Appetite for Profit, who details how Pepsi, Kraft, and numerous other food companies have made similar promises and gotten big payback with good press even though they’ve done very little to actually improve the health qualities of their products. These commitments also receive great press at first–note the windfall for Walmart–but there is little accountability over time when the changes are supposed to be made.
Now, let’s turn to the Walmart claim that the company wants to move into urban markets, and reduce the costs of some of its food items, to help low-income people access more affordable food. The New York Times writes that “that low-income people, especially those who receive food stamps, face special dietary challenges because eating healthy costs more and healthier food is harder to get in their neighborhoods.” Yet, the Times fails to mention the studies that have found that because of Walmart’s low wages and benefits, its employees rely on food stamps and other social services far more than the typical retail employee. While Walmart is spending a lot of time and money saying they plan to address food insecurity, the company is actually exacerbating its underlying root causes.
The Times also mentions that Walmart will help address food deserts, defined as “a dearth of grocery stores selling fresh produce in rural and underserved urban areas,” by building more stores, the paper didn’t quote any community-based activists addressing these so-called food deserts on the ground. Do these community advocates think Walmart is the solution? Are they happy Walmart has set its eyes on Washington DC, New York City, Chicago, and other urban markets? Of those I’ve talked to, all are skeptical of the company’s promises and highly critical of the Walmart model: the anti-worker rights, low-wage, low-benefit way of doing business.
We also have plenty of evidence now that when Walmart moves into town, the company puts small businesses out of business and sucks capital out of the community. For every dollar spent at a Walmart, only a small fraction stays to benefit the local economy. We’ve seen enough evidence, too, that the company has a long, dark track record of sex discrimination and workers rights abuses.
Let’s be clear, expanding into so-called food deserts is an expansion strategy for Walmart. It’s not a charitable move. Making a big PR splash about improving the health qualities of its food is a smart tactic to deflect attention from the real impact of Walmart on the quality of life for Americans. (Is it a coincidence that this press conference occurred the same week a new study was gaining attention that tracked health and population data and found links between Walmart expansion from 1996 to 2005 and increased rates of obesity?)
As far as I’m concerned, as long as the company depresses wages, exploits workers, violates workers rights, and pushes highly processed foods and sodas, Walmart is not only failing to address the problem of food deserts and food insecurity, the company is exacerbating their root causes.
Originally published on CivilEats.org
Anna Lappé is the author most recently of Diet for a Hot Planet (Bloomsbury USA 2010) and is a fellow of the Glynwood Institute for Sustainable Food and Farming and a former Food and Society Fellow, a program of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.
A new release from Heidi Swanson
- Topics:
- Blog
Tuesday, January 11th, 2011, 1:42 PM
Do you love 101 Cookbooks as much as I do? Then you’ll be pleased to hear that Heidi Swanson has a new cookbook out this spring, Super Natural Every Day: Well-loved Recipes from My Natural Foods Kitchen. Order your copy today.
Win a FREE Food Sovereignty Tour!
- Topics:
- Blog
Monday, January 10th, 2011, 11:38 AM
“Food sovereignty” sounds like a heady term that might be hard to understand, but its meaning is simple: the belief that all people everywhere have the right to determine for themselves what food they grow, eat, and share. Seems pretty basic but learn why food sovereignty is a struggle globally and learn about the movement bringing the food sovereignty vision to life globally on these once-in-a-lifetime tours organized by Food First.
For a limited time, Food First is selling $10 raffle tickets, the winner of which will win a the opportunity to travel with Food First organizers on one of their fabulous tours. (Or purchase tickets for the chance for a friend to win–as I just did). Learn more about the tour here and purchase your tickets now: here.
The Secret Life of Beef
- Topics:
- Blog
Monday, January 10th, 2011, 11:29 AM
Just got an e-mail from the folks at INFORM, an educational media group that has a series of short videos explaining the real costs of everything from cell phones to paper.
Check out this video on “the secret life of beef” (though if you’ve been reading Fast Food Nation or watching Food Inc., it’s probably not too secret anymore).
Check out the video here.
The World’s Premier Dealer of Cheap Crap Headed to NYC?
- Topics:
- Blog
Sunday, January 9th, 2011, 11:30 AM
The nation’s largest private employer in the spotlight for massive civil rights class action lawsuits has its sights set on New York City and other urban hubs around the country. Walmart says moving into our city, and others, will help address the epidemic of food deserts and joblessness.
Hear why small business owners, labor leaders, and community members think otherwise and what they’re doing to build a green economy, bring in good jobs, and address food insecurity all at the same time.
The Walmart-Free NYC Coalition invites you to join them on Wednesday January 12th for a hearing and public event: learn more .
RSVP and invite friends on Facebook.
NYC launch of Farm Together Now
- Topics:
- Blog
Thursday, January 6th, 2011, 4:56 PM
Join author Daniel Tucker at the NYC launch of his book Farm Together Now: A Portrait of People, Places, and Ideas for a New Food Movement. Farm Together Now is a great intro to individuals who are producing sustainable food, challenging public policy, and developing community organizing efforts. Chosen by Michael Pollan as his favorite book of 2010, Farm Together Now includes hundreds of photographs which help to illustrate the current state of grassroots farming in the U.S. –Jessica
Launch Details
When: Monday, January 10th, 7 pm
Where: Melville House Bookstore (DUMBO, Brooklyn) w/ Beer from the Brooklyn Brewery
RSVP via Facebook here
Kirkus names Diet for a Hot Planet Best of 2010
- Topics:
- Blog
Thursday, January 6th, 2011, 4:08 PM
Kirkus, know for its critical reviews of forthcoming books has just given Diet for a Hot Planet its stamp of approval.
Praising Diet for a Hot Planet for its accessibly and action approach, Kirkus calls the book “An essential toolkit for readers looking for a pragmatic climate-response action plan of their own.” Check out the full review here.
Land Grabbing Gets Center Stage in NYT
- Topics:
- Blog
Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010, 1:56 PM
New York Times / Tyler Hicks
Today’s New York Times has an important read on the global land grab, one of the forces behind the expansion of potentially environmentally devastating agricultural practices I discuss in my book.
Read the article here.
How to Fix Our Country
- Topics:
- Blog
Friday, December 17th, 2010, 12:31 PM
Gary Shteyngart, Anya Kamenetz, and I weigh in on how to fix our country.
Inspired … at Bioneers
- Topics:
- Blog
Wednesday, December 15th, 2010, 10:18 PM
I’m VERY belatedly reporting on the fabulous time I had at Bioneers this year.
It’s always a great time to get recharged and reinspired. This year, I had the honor of being on a panel organized by Temra Costa (Farmer Jane) about “women changing how we eat.” First time a co-panelist brought us each pies (Nancy from Pie Ranch) and extra pies for lucky audience members who guessed the right answers to (tough) food trivia questions.
Photo by Jan Mangan
Gloria Feldt and Other Superstars at Bioneers
- Topics:
- Blog
Wednesday, December 15th, 2010, 12:18 PM
Former prez of Planned Parenthood and I signed books for each other at Bioneers. The conference is always a fabulous convening of brilliant minds and visionaries. Hands down, the most moving moment for me was hearing Jane Goodall talk–a first for me. What a life! And all because she bucked tradition and expectation and had the courage to follow her passion to the forests of Tanzania.
Photo by Jan Mangan
Who Controls What You Eat?
- Topics:
- Blog
Wednesday, December 8th, 2010, 1:07 PM
When Rachel Carson was writing Silent Spring nearly in the late 1960s, more than 70 companies were involved in the manufacturing of most of the pesticides used in the United States. Today, thanks to mergers and acquisitions that consolidated those firms, the number has dwindled to roughly eight major multinational manufacturers.
You find this kind of industry consolidation throughout the food chain and along with it anti-competitiveness and bullying that compromises consumer safety and choice.
Today, dozens of civil society organizations and consumer groups are delivering a message to the Department of Justice: let’s end antitrust violations in our food system and bring back true choice.
Armed with a petition signed by 240,000 Americans, these groups have a powerful message. We’re hoping DOJ listens!
Learn more at www.fooddemocracynow.org and WhyHunger
Hey Bloomberg! We Want PlaNYC to Include Food
- Topics:
- Blog
Friday, December 3rd, 2010, 12:09 PM
Mayor Bloomberg’s original 2007 version of our city’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction plan, PLANYC, covered a lot of great ground–everything from how to green transport to addressing the impact of our built environment on the climate.
One big oversight? FOOD!
Missing from the 158-page report was any mention of the positive role our food system can play in improving ecosystems and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, from community gardens to rooftop farms. Also missing was the negative impact of the food chain on emissions–things like refrigerants in grocery stores, fossil fuel guzzling food trucks and means for distribution. Nor was there any mention of the millions of school meals served every day, and other municipal food provision, that could support a greener, and healthier, food chain.
Now, the City is well underway with a new draft for 2011 and are considering how to address food. Thanks in part of the community members and food advocates who have been in discussion with the City and who attended the City’s community conversations about the plan last month, we are excited about the possibility of our plate being back in the PlaNYC picture.
Want to add your voice? Rank and submit your ideas online at
http://www.allourideas.org/plaNYC
Food & Water Watch Factory Farm Map
- Topics:
- Blog
Friday, December 3rd, 2010, 11:53 AM
Food & Water Watch released this interactive map of factory farms in the United States.
I posted a link on Twitter and a farmer who saw my post responded:
Do you really think your “factory farm map” is accurate? Really?
As a farmer is it [sic] insulting!”
The map (and I think it could make this point more clearly) is not a map of all farms and farmers in the U.S. It is only plotting those factory farms in each county with very high livestock densities (you can see the detail here in their methodology page). (Personally, I think it would be a simple/helpful change for viewers to be able to click on the Key “Severe” etc. and instantly see what those levels mean).
The Factory Farm Map helps to make publicly available USDA data more usable and transparent. And the map helps to show, for instance, the concentrations of giant livestock operations that are polluting the environment in certain regions. The map also will hopefully help spark conversation about U.S. farm policy that forces farmers to get big to make a living.
Be America’s Next Top Foodie!
- Topics:
- Blog
Friday, December 3rd, 2010, 11:44 AM
This is a great opportunity for farmers, food justice advocates, food policy wonks, community gardening maestros and more.
Read on…
The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) is providing fellowships for individuals interested in food justice work. Fellows receive an annual stipend of $35,000 along with communications support, trainings, and travel to two or three gatherings per year. The next class will serve from April 1, 2011 to March 30, 2013.
If you are an emerging leader and have specific interest in working to make healthy food accessible in communities of color, low-income communities the IATP encourages your to apply. (People of color and applicants who work in communities of color are particularly encouraged to apply.)
The deadline is January 18, 2011. Send your materials via the IATP website. Click here for more info.
The Factory Farm Map from Food & Water Watch
- Topics:
- Food Industry News & Trends, Meat Industry
Thursday, December 2nd, 2010, 10:42 AM
Food & Water Watch released this interactive map of factory farms in the United States.
I posted a link on Twitter and a farmer who saw my post responded with these Tweets:
Do you really think your “factory farm map” is accurate? Really?
As a farmer is it [sic] insulting!
I was sorry that a farmer anywhere would find the map insulting. It’s not designed to disparage all farmers.
In fact, the map (and I think it actually could make this point more clearly) is not a map of all farms and farmers in the U.S. It is only plotting those factory farms in each county with very high livestock densities (you can see the detail here in their methodology page). (Personally, I think it would be a simple/helpful change for viewers to be able to click on the Key “Severe” etc. and instantly see what those levels mean).
The Factory Farm Map helps to make publicly available USDA data more usable and transparent. And the map helps to show, for instance, the concentrations of giant livestock operations that are polluting the environment in certain regions. The map also will hopefully help spark conversation about U.S. farm policy that forces farmers to get big to make a living.
A Farmer’s Story: Climate Crisis in the Fields
- Topics:
- Blog
Thursday, December 2nd, 2010, 10:21 AM
Hey all,
There’s a great op-ed in today’s New York Times about the view of climate change from the field.
In compelling detail, farmer Jack Hedin describes how his Iowa farm has weathered (or not) recent bouts of extreme climactic events, including massive floods.
I’m reminded reading his op-ed of two of the core take-home messages from writing my book: (1) no more business as usual: we simply cannot keep subsidizing fossil-fuel intensive agriculture that is so vulnerable to extreme weather events and think that everything is going to be okay, and (b) agriculture, no–more specifically agribusiness, needs to start taking some heat for its contribution to global warming.
Small Planet Fund Gala on Friday 12/10/10
- Topics:
- Blog
Tuesday, November 30th, 2010, 3:08 PM
Buy your tickets now and secure your spot at the Small Planet Fund gala on Friday December 10th and start sharpening those pencils (and elbows) for our best-ever silent auction, including…
Gift Certificates for some of NYC’s and BKLYN’s best eco-restaurants:
The Green Table
Almond Restaurant
iCi
Natural Gourmet Institute
Tuthilltown Spirits’ Hudson Whiskeys
Slow Food
Blue Hill Farm
Back Forty
Candle 79
GustOrganics
Jimmy’s No. 43
Angelica Kitchen
Blue Marble Ice Cream
Rose Water
Trips to Puerto Rico and Native Earth Teaching Farm on Martha’s Vineyard and an all inclusive package for two at Cotton Tree Lodge, a premier jungle lodge in Belize, Central America
Dinners with Anna Lappé and Frances Moore Lappé
Business Cards by top Eco-Printer, Greg Barber
Clothing, jewelry, and health & beauty products and services, including:
Socks from Maggie’s Organics
Jewelry by Me and Ro, Alexis Feldheim and Be the Change
Tigmi Bag from Simple Peace
Gifts from Roots Remedies and Aura Cacia
Makeup from Peacekeeper Cause-Metics
Yoga classes from Cobble Hill’s Mala Yoga and Laughing Lotus in NYC
Workshop at The NY Open Center
Nutrition and Wellness Consultation with Jennifer Medley
Yoga Clothes from be present
Bags from Make Love Not Trash
Gifts from Enessa Organic Skincare, EO Products and Think Baby
Recycled Sailcloth Handbag from Ella Vickers
Scarf from Foat Design
Nutritional Consultation and Signed Copy of Clean Plate Manhattan 2011 from Jared Koch
Herbal Consultation with Claudia Keel
Gift Baskets from our friends at:
Family Farm Defenders
Crop to Cup
Earthlust
Choice Organic Teas
Imagination Box Company
Equal Exchange
Conflict of Interest in the Food Industry
- Topics:
- Blog
Tuesday, November 30th, 2010, 2:19 PM
Great interview with Marion Nestle here about the rampant conflicts of interest in research on food and agricultural science.
Slow Food NYC Benefit
- Topics:
- Blog
Wednesday, November 24th, 2010, 12:34 AM
Founded in 1989, Slow Food is a global, grassroots organization with a mission to counter the rise of fast food and “fast life.” The organization promotes a deeper relationship with our food – from seed to plate.
Celebrate Slow Food NYC’s great accomplishments at their annual benefit in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, on Wednesday, December 8th from 6:30 to 9:30 pm.
As part of the fundraiser, an online auction is scheduled to start on Monday, November 29th (a live auction will follow at the benefit). Make sure to come out and support by purchasing advance tickets now here. For those who can’t attend, you can also make a donation.
Learn more about all of the amazing work Slow Food NYC is doing in schools here.
Click on the image below for additional info.
Slow Food NYC Benefit/Auction invitation
What Nourishes You This Thanksgiving?
- Topics:
- Blog
Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010, 12:29 AM
Alice Waters, Ian Marvy, Michael Pollan, Bryant Terry, Jamie Oliver, and me… weigh in on what nourish means to us.
eARTh — it’s beautiful
- Topics:
- Blog
Monday, November 22nd, 2010, 11:38 PM
The art is huge, and it’s beautiful. The ever-growing people’s movement 350.org just organized the largest art for social action event in human history. Art so big and powerful–you can see it from satellites high above us.
Here is one my favorites…
We All Live Down River Now
- Topics:
- Blog
Sunday, November 21st, 2010, 12:33 AM
One of my all-time favorite authors and advocates for a toxic-free world is Sandra Steingraber. See a trailer for her new film. I’m eager to work to bring a viewing here to the Big Apple.
Food Safety Bill Action
- Topics:
- Blog
Friday, November 19th, 2010, 4:28 PM
Hi all,
If you’re like me and it pisses you off that tens of thousands of people living in the United States are sickened, and many die, every year from the food they eat then you, like me, should care about the Food Safety bill in Congress right now.
Join the e-mail list of Food Democracy Now! to stay up to date about how to make sure your voice is heard in this historic debate, ensuring our food is safe AND our small-scale farmers are protected.
Anna
VIDEO: Check out HARMONY on NBC this Friday
- Topics:
- Blog
Friday, November 19th, 2010, 11:52 AM
NBC and Prince Charles pair up this Friday to air new doc, Harmony.
The film emphasizes the need to rethink our relationship with the planet, offering solutions to our global problems. For more info about the film click here.
Harmony Movie Trailer from Balcony Films on Vimeo.
Showtime details:
On NBC
Friday, November 19
10 pm EST
(Check your local area network to verify show time)
Help Rebuild Added Value’s Community Farm – Join Me for Dinner
- Topics:
- Blog
Sunday, October 24th, 2010, 2:03 PM
Join me Wednesday, Oct 27, at iCi Restaurant for a delicious dinner for a great cause.
Edible Buffalo in Buffalo
- Topics:
- Blog
Wednesday, October 13th, 2010, 12:20 PM
I had a fabulous time this weekend at the World On Your Plate conference in Buffalo.
As I try to do wherever I go, I ducked into the local coop for the weekend’s provisions with some local friends. I was pleased to see Diet for a Hot Planet featured along with the handsome, Edible Buffalo.
Mt Holyoke x 3
- Topics:
- Blog
Wednesday, October 6th, 2010, 10:13 PM
Spoke at Mt Holyoke tonight — third time in ten years. I’m reminded how impressed I’ve been every time by the savvy and spirit of the students. Food Justice Society students here already got 20-25% of their dining services to go local and created a (small) organic garden on campus that sells directly to the school.
Here’s a shot with the Weissman Center students and FJS co-founders.
Willie Says: The Good News Is We’re Still Here, The Bad News Is We’re Still Here
- Topics:
- Blog
Saturday, October 2nd, 2010, 12:36 AM
On plane home from Milwaukee where between the visit to Walnut Way’s community empowerment hub filled with art, food, and good cheer to the Unitarian Universalist West’s harvest festival to Farm Aid’s 25th anniversary celebration I am all abuzz. (It also might have had something to do with getting to be on stage with Willie Nelson, Neil Young, Dave Matthews, Tavis Smiley, and John Mellencamp!) Click here to learn more.
I also got to see old friend, like EarthDance founder Molly Rockamann and Family Farm Defenders John Peck and John Kinsman.
Coca-Cola and Portion Control
- Topics:
- Blog, Food Industry News & Trends
Thursday, September 30th, 2010, 4:16 PM
I’ve been meaning to write up an article about the Agriculture 2.0 conference last week in New York City, but between trips to Louisville, planning for Milwaukee tomorrow, shindigs with the Food and Society Fellows, not to mention hanging out with my fourteen-month-old–I’ve been a bit busy. But while I’m working on that piece… chew on this. This pic was taken at the cafeteria of Spalding University where I was a keynote for the 11th annual Healthy Foods Local Farms conference.
Note the sheer size of the cup. It was so large, you almost needed two hands to pick it up and you felt compelled to fill it up to the top or else you’d have to tilt the whole darn thing back. Fill it with Coke and you’re easily saying hello to more than 300 calories.
The head of sustainability for Coca-Cola was a keynote speaker at the conference last week. Wondering what part of sustainable is these size cups for college students.
“Mom, What’s for Dinner?” A New Resource Helps Answer the Question
- Topics:
- Blog
Thursday, September 30th, 2010, 2:06 PM
Do these three words — ‘what’s for dinner’ — send a shiver down your spine?
Well, my daughter at age 14 months can only muster “mom,” “dada,” and “duck,” but soon enough I’m sure she’ll be asking me that question, too, and I’ll want a good answer. Thankfully, a website launches today that provides parents of kids of any age tips to respond to this question with aplomb.
Parent Earth features some of the nation’s leading doctors and pediatricians, nutritionists, sustainable food advocates, holistic health counselors and notable names like chef Ann Cooper, best-selling author Paul Greenberg, documentary filmmaker Curt Ellis, nutritionist Latham Thomas — and I’ve contributed videos, too, and am slated for more in the coming months.
Ever wonder how to sneak more vegetables into a toddler’s lunch? Leading school reformer Chef Ann Cooper gives you simple tips.
Want to know how to ward off morning sickness while getting a healthy protein-packed snack? Nutrition educator Latham Thomas breaks it down for you.
Curious about an antidote to the Corn Refiners Association spin on corn? Hear filmmaker Curt Ellis and others break down this ubiquitous commodity.
As someone who has been working to change the food system for more than a decade, and as a new mom, I’m thrilled Parent Earth offers another tool in our toolbox to fix our broken food system and make it more fun to be a parent again.
Just last week, I read the sobering news that the United States had the worst rates of obesity out of all thirty-three countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, made up of 33 countries “committed to democracy and the market economy.” Here in New York City, the Department of Health reports that kids living in certain zip codes have some of the nation’s highest rates of obesity: In Corona, Queens, 51% of kids in kindergarten through 8th grade are overweight or obese.
The staggering statistics are enough to fire any of us up, right, but what about when we find ourselves in the kitchen, in the grocery store aisles, at the school board meeting debating school lunch? Parent Earth experts help navigate all this and more.
The site launches today, sign up to find out when new videos come online. I’ve already made my shopping list for that healthy trail mix and planning a veggie-filled lunch for my daughter. Thanks Parent Earth.
Look Who’s in New York Magazine
- Topics:
- Blog
Monday, September 20th, 2010, 8:46 PM
Came home tonight after a great day, including meetings with Rainforest Action Network’s Becky Tarbotton and Louisa Shafia and a tour of NYU library’s Food Studies special collection to find this week’s New York Magazine had some familiar faces in it.
Farm with a View
- Topics:
- Blog
Sunday, September 19th, 2010, 9:26 PM
Had a fabulous time today doing a baby food cooking demo and book reading with Annie of Eagle Street Farm and her crew. Along with sharing simple tips for making your own (easy) baby food, I talked about the food-climate connection and had a fabulous time. Ida devoured the green beans and the squash puree and loved playing in the dirt.
Kings County Farm Fair
- Topics:
- Blog
Thursday, September 9th, 2010, 2:47 PM
See you Sunday? I’ll be at participating in the daylong festival at The Invisible Dog. Check out the details here:
http://brooklynbased.net/everything/kings-county-fair/
What’s the story of your food?
- Topics:
- Blog
Thursday, August 26th, 2010, 11:07 AM
Check out this video from Nourish, a multi-year media and education initiative aimed at getting people to think and learn more about the food system – and to get involved in the food revolution.
Watch, listen to Katherine Leiner’s story of Growing Roots
- Topics:
- Blog
Tuesday, August 24th, 2010, 3:42 PM
Katherine Leiner’s new book Growing Roots: The New Generation of Sustainable Farmers, Cooks and Food Activists is a beautiful profile of the young people who are working to make our food system more healthy and nutritious for all!
Growing Roots from Wheelhouse Creative on Vimeo.
Great Democracy Now Segment on All Things Industrial Ag
- Topics:
- Blog
Tuesday, August 24th, 2010, 9:11 AM
David Kirby (Animal Factories) turns your stomach with tales of arsenic in chickens. Patty Lovera (Food & Watch Watch) tells it like it is about consolidation in ag. And Anuradha Mittal (Oakland Institute) talks about the new global land grab and what it means for food security.
All on Democracy Now! this morning.
Fixing Our Toxic Food Environment
- Topics:
- Blog
Monday, August 23rd, 2010, 1:56 PM
Natasha Singer takes on our toxic food environment in The New York Times. In “Fixing a World That Fosters Fat,” she argues that we’re bombarded every day by advertising and other toxic environmental factors that make it next to impossible to be a healthy nation. I’m reading David Kessler’s The End of Overeating, in which he makes the same case.
All of this should come as no surprise when we learn that Kellogg’s spends $15 million in just one year advertising Cap’n Crunch, while the past annual budget for USDA’s 5-A-Day fruit and vegetable promotion program is only $5 million. Sigh.
Three Pillars of the Food Revolution
- Topics:
- Blog
Monday, August 23rd, 2010, 1:53 PM
With food companies and agribusiness stepping up their “green” marketing, how can we tell real climate-friendly food from fake? In my new piece for YES! magazine, I argue we can use a values-based approach to guide our decisions. Ecology, community and fairness are three that guide me–what guides you?
Do We Really Need a Math Lesson? Locavores Bite Back
- Topics:
- Blog
Monday, August 23rd, 2010, 1:52 PM
Self-proclaimed “liberal curmudgeon” Stephen Budiansky’s takes a jab at the locavore movement in “Locavores Need a Math Lesson” in The New York Times. (His simplistic read on what locavores stand for reminded me of the attack on the local food movement three years ago in the Grey Lady’s pages.
How’s our math, really? Check out my take, along with that from other colleagues on Grist.org. It’s part of a new series, Grist Talks: Food Fight, in which experts debate hot-button food topics, via a “virtual roundtable.”
One Straw Revolution
- Topics:
- Blog
Monday, August 23rd, 2010, 1:46 PM
One of the most inspiring books I read while working on Diet for a Hot Planet
was Masanobu Fukuoka’s classic The One-Straw Revolution.
I had been hearing about the book for ages from farmer friends who were influenced by it and I was mesmerized by page one. It’s part-practical farming advice, part-musing on the meaning of meaning of life.
So imagine my surprise to find a mention of the just-published new edition (with a foreword by my mom) in The Financial Times. Feels about as likely as Lady Gaga praising L.L. Bean footwear!
Got an Idea for Flooding “Food Deserts” with Nutrition? Enter the Better World Challenge
- Topics:
- Blog
Monday, August 23rd, 2010, 12:58 PM
Got a creative idea about how to address the lack of access to good healthy food endemic across the country?
Submit your idea to the “A Better World by Design” contest, hosted by Brown University and Rhode Island School of Design. The first ever Better World Challenge, the contest is open to students and student-led organizations from around the globe. Says an organizer: “This competition aims to inspire young innovators from multidisciplinary backgrounds to solve the food desert problem.”
Deadline for entries has been extended to September 15th, so spread the word or enter your idea today and let us know.
Brooklyn’s Good Food Fest: Grub with a Purpose!
- Topics:
- Blog
Monday, August 23rd, 2010, 12:20 PM
Attention Brooklynites! Mark your calendar for Sunday, September 12th! So much great stuff going on that day in Brooklyn, from the Brooklyn Book Festival (yours truly is participating) to the “Good Food Fest” sponsored by the Fort Greene/Clinton Hill chapter of the Brooklyn Food Coalition, and lots of other great orgs. The Good Food Fest is a fun-filled street fair to raise awareness about sustainable living and healthy, delicious and affordable food. The festival will be held on Myrtle Avenue between Vanderbilt Avenue and Clinton Avenue. –Kate
Weekday Vegetarian in TIME
- Topics:
- Blog
Thursday, August 19th, 2010, 12:45 PM
Meatless Mondays? A steak only on Saturdays? Check out what Graham Hill, founder of TreeHugger, and others have to say about the “eat less meat” movement that is starting to gain momentum, in this post from TIME magazine. And let us know what you think – have you cut back on meat? How is your diet different these days?
Ecology, Community, Fairness: Three Pillars of a Food Revolution
- Topics:
- Blog
Thursday, August 19th, 2010, 11:09 AM
The Three Pillars of a Food Revolution takes a values-based approach to help us sift through the “green” marketing schemes pushed by food companies and agribusiness and to better understand the true food and climate connection.
DHP on Tree Hugger’s Must Read List
- Topics:
- Blog
Thursday, August 19th, 2010, 10:37 AM
I’m honored that Tree Hugger added Diet for a Hot Planet to their list of “7 Must-Read New Books for Sustainable Eating.” And I’m honored to be in such great company, with Tracey Ryder and Carole Topalian, who produced a book based on the beautiful Edible magazines, Mark Bittman, Michael Pollan and others. There’s still a few weeks of summer reading time left, so check out the list today!
Joan Dye Gussow’s New Garden
- Topics:
- Blog
Wednesday, August 18th, 2010, 12:22 PM
Check out this lovely feature from the New York Times that celebrates the life and work of Joan Dye Gussow and the rebirth of her famed backyard garden, which was destroyed by flooding in the spring.
Meat Meet Colbert
- Topics:
- Blog
Tuesday, August 17th, 2010, 11:23 AM
Need a humor break? Check out Steven Colbert’s “interview” with the president of the American Meat Institute. When your main spokesperson can’t effectively endorse your product, maybe it’s time to rethink your product?
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Better Know a Lobby – American Meat Institute | ||||
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Urban Chickens, Rooftop Farms, and You
- Topics:
- Blog
Thursday, August 12th, 2010, 1:29 PM
I’ll be speaking at an “Edible Garden” Food for Thought event next week at the lovely New York Botanical Gardens. In the meantime, check out NYGB’s blog and my post about how to support a climate-friendlier food system.
Growing Food and Growing Farmers
- Topics:
- Blog
Tuesday, August 10th, 2010, 11:45 AM
Check out this news feature about my friend Molly Rockamann and her farm apprenticeship program in St. Louis, Missouri.
Farmers Markets Growing All Around the Country!
- Topics:
- Blog, Local Food, Organic Food & Farming
Thursday, August 5th, 2010, 11:33 AM
This week, August 1 to 7, is National Farmers Market Week (have you gone to buy your peak season tomatoes and corn yet??). And what better way to celebrate than with news from the USDA that farmers markets have grown by 16 percent since last year! The 2010 National Farmers Market Directory lists 6,132 operational farmers markets across the nation.
“Seeing such continued strong growth in the number of U.S. farmers markets indicates that regional food systems can provide great economic, social and health benefits to communities across the country,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “Farmers markets provide fresh, local products to communities across the country while offering economic opportunities for many producers of all sizes.”
To find a market in your area, click here.
Modern Day Slavery Exhibit this week in NYC
- Topics:
- Blog, Organic Food & Farming
Monday, August 2nd, 2010, 2:15 PM
Slavery is thought to have ended more than a century ago – but in fact, for agricultural workers in Florida, contemporary slavery still exists.
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), an amazing community-based group that fights for farmworkers, has put together a Modern-Day Slavery Museum exhibit to call attention to this issue.
The centerpiece of the museum exhibit is a box truck outfitted as a replica of the trucks used to enslave tomato pickers in a brutal case (prosecuted in federal court in 2008). The truck was developed in consultation with workers who have escaped from slavery operations, as well as leading academic authorities on labor history and the subject of forced labor. The CIW has aided the DOJ in the prosecution of 6 farmworker slavery operations, leading to the liberation of well over 1,000 workers. A federal indictment for the 8th case of farmworker slavery to happen since 1997 was just unsealed this month.
The truck and the accompanying multimedia exhibit look at the history of forced labor, why it continues to occur, and the solution that is being forged to pull slavery up by its roots.
The exhibit is traveling throughout the northeast and is here in New York City this week:
Monday, August 2
Cathedral of St. John the Divine
1047 Amsterdam Ave.
10am – 9pm
Tuesday, August 3
Judson Memorial Church
55 Washington Square South
10am – 9pm
Wednesday, August 4
Middle Collegiate Church
50 E. 7th Street
10am – 9pm
Krugman Nails It: Who Cooked the Planet?
- Topics:
- Blog
Monday, July 26th, 2010, 3:29 PM
Krugman has a great piece in The Times today on our collective failure in getting our act together for serious climate legislation.
It’s been broiling in New York City this past week. So hot, we’ve barely been able to take our one-year old outside for fear of her overheating. I don’t need another 100-degree day to remind me how high are the stakes.
And in case you missed it… listen to Hey Paul Krugman.
Green Screens at Lincoln Center
- Topics:
- Blog
Monday, July 26th, 2010, 3:24 PM
Come out, cool off, and join us Thursday at Lincoln Center’s Green Screens series. They’ll be showing the WhyHunger short film, The Food and Climate Connection, along with the feature-length, Climate Refugees. I’ll be speaking with a few other people after the film.
A still (of yours truly) from the film:
All You Can Eat: Hunger in America
- Topics:
- Blog
Friday, July 23rd, 2010, 3:18 PM
I’m reading Joel Berg’s All You Can Eat. I started reading it while eating lunch today and was viscerally aware of the dissonance of reading about hunger, while eating a grilled cheese sandwich.
Says Berg: “Hunger amidst a sea of plenty is a phenomenon as American as baseball, jazz, and apple pie.”
Veggie Hugger or Meat Lover?
- Topics:
- Blog, Meat Industry, Organic Food & Farming
Thursday, July 22nd, 2010, 4:27 PM
Weighing in here on the Mother Jones debate about meat vs. vegetarianism.
I found the other “experts” posts interesting and the commentary sharp. Was surprised to read Joel Salatin say this, though:
5. All of the negatives associated with meat, dairy, and poultry consumption stem from non-pastured production models and/or monospeciation. This includes both nutritional problems (i.e. colon cancer from red meat) to environmental considerations (i.e. irrigation water required to grow grain). This also includes humane farming considerations. In addition, far more herbivores (bison) existed in the Americas 600 years ago than exist today: The notion that methane from burping herbivores causes climate change is both unscientific and ridiculous.
Take a look at the rebuttal over at the Center for a Livable Future.
Gulf Coast Fundraiser
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Monday, July 19th, 2010, 11:32 AM
Enjoy a night of New Orleans inspired food and drink and Dixieland tunes in support of Gulf Coast fisherman and their families on Monday, July 26, 2010.
Mary Cleaver (The Cleaver Company and Green Table) and Karen Lashinsky (632 on Hudson and 632 Below) are launching their “Food for Thought” series, fundraising events at 632 Below to raise money for causes related to the health of our food supply. Proceeds from this inaugural “Food for Thought” event will go to The Greater New Orleans Foundation’s Gulf Coast Oil Spill Fund, supporting fishermen and their families.
Monday, July 26, 2010
6:30 pm
632 Hudson St.
New York, NY 10011
WATCH The Food and Climate Connection
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Monday, July 12th, 2010, 12:18 PM
The Food and Climate Connection from WhyHunger on Vimeo.
Learn more and read more at WhyHunger’s Learning Center.
Hip Hip Hooray for the CSA
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Friday, July 2nd, 2010, 1:41 PM
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) can be a vital tool for connecting eaters cities with fresh, healthy food and the farmers who grow it. But the typical CSA is not affordable to many living in low income neighborhoods, yet these communities tend to be the most in need of greater access to better foods.
A new project connecting the South Bronx to an upstate farm is aimed at turning around this paradigm – and ensuring that everyone has access to fresh food.
The new Corbin Hill Rd. Farm is a Community Shareholder Farm (CSF) is turning the traditional CSA model on its head: community members become owners of the farm, the land, and the process for producing food. According to founder Dennis Derryck, both upstate farmers and South Bronx residents are excited about the new farm, the fresh food and the unique model.
Unlike traditional CSAs where you pay up front in full for the entire growing season, the CSF model allows members to pay partially up front, or pay on a week-to-week basis for produce. Down the road, Dennis hopes that participants will own shares in the farm, going from participants to shareholders. A number of CSA programs, in partnership with community groups, around the country are experimenting with creative financing options, to make becoming a shareholder of a farm accessible for more of us.
As the movement toward food justice and food sovereignty takes shape in the U.S. and around the work, this is a model worth paying attention to and supporting. Read the NYT story on Corbin Hill.
–Kate
A Shout Out for the Center for a Livable Future
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Friday, July 2nd, 2010, 1:33 PM
Thanks so much to Rebecca Kanter at the Center for a Livable Future at Johns Hopkins for her thoughtful review of Diet for a Hot Planet. She even includes a sketch of the greenhouse gases emitted on the journey from livestock to meat production.
The Center for a Livable Future is a great resource – it does terrific work studying the links between diet and health, including the effects of industrial agriculture.
I’ve used the Center as a resource for many years, including in Diet for a Hot Planet. Check ‘em out.
A Pressing Issue: David and Goliath Battle on GM Alfalfa and How the Media Got it Wrong
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Thursday, June 24th, 2010, 1:13 PM
With all the confusion around about the recent Supreme Court ruling, we wanted to share this missive from Lisa J. Bunin, Ph.D. of the Center for Food Safety. –Anna & Kate
The media got it wrong and let the public down when it erroneously reported Monsanto’s wholesale victory in its Supreme Court appeal of the GM alfalfa case — the first-ever Supreme Court case on GMOs (Monsanto Co. v Geertson Seed Farms). Despite claims and headlines to the contrary, Monsanto is still prohibited from selling and planting its Roundup Ready GM alfalfa. The true victors in the case are farmers, consumers and environmentalists who have argued that planting GM alfalfa would contaminate conventional and organic crops and lead to spraying noxious pesticides in regions where over 90% of alfalfa farmers do not use or need them.