Obama's Choice for Agriculture

I now follow Michael Pollan's thoughts on food... and below is one of reactions on Obama's pick of Vilsack for Agriculture Secretary (not a good pick). Why do I follow this? Because I loath factory farms, confinement of animals, the fast food industry, chemicals, greenhouse gases (1/3 caused by agri-business) and like the idea of rolling green pastures and cows and chickens feeding on the grass. It so serene....

Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2008 12:25 EST
Michael Pollan reacts to Vilsack at Agriculture
About two weeks ago, some prominent activists for agricultural reform, including Michael Pollan, wrote a letter pleading with Barack Obama to break with tradition on agriculture policy. Noting this letter, in which Pollan et al. suggested some potential appointees Obama could choose, I pointed out that they were fighting tradition, as “the job of agriculture secretary is often a token post for a Farm Belt politician, who presides over a department largely interested in the interests of agribusiness.” Well, now Obama has chosen former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack for the post, about as Farm Belt politician as it gets. Here’s what Pollan told Salon about the appointment: Am I thrilled? You know look, if I missed something, he didn’t use the word food in his comments this morning. His focus is very much on production and agriculture. His record in Iowa does not give much one much reason to believe he’s going to bring a reformist agenda to the Department of Agriculture. Though there are some glints of light in that record. He’s shown some interest in developing local food economies in Iowa, which is encouraging. He’s in favor of capping subsidies in a serious way and moving the savings to conservation. The fact that he’s Tom Harkin’s pick gives me some grounds for hope. But, Pollan noted, Vilsack presided over a huge expansion of confined animal feeding operations, and is very close to the biotech industry. He was biotech governor of the year. And he has very close relations to Monsanto. As with every other pick, the focus is on the Nixon-in-China scenario, the hopeful fantasy, which is that these people will be able to drive reform in their bureaucracies -- that's the story of this Cabinet. Whether that comes true or not, we’re just going to have to wait and see.
― Gabriel Winant

Still Squashing?

Believe it or not, its 3 months since I picked the last of the butternut squash before the first frost in September, and I'm still baking, mashing, pureeing, whipping, and spreading squash! I've found more ways to use squash than O'Bama found ways to get folks to vote him in for President. There ARE a lot of squash recipes out there, but I actually found more ways to use it using pumpkin recipes. Rather than pumpkin butter, I made squash butter. We've been eating squash pies nearly every weekend for 3 months. I made squash bars, pureed butternut squash soup with leeks and fennel (luscious), Squash with Pear soup (doubly luscious), mashed squash with brown sugar, cubed squash with chipolte peppers and white beans (yum), squash drop cookies, and even tried raw squash cookies but screwed them up. I baked the squash first and you were supposed to use shredded raw squash. Doh. I may try that one again. Anyway, the point I'm making here is "Waltham" variety of Butternut Squash is a very, very good keeper. I've been storing the squash at a temp of about 60 (ideal is 50) and they've been holding up quite well. I'm sure I'll be able to use up the last of them in the next month. Awesome. Rick and I both love it, so its a keeper to grow year after year. Its so much more manageable than pumpkin which takes up too much space AND what do you do with all those huge pumpkins. Butternut Squash is the ticket.

Monsanto Drops Milk Growth Hormone Business

It appears chemical giant Monsanto has lost their milk hormone growth battle and have sold their Posilac business. For several years, retailers have slowly stopped carrying milk coming from cows treated with hormone growth, a.k.a. rBGH. The beef with rBGH? Many farmers and animal advocates believe this growth hormone is harmful to cows and many mothers worry that it might actually cause cancer in humans — all this just to get cows to pump up their production of milk by one gallon a day? Starbucks, Walmart, -- other countries banned the usage of the treatment. All the while Monsanto battled several states -- Pennsylvania being one of them -- over milk labeling issues asking states to put on labels that there's no difference between the two m ilks (Huh?). I guess when Walmart dumped them, they decided that's a battle too big to be won, and they gave up. But buyers beware... the reported buyers are the makers of Prozac and Cialis - Eli Lilly. Here's their "vision" of the product from their press release. Wanna play it safe? BUY ORGANIC MILK!!!!

Interesting Writing on Seeds

I said it before, and I'll say again and again and again -- the book Depletion and Abundance has SO influenced me and many of the things the author, Sharon Astyk, writes about are happening today (financial crisis, economy failing, etc.). She just posted an interesting article on seeds whereby we could see a shortage as more and more people start growing their own food. She too orders from FEDCO, one of the aboslute best seed companies in America! The nice thing about FEDCO seeds is many of them are open pollinated and you can save the seed from year to year - thus, even less cost to growing your own food.

2009 Growing Season Begins

The seed and plant order is placed with FEDCO. Being sick the past two days gave me an opportunity to study the catalog and decide on what's going in the garden. My mother used to always tell me growing up that my eyes were bigger than my stomach. I wonder if that's the case with my spring plantings?? New this year are potatoes, dried beans, celery for drying, and strawberries. I nixed the wheat idea -- way too much to harvest and mill for the little need I have for flour, which I can get spelt flour locally which is working out nicely. Also, there's no flowers which is unusual for me too. I have some flower seeds left over from last year that I'll stick in here and there (mostly flowers to attract beneficial insects - sunflowers, zinnias) and I always seem to have a couple volunteer sunflowers come up. So here's next year's plantings. The bottom may drop out of the economy, but Rick and me (and maybe some of my family) will be eating well! The plan is to can, freeze, and dehydrate a good bit of food next year. I'll keep you posted.

Black Valentine Bush Green Bean

Cannellini Bean

Tiger Eye Bean

Red Kidney Bean

Midnight Black Turtle Bean

Spring Treat Yellow Sweet Corn

Pennsylvania Dutch Butter Flavored Popcorn

Oregon Giant Snow Pea

Black Zucchini

Waltham Butternut Winter Squash

Sugarsnax Carrot

Early Wonder Tall Top Beet

Bulls Blood Beet

Misato Rose Radish

Purple Top White Globe Turnip

Space Spinach

Jericho Lettuce

Forest Green Parsley

Arcadia Broccoli

Champion Collards

Red Russian Kale

Safir Cutting Celery

Swallow Eggplant

Long Red Narrow Cayenne Hot Pepper

Revolution Sweet Pepper

Amish Paste Paste Tomato

Early Girl Tomato

Genovese Basil

Purple Ruffles Basil

Zefa Fino Fennel

Stuttgarter Onion Sets

French Fingerling Potato

Larouge Red Potato

Blueray Blueberry

Jersey Blueberry

Earliglow Strawberry

Honeoye Strawberry

Organicgirl Produce Response - Not From China!

Here's Organicgirl Produce's response to my inquiry on where their greens are grown. My hunch was INCORRECT and they aren't from China.

Miss Jill-

I apologize for not getting back to you sooner, I was out on Friday and just this morning got back into the office. Thanks for emailing me your concerns about our growing practices at organicgirl. I want you to know that we absolutely support American farms, drawing from a vast network of certified organic farmers to grow the very best organic product possible for organicgirl good clean greens and good fresh veggies. We are farmers ourselves, and understand first and foremost the importance placed on a quality pool of farmers to harvest the best possible produce for organicgirl, which is why we farm in both the United Stated and Mexico. We draw from multiple specialty vegetable organic growers with an ideal climate and soil suited for certain veggies.

In addition, there are many decisions that affect where we grow our organic produce, the most important being Mother Nature herself. We grow in premier growing regions that are best suited for our organic vegetables, which vary by specific vegetable, by time of year, and by climate, to name the most compelling reasons. Some vegetables, for example, require a certain temperature and soil nutrients for optimum growth, and these regions are found in the United States as well as Mexico, sometimes in both growing regions at the same time, sometimes only in Mexico, and sometimes only in the United States. Again, this varies by season, by climate, and by veggie.

On another note, our Mexican facilities are of the same caliber as our domestic facilities, following U.S. regulations and independently audited by certified third parties on a regular basis. I can understand your hesitance with non-domestic growing and processing facilities, but the same care that we place on quality control standards in the US apply to all our operations, regardless of location.

In addition to growing in both the United States and Mexico, we process in Salinas, CA, Yuma, AZ, and Mexicali, Mexico, with a workforce of about 200 employees. organicgirl has been, and continues to be, a progressive company when it comes to employee welfare. organicgirl is unique in providing quality child care and educational services to our Mexico employees for three decades, our proudest accomplishment as a company by far. organicgirl children are provided child care in a safe and clean environment, we well as classroom instruction from Kindergarten through 6th grade, all in an organicgirl sponsored on-site facility. In addition, daily nutritious meals are provided for all the children enrolled. We’ve been doing this for decades and continue to do so, because we believe change starts from within.

In regards to our growing practices, our growers are cognizant of, and have reduced the use of high water cover crops, leading to a reduction in overall water usage. Our crop rotations are purposeful, returning much needed nutrients to the soil, and supplementing with natural soil amendments to maintain soil quality. Because we grow organic, we embrace practices with Mother Nature in mind. We utilize laser and GPS during field preparation to maximize use of land and water, further reducing and at times eliminating unnecessary cultivation. Maximizing field leads to minimized bed preparation thus minimized diesel use. In addition, we utilize drip irrigation as much as possible on our crops, and encourage our growers to do so as well, to better utilize and closely monitor precious water resources. Even our tender leaf crops (spring mix, spinach, etc.) that require sprinkler irrigation are watered at night or very early morning out of the wind to reduce wasted resources. We also utilize refrigerated trucks in the field to maximize product quality and minimize the number of hauls from the field to the cooler, eliminating dead trips with empty trucks and wasted fuel, resulting in overall decreased costs.

I hope helps with any concerns you may have about our growing practices here at organicgirl.

Thanks,
-organicgirl

On a Roll - Organicgirl Produce - Where Does it Originate?

I'm determined now... just where does this company grow their organic greens? If you saw one of my earlier posts, I broke down and bought organic produce from Walmart. It bothered me ever since and I'm now on a quest to find out where its from. I've e-mailed the company twice (no response). I also posed the question to Walmart via product comments AND through an e-mail to customer service (no response). I now found the phone number to the company and plan to call them. I'll let you know the answer.

Organic Food - What You Need to Know

To Buy or Not To Buy Organic by Cindy Burke is yet another book filling up my appetite of book consumption lately. This one took the last two books - In Defense of Food and Deep Economy - a step further than building local, sustainable food economies, and dug a little deeper into the world of organic food production. The author sited specific foods you should ONLY buy organic, and others that are OK to purchase conventionally. Her listing is the same as the Environmental Working Group's Dirty Dozen, but she has a more comprehensive listing filling 20 pages of the book. She then goes into where to find organic foods and lists organizations/websites in support of organics. But before she got there, she talked a lot about what organic food really is (no chemicals/sustainable growing practices, etc), and where its going or is already there -- i.e., agribusiness buying into the organic movement and defeating the purpose of "sustainable" local farming practices. That's the part of the book that hit home. Many small, sustainable organic farmers have been undermined by the big guys slapping the USDA organic sticker on their food and selling that organic product for a much cheaper price. You and I have seen it at GIANT and WALMART, and yes I was very happy to finally see organics at the grocery store. They now carry organic products at relatively affordable prices. But my eyes have now opened up to the reality of grocery chain organics. The big guy's main concern is bottom line income and pay no attention to the environmental issues surrounding organic food production on a large scale. The USDA organic sticker does in fact mean the food is certified organic -- it's certified organic seed and certifiably grown without pesticides and in the case of meat/dairy/eggs, no hormone growth drugs or antibiotics used in the animals. So you are safe in buying organic if all you are concerned about is no pesticides or drugs in the food. What the USDA doesn't regulate with organics is where the food comes from (shipping costs from China or other countries), large scale production (i.e., Dole still uses really big tractors and oil consumption to produce that organic spinach), and in the case of milk, they do not regulate if the cow was raised in a feedlot never seeing the light of day - the cow simply has to be fed organic grains and not given any antibiotics. And the other sad part of organics going large-scale? It's now just another governmental bureaucracy. I've seen and read the USDA standards for organic certification and it would take a full-time employee just to keep up with the standards. And that's precisely what many of the smaller farms are experiencing -- the paperwork is dismal, bureaucratic red tape, not worth the certification. It is costly (certification cost is based on your income), and you have to renew annually AND allow the inspector to poke around your farm each year to assure you are meeting the standards. So what does a consumer do - what do they buy? Sustainable, locally grown produce. Apparently, local sustainability is the latest buzz and you will find many, many local farmers at farmer's markets that practice sustainability and do not use pesticides. But they can't call themselves organic because they aren't certified as such. Little did I realize, that's what I've been doing for years. Last year, I had thought when I retire in two years I'd get on the USDA certification bandwagon and be certified organic. After reading my last three books, my thoughts have changed (even before I read this book when I downloaded the USDA "book" on standards) and I think I'll keep doing what I've been doing for 16 years... composting, crop rotation, IPM, hand weeding (mulch!), planting herbs for the good bugs to kill off the bad bugs -- all the ingredients for sustainability. Bottom line? Buy locally. If you can find organics locally, even better. Buy into a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). I'll just bet they are organic. The cost to the environment to purchase that China-grown organic spinach simply isn't worth it. I'll go without until spring.

Falling Off the Wagon a Bit

The Eat Local Challenge in October was a learning experience -- a concept reiterated in In Defense of Food, Abundance and Depletion, Deep Economy and many other books out there on the shifting economy and food sourcing. A gal at work talked about watching a show, the Lipstick Jungle (I'm embarrassed to say I never saw or heard of it until now!) and how the girls were going to attempt to eat Thanksgiving Dinner locally. She got a kick out of this...but thought it was a good idea - and of course it struck up a conversation about it. While some things I learned about "stuck" like the elimination of boxed, processed cereal, most meat (although I'll do an occassional local organic piece of meat), many processed food items or food with more than 5 ingredients in it, and weekly trips to the farmers market for local apples/vegetables, etc. Other things I love were much more difficult in keeping it local. The local milk made me fat, so I gave it, cheese, and butter up. Thus, soy milk is processed and not local along with organic vegetable margarine. So there's my first trip-up. Pasta -- I missed it immensely and start buying east coast-made pasta (Ohio). No, its certainly not local, but at least I'm trying to keep it regional. And the worst one of them all, I've been craving fresh greens for a salad and was sucked in by this product -- organicgirl. After spending nearly an hour trying to research the source and the supposedly "compostable" container, I've come to the conclusion its from China the compostable container really isn't compostable - you have to take it to a commercial/municipal composter -- it won't compost in the backyard compost pile. I e-mailed the company asking where their product is grown and of course I got no reply. I sent a second e-mail and I'm waiting to hear (I told them I'm not purchasing from them anymore and will tell others to do the same if they don't reply). The only tiny thing I found out was the owner was under another company name and the CEO had an oriental name. Hmm. Buggers. So always, always be wary of any product that is pre-packaged and claims to be organic. Now the hard part is getting back on that wagon. Eating local is not an easy task in winter! Can't wait until next spring, summer, and fall, to grow, grow, grow and harvest, harvest, harvest, and can, can, can. It'll be a busy year next year.

Feeling the Pinch - But Not Really - Yet

Depletion and Abundance was a book that at first I viewed as radical -- using solar stoves to cook? Getting ready for a depression? Ha! I thought. My view was (note I said WAS) that government would never let that happen. Well...my thoughts are changing as the economy continues to spiral in a downward momentum - especially now that it hit home yesterday when the Governor froze my salary. I'm ok with that now after I got over the initial shock (I'm still very gratefully working unlike my hubby who is sitting on pins and needles awaiting the feared unemployment announcement - its not definite, but he's concerned as are his co-workers). BUT, it did make me think a whole lot more about how to conserve the money I have AND it really made me think about the future and where we are going. I'm sure I'm like millions and millions of others who are really tightening the belt and as we do so, we're adding to the downturn of the economy. But it can't be helped... its a vicious cycle that doesn't appear to be ending anytime soon. We stop spending, businesses go under, more people get laid off, more comes out of our pockets and we stop spending even more and even more companies go under, etc., etc. This is the exact path that Sharon wrote about in one of her chapters in Depletion and Abundance -- the Depression. (The book focuses on "peak oil" whereby be run out of oil and how we live after that -- but she relates it to the great depression and how they survived). The scarier part is that this recession we are currently in has just started and will grow. During the Depression, rock-bottom of 25% unemployment and food lines didn't hit until 3 years later. So my dear friends, tighten your seat belts - we're in for a ride and major changes in how we live. Read the writings of Sharon Astyk -- it'll amaze you how she's on the money. She also shares some really good ideas, albeit radical, on how to cut back, save some money, and survive it all. It may even be fun she says. Huh?