More Deliberate Every Day

Where Have You Been?

OK, OK, I know.  It's not you who haven't been here lately, but me.  And some of you have taken the time to drop me a line and let me know you noticed.

But I've been here, observer-goggles on and at the ready, paying attention.  And there's still a lot to be said.

Part of the lack of posts goes back to the origin of this blog.  I put it up early in the spring of 2007 as a way to get very vocal about the 2007 Food & Farm Bill and add my household's voice to the growing cry for reform and rational legislation.  In addition, our awareness of Peak Oil and its likely impact on society as we know it required further investigation.  So I started the blog as an attempt to bring more light to those issues, and to determine whether there were others with the same concerns.

Well, did we ever learn there were others.  And now, if you want to read up on the food crisis in our society or the impact of global oil supply and demand, you don't need to stop here at our humble blog, all you need to do is read the cover stories of any reputable newspaper in the world, or turn on the 24-hour news channel of your choice.  Both topics are in the headlines, every day.

So where does that leave this blog?  It means we're going to change here, but not go away.  This summer has been a time of exploration and meditation.  We've been spending some time with our farmer friends, with our Slow Food friends, with our backyard vegetable garden.  There are some new things we want to talk about, but they continue to revolve around simplicity and rational living.  

Once we finish putting up for the winter I'll be back.  So be patient and enjoy the summer while it lasts.  It'll be over before you know it! 

Food Prices and How the World Responds

I know prices are rising here, but what about the rest of the world?  Global prices on rice have risen fifty percent in the last two weeks and in poor parts of the world leaders are beginning to fear eruptions of violence as a result.  In an article posted Sunday at The Guardian by Peter Beaumont, he writes that while all prices are rising due to global inflation, it's the increases on rice that are most keenly felt:

Rice is the staple food for more than half the world's population. This is the second year running in which production - which increased in real terms last year - has failed to keep pace with population growth. The harvest has also been hit by drought, particularly in China and Australia, forcing producers to hoard their crops to satisfy local markets.

The increase in rice prices - which some believe could increase by a further 40 per cent in coming months - has matched sharp inflation in other key food products. But with rice relied on by some eight billion people, the impact of a prolonged rice crisis for the world's poor - a large part of whose available income is spent on food - threatens to be devastating.

Reasons cited for the price increases include the noted droughts in Southeast Asia and Australia and a switch of agricultural focus toward grains used for ethanol production, most notably to supply the U.S.'s demand for that fuel which as yet is unproven as an alternative form of energy to reduce reliance on crude oil.  And that only goes to demonstrate again how lifestyle changes are what's called for here, not trying to squeeze more cheap energy out of the earth.

I know, we'll replace it with Soylent Green!  Not a joke about Charlton Heston, but rather a very real discussion that's going on in the corporate boardrooms of the food system in this country.  Last week Tom Philpott took uber-foodies Alice Waters and Michael Pollan to task at Grist for their stance that more expensive food prices could be good for our food system.  Their perspective is that inflation across grocery products would level the playing field for local, organic producers and thus make that food more readily available to the economically challenged (read:  poor) in our cities.  And while he backed off from this a bit (but not completely) in his post earlier this week, his key point is that if the crap food producers can absorb any of the commodity price increases flowing through the system and not pass those increases on to their customers it will make the worst food even more appealing.  And he points out that one of the ways to absorb those price increases is to reformulate the food itself, using cheaper inputs.  Pretty sure those replacements won't be sustainable, local, and organic.  Yuck!

How are the farmers responding to the current situation?  In an article in today's New York Times, David Streitfeld writes that with those same commodity prices rising, farmers are abandoning efforts previously focused on conservation in favor of growing crops more intensely, hoping to capitalize on higher profits 'while the gettings good'.  This of course leaves the land in worse shape and threatens its viability as food producing in the future:  the very definition of non-sustainable.  From the article:

Environmental and hunting groups are warning that years of progress could soon be lost, particularly with the native prairie in the Upper Midwest. But a broad coalition of baking, poultry, snack food, ethanol and livestock groups say bigger harvests are a more important priority than habitats for waterfowl and other wildlife. They want the government to ease restrictions on the preserved land, which would encourage many more farmers to think beyond conservation.

This kind of thinking gets us into trouble every single time.  Crisis arrives and we throw overboard every good and sustainable practice we have in order to respond to a short term impact to our day-to-day lives.  One of these days, it's going to come back to bite us.

As for my house, we're buying local and organic as often as possible, from people we know who raise the food themselves.  When does the farmers market open where you are?

I know I've been out of the mix for awhile, but at least I thought this would be done.  Despite the fact that I've been writing on this blog about the impending 2007, er, 2008 Farm Bill for over a year now, it appears the volume of commentary is not directly correlated to the completion of that effort.  As noted yesterday by Keith Good at Farm Policy, it appears more extensions of the 2002 legislation are in the works. Which is only slightly better than reverting back to the original legislation, which would put farmers nationwide back into the stone-ages of industrial agriculture.  No version, whether it be the original legislation from pre-1950's, the current version under discussion, or the 2002 version, really address payment limits, rural development, and conservation as they need to.  All while tainted, unhealthy food continues to feed America's children, and make them sick.  And still nary a word about food policy from any of our three presidential candidates. . . Your elected officials are not only not fixing the food system in this country, but it's hardly even on their radar as a problem.  And it's getting worse every day.

What kind of lifestyle changes?, you ask. . . Always one to get my attention by leading off a post with a quote by Thoreau, Sharon at Casaubon's Book offers an extended meditation on use and disuse of all those appliances in the house, up to and including some items we have become convinced we absolutely cannot live without.  An expert on how we might respond to the crisis in food and energy in our world, Sharon is reinventing the notion of living Deliberately, considering her actions individually and making changes.  On the subject of that refrigerator in your kitchen, for instance, she offers an alternative to the approach we're all currently taking:

. . . what we do is freeze several large jugs of water and ice packs, and simply rotate them in the fridge. I put the jugs in, and when they are wholly melted, take them out and replace them with other ones and put them back in the freezer.  This keep us with a functional refrigerator, maybe not quite as cold as a regular fridge, but cold enough that you can feel it if you open the door.  Keeps food just fine.  The other 5 months a year, we don’t bother with this because we have natural refrigeration outside.

Read on for further insight into alternative uses for the dishwasher, microwave and my personal favorite, the clothes dryer.  And think about changes you can make, right now where you are.

Yikes! Where do we start?

Maybe it was daylight savings time that threw the world off-kilter since the weekend.  Maybe yesterday's revelation that the crusader for all things worthy has fallen from his pedestal.  Perhaps last week's rare snowfall punctuated our otherwise myopic expectations and revealed everything to be a hoax.  Regardless of the cause, now we've got some 'splaining to do.

That tap water's gonna make you sick.  Or cure you.  As has now been abundantly covered on the blogs, the Associated Press reported yesterday that a comprehensive study of tap water in cities nationwide has resulted in the discovery of an uncomfortably high (that's my interpretation) level of pharmaceutical drugs in our water supply.  This on the heels of thousands of eco-warriors proclaiming bottled water to be a plague on society and defending the quality of our drinking water.  According to the AP article,

People take pills. Their bodies absorb some of the medication, but the rest of it passes through and is flushed down the toilet. The wastewater is treated before it is discharged into reservoirs, rivers or lakes. Then, some of the water is cleansed again at drinking water treatment plants and piped to consumers. But most treatments do not remove all drug residue.

And while researchers do not yet understand the exact risks from decades of persistent exposure to random combinations of low levels of pharmaceuticals, recent studies -- which have gone virtually unnoticed by the general public -- have found alarming effects on human cells and wildlife.

Which leaves us with the conclusion that the despoliation of our planet is mostly complete, that we can't look back any longer to a halcyon age of pre-industrial simplicity -- the only way is the way forward, and moving forward means moving through what we've already done to our natural resources.  Whatever portion of them is left that is.  For more insight visit Colin at No Impact Man who reinforces why it is NOT time to convert to bottled water as well as Kat at Eating Liberally who notes "the beverage industry is ramping up production of “enhanced” bottled waters fortified with all kinds of supposedly nifty nutrients. Save your money, folks! Take it from the tap—apparently, it’s got traces of every prescription drug you could possibly need, and then some."  'Nuff said.

Luckily, our food supply is safe and secure.  Right?  Also to be found in yesterday's New York Times was an article by David Streitfeld which looks at the global demand on grain and the implications of shifts in economic power to the U.S.'s economy as well as food prices domestically.  Now, I'd rather be writing here about the ingenious recipe I put together on Sunday for herb-ed quinoa and black beans with sauteed spinach, but it appears that what is more critical to this brief post is an overview of the bird's-eye view of the future of food in America, right from the mouth of a producer:

Read Smith, a farmer in St. John, Wash., thinks a new era is at hand for all sorts of crops. “Price spikes have usually been short-lived,” he said. “I think this one is different.”

His example is plain old mustard. Two years ago, Mr. Smith would have been paid less than 15 cents a pound for mustard seeds. As more lucrative crops began supplanting mustard, dealers raised their offering price to 20 cents, then 30 cents, then 48 cents early this year. Mr. Smith gave in, agreeing to convert up to 100 acres of wheat fields to mustard.

Mr. Smith said it was inevitable that supermarket mustard, just like flour, bread and pasta, would become more expensive.

“We’ve lulled the public with cheap food,” he said. “It’s not going to be a steal anymore.”

If the era of cheap food is coming to a climactic end, let us now usher in the era of good, sustainable, fair food!  Better know your farmer. . .

Jeez.  At least I can count on milk.  Can I?  Sure, prices on milk are rising at pace with everything else in the supermarket, which puts even a greater squeeze on mass producers to find new ways to increase production and maximize efficiencies.  If only we could get the cows to make more and Can't afford to have any fall down on the job.  You get the idea.  Providing a solution is giant agricultural conglomerate Monsanto and its product Prosilac, promising to increase a cow's milk production by 10-40%.  Arguably, the hormone that forms the basis of this additive is naturally occurring, so why should we care?  Because since 1994 Monsanto has been producing genetically engineered bovine growth hormone, or rBST, and they don't want our milk labels to point out its use in the production of our milk.  From an article in the New York Times by Andrew Martin:

Advocates for Posilac, including Monsanto, have been complaining for years about milk labeled as free of artificial bovine growth hormone. In September 2006, Kevin Holloway, president of the Monsanto dairy unit, gave a speech in which he said the “fundamental issue” was dairy farmers’ ability to choose the best technology. “Dairy farmer choice to use a variety of F.D.A.-approved technologies is at risk,” he said.

First of all, no one in my camp is prohibiting any dairy from using whatever technology it wants to use.  We just don't want to buy your products if you chose to inject them with genetically modified materials.  Second, the economics on this are clear:  If you can use the additive that increases output and your competitors can't label their product as being without the additives, you can charge the same price as your competitor even though their product, because of a lower yield, costs more to produce.  Which means you make more profit and, over time, will put your competitor out of business.  What do you need to do?  Only buy milk that is labeled as rBST-free.  Turn the tables on dairies using the genetically-modified growth hormones and show them how it feels when they have to play by the rules of the consumers, when all the cards are laid upon the table.

Yes, I do read publications other than The New York Times.  This week at Plenty Magazine a couple of great articles highlight the challenges and opportunities impacting local food systems.  Ragan Sutterfield writes about the snow that hit his land up the street from us here in Tennessee, and he points out that the interruption of the snow can be a metaphor for the impacts of more drastic interruptions that may well be in our future.  Nathalie Jordi wonders about the government's point-of-view on local food initiatives in the midst of all the Farm Bill proselytizing in Washington.  From where she stands, "The small-farm-local-foods movement, a little David against a big Goliath, has done admirably well on its own, but it’ll take more than a slingshot to change the titanic momentum the food system has created as it industrialized over the past fifty years."

photo courtesy of thrice 18/3 at flickr and is used under a creative commons license.

Snow, Localization, Wendell Berry in Spring

It did snow in the Midsouth Friday, which allowed us to wisely spend our Saturday holed up at the hacienda while our snow-clothes drip-dried in the mud-room.  I have it on good authority that the six-foot-tall snow-creature in our front yard was ('cause it's mostly gone now) sustainable, ethical, and most especially local.  I am doubtful if it was in any way organic.

We know we need to localize, but where do we start?  In a manifesto published last week, the Committee for a New Green Deal calls for radical change in governmental policy that focuses investment in rebuilding the interdependence of local communities and enabling "comprehensive long-lasting social, economic and natural resource policies."  As found at Stardust Localizing, the group details five specific areas where change would need to occur in order to "replace catastrophic activities that underlie climate change, economic inequities, water and food shortages, habitat destruction, and species extinction."  Thanks to Energy Bulletin for the re-direct.

How many acres do I need, and where do I sign up?  Eating Liberally points us to a new film in progress titled The Greenhorns that seeks to capture the story of a predominantly young, poignantly agricultural revolution that is happening even as I write these words.  Kat was able to meet some of the folks involved with the film:

We watched the trailer last night at a fundraiser for The Greenhorns held in a perfectly pastoral Brooklyn loft full of biodynamic young movers and shakers who shared with us their lovingly prepared local food. They are “onto something good, and real,” as Peter Hale, one of the film’s fundraisers and host of the party, said.

And essential, I'd add. Sadly, Matt and I had to leave before they broke out the s’mores made with homemade graham crackers, but we headed back to Manhattan heady with hope that Severine and her Greenhorns could lure a new generation back to the land to reclaim our food chain.

You can watch the teaser trailer here.

You CAN judge this book by its cover.  We've posted many times in the past on Wendell Berry's "The Unsettling of America" but are happy to find a new reason to mention it again.  Even as we find ourselves recently feeling that tell-tale Spring urge to read more of Berry's work, Jennifer uses his writing to illustrate just how overdue all this fervent-foodie-farmer's-market furor is at The Ethicurean. 

Berry’s prophetic words startled his early readers and offended agribusiness experts, but 30 years later, his words still ring true — perhaps even more so than before. And since his message serves as a strong counterpoint to the policies pushed by "experts" like Earl Butz, I knew it was time to re-read the book and learn from Berry once more. 

Go to her post to pick up a great summary of some of Berry's most cogent ideas.  Then get a copy yourself and take 2008 up a considerable notch.

Talk is great.  Action speaks louder.  Tom Philpott attended an event last week in North Carolina that caused him to write "Honestly, it was the most inspiring public event I've attended in years."  The food and sustainability writer was able to witness a public meeting held at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where a student-led organization referring to itself as FLO (fair, local, organic) challenged the school's dining services about why they were serving Smithfield Foods' products on campus.  It started out as a barbecue, writes Philpott at Grist, but didn't stay casual long:

. . . this was no local-food-rocks, let's-feel-good-about-ourselves event. After dinner, the gathering moved to a large classroom indoors, where the FLO-Fooders had managed to bring together players in Smithfield's global hog chain that the company would prefer remain invisible: workers from the Tar Heel plant, and people who live in Duplin County, a predominately African-American area where Smithfield and its suppliers raise nearly 2.2 million hogs each year.

Whether or not the event itself will revolutionize how UNC's cafeterias source their food remains to be seen.  That it had a profound effect on Philpott is clear.

Speaking of seed-saving.  I mentioned in a recent post that one of my goals for this growing season is to learn more about seed-saving, in an effort to make my backyard agricultural efforts more "closed-loop" for future seasons.  Not that we won't continue to salivate over the seed catalogs that punctuate the cold winter months, but rather that true sustainability means we have to depend upon the plants themselves more and more to feed us, year after year after year.  Once again anticipating my needs, Sharon Astyk shows up at Casaubon's Book with the first of what appears to be several posts on the subject of seed-saving, a valuable counterpart to her other recently begun series on food storage.  OK Sharon, that's all the free publicity you're gonna get in this post.

In case you missed it, Michael Pollan is interviewed at Alternet by Amy Goodman.  A press release is posted at Mulch that indicates there might yet be hope for a negotiated Farm Bill settlement prior to the March 15th deadline.  Finally, Mrs. Deliberately shared several links with me this week that may be of interest to you as well:  a story at MSNBC about how simple conditioning may be a significant part of our national obesity problem, a NY Times article I missed in which Mark Bittman speaks to drafting a "sustainable recipe," and an AP article at Salon that looks at sewage-based fertilizers.

photo courtesy of MGShelton at flickr and is shared under a creative commons license

Labels, Let It Snow, rBST

More Deliberate means moving beyond labels.  If you were present last Saturday at Memphis' Wild Oats for the Slow Food Memphis event, you heard a great presentation from the folks at Ugly Mug Coffee about how they source their coffee beans and the challenges of fair trade certification.  As with any "label," there are instances where food is fair but for some marginal reason cannot be certified as fair trade.  In some cases food can even be fair-er than fair trade without meeting the requirements of the certification. Which only leads us back to the need to know the producers, or at least, in the case of Ugly Mug, to hold our providers accountable for knowing the producers.  And that words, whether "organic" or "local" or "fair trade" are only as good as the truth of what's happening behind them.  Depend on labels alone and the marketers will have you for lunch.

Remember the local peaches!  Last year was our first year as Locavores, which started off with the depressing realization that a late frost had taken out all the peaches at Jones Orchard.  And while the peaches they were able to source further south were real good, it would have been better if they were grown right up the street. Personally, I try not to spend too much time speculating about whether events such as last year's late frost, or today's predicted horrifying storm are related to global warming, but lucky for me someone else will.  Janet wrote earlier this week at The Ethicurean on the topic:

. . . and that weather is still on my mind, as I remember the utter absence of local fruit last year (except for some late everbearing raspberries). Oh, how we reveled in the warm days of March last year — until April came along and ruined everything. It makes me a bit wary about wishing our endless-seeming winter away too quickly.

Her piece cites a study published at BioScience that noted ". . . that mild winters and warm, early springs, which are expected to occur as the climate warms, may induce premature plant development, resulting in exposure of vulnerable plant tissues and organs to subsequent late-season frosts."  Sound familiar?

Thought I hadn't heard about rBST?  Lot's of discussion on the internets about Monsanto's efforts to ban milk labelling at the state level that would clarify the use (or more appropriately the non-use) of the companies engineered products in milk facilities.  Scott Thill at Alternet writes that the Kansas-based agribusiness giant (correction:  Monsanto is based in Missouri) has begun a war of words in an attempt to avoid labeling that would allow consumers lashing-back at the use of bovine growth hormones in the grocery aisles to make More Deliberate choices:

. . . Monsanto's quibbling over labels has added up -- ironically enough, given all the text it has generated -- to censorship, pure and simple. And, as with past debacles like the aforementioned Agent Orange, PCBs and Terminator seed, they've established a pattern of stopping at nothing to increase not your health but their profits. At your expense.

The best way for you to take action on the issue, and to force the hand of milk producers, is to search out providers that are public in their choice to avoid these growth hormone products and make sure your dollars are being applied appropriately.

Memphis:  The park plans have arrived.  For readers located here in the Midsouth, the Memphis Flyer reported yesterday on development proposals submitted that will influence the future of Shelby Farms.  The exciting news is word that some of the plans include an edible element, including one that proposes solar powered facilities and irrigation diverted to support organic food production.  Imagine being able to take a long run on the trails of our own local park, only to end it by pulling a fresh apple right from the tree for an after-workout carb load!

Finally, a justification for getting messy.  Ragan Sutterfield writes at Plenty this week about the battle between messiness and organization in the world, and why the former may have its unique value.  For those of you who have experienced the transformation of a suburban yard into a food-producing garden, you'll understand how the transition can be a bit chaotic, at first.  And even when you start out organized, as we did last year in our choice to use the Square Foot method, you soon experience the excitement of squash overtaking whatever constraint you might apply to it.  I feel so much better now.

Downergate has just begun.  You may be thinking that this recent beef recall story if finally quieting down, but I suspect just the opposite is the case.  Outrage continues over the issue, and even as public school officials nationwide wonder who's got their backs and Congress demands a response, Tom Philpott reports at Grist that the problem of consolidation in the meat industry is about to get worse:

JBS, the Brazil-based beef-packing powerhouse, has stormed into the U.S. market, emboldened by the U.S. dollar's steady drop against the Brazilian real. Last year, JBS bought Swift, the third-biggest U.S. beef packer. And in the last several days, it had signed deals to buy the fourth-biggest packer, National Beef Packing, as well as the beef-packing assets of hog giant Smithfield, the fifth-biggest beef packer.

Philpott calls for regulators to "scotch the deal," particularly in light of the Downergate scandal and unresolved concerns around food safety.

Sharon began her series on food storage this week at Casaubon's Book.  Dan Owens responds to the Sunday New York Times op ed by Jack Hedin on how subsidy programs hurt small farmers at Blog for Rural America.  Organic To Be posts an excerpt of Gene Logsdon's novel The Last of the Husbandmen. 

We'll report back tomorrow on whether the winter storm buries us.  The kids can't wait!

photo courtesy of penmachine at flickr and is used under a creative commons license.

Farm Bill, Farm Bill, and Some Other Stuff

Do I hear the end of the Farm Bill debate coming?  As reported previously, if the Farm Bill is not approved by House, Senate and White House by March 15th, the legislation reverts back to its original 1949 provisions.  On Friday the USDA detailed what that would look like, and it means many fewer dollars flowing from the federal coffers to agribusiness nationwide.  As noted in the press release,

. . . only those wheat producers who happen to have wheat acreage allotments would be eligible for minimum price support of $7.80 per bushel, as compared to the current price support loan rate of $2.75. Price support rates for corn would almost double, from $1.95 to a minimum of $3.78 per bushel, while the upland cotton price support rate would go from 52 cents per pound to a minimum of $1.34 per pound. Dairy price support would more than triple from $9.90 per hundredweight to over $30. No price support could be offered for sugar or oilseeds.

Which should be reason enough to assume that somehow, in the next dozen days or so, there will be a reconciliation between disagreeing parties.  Keith Good at Farm Policy, who pointed us to the press release, even notes that late last week top Democrats were sequestered in an attempt to resolve the funding issues that are still up in the air.

On a related note. . . Locavores everywhere are responding to an Op Ed piece in the New York Times by Jack Hedin.  The Minnesota farmer chronicles the impact to small farmers working to supply local demand in an environment governed by commodity titles established in the Farm Bill.  In his case, he was forced to pay for crop subsidies out of his own pocket because he grew forbidden vegetables on land that had been allocated to the Big Five (corn, soy, wheat, rice and cotton).  To get a sense of the response, see the suggested letter to Congress posted at Crunchy Chicken.  Ruhlman, who is gradually becoming a locavore even if he doesn't notice, chimes in as well.  Also of note is the response at Grist and in particular the comments following each of these posts.  As for my response?  Well, if you've been reading this blog for long, I think you already know.  Hedin had me with "hello."

Coming soon to a grocery store near you.  Vivienne Walt writes at Time about the impact of rising food prices globally, and the threat these economic pressures have on stability.  She points out that

. . . millions more people who were previously earning enough to feed their families can now no longer afford the food in their local stores, and are now swelling the ranks of those expecting relief from aid organizations. "We are seeing a new face of hunger," the executive director of U.N.'s World Food Program, Josette Sheeran, told TIME on Tuesday. "People who were not in the urgent category are now moving into that category."

And as food becomes more scarce, people become desperate to feed their families.  The same way you and I would if we found ourselves in the same position.

Add this to my "list of things to get right next year."  Ed writes at The Slow Cook about the joys, and agonies, of seed shopping.  One of the things that has come to my mind as we've acquired our seeds this year for the upcoming garden is the need to learn the fine art of seed saving.  While we are aware of it, we haven't taken the time to truly understand the process.  Not a skill we really need, what with all the catalogs that come our way.  But a skill, nonetheless, that would prove extremely valuable if we ever find ourselves in a situation where getting those early-season shipments of seeds is not so simple.  So, just as this year we are adding canning to our repertoire, next year we'll figure out how to start the garden with more of our own seeds, versus having to "get" them somewhere else.

Newspapers, Downergate, Edible Landscape

Newspaper editorials work.  Last week I referenced a smackdown about the dangers of working in chicken processing facilities in North Carolina and coverage of the issue at The Charlotte Observer.  Yesterday, Tim Wiseman reported at The Rural Blog that the newspaper's editorial coverage is resulting in hearings on worker safety in those facilities in the House and Senate.  According to Wiseman, the initial publication of the piece in the Observer drew a good amount of attention which was only amplified when it was run again in a sister newspaper in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Now officially known as "Downergate."  The huge beef recall widely publicized last week has now officially entered the popular consciousness as "Downergate," and Bonnie at The Ethicurean points us to an educational if somewhat dark video that clarifies why everyone should be concerned.  Particularly if you eat burgers at a fast food joint or, er, a public school.  Grist chimes in with an editorial from a couple of school lunch ladies on the issue, who note "The 21 recalls of beef related to the potentially deadly strain of E. coli last year alone are proof enough that the USDA is incapable of ensuring the safety of the food produced by the industrial agricultural system that it exists to support."  Jonathan at Wasted Food appeals to his local newspaper to print photos of the thousands of pounds of recalled beef that are being poured into landfills, so that readers fully understand the scope of the problem here.

Because we only like to grow what we can eat.  The impending March of Spring brings not only thoughts about the dozens of sprouting vegetables in the guest room but also garden plans for the backyard.  And not only that, but also consideration of how far we might go this year in replacing the landscaping that came with the 25-year old house.  We've been talking about moving from an "ornamental motif," which came with the home due to the former Master Gardeners who lived there, to an "edible motif," which would involve plants that are all consumable.  Organic To Be helps us out with a lengthy list of edible flowers, so we don't have to entirely move away from all the blooms.

High prices, I get it.  But we won't run out, right?  Energy Bulletin points to an article at Nebraska's Grand Island Independent that breaks down where we stand on the food supply in this country.  Writer Robert Pore notes that according to Purdue University Agricultural Economist Chris Hurt "the 2007 U.S. wheat crop is virtually sold out, while domestic soybean stocks soon will fall below a 20-day supply. Corn inventories are stronger, but with demand from export markets, the livestock industry and ethanol plants, supplies also could be just as scarce for the 2008 crop.  More than 70 percent of Nebraska corn crop this year could go to ethanol production."  Which means that U.S. farmers will be producing as much as possible based on higher demand and higher prices.  But prices at the grocery store will be going higher for the foreseeable future.  And the prices are higher, as long as the production and can keep up with the demand.  When that fails to happen, well, you better have some squash growing in your backyard.

An article by Lawrence Bartlett at Common Dreams floats the supposition that obesity is more dangerous to the average U.S. citizen than terrorism by far.  So where is our War on Obesity?  Finally, The Slow Cook points out that the best root cellar may be, well, where the roots are naturally.  Do you think he made those mashed or fried?

Beef Overload, Farm Bill Woes, Peak Oil

Where's the beef?  Everywhere.  The news just keeps on rolling about last week's announced beef recall that marks the largest such food recall in U.S. history.  Yesterday at USA Today Julie Schmidt reported that while much of the beef, as earlier noted, was sold to school lunch programs, much was also sold into downstream processes that make it very difficult to actually identify the meat that needs to be destroyed.  From her article:  "The recall's scope is unprecedented, says the Grocery Manufacturers Association. The value of foods affected — including soups, sauces, burritos and bouillon cubes — could run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, a senior GMA official says."  Which just goes to reinforce the importance of not only sourcing your meats sustainably and locally (thank goodness we have multiple sources even here in West Tennessee) but also that derivative items you need to complete your menus, including things such as sauces and stock, need to be made in your house, on your stove.  Else you have little clue where the inputs may have come from.  In other meaty news, Tom Philpott rounds up stories from a variety of sources on the state of our food system at Grist, including his take on the recent recall mess.  He also points to his worthy op-ed piece at The Guardian where he answers the question "What are the chances of finding meat from a "downer cow" in your next Big Mac?"  And for those of you who still haven't had enough meat in this post (you know who you are), Ragan Sutterfield chimes in at Plenty pointing out that no matter what the outcome of the current recall, the real issue is the structure of a system that can never be made to work.  From her post:  "You cannot fix an absolutely broken industry through better inspections. There is no way to properly inspect hundreds of cows per hour. It’s gruesome work, and certainly not something a low paid government employee wants to do. So many inspectors spend most of their time in their office, making sure the paper work is in order.  To fix the problem of food safety and create a humane slaughter system we need to change the scale and proximity of slaughter. What if instead of a few large-scale slaughterhouses centered in remote towns we had many small-scale slaughterhouses close to cities and the consumers who buy from them?"  Better yet, we could feed them grass on pastures and allow them to lead pleasant lives until they come to natural maturity. . . you know, right outside town.

Can you say "2009 Farm Bill"?  Aghast and appalled we note that the bobble-heads in Washington are now indicating that the Farm Bill formerly known as "2007," then begrudgingly bequeathed the moniker "2008," is now beginning to take on the mantle of "2009."  This from reliable sources at The Rural Blog.  Pointing to an exclusive interview with Senate Ag Committee Tom Harkin posted at Brownfield Network (an otherwise unseemly place to be found), the post notes that an impasse with the White House, despite what appears to be conciliatory language in the media, is likely to shut progress down.  "I’d say at this time, at this point, an extension of the present farm bill is probably the most likely scenario right now.  We’ll just have to wait until we get a new Secretary, a new President in the White House, and maybe we’ll have a little bit better chance of a new President understanding the needs we have in agriculture," said Harkin.  While the current version of the bill is light on reform and heavy on status quo, it was nonetheless a bi-partisan compromise in both the House and the Senate, according to Harkin.  And it would have been even more bi-partisan had the current slate of presidential candidates considered the issue worthy of their presence in Washington, where they might have participated had they believed the landmark agricultural legislation to be important to the health and welfare of the American people.  Again, aghast and appalled at the whole ordeal.

I saw the news today, oh boy.  If you have been paying attention to the news lately, you're beginning to hear the phrase "peak oil" creep into the mouths of some folks that never would have been caught dead mentioning it only a few years ago.  No less than oil maven Boone Pickens is now talking about wind due to the long-term instability of our oil reliance, and "green technologies" are the name of the game.  So, if you are not fully schooled on what peak oil is and why it should be changing your lifestyle, visit Energy Bulletin for a comprehensive, handy-dandy curriculum.  Good for high schoolers and late-bloomers alike, the information, originally available at The Oil Drum, promises to bring you up to speed in no time.  Well, OK.  Maybe in a few hours.

The Ethicurean announces its first-ever caption contest, wherein you will want to read the comments to get a taste of what Locavores nation-wide have up their sleeves.  Jonathan at Wasted Food grapples with the challenges of indoor composting.  Finally, Andy posts the newest issue of the Ladybug Letter, meditating on Jack's beanstalk as well as the favas they spawn.

photo courtesey of Mundoo at flickr and is shared under a Creative Commons license.

Post Hiatus Thoughts, Farm Bill Infatuation, World Ag Expo

I haven't been around on-line for several days, motivated primarily by the profound disgust and existential angst I've been feeling since the historical beef recall reported last week.  This feeling of desolation has only been deepened by the realization yesterday that 60 Minutes will re-air their coverage of colony collapse disorder on tonight's episode, which while good on the surface only underscores that news on the sustainability of our food system is still only barely on the periphery of American popular thought.  I mean, colony collapse disorder is either a significant concern or critical to our nation's food supply, and most of the country is completely unaware of it, despite being fully schooled on the potential career consequences of Lindsey Lohan posing as Marilyn Monroe.  Look, for instance, to any of the presidential candidates' platform statements and you'll be hard pressed to find anything related to food security, sustainability, and the need for more organic and local food supports.  So I took a break and took a deep breath.  Today I'm back, because while it may seem sometimes that everybody is talking about these issues, the reality of the situation is that we are in a very small minority, and the message needs to be heard.

No, there is no Farm Bill yet.  Hard to believe we've been blogging about the 2007 Farm Bill since last spring and we still find ourselves wondering if and when it will ever be passed into law.  On Wednesday last week Dan Owens at Blog for Rural America updated the current status including the jaw-dropping late-breaking news that there are efforts underway in Washington to make this current bill under debate a 10-year bill instead of the normal 5-year version.  Which would mean that if significant reform doesn't occur in this version (which I for one doesn't expect is even a remote possibility at this point) it will be a decade before we have another chance at improving our national agricultural policies.  Do you think this is because the powers that be are threatened by our paltry blogging efforts around agricultural reform in this country?  Or because they had to work so hard this past year and found that effort distracting from the normal lobbyist dinners and campaign finance efforts?  Ugh!  Keith Good chimed in yesterday at Farm Policy pointing out that if something concrete doesn't happen soon, the current extension of the 2002 Farm Bill will expire (beware the Ides of March!) and the legislation will revert back to its original version, circa 1949.  This in an environment where there doesn't seem to be a resolution in sight. 

Speaking of issues both Agricultural and Ethical. . . Amanda Rose shares an entertaining and informational post at The Ethicurean about a recent visit to World Ag Expo which she describes as "the largest proportion of climate change naysayers gathered in one place since Dick Cheney walked into an empty room."  As you would expect what is readily visible at a conference of this nature are the many techno-scientific solutions being touted to all of the problems with our food system, from E Coli to food security.  As you also may have guessed, companies like Monsanto have a corner on the market for those solutions.

We call that Cognitive Dissonance.  Being people with kids, we are sensitive to the impact of dining in restaurants with those under the age of ten.  Being people in Memphis, we are ever-appreciative of the public service provided by Stacey Greenberg, who writes about such challenges at her blog Dining With Monkeys.  While most of her posts are humorous narratives about visiting different establishments and how that experience intermingles with the almost predictable need for a potty-break, a recent post, about a meal at grocer Wild Oats (recently acquired by Whole Foods) notes a tricky little problem for businesses trying to be sensitive to the environmental impact of their practices:  how doing the "right thing" in some cases can point to how wrong practices are in others.  From her blog post:  "First off, Whole Foods (who is the soon-to-be if not already the owner of Wild Oats) has vowed to ban plastic bags in all of their stores by Earth Day 2008. I think that is awesome. Plastic bags totally blow.  Warren and I were proudly sporting our very own reusable bags to carry our groceries home. So, it was a little annoying that in attempting to eat dinner at the Wild Oats deli, we had accumulated a shit ton of plastic. Granted, Wild Oats has in-store recycling bins (also awesome), but they only accept #1 & #2 plastics, which the majority of our containers were not."  Good call, Stacey.  And glad you were able to avoid the potty-break on this visit, at least.

Someday I'm going to use this knowledge.  Nathalie Jordi writes at Plenty this week about the escapist pleasure of reading agrarian magazines, even if the information one gleans from these publications is not particularly applicable to most of the participants in western society.  From her article:  "These magazines have pretty much zero applicability to my personal day-to-day life, and yet I really get a kick out of reading them. They swell my admiration for the brave souls out there actually breeding llamas, erecting hoophouses, and converting oil into biodiesel, underscoring how much effort goes into the lifestyle they’ve chosen. Would that there were more of them and fewer crippled, exhausted cows turned into children’s lunchmeat."  Right on.

We would like to officially wish our friend The Slow Cook a belated yet happy one-year blogging birthday.  Over at Edible Nation you can watch a short film of Deborah Kane, editor of Edible Portland magazine, interviewing uber-foodie Michael Pollan, which begins with on odd discussion of butter substitutes and "nutritionism," which Pollan (and a growing number of others) credits with the downfall of the American diet.  Lissa at Slender Branches writes about how it took giving up television altogether to find PBS, and how valuable that rediscovery has been in returning a guilty pleasure without the constant barrage of advertisements.  Finally, Sharon Astyk, who started blogging here and recently relocated there has found a new and, we hope final home, at sharonastyk.com.  We'll keep you informed of any further changes in her blog-o-rific status.

photo courtesy The Flooz at flickr and shared under a ccreative commons license.

Farm Bill Face-Off, Peak Fertilizer, Victory Gardens

Bush says "No" to Congressional reindeer games.  As previously reported, the White House has given a stern warning to the House and Senate that it will veto any version of the Farm Bill that is sent for approval which includes increased taxes.  The House and Senate, on their end, have developed compromise positions that require increased funding.  According to Keith Good's reporting at Farm Policy, it sounds like a face-off may come this week.

Get ready for Peak Everything.  While we know that peak oil impacts most facets of our daily lives, Andrew Leonard at Salon takes a close look at the impact of peak oil on fertilizer prices, what he refers to as Peak Fertilizer.  "The growth of energy crops is in part directly attributable to rising energy prices. But the demand for synthetic fertilizer to nurture those energy crops requires the consumption of even more fossil fuel, thus likely pushing energy prices further, and creating even more demand for energy crops. On second thought, that's not ironic. That's tragic."  Otherwise known as a downward, interdependent spiral.

It's time to revive the Victory Garden.  Having recently purchased a reproduction of the WWI poster depicting a gardener draped in an American flag doing her patriotic duty and, yep, growing food, we were extremely pleased to see Sharon over at Depletion and Abundance call loudly for a revival of the Victory Garden concept.  According to her post, "While we can enable it from above, the creation of a victory garden movement is a person to person, blog to blog, neighbor to neighbor project."  As noted yesterday, we've got ours planned for the season.  How about yours?

The cycle is complete.  If you've been following sustainable food blogs for awhile, you may remember a story posted back in October at Post-Haste Taste about one consumer going to the farm to slaughter poultry directly with the producer.  Now the blogger has entered a new phase, but the turkey has been sitting in the freezer and came out over the weekend.  Join Matt as he continues the cycle, eats the turkey, and meditates on the experience at Irrationally Exhuberant.  From his post:  "My roommates and I ate most of the turkey, but the turkey is far from completing its cycle. The bones are now frozen for use in a future stock or broth which can then be used to cook grains or create a soup. Each time I use this turkey, I am forced to reconnect with the bird’s existence and the land it once used."  As well as to honor each step of the way, as participant in the process.