Daily Table/Green Fork Update

Originally posted by leslie at greenfork.org:

If things have seemed a bit quiet on The Daily Table and The Green Fork lately, it’s because the team here has been working toward the arrival of our most ambitious and far-reaching online news project yet.  We hope you will join us this Monday, June 21st, when we launch our new blog, Ecocentric, where we will cover food, water and energy – and the interconnections among the three.

Don’t worry — there will still be plenty of tips on how to green your fork, and we think you’ll appreciate our expanded focus.  And don’t worry about finding us, either — just meet us back here at The Daily Table and we will whisk you along to our new location.

Looking forward!
The Grace Team

Can You Eat Meat and Still Say You Support the Environment? A Q&A With Rancher Nicolette Hahn Niman

Meatless Monday’s Chris Elam brings us Ralph Loglisci’s interview with Nicolette Hahn Niman as published in The Huffington Post:

The signs are everywhere. People are starting to quietly wonder, and to ask, even to demand information about where the food on their plate comes from. The truth too often is as unsettling as it is eye-opening, considering the rampant rise of factory farming. The question remains, though: are there other options available to us? Other less harmful systems we can support? Or, well, are we as a nation headed for Burger Armageddon?

In my quest to speak with experts directly involved with these matters, I thought to go to the source: ranchers. By ordering that steak, or hitting the drive-thru for that bag of burgers, who and what are we actually supporting? Following on from there, what advice could help those of us who live several steps removed from the food system?

Read the rest of the article here.

Road Tripping to the US Social Forum with HEART

The Eat Well Guide has partnered with the Presbyterian Hunger Program and their agrarian road trip to help them find good food along the way to the US Social Forum! They will begin their journey in Louisville, Kentucky and arrive in Detroit, well-fed, having made lots of sustainable stops along the way. Check out the Eat Well Guide map tracking their events and offering up suggestions of farmers markets, farmers, CSAs, restaurants and more to find sustainable food in every city! Read on for more from the Presbyterian Hunger Program about their trip…

The Heaven on Earth Agrarian Road Trip (HEART) is 15 adventurous individuals from around the country who will be exploring local food and food justice initiatives in eight states. These are gallant efforts to rebuild local/regional food supplies that are more equitable, more just for farmers and farm workers, more secure, and more sustainable for the future. At the end of the journey, HEART will join some 17,000 people in Detroit – “Ground Zero for Urban Farming and Renewal” – for the 2nd US Social Forum, where Food Justice will be a powerful theme.

WHY HEART? Vibrant local/regional food economies are needed in the United States AND  everywhere – especially in impoverished nations whose farming has been weakened by international trade rules,  foreign “assistance” policies, and the dumping of subsidized crops on their economies.

Road Trippers have experienced these problems in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and will highlight these issues along the way. But the main focus will be to explore, celebrate and broadcast to the wider church the great things happening to address these systemic problems in our food and farm systems – by starting in our own households, congregations and communities.

As we rebuild food security and sovereignty here in the United States, let us always remember, pray for, and do all we can to support the same around the world. Advocacy on US foreign assistance and global food security legislation, as well as the Trade Act, will be critical this year.

So . . . How to follow the HEART?

Home base for the Heaven on Earth Agrarian Road Trip will be the Food and Faith Blog where you can find HEART photos, posts, videos and interviews from the Road Trippers, June 13 – 26.

Follow HEART and find events along the way! The Eat Well Guide has donated their database of local food farms, farmers markets, restaurants and much more to create a Heaven on Earth map, event descriptions, and even a printable local foods and farms resource for each of the towns we’ll visit.

Find us on the HEART Google map.

And “fan” the HEART facebook page for more updates!

New Toxic Pesticides to Replace Older Ozone Depleting Pesticides

Nothing says summer like strawberries, but before you bite into your next, read this.

Methyl Bromide, a soil fumigant often used on strawberry crops, was phased out in the US by 2005 because it was depleting the ozone layer.  The phase out was based on the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer and the Clean Air Act.

Good news, right? The EPA was acknowledging that yet one more federally-approved chemical was actually causing more harm than good. But I only found out about the banned Methyl Bromide because of the attention recently placed on Methyl Iodide. Approved in 2007, and currently used in many states as a “good” replacement for the banned Methyl Bromide, Methyl Iodide has its own set of problems.

Methyl Iodide is currently under scrutiny as the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) proposes approval of its use. Even though Methyl Iodide is used in many states already, California, which has its own pesticide approval process, has been questioning its safety level for the last year. While Methyl Iodide is not an ozone depleting pesticide like Methyl Bromide, it is extremely toxic to humans, a consistent carcinogenic that is used in the lab by chemists to induce cancer in experimental subjects such as mice. It has also been found to affect the nervous system, lungs, liver and kidneys, and to damage human fetuses.

While an independent review requested by the DPR concluded that “any anticipated scenario for … use of this agent would result in exposures to a large number of the public and thus would have a significant adverse impact on the public health,” the agency is still pushing for its approval, suggesting more stringent regulations than originally spelled out by the EPA.  These tighter regulations include better training in proper application, controlling the amount used, limiting exposure for workers and requiring special permits. They would also include bigger “buffer zones” between fields sprayed with the toxin and local hospitals, nursing homes, prisons and schools.

Though it isn’t looking good, if the California proposal is rejected, it could have a large impact, possibly moving up the next scheduled federal review of Methyl Iodide, now slated for 2013. It could even help lead to a federal ban.

As the revolving doors between industry and the government continue to …revolve, it takes very little digging to unearth a sketchy connection in this situation. In 2007, the year Methyl Iodide was approved by the EPA, Elin Miller, a past employee of Arysta (the company that makes the pesticide), was EPA Administrator for Region 10, which includes Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Washington State and 267 Indian Tribes. Methyl Iodide was originally approved for one year, but the probationary time line was extended indefinitely as the Bush administration left office.

In the wake of President Obama’s Cancer Panel report, which found that the “risk of environmentally induced cancer has been grossly underestimated,” and links between chemicals and diseases (such as that between pesticides and ADHD) showing up regularly, the DPR’s proposal flies in the face of facts we’ve been privy to for a long time. You can send your comments about the proposal to the California Department of Pesticide Regulation until June 29^th at mei_comments@cdpr.ca.gov.

More Information:

Scientists Fume Over California’s Pesticide Plans,  Pesticide Action Network – Methyl Iodide

Helpful tips:

Dirty Dozen – Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides

Guster Challenges Fans to Eat Well this Summer

This piece by Erin McCarthy was originally posted on the Green Fork.

The Green Music Group (GMG), a project of Reverb, has launched a series of earth friendly calls-to-action this summer. Starting tomorrow, Guster is challenging fans to use the Eat Well Guide to find and eat at least one meal using local, organic food. You have until noon on Friday June 18^th to submit your foodie photos and become eligible to win a Live Nation Ultimate Access Pass. You can check out all the details at the GMG challenge page. The “Eat Local” challenge is part of GMG’s mission to encourage concert venues to sell local and organic food.

GMG is a group of musicians, industry leaders and fans working to inspire environmental action. Directed at music fans everywhere, a different challenge will launch each week though mid-August with an exclusive video from a founding artist, including the Dave Matthews Band, Sheryl Crow, Linkin Park, The Roots, Barenaked Ladies, Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Maroon 5 and, of course, those CO2-saving superheroes, Guster.  Challenge prizes include season passes to concert venues, a specialized mountain bike and a Honda Insight Hybrid – plus that green glow we all get from just doing the right thing.

Join the GMG community and check out the various challenges throughout August, and don’t forget to use the Eat Well Guide to find fabulous locally produced food all summer long.

Meatless Monday (or Friday) & The Protein Principle

Our friends at Meatless Monday are going strong with an article on the Huffington Post. As of right now, there are 1,150 posts! Check it out and leave one with your opinion.

Wow, the numbers are startling. Americans consume an astonishing amount of protein. USDA statistics reveal that U.S. men eat as much as 190% of their recommended daily protein allowance, while women eat as much as 160%, the great majority of which comes from saturated-fat heavy meat and meat products.

Protein is essential to life; it builds and maintains muscles, bones and skin, and regulates metabolism and digestion. But the question remains, whether you look at it from the perspective of personal health, or environmental degradation, or cost savings, or animal rights, or veggie activism, or whatever else floats your boat: do we really need to eat all that meat?

I went to the top, to the nation’s most influential nutritionist, Dr. Marion Nestle, professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University, to get her take. “All proteins are made up of the same amino acids. ALL. No exceptions,” she reasons. “The difference between animal and vegetable proteins is in the content of certain amino acids. If vegetable proteins are mixed, the differences get made up. Even if they aren’t mixed, all you need to do to get the right amount of low amino acids is to eat more of that food. There is no ‘need’ for animal proteins at all.”

Read the rest here…

Spotlight on Rhubarb: Grandma’s Favorite Pie Plant Gone Wild

Rhubarb is a plant that holds memories of grandma and it was always my grandmother Winkie’s first homemade pie every spring. She had patches of the stalky green growing out behind the big grey house where she would pick it and transform it into the mysterious creation cooling on the windowsill. It was the adult dessert at the table with its twangy flavor and surreal pink hue. Forget the strawberries; she was a purist and there would be no corruption of the unique rhubarb flavor.

But Winkie had a secret – that rhubarb she was cooking up wasn’t so wholesome after all – the leaves are poisonous, filled with large amounts of oxalic acid. Perhaps this element of danger is why today, rhubarb is transcending the age boundary and infiltrating the hip locavore scene. Its tart flavor can tasted in everything from jams to jus and many top chefs are featuring the once dowdy ingredient in various ways throughout their menus.

Over Mother’s Day Weekend, rhubarbs dangerous edge had me captivated but as I could never recreate grandma’s delicious pie, I took an alternative route. After sifting through recipes such as this one for Rhubarb Cobbler and this Buttermilk Panna Cotta with Rhubarb Compote, I finally decided on a cake with unique combination of ingredients, Rhubarb Anise Upside-Down Cake.

The cake was a crowd pleaser, and I think everyone including Winkie, appreciated the departure from the classic pie. The recipe topping called for brown sugar to be caramelized in ½ a stick of butter and while it took me two attempts to get it right, it worked out in the end with a bit of patience and medium level heat. Perhaps the trouble stemmed from the fact that I only used two tablespoons of butter, “health nut” that I am, but it didn’t seem to affect the outcome of the cake. Otherwise, be sure to beat the sugar and butter together well for the batter, as that aids the airiness of the cake. Finally, be sure to enjoy the juxtaposition of danger and grandma together in one baked good.

Season: Rhubarb arrives in the Northern Hemisphere in April and May. It can be difficult to acquire at other times of the year but can be successfully frozen for mid-winter pies.

Buying: Look for long, fleshy stalks with little bruising. Some stalks may be on the greener side but that will not affect the flavor.

A bit of history: Rhubarb originated in China over 5,000 years ago and has been used throughout the centuries for its medicinal purposes as a laxative. It arrived in Maine in the 1820’s and spread throughout the U.S. where it became known as the “pie plant”.

Recipe after the jump!

Read the rest of this entry »

Chicken Farmers Describe a System of Extortion and Economic Slavery

This post was written by Regina Weiss and was originally posted on the Green Fork.

Attorney General Eric Holder urged to enforce antitrust laws to protect poultry growers

Today, poultry growers from throughout the south told Attorney General Eric Holder that the US poultry business operates through price fixing and production controls that stifle fair competition and destroy the lives of family farmers.  According to the growers, who spoke at a hearing in Normal, Alabama, they are trapped in an unsustainable system that leaves them with skyrocketing costs, poverty wages and zero job security.  As one grower put it, “This system takes hard working farmers and makes them indentured servants on their own land.”

While many of us understand the importance of the nation’s civil rights and environmental laws, less attention has been paid to antitrust jurisprudence.  Yet, it is the source of vital legal protections for consumers and small businesses – at least when the laws are applied and enforced. In the United States, antitrust laws first arose in response to public anger over the control of essential products by groups of related businesses, known as trusts or cartels. These cartels arbitrarily set prices, regardless of a product’s quality, by conspiring to shut out competition.

Since 1960, the amount of chicken meat produced in the United States has grown by 600 percent, supplying an increasingly global market for chicken fingers, chicken nuggets and other fried and breaded abominations.  Meanwhile, four U.S. companies have formed a cartel that controls a majority of all this chicken – poultry that today is almost exclusively raised by people who don’t actually own the birds.

Through a business model of aggressive vertical integration, huge poultry companies in the US own and control the birds, the mills that produce the poultry feed, the factories where the birds are incubated and hatched, the trucks used to transport the chicks, grown chickens and meat, and the factories that butcher the birds and package the meat. Today, more than 90 percent of all poultry in the United States is raised by growers under contract to these vertically integrated poultry companies, rather than being raised and sold by independent farmers.  Not surprisingly, the open competitive market for chicken meat has disappeared.

Read the rest of this entry »

We’re back!

Daily Table fans – we apologize for the lack of content on our blog this week. We had some problems with our server and are glad to be back on line. Meanwhile, it’s been a fabulous week for the program – with scintillating coverage in The Washington Post, Huffington Post and more.  Check it out here!

Here is a taste of what the Washington Post had to say about Meatless Monday…

It’s enough to make the meat industry nervous. Over the past year, lobbying groups including the American Meat Institute, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, the National Pork Board and the Farm Bureau have launched a quiet campaign to try to reverse the momentum. They have fired off missives to institutions that embrace the call to reduce meat consumption, and they have posted talking points for meat producers on the Internet. They are also making a final push to ensure that the government recommendation of two servings of meat per day remains enshrined in the new dietary guidelines that the Department of Agriculture will release this fall.

“When you start talking about this kind of stuff at institutions, it sends a panic through the industry,” said Tony Geraci, the director of food service for Baltimore City Public Schools, who received a raft of what he calls “cease and desist” letters from meat industry lobbyists. “If Baltimore does it, then what happens? The goal is to cut meat consumption by 15 percent.”

This is not the first time the meat industry has faced a meatless-day movement. The concept has its roots in World War I, when the U.S. Food Administration told Americans that “Food Will Win the War” and proclaimed Meatless Mondays and Wheatless Wednesdays. The New York-based nonprofit group Healthy Monday relaunched the idea in 2003 in association with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. It really began to take off in 2009, said the organization’s president, Peggy Neu, when institutions and restaurants started to embrace the idea. The scheme has spread overseas. Last year, the city of Ghent in Belgium became the first European city to endorse a meat-free day.

Read the rest of the article here.

Growing Veggies on Walls: Teens Green Bronx

Here is another post from the illustrious Lorna Sass, originally published at Lorna Sass at Large.

Remember when President Jimmy Carter visited the blighted south Bronx, with the result that images of burned-out houses and trash-stewn lots flashed across TV screens all over the nation? That visit and the movie, The Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3 created an indelible image of the Bronx as a hopeless borough riddled with crime and despair.

Enter Steve Ritz, a teacher at Discovery High School (the tall fellow pictured in the center of the photo above) who figured out a way to help turn all that around by teaching his students to grow vegetables on walls. Yes, vegetables on walls.

As prolific HuffPo blogger Kerry Trueman pointed out last February :

Ritz has figured out how to grow good food, good jobs and good citizens by tapping into one of our greatest wasted resources–urban youth. And he’s doing it in Hunts Point, a quintessential “food desert” that, ironically, just happens to also be one of the world’s largest food distribution centers; 2.7 billion pounds of fresh produce from 49 states and 55 foreign countries passes through Hunts Point’s New York City Terminal Market annually on its way to more affluent neighborhoods.

On June 3 Ritz is orchestrating a huge “School Garden to School Cafe” event where the teens will be cooking and serving 450 healthy organic meals with vegetables grown by them from seeds on classroom walls and in containers. Well, that’s one mighty fine way to make sure that high quality vegetables get eaten right in the Bronx! No surprise that Ritz was recently awarded an EPA Environmental Quality Award.

How did Ritz manage to grow truckloads of organic vegetables indoors with virtually no equity but sweat equity? One thing he did was partner with a for-profit enterprise called Green Living™ Technologies, a pioneering developer of cutting edge urban agricultural systems. George Irwin, CEO of Green Living™ Technologies and a man with a big heart and a vision as huge as Ritz’s, contributed all of the building materials for the grow wall.

As Ritz points out, before they started growing their own on classroom walls, these teens had no easy access to fresh vegetables. And when kids grow their own vegetables, they want to eat them–so improved nutrition is a built-in bonus when teens become vegetable gardeners.

And there are other bonuses as well: Gardening not only improved class attendance from 40 % to 93%, but has also resulted in the startling fact that 100% of the gardening teens achieved passing grades on the state Regents exams in math and science.

On April 27th, at the magnificent Art Deco Bronx County Courthouse, I was privileged to witness Bronx Borough President, Ruben Diaz, Jr. present ten of Ritz’s students with graduation certificates for completing the Green Living™ Technologies training program in green wall and green roof maintenance and installation. The training was co-sponsored by Boston Cityscapes and held in Boston. According to Irwin, “These students are the youngest in America to obtain such living wage certifications by GLT in an emerging and green industry.” Read the rest of this entry »