Yet Another S 510 Food Safety Update

Slow Food USA’s position on the current food safety legislation recently passed by the Senate (again) and headed for a House vote.

UPDATE: After hanging briefly in legal limbo because of tax provisions in the bill, the Food Safety and Modernization Act (S 510) was passed by the Senate late last night. You can read about it in The Washington Post by clicking here.

It is expected to be voted on by the House this week. 

For a blow by blow of what is covered by the bill, you can read Bill Marler’s recap by clicking here.

In light of recent large-scale food recalls—such as this summer’s recall of half a billion eggs—such corporate food safety legislation is necessary.  However, it is very important that while this regulation needs to crack down on large-scale industrial/corporate bad actors, it must not hurt small scale producers and processors. That’s why we—with our allies including the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition—supported this bill with the inclusion of the Manager’s Amendment (which includes the Tester amendment).

Casey Knapp on Terra Madre

Terra Madre brought together over 7,000 eaters from 160 sixty countries, including all 50 states from the US to Turin, Italy this October.  Hear the thoughts of one of the youngest delegates, Casey Knapp - an amazing Farmer and one of the ‘Generation Organic’ Organic Valley Farmers.

Casey Knapp
‘Generation Organic’ Organic Valley Farmer
Preble, NY

Terra Madre brought together over 7,000 eaters from 160 countries, including all 50 states from the U.S. to Turin, Italy this October.  Some attended to learn about how food is being produced, to hear about the issues facing the advancement of safe, healthy, and clean food, some to meet others who are cultivating their own “slow food movements”.  But the one commonality among the gathering was appreciation and celebration of eating together. 

The opening ceremonies featured Slow Food founder Carlo Petrini and an olympic-style introduction (The ceremony took place in the Olympic stadium from the 2006 winter Olympics) of all countries present. Terra Madre organizers provided dozens of workshops and presentations with titles ranging from Organic and Biodynamic Farming to Slow Food Philosophy, boasting speakers from the Venezuelan countryside to United Nations think-tank leaders to non-profit CEOs.  The first one I attended was titled “Law, Rights, and Policies.” It was a panel discussion several experts, most notably, Christoph Spennemann, an intellectual property expert employed by the United Nations.  He specializes in policy work in ownership of genetic resources and spends most of his time on the complex problem of large seed conglomerates claiming ownership of seed genetics that have been used by select rural populations for centuries. 

The Youth Food Movement (YFM) is the collective voice of the young demographic of Slow Food International.  It was the most energetic atmosphere of the entire conference.  Young people from around the world eagerly shared their views on food and the progress of their projects, which was followed by words of encouragement from Carlo Petrini, the founder of the Slow Food. It is said that the optimism and energy of young people is the fuel of a revolution, and this certainly seemed to be true for YFM gathering. 

A second powerful part of the conference was the Slow Food USA meeting.  Josh Viertel, the president of Slow Food USA, recognized the exponential growth in Slow Food chapters in the United States and especially their work in creating the famous “Eat-ins” which involve a chapter holding a large dinner of locally grown food for community members.  One indicator of a social movement’s progress is the participation of internationally recognized thinkers.  Raj Patel, famous author and social activist, spoke at the Slow Food USA gathering, and charging the crowd with enthusiasm and optimism with his evaluation of the current agro-economic standings in the United States and how Slow Food will play an important role its evolution.

Working in concert with Terra Madre was the Solone del Gusto food show, rated the best food show in the world.  I was not disappointed.  Chocolate, cheese, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and salami vendors filled more than two square miles of show room floor to display the quality of their products and expertise of their growing methods.  Everyone provided samples.  What impressed me most was the number of local producers and the size of the producers.  Most of the producers were small-scale and marketed for an incredibly specific niche. 

The closing ceremonies, like an Italian dinner, carried on for four hours in the stadium built for the 2006 Torino winter Olympic games.  The length of time however equaled the status of speakers slated to present.  In the panel discussion setting, Manfred Max-Neef, the famous Chilean economists wryly discussed how the only difference between humans and animals is the human quality of stupidity.  He emphasized that despite the terabytes of knowledge acquired over the last 60 years and the knowledge that our current financial, agricultural, and health systems degenerate the planet, these systems persist.  Raj Patel highlighted the power of indigenous people in social change, using Via Campesina (The International Peasant Movement) as his example of the product of an international movement with pure, humble intentions.

Any movement has its internal complexities.  The food movement is not an exception.  Two protesters interrupted the panel discussion with a rather graphic and energized presentation.  As they ascended the stage, it became clear that one wielded a megaphone and the second a pig costume dripping with a substantial amount of ornamental blood.  The costumed protester performed a theatrical leap in front of panelists and remained motionless while her counterpart commanded the attention of the stadium for four uncomfortable minutes, grilling meat-eaters over the injustice of killing animals.  The panelists allowed her to speak and recognized her point of view with nods of understanding. The event reminded us of the complexity, emotion, and seriousness involved in the food movement.  At the same time, it was an excellent demonstration of freedom of speech and the energy young people provide to social change.

Terra Madre harnessed the power of the global food movement to bring together eaters and growers from around the world to share their food cultures.  The seven thousand attendees will share their experiences with friends and family.  It embodies the power of gathering people with a similar vision together in one place to share stories, ideas, and optimism for the future.

International Terra Madre Day celebrated

Today marks the second annual International Terra Madre Day—a day for celebrating eating locally, and honoring our local food communities.

Today marks the second annual International Terra Madre Day—a day for celebrating eating locally, and honoring our local food communities.  In particular it can be a time for delegates to Slow Food’s Terra Madre conference in Torino to share with their experience from the conference with their communities.

This year there will be more than 1,000 events in over 120 countries, with over 50 of those events happening here in the U.S. Some communities got started early:  over fifty Slow Food Seattle members and community supporters came together on November 28th for a day-long fish canning workshop called – “Time to Tin a Tuna!” - taught by Jeremy Brown, a Bellingham-based commercial fisherman and longtime proponent of Slow Food (as well as a Terra Madre delegate!). Wild Pacific Albacore has been in the news for all the right reasons - topping the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Super Green List and on National Public Radio in a feature on the growth of micro-canneries in the Pacific Northwest. Though you can find canned albacore tuna at your local food co-ops or fish markets in many communities, this was an opportunity to learn firsthand with someone well-versed in the process and safety considerations of using pressure cookers. At the end of the day, attendees left with both with the pride of supporting a local fisherman and a good stock of Wild Pacific Albacore to last through the long northwest winter.

To read more about the event, click here.

Thanks to Jennifer Johnson for photos and Slow Food Seattle blog post! Photos feature Slow Food Seattle members, Philip and June Lee & their family learning how to can tuna as well as Tuna-canner extraordinaire Jeremy Brown, a Bellingham-based commercial fisherman

Slow Food members head to DC to level the farming field

Yesterday, hundreds of people descended on Washington DC for the Department of Justice and the Department of Agriculture’s joint public workshops to explore how corporate monopolies affect food and farming in the U.S. Although we came from different sectors of the food system for the fifth and final of these year-long hearings, we all spoke out in our shared role—the consumer.

By Stephen Wagner

Yesterday, hundreds of people descended on Washington DC for the Department of Justice and the Department of Agriculture’s joint public workshops to explore how corporate monopolies affect food and farming in the U.S. Although we came from different sectors of the food system for the fifth and final of these year-long hearings, we all spoke out in our shared role—the consumer.

Check out the action in this slideshow:

It was a motley crew with lots of 10-gallon hats, farmers, retailers, activists, policy experts, mothers and a significant number of impressive mustaches. But the message was clear.

There is no doubt the dominating of the market by a handful of multinational industrial corporations is impacting all actors in our nation’s food system in a serious and widespread way. Because of the actions of unchecked corporate greed and anti-competitive behavior over the last several decades, the cost of food for consumers has increased but the price paid to farmers has decrease, all the while the corporations have seen record profits.

But what was also very clear on and off the stage yesterday is that this does not just impact our wallets but the true cost of the consolidation, a cost immensely burdening our country.

Farmer after farmer and consumer after consumer demonstrated this cost through their powerful stories. A dairy farmer from Wisconson talked about how after generations of families produced milk across his hometown, but now the consolidation of the dairy market has reduced the the number of companies to just a handful and many dairy families have been forced off their land.

A representative of the Pesticide Action Network explained how consolidation was facilitated by the corporate ownership of the genes in the seeds we sow. That’s right—the very genetic base of our agriculture, the common heritage of thousands of years of farmer-driven innovation, has been patented like some piece of software.

Ranchers spoke of how 4 companies now control 85% of the red meat market and the poultry farmers seem to have it even worse. A cost beyond just our wallets, indeed.

But as I watched these mustached ranchers in 10 gallon hats and spurred boots march up to the mic, I thought to myself this is so not the place for this kid from the burbs of NYC. Then as they told their stories I realized we are so similar: we all eat and are clearly affected by this true cost of food.

I knew I had to find my courage and walk that long walk to the mic. I did not have an embroidered hat, but I did have my story…our story.

By the time I reached the microphone to speak, I must have channeled the all over 10,000 of you who demanded the government take action because it was easier than I thought. Ok—it also helped that a big ag representative said that our food system problems could be aided by more Apps for our smart phones—no joke.

I spoke for a few minutes and presented our 10,000 strong petition that many Slow Food members signed in the wake of the half a billion egg recall recently.

I was followed by local Slow Food members told the hearings their stories as consumers and small-scale growers of how they witness the true cost of this consolidation in their lives.

So that’s the scoop. We were there with your petition, and were joined by dozens more organizations representing a quarter of a million voices over the last year of hearing who told the DOJ and USDA to take action.

If our testimony was not enough, during lunch we gathered on the steps to spell out “Level the Farming Field”, to make sure there was no doubt left that we stand together to demand strong action to break up these harmful monopolies.

This is democracy at work: everyday people, concerned about the state of agriculture in this country, mobilized together to have our voices heard where they count the most. Thanks to all involved for standing up to big ag.

Looking Back at a Year of Ag Industry Consolidation Workshops, Ahead of Finale This Week

In the last year, in towns around the country, thousands of farmers, ranchers, and concerned citizens have packed auditoriums to overflow capacity – not for a rock concert or even a farm auction, but for the leaders of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the USDA. The departments have been on a listening tour, taking them from Iowa to Alabama and Wisconsin to Colorado, to hear from food producers about how corporate consolidation in food and agriculture markets has affected their livelihoods. Next stop? Washington, DC, this Wednesday, December 8.

The listening sessions – or workshops, as they’re officially called – are part of a year-long investigation by the Departments on “Agriculture and Antitrust Enforcement in the 21st Century” – which is to say that the DOJ and USDA are finally examining corporate concentration in our food system. Given the numbers, the investigation may be overdue: Right now, the top four companies control 85% of the nation’s beef, 70% of pork, and 60% of the nation’s poultry. Three corporations process over 70% of the nation’s soy. Just one company controls 40% of our milk supply, and Monsanto holds patents on 80% of corn seed. Our food system has become one of the least competitive sectors of the marketplace – to an extent that Attorney General Eric Holder has called the issue “a national security matter.”

Holder and his USDA counterpart, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, have heard a wide range of views at the workshops, which have each focused on a particular production sector (seeds in Iowa, poultry in Alabama, dairy in Wisconsin, and livestock in Colorado). Panelists have included grain and dairy farmer members of the National Family Farm Coalition and Family Farm Defenders, small-scale ranchers with the independent cattlemen’s union R-CALF, researchers from Food and Water Watch, and members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, all asking for greater enforcement of antitrust laws. On the other side, representatives from Monsanto, Consolidated Beef Producers, International Dairy Foods Association, a professor who holds the Pioneer [Seed Company] Chair in Agribusiness at Iowa State University, and operators of massive feedlots have mostly defended the status quo.

From the latter group – as well as from most of the government representatives – there has been a lot of seductive rhetoric about the need for large-scale, industrial agriculture to feed a growing world population, and references to local and organic agriculture as a niche market. Other than statements by a couple of the small farmer panelists and during the public comment period, there has been little reference to the difficulties that independent farmers are having feeding themselves, or the fact that industrial agriculture hasn’t helped the 1 billion people worldwide who are currently suffering from chronic hunger. There has also been almost no mention of international research showing that to feed a growing population, we need much greater investment in local markets, local control of seeds and growing methods, and access to land. Studies like the UN- and World Bank-sponsored International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science, and Technology for Development (IAASTD), indicate that we should invest in sustainable agriculture so that it can grow beyond a niche market—and that we must break up the monopolies that control agricultural markets and make it impossible for newcomers to compete.

It was only in town hall forums the night before the official workshops in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Colorado that the urgency of the situation became clear. Across the country, the stories have been the same: Grain prices so low they don’t cover the cost of inputs. Milk prices so low they don’t cover feed costs. Non-genetically modified seed harder and harder for organic farmers to find. Families forced to sell their farms after generations on the land. Former farmers struggling with debt and unable to find work because they have no off-farm skills. Low-income consumers – urban and rural – with no access to fresh food.

The stories of hardship from across the nation have also pointed to a more hopeful underlying theme: Solidarity. At the town hall before the first workshop, in Ankeny, IA, a family farmer from near Des Moines talked about power: “Industry cannot turn one wheel unless people make those machines work,” he said. “We have the power here, and we need to understand what that power means.” Months later, prior to the fourth workshop, in Fort Collins, CO, a labor leader talked about being in a moment of “worker and farmer cooperation like this country has never seen before.”

In Iowa, the crowd chanting “bust up big ag!” was full of white farmers in their 50s wearing feed caps and faded jeans. In Colorado, it was ranchers in cowboy hats, pressed checked shirts, and big belt buckles who were on their feet calling for change. Around the country this year, it has been almost quarter of a million citizens who have signed petitions calling on DOJ and USDA to take swift action in this investigation. Similarly, in Brooklyn, New York, last month, it was a diverse crowd of hundreds of mostly African-American urban and rural farmers strategizing and organizing at the first Black Farmers and Urban Gardeners Conference – just as in cities and small towns around the country, communities of all colors, ages, and experiences are joining together to create a more just and fair food system. The anger and powerlessness voiced at the town hall forums could have been spoken by any of these communities – as could the commitment to organizing and demands for change.

Like the DOJ and USDA, I’ve traveled the country this year listening to producers and consumers tell of their experiences with the corporate-controlled food system. They, of course, have also gathered a great deal of information that I have not (including reading all 15,000+ comments that have been submitted on the issue) – but they haven’t been at the town hall forums, hearing the themes of both suffering and solidarity echoing loudly in a way that is harder to hear in the official workshops, which have “balanced” panelists and long speeches. (With the exception of the Colorado workshop, whose almost 2,000 cowboys created moments of raucous free-for-all, to the dismay of DOJ.) My takeaway from this year’s investigation has been the extraordinary number and diversity of Americans being screwed by our food system, and the strength and consistency of the movement for change, particularly in the most unlikely places.

The final workshop is in Washington, DC, on this Wednesday, December 8. It will focus on price margins (broadly: the difference between what the consumer pays and the producer receives) – making it the only one of the workshops to address the consumer side. After that—after a full year of investigation—the Departments have given little indication of what will happen. For thousands of people who have spoken out in and around the workshops, and millions more they represent, lives and livelihoods depend on DOJ deciding to take strong action to enforce existing antitrust laws and recommend new ones that would go even further to restoring fairness in food and agriculture markets. Let’s hope they’ve heard the movement.

You can keep showing DOJ the strength of the movement in support of strong action resulting from this investigation – if you’re near DC, come to the workshop on December 8, and to a community forum on December 7. Or send a comment directly to DOJ. You can follow me at Wednesday’s workshop on Twitter @whyhunger and #USDADOJ.

Siena Chrisman is the Manager of Strategic Partnerships & Alliances for the Grassroots Action Network at WhyHunger. She lives, cooks, and eats in Brooklyn. This post was first published in Civil Eats.

Speak up about corporate control of the food supply

On December 8th, in Washington DC, the Dept of Justice and the USDA will be holding a workshop (kind of like a town hall) to hear from farmers and consumers. Join us!

On December 8th, in Washington DC, the Dept of Justice and the USDA will be holding a workshop (kind of like a town hall) to hear from farmers and consumers. Would you like to go and share your experience of how, as a consumer and/or food producer you are affected by the consolidation of our food system?

Maybe you’ve noticed prices rising at the supermarket even while most big food companies made record profits this year.

Maybe you know consumers having trouble finding good food at affordable prices, as well as farmers having trouble getting good food into mainstream markets.

To join Slow Food members and staff in Washington DC next week, please email Angelines at angelines[at]slowfoodusa.org

To read more about the anti-trust workshops, click here.

Child Nutrition Bill Passes!

After a year and a half of campaigning, we are very happy to see that the House today passed the Healthy, Hungry-Free Kids Act.

After a year and a half of campaigning, we are thrilled to see that the House today passed the Healthy, Hungry-Free Kids Act. Our nation’s school children were long overdue for an improved child nutrition bill that would allow schools to serve an improved, healthier school lunch.

There were significant and frustrating compromises made along the way: most recently, the funding of the bill with SNAP money—an aggressive move made initially in the Senate version, but then eventually also adopted by the House—that was likely intended to split the school food advocacy community and thus kill the bill. The school food advocacy community were rightfully outraged at the notion of taking money from hungry kids to….feed hungry kids. We described our somewhat reluctant shift of tactic in an earlier blog post—you can click here to read it.

Ultimately 1,350 organizations ranging from Feeding America to the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition to Slow Food USA joined together in a letter to the House of Representatives urging them to pass the bill before the end of the year. Today, it seems, that pressure finally worked.

It’s an imperfect bill, one that fell short of our hopes, however, it has several important gains within. What’s good about this bill:

More after the jump