Books on Food: Art, Science

Part of what I love about “food books” as a genre is that the phrase is entirely non-specific, and covers everything from poetry to science, from art to history, from memoir to fiction.  Today, some more summer reading suggestions, both about our broken food system, but very different from each other.

First, Robyn O’Brien’s the Unhealthy Truth: How Our Food is Making Us Sick and What We Can Do About It.  Her book is a good companion piece to “Food, Inc.” I think, exploring how food is making our kids sick, and how big business is profiting from that, all from a Mom’s first-hand perspective.  As she explains it, pretty plain and simple: “the recent deregulation of the American food system allowed chemicals and additives into the American food supply that have either been banned or labeled from foods around the world in order to enhance profitability for the food industry.” Click here to read an excellent interview with her on Civil Eats.

Next up, a book I had the pleasure of getting to hear read aloud live (ok, well, parts of it) by the author the other night.  Lisa Hamilton, a photographer and writer has crafted a beautiful triptych--three stories, three farmers, and how they are struggling to keep their way of farming alive in a world pushing towards the industrialization of damn near everything.  Deeply Rooted: Unconventional Farmers in the Age of Agribusiness is clearly the work of a seasoned photographer; it reads like a giant photograph, with depth of field, and texture, and life bubbling up off the page.

A Sampler of School Lunch Loopholes

Deborah Lehmann is an editor of School Lunch Talk, a blog about school food. She is currently studying economics and public policy at Brown University.

As Congress gears up for this year’s child nutrition reauthorization, there has been a lot of discussion about the loopholes in the National School Lunch Program. For the most part, though, those discussions have focused on the laughably outdated list of “foods of minimal nutritional value” and the junk food that cafeterias sell outside of complete, reimbursable meals. Few people been paying attention to the loopholes that affect the nutritional quality of the meals themselves. Over the past few months, I’ve been accumulating a list of loopholes that allow school cafeterias to dish out less-than-healthy lunches. Here are a few of my favorites:

Percent Calories from Fat — School meals must contain no more than 30 percent of calories from fat and no more than 10 percent of calories from saturated fat. However, regulations set only a minimum for calories, not a maximum (in fact, I’ve spoken to school foodservice directors who say they were written up for serving low-calorie meals and had to put desserts back on the menu to meet the regulations). That means meeting the percent-from-fat requirements is largely a game. An entree that is high in fat or saturated fat is totally OK to serve, as long as you put it on the menu with side dishes that are high in calories but low in fat. Recently, I talked to a director who said she had been encouraged to put small bags of Skittles on the menu to meet the benchmarks. The candy boosts the calories in a meal without adding fat, so it often puts the percent of calories from fat within the acceptable threshold (it’s also fortified with vitamin C, so it helps meet that requirement as well). So while a meal with French fries or stuffed-crust pizza may be too high in fat to meet the nutrition guidelines, adding some candy (or another source of extra calories) to the tray makes the lunch into a USDA-compliant meal.

More after the jump

Better Oversight of GE Crops?

by Slow Food USA Biodiversity Intern Regina Fitzsimmons

Do you want better oversight of GE Crops? 
You have 5 days to tell the USDA what you think…

In the winter months of the Bush Administration, the former President allowed the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to weaken its oversight on genetically engineered (GE) crops. 

The Center for Food Safety writes, “Instead of tightening controls to protect the public and environment from contamination and harm, what the USDA has offered further endangers your right to choose the foods you and your family eat and farmers’ rights to their chosen livelihoods.”

The proposed rules raise concerns for many: among them, the Center for Food Safety and 83 other farm, food, public interest and environmental organizations who previously wrote to our new Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, last March about oversight of GE regulations. 

Some of the many regulation concerns include: proposed rules that will ensure more frequent GE contamination of organic and conventional crops and continued permission to the self-interested biotechnology organizations to make the decision about whether their GE crops should be regulated at all.  What’s more, the USDA published these rules before releasing the full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)—a breach of law—resulting in an absence of required public review that would provide the USDA with informed regulatory recommendations.

In the past few days the Center for Food Safety has drafted a letter to the USDA and Slow Food USA has signed on.  If you would like to submit a letter of your own, you can send this sample letter or use it to help compose a letter of your own.  You still have 5 days to comment before the “comment period” closes. 

For an interesting debate on the roots of GM opposition, the role of big agribusiness, and whether we’ve achieved real scientific consensus, click here.

Now, you might be saying: It sounds like there are problems surrounding GE, but I’m not completely convinced that GE is a bad idea.  I think I need more information before I decide one way or the other.  If I sign this form, am I saying that GE crops are bad?

No, you’re not.  And if you’re confused or on the fence about GE, you’re not alone.  By signing your name to the Center for Food Safety letter you are asking the government to follow the law and allow a public review of USDA’s GE regulations.  You will be asking for a moratorium to be placed on commercial planting of new GE crops until new regulations of GE crops are implemented—regulations will be developed from the pool of collected information and recommendations from the public.  In sum-up, you are asking for transparency—for all GE practices to be brought out in the open, and be subject to public opinion.

The End of the Line

By Gabrielle Redner

Rupert Murray’s documentary, The End of the Line, educates its audience about the reality of the sea: it is not an ever -replenishing body of water, and it is running low on many of its largest fish. Most likely, people who go to see the film agree that the ocean, like our land, must be mindfully utilized and not greedily mined. So what new information does the film provide to those who are concerned about fish in the sea? For starters, Murray acknowledges that the trawlers scooping hordes of fish out of the ocean rob the world not only of fish, but of jobs, a food source and the spirit of fishing communities.

Based on a book by British journalist Charles Clover, this film visually exposes the fishing industry’s incredibly powerful technologies. A boat unloads a waterfall of sardines, most of which will be used to feed farmed fish. Graphs of fish populations plummet, while graphs of their pray are on the exponential rise. The viewer is warned of the inevitable simplification of aquatic ecosystems if we continue to fish beyond recommended quotas.

As the scenes flash from rather bloody struggles of man and fish to decadent diners at Nobu, it’s hard not to think back to your last piece of delicious fish with a portion of guilt. But that is not the point. Like our land animals that may be sustainably raised and fed, fish can be caught using methods that ensure their sustainability, as well. The film does not ask us to reconsider whether to eat fish or not, but rather to consider the practices of those who caught the fish, and the stability of that species.

More after the jump

Food Safety--one size doesn’t fit all

by Slow Food USA intern Carol Dacey-Charles

HR 2749—The Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009—has passed through committee and is on its way to the House of Representatives for a vote before the July 4 holiday break.  Now, given the recent and on-going challenges our food system has faced with recalls of peanuts, pistachios, spinach and tomatoes, not to mention mad cow and swine flu—you may think a little more regulation might be in order and I would agree with you.  But how much of this is a good step forward in protecting the public and how much is using a sledgehammer to put up a tack?

The Act gives the FDA some powers that you might want in a food regulatory agency—the power to order a food recall, access to a farmer’s or producer’s records, and establishing a means to trace food along it’s chain of production.  Other aspects of the new bill may make you think Big Brother is about to take over our food system. Among the “Alarming Provisions” of the bill (as reported in the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund site) are: giving the FDA the power to quarantine a geographical area--prohibiting all food movement in that region; empowering the FDA to dictate how crops are raised and harvested; and the narrow definition of a “farm” that would be excluded from these new fees and regulations--it turns out if you make cheese, bread or use lacto-fermentation you are a manufacturer and not a farm.  How many growers at your local farmer’s market create value-added products to boost their incomes--probably no longer if this bill passes in its current form.

More after the jump

When It Comes to Kids, Change Can’t Wait

Gordon Jenkins is the Time for Lunch Campaign Coordinator at Slow Food USA

Last week, Michelle Obama made these remarks to a group of fifth-graders who had just harvested 73 pounds of lettuce and 12 pounds of snap peas from the First Lady’s Garden on the White House Lawn:

“To make sure that we give all our kids a good start to their day and to their future, we need to improve the quality and nutrition of the food served in schools. We’re approaching the first big opportunity to move this to the top of the agenda with the upcoming reauthorization of the child nutrition programs. In doing so, we can go a long way towards creating a healthier generation for our kids.”

It wasn’t Michael Pollan who said those words. It was the First Lady. Coming from her, the phrase “big opportunity to move this to the top of the agenda” is a call to action we cannot ignore.

When children are given the chance to plant and pick and cook food that’s both delicious and good for them, they’re far more curious to give it a try—and more often than not, they like it. When those children are offered real food in the school cafeteria and at the family dinner table, they eat it. They begin to ask for it.

Michelle has said that when Sasha and Malia learned to enjoy real food, they started “lecturing” her about what she should be eating and “what a carrot does, what broccoli does” to our bodies. Her kids taught her to enjoy real food. Kids can lead the way.

The National School Lunch Program provides a meal to 30 million children every school day. By giving schools the resources to serve real food, we can teach 30 million children healthy eating habits that will last throughout their lives. That’s a major down payment on health care reform. By providing 30 million children with locally grown fruits and vegetables, we can dramatically reshape the way this country grows and gets its food. By raising a generation of children on real food, we can build a strong foundation for their health, for our economy’s health and for America’s future prosperity.

This year, the Child Nutrition Act, which is the bill that governs the National School Lunch Program, is up for reauthorization. Unless citizens everywhere speak up this summer, “business as usual” in Congress will pass a Child Nutrition Act that continues to fail our children. We can do better.

Our leaders in Congress have to hear that everyday people in their districts refuse to accept the status quo. We have to tell them that when it comes to our children and the legacy we’re leaving them, change can’t wait.

That’s why a group of us are organizing a National Eat-In for Labor Day, Sept. 7, 2009. On that day, people in communities across America will gather with their neighbors for public potlucks that send a clear message to our nation’s leaders: It’s time to provide America’s children with real food at school.

To get the whole country to sit down to share a meal together, we’re going to need the help of all kinds of people: parents, teachers, community leaders, kids and people who’ve never done anything like this before. We’re going to need everyone to pitch in, starting today—because with the President calling for health care reform and the First Lady planting a garden on the White House Lawn, we’ve got an opening to pass legislation that grants 30 million children the freedom to grow up healthy.

We can do it this year, but only if we act now. It’s time to get real food into schools.

Tamalada Raises Funds for Free Community Dinners

story and photo by Laura McCandlish

Have you dreamed of making your own tamales but been too intimidated to try the multi-step, labor-intensive process at home?

Slow Food Corvallis helped about 35 participants conquer those fears by organizing a authentic tamalada (tamales-making event) on a Saturday afternoon in late April. The class, conducted by Texcoco native and Corvallis resident Maria Ortiz, promoted cross-cultural culinary exchange with the local Mexican community. Ticket sales from the event also raised $250 for new community dinners launching for low-income families later this summer. Volunteers organized by the Corvallis Sustainability Coalition’s food committee will prepare and serve a monthly meal to at-risk families at SouthSide Community Church. These Southtown Family Dinners will particularly cater to the neighborhood’s growing Hispanic population, and families. While insurance issues are still being ironed out with the church, a trial-run fundraiser meal will be served on June 28, with the monthly dinners set to commence in July.

But back to making tamales. Maria modeled the entire process for us, demonstrating how to knead the masa dough, prepare salsa from scratch, rehydrate the corn husks, spread the masa and fillings on the surface of the husk and then fold the husks up for steaming. We made three types of tamales: chicken and pork ones with salsa verde and salsa roja and vegetable Rajas ones with tomato, strips of poblano peppers, cheese and the herb, epazote. To drink, we served traditional Mexican beverages: Jamaica hibiscus tea and limonada. About a half hour before the event concluded, we gathered to taste the results. Delish! All participants also went home with a bag of tamales to freeze.

Holding this event in the large certified kitchen we rented from the local First United Methodist Church was key. Folks need lots of space to spread out at tables and wrap those tamales.

For more on the tamalada and for Maria Ortiz’s recipe, click here. 

A Food Coop, A Farmer

by Slow Food USA intern Melissa Rosenberg

While I recently savored some spicy, delicate watercress from the Park Slope Food Coop (PSFC), I was reminded how fortunate I am to have access to a wide array of local and affordable produce, an arm’s stretch away from my home. Centrally located in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY, the PSFC is the largest, entirely member-owned and operated food store in the country.

In exchange for 2 hours and 45 minutes of work every four weeks, its more than 15,000 members obtain discounted prices for a wide variety of products, including local, organic and conventionally grown produce, pasture-raised and grass-fed meat and free-range, poultry.  The coop exemplifies a self-sustaining alternative model to the commercial profit-oriented grocery store.

Since opening shop in 1973, the PSFC has supported local farmers in order to offer fresh, sustainable food to members of the Brooklyn community and beyond. The coop primarily sources its produce, poultry and meat from over 50 farms within 500 miles of Brooklyn. At the height of the region’s growing season-- fast approaching—the majority of the coop’s produce comes from small farms within 100 to 200 miles. 

The tasty watercress I had been munching in my salads and sandwiches, was grown and supplied to the coop by Blue Heron Farm, nestled in the heart of the Finger Lakes.  Owners, Robin Ostfeld and Lou Johns met in the spring of 1978 while working on a blueberry farm in Olympia, Washington. Thirteen years ago, they started Blue Heron Farm, which has been certified organic by NOFA.  With two permanent hoop houses, four greenhouses, plus cooling and heating storage, housed in a two-story 1880s barn, the farm is well equipped to provide fresh produce throughout the entire year.

Allen Zimmerman, of the Park Slope Food Coop, tells us that this spring’s Blue Heron baby spinach leaves are so tender that “they feel like cotton candy.” The farm’s purple asparagus and red Boston lettuce are on sale now, and orange chard, dill and escarole are on the way.  According to Robin, “strawberries will take center stage” for the rest of this month. 

In addition to the coop in Brooklyn, Blue Heron’s produce can also be found at the Farmers Market in Ithaca and on the Angelica Kitchen’s menu in downtown Manhattan.

FOOD, Inc. goes nationwide

Food, Inc. did so well in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, that it’s headed to 45 more theatres around the country, everywhere from Washington DC to Portland OR to Ft Lauderdale, FL.

It performed better at the box office this past weekend than all the other independent films in release (based on its per screen average).  This is an amazing achievement for a documentary, and a good sign that the public is hungry for the real story of where their food comes from. 

Head to the theatres this weekend!  Tell your friends and neighbors (and then, you know, invite them over for a home cooked meal afterwards).  Click here to see the expanded list of where the movie will be playing starting June 19th.

Bringing Back the Bodega Red Potato

By Slow Food USA Biodiversity Intern Regina Fitzsimmons

You may already know about the project in Sonoma County to save the Sebastopol Gravenstein apple.  But, in upcoming years, a new project is going to hit California farms and backyards.

When Elissa Rubin-Mahon, a member of Slow Food Sonoma County, heard rumored stories of Bodega Reds growing in her California neck of the woods, she didn’t rest until she uncovered the full history.  The Bodega Red, according to folklore, was brought by a Peruvian to Sonoma County where it grew near the coast in Bodega.  Sonoma County was once the potato capital of California—there’s even a California sandbar named after the Bodega Red and a lookout named “Spud Point.” But after some time, the Bodega Red started falling off the map.  Genetically similar potatoes, like the Burbank, even died out.  The Burbank became extinct because of potato blight and infestations of viruses.  And, not helping matters, Elissa discovered that growers used to eat and sell the high quality potatoes, and plant the worst ones, thus propagating genetically weaker and weaker potatoes.

Elissa was especially intrigued by the Bodega Red because it was one of five or six potatoes introduced to the United States directly from the potato motherland: South America.  Most potatoes sailed to Europe where they were grown and eaten and then sent to North America during the time of European colonization.  Bodega Reds didn’t make that extra boat ride.  Like the Makah Ozette potato, they made their way all the way up the West Coast and into Alaska. 

More after the jump