Coming Soon

Hey there, Just Sayers. Apologies for the gap between posts. We've been off the grid for a week gathering information and ideas for an exciting spring season on the blog. Check back soon for the following fun topics:

• Champion Trees and Mount Auburn Cemetery
• How to Build a Butterfly Garden
• Jon Traunfeld's Salad Table
• Cesar Chavez Day (and a great way to celebrate it)
• My Favorite New England Bakery

Big News for Food Safety

Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser weighed in on the FDA Food Safety Modernization Bill, calling it the "best opportunity in a generation to improve the safety of the American food supply," in a New York Times Op-Ed published yesterday. "This legislation is by no means perfect. But it promises to achieve several important food safety objectives, greatly benefiting consumers without harming small farmers or local food producers."

The Senate is scheduled to vote on the bill tonight. Here are some basic objectives of the bill:

• The bill would, for the first time, give the F.D.A. (who oversee 80% of American food) the authority to test widely for dangerous pathogens and to recall contaminated food.
• The FDA would gain resources and authority to prevent food safety problems, rather than respond to them after people have become ill.
• The bill would also require large-scale, high-risk food-production plants get more frequent inspections.
• For the first time, imported foods would be subject to the same standards as those made in the United States.
• Small farms are exempt from the bill and may continue to be regulated under state and local laws. 
• Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma is annoying.

"The Food Movement, Rising"

A new essay from Michael Pollan in The New York Review of Books takes a look at the food revolution taking place - whether it's completely recognized yet or not - here in America. Pollan discusses everything from Michelle Obama's efforts to food safety and industry and how books published in the past decade (by other faves like J.S. Foer, Eric Schlosser, Marion Nestle, Joel Salatin, etc) along with growing support from national environmental and health organizations most definitely suggests a culture ripe and ready to get "beyond the barcode." 

If you take the time to go beyond JustSaying's summary and read the whole article just one time, let this be it. Find The Food Movement, Rising here.

Great Data on American Food Consumption

The USDA's Economic Resource Service has gathered and published some fascinating data about America's food consumption. Nothing too shocking about these graphs but really interesting stuff. The article in Amber Waves that accompanies these graphs offers a great understanding of the technological, political, social and economic forces affecting food availability over the past century (in fewer words than so many books on the subject).

Dogs in China

Adam Minter wrote an interesting albeit disturbing article for Foreign Policy about the newest class struggle in China between rich dogs and poor dogs. The debate on whether to care for or to eat dogs pits younger, educated pet owners against the traditional rural Chinese. I am far too biased to offer an opinion on this issue but nonethessless it is a topic worth following and if you can stomach it, find the article here.

Hungry for Change

As many of you who have shared a meal with me know, my diet decisions are mostly environmental and political and my love cuddly farm animals plays only a small role. I prefer the term ecotarian to vegetarian (although the two tend to go hand in hand). It's really about connectivity. If everyone understood what they were endorsing with each food purchase I imagine they'd think twice before a lot of those choices. So I have some great news: The Nation publishes their special issue on food this month and JustSaying will undoubtedly be highlighting articles and insight from the likes of Alice Waters, Michael Pollan, Dan Barber, Dave Murphy... the list goes on.

For now, I'd like to bring you ten simple ways to vote with your fork, from Peter Rothberg's recent Nation post (drawn largely from the Hungry for Change campaign).

1. Stop drinking soda. (Great way to lose weight.)

2. Eat at home more than you eat out. (Save money; eat healthier.)

3. Support the passage of laws requiring chain restaurants to post calorie information on menus and menu boards. (Knowledge is power.)

4. Help get schools to stop selling junk food. (Our tastes start young.)

5. Go without meat at least one day each week -- Meatless Mondays? (Single best way to help the environment is to become a vegetarian.)

6. Buy organic and/or sustainable foods without pesticides. (Chemicals kill.)

7. Support family farms by shopping at farmer's markets and CSAs. (Take market share away from the corporate sector.)

8. Know where your food comes from. Read labels! (Knowledge is power #2.)

9. Tell Congress that food safety is critical. (Regulations need to be expanded.)

10. Demand job protections for workers along each point of the food processing chain. (Labor rights are a critical part of food safety.)

Soda Tax

While he says that he was "just presenting the science," CDC chief Dr. Thomas Freiden seems to approve of the proposal for a three-cent sales tax on soda and other sugary drinks - pointing out that increasing the price of unhealthy foods "would be effective" at combating the nation's obesity problem. Considering obesity-related health spending reaches $147 billion a year, double what it was nearly a decade ago, the $24 billion the tax is estimated to generate over the next four years could certainly come in handy.

What do you all think about a soda tax? or sugar tax? Will vending machines start taking pennies?

Food, Inc.

"Viewers who haven’t thought much about how all that food in the grocery store got to be there will likely find it hard to toss a few packages of pork chops and some Froot Loops in the cart and call it a day. Some viewers will undoubtedly look away during the meat cutting and processing scenes. For parents the eye-averting moment will come during repeated slow-motion scenes of a 2-year-old’s last vacation. His mother, now a food-safety advocate, explains in a tearful voice-over the gruesome details of his death after he ate hamburger tainted with E. coli."

...from The NY Times' review of Robert Kenner's "Food, Inc." I'm going to go ahead and deem the film a "must see" and I'm not just saying that because my man, MP, narrates it.

“The way we eat has changed more in the last 50 years than the previous 10,000,” Michael Pollan says as the film opens. Mr. Pollan, an author and occasional contributor to The New York Times Magazine, is the spiritual guide for the film and serves as its narrator. “A lot of it is hard to watch,” he conceded, “but I think people are ready to take a good, unflinching look at how their food is produced.”

Can't wait to get my hands on the companion book! The film opens in select cities this weekend. For now, here's a trailer:

Department of Food?

In response to the most recent peanut butter recall, the NY Times "Room for Debate" has asked some experts: Would creating a single Department of Food better protect consumers? And how could the current crisis have been prevented?

Whether or not each of these contributors feel that a single department is necessary, all agree that the current food safety system is unfortunately reactive when it needs to be preventative, that it is broken, and that it's in desperate need of an overhaul or reinvention. Not surprisingly, I like what Ann Cooper had to say:

"If we want to make disease outbreaks a thing of the past, we have to move away from this industrial model of food production to one that is more localized and able to put a higher priority on children’s health, the environment and the health of sustainable businesses."

Get in on the conversation here.

White House "Kitchen" Cabinet

Definitely check out this excellent post by Tara Parker-Post on her Well blog today about newly appointed White House chef, Sam Kass' take on the sorry state of the National School Lunch Program. I agree with Alice Waters - a "kitchen cabinet"with folks like Sam could help change the national food culture!

Baby Steps to Food System Reform

I encourage you to take a few minutes to read this excellent op-ed by Jane Black that appeared in Sunday's Post regarding stagnant food policy conversations in Washington. Black, a food writer, points out that food advocates and lobbyists lack a single message and strategy and this puts them (us) at a disadvantage in the policy room. The reasons for this, of course, lie in the complexity of food issues. Black writes:

"...After all, there's no one policy for improving food in America. To bring real change, policymakers need to look at the system more holistically -- because everything, as foodies see it, is connected. Federal subsidies of grain and corn make it cheap to produce meat. Industrial meat production, which takes advantage of cheap feed, is responsible for about one-fifth of the world's greenhouse gases. Eating too much meat and too many processed foods made with corn products such as high fructose corn syrup has contributed to the sharp spike in obesity over the past 30 years..."

This passage ties food policy to energy, health care, industry, and so forth beyond agriculture but this kind of broad agenda thinking isn't getting us very far. We've got to narrow it down, take one issue and address it from start to finish. Black offers some suggestions, stemming from the successes or failures in movements like Slow Foods, Alice Waters' inaugural meals, and the "give a swordfish a break" campaign, my favorite being:

"...Advocate for radical change this year when Congress renews the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act, which includes $21 billion annually for programs including school breakfast and lunch. Currently, cash-strapped schools are forced to rely on government surplus and sales of soda and other junk foods, a combination that results in millions of French fry-centric meals. Stricter school nutrition standards and increased funding for fruits and vegetables could change that. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack indicated in his confirmation hearing this month that he sees better nutrition as a tool for defeating childhood hunger..."

Obama appointments

President-elect Barack Obama just named his picks for the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture. Senator Ken Salazar and former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack respectively. Brian Knowlton and Jeff Zeleny of the NY Times report:

As governor, Mr. Vilsack was a strong proponent of ethanol and wind energy, traveling the world in search of new markets and opportunities for American products.

Mr. Obama particularly praised Mr. Vilsack’s advocacy of biotech and his work to foster “an agricultural economy of the future that not only grows the food we eat but the energy we use.”

Mr. Salazar, a former director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources and state attorney general, has also been a proponent of renewable energy sources.

A farmer and rancher with deep roots in Colorado, he is known as a staunch conservationist and an opponent of developing oil shale on public lands. But some environmentalists are unhappy that Mr. Salazar has worked to allow more offshore oil exploration.

Secretary of Food

Please join me and sign the petition to Nominate Michael Pollan for Secretary of Agriculture

To: President-Elect Barack Obama

We citizens of The United States of America request the appointment of Michael Pollan to the Office of Secretary of Agriculture of the United States of America.

Through his academic lectures and papers, published books and articles Mr. Pollan has proven capable of gathering wide-ranging research, organizing it into a coherent whole and reaching non-biased conclusions. This research has provided him a unique understanding of the history, development, and contemporary practices of U.S. Agriculture and its relationship to the health of the citizens of The United States. He is singularly qualified to identify inefficiencies and present improvements in production, nutrition, and our problematic reliance on petroleum and petro-chemical based fertilizers, for the benefit of food producers and consumers both. As an academic and journalist, Mr. Pollan is free of the type of conflicts of interest rampant in the current administration which have led to abysmal performance and deficient oversight of industry at the expense of the people.

It is our belief that this scholarly approach coupled with his unique ability to synergize and coherently communicate to a wide audience makes Mr. Pollan the best choice for Secretary of Agriculture in an administration whose stated goals include affordable health and healthcare for the citizens of this nation and wholesale change from the practices of the Bush administration.

Please refer to http://www.michaelpollan.com/speak.htm for Mr. Pollan’s full biography and Curriculum Vitae.


Sincerely,

Your signature on the petition

And while we are on the topic, some other suggested reading and petitions you may be interested in:

Obama's "Secretary of Food?"
Food Democracy Now
A Pitch to Obama on Food and Farming
Can the Guy From Stone Barns Be Secretary of Agriculture?

(thnx Amanda Dobbins, for buzzfeed post)

No home-made chocolate chip cookies for kids in California

Kids at Piedmont High, in Piedmont California, had a pretty disappointing bake sale this year due to the July 2007 implementation of guidelines that were passed by lawmakers in 2005 . The guidelines require that snacks sold during the school day contain no more than 35 percent sugar by weight, derive no more than 35 percent of their calories from fat, and no more than 10 percent of their calories from saturated - thus turning traditional bake sale items, like cupcakes, caramel apples and lemon bars, into contraband.

Read the full story in the NY Times. It is important to teach children healthy habits but even I think this is going a little far. President of the California School Nutrition Association, Stephanie Bruce, said quite simply, “It concerns me we’re not teaching moderation.”

I'm all for ridding the schools of soda machines and Twinkies, but I think a healthy relationship with food, one that is developed in the kitchen, encourages planning and preparation, fosters tradition, and brings people in the community together, shouldn't be against school policy.

Pollan on NPR

In a recent NY Times Magazine article, Farmer-in-Chief, Michael Pollan addressed the candidates regarding the close ties between major political topics and food policy - a topic upon which Pollan has written a number of books and essays.

Pollan recently appeared on NPR's Fresh Air. Audio of interview can be found here. (thnx Jonathan)

And NYT's Tara-Parker Pope blogged about Pollan and his concerns this morning. An excerpt from her post:

Mr. Pollan notes that food is a bipartisan issue, and that both parties have dismal track records on agricultural policy. Food, he argues, is the ultimate “solar” product, but the current food system, with its focus on the monocultures of soy, wheat and corn, is heavily dependent on natural gas and oil to make fertilizers and pesticides as well as to import and transport food.

One of Mr. Pollan’s concerns is that national policies subsidize the least healthful calories that we eat. He notes that the “building blocks” of fast food are soy and corn, used to make hydrogenated soy oil, the protein and starch in cattle and chicken feed, and high-fructose corn syrup used in sodas and sweets.