Eat Local KC

More Good Reason Not to Import Food from China

From the New York Times:

The pet food case is also putting China’s agricultural exports under greater scrutiny because the country has had a terrible food safety record.

In recent years, for instance, China’s food safety scandals have involved everything from fake baby milk formulas and soy sauce made from human hair to instances where cuttlefish were soaked in calligraphy ink to improve their color and eels were fed contraceptive pills to make them grow long and slim.

For their part, Chinese officials dispute any suggestion that melamine from the country could have killed pets. But regulators here on Friday banned the use of melamine in vegetable proteins made for export or for use in domestic food supplies.

Yet what is clear from visiting this region of northeast China is that for years melamine has been quietly mixed into Chinese animal feed and then sold to unsuspecting farmers as protein-rich pig, poultry and fish feed.

Read more about this here.

Got Grass?

On my way home from work, I pass not just one, but two California “Happy Cows” billboards. Given that I live in the Midwest, and I can find a cow standing in pasture less than 20 minutes from my city in any direction, I’m not all too clear on why I should be seeing ads about the mental state of cows in California. I’m also not certain why someone spent $17 million in 2001 alone to tell me how happy the cows are.

I mean, many of the cows here look happy to me. Especially the ones that make my milk. They pretty much live on a pasture most of the time. They get milked only a couple times a day, no hormones or antibiotics. They eat grass, lie in the sun and basically do all the things happy cows should be doing. I even have a photo of the actual cows that make my milk posted here. So, see for yourself. Do they look happy to you?

Fixing the Farm Bill

Here are some good reasons why you, as a consumer, would want to send a QUICK, EASY email to support changes to the Farm Bill. Hey, you don't even have to know your representative's name! And, realistically, most of us don't. It takes less than a minute!

There are some very real benefits to consumers in this issue, ones we all need to be aware of and involved in — even if you've never set foot near a farm.

Here are the two ammendments that would help the situation and the basics of what they would do for YOU.

The Healthy Farms, Food and Fuels Act will do the following for YOU the consumer:

1. Promote renewable energy development on farms, ranches and forest lands (cheaper, clean energy FOR YOU!).
   
2. Link producers with consumers through farmers markets and farm-to-cafeteria (as in your school's cafeteria) initiatives, and provide new assistance to low-income and elderly consumers (wait the last one goes under altruism, unless YOU are low income or elderly).
   
3. Help create more organic farms, thus better and more sources of quality produce for YOU.

The EAT Healthy America Act will do the following for YOUR CHILDREN:

1. Require federal feeding programs, including the YOUR CHILDREN'S school lunch and school breakfast programs, to adhere to the 2005 USDA Dietary Guidelines.
   
2. Expand the fruit and vegetable snack program in YOUR CHILDRENS' schools across the nation and develop new nutrition promotion programs to assist producers in enhancing their markets.

FDA Knew About Risks

If you have seen the front page of most newspapers, then you know that the FDA was aware of the problems that led to the spinach and peanut butter contamination for some time before the outbreaks.

In the case of the Salmonella in the peanut butter, the FDA knew of the issues as early as 2005. When FDA inspectors requested documents from the ConAgra plant, they were refused. The FDA inspector left and the issue was not followed up on.

While the spotlight is being thrown onto the FDA, with reason, there are others who need to be called into question.

"This administration does not like regulation, this administration does not like spending money, and it has a hostility toward government. The poisonous result is that a program like the FDA is going to suffer at every turn of the road," said Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), chairman of the full House committee, as quoted in the Washington Post.

The FDA was given a budget increase of just $10 million, a mere bandaid when you consider they are responsible for nearly 80% of the inspections of our food supply. The USDA was given a budget increase nearly 10 times that amount.

Let's also not forget that ConAgra knew of its problems and sent inspectors away. And did nothing. And the spinach producers knew of the issues, and the outbreaks continued. In fact, 18 outbreaks of foodborne illness since 1995 caused by E. coli involved fresh or fresh-cut lettuce and one concerning fresh-cut spinach. The 19 outbreaks account for over 400 reported cases of illness and two deaths.

So, when you line everyone up to take the blame, don't forget the food producers (ConAgra, others) who allow life-threatening problems to continue and deny them, the FDA that cannot and will not do its job, and the current pro-business administration who will not support the FDA in doing its job. That's a lot of blame. That's a lot of anger for a Monday morning.

Beyond blaming, what can we do? Because blaming does not solve the issue of getting dinner on the table tonight. As consumers we need to decrease our reliance on processed foods and mass-scale agriculture. We need to Eat Local, to buy food from people we know and trust, who feed their own families the same produce and meats that they sell to us. And, we need to tell our government that we are mad, that we do not support them. And tell companies who sell us tainted product, knowingly, that we don't care to buy their products. Any of them. And there are many.

Antibiotic News

The FDA is currently considering approval for use of the animal  drug, cefquinome, in food animals. The drub is a fourth-generation cephalosporin, which is one of a class of drugs  highly valued in human medicine as treatment for serious and life-threatening infections.    

Four top medical organizations have written the FDA to advise against approval for the drug’s use on food animals. The organizations include; The American Medical Association (AMA), Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and American Public Health Association (APHA).

Enjoy your next hamburger!

I hated to post so soon after my introductory blog, but I have had these thoughts rattling around in my head since Valentine's Day.  My day began very eventfully, very early in the morning...

You might not recall, but mid February this year was extremely cold and bitter.  Also, out here in the country, we had a solid sheet of ice covering everything for almost the entire month.  And I, like most beef producers in this area, found myself in the middle of calving season.

Most of the time, a mature cow can give birth to her calf with little if any human intervention.  After all, although some producers may not believe it, animals have been surviving without human intervention forever.  During extremely cold weather, however, a cow cannot warm her calf in time to keep it alive.  This, combined with the fact that my cows weren't mature cows, but first timers, meant that I was out checking on the mothers to be every two hours.  Two hours is about the time it takes for a cow to go from active labor to birth, so whether the cow is having trouble birthing the calf on her own, or if the calf is born and needs to be warmed and coddled a bit, I had about a two hour window within which I could be inside, warming up, resting, doing whatever.

On Valentine's Day, I checked my heifers at 1A.M., and it was 6 degrees with a strong north wind.  Needless to say, a newborn calf won't survive very long in those conditions.  On this particular trip out, I found a newborn calf, which was already frozen to the ground.  I literally peeled the new calf from the icy ground, and, with its mother in pursuit, carried the calf out of the lot and into a barn on the farm which is finished with living quarters and a wood burning stove.  I sat with the baby calf, coaxed its first meal of colostrum, a vitamin rich milk, into it, and waited for it to warm up.  Eventually, the new calf was able to eat on its own, and even got up on its feet and was bawling for mom.  My spirits were lifted, knowing that I'd leapt a big first hurdle, saving the calf from the cold.  However, not all of my troubles were over.  Anytime you take a new calf away from its mother, you run two big risks, one that the calf may not ever latch onto its mom once you reunite them, and the other that the cow may not accept the calf.  Luckily, when I marched the new calf back out into the cold, at around 8AM, and united her with her mother, they immediately bonded.

As I went back inside the house to shower and revive myself with some warm coffee, I was thinking about how many beef producers were going through the same struggles as I was, fighting the cold and ice to save one calf at a time.  For me it was hard enough, even with my small herd of 25 heifers.  But some of my friends and relative calved out over 200 cows this winter.  Not all stories are successes, but we have to work hard whether the calf ends up living or not.  In the end, we sell the calves that survive at some point, either through traditional channels where it will end up in a crowded feed lot, or, in my case, directly to the consumer.  Either way, as cow-calf producers, we all spend some time as mid-wife, and this winter, that role was extremely hard.  But, it is what we do.  We don't get paid more because we had to work 3rd shift to keep the calf alive, freezing our hands and feet in the process.  It is just what we do, in most cases because we don't want to do anything else.

So, as you cut into your next steak, or bite into that hamburger tomorrow, take just a moment to remember, food isn't fast, and food isn't easy.  Someone might have spent a Valentine's night out in the cold so you could enjoy wholesome, cheap, food this summer.  Bon appetit.

Allow me to introduce myself

Hello, my name is Marcus Moreland, and I am a food producer on a small farm south of Louisburg, KS.  I wanted to blog for the Eat Local Challenge because I believe it is important for people, both producers and consumers, to reconnect to food and food production.  As you may notice, I don't call myself a "farmer".  I come from a long line of farmers, I grew up on a farm, my wife grew up on a farm, our parents still farm, and each of us has one brother who farms.  We, however, consider ourselves food producers.  We believe farmers have moved away from producing food and toward producing raw materials for manufacturing;  more on this throughout my blogging.  We are not against typical farming per SE, but we realize that the typical farm upon which we grew up is no longer where food comes from.

Since we both grew up on farms and like the idea of raising children in a rural, farming environment, and since we both LOVE to cook and eat good food (and drink good wine), several years ago we bought our land with the intent of starting an organic farm and winery.  Now, more than 3 years later, we live on our farm with our daughter and two dogs.  We've produced vegetables, which we sold at farmer's markets one year, and through a CSA for a shortened season the following year, we raise and sell grass fed lamb, and we have grown many pastured chickens for ourselves, friends, and family.  This year we have added a herd of cattle, from which we will grow and market grass fed beef.

As a consumer and producer, I hope to add some insightful thoughts about food production, eating, and the greater socio-economic impacts of today's agriculture and diet.  While my beliefs of sustainably & locally produced food are passionate, I will devote some time in my blog to supporting and defending mainstream agriculture.  I look forward to writing for you, and I hope you find my comments thought provoking, informative, and, perhaps above all, entertaining.

Time to Get Your Hands in the Dirt

This coming weekend marks the first Saturday for most area Farmers Markets. Look for produce like lettuces, chard, kale, greens and radishes for your Easter menu. Also look for herb plants and flowers. And tomato plants later this month for planting in May.

Mid-to-late April is a good time to put your herbs in for your summer cooking. And, new research shows, that getting your hands in the dirt may even be good for you.