I’m seeing many more news items on food safety in recent days than I’ve seen in a long time. In less than a year we have dealt with E. coli in spinach, salmonella in peanut butter and melamine in pet food and people food.
Debate now centers around a new food safety agency, more money for the FDA and the USDA, Country of Origin Labeling, and corporate as well as consumer responsibility for safety.
Nancy Shute has written an excellent article on food safety issues that appears in the May 28 print edition of U.S. News & World Report: Better Safe Than Sorry.
Am I ever glad to see farmers markets starting up again!
Here’s a site to visit and where you can sign-up for email about recalls of all kinds of products: www.recalls.gov.
Also, visit today’s post of Conkey’s Tavern for information about ingredients in Twinkies and a great new book.
Posted on May 22nd, 2007 in
Local food | Author:
jimtolbert |
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You may want to purchase novelist Barbara Kingsolver’s newest book: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Her co-authors are her husband and their daughter. You can purchase it through their web site which also has some great recipes and links to local, sustainable agriculture resources.
Kingsolver is like me: she is no 100-mile diet purist. Coffee is still a must in the mornings as is olive oil grown across country from their farm-home. However, her family is trying to grow and eat more of their own food. What they can’t produce, they try to find locally.
Most of us don’t or can’t grow most of our food. We can have a small garden. (Here in my new Chihuahua Desert home, I have chilis growing in a whiskey barrel and enough cilantro and rosemary to make salsas and sauces for a very long time.) We can also buy more locally grown food. Kingsolver’s book is a delightful resource.
BTW it was recommended to me by my friend, Peggy Watt, of Issaquah, Washington. She grows much of her food in her community pea patch and is buying more locally grown food at the market near and dear to my heart: the Carnation Farmers Market.
According to a DailyPress.com opinion column, The importance of locally grown foods, there are several good reasons why there is a growing interest in local food:
- Health concerns - e.g., obesity and diabetes
- Safety from food scares such as E. coli and Chinese melamine
- Opportunities for minority immigrant farmers
- Good for downtowns and the local economy
You may have your own reasons including a desire for yummier tasting food. Whatever, the interest is growing and you are part of it.
Here’s an idea: take a vacation on an organic farm. Know that many farms also have intern programs. Beats summer camp for the older son or daughter.
Here’s an article that you will want to read from Business Week online: How safe is the food supply? The answer is not very and it has been a problem brewing since the 1990’s. Here are 3 proposed solutions:
- Food companies and food suppliers must do more to quality check their products.
- The FDA must be given a budget so that they can increase their inspections.
- Food and food products from countries such as China who have poor food standards should not be allowed into the United States.
Your best bet is to buy local from someone you know. You can also grow some of your own food in a kitchen garden or a community pea patch. Finally, you can’t get everything that you want locally. Check out the big companies. Use the Internet to research and find out which companies are doing thorough quality control on a regular basis.
I’ve been away for awhile but I’m back on a regular basis now. I hope that you bookmark this page and visit and bookmark my other blog: Conkey’s Tavern.
More and more farmers markets are now opening and soon you will see more and more produce and fruits and berries and meats and cheeses . . . and on and on. When you shop at a farmers market, think about others.
You may have a neighbor or a friend who would love some fresh produce, some artisan bread, or fresh organically-grown fruit. Buy a little extra for them. You will not only be giving a wonderful gift, you will be helping to market your favorite farmers.
Think especially about an elderly neighbor who would love some fresh berries and perhaps some herbs to plant in a kitchen garden.
In time, there may be enough people in your neighborhood interested in the market that you can start some kind of CSA or food delivery program.
Remember the local food bank. Check with them first to find out what kinds of fresh food that they can take. There may be a soup kitchen in the community that will love a donation of seasonal salad greens and vegetables. If you can’t find a soup kitchen, ask some of the local churches if they have food programs for the needy.
At many farmers markets you can find lavender and other aromatic plants that have been used to make sachets or soap or something else. These make great presents for people far away as well as near. With Mother’s Day coming up, look for any of these “value-added farm products.”
Posted on May 10th, 2007 in
Local food | Author:
jimtolbert |
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Here’s a great story that shows that it isn’t easy to get local food into the supermarkets. I refer you to Naomi Snyder’s Local foods battle for shelf space for several reasons. First, you can see that consumer demand for local is growing and having some powerful effects. Next, you will see that local growers and food producers have some unusual hurdles to jump over in order to sell to consumers at the big box retail super markets and stores. Finally, I wanted to encourage you to speak up.
As you get to know more local farmers and food producers, ask your grocer for their products. There is nothing like good old-fashioned patron demand to help local producers succeed. You will be helping your local economy, furthering your community, and improving the health and lives of your neighbors.
How’s your kitchen garden? I’ve got 3 varieties of chilis growing now: New Mexico, Sandia, and Red Hot. The little plants even survived a heavy downpour with hail last night. By the way, I’m growing them in an old whiskey barrel that was inspected in 1961.
“The kitchen garden, once a standard fixture of most American households, is gaining renewed attention as one component of the movement towards local, fresh and seasonal foods. Many people who take up kitchen gardening are concerned about the sustainability of a system in which most foods in a typical meal have traveled over 1,000 miles to get to their tables. Some kitchen gardeners are drawn by the variety of heirloom and hybrid plants available to growers, while others are attracted by freshness, flavor and nutritional value.”
Thus reads the scope of a new guide to kitchen gardening that is well worth surfing through. Kitchen Gardens is really a guide to guides. It is published by the Library of Congress. If you see a reference that interests you, you can email the L of C and get more information. Be patient. It’s not automatic. Use this guide as you checkout books online with your local library.
What could be more locally grown and known than what you grow yourself? Kitchen Gardens offers a guide to where you can find all the info you need for making a small kitchen garden work successfully and conveniently.
The FDA has now widened its search of Chinese food products. It’s not just the use of melamine in food products from China that is an open secret. It is also a whole list of unsafe ingredients and practices including the use of human hair and sewage.
Commenting on Slow Food Forums, Glenn Grossman says it best: “If you didn’t have enough reasons to make preservation of local agriculture a top priority, perhaps the latest developments related to the melamine contamination of pet food will convince you.”
Now we know that melamine is not just in pet food and melamine is probably the healthiest ingredient of a list of contaminants from China.
Locally grown and known food is the best way to go. And, by the way, you can encourage your favorite restaurants to begin using more locally grown foods. Here’s a great guide.
Posted on May 1st, 2007 in
Local food | Author:
jimtolbert |
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