Meatless Monday: 3.18.13 Food News Roundup

Today I am taking a break from my recent run of recipe posts to give you a brief rundown on some of the recent food stories I have been following. Recipes will be back soon, I promise.

GMO Labeling is a very hot topic.

• Whole Foods recently announced that by 2018 all products in their U.S. and Canadian stores must be labeled to indicate whether they contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs). 
• Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Jerry Greenfield paid a visit to Hartford, CT’s state capital, on Friday, March 15. According to GMO Free CT, Jerry was one of 200 supporters to offer testimony in support of CT HB 6519, a bill to require the labeling of genetically modified food sold in the state. 
• Ben & Jerry’s recently committed to sourcing non-GMO ingredients for all their products by the end of 2013. Ben & Jerry’s is a strong advocate for the consumers' right to know what is in their food and was one of the early supporters of labeling of rBGH in dairy products. It is interesting to note that Ben & Jerry’s is owned by Unilever, one of the corporate giants who funneled money into the campaign to defeat California Proposition 37. 
• California Proposition 37 was narrowly defeated in November, but other states are continuing the fight for the consumer’s right to know what is in their food. States with proposed GMO labeling legislation in their current sessions include: Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.

Dead Pigs, Contaminated Water in China

• On March 13 the BBC reported that according to a statement issued by the Chinese government, the number of pig carcasses found floating in the Huangpu River totals nearly 6,000. The government also claims that the water quality of the river “meets government-set standards.”  The source of the dead pigs remains a mystery. According to information from the NGO Pacific Environment, “Nearly 1/4 of Chinese [people] lack access to clean drinking water, over 70 percent of lakes and rivers are polluted, and pollution accidents happen on a near daily basis.” In today’s South China Morning Post there is a story reporting that residents of the village of Changshou in Hunan province have long refused to drink tap water they have been told is “safe.” You might want to think twice before purchasing frozen produce from China.

Girl Scout Cookies

• After news service UPI reported in February that more than 13,000 boxes of unsold Girl Scout cookies were thrown away in Riverside, CA, the story went viral. A reporter for a CBS affiliate in Los Angeles shared a video of a tractor smashing the cookies before they headed to the landfill. You can watch it here. Apparently this practice has been going on for years. While one can debate whether or not Girl Scout Cookies are actually food, one cannot dispute that farmers grew the wheat and chickens laid the eggs, etc. This story helped make food waste in the US front page news.

Protected Waters in New England

• The Pew Charitable Trust just released a call for action to oppose the reopening of nearly 5,000 square miles of protected New England waters to commercial fishing. The short video “Cod: The Fish that Made New England” features a number of “old salts” reminiscing about how different fishing was just decades ago. Their compelling tales emphasize the importance of this issue. You can take action here. 

In closing, here is a quick request for your vote from my chapter of Slow Food: 

• Slow Food Shoreline in CT is a finalist in the Health Justice Challenge - a $10K grant to support Slow Cooking Education. Their entry is a proposal to teach busy families how to cook healthy food using a slow cooker. Watch the video here and show your support. Hurry! You are allowed to vote once a day which means you can vote once today, and once tomorrow. Voting ends on March 19 at 11:59 pm EST.

Have a great week.       

I often blog on food or food issues on Monday in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”

On My Radar 3.4.12

Recent News. Happenings. Discoveries…Here are some of the items on my radar.

NEWS from ALL OVER:

Judge Rules “For” Monsanto, “Against” CT NOFA (and 80+ other plaintiffs). On the very day that I blogged about why I’d joined CT NOFA, Judge Naomi Buchwald dismissed the case of Organic Seed Growers et al. vs Monsanto. Dan Ravicher, lead attorney for the plaintiffs, stated, “While I have great respect for Judge Buchwald, her decision to deny farmers the right to seek legal protection from one of the world's foremost patent bullies is gravely disappointing." The plaintiffs plan to appeal. Check out CT NOFA’s blog for an excellent summary of the proceedings and more comments from Ravicher and some of the plaintiffs. If you are interested, you can read the judge’s ruling here.

Winter Tornadoes. A wide band of early season tornadoes wreaked havoc in the Midwest on February 29, killing 6 in Harrisburg, Illinois, and causing extensive damage in tourist mecca Branson, Missouri. A story in the Aledo Times Record  reported the Harrisburg tornado as an EF-4 (a measurement used to measure its windspeed by the level of its destruction), with winds up to 170 miles per hour. The article stated, “Before Harrisburg, the only other EF-4 tornado to strike Illinois in February was on February 25, 1956 when one passed south of St. Louis and into St. Clair County Illinois, causing 6 deaths in those two states … Southern Illinois is home to the worst tornado disaster in U.S. history. On March 18, 1925, the infamous Tri-State Tornado caused 695 deaths as it moved through southeast Missouri, southern Illinois, and southern Indiana.” A second devastating outbreak on March 2 brought destruction to a dozen states from Alabama to Indiana. The Weather Channel reported the preliminary count for tornado sightings as 74.  The Weather Channel posted an interactive map of all the reports.  On Sunday CNN listed the death toll as 37. You can see a photo gallery here. 

Sunflowers in Fukushima. It’s coming up to one year since a tsunami struck Japan and triggered a nuclear disaster at Fukushima. In April, 2011, Buddhist monks and scientists planted sunflowers as phytoremediators for the radioactive element cesium, restoring beauty to the area and bringing hope to citizens. Unfortunately, however, it seems the sunflowers did little to reduce the cesium levels. 

Late last month, a VERY large lobster (40” and 27 lbs), was caught near Cushing, Maine and brought to the Maine State Aquarium. He was photographed, given a name (Rocky) and released. Large as Rocky is, he is 17 pounds shy of the Nova Scotia lobster listed in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Bottled Water Banned at the Grand Canyon. The National Park Service has approved a a plan which will eliminate the sale of bottled water by park concessionaires. It will take effect in just a few days. Ten filling stations, where visitors can refill their own water bottles, have been set up inside the park. Officials had estimated that water bottles accounted for 20% of the park’s waste and 30% of its recyclables. Similar bans are in place at two other national parks — Zion and Hawaii Volcanoes. Last March, New Haven’s Board of Aldermen prohibited the use of any public funds to purchase bottled water for the City of New Haven. 

NEWS from NEW HAVEN:

Claire Criscuolo has a new cookbook, Welcome to Claire’s, illustrated with color photos. She has been on a mini book signing tour in the area. Stop by Claire’s to purchase a copy if you are nearby. Otherwise, check it out online. [Check back soon for a review.]

There’s a relatively new 66,000 pound resident on lower Orange Street — a fuel cell, the City’s 3rd. The cell, being rented from United Technologies,  occupies the little-used Millenium Plaza behind City Hall, between the Federal Building and the Hall of Records. The cell is not much to look at, but it is expected to free the City from a contract for power from the adjacent Connecticut Financial Center which expires in 2013. It is estimated that by switching to the cell, in one decade the City will reap a net savings between $500,000 and $1 million in heating and cooling costs. The cell will become operational as soon as possible, with some of the energy coming from the Financial Center until the contract runs out.

The storm sewer separation work continues on Trumbull Street. It is noisy. It is inconveniencing drivers and annoying residents. But it is truly a wonder to behold the pipe jacking being used to minimize the impact on the well established trees which line the street. Here is the latest update. 

The number of owner/members in the Elm City Market continues to grow. When the store opened its doors on November 2, membership was at 750. There were 1431 members when the store’s site was last updated.

DISCOVERIES:

Deer have been ravaging backyards in New Haven’s East Shore, as well as those on the west side of town where they’ve been residing for years. At Master Gardening I learned that stringing pieces of Irish Spring around the periphery of your property is an effective deterrent. Downside? Mice are said to be attracted by the scent. You will have to choose your pest.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

March 7th

6:30 pm - 9:00 pm

Pint Night

Co-sponsored by Trailblazer and Box 63 

in the Broadway District of New Haven

In support of CitySeed. 

More details. 

March 10th

4:00 - 6:00 pm

CT Slow Food Shoreline's Slow Food Swap

Woodland Coffee

The second of what is planned to be a monthly event.

For more info, check here. I hope to trade this time around.

CALLING ALL RIDERS

March 23rd

5:00 pm - 8:00 pm 

Mitchell’s Ride

It’s been almost a year since the passing of popular Devil’s Gear mechanic and musician Mitchell Dubey. Devil’s Gear owner Matt Feiner and Mitch’s many other friends are holding a ride in his honor,  leaving from the shop and ending with a party back at the shop, which will “celebrate Mitch’s love of good things to eat and music.” And they really want you all to be there.

April 21st

Rock to Rock 

Kicks off from Common Ground High School after a hearty breakfast

Hundreds of riders raise money for local environmental groups while exploring New Haven by bicycle (an 8-Mile ride). Hard-core riders have the option of signing on for a 20 or 60 mile route. Last year over 500 riders raised more than $50,000. I had a blast on the short route last year and am looking forward to this year’s ride. I’m thinking of going for the 20 mile route. If you want to ride with me or pledge for my team, let me know.

BLOG NEWS:

I finally put a closing date on my petition asking Stop & Shop to stop sourcing their organic green beans from China. I did gather 290 signatures and raised some awareness of the problem among my readers. And, the next time I want to start a petition, I’ll  know exactly how to do it.

My page views continue to rise. Thanks for all the tweets, +1s and forwards. Together we can make a difference.

Please “visit” again soon. And, for those who live in New Haven, I hope to see you out and about as the days get longer. There’s a lot to do in The Have.

Meatless Monday: Food in the News

Remember the online petition I started a while back? It was the petition asking Stop & Shop supermarkets to stop sourcing their frozen green beans from China. Well, it’s still chugging away. I have over 270 signatures now and I have just extended the petition deadline to January 15. I’d really like to reach my target of 500 signatures by then. Can you help?

Change.org|Start an Online Petition »

While doing my holiday shopping, I discovered that with a little extra effort it is possible to buy many gifts manufactured in the USA (or at least North America), especially sox! [More on this after the presents have been unwrapped.] Whole Foods and the Elm City Market both carry organic frozen beans sourced from North America. It would seem that Stop & Shop could, too. Sourcing frozen green beans from a world away makes no sense.

On another note, for those in need of an artificial tree, including those who are allergy-prone or travelers during the holiday season, it would seem impossible to find an artificial Christmas tree NOT made in China. [Please correct me if I’m wrong.]

King Arthur Flour, whose products have been staples in New England pantries for years, is featured in an ad being aired by Google. If you’ve missed it on TV, you can catch it on YouTube. This is the short version; there is a slightly longer one as well

The ad, promoting Google Chrome, tells the wonderfully inspiring story of how this 220-year-old Vermont flour company has used the web to transform itself into a baking company known the world over.

New Haven’s Elm City Market now has over 1,200  member/owners.

Slow Food USA posted this link to an article at Civil Eats promoting ways to reduce food waste during the holidays.

Last Minute Gift Ideas

For the person who has everything, consider a symbolic gift in his or her name to Women for Women, an organization which helps women survivors of war rebuild their lives. By a couple who love to bake, I was gifted with a symbolic baking kit (rolling pin, flour, and tins designed to help women in countries like Bosnia and Afghanistan to learn the skills and get the tools they need to start bakeries) and my husband with a carpentry kit (for women in Kosovo training to become carpenters). There are many gifts in a wide range of prices including: fabric, carpentry sets, okra seeds, gardening tools, dirt…you get the idea.

And there is still time to order through LocalHarvest (the subject of last week’s Meatless Monday post). A number of vendors are offering free shipping on selected products from Page oranges to pecan pie.

Please come back tomorrow for some free stuff for kids and more last minute shopping ideas.

Happy Monday.

I often blog on food or food issues on Monday in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal  health and the health of our planet.”

Meatless Monday: Food Deserts

Do you know what one is? Do you live in one?

The term “food desert” has been in use since it was coined by researchers in the UK in the 1990s (according to Wikipedia). In brief, a food desert is a low-income census tract, either urban or rural, where a substantial number or percentage of residents lack ready access to healthy and affordable food.

Food deserts have been much in the news of late. As part of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! initiative, the proposed Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI) will expand the availability of nutritious food to food deserts by developing and equipping grocery stores, small retailers, corner stores, and farmers markets with fresh and healthy food.The HFFI is a partnership between the Treasury Department, Health and Human Services, and the Agriculture Department (USDA). An Interagency Working Group from the three departments, along with staff from the Economic Research Service (ERS/USDA), developed a definition of food deserts to be used with other data to determine eligibility for Federal funds.

In a 2009 report to Congress, supermarkets and large grocery stores were used as proxies for sources of healthy and affordable foods. Based upon these data sources and measures, the report described characteristics of people and households residing in areas with limited access to healthy and affordable food such as the number of poor people, the number of children or older persons, and the number of households without vehicles.

A tool known as the Food Desert Locator was devised with these objectives:

• to present a spatial overview of where food-desert census tracts are located;
• to provide selected population characteristics of food-desert census tracts; and
• to offer data on food-desert census tracts that can be downloaded for community planning or research purposes.

For the purposes of this tool, to qualify as a “low-income community,” a census tract must have either: a poverty rate of 20 percent or higher, OR a median family income at or below 80 percent of the area's median family income. To qualify as a “low-access community,” at least 500 people and/or at least 33 percent of the census tract's population must reside more than one mile from a supermarket or large grocery store (for rural census tracts, the distance is more than 10 miles).

The USDA released the online Food Desert Locator in May of this year. Simply click "find address" and then enter an address or zip code and click “find” to determine if your location of interest is in a food desert.

By entering my zip code I learned that while I do NOT live in a food desert, many in the outlying areas of New Haven do. 

The tool has a number of critics including Mayor Bloomberg. The locator has 26,000 New Yorkers living in neighborhoods without fresh food. The mayor claims the number is closer to 3 million and fears that supermarkets using USDA data will not come to Manhattan. Federal officials counter that the tool is a work-in-progress and will be updated next year.

For a concise look at just where in the country food deserts are, and who in the US lives in them, check out this post on the website of Patchwork Nation, a reporting project of the Jefferson Institute that aims to explore what is happening in the United States by examining different kinds of communities over time. FYI the Patchwork Nation community type for New Haven is “Industrial Metropolis.”

I know this is a denser than usual post, but with Food Day coming up on October 24, I thought I’d share a little background on this important issue. 

Have a good week, and come again soon.

I often blog on food or food issues on Monday in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal  health and the health of our planet.”

PS Please don’t forget about the frozen beans from China. The petition count is still rising, but at a slower rate than it has been, still going for 500. Thanks.

Meatless Monday: Stuck at 90

It's been a week since I started my petition asking Stop & Shop supermarkets to stop using produce grown in China in their Nature's Promise line of frozen vegetables.

Enough people signed the petition in the first couple of days that I upped my target total to 500. As I write, I am stuck around 90. You can see the current total on the widget.

Signing the petition elicited an emailed response from Ahold, the parent corporation of  Stop & Shop. Here is an excerpt from the message: “… We appreciate knowing of your concerns regarding imported produce and the country of origin. Based on seasonality, we source locally and internationally in order to provide our customers with a large variety of the freshest produce. For specific information on how produce is sourced, we make an effort to include this information in our advertisements, as well as on the produce signs in our stores. Our signs and ads generally indicate if an item is ‘imported.’… Your produce manager is very knowledgeable and can always assist you with specific questions about specific products. We are dedicated to providing safe, fresh and wholesome fruits and vegetables. We have strong quality control processes and our produce inspectors and quality assurance teams are excellent. In addition, under FDA guidelines regarding the monitoring and safety of produce imports, imported produce must meet the same safety standards as that grown in the United States …”


My petition is not, however, about produce in the produce section. It is about ending the practice of outsourcing the farming of vegetables commonly grown in the US to foreign countries for processing and sale to the American consumer, and then denoting the country of origin in tiny print on the bag. 


Stop & Shop is my local supermarket. I have spent many thousands of dollars in the chain over the years. I was there on Saturday and decided to read some more frozen vegetable bags. I discovered that while organic peas do come from the US, conventional green beans come from Mexico, asparagus comes from China, and grilled zucchini comes from Italy! Why are peas American but not zucchini? This is a mystery.


An article by Bill Saporito in this week's Time Magazine gives me hope that change may come soon even without this petition. Jarden Corp. of Rye, NY is "insourcing” the production of some of its household goods, including mops, canning jars, and matches which it had been “outsourcing” to China. Rising wages and benefits for Chinese workers coupled with an increase in fuel and shipping costs is driving the return of some manufacturing jobs to America. Perhaps the same will soon be true with agricultural products — particularly if American consumers vote with their forks (and wallets).


As I said last week and in my petition, “It makes no sense to be purchasing green beans from a half a world away. For reasons of food safety and security, as well as to lower the carbon footprint for transportation costs, American farmers should be the ones growing the majority of produce Americans consume.” 


Let's help the cause along. I still need 410 votes to reach my goal. It's easy. Just click on the bag of green beans. Thanks.

Change.org|Start an Online Petition »

I often blog on food or food issues on Monday in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal  health and the health of our planet.”

Meatless Monday: Green Beans from China

It’s common knowledge that many consumer products come from China — shirts and shoes, furniture casters and computers, tools and party favors … but GREEN BEANS???

I had grabbed a bag of Nature’s Promise Organic Frozen Green Beans without giving it a second thought. Days later, when I happened to read the small print on the bag before tearing it open, I was very surprised to learn that these beans are “A PRODUCT OF CHINA. Quality guaranteed or your money back. CERTIFIED ORGANIC BY ORGANIC CROP IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL.”

You know those petitions you are always asked to sign? Change.org recently released a tool which makes it easy for anyone to create an online petition of their very own. I decided to give it a spin with a petition asking the Stop & Shop chain of supermarkets to stop using produce grown in China in their Nature's Promise line. In the petition I go on to say, “It makes no sense to be purchasing green beans from a half a world away. For reasons of food safety and security, as well as to lower the carbon footprint for transportation costs, American farmers should be the ones growing the majority of produce Americans consume.” 

My widget appears below!

Change.org|Start an Online Petition »

I do hope you will sign it. (Getting there is easy, just click on the image above.) And, if you do, please send the link to the petition (or better, yet the link to this post) to ten friends and ask them to do the same.

Change.org urges “Start, join, and win campaigns for social change.” Let's start with green beans and take it from there.

I often blog on food or food issues on Monday in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal  health and the health of our planet.”