May 17, 2013
Movement on the farm bill this week
Monsanto victorious. On Monday the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of Monsanto in a trial that seems to have had patent law at its heart. The court found for Monsanto and against farmer Vernon Bowman, who’d discovered a way to grow “Roundup Ready” crops from his own seeds rather than purchasing them—at exorbitant cost—from Monsanto. Monsanto is already spinning this as a great validation of GMOs when it is actually a patent decision. Nonetheless, the implications of the decision are for greater monopoly control of GMOs and greater seed prices for farmers, already up over 300 percent in the last few years. Read More >
May 16, 2013
I am in a dental surgeon’s chair, waiting for a routine X-ray to confirm that my recent tooth repair was successful. The main north-south street of Ames flows by, and I gaze across a parking lot at the old high school, nicely refurbished as the city hall, where 55 years ago young people who are now my age cavorted, learned and went on to lives filled with success and trials. The world spun on the same axis then but seems different in fundamental ways.
A Sysco semi blocked my view for a moment, and I wondered what it contained, sure that none of the food came from the small farms of Iowa that existed 55 years ago. Sysco is a large wholesale processed food distributor; the semi undoubtedly had large beef steaks and ground beef that came from the sad animals that Read More >
May 15, 2013
Teacher Ruth Chamelin with students
Various elements of the food system are coming together – in a microcosmic way – on the campus of Westminster High School.
Twenty-three students in an animal care and management class spent two months raising 10 Pekin ducks from tiny chicks to roughly eight-pound adults, and then cooked them and ate them on Thursday. Their teacher, Ruth Chamelin, was one of the beneficiaries of CLF’s Teaching the Food System Grants for Educators program. Read More >
May 14, 2013
Rose Street Garden, Baltimore
At last, the Baltimore spring is in full swing, as gardeners and farmers around the city coax life out of the urban soil once again. When it comes to urban agriculture, Baltimore may not be as famous as Detroit, where young DIYers are flocking to start urban farms, or Milwaukee, where Will Allen’s Growing Power draws neophytes from around the world hoping to learn how to start their own urban agriculture projects. But new City policy is putting Baltimore on the map as one of the nation’s most agriculture-friendly cities. Read More >
May 13, 2013
Tyler Smith
Senior Research & Policy Associate, Farming for the Future
Center for a Livable Future
FDA has not banned use of arsenic in chicken feed
Food and Water Watch (FWW) is taking the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to court to compel the agency to respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request submitted by CLF and FWW in August 2012. We are seeking all correspondence since 2008 between the FDA and the drug company Pfizer concerning arsenic-based animal drugs known as “arsenicals.” A Pfizer subsidiary sells the only two arsenicals, roxarsone and nitarsone, that have been marketed in the United States in recent years. Read More >
May 10, 2013
Farm bill markups next week. If you’ve been following the long, slow ride that is the reauthorization of the farm bill, now it’s time to fasten your seatbelts. It looks like the markup by the Senate will take place on Tuesday, and the House will do its markup on Wednesday. That will make for two very intense days. We’ll be keeping our ear to the ground to see what makes it into the bills, what doesn’t, and what to do about it. The best way to stay apprised is to follow the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition’s updates on Twitter via @sustainableag or via their website. If you have a senator or representative on one of the agriculture committees, now is the time to write and express your support for improving the SNAP program, strengthening the conservation title, or any other aspect of our food system you care about. I wrote this morning, and my letter is here. Read More >
May 8, 2013
Do we need more discussion about the problem with sugary drinks, or is it time to act? Recognition of the harms of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs)—any drink with added sugar—is increasing as evidence mounts regarding their negative impact on health. However, little progress has been made in curtailing the high prevalence of consumption; 50 percent of adults and 70 percent of kids and teens consume at least one 12-ounce drink daily according to recent national data. Read More >
May 7, 2013
May 6, 2013
Malik Yakini, April 30 2013
Last week, Malik Yakini hailed the Bloomberg School with greetings from Detroit, “where democracy has been put into a deep coma.” Lamenting the governor’s appointment of an emergency manager, which eviscerates the authority of elected officials in the city, he segued into a lambast of capitalism and how it deprives entire classes of Americans access to “good, clean, healthy food.”
“The food system in this country produces food that’s harmful to humans and the environment,” he said. There are no longer any national chain supermarkets in Detroit, one factor leading to food desertification in the city. The poor, he said, become markets for cheap inferior goods sold by the rich, much like in colonized lands. Read More >
May 3, 2013
Rebecca Klein
Project Director, Agriculture & Public Health Policy Project
Center for a Livable Future
The Waverly farmers' market, Baltimore, Md.
A primary role of USDA is to promote U.S. agriculture. Another is to ensure food access for vulnerable Americans. On Monday, April 29, USDA took a step that will do both. The agency did this by expanding eligibility for USDA grants for equipment that makes it possible for farmers to accept SNAP EBT cards (policy brief). While it seems like a small thing, helping overcome this technological barrier will increase access to fresh and healthy produce for SNAP participants and improve farmers’ bottom lines. Read More >
