It was packed room at yesterday’s House Rules Committee hearing on the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act (PAMTA). The hearing, held to discuss the bill (HR 1549) introduced by Rep. Louise M. Slaughter, pumped additional energy into PAMTA, which now has 43 co-sponsors. The hearing followed several activities held during the past week to call attention to the bill, including a showing last Thursday night of the movie, “Food, Inc,” for Hill staffers.
Testifying were Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, principal deputy commissioner U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Margaret Mellon, Ph.D, director, Food and Environment Program, Union of Concerned Scientists; Lance Price, Ph.D., director, Center for Metagenomics and Human Health Associate Investigator, Pathogen Genomics Division; Bob Martin, former executive director, Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production; Steve Ells, chairman and CEO, Chipotle Mexican Grill; and Fedele Bauccio, president and CEO, Bon Appetit Management Company. Read More >
Alan Goldberg, Ph.D., is a former commissioner of the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production and is a guest blogger today for Livable Future.
The largest pork producer in the world, Smithfield Foods Inc., says it can’t afford to go through with one of its much-ballyhooed animal welfare improvement plans. The company said that it must delay plans to replace its “gestation crates” for pregnant sows with more humane “group housing.” Frankly, the decision comes as no surprise to me. Back in 2007, when the company announced that its 187 Smithfield-owned pig nurseries would be converted within 10 years, the executives refused to admit that the crates were inhumane. Rather, they said their decision was based on consumer preference. If Smithfield were truly concerned about growing consumer awareness and/or preference concerning how animals are raised for food, it would have also required that all of its contract facilities convert within the same 10-year span.
These gestation crates truly are appalling, and some have used the word cruel. A sow living in a typical industrial facility will spend the majority of her life confined in these metal and concrete stalls that are so small that she can barely lie down, let alone turn around. I won’t belabor how awful gestation crates are – they are awful. Chances are you’ve heard a great deal about them as the Humane Society of the United States and other animal welfare organizations campaigned across the country in efforts to legally have them banned. So far, six states have laws on the books that ban producers from using gestation crates. The European Union was ahead of the curve, requiring farmers to replace all gestation crates by 2013.
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An article by Reporter Laura Vozella in the Baltimore Sun discusses the often deceptive grocery store displays claiming “local” produce. Vozella points out that large grocery chains, eager to get a bite of the locavore movement, are promoting produce from nearby farms – even when they have little in stock. It’s an effort by grocers to get back some of the market share they have been losing to the increasing numbers of famers’ markets. The article quotes Livable Future Bloggers Amanda Behrens and Rebecca Klein. While supermarkets appear eager to buy and sell more local produce there is the problem of logistics. “A certain number of [local] farmers could supply all the lettuce or apples, but if they’re not grouping those together before they get to the supermarket back door … you’re going to have 30 farmers trying to offload their produce,” said Klein. With the local growing season beginning to hit its peak-and favorable weather in many parts of the country-this year’s harvests and local markets will, no doubt, continue to grow.
Fresh strawberries from One Straw Farm, a CSA-participating Farm in White Hall, MD
In an age where large scale industrial farming operations dominate our food system, a counterrevolution focused on local and sustainable agriculture is growing. Data collected in 2007 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture indicates that 12,549 farms in the United States reported marketing products through a community supported agriculture (CSA) arrangement. One of the primary ways this counterrevolution is manifesting itself is through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs. CSAs are operations in which consumers pay a fixed fee at the beginning of a growing season in exchange for local, often organic, produce (and sometimes meat and dairy products as well). While reports about global warming and climate change, and the U.S’s astronomical ecological footprint (calculate your own) can make the problems we face today seem overwhelming, CSAs provide an opportunity to be part of the solution, to help make one’s lifestyle more sustainable, more healthy, and frankly, more fun.
As a CSA member, I receive eight local, seasonal, types of produce every week (though some CSAs also sell partial shares at farmers’ markets, where members can pick a given number of items from those available each week). Each week, I am surprised by at least one vegetable I’ve never heard of (e.g. garlic tail). The challenge, as in the Food Network show, Chopped, is to conjure something delicious out of this basket of unknowns. Thanks to some tips from experienced locavores, I’ve enjoyed a decent amount of success (as measured by the approval of my family, as strict a panel of judges as any on the show). Read More >
NY Times Columnist Nicholas Kristof appeared on The Colbert Report last night to talk about his recent column, “It’s Time to Learn From Frogs.” Kristof quoted Center for a Livable Future Director Dr. Robert Lawrence in the op-ed piece. Endocrine disruptors have complex effects on the human body, particularly during fetal development of males, noted Krostof. “A lot of these compounds act as weak estrogen, so that’s why developing males–whether smallmouth bass or humans–tend to be more sensitive,” said Lawrence. “It’s scary, very scary.” See Colbert’s complete interview with Kristof.
This week, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack announced plans to drastically change the nation’s food aid policy. As Reuters reported, he said the U.S. will focus more resources on helping developing countries increase their agricultural capacity, as opposed to relying on emergency food aid grown on U.S. soil.
“‘It is a more comprehensive, holistic view of food security that focuses on the notion that we want to make food more available, we want to make it accessible and we want to make sure that it is properly used,” Vilsack said in a speech to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. “‘If we can help countries become more productive themselves then they will be in a better position to feed their own people,’ he said.”
According to the Reuters article:
The United States is the world’s largest donor of emergency food aid — mainly crops grown by American farmers — but spends 20 times as much on food aid to Africa as it spends on programs that could boost African food production, according to research by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. U.S. annual spending on African farming projects topped $400 million in the 1980s, but by 2006 had dwindled to just $60 million, the council has said.
Vilsack said the United States wants to invest in roads and other infrastructure projects in foreign countries to ensure that food is accessible to everyone who needs it. Developing nations may also be able to produce more food for trade, helping to improve the global economy, he said.
President Barack Obama has said his administration will ask Congress to double funding for agricultural development aid to $1 billion by 2010.
Specific details on how food aid funding might change are not available at this time, however this policy shift seems to fall in line with a pilot program authorized under the 2008 farm bill. The Local and Regional Procurement Project, is a USDA-led effort to increase local responses to food emergencies in developing countries, and complement food aid programs.
