2010 March | Center for a Livable Future

Unsupported Claims About Livestock and Climate Change in the Media

As a public health doctoral student, I have been taught the importance of communicating scientific information to the public, journalists, and policy makers in a careful manner, especially when dealing with complex issues. Scientific research almost never provides clear answers, but as a scientist you should never make statements that overstep the conclusions of your work, even if it would make your life easier by simplifying the message you are trying to get across. Describing questions that remain unanswered and limitations of studies is important. While reading a news release last week regarding research on food animal production and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, I was suspicious that this “rule” was not being followed.

An air quality scientist at UC Davis, Professor Frank Mitloehner, has been in the press talking about implications of his research on livestock production and GHGs (here, here, and here). He has been quoted as saying it is “scientifically inaccurate” and a “distraction” to encourage a reduction in meat consumption as part of an effort to combat climate change. Those are very strong statements, so I did a little digging to see if his research supports these claims. Read More >

Maryland’s Grocery Store Tax Credit Bill Could Improve Food Deserts

Maryland House Bill 1135, the Grocery Store Property Tax Credit Bill, passed the House yesterday with 138-0 votes! The bill grants a property tax credit to grocery stores throughout the state located in low-income areas. Delegate Justin Ross, the main sponsor of the bill, represents Prince George’s County, an urban county surrounding Washington, DC. Delegate Ross clearly sees the need for attracting new and better grocery stores into low income areas, especially low income urban areas, to help provide better access to healthy foods, such as fresh fruits and vegetables (the bill stipulates that a grocery store is defined as entity where “at least 20% of the gross receipts of which are 3% derived from the retail sale of fresh produce”).

Baltimore's Food Deserts

The lack of quality supermarkets and groceries in low income areas has been receiving much greater attention recently. And these underserved areas are being referred to as “food deserts.” While there is no strict definition of a food desert, the term generally mean areas that do not have easy access (within walking distance in cities or a reasonable driving distance in rural areas) to a supermarket, notably the most reliable and most utilized source for healthy foods. The USDA’s Economic Research Service just published an article on food deserts in their March Amber Waves magazine. The concern comes from a greater appreciation of the role access to healthy foods plays in one’s diet. It is not enough to recommend that people eat “5 a Day“ and educate people about how to shop for healthy foods and prepare them. This will do little good if people don’t have access to the recommended foods. We at the Center for a Livable Future (CLF) are excited by the recent attention that the “food environment” is receiving (for a detailed examination see Policy Link study).

The issue has come to the attention of local government officials as well – in 2008 former Baltimore City Mayor Sheila Dixon created the Baltimore Food Policy Task Force, of which CLF’s Anne Palmer was an active member. The Task Force’s report lists 10 recommendations to improve access; however, many of these recommendations have short-term impact and rely on alternative and seasonal sources for produce. People need access to healthy food year round, again which can be most reliably found at supermarkets and grocery stores. The Task Force recognized the lack of quality supermarkets in the city, but also recognized that the solution to the problem was long-term and they were tasked with looking for short-term, actionable recommendations. HB 1135 is perhaps one long-term solution to attracting the kind of supermarkets Baltimore needs (and that are needed in other low income areas in Maryland). The bill also leaves room for both large chain supermarkets and smaller grocery stores (even corner stores?!) to qualify as a “grocery” – if they can prove that their primary business is selling food at retail and that 20% of their profits come from produce. This flexibility could prove useful in finding creative solutions to food deserts, in that large, chain supermarkets may not be the answer for all locations. Read More >

Urban Chicken Farming

Two very curious chickens peck at my camera

This past Saturday, the Baltimore Food Makers held their monthly potluck in Northeast Baltimore at the home of an urban chicken farming couple. Our hosts distilled a lifetime of farming know-how into a short tour of their backyard chicken coop, and fielded questions about their three hens, poultry health, nutrition, and productivity. Apparently, three hens can produce about seven eggs a week this time of year. When asked how their neighbors liked living near chickens, they said most were agreeable. One neighbor was leery of living near chickens, but after receiving eggs as gifts he apparently changed his tune and now wants to bird-sit when they are away on vacation.

I was excited to see some of my Baltimore neighbors obviating the poultry industry by raising their own hens for eggs. As this was my first encounter with urban chicken farming I wanted to learn about the Baltimore City ordinance allowing chickens, which reads:

[Baltimore City Health Code, Title 2, 2-106; Title 10, Subtitles 1 and 3]

Chickens.

1. No person may own, keep, or harbor any chickens without:

a. Obtaining a permit from the Bureau of Animal Control; and

b. Register with the Maryland Department of Agriculture, Domestic Poultry and Exotic Bird Registration Division.

2. No more than 4 chickens of the age of 1 month may be kept.

3. All chickens must be confined at all times to a movable pen.

a. No pen may be closer than 25 feet to any residence.

b. Each pen must be kept clean, free of all odors and materials that can attract rodents.

c. Each pen must be moved frequently to minimize turf destruction and the build up of manure borne pathogens such as coccidiosis and roundworm.

d. Pens with feed boxes and nest boxes must allow 2 square feet per hen.

4. The chickens must be provided with shade during warm weather.

5. Potable water and proper feed must be made available.

6. All chickens must be provided with access to a well-constructed shelter that provides suitable protection from inclement weather.

7. All chickens must be afforded veterinary care if they are known or suspected to be sick or injured.

For more information about urban bird farming in Baltimore, visit the Charm City Chickens, or for general information see any of the great blogs/web sites (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc) dedicated to this endeavor.

– Dave Love

JHU’s Ambitious Sustainability Plan Needs Help from Everyone

leana-houser-guest-blogger Johns Hopkins University reached a major sustainability milestone March 11 when President Ron Daniels announced a commitment to reduce the University’s carbon footprint by more than half by 2025 – which will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 141,000 metric tons a year. That is equivalent to the annual emissions from 26,960 cars or the burning of 736 railroad cars worth of coal! This announcement adds Johns Hopkins to a growing list of colleges and universities, which are taking responsibility to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and leading academia’s charge to reduce the threat of global warming through research, education and action.

This is an incredibly aggressive target and, thankfully, the Johns Hopkins Sustainability Office, along with members of the President’s Task Force on Climate Change – formed in 2007 by former university President William Brody – and countless other folks worked tirelessly to develop the plan to get us there. Read More >

AVMA leadership missing key facts on antibiotics in food animals

Dr. Ron DeHaven, CEO and Executive VP of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)*, spoke last week to the pork industry in Kansas City, MO. DeHaven opposes legislation to ban the use of non-therapeutic (growth promoting) antibiotics and antibiotics with human uses from food animal production. DeHaven used this opportunity to spread misinformation about the reality and consequences of non-therapeutic antibiotic use and food safety.

Early MRSA infections. http://www.jiujitsuforums.com/wiki/File:Mrsa7.jpg

DeHaven seems to understand the biological basis for antibiotic resistance, by saying “antimicrobial resistance is caused by widespread use of antimicrobials in food production systems, and hence the more we expose microorganisms to antibiotics the more likely they are to develop that resistance.” The problem arises in his dismissal of the impacts of using antibiotics in food animals—a practice that experts recognize as a public health threat (Silbergeld et al., 2008).

In his talk DeHaven said, “there really is no scientific evidence to confirm just how, if, and to what extent that exposure represents a risk to human health… there has been really no case of human infection with resistant bacteria that has been proven to be caused by the use of antimicrobials in food animals.” This statement is disingenuous and does not acknowledge published findings to the contrary (Voss et al., 2005; Huijsdens et al., 2006) demonstrating MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) transmission from pigs to a pig farmer, and between pig farmers and their family.

Reported cases of disease are only the tip of the iceberg, therefore we expect that many more cases of community associated (i.e. non-hospital) antibiotic resistant bacterial diseases have originated from factory farms. A recent study in the Journal Emerging Infectious Diseases shows that community associated diseases are increasing at an alarming rate— over 33% increase annually for MRSA in the US from 1999 to 2006 (Klein et al., 2009). While all cases of MRSA may not originate on factory farms, we can’t rule out factory farms and as one source of MRSA (Nunan and Young 2007).

In addition to MRSA, resistant E. coli have been detected in cattle and pigs given antimicrobial drugs (Alexander et al., 2008; Rosengren et al., 2008). When antibiotics are given to food animals, as much as 75% of those drugs are excreted in waste, which contributes to the environmental burden of antibiotic residues and the development of resistant bacteria in the environment (Chee-Sanford et al., 2009). Regulations to reduce or ban antibiotics used in food animals appears to be one clear way we can reduce one source of resistant bacteria.

At the end of his talk, DeHaven takes a stance in support of greater oversight of drug delivery to animals by veterinarians. This would be laudable, except for a giant loop-hole he introduces when saying “veterinary involvement needs to be consistent or proportionate with the risk of those antibiotics.” This insinuates that continuing the practice of selling antibiotics over-the-counter (OTC) in feed to farmers, with no veterinary oversight, is acceptable. The AVMA is investigating other ways of relaxing food animal veterinary oversight, with increased involvement of veterinary technician and electronics prescriptions of antibiotics. With region-specific shortage of mixed animal veterinarians in the US, can you blame the AVMA for feeling squeamish about its options for taking care of the burgeoning numbers of food animals? Read More >

Beyond “Museum” Gardens

This post was originally published in the spring 2010 issue of Edible: East Bay. For the link to this article from that magaize - http://www.ediblecommunities.com/eastbay/spring-2010/food-for-thought.htm

Student tending rows of lettuce

Beyond “Museum” Gardens

With all of the coverage of Michelle Obama in the news lately, you would be a fool not to think that gardens are the answer to all of our public health problems. In addition to the “White House” garden, you’ve got the new “People’s Garden” at the USDA building in D.C., you’ve got Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack and his wife cheering the establishment of gardens at local Washington D.C. elementary schools. The public and the food movement should laud these efforts and they are not without merit. I similarly applaud states like California that began the “Garden in every school,” initiative. Many others are following suit and I’m glad they have supported that initiative with some funding. However, it’s like the old proverb, “give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, teach him how to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime.” Those wonderful intentions without substantial follow through are “paper tigers” against the environmental and health issues that face our public with regards to the food system, most notably: food insecurity, obesity, loss of bio-diversity and environmental degradation. Gardens that exist as exhibitions to only be looked and talked about will not move us anywhere close to where we need to go. We need this garden movement to move far beyond what Michelle Obama has heroically brought to the nation’s attention. Read More >

CLF provides House testimony on Maryland Bill 953 to ban arsenic from poultry feed

florida_chicken_house

Dr. Keeve Nachman, Director of the Farming for the Future Program at the Center for a Livable Future gave invited testimony to the Maryland House of Delegates on Friday, March 5 on the public health risks of arsenic in poultry feed. Delegate Tom Hucker (D-Montgomery Co) introduced the bill, which also received supportive testimony from Douglas Gansler, the state’s Attorney General, a representative from River Keepers, a representative from the Maryland Parent Teacher Association, and a concerned citizen.

Opponents to the bill gave a wide range of unsupported statements of questionable validity why Roxarsone should be included in poultry feed. Among their assertions were statements that Roxarsone promotes environmental sustainability, food safety, and poultry health, improves the rate of weight gain, and because of its widespread use (fed to 88% of chickens in the US), that Roxarsone should be treated as a national issue and not a state issue.

Perdue has publically stated that they do not use Roxarsone, and when questioned by Delegate Steve Lafferty (D-Baltimore Co), none of the four poultry industry representatives could give a concrete reason why Perdue withdrew it from feed.

It is possible that the reasons Perdue are no longer using roxarsone are the following:

Roxarsone is transformed by bacteria or ultraviolet light into inorganic arsenic, a carcinogen.
In addition to arsenic in meat, poultry waste from the Mid-Atlantic generates an estimated 20,000 to 50,000 kg of arsenic annually (Christen 2001; Silbergeld and Nachman 2008).
A market basked sample of cooked and uncooked poultry products conducted by The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy found total arsenic in 55% (of 155 samples) of grocery store poultry meat.

“The use of arsenical drugs like roxarsone, combined with the various methods for poultry waste management create opportunities for people to be unnecessarily exposed to inorganic arsenic” says Dr. Nachman. The only way to eliminate these risks is by banning aresnicals in poultry feed.

We will follow MD Bill 953 as it moves through the Environmental Matters committee and report back in the coming weeks.

- Dave Love

“Animal Factory” Book Tour Stops at JHSPH

When you hear Author David Kirby tell the stories behind the people in his latest book, you can’t help but to get caught up in his emotions. Tears welled up in his eyes several times last night as he described-often in graphic detail-to a riveted Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health audience, his experiences in researching his book, “Animal Factory: The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy, and Poultry Farms to Humans and the Environment.”

Kirby, who kicked off a national book tour last week, stopped in Baltimore to visit with staff at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future and discuss his latest project with students and faculty. In his research for the 492-page book, the New York Times best-selling author had consulted several times with CLF Director Bob Lawrence.

“Animal Factory documents the scandal of today’s industrial food animal production system in the same compelling way Upton Sinclair alerted Americans to the abuses of the meatpacking industry in his 1906 The Jungle,” says CLF’s Lawrence.

“Animal Factory” follows three American families in different regions of the US, whose lives have been utterly changed by these CAFOs: Weaving science, politics, big business, and everyday life, Kirby accompanies these families and their struggles.

2 School Farms: A Weekend of Community

This project is shovel ready!

This past weekend, I witnessed hundreds of volunteers working in a very tangible way to take back the food system for a community. The ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu said, “the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” This was a stride. Two high schools in Richmond, Calif in the span of one weekend built urban school farms at their respective school sites. Supported by Urban Tilth http://www.urbantilth.org, those students, teachers, parents and community volunteers laid the infrastructure and built the capacity to grow significant amounts of local produce in Richmond.

These are farms that will not just change the physical environment of the schools and the community, but significantly change the way students think about food. This year, close to 30 students at Richmond High are enrolled in the second pilot year of an Urban Agriculture and Food Systems class, what we call Urban Ag Institutes, and those students will grow from seed thousands of pounds of produce, that will feed families from their high school. Last year, the program had a small but impressive 10 family CSA box (community supported agriculture) and this year with the expansion of the farm at the high school, they hope to do even more. Article on RHS program Read More >

Missouri Jury Awards $11 Million to CAFO’s Neighbors

Excerpts from video used at trial

Media outlets were buzzing this morning with the news that a Jackson County, MO, jury had awarded an $11 million verdict to farmers affected by a CAFO owned by Premium Standard Farms. This is the second time in the last 11 years that Premium Standard Farms has been sued for the noxious odors coming from the Gentry County, MO operation. Center for a Livable Future Director, Robert Lawrence, MD, provided testimony at the trial, calling the cesspit holding tanks for pig manure from the CAFO a “fly heaven,” wrote Karen Diller in a piece in The Kansas City Star.

The verdict in the month-long trial, gives $850,000 each to 13 plaintiffs, with the 14^th plaintiff receiving $250,000. The plaintiffs represent families who testified about the odors and swarms of flies that have largely kept them confined to their homes. Lawrence, as the Star noted, “said he has been to Calcutta, South Africa and Southeast Asia, but ‘I have never, ever observed anything as extreme as the cesspits.’”

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