Obama Administration Delivers on Commitment to Upgrade US Food Safety System

On July 7, 2009, Vice President Joe Biden was joined by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to announce the key findings of the Food Safety Working Group.

Created by President Obama in March to advise the Administration on how to upgrade the food safety system for the 21st century, the working group is recommending a new, public health-focused approach to food safety based on three core principles: prioritizing prevention; strengthening surveillance and enforcement; and improving response and recovery.

"There are few responsibilities more basic or more important for the government than making sure the food our families eat is safe," said Vice President Biden. "Our food safety system must be updated—1 in 4 people get sick every year due to food-borne illness, and children and the elderly are more at risk. I applaud the Secretaries of HHS and the USDA for tackling this problem head-on and coming up with key recommendations to ensure the health and safety of our food supply and, with it, the American people."

"Instead of spending their time trying to get kids to eat healthier food, too many parents and families are worrying about whether their food is safe in the first place," said Secretary Sebelius. "In just the past few months since we began work with the Food Safety Working Group, we have seen recalls on everything from spinach to peanut products to now even cookie dough. The Administration recognizes that the current system just isn't working for America's families and under the President's leadership we are taking action to keep our food supply safe and prevent outbreaks that can impact millions of Americans."

"There isn't a single American that isn't impacted by our efforts to protect the food supply," said Secretary Vilsack. "We owe it to the American people to deliver on President Obama's bold promise to greatly enhance our food safety system, moving our approach into the 21st century, employing the best surveillance techniques available, and ensuring that we are doing all we can to prevent illness before it occurs."

Today, the working group announced specific steps designed to advance its core principles:

HHS and the USDA are targeting salmonella contamination by developing tougher standards to protect the safety of eggs, poultry, and turkey;

to fight the threat of E coli, the USDA is stepping up enforcement in beef facilities and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is developing new industry guidance improving protections for leafy greens, melons, and tomatoes;

the Obama Administration is building a new national traceback and response system including clearer industry guidance, a new unified incident command system, and improved use of technology to deliver individual food safety alerts to consumers; and

the Administration announced a plan to strengthen the organization of federal food safety functions, including the creation of new positions at key food safety agencies and a continuing oversight role for the Food Safety Working Group.

The Food Safety Working Group is chaired by Secretaries Sebelius and Vilsack, and participating agencies include the FDA, Food Safety and Inspection Service, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Commerce, the Department of State, the Environmental Protection Agency, and several offices of the White House.

Administration Seeks to Restrict Antibiotics in Livestock

"The Obama administration announced Monday that it would seek to ban many routine uses of antibiotics in farm animals in hopes of reducing the spread of dangerous bacteria in humans.

In written testimony to the House Rules Committee, Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, principal deputy commissioner of food and drugs, said feeding antibiotics to healthy chickens, pigs and cattle — done to encourage rapid growth — should cease. And Dr. Sharfstein said farmers should no longer be able to use antibiotics in animals without the supervision of a veterinarian." -- A recent article in The New York Times

Of course, the big farm lobbies are going to shut it down, but hopefully the word will get out enough and folks will start asking more questions about what's in their meat!

The True Cost Of A Commercial Tomato

"Everybody seems to be going green, but some are doing it better than others. Companies that rush into sustainable practices without fully researching them, or ones that know they haven't quite got it but are pushing it anyway, are in danger of the repercussions of 'green-washing.'"

A recent edition of The Packer, the "fresh fruit and vegetable industry's leading source for news, information, and analysis," contained an article entitled, "Companies work toward sustainable practices," which talked about food companies who are investing in sustainable pratices because they recognize that the sustainable movement is here to stay.

While I wholeheartly agree that if you're going to be sustainable, then you need to be fully sustainable ... don't just jump on the bandwagon because it looks good to the consumer.

So, overall, I agree with most of what they article is saying, but there are a few things that just didn't sit well with me. The biggest one?

"You've got to be careful when you listen to green advocates who support a movement away from industrial farming," said Todd Miedema, director of marketing for Miedema Produce Inc., Hudsonville, Mich. "There's a reason the food budget is the smallest part of the family budget. It's good to be environmentally friendly, but you've got to have your head on straight."

There is a reason the typical household's food budget is small, and it's because we've made mass-produced, processed, unhealthy foods mind-blowingly cheap.

I think we all know by now that just because food is cheap doesn't mean it's good. What's more, cheap food really isn't cheap when you look at the true costs of producing and distributing it ... costs to the environment and to our health, communities, and quality of life.

A dollar amount can be placed on some of these costs, such as the farm subsidies that we pay for in taxes and the increasing healthcare costs associated with obesity and other diseases, poor nutrition, and contaminated food. Other costs are indirect, such as pollution and loss of wildlife habitats and the loss of quality of life, ie, tasteless food and the loss of the pleasure of preparing food and eating together.

Well, supply follows demand people so we have to start demanding food that is healthy, sustainable, safe, and fair. Only then will big agribusiness make a change and produce the food we truly want—at the price we want.

Want to learn more about the true cost of factory-farmed, commercially-raised, and non-local food? Check out this 15 minute video from the Sierra Club as part of their Sustainable Consumption campaign.

The video was made by the same company that did the Meatrix and touches on a number of important issues——monocropping, feedlot-raised beef, loss of topsoil, chemical usage, agricultural runoff, and decreasing crop yields. When all these factors are valued and given a price, the true cost of a commercial tomato is far beyond anyone's budget.

Eating Slow at The Crossing

The Crossing Wine Dinner to Benefit Slow Food St. Louis

Who: Slow Food St. Louis
What: Fundraiser
Where: The Crossing, Clayton, MO, 314.721.7375
When: Tuesday, July 7, 2009, 6:30pm - 10:00pm
Why: To show your support of businesses that support Slow Food St. Louis as several tickets are still available for tomorrow's wine dinner, which is sure to be a great night of eating!

The Details:

With much gratitude to Jim Fiala, Slow Food St. Louis is excited to announce a wine dinner to support Slow Food St. Louis's Biodiversity Grant hosted by The Crossing and Local Wine Company.

The menu will feature not only the great cooking The Crossing has come to be known for, but also the fabulous wines of Murphy's Law, Ransom, and SNAFU. Best of all, some of the terrific local ingredients Fiala and team will be utilizing in the dinner will have come from some of our very own Biodiversity Grant recipients.

The price is set at $75 each and you can make reservations by contacting The Crossing at 314.721.7375.

The Menu:

First Course
Passed canapes from the local farmer's markets and blue cheese souffle w/ 2007 Murphy's Law White

Second Course
Gaspacho with warm walleye and extra virgin olive oil w/ 2008 Ransom Pinot Gris 'Selection'

Third Course
Missouri chanterelle mushrooms with a Yellowtree Farm fines herbs w/ 2006 Ransom Pinot Noir 'Selection'

Fourth Course
Rain Crow Ranch grassfed beef tenderloin with melted fennel and roasted red potatoes with local pole beans w/ 2006 Murphy's Law Red

Fifth Course
Trio of Goatsbeard Farm's cheeses and local berries/fruits w/ 2005 SNAFU Red

Sixth Course:
Trio of Illinois peaches

See you there!

Lettuce From the Garden, With Worms

"Growing up on a farm near Yamhill, Ore., I quickly learned to appreciate the difference between fresh, home-grown foods and the commercial versions in the supermarket.

Store-bought lettuce was always lush, green and pristine, and thus vastly preferable to lettuce from my Mom’s vegetable garden (organic before we called it that). Her lettuce kept me on my toes, because a caterpillar might come crawling out of my salad.

We endured endless elk and venison—my Dad is still hunting at age 90—or ate beef from steers raised on our own pasture, but "grass-fed" had no allure for me. I longed for delicious, wholesome food that my friends in town ate. Like hot dogs.

Over the years, though, I've become nostalgic for an occasional bug in my salad, for an apple that feels as if it were designed by God rather than by a committee. More broadly, it has become clear that the same factors that impelled me toward factory-produced meat and vegetables—cheap, predictable food—also resulted in a profoundly unhealthy American diet.

-- Another great piece extolling the virtures of the new documentary, "Food, Inc.," from New York Times op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof

The First Lady of Food

Three for Thursday: Salatin, Rooftop Gardens, and Help for the Cause from the AMA

"If you just looked inside the USDA, you would find tremendous support for local food," said Senator Mark Udall to me yesterday, June 17. I responded: "I have looked, and it's not a pretty picture..." then somebody cut off my microphone and that was the end." -- Joel Salatin blogs about his visit to Washington

"This summer, Tony Tomelden hopes to be making bloody marys at the Pug in Washington, DC, with tomatoes and chilies grown above the bar, thanks to the city's incentives for green roofs." -- The New York Times takes a look at urban farming—a bit closer to the sun

"As our country wrestles with health care reform, the role of health care providers and facilities in providing education and leadership to help the population understand the link between the way we produce food and individual health is significant and cannot be overstated." -- The American Medical Association passes a new resolution supporting a sustainable food system