Good Food from Healthy Farms
Food Buzz
Humpty Dumpty
Aug 19th
On one end of the spectrum, you have flocks of two to three hens, kept in your or your neighbor’s backyard, where the one dozen eggs produced each week is enough to feed the family that cares for the chickens.
On the other end of the spectrum is an egg factory in the middle of Iowa, where millions of birds lay millions of eggs per day (32 million egg cartons recalled times 12 eggs per carton divided by 90 days of production equals 4,266,666 eggs per day where the average hen lays one egg per day).
It’s hard to imagine how far and how fast we got away from decentralized and local production of food. The recent recall by Wright County Egg has now reached 17 states (including Washington) and the number of reported cases of salmonella linked to the eggs is over 2,000.
Nationally, only 0.4% of all food purchased by consumers comes direct from the farmer. We’re working with you to grow this number, and as our distribution network grows so does our ability to keep local farmland in production, plant heirloom seeds and raise heritage breeds of animals, keep dollars in our community, and, not least of all, deliver incredibly fresh, seasonal fruits and vegetables.
If you are free on Sunday, please take a drive out to Tahoma Farms, at 21108 Orville Rd E, Orting. We will be there from 2 to 6 pm. There will be guided farm tours at 2:30 and 3:30, and a potluck dinner at 5:00. We hope you can join us!
Greenwashing & Other Fine Tales
Aug 6th
We have the first in a new series of podcasts posted on our blog for those interested in hearing an impromptu conversation about McDonalds, Wal-Mart, sustainability and how local food production, and Terra Organics, fits into the mix.
There’s also a graphic that I’ve been holding onto for a while, and it now seems timely to share it.
The subsidy regime pits commodity growers against vegetable and fruit growers, and McDonalds and others buy fillers and subsidized meat, dairy, and grains at an artificially low cost. The foods that should be accessible to the least healthy amongst us have little to no price supports. So long as corn syrup and factory meat and dairy dominate the $60 billion a year farm program in this country, McDonalds will always dominate the way food is produced and consumed in this country, no matter how many new farmers markets are springing up around the country.
But, of course, that doesn’t mean we can give up the fight.
Establishment of Washington State Food Policy Council
Jun 23rd
Thanks to efforts by the Good Food Coalition, yesterday, Governor Chris Gregoire signed an important Executive Order at the Food Systems Strategies Summit. Executive Order 10-02 brings together agencies and community partners to coordinate their work and increase collaboration to strengthen our Washington State’s food system.
The Order tasks the Departments of Health, Agriculture, Social and Health Services along with the Conservation Commission and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction to deliver a report to the Governor and the Legislature outlining the remaining gaps and opportunities in Washington state food policy that will help agencies, legislators, and stakeholders develop solutions that fit our state’s needs.
“We need to keep our farmers working, and ensure all kids have access to farm fresh food,” said Rep. Kevin Van De Wege (Sequim). “This Executive Order is a building block towards a better way of doing things, and I’m hopeful that it will result in strong policy recommendations to the Legislature on how we can promote healthy farms and healthy food.”
The Order also opens the door for National funding and education and promotion of nutrition to the public.
Via:
http://www.governor.wa.gov/news/news-view.asp?pressRelease=1518&newsType=1
Ask Dan: Trouble in the News
May 13th
Call it a perfect storm. Since the advent of organics in the marketplace in the mid-to-late 90′s, there has not been a confluence of events and media reports that has done more to challenge the industrial food paradigm than what we have seen in recent weeks. I was asked to speak on a panel of entrepreneurs this past week at a breakfast held in Seattle by my alma mater, University of Puget Sound, and these were a few of the stories I highlighted: More >
Who Owns Organic?
Mar 29th
Unbeknown to many a healthy eater, from 1995 to 2007 a lot of the bright organic brands of tomorrow became subsidiaries of the “big name” brands of yesterday. Thanks to Philip H. Howard, we now have that in a visual form.
In 1995 the organic processing industry was relatively ‘fragmented’, as indicated by the 81 independent organic brands shown at the beginning of the animation. By 2007, however, all but 15 of these were acquired by multinational food processors, many of which also introduced organic versions of their mainstream brands. Note the extent to which investment firms played a role in this process of consolidation by acquiring one or more organic brands before selling them to multinational processors.
View video here.
Jamie Oliver’s “Food Revolution” on Oprah
Mar 26th
Jamie Oliver is trying to make American schools provide more healthy foods. His mission is to start a food revolution and change the way Americans eat. Check out some footage of Jamie on Oprah.
America’s Fruit and Vegetable Conundrum
Oct 6th
A study from the CDC outlines the lack of fruits and vegetables in American diets.
The data indicates that a staggering average of 86% of American are not meeting recommended requirements for fruit and vegetable consumption (2+ fruits/3+ vegetables a day). What’s more astonishing is that an average of 90.5% of adolescents are also not meeting those requirements.
The study goes on to present different community solution factors including the prevalence of farmers markets, produce distributors like Terra Organics, and health food stores. In addition, the CDC touches on the correlation of nutritional and farm-to-school programs to higher percentages of adolescents meeting recommended fruit and vegetable consumption.
Read the full report here and listen to Cookie Monster!!
Guide to GMO’s
Oct 1st
What are GMO’s?
Genetically modified organisms (or GMO’s) are plants, animals or microorganisms that through scientific intervention and splicing of genes have been, in a sense, edited in a lab to include the genetic code from other products it would not naturally mix with. The process of genetic engineering looks at genes like legos (a highly contested perspective) that can be mixed and matched to achieve superior products. Examples of this are genes from human beings in rice to grow pharmaceuticals or a bacteria gene inserted into corn and cotton to produce internal pesticides.
“In 2006, 252 million acres of transgenic crops were planted in 22 countries by 10.3 million farmers. The majority of these crops were herbicide- and insect-resistant soybeans, corn, cotton, canola, and alfalfa.” (Human Genome Project) More >
Toxic Nitrates!!! Another Reason to Eat Organic
Aug 21st
What is a nitrate?
Nitrates are nitric acid salts that have one nitrogen and three oxygen atoms. Nitric acid is a toxic, corrosive substance.
Nitrates in food? Say What?
Yes, that’s right, Timmy. Nitrates can be found in many fertilizers and in certain meats. These fertilizers promote plant growth at exponential rates, but also leave some of their toxins in the produce. In meats, nitrates are used to preserve the color of the meat and inhibit fun things like botulism. There is even evidence that nitrate is making its way into our drinking water.
Warning: Though conventional knowledge suggests that meats like bacon and hot dogs are nitrate hives, non-organic vegetables can have more than 100 times the amounts of nitrate than processed meat due to it leeching from the soil!
Spear me the mumbo-jumbo, how does that affect me?
In your body nitrates turn iron atoms in your blood into oxygen, thus rendering it unable to carry oxygen (Oxygen being a relatively important ingredient in sustaining life).
Nitrates are known by some studies to cause cancer and may even trigger Alzheimer’s, Diabetes and Parkinson’s Disease.
While, there is one study out there that suggests nitrates in low levels may be good for you there is a plethora of divergent research (see references). In fact, according to a recent study by researchers at Rhode Island Hospital, even low levels of nitrates can lead to the mentioned diseases.
So what makes organic produce better?
How funny that you should ask. Organic foods and farming practices seriously lower the amounts of nitrates and pesticides by avoiding containing fertilizers, thus reducing risks for serious illness.
The more you know…
Sources referenced:
