Impolite Company

Colorado-based Grocers in Austin?

What's up with another Colorado grocer setting up shop here in town?  The new one is Natural Grocers in the old Rooster Andrews location and while it looks like a more attractive option than the Newflower Market (the other Colorado grocer) down here, it's going to take business away from Wheatsville Coop which doesn't make me terribly happy.  They have an impressive list of things they won't sell for various reasons (most of the reasons are pretty good; for example:  Irradiated Food: This is a process of exposing foods to radioactivity to prolong the shelf life and reduce the risk of bacterial contamination. It is currently approved for meats, grains, some produce, herbs, and spices. The radioactive rays can change the flavors and textures of food; reduce vitamins, minerals, and enzymes; and create chemical changes. All irradiated foods must be labeled as such; however, products containing irradiated ingredients do not require labeling.) and I do like that.  Since they're up north-central, I won't be shopping there even if I thought it was the best option in the area but it's probably worth checking them out. 

But I'll always prefer my people at Wheatsville:

Positive Actions by USDA

Grist has a good summary up of positive actions taken by the USDA, particularly in the realm of organic farming, Vilsack's USDA Shakes Things Up.  Those who are big into the sustainability and organic farming side of things had a lot of concern over Secretary Vilsack being appointed head of the USDA and though a lot of their concerns remain, they may have to realize that they're not going to get everything they want and try to see the good things that Vilsack is doing.  I'm glad to see that Grist is doing this:

I know some are still reeling from the recent Obama administration announcement on biofuelscontinued pimping for Monsanto and other biotech companies seems both unsustainable and uninformed. But a slew of positive decisions have come down from the USDA in recent days that merit attention and suggest that business is very much not as usual at ag’s end of the Mall.
and its implication that it remains a bit too much in thrall to the concerns of Big Ag. And Tom Vilsack’s

The article has the details but the recent moves include $50 million earmarked for current and transitioning organic farms in the environmental quality program, an end to the fight to prevent the EU from banning beef raised with the growth hormone rBST, full funding for a settlement of longstanding discrimination claims over how the agency treated black farmers in various programs and improvements in the standards that require a certain amount of grass-feeding for dairy products to be considered organic.

The Story of Stuff

I'm not sure how many of us need to watch a somewhat over-simplified video to understand that the cycle of production and consumption in the world is pretty much out of whack but there's a twenty minute video making the rounds these days that does just that.  And it does it pretty well, though I would imagine that if you aren't at least a little bit simpatico to the idea that conspicuous consumption is digging us into a huge hole, well, you might find it preachy.  You can watch the video online at The Story of Stuff (though the site wasn't keeping up with traffic today, maybe because of higher volume due to a New York Times article that mentions it). 

Here's how the Times introduces the video, A Cautionary Video About America's Stuff:

The video was created by Annie Leonard, a former Greenpeace employee and an independent lecturer who paints a picture of how American habits result in forests being felled, mountaintops being destroyed, water being polluted and people and animals being poisoned. Ms. Leonard, who describes herself as an “unapologetic activist,” is also critical of corporations and the federal government, which she says spends too much on the military.

Here's a little teaser video from Youtube, which is probably more than enough to let you know if the tone and subject matter are likely to set your head to nodding or set your teeth on edge:

The Internal Combustion Engine v. Electricity

A recent study is out showing that using electricity that has been produced using biomass to run your car is 81% more efficient on a per acre basis than running a car on cellulosic ethanol (not currently available for consumption).  The study used a straight comparison between plug-in battery cars (not quite available for the regular consumer) and internal combustion cars; it didn't look at hybrids.  Here's the bit in the Grist article on this subject that I found most interesting, Electric Cars Get Better MPA (Miles Per Acre):

What we have here is a battle forming up between increasingly electrified transport (hybrid—plug-in hybrid—fully electric) and corn ethanol powered internal combustion engines (cellulosic is and will probably always be just five years from economic viability). One side is championed by consumer demand being met by market forces and the other side is championed by our politicians who force us to pay to turn our own food into fuel and then pour it down our throats. These are the same politicians who subsidize oil with one hand and its competitor, biofuels with the other. If it hasn’t dawned on you yet that our politicians are not capable of solving complex problems like this, maybe it’s time it did. Take matters into your own hands. Make your next car purchase a hybrid, plug-in hybrid, or full electric when they arrive (on dealer lots next year).

Wave Powered Electricity

There's a new invention that looks like an underwater wind sock that turns the power of ocean waves into electricity, Shockingly Simple Wave Device Will Beat Wind Energy in Price:

A new prototype of a wave power generator has been unveiled in England, and its inventors followed the creed espoused by Leonardo da Vinci: “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” The new wave power device, known as Anaconda, is a basic tube made from rubber and fabric and filled with water. It is still in trial phase, but its creators, optimistic about its potential as a source of mass power, are confident it will be cheaper than a wind farm generating the equivalent amount of power and less controversial in terms of public protest since the devices will be below the sea [Telegraph].

Freezers!

As I've been approaching the beginning of the tomato harvest around here, I've been doing a fair amount of thinking about how best to handle the surplus.  I mean, it's just me and a boy can only eat so many tomatoes in a given day.  Plus, there's that bed full of potatoes in the back yard (currently the size of marbles and so I'm still not entirely certain they'll make it to a reasonable size) that I need to figure out how to address when they're ready to be harvested.  So I've been thinking about the freezer (especially since I don't want to jump headlong into canning just yet--maybe in the fall) and the need to clear it out and make room for an organized bounty of tomatoes, tomato sauce and potatoes in various forms.  Interestingly enough, Mark Bittman has a new post on better using your freezer, Freeze that Thought:

But if you conscientiously use the freezer in two ways, you’ll value it as never before. The first: take raw ingredients you have too much of — or whose life you simply wish to prolong — and freeze them. The second: take things you’ve already cooked — basics like stock, beans, grains and the like, or fully cooked dishes — and freeze them.

To the extent that you do both of these tasks regularly, and keep your freezer organized, you’ll make your cooking cheaper, more efficient and faster.

Polyface Farm Revisited (and revisited...)

For those of us who still aren't tired of hearing about the natural processes that drive Polyface Farm of The Omnivore's Dilemma fame, there's another article about it in the Washington Post, Escapes:  Touring Polyface Farm:

The Obamas may have planted an organic garden at the White House, but the first family of farming is arguably the Salatins. Patriarch Joel is the famous face of this self-proclaimed "beyond organic" livestock farm, which he took over from his father in 1982. On the day we visited, Joel was out of town on one of his many speaking engagements. (His stock is set to rise even higher: The new documentary "Food, Inc.," opening June 12 in Washington, paints him, once again, as a prophet among demons.)

Polyface has been widely praised by sustainable-farming advocates and foodies for its commitment to Earth- and animal-friendly practices, including rotational grass grazing, humane treatment of animals and local processing. With an annual average population of 6,500 laying hens (for eggs), 24,000 broilers (for meat), 1,000 head of cattle, 200 hogs, 500 turkeys and 250 rabbits, Polyface is classified as a commercial farm, but it's on the smaller side, defiantly spurning one-size-fits-all USDA regulations.

Interesting how they tend to downsize Joel's wild-eyed prophetic utterances in these articles.

Austin Parks & Rec Should Support Community Gardens!

I just got an email from the Sustainable Food Center requesting our support in letting the Austin Parks and Recreation Department know that we support community gardens and we think they should continue their efforts to encourage more of them in Austin.  As it's in the form of a press release, I'm just going to copy it into the blog, including the links to the city and let you have at it:

Community gardens are an essential part of a vibrant, livable, and sustainable city. They offer space for residents who live in apartments or have a shady yard to grow fresh, healthy food.  Community gardens help unite neighborhoods, contribute to neighborhood beautification, and connect urban dwellers with nature. They facilitate communication, foster intergenerational and cross-cultural connections, encourage physical activity and provide therapeutic benefits. The impact of these spaces is immeasurable and invaluable.   The number of community gardens in Austin is small compared to other cities of similar size and development pressures are putting community gardens in Austin in jeopardy.  An opportunity though to promote community gardens in Austin is here.  The Austin Parks and Recreation Department is seeking input about its Long Range Plan for Land, Facilities and Programs, 2010-2015.  Let Austin PARD know that you want it to support community gardens by sending your comments to [email protected].  Use the sample message below or write your own.  Be sure to submit your comments by April 30, 2009.   I would like to commend the Austin Parks and Recreation Department on its recognition of community gardens as a growing trend in Austin (PARD Long Range Plan, p. 176).  PARD has shown great initiative in devising guidelines for community gardens in parks.  I urge the PARD to continue this momentum by keeping the recommendation to provide additional land for community gardens and farmers' markets (Ch. 10) and by including a recommendation to adopt the draft Austin Parks and Recreation Community Garden Information Packet (Appendix Ch. 6 Supporting Documents Public Meetings) in the Long Range Plan for Land, Facilities and Programs, 2010-2015.  I also request that PARD incorporate community gardens as an activity or special use in Ch. 2 PARD Definitions and Standards; include Deep Eddy Community Garden when discussing existing facilities in Planning Area 2 in Ch. 3 Existing Facilities; continue to consider community gardens in planning for park and trail development; and work with other city departments to increase their support of community gardens as well.   Thank you for your support of community gardens in Austin!         Sincerely,   To read the Austin Parks and Recreation Department Long Range Plan for Land, Facilities, and Programs, visit: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/parks/longrangeplan.htm.  To comment, send an email to [email protected] before April 30, 2009.

About Sustainable Food Center With roots dating back more than 30 years, SFC is involved in every step of the local food system from seed to table.  Our mission is to cultivate a healthy community by strengthening the local food system and improving access to nutritious, affordable food.

Ohio Food Revolutions

Not sure if I have any regulars from Ohio who still come around here (or ever did!), but I just ran across an article in The Ethicurean which I'm linking to here, JUST FOR YOU!  Nourishing Ohio's Downtowns through Community-Food Partnerships:

Central to a thriving downtown food economy is the open-air farmers market. The market can grow stronger by finding ways to work with the other businesses in the downtown district rather than directly competing with them. Schaller mentioned that there’s a conundrum in the rising demand for farmers markets: a shortage of farmers. ACEnet helps establish small markets in targeted areas to support one or two farmers. The market supplements consumer demand for fresh produce with community-garden growers and small-market or backyard gardeners.

Another Ohio smackeral of something after the fold:

Meat and You, Partners in Freedom

I had a "crazy friend" tell me the other day (yesterday) that she doesn't eat "red meat" just "fish and poultry".  So, until the good people NextGenAgra finally get around to inventing the fabled Steer Fish, I'd like to pass along this video of a very informative educational film that will hopefully convince her that she's being a "Grade A Moron" (two minutes):

Phil Hartman, The Simpsons were never the same after you left us.

Raw Milk Survey

A friend of mine just recently lost her shot at a supply of raw milk when the State of Texas stepped in against the producer--in this case, I guess they stepped in against the cow and its majority owners since my friend owned a share in the cow, a loophole used by raw milk folks so that they can get around some of the regulatory barriers.  So I know there are raw milk people out there, I'm just not sure if any of them read this blog.  If so, there's a survey of raw milk consumers over at The Ethicurean that one of the posters is trying to get people to respond to in view of a presentation at an upcoming symposium looking at raw milk.  The post is Take the Raw Milk Consumer Survey:

As many as 3% of consumers may prefer their milk unpasteurized, a growing trend that has spurred federal legislation to allow raw milk to cross state lines. As demand grows, we have seen an increase in raw milk blogs, regulatory action in states such as Connecticut and California, and even an increase in raw milk conferences and conference panels. The raw milk discussion remains polarizing. Of the two prominent raw milk symposiums so far this year, one was made up exclusively of raw milk opponents and sponsored by the International Association for Food Protection, and the other was made up exclusively of raw milk advocates.

"Don't kid yourself Jimmy. If a cow ever got the chance, he'd eat you and everyone you care about"--Troy McClure, "Meat and You, Partners in Freedom."  (Thanks, Serious Eats!)

Genetically Modified Crops Are Not Increasing Yields

Well, at least according to analysis of 20 years worth of research, Transgenic Seeds are Toast(ed):  New Report Says that GE Seeds Have Not Increased Yield.  First, a little bit of copy from a Monsanto ad and then they talk about the report:

Providing abundant and accessible food means putting the latest science-based tools in farmers’ hands, including advanced hybrid and biotech seeds. Monsanto’s advanced seeds not only significantly increase crop yields, they use fewer key resources — like land and fuel — to do it. That’s a win-win for people, and the earth itself.

Oh, really?

I’m not here to challenge their cheery scenario, though I could. And I’m not going to dig into the claim about using fewer resources. Nope, today I’m just tackling the assertion that “Monsanto’s advanced seeds… significantly increase crop yields.” Luckily, I have a new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists to help me.

Strange Idea

You can get someone to come to your house, install a raised bed, fill it with organic soil and vegetables and then, if you're really lame, you can pay them to service the thing for you--Resolution Gardens.  Admittedly, their sturdy little beds look a lot neater than my clunky cinder block constructions (term used lightly) but it all just seems so wrong.  I've been having a blast doing the gardening and the leg work myself over the past couple of months and have the next level of scheming set in my head once I procure 3/4 yard of pea gravel that a friend has promised--scored a truck last night to get the pile from point A to B.  But I guess if you don't have the time to do it yourself and you really want fresh veggies growing in your yard, this is better than paying someone to mow your yard once a week or whatever. 

I say all this now but maybe, in a month or two, when my tomatoes start dying off without having produced a single little fruit like last year, I may be giving the Resolution folks a call.

Corn-based Ethanol Smackdown

The CBO has posted a report and a blog entry on the short and long term costs of ethanol made from corn and whether it is beneficial to continue subsidizing and requiring it.  I'm glad to see it and hopefully it will give Congress the cover it needs to have  real policy debate on it.  Hat tip to Grist for publicizing the report (The Impact of Ethanol Use on Food Prices and Greenhouse Gas Emissions) and here's a bit from the blog post, Ethanol, Food Prices and Greenhouse Gas Emissions:

Most ethanol in the United States is produced from domestically grown corn, and the rapid rise in the fuel’s production and usage means that roughly one-quarter of all corn grown in the U.S. (nearly 3 billion bushels) is now used to produce ethanol. The demand for corn for ethanol production has exerted upward pressure on corn prices and on food prices in general. CBO estimates that the increased use of ethanol accounted for about 10 percent to 15 percent of the rise in food prices between April 2007 and April 2008.

Family History of Chickens

Not my family.  The only chicken story in our family's past is the tale of one of my Dad's boyhood neighbors killing a chicken and then the bird running around without a head for three days.  Methinks there may have been some exaggeration there (Is it possible for a chicken to live without a head?  The University of Georgia poultry sciences Dept. did lengthy studies on decapitation of broiler hens. Thousands of birds were observed and concluded that in most birds latent activity in the headless birds lasted no longer than 60 seconds. In the most extreme case observed, bleeding and muscular activity extended to 90 seconds. Stunning prior to decapitation proved most humane of all options.)  But one of the Austin American Statesman writers has a piece up about her own family's history of raising chickens and how she's thinking about getting back into the family tradition, Backyard Chickens Part I:  Can I Have Some Chickens, Please?

I’ll start with family. Above is a picture of my maternal grandfather, Marion Augustus Hinsley (aka Gus), taken sometime in the late ’30s or early ’40s. He’s posing in front of a chicken coop in the backyard of his farmhouse in Southwestern Arkansas. Doesn’t he look proud? I love the jaunty angle of his hat and the chicken on his knee.

These were free range chickens back when most folks didn’t consider raising chickens any other way. They ran around the farmyard during the day, scratching in the dirt and eating insects. At night, they slept safe and warm in their chicken house. They provided their owners with plenty of yummy dark-yolk eggs for breakfast every morning. Every now and then, one of them wound up on the Sunday dinner table, breaded and fried.

Economic Downturn as Opportunity

I guess I'm stuck on the conversation about paying more and getting more when it comes to our food dollars, as I just ran across a good little piece, Rethinking Our Food Priorities--Let's Hear it for Egg Ladies!  The post is by a food writer who confesses that she cheated on her egg lady a bit over the winter for the sake of saving a couple of bucks on a dozen eggs.  Then she looks at her decision in terms of what she knows about the true long term cost of food and whether she was really cheating herself by getting the cheaper eggs:

In the end, what did I gain by cheating on my egg lady? For two bucks less, I got a big load of guilt, and frankly, the eggs weren’t as good. But the thing that finally brought me to my senses was that, despite the fact that six dollars is a lot for a dozen eggs, the difference was only two dollars.

I found myself willing to sell out someone I know and like for two bucks. I know Isabelle; I know her three kids. They live on what they can make off of their ranch. They provide me with eggs that are darn near the Platonic ideal of what an egg should be: gorgeous eggs with marigold yolks that taste fresh and clean and eggy.

I’m a resourceful person. There has to be someplace else in my budget where I could shave off two bucks (um, wine?) in order to continue to support someone I know and like, to help keep people in town who contribute to our local community, who are our local community.

There’s a big opportunity in this downturn for those of us who really care about these things to take a stand. To prove that we know false economy when we see it. To refuse to trade the community we build by supporting farmers’ markets and family farms for the cheap sterility of the chain grocery stores.

$18 Chicken Follow-up

Sometime last week I linked to an article about the high prices of locally raised meat, Unfair Fare, and I want to do a bit of a follow-up on it because there's a good conversation going on about it.  First of all, as to prices around here the price for chickens has gone way down--in retrospect, it may be that the chicken that I bought was out of season for purchasing which would account for the quality as well.  Regardless of why, I can get the same bird for 12 or 13 dollars now instead of $18 a few months back.  But as to the ongoing conversation, you can go to the above link and read through the comments; here's one of them:

This is not a bad thing if you believe that pastured meat is better for everyone concerned (the animals, the consumers, the planet). A rational farmer will keep raising her prices until she can’t sell all her meat. High prices will give more farmers the incentive to enter the market, lowering the cost of locally raised, pastured meat. Supply will increase. Prices will go down.

And now Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm and Omnivore's Dilemma fame, has entered the fray with a guess post at Food Renegade, Joel Salatin on Why Local Food is More Expensive:

But after reading the heated discussion in the post’s comments (many of which were written by local, small-scale farmers), I second-guessed my first reaction. After all, a lot of the cost we pay for locally-raised meat comes from ridiculous laws forcing small-scale farmers to fit into giant agribusiness shaped holes.  The next day, I read Joel Salatin’s annual newsletter to his on farm customers. Then I sent Joel an email, asking him to do a guest post for me expanding on what he wrote. This is Joel’s take on why local food is more expensive...

Tom Philpott on Building a LESS Efficient Food System

Here's a link and a short excerpt from an address Tom Philpott gave in Boone, NC to the Sustainable Development Department at Appalachian State University.  In case you don't recall, Boone is where my folks live now and it's nice to see that good things are going on up there (or at least being talked about), Toward a Less Efficient and More Robust Food System:

Now imagine we had a locally owned slaughterhouse that could process the pastured cows that so many people grow here—and now send off to feedlots in Kansas to fatten on corn. If you can access a nearby slaughterhouse, you make a lot more money selling grass-fed beef to your neighbors than selling cows to the meat industry; wouldn’t that draw more folks in?

And imagine a locally owned dairy processing plant, that could give a decent price to our few remaining dairy farmers. Given the popularity of real milk from grass-fed cows, wouldn’t that be a booming market—and draw more new dairy farmers in? And imagine a community-owned food co-op that could sell all of this stuff at a central place, and maybe a farmer-owned restaurant that could give community members the freshest food possible, while giving farmers a cut of the value that gets added to their produce?

Suddenly, we’d start looking less like Efficient Manchester, relying on outside forces for our economic well-being, and more like Inefficient Birmingham, with a set of thriving, interlocking, highly creative crafts based around food. And we’d eat a lot better, too.

And think how much more robust our economy would be. At a certain point, people stop thinking they need a second home. But they don’t typically decide to stop eating. Because of the natural beauty of our area, we’ll always draw tourists. A vibrant, accessible, delicious local food economy could be a new calling card—and a way to get tourist dollars flowing broadly through the economy, and not siphoned off to a few resorts and lodges.

Vegetarian for a Day

I'm skeptical of the numbers, mainly because I'm pretty sure they assume that people who skipped meat for a day wouldn't make up for it the next day and that skipping meat consumption for a day would automatically mean the resources to raise all that meat would just not get inputted into animals.  Which I'm pretty sure wouldn't happen.  But just as a thought-exercise to challenge us to think about the consequences of eating as much meat every day as we do, check out this AlterNet story on The Startling Effects of Going Vegetarian for Just One Day:

If everyone went vegetarian just for one day, the U.S. would save:

● 100 billion gallons of water, enough to supply all the homes in New England for almost 4 months;

● 1.5 billion pounds of crops otherwise fed to livestock, enough to feed the state of New Mexico for more than a year;

● 70 million gallons of gas -- enough to fuel all the cars of Canada and Mexico combined with plenty to spare;

● 3 million acres of land, an area more than twice the size of Delaware;

● 33 tons of antibiotics.

Click on the above link for more stats and information.

Boogers in the Bin--Composting Snot

I'm not sure how this post fits in with the last one in terms of being able to find good, high quality, solid information online that wasn't there ten years ago, but Grist's Q&A department takes on the heady question of whether or not you can compost mucus on used Kleenex/etc. today, Umbra On Composting Mucus and Other Conundra:

Dear Umbra,

My girlfriend and I are having a bit of a disagreement. When she is in the kitchen she uses paper towels to wipe her nose. She then proceeds to put the used paper towel into the compost bin in the kitchen. I’m sure that the microbes and worms in the compost pile could care less, but when I empty the bin into the pile it is gross to have to remove the snot-filled paper towels from the container. She doesn’t understand why I find this to be gross. Thoughts?