Seafood in LA frequently mislabeled, group says Los Angeles Times
Tests on seafood sold at Los Angeles sushi bars, other restaurants, and grocery stores have revealed that more than half is not labeled correctly, a nonprofit organization is reporting. Red snapper, Dover sole, white tuna and other fish were often different species, the group Oceana found in DNA tests of seafood from 74 retail outlets in Los Angeles. In all, 55% of 119 fish samples from across L.A. were misidentified, Oceana said.
Water issues, struggling dairies cloud California agriculture Western Farm Press
California agriculture is the most diversified in the world with roughly 400 different commercial crops. However, there are two elements that intrinsically tie together just about every segment of the state’s No. 1 industry. The obvious is water. The other is not so apparent — the dairy industry.
Food Deserts and Obesity Role Challenged Science Daily
It has become an article of faith among some policy makers and advocates, including Michelle Obama, that poor urban neighborhoods are food deserts, bereft of fresh fruits and vegetables. But two new studies have found something unexpected. Such neighborhoods not only have more fast food restaurants and convenience stores than more affluent ones, but more grocery stores, supermarkets and full-service restaurants, too.
Government Takeover Of Farm Subsidy Would Save Billions, Economist Says National Public Radio
Arithmetic can be quite enlightening sometimes. One of the country’s top agricultural economists just fiddled with the government’s balance sheet on crop insurance, and arrived at a shocking conclusion: We’d spend billions of dollars less than we do now if we just gave away a simplified version of the insurance for free.
If the food’s in plastic, what’s in the food? Washington Post
In a study published last year in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, researchers put five San Francisco families on a three-day diet of food that hadn’t been in contact with plastic. When they compared urine samples before and after the diet, the scientists were stunned to see what a difference a few days could make.
“The Regional Food Hub Resource Guide is an important tool to help promote local and regional efforts to support small and medium sized producers,” said Agriculture Deputy Secretary Merrigan. “Food hubs play a critical role in developing stronger supply chains and addressing the infrastructure challenges while supporting food access, regional economic development and job creation.”
The guide is an extensive collection of information and resources, providing background on everything needed to develop or participate in a regional food hub. It also highlights the economic contributions food hubs make to local communities and the role they play in expanding regional food systems. Included in the guide are resources for finding funding opportunities, support, best practices, strategies to address challenges and more.
Currently, according to the USDA, there are more than 170 food hubs operating throughout the country. The innovative business models espoused by food hubs allow farmers of all sizes to meet the growing consumer demand for fresh, local food by gaining entry into commercial and larger volume markets such as grocery stores, hospitals and schools.
“The new guide is the most comprehensive handbook on food hubs ever available,” Merrigan said. “Now farmers, buyers, researchers, consumers or anyone interested in creating a food hub in their community can tap into a single resource to find the information that they need.”
The Regional Food Hub Resource Guide follows a release earlier this year of the Know Your Farmer Compass, a guide to USDA resources related to local and regional food systems. The Compass consists of an interactive U.S. map showing local and regional food projects and an accompanying narrative documenting the results of this work through case studies, photos and video content. Both the Food Hubs Resource Guide and the Compass will be updated as new findings arise from case studies and projects underway.
Starting this year, the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Services will award up to $3.5 million in grants to assist schools in procuring food from local producers and support agriculture and nutrition education efforts such as school gardens, field trips to local farms, and cooking classes.
These grants are part $5 million in funding awarded to the USDA through the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, and will be provided to the agency annually. The grants are intended help schools respond to the growing demand for locally sourced foods and increase market opportunities for producers and food businesses. The remainder of the funding will go to support technical assistance and administrative costs related to USDA’s farm to school program.
“School cafeterias are great places to champion U.S. agriculture and to teach students where their food comes from,” said Deputy Secretary Merrigan during a visit to Southern High School in Harwood, Md., where she announced the funding opportunity. “More and more, schools are connecting with their local farmers, ranchers and food businesses each day and these programs are a great way to bring more local offerings into school cafeterias and support U.S. producers as well. As we struggle with obesity and associated diet related diseases, farm to school programs give us one important tool to help our kids make lifelong healthy eating choices.”
Letters of intent are suggested, but not required, by May 18, 2012. Project proposals are due June 15, 2012.
Check out the Farm to School section of FoodHub’s Knowledge Base for resources on developing your own Farm to School program, then visit the USDA Farm to School website to learn more about this new grant and sign up for an educational webinar on how to prepare your proposal.
In an old Chicago meat plant, greens and fish grow OregonLive.com
The old stockyards are long gone, replaced by an industrial park and a mindset that, from now on, Chicago will try to move past the images in Upton Sinclair’s novel “The Jungle”. Now, you will find a jungle of a very different kind here. It’s on the third floor of an old meat-packing plant, a humid hothouse, of sorts, filled with rows of greens and sprouts, even exotic white strawberries. Nearby, in large blue barrels, lurk tilapia, fish native to tropical regions.
Louisville hosts Slow Food summit Louisville Courier-Journal
Local foodies have long embraced the revival of interest in locally grown and produced foods. Now, the Louisville area will be recognized for those efforts when Slow Food USA holds its biennial National Congress starting Friday at The Brown hotel. About 150 Slow Food representatives from the 225 local chapters in the United States will be at the congress.
Detroit’s food revolution helps revitalize city in decline Windsor Star
The success of Slows Bar-B-Q and other local food businesses is a rallying point for a cadre of entrepreneurs fighting to shake off Detroit’s reputation as a culinary wasteland and give people a reason to return. Progress on the food front is more than an interesting sidebar to Detroit’s high-profile attempt to reverse decades of decline.
Foie gras isn’t forever Los Angeles Times
In 2004, California enacted a law that gave the foie gras industry until July 2012 to find an alternative to force-feeding ducks. That deadline is fast approaching. When drafting the bill, California’s only foie gras producer was contacted — Guillermo Gonzalez with Sonoma Foie Gras — to give the industry time to find an alternative to force-feeding. In turn, Gonzalez urged Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s signature on the bill.
Food Stamps Helped Reduce Poverty Rate, Study Finds New York Times
A new study by the Agriculture Department has found that food stamps reduced the poverty rate substantially during the recent recession. The food stamp program, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, reduced the poverty rate by nearly 8 percent in 2009, the most recent year included in the study, a significant impact for a social program whose effects often go unnoticed by policy makers.
Just in time for the beginning of the 2012 season, the USDA announced last week that more than $10 million dollars of grant funding is available this year through their Farmers Market Promotion Program (FMPP). Now in its seventh year, this grant program is intended to bolster local farm-direct marketing efforts on a national scale through funding projects like road-side stands, farmers’ markets and community-supported agriculture (CSA). Special priority will be given to projects that increase access to fresh and affordable food options in underserved or low-income communities. Applications can be submitted online at www.grants.gov, with more information available at www.ams.usda.gov/FMPP. (more…)
‘Nature’s Barcode’ Tells The Story Of Foods’ True Origin NPR (blog)
Already in use to measure air quality and detect gas leaks, “optical stable isotope analyzer” technology, created by the Silicon Valley firm Picarro, can also detect isotopes in food. Access to this information could be a boon for food companies, government agencies and consumers who want to ensure raw ingredients and additives are really what they say they are.
Valley’s small farms find growing market as consumers demand local produce Yakima Herald-Republic
Small farms in the Yakima Valley, including Fewel Farms, are catching onto the “locavore” ethos, the consumer-driven movement to purchase food grown nearby. As a result, the Valley’s vegetable market, though tiny in comparison to the biggies — wine grapes, apples and cherries — has grown beyond a cute niche.
‘Pink slime’ forces beef processor into bankruptcy msnbc.com
Ground beef processor AFA Foods filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday and said it plans to sell some or all of its assets, citing the impact of media coverage related to a meat filler critics have dubbed “pink slime.” Meat processors have faced a backlash over the use of an ammonia-treated beef filler they call “finely textured beef.” Food activists have campaigned to have it banned arguing the product was unappetizing, but supporters say the product is safe to eat.
A Shortage of Rural Veterinarians Means Retirement Must Wait NYTimes.com
In Texas, a shortage of rural veterinarians persists and grows worse each year. The shortages can greatly hinder the careers of ranchers, whose numbers have already dwindled because of drought and an industry-wide profitability drop in the last 30 years. Many longtime rural veterinarians have no successors. And because most veterinary graduates want to practice in urban areas on small animals, the prospects for solving the problem are grim.
Olive oil and milk among top ingredients used in ‘food fraud’ msnbc.com
Food adulteration is more than just your neighborhood fish counter selling you farm-raised salmon and telling you it’s line caught. It’s ingredients that can go in ingredients to make products sold by your reputable local grocer or restaurant. New research shows that the most common food fraud ingredients are olive oil, milk, honey, saffron, orange juice, coffee and apple juice.
Oregon food bank combats rising meat prices by turning to local lentil farmers for protein The Republic
The food bank in Eugene says it’s facing a shortage of protein brought on by rising Asian demand for meat and domestic animal production squeezed by high feed costs. The solution? Local lentils. Food For Lane County has contracted with five farmers to enlarge the stock of high-protein lentils and barley soup mix it developed this year.
Food business training is hot commodity New York Daily News
A variety of training programs are bubbling up in Queens to help the culinary entrepreneurs start up food businesses. The Queens Chamber of Commerce is offering a free Restaurant Boot Camp in Spanish on Monday in Astoria to help aspiring entrepreneurs navigate often confusing city regulations, secure funding and avoid costly fines.
Maryland hopes to win sales with sustainable crab The Seattle Times
Competition is tough when it comes to the packaged blue crab meat many associate with the Chesapeake Bay but which often comes from the Gulf of Mexico, Venezuela and the Far East. That’s one reason Maryland fisheries officials hope to set their catch apart by touting the state’s sustainable fishing methods.
Alaska state Rep. Tammie Wilson sponsors bill to do away with most safe food regulations Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
A bill introduced by North Pole Republican Rep. Tammie Wilson would do away with much of the state’s safety regulations for food sold directly to consumers in an attempt to grow Alaska’s local food industry and farmers markets. Wilson’s bill would require sellers to provide a card that alerts the consumer that “This product has not been inspected by any governmental agency and may be harmful to your health.”
Black farmers file claims in USDA settlement The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The 1999 settlement of the Pigford v. Glickman lawsuit provided about $1 billion to 15,000 farmers who say the agency unfairly turned them down for loans because of their race between 1981 and 1996. A second settlement approved by a court in October 2011 is giving another chance to black farmers with discrimination claims from that era who were left out of the first Pigford settlement.
Country Natural Beef co-founder Doc Hatfield dies Capital Press
Patrick Dale “Doc” Hatfield, co-founder of Country Natural Beef, died of pancreatic cancer March 20. He was 74. Hatfield founded the cooperative with his wife, Connie, in 1986, in Brothers, Ore., with 14 ranching families. The cooperative now includes over 100 ranch families who manage some 6.3 million acres in 13 states.
At the Co-op, Tofu, Kale and Cocoa Puffs New York Times
Three new co-ops — Fiddlehead Food Co-op in New London and the Local Beet in Chester in addition to Elm City — have started in the state in four years, and another is poised to open in Noank in a few weeks. While still owned by customers who pay one-time membership fees, for which they typically receive a few minimal discounts, they are many steps removed from their hippie predecessors.
WSU program for organics outgrows space The Spokesman Review
Since the university broke ground on its organic farm in 2003, WSU has provided a place to put farming tools to the test. Now, after nine years, the farm is getting an upgrade that could cost $15 million, depending on fundraising. As part of a campus master plan, the WSU Organic Farm will expand from approximately three acres to as many as 30.
Scientist who coined ‘Pink Slime’ reluctant whistleblower Reuters
Every time someone calls former U.S. government scientist Gerald Zirnstein a whistleblower, he cringes a little. When he coined the term “Pink Slime” to describe the unlabeled and unappetizing bits of cartilage and other chemically-treated scrap meat going into U.S. ground beef, Zirnstein was a microbiologist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He made the slime reference to a fellow scientist in an internal – and he thought private – email.
Executive pleads guilty to tomato price fixing The Spokesman Review
A former California food company owner pleaded guilty to racketeering Thursday in a tomato price-fixing plot that authorities said drove up costs to consumers across the nation. Frederick Scott Salyer, 56, was charged with bribing purchasing managers at food giants including Kraft Foods Inc. and Frito-Lay to buy tomato products from his company, Monterey-based SK Foods.
New Study Explores Innovation and Opportunities for Diverse Local Food Distributors USDA.gov
Today, Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan released a new report on the distribution practices of eight producer networks and their partners distributing locally or regionally-grown food to retail and foodservice customers. The report shows how these networks tap into the growing commercial demand for local and regional food products while creating additional economic opportunities and expanding healthy food access.
Locally Produced Food Gets Boost Through Food Hubs SustainableBusiness.com
The USDA is helping small farmers connect with people who want to buy locally produced food by fostering “food hubs.” By aggregrating local produce from many small farmers, food hubs can sell to large buyers that want locally and regionally grown food, such as schools and hospitals. These hubs remove some of the most onerous, time draining chores for farmers, who typically reach consumers by driving long distances to farmers markets and restaurants.
Bad Food: Illnesses from Imported Food Are on the Rise, CDC Says TIME
Altogether about 16% of the food eaten in the U.S. comes from other countries — and given some of the many holes in the food safety net for imports, that should be a little concerning. In a new report published on Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that foodborne disease outbreaks caused by imported food appeared to rise in 2009 and 2010.
Brooklyn food pantries go grow-your-own New York Daily News
A Bedford-Stuyvesant food pantry built an indoor farm where clients grow fresh produce year-round — and provide vegetables for hundreds of families a week. Brooklyn is in the grip of an urban farming craze. Grow-your-own is going strong, from rooftop gardens to massive plantings at public high schools.
Food Craft Institute to open in Jack London Square San Francisco Chronicle
Local producers will share some of their skills and experience as instructors at the new Food Craft Institute, a school for artisan food companies opening in Oakland’s Jack London Square in April. A nonprofit affiliated with Oakland’s Eat Real Festival, the annual street food festival, the institute will offer its first “master course” in jam, followed by courses in pickling, charcuterie, and coffee roasting and coffee bar management.
Treated beef dubbed ‘pink slime’ to show up in school lunches The Seattle Times
When McDonald’s and other fast-food chains said last month that “pink slime” was no longer being used in their burgers, some believed the product, beef trimmings partially treated with ammonium hydroxide, had disappeared from the nation’s food supply once and for all. But a new report in the Daily tablet newspaper suggests the slime will appear in school lunches this spring, 7 million pounds of it.
Don’t blame food deserts for obesity Washington Post (blog)
Roland Sturm, an economist at RAND Corporation, analyzed the food environments of 13,000 adolescents in California, looking at how many fast-food restaurants and supermarkets were within a 1.5-mile radius of their homes and schools. He then looked at how much fast food, fresh fruits and other foods the kids consumed. And his study found no correlation between what food sources kids lived near, what the kids ate and how much they weighed.
More foods going to pouch packaging Chicago Tribune
Packaged food makers are thinking outside the bottle and can. More to the point, they’re increasingly partial to pouches. Kitchenstaples from Campbell Soup Co. and H.J. Heinz Co. will be joining other consumer products in pouches this year. The trend is being driven by savings on packaging and shipping costs as well as aesthetics — an upscale pouch sporting elaborate graphics offers a modern look and premium appeal, marketers say.
FoodHub makes second trip to White House Sustainable Business Oregon
The Ecotrust’s FoodHub program had its second cameo at the White House Monday when Amanda Oborne, acting director, participated with some 60 other industry leaders in a conversation about the importance of local food. Oborne was the first speaker called to the microphone by U.S. Department of Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan during a well-tweeted and Web-broadcasted summit on local food.
USDA begins tweeting state-specific food call alerts Washington Post
Anyone with a Twitter account can now be among the first to know about food recalls with a new service the Department of Agriculture is rolling out. The USDA says state-specific food safety alerts for meat, poultry, and processed egg products are included as well as information on how to protect food during severe weather events. Up until now recalls have been announced in news releases and on a general USDA Twitter feed. (more…)
