Eggmergency? Eggpedemic? ArmEGGeddon? Maybe not, but right now, we are in the middle of the biggest egg-borne Salmonella outbreak in U.S. History. At least 1300 people are sick, a prom was ruined, the FDA is furiously telling us that everything is cool, eggs are being recalled left and right, egg prices are skyrocketing, and the whole nation is trembling at the feet of Salmonella. This whole fiasco makes me think about two things. The first is a little I-told-you-so sounding, but the reason this epidemic is so widespread is because the American food industry is dependent on a small number of huge factory farms that distribute food to the entire country. The infected eggs, it seems, came entirely from two farms in Iowa. Basically, this wouldn’t have happened, at least not as badly, if we got our eggs from local farms. I know we always talk about local farming at WOYP, because that’s what we’re all about, and it’s obnoxious for me to talk about how right I’ve been all along. But seriously, Internet, when two farms are sending eggs all over the country and some chickens in those farms get sick, those diseases get put on trucks and sent to grocery stores thousands of miles away, and we get this. And it makes it harder to track an epidemic when people are getting sick simultaneously on opposite sides of the country. Replace the small number of huge farms with a huge number of small ones, and if you do get Salmonella in some eggs, the epidemic will be small, and the source will be easy to trace.
Of course, it’s easy to say that a few huge farms are easier to keep safe and healthy than a vast number of small farms scattered across the country, and that would be an excellent point. Which brings me to my second thought about the egg recall: as linked above, the FDA does not think it is necessary to start vaccinating chickens against Salmonella. I get that it’s dangerous to over-medicate livestock (antibiotics in my milk! gross!) but chickens depend on farmers to keep them healthy, and getting your shots is part of staying healthy these days. Sure, I think factory farms and cruelty to animals cause most food problems, but this really never would have happened to such an alarming degree if we didn’t depend on huge farms and watched out for our chickens’ health. So, People of the Internet, it’s your job, as it always has been, to seek out local farmers for your eggs, and FDA, it’s your job, as it always has been, to regulate a food system that takes care of its chickens. Go forth!
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Internet, check it out. Outlandish claims? Is there really a connection between school food and the overall climate of the school? I’m leaning toward believing this one. Maybe the results wouldn’t be so dramatic, but what we eat affects how we feel, and through that how we interact with each other in general. It really isn’t so weird to think that by eating better, a whole school worth of people could start acting more calm, even-tempered, and even more friendly towards each other. I always worry that food activists make organic food sound like a magical cure-all for health problems and social ills, but really, food is fundamental enough to effect every part of our lives.
Attention, budding and professional artists and illustrators! We need your help with the cover for the new What’s On Your Plate? book!
Here’s what we want you to do:
Internet, did you know that leafcutter ants are about the best farmers in the world? Or maybe termites are, or it could be ambrosia beetles, I’m not sure. Why am I telling you this? And why do I keep linking you to pictures of bugs? Because bugs are totally neat, and if you aren’t already fascinated by insect fungiculture, you need to get on that pronto. You see, Internet, while it’s very impressive to see the vast, sweeping plains of farm fields in the midwest, or terraced farms in China or Peru, humans aren’t aren’t the only game in town when it comes to farms, and, really, we have never been. The three types of bugs I mentioned above (there are many species of leafcutter ants, termites, and ambrosia beetles, not all of them fungiculturists) are examples of insects that completely blow human farming techniques out of the water. Check out this fine piece of internet journalism from the blog Civil Eats: an interview with the entomologist Mark Moffett. In it, Dr. Moffett talks about the leafcutter ants he saw on a recent trip to Ecuador. Most people who see leafcutter ants carrying bits of leaves back to their nests assume the ants just eat the plants. Not so. They use the leaves as mulch for fungus gardens, which they maintain underground within their nests. The fungus gardens are inside chambers, with each garden about the size of a human brain (so two fists together) and similarly round and squishy looking. Over the years, these ant colonies get huge, going 20 or 30 feet underground and housing thousands (!) of fungus gardens, which feed millions of ants. The fungi they grow are a special species, too, that has adapted so closely to being raised by the ants that it can’t survive in the wild, nor can the ants eat anything else. The ants carefully weed their gardens, and spread pesticides, special bacteria they grow in their bodies, to help keep the fungi heathy. Sounds a lot like humans, right? We cultivate plant and animal species for food, care for them, over time they become more and more adapted to domestication, until we rely on each other, as species, to survive. There’s one big difference with leafcutter ants: the ants go to incredible lengths to care for the environment they live in. Since they eat only one plant, and it cannot live without their care, this attention to the environment as a whole has been evolving in leafcutters for 50 million years and is the biggest reason they thrive today. They weed very carefully, and any fungus that becomes diseased is taken away to waste chambers buried deep underground, and the original garden chamber sealed off. This is why they farm their fungi in so many separate chambers: if a blight were to spread throughout the whole colony, the ants would all die. The backup plans and failsafes in these colonies are incredible, as is the ants’ attention to detail in their colonies. What humans could learn from leafcutters is this: the difference between living from drought to bumper crop is in how much care you put into keeping the environment healthy. These ants have lived in underground colonies long enough, and with a stable enough cultivated food supply to dig 30 feet down and half the size of tennis court (27′x39′ for doubles), with some waste chambers (those deep underground ones where diseased fungi go, as well as all the colony’s waste) big enough for a human to fit in. Think about it, Internet, just think about how long it would take ants to build that kind of thing, and how many ants must live in there to keep it all running. These colonies are enormously complex and efficient societies, all living on a monoculture food source, and they make it all work because huge amounts of that efficiency, the engines of ant progress, if you will, are focused on maintaining a healthy environment for the colony. They do nothing farmers don’t do, but there are no oil spills, no food poisoning debacles, no blights. Not because they don’t have the resources to let environmental disasters happen, on an ant-scale, but these things happen through neglect. And leafcutters don’t neglect their environment.
A prime example of both insect agriculture and humans causing their own food problems are bees. As you may already be aware, Internet, bees pollinate flowers, which is the only way those flowers can reproduce. Bees are the sole pollinators of many, many plants, including over 100 commercial crops just in the U.S. Bees are also dying like crazy. Scientists aren’t quite sure why, either, but most theories point to human causes, from pesticides to cell phone radiation to climate change. This ain’t a conspiracy theory, folks, bees are just dying and nobody knows why. It’s mostly bee colonies kept humans at this point, and organic bee farms are still doing alright, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t time to panic, because it is absolutely time to panic. Without bees, humans would be left with rice and cereal grains to eat, and that’s really it. Everything else is either pollinated by bees, or eats something that is. People of the internet, bees are heading for extinction, it’s probably our fault, nobody really knows why, and if they die, we’re gonna starve. I hate to be so melodramatic, but Colony Collapse Disorder (the vague term for whatever it is that is killing large numbers of bees) is terrifying.
So please, Internet, let’s be like the leafcutter ants. Let’s put as much work into caring for the environment around our farms as we do growing food on them, maybe even more work. It’s simply a matter of realizing that we need a new set of goals, and we need to get used to doing a little more work here and there. There is absolutely no way around it.
Internet, please direct your attention to the following piece of hogwash, a glimpse of an ad industry not yet accustomed to subtlety: For those of you who can’t read the tiny print, the block text underneath the baby reads:
HOW SOON IS TOO SOON? Not soon enough. Laboratory tests over the last few years have proven that babies who start drinking soda during that early formative period have a much higher chance of gaining acceptance and “fitting in” during those awkward pre-teen and teen years. So, do yourself a favor. Do your child a favor. Start them on a strict regimen of soda and other sugary carbonated beverages right now, for a lifetime of guaranteed happiness. – The Soda Pop Board of America
Frankly, Internet, holy crap! That first line in bold really speaks to what I think is the worst part of the advertising industry: ads are not designed to answer our questions about a product, or to provide us with information useful in deciding whether or not to buy a product, ads choose questions that assume desire and preclude choice. In an ad clearly directed toward concerned parents trying to look out for their children’s health, the question “Is soda healthy for my child?” does not exist. Instead, the question is “Am I giving my child enough soda?” the answer, of course, is no.
This ad has everything we’re all familiar with in ads, perhaps a little more obvious: happy customers, a directive from the company (at the top), a prompt for the consumer (we are supposed to ask “how soon is too soon?”), false statements in tricky language that can’t really be traced (“laboratory tests”), outrageous claims that are too vague to be technically wrong (“a lifetime of guaranteed happiness”), it should all sound pretty familiar. Compare with this Gatorade commercial, where the product is presented as an integral part of playing sports, and the company is portrayed as having invented some kind of miracle elixir (it’s just sugar water, right? Green sugar water. Wikipedia was pretty vague on what the heck “electrolytes” are, and I’m far from a biochemist, but they seem to be abundant in, you guessed it, fruits and vegetables). Shake your head and frown, if you dare, at the demise of New York’s sadly quixotic soda tax, which is getting its cavity-free teeth kicked in by as slick and vicious an ad campaign by a very, very wealthy industry.
I digress, Internet, I don’t need to tell you that advertising is insidious, despicable, and manipulative, that it’s always been that way, and that it got that way on purpose. Here’s my point: branding is a part of our lives, and it is a huge part of every choice we make. When I was little, I was (thank God) not allowed to drink soda at the dinner table. I would sit there with my glass of milk, and I remember thinking it was a bit unfair that my dad could choose to have a beer with dinner. This was not because I didn’t like the milk, or wanted to party hard at 8 years old, I am almost entirely certain that it was because of branding. I saw my dad pour the bottle with the label on it, that looked like a glass soda bottle, into a glass, and he could have it at dinner. I wanted to be a grown up and drink a grown up drink with a brightly colored logo. I’m being completely serious, I was a brand-conscious kid from day one, and I’m certain that every kid in this country is too. The end of my story is that my parents took the hard line and told me that soda was unhealthy and I couldn’t have it for dinner, and they kept telling me that until I was old enough to understand it for myself, and at 22 years old I would rather have milk for dinner because it’s delicious. Happy ending. But I’m telling you, Internet, that when kids want sugary food and soda, it has almost nothing to do with the way the stuff tastes. There’s sugar addiction, and that’s it’s own kind of bad news, but the real story here is branding. What would childhood be like in a logo-free house, I wonder? What if the fridge of my childhood was full of plain glass bottles, big reusable ones, so the logos could never get in the house. It’s not so far-fetched, simply buy the stuff at the store, pour it into the blank bottle, and throw the logos out (recycle them and get your 5 cents, of course) I’ve heard of some places that will fill big glass jugs with milk or juice or beer or whatever you keep in your fridge (there should be more of those places). When the logo is gone, you have to call a food what it is. Without the bright red label and the icy-cool pictures on the vending machine, Coca-Cola isn’t Coke, it’s fizzy brown sugar water, and that’s sort of gross. The world is full of branding, and you’ll never escape it, you’ll never protect your kids from it completely, but there is something to be said for parents who eat food and not brands, and for kids who learn that being a grown up means making food decisions based on the actual food, not the exciting label, not the happy looking people in the ads, not the snappy product name, just the food.
P.S. The kid in the ad looks a little creepy. Mouth hanging open, eyes fixed on a point in space somewhere above and past his mother, mind a complete sugar-crash blank. Mom smiles at Jr. with an air of anxious non-comprehension, as if he were telling a joke she does not understand. Weird.
Hey there, Internet! It is a lovely day just outside the WOYP windows and I can’t think of anything substantive to blog about, yet I feel the need to share. The sun is shining, the plants are growing, the CSA is up and running. The CSA is the best part of the summer, Internet. I just made some lunch from the WOYP fridge, which is packed with incredibly fresh, green vegetables, and oh-muh-gawsh it smells so nice in there. The CSA is cool for two very good reasons: it brings wonderful fresh food (which is what summer is all about – seriously, Internet, I dare you to think of a single great summer memory in which there was not delicious fresh food) from the farm to the city, and it’s given us some totally excellent, totally unexpected recipes. Sometimes we get foods we’ve never heard of in our CSA shares, but it turns out that someone always seems to know what to do with them. We got a recipe for purslane potato salad! Wild! That’s pretty much all I had to say, Internet, that and playing in the dirt is scientifically good for you, so act accordingly. I’m going out into the sun now.
The kids of East Harlem in New York have something to look forward to this summer.
The NYC Strategic Alliance for Health, the Harvest Home Farmer’s Market and Transportation Alternatives plan to open up a new playground in Harlem on the East Side. The goal is to give kids in that area access to fun physical activities and educational programs (arts, health, nutrition, for example) during the summer. The PlayStreet is going to be located on E. 104th St between 2nd and 3rd avenue. The NYC Strategic Alliance for Health is being sponsored by many great organizations, including Union Settlement, NYC YMCA, Communities IMPACT Diabetes, New York Road Runners, and Grow NYC! However, they still need all the help they can get.
They are inviting you to the upcoming meeting taking place Wednesday, June 16th at 10 am, where you can give programming suggestions, develop a schedule activity, and go over the details of PlayStreet. The meeting will be located at the Union Settlement Association on 237 East 104th Street. To confirm your attendance please email garroyo@health.nyc.gov. We hope to see you there.
Here at WOYP? we think that this is a great opportunity to help kids grow and have fun in a productive way. We can’t wait to see the results.
New York City schools are trying to change the way lunches are eaten.
Approximately 25 schools are taking an initiative. They vow that their kids will not only eat all organic goods but also grow the food in the soil. The program – Green Thumb – also offers workshops about nutrition for people of all ages. Sure, this might not be the first time schools have produced cafeteria lunches in their own backyards, but its never happened on such a large scale in such a big city.
Here at WOYP? we are participating with a new program focusing on child fitness and nutrition. The Highway to Health Festival and Youth Forum is a community dedicated to youth empowerment and making healthy choices. It will take place June 12, 2010 in P.S. 64 in The Bronx. The goal is to improve kids’ lifestyles and promote a healthy living among their peers. The event will showcase a youth led workshop, fitness activities, entertainment, cooking competitions, as well as fitness activities.
Everyone is invited, so we hope to see you there!
Please visit there website and register here.
I’m talking about chickens, Internet, keeping ‘em, caring for ‘em, making ‘em part of our lives. Regard, if you will, this sad tale from Jill Richardson of La Vida Locavore (a top-notch blog about folks living the locavore lifestyle all over this great land, with loads of great stories and information useful to any locavore). The condensed version of the story is that Jill woke up one morning to an email about two chickens free to a good home, and of course she thought “Yippee! What on earth could be better than two chickens of my very own!” (I’m paraphrasing). The chickens had been found in the street by someone who was not up to caring for them, but wanted to see them taken care of, and Jill was just the woman for the job. Unfortunately, the plot thickens: chickens are illegal in Jill’s town, and her boyfriend, who is running for city council, does not want his ambitions to serve his community dashed by a potential chicken scandal (though he would love to keep chickens once they are legal).
Internet, I’m sure you’re as confused here as I am: what the heck is so wrong with keeping chickens in your backyard? I mean, I can understand a regulating how many chickens you can keep, and I would actually support laws regulating how much space you need per chicken, but a chicken ban? Exiling chickens? What gives? Well, something must give because it turns out that chickens are pretty highly regulated in these United States. And that totally sucks! Keeping chickens in your backyard is pretty easy and very excellent. Plus, they eat weeds, bugs, and maggots in your yard. Could it get any better? It does. Chickens that eat weeds and bugs lay healthier eggs, eggs that you can give to your neighbors for a healthier, happier neighborhood (stronger communities are a real, wonderful benefit of local food in any form, but neighborhood eggs are just about the best thing ever). And really, why not keep chickens in your backyard? True, roosters can be aggressive (confession: I was attacked by a rooster at a young age and I still don’t trust them) but really, you run the same risk having kids or a dog.
There’s more, Internet. Witness this blog post from Slow Food USA (warning: the video on the post is very sad, and not really kid-friendly). The post is a dispatch from the Department of Justice/USDA hearings in Normal, AL about competition in the poultry industry. The gist of the hearings is that big poultry companies, which run huge monopolies, in which individual farmers are basically serfs, are accused of threatening and intimidating farmers, and finally sending them into financial ruin. Those familiar with stories of depression-era tenant farmers and sharecroppers will find a similar story: chicken farmers are given non-negotiable contracts by companies that are the only game in town (contracts which are often replaced a few years on by new ones with worse terms) and end up forced to spend huge sums of money on farm “improvements” (some of which are real improvements, some are debatable). To spend that kind of money, many have to take out loans, put their houses up as collateral, and few ever make the money back. This cycle of ever-increasing input costs and diminishing returns could actually be disrupted, at least a little bit, with a few backyard chickens. The reason that chicken farmers are forced to work for these companies is that we are used to getting our food from huge, global production structures. There simply aren’t ways for farmers to sell chickens close to home without huge companies as middlemen (or, at least, there aren’t enough ways). But what if the model for chicken farming was a little more “backyard”? Farmers closer to their customers, raising fewer chickens, spending less on raising them, cutting out the terrifying corporate middle-man. It’s not so far-fetched, Internet. Hopefully, Jill’s husband isn’t the only city council candidate who wants to raise chickens, because we could use more of them in our backyards.
That’s all it takes, a simple chicken coop. It doesn’t even have to be painted to look like a barn either, though that’s pretty cute. And the whole thing looks like it’s 8-feet long, max. Doesn’t even need a big yard.
This picture isn’t real. It is totally possible for humans and chickens to live together in harmony in urban areas.
