System Failure


By all accounts, the FDA is a miserable failure for food safety.

Many of us remember the national food safety nightmare – a listeria outbreak in cantaloupes from around Rocky Ford, CO – in the summer of 2011. All in all, there were 147 illnesses and 33 deaths, making this incident the most deadly outbreak of food-borne illness in our country since 1924. The farms owners declared bankruptcy later that fall. All of this occurred because of jerry-rigged potato cleaning equipment had been adapted to wash melons in conditions that heavily favored bacterial growth. There were no anti-microbial solutions – such as chlorine – used to kill the bacteria, only water.

As bad as this sounds, it is only the tip of the iceberg. The real tragedy, or crime, depending on how you view it is that not once in its 20-year history had the farm been inspected by the the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), tasked with the oversight of the safety of our food supply. A third-party inspection company was used by the farm, and accepted by the FDA as certifying the safety of the equipment and processes used in its handling systems. In fact, the company had one of its auditors at the farm at the time the first people were being sickened, and gave the processing facility a “superior” rating of 96 percent after a four hour visit.

This, sadly, is not an isolated major food safety incident. There are about 48 million cases of food poisoning each year, according to the Center for Disease Control. These result in more than 3,000 deaths. Affected foods include fresh vegetables and fruits, eggs, meat and cheeses – just about everything we eat! The rate of outbreaks and food recalls has been steadily rising since 2007. In a nutshell, our national food safety record sucks.

Why have these outbreaks increased in numbers and severity? What can be done about it? Let’s address the first question, then we will look at the second one. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found that the FDA is riddled with shortcomings, both in the administration and regulation areas. The process it uses for product recalls is ineffective and confusing, it has waffled with the blatent overuse of antibiotics in animal feeding operations, and lacks the manpower to perform the scientific studies required to do its basic job of food and drug safety. When enforcement is attempted it only occurs about half the time and is half-hearted, with fines rarely imposed. It also accepts third-party inspections, which often have serious conflict-of-interest issues alongside questions of the quality of inspections, as shown by the cantaloupe fiasco. Another example is the Iowa based salmonella based recall of over 550 million eggs that led to the first (and only) inspection performed by the FDA, followed by a warning letter threatening “regulatory action”. A month later the company was allowed to resume selling eggs, with no corrective action being confirmed or other inspections performed. Yet another example was the salmonella outbreak in peanut butter in 2007. A plant was missed after an “intensive round of inspections” that was the cause of a second, more deadly salmonella outbreak. When that plant was finally inspected, it was found to have mold on the walls and slime covering the processing equipment.

One of the main reasons for the increased number of outbreaks is the amount of control the food industry has over the FDA. When an industry has enough political power, it uses that power to determine what the FDA will do in response to an issue. Unfortunately, that response is all too often to “do nothing” unless there are enough deaths to attract enough public attention to the issue. In addition to political pull, there is a “revolving door” policy where top industry people go to work at the FDA, sometimes while still drawing a paycheck from their “former” employers. Conflict of interest, anyone? One of the prime examples of this is Michael Taylor, a Monsanto attorney who prepared research on the constitutionality of states determining labeling laws for Monsanto’s bovine growth hormone rBGH. Then, once he had become the FDA’s deputy commissioner for policy, he wrote the guidelines for rBGH labeling policy for the FDA. Not surprisingly, they were in agreement with the research memo he worked on while at Monsanto. This is not an isolated case, either. There are many former and current employees of Federal regulatory agencies who are or were industry executives and vice versa.

Now to address the question of what can be done? Surprisingly, there are several possible movements afoot that might have a positive impact on the state of food safety. The Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011, a very controversial plan that was opposed by many smaller producers and supported by larger ones, may have some keys to this puzzle. It has been delayed with budget issues and has not gone into effect, but grants the FDA the power to prevent repeat offender from continuing to sell their product by revoking their registration. Another proposal by a Connecticut congresswoman would sever the ties of the food industry to inspection agencies. Third-party inspections can be effective if the inspector is not bing paid directly by the company they are inspecting. Some inspection companies have board members who are executives in client companies they monitor. Again, what conflict of interest?

These are all well and good, but can the average person trust them to be effective? Will they measurably improve the quality of the safety of our food? That remains to be seen. In the meantime you can do what has been proven to be extremely effective so many times before. If you are concerned with the safety of your food, do something about it. Take a personal interest and responsibility for what you eat. This means doing some reading and research, asking questions and listening to the answers. You will establish your own “approved list” of food suppliers that you trust and those to stay away from. This will take some work, but probably much less than you think and for a shorter time period than you would initially expect. Once you establish a safe list, you won’t have to research each and every food item you buy, just the new ones that you aren’t familiar with.

Not surprisingly, you will quickly find that the majority of food producers you come to trust are the ones you can get to know. They will be local or regional, with small to medium sized operations. They will answer your questions and your phone calls, not minding that you need some answers. They will offer farm or facility tours, which you should accept. There are already several organizations that help with finding just these sort of companies. We’ve written about several of these, one is FarmPlate, another is Horsepower and yet another is Local Harvest. All of these are online tools to help you do what I just described, find quality and trustworthy sources of good, clean and fair food.

By taking responsibility for your food, you ensure that what you eat is to your standards. You also take that decision process out of the hands and control of a corporation and put it firmly in your grasp. You might be surprised at how the quality and safety of your food improves with much less cost than you expected.

The FDA Is Out to Lunch

The Amazing Revolving Door – Monsanto, FDA & EPA

Heirloom Seeds From Our Grower


The holidays come early when you work with heirloom seeds, as shipments from growers start arriving in early November and continue as the seeds are harvested, cleaned, dried and shipped to us for packing.

Some of our seeds arrive in cloth bags with hand-written variety descriptions on them, others arrive in large paper bags tied shut and yet all of them clearly show the care and love put into their growing and production. We wanted to give you a short tour of what it is like when seed arrives!

This particular shipment is always accompanied with high anticipation, as it comes to us from one of our growers who is incredibly talented and experienced. Their advice has been invaluable, whether it is in recommending new varieties to offer or catalog suggestions.

A plant growing in the dirt on a sunny day.

Bags of Heirloom Seeds

Each variety is in its own cloth bag with the variety name handwritten on it. They are wrapped in plastic to protect them from possible moisture in shipping. This particular box was a bit smaller this year, as we brought home almost this same amount when we visited our grower this past September.

A plant growing in the dirt on a sunny day.

Heirloom Seed Treasure

When we received the very first shipment of seeds, we were talking about how they resembled bags of treasure. Cindy remarked that this is very much just that- treasure from the past that has been kept alive by people before us that valued these seeds enough to save and preserve them for the future.

That future is now, and we are the recipients of that treasure of knowledge and hard work. This Katanya watermelon is from a woman named Katanya who brought its seeds with her when she immigrated from Russia. It is humbling and thrilling at the same time to hold more than a hundred years of history in a bag in your hands, along with who knows how much future!

A plant growing in the dirt on a sunny day.

Papalo Seed!

Some of the seed is just fun to handle and play with. Papalo is one such variety; an ancient Mexican herb that was largely replaced by Cilantro, a Chinese herb. It is extremely light and feathery, resembling a dandelion seed with its “parachute”. Papalo requires special handling and packaging, as if the seed is broken off of its parachute, the germination suffers drastically. The bag Cindy is holding weighs a couple of pounds at the most.

A plant growing in the dirt on a sunny day.

Handful of Papalo

This handful of Papalo has about a hundred seeds, which have to be packed and shipped in small boxes to prevent them being broken in transit. When we do bulk sales on this it is by the number of plants needed, not by weight!

A plant growing in the dirt on a sunny day.

Bag of Heirloom Corn

This package was a new treat for us. It is Oaxan Green Dent corn from one of our newest growers. Oaxan Green Dent makes green corn tamales for the Zapotecs of southern Mexico and a very tasty green masa. They produce everything by hand, even the shucking of the cobs and shelling of the corn kernals.

A plant growing in the dirt on a sunny day.

First Peek of Oaxan Green Dent Corn

Here is what we saw on our first peek into the bag! Very colorful and striking. Very unlike what we are used to seeing as bulk corn.

A plant growing in the dirt on a sunny day.

Oaxan Green Dent Corn

A closer look at its colors. Heirloom corn glamor shot!

A plant growing in the dirt on a sunny day.

Hand Packing Melrose Pepper Seed

Of course, all of this new seed arriving means there is work to do. Everything we sell is hand packed, every single packet! As each new shipment of seed arrives we re-verify the number of seeds to a packet, then count that number and find a measurement that corresponds to it. We always try to give a bit more seed than advertised, as each packet is packed by measurement, not individually counted. A new shipment of Melrose Pepper is ready to be packed here.

Thanks for joining us, we hope you enjoyed a brief look at what happens when we receive new shipments of heirloom seed!

The Seed Underground


“The Seed Underground – A Revolution to Save Food” by Janisse Ray is an amazing book that belongs in everyone’s library and needs to be read at least once a year, whether you are a gardener, seed saver, foodie or not. I am not usually one to make such statements, as I realize that everyone’s literary preferences are diverse. This book is an exception, and does deserve this attention.

The Seed Underground was introduced to us by one of our book suppliers – Chelsea Green who is the publisher for Janisse. We were familiar with her writing from reading Orion magazine over a number of years, but had not heard of her newest book. On our rep’s recommendation, we ordered a copy with our regular gardening book order.

I fell in love with this book within the first couple of pages of the introduction. Her writing and words moved me so much that I wrote an article based on a short couple of paragraphs that she wrote in the introduction. She has a way of writing that brings out deeply held feelings and unspoken beliefs that have circulated deep underground, not really ever having been named or recognized in a physical way, only glimpsed as they moved past my mind’s eye, shadows behind other thoughts.

Reading this book, I immediately felt as though I knew the writer or that she knew me; the words spoke directly to me, seemingly written for my mind and way of thinking. What she said and the concepts she talked about just made sense on a gut-instinct level. She knows and writes about several of the same people I know, admire and have a tremendous respect for. One of them I am fortunate enough to call my mentor – John F. Swenson. Another we met on our travels to Slow Food Terra Madre – Holli Cederholm of Proud Peasant Farm. I hadn’t read quite that far in the book at that point, but read about her just after we returned. Others that she writes about I want to get to know and build relationships with.

This is a book about hope, love, patience, endurance, excitement, revolution and a newly rediscovered, sustainable way of living that is all embodied and contained in seed. Not just any seed, either. Those seeds of home gardeners, seed savers, small heirloom seed companies that work and strive to preserve heirlooms, those diverse multitude of seeds that have fed our ancestors for long years and have become cherished in so many ways; their stories, adaptability, flavors, productivity and history of keeping us alive for so long.

What is amazing is that Janisse wraps a story about such a sprawling subject as heirloom seeds, seed saving and the importance of both. She not only makes sense of it all, but makes it entertaining and educational at the same time; a testament to her writing and researching skills. The story comes to the reader in an intriguing way, not shying away from difficulties but not overplaying the importance to each of us in our daily life. A thoroughly enjoyable, enlightening and educational book that deserves more than just one read.


The Slow Food Terra Madre and Salone del Gusto events are world-famous for their sights, tastes and smells of top-shelf quality foods made in a traditional way. It is exciting to see, taste and contrast flavors from different regions of Italy and across the world with just a few steps and a couple of minutes of your time. Much of this is serious business as artisanal food producers showcase their hard work and experience in creating classical foods.

Not everything and everyone is all about work with no play, however. There is much to see and hear that is fun, unusual and surprising to see amongst the booths that is light hearted and enjoys a laugh with friends, new and old. There were an abundance of children soaking up the sights, aromas and flavors of the Salone with their parents or in groups doing tastings, cooking or creating spice mixes.

Our presentation showcases some of the fun sights we came across during our visit to Slow Food Terra Madre and Salone del Gusto. Enjoy!

 


We are pleased to present our experiences of the opening ceremony of the 2012 Slow Food Terra Madre conference in Turin, Italy. It was held the evening of October 24 at the Palasport Olimpico, also known as the Palaisozaki, after the Japanese architect’s name – Arata Isozaki. This is in the Santa Rita district of Turin, just east of the Olympic stadium. It was built for the 2006 Olympics and hosted the ice hockey events. With seating for over 12,000, it is an impressive venue!

We arrived early after registering at the main Slow Food event center and waited for the gates to open. We quickly learned to make use of these periods of waiting and not be impatient that things didn’t run on an American schedule. Introducing ourselves, we quickly made some new friends and were once again impressed with the dedication, creativity and just plain genius with which so many people were applying themselves in their search of how to answer Slow Food’s directive of “Good, clean and fair” food for all. This opening ceremony was for and about the international delegates but was open to the public.
Once the gates opened, we checked our luggage into the baggage claim area and made a line for the latest in a long line of cappuccinos (cappuccini in Italian!), as we had been awake for the better part of 30 hours at this point. We had arrived in Milan at 7:30am that day after a combined flight of almost 13 hours, and wouldn’t check into our hotel until after the opening ceremony. A long but exhilarating day!

People were encouraged to dress in their native clothing, and it was a grand sight to see, with the entrance being made coming down the long stairs into the delegates seating area. The surrounding stands were soon filled almost to capacity with the public, who was very enthusiastic. The energy and excitement was contagious and had the whole arena buzzing.

After the opening welcome speech by the Mayor of Turin, the parade of flags commenced. A delegate from each nation present presented their native flag and was seated in honor above the podium. 95 countries were present this year! Afterwards there were many presentations and speeches about the different directions Slow Food has moved, as well as live poetry acted out by Nobel literature prizewinner and playwright Dario Fo, live music by Italian trumpeter, singer, composer and arranger Roy Paci. Both Vandana Shiva and Alice Waters presented their thoughts to thunderous acclaim. The United Nation’s FAO Director-General José Graziano Da Silva gave praise and strength to the Slow Food movement, acknowledging the impact it has had worldwide and noting that governments and advocates for sustainable food are turning to Slow Food for help in writing proposals and drafting legislation.

This was a fine promise of things to come, that was more than fulfilled in the next 4 days!

Money Rules


For more than half of 2010 members of the Department of Justice and Department of Agriculture held investigative hearings around the country on the impacts that Big Ag – industrialized, commercial agriculture – had on the producers that supplied them or used their products. For many of the farmers working under contract to national companies, this was potentially great news. This was a unique opportunity to talk directly with some of the highest-ranking officials in agriculture and justice to tell their story and get some help. The message from Washington seemed to be pretty clear – they were interested to hear how the independent farmers of America were being used and pushed around by Big Ag, and they were not going to allow these practices to continue.

During their tour of more than seven months of 2010, the officials heard from many farmers, ranchers and other producers around the country. They learned of the power and technology concentrations in the seed, pork, cattle, dairy and poultry industries. They looked at the discrepancy between the price consumers pay for food and the price farmers receive for producing it.

Very similar stories were told over and over again from many separate parts of the country of abusive practices across the board in all of the different industries. No matter the industry or what part of the country the meetings were held in, it seemed that the story rarely changed. Contracts, terms and conditions that would make rural Southern sharecropping look pretty reasonable by comparison were the norm. Preferential treatment, grudge punishment for questioning the system and constantly rising costs and tightening requirements are all part and parcel of doing business with Big Ag these days. That doesn’t even begin to take into account the threats of lawsuits or financial punishment that accompanies much of these systems of contracts. In the seed industry, for example, it is common for farmers to have to sign a binding agreement in order to purchase corn, cotton or soy to plant in their fields. They must agree to use only the specified fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides and seeds. They cannot save any of their seeds. Pamphlets are routinely mailed to all of the farmers in a region offering “gifts” as rewards for reporting their neighbors for “breaking contract”. Neighbors are suspicious of each other, even those who have farmed next to each other for several generations.

So, what resulted from all of that travel, all those meetings, all that planning that we, the taxpayers, paid for? Going on two years down the road – not much. The USDA developed legislation that revised and updated the regulation of livestock industries that would prevent the destructive practices that are now common. The Department of Justice initiated an anti-trust investigation into Monsanto and DuPont about their “possible anti-competitive practices in the seed industry.” Monsanto was targeted for its business practices surrounding its Roundup Ready soybean. Information on the DuPont investigation was not released.

The USDA legislation was met with heavy criticism and attack from the House of Representatives, the House Agriculture Committee, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and the National Chicken Council, all of which was to be expected as they are funded by special interest groups of the very industries that would be affected by the revised laws. The final straw to the whole process was a rider in the June 2011 House Appropriations Committee funding bill that was was designed to strip the USDA of the funds it needed to finalize and implement the strongest of the proposed rules. By late 2011 the Dept. of Justice, Dept. of Agriculture, the USDA and the administration was in full retreat from the corporate livestock, seed, dairy and poultry lobbies.

The rider passed in November 2011, effectively killing the revisions. Very recently, the Dept. of Justice closed the antitrust investigation into the U.S. seed industry, absolving Monsanto and DuPont of any wrong-doing. The damage done to the very people that the hearings were trying to protect – the producers – is unknown at this point. From the Washington Monthly –

“By documenting the big processing companies’ exploitation of independent farmers, then failing to stop that exploitation and retreating in almost complete silence before entirely predictable resistance from the industry, the administration, for all intents, ended up implicitly condoning these injustices. The message to the processing companies is, after all, absolutely clear: you are free to continue to act as you will.”

Where do we go from here? Several things have been shown to us from these events and actions. One: industry controls government in this country, regardless of what anyone says to the contrary. Sure, there may be examples; they only serve to point out the minute exceptions, not the mainstream. Two: getting away from industry and corporate control of food is in all of our best interests. How do we do that? By continuing to support and actively participate in local, sustainable methods of growing and producing our food. Buy from the farmer’s market, join a CSA from a local grower, get to know who grows your food and how it is produced. Yes, this takes work. The alternative is the recent headline – “To Find Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria, Look to Commercial Pork.” Is that the food system we want and support?

U.S. Closes Antitrust Investigation Into Seed Industry, Monsanto