The organic and local food movement is sometimes criticized for catering to the elite, an argument summarized well in the title of Mark Winne's recent article (an excerpt from his book, Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty): "The Poor Get Diabetes, the Rich Get Local and Organic."

It's a no-brainer that fresh local food must become accessible to everyone, especially those in need. One important market to focus these efforts on is getting more attention lately: the thousands of food banks across the U.S.

At food banks, people in need can pick up three-days worth of food (typically) for the month to help them through tight times. In 2005, USDA estimated that more than 35 million Americans were "food insecure."

While it's widely known that food banks get food donations from grocery stores in their area, it's less known that some of these leftovers come from farmers' markets – usually providing the fresh local food we're talking about here. Still, food banks never have enough fresh produce, yet it's these vegetables and fruits that provide food bank goers "a sense of dignity," offering a choice between fresh and canned green beans, for example.

But some farms are going a step further by growing produce for food banks, not just donating food that can't be sold, but making this market a part of their production plan.

Kraft has developed yet another bizarre strain of stuffed food – the “Bagelful.” As you’ve already guessed, it’s a bagel tube stuffed with cream cheese. Testers complained there was too little cream cheese, but said the convenience was hard to match.

Two states on the opposite sides of the country – Maine and California – are charging forward with legislation that protect farmers whose crops are contaminated by genetically engineered crops.

Both the Maine bill (LD 1650) and California bill (AB 541) would shield farmers from liability in cases where they unknowingly acquired patented seed material. Maine's bill passed the legislature and is expected to be signed by the Governor, while California's bill is still undergoing discussion.

Maine's LD 1650 follows Montville, Maine's decision to pass a town moratorium on planting transgenic crops, as Envirovore reported two weeks ago.

In addition to protecting farmers from liability, these two bills establish the following:

Over 800,000 California residents signed a petition to require that livestock raised in their state have the ability to stand and turn around in their cages. The Prevention of Farm Cruelty Act is now set to be voted on in November.

The measure would mandate “stretching room” for all chickens, pigs and cattle. Can’t really imagine how they determine how much that is, but the idea of animals having “stretching room” certainly seems better than the common practice of stuffing as many animals as can possibly fit into a cage.

If the Prevention of Farm Cruelty Act is approved, we hope that the costs of increasingly ethical animal husbandry aren’t dumped on the producers. Ideally, costs associated with the increased space for animals would be transferred to the consumer, and then directed back to the producers improving their practices.

But usually there’s this middle man, a meat giant (you know who they are), who determines prices all too often for their producers, forcing producers to cut corners to give what they promised, at the price the meat giant will buy. It’s possible the meat giants will just gobble up all the profits from having this new, value-added, “ethical” product. Of course consumers can always choose to skip the middle man and support smaller-scale local meat producers.

In lieu of a state mandate, some states have in place voluntary, nonprofit certifying agencies for “humanely raised meat.” Either way, we’re glad that folks are questioning and pushing the industrial model of agriculture, even if right now it’s only about the few inches a chicken needs to spread its wings.

Via Sacramento Business Journal

Photo of happy, organically raised pigs from Tastes Like Chicken Farm

Transgenic crops are already woven through the North American landscape, this we know. And the persistence of these crops in the environment, even after the harvest is gathered and shipped, is more evident with each passing season.

Let's take the case of canola (known as rapeseed outside North America), a crop with a long seed dormancy that makes "volunteer" plants a well-known reality. (Volunteer plants are those that sprout from seeds not intentionally sown, such as seeds that fall from previous crops only to germinate years later.)

A new study out of Sweden confirms this reality, proof that transgenic canola can volunteer in fields many years after it's sown – at least 10 years, in fact. Researchers took samples from a field where transgenic canola was planted in test plots 10 years prior and discovered that about 40 percent of their samples tested positive for a transgenic trait that confers herbicide tolerance.

Activist groups have accused agricultural corporation giants Cargill and Arthur Daniels Midland (ADM) of “aggressively” lobbying against an anti-child labor provision in the Farm Bill.

Cargill and ADM aren't commenting but it looks as if the companies are trying to drop section 31104 called “Voluntary Certification of Child Labor Status of Agricultural Imports,” which would provide a method for certifying that products are free of child and forced labor. I wish I could be surprised, but the fact is, ADM and Cargill don't have the best track record in this area.

Both companies like to promote their so-called sustainability practices including their support of cocoa farming communities that have “legally and socially acceptable practices” (from the ADM web site). But trying to drop a child and slavery section doesn't give them much credit.

The Department of Labor is currently compiling a list of imported goods thought to be produced by forced labor or child labor (both of which have another name: slavery) and these conditions violate international standards. Seventy percent of the world’s child labor is in agriculture.

Source: Food USA, Common Dreams News Center

Turning corn to fuel is costly and requires chemical processing. And even then, only the kernels of corn have been used to make ethanol, leaving the stalks to waste. Enter, the cow.

A cow has microbes in it's stomach that can break down corn into simple sugars, which is exactly what's needed to make ethanol. Researchers at Michigan State University have figured out a way to insert cow stomach microbe genes into the corn cells.

The new corn, with the highly sci-fi name, Spartan Corn III, can also break down stalks, providing more cellulose for more fuel. The enzyme has to be inserted into the corn vacuole (otherwise the corn would end up digesting itself in the field) where it sits until harvest, at which time it can be processed.

Two problems:

• Fiddling around with genetics doesn't really alleviate the issues with large scale monocropping, nor change the fact that swaths of good, CO2-sequestering land are being destroyed for biofuel crops.
• DNA assembly of the microbe requires heavy modification in a lab – apart from being a creepy process, is it worth it?

Source: Science Daily

First we told you that Splenda may not be great for the environment. Now, there's evidence that aspartame (trademark names Equal, Nutrasweet, and Canderel) may not be great for your brain.

Aspartame is used as an artificial sweetener in about 6,000 foods and beverages around the world, especially low-calorie foods, like diet soda, chewing gum, and chewable vitamins.

Controversy has surrounded the artificial sweetener ever since the US and EU approved it for use in food in the 1980s. A new study is sure to reignite debate about the safety of this artifical sweetener. Scientists recently published a study in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition that indicates "high consumption of the sweetener may lead to neurodegeneration." That is, the substance may inhibit the ability of enzymes in the brain to function normally, leading to neurological and behavioral problems.

Other studies have linked aspartame to headaches, insomnia, seizures, and even cancer in rats.

If we followed the advice of Michael Pollan, aspartame would be left on grocery shelves, because one of his pieces of advice is to avoid food products containing ingredients that are "unfamiliar and unpronounceable." Given aspartame's chemical structure: phenylalanine, asparatic acid, and methanol, I'd say this fits his description pretty well.

Source: Food Quality News