La Vida Locavore - Recommended Diaries

Are your Skittles destroying the rainforest? Part 1

rossl — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 23:37:31 GMT

Today, I've decided to start a series on palm oil and palm ingredients - and alternatives to them. I'm in the process of building a website on the same subject ( http://www.nomorepalm.com ), but that will take a bit of time, and time is not something worth wasting in this context.

A specific type of vegetable oil may not sound like a particularly interesting subject, but palm oil is no ordinary vegetable oil. It is one of the more destructive forces on our planet today. Or maybe I should say that the machine of people and corporations in place to grow and distribute palm oil is one of the more destructive forces on our planet. Either way, consuming this ingredient - which is in an unbelievable amount of foods and cosmetics and other things - is something which makes one responsible for encouraging this.

If you want some outside info, here's a good place to start: http://www.cspinet.org/palmoil...
Let's start with a basic statement, and add more to it as we go:

The rainforest is being cleared at an alarming rate to make room for palm plantations.

The rainforest is being cleared at an alarming rate, particularly in Southeast Asia, to make room for palm plantations.

The rainforest is being cleared at an alarming rate, particularly in Southeast Asia, to make room for palm plantations. Many species - both discovered and undiscovered - are being driven to extinction because of habitat loss. The most notable is the orangutan, which could become extinct within the decade because of deforestation in Malaysia, Borneo, and Indonesia.

Now you've got the gist of it. Palm oil plantations - while providing a considerable amount of jobs and a product that is used in many places - are hurting our climate (through the burning of forest and the destruction of a carbon sink), the local environment, and even small landowners. Take a look at this recent AFP story:

Global trends including high prices for oil and commodities, the biofuels boom, and now the sweeping downturn, are spurring import-reliant countries to take action to protect their sources of food.
China and South Korea, which are both short on arable land, and Middle Eastern nations flush with petrodollars, are driving the trend to sign up rights to swathes of territory in Asia and Africa.
"Today's food and financial crises have, in tandem, triggered a new global land grab," the Spain-based agricultural rights group Grain said in a recent report.
It said that some deals were targeted at boosting food security by producing crops that would be sent back home for consumption, while others were to establish money-making plantations like palm oil and rubber.
"As a result of both trends, fertile agricultural land is being swiftly privatised and consolidated by foreign companies in some ofthe world's poorest and hungriest countries," it said.
In one of the biggest deals, South Korea's Daewoo Logistics said in November it would invest about 6.0 billion dollars to develop 3.2 million acres (1.3 million hectares) in Madagascar -- almost half the size of Belgium...
But opposition lawmaker Son Chhay said he was suspicious about why a wealthy nation like Kuwait needed to lease land to grow rice rather then just import the grain.
"Cambodian farmers need the land," he said, urging the government to limit the area under lease and ensure Cambodia was not plundered by foreign nations...
"It's particularly explosive in those countries where you have a high degree of landlessness, like the Philippines where seven out of 10 rural people do not have access to land," he said.
In the impoverished and corrupt dictatorship of Laos, some experts estimate that between two million and three million hectares have been parcelled off in a rampant and uncontrolled process that has now been suspended by the government.
The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation has sounded alarm over the loss of land in a country where in rural areas, every second child is malnourished and access to land for foraging of natural resources is critical.

As I mentioned earlier, orangutans are also suffering. A Center for Science in the Public Interest report from 2006 stated:

Malaysia and Indonesia account for 83 percent of palm oil production, according to Cruel Oil-a 2005 CSPI report on the health and environmental consequences of palm oil. Since the 1970s, the area planted with oil palm in Indonesia has grown more than 30-fold to almost 12,000 square miles. In Malaysia, the area devoted to oil palm has increased 12-fold to 13,500 square miles.
As rainforest is cleared for oil palm plantations, orangutans and other species have less room to roam and reproduce and become easier targets for poachers. Borneo's orangutan population was reduced by a third in just one year, 1997, when almost 8,000 were either burned to death or massacred as they tried to flee fires set to clear rainforest for new plantations.

The Seattle Times also reported,

The orangutans' biggest enemy, United Nations experts said, is no longer poachers or illegal loggers. It's the palm-oil industry...
The park is on the southern tip of the island of Borneo, which is shared by Indonesia and Malaysia, the last two of the world's top producers of palm oil. Exporters market the product as an environmentally friendly alternative to crude oil and a replacement for oils containing trans fats.
"They change the forest and say it's for energy sustainability, but they're killing other creatures," said Ichlas al-Zaqie, local project manager for Los Angeles-based Orangutan Foundation International...
98 percent of Indonesia's forest might be lost by 2022, according to the United Nations Environment Program.
"If the immediate crisis in securing the future survival of the orangutan and the protection of national parks is not resolved, very few wild orangutans will be left within two decades," the U.N. environment program concluded in a 2007 report...
In July, loggers finished buzz-sawing and bulldozing a 40,000-acre swath in a northeastern corner of the park, where at least 561 orangutans lived, to clear ground for oil-palm plants, al-Zaqie said.

Now that you have an introduction to the problem that palm oil causes, I'll give you a bit of basic information on how to avoid it (I'll give you a more complete idea in the future, particularly when NoMorePalm.com is completely functional). First of all, look at the ingredients of every bit of processed food and cosmetic you buy. If there is anything with the word "palm" in it - whether it's palm oil, palm kernel oil, palmitic acid, or something else - you should put the product back on the shelf and look for an alternative.

Biofuel is also a major market for palm oil. If you use biofuel, please make sure it is not palm oil.

If you wish to take further action, visit the "Participate" page of NoMorePalm.com. It is the most complete section of the website. It has a list of ingredients that palm appears as, a way for you to contact companies that use palm, and more.

The thing that you can do right now that will have the most impact is to stop buying products with palm ingredients in them. This will reduce the demand for them and send a message to companies that use them. There are so many products with palm in them that you have to be ever vigilant at the supermarket, drugstore, convenience store, etc. Below I've listed just a few off the top of my head:

Skittles
Good Humor chipwiches
Wasa crackers
Trader Joe's chocolate chip cookies
Newman's Own Oreos
Clearasil face wash
Kit Kats
Tastykake Butterscotch Krimpets
A comment from Daily Kos user jayden: "Kellog's Eggo Nutri-grain whole wheat waffles have both palm oil and palm kernel listed in the ingredients."
A comment from Daily Kos user BattleAngel: "Noooo! Not my beloved Cheez-Its. They also contain palm oil as well as almost everything made by Little Debbie."

If you want to learn more before my next diary, check out the "Learn" page of my website. There are a few articles listed there that are pretty informative.

Also, to anyone with some experience with Wordpress: I currently have my website on Globat, but I think I am going to switch it to Wordpress. However, I'm basically computer illiterate. I need help editing a Wordpress site to my needs. Email me at RossMLevin@gmail.com if you're interested in helping (if you know what you're doing, it should be easy, quick stuff).

Thanks everyone for your time and help with this urgent, under-reported issue.

A Tale of Greed, Water, Blood & Oil

Asinus Asinum Fricat — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:43:07 GMT

Knowing of my interest in food and water, a dear Australian friend of mine sent me a copy of the BBC's excellent investigative team, Panorama, which was aired Down Under recently. The documentary showed how many Fijians are falling ill and dying from typhoid and other diseases caused by a lack of safe, clean water. The irony of course is that these South Pacific islands have a flourishing bottled water industry, worth over $200 million per year and employing around 700 people. Having visited Fiji twice I can vouch for the purity of its water. Bottles of Fiji natural mineral water are a common sight in restaurants and on supermarket shelves across the US and Europe, some are cleverly called Fiji Water, and it travels up to 10,000 miles to get to your table, depending where you are. Click on the preceding link and you will see how they use Obama's name to push sales. Follow me for the sick story.
First let me state two simple facts: we drink well over $50 billion of bottled water annually worldwide, and the UN says access to clean water is a human right but over a billion people round the world don't have access to safe drinking water.

In Fiji, day in day out, over a million liters of fresh water are pumped from an aquifer beneath a rain forest on Vitu Levu, the largest island. Last year, in early July the Fijian government announced a tax on bottled water designed to conserve the island's depleting natural resources, but it was forced to abort the project following pressure from the powerful water bottling lobby group.

The bottling companies subsequently halted operations and closed down factories, saying they could no longer operate effectively operate their businesses with the new tax (Halliburton tactics?)

"We cannot produce as we will be taxed. The industry is at a standstill. We will cease production until we can resolve this extraordinary attack against the bottled water industry. The Ministry of Finance is again taking exceptionally poor advice to levy onerous excise and export duties on bottled water in a misguided effort to reduce the country's budget shortfall and to supposedly protect water resources in Fiji. The proposed action will weaken the Fiji bottled water industry's ability to compete in markets around the world".

The interim government's finance minister Mahendra Chaudhry said the tax was not new and had been imposed in other countries to generate revenue in a similar fashion.

"The bottled water companies do not have to observe this [tax], they can pass it to the consumers,"

he said. Bottle Water Industry spokesman Jay Dayal said,

"We are very pleased that at least the prime minister and attorney general intervened in the matter and resolved the whole issue. And now the bottlers will get together with the government and work out a form of compensation that is suitable to the government for the resource that we are extracting."

And the story goes on. While we sip their water, a third of Fijians have no clean water and there are outbreaks of typhoid and dengue fever. I wish you could see this documentary, it is disheartening.

To be sure, Fiji Water gets the Remote Award (you can see on the right side of the map how far Fiji is from the nearest continent (Australia) or industrialized civilization.

The Fiji Water company claims that that distance is part of what makes their water so much more pure and healthy than other bottled waters, and that their rainfall is purified by equatorial winds after traveling thousands of miles across the Pacific Ocean. Europe and the U.S., by implication, are buffeted by winds that carry acid rain and pollutants. Well, there's no acid rain in the European aquifer water supply yet.

Far from pollution. Far from acid rain. Far from industrial waste. There's no question about it: Fiji is far away. But when it comes to drinking water, "remote" happens to be very, very good.
Look at it this way. FIJI Water is drawn from an artesian aquifer, located at the very edge of a primitive rainforest, hundreds of miles away from the nearest continent.
That very distance is part of what makes us so much more pure and so much healthier than other bottled waters.

Quite a few plastic bottles end up on beaches and in bird stomachs.

And some here, in plastic "soups".

Bottled water takes a lot of energy: producing and delivering a liter of bottled water emits hundreds of times as much greenhouse gas as a liter of tap water. Then you've got the plastic, only one quarter of which is recycled or the glass that eats so much energy to make and re-use and often ends up in landfill or here. Ironically the bottled water business itself makes no claims for the healthiness or safety of their product above what flows from the common tap. The industry does insist however that they're encouraging people to drink more water rather than sugary soft drinks, thus helping our collective health and hydration.

Some smart restaurants have taken off bottled water from their menu. Not everyone is happy:

Thomas Mooney, senior vice-president of sustainable growth at Fiji Water, argues that restaurants are overreacting by removing bottled mineral waters from the menu. "The fact that the bottled water market is still growing tells you it's a product that people want," he says. "Restaurant owners who take it off the menu should remember that their guests like bottled water and that they're taking profit off the bill at the end of the meal.

I'll stick to tap water, thank you.

2008 By The Numbers

Jill Richardson — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 07:34:18 GMT

I went back and looked at a bunch of numbers from 2008. Unfortunately, the economic numbers are pretty bleak (and still getting worse).

U.S. Population:
January 2008: 302,785,808
December 2008: 305,313,980

Unemployment:
January 2008: 4.9%
November 2008: 6.7%

Inflation (Nov 2007-Nov 2008):
All items: 1.1%
Food: 6.0%
Energy: -13.3%
All items less food & energy: 2.0%

Hunger (as of Dec 2007):
Food Insecurity: 11.1% of all U.S. Households
Hunger: 4.1% of all U.S. Households
Hungry Children: 691,000
*These numbers are expected to get worse in 2008, as unemployment went up and so did food prices. The numbers here are the most recent ones released by the USDA.
What We Eat
All data from USDA ERS 2008

All numbers are a percent of our total calories per capita per day

Year	Meat/Nuts/Eggs	Dairy	Fruit	Vegetables
1970 1980 1990 2000 2006	20.3% 19.5% 17.8% 16.8% 17.5%	13.3% 12.4% 12.0% 10.5% 10.4%	3.1% 3.5% 3.4% 3.3% 3.2%	5.7% 5.2% 5.1% 4.9% 4.7%

Year	Flour and Cereal Products	Added Fats	Added Sugars	Total Calories
1970 1980 1990 2000 2006	20.0% 21.1% 23.7% 23.4% 22.9%	19.0% 19.9% 19.6% 22.7% 23.8%	18.6% 18.4% 18.4% 18.5% 17.5%	2,160 2,202 2,422 2,715 2,679

Meat/Eggs/Nuts Consumption - Calories Per Capita Per Day

Year
1970
1980
1990
2000
2006

Red Meat
290.3
276.0
245.0
248.1
239.9

Poultry
54.5
65.8
90.7
109.5
120.5

Fish
13.2
13.6
16.1
15.8
16.6

Eggs
32.7
28.8
25.0
26.8
26.5

Nuts
48.2
44.7
55.5
55.9
64.7

Our Favorite Vegetables (In Calories per Capita per Day)

1. Potatoes: 70.4
2. Tomatoes: 7.7
3. Sweet Corn: 7.55
4. Onions: 5.4
5. Carrots: 3.2
6. Lettuce: 3.2
7. Sweet Potatoes: 3.1
8. Garlic: 2.5
9. Cucumbers: 1.95
10. Green Peas: 1.7
11. Broccoli: 1.43
12. Snap Beans: 1.35
13. Cabbage: 1.29
14. Chile Peppers: 1.04
15. Bell Peppers: 0.88

Sweeteners (Calories Per Capita Per Day)

1970: 343.0 sugar, 53.6 corn sweeteners
1980: 281.9 sugar, 119.1 corn sweeteners
1990: 217.0 sugar, 225.3 corn sweeteners
2000: 220.9 sugar, 275.7 corn sweeteners
2006: 210.1 sugar, 252.8 corn sweeteners

(I assume the recent decrease in caloric sweeteners has a lot to do with the introduction of Splenda.)

Dairy - Calories Per Capita Per Day

Year	Fluid Milk	Cheese	"Processed Cheese Foods"	Frozen Dairy
1970 1980 1990 2000 2006	136.3 116.3 103.3 89.8 86.5	41.40 62.11 83.15 98.46 105.54	20.0 25.4 31.0 29.1 26.8	47.3 44.1 46.6 46.5 40.9

Where We Buy Our Food

Outlet Type	1986	1996	2006
Conventional Supermarkets	65.3	58.2	57.7
Other Grocery (Small, neighborhood stores)	14.3	15.8	3.4
Specialty Food Stores	5.8	2.6	2.7
Supercenters and wholesale club stores (SuperTarget, Wal-Mart Supercenter)	0.4	4.3	17.9
Mass merchandise stores (Target, Wal-Mart)	1.5	2.1	1.7
Convenience Stores	3.3	3.0	2.9
Home deliveries/mail order	1.2	2.8	3.8
Farmers/processors/wholesalers	2.0	1.9	0.8
Other Stores	6.2	10.1	9.2

Source: USDA Report on Supply Chain and Food Marketing 2008

Farmers Markets, CSAs, and Roadside Stands
# of CSAs 1990: 60
# of CSAs 2007: 1150

States with the Most Farmers Markets (USDA AMS 2007)

California
New York
Iowa
Illinois
Pennsylvania
Wisconsin
Michigan
Massachusetts
Ohio
Kentucky

U.S. Demand for Locally Grown Food:
2002: $4 billion
2007: $5 billion
2012 (estimated): $7 billion

Indeed, the popularity of farmers markets has grown so rapidly in the United States that a recent national survey reports that 2 percent of U.S. food shoppers now say farmers markets are their primary food shopping venue.
Source: USDA Report on Supply Chain and Food Marketing 2008

Farm To School:
# of Programs: 2016
# of Schools: 8776

The Organic Outlook

Organic Food Sales
1990: $1 billion
2007: $20 billion (estimated)
2008: $23.6 billion (projected)
Source: Organic Trade Association 2008 mini-fact sheet

Organic Market Growth & Penetration
1998: 19.2% growth, 0.9% penetration
1999: 17.6% growth, 0.9% penetration
2000: 21.0% growth, 1.2% penetration
2001: 20.7% growth, 1.4% penetration
2002: 17.3% growth, 1.6% penetration
2003: 20.2% growth, 1.9% penetration
2004: 14.6% growth, 2.2% penetration
2005: 16.2% growth, 2.5% penetration
2006: 20.9% growth, 2.8% penetration
Source: Organic Trade Association 2007 Manufacturer Survey

In 2006, according to the Organic Trade Association, organic food market broke down as follows (numbers reflect percent of total organic sales):
Fruit & Veg: 40.0%
Dairy: 16.0%
Beverages: 13.0%
Packaged: 12.0%
Bread & Grains: 10.0%
Snack Foods: 4.8%
Sauces: 2.4%
Meat: 2.0%
Total: $16.718 billion (100%)

According to the Organic Trade Association, about 7 percent of U.S. organic food sales in 2005 occurred through direct sales at farmers markets and other nonretail direct market outlets (including sales to foodservice customers). In contrast, only 3.9 percent of all U.S. food sales in 2005 were made through any form of direct sale or home/mail order delivery.
Source: USDA Report on Supply Chain and Food Marketing 2008

Obviously, the numbers aren't in for organics in 2008 just yet. Since the economy totally tanked, particularly in the last few months of the year, I think it's reasonable to expect the organic market to take a hit. However, from what I've heard, organics will continue to see growth, just not at the high levels they did in the past several years. Existing organic shoppers are committed and willing to find ways to keep buying organic (i.e. grow some at home, stop buying expensive packaged foods, etc). With the economic situation, it seems that the biggest hit to organics will be in new customers - those who haven't given organics a try yet, who may be struggling financially now and less willing than ever to pay more for their food.

GMOs
Percent of All U.S. Soybeans Planted that were GMO (herbicide tolerant):
2000: 54
2001: 68
2002: 75
2003: 81
2004: 85
2005: 87
2006: 89
2007: 91
2008: 92

Percent of All U.S. Upland Cotton Planted that is GMO:
2000: 61
2001: 69
2002: 71
2003: 73
2004: 76
2005: 79
2006: 83
2007: 87
2008: 86

Of all cotton planted in 2008, 18% was Bt cotton, 23% was herbicide tolerant, and 45% were "stacked gene varieties" (which I assume means both herbicide and pest resistant). Could the decrease in GMO cotton between 2007 and 2008 have anything to do with the increase in organic cotton in the last year?

Percent of All U.S. Corn Planted That is GMO:
2000: 25
2001: 26
2002: 34
2003: 40
2004: 45
2005: 52
2006: 61
2007: 73
2008: 80

Of all corn planted in 2008, 17% was Bt corn, 23% was herbicide tolerant, and 40% were "stacked gene varieties."

Source: Adoption of Genetically Engineered Crops in the U.S.

Obesity by State (2007)

30% and Up	25%-29.9%	20% to 24.9%	Below 20%
1. Mississippi: 32.0% 2. Alabama: 30.3% 3. Tennessee: 30.1%	4. Louisiana: 29.8% 5. West Virginia: 29.5% 6. Arkansas: 28.7% 7. South Carolina: 28.4% 8. Georgia: 28.2% 9. Oklahoma: 28.1% 10. Texas: 28.1% 11. North Carolina: 28.0% 12. Michigan: 27.7% 13. Alaska: 27.5% 13. Missouri: 27.5% 13. Ohio: 27.5% 13. Rhode Island: 27.5% 17. Kentucky: 27.4% 17. Delaware: 27.4% 19. Pennsylvania: 27.1% 20. Iowa: 26.9% 20. Kansas: 26.9% 22. Indiana: 26.8% 23. North Dakota: 26.5% 24. South Dakota: 26.2% 25. Nebraska: 26.0% 26. Minnesota: 25.6% 27. Oregon: 25.5% 27. Arizona: 25.4% 27. Maryland: 25.4% 30. Washington: 25.3% 31. New York: 25.0%	32. Illinois: 24.9% 33. Maine: 24.8% 34. Wisconsin: 24.7% 35. Idaho: 24.5% 36. New Hampshire: 24.4% 37. Virginia: 24.3% 38. Nevada: 24.1% 39. New Mexico: 24.0% 40. Wyoming: 23.7% 41. Florida: 23.6% 42. New Jersey: 23.5% 43. California: 22.6% 44. Montana: 21.8% 44. Utah: 21.8% 44. Washington DC: 21.8% 47. Hawaii: 21.4% 48. Massachusetts: 21.3% 48. Vermont: 21.3% 50. Connecticut: 21.2%	51. Colorado: 18.7%

Industry Concentration

From CONCENTRATION OF AGRICULTURAL MARKETS April 2007 by Mary Hendrickson and William Heffernan

Note: CR4 is the concentration ratio (relative to 100%) of the top four firms in a specific food industry. An industry is considered consolidated if its CR4 is 40% or higher.

Beef Packers CR4
1990: 72%
1995: 76%
1998: 79%
2000: 81%
2005: 83.5%
2007: 83.5%
(Note: This increased in 2008 when JBS Swift bought Smithfield Foods, formerly the 5th largest beef packer.)

2007 Daily Slaughter Capacity
1. Tyson: 36,000 head
2. Cargill: 28,300 head
3. Swift & Co: 16,759 head
4. National Beef Packing Co: 13,000 head

Pork Packer CR4
1987: 37%
1989: 34%
1990: 40%
2001: 59%
2005: 64%
2007: 66%

2007 Daily Slaughter Capacity
1. Smithfield Foods: 102,900
2. Tyson Foods: 72,800
3. Swift & Co.: 46,000
4. Cargill: 36,000

Broiler Industry CR4
1986: 35%
1990: 44%
1994: 46%
1998: 49%
2001: 50%
2007: 58.5%

2007 Top Producers
1. Pilgrim's Pride
2. Tyson
3. Perdue
4. Sanderson Farms
Note: The CR2 in this sector is 47%.

Turkey Industry CR4
1998: 31%
1992: 35%
1996: 40%
2000: 45%
2005: 51%
2007: 55%

2007 Slaughter Capacity
1. Butterball LLC: 1,420 Million lbs
2. Hormel Foods (Jennie-O Turkey Store): 1,265 Million lbs
3. Cargill: 961 Million lbs
4. Sara Lee: 260 Million lbs

Ethanol Production CR4
1987: 73%
1995: 73%
1999: 67%
2002: 49%
2007: 31.5%

Million Gallons/Year (Capacity)
1. ADM: 1070
2. US Biofuels: 250
3. VeraSun Energy Corporation: 230
4. Hawkeye Renewables: 220
Note: Farmer owned ethanol plants accounted for 39% of total capacity.

Dairy Processors in U.S. and Canada

Annual Sales
1. Dean Foods: $10,106 Million
2. Kraft Foods: $4,400 Million
3. Land O'Lakes: $3,901 Million
4. Saputo Inc.: $3,461 Million

Notes: Over 40% of Saputo Inc. plants are in Canada.

U.S. Food Retailing CR5
1997: 24%
2001: 38%
2004: 46%
2005: 48%

Sales in Thousands

Supermarket	2006	2005	2004	Change '04-'06
1)Wal-Mart	$ 98,745,400	$ 79,704,300	$66,465,100	48.57%
2)Kroger	$ 58,544,668	$ 54,161,588	$46,314,840	26.41%
3)Albertson's	$ 36,287,940	$ 36,733,840	$31,961,800	13.54%
4)Safeway	$ 32,732,960	$ 29,359,408	$29,572,140	10.69%
5)Ahold	$ 23,848,240	$ 21,052,200	$25,105,600	-5.01%

Top U.S. Food Processors

2005 Food Sales ($millions)
1. Tyson Foods Inc. 23,899
2. Kraft Foods Inc. 23,293
3 Pepsico Inc. 21,186
4. Nestle (US & Canada) 19,941
5. Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. 11,546
6. Dean Foods Co. 10,505
7. General Mills 9,803
8. Smithfield Foods Inc. 9,614
9. ConAgra Foods Inc. 8,195
10. Swift & Company 7,847

Commodities Grown
All numbers are taken from the PDF "Commodities in U.S. by Acreage 2008" from the National Agricultural Statistics Service. All numbers given are the number of acres planted (as opposed to harvested) unless specified.

Of all of our commodities grown, here is the percent each one makes up in acres planted:

Crop
Corn:
Soybeans:
Wheat:
Hay:
Cotton:
Sorghum:
Barley:
Oats:
Rice:
Sunflower:
Peanuts:
Sugarbeets:
Canola:
Potatoes:
Sugarcane:
Flaxseed:
Tobacco:
Safflower:
Sweet Potatoes:

2007
29.25%
19.89%
18.89%
19.26%
3.38%
2.41%
1.26%
1.18%
0.86%
0.64%
0.38%
0.40%
0.37%
0.36%
0.27%
0.11%
0.11%
0.06%
0.03%

2008
26.95%
23.00%
19.58%
18.65%
2.58%
2.24%
1.27%
1.07%
0.89%
0.67%
0.45%
0.33%
0.31%
?
0.27%
0.11%
0.10%
0.06%
0.03%

Change in Acres Planted '07-'08
-7%
+17%
+5%
-2%
-15%
-6%
+3%
-8%
+5%
+5%
+19%
-15%
-15%
?
-1%
-2%
-4%
+6%
+3%

Vilsack's Confirmation Hearing Set, But Will it be for Commerce Secretary?

Obama Foodorama — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 07:20:12 GMT

Obviously no need to recap the whole Vilsack story, but...late today the New York Daily News is reporting that Secretary of Agriculture nominee Tom Vilsack may instead become the nominee for Secretary of Commerce in Obama's cabinet. Ken Bazinet breaks the story on the NYDN blog The Mouth of The Potomac, and credits "a well placed source." Yesterday, Obama's first choice for commerce secretary, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, stepped down, citing a "pending investigation into a company that has done business with his state," according to Bloomberg News. As Obama scrambles to have an economic stimulus package in place on Day 1 after The Inauguration, an absent Secretary of Commerce is a huge problem. Tossing Vilsack into the commerce position makes sense; his economic policies while governor were almost as good as his ag policies were questionable.

In other Vilsack news, his confirmation hearing for Ag Secretary was announced today. According to Iowa's The Gazette, the hearing will take place January 14, with Senator Tom Harkin, chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee at the helm. But will the hearing be for Secretary of Commerce, or Secretary of Agriculture? Harkin told AP that Vilsack's confirmation would be "easy," but just last week he was blasting Obama for "ignoring" current Ag Committee members.

Illegal Honey Trafficking?

Jill Richardson — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 10:24:45 GMT

As American bees continue to succumb to Colony Collapse Disorder, honey is making headlines! And not necessarily in a good way. Kudos to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer for their real reporting in Honey Laundering:

Big shipments of contaminated honey from China are frequently laundered in other countries -- an illegal practice called "transshipping" -- in order to avoid U.S.import fees, protective tariffs or taxes imposed on foreign products that intentionally undercut domestic prices.

In a series of shipments in the past year, tons of honey produced in China passed through the ports of Tacoma and Long Beach, Calif., after being fraudulently marked as a tariff-free product of Russia.

Tens of thousands of pounds of honey entering the U.S. each year come from countries that raise few bees and have no record of producing honey for export.

The government promises intense scrutiny of honey crossing our borders but only a small fraction is inspected, and seizures and arrests remain rare.

The feds haven't adopted a legal definition of honey, making it difficult for enforcement agents to keep bad honey off the shelves.

More headlines:
Antibiotic use could taint honey's reputation as a miracle drug
Experts call for better U.S. standards for honey
U.S. honey producers don't have it easy, and some say industry board isn't helping
Don't let claims on honey labels dupe you: If it's made in America, it's likely not organic

If your farmers' market is like mine, you can get some fantastic honey there. Given how sleezy the larger global industry appears based on these articles, it's a relief to know I can buy truly organic and truly local honey from people I know and trust.

Melamine Trials in China a Farce: Who are they Kidding?

Asinus Asinum Fricat — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 23:08:52 GMT

China's food supply is awash with the industrial chemical melamine. This much we know. Dangerous levels have been detected not only in milk and eggs, but also in chicken feed, wheat gluten, chocolate, sweets and God knows what else (partial list here), and given the pervasiveness of melamine it simply means that it is almost impossible to avoid in processed foods. China knew about the link between the sick babies and melamine-laced formula months ago, well before the Summer Olympics in Beijing, but did not investigate until external pressure left them no choice. One would think they would have learned their lesson with the pet food scare last year in which thousands of pets lost their lives, including my Labrador who died in agony due to renal failure.

The trial: Tian Wenhua, the 66-year-old former general manager of the now bankrupt Sanluin stood in the Shijiazhuang Intermediate People's Court whose trial ended on the 31st of December but no verdict was announced.
The Chinese authorities, seeking to restore battered credibility in its food and drug products, put up a dog and pony show in the hope of alleviating the world's outrage: round up the usual suspects and let's have an exemplary trial. What they haven't done as yet is telling us the truth. Why did they cover up the fact that it was known to them prior to the Olympic Games? They are quick at rebukes as last year the Chinese embassy in Washington declared that it was "unacceptable for some to launch groundless smear attacks on China" over food and drug safety problems. Well, color me unimpressed! The ultimate blame falls on the government and the government alone. Below is an excerpt given from officialdom:

Police say Zhang Yujun, 40, ran a workshop on the outskirts of Jinan in eastern Shandong province that manufactured and sold a "protein powder" composed mainly of melamine and malt dextrin, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The powder was added to watered-down milk to make it appear high in protein content.
Prosecutors in the Shijiazhuang Intermediate People's Court accused Mr. Zhang of producing 776 tons of "protein powder" that contained melamine from October 2007 through August 2008, the largest source of melamine in the country. He allegedly sold more than 600 tons with a total value of 6.83 million yuan ($1 million), the court heard.
In the same case, a second man, Zhang Yanzhang, 24, was accused of buying and reselling 230 tons of powder to others.
State television showed both men in court in handcuffs with their heads bowed while being questioned by three judges.
An official at the publicity office of Hebei Supreme Court confirmed that the trial started Friday but refused to give his name or other details.
Four other men were being tried in three separate courts across Hebei province for adding the chemical to raw milk and then selling it to Sanlu Group Co., the main company in the scandal, according to Xinhua.

The tell-tale signs of mismanagement and lack of probity were abundantly clear, you decide:

2004: More than 200 Chinese infants suffer malnutrition and dozens die after being fed phony formula that contained no nutrients. Babies who consumed the formula develop what Chinese doctors called "big head disease," causing their heads to swell while their bodies wasted away.

2006: Diethylene glycol, a toxic ingredient in automotive anti-freeze, is fraudulently labeled in China as glycerin and ends up in Panama, where it is added to cough syrup, antihistamines, calamine lotion, and rash ointment, killing at least 51 people and sickening 68. Diethylene glycol also lands in 260,000 bottles of cold medicine: Families report 365 deaths.

March 2007: Melamine in Chinese wheat gluten and rice protein kills an unknown number of pets worldwide, leading to a recall of more than 100 brands of pet food in the United States, Canada, and South Africa. Chinese authorities officially ban the use of melamine in food products. Did they? I think not.

April 2007: U.S. toy companies recall millions of children's products made in China after they are found to contain dangerous levels of lead, which can cause anemia, kidney abnormalities and brain damage.

May 2007: Customs officials in Panama find diethylene glycol in 6,000 tubes of toothpaste that came from China. In addition to United States and Panama, tainted toothpaste is later found in Australia, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

June 2007: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) bans imports of five types of farm-raised fish and seafood from China after finding they contained drugs and cancer-causing chemicals banned in the United States.

November 2007: Contaminated heparin, a blood thinner, is linked to 81 deaths in the United States, The contaminated drug, which originated in China, is discovered in 11 countries. Heparin is made from the mucous membranes of the intestines of slaughtered pigs that, in China, are often cooked in unregulated family workshops. The contaminant, identified as oversulfated chondroitin sulfate, a cheaper substance, slipped through the usual testing and was recognized only after more sophisticated tests were used.

As for the tainted milk scandal it came out, apparently, only because San Lu's New Zealand partner, Fonterra, which had known about the melamine contamination, finally had the guts and foresight to alert the New Zealand government and take the matter up with Chinese authorities. Fonterra, which has a 43% stake in San Lu and three members on its seven-member board (Fonterra, btw, is also New Zealand's largest exporter of goods), says it had been trying to work within the Chinese system, advising a public recall but it accepted its partners' word that "they were not in a position to do it". The Olympic Games were imminent and the media were still under a two-year ban on bad-news stories. The fact that San Lu products are nearly all consumed in China (its only export market is Taiwan) made the cover-up more likely. The company typically sells its infant formula to Chinese mothers in poorer rural areas at up to one-third the price of competitors in richer urban areas. Profit margins are slim, creating an inducement to cheat.

Melamine resin or melamine formaldehyde (also shortened to melamine) is a hard, plastic made from melamine and formaldehyde by polymerization. This plastic is often used in kitchen utensils and plates, often called melamine wares. It may also used as table lining such as formica, plastic chairs, countertops, flame retardants and even concrete. Being fire resistant, it has been made into fibers of fire resistant clothes that firemen use.

To date (according to the authorities) at least six children have died and more than 290,000 made ill from the contaminated milk prompting massive recalls around the world. I would wager the casualties are much higher.

Zheng Xiaoyu, former head of the food and drug watchdog, the State Food and Drug Administration, was executed last year for taking bribes and dereliction of duty in the wake of a series of drug safety scandals.

In the lead-up to this ~~farcical~~ high-profile trial and after repeated promises that China has put a lid on the problem, fresh quality scares have surfaced. The melamine scare has also prompted quality inspectors to test tableware "following reports that some products contained poisonous ingredients," Xinhua said on Wednesday in a separate report.

More than 1,500 boxes of Chinese biscuits exported to Hong Kong and Singapore had also tested positive for melamine, local media reported last week.

China's Health Ministry last Wednesday promised to build a "pre-emptive" monitoring system to stamp out the use of black-listed non-food additives that have led to health scares involving eggs, seafoods, and sweets in recent years.

"We used to rely on crackdowns (to solve food problems) but now we are combining punishment with prevention with more stress on the latter," Su Zhi, a senior quality supervision official in the Ministry of Health, told Xinhua.

But the baby milk formula scandal has also opened up a festering debate about appropriate compensation for victims and their families.

Along with San Lu, a staggering 21 other local dairy companies that were found to have produced melamine-tainted milk have pledged 1.1 billion yuan (€114 million) to compensate victims and cover medical costs for affected children, a report posted on the Dairy Association of China website.

And lastly, Fonterra executives said they believed that their warnings, on the eve of the Beijing Olympics, had reached government officials in the capital. But so far investigations have focused mostly on local officials, though the head of the country's product-safety watchdog, the General Administration of Quality Supervision and Quarantine, resigned.

Draw your own conclusions. I for one, hope that the Chinese authorities will address food safety in a meaningful and truthful way. It is their chance to redeem themselves and come back to the fold.

Link Revealed between Blood Sugar Levels and Biological Clock

Asinus Asinum Fricat — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:04:11 GMT

Reading up my new issue of Nature Genetics (yep, that's right, I read this to understand this area of science) I came across this fact: there is a link between blood sugar levels and biological clock that cues our sleeping and waking cycles. It's interesting in the sense that this link is significant as type 2 diabetes is on the increase as our sleeping patterns have decreased incrementally. In other words, if you sleep less, you produce less insulin. I Googled about and found that people with sleeplessness patterns tend to develop a tendency to obesity. Another site went on to say that sleep deprivation could cause psychological pathologies (come to think of it, CIA methods of interrogation do prove this point) as we know that there is ample evidence that little sleep degrades mental function. Here's the link to Nature News (can't link Nature Genetics, it's a closed shop!): http://www.nature.com/ng/index...

Why Is Industrial Organic Trashing Advocates of Real Organic?

Jill Richardson — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 07:22:11 GMT

There are now two dueling sites by two very different (but similarly named) organizations. Organic Consumers Association has launched Stop Vilsack, and Organic Trade Association (and others, including a top Vilsack aid) replied with Support Vilsack... and included a page trashing OCA. What's going on here?

Let me first admit some bias. I'm a longtime fan of the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) and a more recent friend of their director, Ronnie Cummins (read an interview I did with him here). More importantly, over the years I've subscribed to OCA's newsletter and followed their work. I've seen a consistent commitment to do what is in the best interest of organic consumers - people who want to buy food that was produced in the best way for the environment, for people, for animals, and for health and flavor.

So if that's OCA's mission, what's OTA for? They are for organic producers, and while they may represent some of the "little guys" they appear to mostly represent Industrial Organic - the big guys. OTA has even tried to weaken organic standards. As you may have read in The Omnivore's Dilemma, Industrial Organic may follow the letter of the law but it does not always respect the earth or the animals involved. You can raise a chicken that is technically organic, but has a life little better than a conventional, factory farmed chicken. You can grow crops on an enormous farm that is technically organic, but where the soil is no better off than on a conventional farm. OTA might support that. OCA doesn't.
Who set up the Support Vilsack site? It's not much of a mystery:

Who's behind the site?
This site was conceived and organized by Walter Robb, Peter Roy, Gary Hirshberg, and Sharon Egan, with feedback from the contributors listed in the sidebar to the right. Technical help was provided by Kerry and Ted Robb. Kerry operates a graphic design business, and Ted owns and operates InHouse Creative Studios.
Who paid for the site?
The total cost of the site was paid for equally and collectively by Walter Robb, Peter Roy, Gary Hirshberg, Drake Sadler, and Steve Demos as individuals. There is no corporate money involved, nor was any solicited.

Walter Robb is co-President of Whole Foods Market. Peter Roy also served as president of Whole Foods Market. Gary Hirshberg is CEO of Stonyfield Farm yogurt. Sharon Egan is President/CEO of Sun Valley Bar. Industrial Organic.

These guys are using the good reputation of truly sustainable agriculture to enrich themselves with their "organic" and "natural" businesses and to make it appear that the sustainable food community supports Vilsack. Yes, there may be some good points about Vilsack that we should appreciate, but the say-so of Industrial Organic executives does NOT mean that sustainable food and ag advocates support Vilsack and what he stands for. OCA speaks for sustainable food and ag, not OTA.

Furthermore, the new Support Vilsack site has some incorrect information:

TRUTH: The emergence of confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) in Iowa brought along a multitude of challenges. Governor Vilsack continually pushed for local control over siting of large livestock confinements and called for local control in his annual condition of the state address before the legislature. He believed local elected officials should have a say in where facilities should and should not be built.

Actually, in the state senate, Vilsack voted FOR a bill that would prevent counties from zoning where CAFOs (factory farms) would be located, giving that power instead to the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR). The bill also expanded tax exemptions for CAFOs and gave CAFOs immunity from nuisance lawsuits if they met minimum standards set by the DNR.