Greetings from China

I'm sitting in a hotel in Anhui Province, about midway between Beijing and Shanghai, where even this very basic hotel has a super fast ethernet connection. As I type, I can hear the honking of cars, buses, pedicabs, and bikes as they pass each other on the road outside my window.
I'm here to learn about the sustainable development projects that Heifer International has been developing. I'll post here some more reflections on the trip, but after a 12+ hour-day, I'll just post some pictures.
view driving into beijing... the haze is the air pollution that has made china one of the world's worst greenhouse gas emitters and means that only 1 percent of the country’s 560 million city dwellers breathe air considered safe by the European Union, according to this NYT article.

The bee hives of one of the farmers in the Miyun Province (a few hours outside of Beijing) who have benefitted from Heifer support to purchase what they've need to transition from sheep raising to bee keeping. (A few years ago the government decreed that farmers could no longer use the mountains in this region for grazing or farming; the erosion had caused a series of the worst sand storms in the history of Beijing. A decision which may certainly have helped the environment, but that cost many farmers their livelihood overnight.)
The bee keeper and his 86 year-old mother who graciously invited us into their home.
Later that day, we head out to hike the Si Ma Tai portion of the Great Wall. Though it's only an hour or so from his home by car, he's never been--it would be too expensive. As we're leaving the parking lot, I turn back for one last glimpse of the Wall and see in the foreground a bumblebee yellow H2 Hummer.
A typical meal. I've learned two phrases since arriving here: Thank You... and I'm Full.

Off to China...

I'm heading to China tomorrow with Heifer International. Will hopefully be blogging from there. In the meantime, check out Lhadon's amazing blog from Students for a Free Tibet.

Twinkie vs. Apple Showdown

Check out the latest video from the makers of The Meatrix. This time, they take on the Farm Bill. Please send the link to friends and family. To learn more about the Farm Bill, see the Farm Bill 101 from Oxfam here, from Food and Water Watch, and keep up to date on Farm Bill 2007 organizing with the Community Food Security Coalition, Community Alliance with Family Farmers, and the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture.

Starbucks Hormone-Free Milk Campaign... Wins!

I just got off the phone with Wenonah Hauter from Food and Water Watch and she has just found out that they won their Starbucks campaign. Thanks to thousands of e-mails, phone calls, and rallies by consumers across the country, Starbucks committed to serving only 100% hormone-free milk in all of its U.S. stores by the end of this year.

Now, let's call 1-800-235-2883 to thank Starbucks CEO Jim Donald for doing the right thing and let him know we'll be looking forward to New Year's Day and a happy, healthy, hormone-free 2008!

New York City Event/Upcoming: Farms not Arms

Farms Not Arms and Family Farm Defenders invite you and your organization to attend:
What: "The War and Rural America." - a public forum and meeting.
Where: The Warwick Hotel, 65 West 54th Street, New York, NY 10019
When: Saturday, September 8, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Hosted by: Farms Not Arms and Family Farm Defenders.
http://www.farmsnotarms.org/ http://www.familyfarmdefenders.org/

As we farmers make our plans to head to New York for the 22nd annual FarmAid concert to benefit America's family farmer, we are facing new challenges.

Almost six years of war has placed a heavy burden on our farms and rural communities, with small towns and rural areas across the country bearing drastically disproportionate numbers of fatalities in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Global war, global warming, and the excessive use of fossil fuels that fuel them both are adding to the already existing crises of loss of farmland, family farmers and economic opportunity in rural America.

Now we are facing hundreds of thousands of young men and women returning from war to these very communities without adequate healthcare, counseling or vocational training.
At the public forum on The War and Rural America, we will focus on organizing to change our nation's priorities from war and destruction to a constructive program of support for family farmers, regional agriculture, growing of bio-fuels and creating of job opportunities on our farms for returning veterans.

Speakers will include:
Dr. William O'Hare, University of New Hampshire, author of the report on rural casualties.
George Naylor, Iowa soybean farmer, President of National Family Farm Coalition
Jim Goodman, Wisconsin beef and dairy farmer, speaking for Family Farm Defenders
Roger Allison, Missouri hog farmer, Executive Director, Missouri Rural Crisis Center
Ronnie Cummins, President, Organic Consumers Association
Nadia McCaffrey, Gold Star Mom, founder Veterans Village

Facilitating the meeting will be Farms Not Arms co-chairs:
Will Allen and Kate Duesterberg, Cedar Circle Farm, East Thetford, Vermont
John Kiefer, Rosebud Ranch, Saux City, Wisconsin
Michael O'Gorman, Jacobs Farm/Del Cabo, Ensenada, Mexico

Also participating will be numerous veterans and their advocates as we hope to further the building of the Farmer-Veteran Coalition, a politically neutral organization that will work to provide farm jobs, job training and land for deserving veterans and infuse our nation's food production with young people already acquainted with hard work and sacrifice.
Please join us at this important meeting. For more information contact any of the organizations listed above or:

Doug Stevenson, Farms Not Arms, 931-964-2590 mailto:douglas@farmsnotarms.org
425 Farm Road, Suite 5 The Farm, Summertown Tennessee, 38483 http://www.blogger.com/www.farmsnotarms.org

Urge Your Senators to Support Food Aid Reform in the 2007 Farm Bill!

From our friends at The Oakland Institute
Call Senate Now at 202-224-3121 (Operator assistance)

Each year millions of tons of food are shipped from the United States as food aid to respond to crises resulting from droughts, conflicts and severe poverty. While there is little doubt that this aid has saved countless lives, it is also clear that the US program - where most food aid is purchased and bagged by US agribusinesses and shipped by US shipping firms - designed over 50 years ago when the US had abundant food surpluses to dispose of, is enormously inefficient.
A study by the US Government Accountability Office found that rising business and shipping costs have meant that the volume of food aid delivered over the last five years has fallen by more than 50 percent. CARE, one of the world's biggest charities, has just announced that it is turning down some $45 million a year in federal financing, saying American food aid is not only plagued with inefficiencies, but also may hurt some of the very poor people it aims to help. Deliveries of in-kind food aid can undercut local farmers' crop sales, especially when they arrive late, after a new harvest. Changing the way at least a portion of US food aid is purchased could make a huge difference for food aid recipients in countries and regions around the world.

A recent New York Times editorial says, the virtues of purchasing food in recipient countries are self-evident and need full Congressional support! Call your Senator today and let them know that you want them to support the proposed change in the 2007 Farm Bill which would allow for 25% of emergency food aid purchases under Title II to be provided in cash for local and regional purchase rather than as commodities purchased in the United States and shipped to developing countries. To learn more click HERE.

CALL Senate Now at 202-224-3121 (Operator assistance)

From the Oakland Institute

What Difference Does Organic Make (Really)?

Maybe you’re puzzled, like me, by the headlines that keep popping up, asking some version of “Is it worth it to choose organic?” I remember first stumbling on a newspaper headline posing a variation of this question more than seven years ago. Ever since, I’ve read dozens of articles, all with a similar message: The science is complicated — journalists equivocate. More research needs to be done, they add. The average reader is left scratching our head.

So, is it worth it? Sure, we need more science; we can always learn more. But these articles are confusing because they ignore what we already know. And what is that?

Well, we know that our country is blanketed with pesticides every year. By last tally in the United States, we sprayed 1.2 billion (yes, that’s with a “b”) pounds of “active” ingredients in pesticides. And we know that many of these are known to be neurotoxins, hormone disrupters, or probably carcinogens. And we know that millions more pounds of so-called “inert” ingredients are sprayed annually, with the same not-so-lovely effects on wildlife and human life. But we can’t even estimate the amount because companies are not required to disclose them.

What else do we know? We know these pesticides are unnecessary. Organic practices lead to abundant bounty. Just ask Jules Pretty, and his team at the University of Essex in England, who compared productivity on organic and non-organic farms globally, and found that organic farms performed equally well, if not better, in every country they evaluated. Plus, many of the hazardous pesticides we use in the food system are used just to get our produce looking pretty, anyway.

We also know this: Kids are the most vulnerable of all. Why? Because, pound-for-pound, children eat and drink more than adults. They also have more hand-to-mouth contact. (Spend any time with a baby and you’ll know how quickly everything they touch goes one place: into their mouths). The immune system of kids is also less developed and so provides them with less protection. Plus, children tend to eat more of specific fruits and vegetables, so their exposure to particular pesticides can mount quickly and be particularly high.

We can all think of examples; I need only think of my little brother who was a rabid apple juice fanatic. On the day he was leaving for his first cross-country adventure to visit our grandparents, his only question was “Is there apple juice in Jersey?”

Researchers have also found that turning to an organic diet can have a measurable impact on kids’ health. Researchers in Washington studying preschool-age kids found that those with organic diets had lower levels of organophosphate residues than their non-organic munching classmates. As soon as those kids switched their diets to organic, the researchers found a marked decrease in this pesticide residue. As one of the study’s authors pointed out: “Organic produce appears to provide a relatively simple way for parents to reduce their children’s exposure to pesticides.”

So what can we do to reduce our risk and our kids’ risks? Thankfully, it’s really quite simple; we needn’t scratch our heads at all. We can choose organic every chance we get.

Posted first here.

Water, Water Everywhere... If You've Got a Buck

When you choose not to spend money on something you could get for free, do you feel guilty? When you find yourself at the end of the day a couple bucks richer, do you reel with the burden of it? I didn't think so. But if not, then why is New York Times scribe Alex Williams so insistent that folks eschewing high-priced hydration feel so darn guilty? ("Water, Water Everywhere, but Guilt by the Bottleful.") Personally, I don't feel guilty passing up high-falutin' Fuji while I sip my Sigg. By focusing on the guilt charge, Williams misses a key part of the story.

What Williams omits is the real outrage: Not that the pro-public water set are the new eco-nag, as she implies, but that the private companies sucking up this limited natural resource--and then turning around and charging us mightily--are getting away with it. What's worse is that what you are drinking from that Dasani bottle (or any branded water) is unregulated and therefore often no better, and indeed sometimes far worse, than what you could get out of a tap--for free.

Our friends at Food and Water Watch have launched a campaign to Take Back the Tap. Check it out here and... don't feel guilty about it!

Hearst Goes Green

At least, that's what they're seeing. The media behemoth launches a green blog, The Daily Green, and I can't help but pipe in. I'll be posting my musings here, too.

Whose Afraid of Local?

I don't know how many of you are Economist readers but, if you are, you might remember the magazine’s relatively recent attack on local foods advocates. Are locavores just clueless environmentalists who don't have their facts straight? Might it be, as the Economist claimed, actually better for the environment to buy food from halfway around the world, if that food was produced more ecologically? A recent New York Times op-ed picked up a similar line of argument. See below for my mother and my unpublished response to the editor of the Times, click here to read the letters the Times did publish, and check out fan-of-the-local Michael Shuman's "On the Lamb" for an in-depth response.

Unpublished Letter to the Editor/New York Times:
In an apparent attempt to set us straight on real value of “local food” in lightening our earthly footprint, James E. McWilliams (Food That Travels Well, 8.6.07) beats up on a straw man, confusing the whole question. Local foods advocates don’t promote just any kind of local, as he implies. Tyson Foods’ highly inefficient, large-footprint factory may be local to some, but an anathema to sustainable eating activists. His prime example, that in the U.K. imported grass-fed lamb embodies less fossil fuel use than local grain-fed, is not proof that imports are superior but that we should eat less grain-fed meat. He notes that we must include organic, sustainable farming practices, as well as minimal packaging, into our eating calculations, but eat-local folks already heartily agree. The author, moreover, ignores the many reasons beyond the ecological for provisioning locally whenever possible—such as less vulnerability to concentrated political and market power.
Frances Moore Lappé and Anna Lappé
Small Planet Institute

Help Change School Food

Here's an important message from our colleagues at the Center for Science in the Public Interest...

Dear Colleague,

We have created an on-line petition in support of the Child Nutrition Promotion and School Lunch Protection Act (S771/HR1363), which would have U.S. Department of Agriculture update its decades-old nutrition standards for foods sold out of vending machines, schools stores and other venues in schools (outside the meal programs): http://takeaction.cspinet.org/campaign/schoolfoodspetition

Please take a minute to send the petition to your Senators and Congressional Representatives and to pass it on to your organization's email network, listserves to which you belong, colleagues, friends, and family. Support for the bill is growing (we're up to more than 100 cosponsors), but your support is needed to pass the bill. More information about the bill is available at http://www.schoolfoods.org/.

Joy Johanson
Senior Policy Associate
Center for Science in the Public Interest

After My Own Heart

Had a fun time this weekend at the Grand Lake Farmers Market near where I grew up in Oakland. Bryant was doing a cooking demo complete with his rendition of KRS-One's Meat. As an added bonus, everyone walked away with this recipe for a watermelon slushee. (I tried it last night and it was delicious!!) Our friends from Sustainable Table stopped by with their bio-diesel bus and its Eat Well Guided Tour of America signs getting attention. Among all the great things they're promoting, they also talked about their "Take Back the Tap" campaign with Food and Water Watch, a cause after my own heart.

This pic is from the pie stop at PIE RANCH from the folks at sustainable table

An Eater and Farmer BILL OF RIGHTS

Check out and sign the Food and Farm Bill of Rights here.

The Two Americas of Food:Reflections on the 2007 Farm Bill

Check out my post (the first!) on Huffington Post!

Pass the Arsenic, Please

A new article in Chemical & Engineering news, reports on Roxarsone, an arsenic-based additive used in chicken feed. The most common arsenic-based additive used in chicken feed, scientists are worried its use could pose health risks to humans. (Why is it used at all? It's used to promote growth, kill parasites and improve the color of chicken meat). Though it's normally benign, concern has been growing that under certain conditions it can convert into more toxic forms of inorganic arsenic. Because of these concerns, a number of food suppliers have stopped using roxarsone, but still estimates approximate that 70 percent of the 9 billion broiler chickens produced annually in the United States are fed roxarsone. Yum. Read the article here: Chemical & Engineering News, Vol. 85, No. 15, April 9, 2007: 34-35 (Free Full-Text Article) Science Daily April 10, 2007

Fast Food: The Image vs. The Reality

Check out this site that compares (and contrasts) the advertisement for some scumptious sounding fast food, with the reality of what you get. Yum. Here's a breakfast burrito from McDonald's. Guess which one is the ad?

Love Your Organic Strawberries? Now's the Time to Speak Up!

Join Environmental Working Groups' call to support organic food and farming in this year's decisions about the shape and budget of our new Farm Bill. Sign the petition here.

Our TV Show News...

Check out the new website for The Endless Feast here. If you're in NYC on Sunday June 24, check out the Brooklyn episode on Channel 13.

Village Voice Blog about Our Dinner

Check out the Village Voice food blogger's take on our dinner.

Endless Feast Fiesta at iCi

Last night, more than 100 friends, community members, and family (mom, stepdad, brother!) got together at my neighborhood favorite restaurant, iCi, to celebrate the farm in Red Hook that we showcase in The Endless Feast Brooklyn episode. Lovely, delicious local food was enjoyed by everyone--we even got to sample Six Point Craft Ales brews (featured, along w/ iCi and other local providers in the show), dining alongside the brewmasters themselves. After a dinner which included iCi's not-too-be-missed grits and greens, we gathered in the restaurant's back garden to screen the 22-minute episode. (If you're in NYC, check out the show on June 24 on Channel 13 at 5:30pm.)

from last night---Elizabeth (l) and Ludie (r) from Green Gourmet, mom and me.

Our Friend On The Lot

Our friend, the amazing filmmaker Shalini Kantayya, has been chosen as one of the 50 finalists to appear On the Lot, a new FOX reality TV show. Her film, A Drop of Life, is the chilling story set in the near future in India about the privatization of water. Watch Shalini's interview about it here: http://films.thelot.com/films/17992.

YOU CAN HELP PRESERVE THE INTEGRITY OF THE ORGANIC SEAL

Hey everyone - the National Organic Standards Board has just proposed allowing 38 new non-organic substances in organic-labelled foods. They have a public comment period about this decision open until 5pmEST tomorrow. If you want to learn more about the proposal, visit http://www.cornucopia.org/. My two cents is below if you want to add yours:

To comment, go to http://www.regulations.gov/, search for AMS-TM-07-0062, and submit your comment by clicking on the bubble on the right of the screen ("add comment").

I am writing as a conscious eater to lodge my concerns about the approval of 38 new non-organic agricultural products to be allowed in organic foods. Through my recent work speaking to audiences across the country about sustainable agriculture and organic production, I heard again and again the consensus among U.S. consumers that they want strict standards for organic foods, and that when they see the USDA label the expect those strict standards to be in place.

If there are to be additions of conventionally produced substances into the allowed list, there must be thorough independent unbiased review of the environmental and health impacts of the practices used to grow these crops, raise these animals, and make these products. To date, my understanding is that the NOSB has not received adequate, unbiased information on these additional substances .

Thank you for upholding the integrity of the standard.

Anna Lappe, Brooklyn, NY

Small Schools Are Cool

youth of today

I had fun this morning conducting a cooking workshop for youth at June Jordan School for Equity in San Francisco. My friend Savannah Shange is one of the committed teachers there.

the kanye west of the food justice movement

the bryant terry of the music industry (center)

check out an interview with me on culinate. the photograph of me was taken by my good friend yamini nayar in b-r-o-o-k-l-y-n.

Kanye has that PMA

Mom Takes Over the World (Well, Sort of)

Check out this announcement from the bold-sounding World Future Council. My mom is one of the founding members and she's in Hamburg now for the official launching of the Council. I'm pasting in the press release (below). Signing off as a proud daughter... Anna

The Future Starts This Week in Hamburg
The World Future Council is Ready to Go.
London/Hamburg, 7 May 2007. The World Future Council (WFC) has reached its full complement of 50 eminent global pioneers, representing all continents from the world of business, politics, civil society and the arts. Now, this strong new voice is about to get even louder.In the future, the WFC will be able to draw on the expertise of the former President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, The Hon. Arthur N.R. Robinson. He has received the Parliamentarians for Global Action"Defender of Democracy Award", the Order of the Caribbean Community and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. And in 2002 he was honoured with the Peace Leadership Award from the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.

Joining Robinson as the latest in a long line of prominent figures to join the Council, are Prof. Rae Kwon Chung, Director of the Environment and Sustainable Division of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger,Director of the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law,Mairead Corrigan-Maguire, Co-founder, The Peace People and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Jared Duval, National Director of the Sierra Student Coalition, the author Dr. Riane Eisler, President of the Centre for Partnership Studies, Wes Jackson, Co-founder and President of The Land Institute, Baroness Helena Kennedy, President of the School of Oriental and African Studies (London University) and Member of the House of Lords, UK.

The new councillors will meet with the founding members at the WFC Founding Congress, which begins with a celebratory launch at 10 a.m. on the 10th of May 2007 in the city hall, Hamburg, Germany.

At the ceremony, Ole von Beust, the Mayor of Hamburg, will officially welcome the Council to the city. The initiators of the World Future Council, Jakob von Uexkull (founder of the Right Livelihood Award) and Herbert Girardet (author, environmental expert and film-maker), will outline the aims of the WFC, and also speaking about their involvement in the Council will be interim members of the WFC Executive Committee, Bianca Jagger and Beate Weber.The Council will then go into session until Sunday to set the course forthe WFC's future work. The members of the World Future Council will present the results of the founding congress as well as the Hamburg Call to Action to the G8 and the EU at the main press conference at 11 a.m.on Sunday, 14th May.

The Aims of the World Future Council The World Future Council is a strong new voice in the global arena,which draws on our shared human values to champion the rights of future generations, and working to ensure that humanity acts now to safeguard a sustainable future.Despite having the means to tackle many of the problems we face, the existing global system of governance has so far seemed incapable of addressing them, often failing to adopt available solutions. Supported by an international staff, the WFC's 50 Councillors will propose ethical guidelines for national and international policies.Detailing how they will go about implementing the proposals, Jakob von Uexkull said the Council will help "introduce these into national parliaments via the e-Parliament, a global online network of democratically elected parliamentarians. Our first in a series of major ongoing campaigns will be on tackling global climate change."
Press Contact: Robert Turner
robert@worldfuturecouncil.org

www.worldfuturecouncil.org

If You See Something, Say Something

I checked out this exhibit at Hunter College last night with my friend Danny. Lots of cool exhibits, but these two were my favorite: The Guerrilla Nutrition Label folks are out to re-label products on supermarket shelves with labels that tell you about what's really important on the inside. So far, their stock includes labels for high-fructose corn syrup, trans fats, and sodium benzoate (a food additive/preservative). Print them out and head out to your nearest grocery store yourself.
I also loved the Rejected Letters to the Editor. As someone who has had lots of rejected letters to the editor, this project spoke to my heart. Particularly hilarious was the page on the site that shared the conversation stream in a listserv for letter-to-the-editor editors reacting to the project.
I always like to myself that we all can play a role in shaping the media we see, hear, and read. One of the best feedback loops newspapers have are the letters that we -- the readers (aka consumers) -- send in. Though the vast majority of them never get published, these letters still they provide important info for the paper. Now, we've all got a vast repository for all of those unpublished ones.

Green is the new Black

We just got word that GRUB has won the Nautilus Book Award in the food/cooking/nutrition category!

The Nautilus is a unique book award, recognizing authors and titles that contribute to our society’s awareness and well-being, and that embrace spiritual and ecological values such as compassion, sustainability, simplicity, and global peace.

Hey we got that PMA (part 2)

Bryant's Gotta Have It

spike lee posing for a photograph

Last night I met one of my artistic heroes--none other than Mr. Shelton Jackson Lee. Before screening Acts II and III of his documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, the San Francisco International Film Festival honored him with its Film Society Directing Award. After a really weird q and a with film critic Wesley Morris, Spike sat down three rows behind me.

Here was my chance.

After jumping some velvet contraption that was meant to keep me away from him, I introduced myself, gave him a copy of Grub, and had him sign my copy of Spike Lee's Gotta Have It.

This is one of my favorite books and has served as a constant source of inspiration. I actually kept a copy on my desk the whole time I was writing Grub. In addition to the full screenplay for Spike's first film She's Gotta Have It (which he hates now), it contains his journal before and during the making of the film. It's so inspiring to see him go from a rail-thin new kid on the block in the mid '80s to one of the most important filmmakers working today.

Spike has that PMA.

"Hey we got that PMA." --Bad Brains

So I was in Barnes and Noble (I know, I know) the other night in Oakland looking for Think and Grow Rich to give to my friend Jason Harvey for his birthday. Before I left, I had to make my usual stop by the cookbook section to a) see if they had copies of Grub in stock and b) surreptitiously face them forward if they weren’t already. I was happy to find several copies of Grub facing forward on the top shelf of their “featured cookbooks.” Thanks Barney!

As I was leaving, a beautifully designed cover of a cookbook on the new arrival shelf caught my attention. When I opened up the book and thumbed through, my eyes welled up with tears of joy. I was delighted to find a cookbook that most closely resembles the vibe that I imagine for my next book—artistic, modern, and fun. I finally found my muse--Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson.

Heidi is a San Francisco-based photographer, cookbook author, designer, and creator of the website 101 Cookbooks. She loves art and food. Check her out.

Heidi has that PMA