Help the Economy! Help Yourself!

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas, got to be with his or her family, and left feeling overstuffed and a little guilty, as I did, for the abundance of blessings. It's been a good holiday for me, and I'm going to refrain from any of my usual jeremiads against the materialism and acquisitiveness corrupting American society. Why rant and rave when you're satisfied?

I've had a number of emotional needs fulfilled the past few weeks. That makes me grateful. Now I'm going to be greedy and expose two items from my personal wish list that, after Christmas, I'm still pursuing.

The first is an essential for anyone interested in the culture and history of that wild territory of swamp, quail farms, and cracker settlements that spans the Florida-Georgia border. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings is best known for her classic novel The Yearling, which stands alongside Sounder, Where the Red Fern Grows, and perhaps A Day No Pigs Would Die in the tender coming-of-age-via-tragic-pet-death canon. But Rawlings was more than just a sentimentalist, and her observations of her poor, white neighbors are praiseworthy for their sensitivity and restraint. The latter is an especially honorable quality in a literary age in which the Southern grotesque was the rage (see Erskine Caldwell and Margaret Bourke-White's nearly repulsive book of photographs, Have You Seen Their Faces?)

Chief among Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' treatments of her north Florida environment is Cross Creek, an autobiography of her time there. However, reading summaries of her work, at the moment I'm equally attracted to Cross Creek Cookery, a work I hope to pair with its North Georgia cousin shortly. For a treacly modern and fanciful account of Rawlings' north Florida environment, watch the Michael J. Fox's Doc Hollywood, filmed in nearby Micanopy, a brief and quaint moss-strewn place south of Gainesville. (If you're looking for the view from the Georgia side of the border, Harry Crews and Janisse Ray are recommended.)

The next author is a continuance, stretched fifty miles south, of the theme--and a man whom I've been thinking of since Christmas, for no particular reason. Proud son of Zellwood, Florida, Charles H. Baker Jr. should be every thinking man's friend and every dipso's darling. He's such an extraordinary and unique type that there's almost nothing to say; he defies approach. With that in mind, I leave Baker's introduction to the writer who introduced me, thanks to the Oxford American's 2008 Best of the South issue. St. John Frizell uncovers the definitive gallant and travel guide. Whoever coined the term "an absorbing read" was surely thinking of Baker's life (make sure you click to page two and Baker's "lusty" take on Florida crackers).



For another writer from Baker's neck of the woods, albeit one drastically different, try Zora Neale Hurston.

At Least He's Not Earl Butz

“Bad choice Obama. Not progressive enough for a position that has regressed.” — Edwin S

“With this pick, I guess we can kiss goodbye any chance of a change in food policy in this country.” — jane

“Where’s your CHANGE now?” — mojo1988

I think it's fair to say that there's a general sense of disappointment among progressives over Barack Obama's Cabinet picks. The President-elect clearly favors pragmatism and experience over ideology and innovation. It's a pattern of decision-making that began publicly with Joe Biden and has been evident each week at the now customary nomination press conference. It's also one that has taken off some of Obama's revolutionary, "hope-mongering" sheen. A parade of hoary-headed technocrats from the Clinton administration does not immediately suggest a new start.

In Obama's defense competency should be an overriding qualification. I can hardly impugn a process that selects lieutenants based on their capability, and I'm comforted to know that in their hands the government will not jump its rails, an everyday confidence which at this moment shouldn't be taken for granted. It helps, too, to understand Obama's practiced and centrist Cabinet as a reaction to the mismanagement and extremism of the Bush Presidency. Hopefully, there is no Browny here, no Alberto Gonzales—and mercifully, no righteous political bloodlust, foreign policy built on abstraction, nor vulgar, corrosive displays of self-interest.

On the other hand, the opportunity for seismic change, promised ad nauseam during the campaign, is hardly apparent. Steven Chu, nominated for Secretary of Energy, at this point is a coruscating choice, but from where else among this team are visionary ideas or overdue revisions to policy going to come? Top-down. That's my answer and attenuated faith a month before the inauguration. I'm still sustained by the excitement of an incoming President who seems to be meditative, sincere about the issues that concern me, and emblematic of the modern world. He's got credit to use, and until he uses it, I'll look forward to the change we were all promised, mandated by Obama and carried out by his deputies.

That's how I'm going to approach Tom Vilsack, the tab for Secretary of Agriculture, with a healthy skepticism about my skepticism. Obama's still very much a Washington neophyte: He may have a breathtaking legislative agenda, but he needs people who can implement it, who know the room. And when it comes to the national food system, Vilsack certainly has standing relationships. As the two-term governor of the country's top corn-producing state, it's impossible not to have connections to the industrial corn industry and the huge federal subsidy program for that commodity. At the press conference Obama remarked, "Obviously, if you don't know agriculture, you're not going to become governor of Iowa." State-level agricultural authorities from around the nation are also praising his experience.

However, organic and sustainable proponents have been less than thrilled, particularly in light of Vilsack's most recent position analyzing the risks and benefits of genetically modified plant and animal products. The Organic Consumers Association fired, “[He] has a glowing reputation as being a schill for agribusiness biotech giants like Monsanto." For groups like OCA, Vilsack's ties to the corn industry conjure terrifying images of proprietary genetic manipulation, prodigal antibiotics use, a totally processed food supply, intensive monoculture farming with deleterious environmental effects, and purses swelled by large commercial lobbies.

None of that is a divergence from the status quo, and it's not hard to understand the collective sigh of frustration at Obama's announcement. Because the U.S.D.A. and its wild subsidization routines have been under attack by economists, ecologists, and nutritionists alike, it appeared to be the one place most ripe for radical alteration. Both practically and symbolically, Vilsack does nothing to encourage the belief it will happen. That's an unmitgated shame, as the position did not lack inspiring candidates.

On Tuesday, Reuters compiled an informed list of possible choices. Notably, Vilsack was absent:

• Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin: South Dakota, "Blue Dog Democrat," supports renewable fuels.
• Rep. Sanford Bishop: Georgia, conservative Democrat, African-American, would be Obama's first Southern appointee.
• Dennis Wolff: Pennsylvania, agriculture secretary, dairy farmer.
• Jill Long Thompson: Indiana, former representative and Undersecretary for Rural Development, lives on a farm.
• Gus Schumacher: Former Undersecretary of Agriculture for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services, favors sustainable agriculture.
• John Boyd Jr.: Founder and president of National Black Farmers Association, has led a class-action suit against the government for allegedly denying black farmers loans and other aid, farmer in Virginia.
• Karen Ross: Head of the California Association of Winegrape Growers, see below.
  

Better yet, Food Democracy Now! put together its own impressive wishlist (HT: Vimala). After Vilsack was named, the organization changed its focus to Undersecretary positions and added six individuals, who have also "been champions on issues of sustainability and standing up for independent family farmers as indicated by their life's work":

• Gus Schumacher: Former Massachusetts Commissioner of Agriculture, see above.
• Chuck Hassebrook: Executive Director, Center for Rural Affairs, Lyons, NE.
• Sarah Vogel: Former two-term Commissioner of Agriculture for North Dakota.
• Fred Kirschenmann: Organic farmer, Distinguished Fellow, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Ames, IA; President, Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, Pocantico Hills, NY.
• Mark Ritchie: Minnesota Secretary of State, former policy analyst in Minnesota's Department of Agriculture, co-founder of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Minneapolis, MN.
• Neil Hamilton: Attorney, Dwight D. Opperman Chair of Law and Professor of Law and Director, Agricultural Law Center, Drake University, Des Moines, IA.
• Doug O'Brien: Assistant Director at Ohio Department of Agriculture, former staff attorney and co-director for the National Agriculture Law Center in Arkansas; Reynoldsburg, OH.
• James Riddle: Organic farmer, founding chair of the International Organic Inspectors Association (IOIA), has served on the Minnesota Department of Agriculture's Organic Advisory Task Force since 1991, appointed to the USDA's National Organic Standards Board, serving on the Executive Committee for 5 years and was chair in 2005, Winona, MN.
• Kathleen Merrigan: Director, Agriculture, Food and Environment M.S./Ph.D. Program, Assistant Professor and Director of the Center on Agriculture; Food and the Environment, Tufts University; former Federal Agency Administrator U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Marketing Service; creator of the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990, mandating national organic standards and a program of federal accreditation, Boston, MA.
• Denise O'Brien: Organic farmer, founder of Women, Food, and Agriculture Network (WFAN), represented the interests of women in agriculture at the World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, organized a rural women's workshop for the 1996 World Food Summit in Rome, Italy; Atlantic, IA.
• Ralph Paige: Executive Director, Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund; served as presidential appointment to the 21st Century Production Agriculture Commission; participates on the Agriculture Policy Advisory Committee for Trade, the Cooperative Development Foundation, and the National Agricultural Research, Extension, Education & Economics Advisory Board, East Point, GA.
• Karen Barrett Ross: President of the California Winegrape Growers Association and Executive Director of the Winegrape Growers of America, Sacramento, CA.
  

So why Vilsack, why someone so far inside the machine when there are other bright, successful people with more impressive resumes? The experience justification looks flimsy unless Obama was after a specific type of experience, that is, with corn. I'm purely conjecturing:

Because he has backed ethanol and tax breaks for the industry, Vilsack might offer a bridge to eventual comprehensive energy reform. Ethanol is probably not a long-term alternative solution to the country's energy needs. (Even its status as a short-term fix is highly questionable due to the resources it pulls from the food system. Not only is corn necessary for ketchup, it's also an integral meal for the average cow before it becomes a hamburger. As we found out this Spring, when corn is diverted to ethanol, the price of basic food stuffs goes up. Yet, to play the devil's advocate from the foodie's perspective, maybe that's not entirely a bad thing. Michael Pollan will happily tell you America's food supply is artificially and absurdly cheap. Giving it proper value would level the playing field for organic products, as well as discourage overconsumption. Why not pay more for better goods--say, grass-fed beef--and eat less?) But corn and the infrastructure to process it are abundant. And besides satisfying his Midwestern constituency, Obama might consider ethanol strategically crucial to meeting his preliminary environmental and diplomatic goals.

Maybe Obama's just being a sly dog, and he plans on remodeling the nation's food system by gradually sucking the corn syrup out of it. If not, if the American people should only expect babysteps toward reduced subsidies and more incentives for ethanol, then Vilsack's appointment is a bitter pill. I explained my current attitude, in spite of my reservations, earlier in this post. There are many out there writing positive (and bromidic) reviews of the new Secretary of Agriculture. I suppose I'll add to them my own cliche: Like this "new rural economy" that Vilsack and Obama have touted, we'll just have to wait and see.


(Note: The initial version of this post suffered from serious grammatical and graphic flaws, attributable to my carelessness and deficient know-how. Apologies to all who stopped by and were offended by those homely information tables. I have deleted both. For Earl Butz's apologia for his subsidy program, watch the film King Corn and the filmmakers' interview with Butz in his nursing home.)

Your New Secretary of Agriculture Is...

TOM VILSACK.

Not as exciting as you'd hoped? For purely personal reasons, I was itching for somebody else. I'll have more on the reaction to Vilsack's nomination tomorrow. Today I've been slammed with overly tedious and completely inescapable "work."

But, so you can't say I never gave you anything, I leave you this evening with this: The Southern Foodways Alliance has a new Web site. Check it out.


Fried chicken makes me wish for summertime.

Week in Review

Yep, that was the sign we were looking for. The end of days is officially upon us. It snowed in New Orleans last Thursday (HT: Ed). God bless the unfortunate souls who were trying to catch a flight out of town. New Orleans being New Orleans, everyone was completely unprepared for the situation. My friend Chris had to wait at the airport for the snow to melt, "with about 4 millions other people trying to leave."

I spent a good part of the week working on HTML coding, among other things, and was unable to post. I hope all found Gene Baur illuminating. I've put together a quick primer on recent environmental and agricultural happenings to bring everybody up to date. Thanks to all for sending me info and apologies for any outdated links.

• "Collapse" was the byword of the week, as in the impending collapse of the big three automakers. I just wanted to make sure everybody was aware of that, as it seemed all the news agencies got the memo. Was "collapse" the right word? I don't think so. It implies utter destruction, as though the American automobile industry would be forever expunged from the face of the earth. "Organizational restructuring" is probably closer to what will happen, with or without a bailout package. But calmness and sober thinking are so boring. By the way, out of this crucible, Tennessee Senator Bob Corker could become a Republican star.
  
• Nicholas D. Kristof argued for a Secretary of Food with an insightful plea that hits all the major points of the "new food" issue. An excerpt:
  

  A Department of Agriculture made sense 100 years ago when 35 percent of Americans engaged in farming. But today, fewer than 2 percent are farmers. In contrast, 100 percent of Americans eat.

  Renaming the department would signal that Mr. Obama seeks to move away from a bankrupt structure of factory farming that squanders energy, exacerbates climate change and makes Americans unhealthy — all while costing taxpayers billions of dollars.

• The FDA has reversed its own ban on the extralabel use of cephalosporins before it goes into effect (HT: Dallas). According to Wattpoultry.com, extralabel use "occurs when a drug only approved for human use is used in animals, when a drug approved for one species of animal is used in another species or when a drug is used to treat a condition for which it was not approved." Cephalosporin is normally used in humans. Not suprisingly, the coalition Keep Antibiotics Working is not happy about this. From their press release:

  The reversal simply ignores the evidence on which FDA’s initial decision was based as well as other studies submitted to the Agency. One study directly correlates the use of cephalosporins in poultry with the rise of resistance to the very same drugs in the foodborne pathogen Salmonella in both humans and farm animals. Cephalosporins are the antibiotic treatment of choice for serious Salmonella infections in humans, which cause 1,300,000 U.S. illnesses each year. Increasing resistance is a problem because it leads to more severe illnesses resulting in a greater number of hospitalizations and deaths.

  Here's a little more on the topic from the Wall Street Journal:
  

  The Food and Drug Administration said it would continue allowing the widespread use of a class of powerful antibiotics in food-producing animals, making a last-minute reversal after calling the practice a public-health risk in July.

  The agency's bid this summer to ban many uses of cephalosporin drugs in cows, swine, chickens and other animals came under fire from the industry. Agriculture groups and animal-drug makers, including Pfizer Inc., said the antibiotics are needed to prevent many infectious diseases in animals.

• Nope, no neurological problems here. Keep moving along.... The FDA is urging more consumption of fish, and the National Fisheries Institute has no problem with that. The EPA says it was not consulted, even though the two agencies are supposed to work together on any changes to the mercury advisory:
  

  The Food and Drug Administration is urging the government to amend its advisory that women and children should limit how much fish they eat, saying that the benefits of seafood outweigh the health risks and that most people should eat more fish, even if it contains mercury.

  If approved by the White House, the FDA's position would reverse the government's current policy that certain groups -- women of childbearing years, pregnant women, nursing mothers, infants and children -- can be harmed by the mercury in fish and should limit their consumption.

  The FDA's recommendations have alarmed scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency, who in internal memos criticized them as "scientifically flawed and inadequate" and said they fell short of the "scientific rigor routinely demonstrated by EPA."

  The FDA sent its draft report, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post, to the White House Office of Management and Budget as part of the FDA's effort to update the existing health advisory. The report argued that nutrients in fish, including omega-3 fatty acids, selenium and other minerals could boost a child's IQ by three points.

  The Environmental Working Group does not agree.
• The EPA has exempted farms from reporting toxic fumes. Maybe it's just me, but I'm noticing a pro-big business, last-minute theme here:

  The Bush administration late Friday completed a regulation exempting farms from reporting releases of hazardous air pollution to federal, state and local authorities. The rule applies specifically to the gases from manure that are often responsible for odor problems.

  The Environmental Protection Agency said that the changes will allow responders to focus on spills and releases that require their attention. But environmentalists say the rule will make it difficult to track air pollution problems at farms.

  Large farms with hundreds of dairy cows or thousands of pigs will still have to report to local and state authorities.

• The E.U. adopted a climate change pact with expectations that the incoming President will be a more amenable confederate than George W. Bush against global warming. The transition will not be an easy one, especially considering the varying pollution rates of the member nations. It could be a hugely expensive project for Eastern Europe, as well as no small cost increase for the average citizen on the continent:
  

  The European leaders, particularly President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, who holds the union's rotating presidency, committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Europe by 20 percent before 2020 -- and by 30 percent if other countries make comparable pledges at a U.N. environment conference scheduled next year in Copenhagen.

  To reach their goals, the leaders pledged that 20 percent of their energy will come from renewable sources by 2020, leading to predictions of windmill farms across the European countryside and carpets of solar panels such as those that were recently installed atop the Vatican in Rome.

  In a measure of the expenses the pledge seemed likely to entail, only about 8.5 percent of Europe's energy now comes from renewable sources, much of it from hydroelectric or nuclear power stations. Experts predicted that steps needed to reach the targets could raise electricity bills in Europe by as much as 15 percent for industrial users and add nearly $200 to the average household's annual bill.

• Lastly, I hope everyone enjoyed the Feast of Guadalupe last Thursday and Friday. I have one criticism: If you're going to hold a bilingual mass, please practice your Spanish pronunciation. Other than that, the events were highly enjoyable, especially the "pre-Hispanic dancing." The clip below gives you a sense of the rhythm and performance. However, the dancers I saw had cowboy hats. There were also demons, whips, and a sagging prosthetic bottom.
  

Interview with Gene Baur of Farm Sanctuary

As an introduction, I'm going to borrow from my friends at Flagpole and the review of Gene Baur's book:

Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds about Animals and Food fires another salvo in the war against the established food system in America. Where Michael Pollan described the insidiousness of the corn industrial process, Gene Baur takes the reader to one of the ugliest destinations of all that Midwestern maize. If it’s not in your Coke or your fuel tank, it’s battening the nation’s meat supply at some massively dense feedlot.

Baur’s book is a striking indictment of stockyards, slaughterhouses and agribusiness in general, which has everything to do with the robotic efficiency of an assembly-line factory and nothing with the nurturing ideal of a family farm. Baur investigates the off-hand cruelty with which animals are treated and makes a personal plea for the compassionate treatment, in all phases of their lives, of our four-legged food.

Baur is the co-founder and president of Farm Sanctuary, one of the country’s leading farm animal protection organizations and food-advocacy groups. While documenting conditions at a stockyard, he was inspired to start the refuge after a sheep, cast aside and left in a pile of dead animals, raised her head and looked at him. “Hilda” became the first resident of Farm Sanctuary, and each year the organization rescues hundreds of sick and mistreated animals unfit for processing.

I've been sitting on this for too long; considering Mr. Baur's book tour occurred over the summer, I'm sure he would agree. Better late than never, right? In my defense the delay has helped me bridge whatever gulf remained in my mind between advocates for a humane food system and those for an organic one. The differences are only microscopic, but humane treatment doesn't necessitate organic standards and vice versa. However, each assumes the other, specifically by attempting to remove animals from feedlots, assembly-line abattoirs, and the industrial food machine. All parties support the fundamental principles of respect for life, ecology, and natural process. Conceivably, you could eat an organic cow that was flogged all its days, but that's not likely.

For the record, this was not a completely disinterested interview from either side since I gave Baur my background, namely: The cows have it pretty good. Lots of acres to roam around and chew the fescue. But the cows got me thinking as a kid. Where did they go after they went to the sale barn? Why did they become totally invisible after they left the farm? And was that Bessie wrapped in cellophane at the Publix down the road? And if it wasn't, who was it? So I asked some questions, got some unsatisfactory answers. And I realized [...] my mission was to go out and talk about farming and food and resuscitate a rich body of knowledge and culture that is being lost.

Gene Baur's answers are in bold below:

I've read the story about Hilda and the inspiration for founding Farm Sanctuary. Were you always concerned about animal welfare? I imagine growing up in Hollywood you didn't have much contact beyond the retail side of food.

I grew up in the hills and was intrigued and inspired by wild animals there (deer, coyotes, skunks, raccoons, snakes, frogs), and as a boy, I had a cat, Tiger, who I loved. But, I didn’t think much about the animals’ bodies on my plate. As time went, I came to feel more strongly about the need to confront animal cruelty, which I also see as part of a larger pattern of societal violence that needs to be confronted.

What do you see as Farm Sanctuary's ultimate goal? I think people might be confused at first, especially those with few questions about the food industry, and think you work solely on the micro-level giving refuge to sick animals. What's the macro goal?

The macro goal is to challenge assumptions about how we treat other animals, and to forge a better, more respectful relationship with other animals. Acting with kindness to other animals is good for them and us. Farm animals are among the most intensely exploited and abused, and in grave need of our attention.

I think most people would say that Georgia is behind most other states as far as raising the consumer consciousness about food. Our total number of farmers markets is woeful, despite Georgia Organics best efforts. You could probably ascribe a good portion of that blame to the poultry lobby, as chickens are big business here in the Peach State. Without humane local options, what do you think is the best method for Georgians to achieve compassionate treatment of their food supply?

I think consumer consciousness is lacking in most states, but I agree that in states with powerful animal industries (like the poultry industry in Georgia), there are additional pressures and mechanisms that serve to keep consumers in the dark, and maintain the status quo.

To rephrase, Georgians overall like to elect steak-eating, free market-loving Republicans to the highest offices. They've got agribusiness interests in their back pocket. Local alternatives to big-box retailers are not numerous. What should we do to implement change legislatively? On the national level, should the solutions be top-down or bottom-up?

I think solutions need to come from both directions, from the top down and bottom up, and through changing consumer patterns. It’s very important to recognize that our purchasing choices can have a major impact, as we essentially vote every time we spend a dollar. I’d encourage Georgians to buy vegan foods at farmer’s markets or other retail outlets that provide healthful plant foods, and to become engaged in the political process by expressing you opinions about pending legislative items. (People can learn of these by contacting Farm Sanctuary.)

How would you respond to those people who object that a compassionate food system simply wouldn't feed America? That the nation needs factory farms and "efficient" assembly stockyards because family farms simply can't meet demand?

The production of foods derived from animals is inherently inefficient, and there are many unrecognized external costs. We can produce more food and healthier food by eating plants directly rather than by feeding them to farm animals.

I think this one is a related question to the previous one. Does the system have to be revolutionized? Can you count on big retailers and food operators to buy humane? Or do we need to change the entire way of doing things? Of course, that's a huge idea because it's not just about food, it's about agriculture and land-use policies and about increased pricing.

I think change will occur on various tracks. I believe there can be small adjustments on the part of large companies to eliminate some of the most egregious cruelties, which are positive steps, but I believe we need a completely reformed food system. Rather than relying on consolidation, globalization and industrialization, I think we need to get back to more of a community based system, with smaller farms producing food for local markets.

I'd like to thank Mr. Baur and encourage everyone to read his book. It would be educational to interview a farmer next, someone who doesn't meet all of the organic criteria but still considers him- or herself a "good," conscientious farmer. I'll see what I can do.

Do You Like Totally Cool Stuff?

To be entertained, engaged, challenged? Are you interested in art or the fundamental condition of humankind? Ever curious about the caged bird and why it insists on singing? Do you want to explore that recessed territory where the intellect meets the viscera?

If so, I'd recommend heading out to your nearest Borders, Barnes & Noble, or other purveyor of fine literary vittles. For this is happening today, and Peter Guralnick is sort of awesome....



P.S. I've got a pretty nifty interview coming on Monday.

A Quick Note on Broccoli and the Blog

If you haven't noticed already, I'm retooling the layout of the blog and adding new features and widgets. Please forgive any untidiness during this time. Because of its size issues, the calendar has been suffering from all sorts of permutations. For the time being, I've decided to move it from the sidebar to the bottom of the page beneath the posts. It should make the events more readable. (I'd also like to stop a moment and give wholehearted thanks for Wikipedia. I think we all take its information resources for granted, but as a blogger wary of copyright infringement, I am inexpressibly grateful for Wikimedia Commons and its archive of photographs, i.e. broccoli.)

The giant picture is a rather loud transition to my next topic. There's been some discussion as to why the broccoli leaves are yellowing. I had thought, based on some past discussion with Celia Barss over at Woodland Gardens, there actually might be too much nitrogen in the soil. However, after some cursory googling, the answer is indubitably more simple and obvious: cold. August and September are average harvest times in the Northern Hemisphere. It's been unseasonably chilly in North Georgia this year. If you're florets are limping along and the leaves are getting puny, your plants probably need some nighttime cover.

Here's what the The Guardian says on the matter:

Calabrese needs to grow steadily and so will need a fair bit of attention. Keep weeds back and make sure you water your crop in dry weather and protect under cloches if cool weather sets in (while the leaves of calabrese are hardy, the flowering shoots are susceptible to frost). As your sprouting broccoli begins to flourish, you may find you need to stake it and/or build soil up around the stem to support it. Remove any yellowing or fallen leaves and burn them to prevent fungal diseases setting in.

"The Price of Sugar" at Cine

I just added to the calendar an event happening tonight in Athens at Cine. Since the calendar still needs to be resized, I'm going to repeat the description here:

Film: The Price of Sugar, sponsored by 1000Faces Coffee



Brownie Competition and Coffee Tasting at 6pm
Movie starts at 7pm
Admission is $15
All proceeds go to Bottles for Babies

"We will also be pouring our Finca El Injerto for the first time. It's good! I've been drinking it all morning. Taste notes from this morning suggested hints of Spanish Red Wine and Meyer Lemon."--Benjamin Meyers, 1000Faces owner/roaster/hustler.

Here's Cine's description of the film:

1,000 FACES COFFEE hosts a special evening of coffee, brownies, and a screening of the documentary film THE PRICE OF SUGAR. In the Dominican Republic, a tropical island-nation, tourists flock to pristine beaches unaware that a few miles away thousands of dispossessed Haitians have toiled under armed-guard on plantations harvesting sugarcane, much of which ends up in U.S. kitchens. They work grueling hours and frequently lack decent housing, clean water, electricity, education or healthcare. Narrated by Paul Newman, the documentary follows Father Christopher Hartley, a charismatic Spanish priest, as he organizes some of this hemisphere's poorest people to fight for their basic human rights. This film raises key questions about where the products we consume originate and at what human cost they are produced.

Fowl Exhaust

If you ever find yourself in the Gainesville, Georgia area and you're struck with a sudden irresistible curiosity to learn about local environmental and agricultural issues, then Debbie Gilbert at the Times is your go-to gal. Today she reminds us the city's not called "the poultry capital of the world " for nothing, answering that age-old question that everyone who's ever waited at a stoplight behind one of those eighteen-wheel chicken trucks has asked herself: Is it OK for me to breathe this?

[R]esearchers at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health recently analyzed the types of bacteria that end up on (and inside of) cars that drive behind chicken trucks. Johns Hopkins is located near the Delmarva Peninsula, a region that comprises portions of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia and has a high concentration of poultry farms. Researchers drove for 17 miles behind chicken trucks with their cars’ air conditioning turned off and the windows rolled down.

Afterward, they found elevated levels of bacteria on surfaces both inside and outside the cars. They also tested the air in the cars and found increased concentrations of airborne bacteria.

Some of these bacterial strains were resistant to three common types of antibiotics used to treat infections in humans. Those drugs also are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use as feed additives for broiler poultry.

However, the study provided no evidence that anyone has ever gotten sick from driving behind a chicken truck.

I was raised with much stronger concentrations of the nasty stuff, and the exposure hasn't made me chronically ill yet. In fact, my daddy said they used to put chicken manure on the top of my head, and that's the reason I'm as tall as I am now. When I do get sick, my family usually blames my "worminess." They're right; I'm pretty wormy, but maybe I had too much nitrogen growing up. (By the way, that's not me in the picture.)

If the thought of motes of chicken bacteria flying in your face didn't make you a little nauseous, then read this: Coal Mining Debris Rule Is Approved. Why not dump mountaintop rock and dirt in nearby streams and rivers? I mean, they're just sitting there doing nothing, indolently purling away.

Lean, Mean Organic Machine

The New York Times has this story of a California pediatrician who ate nothing but organic food for three years to see if it would improve his health. The verdict? He's still eating organic. He says he gets sick less, and his urine is now a brilliant golden color, which is supposed to be a very good thing.

It's not surprising that he found eating organic while traveling a difficult task. His solution, in bold below, should have practical value for everyone.

At home, he said, the organic routine was relatively easy. Organic food is widely available, not just at stores like Whole Foods but at traditional supermarkets. He also shopped at farmer’s markets and joined a local community-supported agriculture group, or C.S.A. Because he bought less meat, the costs tended to balance out. And his family (two of his four children still live at home) largely went along with the experiment.

On the road, though, life was more challenging. In corporate cafeterias and convenience stores, he looked for stickers that began with the number 9 to signify organic; stickers on conventionally grown produce begin with 4.

Pictured: organic collards from Woodland Gardens in Winterville, Georgia.

Michael Pollan, Michael Pollan, Michael Pollan

Guess who's the keynote speaker at the Georgia Organics 12th Annual Conference? You got it: paladin of the dinner plate, Michael Pollan. His bestselling book, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, is almost by itself responsible for the current crusade of fervid localists and foodies against the inner aisles of the grocery store, stacked as they are with the polysyllabic preservatives and refined sugars of the corn industrial complex. Count me among the converted, although my own personal agricultural history brought me to his book in the first place. We all hope this is a lasting revolution, that Pollan can be our Harriet Beecher Stowe for a prismatic and vexed issue in a like-minded world.

Simply put, this is a huge coup for Georgia Organics. The celebrity that Pollan brings to the conference should make it the most successful yet. Beside, it's in Atlanta. Attendance will be through the roof. I'm having goosebumps with the hope that this could be a watershed event for the state.

Michael Pollan would be enough, but Georgia Organics has absolutely outdone itself. Have a gander at this preliminary schedule of workshops:

• Whole Farm Planning: Alex Hitt (confirmed)

• Mushrooms: Tradd Cotter (confirmed)

• Intensive Urban Agriculture: Will Allen (confirmed)

• Urban Homesteading: The Dervaes Family (requested)

Personally, I'm excited about each one, but Will Allen, a recent recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, is another unbelievable guest. Here's a video of him talking about his work.