National News

New Food Safety Report

Post Date: Thursday, September 24th, 2009

A new food safety report, “Bridging the GAPS: Strategies to Improve Produce Safety, Preserve Farm Diversity and Strengthen Local Food Systems,” was recently released by Food and Water Watch and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. This timely report shows how current government and industry protocols and regulations intended to promote food safety often have the opposite effect by placing unfair burdens on farmers, confusing consumers, damaging the environment, and hindering the growth of local food systems.

Topics: National News, Uncategorized |

USDA’s Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Initiative Launched Last Week

Post Date: Thursday, September 24th, 2009

The Department of Agriculture recently announced a new initiative, “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food,” (KYF2) led by Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan. According to the Department, this initiative “is the focus of a task force with representatives from agencies across USDA who will help better align the Department’s efforts to build stronger local and regional food systems.” This week alone, about $65 million in funding for KYF2 was announced. “Americans are more interested in food and agriculture than at any other time since most families left the farm,” said Merrigan. “‘Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food’ seeks to focus that conversation on supporting local and regional food systems to strengthen American agriculture by promoting sustainable agricultural practices and spurring economic opportunity in rural communities.”

Topics: National News |

Local Organic Food & Farming Can Help Revitalize the Economy

Post Date: Thursday, February 12th, 2009

Opportunity Knocks When it Comes to a Local Food Economy
By Olga Bonfiglio

Common Dreams, February 6, 200

Community-based agriculture has the potential for creating jobs, developing small business entrepreneurships and keeping precious dollars in the community.

“As manufacturing jobs decrease, food jobs are increasing,” said Dr. Kami Pothukuchi, associate professor of urban planning at Wayne State University in Detroit.

This is especially good news for a state like Michigan whose economic engine has been dependent on the declining automobile industry.

Out of a total GDP of $381 billion, agriculture is the state’s second largest industry pulling in $63.7 billion annually compared to $68.4 billion from manufacturing, according to the Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA) and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

However, the present “industrialized food system” is made up of a handful of “mega-corporations” that control food production, processing, distribution and preparation, said Pothukuchi. Change to a community-based system is difficult because these corporations have a lot at stake in keeping the current system.

The U.S. industrialized food system was designed in the 1950s to increase production in order to provide the nation with cheap and plentiful food that was easily accessible. As a result, the United States became a top food producer in the world.

A variety of food-related jobs in processing, marketing and distribution also emerged even though the number of farmers declined. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Census (USDA) reported that farms increased in size averaging 155 acres in 1935, a peak year when the country had 6.8 million farms, compared to 2002 when farms averaged 441 acres and numbered 2.1 million farms.

It is important to remember that the industrialized food system was developed at a time when most American businesses were creating systems for mass production and economies of scale. Because volume is critical to the profitability of this system, farming methods developed to support a large-scale, energy-intensive monoculture that uses huge amounts of water and chemicals for herbicides, insecticides, and fertilizers. Tons of animal waste products also accumulate and pollute land, water and air because factory farming methods keep animals indoors and free of disease instead of allowing them to graze in pastures.

Actually, the cost of the industrialized food system outweighs its benefits. For example, most food in the industrialized system ends up in supermarkets after traveling an average 1,300 miles to get there. Fruits and vegetables may spend seven to fourteen days in transit. So freshness and taste are sacrificed for the products’ ability to travel.

Transporting products has been possible through cheap fuel. However, when oil reached over $100 a barrel last spring, the expense incurred over such long distances proved problematic. For example, world food prices averaged an increase of 43 percent over the past year, which inadvertently created a global food crisis that is causing political and economical instability and social unrest in both poor and developed nations.

Unseasonable droughts in grain-producing nations also affects high food prices just as falling stockpiles, the increased use of biofuels in developed countries and increasing demands for meat products in Asia’s middle class, according the BBC (May 2008).

The Consumer Price Index estimates that U.S. retail food prices increased in 2007 by only 4 percent, but this is the largest spike in 17 years-with more expected to come.

Industrial farming practices were developed when world population was only 2 billion. While these practices increased the carrying capacity of the earth then, they are slowly destroying the earth’s long-term carrying capacity for today’s population, which is 6.7 billion and climbing.

Over the past two decades as the industrialized food system has expanded to the global level, concerns over food safety have emerged, like the recent tainted food imports from China.

The industrialized food system has had a detrimental effect on the local economy, said Pothukuchi. Our food system should be a community-based system that revolves around small, polycultural farms that practice sustainable agriculture, preserve regional biodiversity and help build local economies. This is already being done in many ways.

First, local food networks like community gardens, food co-ops, Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA), farmers’ markets, and seed savers groups keep money in the community.

Second, as more people prefer organic food products, organic farming represents a profitable alternative for local economic growth and sustainable agriculture since organic farmers tend to sell to local markets (within 150 miles). More acreage is being dedicated to organic farming. From 1997 to 2005, the number of U.S. certified organic acres grew by 63 percent, while Michigan certified organic farmland increased by 166 percent.

In actuality, the number of industrialized farms converting to organic farming methods remains steady, but small. Michigan’s 45,500 certified organic acres comprise only 0.4 percent of the state’s total farmland and 1 percent of the total 4,000,000 certified organic acres in the country according to the Michigan Organic Farm and Food Alliance (MOFFA). But the potential for growth is there, especially when organic food processors/handlers are figured into the economic mix. The USDA reports that there were over 3,000 organic-certified facilities nationwide in 2004, with 41 percent of those located on the Pacific Coast and almost 800 in California alone.

Local organic food is admittedly more expensive than food from large, industrialized farms, however, organic advocates claim that prices in the industrialized food system are cheap because their true cost omits governmental price supports, direct payments or tax breaks and road infrastructure.

Third, colleges and universities across the country are looking for ways to support sustainable agriculture. One way they are doing it is by supplying their cafeterias with food grown by local farmers. These institutions teach students how to grow backyard and community gardens as well as food-related careers like urban farming. Pothukuchi started an urban gardening program at Wayne State, which is distinguished as the largest inner-city campus with a comprehensive food systems program that is not run by an agriculture school.

Some areas of the state are actively recruiting youth for community-based farming careers through hands-on learning situations. The 4-H Entrepreneurs Club in Kalkaska County has youth pick and buy produce at area farms in order to sell it at five different farmers markets. There are similar programs in Detroit and Monroe County.

Fourth, regions like Grand Traverse in the northwestern lower peninsula, are rebuilding their local economies through agriculture by forming partnerships among businesspeople, economic developers, schools, grocers, restaurateurs and food retailers, reported the Great Lakes Bulletin News Service. As these partnerships work to bring more food-related jobs to the area, they not only support local farmers but they also protect precious income-producing farmlands from being overtaken by urban sprawl.

The Michigan Land Use Institute (MLUI) speculates that the Grand Traverse region could stimulate more job growth and entrepreneurship by supporting its 2,229 farms through cooperative efforts like the Food and Farm Network. Moreover, a 2006 MLUI study found that farms could generate 1,889 new jobs across the state and $187 million in new personal income by selling more fresh produce locally.

Fifth, state programs can provide yet another opportunity for local economic development, like the MDA’s Agricultural Innovation Program. This competitive grant seeks to establish, retain, expand, attract or develop value-added processing and production operations in Michigan through innovative financing assistance to processors, agribusinesses, producers, local units of government and legislatively-authorized commodity boards in Michigan.

All these efforts for change, however, have barely dented the deeply-entrenched industrialized food system. Michigan residents, for example, spend $26 billion on food with only 10 percent from the state’s farmers, according to a 2001 MLUI study.

“Michigan has the second most diverse agriculture in the United States [with 150 crops],” said Pothukuchi. “We could add another $2.6 billion to the state’s economy if we increased production of local food by another 10 percent.”

Olga Bonfiglio is a professor at Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and author of Heroes of a Different Stripe: How One Town Responded to t…. She has written for several national magazines on the subjects of social justice and religion. Her website is http://www.olgabonfiglio.com/. Contact her at olgabonfiglio AT yahoo DOT com.

Reprinted from the Organic Consumers Association website.

Topics: Health and Nutrition, National News, Partners & Other Links |

Results of the third school nutrition dietary assessment study published

Post Date: Monday, February 2nd, 2009

Journal of the American Dietetic Association presents study findings and policy implications for improving the health of US children and adolescents

St. Louis, MO, USA, February 1, 2009 – A special Supplement to the February 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association presents findings from the recently released Third School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study (SNDA-III), conducted by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., as well as research from other studies using SNDA-III data. Sponsored by the Food and Nutrition Service of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), SNDA-III assesses the quality and contributions of the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP), longstanding government efforts to bring good food to the children of America.

The National School Lunch Program (NSLP), created in 1946, currently operates in nearly all public and many private schools in the United States, providing subsidized meals to more than 30 million children each school day. More than 10 million children also take advantage of the School Breakfast Program (SBP), which became a permanent federal program in 1975.

SNDA-III examines the school food environment, children’s dietary behaviors at school and outside of school and child overweight/obesity. SNDA-III was based on a nationally representative sample of 130 public School Food Authorities (districts that offer federally subsidized school meals), 398 schools within those districts and 2,314 public school students in grades 1-12 in 287 of these schools. Data were collected in the second half of school year 2004-2005 from district foodservice directors and their staff, school foodservice managers, principals, students and their parents. In addition, field interviewers who were collecting data from students and parents observed and recorded the types of competitive foods available in visited schools.

Supplement Guest Editor Mary Story, PhD, RD, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, emphasizes the importance of the SNDA-III study. She writes, “Results of SNDA-III show that many schools have improved the nutritional quality of the NSLP and SBP school meals and foods sold outside of the reimbursable meal programs (competitive foods). However, there is much more room for improvement. Schools need to do even more to reduce the availability of high-calorie, low-nutrient foods and make school meals more nutritious. Although the majority of US schools offer breakfasts and lunches that meet the standards for key nutrients (such as protein, vitamins A and C, calcium and iron), reimbursable school meals remain too high in saturated fat and sodium, and children are not consuming enough fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Many public schools are constrained in providing better meals because of limited funds. It is time to reexamine the formulas used to set national reimbursement rates with reference to the costs of producing and serving school meals that meet the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005.”

“As an Institute of Medicine expert panel considers revisions to the meal patterns and nutrition standards for USDA’s school meal programs and Congress takes up reauthorization of the school nutrition programs again in 2009, the SNDA-III findings are particularly important,” commented Anne Gordon, PhD, a senior researcher at Mathematica in Princeton, NJ, who led the SNDA-III analysis. “Future studies will look back to SNDA-III to examine how school meals and school food environments have changed after implementation of subsequent federal policy initiatives. SNDA-III data could also be used to estimate the potential effects of proposed changes in policy on schoolchildren’s diets.”

Clare Miller, MS, RD, a nutrition consultant and member of the American Dietetic Association School Nutrition Dietetic Practice Group, offers a commentary on the key findings of SNDA-III, and identifies many areas of concern for food and nutrition professionals, as well as for policymakers and parents. She notes, for example, that few schools provided lunches that met the recommendations in the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for fiber and none of the schools met the recommended sodium limitations. Also, she discusses the availability of competitive foods in public schools and how, regardless of whether children ate a school lunch, the competitive foods purchased were generally low-nutrient, energy-dense foods, including candy, desserts, salty snacks, french fries, muffins, donuts, sweet rolls, toaster pastries and caloric beverages other than milk or 100% fruit juice.

In a second commentary, Nancy Montanez Johner, Undersecretary, Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services at the US Department of Agriculture, emphasizes the need for studies such as SNDA-III to address critical challenges that remain to make the programs as effective as they can be in meeting the needs of participating children. Although more than 70% of schools serve meals that meet standards for many nutrients that contribute to healthful diets, few schools (6% to 7%) met all nutrition standards in school year 2004-2005, primarily because most meals served contain too much fat, too much saturated fat or too few calories. Although most schools offer the opportunity to select a balanced meal, few students make the more healthful choice.

The Special Supplement continues with nine research contributions coauthored by staff from Mathematica that expand on the findings of SNDA-III. The first describes the background and study design including complete details of the sampling methods and study limitations. “Because the SNDA-III study is comprehensive, recent and nationally representative, it provides not only a clear picture of the meals currently eaten by many of our nation’s children, but also a strong foundation for future policy development and research,” said Mary Kay Crepinsek, a senior researcher at Mathematica who oversaw the compilation of the special supplement.

Four articles present the central SNDA-III results regarding the nutrient content of school meals as offered and served, students’ nutrient intakes on school days, foods offered in school meals and in breakfasts and lunches consumed by students and the availability and consumption of competitive foods in school.

Two further articles examine students’ consumption of low-nutrient, energy-dense foods at home, school or other locations and the relationship of the school food environment to their dietary behaviors. Two final articles tie the SNDA-III results to the data on children’s body mass index to assess the effects of the school meal programs, the school environment and dietary behaviors on children’s weight status and child obesity. The Supplement closes with a summary of the findings and policy implications.

The Supplement is published with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “Improving the nutritional quality of the foods that schools serve their students – and holding officials accountable for that quality – is critically important if the country hopes to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic,” said C. Tracy Orleans, senior scientist and distinguished fellow at the Foundation. “Results from the latest national dietary assessment illustrate the progress that has been made as well as the problems we still confront. They definitely should help guide local, state and national policy-makers.”

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These articles appear in a Special Supplement to the Journal of the American Dietetic Association entitled “The School Food Environment, Children’s Diets, and Obesity: Findings from the Third School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study,” published in February 2009 by Elsevier. Access to the Supplement is available at www.adajournal.org. Support for the special Supplement was provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The SNDA-III study was conducted by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., under a contract with the USDA Food and Nutrition Service.

Topics: Health and Nutrition, National News |

Obama’s New Chef Skewers School Lunches

Post Date: Friday, January 30th, 2009

Tara Parker-Pope on Health

New York Times

January 29, 2009

Before he agreed to cook for the Obama family in the White House, Chicago chef Sam Kass was already talking about changing the way American children eat.

During weekly Tuesday gatherings at the Jane Adams Hull-House Museum in Chicago, Mr. Kass hosted “Rethinking Soup,” which he described as “a communal event where we will eat delicious, healthy soup and have fresh, organic conversation about many of the urgent social, cultural, economic and environmental food issues that we should be addressing.”

In May, over a meal of locally-produced beef and barley soup, Mr. Kass lamented the sorry state of the National School Lunch Program, which provides low-cost or free lunches to schoolchildren. He noted that what gets served up to kids is influenced by government agricultural subsidies. As a result, he says, meals served to students are low in vegetables and disproportionately high in fat, additives, preservatives and high-fructose corn syrup. (He also links the high consumption of sugary foods and food additives to learning difficulties and attention deficit disorder, although the medical community remains divided on that issue.)

Here’s the text of his talk, as posted on the Hull House Kitchen Web site.

Providing our children healthy food at school, it is easy to say but a monumental challenge to realize. I will quickly give a lay of the School Lunch landscape as it stands, and then let’s hear from our guests.

Malnutrition stemming from the Great Depression had disqualified many potential soldiers from being eligible to fight in World War II; this legacy was still vivid in the minds of our leaders as the U.S. began preparing for the next fight against the Soviet Union. In response, the government launched the National School Lunch Act as a means to boost overall health and nutrition of the population in 1946. Today the program serves about 100,000 public and nonprofit private schools feeding 28 million children a day.

The National School Lunch program also serves another vital role in our agricultural system. The government subsidizes various agricultural industries, creating overproduction in commodities such as beef, pork and dairy. This overproduction depresses prices, endangering the vitality of producers. The U.S. government purchases the overproduction it has stimulated and then disposes of the excess by giving it to schools. In return for the government donation, the schools have to ensure that the lunches reach basic nutritional requirements as set by the government.

In 2003, U.S.D.A. spent $939.5 million dollars buying surplus commodities for School Lunch. Two-thirds of that bought meat and dairy, with little more than one quarter going to vegetables that were mostly frozen; and we should not forget that potatoes are the top selling vegetable in our country. The problem that arose is that between 80 and 85 percent of schools fail the basic government standards for the percentage of fat in the lunches due to the food it supplies schools.

There are a couple major repercussions of this program felt by our children. The first is their ability to learn. There is overwhelming evidence that confirms that additives of colors and preservatives common in lunchroom food hinder a child’s ability to learn. In addition, the abundance of high fructose corn syrup in lunches and snacks has been shown to have a direct link to the attention deficit disorder epidemic.

The second is physical health. According to the Physicians’ Committee for Responsible Medicine and the International Journal of Pediatric Obesity, by 2010 nearly half of the children in North America will be overweight or obese.

Type 2 diabetes is the new name for adult onset diabetes; the name was changed due to the fact that children are now suffering from this form of diet-induced diabetes. Indeed, the youngest generation might very well live substantially shorter lives than their parents due to diseases related to obesity.

So it is in this context that the speakers who have joined us today spend their lives working. With us is Josephine Lauer from the Organic School Project, which is now working in six schools trying to cook fresh healthy food for students in Chicago; Jean Saunders from the Healthy Schools Campaign, which is doing groundbreaking work in creating a healthy learning environment of which food is a central component; Stephen Menyhart, the brilliant chef of Perspectives-Calumet Charter School; and Angela Mason, coordinator of school and community gardens for the Chicago Botanic Garden.

And if you want to know how Mr. Kass thinks more people should be eating, check out this menu from his private chef business, Inevitable Table. Menu items include citrus salad with fennel, oranges and grapefruit and orange vinaigrette; ancho chili rubbed pork loin with rapini and polenta; and braised chicken in Madeira with root vegetables and prunes, Himalayan red rice, and sautéed escarole with pine nuts.

A new direction for school lunches in the future? We can hope!

Topics: Education, Health and Nutrition, National News |

National ‘Fruit and Vegetables - More Matters’ Month is Now

Post Date: Tuesday, September 16th, 2008

Produce for Better Health Foundation

For Immediate Release
September 15, 2008

For More Information Contact:
Jill Le Brasseur
Communications Specialist
Produce for Better Health Foundation
Tel: 302-235-2329
Email: jlebrasseur@pbhfoundation.org
TAKE YOUR CHILD TO THE SUPERMARKET DURING NATIONAL FRUITS & VEGGIES-MORE MATTERS MONTH

New Kids Activities Available Free Online

Wilmington, Del. - September is National Fruits & Veggies-More Matters® Month! In honor of this celebration, the Produce for Better Health Foundation website team has developed “Take Your Child to the Supermarket” activities to help parents introduce the bountiful variety of fruits and vegetables to their children. These materials are available to everyone online, free of charge. Just print them out and plan a trip to the store!

The “Take Your Child to the Supermarket” materials were designed as a series of fun, educational activities that encourage parents to get involved in teaching their children about fruits and vegetables during a trip to their favorite grocery retailer. The activities are age appropriate for kids four through ten years old, but may be appropriate for kids a little younger or a little older depending on the individual child. They are designed to encourage children to eat more fruits and vegetables.

The “Take Your Child to the Supermarket” activities give parents new tools to help them engage the whole family in the shopping experience and teach children that fruits and veggies can be fun in an entertaining, memorable way. The activity pages can also be printed out by teachers to provide a way to reinforce nutrition lessons while the kids enjoy a fun game.

The new activities include:
• Eat Your Colors Everyday - It’s important to eat a variety of colorful fruits and vegetables everyday. This activity encourages kids to find five different fruits and vegetables in each of five color groups.
• I’m Stuck on Fruits & Veggies - This activity encourages children to collect the PLU stickers from each piece of fresh fruit or veggie eaten at home and place them on the “I’m Stuck on Fruits & Veggies” card. When the card is full, the child can receive a special treat and then begin another card!
• All Forms Count - Fruits and vegetables come in many different forms, fresh, frozen, canned, dried, and 100 percent juice, and they’re all good tasting and packed with good nutrition! This activity encourages children to check off the different forms of fruits and veggies they find as they explore the supermarket!
“Parents have a tremendous influence on their children,” said Elizabeth Pivonka, Ph.D., R.D., president and CEO of Produce for Better Health Foundation (PBH) the nonprofit entity behind the Fruits & Veggies-More Matters national public health initiative. “Taking a little extra time at the grocery store to interact with kids and single out fruits and vegetables as important could make those kids more willing to give healthy fruits and veggies another try. We hope to help moms by offering the ‘Take Your Child to the Supermarket’ activities as a fun way for kids to learn about good nutrition.”

The new “Take Your Child to the Supermarket” materials can be printed from the Fruits & Veggies-More Matters website, www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org. The website also features great tips for adding extra fruits and vegetables to the whole family’s diet, from user-friendly cooking advice and recipes, meal planning help, nutrition information and interactive areas where parents can have their questions answered by other parents or a registered dietitian.

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About Produce for Better Health Foundation
Produce for Better Health Foundation (PBH) is a non-profit 501 (c) (3) consumer education foundation whose purpose is to motivate more people to eat more fruits and vegetables to improve public health. PBH is a member and co-chair of the National Fruit & Vegetable Alliance (NFVA), consisting of government agencies, non-profit organizations, and industry working to collaboratively and synergistically achieve increased nationwide access and demand for all forms off fruits and vegetables for improved public health. This vision of the NFVA is a nation in which half of the foods Americans eat are fruits and vegetables. Fruits & Veggies-More Matters is the nation’s largest public-private, fruit and vegetable nutrition education initiative with Fruit and Vegetable Nutrition Coordinators in each state, territory and the military.

PBH’s mission is to lead people to eat more fruits and vegetables because it matters for their better health. The foundation achieves success though industry and government collaboration, and a variety of marketing and nutrition education programs. To learn more, visit www.pbhfoundation.org and www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org.
Produce for Better Health Foundation | 5341 Limestone Road | Wilmington | DE | 19808

Topics: Education, Health and Nutrition, National News, Resources and Publications |

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