Corporate Food & Human Backlash

FDA, via AP

The current collapse of the world financial system has revealed some structural problems in our national economy that have flourished over a period of decades as corporate interests bought politicians and lobbyists to craft legislation to remove legal roadblocks to mass theft and market manipulation. And despite some changes in the D.C. political landscape, our government remains apparently helpless to do anything about corporate malfeasance on any level. With all the bad economic news dominating the public consciousness, some issues in the food supply sector are having a difficult time being properly correlated and attended to despite the serious level of danger they present to public health.

The food supply issues didn’t begin with the market manipulations on Wall Street and from there to exchanges all over the world. Though for many people the first alarms went off as the CDS fraud crashed the economy in 2008 and the financial players went looking for other markets to wreak havoc on. They seized on commodities – staple foods from the agricultural sector increasingly dominated by multinational corporations like Monsanto, ADM and Cargill. As a traceable beginning in 2008 to what this year became the “Arab Spring” movement across North Africa and spreading to the Middle East and southern Asia, food riots broke out in Egypt and Syria and portions of India as well as elsewhere when people could no longer afford to feed themselves and their families. Things have only gotten worse in the years since, and Americans are slowly waking up.

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Tomatoes, Tomatoes Everywhere!

Bags and boxes and baskets of tomatoes. Romas and Abe Lincolns and some other determinate heirloom I forget the name of. All ruby red and threatening to rot if not processed immediately, no human being can eat enough tomato sandwiches to dent the load.

So it’s been days’ worth of boiling water to loosen skins, a quick cold water bath, peeling, seeding coring, chopping. Having to do it in shifts to give my hands enough time to recover, hoping they don’t turn permanently wrinkled from the effort. Putting up quarts and quarts of tomato juice for drinking just because I can, and we love straight, watery tomato juice. Other boiling pots containing onion ends, the last of last year’s dried leeks and celery, fresh spices, some cuke ends and peels, pole bean pods and such, the accumulated compost of a vegetarian household added to those tomato skins and seeds and cores and trimmings to make broth for soups and stews and greens and those big wintertime pots of beans. Then to can it all in jars and put it away for later consumption.

Canned quarts of quarters. Frozen bags of chunks. Fresh tomato basil soup and tomato sandwiches and good ol’ ‘mater pies… it’s a wonder we haven’t all turned into tomatoes ourselves! And for the bulk of the gleaned harvest (the field entirely organic), drying. The solar dryer has been full of tomato quarters and chunks for days now, as much as that very nifty south porch unit can hold. The sun dries them just enough to move indoors in the evening when the sun goes down, into the oven on its lowest setting of 160 degrees, propped a little open with a spare canning ring, to finish the job. Meanwhile flats of fresh quarters and chunks get prepped for the solar dryer when the sun comes up. Start the whole process over again. Ripest fruits first because this sort of thing takes days and these babies are indeed very ripe.

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Odd Weather & Funding Cuts

Sigh. As the Kabuki in D.C. continues into yet another week/month of grandstanding on the budget and raising the debt ceiling, a good many of us homesteaders are watching our state governments engaging in the same kind of bad budgetary theater as summer hits hard (and early). This year it looks a lot like neither the weather nor government policies care to offer any help to rural America, where the ‘Great Recession’ is a whole lot more like a Great Depression.

In Washington the drastic budget cuts are of course not hitting ADM or Cargill or any other giant Agribiz subsidies – mostly used to grow bioengineered corn, soy, etc. for animal feed. Rather, cuts in the USDA, EPA and FDA budgets are targeted at conservation, extension, research, renewable energy and rural development programs. Less money for inspections and enforcement, less for policing big livestock operations, less for wetland set-asides, etc., etc., etc. The slashing goes on and on, and bodes ill for just about everything that counts in this world. As if this wholesale gutting of all programs geared towards sustainable agriculture, responsible land use, regulation of pollutants and development of alternative crops isn’t bad enough, they’re also slashing food assistance programs like WIC and food stamps.

The Rodale Institute has a very good overview of how the Republican’s scorched earth policy is targeting small-scale farmers, organic growers and specialty farm/homestead programs that have been important to those of us actually engaged in trying to live sustainably on the land. With $39 billion in cuts to conservation programs aimed at protecting environmentally sensitive areas and $350 million for the Organic Transitions Research Program, it seems quite obvious that today’s politicians don’t have much of an appreciation of what it takes to grow and market nutritious food.

Meanwhile, here at my homestead where the summer crops were planted late due to too much rain and some concern about fallout deposition of cesium from Fukushima (which was high in this area), the rain finally did slack off. To nothing. Haven’t had more than a few drops in over a month, and issues with the cistern have us on water rationing in the household – there’s nothing to irrigate with. That hasn’t been an issue most years given that average rainfall here is ample, but this year’s shaping up to be hellishly hot and dry. I can do nothing but wait and see which crops make it through to the next rainy spell, keep some potted seedlings in reserve to plant REALLY late if need be. If it’s to be a super-hot summer, it could last well into November. That’s enough time for most things, even if planted late.

Below are some good articles and resource collections so that we who will be most affected by what Washington (and our state governments) do about the coming second dip of the Great Recession. I urge all my readers to educate themselves to what’s happening nationally and locally, and get involved. Call your representatives. Write letters to the editor. Bring up the important issues at the farmer’s market and at church and at any other community meetings where people who are also affected can be found. Money is just paper and computer data these days. Wall Street’s paper is even less than that. But everyone has to eat, and if there are no food producers people will starve. Our land, our labor, our crops are much more imp We must speak out. We must speak loudly. And we must enlist all the help we can get.

Links:

Agri-Pulse Communications
Rodale Press
Rural Resource Guide [NC]
American Farmland Trust

Radioactive Spring

I am probably not the only American homesteader who has been watching with fascinated horror the events in Japan since the 9.0 earthquake on March 11, its subsequent tsunami on the nation’s northeastern coast, and the amazing nuclear disaster underway at the Fukushima-1 power station. We have heard reports of three reactors in various stages of meltdown, we watched horrified as reactor buildings exploded one by one, and we keep on hearing about unshielded (open to the atmosphere) spent fuel pools that are also in various stages of melting.

Radiation levels have been so high that plant workers attempting to prevent worst-case scenarios by spraying seawater onto the melting fuel had to be withdrawn for extended periods of time. We have been humbled by the selfless courage of workers willing to lose their lives to protect the nation from this awful mess. And this past weekend we have begun hearing about radioactive contamination of food crops and water at ever farther distances from the reactor reservation, even as we concurrently hear about the plume of nasty isotopes having made it across the Pacific to come ashore in California, the most important milk, fruit and vegetable producing region for the entire United States.

Thus it seems timely to offer some real information about radioactive isotopes that will continue to contaminate milk, meat, vegetables and fruit in northern Japan, and which may end up in our food supply too (but in much lower concentration). First, let me direct my readers to an excellent blog effort by a friend of mine who spent a long career in government [USDA] assessing various dangers to the food supply, including emergency planning for radiological accidents and how they can contaminate food.

Radioactive contamination of food: A primer for consumers by my friend, who goes by the internet pseudonym of “Deep Harm,” is the best place to start in gaining understanding of how to minimize your family’s exposure to radioisotopes in food, along with very good information about how all this works, what it means, and how to protect yourself.

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Some Issues of Concern…

First, to get us all in the spirit of spring, check out Geoff Lawton’s YouTube short on the psychological benefits of gardening. If you like what you see, check out his new DVD, Establishing a Food Forest the Permaculture Way, available from Permaculture.Org.

Most committed modern homesteaders try to keep up with the many issues of concern to us personally, our country, and our chosen way of life. Things like rural development policies, governmental agricultural and energy policies, self-sufficiency (and roadblocks to that), management of forests and water sources, etc. It’s because we care that we are who we are and do what we do. And a good many of us try to keep up daily or weekly with the best sources of information we need to keep abreast of those issues.

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Disconcerting: Tom Vilsack at USDA

As President-Elect Barack Obama has been very busy selecting key cabinet people and meeting with House and Senate leadership to ensure everyone’s ready on January 20th to begin implementing the Changes he promised, some of us out here on the active lifestyle progressive fringe are not happy with a few of the important choices.

By appointing Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack to head the USDA (Department of Agriculture), committed homesteaders, small landholders and organic farmers like me now have to be concerned that efforts by our own government to make us extinct may NOT change when the leadership in DC changes hands.

In the diary Tom “I Heart Monsanto” Vilsack, This One’s For You, kossack OrangeClouds115 lists everything that’s wrong with GMOs and Monsanto Corporation’s tireless efforts to own and control every aspect of agricultural production in the world. Note I said “world,” because it’s not just Big Corn Country like Iowa and Nebraska and Indiana that Monsanto seeks to own with its grotesque genetically-altered cultivars. It’s everyone’s ability to obtain seed and farm the land, from the US to Canada and South America, Africa, Europe and Asia as well as Australia. They want it all, they don’t need it all, and right here in Homesteading-USA we are the front and foremost line against this obscenity.

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Letter to the New Farmer in Chief

There is a resurgence of hope across America in the wake of Tuesday’s election of Democrat Barack Obama as President, promising a new direction of change for the future of our nation. Those of us who have been paying attention to the global financial meltdown, increasingly severe food shortages in the wake of global warming, and the outrageous poisoning of our citizens and livestock/pets by corrupt Chinese producers (a glaring example of globalization’s failures), are hoping that a new dawn in America will bring with it the serious changes to our agricultural policies that have grown increasingly necessary through decades of decline.

Now, politicians don’t generally talk much about agricultural policies while they’re stumping for votes in big cities. And they’re often so ignorant of agricultural issues that even rural dwellers – actual farmers – get nothing but pablum and platitudes in response to their questions. Luckily, journalist Michael Pollan wrote a great ‘open letter’ in the New York Times in October entitled, Farmer in Chief. This is a must-read for all of us committed to self-sufficiency, locally grown foods, the viability of family farms and homesteads, and the future health of an environment we all depend upon for life.

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Fun With Heirloom Tomatoes

Now that I’m over that nasty bout with salmonella-laced foreign tomatoes, I must say I’m delighted that my own heirlooms are finally turning red in the garden, providing the sweetest, meatiest, most desirable fruit/veggie on the planet. Since the FDA rescinded its warnings due to the sudden availability all over America of actual locally-grown tomatoes, we can talk about what to do with all that juicy incoming bounty.

Processing tomatoes for preservation (or just for making dinner) is a messy job. That’s why I planted varieties this year that are known more for their usable inner ‘meat’ than their juice and seeds. Plus it’s been a bit dry this season, so too much water definitely isn’t their issue. When it comes time to do the processing, you may wish to do what I do and use the back deck grill instead of the kitchen stove to boil those large amounts of water. No air conditioning here, it’s usually not necessary and is a total waste of ‘trons. But when you’ve got big pots of water boiling in the kitchen for long periods of time, even the most mellow of summer mountain weather can quickly become unbearable.

Here are the basic prep steps for processing fresh tomatoes:

1. Wash all your tomatoes in running cold water. Even if you never use pesticides or pepper spray on them, washing is always a good idea (unless you’re eating tomatoes while out there picking them).

2. Put tomatoes in rapidly boiling water for 10-20 seconds, until you see the skin split. Remove quickly and put them in cold water (I fill up the sink with cold water ahead of time). This stops the cooking and further loosens the skins.

3. Cut the parboiled tomatoes in half and cut out the stem-end core, pull off the skins. Then quarter, squeeze out the seeds, seed membranes and juice into a compost container or bowl (from which you can later extract seeds to save and juice to drink).

4. Put the peeled and seeded tomato quarters (or pieces, if you chop further) into a colander or sieve to drain more moisture. I usually sprinkle salt on them at this point, it helps to get the moisture out.

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I Messed Up, Got Sick

Yeah, I should’a known better. I wrote a post here about How NOT to Be Poisoned by Your Food, and got poisoned anyway. Got sick enough for two whole days to be really, really sorry.

It might have been tomatoes. Or it might have been a pepper or cilantro used as seasoning. The FDA seems to be suspicious of anything coming in from Mexico right now, and I didn’t ask.

A friend came over last weekend with tons of food for munchies and the grill. It was his birthday, and we ate quite a lot. He’s a meat-eater and we’re not, though I did try a grilled shrimp that was delicious. Didn’t taste the bratwurst, the hamburger patties or the chicken. But he had this container of olive oil and vinegar ‘stuff’ gathered at a salad bar style buffet at the big local grocery, with mozerella and artichokes and peppers and cherry tomatoes and whole garlic cloves and such – it just looked too good. I tasted the cheese, the artichokes, a jalapeno and one cherry tomato. Before I knew it I was puking my guts out, and was so sick the next day I couldn’t get out of bed.

It was almost immediate, too. Which of course has to be food poisoning. Since I didn’t also have the watery runs, I’m guessing salmonella that never got past my stomach, and I’m pretty sure it came in that little container of oil and vinegar goodies God only knows where they came from.

Despite the fact that the outbreak’s been going on for months and the FDA claims it just can’t find the culprit, haven’t recalled anything and don’t plan to do a darned thing, I’m telling my readers yet again to BEWARE OF FOREIGN PRODUCE. Even when it’s the most appetizing-looking stuff at the ‘build your own’ bar at your own local grocery store. Salmonella poisoning is no fun at all (thousands have been hospitalized just in this current outbreak), you’re better off not eating at all if your own tomatoes and peppers aren’t yet ripe. One poisoned ingredient in the mix can quickly poison everything it’s mixed with, and your system will hate you for it.

Just a warning, it can happen even when you’ve been really careful. All you have to do is give in to what your friends bring to munch on – and no one but me got sick, which tells me something. Hubby didn’t touch any of it (except the shrimp). Both friend and grandson are confirmed meat-eaters (hoping grandson gets over it soon). Anybody who can stomach ground mystery-meat and bratwurst can handle a little salmonella without getting sick. Don’t let that be your guide!

Buy local, dear readers! There’s a farm truck, fruit and veggie stand or farmer’s market near enough to you to make it well worth your while!

How NOT to Be Poisoned By Your Food

As we homesteaders begin to rake in the summer produce (while planning for yet more), it may be time for some good advice on how to make sure that the produce you’re buying at the grocery store, at the farmer’s market, and off that farmer’s truck by the side of the road fully safe for your family to eat in this age of imported food, bad farming practices and bacterial contamination.

I am presuming that homesteaders know enough about the critters in the soil (and compost) to be regular produce-washers and cooks who know how long to cook a hamburger or egg so as to preclude any possibility of e.coli 0157:H7 and Salmonella poisoning. But with recent news of e.coli contamination of fresh produce – everything from “pre-wahed” lettuce and spinach and scallions to tomatoes – it’s good to review the basics.

Most of us who can our own produce as well as cook our own food also know that contamination like Salmonella and e.coli can be easily transferred from one food to another if we’re not very careful with the cleanliness of our working areas, cutting boards and utensils, and equipment. Sure, we can kill the critters with high enough heat and processing times, but as a semi-vegetarian, who wants to eat dead bugs either?

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