Food of the Week - Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Did you know that countries where people use olive oil regularly, especially in place of other fats, have much lower rates of heart disease, atherosclerosis, diabetes, colon cancer, and asthma? These countries enjoy a Mediterranean-style diet, which studies continue to uncover as being among the healthiest in the world. For example, one study, which followed participants for over six years, discovered that those most closely following a Mediterranean 'olive oil and salad' dietary pattern had a 50% reduced risk of overall mortality! Another study published in the British Journal of Nutrition suggests that the naturally high concentration of phenolic compounds with their antioxidant properties found in extra-virgin olive oil, (that is properly cold pressed and stored in opaque containers), may be one of the key reasons for the lower incidence of cancer and cardiovascular disease in the Mediterranean region. The monounsaturated fats in olive oil have also been found to be used by the body to produce substances which are relatively anti-inflammatory. By reducing inflammation, these fats can help reduce the severity of arthritis symptoms, and may be able to prevent or reduce the severity of asthma. And not least of all, let's not forget it's great flavor! Read More ...

CUESA’S SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE - Ten Good Reasons to Shop at the Farmers Market

Taste Real Flavors: The fruits and vegetables you buy at the farmers market are the freshest and tastiest available. Fruits are allowed to ripen in the field and brought directly to you - no long-distance shipping, no gassing to simulate the ripening process, no sitting for weeks in storage. This food is as real as it gets -food fresh from the farm.

Enjoy the Season: The food you buy at the farmers market is seasonal. It is fresh and delicious and reflects the truest flavors. Shopping and cooking from the farmers market helps you to reconnect with the cycles of nature in our region. As you look forward to asparagus in spring, savor sweet corn in summer, or bake pumpkins in autumn, you reconnect with the earth, the weather, and the turning of the year.

Support Family Farmers: Family farmers are becoming increasingly rare as large agribusiness farms and ranches steadily take over food production in the U.S. Small family farms have a hard time competing in the food marketplace. Buying directly from farmers gives them a better return for their produce and gives them a fighting chance in today's globalized economy.

Protect the Environment: Food in the U.S. travels an average of 1500 miles to get to your plate. All this shipping uses large amounts of natural resources (especially fossil fuels), contributes greatly to pollution and creates excess trash with extra packaging. Conventional agriculture also uses many more resources than sustainable agriculture and pollutes water, land and air with toxic agricultural by-products. Food at the farmers market is transported shorter distances and grown using methods that minimize the impact on the earth.

Nourish Yourself: Much food found in grocery stores is highly processed. The fresh produce you do find is often grown using pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, and genetic modification. In many cases it has been irradiated, waxed, or gassed in transit. All of these practices have potentially damaging effects on the health of those who eat these foods. In contrast, most food found at the farmers market is minimally processed, and many of our farmers go to great lengths to grow the most nutritious produce possible by building their soil's fertility and giving their crops the nutrients they need to flourish in the ground and nourish those who eat them.

Discover the Spice of Life ~ Variety: At the Farmers Market you find an amazing array of produce that you don't see in your supermarket: red carrots, a rainbow of heirloom tomatoes, white peaches, stinging nettles, green garlic, watermelon radishes, quail eggs, maitake mushrooms, gigande beans, whole pheasants, and much, much more. It is a wonderful opportunity to experience first hand the diversity (and biodiversity) of our planet, both cultivated and wild!

Promote Humane Treatment of Animals: At the farmers market, you can find meats, cheeses, and eggs from animals that have been raised without hormones or antibiotics, who have grazed on green grass and been fed natural diets, and who have been spared the cramped and unnatural living conditions of so many of their brethren on feedlots.

Know Where Your Food Comes From: A regular trip to a farmers market is one of the best ways to reconnect with where your food comes from. Farmers themselves sell their produce at the farm stands. Meeting and talking to farmers is a great opportunity to learn more about how food is grown, where it is grown, when it is grown, and why! CUESA's "Meet the Producer" program and our Farmer Profiles that hang at the booths give you even more opportunities to learn about the people who work so hard to bring you the most delicious and nutritious food around.

Learn Cooking Tips, Recipes, and Meal Ideas: Few grocery store cashiers or produce stockers will give you tips on how to cook the ingredients you buy, but farmers, ranchers, and vendors at the farmers market are often passionate cooks with plenty of free advice about how to cook the foods they are selling. They'll give you ideas for what to have for supper, hand out recipes, and troubleshoot your culinary conundrums. At the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, you can attend cooking workshops such as Shop with the Chef - a weekly program featuring seasonal ingredients prepared by leading Bay Area chefs - with free recipes and samples!

Connect with Your Community: Wouldn't you rather stroll amidst outdoor stalls of fresh produce on a sunny day than roll your cart around a grocery store with artificial lights and piped in music? Coming to the Farmers Market makes shopping a pleasure rather than a chore. The Farmers Market is a community gathering place - a place to meet up with your friends, bring your children, or just get a taste of small-town life in the midst of our wonderful big city.

CUESA’S SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE - A DOLLAR WELL SPENT

"Our never-ending quest for cheap food is the root cause of the transformation of American Agriculture from a system of small, diversified, independently operated family farms into a system of large-scale, industrialized, corporately controlled agribusinesses." - John Ikerd, in "The High Cost of Cheap Food," published in Small Farm Today, July/Aug 2001.

Are farmers’ market prices really too high? A dollar spent on food from a local farm buys more than just groceries. In addition to sustenance, real nutrition and good flavor, it also buys vibrant rural communities, food security, and confidence in your food supply.

Nobody likes to pay high prices for food, and few people can afford to. But good food is not cheap, and price is a complex issue that can only be discussed in conjunction with other factors like flavor, quality, sustainability, and nutrition. Farmers charge what they believe is a fair price, and a growing number of loyal farmers' market shoppers agree. When people are willing to spend money on good local food, it benefits the farmer, the local economy, the consumer, and the environment.

When you shop at the farmers' market, here's what you get for your money:

Food grown by hand Labor is generally the largest expense for farmers at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market.* Sustainable and diverse farms often use labor-intensive practices, such as hand-weeding, as an alternative to spraying herbicides or other conventional techniques. Small farms (and those that offer better wages or benefits) have higher labor costs than more mechanized large farms, and the average size of Ferry Plaza Farmers Market farms, excluding ranchlands, is only 79 acres. When people object to her prices, Jill Kayne of Four Sisters Farm takes the opportunity to educate. "On a small farm like ours, everything must be done by hand and there are very high labor costs," she tells customers. "I wish you could watch the guys hand-pick each stem of kale."

High quality produce
Unlike fruit in supermarkets that’s often picked green to prevent damage during long-distance transit, food at the farmers' market is sold at its freshest. “I bring my produce so ripe that I end up losing some of what I don’t sell,” says Bill Crepps of Everything Under the Sun. “It gets bruised from customer handling. I dehydrate it when I can, or donate it to Food Runners. But I have to factor these losses into my prices.”

Excellent value
When thrifty shoppers buy an appliance or a pair of shoes, they don't necessarily choose the cheapest product. They also look at quality and value. Food here is some of the freshest and best available. Better farming practices result in better tasting food, and the flavor of the food at Ferry Plaza speaks for itself. Nigel Walker of Eatwell Farm says of his popular eggs from pasture-raised hens, "If you don't want to pay this price for eggs, don't ever try them--because once you taste these, you won't ever want to buy anything else."

Farmland stewardship
Many of the farmers that sell at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market care deeply about their land and are willing to spend a little more on high quality soil amendments and other inputs for their crops. Half of the farms are certified organic; many more use environmentally sustainable practices. The materials that are better for people and the planet often cost more. Michele Ross of Ella Bella Farm says, "Our ability to charge retail prices at the farmers' market allows us to take care of the land the way we want and to do more long term planning. When farmers are at the mercy of wholesale prices, they often cut corners. A lot of farmers have to take out loans just to get their crops in the ground."

Unique fruits and vegetables
Many of the produce varieties sold at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market are selected for flavor and may have lower yields than the varieties you see in the supermarket. This makes them more expensive for farmers to grow. In addition, some farmers use methods that result in better taste, nutrition, and/or sustainability, but produce a smaller harvest. For example, the dry-farmed tomato plants of Dirty Girl Produce generate only about 1/3 the yield of irrigated tomatoes.

Local farms stay in business
Farming is financially risky and not very lucrative. Excluding the largest 7% of farms (those with annual sales greater than $250,000), U.S. farm households have, on average, negative farm operating profits. Most farmers must seek other income in order to stay in business. If consumers don't pay enough to make farming profitable, we run the risk of losing our region's farmers, our local food security and our agricultural landscape.

Even with these many benefits, produce at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market is not much more expensive, and frequently costs less, than that at nearby supermarkets (for detailed data, see CUESA’s price comparison handout).

No matter where you buy them, though, fresh vegetables and fruits are far more expensive per calorie than fats, sugars, and cereals. According to one recent study, a day's worth of calories from oil or sugar could be purchased for under $1, whereas the same amount of calories from strawberries or lettuce was several hundred times that. Though vegetables and fruits are pricier than more filling foods like grains and legumes, they are a crucial component of human nutrition. When the USDA recommends 5-9 servings per day of fruits and vegetables, we can’t afford not to eat them.

So why does produce cost more than dry goods? In part, because it is perishable and harder to transport, but the low prices of processed foods are even more a result of subsidies. The main building blocks of processed food, such as the corn from which high fructose corn syrup is made, are heavily funded by the U.S. government. While these products may seem cheap at the cash register, we pay for them again through our taxes. Until America restructures our food policies and ensures that all residents have access to nutritious food, those who want a healthy diet must be willing to spend more.

To put it all into perspective: America has some of the most affordable food in the world. Though food here may not seem cheap, Americans spend only about 10% of their household budget on food--less than most other countries in the world. In addition, the percentage of our income spent on food has been decreasing over time and is half what it was in 1950. Spending is a value decision, and our culture encourages us to spend more on amenities like cable television and designer clothing and less on nutritious food. As managers of a farmers' market, our bias is obvious, but we think that good food is worth paying for.

CUESA’S SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE FRAMEWORK

Mission : The Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture is dedicated to promoting a sustainable food system through the operation of the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market and its educational programs.

Vision : We envision a healthy world nourished by sustainable food systems, and shall contribute to this vision by:

1. actively connecting, engaging and supporting all participants within our regional food system; presenting
2. substantive education programs and serving as a resource for information on sustainable food systems;
3. operating world-class farmers markets that develop and support regional sustainable farm operations.

Statement of Sustainability Components

A food system is the inter-relationship of agricultural systems, their economic, social, cultural, and technological support systems, and systems of food distribution and consumption. A sustainable food system uses practices that are environmentally sound, humane, economically viable and socially just. Sustainable agriculture uses these same practices.

CUESA’S GUIDING PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE PRODUCTION

Environmentally Sound Producers actively work to create and sustain cultivated landscapes that are complex, diverse and balanced biological systems. Producers use practices that conserve and restore resources.

Humane Animal Management While being raised, animals are allowed to engage in the natural behaviors that are important to their well-being, and are harvested in ways that minimize stress to the animals and the environment.

Economically Viable Producers operate within a framework of sound business planning and pursue integrated and proactive approaches to marketing and sales.

Socially Just Producers and their employees receive fair and reasonable compensation and work in a safe and respectful environment.

PRINCIPLE: ENVIRONMENTALLY SOUND Producers actively work to create and sustain cultivated landscapes that are complex, diverse and balanced biological systems. Producers use practices that conserve and restore resources.

EXAMPLE BEST PRACTICES Producers use production practices that are supported by current sustainable agriculture research and knowledge. Such practices may include but are not limited to the following examples:

1. Producers build and conserve soil structure and fertility (Examples: no till/reduced till farming, cover crops, rotational cropping, mulching, composting and incorporating crop residues, using manures, enhancing beneficial biota)
2. Producers conserve water and protect water quality (Examples: dry farming, efficient irrigation systems, mulching, minimizing use of toxic pesticides, buffer zones, bio-filtration systems)
3. Producers protect air quality (Examples: harvesting practices that reduce dust, lowering or eliminating emissions, reducing or eliminating use of toxic spray applications)
4. Producers minimize use of toxics (Examples: reducing or eliminating use of toxic pesticides, reducing or eliminating use of synthetic fertilizers, eliminate burning)
5. Producers conserve energy and use renewable resources (Examples: using energy efficient technologies, minimize farming and transportation fossil fuel inputs, solar; wind, biomass, geothermal, minimize use of fertilizers and pesticides derived from fossil fuels)
6. Producers maximize biodiversity and conserve genetic resources (Examples: seed saving, using heirloom varieties, buffer zones, contour and strip tillage, rotational grazing, retaining native habitats, intercropping, rotating crops, integrating multiple species of crops and animals, providing habitat for native species and pollinators)
7. Producers avoid the intentional use of genetically modified seeds and organisms

PRINCIPLE: HUMANE ANIMAL MANAGEMENT While being raised, animals are allowed to engage in the natural behaviors that are important to their well-being, and are harvested in ways that minimize stress to the animals and the environment.

EXAMPLE BEST PRACTICES Producers, including those farming aquatic species, use animal production and harvesting practices that are supported by current sustainable agriculture research and knowledge. Such practices may include but are not limited to the following examples:

1. Animals not raised in their natural habitat are raised with sufficient space, shelter and appropriate handling to limit stress (Examples: clean and dry bedding, ventilated structures, non-slip flooring, access to outdoors; no undue competition for space to lie down, stretch or eliminate; allowances for herding, daily migrations, wallowing)
2. Animals have ample fresh water and a healthy diet free of performance stimulants and without routinely added antibiotics (Examples: unrestricted access to fresh water, no undue competition for water sources, no use of growth hormones, nutritional guidelines, no undue competition for food sources, grazing)
3. Animals are harvested, transported, and handled in the least stressful manner possible (Examples: passageways do not impede movement, noise reduction mechanisms, no using electric prods, pre-slaughter handling kept to minimum; fishing by trolling, jigging, trapping, hook and line, or encircling seine nets)
4. Producers implement an animal health plan that is in accordance with sound veterinary and husbandry practices (Examples: general herd health plan, individual animal health plan and records, segregation areas, ongoing training for managers and caretakers, herd management guidelines or handbook)
5. Producers actively work to protect and conserve genetic resources and diversity (Examples: no using cloned species, no intentionally using genetically modified organisms in feed or care, harvesting only from sustainable fishery populations)

PRINCIPLE: ECONOMICALLY VIABLE Producers operate within a framework of sound business planning and pursue integrated and proactive approaches to marketing and sales.

EXAMPLE BEST PRACTICES Producers use business planning and management practices that are supported by current sustainable business management research and recommendations. Such practices may include but are not limited to the following examples:

1. Businesses operate within a framework of sound financial planning (Examples: business plan, incorporating risk management strategies, record keeping, estate planning; crop, health, accident, and property insurance)
2. Businesses conserve capital (Examples: managing bank debt, managing expenditures) Businesses consider diversifying products, service offerings and sales outlets (Examples: diversifying crops and herds, value-added products, agritourism, farmer’s markets, CSA programs, restaurants, online sales, direct to retailers)
3. Businesses pursue integrated and proactive approaches to marketing (Examples: farm cooperatives, internet, direct marketing pieces)
4. Busiensses provide quality customer service and cultivate positive customer relations
5. (Examples: actively educate and inform customers, customer service standards, sales staff training, attractive and compelling displays, business website or newsletter, full disclosure of ingredients and processes, adopt code of business ethics)

PRINCIPLE: SOCIALLY JUST Producers and their employees receive fair and reasonable compensation and work in a safe and respectful environment.

EXAMPLE BEST PRACTICES Producers use labor compensation and management practices that are supported by current sustainable agricultural labor management recommendations. Such practices may include but are not limited to the following examples:

1. Employers and employees receive fair and reasonable compensation
2. Employers and employees receive appropriate benefits (Examples: workers compensation, health care, housing, food from the farm)
3. Employers provide a respectful work environment that empowers employees (Examples: non-discrimination policies, employee participation in decision making)
4. Employers and employees have safe working conditions (Examples: safety training, safety incentives)
5. Employers optimize employees’ work experiences and opportunities (Examples: appropriate training and supervision, mechanisms for communication and information sharing; opportunities for skill development, diversity of tasks and advancement)

Pest Munches Up China Fields After GM Crop Sprays Halt

A once minor pest has ravaged fruit orchards and cotton fields in China after farmers stopped spraying insecticide in crops of a genetically-modified type of cotton resistant to bollworms, experts said.

China started growing Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) cotton in 1997 because it gave better yields and stood up to bollworms, but a key fallout has been a thriving population of mirid bugs, which were earlier just an insignificant pest.

"Entire swathes of agricultural land that never had any problem with this pest are facing a major problem," said Kongming Wu at the State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests in Beijing. The bug had infested plantations of apples, strawberries, pears, peaches and vegetables, Wu told Reuters by telephone, adding that the problem emerged after regular insecticide spraying had been halted.

"Bollworms love to go to cotton fields in June," he said. "So when we were cultivating normal cotton in the past, we would spray insecticides every June. That meant every June, other pests were also eradicated. "After we started cultivating Bt cotton, we no longer needed to spray insecticides. That's why other pests like the mirid bug are thriving in cotton fields and have become a major pest."

In a paper published in the journal Science on Friday, Wu and his colleagues said they began monitoring cotton fields and fruit orchards in six major cotton-growing provinces in northern China -- Anhui, Henan, Hebei, Jiangsu, Shandong and Shanxi -- in 1997. The study covered 3 million hectares of cotton and 26 million hectares of other crops grown by more than 10 million farmers.

As mirid bugs eat a wide variety of plants, the researchers warned the pest was emerging as a threat to other crops for the first time. "Before 1997, it was never a problem. It couldn't even be seen and we needn't guard against it. Now we have to spray insecticide every year to fight it," Wu said. "In fact, from 2000, the problem was already seen in cotton fields, and from 2005 was seen in other cultivated land."

The findings show how controlling one pest can trigger the spread of others, the scientists said, urging the need to study such scenarios before adopting large-scale farming strategies. "We have to develop a centralized system to control it," Wu said. "We have to study the whole ecosystem." Author: Tan Ee Lyn

Study Finds Higher CO2 Levels Do Not Help Plant Growth

In the May 14 issue of Science, scientists reported that increased carbon dioxide (CO2) levels ultimately hinder plant growth as it inhibits plants’ ability to assimilate nitrates from the soil, which are needed to make enzymes and other essential proteins. Scientists had earlier proposed that increased CO2 levels, which accumulate in the atmosphere in part from the burning of fossil fuels, might increase photosynthesis. The study found that an initial increase in the production of sugar soon levels off and plant growth slows.

The scientists who conducted the study said these findings have significant implications for agriculture as CO2 levels rise and temperatures warm. Should food become poorer in quality and nutrition, farmers will have to shift their use of fertilizers. “This indicates that as atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations rise and nitrate assimilation in plant tissues diminishes, crops will become depleted in organic nitrogen compounds, including protein, and food quality will suffer,” said lead author Arnold Bloom from the University of California Davis. “Increasing nitrogen fertilization might compensate for slower nitrate assimilation rates, but this might not be economically or environmentally feasible.”

For additional information see: Los Angeles Times, UC Davis Press Release, Study Abstract

Swanton Berry Farms Jim Cochran of Davenport

Despite what many consumers may think, organic rules don't ensure fair treatment of workers—and tight profit margins mean that working conditions and pay on organic farms are too often no different from those in conventional operations. But Jim Cochran, 62, who launched California's first organic strawberry farm in 1987, refused to accept the established norms. In 1998, he became the first organic grower to sign a contract with the United Farm Workers union—and he approached them. Then, in 2005, Cochran rolled out what might be the nation's first stock-ownership plan for farm employees; workers begin earning stock in the operation after putting in 500 hours. "The dignity of farm labor is a founding principle of Swanton Berry Farm," Cochran says. If the farm's crowded stands at Bay Area farmers markets are any indication, it is possible to protect the earth, treat workers well, and make a profit at the same time.

Better Enforcement Of Existing Migrant Worker Protection Laws Needed

A new paper from North Carolina State University argues that federal farm subsidies contribute to the migration of both legal and illegal farm labor into the United States and that, since federal actions are an impetus for the influx of migrant labor, the federal government should do a better job of enforcing laws designed to protect those workers.

"We have agricultural subsidies at the federal level that are huge," says Dr. Robert Peace, a professor of accounting at NC State and author of the paper. "For example, corn is highly subsidized. Because of our subsidies, and the North American Free Trade Agreement, U.S. farmers can sell corn in Mexico cheaper than Mexican farmers can grow it. As a result, since farm workers can't make any money farming in Mexico, they come to the United States as migrant workers. Poverty fuels migration."

Peace argues that, since this migration is an unintended consequence of the U.S. farm subsidy program, the federal government should do a better job of enforcing existing laws that exist to ensure the health and safety of those workers.

Peace points to the H2A farm workers, who are in the country legally on temporary visas. These workers, Peace says, are subject to audit inspections by state agencies, to ensure that the workers are being paid a legal wage and have safe living and working conditions.

"Regardless of whether they are here legally or illegally, migrant workers are vital to healthy production levels from U.S. farms," Peace says. "They are part of the system that puts food on our tables." Approximately one-third of the agricultural labor force in the United States consists of hired farm workers—and half of those hired workers are here illegally, Peace says. "But they are key contributors to U.S. farm production, and our own subsidies are a big reason they're here. For those reasons, we should demand more and better enforcement of laws that were written to protect migrant workers."

The paper, "Auditing State And Federal Protections For Migrant And Seasonal Agricultural Workers," will be published in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Critical Accounting.

New Policy Brief highlights important links between trade policies, immigration flows and labor conditions in the Meatpacking industry

In sum: Industry giant – Smithfield is winning and workers are losing.

Between 1993 and 2000 some 2.3 million people left agricultural jobs in Mexico.[1]Currently undocumented workers make up more than a quarter of the work force inanimal slaughter in the U.S.[2] Why the exodus from Mexican farm labor to the slaughterhouse shop floor? Though it might be convenient for us to believe these workers came for their piece of the American Dream, a new policy brief, “Hogging the Gains from Trade; The Real Winners from U.S. Trade and Agricultural Policies” connects the dots to reveal a far darker reality where food sector titans profit while workers bear the burden of forced migration, exploitation and criminalization. Timothy Wise andBetsey Rakocy’s report uses the meatpacking industry as an example to paint a clear picture of how “the confluence of agriculture, trade, immigration, and labor policies has pushed cheap commodities south and driven people north.” Industry giants benefit from the subsidized feed prices, tariff-free imports and exports and a favorable investment climate in Mexico that the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement NAFTA solidified in 1996.

Since its passage Smithfield - the world’s largest pork producer – saved an average of $284 million/year from low feed prices.[3] While all these real economic perks are ending up in the hands of multinational companies, Mexican farmers undermined by the flood of cheap feed from the U.S. are forced off their land in search of work elsewhere. Where? The very samelarge meatpacking companies like Smithfield have been found actively recruiting undocumented Mexican workers knowing that they can pay them exploitative wages because of their precarious legal status. [4] The increasing criminalization of undocumented immigration keeps Smithfield’slargely immigrant workforce vulnerable to deportation if they speak out against injustice and the likelihood of labor organizing low. As if to add insult to injury, minimal penalties for labor law violations and lax enforcement on the whole make unionizing even more difficult for workers.

As Wise and Rakocy point out, “Government policies inevitably create winners and losers. It is clear that Smithfield and other large livestock firms stand with the winners.” This policy brief offers avaluable reminder of the ways in which our past policies have rigged the game for immigrant workers in the food system. Armed with this poignant analysis, the task of immigration reform is an opportunity to re-assess our priorities as a nation and to reshape the rules of the game. by Zoe Brent Download full report here.

Read This Before You Debate Immigration Reform

I wish I videotaped the conversation I had two nights ago. And it wasn't so much a conversation as him talking and me listening on the edge of my seat for what felt like a very long time. English is his second language so he spoke slowly, choosing his words carefully. But I learned quickly that if I gave him time and didn't interrupt, he would find the perfect way to express himself, even if his words weren't as succinct as those of a native English speaker.

He grew up in Mexico, growing corn, peppers, onions, and other crops on his family's land. But after NAFTA passed, the corn in the grocery store became cheap. So cheap that it was cheaper than the corn his family produced. He couldn't sell his corn anymore, unless he sold it at a loss. Without a way to support his family, he had to come to America to work.

Others, he said, went to the cities in Mexico to work. But there, in the factories and sweatshops (often owned by foreign corporations), they still couldn't make enough to support their families. So they came to the United States too. None of them wanted to. They didn't want to leave their families, their friends, their culture, their way of life, and everything they knew. They had no choice.

Now, he lives in Immokalee, FL along with countless other farmworkers. Some are undocumented but many are here legally. This can happen to anyone, he said. Even slavery can happen to anyone - not just undocumented workers. In Immokalee, there have been several cases of modern day slavery in which farmworkers were threatened at gunpoint and held in captivity, forced to work in the fields. But even those who aren't slaves live in harsh conditions in Immokalee.

The workers all live within a 9 square block radius, surrounding a parking lot where they look for work before dawn each day. They live close to the parking lot because they can't afford any form of transportation besides walking or perhaps a bike. And because all of the workers need to live within these 9 square blocks, housing prices are high even though the housing conditions are horrific. One worker will share a rundown trailer with 7 to 14 others.

I've heard their description of their daily lives before, so he didn't repeat it. They wake up at 4am to go to the parking lot, where buses arrive representing each of the farms that employ farmworkers. The farmers aren't given regular jobs, so they don't know if they will have work ever day. The reason why they don't have regular jobs, he thinks, is so the employers can make the workers compete in a race to the bottom. The worker who is willing to work in the most degrading conditions for the least pay will be selected to work.

The buses choose their workers for the day, and then drive up to 2 hours away to the fields. There, the workers wait for the dew to dry (although they are not paid for their time as they do this) and then get to work picking tomatoes. They are paid according to the number of 35 lb buckets they fill with tomatoes. A worker must pick 2 tons of tomatoes to make $50 in a day. Real wages for this work have not risen in years. However, the number of employers has gone down as the farms consolidated, and I believe he told me that the price the farmers are paid for the tomatoes (out of which they pay their workers) has gone down.

I asked if the workers work on crops other than tomatoes. Oh yes, he said. Onions, watermelons, lettuce, citrus, potatoes, all kinds of crops. "And are the workers exposed to pesticides?" I asked. "Do they get sick?" Oh yes, he said. But it doesn't do them any good to run a campaign against the pesticides. Even if the pesticides were gone, the overall system of exploitation would still be in place.

At the end of the day, the workers have spent 14 hours working for little money and only to go home (lousy and crowded though their housing may be) and prepare to do it all again. On holidays, he told me, everyone leaves Immokalee to visit family but the farmworkers stay. He said it's as if everyone understands that the farmworkers don't have a right to go be with their families for holidays. And yet the abundance on everyone's family table at Thanksgiving is due to the work of the farmworkers. How ironic is it that the very people who produce our food can't afford food themselves?

On Thanksgiving, the farmworkers go to a nearby park and line up to receive turkeys donated by people from a nearby wealthy Florida city. The farmworkers are all joyous and grateful to receive their turkeys. This is a beautiful act of generosity, he said, but why don't the people who give the turkeys each year work so that we no longer need to line up for free turkeys? Why don't they change the system?

And so, on Thanksgiving, American families sit down to tables filled with foods grown and harvested by farmworkers, while the farmworkers themselves are grateful to have donated turkey as they dine alone, far from their families. He said that Americans have no idea that the food on their table is provided by exploited farmworkers, and yet, if they knew, it wasn't pity they would feel for the farmworkers but scorn. Instead of gratitude for providing cheap food for the nation, the farmworkers are told "Go back to Mexico" and they are called "cockroaches." Their very humanity is denied by those who benefit from their work. And he feels that the hatred of illegal immigrants is merely an excuse to justify hatred of them all, for very many of the farmworkers are here legally.

In the parking lot in Immokalee, where the farmworkers go each morning to seek work, he described a number of charitable organizations. As you turn around in the center of the parking lot you see a homeless shelter, a church that gives out free meals, the park where the workers line up for free turkeys, a place that gives away free clothes to the poor, and more. And yet, he says, he does not want to need these things. He works 14 hours a day every day he can get work. Why should he need each and every one of these charitable services (as he does)? He wants to pay for his housing and his food and he wants to support his family. But under the current system, even if he works 14 hours a day, he cannot.

After listening to all he had to say, I am sad, angry, and ashamed to live in a country and participate in a system where this happens. Even my food comes from Mexican farmworkers who had to leave their families. I've met them and I have worked in the fields alongside them. I choose to buy my food from a farmer who treats his workers fairly. And a few years ago, I asked to volunteer on the farm so I could see what farm work was like. The farmer respects his workers. I'm glad that he does, and I would not buy food from him if he did not. However, even his workers have families (and children) in Mexico and they were forced to leave their countries to make a living. I can't fix that just by changing where I buy my food. We need to change our trade policies so that Mexicans are not forced to leave their country just to survive. And we need to change our labor laws so that agricultural workers have the same protections that other workers have. We also need to enforce antitrust laws to inject fair competition into the market. Without those, we won't have true immigration reform. by: Jill Richardson

House Agriculture Committee Gathers Ideas on Farm Policy 2012 for FARM BILL

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack testified before the House Agriculture committee in preparation for the 2012 reauthorization of the Farm bill. Secretary Vilsack outlined some of the key issues the Administration would address in the next farm bill, including broadband access in rural areas, renewable energy and biofuels, regional food systems and supply chains, ecosystem market incentives and conservation and forest restoration. He indicated that the Administration was in the process of working on a formal farm bill proposal.

Many members expressed concerns about beginning the reauthorization process before final rules have been set from the last bill that was completed just two years ago. Members also shared a growing concern about financing the next bill in the current economy. The committee plans to hold a series of hearings both in Washington and throughout the country over the next two weeks to gather ideas for the farm bill.

What is Wild Farming?

“…A good farm must be one where the wild fauna and flora has lost acreage without losing existence.” -Aldo Leopold

The Art of Compromise. Thomas Broz, a self-described city boy turned farmer, began growing food with his wife Constance as a way to reconnect with his community and the natural world. Interested in the tension between efforts to grow food, make a living, and strike a proper balance with the environment, his fundamental goal remains “an attempt to bring food production and nature back together.”

Live Earth Farm began in 1995 in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains on two barren, compacted acres formerly occupied by horses. At the time, fifteen local residents pledged their support to a fledgling community supported agriculture (CSA) program. These days, a sizeable crew harvests a diverse mix of organically grown orchard and row crops from more than 80 cultivated acres. The CSA has kept pace with the farm and currently stands at 700 members with more on the waiting list. Over the course of the season, subscribers can expect an assortment of 50 different vegetable crops and a catalog of fruit that includes strawberries, raspberries, apples, Warren pears, Blenheim apricots, plums, and even peaches. Though much has changed in the past 15 years, the original thread of intention with which the farm was founded remains intact.

But as many farmers could attest, achieving harmony is often no easy task. In Tom’s case, expansion of the CSA meant leasing fields scattered around their Corralitos, California home base and he points out that “it is difficult to achieve any kind of balance or harmony when you have to constantly move equipment all over the place.” But difficult is not impossible, and Tom is schooled in the art of compromise. Viewing field edges as opportunities for wild nature to share space with cultivated crops, Tom has worked with Wild Farm Alliance (WFA) and Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) to install native hedgerows on leased fields as well as around their home property. If you ask Tom, he’ll tell you that these natural borders have several functions: they improve water quality, provide pest control and pollination services to nearby fields, and enhance the aesthetics for everyone working on and visiting the farm. And this place gets a lot of visitors. In addition to monthly community farm days and regular celebratory potlucks for CSA subscribers, approximately 700 students from area schools visit the farm each year. One local school has an arrangement through the Live Earth Farm Discovery Program (its nonprofit education organization) in which 6th-8th graders spend one day a week using the farm as a classroom.

Recently, an opportunity came up to acquire 130 acres of land lying adjacent to Live Earth Farm’s original plot and the Broz’s home. The new piece was planted in apples and apricots and managed under conventional methods historically. When the property changed hands, the perennial orchards began the transition to organic certification. This move away from leased land brings the farm back into a contiguous piece and affords new opportunity to address the question often in the back of Tom’s mind: “How can we balance the natural system with our production system?” Through a grant awarded by the Wildlife Conservation Board, WFA and CAFF have teamed up with Tom to plan a network of conservation plantings throughout part of his new property. Efforts are currently underway to restore fertility to the recently purchased land and to increase its value as wildlife habitat. Riparian and upland plantings that promote biodiversity, provide wildlife connections, stabilize soil, and create beneficial insect habitat are beginning to dot the landscape. Native grass filter strips are entering a second season of capturing nutrients and sediment that could otherwise follow gravity to the nearest waterway. Local students have had a hand in several hedgerow plantings to create insect-attracting transition zones between field and forest edge. Volunteers have pulled out invasive species that smother native diversity in natural areas on the farm.

Live Earth Farm’s diverse checkerboard of wild and cultivated along with Tom’s management practices differ from many other farms in the Pajaro and surrounding valleys. Recent food safety concerns have prompted the undoing of years of conservation work on California’s Central Coast as buyers demand near-sterile conditions to lower the perception of contamination risk. Rather than observing the filtration and buffering capacities of native vegetation, habitat is too often viewed solely as a hazard to public health. Since just about all of Live Earth Farm’s produce is sold directly to consumers, Tom does not have food safety auditors advising him to tear out hedgerows that attract pollinators and safeguard topsoil, but he does use common sense practices to ensure the food is safe. In fact, his farm serves as an important model of how natural and semi-natural systems can be managed with both food safety and the wild in mind.

Is it worth it- all this effort to protect biodiversity and educate an upcoming generation while trying to maintain an economically viable enterprise? Ask Tom and he might tell you “cost-efficient is probably not nature-efficient.” There are still things he’s working to change and improve about his operation. And he recognizes that in order to farm at their scale, concessions must be made. Heavy tractors that consume fuel must be used, and soil must be disturbed on a somewhat frequent basis. But then he’ll point out a pair of red-tailed hawks circling a grove of redwood trees on the upper edge of the farm, or tell you something he overheard a visiting student say while they were planting potatoes, and any lingering questions over whether Tom believes it’s well worth the effort are answered.

For information on Live Earth Farm, visit www.liveearthfarm.net/

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Food of the Week . . . Spinach

Did you know that spinach is not only a rich source of vitamins and minerals, but researchers have identified carotenoids and at least 13 different flavonoid phytonutrients in spinach that act as powerful antioxidants?

Antioxidants combat the free radicals that cause oxidative damage to our cells, including their DNA. When the researchers at the USDA Agricultural Research Center on Aging at Tufts University tested various fruits and vegetables for their antioxidant capabilities, spinach ranked second only to kale among the vegetables tested. The various flavonoids in spinach have been shown to possess anti-inflammatory, anti-mutagenic, and anti-carcinogenic properties, while its carotenoids, such as zeaxanthin and lutein, help fight prostate cancer and protect against eye diseases, such as age-related macular degeneration and cataracts.

Since carotenoids are fat-soluble, they are not well absorbed unless consumed with a little fat — one more good reason to add extra flavor and nutrition to spinach by dressing it with antioxidant and phenol-rich extra virgin olive oil. When looking at spinach's impressive nutritional profile, remember that it also contains many other health-promoting phytonutrients.

Calorie for calorie, leafy green vegetables like spinach with its delicate texture and jade green color provide more nutrients than any other food. Although spinach is available throughout the year, its season runs from March through May and from September through October when it is the freshest, has the best flavor and is most readily available. Read More ...

McDonald’s scraps composting program because food won’t decompose

McDonald's announced this morning that it would discontinue plans for a worldwide composting initiative after scientists confirmed that no item on the McDonald's menu is compostable. The plan to keep food waste -- more than 1.5 billion tons a month -- out of landfills would have been the largest composting program in the world, with bright green composting bins at all the 31,000-plus restaurants around the world.

But McDonald's halted the plan after scientists at the University of California-Berkeley discovered that none of the items on the McDonald's menu would compost in the next 500 years, nor would any start breaking down for an estimated 1,000 years, the projected life span of a plastic bag.

"To be honest, this food is better off in a landfill." said lead researcher Donald MacGregor, from the University of California-Berkeley, on a press call early this morning. "It would get in the way of perfectly good compostable materials. Additionally, gardeners disliked the highly acidic leaching of the non-composting Big Macs in field tests."

McDonald's says it has no plans to reconsider the idea. However, company officials will be considering other waste management options, such as incineration and outer-atmospheric storage. "It would have been great for McDonald's to lead the way on corporate composting," said McDonald's CEO Jim Skinner at a press conference today outside the fast food giant's headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois. "We had to make a tough decision, but in the end I think we made the right one for us and for the environment."

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Organic, local farms get a boost from USDA

Washington - -- Obama administration officials Wednesday outlined a broad array of efforts to elevate organic and local farming to a prominence never seen before at the sprawling U.S. Department of Agriculture. The shift is raising eyebrows among conventional growers and promising federal support to a food movement that began in Northern California and was considered heretical only a few years ago.

"Guys, this is your window - use it," USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan told organic farmers, processors and retailers at a conference Wednesday in Washington that was sponsored by Santa Cruz's Organic Farming Research Foundation and the Organic Trade Association.

Talking more like a Berkeley foodie than a USDA bureaucrat, Merrigan described efforts to penetrate "food deserts" in poor neighborhoods where people rely on corner markets and liquor stores for groceries, tougher enforcement of the USDA organic label and initiatives such as the Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food program to connect local farmers with consumers.

Anti-obesity campaign The efforts parallel first lady Michelle Obama's anti-obesity campaign, which she took Wednesday to a community farm in San Diego supported by the California Endowment, whose mission to improve the health of Californians is mirrored by the first lady's campaign.

"Food is finally either close to or at the center of the USDA plate," said Bob Scowcroft, executive director of the Santa Cruz foundation, which struggled for years to get federal support for organic farming. Scowcroft cited Merrigan's interest in such innovations as mobile slaughterhouses, which allow tiny livestock producers to get USDA certification of their meat.

"California is desperate for these," Scowcroft said. "The entire U.S. system is now based on massive factory farms. You have lamb producers that want to sell into a local restaurant, but if they even can find a unit to slaughter their lambs, it's 300 to 500 miles away. Driving 10 lambs there is cost prohibitive."

Even a small shift in the giant machinery of the USDA - be it more research money for organics or stiffer antitrust enforcement against industrial operators Merrigan said is coming - could have big repercussions given the agency's central role in U.S. farming. Merrigan said the administration is also linking USDA efforts with other departments such as Health and Human Services.
Not the old USDA

Big growers are not thrilled. After Merrigan addressed a USDA conference in Washington last month, Tim Burrack, a corn and soybean grower who chairs the Iowa Corn Promotion Board, stood up and told her, "This is not the USDA that I've known," according to Iowa press accounts. "I've farmed for 37 years and worked with the government and everything - and what I'm hearing out here is radically different than what has taken place in the first 36 years of my career," he said.

Burrack cited concern among conventional producers that focusing on organics and small local farms conflicts with traditional agriculture production that "has provided for this nation a very safe and very low-cost food supply."

The department took its first survey of organic farmers two years ago, counting 14,540 of them, located in all 50 states. Sales have reached $24.6 billion a year, growing 14 percent to 21 percent annually over the last decade, but still remain less than 1 percent of all U.S. agriculture.

More small farms In addition, the census showed for the first time that the number of small farms in California, many of them minority-owned, has increased. Growers and retailers at Wednesday's conference expressed exasperation over losing their organic certification after their fields were contaminated by neighboring farms growing genetically modified crops.

Alan Lewis, a manager at the Natural Grocers chain in Lakewood, Colo., cited a 1970s-era USDA rule that designates beef as "natural" if it is unadulterated after slaughter, even if the cow was pumped with hormones, de-wormers and corn for the months it was alive. "Magically, it becomes 'natural' on the day of harvest," he said. The agency is looking at a new rule for "naturally raised" beef as a midpoint between natural and fully organic.

But that, Lewis said, is likely to sow confusion with consumers. "As an industry, we really need to be clear about who's toeing the line and who isn't," Lewis said.SF GATE article

A 21st Century Social Contract Between Agriculture & the Public

A Farm Foundation Roundtable discussion took place today. Michael Dimock, of Roots of Change (ROC) was present, offering “ten basic building blocks” for a new social contract. Dimock goes on to say,

” I am a realist who looks at the past and says we can, we will, and we must change in unbelievably immense ways. Science and technology must be part of that change. Agriculture has a history of rapid change using technology. But I am very concerned about what appears to me to be an underlying hubris that permeates our perception of our ability to build and maintain industrial scale food production for a sustained period, particularly one based on fossil fuel. “

Yarn Into Apparel-The Carver Imperial Stock Ranch

The Imperial Stock Ranch, which began in 1871, faces a new and serious challenge to its very survival: how to create new markets for its products to compensate for longstanding existing markets that have declined or shifted overseas. Some bold steps were needed to rethink what to do with the wool from the sheep they raise on their 30,000 acre ranch in Eastern Oregon. Their solution? Direct, value-added marketing to yarn retailers and apparel designers.

Carver is following in a long tradition of farmers striving to distinguish their product in the marketplace—first and foremost by its quality, but also through processing, product enhancements, packaging, and suggestions for how consumers can use the product. As you watch the video, note the four key areas where producers focus their efforts in order to achieve success.

1. Identify your product and its market potential: What do we have and what does it need to become to be able to sell it for a profit?
2. Determine what processing is required: How will we convert our raw product into the saleable items that consumers are looking for?
3. Create a marketing package: What is it about your product that is of special value to buyers of your product, and what is the best way to get that message across?
4. Develop a plan for how to market and sell your product: What steps will be needed to get my product to the marketplace and who can help me make that happen?

Growing Cover Crop with a Cash Crop

How to grow Corn without Peticides

Several years ago, Forgey began thinking about how he might include cover crops on the 8500-acre farm to improve soil and the bottom line. But how best to do this in a no-till system? Usually, cover crops are tilled into the soil while they are still green in order to promote soil quality and fertility, but that is not an option in a no-till system. Forgey received a SARE grant to test the feasibility of using cover crops at Cronin Farms. It’s an on-going experiment, but after three years, results are promising. One cover crop mix of turnips, cowpeas and lentils increased corn yields by 18-20 bushels per acre in the SARE farm trials.

Cronin Farms innovative no-till system integrates both cover crops and livestock grazing. corn yields of 60-80 bushels per acre without chemical fertilizer, Forgey describes his ongoing research with cover crops, this time looking at how they might be grown in sync with a cash crop of corn, and a forage soybean variety developed by Dwayne Beck of South Dakota State University showed excellent results.

Other benefits include:

• healthier soil, with increasing benefits over a period of 4 to 5 years
• better soil aggregation and texture through the addition of organic matter and enhanced activity of soil microorganisms
• economic savings as a result of reduced use of purchased fertilizer

The Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program’s mission is to advance—to the whole of American agriculture—innovations that improve profitability, stewardship and quality of life by investing in groundbreaking research and education. SARE is proud of its connections to farming communities across the country and encourages those who wish to learn more to visit their website. SARE is funded by USDA and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA).

Information sheet describing how cover crops and livestock fit into a typical crop rotation at Cronin Farms (PDF) is available at the SARE Web site or Managing Cover Crops Profitably (PDF).