Eat. Drink. Better.

As Thanksgiving approaches, we tend to focus more on what we have to be grateful for.  We have a bountiful food supply, symbolized at this time of year by horns of plenty, Turkey Day feasts at our tables and in trade magazines from Country Living to Better Homes and Gardens, among others.

The stewardship of sending food and other basics in the form of care packages to poverty-plagued countries tends to be ignored.  I got a lesson in this dilemma as I watched a video at] my home church on Lutheran World Relief (LWR), a 64-year-old organization that sends donations of ordinary items we take for granted to help families and children in Third World countries that depend on agriculture for their livelihood and live on less than $2 a day in some areas.  While we go to college in hopes of writing our ticket to success, kids in Mali get wide-eyed at the sight of pencils and paper to write with.  LWR donors typically send simple things such as health kits, toothpaste, soap, needles and thread, quilts, and layettes for new mothers, 40 of which can be sent for $40.

That raises a major question about food.  How can we get that need met in Mali where crops are meager and cows look frail and sickly? A true and false test we took prior to the video presentation included statements such as “There is not enough food to go around,” “The free market can end hunger,” and “We benefit from people’s poverty.”

Just tell that to the Stop Hunger Now, an international hunger relief organization that coordinates the distribution of food and other life-saving aid around the world.  Stop Hunger Now’s vision is to end world hunger in our lifetime and has a mission to provide food and life-saving aid to the world’s most destitute and hungry in the most sustainable, efficient and effective manager.  SHN’s volunteer meal packaging program packages and ships dehydrated, high-protein, and nutritious meals for crisis situations and in school feeding programs.  Food, medicines and medical supplies are also sent to respond to emergency needs.  A recent article in the Charlotte Observer puts the world hunger count at a startling one billion people, a 100 million increase in one year, according to United Nations figures.  “The rise in hunger,” the article adds, “has also triggered riots and acts of violence.”  (See www.stophungernow.org)

While food prices have dropped off since mid 2008 they are still 24 percent higher then in 2006. Another unnerving statistic is that the growing hunger rate has become larger than the growing population rate, a trend that began two years ago. While most of the world’s undernourished live in developing countries, all regions of the world have recorded a two digit increase in hunger.

The food issue seems to be the inability of producers to get quality food to those who need it most. There IS enough food to go around but the free market won’t end hunger unless the system is based on something other than profitable sale.  Global improvements in food distribution logistics and infrastructure would reduce costs and travel distances for the benefit of well-fed shippers and hungry people.  That takes public and private stewardship and cooperative planning and implementation. A solution to poverty would combine food stewardship with showing people in Mali and elsewhere how to grow their own crops better.  It’s like teaching a man to fish so he can fish for a lifetime.

The U.S. food system has all the tools needed to send food to the hungry in an organized, efficient manner. The next step is to establish relationships with countries such as Mali and send our surpluses and provide our knowledge to areas who want a way out of poverty.  Such an effort, combined with public education about the hunger problem to motivate private donations to relief groups such as Lutheran World Relief, or whatever organization has a presence in our communities. No one should live on $2 a day.  The heads of large food companies and the people working for them sure don’t. Globalization involves social responsibility to peoples around the world.  Stewardship is wise use of resources that produce the best results without causing hardship on either side of the food equation.

Profit is possible with global stewardship.  It requires, however, a wider vision of what we can do with what we make to make the world a better place to live for everyone –not just the people in our own fertile back yard. Otherwise Edward R. Murrow’s Harvest of Shame, a 1960 CBS news documentary about the plight of migrant workers in America will trascend to global poverty that we all pay for in the end.

I knew little about Foreign Animal Disease (FAD) when I walked into a Wisconsin Department of Agriculture (DATCP) talk on the subject Nov. 3 at the Microbial Sciences Center on the UW-Madison campus.  Here is a description of foot-and-mouth disease, an example of FAD, from www.cattletoday:

Foot-and-Mouth Disease is a severe, highly communicable disease of cattle, pigs, sheep, goats and deer.  It is caused by one of the smallest disease producing viruses known.   Humans do not catch the virus.  The disease is characterized by blister-like lesions on the tongue, nose and lips, in the mouth, on the teats and between the toes which then burst, leaving painful ulcers.   The blisters cause a heavy flow of sticky, foamy saliva that hangs from the mouth.  Infected animals sway from one foot to the other due to the tenderness of the feet.  Although older cattle usually do not die from the infection, they suffer a severe illness which leaves them in a weakened state.  They have high fevers, stop eating, give less milk and become lame. 

The virus is extremely contagious and spreads rapidly unless it is contained. This usually requires quarantining infected farms, followed by slaughtering and burning all susceptible animals. Anyone having contact with animals in infected countries should not go near susceptible animals for at least five days.  Because the virus is spread so easily, countries with the disease are banned from exporting animals and their products, creating further economic hardship.  Foot-and-Mouth Disease was last seen in the United States in 1929. The U.S. Government places an extremely high priority on keeping the disease out of the country. 

The FAD Threat

The first speaker i heard reviewed the horror stories of millions of hogs killed in Europe between 1997 and 2001 from either foot and moth disease or classic swine fever, including a 2001 outbreak in the United Kingdom that killed 10 million animals at a total cost of $13 billion.

The numbers are staggering but foreign animal disease hasn’t caused nearly as much carnage in the U.S. or the state of Wisconsin — yet.  The major concern is that foreign animal disease can enter the country and disrupt the Wisconsin farm economy without warning. Two main causes are live animals that can come from elsewhere and spread the disease, or people coming or returning from abroad and smuggling diseased meat products into this country.

Preparing a Plan

The USDA, DATCP and local governments continue to develop a response plan acceptable to all sectors of Wisconsin agriculture that will effectively deal with an incident or outbreak. The big challenge is to get the word out about foreign animal disease so that a plan can be put in place that will work quickly and efficiently. That’s because the onset of foreign animal disease requires precautions so that the incident or outbreak is addressed qicklu without disrupting the transportation, distribution, and production of agricultural products, particularly raw milk that drives Wisconsin’s dairy industry.  According to DATCP, Wisconsin produces 25.1 billion pounds of milk each year from 1.25 million cows from nearly 13,000 dairy farms.  An outbreak severely disrupts the process.  A response plan reduces the disruption significantly.

A response would include setting up what amounts to safety zones around the affected farm and those closest to the occurrence and moving milk within specified zones to identified milk processing plants to get the product moving as quickly as possible. This is critical for raw milk, which can spoil after 48 hours. Though destroying affected herds has been done elsewhere, officials say it’s not a practical solution in Wisconsin. 

The Job Ahead

The main task for agricultural officials and milk marketers is to educate all players involved about foreign animal disease and develop an efficient response system.

the Wisconsin Agro-Security Resource Network (WARN) has a Web site intended to mobilize the entire food industry — dairy, beef, pork, egg, and poultry — to build relationships prior to an occurrence. Officials want to build on existing research and response plans from other areas to complete a plan that has total support.

“We are better prepared but we still have a long way to go,” USDA’s Ty Vannieuwenhoven told the audience.  That’s where citizen journalism plays a role. We can get the word out through GO Media and other outlets and participate in the public education needed to prepare for FAD, which is not a fad, but a potentially serious economic, logistic, and public health problem.

(Map courtesy Epoch Times Web images).

My bookshelves creak with the weight of my amassed food preservation resource collection.  As we grow over 70 percent of our food needs on our Wisconsin farm and B&B, Inn Serendipity, the how-to behind stocking up has always been area of personal, passionate research.

But as you can see, I’m already overloaded with info.  Do I need another food preservation book?  Not really, until I read Sharon Astyk’s latest book:  Independence Days:  A Guide to Sustainable Food Storage & Preservation, a new release from the fine folks at New Society Publishers.  Lots of books, those on my shelves included, successfully detail the “how” of food preservation, from water bath timings to prolific pickling techniques.  Independence Days freshly blends “how” with “why,” serving up a modern take on stocking up and why this plays a vital role in our future survival as a planet.

Astyk’s approach, blending practical information and big picture context with a hefty dose of personal anecdotes and essays, nurtures readers into realizing they are doing more than creating a January supper when one puts up tomatoes in July.  We’re collectively part of a larger, strategic, hands-on revolution in kitchens across America to change the way we approach food, sustainability and life.

Here’s a sampling of fresh, inspiring perspectives I harvested from Independence Days: Read the rest of this entry »

Just in case you were thinking about indulging in some sweet treats today, I would like to offer you the option to take the healthier road. Sometimes it can take a visual aid to open your eyes and force you to take a cold hard look at what you are actually putting in your body or feeding to your family. Luckily, Sugar Stacks has put together an array of photos for us.  Unluckily, there are many items on their website that a lot of folks may consume on any given day, slowly causing their body to deteriorate without even realizing it.

Each food item is paired with the actual amount of sugar it contains stacked up in pretty little cubes. Each cube equals a teaspoon of sugar. Since they do not differentiate between different kinds of sugar, its important to know that natural sugars found in fruit and vegetables will be metabolized differently then the sugar found in a can coke or your favorite Frappachino. In my article on Natural Sweeteners, I explain that not all sweeteners are created equal. When it comes to refined sweeteners like white table sugar, high fructose corn syrup and artificial sweeteners like NutraSweet and Splenda, there are many side effects and health risks to take into consideration.

It’s time to face reality. It’s time to ask your self, what have I been putting in my body? Would I ever just eat the nearly 10 cubes of sugar that are the soda I just drank?  Can I make a smarter choice then this? You may have seen these before, but in my opinion, if you are still eating and drinking these items on a regular basis, you can never see them too much. For even more photos go to Sugarstacks.com.

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Going Meatless on Mondays doesn’t have to mean deprivation of all your favorite foods. By making some simple changes to recipes, you can easily swap out the animal products for vegan options. Here is a simple veganized muffin recipe, so you can start your Meatless Monday off with delicious, healthy, energizing and decadent baked good.

Tibetan Goji Berries are regarded in Tibet as the “Fruit of Longevity and Well Being”. Goji berries have been traditionally regarded as a food that offers your body longevity, strength-building, and sexual potency. Goji’s are a complete protein source and a low calorie snack that strengthens your immune system, increases energy and helps to curb cravings. It has one of the highest antioxidant contents in all food, which helps to fight free radicals, keeping you young and vibrant. Goji’s contain 18 amino acids, vitamin C, beta-carotene, 20 rare trace minerals, vitamin B1, B2 and B6 and vitamin E.

In honor of this Meatless Monday, let’s boost our energy, keep ourselves looking and feeling young and chow down on some delicious vegan, anti-aging muffins.
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As the dog days of summer come to an end, a 3 course, no cooking required meal sounds pretty good to me. Turn that stove off, shut down the oven, choose to go meatless this Monday and cool off with this appetizer, main course and dessert.

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According to the folks over at Eat This Not That, there are certain nutrients you should try to eat every day for optimum health. In case you needed a few more reasons to cut back on overly processed and animal based foods, all of the nutrients just happen to be found in natural plant based sources. Not only will you be helping your body by following these guidelines, but by choosing to eat a diet rich in plant based foods, you’ll be lowing your carbon footprint and saving the environment at the same time. It doesn’t get much better then that. Here’s a list of my top 5 of the recommended plant based foods, along with the nutrients they provide for your body and easy ways to start incorporating them into your diet today.
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How do you save dying species of agriculturally valuable plants and animals?  The answer may be as simple as what’s on your dinner plate.

A recent article outlined the “eat ‘em to save ‘em” method of biodiversity protection.  Simply put, rare varieties of plants and animals can be saved if consumers demand them.  Asking your grocer, chef, or farmers market vendor about heirloom and endangered varieties is a great way to demonstrate that the demand exists for these diverse crops.

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There has been a lot of talk lately about how many servings of fish is too much and which fish are the best to eat. With concerns like mercury poisoning, eating farm-raised fish or wild fish, genetic engineering and over fishing, it’s important to consider certain things when choosing your next fish dinner or sushi roll.

Doctors and health professionals in general recommend fish because of the high dose of Omega 3’s fatty acids a serving supplies you with. A 6-ounce serving of fish can provide a day’s worth of high quality protein for adults. Eating fish once a week should not cause any concern for most people. For those fish eaters who partake in multiple servings of fish a week, especially children and pregnant women, the main concern can become mercury poisoning. Eating too much mercury-ridden fish can cause certain health problems including impairment in memory and behavior, tingling in the hands, feet, and lips, as well as causing possible damage to the heart and immune system. Aside from the mercury concern, we now have a number of different fish species that are soon to become extinct due to over fishing, or are being caught using environmentally destructive methods. There are some very simple rules to follow to be certain you are not getting a side dish of mercury or hurting the environment with your fish entree.

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Clean Plates NYC is the only nutritionist and food critic approved lifestyle book and guide featuring the healthiest, tastiest and most sustainable restaurants in NYC for both vegetarians and carnivores. With plans to expand to other cities and focusing on restaurants using local, organic and sustainably raised plant and/or animal products, this informative and easy to use book will change the way Americans dine out.
Jared Koch is the creator and co-author of this guide designed for busy people on the go. It introduces its readers to the concept of bioindividuality as well as the pros and cons of different dietary theories and types of foods encountered at restaurants.  The book provides practical tips and information on how to implement healthier and more sustainable eating into any budget, diet and lifestyle without sacrificing taste for nutrition.

“Jared’s nutritional advice in Clean Plates has the power to transform your individual health and our collective well-being.” Deepak Chopra, M.D., chairman and co-founder of The Chopra Centers for Wellbeing.

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