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Editorial: FDA Raid on Amish Farm Misguided
Real Leadership on Unpasteurized Milk Laws Needed
The recent attempt by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to clamp down on the sale of unpasteurized milk across state lines by "investigating" an Amish farm in Pennsylvania at 5 a.m. illustrates how the federal agency is wildly offbase in its supposed efforts to improve our food safety system. Our antiquated food safety regime does need updating, and I believe there's room for positive change, at least in theory. However, this bungle not only moves in exactly the wrong direction. It also lends credence to the arguments of both pragmatic small-government advocates and conspiracy theorists, who might see any federal involvement at all as designed to nail the "little guys."
Instead, the FDA should provide some real leadership on the issue of unpasteurized milk. With many states now allowing the sale of unpasteurized dairy products under various legal frameworks, the federal government should be leading a reasonable discussion about how to make the sale of unpasteurized milk and other dairy products more accessible, not less. We need to discuss how best to ensure that the dairy cows of farmers who are selling unpastuerized milk are healthy, such as through the routine inspections and tests that many of them already undergo anyway. We need to make it easier, not harder, for farmers to direct-market their goods in neighbhoring states. We need to focus on the real demons in the food supply, such as mega-corporations with shoddy farming practices who exploit undocumented workers, abuse their animals, and pollute our environment. We need to take down industrial-scale players exploiting loopholes and lax enforcement of antitrust laws and other regulations. This is where the true nature of what we are buying is being concealed and covered up and where government intervention could be helpful. The folks buying unpasteurized milk know exactly what they are buying, and it's what they want.
Showing up at the crack of dawn to intimidate an Amish dairy farmer milking his cows is not only a public relations disaster for the federal government. It's bad policy. On top of that, I'm betting it won't work.
-- Kristi
Note: According to the Weston A. Price Foundation, more than half of the states in the U.S. allow for the sale of unpasteurized milk, as do many other countries, including Australia, France and Germany. To find sources of unpasteurized milk in the U.S. and elsewhere, click here: http://www.realmilk.com/where.html. |
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Vegetable Philanthropy: A New Way to Give
 Most of us have probably donated a can of soup or a jar of peanut butter to a food drive at some time or other, but did you know that you can donate fresh produce to some food pantries and hunger relief organizations? If you are a prolific gardener, you can help needy families get more nutritious food and make good use of your garden surplus.
The University of Maryland Extension's Grow It Eat It campaign, launched last year to encourage more families in Maryland to garden, now has a component called Grow It Give It. It offers resources that can connect home gardeners with food pantries throughout our region that are equipped to accept fresh produce donations. Relief organizations like the Capital Area Food Bank encourage gardeners to Grow A Row for the hungry.
This year, don't waste any of your over-productive eggplants or kale. Better yet, plant extra and help create a healthier community!
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Is Urban Agriculture the Future of Farming? ECO Urban Farming Summit with Will Allen in MD June 18
 The answer may be, "yes!," especially in heavily populated areas like the Washington metro region. As Vinnie Bevivino from Engaged Community Offshoots, Inc. (ECO) recently told a gathering of folks discussing food access solutions, it may no longer make sense to have the people "here" and the farms "over there" in remote areas disconnected from urban and suburban life.
To further explore the possibilities of urban agriculture, ECO will present a first-of-its-kind event in our area, "Sowing Seeds Here and Now! A Chesapeake Urban Farming Summit featuring Will Allen of Growing Power" on Friday, June 18 at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland. This day-long event will include hands-on workshops with Will Allen, a MacArthur Genius Award winner and urban agriculture visionary whose work in Milwaukee and Chicago has sparked new ventures across the country.
ECO is already working to put his concepts of interdependent and intensive urban farming in place producing organically grown vegetables and aquaponic fish on a network of urban farms in Prince George's County, on parcels including land owned by the Maryland National Capital Parks and Planning Commission. The group hopes to help train other groups to implement similar projects across the Washington-Baltimore region.
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Bringing Lard Back Into the Kitchen By Claudia Kousoulas
 Tell your foodie friends that you're interested in cooking with lard and they'll shudder and start joking about cardiologists. But just as there are no miracle foods, there are no demon foods either and when you starting looking into lard, it may be one of life's pleasures that we can re-introduce into our lives.
Start with the thousands of years argument -- that generations have found pigs to be efficient, flexible, and a delicious source of protein. Pigs are not picky eaters and can efficiently scour a household's refuse. Spanish pigs fed on acorns are prized, but pigs used to be let loose to forage in streets.
And once slaughtered, pigs can be turned into sausage, scrapple and chops; they can be consumed fresh, pickled and smoked to see a family through the winter. And, as for delicious, well, there is an internet subculture devoted to bacon alone.
But no one wants to talk about lard. A few diehards will wistfully recall flaky pie crust and light-as-air biscuits made with lard, but admit they never use it anymore. After all, everyone knows that lard is no good for you. Or is it?
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Conflict at the Greenbelt Farmers Market By Kristi Bahrenburg Janzen
The decision to change meat vendors at the Greenbelt Farmers Market (GFM) has ignited a neighborhood controversy a week before the market opens for the season. It illustrates the challenges involved in balancing the interests of farmers and shoppers, as well as the seldom-discussed fact that farming practices and consumer preferences within the local food community are varied, even though local food represents a very small segment of the overall food marketplace.
What might have been a routine decision by the board of the GFM has evolved into an unfortunate conflict between Danny Rohrer, a well-liked local farmer striving to make a living off his family farm, and community volunteers attempting to provide the right mix of sellers to attract customers at a relatively new market.
Beyond the he-said-she-said nature of this dispute, the controversy illustrates the difficulties involved in organizing a farmers market, and it underlines an ongoing debate about allowing competing vendors within one farmers market. It also raises questions about how to prioritize one local, independently run, direct-marketing, sustainably-oriented family farm over another.
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Read local, eat local!
Sincerely,
Renee and Kristi
Local Mix
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Baltimore Green Week's Tasty Local Food Tour
Visit Renee's blog for a recap of the Local Is As Local Does restaurant tour featured as part of last week's Baltimore Green Week.
It was such a success that it's likely Baltimore Greenworks and the Chesapeake Sustainable Business Alliance (CSBA) will repeat it sometime before next year's Green Week. When they do, you don't want to miss it!
Tender, mild Easter Egg radishes from Real Food Farm were on the menu for the food tour which stopped at Woodberry Kitchen, The Dogwood, Gertrude's and Clementine
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