12 Ways to Be Cool in 2012.

Did you feel the heat on Christmas Day?  The South Pole recorded its highest temperature ever: 9.9˚F on December 25, 2011!  That was at the end of a year in which we in Vermont experienced not one, but two 100-year floods in 3 just months, and people around the world experienced either exceptionally wet (with flooding), unusually dry (with drought), and/or unthinkably hot (sometimes with dangerous fires) weather. In fact, 2011 boasted 2,941 extreme weather records in the US alone.  And, then there is the tremendous spike in atmospheric carbon dioxide (worth a click on the link to see what it looks like) which likely provides the explanation for it all.

In 2011, we managed to make weather more of an extreme sport than a recreational activity, which boils down to one simple, urgent thing: 2012 needs to be all about chilling out!   We’ve got to make being cool the theme of the year. Here are 12 ideas (in no particular order, and by no means a complete list) to help you be cool in the new year:

1. Turn off the lights.  When you leave the room, turn off the lights.  My father trained me in the 70s; it’s time for a little refresher. If you think your electric bills are looking a little high, you’ll enjoy lower bills as a result. You can add timers or motion sensors to light fixtures if that helps remember to turn them off.  For the ultimate in convenience, get solar outdoor lights - the sun will charge them, and the darkness will turn them on.

2. Get better lights. In addition to outdoor solar lights, upgrade your indoor bulbs, in fact it’s required. With the end of the incandescent light bulb, organizations like the NRDC have produced online guides to help you decide which lighting options are best for your home and business: LEDs, compact fluorescents… perhaps candles.

3. Unstuff yourself: If you’re feeling stuffed, unstuff yourself this year. Stuff requires cleaning, storage, sometimes lighting, heating or cooling, transportation, etc. all of which requires more energy. If you’re not already familiar with The Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession with Stuff Is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health-and a Vision for Change, check it out here, then destuff your life and save both money and the planet.

4. Lighten your foodprint. Skipping meat (at least once a week, as the Meatless Monday campaign suggests), and buying local, seasonal produce and products will help reduce the amount of energy your diet requires. Want to read more about it?  There’s a fresh crop of books on the joys and benefits of eating locally, including the piece de resistance: Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do about It.

5. Buy local: Transportation and (temperature-controlled) storage of food and other stuff requires lots of energy.  Buy what you need locally, and you help reduce those costs and you get to support your local economy at the same time. Here’s a fantastic example, worthy of replication every where: The Farmstand Coop.

6. Home Sweet Home: Beyond buying local food and other supplies, consider local vacations, local banking, local education, local heating fuel, etc. Investing in your home is investing in the planet.

7. Getting from A to B: How can you move yourself not in a single-occupied vehicle? Walk, bike, roller skate, cross country ski, bus, train, carpool?  For those times when you have to drive, plan trips to merge errands and outings as much as possible.

8. Dare to share. From cars (such as zip car), to lawn mowers, vacation rentals…  If you don’t really need to own it yourself, share with a family member, friend or neighbor.  In 2009, car-sharing alone was credited with reducing U.S. carbon emissions by more than 482,000 tons.

9. Befriend a sweater, hat and socks: Take inspiration from animals who grow an extra layer of winter fur, add a layer and lower the thermostat. Use a programmable thermostat if that helps to remember to lower your heat settings at night and when going out. Other ways to keep it warm and cozy: pour another cup of tea, sip hot, brothy soups, practice your dance moves, and host frequent house warming parties.

10. New to you. If you need a new sweater, you don’t have to buy a brand new one.  Shop local second-hand stores or host a clothing exchange, where friends come over (house warming party!) and you get to try on each other’s already-been-loved items to brighten up your wardrobe.

11. Grow your food: Growing your own vegetables, fruits and herbs is a great way to bring fresh and nutritious food literally to your door. Having a garden doesn’t have to require a lot of space, even a small plot, or a collection of containers on a back deck, fire escape or window sill can contribute to your health and that of the planet.

12. Practice the 4 Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rot: See where you can use less, come up with new ways to use what you already have, recycle (or upcycle) what might otherwise become trash, and compost all things biological.

If you’re not totally convinced being cool is the hottest thing out there, check out what thousands of people have been doing to solve the climate crisis.  Check out the incredibly inspirational work, with photos and videos from around the world at 350.org.

Eat More Kale

Once upon a time there was a humble artist named Bo who made t-shirts.  He called his one-at-a-time silk screening shop “Eat More Kale”.  He was loved by t-shirt wearers, small-scale farmers and kale eaters worldwide, but particularly in Vermont, where he lived.  [I have seeded and weeded in my "eat more kale" t-shirt, and Bo very kindly sent me more than fifty "eat more kale" stickers when I was working with students at a nearby high school to create a new kale chip recipe.]

One day he received a cease-and-desist letter from a large fast food company called Chick-Fil-A (full story here).  Apparently Chick-Fil-A thought fast food eaters would be confused by the Vermont t-shirt maker’s name and their own slogan “eat mor chikin”. No one had ever heard of anyone walking into a Chick-Fil-A asking for a kale burger or kale fries, as the restaurant did not offer any kale dishes (this, ironically was the one thing the two businesses had in common: neither actually sold kale). Still, they felt threatened by the small (though thanks to their bullying action, then quickly growing) appreciation of the vegetable promoting slogan and were pushing legal action to close the t-shirt man down.

The people of Vermont, including the governor, and many others worldwide wouldn’t stand for it, and came together in favor of Bo. Governor Shumlin launched “Team Kale” to support Bo’s fight and create a legal defense fund. “Get out of the way, Chick-Fil-A” he declared as he announced the effort to protect all small business.

This was at a time when persevering protesters kept the pressure on Wall Street in favor of Main Street, and Congress (having been gobbled up by Big Food) had just redefined pizza as a vegetable, and was seen as yet another example of big business hubris. In defense of “the little guy” and the right to healthy eating, the people poured their support in Bo’s direction.

They did things such as (and I hope you will too):

• Sign Bo’s petition to support small business here:
• Join Bo on Facebook
• Follow @teamkale on twitter
• Buy a “Team Kale” t-shirt and/or sticker to support Bo’s legal defense fund by clicking here.
• And support both Bo’s efforts and your personal health with a homemade, local, organic and vegetarian Potato-Kale Soup from Mama D’s Kitchen, available the week of Dec 12 at The Farmstand Coop (order by midnight Wed for pick-up on Thursday).  All proceeds will go to “Team Kale”.
• UPDATE: Since the soup special sold out quickly, Potato-Kale Soup will be sold for another week.  Order at The Farmstand Coop by midnight on Wed, Dec 21st for pick-up on the 22nd. And, thank you!
• To support Bo in spirit and your health for real, feast on kale (and all glorious greens)!  Here’s the link for my potato-kale soup recipe.
  

Let’s give this story a fairy tale ending, and let Bo and kale live happily ever after.

Filling up on Pumpkin

“For pottage and puddings and custards and pies
Our pumpkins and parsnips are common supplies,
We have pumpkins at morning and pumpkins at noon,
If it were not for pumpkins we should be undoon.”

Lyrics to popular song in the 1600s

Pumpkins. We buy them whole in October to perform surgery on, and then expect to see them again in November in a pie.  We’ve come to think of pumpkin pie as one of the traditional Thanksgiving dishes. Probably not. Together with squashes, they are native to New England, and were a common food source for Native Americans.  Early European settlers adopted pumpkin eating, but it was unlikely that they had the butter and wheat flour we use today for the crust until many years later.

According to historians from Plimouth Plantation, the earliest written pumpkin pie recipes are dated several generations after the First Thanksgiving, and then they treat pumpkin more like apples (which are not native and had, by then, been brought over from Europe), slicing it and sometimes frying the slices before layering them in a crust.

This recipe may more closely resemble an early pumpkin pie than what we are accustomed to today (which, if you tend to have it with canned pumpkin, I urge you to read the latest on BPA in cans, and use a real pumpkin instead).  The filling does contain butter and bread cubes, but these can easily be omitted for historical purity.  A simple filling made with spiced milk and eggs is likely that of the original pumpkin pie.

Today pumpkins are recognized as a particularly good source of vitamin A and beta-carotene, as well as vitamin C.  Since they are naturally sweet, they help satisfy our sweet tooth, preventing a sugar craving. Some research suggests that eating pumpkin works well to balance insulin and is therefore effective for pre-diabetes and diabetes.

Pumpkin seeds have many health benefits, including being a good source of protein, zinc, iron and vitamins, most notably vitamin E. Pumpkin seeds also contain tryptophan, magnesium, manganese, and phosphorus.

Bread Pudding in a Pumpkin Shell

An Original Pumpkin Pie

• 1 pie pumpkin or other nice-looking winter squash (roughly 4-5 pounds)
• 2 cups milk (or coconut milk*)
• 1/4 cup butter (or coconut oil*), melted.
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 2 cups stale bread, cubed
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup raisins and/or dried cranberries or sultanas
• 1/2 walnuts and/or pecans
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4-1/2 teaspoon each of ground alspice, ginger, cloves and/or cardamom
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon maple liquor (optional, however, the next time you’re in Vermont, you will not be disappointed if you treat yourself to a bottle of “Cabin Fever” Maple Liquor)
• whole nutmeg, for grinding

Topping

• 1 cup pumpkin seeds (although it makes a great deal of sense to use the seeds from your pumpkin, I have to admit that I like the taste of the greenish-colored “pepitas” better)
• butter or oil, just enough to coat pan
• 1 teaspoon maple sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350º degrees.
2. Wash pumpkin. Cut off the top of the pumpkin and clean out the inside.  Brush the top and inside with a little melted butter.
3. Replace cover on pumpkin and heat in oven for 20 minutes.
4. While pumpkin is in oven, scald milk for the bread pudding filling. Remove from heat and add butter and maple syrup.  Pour mixture over stale bread cubes and let sit for 5-10 minutes.  Then add eggs, raisins, nuts, spices, vanilla and splash of liquor.
5. Take pumpkin out of oven, remove the top and fill with the bread mixture and grate some fresh nutmeg over the top.  This time without the top, place pumpkin in a baking dish and bake for 1- 1 1/2 hours or until the pumpkin is soft (cooking time will vary depending on the size of the pumpkin) and the pudding is cooked. Any leftover filling can be cooked in ramekins, which will not need the full cooking time.
6. To make the topping: melt butter in a small skillet, add the pumpkin seeds.  Give them a shake and/or stir several times and watch them closely since they burn easily.  Once browned and starting to pop, remove from heat and sprinkle with cinnamon and maple (or regular) sugar.
7. Remove pumpkin from oven and allow to cool slightly.
8. Serve as boat-like slices with a wedge of pumpkin as the base, filled with bread pudding and how about a nice dollop of vanilla yogurt, creme fraiche, freshly whipped cream or ice cream on top. Sprinkle all over with cinnamon pumpkin seeds.

Thanks to Wilson Farm in Lexington, Massachusetts (my childhood farmstand) and our early American foremothers for the inspiration for this recipe.

* Note to Primal/Paleo eaters: This type of pie can be easily adapted to a hunter-gatherer diet.  Like the early New England settlers, omit the bread cubes and butter, and make the custard with coconut oil, coconut milk and plenty of eggs and spices. The links above connect to these products in BPA-free packaging.

It’s FOOD DAY!!

Dear fellow eaters, welcome to Food Day!  A day to celebrate real food, and bring much needed attention to the connections between the Standard American Diet (truly SAD) and our increasingly high rates of diet-related disease, the poor quality of school lunches, the poor health of many of our farm workers, and the economic and environmental impacts of our industrial food system, while at the same time supporting the growing opportunities for small family farms, farmers markets, sustainable agriculture, local food security and improved personal and public health by eating a real food diet.

“The typical American diet is promoting major health problems, causing serious environmental pollution, and unintentionally creating poor working conditions for those who harvest, process, and prepare our food,” said Michael F. Jacobson, Center for Science in the Public Interest’s (CSPI) executive director. “It’s time to urge Americans to change their own diets for the better and to mobilize for desperately needed changes in food and farm policy.”

So, what will you be eating today?

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As fun-filled, exciting, as well as tasty the numerous Food Day events around the country are sure to be today, this is a message which requires daily practice. We eat everyday, so let’s make it real everyday.

Happy Food Day, Today and Every Day!

With a Leap of Faith, Jumping into Junk Food Day

Coke. Oreos. Cheetos. Pringles. Fluff. French Fries. TV Dinners. Frosted Flakes. Froot Loops. Dunkin’ Donuts. Most of these foods (well people eat them, but I have never considered them food, per se), my children had heard off, maybe tasted a bite thanks to some one else, but had never heard me offer, let alone watched me buy. And for one day, they also watched me eat.

Labeling me a “health food mom” would be an accurate characterization.  Since I do just about all the food prep for my family, we get to eat mostly fruits, vegetables, legumes, grains and other whole foods. At the same time, I try not to be militant about it.  We’ll share in a small amount of candy or junk food in social situations to keep everyone happy. But, I’m hoping for life-long buy-in by not putting my foot down with an absolute “no” to things many people eat regularly (even if I liken it more to poison than to nourishment). So to quell any nascent curiosity, I proposed a junk food day.  All junk food, and only junk food, for 24 hours. A sort of Morgan Spurlock undertaking in overdrive – I was aiming for the same totally repulsed outcome in just 1/30 of the time.

I met my fellow junk foodies at the school bus, and we were off to get supplies.  First stop: K-Mart. I figured, if we were on a cultural adventure as foreign exchange students in junk food land, we should shop in a different place too.  Even though the food K-Mart carries does all undeniably fall into the “junk food” category, the selection was skimpier than we had hoped, so we trudged on to a large-scale supermarket to round out our assortment of frozen dinners, soda, overly salty snacks, overly sweet snacks and still more snacks.  I had to say no to things we agreed were too healthy: the kids tv dinners with a vegetable, and the cookies with real ingredients, and definitely no actual fruit, although the pomegranates did look good. I caved a little when I made an exception for a can of jellied cranberry sauce (which fortunately turned out to really be two forms of corn syrup with a hint of cranberry). Fully stocked, we swung by Dunkin’ Donuts on the way home for coffee for me and a first-ever donut for the younger set. We were off to a buzzing good start.

We unpacked and displayed our goods. For dinner I made, (if opening boxes and putting plastic trays in an oven can be called “making”), TV dinner-style frozen macaroni and cheese, french bread pizzas and french fries.  A plate full of yellowish beige sat in front of us, to be washed down with coke. As my older daughter repeated many times over, “this is weird.”  I had to agree. Despite our best efforts, there were left-overs.  It just wasn’t very good. What to do with the rejected remains?  Normally, we give kitchen scraps to our hens, but my youngest insisted,”I’d rather give it to the trash, than give it to the chickens.”

For breakfast we poured hot water on our instant hot cocoa and coffee mixes, and opened various small boxes of exceedingly sweet cereal.  The rest of the morning, I encouraged them to snack straight out of bags: pringles, cheetos, oreos… Without much of an appetite, at lunchtime, we made fluff sandwiches and wondered how this sticky, glue-like concept came to be.

As we reached the final hour of my “scared straight” inspired experiment, we had successfully tried a variety of highly processed versions of corn and soy, reconfigured and presented as distinct food products, each decorated with numerous numbered colors, flavored artificially and packaged enticingly. Admittedly, the initial taste of some was nice, but the full experience was not. Overloaded on junk food, we felt simultaneously tired and wired, overly full but still sort of hungry, entertained by our binge, but not sorry to dump the remaining soda down the drain, and the uneaten fluff and cereal in the garbage.

With a kitchen table full of foreign items, my girls had done more than just taste the contents, they had thoroughly examined the packages – being struck by what they read: how many different forms of sugar a single product had, the impossible to pronounce ingredients, the bogus health claims, etc. Probably the most shocking was the invitation on the bottle of Coca-Cola to “join Diet Coke in the support of women’s heart health programs,” in a campaign called “The Heart Truth.” They felt the inherent lie could not be more obvious: there is no way that Coke could be supportive of any form of health.  They took pride in their skepticism and inability to be “tricked,” while feeling put off by that fact that such clear untruths were allowed to be printed.

They were absolutely right. The junk food world serves up ingredients I don’t want in my body, but perhaps more insidious, it promotes (false) information and uses unrestrained marketing tactics I don’t want in my head or theirs.  Since it is virtually impossible to separate junk food from food marketing, immersing ourselves in a day of junk, was as much a taste test as it was a test of critical thinking. Allow children (in particular) to be surrounded by the products and information this industry creates, and it will have you captive.  In fact, a large-scale study discussed in today’s The Atlantic shows that the amount of marketing to children is going up, not down.  In “Are Children Prey for Fast Food Companies?“, the author reports, “the average preschool child sees three ads for fast food, every day. For teens the number is five. Much of the advertising is to create brand loyalty as much as it is to promote certain foods.” Because it was so unusual, our one day total immersion experience revealed both that the food is unsatisfying, and the marketing messages thoroughly unsavory.

This is a day we will always remember – the day we bought crap food, finally tasted what we have seen people around us eat, ate way too much of it in a short period of time, felt all-around “weird”, were baffled at the desperate marketing attempts to make this junk appear somehow healthy, craved real food and, in the end, were happy when it was over.  My girls assure me my reverse psychology experiment has worked.  They can now go through life knowing what oreos, pringles, fluff and coke taste like without turning these into regular habits.

Though we had fun with it, I don’t necessarily recommend this strategy. If you feel inspired to try the same, I’d love to hear about your family’s experience.  Good luck, have fun, and savor with renewed appreciation that fresh, colorful, crispy, delicious and nutritious salad waiting for you on the other side.

Ready for a New Thanksgiving Tradition: Meatless?

A tweet came across my screen this morning announcing that today’s Martha Stewart show would feature a vegetarian Thanksgiving. “Excellent!” I thought.  I know Thanksgiving no other way, but never thought that my way of serving Thanksgiving dinner would interest Martha Stewart!  I tuned in, and was very impressed.  Not only did she demonstrate various delicious looking vegetarian recipes, but she also discussed various issues surrounding our food choices in general, and some of the implications of meat eating in particular. She had as guests, “Food, Inc.“ filmmaker, Robert Kenner,  Joel Salatin, the “poster child” ecological farmer in Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals and “Food, Inc.“ as well as author of several books on sustainable food production, vegetarian chef-restaurant owner Jeremy Fox, (who himself is a meat-eater, but prefers to work with vegetables), and Jonathan Saffron Foer discussing his latest book, Eating Animals.  It was a very engaging conversation, during which Martha promoted some of my favorite food themes: “eat real stuff”, compare your food choices with what your grandmother cooked, find out where your food comes from, and choose organic and direct-from-the-farmer foods whenever possible.

While cooking one of her meatless dishes, Martha told her audience that she was going to have a vegetarian Thanksgiving this year. Martha is commonly considered “the definitive American woman of our time,” the premiere taste-maker of all things domestic, the American lifestyle guru.  Vegetarianism, although much more common now than when I was the odd-ball meat-free kid in the 80s, is by no means popular in mainstream America. I have heard that only about 4% of the population does not eat meat.  And I can imagine that some rest-of-the-year vegetarians might even get swept up in the traditional meal of that certain November Thursday and join the family in a bite of bird. But not Martha and her daughter Alexis. Not this year.

What does this mean for the most traditional meal in America?!  Is not Thanksgiving sometimes simply referred to as “Turkey Day?”  Is this not the one day of the year, when you know what’s for dinner? It seems a significant departure from a well established tradition, but it may also be exactly where we are today — high time for a significant departure from what we have been eating. The time for a shift to food choices (and a food system) about which we can feel thankful.

A few years ago, I was motivated to find out more about the history behind our Thanksgiving tradition.  I quickly discovered that it has not always been about turkey and turkey only.  More likely than not, the original harvest feast, included many varieties of meat, fowl, fish and seafood, as well as plenty of vegetables. The feast featured what was available.  Of course, today, “available” includes just about everything possibly edible as our food travels the globe in order to land in our supermarkets, but if the focus this Thanksgiving on what is available from a source that we really feel good about, we can easily eliminate the vast majority of what sits on supermarket shelves.  To clear up any confusion, spend a couple of hours watching “Food, Inc.“ and the difference between foods which bring up feelings of disgust, repulsion and shame due to how they are produced, and those (identified with phrases such as fair-trade, ecologically-grown, organic, pasture-raised, free-range, etc.) which both fill the belly and satisfy the soul (or “sole” = sustainable, organic, local and ethical) becomes apparent.

As pleased as I am that Martha Stewart has put her stamp of approval on a meatless Thanksgiving dinner, I am not necessarily advocating for vegetarian Thanksgiving dinners to be held across the country.  Within today’s food system, being a mindful eater does not have to mean adopting a vegetarian or vegan diet, but since the availability of ecologically and humanely-treated animal food is so limited, it is an easy and understandable choice.

As I started writing this afternoon, I noticed a car coming to a stop in the bend in the road just outside my window. It made me look up, even though, this time of year, this happens several times a day.  It’s hunting season and directly across the street is a large clearing along side a small river.  A favorite place for wildlife and as I looked down by the river, I could see the gaggle of wild turkeys that this driver had spotted.  He had his binoculars out and was taking a closer look.  As happy as I am that the land is posted, making hunting illegal (so I did not have to witness the attack) I also want to support those Americans who are out hunting their turkey.  My objection to conventional turkey and therefore my enthusiasm for Martha’s alternative choice, is the ugly industrialization of raising animals for food, not the food itself.

Grist recently covered the conventional turkey industry (where the bird you buy in the supermarket comes from) and the options for a higher quality heritage breed.

If you are inspired to follow in Martha’s footsteps and try something different this year, check out the recipes on this site, and follow the links to several others for delicious ideas you will likely go back to year after year.

Happy Thanksgiving!

“From scratch”

I was at the parents night for my daughter’s class last week. One of the children in the class has a severe nut allergy, so her mother was explaining what her child can and can not have in the classroom. She discussed nut allergy-safe birthday treats the rest of us might want to send in for our child’s birthday. She rattled off several mainstream brands of cookies and brownies which are “safe” from her nut-allergy perspective. I was silently cringing as I know Betty Crocker and Duncan Hines may meet her specific standards for safety, but they are far from what I feed my children based on my standards for safe, healthy and nutritious foods.

As she is talking, I am thinking is it really that hard to bake a cookie and not add nuts to it? What am I missing? Apparently thinking along the same lines, another parent asked the question. “What about just baking from scratch without nuts or nut oils?” “Yes,” the mother answered, I’ll make a list of brands which make nut-free mixes that are safe for my child.” “Well,” responded the inquiring parent, “I was not thinking about a mix, but from scratch.” After a pause, “Oh, like flour, from scratch?! That kind of from scratch? Well, if you really want to. I mean, knock yourself out! Sure, that’s ok.”

Wow, I thought to myself. We have grown so accustomed to boxed and processed foods, that “from scratch” can now be understood as “making from a mix”, and needs to be specifically clarified when one means baking from the original ingredients. I think I’ll offer to do a few cooking projects with the class. We’ll make things entirely “from scratch” to ensure the children also understand the original meaning of the phrase.

Bringing Good News from USDA

The following is a blog post I wanted to share with you from Samuel Fromartz, a business journalist and author of Organic, Inc: Natural Foods and How They Grew. In his book, he writes about the US Department of Agriculture in connection with “the entire regulatory mess that seemed to miss the point that organic food was supposed to be pure, wholesome, natural and small-scale, a true alternative to conventional food.”

Just a few years later, in a welcome turn of events, it seems the USDA is coming around.  This week it launched a new program, “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food.”  Kathleen Merrigan, deputy secretary of the USDA called Fromartz to talk about it.  In the post below, he tells us about their conversation.

In connection with the Obamas’ reintroducing gardening to the White House lawn, emphasizing cooking whole foods and eating dinner as a family, this initiative comes at a time when the country is beginning to wake up to the fact that we are in need of a total food make-over, extreme edition.  Federal programs like this will help redirect our way of growing, distributing and eating food down a healthier path.

USDA Launches Local Foods Blitz, Bans Fried Foods and Donuts in Cafeteria for a Day

I don’t usually get calls from the USDA, let alone the deputy secretary, but there Kathleen Merrigan was on the phone from her car and it wasn’t a prank.

She wanted to talk about the Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food campaign that the USDA launched this week, which centers on building buzz around local and regional food systems and “spurring economic opportunity.” Merrigan is chairing the initiative, which comes not a moment too soon.

The USDA has finally recognized how important and vital local and regional food systems are — and is tapping into the vibrant activity already underway by making an effort to open up its doors and purse strings.

Among other things, the USDA is

• loosening rules on interstate meat commerce, to help smaller processors, and making grants on rural economic initiatives.
• making it easier for institutions like schools to buy locally.
• offering grants to improve community food security, to be announced Wednesday.
• emphasizing direct marketing, with the launch of the White House farmers’ market, and farmers’ markets grants on Thursday.
• pushing the idea that “ag is back” with a new web portal launching Friday and a Facebook web chat with Merrigan.

This sounds like a lot of hoopla — you can review the press materials at the USDA links above — but I did get a chance to ask a few questions, most notably, “What is this about?”

Merrigan said she has been quietly heading a task force since May to push local and regional agricultural initiatives. Representatives from various department programs are meeting biweekly to discuss how best to achieve that goal. Like Obama, Merrigan and her team seem impatient about getting things done.

“The secretary told me he wanted me to take on the local and regional food challenge — it was a top priority of my job aside from the USDA budget,” Merrigan said. “And, I’ll always be involved in organic.”

Given the size of the USDA – 114,000 employees – Merrigan felt it wasn’t imperative to create new programs but to increase outreach to existing ones (and perhaps, though unstated, light a fire within the agency on this new priority). The effort also involves tweaking existing regulations and programs to make these goals easier to achieve.

The initiative even extends to the USDA cafeteria, where your intrepid blogger has actually eaten (I recommend the House Cafeteria up on the Hill instead). In any case, the USDA is offering dishes with locally grown products all week long.

Merrigan said the cafeteria is also banning donuts and fried foods on Wednesday and putting a sign on the soda machine “have you considered water, juice or milk?” Sounds almost radical.

“Maybe this will be my last act as deputy,” she quipped.

But if staff groan about food police, at least they get to see a celebrity on hand: White House Chef Sam Kass will be doing a cooking demo in the USDA cafeteria on Wednesday.

On Thursday, the action shifts to farmers markets, when the one down the street from the White House opens. Merrigan will be on hand. The USDA will also announce a series of farmers’ market promotion grants, and research monies aimed at local food systems in the northeast.

Finally, on Friday, it is trying its hand at internet democracy and launching a web site that includes outreach to citizens for their ideas. Not sure how this effort at crowd-sourcing will work out, given what happened when the White House tried it. But I gotta say, this is a sea change from the last team in charge.

- Samuel Fromartz

Beware of new “healthy” food labels

Food shopping for healthy foods is difficult enough already.  We get inconsistent, if not completely conflicting, health and nutrition information from all sides.  Health food stores are not necessarily filled with healthy foods.  Packaged foods are plastered with empty health claims, from both the manufacturer and third party organizations such as the American Diabetic Association, the American Heart Association and so on.  Studies show consumers generally trust, and subsequently make purchasing decisions, based on these third party health claims. So, from a food industry marketing perspective it is not surprising that more “third party” health claims will be arriving at your local supermarket soon in an effort to “make it easier for consumers to make healthier food choices.”  Unfortunately, until all unhealthy foods are removed from the shelves, the opposite is true.  

Below is the full article from the Chicago Tribune explaining the approaching onslaught of supposedly helpful healthier foods shopping advice.  My advice: if a package contains a health claim, you’re probably better off NOT eating it.  Many of the healthiest foods you can eat, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, do not come in packages covered with health claims. They don’t need it.

 

Tamara Waldschmidt, with son Nathan, 3, in her cart, gives daughters Kimberly (right), 5, and Alexis, 10, a few cereals to pick from at a Meijer store in Bolingbrook. Waldschmidt uses the store’s NuVal nutritional scoring system to guide her buying.(Tribune photo by David Pierini / July 5, 2009)

 

 

If you’re trying to eat better but are confounded by the healthy logos, symbols and claims food manufacturers put on packaging, help may be on the way. Or, you may be more baffled than ever.

In an attempt to help consumers sort through confusing and sometimes misleading labels, grocery stores are rolling out individual food rating systems. At least five new programs designed to single out healthy foods are in use across the country or are expected to launch in the next few months.

The NuVal system in use at Meijer rates food between 1 and 100, with a higher score indicating a healthier item. Nutrition iQ, which debuts at Jewel-Osco in the fall, uses a color-coded system to highlight nutritional content. Other systems set a bar so that only certain products are labeled as healthy.

But while all promise to help shoppers make healthier decisions on the fly, critics say the new tools make it even harder to make better choices.

Already, most labels are crowded with a nutrition facts box and an ingredient list. Consumers may also see the American Heart Association’s heart-check mark, which is printed on more than 800 products rich in fiber or whole grains. Kraft, PepsiCo, Kellogg’s, General Mills and Unilever all use their own healthy choice icons. Shoppers often also find questionable health claims on labels, such as the boast that a sugar-laden chocolate cereal can “help support your child’s immunity” with antioxidants.

“The situation has gotten completely out of hand,” said New York University nutrition professor MarionNestle, who believes label health claims are another way of marketing junk food. “It’s not helpful for consumers, there are multiple methods [of evaluating food], and it’s frighteningly confusing.”

Dr. David Kessler, former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said consumers trying to buy healthy foods are lured in by manufacturers who accentuate a product’s healthier qualities but do not mention, say, added sugar, fat or salt.

“The food industry, the nutrition community and the federal government are not helping the consumer because over the decades we’ve changed what they should be looking for,” he said. “In some ways, we need to make it simpler. Maybe we need to start with the question of, ‘Is it real?’ “

But manufacturers and grocery stores know consumers are drawn to health claims, particularly if they appear independent. A study in Appetite, a peer-reviewed nutritional journal, found that consumers are more likely to trust nutrition symbols that are endorsed by third parties such as health organizations, and the simpler the symbol or icon, the better.

But the new systems are anything but simple. Each is based on different criteria. Some exclude snack foods, candy, ice cream and jams from the ratings. Some try to help consumers find the healthiest food within a category, such as cookies. Others allow comparisons of foods in different supermarket aisles. And while a product might be labeled healthy according to one system, it might receive a low score elsewhere.

Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes cereal, for example, would not qualify for a nutrition iQ symbol. NuVal gives it a measly 22 out of 100. But it would qualify as a “Smart Choice” under a system the American Dietetic Association says will be unveiled this summer.

Unlike the shelf label systems created by grocery store chains, labels in the Smart Choices program will go on the products. Developed by a coalition of academics, public health organizations, food manufacturers and retailers, the program aims to unify the symbols on food products, so you can look for the system’s green check-mark wherever you shop. It will replace the individual icons now used by Kellogg’s, Kraft, PepsiCo, General Mills and Unilever.

However, the involvement of industry is “a classic case of the fox guarding the henhouse,” said Dr. David Katz, director of the Yale Prevention Research Center, who led the development of the NuVal system.

Katz maintains that NuVal is the most comprehensive program. “It’s not a product of anyone or anything in the food industry,” he said. “Food manufacturers have no direct influence over us.”

The American Heart Association’s heart-check mark program also has faced nagging questions since it was developed in 1995.

Consider: Kellogg’s Smart Start Strong Heart Antioxidants cereal has received AHA certification, though a one-cup serving has a whopping 14 grams of sugar. What’s more, Kellogg’s and other manufacturers pay for certification. Costs are between $3,150 and $7,500 a year depending on whether the product is new to the program or returning.

The AHA fends off the criticism by making two points. The first is that scientists disagree on how much to limit added sugars in a healthy diet, though most say less is better.

“You just can’t judge by looking only at that sugar number,” said Kim Stitzel, the AHA’s director of nutrition and obesity. “Families know that when they choose a product with the heart check, it’s a healthy choice.”

The group also notes the amount of money received is relatively small. The $3 million the program brought in was less than 0.5 percent of the AHA’s more than $641 million in revenues in the 2007-08 fiscal year, according to the AHA. Money from the program was spent on education, lab tests and other program costs.

The American Diabetes Association decided to scale back a similar program it ran and revise its guidelines after being criticized for endorsing unhealthy foods, including various sugar cereals, said Vaneeda Bennett, executive vice president for development.

“Perception is a big part of it,” Bennett said. “We don’t want to be involved with a product where the public would think, ‘Boy, why would the ADA be involved with that?’ “

Ultimately, consumers should keep in mind that if a food has a label, it is often a processed product that is less likely to be a healthy choice. In fact, when strict nutritional standards are applied, the vast majority of supermarket food doesn’t make the cut under most of the programs.

“The real question is, is better junk food a good choice?” Nestle asked. Buying “healthier” potato chips, she said, “will delude you into thinking that you’re doing something for your health when the best thing is to not eat them at all.”

jdeardorff@tribune.com

smmills@tribune.com

Dishing up Food Literacy?

On the last day of school, I spent part of the morning helping out with an end-of-the-year party in my child’s classroom.  The teacher had made a DVD of the songs they performed through out the year for everyone, and was reading aloud from a book she had made for them with a page about each child.  It was nothing short of absolutely lovely.  A very touching, meaningful way to bring a successful year of kindergarten to a festive end.

As the teacher was reading, I was helping another parent set up the snacks for the morning.  It’s the end of the year, it’s a time for celebration, and so we were scooping up ice cream (a scoop from each of three different flavors), adding whipped cream, chocolate sauce, sprinkles, and one of those candied cherries. Then on a second plate, each child was getting a cookie and some strawberries.  To drink, they each received a juice box.  I am not an experienced calorie-counter, so I am not going to offer an estimate of what the caloric or fat in-take of this “snack” was, but I don’t think I am far off when I place it in the same category as a full meal (maybe two?) for a six year old child.  And that’s before several of them came back for seconds, thirds, even a forth helping of ice cream, and cookies!

The atmosphere was one of pure celebration, and there was abundant ice cream to go around, still I found myself wanting to be the nay-sayer who tells the children, “no, you have had enough.”   But I couldn’t bring myself to do so; the cultural expectations linking sugary foods with celebration and love were more than I wanted to take on just then.  Instead I asked, sometimes twice, if they were sure they wanted more (a silly, pointless question, I know, but it was all I was able to come up with), and then, reluctantly, I served them another, significantly smaller, portion of the same.  

Before you start thinking that I don’t want children to have fun, or that I don’t know how to throw a party, let me explain what is going through my mind.  This is not the first time children have received a sugary treat.  In fact, depending on the school, the teacher and the parents, they may have one (or more?) every day!  Added together, by the time a child is six, they have had this experience often enough to now be fully convinced that sugary sweetness is the appropriate response (reward? consolation price? bribe?) for good behavior and/or accomplishment.  This cause and effect lesson has most likely been demonstrated at home, at grandparents’ houses, at school, after-school programs, etc, sending a children a clear message about how and when to use sugar and how much of it.  Not only does this eating habit result in way too much sugar and the common resulting blood sugar high and crash in the short term, but it is teaching our children unhealthy eating lessons. Once these lessons are instilled, it is very tough to undo as adults.  Many frequently dieting adults know this from personal experience.

I am all for marking accomplishments with celebration, but I am concerned about the limited way in which we tend to do so, particularly with children.  This is particularly so in a time when childhood overweight and obesity rates, diabetes and attention issues are all on the rise.  Instead of sitting still and eating plates full of sugary snack foods as the way we celebrate with children, how about a dance party? Some group games? Making nourishing food to share together, such a baking bread, preparing a fruit salad or assembling yogurt parfaits?  

Both at home and at school, children spend their days playing and learning from direct instruction, personal experience and adult example-setting.  Attention is paid to language literacy, math, history, science, the arts and the other subject areas of in an effort to teach them well.  Where I feel we are short-changing our children is in food literacy.  Every single one of them will be eating every day for the rest of their lives, and yet we do not officially teach anyone how to eat well.  All the lessons come implicitly.  Therefore, we need to support our children’s health, at home, at school, and elsewhere, by demonstrating healthy eating and lifestyle habits, and being clear about when we make exceptions so that these do not become the rule. For the benefit of our generation and the next, let’s increase our awareness of the implicit messages we send every time we offer food – are we furthering the sugar habit or demonstrating how nourishing healthy foods are?