It’s Earth Day and the USDA says it is going to turn the grounds of its Washington DC buildings into The People’s Garden – a sustainable landscape that will “promote healthy food, people, and communities” across the country.
Yes!
And here’s where to see what it will look like.
I can’t wait!
By this time everyone in the world must know that the Obama’s are planting a vegetable garden at the White House. Today’s New York Times not only covered it, but on the front page yet. Planting a garden is front-page news? Indeed it is. What strikes me most about the reports is how excited everyone at the White House is about it. The staff can’t wait to start planting and picking.
In the meantime, Slow Food and friends are in Atlanta talking to the CDC about the importance of agriculture to food, nutrition, and health, especially as it bears on school food. This also could be a great sign.
And if you care what else the Obama’s are doing about food, check out Obama Foodorama, where bloggers cover what gets cooked, what gets eaten, and what’s important about food in deep, daily detail.
March 21 update: Another photo of the Obama garden project appears on the front page of today’s New York Times along with a lauditory editorial (this really is big news), and Eating Liberally’s kat has a comment on farming on 5th Avenue.
Thanks to Elinor, Eric, and Lisa for sending this news item from the Onion. As The Onion points out, the easiest way to solve the pesky Salmonella problem is to make it legal. I love the illustrations and will be plagiarizing that cereal box for powerpoint presentations.
The childhood obesity team at Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) sends along its new year’s greeting: “great anti-junk food marketing” moments in 2008. These mostly focus on progress in industry self-regulation (voluntary) but also on congressional legislation to restrict marketing and put healthier foods in schools. Food marketing to kids is the point of food industry vulnerability. Food companies must stop marketing junk foods to kids. Voluntary self-regulation is notoriously ineffective. Legislative intervention is essential. Maybe this will be possible under the new administration? Fingers crossed.
Bill Marler, of the legal firm specializing in food safety cases, lists his top 10 picks for the food safety scandals of 2008, beginning with globalization and ending with pet food.
And Food Chemical News (December 31) says the FDA will be testing for melamine in farmed fish and fish feed from China. When Hong Kong officials said they found melamine at 6.6 ppm in fish feed, the FDA wondered whether melamine could accumulate in fish tissues. Apparently, that is exactly what it does. The Los Angeles Times (December 24) says FDA testing found whopping amounts of melamine – 200 ppm – in catfish, trout, tilapia and salmon that had eaten melamine-tainted fish feed. This is way higher than the maximum “safe” level of 2.5 ppm in food. So put fish from China on your list of what not to eat.
Let’s hope the new president picks someone for USDA undersecretary and FDA commissioner who takes food safety seriously. That’s my wish (well, one of them) for the new year. Peace to all.
The New York Times editorial writers have some interesting things to say about the challenges facing the new USDA secretary. The Vilsack appointment, they say, “has the merit of being unsatisfactory to both extremes of the farm-policy debates.” This makes me wonder when sustainable agriculture will be viewed as the wave of the future, and not as “extreme.” Soon?
12/23 update: Here’s Kim Severson’s piece in the food section on what needs to happen at the USDA.
It’s beginning to look like the FDA is getting in as many “midnight” approvals as it can before the new adminstration kicks in. First it loosened its advisory on eating fish, and now it has told Cargill, the maker of the Truvia brand of the artificial sweetener Stevia, that it’s OK for the company to market it. I guess the FDA must have resolved its doubts about the science supporting the safety of Stevia, even though much of it was corporate-sponsored. But CSPI still has doubts. Or maybe the FDA just didn’t have the strength to stop soft drink companies from marketing Stevia-sweetened drinks with or without FDA approval. CSPI can’t understand the rush. Why not? It’s politics as usual, alas.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the reason for the rush is to get products with this “natural” sweetener on the market now. Coke is coming out with Sprite Green and Odwalla juice drinks, and Pepsi will market SoBe Lifewater and an orange drink called Trop50. They must thing they are on to something. Stevia does have its supporters. Me? I’ll take sugar anytime.
April 15, 2009 update: Stevia products are on the market and competing vigorously for market share, as discussed by Kim Severson in the New York Times.
