Blog Posts: Food

On a bitter cold day in Washington, DC, more than 100 bovine activists braved the weather to protest the
move to allow milk and meat from cloned animals and their offspring into the food supply. Organized by Ben & Jerrys’ the cows chanted Milk cows, not clones / I want real milk in my ice cream cone! Your intrepid FWW staff was there, fighting the good fight, while “hoove-ing” out flyers.

Behind the backdrop of the snow-covered Capitol, Jerry Greenfield, co-founder of Ben & Jerry‚ talked about how infuriated the socially minded company is over milk from cloned cows. Citing consumer distrust and opposition to the technology, as well as the higher rates of birth defects and miscarriages in clones, he strongly criticized the Food & Drug Administration for allowing such products into the U.S. food supply. Perhaps most alarming is that the FDA is unlikely to require the cloned meat and milk to be labeled, meaning consumers cant avoid it and scientists cant track any problems linked to it. (Please, don’t let the government ruin ice cream.)

Speaking of ice cream…

Salon.com reported that the company is making a Stephen Colbert flavored ice cream. Were thinking red, white, and blue. Perhaps with eagle candy?

Every five years or so, this monstrosity of a policy, lovingly known as the farm bill, rears it‚ ugly head and pits congressperson vs. congressperson, grain farmer vs. vegetable farmer, Big Ag vs. family farms, et cetera, et cetera. Well, it‚ that time again. This year brings us the 2007 farm bill debate that is guaranteed to be just as complicated and frustrating as years past. We at Food & Water Watch would like to make this a more pleasant experience for you, so here is our easy-to-understand Farm Bill 101.

While we are certain this fact sheet will appease your thirst for farm bill knowledge, we would also like to offer up some other comprehensive help. The National Family Farm Coalition has some great ideas for the new farm bill. They stress Food Sovereignty as the means to building a ‚sustainable family farm system and a safe and healthy food supply” not only for the U.S but also for all nations.

If youd like even more juicy farm bill gossip, then do bookmark the new Building Sustainable Futures coalition website for information on how the farm bill could help beginning and minority farmers, farmworkers, and hungry people around the world.

Need even more information? You must be some kind of food freak. Want to come work for us? Just kiddingmaybe. Be sure to check Food & Water Watch‚ website often for updates because, as usual, were on top of farm bill happenings.

You may have seen the news this week and wondered why Food & Water Watch hasn’t yet declared victory on our campaign to get Starbucks to buy better milk. Of course were happy to hear about the company making progress toward being totally artificial hormone-free, well, it wasn’t really news to us since Starbucks told Reuters exactly what they told callers on our national call-in day last December, but there is still more to do.

Starbucks has not committed to a timeline for going completely rBGH free. In fact, their statement:

“We are actively engaged with all our dairy suppliers to explore converting our core dairy products to be rBGH-free in our U.S. company-owned stores”

is eerily similar to what they told Organic Consumers Association back in 2001, that they were

“already discussing with existing suppliers what we can do to ensure the remainder of our supply is rBST-free.”

That‚ more than five years of discussing and exploring. It‚ time for Starbucks to act! Tell them so here.

No, it‚ not the name of the rock band I just formed. Farmyard Freaks is a reference to the industrial animals of the future. I’m hip enough to know that sometimes, being a freak is cool. It means you’re an individual and that nobody can fit you into a preconceived box. In this instance, it means the farmyard animal is “highly prolific and oblivious to their physical and mental status”. I could be wrong but not quite so cool, right?

Despite the “ick” factor still conveyed by most consumers, biotechnology experts are already working on creating this food animal. Apparently, removing certain genes that trigger stress and aggression could produce a zombieer I mean, an “animal vegetable” (not as good a band name as The Farmyard Freaks but still doable.)

In all honesty, I think I would have to be oblivious to my own physical and mental status to eat one of these creatures. OR I could just be oblivious because of the lack of labeling.

Most every American has heard of the Pepsi Challenge but have you ever heard of the Conventional Milk Challenge? This is how it works. (Feel free to follow along at home. It’ll be fun!) Place conventionally produced milk, milk produced without artificial hormones and organic milk in unmarked cups side-by-side for you to sample. Can you taste which one was made with recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH)? No? Don’t feel bad. I couldn’t either.

Some pro-rBGH folks are taking the stance that consumers don’t need to know how the milk is produced if the end products do not differentiate compositionally (which is still up for debate.) Why bother the uneducated consumer with ‚extra-labeling?” It will drive “more children towards the soda aisle and away from nutritious products.” (We all know how diligent children are about reading labels!) This is some of the reasoning as to why a campaign has been launched to stop the labeling of hormone-free milk.

I admit I failed the Conventional Milk Challenge miserably. I couldn’t taste the rBGH. I also couldn’t taste the udder infections developed by some of the cows that are administered artificial hormones. My taste buds did not detect the increased use of antibiotics in animals caused by rBGH that creates antibiotic resistant bacteria, a huge human health concern. I was even unable to taste the chance of increased rates of colon, prostrate and breast cancer in humans. The lesson learned? I guess you really cant judge a book by its cover but you can certainly judge a gallon of milk by its label.

To find out more about what you can do to stop the use of rBGH, please visit www.holdthehormones.org.

(Please note that the Conventional Milk Challenge is a figment of this blogger‚ imagination.)

And you thought library staff were reticent? Well, you haven’t met Tony Del Plato, a university access services supervisor & reserve coordinator in upstate New York. In 1969, Tony started on a path of food activism, and has been bucking the food industry ever since. Realizing that the only way to get organic and wholesome foods at a reasonable price was to do it themselves, he and a group of students founded Staten Island’s first food cooperative, the excellently-named Shanti Food Conspiracy.

Tony eventually settled in Ithaca, New York to become a chef. Now retired, “after nearly 30 years stirrin’ pots n’ woks,” Tony spent 24 years as chef, co-owner, and menu planner for the famed Moosewood Restaurant. He is co-author “of 5 or 6″ of Moosewood’s popular cookbooks. (Anyone who can’t remember how many books he’s authored has led quite the life.) Tony also worked for many years with the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) peoples on vegetarian protein alternatives to fish and meat in native cuisines. “Garlic is one of my many sacraments,” he says, a position we endorse wholeheartedly.

Most recently, Tony has been a standout volunteer here at Food & Water Watch. Well plugged into the New York food scene, we can count on him to spread the word about artificial growth hormones, irradiated food, or whatever nasty thing agribusiness has dreamed up. For our Starbucks Week of Action in July, Tony braved the mean streets of Ithaca many evenings in order to inform Starbucks’ customers of its unfortunate use of milk with artificial hormones. His action was featured in both the Ithaca Times and on a local country music station, an impressive feat!

In general, Tony prefers to encourage the alternatives to the conventional food system. “I buy local whenever I can and love to garden.” By living and preaching it, Tony is an inspiration to the sustainable food movement, and we are thankful for all his good works.

Editor’s Note: Activist Spotlight is a new series featuring a FWW volunteer who has worked hard to help ensure a food or water system that better serves the public. Stay tuned to our blog to see who we feature next! If you would like to volunteer, click here.

We can now add Starbucks to the “trans-fat-free” club that includes such noble members as KFC, Wendy‚ and Taco Bell. Apparently, they have been working on eliminating trans fat from their food menu for two years now and expect to completely phase out the health-adverse hydrogenated oil by the end of the year.

“This is just something we have been working on, and our focus has always been on providing our customers with healthy and nutritious food options,” spokesman Brandon Borrman said Tuesday.

Finally, doughnuts, brownies, and cookies that are healthy and nutritious! Now all we need is some rBGH-free milk to wash it all down with!

Today, several Food & Water Watch members, accompanied by three bovine activists, held a dress rehearsal in Washington, DC for Starbucks National Call-in Day. These MOOtiful cows attracted a lot of attention from locals and are hoping to get an even bigger response next Tuesday when they descend about a local Starbucks to ask the company to buy better milk. (Tangential Finding: Apparently, construction workers will even catcall- cow call?- at women dressed as cows. No findings on reactions to other animal costumes, yet.)

Want Starbucks to hear your voice on the matter? On Tuesday, December 5, make a call and let Starbucks know you object to its continued use of milk produced with artificial growth hormones. It should only take a few minutes! You can call Starbucks at: 1 (800) 235-2883, Mon , Fri 5 AM , 6 PM (PST). Let Starbucks know that its decision to use rBGH milk is bad for cows and may be bad for people. Find out more here.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture will no longer identify Americans who dont have enough to eat as ‚hungry” when it conducts its annual survey of access to food. Now, instead of calling people who cant afford to put food on the table ‚hungry”, a term well understood by the public, the USDA will categorize them as experiencing ‚very low food security”. The USDA says it made this semantic change because it found ‚hunger” to be an unscientific term for which there is not a clear definition.

Bread for the World, an anti-hunger group, and others strongly criticized this word change, saying ‚We . . . cannot hide the reality of hunger among our citizens.” The amount of hungry people in the U.S. has been a source of shame for the Bush Administration, as the percentage of Americans that are the hungriest has risen over the past five years. Last year, eleven million Americans reported going hungry at times, and 35 million people could not put food on the table for part of last year. Considering that in 1999 then-Governor Bush claimed the USDA‚ hunger statistics (which rated Texas poorly) were fabricated, it‚ no wonder that this Administration would rather change the terms, than fix the problem.

While we found government attempts to call ketchup a ‚vegetable” and irradiation ‚cold pasteurization” disturbing, calling hungry people anything other than ‚hungry” strikes us as deeply wrong. Whatever the scientific reasoning, this linguistic gymnastics makes it easier to ignore a problem that shouldnt exist in a country as wealthy as the United States. [End of Sermon.]

There‚ a reason why in most businesses, if you get fired you pack up your things immediately and are forced to leave. The reason being, of course, that if you stay around, you might muck things up.

In Congress, however, if you lose the election, you stay around for a few more months before your successor takes over your seat. That‚ when the trouble starts (or is amplified, depending on your viewpoint). Right now, we are nervously awaiting this Congress last moves, with many bad agricultural and food bills waiting in the wings. Unfortunately, the “Animal Enterprise and Terrorism Act” (HR 4239, S3880), which we just warned you about, sailed through Congress yesterday. In fact, it passed on a‚ voice vote so you are unable to see how your Representative voted. We are worried that this legislation will limit the ability of people to work on animal protection issues. In the next several weeks, be ready for more calls to action, so that we can try to stop some of Congress last minute moves!

On another note, our Winter issue of the Food Alert has hit the stands! Click here to read about the spinach E.coli scare, the move towards better food on college campuses, and Starbucks National Call-in Day.