I’m serving a special five-course meal to the intellectually challenged members of Congress who support Big Agribusiness and predatory insurance companies over the health and safety of the American people. 

Let’s review the menu: 

First Course: Double Cheeseburger

 Sourced from: San Diego Meat Co. On Oct. 13, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) declared a Class I recall on 925 pounds of ground beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli.

As a refresher, dear legislators, a Class I recall is defined as “a health hazard situation where there is a reasonable probability that the use of the product will cause serious, adverse health consequences or death.” 

Cases of ground beef patties and bulk ground beef were shipped to restaurants and caterers in San Diego. Fly to SoCal, and eat up, guys! You can barf later on Shamu. 

Second Course: Beef Tongue

Sourced from: Cargill Meat Solutions Corp., Milwaukee. The affected 5,522 pounds, recalled Oct. 17, may include tonsils, which means the company failed to comply with USDA regulations. Tongue tissue may be infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad-cow disease). 

No worries, guys. It’s a Class II recall, which means there’s a “remote probability of adverse consequences.” You like to gamble with people’s lives, so dig in! 

Third Course: Chicken & Apple Sausage 

Sourced from: Vatran’s Fine Foods, Inc., Tracy, Calif.  Approximately 11,500 pounds of assorted meat and poultry products were recalled on Oct. 16 because they were produced without the benefit of federal inspection. It’s another high-risk Class I recall, affecting pork, chicken, turkey and lamb sausages, as well as veal frankfurters and other products. Chow down, wieners! 

Fourth Course: Beef Butt Steak

Sourced from: Crocetti’s Oakdale Packing Co. (doing business as South Shore Meats, Inc.), Brockton, MA. Some 1,039 pounds of fresh ground beef patties derived from bench trim, as well as mechanically tenderized beef cuts, may be contaminated with E. coli. The USDA declared a Class I recall on Oct. 26. Hope that nice slab of butt is extra juicy! 

Fifth Course: Meatballs 

Sourced from: Fairbank Farms, Ashville, NY. This is a biggie: a Class I recall Oct. 31 of 545,699 pounds of fresh ground beef products. This one aggravates me even more because it includes Trader Joe’s Butcher Shop Fine Quality Meats and the Wild Harvest Natural brand. So far, 28 people have been sickened, and at least one person has died. 

Diner Rules 

You’re expected to clean your plates. Luckily, you have great health insurance—you know, the kind of coverage you refuse to provide to your constituents.

Can David Asper’s research help protect our global food and water supply?

A graduate student in veterinary microbiology at the University of Saskatchewan, Asper is working on a new cattle vaccine that may potentially stop E. coli at its source.

Asper’s research builds on the work of his supervisor, Andrew Potter, PhD. As director of the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization–International Vaccine Centre, Dr. Potter helped create the first cattle vaccine against E. coli O157, which prevents bacteria from attaching to, and colonizing in, a cow’s intestines.

Human illness occurs when meat becomes contaminated during slaughter or if feces mix with groundwater, thereby polluting drinking water, swimming water and/or food supplies. Infections can be mild, but some are severe to life-threatening.

“The E. coli O157 vaccine is the first of its kind worldwide and is expected to significantly lessen the amount of E. coli O157 present in food products and also in the environment,” Dr. Potter says.

But O157, while the most prevalent E. coli strain in North America, is one of hundreds of bacteria that cause disease by producing Shiga toxin (STEC). Even healthy cows can carry STEC bacteria, so identification of infected cattle can prove difficult.

“Right now, STEC bacteria is the No. 1 cause of renal [kidney] failure in children around the world,” Asper says. “It affects adults, too, but children are the most susceptible.”

Asper’s vaccine prototype could protect cattle against several non-O157 bacteria. It will be tested on mice and cattle over 3 to 5 years.

“We can protect humans by vaccinating animals before they come in contact with the pathogen,” he says. “I think that’s very important work that will lead to a lot fewer infections.”

Beef and dairy producers could also benefit from Asper’s work. When STEC is found in just one meat sample, beef processors are required to destroy the entire shipment—a significant cost to farmers.

Photo by Scott Bell

Leanne Skelton, chief of the Fresh Products Branch of the USDA’s Agriculture Marketing Service, is working with the FDA to help develop new food safety rules.

Through this coordinated effort, the FDA will gather information and feedback from the fresh produce industry—including small and organic farmers—on the impact food safety rules have on their businesses.

“President Obama, like most Americans, wants immediate improvements in our food safety system,” says Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “As such, we are pulling together all our best resources—state and federal—to improve the safety of our foods and to work with growers to protect and promote the health of our nation.”

“The USDA and the FDA have joined together on listening sessions and farm tours, and are eager to develop a system of regulation that will work for American families and the growers,” adds the USDA’s Rayne Pegg.

In media statements, the Feds are emphasizing that they want to speak with local growers across the country to hear their ideas, concerns and experiences.

Time will tell whether local and organic farmers get the attention they deserve.

I think we’ve only got a few weeks left, and then it’s off to finding cheap deals at the grocery store and farmers markets.

But people in southeast Kansas are still enjoying locally grown vegetables.

Josh Mitchell, proprietor of The Mitchell Family Farms in Kansas, has seen his customer base grow to nearly 50 members this year.

His CSA costs $400 for a full share and $200 for a half share, and goes for 20 weeks. Despite the price of community supported agriculture, Josh says more people are realizing it is better to go natural and avoid all the chemicals.

CSA’s may be getting more mainstream, but some stereotypes still hold true, most of the people I see picking up their share are dressed in earth tones and wearing sandals.

Via Fox 14.

Image credit: sallycinnaminn

Farm Aid’s 2009 Concert begins at 5 p.m. today (ET), with sets from Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young, Dave Matthews, Gretchen Wilson and Jason Mraz, among other performers.

DIRECTV will exclusively broadcast the event live and in HD on The 101 Network.  The company has also pledged to match customer donations up to $50,000 through Oct. 31.

The concert will be streamed live on Farm Aid’s website. To make a $5 donation that helps family farmers, text FARMER to 90999 during the concert. Click here to donate online. To follow the event on Twitter, click here.

Farm Aid has partnered with St. Louis businesses to help achieve zero waste goals during the concert and add to the established Verizon Wireless Amphitheater recycling program.

With the help of Replenishing the Earth and Route 66 Organics, all compostable waste   will be turned into agricultural material. Volunteers will help concertgoers differentiate between landfill-bound trash, recyclables and compostables.

The energy used to produce the concert will be offset by purchases of renewable energy certificates through the Bonneville Environmental Foundation. Farm Aid’s concert greening initiatives are underwritten by Horizon Organic and Silk Soymilk.

Photo by Paul Natkin/Photo Reserve Inc. 2008; courtesy of Farm Aid

Another reason I love grass-fed beef is that it’s simply cleaner.

Feedlot cattle stand all day long in dirt and manure. You can imagine how much harder it is to remove all the fecal contamination given that scenario.

Pasture-raised animals are much easier to clean “because they come from small herds raised in relatively clean pastures,” according to Meat Marketing and Technology’s associate editor. Most U.S. cattle, he said, “are raised in far larger numbers in congested and typically less sanitary feed lots.”¹

The E. coli Question

E. coli contamination occurs when manure from an animal comes in contact with meat in the slaughterhouse. The less manure on an animal when it enters the slaughter house, the less likely the meat will become contaminated.

Some studies show that grass-feeding (vs. grain feeding) may reduce the number and acidity of E. coli in the digestive tract of cattle.

Another study shows that E. coli from grass-fed cattle is more likely to be killed by the natural acidity of our digestive tract and therefore might be less likely to survive and make us ill. The reason for the greater persistence of E. coli from grain-fed cattle, the researchers speculated, is that feeding grain to cattle makes their digestive tracts abnormally acidic. Over time, the E. coli in their systems become acclimated to this acid environment. When we ingest them, a high percentage will survive the acid shock of our digestive juices. By contrast, few E. coli from grass-fed cattle will survive because they have not become acid-resistant.²

Science and the Senate: HR 2749

Time after time, scientific evidence proves that it’s industrialized animals that spread E.Coli 0157:H7 and Salmonella. Let’s hope that the senate, who will soon be voting on HR 2749 – the so-called Food Safety Enhancement Act – take these types of facts into consideration.

¹“The Future of Food Safety,” by Joshua Lipsky. Meat Marketing and Technology, April 2001

² Russell and Diez-Gonzalez (Microbes Infect 2, No. 1 (2000): 45-53.)

Both Russia and China – not the most progressive countries when it comes to environmental and social service issues – have imposed bans on American poultry and pork.

As recently as March, 2009, Russian inspectors uncovered antibiotics and anti-parasitic drugs from three U.S.-based plants including Sanderson Farms in Hammond, La., a Peco foods facility in Canton, Miss., and a Tyson Foods plant in Cumming Ga.

Sadly, this isn’t new news. A rep from the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences  explained that the reason Russia imposed a ban on all poultry from the U.S. back in March, 2002, was because U.S. poultry producers use such large doses of these drugs that they accumulate in the tissues of the birds. “It is dangerous,” he said, “especially for children and older people.”

And just this month, China has banned imports of meat from two U.S. poultry plants and three U.S. pork plants. Although a specific reason wasn’t given, we can assume safety is at the core.

That’s why it’s so important for the Senate to reject HR 2749 – the Food Safety Enhancement Act – when they consider it upon their return from summer recess.  The bill simply doesn’t do enough to get huge agribusiness to provide safe food for the public at large.

Clearly, Russia and China would agree that we have a ways to go in the realm of food regulation.

HR 2749 also makes smaller producers subject to the same regulations as huge, industrial firms…a one-size-fits-all approach that simply doesn’t make sense.

What do you think about Russia and China banning poultry and pork from the U.S.? How does it make you feel? Let us know – we love hearing from you!

Farm Aid is sponsoring a photo contest, whose winner will receive an expenses-paid trip and two front-row tickets to the Oct. 4 concert in St. Louis.

Currently slated to appear are Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews, Jason Mraz, Wilco, Phosphorescent and Jamey Johnson.

The event will once again feature HOMEGROWN concessions, with foods from regional family farms and local organic growers. The HOMEGROWN Village will host hands-on activities that give concertgoers a chance to meet family farmers and get their hands dirty.

To enter the contest, shoot a photo of anything related to family farmers and the food they produce. Here are some ideas to get you started: farms, farmers, farm families, tractors, barns, a perfect crop of organic veggies or fruits from your local farmer’s market, your favorite farm animal—any image that shows the vibrancy and beauty of the American family farm.

Photos should be uploaded to the Farm Aid Farm Fresh Pics website by 11:59 p.m. (ET) Sept. 6. You may also vote for your favorite photos until 11:59 p.m. (ET) Sept. 20.

Click here to view contest rules. Click here to view the photos entered thus far.

Photo by Paul Natkin/Photo Reserve Inc. 2008; courtesy of Farm Aid

‘Food Safety Enhancement’…sure sounds promising, doesn’t it?

Sadly, it’s just the opposite. This encouragingly-named, but off-the-mark bill, will adversely impact small farms and food producers. It fails to provide significant reforms for the industrial food system, like the big ‘agribusinesses’ exposed in Food, Inc.

HR 2749 takes a one-size-fits-all approach, making local producers subject to the same regulations as huge, industrial firms.

Cow Poop: Just One Reason Big Agribusiness is a Bummer

There’s so many reasons to be opposed to big, industrialized food manufacturers (and oppose HR 2749, since it indirectly supports them)!

For starters, poop in your meat. Huge agribusinesses allow cattle to eat a poor excuse for a diet in piles of cow manure. This cow poop is often infected with E. coli. Not only do cattle ingest it, but it travels…winds can carry the E. coli to neighboring farms – even organically managed ones. A literal ‘shit storm,’ if you will.

In addition, even though cows are herbivores, big producers feed them grains (which their stomachs are not engineered, biologically, to digest) as well as an unhealthy diet of animal by-products, junk food and who knows what else. It all adds up to a sick cow, that consumers wind up eating.

Eating grass-fed and certified organic meat lowers your risk of ingesting food borne illnesses… and guess who raises this premium quality meat? The same small ranchers and producers at risk from 2749’s alarming provisions.

Take action: oppose HR 2749. And stay tuned…I’ll be following HR 2749 as it heads towards the senate and keep you updated!

Organic Food and Safety
Toxins in Bottled Water
Mad Science

We have a new recall to report: romaine lettuce from Salinas, Calif.-based Tanimura & Antle. The company sells artisan lettuces and specialty vegetables.

As for the Nestle cookie dough recall, the Associated Press reveals that the company had refused to supply reports to the FDA over the last 5 years—not illegal, but certainly noteworthy as U.S. food-safety incidents pile up.

As consumers, we need to put pressure on mainstream and organic companies to comply with FDA inspectors’ requests—even the voluntary ones.

Farm Aid Adds Artists

Farm Aid has signed new artists for its Oct. 4 concert.

“We’re looking forward to welcoming Jason Mraz and Phosphorescent to the Farm Aid family, and having Wilco and Jamey Johnson back to Farm Aid this year,” says Carolyn Mugar, executive director. “Every year, artists and bands donate their time to perform on the Farm Aid stage, raising funds and awareness about the critical contributions family farmers make to our country.”

Farm Aid seeks to build a vibrant, family farm-centered system of agriculture in America.

What’s on My iPod?

I can’t get enough of Jason Mraz’s We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things—and not just because he’s supporting Farm Aid.

Science geek that I am, I’m finishing up Mary Roach’s audiobook Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. It’s also available in paperback. Great info about the human body, but not recommended for those with queasy stomachs!

Photo courtesy of Tanimura & Antle