Making American agriculture productive and profitable

U.S. farmers need a paradigm shift, according to a new report from the American Farm Bureau Federation, entitled "Making American Agriculture Productive and Profitable." A review from the American Farmland Trust summarizes some of the strengths and weaknesses of the report:

The report outlines several fundamental changes for U.S. agriculture, while recognizing that the current structure of farm programs will no longer prevail. AFBF envisioned farmers shifting from selling what they produce to producing what they can sell, as well as environmental issues becoming more market-driven to achieve environmental benefits. This is an exciting vision for American agriculture. Unfortunately, the federation has not yet moved to incorporate these recommendations into their policy proposals for the 2007 Farm Bill, instead calling for the existing programs to be renewed.

Food weblog awards

The Well Fed Network has announced the winner of the 2005 award for best food weblog covering the food industry. Congratulations to the entertaining food weblog, The Food Whore.

The finalists were:
-- Fast Food News,
-- The Food Whore,
-- News You Can Eat,
-- Saute Wednesday, and
-- U.S. Food Policy (this weblog).

Another leading annual awards program for food weblogs is the Best Food Weblog category of the Bloggies. Voting continues through January 31. The finalists in this category are:
-- Delicious Days
-- Simply Recipes
-- The Domestic Goddess
-- Vegan Lunch Box
-- Apartment Therapy: The Kitchen

Visit all five finalists. They are eye-popping gorgeous. Vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike may find the Vegan Lunch Box inspiring. I enjoyed following links from that page (hear, for example, the sincere podcast Erik's Diner). The Vegan Lunch Box posts almost daily pictures of the wonderful lunch that the author's "little shmoo" carries to school.

Wayne from Maine sings about vegetables

My kids enjoyed the children's music act Wayne from Maine this weekend at the Regent Theatre in Arlington, in walking distance from our house. The show is a bit cheesy, from a dad's perspective, but I suppose I am not the target audience. The kids called it the best show they ever saw, which is a pronouncement they make about any tolerable performer. Along with the silly stuff about the moose that got loose in Moosechusetts, Wayne has a program for children about nutrition. Here is a clip of the song about vegetables.

Harmful chemical in Teflon to be restricted

From Juliet Eilperin at the Washington Post:

Eight U.S. companies, including giant DuPont Co., agreed yesterday to virtually eliminate a harmful chemical used to make Teflon from all consumer products coated with the ubiquitous nonstick material.

Although the chemical would still be used to manufacture Teflon and similar products, processes will be developed to ensure that perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) would not be released into the environment from finished products or manufacturing plants.

See also the coverage from treehugger and the Environmental Working Group. Thanks to Jack at Fork & Bottle for the links.

Massachusetts school nutrition bill nears vote

The Massachusetts House of Representatives will vote soon on a bill to promote child nutrition by restricting soda and junk food in schools (see earlier coverage here). According to the Massachusetts Public Health Association, industry lobbyists are making the rounds encouraging state legislators to weaken the bill (H. 4452). The association provides a fact sheet (.pdf) about the bill and a useful link if you want to contact your representative and express a view on the bill, and on whether the bill should be weakened.

[Update: The most immediate need today is apparently for people to call members of the House Ways and Means Committee, listed here (.doc).]

Lawsuits about food marketing to children in Massachusetts

Parents working with the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) announced earlier this month that they intend to sue Viacom and Kellogg under consumer protection laws here in Massachusetts. You can imagine the reaction from conservatives and libertarians. Lawsuits are no reasonable person's favorite vehicle for progress in this area, and yet just about every other door for real protection for our children, in the midst of a childhood obesity epidemic, has been slammed shut. There is some indication that CSPI would prefer negotiation with the food companies to following through on the litigation -- my impression, notwithstanding the vitriol from their critics on the right, is that the organization seems to be willing to be pragmatic if pragmatism offers hope for anything but endless delay (that story comes by way of the promising new Growers and Grocers weblog on the new Well Fed Network). The Institute of Medicine, eminent scientific advisor to the federal government, shares the plaintiffs' high level of concern about junk food marketing to children. The Institute of Medicine proposes voluntary industry action to convert junk food advertising to healthy food advertising, but if such a change is not forthcoming, the IOM calls for Congressional action to accomplish this goal. For a response to frequently asked questions about such lawsuits, and rebuttal to some of the objections you may be considering, take a visit to the website of the Center for a Commercial Free Childhood.

[Thanks to Chris of the weblog My Quiet Life for some of the links].

Japan again halts imports of U.S. beef

Breaking news. Japan is halting imports of U.S. beef after a shipment from the United States was found to contain cow parts that are prohibited in Japan as part of that country's efforts to protect consumers against mad cow disease.

From Libby Quaid of the Associated Press:

Agriculture Department officials scrambled Friday to repair a delicate beef-trading relationship after Japan discovered a shipment containing bone that Asian countries consider at risk for mad cow disease.

Hours after Japan halted American beef imports, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns dispatched inspectors to Japan and sent extra inspectors to plants that sell meat to Japan. He also ordered unannounced inspections.

The government barred Brooklyn-based Atlantic Veal & Lamb, the plant that sent the shipment, from selling meat to Japan. Johanns said he would take action against the department inspector who cleared the shipment. The inspector should have noticed the problem on plant documents, Johanns said.

"This just simply should not have happened," Johanns said during a news conference at department headquarters in Washington.

According to Johanns and some U.S. beef industry officials, the exported beef parts -- including part of a vertebral column -- are legal in the United States but not in Japan. Other beef industry folks, with the organization R-Calf, point out that there might be advantages to having U.S. food safety rules that are as strong as those in other industrialized countries.

United Stockgrowers of America Chief Executive Bill Bullard said of Japan's action to halt imports of U.S. beef: "We are disappointed. After having the border closed for two years, it should have been clear to the industry that we needed to maintain strict enforcement" of health safety rules. "But this is not the first time we've had a lapse in enforcement of BSE rules. In August, we had a failure when an over 30-month animal from Canada came into this country. This validates the concerns R-CALF has raised in its litigation that we need stricter measures to maintain the highest level of consumer confidence, both domestic and abroad," Bullard said Friday on the sidelines of the group's conference in Denver.