President Obama named Kathleen Merrigan, a Tufts professor and a central figure for more than two decades in organic and sustainable farm policy, to the No. 2 position at USDA.
This amounts to a major win for organic, sustainable and local food advocates, since Merrigan is not only well-versed in these issues but has been a tireless advocate for them. Most notably, she wrote the Organic Food Production Act -- the law that governs the entire organic food sector -- as a staffer for Vermont Sen. Leahy back in the 1980s, then worked at USDA and the Wallace Center, before moving to Tufts.
Organic foods command premium prices at the supermarket, and wherever there is extra money to be made there is a possibility of fraud. Most organic producers adhere to certification standards, but there is little if any product monitoring at the retail level. So an unscrupulous producer could substitute a conventional food for an organic one. After all, organic milk doesn't look any different from ordinary milk, right?
Not to a consumer, perhaps, but to a food scientist there are differences. Now a researcher in Germany has demonstrated the feasibility of laboratory testing to determine whether a carton of organic milk is what it says it is.
As described by Joachim Molkentin of the Federal Research Institute of Nutrition and Food in The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, the testing relies on the fact that in Germany at least, organic milk has higher levels of the fatty acid alpha-Linolenic acid and different carbon-isotope ratios than regular milk. These differences are related to feeding: cows that produce organic milk generally spend more time out to pasture (or consume more pasture-derived feeds like grasses and clover), while cows that produce regular milk eat corn.
- h/t to Jill Richardson for this.
The latest statistics show that worldwide, 32.2m hectares were certified according to organic standards in 2007, which was 1.5m hectares more than the previous year, said the report from the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) and the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL).
The study called: "The World of Organic Agriculture: Statistics and Emerging Trends 2009" showed that by geographical region, growth was strongest in Latin America and Africa.
Dr Helga Willer, of the FiBL and an author of the report, told FoodNavigator.com that production of cash crops such as coffee, cocoa and tropical fruit had increased by as much as 30 per cent.
And the drivers behind the increase in organic farming were booming demand and policy support.
- Jill Richardson again, who claims this to be the best chocolate chip recipe. EVER. If anyone is interested in a bake-off, consider the gauntlet to have now been thrown.
2 c. organic unsalted butter (I went for Organic Valley)
3/4 c. organic brown sugar
3/4 c. organic evaporated cane juice
2 eggs from my friend Phil's chickens (or other humanely raised chickens)
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. sea salt
2 c. organic whole wheat flour
1/4 c. organic instant oats
1 tsp. baking soda
1 bag fair trade organic chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350F. Melt the butter. Cream together sugar and butter. Stir in eggs, vanilla, salt. Mix in flour, oats, and baking soda. Don't stir too much - only until your flour is just mixed in. Add chocolate chips and stir in. Scoop blobs of cookie dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 min until brown around the edges.
- Mitch Hedberg said, "I saw this wino, he was eating grapes. I was like, 'Dude, you have to wait.'"
- The Obamas drink the organic variety.
It is considered a White House state dinner, and it happens every year when the nation's governors come to town. So planning for the event began even before President Obama was elected. Food would be seasonal and wine regional, an American farm-focused pattern pursued by former first ladies Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush. But then Barack and Michelle Obama arrived, and, well, change happened. The kitchen staff, inspired by the Obamas' organic focus, tweaked the menu and even the wine choices to highlight organic foods.
"I really got caught up in what they want to do so that at the last minute, I had to change my whole perspective," says White House food and beverage manager Daniel Shanks, the nation's sommelier. "They talked to us about their vision," he says, referring to the first family and their personal chef, Sam Kass, now at the White House. "They are really excited about being able to show to the world that there's a better way in a positive, healthy manner. We need to eat better. We need to take care of the land," says Shanks. He calls theirs a natural progression for the White House kitchen.
But organic wine? Hard to do, says Shanks, the former boss at Napa's famed Domaine Chandon restaurant, since bugs, mold, and fungus are part of winemaking and often have to be treated with chemicals. But he found three vineyards for the dinner that just about met the organic, chemical-free standard: California's Spottswoode, Oregon's Archery Summit, and Michigan's Black Star Farms. "We didn't change the quality," he says of the last-minute wine swap. "We just changed the thought pattern."
- I'm sorry, just typing the phrase organic wheat vodka makes my liver hurt.
