Skip to Content

Fruits and Vegetables - Not On Our Land

Wow. I didn't realize politics played such a suppressing role in getting fruits and vegetables on the table.

Here's a little Op-Ed piece that appeared in the New York Times yesterday. It was written by Jack Hedrin, an organic vegetable farmer from Minnesota:

My Forbidden Fruits (and Vegetables)

Jack was growing his fruits and vegetables on 100 acres. People wanted more of what Jack grew. So, Jack rented 25 acres from neighboring farms. Unfortunately, those 25 acres were from established corn farms (although corn was not being grown on them at the time)... and:"The [USDA's] commodity farm program effectively forbids farmers who usually grow corn or the other four federally subsidized commodity crops (soybeans, rice, wheat and cotton) from trying fruit and vegetables."There are big penalties for farmers who break this rule, as Jack found out.

Adding manure to the crap pile:"National fruit and vegetable growers based in California, Florida and Texas fear competition from regional producers. ... Through their control of Congressional delegations from those states, they have been able to virtually monopolize the country’s fresh produce markets."With obstacles like this, it doesn't look like organic, locally-grown fruits and vegetables will be seeing a bumper crop anytime soon.
________
Photo of Filasky Farm's produce stand from Filasky Farm, NY.

Similar entries
  • Bitten: Mark Bittman on Food

    Well, how about that. Mark Bittman has a blog. (Thank you, Melinda.)

    Bitten: Mark Bittman on Food

    It doesn't look like he posts often. Although he did make a few comments yesterday about his recent article that appeared in the New York Times, the one we discussed on my post, Got Vegetables?:

    Eating Meat Is Only Human, Bitten, 5 Feb 2008

    He lamented (I think he was lamenting), that he "got only two comments [on his original article]: one from a cattle rancher with some smart reasoning, and one from someone who was a little more emotional."

  • Changes To WIC Program

    Around the time Fred Thompson proclaimed, "I don’t think that it’s the primary responsibility of the federal government to tell you what to eat.", the USDA was issuing a press release describing changes it planned to make to its food assistance program WIC.

  • Summer Veg Out Part I: CHEAP

    Have you bought food, driven anywhere, or been out of the house in the last few months? If you have I'm sure you noticed that prices are a wee bit up. I practically fainted the last time I bought a loaf of bread.

    With the cost of food so high, how can any of us afford to emphasize fresh, healthy fruits and vegetables? When times are tough it's tempting to stick with foods that are cheap, calorie-dense, and comforting (like starchy American junk food) instead of foods that have fewer calories and might go bad before you finish them.

    But fruits and vegetables are good for us! Eating healthy foods will save us money on medical expenses in the long run, and if you're a savvy shopper they might not cost as much as you think. Here are some of the cost-saving ideas I use and would like to share.

    1. Don't stick to organic.

  • "If All You Ate Were Potatoes, You'd Get All Your Amino Acids"

    The sentence above is haunting me.

    Doug asked:"I still don't understand why more care isn't necessary to avoid deficiencies of the essential amino acids. Is it the case that these amino acids are present in all fruits and vegetables? (I didn't think this was so, but you mentioned on that other thread that thinking has changed in this regard.) Or is it simply that easy to avoid a deficiency of an essential amino acid by consuming any mixture of fruits and vegetables?"Doug, I would answer "Yes." to your last question. I thought it summed up the facts well.

    Plants are capable of manufacturing all 20 amino acids, which include the essential amino acids (EAAs), although amounts vary. I checked a number of foods (potatoes, broccoli, tomatoes, asparagus, corn, rice, oatmeal, beans, and others) and found all EAAs in each of these foods. Even an apple which is listed as having 0 grams of protein has all the EAAs, albeit it small amounts.

  • Summer Veg Out Part II: LOCAL

    Many of you already mentioned this important money-saving tip in the comments section of Part I, but I felt it was such an important point it deserved its very own post: eat foods that grow near you.

    1. Eat what's in season.

    What food grows where you are, and when is it at its peak? Produce is generally cheaper when it's in season in your area, even if you buy it at the local supermarket. It usually tastes better, too! For example, our own grocery stores are flooded with the most delicious local melons at the end of summer; it's almost a crime to eat them any other time of year. And I'll never forget the amazing artichokes we could get when we lived in California; I haven't seen a single fresh baby artichoke since I moved here.

    2. Visit Farmers' Markets.

  • Got Vegetables?

    Mark Bittman, author of the popular How To Cook Everything , New York Times' food writer, and host of the YouTube video that accompanied my post New York Times' No Knead Bread (probably the most-visited post in my entire blog archive) has a new NYTs article out. From yesterday's paper:

  • Obesity And Diabetes Are Not An Individual's Problem

    Oh. A trend!

    A few weeks ago I posted a report by the UK's Government Office for Science which said:"The obesity epidemic cannot be prevented by individual action alone and demands a societal approach."
    ...
    "The people of the UK are inexorably becoming heavier simply by living in the Britain of today. This process has been coined 'passive obesity'."I lamented that government agencies in the US still frame America's weight problem as the creature of an individual's nefarious choices. "Eat less refined corn and soy products!" they say, as if our weight problem is our fault.

    It's incomprehensible to me that those same agencies, backed by Congress, turn around and fund the production of those very corn and soy products they tell us not to eat - making them cheaper, more accessible, and, well, downright popular.

  • Diet Update

    I can't get over how low my blood sugars have been!

    Here's my story in a nut shell...

    Last summer, on a fluke, I tested my postprandial (after-eating) blood glucose (BG). It was around 140 mg/dl. I had only had some melon about 2 hours previously. I thought the reading was high. I tested it subsequently, and found both my fasting BG in the morning, and a number of after-meal tests were high ... in the range of Impaired Fasting Glucose (IFG) and Impaired Glucose Tolerance (IGT).

  • The Price For High Prices II: Hopless Beer

    This one's for Ronald:

    Craft Brewers Reformulate Beer to Cope With Hop Shortage, Wired, May 10, 2008"Prices of the commodity [hops] are skyrocketing as hop supplies have plummeted, forcing smaller brewmasters around the United States to begin quietly tweaking their recipes, in ways that are easily discerned by serious imbibers."

    "[Brewer Shaun] O'Sullivan is lucky. One of his most popular beers is Watermelon Wheat, which "has virtually no hops in it," he says."I don't know. Watermelon and wheat?
    ________

  • How To Populate The Colon

    Sauerkraut!

    But it has to be unpasteurized (Don't heat it above ~130 degrees F. either.) - Or else all those species of beneficial Lactobacillus will sacrifice their lives for a sterile kraut.

    As a source for probiotics, fermented cabbage is a great alternative to fermented dairy foods. And the levels of good bacteria are typically higher in raw sauerkraut than in cultured milk products.

    Sauerkraut is also high in vitamin C:"In 1776, Captain James Cook was awarded the Copley Medal for demonstrating that sauerkraut could be used to allay scurvy in British crews on long sea voyages."

  • Living High Off The Hog?

    The rising price of food is changing practices on Pennsylvania livestock farms.

    From "Fields Of Gold", The Guardian, April 16, 2008:

    "Call it the revenge of Marie Antoinette. The French queen, who on being told that her subjects had no bread suggested they eat cake instead, has gone down in history as callous, unworldly and fully deserving of the guillotine. Last year, however, farmers in Pennsylvania began following her advice. Since standard animal feed had become too dear, they started giving their pigs and cows chocolate - and banana chips and cashews and yogurt-covered raisins, any of which were cheaper than run-of the-mill corn and beans. One farmer even supplied his cattle a special "party mix" of popcorn, pretzels, cheese curls and crisps. This, he told reporters, saved 10% on feed costs."
    ________

  • 2007 Farm Bill, Nix

    A former White House Administration official wants to Nix The Farm Bill: 1"I’ve got a way to reduce global poverty, decrease the number of workers crossing our borders illegally, save American taxpayers money, and cut your supermarket bill -- in one fell swoop. How? Get rid of US farm subsidies and tariffs."

    For the rest, see former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich's latest blog post: Nix The Farm Bill.

  • PETA Offers $1 Million For Cultured Chicken

    Cultured meat isn't going away anytime soon. The People For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals (PETA) are making sure of it.

    Yesterday PETA disclosed they'll be offering one million dollars to the first group able to grow palatable chicken meat within the next 4 years:

    From PETA: PETA Offers $1 Million Reward to First to Make In Vitro Meat:"PETA is offering a $1 million prize to the contest participant able to make the first in vitro chicken meat and sell it to the public by June 30, 2012. The contestant must do both of the following:

    • Produce an in vitro chicken-meat product that has a taste and texture indistinguishable from real chicken flesh to non-meat-eaters and meat-eaters alike.

  • Which Results In The Lower Carbon Footprint: Local Or Trucked In?


    My first reaction is that buying local food produces fewer greenhouse gases. The article below calls that into question.

    The story ran in the New York Times Business section on Sunday:
    If It's Fresh and Local, Is It Always Greener? (May require login.)

    Here's some feedback:
    If It's Fresh and Local, Is It Always Greener? (from Serious Eats)

  • Surviving on Junk Food in Rural America

    Lavender Blue sent me this article from Newsweek:

    Junk Food County: Why many rural Americans can't get nutritious foods. The unhealthy truth about country living.

    I can't stop thinking about it. It's troubling, on a number of levels.

    An excerpt:

  • The Price For High Prices III: Obesity

    Some sad irony here:
    Rising Food Prices Are Likely To Worsen US Obesity Rate"... she lives on public assistance and eats junk food because it's cheap and more readily available in her Philadelphia neighborhood than carrots and apples."

  • FritoLay Goes Back To Nature

    "Fool me once, shame on...
    Shame on you.
    Fool me ... you can't get fooled again!" 1________1 US President No. 43, Nashville, TN, Sept. 17, 2002.
    Photo: Advertisement for FritoLay corn chips scanned from March 2008 AARP magazine.

  • Christmas Eve 2007 Sky Decorations

    There was a full moon last night. It will be visible tonight too, and according to NASA, it will be the brightest full moon you'll see for the next 16 years:"That's because it's the highest-riding full moon until the year 2023."

  • Safety of Imported Food

    I was reading through the FDA's new Food Protection Plan and came across a few facts I didn't know. See if you can guess first. Then select the hidden text above the line with your mouse. It should reveal the answer.

    • Approximately 60 percent of fresh fruits and vegetables consumed in the US are imported.

  • Today, 80 percent of seafood in the country is imported; less than 2 percent is inspected.*
  • Fruit Crumbles Cookies in a Head-To-Head Snack Time Smack Down

    Check it out: new data shows that fruit now tops cookies as the most common snack for children under 6.

    The article also states that kids today:• Are less likely to consume carbonated soft drinks, ice cream, candy, cake and fruit juice as snacks than kids the same age did 20 years ago.

    • Are more likely to have fruit rolls and gummy pieces, yogurt, crackers, granola bars and bottled water.What good news for the health of the next generation! If they start out eating healthier foods like fruits and vegetables those tastes will continue into adulthood, leading to less obesity and less diet-related disease.

  • Milking The Schedule

    An NPR commentator asked a dairy farmer how Daylight Savings Time affects his cows. I thought it wouldn't, because cows live by a biological clock. That was my knee-jerk reaction.

    The farmer said, "It's tough getting them up early!" *
    (So, they make the cows live by man's clock.)
    "And they don't produce as much."
    (...)
    "But it's not as bad as in the fall when we gain an hour!"
    (Oh, no...)
    "The cows get health problems in their udders because their milk builds up!"
    (Why don't we just schedule people to work around the cows' cycle?)
    ________* I'm paraphrasing.
    Photo: Dr. Baker milking cow, circa 1900, Texas.

  • The Price For High Prices I: Changes In Livestock Feed

    Recall my post from a few weeks ago, Living High Off The Hog?, where livestock farmers in Pennsylvania ..."... started giving their pigs and cows chocolate - and banana chips and cashews and yogurt-covered raisins, any of which were cheaper than run-of the-mill corn and beans. One farmer even supplied his cattle a special "party mix" of popcorn, pretzels, cheese curls and crisps. This, he told reporters, saved 10% on feed costs."It looks like livestock farmers in Europe may add animal remains to their party mix: 1
    "The European Union is preparing plans to allow pig remains to be used to feed poultry. The practice - banned in Europe after the BSE* crisis 10 years ago - would save farmers millions of pounds as prices of cereal feed for chickens soar, say officials in Brussels."

  • Sprouted Almonds

    An almond is a seed.

    So are Brazil nuts, cashews, walnuts, pecans, pistachios, and pine nuts.

    Wheat berries, corn kernels, oat groats, rice, barley, quinoa, buckwheat, and amaranth are also seeds. Sesame, pumpkin, sunflower, flax, poppy, fenugreek ... seeds. Lentils are seeds. Peanuts are seeds. Beans ... kidney, pinto, soy, mung, adzuki ... more seeds. Fresh peas and green beans are seeds.

    Seeds sprout. So I thought I'd soak some almonds in water. Yes, indeedy, they sprouted.

  • Now You See It, Now You Don't: Liver Cancer

    Would it were that cancer in the real world could be so readily switched off.

    Here's another study. On rats. After administering a carcinogen (aflatoxin), researchers fed rats a high-protein diet. The rats' cancer grew. Researchers switched to a low-protein diet, the rat's cancer regressed. Researchers switched back to the high-protein diet. The rats' cancer came back, with a vengeance.

  • Introducing the Summer Veg Out!

    For most of us with school- age children, summer vacation is finally here. That calls for either a "Hooray!" or a "Dear Lord, when does school start again?" depending on how you look at it. Now that the kids are home, it’s time to totally VEG OUT.

    No, I’m not talking about lazing around on the couch watching daytime television. I’m talking about revamping the kitchen to get the junk out and bring the healthy foods in. It’s time to tackle the problem of what to feed the kids during these long, hot summer days at home. My suggestion: fresh, healthy vegetables, and cool, refreshing fruits (along with whole grains, beans, nuts, seeds, and treats in moderation, of course).

    But how, you ask? Well, I thought it would be fun this summer to put together a collection of posts focusing on how to make vegetables and fruits easy, attractive, and affordable for families.

  • Prostate Cancer and Low-Fat Diets: 4 Studies

    Coincidentally, Tara over at the New York Times' Well Blog just posted this:
    Low-Fat Diet May Cut Prostate Cancer Risk, NYTs Well Blog, May 16 2008.

    It's based on this study:
    Effect of Low-Fat Diet on Development of Prostate Cancer and Akt Phosphorylation in the Hi-Myc Transgenic Mouse Model, Cancer Research, April 2008

    Where mice were fed:

    • High-fat diet (HF: 42% of calories from fat)

  • NYTs Review of Gary Taubes' "Good Calories, Bad Calories"

    From a short review of Gary Taubes' new book: Good Calories, Bad Calories: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom on Diet, Weight Control and Disease in yesterday's New York Times:"As I read Taubes’s book, I kept wondering how he would deal with an obvious question. If low-carbohydrate diets are so wonderful, why is anyone fat?

  • Frozen Bubbles


    They became unstuck in time a day later.
    "So it goes."
    - Billy Pilgrim 1________
    Photo above: Homegrown, from a couple days ago. It's frozen water in the cut-off bottom of an old gallon jug. I use it as a water feeder for birds. They, however, use it as a bathtub. There's one particular female cardinal that sits in it at night (if it's warm enough) for about 5 minutes. The water comes up to her neck. She occasionally flutters her wings.

  • Lavender Blue's Garden

    Lavender Blue shared these photos of her garden. (Click for larger.)

  • Ruby's Garden

    Ruby shared these photos of her garden. (Click for larger.): "Here are some pictures of what I have going on this year.