The Mobile Slaughter Facility, Up Close (Part 4)

by Slow Food USA staffer Jerusha Klemperer

Throughout March and April we covered the Island Grown Farmers Cooperative, in the San Juan Islands, and its USDA certified mobile slaughter facility. This week I traveled to Lopez Island where I had the opportunity to visit several members of the cooperative, see their pasture-grazing cows, sheep, and goats, and witness the slaughter of 2 sheep.

The only images of slaughter I have previously held in my mind have been of the horror show kind. Distressed animals being handled quickly and roughly, and me, in tears, watching footage through my fingers.

To see the IGFC mobile slaughter facility in action is to understand, in the deepest sense, what a successful venture this has been–for business, yes, in the ways that I described in earlier posts–but even more, for the health and well being of the animals. The animals live quietly and well in the fields, then enter the barn they've known all their lives. They are processed humanely and the work is slow, careful, and meticulously clean. I watched it from inches away, and though it was challenging, especially at first, I watched it eyes open.

I left the island utterly convinced of mobile facilities as the next wave–to step in where small/mid-size infrastructure has crumbled away. It works for the farmers, and it works for the residents of the islands, who are able to eat meat that their neighbors have raised. It's an amazing sensation to drive around the island and see the animals, and then to know–not just because someone told you, but because you've seen it with your own eyes–exactly where your food has come from.

(picture is of Horsedrawn Farms, on Lopez)

Farm Bill Passes in House…Senate next?

Yesterday the (Food and) Farm Bill passed in the House and is poised to pass in the Senate today. As we mentioned last week, Bush is ready to veto but the numbers in the House vote suggest that they will easily be able to override his veto.

For good coverage, see:

• the San Francisco Chronicle
• Grist
• NY Times

Also, a great resource has continued to be the Community Food Security Coalition email updates (these guys actually have reason to be happy since some of the positive parts of the Bill that got bundled in are provisions for community food projects–good news!).

Chicago Lifts Foie Gras Ban

In the New York Times Dining section today, I read this:

Chicagoans can feast on foie gras once more. The Chicago City Council just repealed the ban on its sale that it put in place two years ago.

Now I know that many of my vegan friends will go ballistic on me when I say that this is a good thing, but this is a good thing. The animal rights groups who supported this measure did so because they saw it as a layup, and easy target. Who would oppose a ban on something only rich, snobby, hoity-toity gourmands consume.

Besides the measure being silly government intervention, it reminded me of the folks who say they won't eat veal because they heard it was cruel as they pull up to the KFC drive thru.

Banning foie gras saves a few ducks and geese. Wanna make a difference? Ban CAFOs. You needn't stop eating meat (unless of course you want to, that's entirely up to you), just stop eating feedlot meat. Get your beef, pork and chicken from the farmer down the road, from the farmers market, from a CSA. Trust the source, and you'll trust the food.

Food Deserts

by Slow Food USA staffer Julia DeMartini Day

While the United Nations discusses desertification in drought-plagued areas of the developing world, an article in Monday's NY Times brought our attention to deserts that exist right here in our fertile, developed nation: food deserts.

Food deserts are neighborhoods with inadequate access to fresh food; in many neighborhoods with a large population of people living on low incomes, it is extremely difficult to buy fruits and vegetables – many people end up taking buses to stores, cabs home, or buying what is nearby, often fast food and non perishable items from corner stores or liquor stores.

Websites like foodmapper visually show the prohibitions to eating not just local food, but also fresh food in general, and illustrate how lack of access is tied to increased health problems, like diabetes and obesity.

In a place like NYC, this lack of access seems particularly crazy when many wealthy neighborhoods have ample places to buy produce - For example, at the corner of 110th and Broadway there is both a D'agostinos and a Westside Market - literally right across the street from each other.

For many residents of communities lacking stores with fresh produce, the challenge to eat fresh food is well understood. As a way to illustrate the inadequate access and to educate neighborhood residents about how to improve this, many community organizations have created a way to do neighborhood assessments of the food available – often called Community Food Assessments. Sometimes the information collected can help be the launching pad for community projects like gardens.

Gardens like the ones discussed in yesterday's NY Times about food deserts where community residents have turned to agriculture–not just gardens for personal use, but gardens large enough to have a yield that can be sold to neighbors and members of the community.

From the article: "It's not about making money," Ms. Washington said. "We're selling so that
people in our neighborhood have good quality. There's no Whole Foods in my
neighborhood."

Food Policy Here at Home

by Slow Food USA staffer Jerusha Klemperer

Again and again at the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development sessions on Agriculture, representatives from other countries reported that U.S. agriculture policies, such as subsidies, are negatively impacting poor farmers around the world.

And so–where stands this U.S. (Food and) Farm Bill of ours?

The San Francisco Chronicle reported Sunday that "the President has been to the left of the Speaker [Pelosi]." This surprising reality is well explained in this overview, which also points out that "as the commodities boom accelerated over the winter, boosting farm income to new records, the disconnect between the farm bill and economic reality grew more bizarre."

An opinion piece in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution calls the state of affairs "topsy-turvy," offering that "Ferd Hoefner, policy director for the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, which opposes large-scale corporate farming, estimates that a married farm couple could earn $2.9 million before getting kicked off the federal dole," calling on GW to veto the whole darn "massive, bloated [GW's words]" thing.

But that would mean starting from scratch with a brand new President, of course.

More notes from the U.N.

by Slow Food USA staffer Jerusha Klemperer

As this article from last Friday's Wall Street Journal reports, the U.S. has proposed 770 million additional dollars of food aid to address the growing food crisis. The U.S. delegate to the U.N. reported this in his remarks on Monday to the Commission on Sustainable Development, although he (as well as many other delegates) also emphasized that while giving aid is a nice thing, we, as a global community, need to address food security in a more long term way.

The U.S. delegate also stressed the need for "science-based" approaches to food security, and he was not alone. A British Ag Professor who presented on a panel on Tuesday made the case for the positive potential of biotech, i.e.: GMOs as the solution to many nutritional deficiencies in the developing world and GMOs as a way to increase production. He spoke out VERY harshly again the anti-GMOers, saying that Africa cannot feed itself without GMOs.

Interestingly, one thing everyone there can agree on: climate change is real, and is having real effects on agriculture, especially in Sub Saharan Africa. For better or for worse, climate changes' effects have become so incontrovertible that gone are the days when anyone could get away with challenging its veracity.

Report from the U.N.

by Slow Food USA staffer Jerusha Klemperer

Greetings from inside the United Nations where I am observing sessions of the Commission on Sustainable Development; this particular two-year cycle of the CSD is focusing on some important issues for Slow Food including Land, Agriculture, Rural Development, Biodiversity, Drought and Desertification.

I am here on behalf of Slow Food USA in order to understand how it is that global policy recommendations are determined for being responsible stewards of the land while also addressing the increasingly important issue of food (in)security. This year the conversation feels especially pressing and energized given everyone's concerns about the global food crisis.
The CSD was established as a way to ensure effective follow-up of the Earth Summit that was held in Rio in 1992. It meets every year in NYC, in 2-year cycles, with each cycle focusing on a different cluster of topics. The first year is for review and discussion; the second year is for creating the directives and language for moving forward. Civil Society (i.e. "regular people") is invited to participate by sharing case studies, lessons learned, and real-life problems from the field. This will help the commission to link good practice to supportive policies and identify areas for collaborative action.

I'll be here, on and off, for the next two weeks, and will be popping onto the blog to share updates with you all. Stay tuned…

More on the Fast/Slow conundrum

You may recall that last week we were musing about what happens when good small business sell themselves to big ones, and when fast food adheres to slow principles. We just came across this article in the L.A. Times from last month, which explores the inherent contradictions in a store that promotes sustainable food and green living being gigantically big and using a massive amount of electricity. Isn't there a place, even in Pasadena– the land of urban sprawl– for something slower? Smaller?