Local food and the establishment and other headlines

Local food is not some highbrow ambition put forward by social Utopians of the 1960s, but increasingly is a priority of state and local officials who see economic and tax base opportunity. Check out this news item from Illinois about local food production:

Local food and farms in Illinois Quad Cities Online

Local Food, Farms, and Jobs: Growing the Illinois Economy" makes a strong case that the state can dramatically increase economic activity by growing and processing much more of the food sold in the state.The Task Force recognizes that farm and food products are a major economic engine in Illinois and one of the largest employment sectors in the state. Consumers here spend $48 billion a year on fresh, prepared and processed food from supermarkets, restaurants, and other sources. The vast majority of this food, however, is grown and processed out of state or even out of the country. In essence, we export tens of billions of dollars of Illinois wealth to California, Mexico, China and other food exporters-despite our state budget crisis. Yet, consumers increasingly want food from local sources. In this report, the Task Force proposes policy and program actions that will facilitate the growth of a local food system in Illinois

Checkout alert system for recalled foods sought LA Times
With more food recalls happening weekly, consumer advocates, supermarket chains and legislators are exploring better ways to stop the sale of tainted food, and one plan under discussion by lawmakers in Sacramento involves using supermarket checkout scanners to help


European inflation low, payrolls shrink Bloomberg

U.S. questioned on WTO ag committments Farm Futures
A long list of questions was posed to the United States. They covered: counter-cyclical payments, direct payments, and the new Farm Bill's "Average Crop Revenue Election" program. There is also an issue with China's exports of poultry being held up by U.S. law. The United States has repeated its statement that the government is talking to relevant authorities in Washington to try to resolve this issue as soon as possible.


Anatomy of an outbreak AJC
on peanuts

A tomato's journey The Dalles
Connecting with the earth is a first step in being aware of what it takes to get food to our plates and why it's important to support sustainable organic agriculture, said Monique Dupre, creator of Sustainable Living on a Budget, http://www.sustainablebudget.com/. Dupre donated a lease on her property at East 13th and Short streets to start the Utopia Community Garden — a healthy place where families, individuals, classrooms and community groups will interact and connect with the earth.

Food source tracking: a nagging agency or a sinister organic plot Nashville Scence
There's a new bill in Congress that could mean two different things. Either it's a good way to track foods so that when an outbreak occurs, the source can be pinpointed. Or it's guaranteed to put organic farmers and small artisan manufacturers out of business. Here's the text, which I found identically on two websites, so who knows the source, maybe Washingtonwatch.com:
On February 12, 2009, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) introduced a bill in the U.S. Senate to provide for the establishment of a traceability system for food. The "Food Safety and Tracking Improvement Act" would amend the FDC Act, Federal Meat Inspection Act, Poultry Products Inspections Act, and the Egg Products Inspection Act to require a food tracking system for all food shipped in interstate commerce.
The system would comprise a record-keeping and audit system, a secure online database, or registered identification that would permit retrieval of the history, use and location of the foods. If the bill is passed, then $40 million would be appropriated for the task of creating the system for fiscal years 2010 through 2012. The bill was referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry.

Growth in organic food continues at a slower pace California Farm Bureau
Despite the faltering economy, organic farmers and market analysts say they expect the market for organic products to continue growing, but at a slower rate.
Farmers such as Scott Park, a diversified grower in Sutter County, say that despite the sagging economy's negative effect on other businesses, the organic market is still "healthy" for the crops they grow and they don't expect the market opportunities to disappear any time soon.


Obesity by the numbers Minneapolis Star Tribune

Pick your poison Slate
The Shopper's Guide to Pesticides consists of two simple lists: The Dirty Dozen and The Clean 15. The former contains items that tend to show up at the store with lots of pesticides. Peaches are the dirtiest of the dirty dozen. Some others are apples, bell peppers, and imported grapes.

Recession sparks millions more gardeners and other headlines

I can't quite believe that the recession will spur "millions" more people to become vegetable gardeners. Yet this story's headline says precisely that. Here is an excerpt:

Officials with the National Gardening Association say consumers spent $2.5 billion in 2008 to purchase seeds, plants, fertilizer, tools and other gardening supplies to grow their own food. According to NGA estimates, even a modest, well-maintained vegetable garden yields a $500 average return per garden when considering a typical gardener's investment and the retail price of produce.The economy is one of the leading factors driving Americans into their backyards to grow fresh fruits and vegetables. "As in previous recessions, we've seen increased participation in and spending on food gardening as people look for ways to economize," explains Bruce Butterfield, research director for the NGA. "That said, these results suggest the interest in food gardening may continue to increase, even after the economy improves."

Highlights from the survey include:

-- 43 million U.S. households plan to grow their own fruits, vegetables, herbs and berries in 2009

-- 11 percent of households already active in food gardening plan to increase both the amount and variety of vegetables they will grow in 2009; 10 percent also said they will spend more time gardening this year.

Among the other reasons respondents gave as to why their households are growing their own food:

58 percent said for better-tasting food

54 percent said to save money on food bills

51 percent said for better quality food

48 percent said to grow food they know is safe

 

 

County of origin labels ABC

Consumer Watch (KFSN) -- Starting Monday, you'll have a better idea of where the food you're buying at the grocery store originally came from. Grocery stores will be forced to label certain foods with their "country of origin." So, stickers will let you know if you're buying mangoes from Mexico or Minneola Tangelos from Australia. The labels should be especially useful

 

America's food  banks need a bailout Salon

For America's food banks this has meant one thing: That they, too, are needier. They need ever more fresh food, non-perishable food, and non-food items like cleaning products and toiletries from wholesalers, retailers, food distributors, corporations, charities, government agencies, local farms and individual donors. They need ever more storage and freezer space. They need ever more volunteers. They need ever more food that can be made available on appointed distribution days at food pantries. And they need ever more emergency food supplies, available on demand for people who suddenly realize that they are hungry and out of options, possibly for the first time in their lives.

 

Safeway workers accept new contract Winnipeg Sun

Safeway workers across Manitoba voted 83% in favour of their new contract yesterday.An estimated 1,135 Canada Safeway employees took part in yesterday's vote, having earlier voted overwhelmingly in favour of a strike mandate if a new agreement couldn't be reached before the existing one expired.

Latest stock market rally is only dead cat bounce More sunny words from Roubini

It is déjà vu all over again. We have already seen this Groundhog Day movie at least six times over and over again in the last year or so: the market starts to rally -- this time around about 8 percent in a week -- and the chorus of optimists starts to say that this is the bottom of the economic and financial crisis and that we are at the beginning of a sustained stock market rally that signals the true end of this bear market.   Even before the latest bear market rally started last week I wrote the following on March 2^nd: 

  Of course you cannot rule out another bear market sucker's rally in 2009, most likely in Q2 or Q3: the drivers of this rally will be the improvement in second derivatives of economic growth and activity in U.S. and China that the policy stimulus will provide on a temporary basis: but after the effects of tax cut will fizzle out in late summer and after the shovel-ready infrastructure projects are done the policy stimulus will slack by Q4 as most infrastructure projects take year to be started let alone finished; similarly in China the fiscal stimulus will provide a fake boost to non-tradeable productive activities while the traded sector and manufacturing continues to contract.  But given the severity of macro, household, financial firms and corporate imbalances in the United States and around the world this Q2 or Q3 sucker's market rally will fizzle out later in the year like the previous five ones in the last 12 months.

Why middle class families need Employee Free Choice Act Daily News

 

Independent port truckers struggling Newsday

A recent study by Rutgers University suggests Hyppolite is not alone among roughly 5,100 port drivers who lease or own their own trucks. A team led by David Bensman, a professor of labor studies and employment relations, found their average income was just $28,000 after expenses. That's about half of what they made before the trucking industry was deregulated in 1980 in inflation-adjusted terms, he said.