This is not your father’s White House

What do Sesame Street, the Biggest Loser, Iron Chef have in common?  Being an Iron Chef fan, I was excited to hear about the upcoming Iron Chef episode pitting Bobby Flay and White House executive chef Cristeta Comerford against Mario Battali and Emeril Laggasse.   This is just the latest in Michelle Obama’s efforts to increase public awareness and interest in healthy food from her widely accessible podium.

“What’s exciting for us is this is the first time I can remember the White House taking an active interest in doing something about diet and health,” Battali said. “They understand this kind of P.R.”

Indeed, the First Lady is making use of her position to help bring about the change this country needs.  She is innovatively appealing to the masses through popular culture.  The White House even has it’s own YouTube channel.

Michelle obviously has lofty goals on how to achieve a healthy food system and healthy citizens.  She also has a secret weapon, who is garnering a lot of attention.  His name is Sam Kass.  Officially he is the assistant White House chef and food initiative coordinator.  “And when he’s not grilling fish for the first family or tending tomatillos in the White House garden, he is pondering the details of child nutrition legislation, funding streams for the school lunch program and the best tactics to fight childhood obesity.  Behind the scenes, he attends briefings on child nutrition and health, has vetted nonprofits as potential partners for White House food initiatives and regularly peppers senior staff about policy matters.”

His approach to food is wholesome and organic in the living, vital sense of the word.  (Wait, isn’t that what food should be?  Am I the only one who thinks ‘organic food’ sounds like a redundant term?  “If organic farming is the natural way, shouldn’t organic produce just be called ‘produce’ and make the pesticide-laden stuff take the burden of an adjective?” ~Ymber Delecto)

Sorry, back to Sam Kass:

“…I try to make sure that the food is beneficial, that everything on the plate is beneficial and it is delicious. I also try to cook based on relationships as much as possible with the people who are growing the food and people [who are] involved in the process.”  For some reason, when I read that, I have Joel Salatin’s voice echoing in my ear, “Now that’s a noble goal.”  Kass himself comes across as wholesome and even endearing in his video for the Cooking Up Change school challenge.

Michelle Obama focuses much of her attention on children “because you can affect children’s behavior so much more easily than you can adults … I don’t think about this with my kids in terms of what I want them to be today.  I’m thinking about who I want them to be when they go to college and when they raise their own kids.    How will they make choices about what they eat when they’re away from me?  What will be the messages that are in their head as they think about whether they’re going to drink the soda or whether they’re going to have a glass of water?  How will they engage their own children in these messages early on so that these become habits that are just a part of life and not something that you have to change in mid-stream.  So the garden is really an important introduction to what I hope will be a new way that our country thinks about food.  That’s the story of the garden.  And it’s been quite an amazing success if I do say so myself.”

“And it’s through the garden that the Obamas, with the First Lady as point person, express those views. They want this garden to demonstrate not only their ever-evolving love for food, but also their commitment to help gently guide America both back to a time when we appreciated our bounty, and forward to a time when we’ll understand that too much does us no favors. I’ve been preaching for 30 years that food doesn’t have to be anything more than honest and simple to be delicious and enjoyable and fulfilling, and now we’re hearing that same message from the White House,” adds Mark Bittman.

As a mother who takes my role as educator and role model seriously, I applaud Michelle Obama’s leadership in shaping our future well-being through ‘everyday people’ avenues.

And when I grow up, I want to be just like Sam Kass (minus the bald head – and nevermind that he’s younger than me).

What’s cooking?

Fall for me usually means spending more time in the kitchen.  I’m reenergized to heat up the oven (and the house) with new dishes and aromas.  I’m a long-time fan of Moosewood cookbooks.  Their recipes are easy and tasty.  Moosewood Cooks at Home was my first vegetarian cookbook, and I still love making ‘Not Your Mama’s Green Beans.’  I also like Moosewood Restaurant New Classics, but my recent favorite has been Simple Suppers.  I have been making different versions of the Roasted Ratatouille for months.  I just change it to whatever I happen to have bought that week.  There’s almost nothing that tastes bad roasted.  You could make a fall/winter version with brussel sprouts, winter squash and parsnips, or just do green beans and beets.  The key is to have a good quality olive oil and sea salt.  For those in the Bay area, my cousin turned me on to Bariani olive oil – it’s delicious!  The grandma tends the booth at the Berkeley farmer’s market and they sell it by the gallon for diehard aficionados (In fact, I just got one on Saturday).  I’ve put it on brown rice, quinoa, over pasta.  It’s a limitless recipe.

Moosewood’s Roasted Ratatouille

Bon Appetit!

Green Cleaning and more

I’ve been meaning to switch over to green household products for a long time.  It just never seems to make it to the top of the list.  I finally found a book that everyone should own.  It’s not just the content (Chapter 8 is all about natural recipes to swap for your cleaning products) but the actually book itself is water-resistant.  How cool is that?  I love the authors’ ‘Come-as-you-are’ attitude.  They don’t demand that we throw away our entire arsenal of hazardous cleaning supplies (although we probably should).  They detail small steps on the journey of becoming completely green.

“Beginning to clean green is not hard.  All you need to do is take one step.  It may be as simple as buying a roll of bleach-free paper towels, filling a spray bottle of club soda instead of using window cleaner, or adding a recycling bin to your home office.  Every step you can take to clean in healthier, less toxic ways will have far-reaching benefits.”

While you are running out to get your own copy of Green Clean (or waiting for it to arrive in the mail), here are some other websites to enjoy.

Real Simple has a list of all-natural cleaning solutions.  There are so many good ideas I could probably end the post here…but I won’t.  There’s even a specific site for vinegar.  Everyone’s advocating vinegar these days.

greenyour.com – More than you ever wanted to know about how to become more environmentally friendly in all areas.  This is a great resource covering a wide range of topics.

gogreenonline.com – similar to greenyour.com, it also has room by room suggestions on how to go green.  They even have a quiz.  Educational fun isn’t just for kids!

wellbuilding.com – Another great resource, mainly dealing with your house.  Each topic also lists many other websites for reference.

Even though cleaning is an important area to reduce environmental impact, I can’t escape ‘greening’ my food.  It’s something we all do everyday, multiple times a day.  Here are yet more food sites.  As I mentioned a couple posts ago, I have been struggling with my food choices.  It’s even more disheartening to learn that many of the biggest ‘organic’ companies are actually owned by Kraft, Pepsi, Cargill, etc.  Do you know who’s making your food? (take this quiz) At least I finally know what to do with those bulky pizza boxes that you aren’t supposed to recycle – compost it! (and 74 other items).

And finally, coolfoodscampaign.org – “The Cool Foods Campaign provides you with the information and tools you need to reduce your carbon “FoodPrint”.

Happy Cleaning!

It’s all about the Farm Bill

You may have noticed a post a while ago titled Food Fight-I.  Well, this is the original (though second) Food Fight post, though it’s been a long time in the thinking.  Everyone should read Daniel Imhoff’s Food Fight.  It explains the Farm Bill including numerous charts and graphs to make it more understandable.  The problem is, I still don’t really understand it.  I interviewed a friend who farms wheat, corn and soy to try to get a better picture of what subsidies mean in real everyday farmer life.    I marginally understand it a little more.  (Basically there are 3 types of payments the government gives out for commodity crops.  Even the insurance premiums are subsidized).  Please read the book (and then explain it to me).  However, these are the things that stand out to me about the Bill (or is it a law now?)

• Organic farming gets the shaft

“[.4 billion dollars] of this spending will be used to expand the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program, which provides funds to state agriculture departments for U.S. specialty crop marketing, promotion, research, and other activities.  The bill also provides new mandatory funding for growth of farmers’ markets and for transitioning producers to organic production, authorizes funding for a new federal-state cooperative pest and disease early detection program, and provides for price reporting and organic data collection”              taken from  “What is the ‘Farm Bill?’” www.nationalaglawcenter.org/assets/crs/RS22131.pdf

Which to me sounds like by the time the state, researchers and data collectors are done getting their share, organic farmers won’t actually see a cent of this money.  I’m glad organic farming is part of the bill.   But come on, 0.1%?  Heaven forbid we should have to pay more for Coke, milk and sugar, but who cares if organic vegetable crops fail?  In fact, we’re so supportive of sugar producers that if there’s an excess the bill created a “sugar-for-ethanol program to sell surplus sugar to ethanol producers.”  I love sugar and dessert as much as anyone else, probably more.  But is this really the direction we should be heading?  Feeding our cars the crops we subsidize (and then make excess of)?  If biofuels are so great, let them stand on their own merit, not on a wobbly bankrupt pedestal.

If you want to eat a diet of Froot Loops, pop, and corn chips, the government is on your side.  But if you want to eat lettuce, strawberries and almonds, (you know, food that actually has nutritional value) then that falls under ‘specialty crops.’

“84 percent of commodity support spending goes to the production of just five crops: corn, cotton, wheat, rice, and soybeans.”

• We are still funding Western Diet diseases with our subsidies.

As the author himself says in these videos (they’re worth watching), “[T]here has to be a lot more alignment of the crops we’re supporting with health and nutritional guidelines, I mean, that just makes all the sense in the world to me and I think it really ought to start with what we feed our children.”

• Not only are we funding disease, apparently we’re funding dead people and non-farmers.

“The Washington Post found that $1.3 billion in agriculture subsidies went to people who do not farm. Another $1.1 billion dollars went to dead farmers over a 7 year period!”

“The richest ten percent of farm-subsidy recipients (many of whom are corporations and absentee landowners who can hardly be classified as “actively engaged ” in growing crops) take in more than two-thirds of those payments.”

• Even Obama can’t help us.

“As part of his 2010 budget, Obama proposed phasing-out direct payments to farmers with sales of more than $500,000 a year.”

“While Mr. Obama’s Democratic allies on Capitol Hill adopted much of his budget template, the farm subsidy limits never got off the ground.”

HELP!  How do we stop the madness?

For a more lighthearted look at the farm bill, check out this video from foodbattle.org.

No Impact Foodshed Health Care

In between frequenting farmers markets, driving my kids to piano lessons, making sure they practice for those very expensive lessons, trying to decide which CSA to join, looking out my window multiple times a day to admire the bay, succumbing to yet another cable show (the novelty still hasn’t worn off yet), and cheering on our friend’s football star, these are the thoughts percolating around my head and influencing my daily decisions:

No Impact Man:

“Colin Beavan decides to completely eliminate his personal impact on the environment for the next year.  It means eating vegetarian, buying only local food, and turning off the refrigerator. It also means no elevators, no television, no cars, busses, or airplanes, no toxic cleaning products, no electricity, no material consumption, and no garbage.  No problem – at least for Colin – but he and his family live in Manhattan. So when his espresso-guzzling, retail-worshipping wife Michelle and their two-year-old daughter are dragged into the fray, the No Impact Project has an unforeseen impact of its own.”

More and more I find myself attracted to ‘reality TV.’  This is not your typical show glorifying petty human interactions.  These are movies about real life that can shame, shock and inspire us, while moving us toward the change we need.  Maybe it’s just a sign of my age(ing), but the rom-coms of yesteryear no longer appeal to me.  When I finish watching a movie, I don’t want to feel like “I just lost 2 hours of my life – and I want them back!”  I must admit I haven’t actually seen the movie yet (I missed the short run here while I was doing all the aforementioned activities), but I am really looking forward to being challenged by the Beavans journey.  I’m sure I won’t want my 2 hours back.  But am I more Colin, or his wife?

Health Care and the Foodshed

In Michael Pollan’s column about the Health Care bill, he mentions a surprising way to fight childhood obesity… “that promoting the concept of a “foodshed” — a diversified, regional food economy — could be the key to improving the American diet.”

Roots of Change, a food advocacy group has detailed what a sustainable system would look like:

• People of all income levels have access to healthy food.
• Agriculture and processing systems do not degrade the health of ecosystems, livestock or humans who produce or eat the food.
• More wealth is produced from the stem.  That wealth is shared in a way that ensures that all of those working within it, from field hand to financier, feel both well respected and fairly compensated, and thus remain committed to their careers in the system.
• A diversity of operational scales and ownership are maintained to ensure economic resilience.

(California News Net – September  2009)

In fact, this concept is gaining popularity.  California mayors are creating food policies and task forces.

As for me, I am still struggling to find my ‘honest’ balance.  Are organic granola bars better than ‘regular’ granola bars?  Do I pat myself on the back for supporting a company who (supposedly) practices ecologically superior farming?  Or do I push myself to find more whole foods, to teach my children that real food doesn’t come in a package?  Of course, that would require yet more radical change in our diet…

I leave you with a quote from a Time article, Getting Real About the High Price of Cheap Food.

“[I]t’s no surprise we’re so fat; it simply costs too much to be thin.”

Honest Food: A Guest Post

My wife has been preaching and practicing the gospel of eating well for several years.  But somehow, it took me a long time to listen and hear what she was saying.   Due to my undying love for her (and hearing that a Graeters’ ice cream store was nearby), I decided to accompany Doris to an opening presentation of Food Inc.  The theatre was especially packed for this showing since there was a panel discussion afterwards;  the theatre was filled with foodies, veganites, organicultists, health-nuts, and the like.  As the movie ended, it was clear that it had preached to the choir.

To me, however, it was a stunning piece of work.  There were two elements of the movie which truly surprised me.  The first was realizing just how dirty the nails of the food industry were:  the government, the corporations, the lawyers, and the national system were blind, corrupt, and greedy.  I knew things were bad (as I would hear propaganda from aforementioned theatre audience from time to time), but did not realize they were this bad.

The second piece of the movie, one that continues to affect me to this day, was a realization from listening to a soliloquy by Joel Salatin.  Joel is a farmer in Virginia who spoke about the benefits of eating from a local farm.  While he spoke about this, he proceeded to kill a chicken and share the joys of eating honest food.  This phrase, “honest food”, truly caught me off guard, and practically took my breath away.  It was then that I realized the error of my ways.

I had always grouped together all those interested in topics of food into one category:  the foodies, veganites, organicultists, and health-nuts were all the same to me.  And thus, I took great pleasure in avoiding all of them (except my wife who is above all reproach).  Joel’s phrase, “honest food”, helped me understand that the fight was not to be pro-vegan, to be pro-health, to be pro-local, or even to be pro-food … but to stand up for honesty and integrity in what we eat in a practical and conscious manner.  This type of integrity needs to be shown towards the farmer, the vendor, the animal, and even the land we have been allowed to use.

It is clear to me that my role as a follower of Jesus is to represent Him on earth, to use the way He has empowered me to bring in the kingdom of God.  Literally, it is to bring about heaven on earth.  The concept of eating honest food is as biblical, as true, as Christian as any other virtue.  So what does this imply for me?  It means that I can eat all types of food (chickens, pigs, cows, corn, fish, rice), knowing that it is from His hand that all of it comes from.  But it also means I am accountable for what I eat, and the consequences it has on creation — which includes me as part of it.  And by eating all kinds of food honestly, it would mean giving up on eating whatever I wanted at whatever time (of the day, of the season, of the year) that I wanted it.

Satyan L Devadoss

PS:  If you have not had a chance to read the Space Trilogy by CS Lewis, I highly recommend you do so.  To me, this trilogy — especially the fourth chapter of Perelandra, the middle book of the trilogy — speaks more about our response to food and living that most movies or books on food.

Why YOU should see Food, Inc.

If you care about your health, or the environment; if you care about human rights, or justice, if you care about food safety, national security, animal rights, sustainability, nutrition, integrity, fairness, or doing what’s right, you (the person reading this blog right now) should see Food, Inc.

Ignorance may be bliss, but ignorance is costly.  This movie may not change how you eat – I probably wouldn’t have been able to alter much when 3 of us lived on $100 a month for food (although my goal is to change what food is affordable!), but at the very least, let our shopping choices be informed decisions.  There are changes we can make.  The industry has been slowly taking over our country.  Let’s take it back!

Some problems with our industrial monoculture food system: high cost of fossil fuels, great potential for contamination (intentional or unintentional), loss of diversity due to gene patenting means one bad disease could be catastrophic to our yield. We are getting a taste of it with the potato/tomato blight in the Northeast, (Perhaps this is exactly the practice round we need to prevent disaster on a large scale in the future), inhumane treatment of illegal workers (who lost their jobs because we dump our cheap subsidized corn in their countries), animal farmer “slavery” to large corporations, antibiotic resistance, bullying people out of business (Mo’s story breaks my heart), loss of topsoil, pollutions of our water from pesticides and fertilizers, loss of nutrients during transportation, and government debt.

Companies respond to our buying choices.  As one supplier says in the film, “People have got to start demanding good, wholesome food of us.  And we’ll deliver, I promise you.”  Even a small change can result in more equitable practices.  Let’s tell them we want honest food.

The bad (but really delicious) and the good -Columbus edition

I can’t write about food in Columbus without mentioning Graeter’s.  (In fact, I know there are those of you who think my name is synonymous with Graeter’s…).   While I am still convinced that it is the most amazing Ice Cream in the world (just ask Oprah), I was disappointed to learn that my favorite flavor has artificial food coloring.  My husband’s been really enjoying giving the ‘anti-food coloring fanatic’ a hard time.  However, the Black Raspberry Chip is all natural.  If you’re in Ohio, you gotta try it.  It’s that good.

A new friend (who feels like my long lost self, but with serious brains) introduced me to Northstar Cafe in Columbus.  They make amazing food, and the BEST chocolate cookie I’ve ever tasted.  It’s like a cake/brownie/cookie all integrated into one  large amazing gooey disk.  Death by chocolate, bring it on.   But, even better, I was inspired by the statement on their webpage.

How awesome is that?  I know there are lots of places like this cropping up around the country.  Peacefood Cafe on the Upper West Side is also a great place to try.

I was telling another friend about my desire to change government policy, to make healthy food available to all, and unhealthy food more cost prohibitive.  She responded, “That’s like trying to make the earth spin the other way.”  It does seem like an insurmountable task, a David vs Goliath type battle.  But guess what?  David won.  And in our case, we are not alone.  Every time we choose to eat at a restaurant that makes conscientious choices, we are supporting so many good things, and keeping our money from continuing the cycle of insanity.  Don’t keep these gems to yourself, spread the word!

Who’s feeding my kids?

I couldn’t resist commenting on the news surrounding MeMe Roth lately, if for no other reason than because it’s been thought provoking for me.  She is the one who has stirred up controversy because she instructed her kids to put any snacks they get from school into a ‘junk food collector’ to bring home.

“This solution seemed to be working pretty well until Ms. Roth’s daughter dutifully tried to stick a juice pop — a special class treat from her teacher on a hot day — into her plastic container. The teacher told Ms. Roth’s daughter to eat it or lose it, and according to the child pointed out that she had seen the young girl eating the corn chips served with school lunch — did that not count as junk food?”

Who is responsible for feeding our children?  If parents are, then there should be no issue with a parent who has decided how to handle junk food.  I love making desserts for my family.  One of our favorites are molten lava cakes.  I will not even tell you what’s in them.  But, as the parent, I should be the one deciding when my children are allowed to have treats.  As Roth points out, “The school environment must be a default of health and safety for all children.”  In fact, I think she’s come up with a very creative solution to all the treats kids get at school.  Roth adds, “You’re your child’s advocate and there is no excuse to freshly mint a new fat kid every day.” Harsh, but reality?  The problem with treats in our country is that they are no longer treats.  It concerns me that we are teaching kids that every event needs to be tied in to food.  Every birthday, holiday, end of a unit is celebrated with sugary foods.    We pack snacks for every sports practice, music lesson, hangout with friends immediately after a meal.   Our children (and adults) are eating fatty, sugary, and fatty and sugary foods all day long, every day.

I believe Americans should have the right to choose what they want to eat.  Freedom is one of our greatest assets.  But let’s at the very least level the playing field by not having any farm subsidies.  Or even better, let’s subsidize healthy food, and tax junk food.

"People can do what they want to do, but we also said it was people's business to buy homes they couldn't afford, we also said they could run up debt on their credit card and it's no one else's business.  We found out that's not true.  The same can be said about obesity.  You're kidding yourself if you don't think we're all not going to be in the middle of an obesity bailout."

People may not agree with MeMe Roth’s methods, but no one can argue that we are not in the middle of an obesity epidemic, or that it has/does/will cost us trillions of dollars.

I took my kids to Chik-Fil-A yesterday.  They so rarely get fast food that they asked if we could go back next week, which I told them was very unlikely.  I know it’s got MSG and who knows what other crap in it.  But on occasion, it tastes pretty darn good.  Let’s make junk food the exception.  The rare exception.  And let’s give acceptance (if not applause) for the mom who has the courage to stand up for her children.  It may be the path that saves all our children.

Go Vegan!

I decided to take a break from the heavy stuff and focus on the sweeter side of life… Today was my daughter’s birthday party. She was mentioned recently on a friend’s blog.  As I was reading, I thought, “That sounds like my daughter, but I can’t imagine her saying ‘Go vegan,’ or ‘Vegan rocks.’” So I asked her if she knew what vegan meant (she didn’t) and why she wrote that. It was because I had made vegan brownies during our elimination diet. She loved them so much she requested them for her birthday party. In all fairness, I should admit that my daughter’s taste in birthday ‘cake’ runs to the atypical. She has had blueberry pie not once, but twice. Last year we had a Princess and the Pea theme and she wanted chocolate cake, no frosting, but real peas on it. (I am slightly embarrassed to say I obliged, but less embarrassed than darn proud of her.) So, I will give you the recipe below and just add – this is not a recipe that doubles well. These are rich, fudgy brownies, that don’t taste vegan (if you happen to associate vegan baked goods with words like dry, grainy, overly-wholesome).

Vegan Brownies -  from Simple Treats

• 1/3 C. rolled oats
• ¼ C plus 1 T sweet potato puree
• ¼ C maple syrup
• ¼ C canola, safflower, or sunflower oil (I use olive oil)
• 1 T vanilla
• ¾ C Sucanat (or granulated sugar), date sugar, or maple sugar
• ¼ C Choc chips
• ¼ C pecans, divided (optional)
• 1/3 C. barley flour (I use whole wheat pastry flour, because I have every flour under the sun besides barley, apparently: buckwheat, spelt, brown rice, white rice, cornmeal, whole wheat, white whole wheat, bread flour…)
• ½ C cocoa powder
• ¼ t baking powder
• heaping ¼ t salt.

Preheat the oven to 350. Oil an 8 x 8 baking pan. Process oats in a food processor until they are the consistency of coarse flour. In a small bowl, mix the sweet potato puree, syrup, oil and vanilla.

In a separate, larger bowl, mix the ground oats, Sucanat, choc chips and half the pecans. Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt into the oat mixture. (Sifting isn’t absolutely necessary.) Pour wet ingredients into the dry, and mix until well incorporated.

Pour the batter into the pan. Sprinkle with remaining pecans. Bake 20 minutes and rotated the pan a half turn to ensure even baking. Bake 10-13 minutes more or until knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool at least 30 minutes before cutting.

Happy Baking!