Upsetting the Apple Cart

The Apple Cart Hearts Willie!

Family farm activist Willie Nelson will be rolling through Salem and playing at the Oregon State Fair on August 29th.  We at the Apple Cart want to give a big shout out to welcome Willie to thank him for his support of family farmers across the country.  According to the Farm Aid website, Willie Nelson and Farm Aid, "have raised more than $30 million to promote a strong and resilient family farm system of agriculture." Read more about Farm Aid's work here.

Continue reading for an excerpt from “Save Family Farms, Save America” by Willie Nelson.

Food Safety?

Food safety has certainly been in the news lately.  From e. coli to Salmonella, it is difficult to know what is safe to eat, where our food is coming from and how it is grown.  Vegetables are not in the clear as they are sprayed with animal fecal material as fertilizer.  Meat products have been raising red flags as we have seen ‘downer cattle’ in our school lunches.  Recently, we have been warned not to eat fresh tomatoes and jalapenos while Kroger Company recalls a half a million pounds of meat from Northwest stores such as Fred Meyer and QFC. 

But worse yet is the conversation that accompanies these warnings and recalls.  Instead of directing consumers to learn about who is producing their food, where their food is coming from and how it is grown, newspapers and radio stories are focusing on other ways to “stay safe.”  The Oregonian printed a neat little fact box in its recent story about the beef recall.  It instructs us to:

(1)    Discard any recalled ground beef (really?),
(2)    To thoroughly cook all of our ground beef (you don’t say),
(3)    Not to eat any ground beef that is pink in the middle (so much for those medium rare cheese
        burgers!)
(4)    Not spread bacteria through our kitchen by using hot, soapy water for cleaning (genius!)

Yes, most of these tips are good things to do, but I feel rather insulted that this is the level of conversation the Oregonian is subjecting us to.  Not only are we treated like helpless imbeciles who don’t know the first thing about meat handling, but nowhere in this astute list of tips are actual words of wisdom that might actually keep us healthy and confident in our food system.

While listening to the “Talk of the Nation” on National Public Radio the other day, I was excited to hear that a representative from the Food and Drug Administration would be on to talk about the recent Salmonella outbreak.  Surely, I would hear some enlightening conversation around this issue… unfortunately not.  It took a caller to acknowledge the fact that vegetables themselves will not contain one of these bacteria unless they come into contact with some sort of animal material, and once again, the final words of advice that the nation was left with were “avoid fresh jalapenos.”

It took the Union of Concerned Scientists newsletter for me to actually find something I could sink my teeth into when it came to reporting on this issue. They say that “the widespread nature of the illnesses points to an inherent weakness of our industrial food production system: When production is centralized and fresh food travels thousands of miles, contamination can spread farther and faster” (now we’re onto something…)  And, finally, the advice I was looking for:  “The FDA has said that local and homegrown tomatoes are unaffected by the current Salmonella outbreak.  Shopping at farmers’ markets for produce grown close to home is one way consumers can reduce their risk of food-borne illness.” 

Thank you UCS for some journalistic integrity.

Relocalizing Eden

By Megan Fehrman

Dan Armstrong has recently written an article entitled “Relocalizing Eden,” which can be found online at http://www.mudcitypress.com/mudeden.html.

Armstrong proposes that a region's social and economic sustainability can be judged by its capacity to produce, process, and distribute some significant portion of its own food. He uses our own Willamette Valley as a case study to show how the globalized market place and industrialization of our food system have greatly decreased the amount of food that is now grown in the fertile Willamette Valley for the people of this state.  Not long ago, in the 1950s and 60s, Willamette Valley agriculture produced a wide array of grains, fruits, and vegetables; wheat once represented almost a third of what was harvested. Barley, oats, snap peas, and sweet corn were also significant crops along with many other fruits and vegetables. Only fifty years ago, farmers in this valley were providing about half of what the residents were eating. 

Today, that number has decreased to about five percent as the number of acres in grass seed has doubled in the last thirty years, and less than 20% of what is grown in the Willamette Valley is food. 

No farmers? No food.

By Zoe Bradbury
Coos Bay, OR

Every time I come in from my farm fields and tune into the news these days, the headline is about food: food prices, food scares, food shortages, food riots. Food has America's attention these days, but folks are overlooking a critical piece of the brewing crisis: a national shortage of farmers.

We farmers make up a mere 1.6 percent of the U.S. population right now. Picture an inverted pyramid balanced precariously on its nose: that's our national food supply, with about 3 million of us feeding three hundred million of you. In food terms, our nation resembles an elephant perched on a pair of stiletto heels.

Everything I want to do is illegal

I have recently finished Joel Salatin’s book, Everything I want to Do is Illegal. Salatin was made famous by Michael Pollan in Omnivore’s Dilemma as an example of ecological, systems-based farming enterprise. His experiences at Polyface farm, a farm of many faces in Virginia are the basis for this personal account and rant on today’s industrialized, bureaucratic food system.

Mr. Salatin describes himself as a Christian libertarian environmentalist capitalist so he is bound to offend just about everyone—and he is alright with that. He does not go easy on bureaucrats, the government, the liberals or the conservatives. But, he does speak from his heart and from decades of experience trying to run an ecologically sound family farm while trying to serve his community and build a local food system.

After hearing many of the struggles farmers are facing in Oregon, this book truly resonated. It certainly corroborates farmers' stories, and offers some crafty solutions. And, in the end, it gave at least a glimmer of hope for solutions that are “earth-healing, social-healing and farm-healing.”

You can read an essay from Mr. Salatin here.

Political Paybacks to Corporate Factory Farms

Seeing that the end is near, George Bush is hard at work ensuring that all his cronies from the corporate factory farm lobby are appointed to positions, where they can be in charge of the regulatory hen house.   

In this case Bush has appointed Dennis H. Treacy, Smithfield Food's Vice President of Environmental Affairs to the newly formed Farm, Ranch and Rural Communities Advisory Committee.

Our friends over at Responsible Shopper had this to say about Smithfield Foods:

"When consumers think Smithfield, they should think pigs, because that's what the company is about. Smithfield pumps pork products onto the market at volumes that weigh heavily on people and the environment. Massive hog farms mean tons of waste and Smithfield has been fined as much as $12.6 million for violating Clean Water Act provisions by improperly dumping waste in waterways. On the human side of operations, meat packers endure poor working conditions and poorer treatment than employees in most other industries. Companies such as Smithfield require workers to perform strenuous tasks in low temperatures, causing bodily harm that often goes undiagnosed or untreated. Like most other corporations, Smithfield has a stated commitment to the environment and its employees, but the company's actions hardly reflect these admirable principles."

From as far as we at the Apple Cart can tell, this is another attempt by our elected officials to roll over the rights of rural people and farmers by promoting corporate farming in our rural communities. 

Only 358 days left until we say good-bye to the corrupt George Bush.

Bush gives gift to factory farms: benefactor Threemile Canyon Farms

Decomposing animal waste at factory farms across the US is the source of toxic emissions, such as hydrogen sulfide and ammonia - gases that have the potential to harm human health and the environment.  Because of the Community Right-to-Know law (EPCRA), these operations are required to report their toxic emissions to the EPA.

But, thanks to a Christmas gift from the Bush ( I heart factory farms) administration to the corporate agribiz lobby, citizens may lose their right to know what the neighboring factory farm is off-gassing into their air.  Bush's EPA has a proposed rule change to exempt "farms" from having to report under the law.

Right here in Oregon, Threemile Canyon Farms reported that their 50,000 + cattle release 15,500 lbs of ammonia per day into our environment.  That ammonia poses a health risk to workers, surrounding communties, and air quality in the Columbia River Gorge.

Check it out for yourself:  Download threemile_ammonia_report.pdf

If the corporate agribiz lobby gets their way and the rule change is made, factory farms like Threemile will continue to spout toxic gases, but neighbors and workers will have no way to know what harmful emissions they are being exposed to.

Read the story in the Washington Post here.  Closer to home, read what the Eugene Register Guard has said about exempting factory farms.
 

Board of Agriculture or Board of Industry?

Sitting in on the Board of Agriculture meetings a few weeks ago, it became clear to me how far down the road of industrialized agriculture we have traveled and how far we have to go if we are going to get anywhere…  Anywhere that is not self-destructing I mean, to an agricultural system that does not deplete the very resources that ensure its survival.

In the meetings, agriculture was repeatedly referred to as ‘industry.’  From my experience, "industry" does not mean the cultivation of soil on a piece of land that is connected to your neighbor’s land and together you produce food to feed your community. Instead, it is "economic activity concerned with the processing of raw materials and manufactured goods in factories."

If you practice agriculture, you produce food that sustains health and is fundamental to life, not a commodity that is produced by an industry.

Gobble Gobble – My plight for locally-raised turkey in the Midwest

Upon booking a plane ticket home to the Midwest for Thanksgiving, my first thought was “what am I going to eat while I’m there?”  Unlike Oregon, there are not very many “alternative” choices in the grocery stores beyond the shrink-wrapped butterballs that seem to be the staple for any Midwest Thanksgiving dinner.

Although it crossed my mind, I did not think a hunger strike in protest of no local, no organic, no sustainably-raised products would get me very far.  Just as I was submitting to  “when in Rome...” I got news that my family would be purchasing an organic turkey from a local farmer this year.  Midwesterners buying organic? And completely unprovoked by me? I was blown away!

Some things are too good to be true, and alas, so was our first-ever local organic turkey. It turns out that the farmer did not end up having a large enough bird to satisfy our ever-expanding family. We settled for a turkey raised by the Amish, about 100 miles away.  Altogether, not a terrible option and I was pleasantly surprised to know that my family is making at least a little progress-- although, I opted to not inquire about the potatoes…

After my third turkey dinner of the week (I cannot be as optimistic about the other two birds I consumed), I began thinking about all the people who ate turkeys raised in confinement, treated with antibiotics and fed genetically modified corn.  The United States leads the world in turkey consumption with the average American eating almost 18 pounds per year. 46 million birds were raised for Thanksgiving alone—not to mention those of us who ate ham, beef or turducken.

46 million turkeys raised for one day.  What a difference we could make, what a message we could send, if we all bought our turkeys locally and knew that America’s family farmers had raised them humanely, healthily, and happily.

Factory farms on landscape is bad for Oregon

This ran in the Capital Press (www.capitalpress.com). Looks like the headline writers need a crash course on grammar!

Factory farms on landscape is bad for Oregon
Laws do little to distinguish between family farms and corporate factory farms

Kendra Kimbirauskas
Guest Comment

It is unfortunate that the Oregon Farm Bureau has resorted to personal attacks (Be concerned about fowl protest, Aug. 17th issue) instead of tackling the issue of factory farms moving into our rural communities.

Factory farms have serious and real implications for Oregon's family farmers and rural residents.

Unlike many places, we have a robust agricultural economy. Oregon has over 40,000 farms and the overwhelming majority are still family-owned and operated.

Our system of land use laws was established in part to protect farmers and farmland despite encroaching development.

Now, these laws are being taken advantage of by out-of-state, corporate factory farms attempting to slip into our rural areas and operate under the guise of agriculture, when they are more akin to industry.

Our laws do little to distinguish between family farms raising beef, poultry or pork, and industrial factory farms that can house tens or hundreds of thousands of animals in large concentrated animal feeding operations. Whether it is air and water pollution, or the ability to flood the market with artificially low cost products that make it hard for small farmers to compete, these industrial operations are putting Oregon's family farmers and rural communities at risk.

Oregon's independent family farms play a vital role in our rural economies. In addition to providing jobs and income to local people, family farmers support small businesses by purchasing goods and services within their communities.

Factory farms typically purchase feed, supplies, and equipment from outside the community, while sending profits to corporate headquarters far away.

Nationwide the expansion of industrialized agriculture has made it difficult for family farmers to stay afloat.

According to Farm Aid, every week 330 farmers leave their land. Will Oregon go the way of states like Iowa or Arkansas, where large corporate-owned operations dominate the landscape?

Rather than attacking those who speak out, the Oregon Farm Bureau should join the effort to protect rural communities and family farmers from the numerous problems factory farms bring.

Kendra Kimbirauskas grew up on a dairy farm and raises horses and poultry in rural Clackamas County. She is the co-president of Friends of Family Farmers.