Garden Notes, End of August 2010

 It has been a terrible season in the garden. The weather has been dry and cool with temperatures mostly in the high 60s to low 70s (degrees Fahrenheit). There have been occasional "heat waves" where the temps have gotten into the 80s and 90s, but it seems to only last two or three days before dropping back to around 70. As a result it is the end of August and we have only harvested a few small tomatoes, no more peas or beans than we could eat, some carrots, cabbage, onions, a few strawberries, lots of lettuce and early spinach. The tomatoes have lots of flowers but only a few weeks ago started producing actual tomatoes. The cucumbers are just starting to come in. Pumpkins and squash are coming along slowly. Even the radishes have been slow.

We learned several things this year. The second garden bed was new this year and we did not realize just how much shade much of the new bed was in. I believe that is part of why the peas and tomatoes have done so poorly as they were planted in the second bed where they did not even get what little sun we had. The cosmos we planted also grew much taller than we expected. Had we known, we would have planted them more strategically so as not to shade the vegetables. 

The good news is that the season is not over! Also, we still have access to regional fruits and vegetables for canning. This weekend we bought beans, tomatoes, peppers, chilies, garlic, lemons, cucumbers, and apples, and pulled several onions and what cucumbers we have from our garden. In all we made and canned chili, leftover beans, pectin, salsa, and tomato paste, and started brining cucumbers for pickles. The pectin is something I have wanted to try for some time now. It was easy enough but we have yet to see how well it works for jam and such. The tomato paste was also an experiment and, to be honest, I was disappointed with the amount of work and quantity of tomatoes that went into producing two half-pints of tomato paste. At least I know now how to do it.

Hunting season starts at dawn.

Here’s to stocking the pantry!

The Great Reflation

From: The Montreal Gazette

So, led by the U.S. federal reserve, most major economies have launched a massive "reflation" project. Politicians fear deflation more since modest inflation helps them by making their rising debts less onerous.

Did I say "massive" reflation? I should have written "Great" as in The Great Reflation, the title of an excellent book published in May by New Jersey-based Wiley & Sons.

The focus is America, but it was written by well-known Canadian investment professional J. Anthony Boeckh, founding editor of the Bank Credit Analyst Research Group. Boeckh, 70, co-founded BCA in 1949, and this is the first book of which he is sole author.

But it's not certain this experiment will succeed in a world based on what he dubs Alice in Wonderland economics. Witness the world's second largest economy, Japan (before China passed it), where two decades of reflation and zero interest rates didn't create sustainable recovery.

Reflation is the new environment for wary investors

Selling Sustainability to Whiskey Drinkers | Business | GreenBiz.com

I was a close, personal friend of Jack Daniels for many years. We have not been as close these past few years -- the phrase, "familiarity breeds contempt" comes to mind. Suffice to say that too much of a good thing can be bad.

From: Selling Sustainability to Whiskey Drinkers | Business | GreenBiz.com :

"I had the pleasure of touring the one and only Jack Daniels Distillery in Lynchburg, TN, this past weekend and found the entire experience to be an excellent example of how to sell sustainability to the consumer segments we call Cautious Conservatives and Skeptics."

"Here’s what we can all learn from the folks at Jack:

"Without the natural, limestone-filtered spring from which the water for the product comes, there would be no Jack Daniels. So they bought up 1,000 acres to make sure they could protect the land around the spring and, thus, protect the quality of the product. It’s a quality and commitment message … but it’s also a sustainability/conservation/protecting the planet message.

"They don’t believe in wasting anything, which is another sustainability message (and one our research shows plays very well with this group). They make their own charcoal through which the product is filtered -- and when it’s time to replace that charcoal, it gets remade into briquettes you can buy in the store to throw a steak over. Same with the mash that ultimately becomes the whiskey. If there’s a quality control issue, they scoop it up and sell it to a bunch of local farmers who, in turn, feed it to some very happy cows and pigs.

"At the end of the tour you can purchase some of the high end stuff in a special bottle -- and a portion of your purchase will go directly to fund the conservation efforts of Ducks Unlimited. Which means by buying Jack Daniels, Cautious Conservatives can help make sure there are plenty of duck hunting trips in their future."


While it's worth noting that Jack Daniels' worldwide distribution may not be the most environmentally responsible, it's an interesting article.

The Corporation

Possibly my favorite part of the 2003 film, The Corporation. My favorite part of this clip is at the end:

"...court judges found that falsifying news isn't actually against the law..."

A Month Without Monsanto: What Does it Take to Cut out the GMO Giant?

I just found this article by April Dávila. It's a decent primer on just how invasive Monsanto has become and a couple of reasons that is not a good thing. Mainly the article is about just how difficult it is to buy anything that has not been touched by Monsanto in some way.

April touches on possible health risks associated with GM corn, how GM corn has become a huge percentage of feed for the beef industry, and the use of rBGH in dairy cows. Still, what's the big deal?

First off, Monsanto has successfully taken advantage of the post-World War II trend towards mono-cropping, made our food system less secure, and profited from it. The two crops grown in the US today are corn and soybeans. After the first half of the last century it was decided that corn and soybeans could more easily be grown in abundance, stored, and used in a variety of products and the government has subsidized the over production of these two crops to insure a steady food supply. Great idea in theory, except that now we have consolidated so much food production that one problem affects a large portion of the population (see the recent egg recall). Think of the internet -- the original idea was to have information spread over a number of interconnected databases so that if any one system were to fail, the other systems would still be available. Now imagine the opposite: all of the information being stored on just two or three computers. If one system goes down in that case, the very few, already over-taxed systems that remain will not likely have complete backups of the information lost and be unable to handle the extra workload. That is a very simple model of our current food system.

Monsanto did not create this concentrated mono-cropping system, but it did create three products: a weed killer called RoundUp, and corn seeds and soybean seeds that were genetically modified to resist RoundUp called RoundUp Ready (RR1) Seeds. Good news, right?! Farmers were suddenly able to grow more crops on less land with fewer issues and Monsanto is helping to feed the world. What Monsanto had done was patent previously non-patentable seeds by claiming their genetic modification made them a unique, manufactured product and getting their appointed cronies in Washington to help push the patents through. What Monsanto did next was to sue any and every farmer they could catch saving seed to replant. This included farmers who did not use RR1 seed but whose crops had been cross-contaminated from other farms and included cases where Monsanto's case was thin, but they had more money than the farmer to pay lawyers. It is really more about sending a message than anything and Monsanto isn't really even shy about it -- you can read about it on their website.We now have even less variety in crops being grown in the US thanks to RR1 seeds.

What's more is Monsanto has expended this operation into third-world countries with the promise of helping feed poor people and bring them out of poverty, not acknowledging all of the additional inputs required to grow the GM crops. In the end Monsanto has helped to bankrupt third-world farmers, reduce the food supply, and make a profit from it.

Monsanto also developed rBGH, a bovine growth hormone that increases milk production in dairy cows. Again, that's good, right? More milk is good. I would personally argue that you can manipulate nature to a degree -- milking cows after their calves have stopped nursing, for example -- but nature is not a capitalist. If you push too hard, there will be problems. It turns out that the increased milk production takes it toll on cows, causing increased cases of mastitis, reproductive issues, a variety of hoof problems, and a number of problems mostly falling into the category of lameness. Add to this the fact that dairy cows for large-scale milk production are no longer raised on pastures, but in close-quarter concrete and steel barns where they get little exercise and little access to sanitizing sunlight and suddenly a lot of cows were needing to be treated with antibiotics. Margaret Miller, former employee of Monsanto who was at this time working in the FDA, increased the FDA allowance for antibiotics in dairy cows. The result was more rBGH, more antibiotics, and ultimately, an antibiotic resistant strain of bacteria in dairy cows (and their milk). The FDA then increased the allowance for somatic cells in milk (yeah, that's pus). Yummy.

As for corn fed beef, Monsanto has helped create a market for it's GM corn as many countries outside the US have banned it. That market is cattle feed. Now we've been feeding corn to cattle and advertising "corn fed" beef for a long time, Monsanto just helped get GM corn in there (oh, and they have done their part to insure GM foods not be labeled because they don't want consumers to know). The problem here is that cows are ruminants designed to graze on grass. But isn't corn a grass? Yes, but the corn we feed to cows is not the part of a grass plant they would eat if left to their own, natural devices. The result is a slew of health problems for the cattle resulting in E. coli problems and infections that have lead, once again, to antibiotic abuse and antibiotic resistant bacteria strains.

In the end, Monsanto's claims of wanting to "feed the world" is obviously either a veil to cover their corporate greed or a shameful lack of understanding of what they are doing. It is true that Monsanto is not alone in it's hijacking of our food supply, corporations like DuPont want a piece as well. Monsanto has just been leading the way. These are just a few examples, you can find more here, there, and elsewhere.

Check out April Dávila's article. It's a good read.

Deal With The Problem

From the AP article, "Eggs in the raw? Experts say give them a pass" :

"HARTFORD, Conn. — Experts have some simple advice when it comes to eating runny eggs these days: Run away.

"With salmonella concerns triggering the recall of more than a half-billion eggs in more than a dozen states, warnings are becoming more dire every day against eating undercooked yolks and translucent egg whites."

Fear, fear, FEAR!

..."Don't eat any questionable eggs — cooked or otherwise — especially if they're part of the recall, but even if they're not on that list but are cracked or have been sitting in the refrigerator for a while (eggs remain fresh for about a month after purchase).

"'Eggs are cheap. Throw them away. It's that simple,' said Brad Barnes, an associate dean at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y."

The article goes on to discuss how to use a thermometer to make sure your eggs are overcooked.

If you're into over-cooked eggs, that's fine, and for the most part, "don't eat questionable eggs" is probably the best advice this article offers. What is crazy is that the article does not offer a long-term solution and instead just adds to the media fear machine. How about this:

Don't buy eggs from large-scale egg producers.

We have seen over and over again that large-scale food production creates large-scale health risks. How about, instead of shrugging our shoulders and taking soft-boiled eggs off the menu for a while (the article makes no mention of how long we the sheeple should be over-cooking our eggs, by the way. Just be scared!), we look for better eggs? Keeping chickens, it turns out, is about as much work as keeping a cat, but I understand it's not practical for a lot of people. So why not suggest calling around your local community and finding local people who raise chickens and sell eggs? Go out, see how the chickens live and choose the eggs that come from a place you would most like to get them. They will be fresher, taste better, and if the chickens are being taken care of, will be cleaner without having to be chemically treated.

Don't live in fear -- take charge.

Contaminated Eggs Originate from Iowa's "Habitual Violator"

From: Food Democracy Now!

"Already more than 1,300 people have been sickened  from salmonella poisoning and according to food safety experts, that number is likely to double. For every 1 person who reports the illness another 38.5 will become sick  but never report the illness or be tested, meaning some 50,000 Americans have already been sickened by what is being called the largest egg recall in modern history.

While early reports initially confined the recall to 17 states, officials at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported today that the recall has reached at least 22 states. Since news on the ground regarding illnesses is only beginning to reach federal authorities, this recall will most likely will spread further.

As the story continues to unfold, it’s clear that this could have been prevented.

As has already been widely reported, the owner of Wright County Eggs has a long rap sheet of violations of state and federal laws."

Read more...

"Tell the FDA to keep antibiotics out of our food."

"When people get sick, they have to go to the doctor to get an antibiotic prescription. But that rule doesn't hold true for animals raised for meat. Alarmingly, up to 70% of all antibiotics sold in the U.S. are used on industrial farms in healthy food animals. This massive overprescription is breeding new strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can -- and have -- spread to humans. The trend is frightening. Currently, more people die in the U.S. from antibiotic-resistant staph infections than from AIDS, and antibiotics continue to decline in effectiveness for treating both human and animal diseases."

Read more...

Saucy

I'm not sure if we're going to get much in the way of tomatoes this year or not, so yesterday I picked up a few extra at the produce stand.

Mmmmm... spaghetti sauce.

The tomatoes weren't from the garden, but they were from the northwest. I was able to use onions and fresh basil from the garden, though. Other herbs from last year's garden were used as well.

Egg Recall Expands; CDC Expects More Illnesses

   From WebMD today:

As the nationwide egg recall expands, the FDA has activated its emergency command center to direct its "extensive" investigation.

So far, some 380 million eggs have been recalled -- a number that is "evolving," Sherri McGarry, emergency coordinator for the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, said today at a joint FDA/CDC news teleconference.

"We would certainly characterize this as one of the largest shell egg recalls in recent history," McGarry said.

   ...the article goes on to say...

The FDA investigation is centered on five plants operated by the Iowa firm Wright County Egg. The firm distributes the eggs nationwide. Eggs included in the recall include a number of prominent brands.
 ---

   Okay, okay, okay, okay... Somebody please explain to me how this centralized, mass-market food system is supposed to be safer? 380 million eggs (380,000,000), nationwide, including "a number of prominent brands" -- and they all came from only five (or possibly fewer) places operating under one company?!?

   Follow me for a minute. If many small farmers operated on a diverse, local scale and there was an outbreak it might affect a few hundred eggs and maybe a hundred households. The problem would be small and a recall would be fairly inexpensive and quick. Instead what we have is a single operation -- Wright County Egg in Iowa -- affecting millions of people across the country, dozens of businesses, and is going to cost an unthinkable amount of money just to get control over the issue.

   We have a "bigger is better" mentality in this country that needs to be overcome.

Is Your Favorite Ice Cream Made With Monsanto's Artificial Hormones?

From The Huffington Post

"Monsanto has been in the news this week, with a U.S. District Court Judge ruling that the USDA has to at least go through the motions of regulating the company's genetically engineered sugar beets. Monsanto, you may know, is not likely to win any contests for the most popular company. In fact, it has been called the most hated corporation in the world, which is saying something, given the competition from the likes of BP, Halliburton and Goldman Sachs.

"This has gotten me thinking about, of all things, ice cream, and of how Monsanto's clammy paws can be found in some of the most widely selling ice cream brands in the country. These brands could break free from Monsanto's clutches. So far they haven't, but maybe this is about to change."

"In the U.S. today, Monsanto continues to wield massive influence over U.S. food policies. In spite of, or perhaps in response to, Monsanto's toxic and tenacious grip on our nation's food policy, a movement is afoot. Every day more and more people are refusing to buy ice cream and other dairy products made with rBGH. And every day another organization adds its name to the growing list of groups campaigning against Monsanto's influence, and calling for the FDA decision allowing the use of rBGH to be revoked.

"Late last year, the prestigious American Public Health Association officially called for a ban on rBGH. The Consumers Union, publishers of Consumer Reports has likewise taken an official position opposing rBGH. So has the American Nurses Association, Health Care Without Harm, Food and Water Watch, Center for Food Safety, National Family Farm Coalition, Family Farm Defenders and many other groups.

"At this very moment, the plucky Oregon chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) is leading a nationwide effort to persuade Breyers (whose brands include Good Humor, Klondike Bars and Popsicle), and Dreyer's (whose brands include Haagen Dazs, Nestle and Edy's) to go rBGH-free. The campaign focuses on Breyers and Dreyer's because they are the two largest ice cream producers in the country today."

Chemical Regulations and the Modern Mattress: The Stuff of Nightmares | Business | GreenBiz.com

"I’ve spent the last 30 years as an environmental engineer, but it wasn’t until I became a grandfather that I fully understood the extent to which industrial chemicals had invaded the American home.

My rude awakening came when my wife sent me to buy a crib mattress for our first grandchild. I was appalled by what I found; the crib mattresses were full of industrial chemicals. Because of my environmental engineering background, I knew how harmful these chemicals could be to a developing child."

Chemical Regulations and the Modern Mattress: The Stuff of Nightmares | Business | GreenBiz.com