Corn Sugar: Some quick facts and a few links

After years of experimentation corn, soft drink and junk food industry are finally getting their just deserved criticisms as they are a contemporary tobacco fight. Didn't the tobacco industry used to tell us that smoking was fine? Same thing here. The an industry akin to tobacco that is indeed, the next tobacco. Love this rebuttal video by the King Corn guys. The battle is on. While the words are flying, and Michelle Obama marches against obesity, here are some fun facts about the various sugars out there.

Beet Sugar
As 30% of the world's sugar resource, sugar beets have been cultivated for years for the extraction of their sugary sucrose. This plant was genetically modified to create Roundup Ready Sugar Beets but apparently the permit was repealed in 2009.

Honey
One of the healthiest, natural sugars, honey means that there are bees. Something which we are all lacking these days. In all parts of the country and world. This isn't a medical evaluation of the sugar. If you are interested in that, there are some great readers out there about honey, propolis and royal jelly that you should definitely read up on!

High Fructose Corn Syrup
No, you can't call it corn sugar. HFCS is a highly processed no-longer-natural sugar that Princeton has recently revoked the rights to. At least, that's why the industry promoting the syrup has just created an insidious ad campaign to fight people's adversity to their products. Their main line - no one knows what's wrong with it. Seriously? Where is the American Diabetes Association?

Molasses (high in iron), maple syrup and cane sugar are other alternatives to HFCS. But just because there's a "No HFCS" label on the front of a product's package, don't be fooled. Flip it over and you just might find "corn syrup." Ideally, the food system is getting rebalanced and the next Farm Bill 2010 (aka our taxes) will start to reflect our interest in eating healthfully. Right now the subsidies are skewing what food is most easily accessible. Check out this more journalistic approach about HFCS by Tom Laskawy on Grist:

If you would like more information about natural sweeteners, you've got to check out page 536 of Sally Fallon's "Nourishing Traditions," book and what she has to say about all of sugars variations. It's going to get ugly out there folks, and I hope the American Diabetes Association gets the funding, to voice their concern. At least, I hope that's why we haven't heard from them yet. I wonder who's on their board of directors...

Victory is Everywhere-ish

It's easy to focus on the positive since there are a lot of living solutions happening out there right now. Solutions that people are implementing with their ingenuity, their time, and their knowledge. Urban farms are sprouting up. Seed banks and exchanges are happening in communities. People are composting and Americans are gardening again, growing the GDP by an estimated 21 billion dollars.

Recently, the USDA even halted the approval of GE sugar beets. A victory for the Center for Food Safety and citizens everywhere that are concerned about what they eat. If you're wondering what to do next, here's a recent call to action that needs your help.

"This week (August 12) a Russian court ruled that the world’s first seed bank outside of St. Petersburg, Russia may be destroyed in order to make way for a housing development. If allowed to stand, this decision will have a catastrophic impact on global plant diversity. Called a “Living Library”, the Pavlovsk Experimental Station [1] is widely considered the "crown jewel" of agricultural biodiversity, since 90% of the collection’s varieties are not found anywhere else on the planet. [2]

Scientists around the world are calling the decision an assault against biodiversity and the memory of the bitter struggle that kept this renowned seed bank alive during the darkest days of World War II. Founded in 1926 by Russian agricultural scientist Nikolai Vavilov, the Pavlovsk Experimental Station, became an icon of human perseverance when 12 Soviet scientists made a stand, choosing to starve to death rather than eat the precious seed and plant collection [3] as Nazi soldiers killed more than 1.5 million Russian soldiers and citizens during the grueling 900-day siege of Leningrad between 1941 and 1943. [4]"

And here's the petition that you need to sign!

While you may wonder, "What does a seed bank in Russia have to do with me?" the answer is pretty simple. We need to preserve seeds around the world because we are losing plant diversity fast. Diversity is needed to ensure survival of crops, that means food crops too. Also, seeds contain the traits that we need to continue growing food successfully with the changing weather conditions caused by global climate change. They also have the answers to our health problems too, in that studies have shown that when people eat traditional varieties of crops - those not bred for high gluten, sugar, or other qualities - that people's health improves. Not to mention, with the release of genetically modified organisms into our environment, we're going to need untainted, pure seed stock, in the future. It's true.

Time to Get Real

So there aren't as many hours in the day as I had hoped for. Not today. Not yesterday. Not in the past several months. Time has been flying and with it, information zooms in and out. I get so many emails these days it's hard to file all of the info! Urban farm started in (fill in the blank), celebrations of food, new government funding and other great victories. Or, scarier stuff, like the recent beef recall in California, (oh wait, I meant this one), Google jumping in bed with Verizon, and the news that "wild" GM canola plants have been found on the side of the road in North Dakota, doing just fine. It's all in there with the oil that keeps gushing and reports that the dispersants certainly won't harm wildlife. Life is full, friends.

In between book events, interviews, growing some food, cooking meals, the radio show and helping pull together the Eat Real Lit Fest, I do declare that I am pooped. But in an energized kind of way.

At least I find it's easy to ground with good food and good people in times of overwhelm. Know that in this busy life, perhaps our highest goal should be to simplify. But then again, it's hard to slow down when the clock keeps a tickin'.

Farmworker Dies in CA Fields

Despite stringent labor laws, there are still many professions that remain dangerous to heart and health and farming happens to be one of them. From the less visible impacts of living rurally and the impact of long commuter hours, to the more direct and adverse affects of working in fields that have chemicals, to having to work under extreme weather conditions, our nation's slaughterhouses, factories and fields present significant barriers to having an equitable food system that cares for the environment and its people. Take this summers latest report that another farmworker died from heat in California.

How can such treatment be permissible in the United States? Since we're importing a large percentage of our food from overseas, how is that food produced where there are even less labor and environmental laws? These questions beg for a domestic food labeling program, but this will undoubtedly require that eaters pick up the extra costs of such a labeling program. Critics of the fair trade movement claim that little reciprocity is reported by many overseas that participate in fair trade campaigns. If this is true, what governing body should be accountable for monitoring and tracking? While the USDA seems a natural candidate, the administration hardly gets a chance to check imported food for pests, let alone track that imports come from fair wage sources. fair wages are assessed to farm workers and that eaters will have to pay the extra cost of such labeling.

For Rodolfo Ceballos Carrillo (54) in Kern County, California last week Friday, the high temperatures led to a collapse in the field - something that happens repeatedly during hot summer months all over the country. My heart goes out to his family and loved ones.

Did Industrial Food Really Liberate Women?

I've been chewing over the whole gender, food, and industrialization business lately and have determined that while industrialized food, and convenience machines (dishwashers, vacuums, etc.), helped liberate us women from kitchens and allowed us to enter the workforce (while raising families at the same time!) it has been to the misfortune to many. While having meaningful, engaging, and intellectually stimulating work beyond the realms of laundry and meal preparation is extremely important, we have been mislead into thinking that the home could remain place of respite without someone there keeping the fires burning. In fact, women today are finding alternative careers that allow them to do both. Or, men are even getting involved.

As Shannon Hayes in her recent book "Radical Homemakers," it's most often women that tend to set their careers aside for family, but not always. Today we are seeing men and women alike reclaiming their domesticity from a consumer culture. Because really, how are we supposed to eat seasonally without canning, freezing, and planning ahead? How are we to eat more healthfully without adding more time to our food budgets? Food for thought.

No GE or Toxic Strawberries

Again. It's up to us.

This post comes at an intense time in my life. The oil spill is causing me to question whether or not I will ever have children, and the US continues to pour trillions of dollars into an endless war. Meanwhile, the fight over the sanctity of our food - adulterated and safe to eat - continues on. Right now there are two pressing issues requiring all of us to tap into our willingness to speak out to demand a food system that is free of chemicals and genetically engineeredness. We need to raise our voices to 1) decry Methyl Iodide as a substitute for Methyl Bromide for use on California strawberries, and 2) we need to ensure that the ban on GE alfalfa - one of the major feeds of livestock - is not allowed to be lifted.

Strawberries
From now until June 29th, the Governator of California will be accepting comments and letters on the issue of Methyl Iodide - the carcinogenic replacement that being proposed for Methyl Bromide.

Pesticide Action Network is doing a great job at garnering attention to this issue and breaks it down why, no matter where you live, this issue is relevant to you.

Naomi Starkman wrote a great overview of the issue on Civil Eats and later posted in The Huffington Post.

GE Alfalfa
One of my favorite organizations out there, The Center For Food Safety, has long stood ground against the barrage of threats that threaten organic food and happen to be the organization that got me involved in food advocacy. They were founded in 1998 when the USDA was getting into the organic certification business and were considering intolerable allowances under the newly forming "organic" certification such as toxic sludge, antibiotics and other chemical farming techniques. As contamination to non organic crops and grasses is inevitable if its released into the wild, the current ban on GE Alfalfa must not be allowed to expire.

Farmer Jane Pairs up with Chef Amy Murray of Revival Bar + Kitchen

The press release is below, but on a personal note, I couldn't be more thrilled to partner with Chef Amy Murray on the launch of Farmer Jane. For over a decade, she has meticulously sourced her foods from the Bay Area's best purveyors for the best flavors and has a big heart for farmers. In this town, it's not as easy as one might think. Managing a multitude of accounts and getting the primo picks all comes with time and care. It's not something that you can start doing overnight. (We're talking about re-hauling the food system and serving food with integrity here.)

After all, there are relationships to be made, food to be tasted, and time not to be wasted. Revival Bar + Kitchen will make the East Bay proud. The name makes sense after Amy explains that the food movement (the one that Farmer Jane works to capture), is undergoing a revival of lost knowledge. Canning, preserving, farming, gardening, community organizing, health; just a few of the old timey qualities and ways of life that again are being revered with the respect that they deserve. It's happening in kitchens and in homes, in schools, and also (finally) in DC where political decisions determine what type of food system is supported by our tax dollars. If you're local, I hope you'll join us for what's sure to be an amazing evening.

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BERKELEY, CA—On MAY 20th, advocates for sustainable food and farming will gather for the release of Temra Costa's first book, Farmer Jane: Women Changing the Way We Eat. The evening is also the soft opening for Chef Amy Murray's new Revival Bar + Kitchen in downtown Berkeley .

Praised by Alice Waters, Paul Hawken and NPR Kitchen Sisters, Costa's Farmer Jane tells the stories of 30 women leaders who are also farmers, chefs, educators and advocates. "By cultivating relationships while keeping a steady eye on future generations, these women are transforming how we eat through their food businesses and community based organizations," says Costa. "They are also raising the next generation of leaders, farmers, and gardeners - aware human beings that will care for this place long after we’re gone."

Fittingly, the event takes place at Owner-Chef Amy Murray's new restaurant in downtown Berkeley , Revival Bar + Kitchen. Murray has been creating seasonable, organic, sustainable cuisine in the East Bay since 1992, most recently at Venus Restaurant in Berkeley . "Everything Temra writes about and what the 'Farmer Janes' are doing, so creatively and with such love, is what drew me to work with food in the first place," says Murray . "I am constantly inspired by women who roll up their sleeves, bring their hearts, souls and a feminine touch to their work."

The new Revival Bar+Kitchen's menu will support regional organic farmers and local artisan purveyors, with a trio of women chefs, including Murray, Chef Alicia Jenish and Pastry Chef Sasha Dallan.

This event, which includes five women from the book, is also a celebration of all women who vote for sustainability every time they shop, eat, farm, and advocate for change, and inspire us to do the same. Panelists include Costa, Murray and:
- Novella Carpenter, farmer and author of "Farm City"
- Deborah Koons Garcia, "Future of Food" filmmaker and advocate
- Jessica Prentice, Worker-Owner, Three Stone Hearth, chef and author of "Full Moon Feast"
- Willow Rosenthal, founding director of City Slicker Farms, farmer and advocate
- Nancy Vail, founding partner of Pie Ranch, farmer and advocate

All of these Bay Area women are part of what Paul Hawken describes on the cover of Farmer Jane as, "a growing 'womandry' movement that restores people, place, and nurturance back into the heart of our culture. ..women are stepping forward to cultivate biological farming, vibrant communities, and meaningful livelihoods."

"The hope is that the book will inspire women that they too can change how we eat and farm - from mothers to farmers. All of us—as eaters—are involved in creating a system that is more sustainable, creative and nourishing in all senses of the word," says Costa.
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THE MENU
Herbivore:
- Green garlic and broccoli flat bread
- Platter of local cheeses
- Pickled cauliflower and bread and butter pickles
- Grilled asparagus with romanesco
- Farro salad in a little gem cup

Carnivore:
- Pozzi Farm Lamb Ribs braised with marjoram, chili and lemon
- Trio of meat balls
- Pozzi Farm lamb with mint, pine nuts and currant and a tahini sauce
- Vietnamese Long and Bailey Farm pork with cilantro and daikon with a Serrano and ginger chutney
- Lucky Dog Ranch beef with soft bread crumbs and parmesean
- Marinated Local Sardines with dill and pine nut pesto
- Chilled Squid Salad with fresh garbanzo puree and black aioli on crostini

Goat - head-to-tail demo with Chef Alicia Jerish and Chef Samin Nosrat

Dessertivore:
- Pie Ranch Strawberries
- Sixth Course Truffles
- Revival Pastry (TBA)

Cocktails:
- Be the first to try the "Farmer Jane" seasonal cocktail that might just land on the menu permanently
- Local wines

Cost: $10, $25 with signed copy of Farmer Jane

Doors open at 6:30 pm. Panel at 7:15 with Costa, Murray, and the women from the book.
Buy your ticket today at Brown Paper Tickets.

Food generously provided by: Revival Bar + Kitchen, Sixth Course, Pie Ranch, and Full Belly Farm.

Sponsored by: Revival Bar + Kitchen, East Bay Express.