The Gastrocast

Why is it the Japanese get it and the USDA doesn’t?

American Beef isn’t tested for Mad Cow. Japanese beef is–100%. Whether the disease is present or not, doesn’t it make sense to verify that it isn’t by testing more than 1% of cattle? Now even though Japanese beef is more expensive to consumers than untested US beef, the Japanese are only buying their own, locally raised meats. Sounds good to me. Everyone wins–the Japanese farmers get to raise and sell more beef and the consumers get a product from a local source they can trust. Hurrah!

So why then won’t the USDA allow companies to privately test their beef? Why won’t they test more beef themselves? Instead they use Mad Cow as an excuse to try to ram through National Animal ID–a system which is more costly on the whole than just testing every slaughtered animal for the damn disease. They may be good at spending money, but no one said they were smart, or served the consumer’s best interest.

Now in another brilliant stroke Homeland (in)Security is blathering on about agriterrorism and how Mad Cow (BSE) and Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) could be used as terrorist weapons to destroy our food supply. Well, thank you very much–why not hand out written invitations and vials of the toxins to any would-be terrorist cell within range? In fact, why not gather all our nations food supplies into central zones and destroy America’s ability to produce its own food–Oh, wait! Centralization has already been happening!

The USDA and NAIS are already destroying the potential for diversity and small farming. Who are the real terrorists–the foreign foes who would look out of place on a 10,000 acre ranch trying to polute the waters, or a Government agent so pissed off his bonus isn’t coming because his agenda isn’t being met?

So to beat a dead cow a bit more. . . .First off, how could these would-be terrorists get BSE? Most scientists working on the issue for years haven’t been  able to identify much about the mysterious prions which cause it, let alone know how it works. And even if a terrorist fed ground up cow spine from a known infected animal to a herd of cattle, how could they be sure it would work, and how long would it take? And how widespread the destruction? Sure, lots of panic perhaps. But if the USDA would begin testing every beef animal slaughtered for BSE, then there wouldn’t be much a hope that this plan would work.

So let’s tackle FMD–the "dread" disease. One fact source states:

So if it is not fatal to the animals, except perhaps the young–why not test for it? Doesn’t the mass slaughter of countless, suspected, but not proven, diseased animals affect "productivity and a country’s ability to export"? I mean if all the cattle are dead and burnt up from extermination than they certainly can’t be exported, can they?  Wouldn’t it be better and cheaper for the industry to allow the cattle to weather the virus and recover to be productive another day, than to wipe everything out and start again? Wouldn’t an immunity build against the disease which doesn’t happen if everything must start afresh each time?

Now I am not a veteranarian–although I did study to be one–so, I do play one on the interent. It seems to me that knee-jerk reactions and industry pressure are what lead to mass-inihillation of animals in an agriterrorist or disease outbreak scenario. Why not beat the terrorists by testing and using common sense? Remove the efficacy of the target and there is no target.

At an Animal ID meeting recently, as if on script, when pressure was applied to a State Veterianarian he trooped out the "threat" of FMD. When I said it wasn’t fatal, he began to use the words "100% morbidity rate"–which on the surface can be confused with "mortality" but really mean it is highly infectious. When I called him on that he claimed I should ask the people undergoing an FMD outbreak right now North of us what they thought. So I tried. But the Vet lied. There hasn’t been an outbreak of FMD in the area anytime in the last 100 years.

During the meeting when further pressure was applied to the Vet on animal ID, out came the script. "What if a terrorist went into a livestock aution and dropped this (he held up a pen)–a vial of FMD. . .This is why we need Animal ID. . ." No. Animal ID won’t prevent terrorism, or disease outbreaks. Proper testing and better control of the money the USDA spends will.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Awake my friends! One State has fallen. How many more are next? The small farmer and the American Way of Life is under attack!  The government wants to track you, your animals, and now your vegetables.

We cannot be held as slaves to a foreign power. We must maintain control of our local food supplies. These ID programs amount to an extra tax on what we eat. We cannot allow our country to be held hostage over food! If you care about your local farmers, what you eat, or freedom in general, please don’t take my word for it. Research the topics and get the word out! Google, nonais.org. Fight the good fight–so we can all keep on cookin!

Popularity: 6% [?]

Here we have an example of everything which is wrong, and continues to be wrong with American Food Culture–How to mass-market Green (environmentally friendly) low-input Grass-fed Beef Hamburgers. The article talks about industrializing an artisanal product, how difficult it is, but how it can be achieved. I must ask, however–to what end?

In this telling paragraph:

For example, the food service company dictates that the patties must be cooked to 160 degrees Fahrenheit and the ebb and flow of business at many of the sites where the patties are used necessitates that the burgers must be par-cooked and held until there is a rush, whereupon they will be cooked the rest of the way. These are truly the worst-case conditions for a grass-fed beef hamburger.

Whether you process the meat yourself into hamburgers or anything else really isn’t the point. I would hope we can get back to a situation in this country where artisanally produced foods are processed by the farmer who raises the raw-materials. The real question is what you do with the product once it is made. Where is it going, who is using it and how will it be shown to its best? And if the answers are not "locally", "Small-scale, quality sellers", "by providing the customers with fresh, and better foods" than there will be major snags. I wonder how many of those artisanally crafted burgers end up in the bin after being held for hours–how green is that? Where is the respect for the animal and environment shown in that? That is not the way forward.

Popularity: 7% [?]

A show this week! I know, I know, I’m making a liar out of myself. I said I wouldn’t have time. But I did! I found some spare moments in all the chaos to edit the audio from my cooking demonstraition at the San Juan County Fair.  No photos as of yet–Mrs. Deedop, any chance of uploading them soon?? I will post them if they ever become available.

So until next week, sit back, hear me pontificate and cook as usual and enjoy.

All the best!

Popularity: 6% [?]

There’s something I just don’t get. People never seem happy. Either they’re bitching about Global Warming, which either does or doesn’t exist, depending on how you vote, apparently, or they’re whinging about Population growth, density, and impact. And now water. So which is it going to be–is there going to be Global Warming, where the seas will rise, reducing land mass, increasing population density (but probably also wiping out the type of people who love to live near flooding rivers no matter what, or refuse to be evacuated from Volcano zones. . . .), but probably also producing bucket-loads of rain to fall back to earth in freshwater monsoons, OR, is there to be a doubling of water usage in the near future as third-world countries achieve the American Dream and Corporations expand their non-sustainable ways of consumption and pollution, creating wholesale water shortages and hording as the population blows out of all proportion, in a toxic, barren, desert wasteland?

According to this Gristmill article both things will happen with equally disasterous results–in short we’re fucked. But hey, before we get all gloom and doom lets look at this from a different perspective. Normally I’m all down on Lawyers. I used to think they screwed the world up beyond belief. Now I’ve rather shifted my opinion. Firstly as to water useage. America needs to get online with some serious water conservation efforts anyway. Now is too late, but better late than never. Local beauraucracies need to pave the way for rain-water collection systems, grey water recycling and ways of reducing run-off. That’s a start. We also need to more aggressively limit corporate growth in terms of polluting ground water–they should be made to recycle or collect or?? some percentage (above 45%) of the water they use. Farmers need to be rewarded for creative solutions to crop irrigation and not charged for water-rights which only restrict growth and don’t encourage correct usage of resources. Now as to the rest of man’s social ills. We can’t blame this stuff on the Lawyers, first and foremost, although they do play a part–after all who allowed the patenting of life forms? No, as the linked article show, and so many more examples of things which have gone wrong or are snafu‘d today, we can lay all the blame evenly at the feet of the SCIENTISTS.

"But they’ve given us so much", you say. Haven’t they cured diseases, created cleaner, better power sources, researched ways to heal and extend life, etc? Indeed they have. But should they have? Most scientist are fine. They walk down their chosen path doing great things. It is when they veer off the path in search of intangibles and secret sciences for the government that we get into trouble. See the comments I left about this article on meat grown in labs. . . . Left unchecked Scientist come up with new and better ways of wasting money on "research" which is unproven and which testing creates all sorts of environmental disasters, at what overall cost? They’ve given us longer lifespans. But did anyone ask us if we wanted to live longer if it still meant that we would be bed-ridden, drug-addicted fools if we chose that path? They have extended our life, but not given us any assurances of quality near the end. Likewise, space exploration, genetic engineering, altering weather patterns, radioactive technologies, robotics. Cool, perhaps, exciting. But most of us get along fine without it. In 20 years have there been significant enough breakthroughs to warrant the amount of money spent, pollution created, strange side-effects or spurious alter-sciences created? I don’t think so. Most of the time you hear about how science failed us. How something went wrong. Or how scientist have given over common-sense for the sake of "science" and the greater good–whether those of us in the greater good want it or not.

Yes, we can fear Global Warming, Rising Tides, Changing Weather Patterns, Global Drought and a host of other ills. But for my money there is nothing scarier than the unabated, unwatched March of the Scientists.

Popularity: 5% [?]

A quick Gastrocast for you this week–I’m rushing to the San Juan County Fair to register entries and to prepare for my cooking demonstration. But more of this in a week or so. I’m rushed off my feet over the next two weeks with the fair, cooking jobs and the Mrs’. vacation.

As stuff comes up about the fair, I’ll post it and include links.
Enjoy.

Comment here or at podchef@gmail.com

Popularity: 5% [?]

A video might clear up the issue:

Popularity: 5% [?]

I say 2005 at the opening of this week’s show, but you know I mean 2006.

It’s a jam-packed, adventure filled show. Tomatillo gathering, Probiotics, Food Wrapper Latex Allergies, Mango Chutney and and unexpected surprise!

Flickr Photos

Agenda 21
    Description
    Chapter on Biotech

Popularity: 19% [?]

I think I get it now. Yesterday’s weirdness is down to semantics. Today’s latest letter makes it all as clear as mud. I must be a simpleton or something not to understand the difference:

Dear Neal,

We can understand your confusion. What SCD is selling is not EM as in Effective Microorganisms (TM). It’s unfortunate that they are using the same acronym for their product. Although they similarly use microorganisms and may claim similar benefits, the actual content and manufacturing methods (a trade secret) may be quite different. Therefore, they are different products.

EM Online Forum Moderator

It is so obvious now that I should have seen it to begin with. It’s a matter of logic. A rose is not a rose is not a rose after all. . . If a murky brown liquid contains three classes of microorganisms (yeast, fungi, and bacteria) and those microorganism varieties number in some 80 different species then it cannot be like any other murky brown liquid containing three classes of microorganisms (yeast, fungi, and bacteria) and those microorganism varieties number in some 80 different species (even if they are the same exact microbes) BECAUSE the hidden secret method of brewing them is so secret the products "may be different".

It all boils down to the confusing, but handy acronym–EM. the EM EM Technology Network is refering to stands for Effective MIcroorganisms. The EM, my friends at SCD are referring to stands for Efficient Microbes. The very name gives away the difference! Let’s go to the dictionary on this one, kids:

Effective: effective (producing or capable of producing an intended result or having a striking effect) "an air-cooled motor was more effective than a witch’s broomstick for rapid long-distance transportation"-LewisMumford; "effective teaching methods"; "effective steps toward peace"; "made an effective entrance"; "his complaint proved to be effectual in bringing action"; "an efficacious law": (adj) effective, efficient (able to accomplish a purpose; functioning effectively). (Note: the use of the "other" word in the definition of this one.)

Efficient: efficient (being effective without wasting time or effort or expense) "an efficient production manager"; "efficient engines save gas" (adj) effective, efficient (able to accomplish a purpose; functioning effectively)

So there you have it–it seems that even linguistically these two products are destined to be tied together. This sort of lingustic manipulation of dear old Mother Tongue should be classed as harrasment. But I do hope I have cleared things up–for now.

Popularity: 19% [?]

I was censored today. I shouldn’t be surprised. I should probably be censored more often. Nevertheless, it shocks me and pisses me off a bit.

I post occasionally to an international forum owned by an American Company. A post, containing information about EM, etc and linking to a useful chart of dilutions and referencing my websites in the signature was cut apart leaving only a fraction of the advise, and none of the relevance. I didn’t realize that providing helpful information was so controvertial. I wasn’t thinking that rival companies would be battling it out in a public forum for control of a technology in the public domain.

Nevertheless, I recieved this:

Dear Podchef:

We appreciate your activities and support in spreading the EM Technology throughout the world. (my highlight)

info@emtechnologynetwork.org
www.emtechnologynetwork.org
—

I sent back a curt reply. I’m not sure I really want to participate in such a closed minded forum, no matter what the goal or end is. I feel bad for the people who were asking me for infomation though. I love the counter-sentiment in the highlighted sentance. Shouldn’t that include–as long as you don’t represent, support or link to rival information? Go figure. Granted it IS their forum and they can or cannot allow whatever they feel, but it is hardly a fair use of free information. No wonder there is a paucity of information out there on EM and how to use it. To further add insult to injury I did not intentionally "include links to materials that refer to or promote technologies that are not of the authentic EM, "Effective Microorganisms (TM)".  What I did do was use this link, which provided the only information of the sort I could find and does not solicit sales. And as far as I know this information is as authentic as it gets. It is interesting, however, that as of today this site has sprung up claiming to be the only legitimate source of EM Technology. I think, however, I am luck to have stumbled upon SCD months ago and not their, apparently, bitter rivals.

Who knew that this morning I would innocently stumble into some sort of turf war over microbes? Not I. For my money I know which side I’m going to stick to. . . .

Popularity: 6% [?]

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

Popularity: 6% [?]

Two things happened over the last two weeks that I thought I would mention. These two items were separate and happened on different days in different weeks. But they both happened while I was on the mainland to purchase food and supplies for events I was cooking for.

Firstly a few weeks ago, now, I was in my favorite coffee shop for my morning fix of caffine and the internet. As I sat there and surfed and slurrped I overheard a conversation about Walmart and how evil it was. I couldn’t help stopping my activities and joining in–it’s that sort of place. Talk turned to foreign imports wiping out local businesses–one in particular. I haven’t verified it as fact yet, but the couple holding the Walmart position (against an elderly, staunch Republican) claimed that our areas oldest apple producing family had given up raising their apples for sale because they couldn’t compete with the foreign market. Infact, they stopped producing their own only to accept a deal to sell Chinese apples instead of their own. I was flabbergasted. We always buy Merritt Apples for fresh eating during the season. We buy cases of them, store them and enjoy them long after our own crop and other island apples have been turned to cider or pies, or sauce. They are an institution. If it is true, then it is a shame, I thought as I left. If this 2003 article, and this 2005 article are any indication of what local growers thought, then the much tougher times we’ve had this past year would have been the death knell.

Fast forward to this past Thursday. I actually had time in my day while on the mainland. I decided to beetle out to a small, strange little town called Edison. It is very small–don’t blink–and is built on a very snakey esse in the roadway. Known for its bakery and tough-ass biker bar, a new Artisinal food shop has been there for a while and I was determined to go check it out. The drive out to Edison, from where I was, is nice–20 minutes of winging through the countryside passing farms, orchards and. . . whoa–a huge new red barn and bakery out in the middle of nowhere. It barely registered as I whizzed past, but in the rear-view mirror I looked again and thought "my God how incongruous". It just didn’t look like it belonged and I began to wonder how it could survive on this little traveled road. But there it was. Well, I made my stop in Edison. The food shop was cool. I wasn’t in a buying mood or I might have spent a fortune, and had we not just baked bread at home I might have been tempted to pick up a selection of cheeses–instead of just one–and some cured meats and hike up the road to the local bakery and buy some hearty loaves of Organic Sourdough. Instead I got one small, locally produced lump of chevre and some artisinal chocolate and left.

As I pulled away I decided I would check out the Bakery/Barn on my way past. I had already eaten lunch and with it had an ice cream bar, so hunger would not be a motivating factor. I thought I might buy a coffee, if they had one, and perhaps some baked, breakfasty sort of thing for the following day. So in the Empty driveway I pulled. There was one other car there, and some people just exiting the huge building. As I pulled the key from the ignition and looked up, preparing to open the door, I realized I was parked infront of a sign which read, "No Pets Allowed–This is Not a Poop Station". I didn’t have my dog with me, and normally I don’t notice these sort of things anyway. But I thought this sign, which was really, really large was just a tad offensive in its phrasing. I seriously thought at that minute, based on the sign and the huge amount of cluttery Americana-style junk in front of the place, about putting the key back in the ignition and tearing out of there.

Nevertheless, I got out of the car. It was then that I noticed a twin sign to the first one. They were placed against the posts on either side of the entry way. Both written with 8 inch tall letters–huge. Okay, Okay, I get it–people let their dogs crap in the vast and empty parking lot and you don’t like it. I walked toward the door. And there, 10 feet into the porch up aginst the fixed door of the double door entry way was ANOTHER dog poop sign. THREE!?? It did not set me up for wanting to spend any money there. I swung into the place and looked around. It was wall-to-wall stuff. There were narrow alley ways of furniture and kitsch and stuff everywhere. Floor to ceiling and it was all for sale. Americana and Country Bumbkin ware for the masses. Definitely not to my tastes, but I wandered around. Then I began noticing the name of the shop plastered all over everything–soup mixes, jams, jellies, chutneys, vinegars–everything you could can or process or buy and stick a label on. It was overload. I would have supported one or two or even 5 things well made and at their best, but hundreds of items and candles and and and the list went on and on. I headed around towards the bakery noting that there were little booths to eat at which seemed a nightmare. The place was empty but if I owned it and there were kids or teens or anymore than 4 people in the vast and crowded shop I’d be going crazy trying to keep on top of them. There was no clear line of sight–no possible way to help the befuddled customer or stop a kid from pocketing brick-a-brack. And what a job to keep it all clean and dust free and sanitary in the food areas. UGH.

I swung past the bakery and was hit with the scent of foods and cleanser. There were employees bustling about and donut smells in the air and I think a few pies and filled thingies. The owners were both there tidying. One of them was shouting across the shop to someone in the bakery. A man, whom I thought I recognised, was blocking the doorway doing something or other. My stomach heaved. The day-glow flourescent lighting, the sickly sweet smell of the food, the visual overload, the damning dog poop message all got to me. I bolted. Excusing myself to the man at the door I rushed outside and into the fresh air. Halfway across the porch I almost tripped over a DOG which skittered out of the way. Where did IT come from? Was it about the poop or the local pooch, those offensively large signs? As I drove away thoughts flashed in my head about poor customer relations, should I have mentioned how those signs offendng me, who would shop at that back-road hell hole? Out in the middle of nowhere on a road less travelled, who were their customers? Not a bakery I would want to own. It’s not even a road I usually drive. Any of the other destinations in that neck of the woods are reached by other roads. I tried to shake the experience off. That is until this morning when it all came together.

Popularity: 7% [?]

This Video is dedicated to the 1968 cult film Work is a 4 Letter Word–one of my faves. Hope you enjoy.

And by the by–is the internet working slow for anyone else today?

Popularity: 5% [?]

I’ve just watched this Video. Warning: it’s horrific and meant for shock value. If you do watch it, take time either before or after to read some of the comments. I tried to comment but, as usual, my comment was too long.

Here follows my full comment: Firstly, get over it–animals are our food. If we didn’t eat them then there would be no reason for them to be around. If we tried to keep them around without eating them then they would out populate us and create a stinking mess. Either way, bye bye safe comfy warm and fuzzy feelings. Cruelty can come in many ways. Slaughterhouse or farmer abuse or do-gooders who break healthy animals free only to kill them with neglect or carelessness.

You should be shocked and horrified. I have been on many farms, and have farmed for the last 15 years. I would never treat an animal like this, nor would I want my animals to ever be treated like this. This video shows the worst of humanity (and some of it doesn’t even look like its from the US). Not the rest of us who obey the laws both moral and temporal.

So if you have been a carnivore up until watching this video, ask yourself what you can do to help these animals. Stopping eating meat isn’t going to do a damn thing, short of putting a bandaide over your conscience. Why not be a part of the solution? Support farmers who treat animals humanely. Help to put a stop to dairy and slaughterhouse abuse–not just of the animals, but the workers who may have no other choice but to work there and because of the trauma of the job turn to abuse and neglect and loss of their moral compass.

Creating a Vegan Utopia isn’t the answer, just like the licensed abuse portrayed in these videos isn’t the answer. But think about what you’ve seen. Don’t just go off all churrned up by emotion and react. That is not a solution. And protests and vandalism against farmers and business owners is wrong too. That only radicalizes the situation without putting an end to the problem or stopping the behavior.

Animals can lead a happy, well looked after, content life with humans, on a farm, and when there time is up can, without pain, become part of the Human food chain. None of the abuse depicted here need take place, nor does it on thousands of small, local farms around the country. Globalization and centralization of our food system has lead to this. Decentralization and supporting of local farmers and economies can help dismantle it.

Oh, and I love how the video ends–with happy animals on a well looked after farm, as if the scenes of horror and abuse only happen if you eat meat, and the happy prancing piglets only come running to recognized Vegetarians. . . .

Popularity: 5% [?]

While I normally enjoy the Northview Dairy blog for its window into a conventional dairy world foreign to my own, I have lately been contemplating removing it from my News Reader feed. And after the last post I am pretty much sure I will.

The blog post is about this offensive article by the Center For Global Food Issues, aka the Hudson Institute, aka the Forked Tongue Mouthpiece of Chemical Friendly Big Ag. (I personally don’t know how these morons can sleep at night after spewing their idiocy all day, everyday. But there you have it, it personally costs little to have no sense at all, especially if its at the peril of the environment and the health of your fellow man–we’re the ones who have to pick up that tab.)
And with quotes like this:

"The environmental impact of organic food is actually dreadful. It takes organic farmers roughly twice as much land to produce a ton of food, primarily because they refuse to use nitrogen fertilizer to replace the nitrogen taken from the soil by their growing crops. That means huge tracts of land must be used to “grow nitrogen,” either as cattle pasture or planted to non-food legumes such as clover and hairy vetch.

It gets you thinking–  if it doesn’t raise your blood pressure first.  Sure–for Organic agriculture it does take "more land". But it is land which is always productive, well looked after, providing a carbon sink against global warming and providing a diverse polyculture necessary for a balanced life on the planet. I don’t believe the quote about doubling the amount of land is correct. If the remainder of land WASTED by conventional agriculture was converted to HIGHER YIELDING organic crops we could actually turn more space into nitrogen producing carbon sinks which would help our current Global Warming Crisis without a single tree more. But that’s not the agenda of Big Ag. They’d rather see the destruction of the planet in whatever way as long as it means profits until the day the smoldering ruin of civilization prevents their greed from going further.

Okay, so my blood pressure is on the rise. But back to the original post–Northview Dairy ends their post with:
 "When it comes to organic, I am of the "show me" persuasion. I have been there and done that. Although it is nice to grow organic vegetables for your own table and I say more power to you to farmers who are making an extra buck by that manner of production, it is just plain more expensive and more labor intensive to grow organic food. If we all did it somebody would end up going hungry. And due to the increased cost of organic production that somebody would probably folks who are poor already."

Hey, wait a minute–isn’t that the point??? If we were all involved in some sort of Organic Production then we would all be raising food on a local and sustainable scale. Communities would heal and people would get back to supporting their neighbors and local economies instead of the Hudson Institutes of the world filled with their ideological idiots. Further more, "if we all did it" the "increased cost of organic production" would not exist!

Organic production isn’t expensive–Conventional Agriculture is too cheap! It is subsidized by the Government at the cost of our Earth and the health of its citizens. People are poor because these subsidies
have stolen their livelihood. There is nothing wrong with farming. There is nothing wrong with work, or physical labor–so why is America so Allergic to it? "Labor intensive Agriculture" is spoken like a dirty word. If people would get up off of their fat-subsidized-lardy Asses and get moving, doing something physical–especially the poor who have sunk into the hole of cheap and unhealthy food by circumstance–then health would improve, farming would regain the upperhand and local, community agriculture would thrive and people would be able to afford the food they helped grow themselves. That’s one of the things which so pissed me off about the South Central Farmers issue–those people were doing something to make a difference but small minded, Earth destructive oppressors are too worried about profit, greed and corruption to to take their head out of their buttholes and make a difference themselves.

And by the way–technically I AM POOR! We’re just at the poverty level. An I am happy to spend more on Organic Foods–not because I want to flaunt my wealth, or impress my neighbors (most of who have millions more in the bank than I ever will). I am happy to support my local farmers, many of whom I now count as friends. And I am happy to keep my money in the community rather than send it out to god knows where, for god knows what, which travels god knows how far. Oh, and it tastes WAY better than conventional crap which is overly processed.

It’s a shame more people don’t feel the same. The problem is most people can’t see the CGFI’s lies for what they are.

Popularity: 6% [?]