I’m always looking for a great roasted chicken recipe and I’ve tried many good ones over the years but they were always somewhat lacking. I tried one this week that’s a winner. This will be my standard roasted chicken recipe from now on.

It’s from The Foodie Handbook by Pim Techamuanvivit and she based her recipe on the one from Simply French by Patricia Wells. I tweaked it a bit as well and it was fantastic. Even the leftovers were amazingly good.

Ingredients:

One 3 ½ – 4 ½ pound Organic Pastured Chicken

3 tbs. organic butter

1 – 2 tablespoons Celtic sea salt & some cracked pepper

Optional ingredients:

1 organic onion

1 – 2 heads of garlic

One lemon

Leek tops

Sprigs of fresh rosemary and thyme

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 425°.

Rinse the chicken and dry it with paper towels. Take the butter – you can melt it if it’s too cold – and rub it all over the chicken.  Then sprinkle the salt and a bit of pepper and rub that in too. Make sure you get some salt inside the chicken as well.

The optional ingredients are used to stuff the bird. I used leek tops and some springs of fresh rosemary and thyme. They both really easy to grow, and great for cooking.  Then take some kitchen twine and tie the legs and wings close to the body. This will make it easier to flip the chicken while cooking.

I used a glass roasting pan with a small flat rack. You can use an angled one as well if you have it.  Put the chicken breast side down on the rack, in your pan and put it into the preheated oven for 30 minutes.  After 30 minutes take your pan out and baste and flip the chicken to breast side up. Cook for another 30 minutes.  Then baste and flip breast side down for another 10-20 minutes depending on the size of your chicken (10 minutes for a 3 ½ pound chicken, 20 for 4 ½ ). Baste again and turn it breast side up for the last ten minutes. Total cooking time is 1 hour and 20 (or 30) minutes

You will know when your chicken is done by poking the top of your knife into the thick part of the thigh. When the juices run clear it’s done.  Cover loosely and let it rest for 10 minutes before carving. It was a perfect chicken. The skin was crispy, the breast meat moist and the rosemary and thyme added great flavor. Enjoy!

Read more, great Pennywise Platter Thursday posts here: http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2010/03/pennywise-platter-thursday-41.html

Read more great, Real Food Wednesday posts here: http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2010/03/real-food-wednesday-33110.html

I used to make a small garden when I was a child. I loved watching the little plants grow, tending them and having wonderful vegetables to eat when they were ripe – even though we shared a lot of the harvest with the local bunny population.

I started gardening again as an adult when my kids were little.  At first I’d buy a few starter plants, maybe tomatoes and cucumbers and put them in a small garden area.  The results varied but it was still a fun project for us to do together.

As the years have gone on, I’ve gotten more serious about my gardening and try to learn and grow something new each year.  My gardens have always been organic but I’ve learned more as I’ve got along about natural fertilizers, making compost and foliar feeding.  I’ve usually grown a few plants from seed; sometimes herbs or various other plants, but I decided a few years ago that I wanted to try growing everything I plant in my garden from seed. 

And you know, it’s really easy.  There’s a great company, Gardener’s Supply. They are employee owned and have a number of wonderful and very inexpensive seed starting kits.  I’ve tried a few over the years but the one I’m using this year – as I have limited space at the greenhouse window in my kitchen is this one: http://www.gardeners.com/Beginner-Seedstarting-Kit/SeedstartingKits_Cat,37-933,default,cp.html

You can buy the units separately but I do like to use their germinating mix as well.  And you can use the seed starter over again each year. I do start some plants right in the garden but I’m starting 8 different types of tomatoes, 3 types of peppers and 3 types of cucumbers in my kitchen this year.

As you can see from the picture, once the plants grow too big I transplant them into small nursery pots and then start another batch in the seed starter.  In a few weeks when they’ve grown a bit more I’ll give them some hours outside during the day and once they’re hardened off (used to being outside), I’ll plant them. I have two raised beds but I also use a lot of large pots and have found some things like peppers and tomatoes grow as well or even better in those.

As large corporations like Monsanto try to patent all the seeds they can, it makes it even more important that we grow and save our own seeds.  There are a number of places you can get wonderful organic and heirloom seeds from:

http://www.seedsofchange.com/  – Seeds of Change. They are owned by M&M Mars now but they carry only organic, GMO free seeds and have over 1200 varieties of vegetables, herbs and flowers.

http://www.groworganic.com/  – This is Peaceful Valley farm and garden supply and they have a wonderful selection of seeds, fruit tree and other supplies for your organic garden.

http://www.sustainableseedco.com/ I just found this one recently. They have a nice selection of heirloom seeds and are very reasonably priced as well.

If you want to learn to save your own seeds, I highly recommend Seed to Seed – the link to Amazon is below.

It’s easy to grow your own vegetables and it’s a great activity to share with your children. In my experience it gives them a greater appreciation for vegetables because there is nothing more delicious then food just picked from your own garden.  Happy Gardening!

Read more great, Pennywise Platter Thursday posts here:  http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2010/03/pennywise-platter-thursday-6.html

Read more great, Real Food Wednesday posts here: http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2010/03/real-food-wednesday-32410.html

If you happened to read this article the first week I wrote it, you’ll notice I took out my recommendation for Seedsavers Exchange.  This is why:

http://beginningfarmers.org/seed-savers-exchange-the-new-real-story-including-intrigue-deception-the-doomsday-vault-excerpt-of-a-letter-from-its-founder/

Here’s another custard recipe that I decided to try this past week. You don’t need to scald the milk just mix everything together and bake. It was just as good as last weeks Sweet Potato Custard and even easier to make.  Everyone loved this one!

SERVINGS: 6

4 large eggs

1/3 cup rapadura, honey, maple syrup or organic sugar

1/8 teaspoon celtic sea salt

2 1/4 cups raw whole milk

1/2 teaspoon organic vanilla extract

1/8  teaspoon freshly grated organic nutmeg

1/4  teaspoon organic cinnamon

MAKE AHEAD:

The custards can be refrigerated overnight.

1.Preheat the oven to 350°. In a large bowl, beat the eggs and honey. Add salt, spices and stir until dissolved. Stir in the milk & vanilla. Pour custard mixture into six 4-ounce custard cups.

2. Set the cups in a large roasting pan and place in the oven. Pour 1 inch of hot water into the roasting pan and bake the custards for about 30 minutes, or until just set. If your milk is cold is can take 35-40 minutes so just add 5 minutes or so if they’re not set yet.  Remove from the water bath when cool enough to handle. Serve warm, at room temperature or chilled.

Read more, great, Fight Back Friday posts here: http://www.foodrenegade.com/fight-back-friday-march-19th/

Read more, great, Pennywise Platter Thursday posts here:  http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2010/03/pennywise-platter-thursday-5.html

Read more, great, Real Food Wednesday posts here:  http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2010/03/real-food-wednesday-3172010.html

We had a left over sweet potato that the kids weren’t eating so I started looking for recipes and found this one. It was fantastic!  It’s very easy and a fancy enough dessert to serve to company. I think it would also work well with pumpkin (will try that next).  My husband has already requested that I make it again.

Ingredients:

    * 1 3/4 cups whole organic raw milk

    * 3 large pastured eggs

    * 1 cup pureed organic sweet potato

    * 1/3 cup rapadura or organic sugar

    * dash celtic sea salt

    * 1/2 teaspoon ground organic cinnamon

    * dash ground organic nutmeg

    * dash ground organic cloves

    * dash ground organic ginger

    * freshly ground organic nutmeg or organic cinnamon for topping

Preparation:

Heat oven to 350°. Butter 6 5- to 6-ounce custard cups; set cups in a large baking or roasting pan.

Heat the milk until very hot, set aside.

In a mixing bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Add sweet potato, sugar, salt, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, and dashes of nutmeg, cloves, and ginger. Whisk in milk and beat until well blended. Pour into the prepared custard cups.

Heat about 5 to 6 cups of water until nearly simmering.

Place the pan with cups in the hot oven then fill the outer pan with the very hot water until the water is about halfway up the side of the custard cups.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until edges are firm. The center of the custards will still jiggle a bit. Allow a little more time if you’re using larger custard cups, and check early if using very small or shallow cups.

Remove cups from water immediately and place on a wire rack to cool. Cover the cooled custard with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. The custards may be stored, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Makes 4 to 6 servings, depending on the size of the cups.

Read more great, Fight Back Friday posts here: http://www.foodrenegade.com/fight-back-friday-march-12th/

Read more, great, Pennywise Thursday Platter posts here: http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2010/03/pennywise-platter-thursday-311.html

Read more, great, Real Food Wednesday posts here: http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2010/03/real-food-wednesday-3910.html

By Stanley A. Fishman, Author of Tender Grassfed Meat

Note from Mom: Stan has a great new website: http://www.tendergrassfedmeat.com/

I was once chronically ill, so sick that I received a “medical death sentence” in 1998. Today, I have no illnesses, no symptoms, and have not seen a doctor in five years. I was not healed by drugs, surgery or doctors. I was healed by real food.

Dr. Weston A. Price discovered the truth about nutrition in the 1930s, by travelling all over the world and studying traditional diets. He found that people who ate the diets of their ancestors, and no modern foods, were free of many illnesses that afflicted many people in Europe and America. People eating their traditional diet had no cancer, no heart disease, no diabetes, no tuberculosis, no birth defects, no tooth decay, no asthma, and no allergies. They were free of the chronic illnesses that were common in the so-called civilized world. They remained strong, vigorous, independent, and healthy well into old age, usually until just before they died.

When the same peoples added modern processed foods to their diet, they were afflicted with every one of the diseases mentioned above, and many others.

Dr. Price wrote a book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, which presented the results of his research. That book contains many photographs, showing the healthy teeth and faces of people on a traditional diet, and the horrible teeth and unhealthy faces of members of the very same group of people, when they ate modern foods.

I based the diet that healed me on the teachings of Dr. Price, and the information made available by the Weston A. Price Foundation. I decided that the key was to get food that was as close to its untampered form as I possibly could, given the limitations of our modern world, and to eat the same kinds of foods eaten by traditional peoples. 

How I Changed My Diet

Sugar and Sweeteners

I stopped eating most sweeteners. The only ones I use are organic, unfiltered, unheated honey, organic 100% pure maple syrup, and a little rapadura, an unprocessed sugar. I only use sweeteners in small amounts, and only when eaten at a meal that has plenty of fat. I have found that I do not miss sugar if I keep my fat intake high. I never use any kind of artificial sweetener.

Grains

I only eat organic grains that have been soaked overnight in soured water, as described in Sally Fallon’s excellent cookbook, Nourishing Traditions and made into a porridge type dish. I do this with organic oatmeal and organic kasha, and I always eat them with plenty of pastured butter. The only bread I eat is made from sprouted grain, or a sourdough-type bread.

Fruit and Vegetables

I only eat organic (or the equivalent) fruits and vegetables. I eat a wide variety, both cooked and raw. I do eat potatoes and other root vegetables, but make sure they are cooked in plenty of fat, or served with plenty of fat, or both.

Meat and Poultry

I only eat 100% grassfed and grass finished beef, bison, and lamb. I will often cook these meats rare, to get more of the nutrients. I eat a lot of meat. I eat the wonderful fat from these grassfed animals. I eat free range, organic poultry. I try to avoid poultry that has been fed soy, which is difficult. I do not eat much pork, since I have trouble finding pork that has not been fed soy. When I can find pork that has been fed naturally, I will happily eat it. I will also eat wild game when I have the opportunity, which is not often. I drink some homemade meat broth, made from the bones and meat of grassfed animals, every day.

Dairy

I only drink organic, full fat, non-homogenized milk, either raw, or from a dairy that uses minimum pasteurization. I eat plenty of full fat raw milk cheese, lots of full fat yoghurt, make my own kefir, and consume mountains of pastured butter. I also eat a lot of full fat cream, organic or the equivalent, both raw and minimally pasteurized. I usually eat these foods uncooked. I also use a lot of cream, cheese, and butter when cooking.

Fish and Seafood

I only eat wild seafood. I eat a fair amount of medium to smaller sized fish, as well as shrimp and prawns. I will also eat wild raw fish eggs, when I can get them. Every day, I have a cup of rich fish broth, made from the bones and trimmings of wild fish (including the heads when I can get them). I often use fish sauce, as a condiment and an ingredient. I never touch farmed fish of any kind.

Fats and Oils

The only vegetable oil of any kind that I will eat is organic (or the equivalent) extra virgin olive oil, unrefined coconut oil, and unrefined organic sesame oil. I eat plenty of fat from grassfed animals as well as unhydrogenated lard. I eat large amounts of pastured butter and organic ghee. I make sure to have plenty of animal fat with every meal. This kind of fat was prized by all the cultures studied by Dr. Price.

Drinks

I do not touch any kind of soft drink. I do drink homemade kombucha every day. (Thanks to you, Mom, for teaching me how to make it!) I also drink reverse osmosis water, often with some organic, raw, unfiltered, apple cider vinegar added. I also drink milk and kefir, as described under dairy above. I also drink green tea and peppermint tea. I will upon very rare occasions have a little wine, or traditional Irish whiskey.

Condiments

Most of the condiments I eat are lacto-fermented, such as sauerkraut. There are some good lacto-fermented condiments available. However, the best are the ones you make yourself. We make our own sauerkraut, ketchup, pickles, and other condiments. Nourishing Traditions is an excellent source of recipes for making your own condiments.

Packaged Processed Foods

I do not eat them. The only exception would be food that is packaged in glass jars, is organic (or the equivalent), and has very few ingredients, such as some organic hot sauces. I do not eat anything with soy in it, and I try to avoid meat from soy-fed animals. I do buy some grassfed sausages, especially organ sausages from a few excellent producers of grassfed meat.

Good Health Comes from Good Food

This diet has resulted in the extreme good health I enjoy today. What I have described is food, not medicine, and my own experience with it. I am not a doctor, and I am not giving you medical advice. Eating this way restored my health, and is absolutely delicious besides!

Read more great, Fight Back Friday posts here: http://www.foodrenegade.com/fight-back-friday-march-4th/

Read more great, Pennywise Platter Thursday Posts here: http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2010/03/pennywise-platter-thursday-34.html

Read more great, Real Food Wednesday Posts here:  http://www.cheeseslave.com/2010/03/03/real-food-wednesday-march-3-2010/

We love Stan’s cookbook and use it ALL the time. You can find it at Amazon, link below.

(Sheila and I at the Demonstration)

We had a wonderful gathering yesterday at the San Diego Convention Center. 

There was a Science Conference, and Monsanto was there talking about their ‘sustainable’ plans for the future of food.  (It’s unconscionable that they’re using the word ‘sustainable’ in their talks about the devastating destruction they are doing to our food and environment)

I first heard about the demonstration last Wednesday from my friend Sheila. (thank you Sheila!) She belongs to a San Diego Community Farm & Garden meet up group and it was Carly who first suggested getting people together to demonstrate.

Everyone was terrific about getting the word out. I think we had at least 100 people there with only a 3-4 day advance notice. The signs were fantastic and Tim spent over an hour leading us in some great chants as we marched in front of the convention center.

It’s been so long since I’ve demonstrated, that I wasn’t sure what to expect. Was the convention center going to tell us to leave?  Would the police come?  Well, the security at the center was wonderful. They only asked us not to block the crosswalks and other then that left us alone.  The people from the conference for the most part were great as well. Some ignored us and some took brochures and flyers and asked questions too.

My hope, with Moms For Safe Food has always been to educate. I think there are many people who still don’t even know that GMO’s exist and I do think we reached a great number of people yesterday.

The Institute of Responsible Technology sent me a box of Non-GMO shopping guides and other wonderful resources. http://www.responsibletechnology.org

Sean Croxton of Underground Wellness brought a backpack full of The Institues ‘GMO Health Risk Brochures’.  I gave away every last shopping guide and there were a number of us passing out the brochures.  Sean has a great video of the day here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpifGU8EoLA

It was such an empowering experience joining together with a group of people who are also committed to spreading the truth of what Monsanto is doing to our food supply and environment. It is my sincere hope that this is the first of many more demonstrations. Power to the People!

Read more great, Fight Back Friday posts here: http://www.foodrenegade.com/fight-back-friday-february-26th/

Read more great, Pennywise Platter Thursday posts here: http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2010/02/pennywise-platter-thursday-22510.html

Read more great, Read Food Wednesday Posts here: http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2010/02/real-food-wednesday-22410.html

In my search for recipes to use the wonderful eggs we get from our chickens, I came across a recipe I used to make years ago, Broccoli Quiche.  It’s still delicious and very easy to make. You can use a frozen pie crust or make your own.

INGREDIENTS:

2 tablespoons organic butter

1 organic onion, minced

1 teaspoon minced garlic

2 cups chopped fresh organic broccoli

1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust

1 1/2 cups shredded raw milk cheese, whatever you like: Swiss, Cheddar, etc

4 pastured eggs, well beaten

1 1/2 cups raw, whole milk

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 tablespoon organic butter, melted

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Over medium-low heat melt butter in a large saucepan. Add onions,

garlic and broccoli. Cook slowly, stirring occasionally until the

vegetables are soft. Spoon vegetables into crust and sprinkle with

cheese.

3. Combine eggs and milk. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in melted

butter. Pour egg mixture over vegetables and cheese.

1. 4.Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutess, or until center has set. It can take up to an hour.

 

Prep Time: 20 Minutes

Cook Time: 30Minutes

Servings: 6

Read more great Pennywise Platter Thursday posts here: http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2010/02/pennywise-platter-thursday-21810.html

Read more great Real Food Wednesday posts here:  http://www.cheeseslave.com/2010/02/17/real-food-wednesday-feb-17-2010/

This is one of our favorite ways to eat salmon.  You can serve more people on a smaller portion of fish, and if there are leftovers it really is a wonderful breakfast.  The recipe is from Nigella Lawson.

Makes 6 servings

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups cold water, for poaching the fish

2 lime leaves, torn into pieces

4 salmon fillets (approximately 1-inch thick), preferably organic, skinned (about 1 1/2 pounds in total)

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 onion finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1 cup basmati rice – you can use brown or white basmati, organic of course. 🙂

3 hard-boiled eggs, quartered

3 tablespoons chopped cilantro leaves, plus more, for garnish

1 lime, zested and juiced plus lime segments, for garnish

Fish sauce, to taste (recommended: nam pla)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

This is because the easiest way to poach salmon for this dish is to do it in the oven. So: pour the water into a roasting pan, add the lime leaves and then the salmon. Cover the pan with foil, put in the oven and cook for about 15 minutes, by which time the salmon should be tender. Remove the pan from the oven and drain the liquid off into a pitcher. Keep the fish warm simply by replacing the foil on the pan.

Melt the butter in a wide, heavy saucepan that has a tight-fitting lid, and add the oil to stop the butter burning. Soften the onion in the pan and add the spices, then keep cooking till the onion is slightly translucent and suffused with soft perfume of the spices. Add the rice and stir with a wooden spoon so that it’s all well coated. There’s not enough onion to give a heavy coating: just make sure the rice is fragrantly slicked.

Pour in the reserved liquid from the pitcher, about 2 1/4 cups, and stir before covering with the lid and cooking gently for 15 minutes.

At the end of the cooking time, when the rice is tender and has lost all chalkiness, turn off the heat, remove the lid, cover the pan with a dish towel and then replace the lid. This will help absorb any extra moisture from the rice. It is also the best way to let the rice stand without getting sticky or cold, which is useful when you’ve got a few friends and a few dishes to keep your eye on.

Just before you want to eat, drain off any extra liquid that’s collected in the dish with the salmon, then flake the fish with a fork. Add to it the rice, egg, cilantro, lime juice and a drop or 2 of fish sauce. Stir gently to mix – I use a couple of wooden paddles or spatulas – and taste to see if you want any more lime juice or fish sauce. Sprinkle over the zest from the 2 juiced halves of the lime and serve. I love it served just as it is in the roasting dish, but if you want to, and I often do (consistency is a requirement of a recipe but not of a cook), decant into large plate before you add the lime zest, then surround with lime segments and add the zest and a small handful of freshly chopped cilantro.

This is one of those rare dishes that manages to be comforting and light at the same time. And – should you have leftovers, which I wouldn’t count on – it’s heavenly eaten, as all leftovers demand to be, standing up, straight from the fridge.

From:  http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nigella-lawson/asian-spiced-kedgeree-recipe/index.html

Read more great Fight Back Friday posts here:  http://www.foodrenegade.com/fight-back-friday-february-12th/

Read more great Pennywise Thursday posts here: http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2010/02/pennywise-platter-thursday-21110.html

Read more great Real Food Wednesday posts here:   http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2010/02/real-food-wednesday-21010.html

Organic Blueberry Muffins

This is a quick and easy recipe to make. You can use fresh blueberries if they’re in season, but frozen work great too. Don’t thaw them, just fold in while frozen and they work perfectly. For best results use organic, non-GMO ingredients and enjoy!

FOR MUFFINS

1 3/4 cups whole-wheat pastry flour

1/2 cup organic sugar – I use evaporated cane juice or rapadura

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon celtic sea salt

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

1 large egg

1/2 cup whole milk

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1 1/2 cups frozen blueberries

FOR TOPPING

1 teaspoon organic sugar

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

EQUIPMENT:  a muffin pan (preferably nonstick) with 12 (1/3- to 1/2-cup) muffin cups

MAKE MUFFIN BATTER:

Preheat oven to 375°F with rack in middle. Butter muffin pan or use muffin cup liners.  Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl, then whisk in zest.

Whisk egg in another bowl, then whisk in milk and butter. Add to dry ingredients and stir with a rubber spatula until just combined (batter will be dense). Fold in blueberries. Divide batter among muffin cups.

MAKE TOPPING:

Stir together sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle evenly over batter in cups.

Bake until a wooden pick inserted into center of muffins comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool in pan 5 minutes, then remove the muffins from the pan and cool on a rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes 12 muffins

Read more great, Pennywise Platter Thursday posts here: http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2010/02/pennywise-platter-thursday-1410.html

Read more great, Real Food Wednesday posts here:  http://www.cheeseslave.com/2010/02/03/real-food-wednesday-february-3-2010/

Some article from the past week. The first one is such a great idea – Mom

Making Family Farms Profitable

In 1959, the U.S. was home to 4.1 million farms. Today, there are just 2.2 million. Some 40% of American farmers are 55 or older, and young people aren’t exactly lining up to replace them. But a new program in North Carolina hopes to make farming a viable career option once again.

Rutherford County, N.C., has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation. Yet some 6000 families own between 5 and 20 acres of land, and chefs in nearby Charlotte, N.C., are in need of fresh produce for their restaurants. Timothy Will, a retired telecommunications analyst, helped wire the region for broadband Internet access and set up an online ordering system—Farmers Fresh Market—that lets Charlotte chefs place orders directly with Appalachian farmers. Next, he convinced the locals to grow more exotic items like lacinato kale and purple beans. (“They’d never seen beans like that before,” Will laughs. “Here, beans are green.”) Two years later, Farmers Fresh Market counts 90 local farmers among its members.

In addition to teaching farmers computing skills and converting a vacant plot into a demonstration garden, Will and his colleagues have introduced sustainable agriculture courses for adults and high school students. “It’s kind of a resurrection of our history,” says Lindy Abrams, a 25-year-old who, after losing her job and enrolling in Will’s adult-education class, now grows vegetables and salad greens on land her granddad once farmed. “People are really excited.”

— Jocelyn C. Zuckerman

From:

http://www.parade.com/news/intelligence-report/archive/100124-making-family-farms-profitable.html

Why Big Ag Won’t Feed the World

by Josh Viertel

A year ago I sat in a room at the Earth Institute at Columbia surrounded by executives from big food companies. One of them, I believe from Unilever, clicked to a slide that read “The solution to global hunger is to turn malnutrition into a market opportunity.” The audience—global development practitioners and academics and other executives—nodded and dutifully wrote it down in their notebooks; I shuddered. The experience stayed with me and I haven’t gotten over it. Last month, I had a flashback.

On a Tuesday evening I sat in a room on the 44th floor of a building in the financial district of lower Manhattan with representatives from General Mills, Monsanto, Dean Foods, Deutsche Bank, and the Rainforest Alliance. We were there to speak to institutional investors—the hedge fund managers, bankers, and others who invest in big food companies—about sustainability and food. In particular, we were there to talk about how sustainability and hunger issues may give these companies both exposure to risk and access to opportunity.

    At first glance, these answers make both Monsanto and Deutsche Bank look virtuous. But they rest on a false premise.

It was not your average sustainable food panel discussion. Reflecting back on it, three things jump out at me. The first was a false premise that is taken for fact. The false premise:

Both Deutsche Bank and Monsanto made it clear that they are basing their business strategy on answering a simple question: How will we feed the world in 2050, when the population reaches over 9 billion and global warming puts massive strains on our resources? The answer for Deutsche Bank: increase yields by investing in industrial agriculture in the developing world, with an emphasis on technology; put lots of capital into rural land to shift subsistence and local market agricultures to commodity export agriculture. The answer for Monsanto: increase yields by decreasing resource dependence using genetically modified crops.

At first glance, these answers make both Monsanto and Deutsche Bank look virtuous. But they rest on a false premise: “There will be over 9 billion people by 2050. We have less than 7 billion today, and people go hungry. We need to increase food production if we are going to feed them.” Indeed, there will be over 9 billion people by 2050, and indeed, with less than 7 billion today, people still go hungry. But we don’t need to increase crop yields to feed these people. In 2008, globally, we grew enough food to feed over 11 billion people. We grew 4,000 calories per day per person—roughly twice what people need to eat.

Eric Holt Gimenez, of Food First (The Institute for Food and Development Policy) put it eloquently in a conversation earlier last year: “In 2008 more food was grown than ever before in history. In 2008 more people were obese than ever before in history. In 2008 more profit was made by food companies than ever before in history. And in 2008 more people went hungry than ever before in history.”

Hunger is not a global production problem. It is a global justice problem. We need to increase global equity, not global yields. There may be profit to be made in exporting our high-tech, input-reliant, greenhouse-gas-emitting agricultural systems to the developing world. But let us not pretend it will solve global hunger or address climate change. After all, high-tech, input-reliant, commodity agricultural is a major cause of global hunger and climate change.

So what changes are necessary for us to feed the world? In 2005, the World Bank, the FAO and the UNDP brought together 400 leading natural and social scientists, representatives from government (including the U.S.), private sector and non-governmental organizations to ask how we would feed the world in 2050. It’s called the IAASTD report, and it just came out last year.

The scientists concluded that genetically modified crops and chemical agriculture had failed to show much promise in feeding the world. They won’t be a big part of the solution. Instead, tomorrow’s agriculture will need to be much more regionally controlled and locally adapted, and will need a diversity of approaches to meet the challenges of climate change and resource scarcity. The result is a farming system that uses water frugally, sequesters carbon, and doesn’t require external inputs.

A study by the Union of Concerned Scientists called Failure to Yield found that genetically modified crops have not delivered on increased yields. In fact, nearly all of the gains in yields over the last two decades can be attributed to other practices. Vast tracts of rainforest are indeed being cut down to plant commodity crops, particularly soy. This deforestation isn’t happening because the varieties are old, unimproved, and not intensive. These are acres of chemically farmed, genetically modified crops.

The IAASTD concluded that if we want to feed the world, we need regional ownership and control, locally adapted varieties and practices, and farmers to grow for subsistence and local markets—and we don’t need export commodities.

“So,” I said to the institutional investors, “I’ve got good news, and I’ve got bad news.” The good news is that feeding the world in 2050 is completely possible; these solutions are within reach. The bad news is that there isn’t a ton of money to be made by a small number of companies in doing it. You can make money investing in technology and putting great gobs of capital into rural land that currently doesn’t have it, but you will likely be exacerbating climate change and global hunger, not fixing it.”

This, of course, gets to the heart of what it means to help.

When I was a little boy, my dad was building a tool shed in our back yard. It looked like fun, and I had always wanted to use a hammer. I wandered out to help him as he sawed a two-by-four. I picked up a hammer and some nails and started pounding them, without any particular plan, into a piece of wood. My dad looked over at me and said, “Josh. Tell me, what are you doing?” “I’m helping.” I responded, completely sincerely. He gently explained to me that if you want to help, first you have to ask the people you want to help what they need. In this case, he told me, he could really use someone to sit on the sawhorse to hold down the piece of wood he was trying to saw, so it didn’t bounce all over the place. When I protested that that wasn’t nearly as fun as pounding nails, he agreed with me.

“You are welcome to pound nails into that board,” he explained. “Just don’t pretend you are helping me build this shed.” Yes, global hunger is a market opportunity; some corporations will make money treating it as such. But it in so doing they are about as likely to end hunger as seven-year-old me was to build a shed by pounding nails into a piece of plywood.

From: http://food.theatlantic.com/sustainability/why-big-ag-wont-feed-the-world-1.php

Save the Planet: Eat More Beef

By LISA ABEND

Grass feeding required Cattle on this Hardwick, Mass., farm grow not

on feedlots but in pastures, where their grazing helps keep carbon

dioxide in the ground

On a farm in coastal Maine, a barn is going up. Right now it’s little

more than a concrete slab and some wooden beams, but when it’s

finished, the barn will provide winter shelter for up to six cows and

a few head of sheep. None of this would be remarkable if it weren’t

for the fact that the people building the barn are two of the most

highly regarded organic-vegetable farmers in the country: Eliot

Coleman wrote the bible of organic farming, The New Organic Grower,

and Barbara Damrosch is the Washington Post’s gardening columnist. At

a time when a growing number of environmental activists are calling

for an end to eating meat, this veggie-centric power couple is

beginning to raise it. “Why?” asks Coleman, tromping through the mud

on his way toward a greenhouse bursting with December turnips.

“Because I care about the fate of the planet.”

Ever since the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization released a 2006

report that attributed 18% of the world’s man-made greenhouse-gas

emissions to livestock – more, the report noted, than what’s produced

by transportation – livestock has taken an increasingly hard rap. At

first, it was just vegetarian groups that used the U.N.’s findings as

evidence for the superiority of an all-plant diet. But since then, a

broader range of environmentalists has taken up the cause. At a

recent European Parliament hearing titled “Global Warming and Food

Policy: Less Meat=Less Heat,” Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, argued that reducing meat

consumption is a “simple, effective and short-term delivery measure

in which everybody could contribute” to emissions reductions.

And of all the animals that humans eat, none are held more

responsible for climate change than the ones that moo. Cows not only

consume more energy-intensive feed than other livestock; they also

produce more methane – a powerful greenhouse gas – than other animals

do. “If your primary concern is to curb emissions, you shouldn’t be

eating beef,” says Nathan Pelletier, an ecological economist at

Dalhousie University in Halifax, N.S., noting that cows produce 13 to

30 lb. of carbon dioxide per pound of meat.

So how can Coleman and Damrosch believe that adding livestock to

their farm will help the planet? Cattleman Ridge Shinn has the

answer. On a wintry Saturday at his farm in Hardwick, Mass., he is

out in his pastures encouraging a herd of plump Devon cows to move to

a grassy new paddock. Over the course of a year, his 100 cattle will

rotate across 175 acres four or five times. “Conventional cattle

raising is like mining,” he says. “It’s unsustainable, because you’re

just taking without putting anything back. But when you rotate cattle

on grass, you change the equation. You put back more than you take.”

(See the top 10 scientific discoveries of 2009.)t works like this:

grass is a perennial. Rotate cattle and other ruminants across

pastures full of it, and the animals’ grazing will cut the blades –

which spurs new growth – while their trampling helps work manure and

other decaying organic matter into the soil, turning it into rich

humus. The plant’s roots also help maintain soil health by retaining

water and microbes. And healthy soil keeps carbon dioxide underground

and out of the atmosphere.

Compare that with the estimated 99% of U.S. beef cattle that live out

their last months on feedlots, where they are stuffed with corn and

soybeans. In the past few decades, the growth of these concentrated

animal-feeding operations has resulted in millions of acres of

grassland being abandoned or converted – along with vast swaths of

forest – into profitable cropland for livestock feed. “Much of the

carbon footprint of beef comes from growing grain to feed the

animals, which requires fossil-fuel-based fertilizers, pesticides,

transportation,” says Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s

Dilemma. “Grass-fed beef has a much lighter carbon footprint.”

Indeed, although grass-fed cattle may produce more methane than

conventional ones (high-fiber plants are harder to digest than

cereals, as anyone who has felt the gastric effects of eating

broccoli or cabbage can attest), their net emissions are lower

because they help the soil sequester carbon.

From Vermont, where veal and dairy farmer Abe Collins is developing

software designed to help farmers foster carbon-rich topsoil quickly,

to Denmark, where Thomas Harttung’s Aarstiderne farm grazes 150 head

of cattle, a vanguard of small farmers are trying to get the word out

about how much more eco-friendly they are than factory farming. “If

you suspend a cow in the air with buckets of grain, then it’s a bad

guy,” Harttung explains. “But if you put it where it belongs – on

grass – that cow becomes not just carbon-neutral but

carbon-negative.” Collins goes even further. “With proper management,

pastoralists, ranchers and farmers could achieve a 2% increase in

soil-carbon levels on existing agricultural, grazing and desert lands

over the next two decades,” he estimates. Some researchers

hypothesize that just a 1% increase (over, admittedly, vast acreages)

could be enough to capture the total equivalent of the world’s

greenhouse-gas emissions.

This math works out in part because farmers like Shinn don’t use

fertilizers or pesticides to maintain their pastures and need no

energy to produce what their animals eat other than what they get

free from the sun. Furthermore, pasturing frequently uses land that

would otherwise be unproductive. “I’d like to see someone try to

raise soybeans here,” he says, gesturing toward the rocky, sloping

fields around him.

By many standards, pastured beef is healthier. That’s certainly the

case for the animals involved; grass feeding obviates the antibiotics

that feedlots are forced to administer in order to prevent the

acidosis that occurs when cows are fed grain. But it also appears to

be true for people who eat cows. Compared with conventional beef,

grass-fed is lower in saturated fat and higher in omega-3s, the

heart-healthy fatty acids found in salmon.

But not everyone is sold on its superiority. In addition to citing

grass-fed meat’s higher price tag – Shinn’s ground beef ends up

retailing for about $7 a pound, more than twice the price of

conventional beef – feedlot producers say that only through their

economies of scale can the industry produce enough meat to satisfy

demand, especially for a growing population. These critics note that

because grass is less caloric than grain, it takes two to three years

to get a pastured cow to slaughter weight, whereas a feedlot animal

requires only 14 months. “Not only does it take fewer animals on a

feedlot to produce the same amount of meat,” says Tamara Thies, chief

environmental counsel for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association

(which contests the U.N.’s 18% figure), “but because they grow so

quickly, they have less chance to produce greenhouse gases.”

To Allan Savory, the economies-of-scale mentality ignores the role

that grass-fed herbivores can play in fighting climate change. A

former wildlife conservationist in Zimbabwe, Savory once blamed

overgrazing for desertification. “I was prepared to shoot every

bloody rancher in the country,” he recalls. But through rotational

grazing of large herds of ruminants, he found he could reverse land

degradation, turning dead soil into thriving grassland.

Like him, Coleman now scoffs at the environmentalist vogue for

vilifying meat eating. “The idea that giving up meat is the solution

for the world’s ills is ridiculous,” he says at his Maine farm. “A

vegetarian eating tofu made in a factory from soybeans grown in

Brazil is responsible for a lot more CO than I am.” A

lifetime raising vegetables year-round has taught him to value the

elegance of natural systems. Once he and Damrosch have brought in

their livestock, they’ll “be able to use the manure to feed the

plants, and the plant waste to feed the animals,” he says. “And even

though we can’t eat the grass, we’ll be turning it into something we

can.”

From:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1953692,00.html

Read more great Fight Back Friday posts here: http://www.foodrenegade.com/fight-back-friday-january-29th/