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June 10, 2011
· Bean sprouts source of deadly E. coli
·
USDA testing
climate credits for farmers
· School plan gets under potato growers’ skins
· Marines learn farming for Afghan deployment
· Farm camp: Would you pay to shovel crap?
Bean sprouts source of deadly E. coli
"It's the sprouts," Reinhard Burger, the president of the Robert Koch Institute, Germany's national disease centre, told a news conference on the outbreak of enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) in northern Germany.
"People who ate sprouts were found to be nine times more likely to have bloody diarrhoea or other signs of EHEC infection than those who did not," he said, citing a study of more than 100 people who fell ill after dining in restaurants.
As a result, the government lifted a warning against eating raw tomatoes, lettuce and cucumbers.
The advisory, first issued over two weeks ago, has cost
vegetable growers in Europe hundreds of millions of euros
(dollars) in lost sales and sparked diplomatic spats across
German authorities had initially pointed the finger at
cucumbers imported from
And the European Union blasted
In an attempt to help hard-hit farmers, the EU has offered to pay out 210 million euros ($303 million) in compensation.
The origin of the contamination is believed to be a small
organic farm in
"Tests carried out at the farm have proved negative", but evidence still pointed to the farm as a probable source of contamination, he added.
"Thousands of tests carried out on tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce have proved negative. But there are ever more signs of a link between people contaminated and a farm" growing a variety of sprouts, a government official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"The links are ever clearer. It's a hot lead," he said.
In an interview to be published in next week's edition of Focus magazine, Lindemann said some 60 of the people contaminated had eaten sprouts from the small farm in Bienenbuettel which employs about 15 people.
Contamination might have been caused by infected seeds or "poor hygiene", he added.
Three of the farm's employees also fell ill last month, suffering from diarrhoea, he said.
The outbreak is believed to have started at the beginning of May, with the first people falling ill in the second week of May, the Robert Koch Institute said.
To date, more than 2,800 people have fallen ill in
People in at least 14 countries were sickened by the
outbreak, most of them having recently visited northern
At least 30 people have also died, according to regional
authorities, all but one in
"The number of new infections is declining," Burger told the news conference Friday following announcements of a drop in cases earlier this week.
But he warned that the "outbreak is not yet over", saying that some people were still falling ill after being contaminated several days ago.
USDA testing climate credits for farmers
(DesMoinesRegister.com) – With the Obama administration looking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the Agriculture Department is trying to perfect methods for farmers and landowners to get paid for emission-saving practices.
A $2.8 million project in
The idea of this and similar projects the USDA is funding is to quantify how much greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced by various methods and how much farmers and landowners could earn in emission-reduction credits, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said today.
The Fertilizer Institute, the fertilizer manufacturers’ trade group, is coordinating the project and putting up $400,000 of its own money to help match a $1.4 million USDA grant. The USDA is awarding $7.4 million in grants for nine such projects in 24 states.
It remains to be seen how much of a market there will be for the credits.
Congress last year killed the idea of creating a cap-and-trade system that would have encouraged utilities and other emitters to buy credits from farmers and sources. One of the criticisms of the credits is that it’s difficult to measure how much farming practices can really affect greenhouse emissions, a problem the USDA grants aim to address.
In the meantime, the administration has been going forward
with plans to impose greenhouse gas rules on power plants and other emitters.
The administration’s goal is to reduce
Some regional restrictions on greenhouse gases also are creating a limited market for carbon credits. Vilsack said there could be additional demand for emission credits because of regulations on pollution.
“We want to help farmers and ranchers make important and innovative contributions to reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” Vilsack said. “These grants are designed to test and verify exciting new approaches to greenhouse gas reduction that other conservation-minded producers will want to put to work on their operations.”
Reducing nitrogen losses could have environment benefits
regardless of whether farmers can earn climate credits for it. Runoff of
nitrogen from Midwest farms is a major cause of a large dead zone in the
“We recognize the practices we put in place to reduce nitrous oxide emissions also are going to have a positive impact on the environment or the water,” said Lara Moody, director of stewardship programs for the fertilizer industry group.
School plan gets under potato growers’ skins
(McClatchy)
The dinner plate-based guide from the U.S. Department of Agriculture released last week, which replaces the food pyramid that's been in place for two decades, is divided into four parts. Fruits and vegetables take up half the space; grains and proteins make up the other half.
"The overall message is very simple, and I applaud the effort to make people understand that fruits and vegetables should be half your meal," said Frank Muir, the president and chief executive of the Idaho Potato Commission. "I'd also encourage people to make sure they're using the right-sized plate."
But he's less thrilled with a new USDA school nutrition proposal, which calls for fewer potatoes to be served with school breakfasts and lunches. Its aim is to cut down on how many french fries kids eat — and to replace them with green vegetables.
Members of Congress have taken up the food fight, too. Last month, 40 Republicans and Democrats in Congress questioned the USDA's proposal to cut back on potatoes and other starchy vegetables in school meals.
In a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, they
objected to guidelines that limit potatoes in school meals to about two
servings a week. The
The guidelines in particular call for increases in the amounts of green and orange vegetables and legumes that kids eat at school. But many lawmakers, particularly Republicans, have raised concerns that the guidelines will raise the prices of school lunches.
They also question whether simply cutting out potatoes will prod kids into eating more orange and green vegetables.
"I think the natural reaction from most people is to look at this new policy and shake their head and say, 'What are you doing here?' " said Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Ohio, who heads the Nutrition and Horticulture Subcommittee of the House Agriculture Committee, and who authored the letter.
Potatoes can be a delicious way to provide potassium, fiber and other key nutrients in the school nutrition standards, the lawmakers argued in their letter to Vilsack.
The letter has the support of agriculture state lawmakers of
both parties, including Rep. Joe Baca of
But the reaction is also part of a backlash on the right over first lady Michelle Obama's campaign against childhood obesity.
Obama attended the debut last week of the USDA's plate-based diet guidelines. She called it a simple tool for parents and an important part of her "Let's Move" campaign to end childhood obesity.
"As long as they're eating proper portions, as long as half of their meal is fruits and vegetables alongside their lean proteins, whole grains and low-fat dairy, then we're good," she said. "It's as simple as that. That's how easy this can be for parents."
Education is important in preventing obesity, Schmidt said, but she said she drew a line at being told what she could and couldn't feed her grandchildren. Schmidt, who's run 89 marathons, said more needed to be done to get children outside.
"The government has no right to get into my kids' lunch box," she said. "They have no right to get into my kitchen. That's my job as a parent, to decide what my child will eat. That's not the government's job. Educate me, but don't dictate to me."
Potatoes are the only vegetable banned in the USDA's Women, Infants and Children feeding program, which gives poor women extra money, typically about $40 each month, to buy nutritious food while they're pregnant, nursing or tending to infants.
The USDA decided not to include potatoes because a study found that many poor people already base their diet on them.
The study, also by the
Growers think it's confusing for potatoes to be welcome on the new plate but unwelcome in schools and in programs such as WIC.
"It's on the one hand saying, 'Yeah, potatoes are good for you,' and on the other excluding them from school meals and WIC," said Muir of the Idaho Potato Commission. "Please, please, one side of USDA talk to the other side."
Muir said industry studies had found that only about 15 percent of the potatoes served in schools were fried. The commission is trying to encourage schools to serve potatoes on salad bars, where they're "a perfect canvas for other vegetables," he said.
For advocates of eating more vegetables, potatoes are fine, as long as they're not fried.
"That's really a nutrition education issue," said Kathryn Strong, a nutritionist with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a pro-vegan, anti-animal testing group that would like to see healthier school meals.
The committee would like to see diets that cut back on high-fat meat, cheese, sweetened beverages and sodium rather than starchy vegetables.
"A potato is very healthy. There's nothing wrong with it," Strong said, adding that the committee's main concern also is the french fry. "When you chop up and deep-fry anything, it's not going to be good for you."
Marines learn farming for Afghan deployment
(CBS
News) – A group of California Marines slated to ship out to
CBS News Correspondent Priya David
Clemens observed that
Lt. Karl Kadon started the program last year to help American troops mend fences with the Afghan people, 85 percent of whom are farmers.
Kadon said, "I would say, 'We're on the constructive side versus the destructive side of the war."'
Clemens asked him, "So it was a way for folks there locally to then trust you?"
Kadon said, "Exactly. This was something that allowed our Marines to act as humans, in a foreign environment."
Though they're traveling thousands of miles to fight, many of these young men and women, like Cpl. Brandi Weaver, have never set foot on a farm.
Weaver said, "I grew up in the country, but not really farming..."
Maj. David Caldwell added, "My experience I guess begins and ends with wine tasting."
Training takes place on the campus of
Why
Clemens explained that, in part, it's because the soil and
climate there are very similar to that of
When the program began last June, it had its share of doubters, even among some of the Marines.
But that soon changed.
"Once they got their hands dirty," Kadon said, "they were able to make the connection, the mental connection, and a lot of them were on board with it. All of them were on board with it."
The farmers were also on board - a marked difference, according to Kadon, from a first meeting with a local grower.
Kadon recalled, "Initially, he was very closed towards us. Of course, if you come in looking like Robocop, then they're going to approach you with some trepidation."
But, Clemens reported, once the gear came off and the talk turned to farming, everything changed.
"He started smiling and really opening up to us," Kadon said. "It was a great moment for us."
That's what these Marines hope to face, when they deploy in the
coming weeks for
For Weaver, she wants to use her new skills to cultivate lasting relationships.
"I never really wanted to go over there to shoot anybody," she said. "I like the idea of going over there to help them rebuild. And I'll be able to tell my kids that I did that."
Farm camp: Would you pay to shovel crap?
(Time) – With the end of school around the corner, the options for summer camp have gotten endlessly niche: there's rock-star camp, circus-arts camp, Hollywood-stunt camp. But in what may be a backlash to the glitz of it all, the hippest new kid on the block is the lowly farm camp, with tilling the earth now seen as a wholesome and character-building respite from video games and texting. The American Camp Association (ACA) has surveyed its members to report that 83% of day and resident camps have added gardening activities in the past five years, and 19% have launched farming and ranching programs, which include raising animals. "People think kids intuitively wouldn't be interested," says CEO Peg Smith. "But we're seeing the pendulum swing back."
Outside Seattle, Shoofly Farm is already sold out, with 600
kids signed up for 10 sessions chock-full of "care and fun with farm
animals" and "preparation of their own snacks and outdoor
cooking" (think hand-cranked ice cream and eggs sizzled in cast-iron pans over
the fire) — in other words, what earlier generations considered work. Across
the country, in
At Stone Barns, kids are put to use collecting eggs, feeding pigs, filling water troughs and harvesting green beans that are incorporated into a camp dish or sold at an on-site market. They might make felt soap, using colorful wool from the farm's sheep to create an artsy washcloth that wraps around a bar of soap and shrinks along with it; or perform a skit about pollination, with campers playing the role of various and sundry bees. "We don't come up with a cute activity just because it seems like a good idea," says Judy Fink, Stone Barns' education programs director. "Everything is focused on what's happening at the farm." So in early July, campers harvest garlic; in August, they pick tomatoes. "Many of these kids don't get dirty, so getting dirty is really cool," Fink adds.
Becoming one with the land isn't cheap: parents plunk down $460 a week at Shoofly Farm and $400 at Stone Barns — more than double some other day camps. But it's old-fashioned fun that stands in stark contrast to the virtual world; instead of playing Farmville, the popular Facebook game, they live it, grooming horses and mucking out stables and popping popcorn in coffee cans over a fire when the munchies strike.
"It's like an antidote to technology," says Jill Haase, who owns Shoofly in
Two years ago, Chris Butler packed her daughter, now 11, and
— last year — her son, now 13, off to Shoofly in an attempt to pry them from
their beloved Xbox. "They came home big-eyed," says
Of course, no one's naive enough to think that a week swapping out chicken-coop bedding is going to turn kids away from tech. Notes Mara Flanagan, Stone Barns' marketing manager: "For the most part, we don't get cell-phone reception here, so it kind of helps."
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