Organic Dairying: Gauging Pain in a Tough Market

The New York Times caught up with the plight of organic dairy farmers today, which was welcome, but the piece also missed some subtleties. Fairly quickly, my email was buzzing with organic dairy farmers taking issue with the story.

No one argues that times are tough, that organic feed prices have risen and pay prices have fallen -- that supply is swamping demand. No one argues that HP Hood has taken the draconian step of cutting farmers off.

What they did take issue with is the overall impression that organic farmers are getting hammered and leaving the industry in droves. As the article states, "farmers nationwide have been told to cut milk production by as much as 20 percent, and many are talking of shutting down." (Added emphasis).

What also raised eyebrows up in Vermont was this graf:

Here in New England, where dairy farms are as much a part of thelandscape as whitewashed churches and rocky beaches, organic dairy farmers are bearing the brunt of the nationwide slowdown, in part because of the cost of transporting feed from the Midwest. The contracts of 10 of Maine’s 65 organic dairies will not be renewed by HP Hood, one of the region’s three large processors. In Vermont, 32 dairy farms have closed since Dec. 1, significantly altering the face of New England’s dairy industry.

In the context of that paragraph, it sounds like 32 Vermont organic dairies have shut down. To check that out, I spoke with Lisa McCrory, a farmer and well-known organic dairy consultant in Vermont. She said she knew of two organic farmers in Vermont who had left the business since December '08. One sold their herd and is renting the farm to another organic dairy farmer, so technically only one shut down. The remainder were conventional dairies.

That also changes the impressions of this paragraph:

While most conventional farmers are accustomed to withstanding price volatility, “organic hasn’t weathered this kind of storm,” said Mr. Allbee, the state’s agriculture secretary.

What it doesn't mention is that most farmers transitioned to organic precisely because they couldn't deal with the economics -- that "price volatility" -- in the conventional business. And until recently, organic has provided a modicum of livelihood for the farmer.

The article mentions one organic farmer who borrowed $500,000 to transition to organic. McCrory, who helps farms transition, said this is significantly higher than most other farmers, though she did note that costs have risen in the past two years because of more stringent organic feed regulations. (Previously farmers could transition using a portion of conventional feed -- now they must use all organic).

In a recent survey of 20% of Vermont's organic dairy farmers, she only found a couple who were "dissatisfied" with the business. She noted, though, that this NOFA-VT survey was done before farmers were asked to cut back production 7-15 percent.

"I don't want to sound like this situation is not serious," she said. "Good producers are having a tough time right now. This is not a great time for a young farmer/new farmer to invest in organic dairying if they are coming in with little or no equity."

But those who were not overextended and who have enough land to grow their own feed will weather the storm. They are staying put until the oversupply of organic milk begins to get in line with demand.

Needless to say, purchases of organic milk will help, especially from those processors associated with family farmers.

- Samuel Fromartz

Kenya Diet: Leave U.S., Stop Stressing, Eat Veggies, Lose 100 pounds

The WaPo had an interesting item yesterday about an African immigrant leaving the U.S. and going home because of the recession. But the thing that caught my eye was that James Odhiambo weighed 300 pounds when he was living in Dallas, and then lost 100 pounds after he went home. His wife went down four dress sizes. And it didn't seem like they were dieting. They just began living in a different country.

He wanted a healthier lifestyle for his family, less anxiety, fewer 14-hour days. So he recently traded his deluxe apartment, the pickup truck, the dishwasher and $4.99 McDonald's combos for life in a place he considers relatively better: sub-Saharan Africa.

"Right now I'm no stress, no anxiety," said Odhiambo, 34, relaxing in his family home in this western Kenyan city along the shores of Lake Victoria. "Think of it this way: When I was in the U.S., I was close to 300 pounds. Now, I'm like 200. The biggest thing for me was quality of life."

Why? No more fast food. His wife started buying veggies.

Instead of shopping for groceries at Wal-Mart, Odhiambo's wife heads to the local market and bargains for fresh tomatoes, onions and the Kenyan equivalent of collard greens, sukuma wiki. She has dropped four dress sizes.

Which is curious, considering this recent study highlighted by Marion Nestle that wealthier people eat better. That may be true, but what people buy is also influenced by availability, culture and geography. The Kenya couple, with their two kids, now live on about $5 a day.

But, okay, maybe you don't want to move to Kenya. Well Jane Black of WaPo reports on another encouraging development: doubling the value of food coupons at farmers' markets under a program developed by Wholesome Wave Foundation.

"The idea of doubling your money really resonates," said Daniel Ross, executive director of Nuestras Raices, a grass-roots community development group that helped administer the Holyoke matching program. "We've found in all our research that low-income people know what healthy food is, but because of price, they can't afford it. This helps them get the food they really want for their families."

Dim the Lights -- Food on Film

The Organic Summit, an annual conference, is holding a competition for short films. There's a range of items, but I'm highlighting Deborah Garcia's "Soil: In Good Heart," which focuses on the place where all food begins. Who knew you could be so passionate about compost and dirt? I also liked "What's Organic About Organic," by Shelley Rogers and others too, highlighting kids and food, small farmers, even lobbying. Check them out.

Covering Sustainable Food

Aaron French over at Civil Eats did a nice round up of the journalists panel I moderated at the Sustainable Foods Institute at Monterey Bay Aquarium. As Jane Black of the Washington Post said:

The story is, How does this transition to sustainable food happen? Thekey is finding the most interesting people and angles that amplify the message while keeping it fresh.

Notes from the Sustainable Foods Institute - A Shifting Food Suppy

For several years now, the Sustainable Foods Institute at the Monterey Bay Aquarium has held a stimulating conference for journalists and food writers in an attractive location -- the aquarium itself.

So while scientists, food industry reps, academics and journalists talk about the future of food,outside the conference room, sea horses bop, sea otters munch and mystical pink jellyfish swirl in their tanks.

There's always a moment when I leave the talk about dwindling fish and the warming global climate and visit a quiet room to watch the giant blue fin tuna. Somehow the discussions about the rapid disappearance of bluefin are all the more meaningful when you actually can marvel at these wondrous creatures swimming about. 

That's really the point of the aquarium -- to communicate what goes on in the invisible oceans so that we understand them a little better. The conference takes this a step further by connecting the impact of farming and fishing, and yes, cooking, on our food supply and natural world.

What struck me about this year's conference was a slight glimmer of hope amid a usually gloomy subject. This note was struck in the opening remarks by Aquarium director Julie Packard, who noted that 37% of all retailers were now avoiding unsustainable fish supplies, up from just 20% a few years ago. This is due, in part, to the aquarium's Seafood Watch program, one of several by reputable organizations.

She also revealed a few tantalizing figures from an upcoming survey of 22,000 consumers which showed that a third - a figure I found surprising - had heard about sustainable seafood. And among those consumers, most “strongly agreed” with the statement “I worry about the future availability of healthy seafood.”

There were other positive tidbits throughout the two-day conference. Earthbound Farm - the largest organic produce company - revealed that 44% of the spring mix salad segment (which includes spring mix, baby spinach, mache, and arugula) was now organic. And that segment is the largest of the salad business itself.

For those fretting about the 3% share of the market held by organic food, and the less than 1% of farmland in organic production, this figure was stunning. Nearly one of every two salad purchases is organic. We always hear that organic is more expensive, less efficient, a luxury, etc., etc., but these arguments miss the cutting edge of the market.

Now in its 25th year, Earthbound and its partners farm 33,000 acres, a part of it in the Salinas Valley near the Monterey Bay. By farming organically, they avoid applying hundreds of thousands of pounds of pesticides and millions of pounds of fertilizers, much of which ends up in streams and the sea. The fish are clearly better off. So are the people who work in these fields. Locavores might frown, but for the supermarket shopper the company is bringing an organic choice to the table.

Finally, in a discussion about humane animal production, Tim Amway of the American Humane Association said he expected 35% of all livestock operations to be certified humane in the foreseeable future, based on business in the pipeline. Now only 3% are certified. Now we can quibble about which certification regime makes the most sense, but nonetheless this figure was startling. More than a third!

What these figures show is that markets can change. But consumers and companies -- both pushing and pulling -- have to make the right choices. And if they do, we're all better off.

- Samuel Fromartz

Reflections on Best Baguette in Washington D.C.

By Samuel Fromartz

Once in awhile, when you put a lot of work into a task and actually get a decent result -- well, you get to gloat, at least for a few minutes. So excuse me while I do so, because my humble, home-made baguettes just topped every bakery in Washington, D.C., in a blind tasting competition.

On the one hand, this result was unexpected. I mean, I’m a writer by profession. I’ve always been a writer, well, almost always. But I love to cook too, and at times have become passionate about it. I’m also drawn to crafts, and to crafts people; whether the craft is putting words together or making a whole grain sourdough loaf.

But in distinction to writing, baking has been a private endeavor. It was just something I did to break the tension, when my arms tensed up from typing too much, or when I just wanted to leave the computer screen and do something with my hands -- to make something tactile.

This grew into a regular practice. Starting many years ago, I stopped buying bread, because I made enough. A few loaves a week, we’d eat one and another would go into the freezer. I became adept at sourdough, using the natural yeast present everywhere. It was like conjuring something out of thin air.

My motivation was simple. I just wanted good fresh bread. Who can argue with that? It wasn’t a business. There was no market to worry about, no bosses or rent, nothing. Just baking pure and simple without any distraction because I had absolutely no larger intention. It was pure craft.

The parameters of the task were clear and challenging. You have just four ingredients: water, flour, yeast and salt. So often, we think of all the stuff or things we need to do something -- the equipment, the newest gizmo. And I did buy a few things, like bench scrapers and a couche (a linen cloth to support the shape of baguettes) and a baking stone to try and mimic the conditions of a hearth oven. But that was pretty much it, not much more than $100 over, what, a decade? Plus the ingredients, like flour, seeds, walnuts - or whatever else I choose to put in the loaves.

Then, there was the baguette itself, which is deceptively simple and hard to master. There’s the soft, slightly sweet crumb, the uneven and slightly chewy and bubbly interior, the crisp crust, delicately toasted in sections, and the aesthetic appearance, which comes from the slashes running down the top of the loaf.

When I began baking, this was the first bread I tried to make. It was an absolute failure, too dense, tasting of yeast and lacking  a crisp exterior. I tried many times to make it, then just gave up. Decided it couldn’t be done at home. I went on to bake other loaves and over the years learned a lot more. I could have condensed this process had I even taken a few baking classes, but I didn’t. I learned from cookbooks and developed the technique on my own (since baking is more about technique than a recipe -- again the craft of it).

But the allure of the perfect baguette was always there, so I’d go back to it now and again, but never approached what I thought even a half decent loaf should be.

The breakthrough first came maybe two years ago with a sourdough baguette, which I let rise in the refrigerator overnight. I was somewhat surprised by the results, since I had finally achieved the interior bubbly structure I sought. So for a while I stuck with those loaves, thinking they were pretty close to what I wanted.

But then I thought, to really be a baguette, the loaf should be lighter. With the aid of a Peter Reinhart recipe, I made a loaf without any sourdough. It had the bubbly structure, but I felt the taste wasn’t quite on par with sourdough. He also used bread flour, which I felt it was too strong, leaving the interior crumb too chewy, so I switched to all purpose flour -- a misnomer because it really tells you nothing about what you're using. The actual flours I bake with -- King Arthur Unbleached Organic All Purpose Flour or Whole Foods 365 Organic All Purpose Flour -- were ideal because they are both made with hard winter wheat suited to artisan loaves.

The final breakthrough came by reading a description of the baguettes made by two of the most influential bakers in France, Eric Kayser and Dominique Saibron, in historian Steven Kaplan’s book Good Bread Is Back: A Contemporary History of French Bread, the Way It Is Made, and the People Who Make It. Both bakers added sourdough to their baguettes in minor amounts along with yeast, and though Kaplan’s book is a contemporary historical narrative, he gives just enough information about the technique to craft a recipe. And more importantly, he talks about why bakers apply certain techniques, which can be more valuable than any recipe. Kaplan, by the way, is the world's foremost historian of French bread.

Then, in the midst of the recession, I got the unlikely opportunity to travel to France for a new start-up magazine, Afar. They liked my idea of working in a boulangerie -- something I had always dreamed about (and describe more fully in the article which appears this summer). I ended up at boulangerie Arnaud Delmontel in the 9th in Paris working beside Thomas Chardon, a young baker who took me through all the tasks of baguette making. We made a couple of hundred loaves each morning, repeating the techniques so that they become an extension of your body. It was exhausting but highly gratifying, and could be applied to the home kitchen. I also had the great fortune to spend a morning with Prof. Kaplan discussing bread.

When I returned, I just redoubled the work and began to get consistent results -- ones I was finally happy with.

So why did my baguettes win?

In France, my baguettes would have been decent, nothing to write home about especially in comparison to what is available. But because they take a full day to rise, they are also superior to loaves mixed and baked within a couple of hours. And that describes many of the loaves in the DC competition -- approaching the idea of the airy, white, bland bread that also widely swept France but has been roundly rejected by a new generation of artisans.

A key insight for me came when Loic Feillet, the baker and owner of Panorama in Alexandria, Va. -- who actually trained with Kayser in France -- mentioned that he offered a true baguette, but his wholesale customers revolted. He could not convince them that his loaf, made with with a hint of sourdough, was superior. So in essence, he dumbed it down to their idea of what a baguette should be.

The lowest common denominator may do wonders for a business, but it has never been the path to greatness. Working in my kitchen, I never had to worry about that. My only customer was the ideal loaf that I had tasted on occasion and had in my head. All I had to worry about was to do better next time.

So what’s next? A hearty rye perhaps ... it doesn’t matter. The point is to keep my hands moving, connected to my mind and to that ideal of taste I have. To keep the craft alive.

The winning baguette recipe is here. Happy baking!

Lisa Hamilton's Lens on Farming

Nice essay at Powells.com by Lisa Hamilton on writing her book, Deeply Rooted: Unconventional Farmers in the Age of Agribusiness (excerpt follows):

I've learned that, to write about farmers, one must ... slowdown to that rhythm of repetition. The writer must sit in the combine as it chugs along in concentric circles, taking hours to close in on the center of the field, only to pick up, move to the next field, and do it all over again. Being witness means a willingness to pass the same barn or tree or fencepost two dozen times and continually try to learn something new about it.

In a sense, it is the same process by which the best farmers survive. Their success comes not from knowing all the answers already nor from demanding them of the land, but rather from simply being a witness to the world around them. They must resist the dulled vision that comes with familiarity, and instead see the world with enough depth to notice its smallest changes.

Dan Barber Kissed by Ferran Adrià

Ferran Adrià's comment on Dan Barber in Time magazine:

Everything he does in the organic world is authentic and truthful.There is no pretense. When he offers you an appetizer composed of simple vegetables dewy with liquid salt, he is saying something to you. He converses with one of the things that I love in gastronomy: the essence of the produce. These are culinary preparations that retain the soul of the food. You discover and decipher the workings of that language — sometimes simple, sometimes complex — during the meal. It is a playful dialogue because we enjoy eating it.

Not to be outdone, Barber also won a James Beard award this week for outstanding chef.

Were photos of Mexican swine CAFO sensationalistic?

Ethicurean posted the pictures of the factory swine farm near where the first case of flu was reported then thought better of it. The blog posted a lengthy comment by a Vermont pig farmer who said the pictures circulating in Mexico and Europe were much ado about nothing -- this from someone who doesn't love CAFOs. So were they sensationalistic? Check them out and you decide but I tend to side with the farmer on this one. Hat tip to Ethicurean on posting the point-counterpoint.

More on the pig front, this piece from Wired is worth reading about the relationship if not the direct causality between CAFOs and flu. The quote by this researcher caught my eye:

“We haven’t found evidence of infected pigs,” said Ian Lipkin, aColumbia University epidemiologist and member of the World Health Organization’s surveillance network. “But even if we never find that smoking pig, we can surmise that this is probably where it came from.”

My only problem with that quote is that I often think of smoking pig in a much different and tastier light.
- Samuel Fromartz

"What's Her Name" (USDA Deputy Secretary Merrigan) Concerns Grassley

This just in from Think Progress: The Des Moines Register asked Sen. Charles Grassley, the Iowa Republican who sits on the Senate Agriculture Committee, if he had any response to Obama's recent subcabinet appointments at the Agriculture Department. He responded by saying that he believed that most of the nominees were "well qualified" except for -- referring to Kathleen Merrigan -- "the woman from Tufts" who was confirmed by the Senate in April. 

GRASSLEY: I think everybody's well qualified to do what they're doing, and there's only one that I would raise a question about. And I probably shouldn't be raising a question except some things that I've read about where she's coming from, and I don't remember her name, but the woman from Tufts. 

QUESTION: Kathleen Merrigan. 

GRASSLEY: What's her name? 

QUESTION: Kathleen Merrigan.

GRASSLEY: Yes. Whoever - whatever her name is, I've read some things that would make some caution -- cause me to be cautious about her, but I need to get acquainted with her because it's not fair just to read third-party points and know exactly where she's coming from.

Asked to explain specifically what gave him pause about Merrigan, Grassley responded: 

GRASSLEY: I think, with - I don't know whether I can point to a specific thing, but it tends to me to be having an unrealistic view of American production agriculture.

Think Progress explains Grassley might have been referring to a talking point memo on Merrigan from agribusiness interests.

And here's what Michael Pollan said on Salon.com, commenting on Obama's first 100 days:

Tom Vilsack has sounded a welcome new note at the Department of Agriculture, where he has appointed a proven reformer -- Kathleen Merrigan -- as his deputy, and emphasized his commitment to sustainability, local food systems (including urban agriculture); putting nutrition at the heart of the department's nutrition programs (not as obvious as it might sound), and enlisting farmers in the fight against climate change. He has been meeting with the kinds of activists and farmers who in past administrations stood on the steps of the USDA holding protest signs.

Is a Grassley Merrigan lunch date is in order? Maybe Pollan can join them. He's in D.C. on May 15 for a reading.

  

Did the Swine Flu Come From a Factory Pig Farm?

While the net is buzzing with talk that the swine flu originated from a factory pig farm, the evidence thus far has been compelling but inconclusive. As Grist's Tom Philpott asks: "...could the swine-flu outbreak have originated literally in the shadows of Granjas Carroll’s hog confinements, and not have some tie to intensive hog farming? That’s a question that health authorities have to vigorously pursue."

Although the Mexican government is testing a million pig farm in Perote, in Veracruz State, so far it has not come up with a smoking gun. The first case of the flu, however, originated in the same area.

The Times reports:

Mexico’s first known swine flu case, which was later confirmed, was from Perote, according to Health Minister José Ángel Córdova. The case involved a 5-year-old boy who recovered. 

But a spokesman for the plant said the boy was not related to a plant worker, that none of its workers were sick and that its hogs were vaccinated against flu.

Smithfield Foods, which owns a half-interest in the Mexican facility, is also trying to distance itself from the flu. In the absence of evidence linking the flu to the operation, you wouldn't expect otherwise.

The WSJ reports (subscription-$): 

"We are very comfortable that our pork is safe," Smithfield president and chief executive Larry Pope said in an interview. "This is not a swine issue. This is a human-to-human issue."

Mr. Pope said Mexican authorities have been on at least some Smithfield farms in Mexico for "several days" testing hog herds to confirm that there is "no incidence of this virus on our farms."

Another opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal by Henry Miller, a former flu researcher and scholar at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, however, clearly implicates - as Philpott does - intensive animal production: 

Intensive animal husbandry procedures that place poultry and swine in close proximity to humans, combined with unsanitary conditions, poverty and grossly inadequate public-health infrastructure of all kinds -- all of which exist in Mexico, as well as much of Asia and Africa -- make it unlikely that a pandemic can be prevented or contained at the source.

Flu viruses can be directly transmitted (via droplets from sneezing or coughing) from pigs to people, and vice versa. These cross-species infections occur most commonly when people are in close proximity to large numbers of pigs, such as in barns, livestock exhibits at fairs, and slaughterhouses. And, of course, flu is transmissible from human to human, either directly or via contaminated surfaces. 

Pigs are uniquely susceptible to infection with flu viruses of mammalian and avian origin. This is of concern for a couple of reasons. First, pigs can serve as intermediaries in the transmission of flu viruses from birds to people. And when avian viruses infect pigs, they adapt and become more efficient at infecting mammals -- which makes them more easily transmitted and dangerous to humans.

Second, pigs can serve as hosts in which two (or more) influenza viruses infecting an animal simultaneously can undergo "genetic reassortment," a process in which pieces of viral RNA (the virus's genetic material, similar to DNA) are shuffled and exchanged, creating a new organism. The influenza viruses responsible for the world-wide 1957 and 1968 flu pandemics -- which killed about 70,000 and 34,000, respectively, in the U.S. -- were such viruses, containing genes from both human and avian viruses.

The Humane Society of the US also has a long, informative article about the relationship between factory animal production and flus, but again, does not have a smoking gun. (Linked by Ethicurean.) Which begs the question, do we need one? Or do we merely need to reduce the chances for this sort of outbreak by preventing conditions that breed them in the first place?

-Samuel Fromartz