From Dave Smith

Lunch with Alice Waters, Food Revolutionary
[Her new book The Art of Simple Food] is more to Ms. Waters than an instructional guide. It is her attempt, through recipes, to save the American food supply. She wrote it because she still believes a plate of delicious food can change everything. “We’re trying to educate young people and show them how to use that lens of ingredients as a way to change their lives,” she said. “Otherwise, it would be just another cookbook.” Because true, radical change — a country full of people who eat food that is good for them, good for the people who grow it and good for the earth — is simply not coming fast enough. A revolution in how we eat means respecting food and the people who produce it, she said. In her world, every aspect of this revolution, be it related to agricultural policy, the environment or obesity must begin with a plate of lovely, locally produced food and work backward from there. (Also: Waters visits local foodies in Charlotte)

Help Wanted: Young Farmers
For instance, Country Natural Beef, a cooperative made up of over 100 Food Alliance certified cattle ranches throughout the West, has effectively breathed new life into member ranchers’ bottom lines, and subsequently attracted 11 ranch kids back to carry on their family cattle tradition. The wisdom behind their founding motto, “Decommodify or Die!,” has gained traction among all kinds of farmers who, more and more, are finding their survival tightly bound to direct markets, value-added products, and the loyalty of conscientious eaters (like you).

Recipe for success
Despite growing pains, Slow Food is helping to change the way people consider their dinner plates—and the farmers who fill them… “We still need a connection between the farmers up to their knees in mud and the fine-dining customers at the other end.”

Organic is healthier and cheaper
The recent syndicated column attacking the value of organics has two big problems. First, it is suspiciously similar to a national effort by chemical companies to discredit organic. Second, and more important, organic food is better for your health, and organic agriculture is better for the environment. Which isn’t to say that local isn’t important, too.

The village that could save the planet
Built from scratch in a treeless corner of the country, this community of scientists, tinkerers, and refugees - now numbering more than 200 - has created a verdant rainforest where once there was nothing but scrub grass. It has also devised and deployed dozens of inventions…

Wash your veggies first
“Even if those bagged salads say pre-washed, just wash them anyway because those seem to be the ones that are recalled. It’s hard to say if it is the food itself or the people who are handling it that is the problem. (Washing) is also a good way to get rid of excess herbicides and pesticides.”

Frog deformities linked to non-organic farm pollution
…fertiliser pollution may be to blame for boosting the number of parasites in lakes and ponds. Run-off from non-organic farms contains large amounts of nutrients contained in fertilisers such as phosphorus and nitrogen, which eventually end up enriching the waters in nearby ponds, lakes and rivers – a phenomenon known as eutrophication… the amount of phosphorus that runs from rivers into the oceans has increased about three-fold since the industrialisation of agriculture.

Factory farming cruel for animals and hard on the the planet, too
Specifically, it’s the enormous amount of nitrate-rich livestock manure that’s the problem. Farmers spray masses of it on crops as fertilizer, causing excess nutrients such as nitrates, phosphates and potassium to seep into the soil and groundwater… A sobering study by the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization found that livestock production causes an estimated 18 per cent of human-induced greenhouse-gas emissions globally — more than all forms of transportation combined.

Humanely Raised Meat
Humanely or sustainably raised meat has entered the mainstream. Consumers — already buying local food, free-range eggs, and organic produce at sometimes higher cost — are willing to pay a premium for the knowledge that their steak didn’t suffer on the way to becoming dinner.

Local vs. Imported - How do we decide?
What does all of this mean for those of us who want our food to have a minimal impact on the climate? For one thing, it means that we can’t rely on simple conclusions from single studies. Yes, there’s more to the carbon impact of food than whether it’s local or not, but in many cases local and organic food may still be the best choice.

Biscuits Stuffed With Organic Spicy Greens And Ham (Organic Valley)

Organic Burgers on Dark Rye with Heirloom Tomatoes and Feta Spread (Organic Valley)
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Dave Smith is author of To Be Of Use - The Seven Seeds of Meaningful Work and lives in Mendocino County, North California.
Photo Credit: The New York Times
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From Gene Logsdon
Garden Farm Skills

The past summer tested my resolve as a small pasture farmer as never before. From May to the middle of August we received almost no rain, and then were hit by a windstorm that knocked down the sweet corn, a neighbor’s barn, and many trees. That was followed by a ten inch downpour in one day causing the worst flooding in our county ever. I was up in the middle of the night, frantically shoveling dirt from the lawn against the back door to keep the water from coming in. Many acres of corn and soybeans were ruined by flood water. Homes and downtown businesses were devastated.

Looking back now as autumn comes in, I realize that I was one of the luckier ones. My impromptu dam saved the house. In the fields, pasture farming with rotational grazing proved its resiliency. Instead of having annual cultivated crops to worry about, I had only pastures which are not much susceptible to flood, wind, or even hail damage. My creek bottom pastures were under three feet of water but the water receded fast and the grasses and clovers were unhurt. In fact, after all that dry weather, they grew better than ever. Corn or soybeans on that ground would have been destroyed.

The three months of drought meant of course that there was grave stress on the pastures. Only by moving the sheep regularly from one paddock to another, and using what would normally have been hay paddocks for emergency pasture, did I get through until it rained again. You can bet that the lambs did not gain weight like they normally would, but due to help from an unexpected quarter, I never even had to feed any hay to make up for lost pasture. And I learned something that might make the drought almost worth the worry it caused.

The weeds came to the rescue! One paddock, where I have not yet gotten a good thick sod established, became overgrown with Canadian thistles which were shading out the clovers in the dry weather. When their flower buds started to form, I turned the sheep in because I know from previous experience that sheep like to eat those buds off the tops of the thistles. Then after the sheep had grazed down the paddock, I mowed it to knock the thistles back even more. When they regrew to a lush stand of about six inches tall despite the drought, I turned the sheep in again and they ate the thistles right to the ground. They actually seemed to relish the cursed weed. By the time of the next grazing rotation the thistles had grown back only weakly and the sheep ate them off again. When the rains came, the clovers grew back in force.

In another paddock, the drought all but killed the young clover. Ragweed, which must love drought, took over, threatening to shade out the clover. So I mowed the ragweed. When it grew back rather lushly, the sheep ate it too! When it rained, the clover, without weed competition, grew back fairly well.

In normally dry August, barnyard or Japanese millet always comes on strong in my pastures. I consider it nearly worthless for grazing because the sheep won’t eat it much after it goes to seed, which it does rapidly. This year there was no other food on the table in early August, and the sheep ate the millet very well when it was only a few inches tall.

In yet another paddock, which I thought was completely lost to drought because the clover I had sown there did not germinate, a nice stand of narrow-leaf plantain took over. I knew, from reading, that traditional English pasture farmers deliberately planted this weed in their pastures because they believed it to be very palatable and healthful for sheep. It is always present in my pastures because it grows wild everywhere in America especially in lawns and along roadsides. Usually in pastures it goes unnoticed because the clover dominates it. Sure enough the sheep ate it with gusto and so a paddock I thought lost to drought gave me pasture in midsummer when I desperately needed some.

What is most amusing about this, pathetically so, is that when I was a boy, my grandfather and my father tried to keep this plantain (which we called buckhorn — its scientific name is Plantago lanceolata) out of the clover hay fields. Why? Seed cleaners could not separate out the plaintain seed from the clover seed, and so the latter, which we harvested in the fall as a cash crop, would be docked at the elevator if it had plantain seed in it. Plantain is hated by Americans as the worst lawn weed of all. I remember a year when we crawled through the hayfield, digging out buckhorn plants by hand. All this agony because we were ignorant of the benefits of this “weed.” Not only do grazing animals like it, but in herbal folklore, it has been valued medicinally at least as far back as the 6th century B. C. It was used in ancient China and then all through the Middle Ages in England, as a poultice for wounds of all kinds, and as a general blood cleanser, whatever that is.

There is a lesson here for all of us, I think. We have been brainwashed by the kind of modern science that looks down its nose at traditional knowledge. I had to pay for this ignorance — had to crawl across hayfields digging out a plant that I would learn sixty five years later was perhaps as beneficial as the clover we were bent on (and bent over) “protecting” from it. And of course, we are all paying still. Americans pour millions upon millions of dollars of herbicides on their lawns to get rid of a weed that might, in a more enlightened age, be used as a beneficial medicine.
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Gene and Carol Logsdon have a small-scale experimental farm in Wyandot County, Ohio.

Current Books:
All Flesh Is Grass: Pleasures & Promises of Pasture Farming
The Lords of Folly (novel)
The Mother of All Arts: Agrarianism and the Creative Impulse (Culture of the Land)
Image Credits: Sheep Grazing in a Meadow, Rosa Bonheur (French, 1822-1899)
Flooding, Wyandot County, Ohio, 2007
Buckhorn Plantain
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From Lisa Barnes

First Fish For Baby

This is an easy way to prepare fish for your baby or toddler. Because of the mild and “non-fishy” taste, tilapia is a good introduction to seafood for a little one. Fish can be thinned with reserved cooking broth, or mix with plain yogurt or cottage cheese for a more creamy texture.

Makes 2 servings

1 cup organic vegetable broth
2 (4-ounce) white fish fillets

Heat broth in a medium skillet over medium-high heat until simmering. Add fish fillets. Broth should not cover fish, but come up about halfway. Simmer fish until opaque, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Fish should flake easily with a fork. Remove fish from pan and mash with a fork to desired consistency, or puree with some of the cooking liquid in a food processor.

Tip: No bones about it. Be sure to check fish carefully for small bones before feeding to baby. Fillets have fewer bones than steaks.
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Organic Fish Sticks For Kids

Forget about frozen sticks with imposter fish and fake breading. Your child deserves the real thing. Use a mild white fish for this recipe. Serve a variety of dipping options such as ketchup, malt vinegar, and tartar sauce.

Makes 4 servings

1 cup organic milk
1 cage-free, organic egg, slightly beaten
1 cup toasted oat cereal
2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 pound skinless, boneless fish fillets (halibut, cod, or tilapia)
1/4 cup expeller pressed canola oil

In a shallow dish beat together milk and egg. Put cereal in a food processor and pulse into crumbs. Or place in a self-sealing plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin. On a flat plate, combine cereal, flour, and salt. Cut fish into 8 equal pieces. Dip fish pieces into milk-egg mixture, and then dredge in cereal mixture to coat.

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add fish sticks to pan and cook until brown and crispy outside and cooked and flaky inside, 3 to 4 minutes on each side, turning with a spatula. Reduce heat if there is too much splattering. Pat fish sticks with paper towels to soak up any excess oil.

Tip: Everyone has Os. I’ve discovered that every household with a child under five years old has some brand of toasted Os cereal. You’ll be surprised how well your child’s favorite cereal performs in recipes that call for bread crumbs, stuffing, or even nuts.
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Also see: Baby Food Has Come A Long Way

Lisa Barnes is author of The Petit Appetit Cookbook and lives in Sausalito, California.
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