TELL USDA TO WRITE COUNTRY OF ORIGIN LABELING!

Tell USDA to write strong rules for country-of-origin labeling! Consumers and family farmers and ranchers have been fighting for years to require labeling about where food comes from. Now, after months of headlines about tainted food imports and years of delay by Congress, we are closer to getting country-of-origin labeling for meat and produce. Country-of-origin labeling for seafood has been required since 2005. Mandatory labeling is scheduled to go into effect for red meat and produce in September 2008. Right now, the USDA is starting to write the rules for how the labeling program will work for meat and produce, and asking for comments about the existing rules for seafood. Click here to tell USDA to write rules that cover as much food as possible, by limiting exemptions for "processed" foods, and allowing farmers, ranchers, and fishermen to use common sense record keeping systems to keep costs down - go to: www.fwwatch.org

FOOD AND WATER WATCH (continued)

As you may have seen in the news, the House of Representatives passed their version of the Farm Bill on Friday afternoon. And your emails made a difference! On several key issues, bad amendments were either withdrawn or defeated. Here’s the wrap-up:Factory Farms – An amendment to lift the cap on payments to large farms from the Environmental Quality Incentives Program was defeated on the floor of the House. EQIP is a conservation program that gives grants to farms to improve their environmental practices.

Removing the cap on farm size would allow large factory farms to receive grants to build systems for managing the vast amounts of manure their operations generate. The defeat of this amendment was good news for those trying to make factory farms pay to clean up the pollution they create.

Country of Origin Labeling – After lots of behind-the-scenes drama to head off a threatened amendment to gut the program, the House version of the bill clarifies how country-of-origin labeling will be instituted for meat and produce. And it keeps the process on track so labeling will be required in September 2008. In light of the furious opposition by the meat, produce, and grocery industries, this is a major victory for consumers who took action to say they want COOL now.

Organic Production – The House version of the bill includes funding to help farmers transition to organic production and also more support for research into organic production methods.While we made good progress on these fronts, the Farm Bill is a much bigger package of policies.

One of the cornerstones of the Farm Bill is policy on commodity crops like corn, soybeans, cotton, and rice. The House version of the Farm Bill leaves in place a broken system for these commodity crops. The House missed an opportunity to re-instate supply management programs that would stop the overproduction of these crops that leads to low prices for farmers and cheap feed for factory farms.

Instead, they tinkered around the edges of bad policies that have been in place since 1996. But the Farm Bill process is far from over – the Senate has to do their version of the bill, and then the two versions have to be merged together in a conference committee.

Congress will start their August recess later this week, so you might be seeing your Senators and Representative out in your community. Tell them (especially the Senators) that you want a Farm Bill that: *gives consumers country-of-origin labeling *restores conservation programs like the Conservation Security Program *supports organic production methods and *establishes supply management for commodity crops instead of current programs that encourage overproduction - Click here for more about the Farm Bill - check out: http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/

FACTORY FARMS DON'T DESERVE GOVERNMENT DOLLARS!

Tell your Representative TODAY that factory farms don't deserve Government dollars! - This afternoon, the House of Representatives will start debating the Farm Bill, and the final list of amendments is finally out.

One amendment being considered would lift the cap on payments to large farms for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program. EQIP is a conservation program run by the USDA that gives grants to farms to improve their environmental practices. Amendment 15 to the Farm Bill would remove the cap on what size farms are eligible for the program's funding.

Lifting the cap on farm size allows large industrialized operations to hijack this program, and means that factory farms will continue to get EQIP funds to deal with the excessive amounts of manure they generate, rather than paying for these systems themselves - Tell your Representative TODAY that EQIP funding should not go to factory farms!

TELL THE HOUSE AGRICULTURAL COMMITTEE TO TAKE COMPETITION SERIOUSLY!

Congratulations! With the help of all our supporters, we have defeated the section 123 provision that would have taken away the right for state and local governments to make stronger food safety laws than the federal government! We couldn't have done it without you! Now help us win this next fight! Tell the House Agriculture Committee to take Competition Seriously.

This week, after months of working behind the scenes, the full House Agriculture committee will consider their version of the Farm Bill. There are many issues on the table, but two that they especially need to hear about right now are:

1) Keeping COOL - Consumers have been waiting for country-of-origin labeling since the 2002 farm bill because the meat and grocery industries have lobbied Congress to repeatedly delay the date when it would go into effect. Right now, the rule goes into effect in September 2008 for meat and produce (seafood has been labeled with its country of origin since 2005.) But the meat, food processing, and grocery industries aren't done trying to kill COOL.

They are pushing amendments to the Farm Bill that would weaken COOL by exempting ground beef from the labeling requirement and allowing animals born in another country, but slaughtered in the United States, to get a "product of the U.S." seal. We need to let the Agriculture Committee know that consumers want accurate country-of-origin labeling on ALL meat and vegetable products, and that exempting ground beef and weakening the standard for what's eligible for the "product of the U.S." seal are unacceptable.

2) Fairness for Contract Farmers - With the rapid rise of intensive confinement (also known as "vertically integrated") methods of animal production, farmers are increasingly raising animals under contract with large meat companies. This is most common in the poultry industry, but has spread into hog production and is starting to appear in the cattle industry. In many cases, the farmer never actually owns the animals, but goes into debt to build new facilities necessary to raise animals owned by a meat company.

Under these arrangements, farmers are given take-it-or-leave-it, non-negotiable contracts. One of the many problems with these contracts is the use of mandatory arbitration clauses that force farmers to sign away their right to a jury trial and accept a dispute resolution method (binding arbitration) that is too costly for most of them to pursue.

The House version of the farm bill includes a measure that prohibits meat companies from forcing farmers into arbitration. The meat industry is pressuring Congress to get rid of this measure.

Tell the Agriculture Committee to keep the arbitration measure in the farm bill! - click here to tell Congress to increase competition in the livestock industry by not weakening COOL and keeping the ban on mandatory arbitration! - For more info on COOL click here ~ For more on the Farm Bill click here ~ For more on competition provisions in the Farm Bill click here - Thank you! from your friends @ http://www.fwwatch.org/

FOOD AND WATER WATCH

Late Thursday night, the House Agriculture Committee approved their version of the Farm Bill. After two hectic days of amendments and some furious behind-the-scenes negotiation, the results were mixed - On the bright side: Country-of-origin labeling remained intact due to incoming emails from constituents which helped keep COOL alive and on track to go into effect in 2008!

Despite intense lobbying efforts by the meat and grocery industries, a threatened amendment that would have gutted COOL was not introduced. Instead, some clarifying language about how country of origin labeling will work for meat products was included.

* More support for organic production! The bill now includes funding to help farmers transition to organic production (It takes several years to be certified as organic, but farmers don't receive the higher prices paid for organic crops during this transition period. So financial assistance during this period is a critical factor in getting more farmers to go organic.) It also includes more support for research into organic production methods.

On the not-so-bright side: Competition measures removed. The committee removed a provision that would have stopped meat companies from requiring farmers to sign arbitration clauses in their contracts. This measure would have restored a small measure of fairness to the one-sided contracts many livestock producers sign with meat companies.

Conservation. The House version of the bill cut a critical program called the Conservation Security Program, which encourages getting sensitive lands out of production.

So What's Next? Now the bill goes to the full House of Representatives. That is scheduled for the end of next week. So stay tuned for alerts about how to maintain country-of-origin labeling and support for organic, and to get competition and conservation measures back into the Farm Bill. You can also visit the Farm Bill section of the FOOD AND WATER WATCH website for more information by clicking here - Then, we'll get ready for the Senate! check out FOOD AND WATER WATCH @ http://www.fwwatch.org/

THE NEW FOOD CRUSADE

It was almost accidental activism. Acme Bread's Steve Sullivan was on a class trip to Washington, D.C., with his 13-year-old daughter when their flight home was canceled. A scramble to rebook ended with the Berkeley food artisan and his family seated almost across the aisle from California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, so he handed her a copy of his new favorite book, "Food Fight," by Sonoma County author Daniel Imhoff.

This book is a call to arms, urging Congress to use the 2007 farm bill to put more healthful food on people's plates. The bill, which in recent years has totaled about $70 billion annually - comes up about once every five years.

Although the farm bill has far-reaching consequences for the food supply, most people outside the Midwestern Farm Belt, which gets huge farm bill subsidies, have ignored it.

This year, things are different. Sullivan's trip down the aisle, and the book, are part of a wave of populist activism, much of it centered in the Bay Area, that is trying to change how a big chunk of farm bill money is spent.

The short version of the argument -- and nothing is short when it comes to the mind-numbing, complex farm bill -- is that the bill subsidizes the overproduction of corn and soy in the Midwest, which is driving up obesity and diabetes and polluting the land. Instead, they say, the farm bill should put more money into sustainable and organic food production, agricultural conservation and efforts to put a higher priority on fresh, local fruits and vegetables - Their slogan: It's the food, health and farm bill.

"I want you to realize how many people in the Bay Area are talking about this," Sullivan said he told Feinstein - READ MORE

THE GREAT CORN PALACE DIVIDE

i recently visited the corn palace in sunnyvale and spoke to the old guy who runs the place, and apparently his brother who co-owned the property with him for many years recently passed away - his brothers' wishes were to keep the entire piece of land growing produce, but greed has allegedly taken over and those who inherited half the five acres have already sold it!?

and to make matters worse; the family has turned a cold shoulder on the old man who just lost his brother, and even tried to cut off his access to the water well!? (see photo below) and since the san jose mercury news is not likely to write about this important story, i have decided to take it upon myself to inform the local community...

> interesting fact: the surviving brother owns about 80 acres in the central valley and mountain view, and has NEVER portioned off an acre of land for development...

since the federal government can come up with subsidies for farmers in the midwest (for instance) to keep those farms 'up and running', why can't they come up with some sort of subsidy that pays market value to landowners who own the last piece of agricultural property in any given city to permanently preserve it? - and especially or mainly where the ag land is endangered like here in the santa clara valley (the subsidy would guarantee permanent protection of open space)

(for example; sunnyvale has the old murphy family orchard which the city first seized, then gave back to them, but only if they took care of the land - this parcel is now the heritage orchard by the sunnyvale community center - mountain view needs its' own heritage agricultural land, and the pumpkin patch is a great candidate for this designation)

please tell the US congress to preserve the last remnants of rural agriculture in built-out cities! - let's help create community-based, volunteer-operated (organic?) farms to bring together communities and seed grass-roots actions! - CONTACT THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES @ http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW.shtml and/or THE UNITED STATES SENATE @ http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm > then feel free to tell your local leaders how you feel about this issue as well @ http://likroper.com/take_action.html

THE FACTS ABOUT LOAM SOIL - Loam soils are gritty, plastic when moist, and retain water easily. They generally contain more nutrients than sandy soils. In addition to the term loam, different names are given to soils with slightly different proportions of sand, silt, and clay: sandy loam, silty loam, clay loam, sandy clay loam, silty clay loam.

A "loamy" soil feels mellow and is easy to work over a wide range of moisture conditions. A soil dominated by one or two of the three particle size groups can behave like loam if it has a strong granular structure (promoted by a high content of organic matter). However, a soil that meets the textural definition of loam can become unlike loamy earth if it is compacted, depleted of organic matter, or has dispersive clay in its fine-earth fraction.

Loam soil is ideal for growing crops because it retains nutrients well and retains water while still allowing the water to flow freely. This soil is found in a majority of successful farms in regions around the world known for their fertile land...

(interesting fact: the santa clara and coyote valleys both have the largest deposits of LOAM in the world)

READ MORE ABOUT LOAM @ http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/loam - http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-loam.html - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Silt_Loam & http://www.hort.purdue.edu/ext/loam.html

these are photos of the corn palace land a few years back > click here to download a free screen saver - you can read more about THE CORN PALACE @ http://likroper.com/CORN-PALACE.html

> "I look forward to an America which will not be afraid of grace and beauty, which will protect the beauty of our natural environment, which will preserve the great old American houses and squares and parks of our national past and which will build handsome and balanced cities for our future" - John F. Kennedy

Lynyrd Skynyrd › All I Can Do Is Write About It - 4:21 (Allen Collins -- Ronnie Vanzant)

Well this life that I've lead has took me everywhere - There aint no place I aint never gone - But it's kind of like the saying that you heard so many times; Well there just aint no place like home - Did you ever see a she-gator protect her young? - Or a fish in a river swimming free? - Did you ever see the beauty of the hills of carolina? - Or the sweetness of the grass in tennessee? - And lord I can't make any changes - All I can do is write 'em in a song - I can see the concrete slowly creepin' - Lord take me and mine before that comes - Do you like to see a mountain stream a-flowin'? - Do you like to see a young one with his dog? - Did you ever stop to think, well, about the air your breathin'? - Well you better listen to my song - And lord I can't make any changes - All I can do is write 'em in a song - I can see the concrete slowly creepin' - Lord take me and mine before that comes - I'm not tryin to put down no big cities - But the things they write about us is just a bore - Well you can take a boy out of ol' dixieland - But you'll never take ol' dixie from a boy...

And lord I can't make any changes - All I can do is write 'em in a song - I can see the concrete slowly creepin' - Lord take me and mine before that comes - Cause I can see the concrete slowly creepin' - Lord take me and mine before that comes...

> 22 jul 2007 / UPDATE: since posting this blog segment, the dormant side of the field has been plowed...