food museum blog

On Thirsty Bees, and Benevolent Bee Removal

For many days in a row I delightedly had noted at least three dozen honey bees buzzing around my fountain, many of them lined up in a row drinking from it like winged mini cows along a trough. Each morning I gently refilled the fountain to the top so that the insects would not have to struggle ( and likely drown) for their water.  I told a friend of mine in the neighborhood about it and she said she had no bees at all among her apple blossoms. It was " a puzzlement," to quote the King from The King and I.

Then, the other evening, my "everything-is-of-intense-interest" terrier, Lillian J. Russell, went into a major barkathon at the front door. The low key man standing there was asking if he could "borrow some power" from us so as to extract the bees from an impromptu hive on the foreclosed  property next door.

Well!  I went next door with him, dragging my extension cord, explaining about the major bee drinking marathons going on at my place. Mountain Bee Man, Dennis Parks,  said I had been keeping them well-irrigated during  an extremely dry period in Albuquerque.  And bees en masse, who knew, can drink as much water in a day as a large, hairy dog!  Apparently, I, Foodie, was an unlikely heroine to the inadvertent bees next door.

Feeling chuffed and halo-deserving,  I watched as Dennis and his apprentice began to set up the vaccuum-cleaner-like machine that would gently remove the bees from their dog house and into their new portable home. Their efforts to save these creatures and make them comfortable genuinely touched me, given the times we live in, or rather the violent news with which we are bombarded each day.  Credit, too, goes to the realty company or the bank people or someone who chose to hire a professional bee crew to relocate rather than eliminate this unlikely colony.  ( Bee Man expected the bees would be moved to either the east mountains of Albuquerque or to Corrales, a rural Spanish land grant community along the Rio Grande.)

My physical reward, not that I needed one, came a few hours later in the form of a plastic bear filled with honey from the Bee Man's honey farm. Readers, it was sublime.

( Since I did not take a pic of the bees drinking,  I am grateful to http://www.tonitoni.org/images/050422_beesdrinking.jpg for the shot above.)

Of Islands, Hunger, and Yes, We Have No Eggs

Haitians are apparently not satisfied eating mudcakes for survival---in Port Au Prince they are rioting, and looting, and demanding the resignation of president Rene Preval in part because global food prices  have risen 40% in the past year, a fact particularly affecting islanders who import most of what they eat. Their staple, rice, is expensively imported more than it should be, thus diminishing local production. Taxes on food, too, appear to be an issue. Food that is on shelves in cities is too costly for the poor to buy. According to today's AP story, about 80% of the people struggle to survive on about $2 per day.

Many of those who marched on the capital chanted "we are hungry!," according to a report from The Canadian Press. Haitian riots followed protests in Egypt and elsewhere, prompting a UN official to state that "food insecurity" is a major threat to world stability.

Meanwhile, speaking of islands, when we recently visited family in the Abacos, Bahamas, we stayed in Hope Town, a place filled with well-off vacationers. Food, and most other domestic goods available at local groceries, was outlandishly expensive when compared to prices for the same items on the Florida coast. Even eggs were not raised locally for sale---people are dependent on small ferry boats for everything, and during a three day period of stormy seas, the hunt for eggs became paramount. Not, mind you, for human survival.  It was Easter weekend, you see.

Early one morning, still in my robe, I walked from our seaside abode onto a small road heading into the lush undergrowth, following the sound of a rooster crowing, hoping  to locate at least one local source of something to eat. After a bit I turned back on reflecting that my inappropriate garb might have caused the rooster's owner to have me arrested by the constabulary ( one guy) for some form of peeping or stalking or other addlepated old dame behavior.

Even the mere threat of " food insecurity" has me pondering( not for the first time,)  where to live,  what to grow, how to harvest enough water for growing, and how to get "off the grid" in time to do all the above.  Perhaps my Jack Russell might be cajoled into trotting along on some kind of power-generating treadmill so that I could maintain my link to the Internets, too.

Real Issues, Please, Not Faux

While the candidates fool around with non issues such as answering old-fashioned 1950's red phones,  who has experience and what kind, and my commander-in-chief mojo is fiercer than yours,-- ( I even heard 46 year-old Barack Obama described as a "callow youth." Please!)--- violence continues and even escalates in many parts of the world, oil prices reach appalling heights, oh--and the world is slowly getting hungry as wheat and other staple grains become  scarce commodities. Amazing.

According to this report from Scotland's Sunday Herald, "More than 73 million people in 78 countries that depend on food handouts from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) are facing reduced rations this year. The increasing scarcity of food is the biggest crisis looming for the world'', according to WFP officials.

At the same time, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation has warned that rising prices have triggered a food crisis in 36 countries, all of which will need extra help. The threat of malnutrition is the world's forgotten problem'', says the World Bank as it demands urgent action."

Price rises are due to a surge in demand, worsening droughts, and increasingly, the growing of foods for bio-fuels, instead of for feeding people and animals. The report continues:

"High (wheat) prices have already prompted a string of food protests around the world, with tortilla riots in Mexico, disputes over food rationing in West Bengal and protests over grain prices in Senegal, Mauritania and other parts of Africa. In Yemen, children have marched to highlight their hunger, while in London last week hundreds of pig farmers protested outside Downing Street."

"The US currently grows one-sixth of its grain harvest for cars, which is madness," ( Robin Maynard of the UK Soil Association,) told the Sunday Herald."

SSF Mainiacs Visit Fabled Indian Farm

The Summit Springs Farm-ers, ( you may recall their ongoing effort to erect a large greenhouse on their spread,) recently have returned to Maine after an incredible 5-week trip to India, and their spokesperson on all things ag, John Sayles, sent us this report:

" One of the most rewarding experiences of the trip was a visit to Navdanya, an organic research farm and seed bank about 10 kilometers outside the city of Dehra Dun in the Indian state of Uttranchal. The 20-acre site was founded in the 1980’s by Dr. Vandana Shiva, a scientist, environmentalist, and activist, “to support local farmers, rescue and conserve crops and plants that are being pushed to extinction and make them available through direct marketing.” The Navdanya website also notes that the farm is “actively involved in the rejuvenation of indigenous knowledge and culture. [Navdanya] has created awareness on the hazards of genetic engineering,  ( and)defended people's knowledge from biopiracy and food rights in the face of globalization.”

After looking through the small bookstore and administrative center, we walked around this unique farm with a guide. In small plots, different combinations of crops are grown together to see how they do. One plot may have carrots and onions together; another may have carrots, onions, and coriander (cilantro). Crop density is also studied. One plot of wheat has been intensively planted, and another less so, and another even less, but perhaps also interspersed with another grain or even another variety of wheat. Dozens and dozens of these plots cover the farm’s open spaces. Nearby is an orchard, and in the opposite direction is the seed bank.

We took a short walk down a tree-lined lane with bright green parrots flitting about overhead, to reach the seed bank, a modest rectangular building with an adobe appearance. We all took off our shoes and filed in. Over 300 varieties of rice are kept here in metal boxes, plus about 70 varieties of wheat, numerous other grains, and vegetable and fruit seeds. It is probably the most extensive private seed bank of its kind in all of India. The building itself, though, was much smaller than expected, quite modest, and decorated with lively paintings of flora and fauna on the walls. Outside, the spirit of experimentation and variety continued with the compost area. We saw four or five different composting methods being tried, everything from pit composting to compost bins with removable sides to elaborate composting trenches designed to make the worms happy.

  Our friend and traveling companion, Nicole, is an amateur herbalist and was thrilled to spend some time with the farm’s herbal guru. He showed us around his modest plots of medicinal and cooking herbs and also allowed us a peek into his rooms where he dries and prepares the herbs. All of this was followed by an excellent buffet-style lunch in the farm’s mess hall. We took a brief look around the farm’s library and bookstore and purchased a few books, including an Indian cookbook, before thanking our new friends and hitting the road for the drive back to our ashram in Laksman Jhula. The Navdanya experience was moving, inspiring, and thought-provoking. I would love to return for a longer stay and perhaps do some volunteer work there as a way to help this noble effort. "

For more information on the remarkable visionary Dr. Vandana Shiva, a physicist trained at the University of Western Ontario, click here.

(Pix by shaggy, baggy Farmer John who can be seen just above on the right.)

Slaughtering News From All Over, Plus, A Teapot Scandal?

Grateful that I do not have 150 feet of intestines tucked inside, as do manatees, I see that the current crop of free healthy product magazines are recommending a huge roster of "cleansing" items this winter, none of which would be needed if the magazines' audience were eating as advised in the first place, right?

But I digress---a slaughterhouse video from Hallmark Meat Packing in Chino, CA, has prompted Los Angeles schools to withhold meat products from a company called Westland that buys meat from Hallmark, on the grounds that the "downer" cattle unable to walk towards their deaths were being dragged or pushed in, and thus might be suffering from diseases that could render their meat iffy for human consumption. Westland provides ground beef to the USDA's National School Lunch Program.  Many school systems around the US have chosen to reject meat from Westland, including some in Oregon and Florida.

( Meanwhile, rival groups in Kenya have been killing one another not only machetes, but also with bows and arrows. )

Japanese whalers, despite concentrated efforts to stop them, continue to slaughter whales with impunity, though Australian authorities now claim the video evidence they have will bolster their case against the spurious legal claim of the Japanese that they are taking whales for "research purposes."

Apparently The Teapot Museum of Sparta, NC, was the recipient of a $500,000 grant from the Federal Transportation office back in 2006, a fact now revealed to all and sundry with great derision. This report from 2007 says the planned new museum idea has been scrapped. Now as one who applauds any museum effort directed however tangentially at the subject of food, the stuff that sustains us, rather than at yet another monument to war and destruction, I must say that chunk of change would have been a fine first step towards the creation of the National Museum of Food & Farm on the Mall in Washington, DC. Read more about The FOOD Museum's proposal here.

They Eat Pizzas, Don't They? Food Issues and the Pols

I  don't know if you are as weary as I am of the non-issues making headlines among the current crop of pols vying for our attention. Who has religion and what kind, and what about those pesky gay people, who have always been here in every area of endeavor, and always will, and so on.......

As many of you know, the motto of The FOOD Museum On-Line, of which this blog is an offshoot, is a line from writer M.F.K.Fisher, " First we eat, then we do everything else." So as a member of the Foodie political persuasion, I thought I would examine some of the Presidential candidates' websites to see where food, the major national security and health issue for Americans, appears on their agendas.

In my informal and incomplete survey,  New Mexico's Governor Bill Richardson, Arkansas' Mike Huckabee and John Edwards of North Carolina give space to food issues. Richardson pledges new legislation to protect the safety of America's food, as well as anti-trust legislation to support the farm sector.  Huckabee states that America's security in part rests on its ability to feed itself. ( A factor Huckabee, a famously successful dieter, is familiar with.) Of the three, Edwards has the most detailed plan for food safety on any website. Chris Dodd of Connecticut has this item--he wants to open new markets for American agricultural products.

Massachusett's Mitt Romney's wife Ann is intent on gathering American family recipes for his website, incluidng the current one posted for Welsh skillet cakes. In her words, "the kitchen lies at the heart of our home."  I certainly agree. Filling our tums and hanging out in kitchens are cherished pasttimes for us all.

Obama? Hillary?  Fred T. ? Rudy G? Nothing readily apparent.

Ron Paul, MD, of Texas, everybody's favorite maverick, says this on his website:

"Americans are justifiably concerned over the government’s escalating intervention into their freedom to choose what they eat and how they take care of their health.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in order to comply with standards dictated by supra-national organizations such as the UN‘s World Food Code (CODEX), NAFTA, and CAFTA, has been assuming greater control over nutrients, vitamins and natural health care providers to restrict your right to choose the manner in which you manage your health and nutritional needs. "

  ps I've always loved Joe Biden and I'm sure he eats and cares. His Iowa team created this hilarious corn-themed visual to point out his vast experience, as compared to, well, a couple of front-runners.

( "Ears" from Biden's website; official headshot of Hil, who also eats, from hers.)

Eat Loads of Tuna? Sushi? Get Tested for Mercury Poisoning

An amusing progressive radio talk show host, Stephanie Miller, had been mentioning on air her terrible insomnia over the past few weeks. Then, suddenly, a blood test revealed she had severe mercury poisoning. Evidently Stephanie had long been a tuna and crackers for lunch person, with sushi her regular dinner choice. Now she is off fish, obviously, and taking a wide range of supplements and meds in order to draw the mercury from her body.

Now we've all heard the warnings about too much swordfish, too much big fish eating of any kind, but we probably figured the mercury thing was only a concern for pregnant women and kids. Not so.

The symptoms? Pins and needles, short term memory loss, lack of coordination, among others. ( The insomnia may NOT be a part of the mercury profile, but, not all is fully known.)

The mercury topic has two parts--one, eating the affected fish on a regular basis decidedly is not good for humans. Two, environmental concerns. 80% of the mercury in the air is caused by coal-fired power plants. The rest is generated by fertilizers and the burning of solid waste.

This is another in a long line of concerns regarding what we eat, what we should and should not eat---it's a subject that is becoming increasingly depressing!  Yesterday I was searching for a decent, frozen fish that was not a product of China--after tossing aside several offerings I chose whiting from Canada and when I semi-defrosted two pieces, one of them smelled fishy, in that definitive way that means not-so-fresh-when-frozen. Damn. I gave that  piece to the dog.....

For info on healthy and unhealthy fish choices see this: http://www.oceansalive.org/eat.cfm?subnav=bestandworst

Romney Dinged at Diner, Loses Appetite

Republican candidate Mitt Romney came up against an actual American asking tough questions at the Red Arrow diner in Manchester, NH recently. The questions  about health care came from Michelle Griffin, a Red Arrow employee for 12 years. As the Washington Post reported it, Griffin was  "in no mood for platitudes."

About the Red Arrow--it's a food heritage site, in business since 1922, tra la. ( Its history page  says the joint opened in October 1921...and also "since 1922." ..) Open 24 hours, The Red Arrow was voted among the top 10 American diners by USA Today at one point.

The boom days of dinerdom were in the 1950's and then fast food joints began edging out the old silver-sides. But there's a resurgence in affection for diners these days, thankfully. To find the real thing one must get off major highways  and look along sideroads for places stuffed with cars at 6:30 am--at least that's how we choose where to stop for breakfast--apple pie a la mode and coffee, please. Plus--are those home fries made fresh?

As for the "no mood for platitudes,"  many of us are feeling that way these days, and sometimes the gorge rises. You can read Ms. Griffin's questions via the WPost link above.

Funding Food Projects A Few Bucks At A Time

If you don't already know about Kiva, take a look. This charitable organization supports qualified small-time entrepreneurs with tiny loans put t0gether by groups of donors so that they can get businesses up and running, or expand existing small operations. Many of them involve food---shops, farms, cafes, bakeries, and the like. Many are run by women.

This is "micro-financing" in action. Most of the loans are under $1200, and last from 6-12 months. You can give as little as $25, and you will get your money back quickly, to reinvest again in hard-working people around the world.

( Photo of Ismayilova Nobar in Azerbaijan with her cow. http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=11967)

Whither the F in FDA?

Congress--specifically the House Committee on Energy and Commerce-- is all in a swivet at the FDA's decision, taken last December, mind you, to close down half of its existing food testing labs across the country. (Ironically, The Decider had actually authorized a $20 million increase in funding for such labs, stating it was important to “expand the network of laboratories that would rapidly and competently analyze samples in the event of a terrorist attack on our nation’s food supply.” )

According to an AP report July 17 at sfgate.com,

"The FDA's ability to police the nation's food supply has come under withering criticism from Congress and others amid a string of high-profile cases of foodborne illness, including E. coli-tainted spinach and salmonella-contaminated peanut butter and snack foods, as well as concerns about drug-laced, farmed fish imported from China.

An Energy and Commerce Committee investigation found the FDA now has little ability to police imports. In San Francisco, for example, the FDA's staff can conduct only a cursory review of imports, generally dedicating just 30 seconds to each shipment as it flashes by on a computer screen, according to investigators."

So why are the labs going to be shut down? Answers are hard to find, aside from the usual "cost-cutting and consolidation" comments.

As we at The FOOD Museum have been saying for decades, food is a topic Americans have been taking for granted for years, and food issues go under-reported and poorly explained. Yes, this is changing, slowly, but it has taken the poisoning and deaths of Rex and Fluffy to wake people up.

This morning there was much talk on the radio about how tough it is to label where our food comes from, yada, yada--we all know European supermarkets have been doing this with apparent ease for years. But the European Union is to thank for that in part, too.