What Foods Don't Contain Melamine?

From the BBC this morning:
Chinese Melamine Scandal Widens

"The toxic chemical melamine is probably being routinely added to Chinese animal feed, state media has reported."

"Analysts say that Friday's news reports are an unusual departure for Chinese officials, marking what amounts to a tacit government admission that the problem could affect many parts of the food supply."

Melamine has been found now in 4 brands of eggs, as well as, you know, the milk. Eggs and milk are used to make baked goods. Baked goods, is anyone testing the baked goods?

I want to recover a little-reported fact from the melamine-in-pet-food scandal here in the US from April, 2007:

"Urine tests done on some of the 800 hogs now quarantined at a farm have tested positive for low levels of melamine." But... "According to the state veterinarian, none of the suspect feed was fed to the hogs. Federal tests on the feed have come up negative. The positive urine tests could not be immediately explained."

________Dear USDA/FDA/DHS*

I'd love a little more transparency on melamine testing in this country, assuming it's being conducted. Were those 800 hogs (which entered the human food supply) back in 2007 an anomaly?

* DHS: Department of Homeland Security. I think, given the global nature of today's food market, the DHS should get more involved in food safety.
________

Trickle Down Being Shelved?

A new economic stimulus plan is being considered that may:¹

• Extend unemployment insurance benefits.
  
• Increase Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) (formerly Food Stamp) benefits.

Nutrition assistance would be welcome:


Click for larger.
So ...

• Historian Howard Zinn says we need to increase purchasing power for lower income Americans.
  
• Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) says "we have to prop up consumption" for lower income Americans.
  
• Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich says we should "extend unemployment benefits."
  
• Fed Chairman Bernanke says "consideration of a fiscal package by the Congress at this juncture seems appropriate."
  
• And even though Bush has frowned on another stimulus injection, after Bernanke's call, "the White House has said that President Bush would be ''open'' to ideas for a second stimulus package."

Regardless of who wins next Tuesday, it looks like the trickle down theory (is that what George Bush senior referred to as "voodoo economics"?) is being shelved for the time being.
________¹ Another Stimulus Plan Under Consideration, TEFAP (The Emergency Food Assistance Program), October 24, 2008.
Map from: As Jobs Vanish And Prices Rise, Food Stamp Use Nears Record, New York Times, March, 2008.

Melamine in Eggs, Maybe In Meat

Chinese Eggs Tainted With Excessive Melamine, MSNBC, October 26

"Hong Kong Secretary for Food and Health said the melamine may have come from feed given to the chickens that laid the eggs."

"The egg results have prompted officials to expand food testing to meat."

Remember the melamine-in-pet-food scare here? Well, one must ask where all the deceased dogs, cats, hogs, chickens, farmed fish, and other animals that ate melamine-laced food ended up. If they ended up at a rendering plant (likely), then they ended up as part of "commercial animal feed." This is why Hong Kong is testing meat. It may not be that the melamine was added deliberately, as it was to milk, but that it returned to the food chain from recycled contaminated animal parts.

According to a decision the FDA made earlier this month, that's fine as long as the amount of melamine doesn't exceed 2.5 parts per million in food intended for human consumption. According to others, no amount of melamine is fine.

Recycled Animal Parts

In this country, we feed recycled animal parts back to livestock and pets:
The Dark Side of Recycling - Rendering Plants

The good:

"Rendering plants perform one of the most valuable functions on Earth: they recycle used animals. Without rendering, our cities would run the risk of becoming filled with diseased and rotting carcasses. Fatal viruses and bacteria would spread uncontrolled through the population."

The bad:

"Rendering plants are unavoidably processing toxic waste."

Some toxins:

"Pesticides enter the rendering process via poisoned livestock, fish oil laced with bootleg DDT and other organo-phosphates that have accumulated in the bodies of West Coast mackerel and tuna."

"Because animals are frequently shoved into the pit with flea collars still attached, organo-phosphate-containing insecticides get into the mix as well."

"The insecticide Dursban arrives in the form of cattle insecticide patches."

"Pharmaceuticals leak from antibiotics in livestock."

"Euthanasia drugs given to pets are also included."

"Heavy metals accumulate from a variety of sources -- pet ID tags, surgical pins and needles."

"Even plastic winds up going into the pit. Unsold supermarket meats, chicken and fish arrive in styrofoam trays and shrink wrap. No one has time for the tedious chore of unwrapping thousands of rejected meat packs. More plastic is added to the pits with the arrival of cattle ID lags, plastic insecticide patches and the green plastic bags containing pets from veterinarians."

No wonder "Greater than 90% of [persistant organic pollutants] come from [consumption of] animal foods in the general population."¹________¹ A Strong Dose-Response Relation Between Serum Concentrations of Persistent Organic Pollutants and Diabetes, Diabetes Care, 2006.
Painting of black copper marans eggs by Jeanie Chadwick.

Labels Schnabels

More here.
________

If You Were CEO Of A Global Food Company...

Ronald, this one is for you.

The public relations and marketing firm, Ketchum, conducted a global survey of 1000 people in 5 countries: US, UK, Germany, Argentina, and China.

The study, called Food 2020: The Consumer as CEO, asked consumers what they want from their food ... trying to give food manufacturers a heads-up for what will sell in 10 years from now.

Here's a summary of their findings (pdf):
Food 2020: The Consumer as CEO, Executive Summary

Here are a few items that stood out for me:

1. When making a food purchase, 4 of the 5 countries placed "health benefits" at the very bottom of a list of 4 factors related to food choice. The one that didn't was China. China placed "health benefits" at the very top. (The survey was taken in July-August 2008, before the melamine-in-milk crisis was made public in China.)
   
   
   Click for larger.
   Which of the 4 factors (taste, quality, price, health benefits) is your top consideration when choosing food?
   
   (Mine is "health benefits" with "quality" a close second. Maybe that's because I'm in the health industry.)
   
   
2. Here's the one that made me think of you, Ronald. Consumers were asked which of 9 factors would be their top priority if they were CEO of a global food company. Close to order of priority, they were:
   
   
   Click for larger.
   At the very bottom, coming in at only 30% of US respondents, was "making a profit." Interestingly, almost all of the factors that consumers in the US (probably the least socialist of countries studied) ranked as more important than "making a profit" were social welfare issues.
   
   I have to say, if you are the CEO of a global food company and making a profit is not your top priority, you would not be the CEO of that company.
   
   
3. One more, having to do with food sourcing:

   "While 78% of consumers say they would like to get their foods from local farms or companies by the year 2020 ... just 17% of consumers said they “don’t care where food comes from” as long as it’s affordable and tastes good."

   As the researchers put it, "Consumers want local food, but they’re not willing to pay for it – in terms of either cost or taste."

________

The Gap, Part Two

Yesterday I blogged about the huge gap in income between the rich and poor in the US. I posted a graph from The Economist that shows we have the biggest gap of all 30 OECD countries.

Here's a YouTube¹ by Howard Zinn (a historian and author who I don't know much about but I can be a fast study). In it he says that this wide income gap in the US is responsible for the recent economic crisis (as it was during the Depression), and that the $700 billion bailout (or rescue) is a magnified version of the trickle down theory.


In his words:

"[The bailout] is a magnified version of the trickle down theory."

"The root of the economic crisis is today as it was in the 1930s, the root of it is the enormous gap between the wealth at the top and the insecurity on the bottom."

"One out of every 5 children in the US, throughout these last decades was born into poverty."

"And so the root of it, the root of the problem, is this gap between rich and poor. There's no purchasing power at the bottom."

"To me, the solution is obvious. Instead of giving the $700 billion to financial institutions, you take that money and you give it directly to the people who need it ... in direct aid to people who are going to lose their homes ... and the government should create millions of jobs ... this was done in the 30s."

If trickle down works, why when the country was experiencing an economic boom in the 90s were 20% of children still being born into poverty? Why did the income gap persist, and widen?

Maybe Zinn's idea to inject the money at the bottom is better than President Bush's idea (rather, his Treasury Secretary, Paulson's, and Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke's idea) to inject the money at the top. I don't know. I'll say this ... I hope that $700 billion trickles down real soon.
________¹ The interview was conducted by The Real News Network. There's another Zinn interview there (including transcript) where he says neither McCain nor Obama have a big enough social tide behind them to make any real change. Really watchable stuff.

Menu Labeling In Action

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is keeping track of actual calorie labeling on restaurant menus.

This one is from a menu board inside Chipotle's, NYC:


Cosi: (That's some pretty caloric fruit.)


IHOP: (Spinach & Mushroom Omelette: Fresh spinach, mushrooms, onions and Swiss cheese rolled in a fluffy omelette. Topped with rich hollandaise and dried tomatoes. 1210 calories. Wow.)


McDonald's:


Subway: (Philly cheesesteak: 520 calories. No way. Johnny Rockets lists it at 715. Can't be less than a Big Mac.)


There are more at CSPI: Menus & Menu Boards with Nutrition Information

The above are all from New York City, because only NYC has implemented menu labeling legislation. But several states are considering it:



Click for larger.________

The Gap

When I think about the rising cost of food, I think about how it affects some more than others, which makes me wonder about the gap between the rich and the poor in this country.

I saw this in The Economist today:¹

"Income distribution in America is the widest of the 30 countries of the OECD. The top 10% (or decile) of earners have an average $87,257 of disposable income, while those in the bottom decile have $5,819, among the very lowest of any country."

I'd like to see how the income gap in this country has changed over the years. I feel it's getting bigger, if that's possible.
________¹ The Economist: Where The Gap Between Rich And Poor Is The Greatest

Increased Ethanol Production = Increased E. coli Threat

Minnesota Public Radio is reporting on a new study by the USDA:

• 300 steers were fed corn
  
• 300 steers were fed feed that contained 40% distiller's grain

"The study found E. coli in almost 15 percent of the samples from the distiller's grain group. That compares to 1.5 percent in the corn-fed group."

Distiller's grain is:

" ... basically what's left of the corn kernel minus the starch. An ethanol plant converts the starch to sugar and then ferments it." (Photo of wet distiller's grain below.)

This is not the first study to demonstrate increased levels of the very dangerous E. coli 0157:H7 bacteria in cattle fed distiller's grain.

Pretend you're a cattle producer, and ...

• The price of corn is rising.
  
• Your cattles' weights have been declining. (Marler said in January that fed cattle weights "are now below the 5-year average.")
  
• And a relatively cheap cattle food is suddenly everywhere:
• In 2006, 3.5 million metric tonnes (that's about 8 billion pounds according to Google's built-in calculator function) of distiller's grains were produced in North America, 98% of which came from spent grain at ethanol plants. That amount was expected to double by this year.¹
  
• "If you feed a steer corn, it costs about $132 to fatten it; if distillers grain is used, $75." (Marler)

What would you use to raise their weights in an environment where grain is being diverted to fuel production?

This foodborne illness threat doesn't apply to just beef. Produce ... lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, peppers ... have been increasingly contaminated with cattle-sourced E. coli and other pathogens. I really don't want to entertain these guys in my gut, or have them multiplying in the guts of those I care about, if I can help it.
________¹ From University of Minnesota: Distillers Grains By-products in Livestock and Poultry Feeds. Great resource.
Photo of wet distiller's grain from Coaltec Energy.
Thanks to Marler for the tip.

What Is It?

Hint:

Answer: (Select hidden text with your mouse.) It's a RUTABAGA , and yes, it's waxed .

Photos: Bix

This Week's Poll Question

I wanted to use the topic of my last post as a basis for a poll, but I'm having difficulty coming up with a question that doesn't sound leading, e.g.:

1. Can the food industry play a constructive role in the obesity epidemic? (The JAMA article's question.)
   
2. Can the food industry be an unbiased contributor to public health policy? (Sigh.)
   
3. Would you support taxes on fast food? (This has promise - the poll question, not necessarily the tax.)
   
4. If you learned that a food company funded research with results favorable to that industry (e.g. Mars funding research that finds compounds in chocolate lower blood pressure), would it influence your belief in the findings?
   
5. If you learned that a food industry was a significant contributor to public health policy (e.g. the National Dairy Council recommending minimum daily milk/cheese consumption as part of the USDA Dietary Guidelines For Americans/Food Guide Pyramid), would you believe the USDA policy had purely public health objectives?
   
6. Have the food industry's marketing strategies and profit motives contributed to the nation's obesity epidemic?
   
7. Would it be easier for you to accept a tobacco company marketing cigarettes to minors if they also "promoted programs that encourage kids to lead active lives?" (The quote was from PepsiCo's actual program. This is over-the-top, isn't it.)

This is harder than I imagined. I welcome your input.
________

"Can The Food Industry Play A Constructive Role In The Obesity Epidemic?"

That's the title of a commentary in this week's JAMA, written by Marion Nestle (she blogged about it) and David Ludwig.

Was there some irony in that title?

Here's the JAMA link, but it's only an abstract for non-subscribers:
Can the Food Industry Play a Constructive Role in the Obesity Epidemic?, JAMA, October 15, 2008

As a courtesy, Dr. Nestle uploaded a pdf of the whole article:
Can the Food Industry Play a Constructive Role in the Obesity Epidemic?

Irreconcilable Conflict

Lewis and Nestle explain the challenge for the food industry, the "irreconcilable conflict" as they put it. Food corporations wish to appear responsible when it comes to public health, but they're first-and-foremost beholden to stockholders, and must not only remain profitable but meet ever-elevating growth targets.

How do you sell more food when the US food industry already "provides about 3900 kcal per capita each day, roughly twice the population's energy needs?"

"Food companies have only 2 options: convince customers to eat more ... or increase profit margins especially by marketing reformulated or repackaged products."

The "eat more" option is played out in larger portions and advertisements that promote frequent snacking.

The "increase profit margins" option is achieved via heavy advertising of processed foods (soft drinks, chips, cookies, baked goods, fast food) which are made to appear as options for daily - not occasional - consumption.

"Advice to eat less often, eat foods in smaller portions, and avoid high-calorie foods of low-nutritional quality undermines the fundamental business model of many companies."

Should The Food Industry Be Regulated ... Or Left To Police Itself?

Lewis and Nestle claim that regulation is needed in some industries (they didn't refer to Wall Street, maybe they could have), namely those industries that affect "health, safety, or the greater social good."

So, if we're regulating the automobile industry...

"Society does not expect car companies to police themselves, nor allow them to market unsafe cars. ... The government imposes regulations, mandates, taxes, and incentives to encourage production of safer and less polluting vehicles."

And the pharmeceutical industry, why not the fast food industry?

"If commercials for erectile dysfunction medication must mention rare complications like prolonged erection, it seems that commercials for fast food should be required to warn about the likely consequences of consuming partially hydrogenated fat and too much sugar."

The automobile analogy appears adeptly again in their conclusion:

"While visionary CEOs and enlightened food company cultures may exist, society cannot depend on them to address obesity voluntarily, any more than it can base national strategies to reduce highway fatalities and global warming solely on the goodwill of the automobile industry."

I thought the article showed great restraint. In my opinion, the food industry is insidious in its tactics to appear ethical while engaging in such practices as funding unscrupulous entities like the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) - an unabashed front group for the food industry that lobbies aggressively against public health campaigns and legislation. They boast, "[our] strategy is to shoot the messenger ... We've got to attack [activists'] credibility as spokespersons." The CCF did just that to Dr. Nestle here.

My discovery that the egg industry's "cage-free," "free-range," "organic," "humanely-raised" hens aren't treated much differently than factory-farmed hens knocked the food industry's credibility down a few more notches for me. I'm probably too cynical now to think that McDonald's or Coca-Cola can lead the way to healthful eating.

Hmm ... this is good fodder for a poll question.

PS - All of those logos up there represent bona-fide corporate sponsors of the American Dietetic Association (ADA). Some of their missions:

• "National Dairy Council is committed to providing scientifically sound nutrition information to physicians, dietitians, nurses, educators, consumers and the media concerned about fostering a healthier society."
  
• "General Mills is committed to nourishing lives through health and wellness."
  
• "Kellogg's is committed to helping consumers maintain a healthy diet and an active lifestyle."

I'd say the ADA is engaging in some good old fashioned conflict-of-interest.________

Name That Squash

Reader BL sent this utterly comprehensive squash identification site from Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG):
MBG Squash Display

Which tells me that what I cooked wasn't a kabocha, but a ...
________I want to try every squash on that site.
Thank you, BL!

Kabocha Squash (Or Buttercup?)

Next up, a kabocha squash, or Japanese Pumpkin:


The good: Beautiful deep red-orange flesh not foretold by its forest green exterior. Very soft, pudding-like consistency when baked. Sweet ... sweet, baby, sweet.

The bad: Strong, grassy, almost manure-like aroma. I'm sorry, I found it repugnant. Maybe kabocha is an acquired taste. Or maybe mine had ripened past palatability (apparently, this squash needs to be aged post-harvest to develop its full flavor).

It's amazing how different all these squash can be.

Update: Although Wegman's sold this squash as a kabocha, it may in fact be a buttercup squash. The protruding bulge at the bottom is a buttercup giveaway.
.________Photos: Homegrown

Gourd Unknown

This is not a sweet dumpling squash.


It's not an acorn squash or a delicata squash. It's not a carnival squash. I have no idea what it is. I cooked it anyway, and I'll say this ... for me it was more trick than treat.

Update: It was stringy and fibrous, more like spaghetti squash in texture. Dumpling squash is like pudding. And, as Ruby said about her pie pumpkin, this was more savory than sweet. A little musky too. Maybe I just didn't have a good one - of the kind. Or maybe I've been spoiled with dumpling. Dumpling spoils.

This leftover one makes a nice seasonal paperweight.
________Photos: Homegrown

Blame It On The Cook

The USDA issued a press release yesterday that explained the cause of recent cases of chicken-linked salmonellosis in 12 states:¹

"Individuals who became ill did not follow the cooking instructions."

They reminded consumers:

" ... of the critical importance of following package cooking instructions."

"It is especially important to use a food thermometer to check the internal temperature of these chicken products such that all points of measurement are at least 165° F."

Personally, I think it would be more effective not to package chicken with pathogenic bacteria. But if that's what food manufacturers want to do, they should label it as such:

The enclosed Chicken Cordon Blue Dinner Entree was prepared with a life-threatening dose of Salmonella bacteria. Diarrhea, abdominal cramps, fever, chills, headache, nausea and vomiting are likely to occur within 3 days of consumption.

Those wishing to forego these symptoms should acquire an accurate, instant-read food thermometer, precise enough to measure a confident 165° F, and deeply poke every cooked entree several times, in "all points of measurement" immediately after entrees emerge from a hot oven. Do not lick fingers. Failure to follow these instructions will ensure an intimate relationship with the bathroom for up to a week.

________¹ USDA/FSIS Issues Public Health Alert For Frozen, Stuffed Raw Chicken Products, October 3, 2008

Can You Spot The Sweet Dumpling Squash?

There's more than one.
(Do you know the names of the others?) (I don't.)

Click for larger.
Here's how to cook a sweet dumpling squash.
________Photo: Homegrown

Sweet Dumpling Squash

It's more than a decoration.
Try this.
Buy a sweet dumpling squash. It looks like this:


Wash it. (You'll be eating the skin.)

Put it - whole - into a 320ºF oven, on a cookie sheet.


Turn it periodically, every 20 minutes or so - on its side, upside-down, however it will stand. As it softens, poke it with something sharp to let steam escape.

Cook it for an hour to an hour-and-a-half, more or less depending on its size and density. When it gives very easily to pressure and has a slight golden tinge, it's done.


Cool. About an hour. Slice.


Try it. It tastes like a very sweet yam or sweet potato. You can even eat the skin; it's sweeter still.


Watch for seeds.


You won't be disappointed. It's easy to see how this squash got its name. It's probably good, while still warm, with melted butter and maple syrup. I haven't made it that far yet.
________
Photos: Homegrown

"Certified Humane" Allows Beak Cutting

That label to the right is not as humane as you might think.

The egg industry, that is, farmers that manage egg-laying hens that number in the 1000s or 10,000s (some 100,000s) in a central place must cut off some of a hen's beak. The hen uses it as a weapon. Dominant hens naturally peck submissive hens. Attacks get vicious when hens are gathered into groups larger than around 90 ... which is (on the large size of) hen flocks in the wild.

"Cage-free" and "Free-roaming" hens, since they are not restrained, are even more apt to injure and kill with their beaks. (Certified Humane website: "Cannibalism is more common in non-cage than cage systems.")

If you can keep flock size down, you can let them have their beaks. But you aren't going to make much money from 90 hens.

The "organic," "cage-free," "free-range" industry, realizing consumers wish to purchase humanely-raised products, has come up with a euphemism for debeaking, called "beak trimming" or "beak clipping." They claim this is not painful for the hen ("comparable to clipping nails"), and does not interfere with their lives. (Of course it has to interfere enough to prevent the hen from effectively preening or pecking. No pecking, or the farmer loses his chicken capital.)

I can't feel what a hen feels. I've read that hens, contrary to what some "Certified Humane" egg manufacturers claim, do experience pain during cutting (searing), and chronic pain after cutting, pain that lasts a lifetime. The industry says if you cut the beak on day 10 or before, long-term pain will not occur. I don't believe a hen's beak is that time-sensitive.

The egg industry, along with the humane-certification industry (from where I snatched this quotation) claims that "the pain and suffering of the hens that are being pecked to death is appalling," so it is more "humane" to painfully mangle the bird's natural bill than it is to allow birds to be pecked to death.

What is unnatural is housing thousands of birds in a "cage-free" space so overcrowded they can't spread their wings. Most have never experienced daylight.

Here's a short slide show put together by HumaneMyth.org that offers a little more transparency.

________
Suzanne, if Trader Joe's claims their eggs come from farms that don't allow beak cutting, then they have discovered a way to house large numbers of birds without those birds using their lethal beak-weapons on each other, something egg farmers everywhere would trip over themselves to acquire. Trader Joe's and its suppliers would probably make more money patenting that process than selling eggs. (Ask them what they do with the non-egg-laying male chicks.)
________Related posts:
Where Do You Get Your Eggs?
When Humanely Raised Is Not Humane