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If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting! On his blog, Michael Ruhlman ruminated recently on the pros and cons of cooking. Pro? Making his family happy and healthy, among others. Con? Exhaustion and lack of time, among others. Check out the comments, too, in which readers offer their reasons for choosing to cook. from Sift View full post on Sift Diner's Journal is gathering readers' favorite bake-sale recipes (no homemade Doritos, please), and will post those judged to be the best. View full post on Bitten
Big news for a prized but endangered fish. Hopefully, this will lead to movement to ban trade in a species that is headed for extinction. The Washington Post reports:
View full post on Chews Wise I had a hankering for currant scones the other day. The yen resulted from remembering how much I adored the book The Secret Garden as a little girl. I distinctly recall feeling ravenously hungry while reading about the hampers of wholesome country fare that Dickon's mother would pack for him and Mary and Colin to devour while they played in the garden, hidden behind its ivy-covered walls. Mmmmm.
 Berkeley is a mecca for scone lovers -- between the Cheeseboard's dizzying selection and the tasty scones that Acme Bread Company churns out daily, we're basically surrounded by mouth-watering options. But I decided to make my own, partly because it sounded fun, partly because it looked easy, and partly because I'd never made them before and was curious about the process.
I'm pleased to report that this was one of the easier, more satisfying baking experiences I've had lately. The scones are simple and quick (and I even did the more complicated, time-consuming version that involves butter and eggs -- cream scones are even simpler) and they look, smell and taste lovely.
  
I used the Joy of Cooking's recipe though I substituted Meyer lemon zest for orange as that is what I had to hand and it seemed an even better fit to me. You could easily substitute dried cherries, cranberries, apricots or other fruit for the currants if you prefer. Cheerio!
Classic Currant Scones
Makes 8 to 12
Ingredients
* 2 cups all purpose flour
* 1/4 cup sugar
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 2 tsps baking powder
* 6 Tbsps (3/4 stick) cold, unsalted butter
* 1/4 tsp Meyer lemon or orange zest (optional)
* 1/4 cup dried currants or raisins (currants will be better!)
* 1 large egg
* 1/2 cup heavy cream (plus more for brushing)
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 450°F. Sift he flour, baking powder, sugar and salt together in a large bowl:
2. Cut in the butter using either a pastry blender or 2 knives, until the largest bits are the size of small peas and the rest resemble breadcrumbs. Add the currants and stir briefly to combine.
3. Beat the eggs in a small bowl with the heavy cream and the zest. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients (you can make a well in the middle of them to pour the egg/cream into), then combine with a fork or wooden spoon until all the dry ingredients have been moistened. Pull together into a ball of dough by kneading against the sides of the bowl until it sticks together and the sides of the bowl are relatively clean. Try to handle the dough as little as possible as it will get stiff otherwise.
4. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat it out into an 8" round. Cut into either 8 or 12 wedges, depending on how big you want the finished scones to be. Place the wedges on an ungreased baking sheet and brush the tops with 2-3 tsps of heavy cream then sprinkly lightly with sugar or a mixture of cinammon and sugar.
5. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until the tops are nicely browned. Remove from oven and allow to cool on a wire rack. These are delicious on their own, as well as toasted with butter or cream cheese.
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 View full post on The Garden of Eating - a sinfully good blog about food 
sesame no-knead bread There was suddenly a lot of talk about baking bread around here and during the last couple of snowstorms we finally brought our talk to fruition. I should mention our impulse to get a loaf in the works was spurred by my sister’s arrival back from Australia with a few precious gifts: a jar of my father’s famous chutney (made with his homegrown tomatoes), my mothers blackberry jam (blackberries picked from the borders of her biodynamic garden), and some much requested fresh organic macadamia nut butter. I felt that all these delicacies that had traveled so far deserved to be eaten on really good, freshly baked bread. So I dug around my recipe box and found this, my version of Mark Bittmans version of Jim Lahey’s “no-knead bread.” A few years ago it seemed that everyone was making Jim Lehey’s recipe; I like it because he uses very little yeast, but I’m attracted to Mark Bittman’s version because it’s made with 100% whole grain flour. Lehey uses only ¼ teaspoon of yeast and lets it ferment for up to 20 hours. Bittman uses 1 teaspoon of yeast and ferments it for 4 hours. I decided to meet half way with the yeast and fermentation time and used a combination of spelt, whole wheat, corn meal and sesame seeds. The bread came out moist and tangy with a nice toasty aroma from the sesame seeds. 
fresh out of the oven Sesame no-knead bread 2 cups whole spelt flour In a medium size bowl combine spelt flour, whole wheat flour, cornmeal, yeast and salt. Add water and mix until all combined, the dough will be a sticky, shaggy mess. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature (70 degrees) for 14 hours. 
after 14 hours Brush a small bread tin with the olive oil (I used a 5 inch by 9.5 inch tin, smaller would be fine too). Remove plastic (save it for covering bread again) and mix in sesame seeds. Shape dough into a rectangle and gently press into the bread tin. Brush top with olive oil and sprinkle with more sesame seeds. Cover with reserved plastic wrap and let sit for another hour. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake bread for 45 to 55 minutes, if you have a thermometer, the internal temperature should be 210 degrees. Remove bread from pan and allow to cool for 20 minutes before slicing. The perfect vehicle for rich macadamia butter and luscious black berry jam. Yum! 
warm with blackberry jam and macadamia nut butter The following day I tried Jim Lahey’s original recipe using whole wheat four, it didn’t turn out as well as the above bread, but fresh out of the oven with a good slathering of tangy sweet chutney and some local goat cheese from Anne Saxelby, it hit the spot. 
Bill's chutney with "Battenkill" aged goat cheese As kids we ate my father’s chutney with melted cheddar on rye bread, you will still find him enjoying it this way, flat white beside him while doing the crossword puzzle. . View full post on Coconut & Quinoa Thanks very much to the hundreds of people who came out today to my cooking demo at the Boston Vegetarian Society Food Festival! 400 samples of the recipes I cooked today were prepared, but we ran out faster than expected. Apologies to all who were not able to try a sample of what was made today. For those who missed a copy of the chickpea polenta recipes, and for all of those who could not be there with us today, I am posting it below along with a link to the olive oil cake recipe that was also demoed today. Wild Mushroom and Crisp Leek Topped Baked Chickpea Polenta Among the many reasons to love this dish are its elegance and relative simplicity to make, the rich creaminess of a custardy polenta made with chickpea flour, just like the Romans did it hundreds of years ago, and the flavorful, multi-textured bite of mushroom with a light crunch of leek. Serve with sautéed greens or a salad for a complete and beautiful dinner. The cool autumn months when locally foraged mushrooms are available and winter leeks are thriving is the perfect time to prepare this dish. Look for chickpea flour in health food stores, ethnic food sections or Italian or Indian markets. In Indian markets, this flour is sometimes called chana flour, gram flour or besan. They are all made from chana dal, a cousin of chickpea. Though there are slight variations in texture and flavor, they are perfect substitutes for one another.
Ingredients:: 4 cups cold vegetable broth 2 large or 4 small leeks 1 tablespoon olive oil Prepare:: Oil a 9” springform cake pan. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a food processor or blender, blend the vegetable broth and chickpea flour until well combined and frothy. Leave food processor work bowl or blender carafe attached to base unit. In a large saucepan, warm the olive oil over a medium heat. Add chopped garlic and cook for 3-5 minutes or until garlic is golden and crisp. Pour white wine into pan and stir to scrape up any bits of garlic clinging to pan. Briefly pulse the chickpea-broth mixture before pouring into saucepan. Bring to a boil and then turn down heat to medium-low. Stir frequently and vigorously for 10 minutes. Add sea salt, nutmeg and parsley. Mix well to combine. Pour polenta into oiled pan, brush the top with olive oil and bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes or until top is golden and lightly crisped. Leeks::
Place olive oil in a skillet and toss the leeks in it. Sauté over medium heat for 4-5 minutes or until leeks have wilted. Transfer to an 8x11 baking pan and place in the oven. Stir every 5 minutes through baking time and continue to bake about 20 minutes or until leeks have browned and lightly crisped. Mushrooms::
To serve::
  
View full post on The Conscious Kitchen Delaware’s Bombay Hook Lacks Required Environmental Review and Justification
Filed in the U.S. District Court for Delaware by the Widener Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic on behalf of Delaware Audubon Society, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and the Center for Food Safety, the federal suit charges that the Fish & Wildlife Service had illegally entered into Cooperative Farming Agreements with private parties, allowing hundreds of acres to be plowed over without the environmental review required by the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”).
 In March 2009, the same groups won a similar lawsuit against GE plantings on Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge. Ironically, Prime Hook has now been administratively incorporated into Bombay Hook, meaning that the same refuge management that is overseeing execution of the Prime Hook verdict is violating its tenets on Bombay Hook. In August 2009, several environmental groups led by the Center for Food Safety and PEER wrote a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to alert him to the implications of the Prime Hook ruling and asking him to “issue a moratorium on all GE crop cultivation in National Wildlife Refuges.” Secretary Salazar has never responded. “By definition, these refuges are to be administered to benefit wildlife, not farmers,” stated PEER Counsel Christine Erickson, noting that Fish & Wildlife Service policy explicitly forbids “genetically modified agricultural crops in refuge management unless [they] determine their use is essential to accomplishing refuge purpose(s).” “GE crops serve no legitimate refuge purpose, and in fact impair the objectives for which the wildlife sanctuaries were originally established.” National wildlife refuges have allowed farming for decades to help prepare seed beds for native grasslands and provide food for migratory birds. In recent years, however, refuge farming has been converted to GE crops because that is only seed farmers can obtain. Today, the vast majority of crops grown on refuges are genetically engineered. Yet farming on wildlife refuges often interferes with protection of wildlife and native grasses. Scientists also warn that GE crops can lead to increased pesticide use on refuges and can have other negative effects on birds, aquatic animals, and other wildlife. In the Prime Hook case, Federal District Court Chief Judge Gregory Sleet found that “it is undisputed that farming with genetically modified crops at Prime Hook poses significant environmental risks.” “Using genetically engineered crops designed to be used in conjunction with repeated applications of pesticides is a practice in direct opposition to the mission of the National Wildlife Refuges: to serve as safe havens for wildlife,” said Paige Tomaselli, Staff Attorney with the Center for Food Safety. “The fact that farmers can obtain no other seeds underscores the questionable business practices of companies like Monsanto that are trying to limit farmer and consumer choice in order to sell more chemical pesticides.” “There is no question that there has been a self-serving relationship between local farmers and the refuge management over time here in Delaware, going back to when Prime Hook and Bombay Hook were first created,” commented Mark Martell , President of the Delaware Audubon Society. “Farming on the Delaware refuges has resulted in surplus profits for the farmers with no tangible economic or environmental benefit to the refuges where these lands were purchased from farmers and other private landowners for their ecological significance along the Great Eastern Flyway.” “The law on this is clear, and it is clear that the law has been ignored. It took local caretakers and friends of these important refuges to push for enforcement of these existing laws and changes to refuge management practices. The original lawsuit regarding these practices at Prime Hook is a game changer and it is our fervent hope that Bombay Hook and other refuges around the country take notice.” If successful, the suit would enjoin any cultivation of GE crops on Bombay Hook until environmental assessments required by the National Environmental Policy Act have been completed. Meanwhile, unless practices on the refuges change, PEER and the Center for Food Safety are preparing new suits against other refuges with GE farming programs. ### Read the Bombay Hook complaint Look at the successful Prime Hook lawsuit View the unanswered letter to Interior Secretary Salazar See the spread of GE crops across the National Wildlife Refuge System Filed under: GE Crops, Legal Actions, Politics and Policy View full post on The True Food Network Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan wasn’t joking when she said a few weeks ago that she wanted to “play the role of matchmaker during this administration” and link existing USDA programs with local and regional food initiatives. Today, in an exciting moment for school lunch, she announced that the USDA will form Farm-to-School Tactical Teams to help cafeterias procure fresh, local produce. The USDA will also make $50 million available for schools to buy locally grown fruits and vegetables and issue new purchasing guidelines for schools that place attention on locally grown foods. The initiative is part of the USDA’s Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food campaign, which aims to develop local and regional food systems and spur economic activity in rural communities. The campaign is a huge accomplishment in itself, complete with a public lunch prepared by White House assistant chef Sam Kass and the debut of the White House farmers market. But today’s announcement is particularly exciting and represents a huge step forward in improving American school meals. I’ve blogged before about the differences between the United States and other countries when it comes to local procurement for school lunch. In the United States, at least up until now, farm-to-school initiatives have expanded thanks to grass-roots efforts, with little to no government support. But in other countries, local food has flourished precisely because of government policies. Italian schools, for example, are required to purchase ingredients that are either organic, traditional or local. Italy’s school lunch legislation sounds a lot like ours in that its goal is to support domestic agriculture while nourishing schoolchildren. The difference is that Italy uses school lunch to support local and sustainable agriculture, while the United States uses school lunch to support large agribusiness. With all the new policies coming out of this USDA, things might be about to change. First of all, the allocation of $50 million to states to spend on local food for schools is a big deal. That’s as much money as the USDA devoted this year to promote organic agriculture. The Farm-to-School Tactical Teams will visit cafeterias around the country and help schools use that money. Working with farmers, school districts and local authorities, they’ll look for ways to get more local produce into cafeterias. On top of that, the USDA has mentioned that it will partner with the Department of Education and non-profit organizations to “enhance these resources.” Wow. Education and school lunch? This could be the start of bringing food, nutrition and health into the academic curriculum. The USDA also says it will issue new guidelines for purchasing. Currently, there are all sorts of regulations that make it impossible or expensive for schools to buy locally grown produce. Some of the regulations make it plain inconvenient. For example, under the current rules, locally grown produce cannot be processed. The new guidelines will allow schools to buy local produce that has been precut, making it easier for schools with limited facilities and labor to buy and serve these foods. The USDA says it will make other policies that will allow schools in regions with short growing seasons to have access to local produce year-round. Presumably, these regulations will deal with freezing, preserving or otherwise processing foods from local farms. There’s no denying that this USDA is changing the course of school food. Who knows, maybe someday our school lunch program will become a critical support for local, organic and sustainable agriculture. Maybe students will start eating some fresh, healthy foods for lunch. Maybe they’ll even get to know their farmer.
View full post on School Lunch Talk 
Excuse our gas. Where I live in Vermont, the occasional whiff of manure is considered a minor inconvenience, one worth putting up with to live in this bucolic state, like mud in April, blackflies in May, mosquitoes in June, frost in September, leaf-peeping tourists in October, and snow for much of the rest of the year. Don’t get me wrong. I like manure. So much that I have an arrangement with my neighbor, who tends a small, 50-cow dairy herd, that he can cut the hay in our field so long as he returns it to me after his animals have digested it so that I can spread it on my garden. But what is a valuable fertilizer on a small-scale becomes a noxious poison on an industrial scale. There’s a large factory farm not farm from our place, and when it cleans out its manure lagoons and spreads the contents on its fields every few months, the smell is beyond loathsome—so rank that we can’t stand to sit outdoors on the back deck. The stench has spoiled many a pleasant summertime gin-and-tonic hour. And it goes beyond unpleasant. Hydrogen sulfide and ammonia are two of the gasses in that malodorous mix. Both are poisonous to humans; hydrogen sulfide has been linked to neurological disorders. I hope my smelly neighbor took notice earlier this month when a Missouri jury returned an $11-million verdict against Premium Standard Farms, an industrial pork producer recently acquired by Smithfield Foods. The 15 plaintiffs were neighboring farmers, some having family roots in the area going back 100 years. They claimed that odors from Premium Standard’s 4,300 acre farm were relentless and extreme and created a nuisance that forced them to stay inside with the windows closed. The farm is located about 80 miles north of Kansas City. It fattens 200,000 hogs confined in pens for slaughter each year. It seems that Premium has difficulty learning from past mistakes. The plaintiffs were among 52 litigants in a similar suit in the 1990s that the company also lost to the tune of $5.2 million. “Maybe we can get these people to change,” Charles Speer, a lawyer for the families, said to Karen Dillon of the Kansas City Star. Premium representatives referred interview requests to the company’s lawyer, but in a prepared statement the corporate farm said it planned to appeal the ruling. Citing “substantial grounds,” Premium said: “The court gave the jury the impossible task of sorting through claims by 15 individuals from seven different families in different locations with each claim raising a set of distinctive issues. While the jury tried its best, it was inevitable that this ‘gang trial’ would result in a ‘gang verdict.’” Instead of saying that it would clean up its act, the hog producer issued a warning: “In light of the decision and in view of the continuing hostile environment toward live hog production, we have serious concerns whether we will ever make any future investments in the state of Missouri.” Which, by the sounds of things, would be just fine by anyone living downwind from one of the company’s operations. A new era of a Much of the discussion focused on seeds, from intellectual property issues with patented gene technology, to the potentially monopolistic practices of agribusiness giant Monsanto, but there were many other topics on the table, too. Consolidation has swept through all parts of agriculture, from livestock, through crops, poultry and dairy. (Above: Holder, l, and Vilsack, at the workshop) Even as food prices have risen at supermarkets for food over the last few decades, farmers have nonetheless struggled to make a living, and land loss and farmers going out of business have plagued the American agriculture sector. Smaller and family farmers have been hit particularly hard. Critics note that concentration is part of the reason for this. Vilsack and Holder held a joint news conference mid morning, and Vilsack said that the workshop “is about rural America, and what can be done to stop its decline.” He cited statistics on the loss of farmers and the rise in rural poverty over the last 25 years. “Rural America has been in recession much longer than the rest of the country,” Vilsack said. “This isn’t just about farmers and ranchers." That's true. The issues under discussion at the workshops have a direct impact on East Wing food initiatives. A pillar of First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move! campaign to eliminate child obesity is making healthy food affordable and accessible for all. The Healthy Food Financing Initiative, a model project designed to bring supermarkets into underserved areas, will in theory will help reduce obesity by enabling at-risk populations to purchase healthy food at fair prices. But if food prices are skewed from the ground up--beginning with seeds--that can only make this particular branch of the campaign more difficult to achieve. Healthy food might be more accessible if new supermarkets get built, but will it be affordable if food conglomerates are engaging in anti-competitive activities? On Tuesday, Mrs. Obama will meet with major food corporations in Washington to discuss their role in her campaign. Dean Foods will be among the companies represented; in January, Justice filed an antitrust suit against Dean Foods, over dairy concentration and pricing. The price of foods that go into the federal nutrition programs is of course determined by farm prices and competition issues, too. Improving school lunches is another pillar of Let's Move!, and the cost of meals in the national school lunch program is a bone of big contention--from law makers who will be funding the Child Nutrition Act to citizen advocates alike. On Friday, Holder announced that Justice is going to continue to scrutinize issues in agriculture, something that's already started. To date DOJ's activity in Ag regulation: Christine Varney has testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Ag and antitrust issues (read her testimony in Crisis On The Farm), and last October, Justice opened an investigation into Monsanto to determine if the seed giant has violated antitrust rules in trying to expand its dominance of the market for genetically engineered crops. “Big is not necessarily bad,” Holder said. “But big can be bad if the power that comes with it is misused.” “The central question is: Are farmers and ranchers in this country currently getting a fair shake?” Vilsack said. “Is the marketplace providing a fair deal for all?” Fair deals for all begin with farmers and end with consumers. Government policy, obviously, hits both the supply side and the demand side. Four more joint workshops are scheduled over the next year. Holder said that Justice will continue to scrutinize the ag sector, and added that the workshops represent a new era of antitrust enforcement in agriculture. A rally at the Best Western hotel in Ankeny on Thursday night before the workshop drew about 250 citizens, and there were chants of "Bust up big ag!" It was sponsored by Food and Water Watch, and Food Democracy Now! Both groups work on small farmer issues--and school lunches. Farmers are rockstars, as Vilsack has recently said, and they're rock stars who have massive impact on every aspect of policy, but especially the changes the Obama administration is seeking in food access and school lunches. It's all connected.... Chris Clayton, Agriculture Policy Editor at DTN/The Progressive Farmer, does excellent coverage of the event, reprinted below. The schedule and panelists who spoke at Friday's workshop is here. A full schedule of upcoming workshops is at DOJ's website here. Competition Workshops a Milestone Event Opening a workshop on agricultural competition, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder marveled that the Department of Justice's collaboration with the Department of Agriculture was the first time the two departments had worked together to hold a serious conversation about competition in agriculture. While the five workshops scheduled this year are an educational opportunity, Holder also pointed out that his department is active in antitrust cases involving agriculture right now. Without saying how the Justice Department or USDA could reverse the long-standing trend of consolidation in almost every agriculture sector, Holder nonetheless said people should expect "action, concrete action" from his department in challenging potential monopolies or unfair business practices in the industry. "There has to be the will within the Justice Department to use the statutes that we have, the regulations that we have, the tools that we have to the extent we identify the need that we have," Holder said Holder called Friday's meeting a "milestone event," considering the nation's antitrust law has been in effect for more than a century and the Packers and Stockyards Act is nearly 90 years old. "In that time, not once have our nation's Departments of Justice and Agriculture come together for a public discussion on competition and regulatory issues in your industry," Holder said. Topics were wide-ranging at the workshop, which drew an audience of more than 700 people to the Des Moines Area Community College campus. Administration officials began by stressing that companies with significant market power carry a great deal of responsibility to ensure that market power is not abused. Holder said the question to be asked at the five scheduled workshops is: "Is today's agriculture suffering from a lack of free and fair competition in the marketplace?" Later, speaking to reporters, Holder said the Department of Justice is "active right now" in working on antitrust investigations in agriculture, citing a case brought against dairy processor Dean Foods to stop the purchase of more processing facilities in the upper Midwest. Still, Holder said, the department doesn't have an agenda working on agricultural issues. "We're not looking to hurt anybody here, and we don't come into this with preconceived notions." Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack cautioned against "predetermining" what should come out of the workshops, but he added that they will help shape USDA's regulatory process on the Packers and Stockyards Act as well as help lay out issues as debate begins on the 2012 farm bill. When asked by reporters about the Justice Department's investigation into Monsanto Co., Antitrust Division Chief Christine Varney said the department is not discussing aspects of the case other than to simply acknowledge that such a probe is occurring. "I don't want to link investigations we undertake with the workshops," Varney said. When it comes to the overall seed industry, Varney said the department is examining possible anticompetitive practices and whether anyone would be abusing patents on biotechnology. "There is a very robust patent system in this country, and if someone is abusing that system to extend a patent, that is not legal," Varney said. When speaking to the crowd, Varney drew applause when discussing the need to challenge whether a company may be attempting to circumvent patent laws. "We are going to be looking very hard at any attempts to maintain or extend a monopoly through the patent laws," Varney told the audience. Varney later added there are a number of steps the department will go through to determine if such abuse is occurring, saying there is an intersection between antitrust and patent law. "That is something we are looking at at the Department of Justice on a very broad level," she said. Varney told the crowd that the antitrust division will commit to work with USDA on an "unrelenting quest" to find the right balance for farmers to do business and ensure market transparency to maintain competitive markets. Farmers offered an array of perspectives throughout the day. Eddie Wise, an independent pork producer from Whitakers, N.C., told Vilsack that he and other farmers have struggled to effectively process and market an all-natural pork product and avoid signing contracts. Various rules he has encountered have affected him in both processing and marketing. Right now, his group needs $200,000 to help build a processing facility, but he's also afraid of taking on more debt. "No matter what happens, I'm going to be an independent hog farmer," Wise said. "We're having a good time, but we're not raising that much money right now." Eric Nelson, a cattle producer, grain farmer and seed dealer from Moville, Iowa, offered a perspective that the cash business in the cattle market may be only 20 minutes long all week while farmers can market their grain constantly. "There are many more end users for grain, but on the cattle side, it's been very constricted," Nelson said. With seeds, Nelson said choices also are becoming limited, though the seed companies are masking that somewhat. "What's bothersome to me is customers will think they are making different choices from different companies when in fact it's just the same product in a different bag from a different company," Nelson said. Nelson later challenged the contract agreements that major seed companies sign with seed dealers or larger farmers that can often provide steep discounts. In some cases, Nelson said, he has seen a $70-per-acre advantage in seed buying go to a large producer over a small one. "So it's no surprise the large tend to get larger with an advantage like that," he said. Bill Northey, Iowa's Secretary of Agriculture, defended some of the rise in seed costs, noting that herbicide prices have remained stable or declined in some cases while fertilizer prices have remained volatile. People have to compare the increase in productivity when considering the technology costs. "Inherently, there are some increases of cost there, but that doesn't answer the question of whether we have competition," Northey said. He noted that when it comes to selling grain, Iowa has benefitted from 39 ethanol plants across the state. "Those are new markets that didn't used to be there."  View full post on Obama Foodorama |
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Recipe for the olive oil cake with orange macedonia and cocoa nibs may be found at American Feast.
A lawsuit filed today in federal court against the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service seeks to compel the Service to uproot genetically engineered (GE) crops from its Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge in Delaware. As many as 80 other national wildlife refuges across the country now growing GE crops are vulnerable to similar suits.
