GM fish could be approved—action alert

Here’s the article:

Obama Administration Announces Hearings On Approval Of Controversial Genetically Engineered Fish (The Center for Food Safety, 8/25/2010).

If this is a subject you’ve been following, now’s the time to join with advocacy organizations such as the one above and begin to take action.

Eel Alert

by Larry Geller

Today is Doyo-no-Ushi-no-hi according to the Japanese calendar. When we lived in Japan, it was the day when we just had to eat some unagi. Everyone did. It was, by custom, the hottest day of the year (and although it’s already mid-afternoon as I write this, it’s getting hotter every moment)!

The day wanders on the Western calendar. It’s calculated by the ecliptic path of the sun, so each year it is different. And there can be more than one of them (good for us eel lovers).

So although unagi (eel) is a popular dish at any time in Japan, on this particular day there was competition for seats at neighborhood eeleries everywhere, and supermarkets were piled high with fresh and frozen eel.

Trouble was, all sorts of eels were served that had been imported from Taiwan or elsewhere and which were, frankly, not at all as good as the local product.

Except at the top-notch eel joints. Since I was an executive in a joint-venture company, I had access to places that most foreigners didn’t even know existed. We did very well in the eel department.

In Hawaii, the holiday is hardly known at all, so there is no mad rush at the supermarket.

For the six of you who already know about Doyo no Ushi no Hi, you’ve either bought your eels at Don Quijote (theirs are imported from Japan; Costco’s are from China), or you’ve made your reservation for a kabayaki lunch at one of the finer restaurants.

To learn more about how this holiday fits into Japanese custom and its seasonal cuisine, I recommend this article. There are handy links there on how to prepare unagi yourself.

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(This is a repost of a 7/24/2008 article. In the meantime, we have become aware of the Monterrey Bay Aquarium report resulting in their classification of eels as Avoid. It isn’t clear how the Japanese-origin eels sold in Don Quijote, for example, are raised.)

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Cooking through the chaos

by Larry Geller

Chef and Atlantic writer Jarrett Wrisley became trapped in his Bangkok home as the battle between Red Shirt protestors and government forces raged nearby. Check out his account at the link below. It’s unfair snipping, but here is a bit to whet your appetite:

On Wednesday, May 19, Thai troops pushed through barricades to force the Red Shirts out of their urban encampment. As their leaders surrendered, extremists burned at least 36 targets in Bangkok, including the city's largest shopping mall, many banks, and other places of economic and political significance. As I stirred a favorite recipe of browned garlic, white wine, chicken, and bay leaves, the smoke poured up past my kitchen window. And for the first time, I got really scared. I wondered if the violence could ever enter what was, until then, my guilty sanctuary.   [The Atlantic, In Bangkok, Cooking in a Time of Chaos, 5/21/2010]

“Aw, mom, insects for dinner again?” Are figs really full of baby wasps?

by Larry Geller

You may not want to know.

But if you do, this article explains all about figs and wasps, and insects, and ketchup.

Are figs really full of baby wasps?

Hint: Don’t read just before dinner.

Enjoy your chicken sandwich, our government is protecting all but 2.4 million of us from campylobacter

by Larry Geller

USA Today actually reported this with a straight face:

The new rules for campylobacter, which had not been regulated before, are that companies fail if they have more than 10% positives for "highly contaminated" carcasses and 46% for "low level" contamination. The USDA estimates that about 50% of poultry plants are now at this level.

In 2008, an estimated 40.2% chickens tested positive for campylobacter, which causes diarrhea, cramping, abdominal pain and fever. The CDC estimates campylobacter infects 2.4 million Americans a year and kills 124.

The poultry industry will work hard to fulfill customers' expectations "for safe and wholesome chicken," Lobb says.

Safe and wholesome chicken? And our government thinks that setting the new rules above the very bad “average” level it already is really protects us against anything? It sure protects the poultry industry, of course.

Ok, now what about salmonella. We’ve been warned to cook our chicken well because chances are it’s toxic when you bring it home.  Same article:

Under the new standards, only 7.5% of chicken carcasses at a plant would be allowed to test positive for salmonella, down from 20% allowed since 1996. Salmonella levels in chickens were tested at 7.1% nationally in 2009, says Richard Lobb of the National Chicken Council.

So now salmonella can be allowed to increase from what it is (7.1%) to the slightly higher level of 7.5%, and that is supposed to be an improvement??

…there are 1.4 million cases of salmonella and more than 500 deaths annually in the USA

USA Today made the new standards look good. I wonder if they serve chicken salad sandwiches in their cafeteria.

I wonder how many readers they lose each year to campylobacter or to salmonella poisoning?

Good reporting, guys, I mean, Elizabeth.

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Update: I just remembered this, from The Onion (3/10/2009):

Gulf oil spill will result in increased imports of unsustainable shrimp

by Larry Geller

As the British Petroleum oil spill continues unchecked, it seems apparent that the shrimp catch will be lost not just this year, but possibly for multiple years. Fishermen will lose their livelihoods and the next generation may move on to some other occupation.

While this report is several years old, it will give an idea of the size of the industry:

The U.S. domestic warm-water shrimp fishery, operating in the Gulf of Mexico, has traditionally been the nation’s most valuable. With major ports servicing the industry from Brownsville, Texas to Key West, Florida, the shrimp fishery was “king” with a season that generally runs from mid-June to January. Over the period 2001-2005 the average catch of shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico was approximately 110 thousand metric tons. The ex-vessel (at the boat) value of the Gulf of Mexico shrimp harvest in 2006 was $354.4 million (USD). While the catch was up 15 percent over 2005, the value was approximately equal. [The Gulf of Mexico Sustainable Shrimp Initiative]

Since most domestic shrimp is caught in the Gulf of Mexico, as those shrimp become unavailable, most likely they will be replaced by increased imports. Not only are those imports most often of lower quality, they are raised and caught in an unsustainable manner.

The Monterrey Bay Aquarium lists Gulf of Mexico shrimp as a “Good Alternative” and recommends avoiding imported shrimp, either farmed or wild-caught.

Shrimp is the world’s most valuable seafood and one of the top seafood choices of U.S. consumers. U.S. shrimp trawlers must adhere to stricter environmental standards than those in other countries and this makes U.S. wild-caught shrimp a "Good Alternative" and imported shrimp is on the "Avoid" list.

Most U.S. shrimp is caught in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. These shrimp species are short-lived and reproduce at high rates, and therefore they are somewhat resistant to intense fishing. These shrimp populations are healthy and abundant and the fisheries are well-managed.
…
At this time we recommend avoiding all imported wild-caught shrimp due to higher bycatch levels in warm water shrimp fisheries and trawl-related habitat damage.  [Monterrey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch page, Shrimp]

This tragedy should be enough to stop Obama and Congress from approving any more offshore drilling operations. If it is not enough of a hint, it will be up to us, as concerned and responsible citizens, to demand that they do that.

Although the Gulf of Mexico is far away for most people, the problems of corporate control of our government and government’s willingness to favor major corporate campaign contributors has been brought to a supermarket right near us wherever we live

 

Sweet and savory tweets

No time to cook? No time for cookbooks? No time to think? Is your life all a-Twitter?

Try recipes in 140 characters or less: Maureen Evans tweets recipes to your cellphone. Not too often, but if you keep them handy they might solve a dinner problem or two.

Some downtime expected

Blogger.com is discontinuing FTP publishing effective May 1. So I need to “migrate” this blog. It’s a bit complicated, so there might be some downtime, starting today.

Please check back later.

Food, Inc. to air on PBS. Eat dinner first, then watch this film.

“The companies don’t want farmers talking. They don’t want this story told.” –from the trailer of Food, Inc.

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Wednesday. April 21. 9-11 p.m. Hawaii time on PBS.

Mark your calendar. Set your TIVO. Don’t miss this film.

FDA Recalls and Safety Alerts get an RSS feed

by Larry Geller

At last – you can stay informed when the FDA issues recall or safety alerts. The feed is here. Just put it into your newsreader to stay up to date and be warned.

On many browsers you can just click on the link above to read the feed.

Why not find out where your milk comes from

by Larry Geller

I don’t know why, but for some reason no one wants you to know where your milk is from. The carton doesn’t say. Instead it is coded into a number somewhere so you won’t find out.

Since we live in the information age and there is a website for everything, why not one that will tell you where your milk comes from.

It’s called Where Is My Milk From? and helps you locate the secret code on your milk carton that reveals all, and then it decodes it and even displays a map.

I just checked it with Costco organic milk and Safeway buttermilk. Works as advertised.

Not that I really cared, of course, but it’s Friday and I’m tired of trying to figure out what’s happening at the Legislature. There are more important things to do in life, though finding out where your milk comes from may not be too high up on the list either…

Jamie Oliver on ending obesity in America

Watch this video just posted on the TED website:

Jamie Oliver's TED Prize wish: Teach every child about food

 

(full-screen button is in the upper-right corner of the player)

What to do with a recalled Prius

by Larry Geller

Afraid to drive your once-cool Prius lest neighbors snicker about your bad luck getting recalled?

Never fear. The car has other uses, if you have lots of aluminum foil on hand and if you can open the hood and figure out which part of it is the gasoline engine.

Here is a recipe for Prius Pork, from the book, Manifold Destiny: The One! The Only! Guide to Cooking on Your Car Engine. The recipe will be mentioned on tomorrow’s Splendid Table on Hawaii Public Radio, but you can get a head start if you borrow your spouse’s car or trek to the supermarket for the Hoisin Sauce and the rest of the ingredients.

If you can make it through the thick prose, the recipe is near the bottom of the article, including directions to locate the gas engine under your hood.

It looks like a Prius will cook about two servings. If your other car is a Toyota Camry, the book notes that the engine serves three “but sports a bun warmer, a feature seldom mentioned in Toyota ads.”

Next time, buy American (snicker, snicker). The Chevrolet Celebrity GL offers six servings, according to the book.

How credit cards or food stamps might be used at the Farmers Markets

by Larry Geller

Wouldn’t it be great if food stamp users could buy healthy, freshly picked produce at the Farmers Markets?

The technology is here now. A startup called Square is taking credit card payments already, with no startup fee and no hardware cost. At present, an iPhone is needed, but they promise more connectivity options in the future. Yes, it works through a cell phone.

Watch this video. The sound is poor at first, but it gets better when they demonstrate the unit. Basically, you’ll see a little gizmo that plugs into the iPhone. The card is swiped through the gizmo, then the user signs with a finger on the touch screen. The gizmo is free to the merchant. Cool!

The upstart startup is being treated quite seriously by the industry. Leader Verifone has come up with a version of its own, but there are startup and monthly costs. Still, this validates the new technology.

Anyone can take payments. A merchant account is not necessary with Square. Their website explains how it works.

Square has not replied to my inquiry on whether they process food stamp cards or not. I’ll keep after them.

Study links Monsanto GM corn to organ failure in rats

by Larry Geller

Most genetically modified seed corn is produced in Hawaii, where a large majority of all the corn grown is raised expressly for the production of genetically modified seeds. [Pacific Business News, Genetically modified corn is on the rise, 9/7/2004]

Hawaii-grown corn, big business or not, may be bad business for the state. A recent study is getting to the point GMO opponents have long advocated—the study claims that the stuff is bad, at least for rats (no, this has nothing to do with the Chinatown rat problem, I know you were thinking about that…).

Here is a headline from today’s Democracy Now:

Study Links Monsanto GM Corn to Organ Failure

A new study claims to have uncovered new health effects caused by genetically modified corn from the agricultural giant Monsanto. The International Journal of Biological Sciences says GM corn helped cause organ damage in rats. The study’s author called Monsanto’s GM methods “a very serious mistake, dramatic for public health.” [Democracy Now headlines, 1/13/2010]

An article from the Huffington Post: Monsanto's GMO Corn Linked To Organ Failure, Study Reveals (1/12/2010)

More info and a discussion of Monsanto’s rebuttal: Three Approved GMOs Linked to Organ Damage (Food Freedom, 1/1/2010)

New York Times digs into a ground beef safety issue

by Larry Geller

As you may remember from her famous run-in with the cattle industry in 1996, Oprah Winfrey exclaimed on her show about mad cow disease, "It has just stopped me cold from eating another burger!" So she was sued.

She ultimately won, but that suit underlined the risk involved in taking on the meat industry in this country. One little slipup and you’re in trouble.

Perhaps that figured into the careful investigation conducted by New York Times reporter Michael Moss in preparation for his article, Safety of Beef Processing Method Is Questioned (12/30/2009). The newspaper posted a series of documents, some marked “Confidential,” along with the article.

The story is about fatty trimmings that “the industry once relegated to pet food and cooking oil.” A company invented a process to treat these trimmings (see how respectful I am being) with ammonia to kill E. coli and salmonella.

Based on a study conducted by the company, according to the Times article, the USDA approved the product, and

With the U.S.D.A.’s stamp of approval, the company’s processed beef has become a mainstay in America’s hamburgers. McDonald’s, Burger King and other fast-food giants use it as a component in ground beef, as do grocery chains. The federal school lunch program used an estimated 5.5 million pounds of the processed beef last year alone.

The Times reports that they obtained records from the school lunch program that show problems with the product:

Since 2005, E. coli has been found 3 times and salmonella 48 times, including back-to-back incidents in August in which two 27,000-pound batches were found to be contaminated. The meat was caught before reaching lunch-rooms trays.

The USDA comes under scrutiny in the article for accepting the product despite internal criticism:

Carl S. Custer, a former U.S.D.A. microbiologist, said he and other scientists were concerned that the department had approved the treated beef for sale without obtaining independent validation of the potential safety risk. Another department microbiologist, Gerald Zirnstein, called the processed beef "pink slime" in a 2002 e-mail message to colleagues and said, “I do not consider the stuff to be ground beef, and I consider allowing it in ground beef to be a form of fraudulent labeling.”

Fraudulent or not, it’s safe to assume that most people are not aware of what goes into this or other food that they eat.

“The industry doesn’t want you to know the truth about what you’re eating, because if you knew, you might not want to eat it.” [from Food, Inc. preview]

Read the Times story and draw your own conclusions. Yeah, I’m chicken (though the more I know about chicken…). I’ve done my job if you read the article.

Hawaiian Red Veal at KCC Farmer’s Market this Saturday!

by Nanette Geller

I was thrilled to see that The Hawaii Cattleman's Association will be bringing red veal to the KCC Farmers Market again this Saturday, 12/12. If you aren’t a vegetarian I urge you to give it a try (http://www.hfbf.org/farmersMarketKCC.shtml). If you can’t make it to KCC, R. Fields at Foodland Beretania carries it as well.

My mother was French so we ate veal pretty often. Not just the expensive cutlets, but stews (usually shoulder), veal breast (cheap in those days), liver, kidneys, and even brains. Much as I like veal I haven’t eaten it in many years because of ethical issues with how it is raised. So I was excited when I read about red veal, raised in Hawaii, which is raised without hormones, without antibiotics, and without cruelty (http://www.shareyourtable.com/get_fresh/2009/veal). 

I decided to give it a try in October, when it was available for one day only at the KCC Farmer’s Market. I was hoping for an affordable bone-in breast but the breast was only available as a boned, rolled roast and beyond my budget. Ground veal and stew, however, were within reach.

The culinary students of Slow Food KCC were doing a red veal demo at the market and the Moroccan veal meatballs Gida Snyder cooked up were so fabulous I decided to duplicate it (http://slowfoodkcc.blogspot.com/2009/10/slow-food-cooking-demo-celebrating.html). I made only minor modifications to the meatballs, adding fennel seed along with the coriander and cumin seeds and lightly sweating the onion and garlic instead of using them raw. I happened to have a can of harissa, so I used that instead of making my own. 

I plated it with a salad of coarsely chopped parsley & cilantro, sliced red onion, lemon juice, lemon zest and olive oil for a very special feast.

Ba-Le on track to open restaurant and plant near Home Depot in March

The former Weyerhaeuser corrugated container plant should be the home of a new Ba-Le restaurant and plant by March 2010. The building is to be shared with Island Flooring Co. which joined with Ba-Le Restaurants in purchasing the property earlier this year. The building is on the corner of Nimitz Highway and Alakawa Street.

The new restaurant should do well, given its proximity to Home Depot, the planned Lowes Home Improvement Store, Best Buy across the street and Costco just a block away. 

Condé Nast to discontinue Gourmet Magazine

by Larry Geller

Unbelievable. But if it is in the New York Times, it must be true.

Condé Nast will close Gourmet magazine, a magazine of almost biblical status in the food world, it was announced on Monday. Gourmet has been published since January 1941. Also being shut down are the Condé Nast magazines Cookie, Modern Bride and Elegant Bride, according to an internal company memo that also was sent to reporters on Monday.

The Times website has another article reporting that Gourmet editor and one of the centers of New York’s food world Ruth Reichl was surprised at the news. And they promise more in their Dining section tomorrow (Wednesday).

New York Times reporter investigates the meat industry

by Larry Geller

I was going to write about the New York Times blockbuster article, E. Coli Path Shows Flaws in Beef Inspection, which is a long, tough look at the meat industry and the USDA. But I see that David Shapiro has beat me to it. Please click over and read Where's the beef? You don't want to know.

Good, it would make me sick all over again if I had to summarize that NY Times story.

I’ll add two things to what David has posted: first, Hawaii is mentioned, the tainted raw minced beef at a Japanese restaurant here. Second, I want to point out that the Times includes its source documents as links throughout the article. Good bloggers do this, and I’m glad to see newspapers adopting the habit. Maybe there’s a future for (some of) them.

 

That tasty looking fresh water fish could be out to kill you

by Larry Geller

A nationwide study of mercury contamination in fish released on Wednesday found this dismal result:

Scientists detected mercury contamination in every fish sampled in 291 streams across the country…

About a quarter of these fish were found to contain mercury at levels exceeding the criterion for the protection of people who consume average amounts of fish, established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. More than two-thirds of the fish exceeded the U.S. EPA level of concern for fish-eating mammals.

That’s bad news for fish lovers. The report, Data on Mercury in Water, Bed Sediment, and Fish from Streams Across the United States, 1998–2005 can be download from the US Geological Survey website.

The mercury comes from a variety of sources, including coal-fired power plants and mining. Yes, there are natural sources, but the findings demonstrate that concentrations of mercury have increased over pre-industrial times. Here’s a handout from the USGS that explains this.

Fish data is here (Excel file). Smallmouth Bass and Blackchin tilapia caught on Oahu were included in the study. I’m not competent to evaluate the numbers, but the concentration of mercury appeared to be among the lowest in the table if I understand it correctly.

Of course, the fish we purchase largely comes from elsewhere, and the numbers for certain regions of the country are many multiples of the Hawaii data.

Additionally, the USGS report covers fish caught in the USA only. We have no idea what contaminants might be in imported fish unless they have been specifically tested. Even if they are, standing at the fish counter at Don Quijote or even at Whole Foods, we have nothing to tell us what’s in that fish we are contemplating buying for tonight’s dinner.

Bon appétit.

Tracking recalls, a pain, but necessary?

by Larry Geller

Last night we went to Kahala to see the movie Food, Inc. and then to do a little shopping at Whole Foods. Let me tell you, after watching that documentary, it was hard to decide whether or not to buy that piece of chicken we were thinking of for dinner later in the week.

The FDA is not protecting us against the contamination that appears to be rampant in modern American industrialized agriculture. The movie makes that clear.

That’s another article, though. Today I was wondering what the FDA is doing for us exactly, after I was sent a link to a story on an FDA recall of sanitizing products. It seems this stuff you might put on your hands to kill the germs (and products to put on a wound) actually seems to contain germs itself (AP, US Marshals seize sanitizer for bacteria problems, 8/2/2009). The US marshals were called in, according to the report, because the company refused to promptly destroy the products. (More here. The company’s website is here, and although I did not search everywhere on it, I didn’t see the recall information there.)

Ok, it seems the FDA is not totally moribund.

I decided to check out what they have been up to. It turns out that the list of recalls is extensive and a bit scary.

Here is a list of “Recalls, Market Withdrawals, & Safety Alerts” on the FDA website. If you are interested in tracking them, they provide a way to get email alerts. I created an RSS feed for the page, which is this. Put the feed in your newsreader if you prefer to get alerts that way.

What’s there? Right now I see cilantro contaminated with salmonella, Chai Tea recalled, some medical devices, raisins and nutritional supplements recalled, “male enhancement products” recalled, more cilantro recalled (it looks like a bad month for cilantro) and lots more.

Major brands and some recognizable items are on the list. For example, General Mills’ 'Nut Lovers' flavor of Nature Valley Granola Nut Clusters product (possible salmonella).

Is all this stuff getting pulled from the shelves? Of course not.

Who has all the time to check it out? That’s where a newsreader (also called an “aggregator”) comes in. You can follow it if you like. Or get the salmonella, up to you.

Another source of recall information is here, though it’s less useful. It’s a blog devoted to recalls.

Costco posts recalls on a bulletin board, but who goes there to read it?

Sorry to have spoiled your lunch. Buy local, stay safe. The Food, Inc. movie explains why.

A slippery conundrum

by Larry Geller

Today, July 19, 2009, is doyo no ushi no hi in Japan, a day in summer for eating eels, or unagi.

It’s a tradition going back centuries. On this day in Japan it’s an imperative to eat unagi for lunch or dinner. It’s said to be “stamina ryori,” or health food, and doyo no ushi no hi is aimed to occur at about the hottest time of the summer in Japan. There may be more than one in a given year.

There are plenty of eel restaurants to accommodate the demand. Some lunch stands come to resemble a rush-hour Tokyo subway crush as people line up for their unagi-don (eels on rice) or kabayaki (broiled eels served in a lacquer box, pictured).

The cooking process involves steaming and grilling, producing a product that is just short of addictive. In Osaka, eels are grilled without steaming and served between two layers of rice, a dish called mamushi, which foreigners often confuse with the poisonous Japanese snake whose name is a homonym. Which style a person prefers is often a matter of which they were imprinted with as a child.

The sad truth is that the demand in modern Japan exceeds the local supply and so for this day, inferior imported eels crowd out the higher-quality domestic product too often. The expense-account crowd doesn’t have a problem, though. The finest (and most expensive) eel restaurants are reserved a year or more in advance, and this is assuming that you qualify to eat there, anyway. The un-connected need not even apply.

Buying frozen eels in Hawaii presents a similar problem. The Chinese import is cheaper at Don Quijote, but the Japanese eel is fatter and better prepared, but more costly. They also have tiny bottles of sauce to go with the eels, but for some reason don’t keep them nearby the freezer holding the eels.

Don Q is missing the boat by not publicizing the day, incidentally.

One story of the origins of doyo no ushi no hi is that business had not been going well for a certain eel vender due to the hot weather. So he sought out scholar Hiraga Gennai, perhaps one of history’s earliest marketing consultants. Gennai is said to have advised  him to stick up a sign declaring the day as “eel day” with his name on it, and the rest is history. Other eel shops followed suit and the popularity of unagi soared.

The modern-day conundrum is that the wild eel population is in decline. The Monterrey Bay Aquarium has put eels on their “Avoid” list. Farmed eels are very problematic, with waste product issues and (because they eat other fish) depletion of wild fish populations is an issue also.

What to do? For now, we have cut out our eel habit completely, except on this day. If conscience overcomes the taste buds tonight, we may give it up entirely.

Obama’s garden, our food, swamped in toxic sludge residue

by Larry Geller

Remember Michelle Obama’s great idea to grow a White House garden and keep it organic? She even resisted pressure from the pesticide lobby to spray their poisons on it.

Unfortunately, something happened on the way to the realization of the First Lady's good intentions. Recently the National Park Service discovered that the White House lawn, where the garden was planted, contains highly elevated levels of lead -- 93 parts per million. It's enough lead for anyone planning to have children pick vegetables in that garden or eat produce from it to reconsider their plans: lead is highly toxic to children's developing organs and brain functions -- however, it's below the 400 ppm the EPA suggests is a threat to human health. [Huffington Post, The Obama Organic Family Garden: Swimming in Sludge?, 7/1/2009]

It seems that the White House lawn was contaminated with sewage sludge, promoted as safe fertilizer.

Worse, as you’ll read when you click on the link above, much of our food supply is similarly contaminated with lead and heavy metals by an industry that just wants to get rid of its crap, nevermind that it poisons children and big people.

Ok, a bit more, to encourage you to read the entire article:

So what is sludge, really? A stinking, sticky, dark-grey to black paste, it's everything homeowners, hospitals and industries put down their toilets and drains. Every material-turned-waste that our society produces (including prescription drugs and the sweepings of slaughterhouses), and that wastewater treatment plants are capable of removing from sewage, becomes sludge. The end product is a concentrated mass of heavy metals and carcinogenic, teratogenic, and hormone-disrupting chemicals, replete with antibiotic-resistant bacteria. There are some 80,000 to 90,000 industrial chemicals, including a host of dioxin-like deadly substances, which are allowed to be present in sludge under current EPA rules. What's worse, there's no way of knowing which toxic chemicals and heavy metals are entering the wastewater stream at any given time or in what concentrations. Sludge is always an unknown quantity, and therefore, assessing whether sludge is safe to use for growing food, is -- in practice -- impossible.

Farmers who care about what they grow know this, and -- despite the best efforts of government and the sludge industry -- growing food in sewage sludge is prohibited under the federal organic regulations. Still, sludge is still widely used as a cheap alternative to fertilizer, and unless you're buying organic produce, it's impossible to know if the food you eat was grown in it.

(Thanks to Viviane Lerner for pointer to this article)

We need this in Hawaii--NY Times: Street Farmer

by Larry Geller

Check out this July 1, 2009 article from the New York Times Magazine, Street Farmer, describing the achievements of Will Allen, a MacArthur Foundation Genius Award winner:

Like others in the so-called good-food movement, Allen, who is 60, asserts that our industrial food system is depleting soil, poisoning water, gobbling fossil fuels and stuffing us with bad calories. Like others, he advocates eating locally grown food. But to Allen, local doesn’t mean a rolling pasture or even a suburban garden: it means 14 greenhouses crammed onto two acres in a working-class neighborhood on Milwaukee’s northwest side, less than half a mile from the city’s largest public-housing project.

Of course, Allen uses worms, but there’s much more to his methods, and I think we need to learn this in Hawaii:

With seeds planted at quadruple density and nearly every inch of space maximized to generate exceptional bounty, Growing Power is an agricultural Mumbai, a supercity of upward-thrusting tendrils and duct-taped infrastructure. Allen pointed to five tiers of planters brimming with salad greens. “We’re growing in 25,000 pots,” he said. Ducking his 6-foot-7 frame under one of them, he pussyfooted down a leaf-crammed aisle. “We grow a thousand trays of sprouts a week; every square foot brings in $30.” He headed toward the in-ground fish tanks stocked with tens of thousands of tilapia and perch. Pumps send the dirty fish water up into beds of watercress, which filter pollutants and trickle the cleaner water back down to the fish — a symbiotic system called aquaponics. The watercress sells for $16 a pound; the fish fetch $6 apiece.

Hawaii imports upwards of 90% of its food from the Mainland. It’s generally admitted that we cannot be fully sustainable… but maybe we need to re-think that.

Here’s a video…

And a related article.

So. Who in Hawaii can get the ball rolling and bring Allen’s knowhow to our state?

(Thanks to George Fox for suggesting this article)

Enjoy your salmonella pot pie

by Larry Geller

A scary article from the New York Times, Food Companies Are Placing the Onus for Safety on Consumers (May 14, 2009) should be of particular concern to Hawaii consumers. Because of the length of the distribution chain, by the time food gets to us, any little buggers hitchhiking along have had a chance to party and prosper. Like flying here on United used to be, free drinks, Hawaiian music, you remember.

Take the frozen pot pie which the New York Times highlights (no, wait…). In 2007, according to the article, 15,000 people were sickened by pies contaminated with salmonella.

The pie maker, ConAgra Foods, began spot-checking the vegetables for pathogens, but could not find the culprit.

So what did ConAgra Foods do? They continued to ship pies (with salmonella and all?) but asked consumers to kill the little buggers:

The “food safety” instructions and four-step diagram on the 69-cent pies offer this guidance: “Internal temperature needs to reach 165° F as measured by a food thermometer in several spots.”

Somehow this does not give me much confidence. Heck, the idea of a 69-cent pie is to throw it in the microwave and gobble it down real fast. You don’t expect much from it. I don’t think many people will carry a food thermometer to the office lunchroom or want to spend time poking it around “in several spots.” At least they could define “several.” There should be some confidence that the food is safe to begin with, and then yes, we should take reasonable precautions.

The article highlights this company’s product, but apparently the problem of contaminated food is pervasive in this country:

Increasingly, the corporations that supply Americans with processed foods are unable to guarantee the safety of their ingredients. In this case, ConAgra could not pinpoint which of the more than 25 ingredients in its pies was carrying salmonella. Other companies do not even know who is supplying their ingredients, let alone if those suppliers are screening the items for microbes and other potential dangers, interviews and documents show.

The 90% or so of the food we eat in Hawaii travels a long and perhaps perilous path. By the time it ends up in our shopping basket it may be considerably older than it was when it left the factory. And along the way, the chances that it has been out of refrigeration or improperly frozen increase simply because of the distance (you did know that most milk shipped to Hawaii isn’t even refrigerated, right?).

Yet the supply chain for ingredients in processed foods — from flavorings to flour to fruits and vegetables — is becoming more complex and global as the drive to keep food costs down intensifies. As a result, almost every element, not just red meat and poultry, is now a potential carrier of pathogens, government and industry officials concede.

In addition to ConAgra, other food giants like Nestlé and the Blackstone Group, a New York firm that acquired the Swanson and Hungry-Man brands two years ago, concede that they cannot ensure the safety of items — from frozen vegetables to pizzas — and that they are shifting the burden to the consumer

The problem cannot be blamed only on manufacturers. State and federal regulations don’t protect us. As an illustration, I was dismayed to find heavy sediment on the bottom of the little bottles of Knudsen’s cranberry juice concentrate bought from our usual health food store. Stirring it into some water instead of discarding it produced an unpleasant drink. The little bottle has no date marked on it. Had there been a date, I would expect to find that the bottles on the shelf were quite old. At least, I would have information I need to decide whether to spend almost $12 on it.

So I ordered a dozen to be shipped by mail from the Continent. Not only did I save money, but the concentrate has no sediment at all. None. It tastes great.

Our local stores are often sloppy with “sell by” dates. For example, in April, at a Star Market, I found that the dairy product I was looking for had expired about two weeks earlier. While waiting for the store person to check in the back to see if there was anything newer, I picked up a little package of fig cake to check the ingredients and see if I might want to invest. It looked good, but the product had expired in January. When the guy came back I showed it to him. He cleaned the expired dairy stuff and fig stuff off the shelf. We’re talking about 15 or so items. Trouble is, of course, that had I not brought it to his attention, it might still be there.

I’ve seen soy drink on sale at a health food store. Checking the date stamped on the top, it had expired. When I brought that to the attention of someone, they did nothing.

So yeah, it’s up to us to cook our food properly and check expiration dates, but on the other hand, I don’t expect to buy toxic food that I’m supposed to sterilize before eating, or that is so old it has lost nutritive value and taste.

Hawaii consumers have a choice, though few will follow it: support our local farmers. Buy at the real farmers markets and make food from scratch. Make your own pizza, it tastes better than frozen anyway. Cook on the weekend and put away meals for busy evenings during the work week.

Few will do that. The supermarkets exist for the masses who want fast, microwaveable meals and are spending their food money for convenience. There should be sufficient regulation to protect them. As we know, regulation has been lax. It’s not working.

Research on raw ingredients, [an industry] guide notes, has found salmonella in 0.14 percent to 1.3 percent of the wheat flour sampled, and up to 8 percent of the raw spices tested.

ConAgra’s pot pie outbreak began on Feb. 20, 2007, and by the time it trailed off nine months later 401 cases of salmonella infection had been identified in 41 states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which estimates that for every reported case, an additional 38 are not detected or reported.

It took until June 2007 for health officials to discover the illnesses were connected, and in October they traced the salmonella to Banquet pot pies made at ConAgra’s plant in Marshall, Mo.

The steps marked on that pot pie which place the responsibility on consumers to kill the little buggers don’t work anyway, according to the New York Times article:

But attempts by The New York Times to follow the directions on several brands of frozen meals, including ConAgra’s Banquet pot pies, failed to achieve the required 165-degree temperature. Some spots in the pies heated to only 140 degrees even as parts of the crust were burnt.

Do you know the wattage of your microwave oven? No? Well, the pot pies have a minimum requirement. Most people will have no idea what the power of their microwave ovens is. And the article mentions that a fourth of the salmonella victims cooked their pies in conventional ovens anyway.

I’m surprised that there is little reaction from the public to the periodic contamination scares. In Hawaii, we continue to import milk unrefrigerated. It’s re-pasteurized, so it’s most likely safe enough, but whatever the little buggers did in the milk on their long journey over here remains, and it certainly can’t taste the same as fresher milk purchased elsewhere in the country.

Reforming commercial producers might be hard to do. We can and should vote with our wallets and buy local, wholesome, preferably organic, food products. In many cases it’s cheaper anyway, and nothing beats the snap of a freshly picked crisp red bell pepper as you bite into it (compared to the limp imported product from the supermarket). Cauliflower not only tastes better but is cheaper in the farmers market. The kale and salad greens you can buy on Saturday at KCC were just picked, and the farmer is there to answer your questions on how it is raised.

Buy direct and save money over Whole Foods. Enjoy the bounty of fresh taste, nutrition and good health that we can raise by ourselves even in middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Market find: Blue Lotus duck egg omelets

by Larry Geller

Check these out next time you are at the KCC Saturday Farmers Market.

(click for large enough to read)

Greg has set up a few tables to enjoy these classy omelets in comfort.

Peel me a grape

by Larry Geller

Send out for scotch, boil me a crab
Cut me a rose, and make my tea with the petals
Just hang around, pick up the tab
Never out think me, just mink me
Polar bear rug me, don't bug me
New Thunderbird me, you heard me
I'm getting hungry, peel me a grape

[Peel Me a Grape, Written by David Frishberg]

Now, that’s luxury. To get someone to peel your grapes for you.

In Japan, peeling grapes is pretty much standard practice, though.

Japanese grapes can be huge (a serving might be two of them), but those have very astringent skins, and it’s a totally different experience to pop them whole or to peel them first. As we know, it’s healthier to peel them anyway, since grapes are often sprayed generously with pesticides. So peeling is a good thing. It’s also easy in Japan—the grapes are either bred or selected to practically jump right out of their skins. We learned the technique when we lived there, though I was never very good at it with the average grape.

Unfortunately, similar grapes bought in the USA are more attached to their outsides. I had long wondered if any were imported directly from Japan so that I could try peeling those. Look, this may not interest you, but if you are in Japan and can get one to try, please do, and then let me know if you are still laughing (you can start saving for your grape treat now, they are not cheap).

So a display over at Don Quijote grabbed my eye. The picture was of the large (if not giant) grapes I knew would be super-special if they came from Japan, and indeed the sign describes the qualities of the Japanese Kyoho grapes. Trouble is, on the left, it says plainly enough, “grown in Chile.” That makes sense, it’s just April here in the Northern Hemisphere, so they would logically have to come from the bottom side of our planet. But wait… over on the right is a “Manager’s Special” sign. The manager says that these are “Product of USA.”

From grape to gripe

Ok, Don Quijote has problems with either their signs or honesty (see more below). So while believing these must be from Chile, now I have a whole new gripe. Why are they being represented as products of the USA if they are from Chile?

Just at that moment a young lady came by with a button that said “May I Help You?” So we cornered her and asked where these grapes actually came from. Picking up a package, we showed her that it said nothing about country of origin (and no, you can’t tell from the bar code, as I found out on returning home and looking it up).

She called out to a produce worker. He was dressed in his authoritative green produce apron and maybe should know. “From Japan,” he replied. If only!

Our helpful young lady shrugged her shoulders.

Oh, well. It’s not important, I’m not going to buy any. At that low price, they can’t be any good (see, we lived in Japan too long maybe).

Attention All Shoppers: Caveat emptor

If this were just an isolated instance, it would be of no importance whatsoever. Stuff happens in retail. But Don Quijote has had some very interesting signage.

For example, just before the Christmas holidays:

Here’s a Coby MPC-883 MP3 player advertised as a “Christmas Special Price.” In fact, an “Amazing Price!!” with two exclamation points.

I had been looking for a cheap player with more capacity than my ancient 256 MB Muvo Slim (a great player, by the way, for its time). So the price looked familiar to me, from scanning the shelves on prior visits. Wasn’t that the regular, not-so-amazing (!!) price? I had thought it was too much for a player without a display, and Coby isn’t a brand I’m too fond of. Wasn’t this the same player, at the same price, that I had seen earlier?

Nearby, just around the corner, was the answer:

Yup, the same player, at the same “Everyday Low” not-so-amazing price.

After Christmas, this is the price that remained on the item.

Of course, we know this happens in retail.

Moving on… well before the holidays I had noted this amusing product (one of the pleasures of shopping at Don Quijote for me is running into this stuff):

Yup, that’s a replica of the famous Belgian statue "Manneken Pis"immortalized in plastic on top of a drink dispenser. The Japanese on the box to the left, translated, is roughly “Saaa… drink up!”

I suppose it might be trying to evoke that great feeling when you finally do locate a public restroom. Or maybe not, I’m not sure.

A cellphone camera is a great thing. I also snapped this picture of the drink dispenser:

The box to the right advises that it is suitable for anyone from kids to adults.

Yeah, it’s a different culture, over there.

So this drink dispenser is supposed to be at home on the family dinner table or something.

Aside from the amusement factor, there was this sign, which is why I started snapping in the first place:

The sign clearly states that it is an “Electronic Soda Dispenser.” Hmm, thought I, if you put anything with gas in it (like beer?), wouldn’t it, um, be pissing all by itself while you ate dinner around it? After all, it’s just a container with a little pump. Checking further (click on the pic for larger), it says less prominently that it is not suitable for soda. The box did not say anything about soda that I could find, this is a Don Quijote invention.

Of course, we know this happens in retail.

The problem with Don Quijote is, it happens too often. I don’t snap pictures of every suspicious sign I see. Their signs are big and bold, something I appreciate and which is unique to this chain. It would be nice if they were not misleading. I don’t know whether I can trust any of them.

Disappeared news: why milk imported into Hawaii is re-pasteurized

by Larry Geller

A story in today’s Advertiser, Local milk back in stores, brings welcome news. An important piece of information was omitted, though, and it’s one you need to know about if you buy “local” milk at your favorite supermarket.

Hidden at the very end of the story continuation is this incomplete revelation:

Most milk imported from the Mainland, while it can be characterized as being produced locally because it is repasteurized in Hawai'i, cannot be labeled with the state's "Island Fresh" origin mark unless it contains at least 90 percent local milk.

Repasteurizing, or reprocessing, adds about eight days to the age of imported Mainland milk, which can be between 25 to 30 days old by the time it reaches its shelf expiration date.

What’s omitted is that the re-pasteurization is necessary because the milk is shipped to Hawaii in unrefrigerated containers.

Yes, and this information isn’t new, though it hasn’t been an issue in the newspapers. Why? Could it be that the reporter didn’t ask why “reprocessing” is necessary?

See:

Scary Dairy -- Frightening food news for Halloween, 10/30/2005

Scary Dairy revisited - Costco and organic milk probably ok, 11/5/2005

Costco carries 1% organic milk - shipped refrigerated, 3/11/2006

So now you have the scary picture: milk is shipped to Hawaii unrefrigerated, can be a month old at its expiration date, and of course sells for far more than folks on the Continent pay for a fresher, cleaner product. Ugh.

Whatever the little microbes did in the milk stays there, though they themselves are killed by the re-pasteurization before it is sold to you. Ugh.

The article doesn’t say whether Big Island milk is shipped to Oahu refrigerated. I hope the Advertiser will look into this.

I’m also curious about whether the Big Island dairies use hormones and antibiotics, of course, but that’s another topic.

The importance of a well-run kitchen

by Larry Geller

I have always admired a well-run kitchen. After all, we go to a restaurant for an enjoyable eating experience. If they’ve forgotten part of an order, if there’s a long wait, if it comes out cold when it should be hot, or if the dessert is microwaved and soggy, it makes it tough to enjoy.

On the other hand, when something is expertly prepared, seems to pop right out of the kitchen at the right temperature and perfectly seasoned, life is good.

The other night we visited Kookie’s Thai Kitchen again. I’m amazed that she can produce all of the dishes on the menu, and they do come out quickly and perfectly made. They’re also not going to drown me in coconut milk, as can happen at other Thai restaurants in town. So I feel confident in ordering anything at all. But the other night we reverted to our pattern when Kookie used to be at the place across the street from us. We asked her what she recommended that night. We were thinking of a fish, we said.

We always used to speak with Kookie about what to have. She made it easy by coming out personally to talk with us and answer any questions. It’s the same at her new place. Kookie does not hide out in her kitchen.

When we decided, she disappeared into the kitchen and shortly a server emerged with our dinner. Our fish dish was as we had discussed, a fried fish with lots of fresh vegetables. I can’t remember what it was called. It doesn’t matter. It was perfect.

I was reminded of how important kitchen management is while reading this unrelated article today. Some people know how to organize and run a kitchen. Kookie is one of them. Unlike the chef in the article, though, you get a chance to speak with her about what would please you that evening. The restaurant in the article is highly efficient, but you need to choose something from the menu and I’m guessing there’s not much discussion. Different situation here, but same basic idea remains—the chef needs to be able to organize and run a kitchen properly in order to deliver what’s on the menu perfectly prepared and in good time.

There’s a place for fast food and for formulaic ethnic or theme restaurants. There’s also a place for a style of dining where everyone feel cared for as well as fed, where new culinary experiences are safe, and where disappointment isn’t much of a risk. That’s what keeps diners coming back again and again, I think, when they become jaded with the fast food life foisted on us by our TV sets. It’s great when you have such a place, and we have found ours.

Catching up with Mark Bittman’s no-knead bread

by Larry Geller

It seems that almost everyone on the planet has tried Mark Bittman’s no-knead bread. The original recipe was in the New York Times article of November 8, 2006, The Secret of Great Bread: Let Time Do the Work (recipe here), and there’s a video which will explain the whole thing to you (although Bittman’s recipe differs from the video, it’s close enough):

I’m guessing that if I lived in New York, nearly every neighbor would have already tried this shockingly simple way to make great bread. Here in Hawaii, not so. So I don’t feel so bad being a late adopter.

Why didn’t I try it right away? We didn’t have the necessary heavy pot. At Executive Chef, it would cost $280 for a Le Creuset enameled cast iron pot that might work. As the economy tumbles, however, there have been some great sales, and a similar pot appeared in a Macys one-day sale ad for $49.95. It was a 5.5 quart Martha Stewart enameled cast iron pot with a lifetime guarantee. It was not quite as heavy as the popular brand, but affordable. We picked up a metal Le Creuset knob for the pot just to be sure it could survive in the oven at the high temperature the recipe called for. The smaller pot is also a change from the video, made after Bittman adapted the original method to suit his own preferences.

So I did try it, at last. I made some mistakes along the way, and yet, strange thing, the bread turned out great! It had an incredible crackly crust as described. The inside was slightly underbaked but when the bread was reheated (we quarter the loaf and freeze the unused portion) it was perfect. I’ll fix that next time (the oven was not warm enough).

For me, kneading bread is something I look forward to. I used to bake frequently, but these days, with the availability of Bale bread at the KCC Saturday Farmers Market, I got lazy. I have a sourdough starter in the fridge that’s been neglected so long that I can’t remember when I last tended to it. Although I like to knead, I’ve been intrigued by the possibility that the whole ritual is, well, unnecessary. It’s something like my attitude to shifting a manual transmission in a car—why bother? Isn’t that why the automatic transmission was invented? So why knead, if great bread can be produced without it?

I tried the recipe as given in Bittman’s followup article, No Kneading, but Some Fine-Tuning.

My first mistake was that the dough was too wet. I used Bittman’s weight measures since we have metric scales. It was so wet that it stuck to the Silpat mat I let it rise on. It stuck to the plastic wrap. It was a mess. But I threw it into the oven-hot pot anyway, put on the lid, gave it the 30 minutes recommended and then 30 minutes with the lid off.

My second error was that I was impatient with my oven, which had probably not warmed to the correct temperature.

Amazingly, a perfect boule emerged at the end of this process.

(There’s another, more recent article here and here, but I find it a bit confusing. For one thing, Bittman talks about a loaf pan but the pic shows the same cast iron pot).

Soon I’ll do it again, probably with part whole grain flour, and following that I’ll try a refrigerated dough as described in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. Imagine taking a lump of dough out of the fridge, letting it sit and rise awhile, then throwing it into a hot pot—and voila! fresh baked bread for dinner, the lazy way.