For the first time ever, the version of the Farm Bill that
passed the House Agriculture Committee last week will, if approved by
the full House (probably later this month) and Senate, contain funding for the
fruit and vegetable industry. It's a pittance—$1.5 billion over five years
versus the $12 to $25 billion doled out to growers of big commodity crops such
as corn, wheat, soybeans, cotton, and rice per year —but it's a
start. According to the San Francisco Chronicle some of the
new money will flow to organic research, inclusion of more fruits and
vegetables in school lunch programs, promotion of farmers markets, and
environmental programs. There was another morsel of good news in the
Bill—maybe. The new law allows for full implementation of mandatory country of
origin labeling for meat. I say maybe because the last Farm Bill, passed in
2002, also called for such labeling, but the powerful meat packing lobby, whose
members don't want consumers to know where their beef and pork was raised, has
managed to block the rule from taking effect. (Here's an earlier post on that debacle.) And of course, this
being politics, there's one giant loophole. Even if the bill does pass, ground
meats will be able to get by with labels bearing the names of countries they might
have come from. Kind of scary. I'll stick to buying a piece of chuck and
whirring it for a few seconds in the food processor. Tastes better, and if
Congress stands up to big meat this time, at least I'll know where it comes
from.
A Chile Reception
Al Gore's one of those
guys who can never catch a break. Last week
the Daily Telegraph implied that he was being
hypocritical after Chilean sea bass (Horrors!) was served at the born-again
eco-warrior's daughter's wedding reception. Organizations such as Monterey Bay
Aquarium's
Seafood
Watch put the seriously overfished species (also called Patagonian
toothfish) at the very top of their lists of fish to avoid. But there is a
catch. One small toothfish fishery, based on the island of South Georgia, is managed in such an ecologically sound manner that it has
earned the approval of the
Marine Stewardship Council, the most respected certifier of
environmentally sustainable seafood in the world. (Here's
a pdf listing all of the MSC-approved fisheries.) The approved
fish was served at the Gore nuptials. I can understand the newspaper's
confusion. Friends frequently come to me and say that they are surprised to
find toothfish in places like Whole Foods Market and restaurants that have a
strong conservation ethic. Should they buy it? Technically, if you are positive
that the fish is from South Georgia and it bears the MSC label, it's fine. But
there is still one big problem: more than half the Chilean sea bass caught is
taken illegally. Because of the element of uncertainty (Is that filet really
from South Georgia?), I'll take Seafood Watch's advice and avoid all Chilean
sea bass until the murky waters surrounding illicit catches clear. There are
plenty of other, better tasting fish in the sea.