If government truly is the problem, perhaps we have only two real choices: help to make it better by being more responsive to the public interest, or send our complaints to the Offices of Corporate Domination. For as ineffective, and at times, seemingly corrupt as our government agencies appear, they still must ultimately answer to the people.

I’m unaware of any corporate charter that offers anything remotely similar, and indeed, the bigger the corporation, the more power it can wield, not only in the political realm, but in the marketplace, as well.

That’s why as citizens we must all become more engaged with what is going on in our society today. To that end, this is an excellent article written by a veteran EPA regulator (now retired) who has spent his professional career fighting against the forces of inertia, and corruption, and whose career trajectory has been permanently limited as a result of his honest efforts.

William Sanjour offers an insightful critique of the entire regulatory apparatus, why the role of government regulations are necessary, and why decades of “regulatory reforms” after “regulatory reforms” have consistently failed, and what to do about it.

For those in a hurry, here’s a brief summary of his recommendations:

“To summarize, this is what I believe needs to be done:

1) Agencies which enforce regulations should not write the regulations.

2) The revolving door should be shut.

3) Whistle blowers should be protected, encouraged and rewarded.

4) To the greatest extent feasible, those who the regulations are intended to protect should participate in writing and enforcing the regulations.”

From the original Independent Science News post titled: Designed to Fail: Why Regulatory Agencies Don’t Work

“The film follows my friend Andrew and me as we visit the folks who are challenging the way this country grows and distributes its food one vacant city lot and backyard chicken coop at a time. The film focuses on what we can all do to engage more deeply with growing food in our communities—whether that means planting your first seed or starting a flock of urban chickens, these agricultural acts are all of vital importance and the first step in rethinking the role of city dwellers in our society. Traditionally, we think of urban people as consumers and rural folks as producers. Given that we’re running out of land to ‘go back to’ we need to turn that notion on its head. And we want our film to do just that.”

If you’d like to help them finish their film so we can all see it on the screen, please consider checking out their Kickstarter campaign. Deadline is May 16, 2012.

Originally spotted on National Young Farmers’ Coalition.

A young Mo Rocca and his grandmother. Photo courtesy of the Food Network/Cooking Channel

“Rocca says his idea for the show came out of a particularly embarrassing dinner. “I had a friend over for takeout,” Rocca tells NPR’s Rachel Martin. “Since I don’t cook, that’s all I could serve him. And he said, ‘Do you have any salt? I need some salt.’ I said, ‘Uh, yeah. I think in the cupboard over the oven that I never use.’ And he said, ‘That’s sugar.’ And I realized I didn’t even have salt in my apartment. I mean, it’s pathetic!”

Rocca says that if he had a time machine, he’d go back 30 years and shadow his grandmother in the kitchen as she prepared bounteous Sunday meals for her family. “She made extraordinary meals,” he remembers. “I don’t have her anymore, so I’m doing the next best thing, which is learning from the old masters — from grandmothers and grandfathers across the country.”

The hour long special premieres on the Cooking Channel – Sunday, February 19th (tonight), at 8pm (EST), with repeats listed here.

As an added treat, watch Mo Rocca learn how to make his grandmother’s ravioli with Lidia Bastianich, 3 years ago.

Read more via NPR, “Mo Rocca Learns From the Masters: Grandparents“

“In the last 30 years we have lost 90% of our pork producers; in the last 30 years, we have lost 40% of our ranchers, we have lost 80% of our Dairymen because of big corporate abuse of power.”

—Mike Callicrate, Kansas rancher

Farmers Join In Solidarity with Occupy Wall Street Protest in New York City

For those who care deeply about inequality in America— about the undue influence of corporate predators (including big Ag) that subvert democracy, and render the will of the people silent—the Occupy Wall Street protest represents the de facto conscience of the nation.

One important element of this ongoing struggle for transforming our economic system is the recognition that there is an important role for government to play, and equally so, a requisite role for an actively engaged citizenry. As Calligrate mentions in the video, we must learn to see our role as citizens first, not as rapacious consumers, or we resign our future (and that of our children) to slavery.

Sustainability is equally about producing profit, but not at the expense of local communities, the environment, and of labor.

In this Occupy Wall Street video, Kansas rancher, Mike Callicrate articulates the current state of agriculture, and the fight to reverse large corporate dominance over our food system.

Thanks to Dave Murphy of Food Democracy Now for sharing this video. The Occupy Wall Street Farmers’ March event was co-produced by Food Democracy Now, and the Occupy Wall Street’s food justice committee.

See also:

Oligarchy, American Style by Paul Krugman

The One Percent (2006)
Predating the 2008 economic meltdown, and the more recent Occupy Wall Street movement, Jamie Johnson, heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune, uses his unique financial status to gain access to some of the wealthiest individuals in America. To say the least, many of the one-percenter’s views on growing income disparity, and poverty are often beyond ludicrous. Brief appearances by Ralph Nader, Robert Reich, and congressmen John Lewis (along with some others) provide a welcome relief of sane analysis. Produced by Jamie Johnson and Nick Kurzon. See trailer below:

Image courtesy of http://www.birdphotos.com; Creative Commons 3.0

Please find below a short clip from an interview with Mr. Spears that was produced by the Kitchen Sisters, a long-running, award-winning radio show featuring stories across the country about food, and American food culture. As the Kitchen Sisters explain in their newsletter, this interview happened quite by chance. They were originally planning to interview Willie Nelson about his involvement with Farm Aid, but Nelson was temporarily delayed. So they began talking with Spears, and it turned into a interview that almost caused them to miss their opportunity to interview Nelson.

[audio src="http://cookingupastory.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/HKT-Bee-Spears-cooks-armadillo.mp3"]
Short clip of interview with Dan Bee Spears talking in part about cooking an armadillo (hence the reason for the post’s image)

Here’s a link to the complete one hour Texas special that the clip above was taken. For those who enjoy Willie Nelson’s music, here’s a link to a video on YouTube where his son (Lukas) and his daughter (Amy) play in their own band called Promise of the Real.

Maybe my ears are a bit weathered from age, but Lukas’s voice sounds identical to his dad’s. What a gift!

“Pete’s Greens is one of Vermont’s largest vegetable farms. The fast-moving blaze destroyed several tons of storage crops and their vegetable washing and processing equipment, along with two tractors. The loss is valued at more than half a million dollars, and most of the food and equipment was not insured. The fire will also mean five of the farm’s eight full-time employees will be laid off.” -from WCAX.com

Just a week later the community began to come forward to show their support. There was an online auction, dinners, donations from local businesses, and more. Money was raised, and so was a new barn.

Last Saturday the community was invited to an open house and barn warming. Eva Sollberger, of Stuck in Vermont, visited and shares this video:

“When you go out to eat, you shouldn’t get wage theft, racism, and sick cooks in the kitchen along with your meal.” —Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation

Saru Jayaraman, co-founder of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC) speaking at the 2011 Community Food Security Coalition meeting.

Here’s a pop quiz. What is one of the fastest growing industry sectors of the U.S. economy, and one of the few growth industries since the 2008 economic meltdown? A clue: it offers the lowest full-time employee wages, and the fewest benefits?

According to Saru Jayaraman, co-founder of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC), it’s the restaurant industry. Despite the fact (as of 2009), 40% of the American food budget is spent outside the home, and reflects one of the fastest growth industries in the U.S. today—in terms of worker’s rights, and employee compensation, this industry simmers at the bottom of the employment stew.

90% of U.S. restaurants, Jayaraman says, in addition to providing the lowest wage jobs, fail to offer the most basic of employment benefits common to other industries. Jayaraman singles out some notable members of the sustainable food movement for their lack of engagement on this issue, stating in part,“it’s unfortunate that a lot of times the folks that promote themselves as being the best on slow and local, are some of the worst employers”.

Jayaraman has compiled data from the latest USDA statistics to provide the following facts:

• $8.90 per hour (including tips) is the median hourly wage for a restaurant worker. That means, Jayaraman says, a majority of restaurant workers (with a family of 3) “that cook, prepare, and serve our food” are receiving wages below the federal poverty line.
• Only 20 % of all restaurant jobs provide livable wage jobs, and those tend to be in a few major cities, at the more upscale restaurants that favor hiring white workers over persons of color.
• The federal minimum wage requirement for tipped workers is $2.19/hour (plus tips). Jayarman states that thousands of employed restaurant workers are homeless.
• 7 out of 10 of the lowest paying jobs in America are in the restaurant industry.
• There are 10 million restaurant workers, many of whom will remain in the restaurant business their entire lives.

ROC has just published a National Diners Guide (pdf), and a separate how-to workbook for employers in an effort to educate restaurant workers on their employment rights; employers on how they can improve their management practices; and to better inform the public, so as, to pressure restaurants to change their practices. The guide provides a rating system for 150 of the top grossing restaurants, whether they provide paid sick leave, higher guaranteed wages for tipped workers, and whether they offer an ability for employees to advance in the company. It also publicly recognizes the “high road” restaurants that have succeeded in offering better wages, and benefits to their workers, without sacrificing the bottom-line, and singles out a few of the bad actors that have been involved in lawsuits.

Restaurant workers deserve a more decent fate, and so too, do restaurant eaters.

This video is from Food First.

Event takes place on December 3, 2011

So, how does one make this vital piece of reoccurring legislation more palatable to the general public to promote better citizen engagement around this bill?

In conjunction with International Open Data, Food + Tech Connect, a company founded by two journalists, and Gojee are hosting a wiki-based “Farm Bill Hackathon” on December 3, 2011. Their stated purpose is to bring together “journalists, technologists, designers, policy makers, and food data specialists to develop tools and visualizations that will help the public better understand how the Farm Bill impacts our lives.”

To find out more about this event, and how you may participate, visit Food + Tech Connect Farm Bill Hackathon

It will be interesting to see what results from this event.

Conditioned within a matter of minutes to associate their feeding with the above mentioned explosive ingredients, when smelled, the bees will extend their proboscis toward the anticipated food, crossing an infrared beam in the process. If enough of the bees cross the infrared beam simultaneously, an alarm is triggered. So sophisticated are these honeybees in picking up a scent, the prototype device is reported to be more sensitive than any known bomb detection device currently in use— in the parts per trillion range (1 followed by 12 zeroes!).

Click on image to enlarge

Still, as the report details, this 4.8 billion figure represents about 1.9% of total farm sales in 2008. As the author’s note, “For local foods production to continue to grow, marketing channels and supply chain infrastructure must deepen.” The stated purpose of this report is to deepen the understanding about existing local food marketing channels so that both private and public sectors of society may provide added support to the local food sector of the economy.

Perhaps, too small at the present moment to change the overall local food economy revenue figures, there is an additional method of enhancing the local food economy of a region. While still in a state of relative infancy (I believe the first of these events began in 1999 by an organization called Outstanding in the Field)—there are a number of farm to table style outdoor culinary gatherings that have been springing up across the country.

Farm To Fork Events.
Photo courtesy of Toki Cavener Photography

Co-founders Matthew Domingo, and his wife Erin Dougherty help to inject money into the local food economy by paying small farmers (and winemakers) for the food they provide at these culinary events. At each farm dinner, the host provides a general tour of their farm, and along with additional stories and information shared over the duration of the 5-course meal (feast), also encourage donations for worthy organizations.

One of the central purposes for Farm To Fork is to help raise public awareness toward important sustainable food issues that include: increasing access to good food, improving the farm bill legislation, and promoting farm to school programs, among other good causes. At the event I attended, money was raised to help those in need obtain matching funds toward their WIC coupons (food stamps) to effectively double their WIC purchasing power at the local farmer’s market.

Disclosure: CUPS has been an invited guest to two of these events.