The Dairy Show

Katie Couric is on a roll

Katie Couric of CBS news seems to doing a lot of stories on food policy and public health related issues these days.  In her latest online show called @KatieCouric, she does an extensive interview with Dr. David Kessler, former FDA commissioner and author of the book The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite, and Eric Schlosser, journalist and author of Fast Food Nation.

As I suggested, this interview is quite long, at about 48 minutes, but very informative. This video is a great introduction to learn about some of the issues with our food system and how it contributed to 60% of adults US being overweight and 30% of US children.  It also offers good insights into how we should be thinking about what caused our problems and how we might solve them.

During the interview parallels between the war on smoking and of changing eats habits are discussed.  Dr. Kessler says that we knew that the campaign against smoking was working when children were asking their parents to stop smoking.  He says that now wouldn't it be great if we could educate kids about good eating and have them saying to their parents "Please don't take me to that fast food restaurant."

For summary of the video check out the post on Civil Eats, or watch the whole thing below.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Let's Move

Last week the White House and the First Lady unveiled there new plan to combat childhood obesity.  This is a very serious problem as in the past 30 years the prevalence of childhood obesity has grown to 30% of the population. 

There are two main parts to the White House Initiative.  First the President has established the creation of a childhood obesity task force and second the first lady will head up a new public relations program called Let's Move.  The goals of the programs are to ensure access to healthy, affordable food; increase physical activity in schools and communities; provide healthier food in schools; and empower parents with information and tools to make good choices for themselves and their families.

The Let's Move website, is definitely worth checking out, because is filled with great information about the program and links to other resources.    This looks like a great comprehensive program that is tackling the issues from many different angles and over the next few weeks, I'll put up some posts to highlight different aspects of the plan..  I'm very impressed by how many different organizations are involved from the FDA, to USDA, to public schools, to the American Academy of Pediatricians.  This type of multidisciplinary approach makes me optimistic that this program could work. 

Food Curated Presents: Dickson's Farmstand Meats

Liza Mosquito de Guia (@SkeeterNYC) produces fantastic videos about local food over at FoodCurated.com.  Her latest feature is on Dickson's Farmstand Meats.  This new butcher shop in the Chelsea Market is a real butcher shop and gets all its products from the local area.  I recently shot an interview with Betty Fussell in the shop for a Dairy Free project I'm working on and you'll hear more about soon.

The folks over at Dickson's are really great and Liza's video's do a nice job of telling their story.  Watch the video's below (after the jump) and check out Liza's others at FoodCurated.com. 

Jamie Oliver wins TED prize

Jamie Oliver is the British chef who has come to America to tackle obesity and related diseases.  On his new show called "Jamie's Food Revolution", which premieres March 26th on ABC he visits "America's Unhealthiest city" Huntington West Virgina in order to teach the community about food and to try to get them to change that way they. 

On February 10th he won the this years TED prize (Technology, Entertainment, Design).  The prize comes with $100,000 and "a wish to change the world".  Which according to the TED website is supposed to mobilize the community to effect change.  Jamie's wish was

"for your help to create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity."

Hopefully this prize and the upcoming television show will indeed help make an impact in the improving the way people eat and fighting obesity.  To watch Jamie's TED speech, see below.

New Organic Milk Standards Require Pasture!

According to this post from the Cornucopia institute, today the USDA adopted new stricter regulations for organic animal products. Under the new regulations, in order to label products with the organic seal, animals must be out on pasture for the whole growing season or a minimum of 120 days and have access to the outdoors year round.  During their time on pasture 30% of the animals dry matter intake must come from grazing pasture.  

These new regulations, while not perfect, are a major advancement in ensuring that milk labeled organic comes from animals that are not continuously confined to dry lots.  It will be interesting to see the effect these new regulations have on some of the "big organic" brands.

While these regulations will make it so that the cows producing organic milk come closer to the vision that many consumers have about happy cows out on pasture, remember that these regulations only require producers to ensure that animals are getting 30% of their dry feed from pasture.  If you want closer to 100% grass-fed milk, you are still going to have to look for it specifically.  So I still recommend seeking out and meeting your local farmers to find out how they raise their animals.

Factory Farms and Antibiotics Part II

In Part II of Katie Couric's piece from CBS News on Antibiotics and Farm she visits a new model of factory farm that does not use antibiotics.  In order to successfully raise animals in confinement succesfully without antibiotics, the farmers say that they have to provide additional space.  This of course leads to an increased price of the meat products to consumers that the National Pork Board seems to suggest is too much. 

The story also sites studies that show that incidence of infection with resistant bacteria in humans increased when animals started getting regularly fed antibiotics. After banning this practice in European countries the incidence of finding resistant bacteria in meet has decreased.  The next step is to see the effect on public health.

It is very interesting and somewhat surprising to see that intensively raising animals in confinement is possible without antibiotics, provided they have a little more space. The turkey shed that Couric visits, doesn't look that different that one of the chicken houses that you might see in movies like Food, Inc or Our Daily Bread.

Watch part II below:

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Factory Farms and Antibiotics

Around 70% of all the antibiotics produced go to farm animals.  Antibiotics in many of these cases aren't used to treat animals who are sick, but are given to healthy animals to make them grow faster and keep them from getting ill.  The indiscriminate use of antibiotics helps encourage the growth of antibiotic resistant bacteria and so is a major threat to public health.  CBS news did a story on this issue tonight, you can watch it below.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Organic Milk Standards

Barry Estabrook has a great new post on his blog Politics of the Plate blog about a policy that could change the organic dairy industry for the better.  The policy on the desk of the Office of Management and Budget could require that the Organic seal for milk require that cows spend the majority of the growing season on pasture.  This requirement would be a major boon for small organic dairy farms and a major push towards promoting sustainable dairies.  Check out Barry's post here to find out more about it and how to voice your views to the White House.

Jan 6, 2010 Slow Food U: Women in Cheese Event

The Dairy Show is pleased to announce this great Slow Food NYC Event.  Hope to see you there!

Do you love cheese? Have you ever thought about why so many women are making such good cheese?

Join Slow Food NYC Jan 6th from 6:30pm to 8:30pm for an evening filled with local women in cheese. On hand will be local cheese purveyor Anne Saxelby, of Saxelby Cheesemongers, leading a discussion with Karen Weinberg of Three Corner Field Farm, Betsy Devine and Rachel Mark of Salvatore Bklyn, Angela Miller of Consider Bardwell Farm, and Lisa Schwartz of Rainbeau Ridge.

Hear the story behind the cheese and how this diverse group of women got into the business. They will discuss the cheese making process from the pastures to the shelves and what makes each of their cheeses so wonderful and unique. And of course each participant will also bring plenty of cheese to try, paired with local New York State cider.

Proceeds from this event will help support the activities and programs of Slow Food NYC.

Tickets Available at: http://www.astorcenternyc.com/class-slow-u-women-in-cheese.ac
Slow Food Members: $25 - use promotional code SFNYCMEM Non-members: $35 - use promotional code SFNYCNON

Special Edition 4-In the Kitchen with Gina DePalma

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