Saturday, January 29, 2011

Country of Origin Labels - COOL.

"COOL" Information - Country of Origin Labels
by Julie Backenkeller for Rock Environmental Network, Inc.
Janesville Gazette, Sunday, January 23, 2011
I admit it. I am an environmental information junkie. It takes me hours to get through the grocery store because I have become a professional label reader. Besides unnatural additives, unfamiliar ingredients and artificial sweeteners, I started looking for the "Country of Origin" label (COOL), which is listed on many packages.
In September of 2008, the US Dept of Agriculture (USDA) updated their requirement for retailers to display the Country-of Origin on labels for a wide variety of foods. Included in the list are beef, veal, lamb, chicken, pork, goat, wild and farm raised fish and shellfish, fresh & frozen fruits and vegetables, nuts, and ginseng. Items not included in the Country-of-Origin labeling are processed foods like spaghetti sauce or meatballs, or products that mix several items or ingredients into one package. The rule also does not apply to restaurants.
Several months ago, I read an article about Whole Foods brand frozen vegetables. Listed on the label of their "365 Organic vegetables", was a USDA Organic stamp, and right under that "Product of China". This is where I could go into the logic of buying your organic vegetables locally, from the farmer's market or even your own back yard, but frozen has always been the better option over cans. The last news we read about canned food, was that 98% of can's are lined with Bisphenol A, a chemical that causes a whole bunch of health issues, and is banned in both Europe and Canada. The concern with purchasing foods that are grown or processed in other countries, is the safety standards that may or may not be in place, and pesticides and other chemical additives that may be used. Need I mention the sheer distance that the food has to travel to get to your dinner table.... There is something seriously wrong with our system when we live in the midwest - with some of the finest soils on earth, and our vegetables are imported from China.
One out of four Americans is stricken with a food-borne illness each year, and of those, 325,000 are hospitalized, and 5,000 die. Seafood products, according to the Centers for Disease Control, cause 18-20 percent of the known food-borne illnesses each year. With Americans consuming almost 30% more seafood than they ate 25 years ago, industrial fish and seafood farms have popped up to fill the demand. (foodandwaterwatch.org) Let's look at shrimp as an example. I picked up a package of shrimp at a local grocery store last week. Country of Origin? China. Shrimp farms are replacing mangroves (tropical coastal forests) in warm coastal areas. Mangroves not only provide habitat for marine life, they also protect the coastline. Shrimp farms (and other industrial fish farms) rely on antibiotics, fungicides, pesticides and algaecides to keep shrimp alive, however, use of these chemicals is also polluting the water, and affecting other marine life.  Antibiotics are used to prevent the spread of viruses. The White Spot virus in shrimp can survive freezing, and may still exist when the shrimp is served for dinner.
According to Food and Water Watch (foodandwaterwatch.org), the United States is importing shrimp from countries that use the antibiotic Chloramphenicol, which is linked to human aplastic anemia (a lethal blood disorder) intestinal problems, neurological reactions and other health concerns. Thailand, China, Vietnam and Ecuador all use this antibiotic in their shrimp farms and export thousands of pounds of shrimp annually to the US, even though Chloramphenicol is banned in the US, it is still finding its' way into our homes and threatening our health.
A trip to our up-north Wal-Mart proved to be a great learning opportunity for my kids when it came to label reading. Vegetables sold under the Wal-Mart brand "Great Value" listed the Country-of-Origin as "Product of China". In October, Wal-Mart recalled specific types of vegetables because customers reported finding pieces of glass in the package. (I doubt that the glass was listed in the ingredients section)
While the government's food pyramid (mypyramid.gov) suggests eating less meats & beans than when I was a kid, there are no special warnings on the page about possible health threats from imported foods.
Eating local doesn't mean simply buying foods from your local grocer, it means knowing where your food came from, how it was produced,  and what has been added to it. If the USDA is not going to regulate imported foods the same way they regulate food produced within the United States, we as consumers need to voice our concerns, and stop buying imported foods. Be COOL, be an informed consumer and read the label.

Mega-Dairy coming to Rock Prairie

*Please see ACTION items at the bottom of this post Deadline, February 4, 2011 at 4:30 PM*

This is my first attempt at blogging, so please be patient :-)

After reading the Janesville Gazette's articles about the mega dairy coming to Rock County, I understand why people were not alarmed or alerted to the possible environmental hazards and concerns that this dairy could bring to our area. Add to that, the fact that the DNR doesn't feel that an environmental assessment is necessary, because they haven't heard "enough" opposition to the project. So far, the DNR project leader, Mark Cain has received only 25 calls about the project.
http://gazettextra.com/news/2010/aug/25/farmer-details-dairy-plans/

My Grandmother's favorite saying, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" would be great advice to follow in this situation. The precautionary principle states that if an action or policy has a suspected risk of causing harm to the public or to the environment, in the absence of scientific consensus that the action or policy is harmful, the burden of proof that it is not harmful falls on those taking the action.
This principle allows policy makers to make discretionary decisions in situations where there is the possibility of harm from taking a particular course or making a certain decision when extensive scientific knowledge on the matter is lacking. The principle implies that there is a social responsibility to protect the public from exposure to harm, when scientific investigation has found a plausible risk. These protections can be relaxed only if further scientific findings emerge that provide sound evidence that no harm will result.

Since the Rock Prairie Dairy proposes to sit right smack dab in the Turtle Creek water shed, and the Turtle Creek watershed is ALREADY considered an impaired waterway, it seems only natural that we as a community would ask the DNR that there is some sort of assessment BEFORE the dairy is built, instead of AFTER, when there is little to do, except clean up the mess. The DNR has decided that the project does not warrant an environmental study. http://gazettextra.com/news/2011/jan/25/farm-impact-study-nixed/

This brings to mind my conversation with a local County Official, who tried to calm my concerns about the dairy. "Would you rather have 10 dairys with 500 cows each, which are not so highly regulated by the DNR, or one mega-dairy that is highly regulated"? My answer was immediate. "BP was highly regulated too." The other issues, in no particular order, are that this type of dairy is not a dairy, it is a factory, and should be regulated as such. This type of dairy is not sustainable - meaning, that the sheer amount of manure that will be produced is that of a city of 400,000 people, yet there is no sewage treatment facility. The amount of water being sucked out of our aquifer is staggering.... and the money brought in by this dairy will leave town the next day. Anyone that argues "jobs" as part of this project is fooling themselves. This highly automated operation will hire an on site manager (so far, Tuls' 18 year old son", and a dozen or so minimum wage workers. This operation will produce so much milk, that local farmers may soon find themselves out of a job, especially since there isn't a shortage of milk!

So would I rather have 10 dairys with 500 cows each, supporting 10 local farming families that care deeply about our local environment and give back to our community every day by eating, shopping and living locally? You bet. If you have strong feelings about this project also, take some time and do your homework. Educate yourself and make your own conclusions. But if you, like me, feel that an environmental assessment is THE LEAST that the DNR can do before this project is built - to protect local families from environmental concerns, or those that are living downstream, then take action. Get involved.

DNR Documents relating to this project can be found here:
http://search.dnr.wi.gov/search?q=rock+prairie+dairy&entqr=0&getfields=*&output=xml_no_dtd&sort=date%3AD%3AL%3Ad1&client=DNR_frontend&ud=1&oe=UTF-8&ie=UTF-8&proxystylesheet=DNR_frontend&site=default_collection

**TAKE ACTION BY FEBRUARY 4TH AT 4:30 PM**

Contact Mark Cain at the DNR no later than 4:30 PM on 2/4/2011
Phone: 608-275-3252 FAX: 608-275-3338
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
3911 Fish Hatchery Rd, Fitchburg, WI 53711

http://dnr.wi.gov/org/es/science/eis/eis.htm

As local residents, we need to demand that there is an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) before this project moves forward. This proposed dairy is sitting in the Turtle Creek Watershed, which is already an impaired waterway.

A group of concerned citizens have been meeting weekly to try to block the dairy. Contact Dwight Brass if you are interested in becoming involved at janicen@ticon.net