Iowa Looks Like Rome of the Gracchi, Minus the Elegant Statesmen

Sir Tadema's "Women of Amphissa"

"Euphrosyne with Grapes"

Dinner Changes the World

History is a conjugation of the verb ‘to eat.’ Anonymous

Food has never been so cheap as it is today. In percentage of income spent and in the number of hours of labor required to eat, contemporary Americans are more distanced from hunger than any people who ever lived. But before the middle of the 20th century, history had been fairly described as “a conjugation of the verb ‘to eat.’” Up till then the notable developments of civilization had been primarily motivated by the desire to eat, or to eat better. And the greatest of all civilizations fed itself to death, in a lesson eerily conjugate with contemporary Iowa.

The Roman Empire was built by small family farmers. Before the first century B.C., the Roman state restricted ownership of land to small parcels. Because only land owners could serve in the military, this proud yeomanry filled Rome’s armies. As the empire grew the state began subsidizing imported grains from slave labor colonies. This reduced the market price of domestic grain below the cost of its production. It ruined Italian farmers and ended the great institution of small family farms. If this doesn’t sound familiar yet, just wait.

A few rich families bought the land of the dispossessed soldier-farmers who fled to the “bread and circus” welfare state of Rome itself. The large farms were more productive because the rich owned state-of-the-art plows and slaves. Yet it still became more profitable to trade imported commodity contracts than to actually produce food. Domestic farm land was converted to pasture for the more lucrative livestock trade which was fueled by gourmet excesses of the new upper class. The state had to further subsidize grain imports to feed the growing masses of dispossessed farmer-soldiers.

Scipio Africanus, conqueror of Carthage, was the greatest philosopher-statesman and soldier of pre-Christian Rome. He surrounded himself with the greatest thinkers of the empire’s golden age. They created what historians dubbed “the conscience of Rome.” Scipio’s daughter Cornelia became the greatest salon-keeper of classical times. She raised two sons as a widow, after turning down the king of Egypt preferring to remain simply the daughter of Scipio and the mother of Tiberius and Caius Gracchus.

When Tiberius saw that Italian farms were worked by slaves, he feared for the future of the state. After he was elected Tribune, he enacted land reforms limiting the size of holdings, returning small plots to the citizenry and winning the love of the masses. Conservatives labeled him a tyrant and murdered him. His little brother was later murdered and the charismatic Cornelia was forbidden to wear mourning, lest she inspire an uprising. One hundred and fifty years later, Jesus of Nazareth made speeches that were nearly identical to Tiberius Gracchus’ more eloquent writings about connecting to the land.

Today Iowa looks a lot like Rome of the Gracchi but without the eloquent statesmen. Built by a community of proud citizen farmers, Iowa has become an urban-suburban state surrounded by large agricultural tracts that are owned mostly by non-farmers. Without subsidies the land would be worthless because food can be raised cheaper elsewhere. Without imports the population would starve - because the richest agricultural land in the world lacks the diversity to feed its own farmers, let alone its urbanites anymore.

Politicians pay lip service to the romance of the small farm and the independent farmer. Then they go out to dinner with the fat cats from Tyson. Even the agriculture related literature of our era has forgotten the Gracchi, turning instead to the wimpy King Lear (A Thousand Acres) and Don Quixote (The Straight Story) for analogies. The only history lesson that has been absorbed is that you can get killed trying to deal with the problem of unsustainable agriculture.

Without even knowing it, we change our world with the decisions we make about what we eat. American slavery was an economic by-product of food lust. Human labor was the only commodity West Africa had to trade in an insatiable cyclical appetite for salt, corn, rice, sugar, rum and tobacco. After slavery ended, 19th century America grew rich and powerful because Europeans got hooked on our wheat - a crop modified in America to compensate for the sudden end of slave labor.

We even change the world with decisions about what we feed to the food we eat. In the early 20th century Iowa grew rich after the discovery that corn could be fed to cattle, without killing them before they were ready for market. By the late 20th century, hog lot confinements fouled Iowa - because the average consumer wouldn’t pay a little extra for the superior taste of pork raised without pig abuse.

It’s less obvious now, but history remains a conjugation of the verb “to eat.” The next Gracchus could be a new kind of gourmet, able to inspire people to buy foods that don’t defile their lives, their land and their sense of honor.

Mister We Could Use a Man Like Mike Dukakis Again

Since Iowa's caususes began to matter, political campaigning has heated half the state's summers. Because of its pole position in the presidential nominating process, hopeful candidates canvas the state not only during the summer before an election but also the summer before that, prior to its first-in-the-nation caucuses. Next term, it looks like the Republicans will be in Iowa a year or two earlier. Let's hope they've learned something.

While the overwhelming majority of Iowa’s population now lives in cities and suburbs, most candidates still play to the old rural clichés about Iowans. So, they import bales of hay and bandanas to stage media events outside hip Des Moines corporations like Meredith.

While pandering to our inner rube is harmless to Iowans, it’s risky of the candidates. They walk a thin line between identifying with Iowa voters and coming off as either phony or priggish. But that’s changing. My father used to tell how his father lost an election in Iowa because he didn’t know how to milk a cow. Today, the only people who still hand milk cows live in Old Order Amish communities, so candidates are no longer judged on their barnyard skills. But elections are still won and lost because of what they eat.

Democrats failed to carry Iowa twice in the last six Presidential elections, coincidentally the only two times they lost the popular vote. And both Mike Dukakis and John Kerry choked on food matters. In 1988 Dukakis suggested that Iowa farmers diversify into crops like Belgian endive, flowers, blueberries, apples and grapes. He even suggested changing the structure of federal farm subsidies to encourage farmers to plant crops other than corn and beans. For a lot of small individual farmers, Dukakis was dispensing wisdom and foresight. A walk through just about any authentic farmers market today shows that there’s good money in growing diverse crops that humans can eat. You don’t need a minimum of 40,000 acres to make the numbers work either.

But Dukakis threatened a status quo which continues to guarantee lavish price supports for the Big Two crops, farmed increasingly by fewer and richer investors, mostly financed with out of state money. As a result, Iowa agriculture now resembles Third World mining more than early 20th century farming. Since 1988, the number of heavily capitalized outsiders exploiting our natural resources has grown exponentially, while the number of proud farmers who grow good foods to eat, and who can live off their land, has dwindled to a precious few. Big Ag helped take Mike Dukakis out, somehow making him look like he didn’t understand farming. In retrospect, he understood too well.

In 2004, John Kerry’s wife didn’t help his elitist Francophile image at all by advocating more rabbit on the American dinner table. That too actually pointed out a stupid problem with government intervention in our food system. Since rabbits multiply like rabbits, why do they cost so darn much at the store? Because Congress has refused to mandate the federal inspection of rabbits, unlike chicken or red meat. This forces processors to pay extra for inspections. Since no grocery store with lawyers on retainer would dare carry a meat product that is not USDA inspected, rabbit remains either very expensive or very hard to find. Both Kerry and Dukakis were talking about something we didn‘t want to hear and something that Big Ag and Big Chicken didn‘t want them to fix.

Food politics has changed less than you might think. In a prelude to today’s mad rush to convert corn into car fuel, Thomas Jefferson worked obsessively to develop sesame seed oil. His motive was remarkably similar to the justifications of ethanol subsidies that one hears today, from politicians as different at George Bush and Chet Culver. Jefferson talked about freeing America from dependence on foreign oil. In his time, salad dressings were being made exclusively with imported olive oil.
One hundred years before freedom fries and the French frying of Kerry’s image, Grover Cleveland rebelled against French food. Cleveland so disdained his own French White House chef that he often preferred eating with his servants, where’ corned beef and cabbage was the standard fare. The President joked sarcastically to the press that he dined on “boeuf corné au cabbeau.”

In food as in politics, there are no new ideas, only recycled ones. During the presidential campaign of 1928, a famous circular published by the Republican Party claimed that if Herbert Hoover won there would be "a chicken in every pot." Hoover’s image makers stole the phrase from 16th century France where King Henry IV used it. Then three other Presidents stole it from Hoover.

In hindsight, Dukakis was merely suggesting that farmers return to a practice that the average person still doesn’t realize has been abandoned - raising foods that humans can eat. Since Dukakis was pilloried, grapes have returned to Iowa in a big way. Iowa farmers in the 1990’s discovered they were a hedge against the tyranny of corn and bean prices: Grapes actually return more money per acre than most any other Iowa crop. They also have environmental advantages: Grapes prevent erosion and encourage small family farms that sustains rural communities. For the most part though, Iowans are still content to let places like California and southwest Wisconsin grow good things to eat, while industrialists convert the most fertile farm land into ethanol mines and livestock feeding troughs.

Mister, we could use a man like Mike Dukakis again.

Fortunes Collide in the Des Moines Lobe

My grandfather liked to say that Iowa’s good fortune had been thrust upon it but bad luck was its own doing. Grandpa farmed in the Des Moines Lobe, a tongue shaped area of north and central Iowa with Des Moines on the tip of its tongue. Receding glaciers of the last Ice Age dumped enough silt and loam there to create the world’s richest soils. When word of its miraculous fertility reached Europe, immigrants flocked to Iowa creating one of the greatest population explosions in history.

Iowa and those immigrants grew rich in the 19th century by raising foods that would, by the early 20th century, make Americans the best fed population in world history. Corn fields and livestock pastures, rotated with myriad other crops, orchards and vineyards all thrived. Iowa became a rich state with an economy based on a sustainable agriculture that directly supported most of its population and indirectly supported nearly everyone else. Iowans ate better than others, especially during the Great Depression, because they consumed the good foods that they raised from seeds they saved, whether at home or in local restaurants that bought directly from local farmers. Within that environment, both Populism and high quality food became synonymous with Iowa. That was what Grandpa meant by good fortune.

During the last half century, government policies and industrial agriculture diverted the miraculous abundance of the Des Moines Lobe. Rather than raising varieties of quality foods, the land was reemployed producing record setting quantities of things that yielded “industrial convertibility” and profits for a new elite investor class that often moved those profits out of Iowa. Machines replaced workers and the majority of Iowa’s population shifted to cities and suburbs. Stewardship of the lobe land reverted to corporations that cared more about immediate returns than about the land and its ability to regenerate.

Iowa became the prize fiefdom of industrial agriculture, as recent statistics dramatize: Iowa planted more acres of hay this year than 16 other states planted, period. Iowa also planted seven times more soy beans than hay and almost ten times more corn; Over eighty five per cent of Iowa’s corn and a full ninety one per cent of its beans were planted with biotech “seeds” which can not be saved for replanting and which require huge applications of herbicide and fertilizer; Des Moines Water Works now owns the world’s largest water filtration system to compensate for the run off of those fertilizers and herbicides, which are also blamed for the Gulf of Mexico’s Dead Zone.

Some things don’t change. The lobe remained rich enough to raise some of the best foods on earth and a few old fashioned farmers still do that. This decade, new independent Des Moines restaurants found national prominence supporting unique local foods. Diners responded creating a culinary niche that resisted industrial food and celebrated Iowa food artisans. That helped revive the old Populist Iowa and made Des Moines the center of a confrontation zone for conflicting food philosophies.

Such clashes drew national attention with debates about immigration stings in Marshalltown and Postville, ethanol-generated food inflation and the Iowa legislature’s usurpation of local control, taking from counties the authority to restrict the pollution of confined animal feeding operations (CAFO’s). When Iowa scientist Tara Smith discovered an alarming relationship between the MRSA (killer bacteria that resist antibiotics) epidemic and CAFO‘s, Iowa became THE battleground state in the food wars.

This summer, over forty international food activists convened in Des Moines to plot changes to America’s meat system. That conference drew non profit giants like Pew Charitable Trusts and Sierra Club, ranchers, farmers, church leaders and labor organizers. Remarkably, the group came from the far left, the far right and the middle of partisan politics. They met almost continuously for 30 hours brainstorming ways to alleviate the way American meat production pollutes our air and water, violates human rights and abuses monopoly powers, workers, consumers and animals. The big issue, which tied the others together, was the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act (PAMTA), a bill now in Congress and supported by President Obama that would end the prophylactic use of antibiotics in industrial agriculture. As maverick rancher Mike Callicrate (one of the heroes of “Fast Food Nation”) explained:

“If we can get PAMTA passed it’s the end of the CAFO - because CAFO’s can’t exist without massive antibiotics. Without CAFO’s, all the other problems improve by leaps and bounds.”

The conference highlighted trends and ironies of the food system. Bet you didn’t know that:

~Dairy Farmers of America own 8 import licenses; “Angus” labeling requires only 10 per cent Angus bloodlines; Most “grass fed” meat in America comes from Canada and Wyoming where grass is available for only a few months a year;

~AMRP’s (advanced meat recovery pellets) are now included in most frozen industrial hamburger products and AMRP’s can test positive for spinal and brain matter;

~The leather and wool of grass fed animals is judged to have superior texture and strength. Prius now offers “grass fed“ leather seat covers.

I asked delegates to explain a news release from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) which baffled me. How could the US in 2009, following decades of suburban sprawl that had devoured farmland, plant its largest acreage ever of soy beans and also the second largest acreage of corn? Callicrate responded with most others nodding cynically.

“You don’t actually believe the USDA numbers? Nothing is impossible but overestimating the acreage planted will cause commodity prices to fall and that’s in the best interests the USDA and all the Big Ag corporations that influence the USDA.”

In the following three weeks, corn prices plunged. That’s what Grandpa meant about Iowa’s bad luck.

Make Them Eat (hormone-added) Meat

Food Is the New Bully Pulpit

This year’s food news sounds like a lot of rejected pilots for new television shows. First there are some sitcoms:

~ Star Industries of New York goes into the kosher tequila business, producing a half million cases on their first run.

~ Fifth Third Ballpark, home of the West MichiganWhitecaps, decides the timing is right to begin serving 4,800-calorie burgers. Pizza cutters are given to those who want to share.

~Gau jal, a new commercial drink based on cow urine, goes to market in India. It’s a big hit.

~The Environmental Protection Agency puts forth a plan to tax farmers and ranchers for their cows and pigs’ farts and belches. The Food & Drug Administration objects starting a turf war.

Then there are new Sci-Fi shows: ~Mexican scientists find that the heated vapor from 80-proof tequila blanco, when deposited on a silicon or stainless steel substrate, can form diamond films.

~Storchen restaurant in the exclusive Winterthur resort of Switzerland begins serving dishes made with human mother's milk.

~The Fat Duck, Heston Blumenthal’s three star restaurant in England, closes after 40 people reported flu-like symptoms after dining there. After the word reaches the media - another 400 people claim to have also been struck ill after eating there.

We also have potential 60 Minutes segments:

~93 year old Clara Cannuciari becomes an internet sensation with her You Tube cooking show, Great Depression Cooking. Canned peas with pasta, anyone?

~A Lebanese restaurant worker finds 26 perfect pearls in an oyster she is preparing for the table.

~ University of Iowa scientists link the deadly MRSA bacteria to hog lot confinements. Should you worry?

Next there’s a potential Bill Moyers script about injustice.

~Angry dairy farmers march on the Iowa capitol to dramatize the fastest drop in milk prices since the Great Depression.

And finally there are a couple 20/20 exposés on political correctness run amok:

~Scientists at Queens University in Northern Ireland determine that crabs recall the effects of electric shock and conclude that the seafood industry needs to protect all crustaceans from pain.

~ After successfully waging war against trans fats and cigarettes, New York City began pressuring food companies to remove sodium from their products. One can almost hear John Stossel asking “What’s next?”
Just when it didn’t seem possible that the food news could get weirder, two presidential administrations teamed up to produce a pilot for one of those old Peter Sellers comedies about the politics of absurdity. On their way out the White House door, Bush Administration trade representatives announced new tariffs on European foods like Roquefort cheese, bone-in ham, beef sausage and San Pellegrino water. With the World Trade Organization’s blessing, their stated purpose was to bully the European Union (EU) into legalizing beef that has been given hormones for growth purposes. The EU banned raising and importing such beef in 1998 and added a ban on livestock given antibiotics for growth purposes in 2006.

Most non bureaucrats in America can understand why. Way back in 1993, E coli O157:H7 became famous serial killer of people who ate fast food hamburgers. Such antibiotic-resistant bacteria were not a human medical problem before modern feed lots changed the American beef industry in the 1980’s. Today’s corn-heavy feedlot diets have shortened the average life of a steer from 5 years to 15 months, while adding body fat to its carcass. Grass, the preferred diet of cows that Europeans and South Americans prefer to eat, can’t take a baby calf from 80 to 1,200 pounds in a year and a quarter. For that matter, corn can’t do the job alone either - it also needs protein supplements, antibiotics and growth hormones. However, feed lot diets create so much acid in a cow’s stomach that some bacteria become resistant to the human stomach acids that used to kill them. Food chain bacteria have also become resistant to antibiotics.

In 2003, McDonald's Corporation announced it would only buy chicken from producers who do not use antibiotics for routine disease prevention. More recently four of the nation’s top ten chicken producers announced they have stopped using antibiotics for growth promotion. Most of the food media thought that the world’s opinion about hormones and antibiotics would sway the Obama Administration to rescind the bullying tariffs.

But these are strange times. Instead, the tariffs were pushed forward, giving the Europeans only an extra month to think it about it. Rather than back down, Europe fought back. Germany banned the cultivation of genetically modified corn, claiming that one Monsanto seed is dangerous for the environment. The EU also released a series of studies they say prove the American growth hormones in beef cause cancer. Now we have a full fledged trade war because our leaders think they can force the EU to accept foods they refuse to eat.

This is an extension of an age old dynamic. Before the 20th century, all politics were said to be a conjugation of the verb “to eat.” Countries went to war, if necessary, either because they wanted to eat someone else’s food or they wanted to force someone else to eat their foods at a set price. Today’s trade war takes that to a second degree - the US wants to make the Europeans eat meat that ate something they don’t want their meat to eat.


Tell me that doesn’t sound like a Peter Sellers script.
　

Buy a Burrito, Save the Family Farm

For Paul Willis, the Future Looks Like the Past

In the way that Proust could taste his childhood in a Madeleine cake, Paul Willis’ pork chops were a transcendental experience for Shirley and I. We were driving to Thornton, Iowa because it is the mother lode of the richest pork we could remember. We are food writers, not environmentalists. Our tongues compel us to travel to places like Thornton, not our consciences. It’s the destination, not the journey, that matters.

And yet, we took the slow route. Because Paul Willis’ hog operation in Thornton has been called “a vision of the future that looks like the past,” it seemed appropriate to get off the interstate and drive up US 69. North of Ames, we realized that the old highway now models another, distinctly opposite, vision of Iowa’s future. Where Burma Shave slogans used to dot the fence posts along this road, there are now skull & crossbones warnings -- not about dangerous curves, but about giant hog confinements. We could see the DeCoster hog confinements near Blairsburg from miles away. We cold smell them even further. Shirley said they reminded her of some factories she had seen in Vietnam, where they wouldn’t let journalists go. Then she asked me how come, if these were pig confinements, we couldn’t see any pigs.

According to Robert Kennedy, jr. such warehouses can shoehorn 100,000 sows into claustrophobic cages that hold them in one position, over metal grate floors, for a lifetime. Below them, aluminum culverts collect and channel their waste into open-air pits three stories deep. Swine feces has birthed a toxic microbe that killed a billion fish in one instance and causes brain damage and respiratory illness in humans.

Mathew Scully’s new book “Dominion” animates the horror. Pigs taken prematurely from their mothers root obsessively for something to chew. If they are spending their brief life out on Highway 69, the object of their obsession becomes the tail of another pig, one crammed in their face. Chewed tails often get infected, leading to “unauthorized deaths.”

A factory farm dumpster overflowed with dead pigs

So when such factory farmers wean piglets, 12-16 weeks before nature intended, they amputate the tails with a giant pliers. That leaves pigs with a lifetime compulsion to keep their sensitive stubs out of their pen mates’ mouths, a futile task when there is no room to turn around. When Scully asked an exec from Smithfield, the worlds’ largest pork producer, if there wasn’t something sad about this, he was told that the giant pig factories actually protected pigs from the dreaded free range, where they might “get mosquito bites.”

Polarizing Iowa

Iowa is today as emotionally polarized about raising hogs as it was about abortion, Vietnam and the gold standard in other decades. As US 69 cuts through the legendary Des Moines lode, the giant confinements blot the hummocky habitat. This was the rich dumping ground of the most recent glaciers to cover north central Iowa. After ripping out Clear Lake and thousands of smaller potholes, they melted and left bogs and fens that weathered into the finest farm land in the world. When the Europeans came, they drained the slews and tiled the fields, put up fences and planted crops where wild grasses had reigned.

For Shirley and I, this was the last leg of a long, strange trip to the source of the greatest pig meat in America. The journey began at San Francisco’s Harris Ranch, arguably the home of America’s best aged beef. While comparing Harris Ranch’s steaks with rival Niman Ranch’s, Harris’ general manager Keith Reese mentioned that he served Niman’s pork.
“Niman’s pork was just astronomically better than anything else out there. We were blown away by it the first time we tasted it. With it, you can get the true flavor of pork,” he said.

Harris Ranch was using superlatives to praise a pork product made by its chief competitor in the high end beef business. Shirley and I determined to do what investigative food reporters do -- follow the taste. At Niman’s bustling operation in Oakland’s International District, macho men in hairnets prepared the next day’s orders. We knew then this was not a typical company. Niman has been developing discriminating markets for free range beef and lamb, mostly in food-hip northern California, since the 1970’s. In the last seven years, their sales doubled annually. This coincided with Niman’s return to the pork business.

When the federal government seized Bill Niman’s original ranch in 1976, to create the Point Reyes National Seashore, Niman was allowed to continue ranching cattle, but not hogs. Freed from an 18% mortgage, he could spend more money developing a superior product. He raised only black and red Angus, Herefords and their cross, Black Baldy, the ultimate beef cow. They grazed only on grass about to go to seed, for more than a year, whereas most commercial cattle never graze and are slaughtered at a year’s age. When Niman’s cattle go to feed lots, at 800-900 pounds, they are fed only sugar beet pulp, corn, barley, wheat, cane molasses, hay and soymeal. They are not slaughtered until they are at least 20 months old.

Bill Niman couldn’t find a pork producer with the same commitment to quality. Blind, countercultural luck intervened in 1994. Thornton farmer Paul Willis was visiting an old Peace Corps friend’s California lamb ranch which was supplying Niman. Bill heard that Paul’s hogs were raised much the same way as Niman’s cattle and sheep. Niman asked Willis to send some pork and, after tasting it, he asked him what a fair price would be for such hogs.

In Thornton’s Chit Chat Cafe, where Gary Muhlenbruck’s world famous duck decoys define the style, Paul Willis remembered that day in California, when his life changed.

“At that time, no one had ever asked me about a fair price. Buyers simply quoted their bottom dollar as take-it-or-leave-it. It wasn’t a hard decision, would I rather raise 50 pigs and make $2 each, or raise 2 pigs and make $50 each? Bill gave us a chance to farm another way, to maintain an alternative to what you saw driving up Highway 69,” he recalled.

Bill Niman had told us that when hogs sold for 8 cents a pound, he was paying over 43 cents to Iowa farmers. Shirley asked Willis what Niman got for the extra money? “Let me show you,” he replied.

We headed out of Thornton passing a house where a dozen cars were parked. “We call that the casino. A bunch of older guys get together there regularly, some say to play cards. It’s the busiest place in Thornton,” Paul joked. A casino in Thornton, however euphemistic, made as much sense as the luck that thrust this sleepy town into the culinary limelight. Niman Ranch pork has a story full of ironies and oxymora. Mingo farmer Larry Cleverley, who distributes Niman products in Iowa, calls Bill, Paul, himself, and almost everyone associated with Niman Ranch, “a bunch of hippie businessmen, who make gourmet hot dogs and like four star restaurants.”

In some large cities, Chipotle Grill has run an intense media campaign featuring Niman farmers.

Duane Dorenkamp, of nearby Sheffield, looks like Grant Wood in a tractor cap and is as well known in Washington DC, a Chipotle stronghold, as Subway’s Jared is here. The Chipotle ads suggest you can save a family farm by eating a burrito, a claim with considerably more merit than the average meat producer‘s, according to Diane Halverson of the Animal Welfare Institute.

“We run into PR firms trying to talk the humane talk without walking the walk. Pipestone Family Farms markets themselves that way, but, as the (Minneapolis) Star Tribune wrote, it’s simply not the case,” she explained, adding “There is so much at stake here. Companies like Du Breton pirate the Niman image, but they also do most of their business in the conventional manner. If that type of agribusiness gets a niche in this market, it will be impossible to remove them. We are not endorsing Niman because we care about selling pork. We care about selling a value system.”

Niman pigs are allowed to behave naturally and to fulfill instinctive behavioral urges. They are given continual access to pastures, dirt yards and pens with straw bedding. They are never given antibiotics, hormones or sulfas to mask disease. Niman also encourages farmers to husband their land, and Water Keepers Alliance, Kennedy’s group, endorses Niman.

Willis returns some of his fields to wetland. One of his farms, set on a hummock above fens full of buffalo skulls, reminded us that we were standing over eons of history.

Back to Future?

It was a good place to consider the past and future of pork in Iowa. The last 30 years brought catastrophic changes to the relationship between humans and their meat. Looser regulations, lax trade rules and huge farm subsidies have helped consolidate the agricultural industry. But the public’s loss of taste drove all the above. Politicians gave us cheaper meat because that’s what we wanted. There were predictable, “acceptable casualties” : family farms, local lockers and butchers, pure meat, safe meat, and good tasting meat.

This had been going on since 1970, but it took “enhanced pork” before Shirley and I really noticed. That’s what they call the tasteless crap that our major grocers have been selling the last five years. It’s “enhanced” (remember, bragging is legal in advertising) with a chemical water solution that accounts for as much as 18% of its weight (remember, pork is priced per pound). Grocers could fire butchers and replace them with lower paid stackers. Win-win, as long as customers don’t notice the taste.

Most didn’t. Pork became white, rather than pink and this was advertised as a good thing. Quality was marginalized. So when Willis passes out his pork at the Farm Aid concert each year, stunned tasters ask him what marinade he uses. He laughs and tells them they just rediscovered the taste of pure pork.

While Paul was reflecting on history, Shirley had a bigger problem. At each of a half dozen farms, happy pigs and piglets ran up to the pickup truck, much as dogs would. When she got out of the vehicle, they made eye contact. “Stop being so damned cute. If I have to give up cooking pork, I’ll have to find a new career,” said the chef to the piglets.
These pigs obviously trust humans, and they aren’t afraid. Fear causes animals to self-produce chemicals, like adrenaline, that toughen meat and disguise its natural flavors. Paul joked that his pigs only have one bad day in their lives, as he showed us farms where sows were busy building straw nests in large barns, while little pigs fought with one another like puppies. In the Spring, they run in the fresh grasses and alfalfa that surround the barns. In the summer there will be sprinklers, mudholes and fresh dry straw.

Niman’s pork operations are half owned by the farmers, 70% of whom are Iowans. The day we visited, Lori Janssen was busy testing pork loins, from Yorkshires. Janssen would be the quality control manager, except that Niman doesn’t do job titles. Everyone is a partner. Loins had been sent by farmers wanting to join the Niman family. Janssen’s goal was to find a Yorkshire that produced meat that wasn’t dry, a tendency of the breed. Color breeds produce good juicy meat, but they lack the Yorkshire’s mothering abilities. A Yorkshire bloodline could give Willis an extra piglet per litter. We helped taste the candidates. Sorry Charlie, not every pig can be a Niman.

When 50 hogs a week sufficed demand, Willis produced all of Niman’s pork. Now that they ship exponentially more hogs a week, he has recruited hundreds of farmers. These hogs don’t look anything like the industry’s standard, nor like show pigs. Willis showed us a picture of a so-called grand champion, calling it “an Olympic weightlifter on steroids.”
The “other white meat” usually comes from a lean, mean, fast growing machine of a pig that averages 54% lean in the USA, and 58% in Scandinavia, where most European imports originate. Niman hogs are only 48% lean, with up to an inch of back fat. Their meat looks like the pork our grandparents ate. You can actually see marbling and the flesh is much darker than supermarket pork. Taste is the startling difference, whether you try fresh cuts, or processed products, like Niman brand bacon, ham, sausage and hot dogs that are prepared in Webster City.

Most Niman pork goes from Iowa to Chicago and to the two coasts. While the three and four star restaurants that made Niman famous use prime cuts, Niman partner Rob Hurlbut has been building markets for cheaper cuts. “We sell the feet , the tails and even the fat back, which is prized for its high Vitamin D count and its lack of hormones,” he told us.

That market for low end cuts will increase with the rapid expansion of Chipotle. Each time the chain opens a new store, every three days, Niman brings one more family farmer on line. The math inspired Chipotle’s advertising campaign. Buy a burrito, save a family farm.

The Chipotle-inspired growth presents a new challenge for Niman. Because carnitas for burritos is made from the leg and shoulders of pigs, Niman anticipates an abundance of higher end cuts. Bill Niman says the low end markets might help make them more price competitive at the high end. Who knows, maybe we’ll even see them in a Hy-Vee someday. That’s the final irony of this story. The impetus of Niman’s marketing has gone from the high end, to the low end. They’ve come whole hog.

Des Moines Outlets

Andrew Meek serves Niman pork at Sbrocco

Niman pork is served in greater Des Moines at Azalea, Sbrocco, Phat Chef’s, Cyd’s Catering, Bistro Montage, Raccoon River Brewing Co., Star Bar, Cosi Cucina, South Union Bread Café, Centro, Splash and Django. It is sold retail at Gateway Market in Sherman Hill and to a lesser extent at Gateway Market in the Villages of Ponderosa. Cleverley Farms sells it at the Downtown Farmers Market.

Niman Ranch sells directly at www.nimanranch.com, or 510-808-0330.

The Fresno Paradox

Where to find fresh food in “America’s Garden”

Fresno has more franchise restaurants per capita than any other town in America. At least, that’s a frequently reported rumor. The moment Wro andI pulled off the freeway and on to Fresno’s Shaw Avenue, we accepted the rumor as gospel. We suddenly encountered what looked like every fast food chain in the entire world, all lined up on Shaw like targets in a carnival game.

I even discovered an old friend that I thought had died decades ago. I have a soft spot for odd balls, so how could I not love Der Wienerschnitzel (DW), a cute little chain restaurant that has never served a single order of “wiener schnitizel” and uses the incorrect German article in its name (it should be “das“)? DW stores disappeared from most of America long ago. It’s easy to spot former franchises that have been converted for other businesses because they maintain the unique DW style, with steeply pitched roofs. Wro and I both adore DW's cute little mascot dog who always runs away from people who want to eat him. So I was overjoyed to see DW alive and well on Shaw Avenue. Sensibly enough, they now sell little plastic mascot doggies that attach to your car's radio aerial.

I bought the store’s entire litter, to save them from being eaten.

Fresno shares a lot of similarities with Des Moines. Both towns sit in the middle of miraculous abundance - for Fresno it's the hot, fertile Central Joaquin Valley where a full 25% of the nation’s fresh produce is raised. Yet, since the middle of the last century, most of that fertility has been re-employed. Instead of competing to produce the best peaches, asparaguses, pistachios, et cetera, most Central Valley farms now concentrate on producing huge quantities of foods that are capable of traveling long distances without spoiling. Wro calls that “mirage food” because it’s designed to look better than it tastes.

We both wondered why some places value food quality and others only seem to care about quantity. Why isn’t Fresno more like Napa, where another belt of climatically desirable soil is mostly directed toward producing the best possible quality foods and wines? We were already burned out on fast food. It was time to get off Shaw.

Trelio - worth the drive, from anywhere

A trio of guys named Shackleford are trying to reverse this Fresno paradox. Father Jim and sons Michael and Chris run a restaurant in Old Town Clovis, Fresno’s biggest suburb, that shows off the produce of the Central Valley’s very best niche farmers. The Shacklefords work their butts off trying to only use food that was harvested within 24 hours of being prepared for a diner’s plate. Jim shops at local farms and farmers markets all day while Chris and Michael work in their consulting businesses. Then at night, Chris manages Trelio where Michael is the chef.

“We’re blessed in that we can operate the restaurant without worrying about its immediate profitability. We do well enough in our consulting businesses that the restaurant is a form of advertisement, a business expense that demonstrates just how good things can be,” he admitted.
These guys know it’s hard to build a client base in Fresno. When we asked a dozen locals for restaurant tips, only one mentioned Trelio. In fact, some franchises got more touts. Yet if you ask serious foodies in San Francisco or Los Angeles, or even in Chicago and New York, about restaurants in Fresno, Trelio will be the only name that you might hear. Reviews of Trelio on chowhound.com and egullet.org gushed with the fervor of people who have just seen the light. Chris explained this.

“Food-wise, Fresno is a paradox, surrounded by so much agricultural abundance, yet it’s hard to find anything truly fresh and local to eat. Just like the farm land, the restaurant culture here has been converted to industrial purposes. We have found a local niche of foodies, mostly transplants from LA and San Francisco. But we think we can build a tradition here based on comfort food. Food today is so industrialized that the chances of someone tasting that special food, the one that becomes an epiphany and changes their lives, is slim,” he said.

“We want to bring back a Central Valley cuisine. We could not do what we do here in San Francisco or Los Angeles. We’d be too far away from the farms to shop fresh every day. We’d be dependent upon deliveries and cooler space. Here, we can really do “fresh & local” in a meaningful way. One that can produce epiphanies,” Chris waxed.

To illustrate the absurdity of Central Valley food systems, Chris pointed out that even though most of the pistachios in the USA are grown around Fresno, he had been unable to find any freshly harvested pistachios to use in Trelio’s kitchen.

“For whatever reason, all the Central Valley pistachios make a 1500 mile trip to St. Louis for processing and packaging. Then they make a 1500 mile return trip to be sold as Central Valley pistachios.,” he explained.

Mike & Wro

The Shacklefords, who personally gutted and rebuilt their restaurant by hand, continually re-educate themselves. Chris haunts the best restaurants on the West Coast, many of which are his clients. While he likes to visit The French Laundry and Gary Danko, Mike prefers the ethnic joints and neighborhood dives. Mike told us that his first summer job was at Burger King. The following summer, he couldn’t find an opening at Burger King or Dominoes in Santa Barbara, so he looked in the classified ads and found that they needed help at a three star Italian restaurant.

“I worked there for three years and then I went to culinary school in Vermont. After that I worked in New York City and New Orleans. So I came at cooking from a different perspective. First it was just a job. I learned that cooking was a 16 hour a day, on the feet, job before I fell in love with it. If I had come to the other way, loving it first, then I couldn’t have moved into the professional grind. As it is, I can’t see myself ever doing anything else,” Mike explained.

If I lived anywhere near Clovis, I wouldn’t be able to see myself eating anywhere else. And I came to Trelio a little wary. Gushing descriptions of restaurant dishes like the ones I read on chowhound.com, usually make me suspicious. After eating one dinner there, I now think that the Chowhound reviewers restrained themselves. Like them, I experienced my first Trelio epiphany on a salad course. Seriously, I don’t think this life-long city girl had ever tasted such fresh greens.

A Trelio chopped salad, with apples, prosciutto, avocado, jicama, boiled egg, Parmessano-Reggiano and truffle dressing was so good that Wro and I ordered two more salads. Our second salad was named for Tom Willey, an organic farmer from nearby Madera whose reputation looms in San Francisco - Alice Waters praises his produce and uses it at her famous Chez Panisse in Berkeley. Mike made a salad of Willey’s beets with chevre crème fraiche, toasted walnuts and a fig vinaigrette which made me aware of the religious significance of figs.
The best came third, however. Mike’s smoked duck breast carpaccio was served under arugula and baby lettuces who were far too young and fresh to be allowed out after dark, even in a nice middle class suburb like Clovis. They came wearing crumbled goat cheese, toasted walnuts and different fig vinaigrette.

Mike was clearly on a roll. We next ordered what turned out to be our favorite dish of the evening. Steelhead was cured in Meyer lemons and treated to a sous vide bath before being cooled and served with a coquettish little pyramid of crushed peas that had been luxuriating in fresh mint and marjoram.

That was accompanied by a potato-cucumber salad that should be a compulsory assignment for all students of summer picnics. A crème fraiche of freshly shaved horseradish accented that dish, which I should point out cost all of $10.

Next I moved on to one of the dishes that drove the Chowhound dialoguers into rapture - a Harris Ranch tri tip marinated in chimichurri. Wro kids me that I order such things just so that I can pronounce “chimichurri” which is a South American version of the Catalonian “allioli.” I first met it in the Czech Republic and it took me a week to get the pronunciation down - m’s and r’s can be challenging for Chinese speakers. Wro, who often thinks he’s Irish, reminded me that chimichurri is a corruption of “Jimmy McCurry,” an Irishman who invented this sauce in Argentina. So I am not the only one who has been confounded by its pronunciation.

Back to the dish at hand though. Tri tip, a triangular cut of beef from the bottom of the sirloin, is a Central Coast of California thing - it’s also called Santa Maria steak, for its home town. It’s high in flavor but challenging in texture, so in the USA it’s barely heard of outside California. I had an awesome version in a Brazilian steakhouse in Milwaukee two years ago and I pined for more afterwards, so Mike had me when he suggested South America by dropping the c-word. I was not disappointed. The tri-tip came with creamy polenta, some wonderful fava beans, fresh grilled asparagus and more of the same English peas that had made us swoon when we were romancing the steelhead course. Between entrees, Mike sent us a little course of baby tomatoes that had been steamed briefly and dusted with fennel pollen, which is the hottest new item of the year in the hottest kitchens, and deservedly so.Fennel pollen made the flavors of the tomatoes linger and alter in the back of my mouth.

That prepared us for Mike’s confit of Cloverdale Farm ( another local name worth dropping) rabbit leg. That was served with sautéed Swiss chard, baby carrots, English peas, oyster mushrooms and a mustard sauce reduced in Riesling. If this had been San Francisco, we probably could have ordered more dishes - Mike’s signature black truffle meat loaf tempted us both, as it comes with a side of his equally famous mac & (Mornay) cheese. But Trelio’s servings were about twice as large as what we expect in the Bay area. (Believe it or not, our most expensive entrée cost $27, our most expensive first plate cost $8.) And everything was so good.

Anything within raisin

Above all, Fresno is a raisin town. At Simonian Farms we learned that that 95% of all American raisins come from this area and that’s a lot of dried out grapes. (Raisin grapes take six weeks longer on the vine than table grapes or wine grapes.) The muscat raisin was first commercially grown in San Diego, but San Diego doesn’t have enough water for vineyards. So, raisin makers, many of whom were Armenian, moved to the Fresno area back in the 19th century. In 1876, William Thompson introduced the Lady de Coverly seedless grape, later known as the Thompson grape. Thin-skinned, seedless and sweet, they are still the best grape for making raisins over 140 years later. In this era of annual hybrid seed improvements, that’s astonishing.

We also learned that these light-colored grapes turn their familiar dark color when sun-dried, but they turn golden when oven-dried and cured with sulfur. We tried both kinds and agreed the sulfur works magic. Simonian Farms maintains an historical store and antique museum that harkens its 1901 roots, when the first of four generations of Simonians began this operation as a small family farm. Most family farms have vanished from the Central Valley, so this place was a treat, actually over 120 varieties of treat. That’s how many fruits and vegetables the family grows and markets directly to consumers in their store. We shopped amongst old mannequins, porcelain signs, antiques bicycles and even a turn-of-the-century model train that steamed around overhead.

“Lord of Light” orchards

After filling our huge cooler with raisins, blood oranges (which cost $1 for an 8 pound bag), walnuts, strawberries (red all the way through) and figs, we headed back to Clovis to meet Bruno Luconi, an Argentina-born farmer who runs the Mokichi Okada Association’s (MOA) Oasis Garden. Bruno explained that Japanese philanthropist Mokichi Okada (1882-1955) was the founder of the Church of World Messianity, in which he is known as Meishū-sama ("Lord of Light"). Okada made a fortune in jewelry and, after an epiphany in 1926, he founded a new religion to spread the word.

The Mokichi Okada Association (MOA) was established in 1980 to continue his work "toward the creation of a new civilization without confining Okada's principles within a religious framework.” Bruno explained that MOA uses a three pronged plan toward that end - art, therapeutic healing and natural farming. He said the farm in Clovis was particularly challenging because the soil had been messed up by decades of horse ranching.
Bruno was growing 14 stone fruits, some of which we met on Trelio’s menu, with just natural nitrogen provided by legumes, chives and rye grass. MOA practices no crop rotation. Peaceful gardens dotted the orchards where MOA hosts a Stone Fruit Festival in June each year.

Knock-out punch

Fresno has two ethnic culinary traditions that predate the first fast food franchises by 80 years - Armenian and Basque. We tried desperately to find George’s, the best of the Armenian restaurants according to experts we asked, but failed. Driving and directions are not my strong suits and Wro was still pouting. However, across the street from the downtown AMTRAK station we found The Shepherd's Inn, touted as the best of three excellent Basque restaurants in town.

In the American West, Basque hotels were usually located close to railroad stations in order to welcome "Bascos" as soon as they got off the train. This place looks like 1900 - a hotel, bar and restaurant all attached with old trappings. I had had a long day mothering a gay bi-polar bear who was fuming about a ski bum boyfriend who had ditched him for “the other Squaw Valley.” I needed a picon and The Shepherd’s Inn is the perfect place for that.

Picon, or Picon Punch, is the Basque “national drink,” though it was actually invented in San Francisco by Basque immigrants. No two versions are quite alike, but basically it amounts to a brandy float on top a concoction of ice cold soda water in a glass that has been coated with Grenadine and Amer bitters.

The Shepherd Inn version prepared me for a Basque family style dinner, which means a waiter brought huge bowls of about eight different courses and encouraged us to eat way too much food.

We plowed through soup, salad, paella, potato salad, fried potatoes, garlic fried chicken, rib eye steaks, desserts and some other things I can’t remember.

The restaurant was packed with teachers attending a conference and conventioneers attending an Aloha party. Such is the star power of Picon Punch.

The Beach Boys paradox

As we cruised down Shaw Avenue that night, Wro began singing a Beach Boys song: “I’m getting bugged drivin’ up and down the same old strip, I gotta find a new place where the kids are hip. I get around, round, round, round, round I get around."

How does one really “get around” without leaving “the same old strip?” Is that part of the Fresno paradox? With seemingly every single brand name and franchise store in America here, Shaw Avenue makes one think about such things. We spent the evening at our pool at the Piccadilly Inn wishing we had more time to explore farms around Fresno that were trying to solve the other Fresno paradox. We resolved to return, preferably during fig harvest time.

“Mr. Pistachio”

Still bothered by Chris Shackleford’s story about poor pistachios having to truck all the way to St. Louis and back before they are allowed to go to market, we headed to nearby Madera to visit Braga Organic Farms.We wanted to ask Mike and Julie Braga about the wayward nuts.

The Bragas are true family farmers. Mike told us they have 5400 trees, 135 to an acre and that they have been certified organic since 2000. (Wro lost interest after hearing that they only have one male tree to each 125 female trees.) Mike also manages 600 acres of almonds, pistachios, prunes and grapes on Sherman Thomas Ranch, which has been organic since 1998, so he’s a Big Nut when it comes to organic farming around here. He sells his pistachios directly to Trader Joe’s, to an LA guy who makes pistachio butter and on line (address below).

He is also part of Tom Willey’s Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) package, which might well be the highest quality CSA in America. Mike said he is concentrating his pistachio marketing on the raw food genre.

“The USDA mandated pasteurization for US pistachios but not for imports,” he told us.

“How stupid is that?” Wro asked, knowing somehow that pasteurization reduces germination from over 70% to under 50%.

“During two weeks in September, we harvest a year’s growth of pistachios, with a prune harvester, and put it in cold storage, raw. The shells turn yellow if not dried to 5% moisture within 72 hours. Organic pistachios account for less than 1% of the market,” he said.

Mike explained that there’s not as much demand for organic pistachios as for organic almonds. The latter involve more risk (organic almonds require more nitrogen which reduces their yields) and higher mark-ups compared to non-organic. Mike said he plants rye grass and legumes in both acreages and he adds fish and kelp to the soil.

Mike gave us some raw pistachios which were so good we ate them all before back to San Francisco, without even looking for a fast food fix. Then we ordered more on line. Raw ones are that much better than any we tried before. But remember, being raw, they have a short shelf life and should be eaten within a month or so.

But then, that’s the whole point. If we ate more food when it’s still fresh, we‘d solve the Fresno paradox.

If you go to Fresno:

Hotel

West Shaw Piccadilly2305 West Shaw AvenueFresno, CA 93711559-226-3850
Piccadilly Inn is an independent innkeeper exclusive to Fresno, making it a delightful paradox in its own right. The West Shaw inn has 194 large rooms in several different buildings with all the expected amenities, plus fresh baked cookies, a spa and some uniquely styled fixtures. Definitely, a cut above similarly priced hotel chains.

Restaurants

Trelio
438 Clovis Ave. # 4, Clovis, CA 93612559-297-0783 http://www.treliorestaurant.com/home.htm//

Shepherd's Inn in Historic Downtown Fresno
935 Santa Fe Ave., 559-266-2228

Shopping

Simonian Farms
2629 South Clovis Avenue (Corner of Clovis & Jensen)Fresno, California 93725559-237-2294http://www.simonianfarms.com/

Braga Farms
10668 Road 26 1/2, Madera, CA, 93637, 559-675-1743
http://www.buyorganicnuts.com/

To purchase nuts:Braga Organic Farms Customer Service
http://stores.buyorganicnuts.com/Service.bok

Tours

MOA's Farm, Asian Specialty Grower
http://www.moa-fresno.org/

Fresno County Fruit Trail : http://www.gofresnocounty.com/Fruit%20Trail/FruitFestivals

Epidemics, Hog Confinements and the Thong Bikini

Photo from National Institute of Health


Doctors Fight 10,000 Year War

Pop Quiz

Killer bacteria MRSA are:

A.) a horror in our food chain
B.) a hot new political issue
C.) hot for string bikinis
D.) NOT any kind of flu
X E.) all the above

If you haven’t already heard of MRSA (pronounced “mersa‘), consider yourself lucky. For five years, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus has been infecting 94,000 Americans and killing over 18,000 annually, more than AIDS. MRSA survivors form chatrooms and therapy groups that share some very ugly stories. An internet database search of “MRSA & horror” produced 97,000 hits. Recovered victims say things like “I was more afraid that I wouldn’t die.”

A Des Moines man talked about his MRSA ordeal, speaking anonymously because he was afraid people would ostracize his children if they heard about it.

“I went to the hospital with a bad stomach flu. A couple days later, strange pimples appeared on my stomach. They spread and turned into boils, then deep painful abscesses. One on top of my knee was so large that I couldn’t bend my knee at all. I went back to the hospital and was told I had this staph infection and that it didn’t respond to antibiotics. Then my kids got it from me. The boils had to be lanced to drain the pus. Finally at the Mayo Clinic, I was treated with the “last resort” antibiotics (Vancomycin). They actually call it that. It still took months to recover and there’s no guarantee they won’t come back,” he said.

A Brief History of MRSA

MRSA is any strain of Staphylococcus aureus (“staph“) that's resistant to the broad-spectrum antibiotics commonly used to treat it. Such infections usually remain on the skin or in the nasal cavity where they can easily be treated. If they enter the blood stream through surgical incisions, injuries, cuts, etc., they can cause life-threatening infections in bones, joints, the bloodstream, heart valves and lungs.

Until recently, MRSA had two basic forms, both potentially fatal. Hospital-acquired (HA-MRSA) strain was identified in 1963 and usually strikes older adults and people with weakened immune systems. In the 1990‘s CA-MRSA was diagnosed among otherwise healthy people, often athletes, in the wider community. That form is responsible for serious skin and soft tissue infections and for a bad form of pneumonia.

In 2004 a baby girl in the Netherlands tested positive for a new strain - ST398. Authorities investigated her family’s farm and discovered the strain on family members, co-workers and eighty per cent of the family’s pigs. A follow up Dutch study found hog farmers 760 times more likely than the general population to carry MRSA, without necessarily showing symptoms. Within two years, ST398 accounted for thirty per cent of all staph infections in Holland and also had been identified in the United Kingdom and Canada.

On the last day of 2008, etiologist Dr. Tara Smith reported a study she led by nine University of Iowa scientists. It found ST398 in over seventy percent of swine and over two thirds of swine workers sampled in the “production pyramid” of one hog company with 60,000 pigs in Iowa and Illinois. At another, smaller company, no hogs or workers tested positive for the bacterium. The scientists concluded that agricultural animals could become an important reservoir for ST398 to grow and spread.

Two months later, New York Times’ Nicolas Kristof launched ST398 into the public dialogue. He noted that seventy percent of all antibiotics in the United States go to healthy livestock and concluded “that’s one reason we’re seeing the rise of pathogens that defy antibiotics.” Kristof also reported that “dangerous pathogens are now even in our food supply.”

His column was perceived as a smoking gun in the natural food media (where this writer often hangs his hat). There it was believed that pig strain MRSA would rally public opinion and demand the end of the prophylactic use in livestock of antibiotics important to humans. That point of view built momentum four years earlier when McDonalds quit buying chickens from producers who used antibiotics for routine disease prevention.

Following Kristof’s column, Louise Slaughter (Dem, NY) introduced the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act (PAMTA) in the US House of Representatives. That bill would curtail the overuse of antibiotics in food animal production. More than 350 groups, including the American Medical Association, endorsed the bill. The US Senate then introduced similar legislation.

Natural food media reacted with ecstatic optimism, even predictions about the end of confined animal feeding operations (CAFO’s) that cram tens of thousands of pigs together. For years CAFO’s opponents hoped the stench of their concentrated manure would inspire legislation. That didn’t happen in a significant way. Pig strain MRSA became their new hope.

Dr. David Wallinger, Director of Food & Health Programs for the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policies, offered a relatively conservative explanation for why he‘s supported PAMTA legislation for decades.

“What most people should know is first that most MRSA that is found on pig farms is found on the pig farms that use the most antibiotics.

Secondly, in Tara Smith’s study, the resistance profile shows that antibiotics in the pig profile are the same antibiotics that are used importantly in human medicine. MRSA strains linked to CAFO’s drive the development of resistant strains that effect humans - salmonella included,” he warned.

When a new strain of flu virus broke out in Mexico in March 2009, investigators identified it as a unique chimera of bird, pig and human flu strains. Early investigations suggested it spread from a 950,000 hogs-a-year CAFO under a bird migration pathway where manure lagoons, recycled ground water and flies helped concoct a horrible new zygotic bastard. With surgical masks on subways and 130,000 empty seats at a soccer game, this “swine flu” virus produced photo ops and shock value. Before it infected 100 Americans or killed any, this new bug had pushed MRSA, with its literal epidemic statistics, out of the news. That left many unanswered questions.

Good Pig, Bad Pig

Abundant with both CAFO’s and free ranged pig farms, Cerro Gordo County offers some answers. In Thornton, Paul and Phyllis Willis of Niman Ranch let their pigs run free so that mothers can build their own nests to farrow. Those pigs are never given preventative antibiotics. Phyllis admitted that Niman had been the second control group in the University of Iowa study, the pyramid of farms on which zero hogs and zero workers tested positive for MRSA. She said the tests reinforced her belief that raising pigs under humane and sustainable protocols “is the best thing for the pigs, the product and the health of people and the environment.”

In mid April 2009, between Paul and Phyllis’ farms and one owned by her daughter Sarah Willis, multiple dumpsters on CAFO’s overflowed with dead pigs.

“The Darling (International, Inc.) dead pig truck only comes to haul them away twice a week and lately that hasn’t been fast enough to keep up with the demand. I worry about dead pigs. I worry about what killed them. I have pigs farrowing, they’re my livelihood,” Sarah Willis explained.
The next day a story broke about 215 dead hogs being illegally dumped in Franklin County. Steve McNeal of Iowa Farm Families, a Hubbard non-confinement pork company that includes several farmers, offered one possible explanation for so many dead pigs.

“Some of our farmers, who also own confinements, told us that they were losing a lot of pigs there. They traced it to a certain feed that made the hogs stop eating it. They tried to eat each other instead, mothers would even eat babies. Once they stopped using that feed, the problem went away,” he said.

Political Issue Arises

Asked about PAMTA and about links between CAFO’s and MRSA, Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship’s (IDALS) Dustin Vande Hoef responded for the agency.

“In our feed and fertilizer bureau, their code mandated responsibilities are to make sure that all regulations established by FDA (US Food & Drug Administration) on the use of antibiotics or any other medication in animal feed are followed. We have no authority to say how they should or shouldn’t be used; we just make sure they are used consistent with FDA’s direction.

“I also spoke with our State Veterinarian, who is very aware of the issue as well and certainly understands the concerns folks have about MRSA. The discovery of the bacteria in pigs and horses as well as companion animals such as dogs and cats does highlight the need for more research,” Vande Hoef said.

IDALS Republican Secretary Bill Northey won’t be able to hide from this issue in the next election. Democrat candidate Francis Thicke has already endorsed restrictions on antibiotics in livestock.

“I support passage of PAMTA because it is important for keeping antibiotics working for human health. Some studies suggest that continuous feeding of antibiotics to animals for non therapeutic purposes may be selecting for antibiotic-resistant bacteria. PAMTA would not automatically eliminate non therapeutic antibiotic use in animals, but it would require FDA to review the antibiotics that are used in both animal feed and human medicine and rescind approval of any found to be unsafe from a resistance point of view,” Thicke said.

At the National Pork Board (NPB), Vice President for Science and Technology Dr. Elizabeth Wagstrom took issue with the way MRSA has been reported.

“I vehemently dispute Kristof’s conclusions. Saying that MRSA is food borne is ludicrous,” she began. Citing three international food safety authorities, Wagstrom said the food chain MRSA is not a contributor to MRSA in humans. She also defended prophylactic use of human antibiotics in livestock.

“We have few antibiotic approaches that are for animals only. Most all originated in human usage and were diverted to veterinarian usage. By targeting prophylaxis at points of production, we use smaller quantities of antibiotics than if we wait for problems to arise and treat them with larger doses. Most are used at times of stress, like weaning. We use less in the long run this way. It’s a health and animal welfare issue,” she said, adding that by law, NPB can’t try to influence policy.

“I can say that the restrictions in PAMTA are more severely restrictive than even those in Europe. In Denmark, the imposition of the antibiotics ban increased pig mortality by 20% without demonstrable benefits to humans,” she added, non-influentially.

Beyond Politics

Outside the political arena, infectious disease specialists fight a 10,000 year old war against bacteria. Tara Smith, the University of Iowa doctor who unleashed MRSA on the mainstream media, has also been working on Streptococcus suis, a pathogen of swine which causes a rapidly fatal disease in neonatal piglets as well as sporadic disease in humans with meningitis a common manifestation. She said that whatever might be killing unusual numbers of pigs in Iowa doesn’t sound like anything she’s seen.

“I’ve never heard of a disease that makes mothers eat their piglets,” Smith offered. Asked to explain differences between pig-strain MRSA, HIV / AIDS, salmonella and deadly e-coli strains traced to cattle confinements in the 1990‘s, Smith was more confident.

“All are zoonotic infections - microbes that can be transmitted between animals and humans. HIV has become established in the human population, and the animal reservoir is no longer needed to maintain transmission to humans. With E. coli O157 and ST398 (the "pig" MRSA), animals still seem to be the primary reservoir for these microbes, and humans become infected upon contact with the animals themselves or with contaminated food,” she explained.

Smith said that she eats pork from both confinements and free range sources, adding that she’s precautious about bacteria.

“I am a mom. Of course I'm concerned, but there needs to be a balance between germ-phobia and common sense. I use good food handling and cooking procedures. I have my kids wash their hands often, especially after playing with the pets. I know that the vast majority of germs out there are harmless, and we do what we can to minimize the possibility of infection with something nasty,” she explained.

From a Mercy Hospital command center decorated with antique quarantine signs, Dr. Dan Gervich fights the war in a broader context.
“We know of a handful of staph strains that have been with us since the dawn of civilization. We don’t know for sure that they didn’t precede civilization,” he said recalling that several serious human disease - including plague, the 1918 Spanish flu, mad cow disease, rabies and measles - probably sprang from animal reservoirs.

“Within my profession, MRSA qualifies as an epidemic but that’s a loaded word for the general public. How serious is MRSA? It’s serious,” he began.

“Throughout modern history, people have carried Staphylococcus aureus in between one fifth and one third of the population. When penicillin was first developed, Staphylococcus aureus was universally sensitive. When I finished my residency in 1976, people thought the war was over.

Infectious medicine was a vanishing specialty. My fellowship in Oregon was cancelled with a year to go. Of course, we had not heard of Lyme disease yet, or HIV, or AIDS, or drug - resistant tuberculosis,” he recalled.

“If we count antibacterial drugs related to penicillin, we count in hundreds. We come up with new ones and bacteria evolve to cope. Infections are like beach heads in war - the more troops you throw into the fray, the more apt you are to establish a foot hold. But bugs have leverage of adaptability. Their genesis time is 15 minutes and they can regenerate quickly into billions and trillions,” he assessed.

This general talks about his enemy on a personal level.

“It’s as if Staphylococcus aureus were trained to understand human behavior and vulnerability. They gravitate to the end of the nose, between the legs and under the arms - great places to colonize. It loves serum and blood. That’s what we feed it in labs. Once it finds its way to them - even through floor burns or tiny abrasions - it celebrates.

“Bacteria are promiscuous, I’d even say bestial. Other species share genetic material with them, extra chromosomal DNA. Within that suitcase lurks resistance to much more than what’s obvious,” he warned.
Gervich says hog confinements aren’t the only thing that could take the MRSA epidemic to drastic new levels.

“I’m worried about metrosexual styles, like shaving pubic hair. Pubic hair is there for a good reason and that’s a favorite gathering spot for MRSA. Right now I’m seeing more cases related to that, and body piercing (than to demographics suggestive of hog confinement workers),” he said.

Gervich thinks the war on staph is producing some good news. “We can now test for the presence of MRSA in an hour, at the same cost as taking a culture and waiting 3 or 4 days for the results. If you are having a hip replacement or a heart valve operation, this is major development.”
He sees more bad news though:

~ “A vaccine would be helpful but I don’t see a vaccine on the horizon.” (The National Institute of Health database includes 36 published studies on MRSA vaccine research.)

~ “Antibiotic resistant colitis is the next wave of concern. Clostridium difficile can turn toxic in the gut after antibiotics are administered. They form spores that cause all kinds of problems. There’s nothing good that you can’t get too much of.”

~“Even the newest series of antibacterial drugs is running out of efficacy. Vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus have been found in nine cases. Another new phenomenon is antibiotic-resistant tissue in intravenous use. Alternatives (Zyvox) are very expensive - $1200 a week for oral administered substitutes, compared to $50 a week.”

Overall, Gervich thinks it’s a stand-off.

”No epidemic goes on forever. Some humans develop immunities and pass those on to the population. The war has sweet and sour spots. When I began practice, we were in a sweet spot. Now, we’re in a sour spot.”

The Religion of the Fire

'Tis the Season of Ozmozome Worship

Gas and electricity have killed the magic of fire, the kindling of live flame from inert wood. Simone de Beauvoir

For most of man’s time on earth, nature delivered feast or famine in seasonal cycles. Survival depended on storing calories in the fat times to get through the lean. Even late in the 20th century, body weight dramatically varied from season to season in temperate zones, more because of genetic memory than necessity. A Playboy photographer in the 1980’s told Iowa reporters that he should never have scheduled a trip to Ames when subjects were fattened for winter.

What does still vary with the seasons is our method of cooking. In summer, we still move the fire outdoors, as our ancestors did. For this reason, half of the hot dogs and hamburgers consumed in Mid America, are eaten in the hot season. Over three fourths of the charcoal is burned then.

Michael Symons’ “The History of Cooks and Cooking” tells a four thousand year tale of a disrespected magical art. Cooks have intermingled the destinies of humans with the plants and animals they eat, and the fuels they burn. In one interesting take on pre Enlightenment history, Symons believes that cooks practiced the true, feminine science of healing -- trial and error -- while masculine physicians practiced unscientific dogma. For this, cooks were marginalized as insignificant and condemned as witches.

Non-sustainable agriculture is nothing new. Man has always pushed the limits of his environment and then adapted to depleted resources. During the Trojan War, Homer’s heroes consumed an ox, over an open fire every 300 verses and disdained fish as a food of destitution. However, by the Golden Age of Classical Athens, fish was a luxury, meat was almost unheard of, and wood had become so scarce that braziers were invented and charcoal had become a major industry.

Most of the great inventions in cooking compensated for exhausted supplies of wood.Cauldrons, fireplaces, braziers, ovens, ranges, clay pots, woks and kitchen cutlery were invented to cook more food with less fuel. French and English cooking developed according to different resources. Until the end of the 17th century, wealth at the table was synonymous roasts, which consumed precious fire wood. Rich in forest and pasture, England’s gourmet class was content to throw a dead animal over a fire and rip apart the results. In France, only the south coast produced olive oil and only the north coast supported dairy farms, so cooks put more fat in the diet by extracting stock from bones and turning it into sauce. Ragout, stew, soup and braised dishes then invaded England, which by the 18th century was feeling quite inferior.

James Boswell defined man as the cooking animal. “Beasts have memory, judgment and the faculties and passions of the mind, but no beast is a cook.” In an era when most cooking is out of sight, what possesses this animal to spend billions on outdoor grills that he only uses three months a year?

Probably we cook with fire, outdoors, for the aromas. Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin coined a word for the smell of beef searing on a fire - “ozmazome.” Chemists today deduce over 600 flavor compounds in roasted beef, but most backyard chefs relate better to the mysterious “ozmazome.”

Browning by fire changes food chemistry dramatically. The high temperatures that cause browning are not possible in boiling, steaming or micro waving. Infra-red radiation from charcoal sears meat at 2000 degrees F, from open flames at 3000 degrees F. Ovens and pans can’t get nearly hot enough to produce the delicate flavors that real roasting achieves.

There are more romantic explanations for our attraction to cooking outdoors. Fire is elemental and contrary, the burn of Hell and the light of Paradise. The ancient Egyptians believed that it was a living creature who devoured whatever it feeds on, and died when it was full. Philosopher Gaston Bachelard called it a terrible, contradictory divinity.

That explains both the lack of trust and the awe of other thinkers before a fire. Heraclitus believed it the source of the entire world. Empedocles altered this view of the elements, to include water, air and earth, and his opinion held for 2000 years. The 20th century replaced it with the Periodic Table -- “Ozmazome” taken to a laboratory and deconstructed.

Some scientists prefer the mystery. Harold McGee put it this way:

“In the sip of roast coffee, or the taste of crackling, there are echos of flowers and leaves fruit and earth, recapitulation of moments from the long dialogue between animals and plants.”

Berea: Cradle of Hope, Greasy Beans & Garlic

"God has made of one blood all peoples of the Earth." Berea College motto

Berea, Kentucky represents the very best of the American dream - a reason to believe that your children will have more opportunities in life. It’s a college town like no other because Berea College has a mission like no other school.

It was founded in 1855 as America’s first inter racial and co-educational college. After blind prejudice outlawed interracial education during the first half of the 20th century, the mission expanded. Berea College charges no tuition and admits only academically promising students who have limited economic resources. All students work at least 10 hours per week in campus and service jobs while studying toward bachelor of arts or bachelor of science degrees.

The college is particularly renowned in two areas that appeal to us - sustainable agriculture and traditional American arts & music. Music and the arts are so ingrained here that for many years a feed and supply store in Berea (population in 2000 census was 9851) sold more Gibson guitars than any other outlet in the USA. I also suspect that Bereans eat more varieties of heirloom fruits and vegetables than people in any other town of comparable size.

I wouldn’t think of going to Berea without first booking a room at the recently remodled Boone Tavern. The college owns that century old hotel and uses it as a de facto hospitality and culinary school. An hour’s drive from Lexington’s airport, Boone Tavern has 58 guest rooms furnished with reproduction Early American furniture made by Berea College’s woodcraft school. After checking in and strolling around the campus and adjacent downtown, we headed out to meet a man who is reviving the “greasy bean” from near extinction.

Bill and the Bean Stock

Settlers in Appalachia brought their own bean stocks with them. Nearly every town and holler in eastern Kentucky and western Carolina had a bean with a different name and characteristics from those in the next town or holler. Mutated strains of these beans were passed on from generation to generation. Beans also migrated when daughters married sons from other hollers, where they cross married and became new beans.

After World War II, people in Appalachia began buying more commercial beans and growing fewer of these heirlooms. Berea College professor Bill Best realized a magnificent diversity was being lost in the rush to homogenous hybrid strains that were bred for shelf life and sisease resistance rather than for taste or character. He began collecting and preserving the traditional bean stock of the mountains and propagating their seeds through his Sustainable Mountain Agriculture Center.

Bill Best also began collecting stories that went with the beans. He’s been saving them both for decades now, planting small crops to build up specific seed stock, which he sells on his web site. Wro and I found him walking his tomato fields in overalls, doing pretty much the same thing he’s been doing with his famous beans. Spring of 2007 was brutal for beans in the field, so Bill had more time for tomatoes, which are a money maker that helps subsidize his passion of saving beans. He walked us through wondrous variety including a tomato called Vinson Watts after a Kentucky grower who has been developing this tomato for 52 years. Bill thinks this pink tomato is the best tasting ever. I think he might be right.
“Atlanta restaurants offered to pay $6 a pound for my best heirloom tomatoes. That’s quite a bit more than I can get around here and it just might be worth the drive,” he confided.

What’s a Greasy Bean?

As we walked through tomato fields, Best mentioned that he spends three hours every night just answering e-mail from people desperate to find a particular greasy bean seed. Many of these people are transplanted Appalachians hoping to recall a taste of their childhoods. But an equal number are bean stock neophytes.

“Once people eat them, it seems that nothing else quite satisfies,” Bill said.

He pleases a lot of people because he has more than 200 Appalachian beans in a collection which grows every day. Wro asked Bill how greasy beans got their name.

“Greasy bean pods lack the fine hairs of other beans and so they appear greasy,“ he explained.

Best believes that greasy beans originated with the Cherokee and reached their zenith in western North Carolina and eastern Kentucky. His theory is contentious. Academics have weighed in on this subject from multiple disciplines. A little internet research turned up greasy bean origin theories based on ethno-botany, anthropology, archeology, population dynamics, migration patterns, horticultural fashion and pre-Columbian trade routes.

Bill told us that his opinion about Cherokee origins stems from the geographical location of the primary stocks in Carolina and Kentucky.
“The Cherokee influence on gardening in Western North Carolina is well known. Less well known is the fact that many people living in Southeastern Kentucky have a lot of Cherokee blood. I know I could be wrong about the Cherokee origin but most of my greasy beans come from Madison, Buncombe, and Haywood counties in North Carolina and Jackson and Owsley counties in Eastern Kentucky. I have a few from other Kentucky and North Carolina counties and one from Northern Georgia. It is astounding to me how many varieties of greasy beans are from Madison County, North Carolina alone. I'm from Haywood County and I have three very different greasy beans which are from within a few miles of each other,” he said.

Bill’s project is multi-generational. His grandson was working with him when we visited and Bill seemed pleased when we told him that he spoke of the work with great enthusiasm.

“Really, he said that? I try to not put any pressure on him at all,“ he said, smiling. Bill added that his project is a verification of his mother’s intuition.

“Mother was far ahead of her time. She felt intuitively that the new beans being released by the experiment stations and seed companies, the beans which had been "improved" by breeders, were bland and tough and flavorless compared to the beans which had been passed down in the mountains for generations,” he explained.

All Bill’s beans are picked when the pods are full with immature beans, before fiber sets in. He compared stringing beans to meditation:
“Start at the tail end of the bean, snap off the end and then pull the string along the inner curve of the bean. Then snap the stem end and pull the string from the outer edge. Pull off any left over bits of string as you snap the beans (into one inch pieces) about so,” he demonstrated.

He explained that “greasies” can be cooked whole like other green beans, harvested as “shellies” (nearly mature beans with prominent green seeds) or allowed to mature into dry beans that are removed from their pods before cooking.

“Where I grew up, we dried whole green beans into ‘leather britches.’ Then we could enjoy them throughout the winter. People used to string up green beans to dry using a needle and heavy thread,” Best said, adding he now prefers drying beans on a screen for several days. Once the beans are dry as leather, he stores them in the freezer.

Before we left, he drew a wider analogy about the new interest in heirloom foods.

“I think heirloom values in general are making a comeback for similar reasons. Mainstream values, those brought into the mountains by northeastern industrialists and missionaries, have turned out to be bland and tough, but leave much to be desired on a human level. Our old traditional values - like honesty, trust and neighborly compassion - might be good antidotes for cynical, impersonal times,” he said, professorily.
In a normal year, Bill Best sells greasy beans at farmers’ markets in Lexington and Berea. But last year’s weather reduced him to preserving seed stock. So Wro and I left full of greasy bean knowledge but with tummies empty of greasy beans. We hoped to find some before our weekend was over and decided to begin our quest with dinner at Kentucky’s most historic traditional restaurant.

Blue Moon Farm

We drove into the hills outside Berea to visit a couple who believe in garlic the way Bill Best believes in beans. Leo Keene and Jean Pitches Keene grow some of the best heirloom garlic in America - their client list includes some famous chefs. We had been told that their Blue Moon Farm was “rather remote,” but after getting lost three or four times and passing some steep hillside goat pastures, we decided that description needed an upgrade. Fortunately for garlic shoppers, Blue Moon Farm also has a website.
Leo and Jean built this farm because they were picky eaters. Well, Leo was.

“When Jean joined me here in 1982, we had a camper by the river. It didn’t take her long to realize that I would never leave home if I couldn’t take food with me, because it had become so hard to find good food. Being unable to find good garlic is what drove us to this.” Leo explained, while braiding garlic for the Lexington Farmers Market.

We tasted three kinds of garlic with distinctly different textures, colors and flavors. Then Leo informed us that according to Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) genetic scientists, all three were all the exact same garlic.

“After DNA tests and whatever, the USDA is convinced that there are only ten kinds of garlic, with some subtle geographic variations. I don’t want to argue with genetic science but I grow two totally different tasting varieties that they insist are the same thing - German White and Music.

The first caramelizes much faster too. So it has to have more sugar. The German White doesn’t grow nearly as well in this climate either,” he explained with a wry smile.

Of the nearly twenty varieties that Blue Moon sells, Music garlic (named after Canadian garlic pioneer Al Music) is their best seller because it has huge cloves which make life easier on chefs. Their Lorz Italian is the most lovely, an “artichoke type” garlic that is layered on the inside, yet has few interior cloves.

We learned some important garlic trivia: that a hickory smoker is marvelous for drying garlic; that all garlic’s bad attributes stem from having set too long in storage; and that garlic cloves make a marvelous substitute for olives in a martini.

Recipes

Bill on Beans:

Bill Best advises soaking dried beans overnight, followed by two more fresh-water soaks in the morning.

“After that soaking, the beans are ready to be cooked as if they were fresh beans.”

Blue Moon Farm’s Green Garlic Soup

Serves 2

3 cups chicken stock
6-8 stalks green garlic
2 tbsp butter
3 small white potatoes
3 tbsp white wine vinegar
Salt and pepper

Take 2 green garlic and cut the shoots into thin rounds. Saute the green garlic rounds in 2 butter for about 10 minutes over a low flame. Wash 3 small white potatoes and cut them into pieces (do not peel). Place the potatoes and sauteed green garlic in a sauce pan and add 3 cups of chicken broth.

Cook covered for about 30 minutes.

In small batches in your blender, puree the soup until it is smooth like velvet.

Return to the saucepan and add more broth if it is too thick. Add salt and pepper to taste and reheat.

When hot, add vinegar and serve.

Cyd Mull's Tempura Beans with Horseradish Sauce

1 pound washed cleaned Green Beans
2 cups of All Purpose Flour
1 cup of Corn Starch
5 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 Table spoon Curry Powder
2 11.15 fluid ounces Perrier Mineral Water
1 teaspoon Celtic Sea Salt
Fresh Cracked Pepper
½ cup Grated Pecorino Romano Cheese
2-3 liters of peanut oil
Tempura batter- mix together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and curry powder in a bowl. Dredge the beans in this dry mix, shaking any excess back into the bowl, and add the mineral water while whisking constantly to make it into batter.
Season the batter with Celtic sea salt and cracked pepper.
Heat peanut oil to 375 degrees F in a deep-fryer, or according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Dip the dusted green bean into the tempura batter. Gently drop the green beans into the hot peanut oil. With long tongs roll green beans over until the batter is a golden color. Remove from hot oil and place on a paper towel. While tempura green beans are warm dust with grated Pecorino Romano cheese.

Serve with Horseradish Sauce on the side.

Horseradish Sauce

1 cup Mayo
1 cup Sour Cream
3 Tablespoons Horseradish Grated
Sea Salt
Mix together ingredients

Recipe by from Cyd’s Catering L.L.C.
http://www.cateringbycyd.com/

If You Go…

Southern & Eastern Kentucky Tourism Development Association
Center for Rural Development
2292 South Highway 27
Somerset, KY 42501
877-TOURSEKY

http://www.tourseky.com/

Berea Tourist and Convention Commission
3 Artist Circle
Berea, KY 40403
800-598-5263
http://www.berea.com/

Boone Tavern Hotel and Restaurant

Berea, KY 40404, 800-366-9358

Sustainable Mountain Agriculture Center1033 Pilot Knob Cemetery RoadBerea, KY 40403859- 986-3204
http://www.heirlooms.org/

Blue Moon Farm 3584 Poosey Ridge Road Richmond, KY 40475
http://www.bluemoongarlic.com/