Showing posts with label USA. Show all posts
It's Real: Attack of the Giant African Land Snails in Florida
Posted by Unknown in News, Pest and Parasites, Snail, USA on Monday, 13 May 2013
By Joe Sutton, CNN
 |
| Giant African land snails can carry a human parasite called rat lungworm, which is a form of meningitis and potentially deadly. |
(CNN) -- Florida, already threatened with sinkholes, now has a new terror: rat-sized, tire-puncturing snails.
Sounding like
something out of a 1950s B-movie, these giant African land snails eat
their way through some surprising stuff, including stucco, plastic
recycling bins, signs and more than 500 species of plants, says the
Florida Department of Agriculture.
Their calcium shells bear pointy edges that are sharp enough to blow out tires of vehicles that run over them.
Agriculture
Department spokeswoman Denise Feiber says the menacing creatures also
carry a human parasite called rat lungworm, which is a form of
meningitis and potentially deadly.
So far, no
human cases have been reported in Florida, Feiber says. But some giant
African land snails that have been captured in the state have carried
the parasite.
The snails are
isolated to the Miami-Dade County area, says Feiber. Experts don't know
exactly how they were first introduced to the United States. It's
thought they may have hitched rides aboard incoming travelers' luggage.
Or some of them may have been intentionally carried into the country as
pets -- and then released.
The snails have
another trait in common with rats: They can multiply very rapidly --
and grow to adulthood in a year, Feiber says. The snails can produce up
to 1,200 eggs per year, and they can live up to nine years.
Since
agriculture officials first discovered the snail invasion in 2011,
trappers have collected more than 117,000. Officials are hoping to
prevent a worst-case scenario, where the snails would threaten Florida
crops.
Some countries, such as Ecuador and Barbados, have run out of resources to fight these critters, Feiber said.
Oregon University Unveil New Dark Tomato
Oregon
State University has unveiled a new tomato - the "Indigo Rose." It’s a
dark purple tomato grown using natural genetics, rather than lab
engineering. The university has been carrying out projects aiming at the
production of dark tomatoes in recent years, as they are known to
contain high levels of antioxidants.
There
is not yet proof that the variety will be more healthy, but it is
certainly striking in appearance. Jim Myers, professor of vegetable
breeding said, "It is really a different tomato. The colour – and not
only the fruit is dark purple, but the foliage will be much more purple.
On top of that, it's just a really nice-eating tomato."
Myers
says the tomato's unusual look means growers should be careful not to
pick it too early. He says it grows to the size of a golf ball, and will
lose a little of its shine, when it's ready to pick.
At least four seed companies are known to be selling the product already.
Source: news.opb.org
Cattle Inventory Expected to Show Decline in Beef Cows
Posted by Unknown in Beef, Cattle and Livestock, Meat, Meat Animal, USA, USDA
USDA
will release on Friday, January 27 the results of its semi-annual
survey of US cattle operations, offering an estimate of the number of
cattle and calves in the US as of January 1, 2012. The table below
presents the inventory survey numbers for the previous three years as
well as analysts estimates ahead of the USDA report.
The
report is expected to show further reductions in the size of the US
cattle herd, with particularly sharp declines in the number of beef cows
and further contraction in the number of heifers held back for beef cow
herd rebuilding. Analysts on average expect the survey to show a 1.6%
decline in the size of the cattle herd. This implies a total inventory
of 91.1 million head, the smallest since at least 1958 when the total
cattle inventory was pegged at 91.176 million head. To be sure, beef
production today is significantly larger than it was back in the 1950s,
thanks to tremendous productivity gains. In 1958, US commercial beef
production was pegged at 12.983 billion pounds, compared to 26.297
billion pounds in 2011. In addition to producing heavier animals, the
feedlot system has allowed producers to significantly accelerate the
time it takes calves to come to market. Consider that in 1958, US cattle
slaughter was 23.555 million head while in 2011, overall slaughter is
estimated at 34.2 million head. The average carcass weight of cattle
that went to slaughter in 1958 was 575 pounds, compared to 773 pounds in
2011. So while the headlines after the inventory report will likely
focus on the fact that cattle numbers are the lowest in some 50 years,
keep in mind that cattle slaughter in 2011 was about 46% bigger than it
was in 1958 and carcass weights were 34% larger than they were then.
Today, we produce more than double the amount of beef from the same size
herd (indeed the beef cow herd is smaller today that it was then).
The
concern going forward is that much of the productivity growth in the
future will be incremental. The low hanging fruit has already been taken
and the industry is now running against biological barriers. It will be
difficult to further increase beef production without increasing the
size of the cattle herd. While there are plenty of signals for expansion
in 2012 and 2013, the January survey will likely show that producers
continued to liquidate the herd in 2011, largely due to escalating feed
costs and limited pastures. The beef cow inventory on January 1, 2012 is
expected to be down 2.5% while the number of heifers held back for beef
cow herd replacement is expected to be down 2.1%. One thing to watch
for in the upcoming report is how the distribution of the US cattle
numbers changed in 2011. Drought stricken states, such as Texas and
Oklahoma, likely saw a sharp decline in their beef cow herd, while other
states probably saw notable gains from a year ago. The expectation is
for producers to increase heifer retention in 2012 as calf prices hit
record highs. In some areas, however, that may be limited by long term
drought conditions and limited feed supplies. The overall expectation is
for smaller beef supplies in 2012 and 2013, the inventory survey should
tell us how big the decline will likely be.
Quadruplet Calves Born in California
Quadruplet calves are 1-in-180-million
By Anna Shcherbakova
NEED TO KNOW
- Cow gives birth to rare quadruplet female calves in California
- The four calves are two sets of twins -- identical and fraternal
- The odds for healthy all-girl bovine quadruplets are 1 in 180 million
(HLN)
What are the odds of all-girl quadruplet calves being born and actually
surviving the birth? That would be 1 in 179.2 million, according to HLN
affiliate KRCR. And on a California dairy farm, the stars aligned and
mama cow gave birth to four healthy baby cows.
The
heifer calves were born on December 6 in Orland, California, and a
local veterinarian confirmed they are indeed quadruplets. KRCR reports
that Dr. Michael Karle ran DNA tests using the calves’ hair and learned
that two of them are identical twins, while the other two are fraternal.
Dairy
farmer John Zuppan told the Chico Enterprise Record that in his 69
years on the job, this is a first. Karle first thought the cow was only
having one pair of twins, which is rare enough. He said twins are born
about 1 percent of the time. So he was especially stunned to see her
give birth to quadruplets.
"I
couldn't believe my eyes. I just kept looking and looking and looking. I
finally came to the conclusion there were four new babies from one
cow," Karle told HLN affiliate KFSN.
Karle
says each Holstein calf weighed a little less than usual at birth --
only 60-65 pounds instead of the common 85 pounds -- but that they are
otherwise in good physical shape.
Coconut Oil Touted as Alzheimer's Remedy
Posted by Unknown in Biofuel, Coconut Oil, Health Issues, News, Nutrition, USA
An
estimated 5.4 million people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with
Alzheimer's disease and that number is expected to increase
exponentially as baby boomer generation enters their golden years.
But for some people, coconut oil has proven to slow the progression of Alzheimer's and may have even prevented it.
One
of those people is Steve Newport, whose Alzheimer's has slowed
considerably. Some of his symptoms even reversed, thanks to the unlikely
treatment prescribed by his wife, Dr. Mary Newport, a physician who
runs a neonatology ward at a Tampa, Fla., hospital.
Dr.
Newport became determined to help her husband after the severity of his
disease was discovered through an Alzheimer's test in which the person
being tested is asked to draw a picture of a clock.
"He drew circles and several numbers just in a very random pattern, didn't really look anything like a clock," she said.
"And
the doctor pulled me over to the side and said, 'You know, he's
actually on the verge of severe Alzheimer's at this point, he's beyond
moderate," Dr. Newport recalled.
"So that was very, very devastating news," she said.
Dr. Newport began learning everything she could about her husband's disease.
"It
appears to be a type of diabetes of the brain and it's a process that
starts happening at least 10 or 20 years before you start having
symptoms and it's very similar to type 1 or type 2 diabetes in that you
develop a problem with insulin," she explained.
Alternative Brain Fuel
In this case, insulin problems prevent brain cells from accepting glucose, their primary fuel. Without it, they eventually die.
But
there is an alternative fuel -- ketones, which cells easily accept.
Ketones are metabolized in the liver after you eat medium chain
triglicerides, found in coconut oil.
Dr.
Newport added coconut oil to her husband Steve's diet. Just two weeks
later, he took the clock test again and demonstrated stunning
improvement.
"I
thought at the time, was it just good luck? Was it a lot of prayer? Was
it the coconut oil?" she said. "And I thought, well, we're going to
keep the coconut oil going."
Three weeks later, Steve took the clock test a third time and continued to perform better on it.
And it wasn't just intellectually, he also improved emotionally and physically.
"He
was not able to run. He was able to run again," she recalled. "He could
not read for about a year and a half, but after two or three months he
was able to read."
"Instead
of being very sluggish, not talking very much in the morning, he would
come out in the morning with energy, talkative, and joking, and he could
find his water and his utensils," Dr. Newport said.
She
documented Steve's success in a book titled, Alzheimer's Disease: What
If There Was A Cure? Dr. Newport received many "thank you" letters from
people whose loved ones were suffering from Alzheimer's. Each of the
letters claimed their family member was helped after they followed
Steve's diet.
Expensive Power Punch
And while coconut oil is encouraging, there's something much more powerful.
A
team of biochemists, led by Professor Kieran Clarke at England's Oxford
University, have developed a ketone ester that packs a punch ten times
greater than coconut oil.
"It
reaches quite considerably higher levels," Clarke said. "And you can
get whatever levels you want depending on how much you drink."
The problem is, they need millions of dollars to mass produce it.
"It's
very expensive. And so we can't make very much of it ourselves," Clarke
said. "And what we would like is funding so we could actually scale up
and make it."
"But
of course there's no real profit in manufacturing stuff like that, and
so people really don't want to fund that sort of thing," he said.
Coconut Oil Myths
So until a high potency ketone ester is available to the general public, coconut oil is still a good ketone source.
Just
make sure it's pure, in other words, non-hydrogenated. Avoid any
hydrogenated oil, including coconut oil, because hydrogenated oils are
the same thing as dangerous trans fats. Check the list of ingredients
for the word, "hydrogenated."
Some people are afraid to eat coconut oil because they think it's bad for your heart. But it's actually very healthy.
Dr. Beverly Teter is a lipid biochemist researcher at the University of Maryland and an expert in the area of dietary fat.
She
said that years ago, coconut oil was criticized for raising
cholesterol. But scientists have since learned there are two kinds of
cholesterol -- LDL, the bad kind, and HDL, which is very good for you.
HDL, the good cholesterol, is the kind that coconut oil raises.
"So
they put out the message that it increased serum cholesterol," Teter
explained. "But the truth of the matter is, it was helping the profile
of the serum cholesterol."
"That
never has been corrected in the public press, and I think that's the
reason people have misconceptions about it," she said.
Defense against Disease
Not
only does coconut oil improve cholesterol levels, Teter said the way it
helps the brains of some Alzheimer's patients can even be extended to
people with Parkinson's disease, ALS , epilepsy, dementia, even
schizophrenia and autism.
Coconut
oil also kills bacteria, making it a natural antibiotic without the
negative side effects. Teter said because of that, it also helps defend
against viruses like HIV and herpes.
"The
coconut oil tends to keep the bacteria down so that if you're assaulted
with a virus, your immune system can concentrate on the virus. It
doesn't have to concentrate on 27 other bacteria that day," she
explained.
As always, consult your doctor before making any dietary changes and ask about the addition of coconut oil to your diet.
How Much of Your Food Labeled as Organic is Actually Organic?
Posted by Unknown in Organic Farming, USA on Friday, 25 January 2013
Barry Estabrook
(The Atlantic) When
is “USDA Organic” not organic? More often than you probably realize.
The USDA keeps a “National List” of inorganic products that can legally
go into foods labeled as organic. The casings for those tasty USDA
Organic sausages can come from conventionally raised animals that have
been fed antibiotics. The hops in your favorite organic beer can be
sprayed with all manner of chemical pesticides and fertilizers.
Strawberries can be labeled as organic even if they had their start in a
conventional nursery.
According
to USDA rules, if 95 percent of a product is made up of organic
ingredients, it can be called organic. If it’s 70 percent organic, the
label can read “made with organic ingredients.”
For
the past several years, public interest groups such as the Cornucopia
Institute have complained that the National Organic Standards Board
(NOSB), which has the power to determine what materials can — and cannot
— be used in organic production, too often weakens regulations in the
face of intense lobbying by corporations who are more interested in the
higher profits conferred by the word “organic” than in strong and
meaningful standards.
Recently,
five new members were nominated for five-year terms to the 15-member
board. The Obama administration has had a schizophrenic relationship
with agriculture, on one hand cozying up to the likes of Monsanto Co. by
advocating for GM crops, and on the other hand winning plaudits from
small farm and organic advocates for programs like Know Your Farmer Know
your Foodand the White House organic garden.
So
I was interested to see what type of NOSB appointees were selected.
Fortunately, for a firsthand look all I had to do was get in my car and
drive 20 miles up the road to Shelburne Farms, where Jean Richardson, an
organic inspector, was conducting the annual inspection of O Bread
bakery one recent afternoon.
For
the past 10 years, Richardson, whom I know personally, has worked
primarily for the Vermont Organic Farmers (VOF) certifying organization,
which is part of Northeastern Organic Farming Association-Vermont
(NOFA-VT). That will change in January: As one of the new NOSB members,
her decisions and suggestions will affect any American who grows,
produces, processes, or buys organic products.
Clad
in well-worn jeans, a denim vest over a salmon-colored turtleneck
sweater, and a pair of scuffed work boots, Richardson, whose inspections
do occasionally lead to a company or a farm losing its certification,
snooped from one end of the bakery to the other, and from floor to
ceiling, at times jolly, at times serious, getting down on her hands and
knees to peer under counters, running her hands over cooling racks
(“What do you clean these with?”), flipping over 50-pound sacks of
flour, and peering into mixing machines. Regulations required her to
document that every ingredient in the bread met organic standards,
following a paper trail that led all the way back to the mill where it
was processed and the field where it was grown. It also required her to
ascertain that the bakery maintained adequate standards of cleanliness
and that there was no chance that food would be contaminated by mice,
moths, flies, or other pests.
O
Bread’s co-owner, Carla Kevorkian, provided Richardson with a fat sheaf
of certificates, invoices, and lot numbers proving that the ingredients
she used met organic standards — all except for the raisins in her
raisin bread. Kevorkian couldn’t find the invoice for the raisons. She
had the box — clearly labeled organic — from which they had been
scooped, but that wasn’t enough. Organic guidelines demanded a document
with a lot number verifying that the specific raisins used in that batch
of bread were organic.
“It
must be at home,” Kevorkian said. “My husband’s coming in. I’ll have
him bring the invoice.” Richardson smiled, showing her jolly side. “I
like to find errors, Carla,” she said, then paused for a flawlessly
timed beat, “It’s my raison d’être.”
In
addition to being a hands-on organic inspector for the last decade,
Richardson is a professor emerita of natural resources and environmental
studies at the University of Vermont and an organic maple syrup
producer.
“My
experience in Vermont has been with small farms, and as an inspector, I
work with grassroots producers,” she said, while Kevorkian telephoned
her husband. “I want to be sure that the voice of the small growers and
processors get heard at a national level. There are times when a
regulatory template that works for a large farmer or processor simply
cannot work on a small scale. We need regulations for both. And we need
clear labels for the consumer to understand.”
Other
newly appointed NOSB members include Harold Austin of Zirkle Fruit Co.,
a Washington state fruit tree grower; Carmela Beck of Driscoll’s, a
California berry producer; Tracy Favre of Holistic Management
International in New Mexico, a non-profit group that educates about how
to manage land sustainably; and Andrea Sonnabend of the California
Certified Organic Farmers.
After
two and a half hours, Richardson’s inspection of O Bread was complete.
Her report would go to VOF, which would make the decision on whether or
not O Bread had any “non-compliances.” Richardson had little doubt that
the bakery would pass muster. “This company does a good job. They leave
themselves a lot of leeway,” she said.
Still, I’ll wager that next year when Richardson comes around, Kevorkian will have an invoice ready for her raisins.
Tiny Lettuce Seed Very Picky About Where it Grows
(Yuma Sun) Without the humble lettuce seed, the Yuma agriculture industry would lose out on some serious green.
According
to the Agriculture Marketing Resource Center, the value of all U.S.
lettuce production in 2010 was approximately $2.2 billion, making it the
leading vegetable crop in terms of value.
California
and Arizona account for about 98 percent of commercial domestic output
of lettuce, with the majority of production from November through March
occurring in Yuma and the Imperial Valley.
Once
finished, the leafy greens are exported across the United States, as
well as to Canada, Mexico and nations all over the world.
Lettuce
seeds are very small and very fragile, said Rick Rademacher, who works
for 3 Star Lettuce, a Yuma company that specializes in seed production.
“Lettuce seed is very fine, it is almost like dust.”
The
seed is also very picky about where it will grow, so area farmers rely
on seed companies to provide them a tailor-made product best suited for
their individual needs.
“We
are looking for that magic combination, if you will, of that right
variety of seed at the right time of year, on the right piece of ground,
that fits the needs of the grower and the shipper,” Rademacher said.
“You
change one thing, it changes everything. We have to try a lot of
different varieties to see which one fits individual circumstances. What
works for one guy may not work for another based on growing style, the
soil he's got and time of year.”
While
soil, labor, water, fertilizer and pesticides are all necessary for the
growth of a crop, the seed is very important, “because that is the
crop,” Rademacher said.
“You
are buying the crop in an embryonic state and planting it in a field
and giving it everything it needs to grow. In all the decisions you can
make in planting a lettuce crop, choosing the right seed is very
important.”
There
are currently about 100 different varieties of head lettuce growers can
choose from, “and a lot of those choices are based on preference,
growing style, the quality that the shipper wants for their customers —
it gets pretty involved,” Rademacher said. “Our job is to find varieties
for our customers that fit all their needs.”
Each field may need a custom seed.
“Some
varieties do better in heavier soil, some in light soil. Some do better
in the fall and some do better in the spring,” Rademacher said.
3 Star Lettuce conducts extensive research and development on each of its seed varieties before offering it to growers.
Since there are many microclimates throughout Yuma County, growers must be very careful about choosing the proper lettuce seeds.
“Some of them are a half-mile from each other,” Rademacher said.
“A
lot of it is really air currents. Normally Winterhaven and north Yuma
Valley are the warmest, and as you go south it gets colder. Gadsden is a
very cold spot. It's one of the coldest spots in the county.”
Dome
Valley is a little warmer because it gets a lot of air movement going
through Telegraph Pass, he added, noting that fields close to some
mountains tend to be warmer because air swirls around them.
Thanks
to enhancements in seed technology, lettuce growers in the Yuma area
can plant and harvest their crops sooner than in previous decades.
One
of the ways they do that is by speeding up the process of
vernalization, which naturally happens in the seed during exposure to
the prolonged cold of winter. The process must be completed before the
seed can germinate.
In a natural setting, vernalization takes about five months. That time is cut to about one month using refrigeration techniques.
“You cold treat it and make it think it's going through the winter, and then it is ready to go,” Rademacher said.
Growers
are also able to plant lettuce at the beginning of September instead of
the end of that month, thanks to a “priming” process.
“Lettuce
as a species doesn't like to germinate in anything above 85 degrees,”
Rademacher said. That meant growers had to wait until the weather cooled
in the past. But now the seeds are primed with special plant hormones
that trick the plant into growing despite temperatures above 85 degrees.
“Priming actually takes it through the first step of germination,” Rademacher said.
Growers also use sprinklers, which can “reduce the temperature of a field by 15 degrees,” he added.
They can also have lettuce in the fields in midwinter, which was impossible 30 years ago.
“It
was too cold,” Rademacher said. “But we have developed varieties with
enough vigor to grow through the cold. We are really able to defy nature
on a grand scale. It's all biology.”
Chris McDaniel can be reached at cmcdaniel@yumasun.com or 539-6849.
Raising goats not just kid stuff
Posted by Unknown in Goat Farming, USA, Zz_Wordpress on Monday, 10 September 2012
SIDNEY – Storm clouds hung heavily over Jen and Andy Miller's rural Sidney minifarm Tuesday while the couple talked about their new business.
Suddenly, through a window, Jen Miller saw her goats streaking across their enclosure, headed for shelter.
"It must be raining," she said. "Goats hate rain."
 |
| Jen and Andy Miller pose with their goats and dogs on their farm in rural Sidney. |
That's just one thing Miller, a veterinarian, has learned about the species she studied for one day during her four years at the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine.
The Millers will open their pastures, show off their goats and their new kids and share their experiences with other producers, 4-H club members and anyone else interested in goat production during a University of Illinois pasture walk at 6 p.m. April 24.
It's one of several walks the UI schedules each year so visitors can learn more about successful animal husbandry systems, said animal scientist Dick Cobb, a sheep specialist,
Visitors can also check out federal Conservation Reserve Program practices on the 15-acre farm that include 3 acres in filter strips and 1 acre of shallow-water area that's a haven for passing waterfowl.
The Millers have learned how important fencing is to keep their animals, which they're raising for meat, under control. Goats, they said, are always looking for a way out.
"They say if it won't hold water, it won't hold a goat," said Andy Miller, a mushroom specialist at the Illinois Natural History Survey. "They test the fencing every day, even electric fencing.
The Millers now know how important good pasture and rotation are to keep goats healthy and free of a parasite that can kill them. They've both become so adept at identifying worm infestations and treatment, they teach classes to other breeders.
And Jen Miller, president of the Illinois Meat Goat Producers, is looking for new markets for owners of goat herds, most of which are small.
"About 75 percent of the world eats goat and a lot of people from those countries are coming here," Andy Miller said of their intention to sell to ethnic markets.
"The biggest problem is, most people raise them on small acreage like us, and everything in the food business is done on volume," said Jen Miller, who hopes to get area and state meat goat producers together so they can pool their animals to fill larger orders from restaurants, especially those in the Chicago area.
"Even one goat a week to one restaurant is 52 goats a year," Andy Miller said.
When they started the farm in 2005, the Millers did their homework.
"We got goats because they're small and I can work around them safely," Jen Miller said.
"They're the fastest-growing livestock in the U.S., and they work well on small acreage," Andy Miller said.
They picked a New Zealand breed, Kiko, because they're low-maintenance animals, bred specifically for meat production, but to get their stock, they had to travel because Kikos are uncommon in the U.S.
"We're scientists and we like to do research so we read books and got on the Internet to find them," said Jen Miller, who works at Hill Animal Care, Mahomet.
They don't want to go into the goat business full time: both like their day jobs. But the hardy herd is fun to come home to, they said.
"Goats are a riot," Jen Miller said. "They look for trouble. If you've had a bad day at work, they take your mind off a lot of things."
Anne Cook
Voluntary Lettuce Recall Creates More Worry for Farmers
Posted by Unknown in E.Coli, Food Borne Diseases, News, USA
SAN FRANCISCO, — It is, in scope and severity, a fairly minor recall: about 8,500 cartons of lettuce, which may or may not have come into contact with irrigation water contaminated with E. coli bacteria. No one has gotten sick, the lettuce company involved emphasized, adding that the move was precautionary.
But for farmers in the Salinas Valley of California, already reeling from last month’s deadly E. coli outbreak in spinach, the timing could not have been worse.
“It clearly has the potential to set back our effort to regain consumer confidence,” said Bob Perkins, the executive director of the farm bureau in Monterey County, one of three counties to which the contaminated spinach was linked. “Right now, I don’t know how the story is playing out with the general public, whether it’s an example of another problem with the industry or it’s an example of how the system works.”
The voluntary recall of the lettuce, announced Sunday by the Nunes Company, based in Salinas, involved about 8,500 cartons of green leaf lettuce sold under the Foxy label. Tom Nunes Jr., the company’s president, said Monday that only 250 cartons could have reached consumers and that those were believed to be in one of seven Western states: Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon or Washington. Mr. Nunes said the other cartons had been found and were being destroyed.
The recall was decided on, Mr. Nunes said, after a test of reservoir water at a single Salinas Valley farm that supplies the Nunes Company found “a dangerous concentration of generic E. coli.” But he said there was no evidence yet that it was the potentially lethal strain E. coli O157:H7, which contaminated spinach last month, causing three deaths and sickening nearly 200.
“We don’t know what kind of E. coli it is,” said Mr. Nunes, who added that further test results on the E. coli were expected back Tuesday. “But it was enough to get our attention.”
Federal health authorities commended the recall and said Monday that no illnesses had been linked to the Nunes Company’s products or to the irrigation water. Finding very low levels of E. coli in water is not unusual, said Dr. David Acheson, chief medical officer of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition at the Food and Drug Administration.
Whether that will reassure customers or result in lettuce wilting at the salad bar remains to be seen. In downtown San Francisco, some delis posted signs informing customers that the shops were not using Foxy lettuce alongside notices that their spinach was safe.
Tina Lopez, an office worker at Washington Mutual here, said she was not worried about the salad she had just bought for lunch. “I figured if they had it out, it was probably O.K.,” Ms. Lopez said. “If anything it’s probably safer because they’re scrutinizing everything.”
That was exactly the kind of reaction farmers’ groups were hoping for. Tim Chelling, a spokesman for Western Growers, which represents 3,000 farmers and shippers in California and Arizona, said the response to the lettuce recall had been more forceful than the one to the spinach.
“I’ve been hearing from everybody and their brother,” Mr. Chelling said. “Everybody is communicating, trading information. People aren’t stumbling around in the fields in shock, but very quickly trying to organize themselves as professionally and diligently as possible.”
The lettuce recall is the latest in a series of food scares, including a recent recall of carrot juice linked to an outbreak of botulism in Georgia and Florida, and an Iowa company’s recall of 5,200 pounds of ground beef thought to have been contaminated with E. coli.
And though the nationwide spinach warning has been lifted, the investigation continues. Last week, officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Office of Criminal Investigations at the F.D.A. searched two processing facilities in the Salinas Valley.
Even more than spinach, however, contaminated lettuce has long been a source of concern for health authorities. In August, the F.D.A. announced the Lettuce Safety Initiative, meant to address E. coli outbreaks in the past decade that had been linked to fields in the Salinas Valley, about 100 miles south of San Francisco.
Still, Dr. Acheson said that Americans safely consumed hundreds of thousands of pounds of leafy greens every year and that the recent outbreak tied to spinach was an agricultural anomaly.
“Every now and again something goes wrong,” he said, “and the spinach example was one of the worst. Are we ever going to reach a point where we can say there is zero risk associated with fresh leafy greens? Probably not.”
But food safety experts said the lettuce recall only affirmed the need for more governmental oversight of the fresh produce industry, and for the type of inspections that governed meat and poultry.
“There’s no federal agency that deals with this,” said Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition, public health and food safety at New York University. “This falls through the cracks, and that needs to be fixed.”
That need is even more acute, Dr. Nestle said, because many vegetables are eaten raw. “You could cook spinach, but you don’t ever cook lettuce,” she said.
Dave Kranz, a spokesman for the California Farm Bureau Federation, said it was premature to estimate what kind of economic damage the lettuce recall might inflict on farmers already hit hard by the spinach scare. Although the government warning on that crop was lifted, Mr. Kranz said, many farmers are still on hold, “waiting to see how much demand there will be, and how soon.”
While the Salinas Valley has been the focus of the recent E. Coli investigations, the growing season is poised to shift south, and there, farmers are anxious.
“It’s a huge worry,” said Jack Vessey, a vegetable farmer in El Centro, about 500 miles south of Salinas. Mr. Vessey grows 20 winter crops at his 7,000-acre ranch and just seeded green leaf lettuce fields for the mid-November harvest. Now, however, he is having second thoughts.
“The consumer confidence has to come back,” Mr. Vessey said. “I’m putting seed in the ground. But I’m pretty much gambling on what I plant now.”
Carolyn Marshall contributed reporting from San Francisco, and Libby Sander from Chicago.
Riding herd on goats
Posted by Unknown in Cheese, Cheese Making, Dairy, Dairy Products, Goat, Success Stories, USA
Leslie Cooperband, a Boston native who holds a Ph.D. in soil science, had a secret passion.
And it didn't have anything to do with soil.
She wanted to be a cheesemaker.
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| Wes Jarrell pulls down a brance of a maple tree so the goats can get the leaves. |
After Cooperband and her husband, Wes Jarrell, bought a home and farmland in rural Champaign, they said, "Let's do goats," Cooperband recalled.
About a year and a half after deciding to go ahead with the project – buying the goats, modifying a barn according to state regulations, installing a milk parlor and commercial facility for making the cheese and being certified Grade A by the USDA – they are now selling the soft cheese to area restaurants and direct to consumers at Urbana's Market on the Square.
"A lot of people told me I was crazy to do this," said Cooperband on a recent morning while adding sea salt to a batch of fresh cheese.
But she's taken with the goats and they are obviously crazy about her and Jarrell.
After they stepped outside into the yard to say hello to the goats, the does ran over, pushing their heads up for a rub behind the ears or a scratch under their chins. Jarrell and Cooperband were happy to oblige.
"I love goats. They're so friendly," Cooperband said. When Jarrell pulled down a branch from a Norway maple tree, the goats zoomed over to him, standing on their hind legs to get at the leaves.
East Central Illinois – all of Illinois for that matter – is not exactly a hub for dairy goat operations, let alone cheesemaking.
Most people in the state who own dairy goats have them for their own use or for shows, said Saybrook resident Richard Hudson, secretary and treasurer of the Illinois Dairy Goat Association.
The larger commercial operations tend to be in dairy states like Wisconsin and California.
But there are a growing number of goats around.
According to the most recent Census of Agriculture in 2002, Illinois had 425 farms with dairy goats for a total of 5,685 goats in the state. That's up from 369 farms and 3,728 dairy goats in 1997.
And Illinois is not the only state where the goat population seems to be increasing. From 1997 to 2002, the inventory of dairy goats in the entire U.S. increased from 190,000 to 290,000, also according to the Census of Agriculture.
That increase may be due to rising demand for goat's milk and cheese and the growing movement to buy locally produced food.
Or it may also be because the government is now able to find the farms with goats and the records are more accurate, said Penny Gioja, who raises dairy goats with her family near Bondville.
The Giojas have been raising goats for 10 years and got into the whole thing because they wanted a fresh supply of milk for their family to drink, Gioja said. They have about 10 goats in the winter and 30 in the spring. When the Giojas sell their milk, it is directly off the farm to customers, rather than at farmers' markets or elsewhere.
Goat's milk is white and high in butter fat, plus it contains vitamin B-6, A, potassium, niacin and other minerals. Many people who are allergic to cow's milk can drink goat's milk, Cooperband said.
"It's much easier to digest and if you properly cool and preserve goat's milk, it's delicious," Hudson said.
Goat's milk is naturally homogenized so you can't make butter and cream as easily as from cow's milk, Gioja said.
But you can, and the Giojas have, made soft and hard cheese, yogurt, ice cream and kefir (a creamy drink) out of it.
"There are a lot of uses for the milk," Gioja said.
Cooperband and Jarrell have 22 dairy goats, including one male, a buck. Eventually they would like to add more goats.
A goat's lactation cycle is between 275 and 300 days, from around March to late November or early December.
During those months, Cooperband and Jarrell begin each day by milking the goats at 6:30 a.m. They milk six at a time and the whole process takes an hour.
"They're usually waiting and while you're with the first batch, the next batch is poking their heads around the corner waiting for their turn," Cooperband said.
The next milking is at 6 p.m.
"I like the routine of milking. It's a time when you see how they're doing. I like it more than I thought I would," Cooperband said.
After they milk the goats, the milk is transferred to a holding tank, where it is chilled and stored for three to five days. The milk is then pumped via pipeline to another room where it is sent to a tank and pasteurized.
"The system was set up so there's no exposure to air and potential for contamination," Jarrell said.
About 21 to 22 gallons of milk will make 40 pounds of cheese.
After pasteurization, they will scoop out the cheese, measure the acidity and place the cheese into muslin cheese cloths. Then they put the cheese in plastic shopping carts where they drain up to 12 hours.
Afterward, they take out the cheese and add sea salt. After the salt is mixed in, Cooperband tastes the cheese.
"That's where the art comes in," Jarrell said.
Some of the cheese is mixed with herbs de Provence (thyme, rosemary and other herbs). Other cheese is placed into French molds and covered with parchment.
In between raising the goats and making cheese, Jarrell and Cooperband also have planted about 350 fruit trees and 800 berry bushes. They plan to transition the land to organic.
And in between those activities, both work at the University of Illinois. Jarrell, also a soil scientist, is head of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. Cooperband is a UI Extension specialist in sustainable agriculture.
Christine Des Garennes
