Some supermarkets welcome, inform food-stamp recipents

Kroger CEO starts helping customers with food stamps, WIC. Dave Dillion, chairman and CEO of Kroger, often visits his stores to talk with customers and see for himself what works and what doesn't, according to a recent AP story. His involvement helps explain why Kroger's earnings are up while earnings for other groceries are down. Dillion noticed that the number of customers using food stamps had doubled, resulting in many new recipients who were unsure about what they could buy. To reduce the frustration and time of having items rejected at checkout, Dillion has brought in new signs to help explain what items are allowed and also trained employees to help customers use the program.

As I report in today's Cook for Good newsletter, the Kroger I visited in Raleigh is starting to roll out better signage, but has quite a ways to go. They have labels for WIC-approved items, but not for food stamps.

Have you seen any effort to identify eligible items in your grocery store? Have you experienced or seen confusion in using the programs? Have you see any stores charging people extra who use WIC or food stamps (SNAP)? These fees are illegal, but I was told by a clerk that there is a 50-cent fee for each use of the food-stamp Electronic Benefits Transfer card. The store management later told me that had never been the case.

Eat a carrot, hurt the economy? Bad reporting, false choices.

I was stunned this morning to see a headline over an AP article saying, Eat a carrot, hurt the economy? Sometimes. The story summarized a study in Lancet, saying that:

In Britain, experts estimated that fixing the country's bad eating habits might prevent nearly 70,000 people from prematurely dying of diet-related health problems like heart disease and cancer. It would also theoretically save the health system 20 billion pounds ($32 billion) every year.

In Brazil, however, the rates of illnesses linked to a poor diet are not as high as in the U.K. So Brazilians would get relatively few health benefits while their economy might lose millions.

Yet even a quick look at the Lancet series on The Health Benefits of Tackling Climate Change finds another conclusion. The first paragraph says making technical and lifestyle changes to combat global warming would not be "socially uncomfortable and economically painful" as is commonly thought, at least from a public-health point of view. In fact,

If properly chosen, action to combat climate change can, of itself, lead to improvements in health.

The series highlights several areas where climate-inspired changes would make people healthier, by reducing household energy emissions, changing urban land transport, and finding low-carbon ways to generate electricity.

But what about those Brazilian ranchers? They would have a greater health benefit than in the UK:

A 30% fall in the adult consumption of saturated fat from animal sources would reduce heart disease in the population by around 15% in the UK and by 16% in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil. If the study had used additional health outcomes such as obesity and diet-related cancers, the health gains might have been even more substantial.

The study lists a "key message" as being:

Achieving a substantial cut in greenhouse-gas emissions will depend on reducing the production of food from livestock and on technological improvements in farming.

The full journal article itself, Public health benefits of strategies to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions: food and agriculture, does address the benefits of raising animals for meat in certain situations:

For example, ruminant livestock in upland and marginal areas can help to maintain and build the carbon-sequestering properties of soil. Where grazing cattle are reared without use of feed inputs or additional fertiliser, and at low stocking densities, carbon sequestering can outweigh methane and nitrous oxide emissions....Further, in many geographical regions (including the uplands in the UK) no form of food production other than livestock rearing is feasible at present. Livestock rearing also has a key cultural and economic role in many parts of the world and is estimated to create livelihoods for a billion of the world's poor people.

False choices. The AP story presents a false limit on the choices involved. Certainly if people worldwide were suddenly told to quit raising animals for food and offered no other way to feed themselves, misery would ensue. But for the most part, the choices are not limited to "raise meat or starve."

Limited consequences. The AP article doesnt' mention other consequences not slowing global warming by all means possible, including the easy and healthy choice of eating less meat. More carbon emissions creates increased human aggression and ever more environmental refugees, already 20 million strong and growing rapidly, "more than those displaced by war and political repression combined" according to a U.N. study. We also hurt or kill other living beings and environmental systems.

So unless you are a subsistence farmer raising livestock on the thin, rocky pastures, go ahead and eat that carrot. Before you pick a burger over beans for lunch, check out these pictures showing the effects of rising sea levels on everything from the property value of beach houses to the displacement of 13 million people in Bangladesh to the very existence of the tiny island country of Tuvalu.

Apron survey comments / men who cook

And the winner is — the apron with the hidden labels. There will be a Cook for Good logo label and a US flag label on the underside of the back behind the neck.

An apology and a defense. As I said in the newsletter today, I wish I'd mentioned up front that this apron is intended to be the first of a series, including a streamlined apron suitable for men and women. One comment took me to task for "reinforcing outdated gender roles." My sincere apologies for any appearance in that direction. It's a shame that so many women have been talked out of the joys and power of cooking from scratch, as documented brilliantly by Laura Shapiro in Something from the Oven. But that joy and power should be available to men as well. Nearly everybody can and should cook.

On the other hand, I was surprised by the survey response that said that selling the apron goes against the original intent of Cook for Good and that the money should just be spent on food. Cook for Good is for people of all income levels. Certainly you should feed your kids before buying an apron, but protecting your other clothes while you cook makes sense. And I always feel like I'm donning a superhero cape when I put on my apron — it's just fun. I hope some of you will choose to support my work by buying the ebook, taking a class, or eventually buying the apron. I don't get funding from any other source. Making a quality product in the U.S., especially with disabled workers, seems to be right in line with my "make a difference" goal.

But what do you think?

Market report: raspberries, green beans, pumpkins galore!

I expected big crowds of folks out getting Halloween pumpkins, mums, and great fall produce today, but both the North Carolina State Farmers' Market and the Western Wake Market were fairly quiet.

I splurged today on four quarts of raspberries. They cost $7 a quart, $2 more than that the same stand about 18 hours earlier. You see it can pay to go to the market just before it closes to look for bargains on perishable items. The raspberry guy was cranky today, not topping off the quarts and scoffing at the idea of a discount for buying a flat ("It's $42 ... 6 times 7.") Oh well, everyone else was super friendly as usual.

Other great buys today were free-range eggs for $3 a dozen. One of those eggs is a lovely aqua color, but the photo doesn't show it. Ricky Barbour of East Wake Apiaries and Eggs forgot to bring quarters for change and had a lot of eggs from being at the State Fair intend of at the Western Wake Farmers' Market, so he's having a sale today.

Redbud Farm had gorgeous, certified organic Blue Lake green beans for $2.50 a pound. That's just 51 cents more a pound than the sprayed beans at the State Farmers' Market. Nancy Joyner said that green beans just love cool weather.

The small pie pumpkins were $2 each and the big cheese pumpkin was $5. They'll be decorations until Thanksgiving, then will go one by one into pies and other pumpkin dishes.

I also got apple cider, mustard greens, arugula, sweet potatoes, bell peppers, hot peppers, and the last of the tomatoes, which are cat-faced but still good.

Great food talks in the Triangle area

We've got some great food authors speaking in the Triangle. Hope to see you at both these events!

Shirley Corriher is a biochemist, author and James Beard Foundation award winner. Her books CookWise and BakeWise show how scientific insights can be applied to traditional cooking and baking.
Where: at Meredith College, Kresge Auditorium
When: 6:30 p.m. on Monday, October 25, 2010.
Hosted by: Meredith College Master of Science in Nutrition and Nutrition Graduate Student Association
Get your free tickets here.

Jonathan Bloom will be doing a reading from his new book, American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half Its Food (and what we can do about it).
Where: Quail Ridge Books & Music
When: 7:30 p.m. on November 3

"Good start" funding for nutritional supplements

What an excellent meeting yesterday with Patrick Brennan, legislative assistant for Senator Kay Hagan. We talked about the need for "good start" money for some people when they first receive nutritional supplement funding such as food stamps, SNAP, or WIC. This money would let them get started and make the best use of resources.

How? By providing a little extra money so they can cook at home, from scratch when possible. The money could be used to buy kitchen essentials, like salt, baking powder, and mustard. For some, it would be used to buy a pot, a kitchen knife, and enough plates and cutlery for everyone. Many people without traditional kitchens could cook if they had an electric rice cooker, crock pot, or skillet.

Patrick said he thought the idea was worthy of being considered as a potential addition to the next farm bill. I'll be sending him more info and keeping you posted here.

Meanwhile, let's thank Senator Hagan for her great work on the Tester-Hagan amendment to the current farm bill. This amendment would protect small, local food producers from regulations aimed at industrial-sized operations. Ask your senators to support this amendment with the Senate reconvenes.

What do you consider to be a kitchen essential? If you were cooking for weeks in a hotel room or on a picnic table at a campground, what would you need?

What have you done to make sure no kid's hungry?

I've heard amazing stories at the Share Our Strength Conference of Leaders about folks raising money, awareness, and opportunities to help make sure people get enough healthy food to eat. What's your story? Do you work in a food bank, attend Taste of a Nation events, volunteer, or work for good laws? Do you work in the food system itself, as a farmer, grocer, chef, or nutritionist? Is making sure your own kids are well fed taking all your energy right now? Tell yours story in the comments.