TEFAP Alliance Blog

Foodlinks America - November 24, 2006

In this issue:

· Food Insecurity Numbers Dip Slightly
· Appropriations Delayed Again
· Farm Bill Changes Linked to Budget
· Utility Costs Imperil Food Security
· Food Stamp Facts
· Obesity Round-Up
· Community Food Project Profile: Iowa Project Emphasizes Sustainable Activities
· Small Bites

Foodlinks America is published 24 times a year by California Emergency Foodlink in Sacramento, CA and distributed by Weinberg & Vauthier Consulting, 6412 CR 116, Burnet, TX 78611; Zy Weinberg and Barbara Vauthier, Editors; email: bvauthier@tefapalliance.org.

Foodlinks America is not copyrighted, so the information can be freely shared with colleagues and friends, though attribution for reprinted articles is appreciated. For archived issues of Foodlinks America, go to: www.tefapalliance.org. To request a free subscription to the newsletter or to submit story ideas, contact Barbara Vauthier at: bvauthier@tefapalliance.org.

ATTENTION READERS: Beginning this issue, Foodlinks America will originate from a new email address. To insure that you continue to receive the newsletter without interruption, add the new address of bvauthier@tefapalliance.org to the white list for your spam filter.

Food Insecurity Numbers Dip Slightly

More than 35 million Americans lived in food insecure households in 2005, a modest reduction from the previous year when 38 million people were affected, according to a U.S. Department of agriculture (USDA) report released on November 15, 2006. However, the number of people in the worst-off households – those with very low food security – actually grew from 10.7 million to 10.8 million, and “demands for food assistance remain high,” said America’s Second Harvest, the national food bank network.

An important and controversial change in USDA’s annual estimation of need this year was the avoidance of the word “hunger.” Households experiencing episodes of “difficulty providing food for all their members due to a lack of resources,” previously termed “food insecure with hunger,” were classified in 2005 as having “very low food security.”

The new terminology did not sit well with anti-hunger advocates. The removal of “the word ‘hunger’ from our official reports is a huge disservice to the millions of Americans who struggle daily to feed themselves and their families,” said Reverend David Beckman, president of Bread for the World in Washington, D.C. “We should not hide the word hunger in our discussions of this problem, because we cannot hide the reality of hunger among our citizens,” he added.

Members of Congress also criticized USDA’s action, with 64 Representatives sending a letter to USDA on November 20 questioning how the decision to eliminate the word “hunger” was made. Terming hunger as food insecurity “makes it more difficult to get that political will and to get the action you need to deal with the issue,” said Representative James McGovern (D-MA), co-chair of the Congressional Hunger Caucus and a signer of the letter.

“The prevalence of food insecurity varied considerably among different types of households,” USDA noted. “Rates of food insecurity were substantially higher for households with incomes near or below the Federal poverty line, households headed by single women with children, and for Black and Hispanic households. Geographically, food insecurity was more common in large cities and rural areas than in suburbs, and in the South than in other areas of the Nation.” The ten states with the highest food insecurity rates in 2005 were: New Mexico, Mississippi, Texas, South Carolina, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Utah, Idaho, North Carolina, and Tennessee.

The report prompted calls for action. “While the small drop is a move in the right direction, we should be far from satisfied,” commented Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center in Washington, D.C. “Change is moving too slowly for those still struggling, and we need to make ending hunger a national priority. We will be calling on Congress to attack this shameful national condition with new commitment and new energy.”

For additional information and details, view the USDA report at:

http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/FoodSecurity/.

Appropriations Delayed Again

Before recessing for the Thanksgiving holiday, Congress passed another continuing resolution (CR) to keep government programs funded through December 8, 2006. The Senate initiated debate on a fiscal year 2007 spending bill for agriculture programs, but no action was completed.

Congress will reconvene on December 5 and Republican leaders now indicate that they will not try to tackle individual appropriations measures next month, but will endorse another stopgap CR to last at least through the end of January.

Farm Bill Changes Linked to Budget

The incoming chairmen of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees for the Democratically-controlled Congress in 2007, Representative Collin Peterson of Minnesota and Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, have both pledged to write a new Farm Bill next year, but face significant financial pressures in achieving their goal. Liberals and conservatives alike acknowledge that the structure of the federal budget will drive Farm Bill outcomes.

“The first major Farm Bill decision is what happens in the budget resolution,” observed Ferd Hoefner, policy director for the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition in Washington, D.C. “You can’t write a good Farm Bill without a good budget,” said Tom Buis, president of the National Farmers Union. In 2006, Republican leaders failed altogether to pass a budget resolution and it is uncertain whether Democrats will be more successful next year, as they will face many of the same budget pressures.

Even within the Democratic Party, there are competing interests in establishing Farm Bill priorities. Harkin is expected to stress conservation programs. Peterson will likely favor crop-subsidy programs that are critical to his district. And fruit and vegetable growers, who have received minimal federal assistance in the past, are pressing hard for a bigger slice of the Farm Bill pie.

Which programs will receive funding, and how much, is likely to change to some degree, however. Peterson and Harkin, both from the Midwest, are replacing Republicans from Virginia and Georgia in the Agriculture Committee leadership positions. Consequently, “There will be less of a tilt toward Southern agriculture” in farm programs, predicted Senator Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican.

Hunger relief groups are also focusing on the Farm Bill, which funds the Food Stamp Program, to ameliorate growing nutritional needs. “As we look ahead to a new Congress and the upcoming Farm Bill, we must make greater investments to address the persistent problem of hunger in this country,” said Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center in Washington, D.C. “We should take the opportunity to make food stamps a more robust program by increasing monthly benefits, supporting outreach efforts, and removing arbitrary bars to eligibility. We’ve got to have a better Food Stamp Program,” he added. “It’s the backbone of the Farm Bill.”

Reaching consensus on a Farm Bill next year will not be easy. Mark Maslyn, a lobbyist for the American Farm Bureau Federation, summed up the situation, noting, “There are a lot of good programs chasing too few dollars.”

Utility Costs Imperil Food Security

The perennial “heat or eat” dilemma causes dislocations in the diet and health of low-income Americans, according to two recently-released studies, and children and the elderly are the most frequently affected groups. A study of more than 7,000 caregivers, conducted by pediatricians in five cities, found that the children of those who received benefits under the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), the primary federal government vehicle for fuel assistance, had “less anthropometric evidence of undernutrition, no evidence of increased overweight, and lower odds of acute hospitalization from an emergency department visit” than children in families that did not receive LIHEAP.

The pediatricians, writing in the November 2006 issue of the journal Pediatrics, noted that although LIHEAP “benefits seem to reach families at the highest social and medical risk with more food insecurity and higher rates of low birth-weight children,” an overall lack of funding limits the program’s effectiveness. LIHEAP “funding has not increased with recent rapidly rising energy costs, harsh winter conditions, or higher child poverty rates,” the doctors noted. For more information, see:

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/.

Food insecurity among the elderly varies according to the time of the year and is associated with heating and cooling costs, according to a second study conducted by two U.S. Department of Agriculture economists and published in The Journal of Nutrition for November 2006. For households consisting entirely of elderly persons, very low food insecurity, or hunger, was 27 percent higher in the summer than in the winter in high-cooling states. In high-heating states, the situation was reversed, and hunger was 43 percent lower in the summer among such households. To learn more, go to:

http://jn.nutrition.org/.

Food Stamp Facts

Participation increases noted: The ability of the Food Stamp Program to reach its target population is an important measure of program performance, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which administers the program nationwide. A newly released document, which presents estimates of food stamp participation rates by state for fiscal year 2004, shows a national participation rate of 60 percent of eligible persons that year. USDA aims to reach 68 percent of eligibles by 2010.

However, as USDA notes, participation rates varied widely from state to state. Twenty states had rates significantly higher than the national rate, led by Missouri at 84 percent, and followed by Tennessee and Oregon at 83 percent. On the other hand, 17 states had rates significantly lower than the national rate, with California at just 46 percent, Wyoming at 48 percent, and Massachusetts at 49 percent.

The report, State Food Stamp Participation Rates in 2004, also estimated the participation of the working poor. The national rate for that category was 51 percent, with Tennessee leading the way with 78 percent and California at the rear with only 34 percent. For additional details, view the report at:

http://www.fns.usda.gov/…reaching2004.pdf.

Latest figures show another rise: National food stamp participation for August 2006, the latest statistics available, showed 26,127,843 people receiving benefits, an increase of 136,800 over the previous month. August 2006 participation was more than 362,000 above August 2005.
Reviewing vehicle asset policies: One way states can help eligible households – particularly working households – qualify for food stamps is to liberalize their policies on the treatment of vehicles under the program. As the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) in Washington, D.C. notes, “States have great flexibility to set the food stamp vehicle asset policies to ensure that needy households can get the help they need and still have reliable transportation.”

In its updated review of the subject, CBPP found that 42 states have used this flexibility to exempt at least one vehicle from consideration in determining food stamp eligibility. “However, nine states still limit the value of the cars participants may own, including one state that continues to use the very restrictive federal rule.” A CBPP paper, which can be found at: http://www.cbpp.org/7-30-01fa.htm, provides information about each state’s policy and lists which option the state has utilized to set its vehicle policy.
Obesity Round-Up

Physical activity guidelines moving slowly: The Bush Administration will develop guidelines for physical activity to help Americans avoid obesity and live healthier lifestyles, said Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Mike Leavitt in late October. But the guidelines will not be ready until 2008. The government has a compelling national interest in promoting healthier choices, Leavitt said. More than half of all U.S. adults are not getting enough exercise, including a quarter of them who are not active at all in their leisure time. Plus, over $2 trillion is spent annually on health care. HHS will meet with the food industry, as well as marketing and media groups, to begin creating a “culture of wellness.”

BMI “waisted:” New research indicates that measuring waist size may be a more accurate predictor of obesity-related health concerns than the commonly-used Body Mass Index or BMI. Waist circumference is a “vital sign” that can be readily identified and doctors should respond quickly to implement prevention measures, said Dr. Stephen Cook of the University of Rochester School of Medicine, writing in the November 2006 issue of the journal Pediatrics.

Belly fat is metabolically different and poses serious health concerns, Cook noted. “Visceral fat in and around the organs is worse for you, and is more strongly related with elevated blood pressure, lipids, cholesterol, insulin, and glucose problems,” he said. “This fat is more specific to heart disease risk factors,” and abdominal obesity is a more accurate predictor of cardiovascular disease and Type 2 diabetes than BMI. To learn more, go to:

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/…&resourcetype=HWCIT.

Food industry to strengthen advertising guidelines: Ten major food manufacturers announced on November 14, 2006 that they would revise the commercial messages they aim at children age 12 and under to de-emphasize sugary and fatty foods and stress more healthy foods and exercise. The companies, including Kraft Foods, Coca-Cola, General Mills, and Campbell Soup, said they will abide by new guidelines devised by the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU), an industry-created watchdog, in limiting the content of media and Internet advertising.

However, food and beverage company executives could not cite any specific changes they were making at a news conference announcing the CARU changes, leaving critics skeptical. “The only changes from the status quo in these guidelines occur at the fringes,” said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington, D.C. “It’s pretty pathetic. If a ‘healthy lifestyle message’ means that Ronald McDonald is pedaling a bike while peddling junk food, that message still does more harm than good.”

Community Food Project Profile: Iowa Project Emphasizes Sustainable Activities

Editor’s Note: This is the fifth in a series of articles celebrating the tenth anniversary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Community Food Projects program and featuring some of the more successful projects.

Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI) will tell you there is much more to agriculture in Iowa than corn and soybeans. In its efforts to build local food systems that connect local producers with low-income consumers, PFI has successfully promoted vegetables, fruits, and meats, along with value-added products, and created new programs that have become self-sustaining, locally-owned businesses.

The organization’s multi-faceted Field to Family Community Food Project, which merited a $135,000 award in 1997, developed more than half a dozen activities, including a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, a farmers’ market, a summer camp, and a catering service for “All Iowa Meals.” The main goals of the project were to make fresh, locally grown food more readily available to low-income and other Iowans while simultaneously aiding producers.

Community Food Projects (CFP) funds helped PFI establish the Magic Beanstalk CSA. CSAs offer a critically-timed infusion of funds for farmers, because consumers purchase “shares” of the harvest at the beginning of the season. Through this method, growers are fully capitalized for planting and harvesting and consumers participate directly in the vagaries of farming, experiencing, like growers, harvests that are often bountiful, but sometimes disappointing.

To get the fresh, quality produce to the needy, Magic Beanstalk successfully solicited funds from local religious organizations and businesses to subsidize CSA shares for low-income families and service institutions, such as a battered women’s shelter. PFI spun off the Magic Beanstalk effort to be run by local farmers, while administration of the scholarship portion of the program was transferred to a non-profit coalition of local churches. Both the farmers and the coalition expanded the provision of quality, local food to hungry citizens through donations to local food pantries and a program that provided vouchers redeemable for fresh produce at the CSA, local grocery stores, and farmers’ markets.

The Magic Beanstalk CSA continues today as a model, multi-producer CSA now known as Farm to Folk (FtF). During the 2006 season, Farm to Folk had 10 participating producers and 77 members, including low-income households. FtF offers consumers a wide variety of options, including “two separate vegetable CSAs provided by different growers, a fruit share, dairy share, meat share, and herb and greens share,” according to coordinator Marilyn Anderson. “We also offer what we call ‘a la carte,’ where members can order from a list of available products as they need them each week. We are very happy with how our new system is working and hope to expand next season to help market products from other local growers,” added Ms. Anderson.

To further expand markets for local growers, PFI took a leadership role in organizing a farmers’ market in downtown Ames, a university town with a population of around 50,000. A Monday afternoon market was initiated in June 1998 and drew an average of 11 vendors per week, with a total of 28 participating during the season. The City of Ames provided space at no cost and downtown merchants contributed over $4,000 to advertise the market. A second market was added on Saturday mornings and, following the completion of a major Main Street renovation and landscaping project, attendance at the market grew to a total of 47 vendors, with about 20 selling weekly.

Educational activities for youth and families were also part of the Field to Family CFP project. In partnership with the Iowa State University Cooperative Extension Service and a local health food cooperative, a series called “Family Basics” was offered that included cooking lessons and sessions on shopping, menu planning, nutrition and food handling, and money management, with up to 60 persons per year benefiting. Two and three-day overnight summer camps on “Forests, Fishing, Farming, and Folklore” drew as many as 63 youths and adults annually. A garden and nutrition program was also begun at the local Boys and Girls Club for more than 70 youths.

One of the most exciting project activities was the development of an “All Iowa Meals” initiative for the university conference center and local hotels in Ames. PFI acted as a broker for 11 meals serving 1,020 people at five different venues in the first year of the grant, working with 26 different producers from across Iowa to provide organic and sustainable products. Three seasonal menus were developed appropriate to the region: the early summer menu featured asparagus and peas; a late summer menu showcased tomatoes and sweet corn; and the fall menu emphasized carrots and squash, with information provided to educate diners about the sources of the food that was served. By the end of the grant, PFI was supplying more than 50 meals annually for over 6,000 people, earning more than $16,000 for producers.

Although the All Iowa Meals ultimately did not become self-sustaining, PFI project director Gary Huber said, “The educational impact of the project was worth the costs. Farmers used their experience to market their products confidently and successfully to other institutional markets. Chefs became familiar with local seasonal products and built relationships with farmers in their communities. And consumers, through tangible experiences, recognized the importance of knowing where their food came from and were made aware of the freshness, taste, and variety of local foods while learning the social, economic, and ecological benefits.”

Small Bites

Tube takeover: The average American home today has more televisions than people. There are 2.73 TV sets per house and 2.55 people.

A growing thirst: Agriculture accounted for over 80 percent of U.S. water consumption between 1960 and 1995, more than any other sector. Most agricultural water use is for irrigation.

Dirtying the water: Farming is the biggest source of water pollution in America.

Home food production declining: In 1870, U.S. households produced 35 percent of their own food; 25 percent in 1925; six percent in 1965; and one percent today.

Low mileage: The amount of grain needed to make the ethanol to fill a 25-gallon gas tank in an SUV would feed one person for a year.

Energy and global warming: Seventeen percent of the fossil fuel consumed in the U.S. is used to feed ourselves.

mvauthier :: Nov.24.2006 :: Foodlinks America :: No Comments »:: Print This Post

Feed on Comments to this post