Items Tagged With America

The 2nd Grass-fed Party New York City Cowcus brought a lot of like-minded people together for conversation, drinks, and excellent food last night. Among the attendees was a grass-fed beef producer from Arkansas, a documentary filmmaker who is working on a film on grass-fed farming, a man who works for the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, a woman who works for the New York State Governor’s Office, a young woman who has worked on organic farms in Oregon, and many others who were passionate about the Party and making our food sources sustainable. We talked about grass-fed farming and food ALL night!  What struck me most about everyone at the Cowcus was that although we all had different reasons for supporting the Grass-fed Party, we all could agree on how exciting and promising grass-fed farming is.  Whether as farmers, cooks, environmentalists, policymakers, teachers, or business people we could all agree on one thing: grass-fed farming provides real solutions to so many problems. Whether we were talking about its health benefits, or its environmental benefits, or even its benefit to family farmers and rural communities, each conversation inspired me to think about how important it is to inform more Americans about grass-fed farming. Our hope for this community site is that it will become a platform for people across the country to talk about grass-fed issues.

Here are some of the topics covered at the Cowcus last night:

The need to create better access to fresh foods within walking distance of more homes in urban neighborhoods.

The potential to create more economic balance between upstate farmers and New York City eaters.

The need for more financial support from banks or the government to help new grass-fed ranchers make a start at a viable business.

How can we bridge the gap between the need for providing healthy foods for the hungry and the growing movement that advocates artisanally produced foods?

How can small farmers achieve a fair share of farm subsidies when faced against the powerful lobbies of big agribusiness?  Can a political leader address this problem and make a change in the status quo?

Dear Mr. Pollan,

  As a candidate for President this year, I felt obliged to reply to your now famous letter printed in the New York Times this Sunday, as it was addressed to a Mr. President-Elect.  As a potential President-Elect, I read your letter closely, and hope that my fellow candidates have done so as well. 

 Mr. Pollan, I want you to know that I have been campaigning on a platform that seeks to reform the food system much like you have suggested in your letter.  I was more than happy to see that you addressed the President-Elect in your letter, as I believe that the changes in policy that are necessary for real Grass-fed Change to take hold in this country will be made when we have the cooperation of our President.

 I’ve listened to the voices of my constituents across the country, the voices of those who are ready for grass-fed change and the voices of those who want to make a living as grass-fed farmers and ranchers.  I ask them, “What is the greatest hurdle to achieving a true Grass-fed America?”  I have heard a resounding reply: subsidies. 

  We, the farmers, the animals, and other grass-fed believers know that the current subsidy and loan distribution is too heavily weighted in favor of the big corporations.  We know   that the status quo in Washington is keeping us from achieving what we call Grass-fed Change and what you call diversified sun farming.  The powerful lobbies in Washington ensure these subsidies are kept in place, however, it is in the authority of the President to stand up and steamroll these lobbies to redistribute the subsidies in a way that favors an agricultural self reliance that is crucial to maintaining the health of our people and land. So I applaud you, Mr. Pollan, for addressing the President-Elect in your reform proposal, and letting him know how crucial his role will be in preventing a serious crisis on our homeland, and that it must begin with reforming the policies of our farmland.  The people are waiting.

I thank you for the for the solid and radical advice laid out in your letter.  It has been very encouraging to me.

Sincerely,

Mr. Angus La Cense

Founder, The Grass-fed Party

P.S.  I enjoyed your proposal for a White House South Lawn Victory Garden.  If I am elected, I promise that my family will set an example for your polyculture sun farms.  I promise to unabashedly graze my meals on the White house lawn, keeping the soil healthy and ensuring that tax-payers dollars will be saved as we will not be needing any oil or chemicals, but only sun to produce the food that will keep my neighbors and my family healthy, safe, and self-reliant.

Above Betty Fussell Captivates the Crowd with Talk of Corn

Chef Peter Hoffman hosted a fascinating and uplifting Zagat’s Presents Event entitled "Peak Summer Foods - Corn and Steak" A Tasting and Conversation with Betty Fussell at his restaurant Back Forty. Betty Fussell is a striking lady whose excitement and knowledge made for great dinner conversation. She is an accomplished food writer and also the author of “The Story of Corn” and “My Kitchen Wars” and the dinner was a pre-celebration of sorts for the upcoming release of her book "Raising Steaks" (which I am very much looking forward to reading). Betty Fussell is passionate about food, its history and its impact on our lives. The dinner centered around two American staples: corn and beef. Both Peter Hoffman and Betty Fussell spoke about the history of corn and beef in America while we noshed on various deliciously prepared corn dishes and a comparison plate of corn-fed steak and La Cense grass-fed steak. The dinner was finished off with Back Forty Sliders, which are possibly the best burgers served in NYC. Not only are they that good, they are made with La Cense grass-fed beef. In fact, Back Forty is a cheap-eats must for the omnivore who likes pasture-raised meats.

Plate of Corn! A Harvest of Taste! Hominy Chili, Blue Corn Pudding, a Corn Pancake and Roasted Sweet Corn!

Corn-Fed Steak, Luscious but Flatter Tasting(In my humble opinion)

La Cense's Grass-fed Steak! Deliciously Complex and Intensely Beefy!

Back Forty's Grass-fed Sliders! So Good I am Going to be Dreaming About Them!

Agricultural policy is not an easy subject to undertake but Michael Pollan was able to eloquently tackle it in his new article Farmer in Chief making a compelling case for us all to reevaluate how we grow, consume and purchase our food.  There are three major points that he brings up that are possibly the biggest issues we face as a nation: health care, energy independence and climate change.   He argues "we need to wean the American food system off its heavy 20th-century diet of fossil fuel and put it back on a diet of contemporary sunshine." I say right on! Grass-fed farming is about turning sunlight into food, and in the process it can heal the earth, our bodies and our rural economies.

What then is preventing us from grass-fed change? It really comes down to our agricultural policy, specifically our subsidies that make grains, and corn particularly artificially inexpensive.

Growing food in America accounts for 19 percent of our oil consumption and most of our CO2 pollution.  Farm subsidies have perverted how we produce food; it has made corn artificially inexpensive, even though their tolls on our bodies and soil have been astronomically expensive.  Farm subsidies, and corn by default, has infiltrated every aspect of our agricultural process, because we pay agribusiness to grow it cheaply, we can feed it to our cows, pigs and change its chemical composition and put into fruit juice and baked goods. It is time to revaluate our corn subsidies, because there are great implications to being so dependent on fossil fuels that are not only environmental, they are also strategic and patriotic. Why should we be giving foreigners our hard earned money when there is a better way to grow our food?

It really comes down to our agricultural policy, we have for years stressed a system that benefits "efficiency" over inefficiency, by paying large farms to grow grains at massive quantities. So few Americans really understand agricultural policy, or care to see its implications on our daily lives it is our subsidies that are making fossil fuel hungry farming efficient not the system itself.  A good friend of mine grew up on a wheat farm in northern North Dakota, this girl drove a combine as a kid (so cool!), their farm was a small family-run operation of about 1100 acres and they received little to no subsidies from the federal government however the larger agribusiness like ADM did.  Throughout her teens she saw family-run wheat farms buckle under economic pressures while larger agriculture corporations flourish, expand and consolidate. This is story of the past 50 years, consolidation and yet it is in our agricultural sector that this consolidation has been the most obscene, where we have massive feedlots feeding cows corn, and pig farms so industrial they pollute whole communities, that you and I, the citizens of America, can have the most impact.  It is impossible to buy our TV's from local producers but it is possible to buy our meat and vegetables from farmer's who are opting out of our agricultural industrial process.  Change is a foot and there is so much to be gained; it is time to get our politicians to listen.

The debates will end tonight, so we are holding a Grass-fed Meet-up tomorrow night a the BAR(N) in Brooklyn to discuss the most important topics not addressed at the debates: Food and Farming. If you are in the New York Area, we hope to see you there.  If you are not in the New York area, Start a Local Chapter, ask your friends to join, and hold your own grass-fed meet up.  We want to hear what you have to say.