WBEZ | USDA

Is pink slime really that bad?

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:00:00 -0500

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Pink slime is everywhere these days. It’s in your burgers (probably) and the newspapers (most definitely). In an effort to parse the “sticky” situation, today it comes to Eight Forty-Eight.

A microbiologist coined the term pink slime back in 2002 to describe beef scraps treated with ammonia hydroxide. The chemicals loosen up the trimmings, which eventually are mixed with ground beef.

To avoid bad publicity, fast food chains including McDonald’s ditched the substance -- but the federal government hasn't. Last week, The Daily reported that the USDA is set to purchase 7 million lbs. of pink slime for school lunches, although Chicago Public Schools recently released a statement saying they run a slime-free operation.

The company that makes the stuff, Beef Products Inc., says it’s safe.

Chicago food scientist Kantha Shelke thinks the substance should be studied more thoroughly. While ammonia hydroxide is said to remove contaminants, ground beef products have seen an increase in salmonella and E. coli. She says it’s unclear whether that’s because of the slime or the meat itself.

Shelke comes on Eight Forty-Eight to explain the science and say whether pink slime is any worse than the other ingredients and processes used to make food products. WBEZ's Louisa Chu also also weighs in on the controversy.

Lunch staffers to CPS: We want to cook

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:43:00 -0600

Chicago schools are serving more healthy food than they were a couple years ago, but many kitchen workers seem to think the district still has a long way to go.

For the 2010-11 school year, Chicago Public Schools switched to menus with more whole grains, a wider array of vegetables, and less sodium, starch, sugar and fat. For the current school year, the district made its breakfast offerings more nutritious. The district says it’s also adding more salad bars.

A union that represents about 3,200 CPS food workers on Tuesday released survey findings suggesting that many students and even school principals are not eating the chow. UNITE HERE Local 1 criticized the district’s use of frozen food prepared off site, and called on the Board of Education to “ensure that all new school construction projects are planned with full-size kitchen facilities capable of real cooking.”

Linda Green, a 22-year CPS employee who works in the Southwest Side’s Grimes Elementary kitchen, said students are eating less of what she serves than they once did. “There is a lot of waste because it’s just unappetizing,” said Green, who helped conduct the survey. “If it’s cooked on site you can use more seasoning and make it more flavorful.”

Local 1 said 436 CPS food employees completed the survey in December. According to the union, 42 percent felt that students were eating the new food, 50 percent reported they rarely or never had observed their principals eating their cafeteria’s lunch offerings, 75 percent indicated they had not had a chance to provide input about the new menu and recipes, 62 percent wanted more training on healthy food and 39 percent felt they could report food quality or safety concerns to parents or students without facing discipline.

A CPS statement says about a quarter of the district’s schools now serve food prepared mostly off site. The statement says that “all new elementary schools are being built with a warming kitchen” and that “all new middle and high schools are being built with cooking kitchens.”

“The food that is brought into the warming kitchen meets the same nutritional guidelines as the food in the cooking school model,” the statement adds. “We are committed to providing healthy and nutritious meals for all students at all schools. Delivery of this meal may depend on a variety of factors including kitchen capacity, facility size and condition as well as cost. However, nutritional standards are consistent across all schools. Vendors, regardless of delivery system, are expected to meet the same nutritional standards.”

The survey findings came as the U.S. Department of Agriculture planned a Wednesday unveiling of the first major changes in school meal standards in more than 15 years. The department says the new rules aim to reduce childhood obesity by “ensuring kids are offered fruits and vegetables every day of the week, substantially increasing offerings of whole grain-rich foods, offering only fat-free or low-fat milk varieties and making sure kids are getting proper portion sizes.”

A version of the guidelines the department proposed more than a year ago would also have cut down on potatoes, made it harder for schools to report pizza tomato paste as a vegetable, and halved the amount of sodium in school meals. In November, lawmakers blocked the department from carrying out those rules.

U.S. Ag chief paints food stamp picture

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:09:00 -0600

A local breakfast honoring Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday emphasized eradicating poverty.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture runs the food stamp program that helps 46,000,000 needy Americans.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack gave the keynote address at the annual Rainbow PUSH King celebration in downtown Chicago. He defended his boss – President Barack Obama – from GOP attacks that he’s the so-called ‘food stamp president.’

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has said the African American community should demand paychecks and not be satisfied with food stamps.

Vilsack painted a picture of the people who receive benefits.

"Over 50 percent of them are either senior citizens or children – senior citizens who paid their dues, fought in wars, have protected this country, have supported their families and their communities and finding themselves on fixed incomes with not enough to feed themselves," Vilsack said.

Dozens of politicians came out to the morning King celebration.

Midwest sees increase in food stamps at farmers markets

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 19:20:00 -0600

Illinois saw an increase in the number of farmers markets accepting food stamps.

Financially, that translated into a 112-percent increase in food stamp redemptions.

The Midwest did better than any other region this year when it came to food stamp usage at farmers markets.Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Ohio all had dramatic surges compared with last year. Likewise, Chicago experienced an increase.

Food stamps at farmers markets help low-income families.

"It’s important to increase access to fresh fruits and vegetables," said Audrey Rowe, of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "Many individuals who are participants in our program live in what are called food deserts. Many of them are not even aware of where they can purchase fresh fruits and vegetables."

Rowe says red tape was cut for farmers - and that led to an ease in upping the number of markets that accept food stamps.

Midwest Region Farmers Markets and Direct Marketing Farmers (DMF) Count and Redemption Data

	2010 Number of Markets/DMF	2011 Number of Markets/DMF	2010 SNAP Redemptions	2011 SNAP Redemptions	2010 / 2011 Redemptions Increase %
Illinois	33	48	$32,600	$69,320	112.64%
Indiana	10	24	$8,338	$20,527	146.19%
Michigan	80	153	$578,518	$1,076,611	86.10%
Minnesota	27	44	$20,007	$66,652	233.14%
Ohio	56	84	$81,086	$167,040	106.00%
Wisconsin	25	46	$48,962	$77,042	57.35%

Totals	231	399	$769,511	$1,477,192

Source: USDA

USDA expand free summer youth food program

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 18:02:00 -0500

The federal government is expanding a summer food program in Chicago neighborhoods with a high percentage of low-income youth.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has more than one thousand Chicago sites for youth to get free meals.

Undersecretary Kevin Concannon says it’s more likely for a child to go hungry in the summer.

"You say,’ how can this be?’ Well, the principle reason for that is school is out," Concannon said.

In Chicago, 84 percent of children are eligible the free or reduced lunch program in schools.

"We know that if kids go through the summer, they don’t have good nutrition. When they get back to school in the fall, teachers, schools nurses and others say, ‘hey, these kids are struggling. They aren’t going to learn as well,’" Concannon said.

This year many of the summer food service program sites are clustered in communities where students receiving free or reduced lunches are concentrated.

Lobbyists want fries and pizza to stay in school

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 10:26:00 -0500

Some student food favorites are under attack in Washington. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has released new standards for school nutrition and has published them for public comment. Speaking right up are lobbyists for the food industry.

The standards, the first new version since 1994, would limit starchy vegetables to two servings a week. That guideline covers corn, peas, lima beans, and a hot item in the serving line — french fries. But the CEO of the National Potato Council, John Keeling, says not so fast.

"The products that are in schools today basically are not your daddy's french fries," Keeling told NPR.

Keeling has had the potato industry on full lobbyist alert ever since the Ag standards were proposed. Like other industry lobbyists, Keeling uses the yes-but argument. Yes, it's good to fight obesity. But "you won't solve obesity on the backs of a single vegetable," he says, "and you won't solve it on the diet in the schools."

The potato council reached out to members of Congress with this viewpoint, and helped them send pointed letters to the USDA.

Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) carried the message into a Capitol Hill hearing, along with a potato and a head of lettuce. She held a vegetable high in each hand.

"One medium white potato has nearly twice as much vitamin C as this entire head of iceberg lettuce," she said.

Potato advocates say today's fries are healthier than in the olden days with WAY less actual frying.

But the Center for Science in the Public Interest says fries still aren't healthy, and what's worse, they lure kids away from other vegetables.

The center's nutrition policy director Margo Wootan says, "When the kids are offered french fries versus carrots or green beans, too often the kids choose french fries.

And that's not the only dish up for debate. The USDA would downgrade another lunchroom staple — pizza.

It's like that old story about ketchup. Right now, the tomato sauce on a frozen pizza slice counts as a full serving of vegetables. The proposed new standards would end that.

Corey Henry of the American Frozen Food Institute has an ominous forecast: "You would likely see a dramatic reduction in the amount of frozen pizza, or pizza in general, that you're able to serve in school cafeterias."

That's a problem, he says. School nutritionists would have to find pizza substitutes that fit the guidelines, and that the kids will eat.

The proposals would bump up costs about 12 percent. The school meal program is about 90 percent federally funded.

Obviously, changing the school nutrition program would affect the food suppliers. Industry lobbyists aren't so eager to talk about that.

But Margo Wootan is. She says feeding school kids is a long-term marketing opportunity "so they're used to eating certain kinds of foods, so the kids will want those foods outside of school, and as they grow up."

More battles will be fought over this — battles that could take months, or even years. And children who were in first grade when USDA started working on this are now finishing up the 6th grade.

New Symbol For Healthful Eating: Hello Plate, Goodbye Pyramid

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 10:03:00 -0500

It's a pretty safe bet that not many people will mourn the demise of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's food pyramid — the 20-year-old symbol of the department's dietary guidelines — when it's officially retired today.

Just about everyone agrees the pyramid was complicated, and tried to get too many messages across at once — more dairy, less sweets, exercise, portion control, etc.

"I'm surprised they didn't go to the dodecahedron as their next alternative," quipped John Stanton, who heads the food marketing department at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia, to Shots.

The department is replacing the pyramid with a simpler visual cue — a plain old dinner plate. Here's USDA release explaining what's up.

And the dinner plate will feature a lot more fruits and vegetables. In fact, half the plate is devoted to fruits and veggies. That's good news for fruit and vegetable producers like Lorelei DiSogra, vice president for nutrition and health at the United Fresh Produce Association.

DiSogra worked on the "half plate" message for more than a decade in various jobs, including one at the National Cancer Institute. "Half a plate is a very effective communications tool. It's very compelling, it's very clear, it's very straightforward," she says.

In other words, it's everything the pyramid was not. Less prominent on the plate is meat, or the euphemism USDA likes to use — solid fats.

Americans are not going to throw out their grills, though, says Planet Barbecue author and host of PBS' Primal Grill Steven Raichlen. But they might start thinking about using meat the way many other countries around the world do — as more of a flavorful condiment than "this belly-bludgeoning, plate-burying hunk of protein."

A simple plate is a good idea from a marketing standpoint, St. Joseph's University's Stanton says. "The consumer spends maybe a maximum of three seconds looking at a food in a grocery store," he says. "Can you think of a busy mother trying to put delicious, nutritious food on the table, looking at a pyramid?"

Been there, done that, and, nope.

Federal food stamp program fails some low-income Chicagoans

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 22:07:00 -0600

Illinois uses $2 billion of the federal food stamp program.That translates into a lot of assistance for food, but it doesn’t always translate into assistance for healthy food. Parts of Chicago are food deserts – places where there’re few grocery stores with fresh produce and meat. Often, low-income families who rely on food stamps shop at liquor stores, gas stations and dollar stores. A WBEZ investigation found that these retailers make up 30 percent of the food stamp providers in Chicago.These places offer more junk food than fresh food, but the federal government still gives these stores the green light to accept food stamps.

Caroline Ellis is at Citgo buying gas … and snacks.

ambi: I want five on one first and I want this on Link.

Ellis uses her Link Card, or food stamps, to buy two cans of pop and two bags of chips.

Besides a few bananas near the cash register, there’s not much healthy food here. After all, it is a gas station.

As Ellis pumps gas outside, she explains Citgo is not where she grocery shops.

ELLIS: See, I have a vehicle. A lot of people don’t have vehicles so they not able to get around and they forced to buy this stuff. I can ride past Western on Cicero to get me some fresh fruit, vegetables or whatever I need. I don’t buy fruits and vegetables and things like that at a gas station.

Ellis is in the Woodlawn neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. She travels several miles just to shop for fresh groceries.

That’s because she lives in a food desert – a community lacking healthy food or mainstream grocery stores. More than half a million Chicagoans live in such food deserts. The areas tend to be low-income and minority.

There are more than 2200 authorized food stamp retailers in Chicago. WBEZ found that 14 percent are gas stations or liquor stores.

Another 15 percent are pharmacies and dollar stores.

ambi: One Stop Store describing: You see garlic because people like garlic. Lemons, because people like lemons. Green apples…but you can’t put that much out there.

Michael H. works at One-Stop on 73rd and Racine. It’s a cross between a dollar store and a corner store. An on-duty butcher cuts meat, but there are only four heads of cabbage, three withered lemons, sweet potatoes and a box of onions. On the other hand, One-Stop is heavy on potato chips and pop. Still, it’s an authorized food stamp retailer.

Here are Michael’s thoughts if the federal government ever gave the store a decree for more healthy food:

MICHAEL: The thought is real good, but being such a small store…I would probably say this, I could add it, but I wouldn’t have to keep it where I can store it, because people ain’t gonna buy it.

He adds, he’d have to raise prices, too.

I hear arguments like Michael’s at a lot of gas stations and liquor stores I visit.

Over and over, they say it’s too hard to keep fresh food … so they don’t offer much.

GALLAGHER: There are two problems with the USDA food stamp retailer program. One, the standards are too low. And two we’re not in compliance with the low standards.

Mari Gallagher is a national food desert researcher based in Chicago.

GALLAGHER: The food stamp program is in effect rewarding people who are not playing by the rules and generally these stores that are not playing by the rules are of a lower retail caliber. And they attract more of the same.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture does have criteria for SNAP, or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program…commonly known as food stamps.

For one, tobacco and alcohol can’t be bought.

Next, there must be at least three varieties of food in four staple food groups.

They have to offer perishable foods in at least two of these categories: meat, poultry or fish; bread or cereal; vegetables or fruits and finally, dairy products.

And last … More than half of the dollar amount of all things sold has to be from the sale of eligible staple foods.

And, yep … that’s supposed to include gas stations.

But these rules aren’t always followed at outlets that take food stamps.

ambi of liquor store, bags rustling

At ER&J Food and Liquor, owner Elias Abuelizam basically admits that he’s not adhering to the standards. But when USDA officials visit him, they don’t cite him.

ABUELIZAM: I’m a liquor store mostly. I got food and liquor. We sell liquor but food is slow these days but it’s okay, it’s not that much.

Again, there’re 2200 stores that accept food stamps in Chicago, but USDA officials say they haven’t kicked out even one retailer in fiscal year 2010 for noncompliance.

Kevin Concannon is USDA’s Undersecretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services. I ask him if the benchmarks are high enough.

CONCANNON: I’ve asked the question myself to be perfectly frank. It certainly bothers me when I see a sign, the preeminent sign in front of the store is liquor and then the store meets the criteria minimally to be able to process the SNAP program of food stamps.

Concannon says he hopes the 2012 Farm Bill will increase requirements around food stamp choices. His agency points to the growing inclusion of farmer’s markets as a way to wipe out food deserts.

He doesn’t accept the rationalization store owners provide – again, that people just won’t buy healthy food. Concannon says a different food program known as Women, Infants, and Children, or WIC, has worked. It’s expanded food choices. More fruits, less fat. He says there’s evidence that when a store offers WIC food … even people outside the program buy healthier items.

The problem is … for now, current food stamp program requirements are still low.

So in people in food deserts are literally hungry for produce.

There are efforts to fill in the gap ….

ambi of food pantry: number 41

Deanna Haymer shows up for some free produce at a food pantry in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood.

Five produce trucks come by once a month. On this Friday morning, about 200 people file in for cucumbers, lettuce and grapefruit.

Deanna Haymer loads up her cardboard box.

ambi: yeah, I know how to cook green beans

Haymer says her produce options have been dicey. A Food 4 Less store recently opened a few blocks from her, but before that, she shopped at liquor stores and gas stations.

HAYMER: I’m not satisfied with what I get but sometimes you just have to accept what you can get at the time. Like the fruit sometimes it be like mushy or the green peppers be a different color or shriveled up.

Transportation has been a huge problem for Haymer.

In fact, a lot of low-income families can’t drive or use public transit to shop outside their neighborhoods.

Experts say we need to get creative to fix the problem of food deserts and food stamp standards.

That doesn’t just mean getting more mainstream grocery stores to open in food deserts.

Researcher Mari Gallagher says one idea is to improve all the stores that already accept food stamps.

GALLAGHER: What if we worked with those stores and said hey, we’re going to use carrots and sticks. The ones who are going to have the different types of dairy products and other kind of products that support a healthy diet can stay in the program. And the ones who don’t will have to get out. I think that would actually not only improve public health but it would help revitalize the market because stores would have to step up.

It might not seem fair to let some communities be dominated by dollar or liquor stores.

But Gallagher says, with the right tools, those stores could actually increase healthy food options ... and not just be the destinations for junk food that they are right now.

Pritzker Journalism Fellow Icoi Johnson contributed to this report.

Music Button: Mike Reed's Loose Assembly, "Ghost Writer", from the CD Last Year's Ghost, (482 Music)

Drug Drug stores and dollar stores

America's hunger problem moves beyond starvation

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 14:22:00 -0600

According to the latest statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, about 50 million Americans, including about 17 million children, lack consistent access to food. There are efforts to improve this situation. Back in August, the U.S. Senate passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. The bill still requires congressional approval.

To discuss hunger in America and how it plays out in Chicago, Eight Forty-Eight spoke to the CEO of the Greater Chicago Food Depository, Kate Maehr.