On any given day, tens of thousands pack the fairgrounds, each with a mission to find their favorite food.
And for the past five years, Que Viet has slowly worked its way into the hearts of hungry Minnesotans.
Que Viet: a fan favorite
“This is our giant egg roll on a stick, and it comes on an actual chopstick that we give at the restaurants too,” said Vy Bui, one of the owners of Que Viet. “People will come back three or four times during the fair. Same day. So we know that people love the egg rolls.”
Que Viet, which has a location in Brooklyn Center, sells Vietnamese iced coffee, garlic cream cheese wontons (which are exclusive to the fair), and of course, the giant egg rolls.
All told, they expect to sell upwards of 50,000 egg rolls during the 12-day run.
“You’ll never have an egg roll like the Que Viet egg roll, and once you have it, it will be hard to not come back,” Bui said.
Que Viet’s giant egg roll on a stick.
Gentleman Forager: a healthy option
Moving on to the first floor of the Grandstand, and you’ll find one of the fair’s rare healthy food options at Gentleman Forager.
“Well we like to take things that are out in the wild that people might normally overlook unless they have a passion for something like mushroom hunting or wild plants or berries, and kind of bring it all together,: said Mike Kempenich, owner of Gentleman Forager.
Kempenich is an alum of Park Center High School, and at his stand you can pick up items like pre-packaged mushrooms, trail mix, and nut butter. He’s also made sure not to sacrifice taste in the name of health.
“I’m not really into healthy food that doesn’t taste good but you know it’s healthy,” Kempenich said. :I’m much more interested in figuring out how do we make healthy food taste really delicious.”
Gentleman Forager is located on the first floor of the Grandstand.
Minneapple Pie celebrates 10 years
Meanwhile, the State Fair has roughly 300 food vendors, but according to Sarah Frakes of Minneapolis, there is one undisputed champion: the Minneapple Pie.
“There is nothing like a fresh apple pie with cinnamon ice cream. I’m literally about to lose my mind,” Frakes said. “I literally have a bite and my soul lights on fire.”
The deep-fried apple pie was concocted by a family that owned a diner in Rogers. The stand is now celebrating 10 years at the fair.
“Once you have that first bite, you can taste the quality and the love that goes into it,” said George Atsidakos, owner of Minneapple Pie.
It’s the sort of love where, for at least one day, calories don’t really count.
“Pure heaven,” Frakes said as she took a bite. “Pure heaven.”
Sarah Frakes of Minneapolis enjoys a Minneapple Pie.
The Big E 2021 will soon be upon us. Fortunately, we’re getting a fair warning of the crazy new foods that will be looming over our digestive systems in the coming weeks.
There will be the usual caloric catastrophes, like the fried butter and fried Kool-Aid. But as per usual, there are some new additions to the lineup popping up around the fair.
Here’s a rundown of the new foods to keep an eye on, and where you’d be able to find them.
The “Biggie” Waffle Burger from White Hut (At the Food Court) - This thing really nails the whole breakfast burger vibe. The waffles are still soft and chewy and help you get everything in one bite. The bacon, onion and hash brown all blend together in this beautiful starchy-fatty rush of breakfast flavors, with the juicy double burgers profiting the perfect centerpiece to build around. The spicy maple syrup adds a wonderful finishing touch to give it a little spiciness and sweetness.
V-One Vodka/The Speakeasy by Stanley (In the Young Building) - This technically isn’t a new food, but is a fun new element to watch out foot. V-One Vodka will be running a hidden-away “speakeasy” in the Young Building in the spot previous occupied by Spencer Trappist Beer in 2019. The Big E says to “look for Kozub’s Cobbler Shop.” There may also be a password involved. We’ll have more details on this as the fair gets closer. The Speakeasy will feature a number of cocktails and martinis.
Bread Pudding from Noujaim’s Mediterranean Foods (In the Young Building) - No, this isn’t as crazy as some of the other new foods. But this was probably the single best-tasting thing I ate at the preview event. The bread pudding has a tremendously smooth sweetness rum-raisin flavor that stops just short of being too heavy. It’s creamy and balanced, with a delightful little bit of spice from the cardamom cream sauce. Also from Noujaims: meat pies, hummus.
The Bacon-Wrapped Dilly Dilly Dog from The Meatball Factory. (Nick O'Malley, MassLive)
Bacon-Wrapped Dilly Dilly Dog from The Meatball Factory (On West Road) - Going back to the crazy fair foods, we have a hot dog inside of a giant dill pickle, wrapped in bacon, covered in bacon batter and then deep fried. It’s an insane deep-fried roller coaster, but somehow manages to stay on the rails. You get a tremendous crunch on the outside that somehow works in conjunction with the pickle, it’s a crazy mix of crispy, briny and then meaty from the hot dog, with the bacon tying it all together.
Blackened Chicken Mac & Cheese from Storrowton Tavern (On the Avenue of States) - This is spot-on mac & cheese with a well-executed twist. It packs plenty of cheesy punch, but it’s got just the right amount of blackened seasoning to give it a kick and a new dimension. Then there are the nuggets of chicken hiding in there to add one extra pit of chunkiness to really make this a full meal. Also from Storrowton: Gazpacho soup, a delightful cold soup to combat those randomly hot September days in the mid 80s.
Pulled Pork-Stuff Popover from the New England Craft Beer Pub. (Nick O'Malley, MassLive)
Pulled Pork Stuffed Popover from the New England Craft Beer Pub (On the Avenue of States) - This concept is crazy and a little hard to eat. But what it lacks in sense, it makes up in taste. It’s similar in concept to a stuffed baked potato — so, delicious. But having it in the popover lets you balance the sweet, saucy meat with the savory chewiness of a nice popover. It’s sort of like an open-faced sandwich. The popover somehow maintains its form under all of the toppings, and serves as a brilliant vessel for this carnivorous carnival.
Bloody Mary Grilled Cheese from the All American Craft Beer Bar & Pub (Inside Gate 7) - For starters, this is a solid grilled cheese. It’s crispy, it’s chewy, it’s cheese. Then it’s topped with horseradish and a secret bloody Mary sauce to give it a nice bit of acidity, creaminess and kick to create a new sort of delicious package.
Pumpkin Cream Puffs from The Big E Bakery. (Nick O'Malley, MassLive)
Pumpkin Cream Puff from The Big E Bakery (Multiple Locations) - It’s a Big E cream puff, so of course it’s a beautiful, sweet, creamy, buttery cloud between two giant puffs. This one just has a pumpkin twist. Fortunately, there’s actually pumpkin involved -- not just pumpkin spice. It hits the right notes of sweetness, spice and actual pumpkin. I don’t want to say it’s better than the original, but I’d just as gladly get one.
Wurst Poutine from The Wurst House (On Commonwealth Ave.) - This “poutine” consists of French fries, beer cheese, roasted red peppers and the Wurst Haus’ signature bratwurst. This fun twist on poutine really lets the bratwurst and the spices stand out. The beer cheese is delightful and is brightened up just enough by the roasted red peppers to avoid being a slog.
Arancini Balls, Buffalo Chicken Balls from The Deep South Company (On Industrial Ave.) - The arancini balls are crunchy and have a nice blend of flavors between the cheese and the smooth rice. The included marinara sauce really brings it all together. The Buffalo Chicken Balls (which come with ranch) have a nice, smooth consistency and a kick of Buffalo sauce flavor that hits the sweet spot of spiciness.
Deep-fried Pineapple on a Stick from Coffee Break. (Nick O'Malley, MassLive)
Deep-Fried Pineapple on a Stick from The Coffee Break (In the Food Court) - My first impression was that this tasted like the world’s best Toaster Strudel. There’s a wonderful flaky exterior coating the fresh, flavorful pineapple hidden in the middle. The sweet coconut icing and powdered sugar bring it all together in one delicious, crunchy, fruit package
---
New vendors and locations at the 2021 Big E
Calabrese Market & Deli (In the Food Court) - The West Springfield-based deli will be taking the spot previously occupied by Frigo’s. They’ll be offering paninis, cucumber salads, pasta salads, caprese salads and other Italian options.
Emma’s (On Hampden Ave.) - Selling Kora’s Cookie Dough on a Stick in five different flavors.
Deep Fried Tacos (Outside the Mallary Complex)
Moolicious - They’re keeping their old spot on Springfield Road, but now have a new spot offering hard ice cream behind the Coliseum.
Article From & Read More ( What new food is at the Big E 2021? First look at the crazy burgers, fried foods and a speakeasy - MassLive.com )
https://ift.tt/38sIUV7
food
A study in Switzerland has identified feeding pets raw meat could be a potential source of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli for people and animals.
Giving domesticated animals raw meat-based diets (RMBDs) is becoming increasingly popular but can be the source of human Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) infections.
Researchers evaluated the occurrence of STEC in commercially available RMBDs, also known as Biologically Appropriate Raw Food (BARF), in Switzerland. Findings were published in the journal Microorganisms.
Of 59 samples, 35 tested positive by real-time PCR for the presence of Shiga toxin genes stx1 and/or stx2. STECs were recovered from 24 of the 35 samples with presumptive presence of STEC.
Issues for 9 of 10 suppliers
The level of STEC contamination in the study was higher than that found in other work looking at raw pet food in the U.S. and raw meat for dogs in the United Kingdom. Researchers said their findings provide evidence that the occurrence of STEC in raw meat-based diets may be underestimated.
From September 2018 to May 2020, researchers bought 59 RMBD products from 10 different suppliers in Switzerland or Germany. Products contained either pure muscle or pure organ meat, mixed muscle and organ meat products, or meat supplemented with plant ingredients.
Types of meat included beef, chicken, duck, quail, turkey, ostrich, horse, lamb, venison, rabbit, reindeer, moose, salmon and perch.
RMBDs containing Shiga toxin genes were detected in products from nine of 10 suppliers. Three samples contained two or more distinct STEC strains.
Shiga toxin genes were found in all six lamb samples and the two venison products and in half of the 17 beef and 15 poultry samples.
Variety of types found
In total, 20 different serotypes were identified by whole genome sequencing, including STEC O26:H11, O91:H10, O91:H14, O145:H28, O146:H21, and O146:H28. However, E. coli O157 was not found.
Genomes of strains belonging to ST33, ST442, and ST641 were compared with those of corresponding STs in the Swiss National Reference Centre for Enteropathogenic Bacteria and Listeria (NENT) database which collects STEC strains from confirmed human cases nationwide.
None of these strains clustered with a strain in the database, ruling out a direct match with any known case of human disease in Switzerland.
Researchers said the findings highlight the importance of promoting awareness among veterinary and public health agencies, RMBD suppliers, and pet owners.
“Considering the low infectious dose and potential disease severity, the high occurrence of STEC in RMBDs poses an important health risk for people handling raw pet food and those with close contact to pets fed on RMBDs,” according to the report.
Results build on a 2019 study published in the Royal Society Open Science journal by some of the same researchers assessing the microbiological quality of RMBDs in Switzerland.
(To sign up for a free subscription to Food Safety News, click here.)
Families who receive food stamps will see the largest benefits increase in history beginning Oct. 1 following the Biden administration’s approved updates to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
The U.S. Department of Agriculture last week released a reevaluation of the Thrifty Food Plan, which is used to calculate SNAP benefits, based on changes to nutritional guidance, food prices and what Americans eat.
Its new calculations mean that the average SNAP benefit will increase by $36.24 per person, per month, beginning Oct. 1. The impact will be felt by many, as the Agriculture Department says the program helps feed more than 42 million Americans (or 1 in 8) each month.
The revision will bring $343 million more into Alabama through SNAP benefits, according to the USDA. The change was welcomed by food advocates in the Birmingham metro area.
“The increase is going to help thousands of folks in Alabama who have been hit hardest by the pandemic,” said Laura Lester, Executive Director for the Alabama Food Bank Association (AFBA), “. . . it’s going to help relieve the incredible strain that’s been put on our network of partner agencies, as they try to keep up and help feed hungry people in their communities.”
Lester added that the reevaluation of SNAP also brings the program up to date.
“For the first time in 45 years, USDA has increased the SNAP benefit to more accurately reflect current costs and the realities of folks,” she said.
SNAP and school meals programs are two of the most important ways to address food insecurity and “anything policymakers can do to strengthen these and expand those programs, particularly SNAP, [they should], Lester said.
Brett Meredith, executive director of the Community Food Bank of Central Alabama (CFBCA), which is a local chapter of the Alabama Food Bank Association, said the increase “is a big deal because a lot of families…have to decide between rent, or utilities, or food or a lot of other things . . . And, this just helps with food quite a bit.”
While this increase in SNAP benefits is good, Meredith said in terms of fixing the area’s food insecurity, “It will help. It’ll lighten the load, maybe a little bit.”
Still there is more to be done.
About 20 percent of people who “struggle to make ends meet” in the CFBCA’s area are not eligible for benefits, said Meredith and those people could make use of the 255 partner agencies of CFBCA, such as local churches.
“We’re sending billions of pounds of food out every month to our agency network, and they’re serving on an individual basis,” he said. “There’s a lot of folks needing help and haven’t ever had to come for help before.”
Carol Gundlach, a policy analyst for Alabama Arise, a statewide nonprofit which pushes for public policy to improve the lives of people who are in poverty, said SNAP, next to the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), “the single biggest program that lifts people and children out of poverty.”
The SNAP program provides benefits for more than just the families who are helped, she said.
In May of this year, about 750,000 individuals received SNAP benefits, which amounts to about 15 percent of the state’s population which makes it “an economic driver in our communities,” Gundlach said.
“For those of us who aren’t on SNAP, but who like to eat, we need to be grateful to SNAP for keeping grocery stores that we depend on in business,” she said. “Particularly in some of our lower income communities, there would not be grocery stores if it were not for SNAP. It’s a source of employment for people who work in the industry, and it makes a really big difference to the entire state and to all of our communities.”
Dobbins Heights-native Dayona Johnson paints a constellation of hearts on the cheek of a young girl on Saturday.
Gavin Stone | Daily Journal
Shirlyn Morrison-Sims, the organizer of the Community Safe event, pushes to win the hula hoop contest on Saturday.
Gavin Stone | Daily Journal
Dobbins Heights teens play a friendly game of basketball on Saturday at the Community Safe event.
Gavin Stone | Daily Journal
Dobbins Heights teens play a friendly game of basketball on Saturday at the Community Safe event.
Gavin Stone | Daily Journal
Dobbins Heights teens play a friendly game of basketball on Saturday at the Community Safe event.
Gavin Stone | Daily Journal
Gavin Stone | Daily Journal
Some of the prizes that were awarded on Saturday, which include basketballs and footballs, bikes and scooters.
Gavin Stone | Daily Journal
Children play limbo at the Community Safe event on Saturday.
Gavin Stone | Daily Journal
Children play in the Dobbins Heights pool on Saturday.
Gavin Stone | Daily Journal
Richmond County Health Department staff Allison Smith, Kim Graves, Heather Taylor, Holly Haire, and Interim Health Director Cheryl Speight pose at their trailer on Saturday where they were giving out free COVID-19 vaccines.
Gavin Stone | Daily Journal
Linda and Mordecai Ross, at left, run the table for the Faith Assembly Food Pantry on Saturday.
Gavin Stone | Daily Journal
DOBBINS HEIGHTS — The 10th Annual Community Safe event brought out the Dobbins Heights community for a day of fun in the summer sun Saturday afternoon, with a good message and giveaways of school supplies, bikes, sports equipment, and food.
The event, held at the Dobbins Heights has always been centered around building awareness around the dangers of drinking and driving, according to organizer Shirlyn Morrison-Sims, who added that the event shows that the whole family can come together and have fun without the presence of substances.
Among the attractions were African dancers, a hula hoop contest, a game of limbo, pickup basketball games, face painting, music and mime performances, and a Richmond County Health Department vaccination trailer. This year, COVID-19 didn’t impact the opening of the pool due to the implementation of new social distancing guidelines, according to Mayor Pro Tem Tyre Holloway.
Morrison-Sims was grateful for her long-time DJ, DJ Jazz, for providing music for the event. She also thanked her colleague Emily Nicholson for her role in putting on the event.
The face painting was done by Dobbins Heights-native Dayona Johnson, now of Hamlet, who runs DS Art Studio. She painted a pink butterfly on the cheek of Brynlee Moore, 5, Saturday. Johnson does art tutoring, hosts painting parties, and does photography in the area. She said that being a part of Community Safe was just a way to volunteer and give back to the community she was born and raised in.
Johnson said she will be moving her studio into the Hamlet Depot by Oct. 1 where she will be closer to the action bubbling up in downtown Hamlet.
Councilwoman Angeline David was thrilled with the turnout, especially after last year was reduced to a drive-thru school supply giveaway by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’ve been going through this pandemic and to be able to do this today was a great thing,” David said. “To God be the glory.”
Linda and Mordecai Ross set up a table for the Faith Assembly Food Pantry, allowing attendees to pick up some basic food items like soup, rice, trail mix, fruit, and candy for the kids. The Food Pantry is located at 148 Daniels St. in Dobbins Heights and is open from 5:45 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesdays, from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Saturdays, and from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. on Sundays. They give food to all who need it. For emergency food, call 910-995-2955.
Article From & Read More ( Community Safe event gives kids school supplies, food — and a good time - Richmond County Daily Journal )
https://ift.tt/3BuQ4F4
food
Faced with miserable food conditions, members of the so-called “Storm Corps” (11th Corps) on long-term deployments to the Sino-North Korean border have gone beyond robbing private homes to pilfer even the food stores of government agencies.
A source in North Hamgyong Province told Daily NK on Friday that with the Storm Corps deployed to the border for such a long time, the unit was growing “ideologically complacent and lax” and poor food supplies were causing “further problems.”
“They’re not connected to Chinese traders like the border guard, so they rob people,” he said. “And now they’re even robbing the logistics facilities of state agencies.”
The source said the Storm Corps receives food, but the quality of the food has gradually worsened the longer it stays at the border. “If the relationship between the troops and civilians was good, they could get help from locals,” he said. “But even this relationship has been greatly damaged. And they don’t have side jobs, so if food supplies are lacking, they have to make due on their own. Being unable to do anything else, they’ve ultimately turned to robbing state institutions.”
According to the source, three soldiers from the Storm Corps broke into the local branch of the Ministry of State Security in Hoeryong to rob its warehouse earlier this month. However, they were reportedly caught at the scene after being discovered by staff on patrol and ultimately discharged from the military.
Moreover, their battalion commander, political guidance officer and security guidance officer were relieved, and their battalion was withdrawn by the middle of the month and replaced by another, said the source.
The source said the incident was mentioned in lecture materials from the Central Military Commission distributed on Aug. 15. Condemning the robbing of state institutions as a “serious” crime, the Central Committee used the incident to raise the alarm against “irregular” phenomena emerging in border regions.
Accordingly, there are growing calls in North Korea for the urgent withdrawal of the Storm Corps. However, with work to build a concrete fence and high voltage wires along the border running into problems due to insufficient supplies, the special forces unit could be withdrawn even later than initially planned.
The Storm Corps’ commanders reportedly believe the unit should be withdrawn at once. They say the longer the unit remains deployed at the border, the more difficult it becomes for it to train for its main combat mission – namely, sowing “disorder in the enemy’s rear.” They also worry that ideologically lax soldiers could desert and defect.
A sentry post on the Sino-North Korean border in Sakju County, North Pyongan Province. / Image: Daily NK
However, the source said that while electrical transformers have to be installed at all lengths of the border, the state is failing to provide them. Instead, the government is telling provincial party, government and military organizations to provide them “through self-reliance,” so work on the wall and high-voltage wires will apparently be delayed even further.
“The Storm Corps can only withdraw once [the transformers] have been installed, but if these devices aren’t supplied, it won’t be easy for the unit to withdraw,” he said.
North Korea ordered the border wall and wires be completed by Party Foundation Day on Oct. 10. Accordingly, a joint inspection team from the Central Committee, Cabinet and Ministry of State Security plans to visit the four border provinces (North Pyongan Province, Chagang Province, Yanggang Province and North Hamgyong Province) from Oct. 1 to Oct. 10 to evaluate the work done so far. The source said if the inspection team gives the work a failing grade, the withdrawal of the Storm Corps will be delayed.
Meanwhile, local mistreatment of the unit is growing worse, as is the Storm Corps’ turf war with the border patrol.
The source said Storm Corps troops complain that they “can’t even get a bowl of water from the people,” and that border residents treat them like a “posse” with no business being there, despite having come “to do the nation’s work.”
In fact, shop owners along the border either pretend they have no goods or raise their prices when they see Storm Corps troops, and most merchants refuse to sell to unit personnel on credit.
The source added that border residents who made their living from smuggling are “very hostile” to the Storm Corps, blaming them for their current woes, and that troops from the unit will face difficulties adjusting to life in the area going forward as well.
Food insecurity continues to be a problem for some Chicagoans, and it was made worse by the pandemic.
Thanks to our sponsors:
According to the Chicago Food Equity Agenda, in late 2020, 19% of people in the Chicago metro region faced food insecurity. That figure rose to 29% in Latino communities and 37% in Black communities.
The city recently announced that Ruby Ferguson, an employee of the Greater Chicago Food Depository, would be its first ever food equity policy lead. In her new role, Ferguson will work alongside community partners to create an equitable food system in Chicago.
One of those partners is Anton Seals Jr., the co-founder and lead steward at Grow Greater Englewood.
“I think agriculture and the entire food system can work together and can be used as a strategy to create more community wealth-building opportunities to make sure that communities have access to fresh food,” Seals said.
He’s seen firsthand the benefits of growing food locally. His organization provides support to farmers across the city. On top of having access to nutrient-rich food, he said there’s a larger community health impact, like improving air and soil quality.
Food insecurity can have a big impact on community health, said Angela Odoms-Young, associate director of research and education with the UIC Office of Community Engagement and Neighborhood Health Partnership.
She notes three components to the relationship between food and health: a physiological component that relates to the benefit of having access to fruits and vegetables or nutrition education; a mental health component that addresses possible anxiety and depression around food insecurity; and an economic component, which can be impacted by living in a neighborhood with vacant buildings instead of grocery stores or having to drive for many miles to get food.
Odoms-Young says while there needs to be access to food through local food distribution programs, there also has to be a focus on educational and labor policies, economic redistribution and community investment.
“We need to create policies and systems to reinvest in community, because the human capital is there, the potential is there, and we can’t act like it’s not there,” Odoms-Young said.
BATON ROUGE, La (WAFB) - A long line of vehicles stretched across a shopping center parking lot as people waited for food at one of the few places open near LSU Monday afternoon.
The mad rush for hot food came amid widespread power outages left behind by Hurricane Ida.
At 2 p.m., there were 44 vehicles lined up for the drive-thru at Raising Cane’s, the popular chicken finger restaurant, on Lee Drive near Burbank in Baton Rouge.
A line about a third of that size formed at the McDonald’s across the street. Those two establishments were among only a few in the area that had reopened after most shut down ahead of the storm.
A joint event by the Leon County Humane Society and Be The Solution provided free pet food along with spay and neuter vouchers on Saturday, Aug. 28. The happening took place in front of Leon County's Community Center and Leroy Collins Public Library branch at the corner of North Monroe and Fred George Road. There was free pet food and kitty litter galore, due to a recent donation from the Chewy company. The Humane Society's Katie Logue said business was booming.
"I love to see people drive up with their dogs in the passenger seat. It's been good!" she exclaimed.
Not so good, however, is the fact so many pets keep producing more pets that may never find forever homes.
"You come out here with an unspayed dog to pick up some pet food and then in a couple of months, you come out with 9 puppies and an unspayed mom. But now you also have that need and they need homes and let's face it; if we don't spay and neuter there will never be enough homes for the number of animals that will come from that."
Logue hoped that will start changing with the ongoing efforts of Be The Solution and the newly opened Leon County Spay and Neuter Foundation.
This article is part of Stories of Change, a series of inspirational articles of the people who deliver evidence-based programs and strategies that empower communities to eat healthy and move more. It is made possible with funding from Michigan Fitness Foundation.
Like their counterparts across the state,Henry Ford Health System (HFHS) Farmers Market Food Navigators help shoppers get the most out of their food dollars when purchasing fresh, healthy foods for their families at their local farmers markets.
“This year has been a year like no other, coming out from the pandemic. We all realized what a spotlight has been shone on the health of the community,” says Jill Yore, director of faith and community health atHenry Ford Macomb Hospital. “Being able to have an impact on people and help them make healthier choices has been so rewarding and has such far-reaching impact.”
The Food Navigator program at HFHS was developed by Michigan Fitness Foundation (MFF) and is made possible through MFF Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) funding. MFF is a State Implementing Agency of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services for the education component of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. SNAP-Ed is an education program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that teaches people eligible for SNAP how to live healthier lives. MFF offers grants to conduct SNAP-Ed programming throughout the state of Michigan.
Amanda Krieg, a registered dietitian with HFHS, is the Food Navigator at the Dodge Park Farmers Market. She especially enjoys sharing her passion for healthy food choices with families while helping them make the most of their food assistance dollars.
Amanda Krieg.
“I walk people around the market and show them what they can purchase and what they can do with the specific foods — a tomato, a radish, or a vegetable that they have never seen before,” Krieg says. “I also share tips and tricks on how to pick out fresh produce to reduce food waste, which is a concern with a limited food budget.”
When shopping on a tight budget, wasting food is not an option. In fact, it’s one reason why many families choose foods with long shelf lives and forego fresh fruits and vegetables. Food Navigators talk with people about how to select and store fresh foods to make them last longer, and how to prepare them so the whole family will want to eat them. Food Navigators also connect shoppers to resources that stretch their food budgets – like Double Up Food Bucks, WIC, and Senior Project FRESH/Market FRESH coupons. Food Navigators also share Michigan Harvest of the Month recipes and cooking demonstration videos with shoppers so they have the resources they need to make meals using fresh, seasonal produce.
HFHS Farmers Market Food Navigators Amanda Krieg and Emma Shepherd at the Mt. Clemens Farmers Market.
“Through this work, I’ve learned there are a lot of people don’t have the tools they need to prepare most meals at home — like knives to chop with or stoves to cook on,” Krieg says. “We come up with creative ways to help them prepare fruits and vegetables with the limited materials they have so they can eat healthier.”
Krieg also works hard at building relationships with shoppers, making new market shoppers feel more comfortable, and having deeper conversations with those she has come to know, with the goal of helping them get even more from their healthy food choices.
“They definitely tell me that they are trying new fruits and vegetables throughout the market season. They also tell me they are trying new ways to prepare fresh produce for their family to enjoy,” Krieg says. “It’s also awesome to see people willing to open up more about using food assistance benefits like SNAP. It is important to reduce the stigma. We want to do everything we can to make sure people feel comfortable and welcome when using their food assistance benefits at the farmers market.”
Krieg also has worked hard to build relationships between shoppers and market vendors. In addition to making introductions, HFHS has created a weekly video series spotlighting local vendors and the produce they'll have available at the market. People can watch the videos on the Dodge Park Farmers Market social media page and/or when they receive the video link in their email newsletters.
“We got feedback that the videos have been helpful for people to streamline their shopping," Krieg says. "When we highlight a certain vegetable, it’s usually bought pretty quickly.”
While the increased sales help market vendors, the goal of the videos is to help improve community health by encouraging people to purchase and eat more fresh fruits and vegetables. The videos are produced for shoppers at the Dodge Park Farmers Market, though Krieg says the series has helped increase local produce sales at all the other farmers markets served by HFHS Food Navigators.
"Our shoppers often stop by and share how they used a recipe they saw on social media the week before,” shares HFHS Food Navigator Emma Shepherd, who serves the Mount Clemens Farmers Market. “Building relationships with the shoppers extends beyond the market now. With social media, it makes it possible for us to interact more, provide more tips, and continue our positive conversations about food with the people we serve outside market hours.”
Emma Shepherd.
By highlighting where produce comes from; the benefits of fresh, local foods; and how to choose, store, and prepare fresh produce, the videos help community members feel comfortable purchasing more vegetables and fruit — and they inspire them to try new produce they had not tried in the past.
“It really gives them confidence when they go to the market,” Krieg says. “The importance of buying local and buying produce from local farmers has really hit home for some people. The videos have been eye-opening to the community and a huge positive in my eyes.”
In 2020, Krieg and her video team released 12 videos. This summer, they plan on producing 16 more. While the videos originated as a way to keep communities connected to their farmers markets during the pandemic, the positive response has inspired HFHS to continue the series.
“Technology has helped us to pull in people that we would not have been able to in other ways,” Yore says. “From a manager’s perspective, it gives us such a greater way of showing people what we do. If you weren’t at the market to interact with the Food Navigator, it’s hard to grasp what happens there. With the videos, you can interact virtually. The videos have also given us an opportunity to share our work with our stakeholders, to show what we’re providing the community. They can be used in a number of ways that we haven’t even put to use yet.”
Article From & Read More ( Henry Ford Health System Food Navigators build better nutrition in Wayne and Macomb counties - Concentrate )
https://ift.tt/2WvkckO
food
Stifling heat waves, droughts, devastating forest and wildland fires, flooding, violent cyclones, rising sea levels, human lives lost — we’ve heard about this and more in the news this summer. And while each story is grim enough in itself, they add up to what UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warns is “a code red for humanity.”
That was his reaction to the climate-change report (https://www.ipcc.ch/srccl/) released on Aug. 8. It was done by a panel of 234 authors from all over the world. Known as the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change, it was established in 1988 by the United Nations Environment Program and the World Meteorological Organization.
“The alarm bells are deafening,” said Guterres said. “Greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel burning and deforestation are choking our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk.”
“This report tells us that recent changes in the climate are widespread, rapid and intensifying, unprecedented in thousands of years,” said the panel’s Vice-Chair Ko Barrett.
Quick ABCs of climate change Put simply, climate change is what happens when greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere trap the sun’s heat and stop it from leaking back into space, which, in turn, causes global warming.
While many of these greenhouses gases occur naturally, industrialization with its dependence on burning of fossil fuels and coal, along with other human activities including agriculture, has led to a speed up of increased atmospheric concentrations of some of these gases, notably carbon dioxide.
As carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas levels rise, the land and the ocean can’t be as effective as in the past in absorbing and slowing the build-up of these gases in the atmosphere.
By 2020, carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere had risen to 48 percent above its pre-industrial levels before 1760.
Another culprit in climate change is deforestation. Because trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, when they are cut down, the carbon stored in the trees is released into the atmosphere, adding to the greenhouse effect. And with deforestation, the trees aren’t even there to absorb the carbon dioxide and release oxygen.
Increased livestock farming also comes into the picture because cows and sheep produce large amounts of methane when they digest their food. Methane is actually a more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, although its atmospheric timeline is shorter.
Surprisingly, rice production is also a major methane producer.
Another agricultural culprit is nitrous oxide emissions, which happen when fertilizers containing nitrogen produce nitrous oxide emissions.
Looking at these causes, it quickly becomes evident that humans are the main reason for the buildup of greenhouse gases. And that means, of course, that it will be up to us to lower the emissions. We can’t just hope they’ll go away.
Humans . . . and some good news The good news, according to the report, is that people still have the potential to reduce the emissions of carbon dioxides and other greenhouse gases, which would, in turn, limit climate change.
Electric cars, biofuels, wind turbines, solar energy — these are some of the ways that people are hoping to bring about some changes. But there are also important changes brewing in agriculture, which globally accounts for about one-third of total greenhouse gases and black-carbon emissions. (Black carbon is made up of tiny particles of carbon that are released when fossil fuels, biofuels and biomass aren’t completely burned.)
Turning cows upside down Think cows and you think of beef and milk products. A juicy steak, a hamburger on the grill, tacos, a slab of cheese, some yoghurt and, of course, an ice cream cone.
But climate scientists also think about the ways that cows contribute to global warming.
To begin with, cattle are at the top of the list when it comes to agricultural sources of greenhouse gases worldwide. Raised for both beef and milk, as well as for inedible outputs like manure and draft power, they are responsible for the most emissions —about 65 percent — of the livestock sector’s emissions.
This is in large part because cows are ruminants. Grasses and other roughage that cows eat are hard to break down and digest, which is why cows have specialized compartments, often referred to as “four stomachs.” Microbes in these multi-chambered stomachs help them digest their food by fermenting it. This is the process that produces the powerful greenhouse gas methane, which gets released into the atmosphere when they burp.
Each year, a single cow will belch about 220 pounds of methane. Although methane from cows doesn’t live as long in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, it is 28 times more potent in warming the atmosphere.
But there’s more than that to consider. For example, trees are cut down to open up more grazing land and fertilizers are applied for crops that are grown to feed cows. As for water, a conventional hamburger requires about 660 gallons to produce.
Down on the farm Some cattle farmers — both dairy and beef — are looking at different feeds and even different breeds to help decrease greenhouse gases.
As part of that, they’re using dietary supplements and additives to decrease methane emissions.
Some are also changing the way they store and handle manure. In some cases they’re covering manure lagoons to prevent methane and other gases from escaping into the atmosphere. The upside to this is that these gases can then be used to generate power on the farm and in some cases for neighboring homes.
Up in the lab Then there’s “alt meat,” often called, cultivated meat, lab meat or even clean meat.
This is different from what’s being hailed as “meatless meat” — plant-based meats sold as Beyond Meat and Awesome Burgers.
To produce cultivated meat, a biopsy is taken from a cow and the cells are incubated in media rich in nutrients that mimics the natural body of the animals. These nutrients help the cells thrive and divide. With the use of a bioreactor and some technological aids, muscle and fat tissues are created. The end product is biologically the same as the meat that comes from an animal. Bottomline, it’s real meat made from real animals.
Photo illustration
When it comes to food safety, there’s no need of feedlots or slaughterhouses, where foodborne pathogens such as E. coli and salmonella can run rampant. And the cow, itself, doesn’t have to be killed. In addition, the entire process is done under sterile conditions and monitored for possible contaminants the whole way through.
Bill Gates, an advocate of this approach, describes the finished product like this: “Cultivated meat has all the same fat, muscles and tendons as any animal . . . all this can be done with little or no greenhouse gas emissions, aside from the electricity you need to power the labs where the process is done.
Uma Valeti of Memphis Meats, now rebranded as UPSIDE Foods says he expects meats made this way will produce up to 90 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions and need that much less water and land than conventionally produced meat.
But out in the marketplace, price comes into the picture. In 2013 when news about the first lab-grown hamburger came out, the burger would have cost $330,00. But over time some industry experts said it could be produced for $9 for a quarter-pound burger. Market gurus say when that number is under $10 per pound, consumers — not just “ultra-consumers” — will be interested.
In the case of plant-based products, such as Impossible Foods and Beyond Meats, which contain no meat at all, some consumers have already shown that they’re willing to pay slightly more for them than for actual meats.
Some predict that producing meat in a lab rather than out in the field will one day render the cattle industry obsolete. And that the land currently used to raise cattle can be used to grow crops for human consumption or trees instead.
But others say it won’t happen overnight. Ten years might be more like it, and that’s just to take a 10 percent share of the global meat market by 2030. Meanwhile, demand for meat keeps growing.
Food safety When asked if this breakthrough approach to producing meat will open the door to improvements in food safety, Paul Burridge, Assistant Professor of Pharmacology at Northwestern Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine, gave it an enthusiastic thumbs up.
“Absolutely,” he said. “Cultivated meat by its nature is sterile. With traditional meat, there are so many potential points of contamination. The animals come from so many different places and are raised in so many different ways. During slaughter, there’s the risk of organ and fecal contamination.”
In contrast, he said, meat made in a lab is extremely uniform. And the process is easier to monitor, which makes it very safe.”
Not that there still won’t be cows in the future. Just as there are still horses even though people have cars now.
“But they’ll be more of a legacy,” Burridge said. “They won’t be bred for meat anymore.”
Pointing out that as it is now, agriculture is heavily subsidized, he said: “We’re all paying for that through our taxes,” he said. “Wouldn’t it be great to replace it with a self-supporting system that’s much cleaner and greener. This will be a real game-changer.”
Cheese without the cows “We aim to create a kinder, greener tomorrow by developing new ways to make the foods you love today.”
That’s Ryan Pandya, cofounder and CEO of Perfect Day Foods, which is making cheese and other dairy products without using cows.
Instead it uses a process called precision fermentation, relying on microorganisms instead of cows to produce milk proteins.
To do this, genetic information is fed into a culture of microorganisms such as fungi or yeast. This culture is then grown in fermentation tanks. Once enough proteins have been produced, the proteins are then separated from the microorganisms.
What you get from this is cultured milk proteins that are identical to conventionally produced animal proteins, and which, in turn can be used to make dairy products such as cheese, yogurt and ice cream.
“By utilizing microflora as miniature factories, we’ve figured out how to make these components of milk without cows,” says an article on the company’s website.
Fermentation is nothing new. It is a long-established proven process that uses microbes such as yeast or fungi, to break down a compound, such as sugar, and create a by-product, like alcohol – or, in this case, protein.
When it comes to food safety, the benefits of creating milk products this way are obvious. Instead of dealing with cows, all of their manure, and the foodborne pathogens such as E.coli that can contaminate their milk, fermentation is done in sterile tanks in a sterile setting.
As for helping to reduce greenhouse gases, climate scientists say that reducing the number of dairy cows on the land would make an important difference.
They point out that while most of the concern about food and climate change focuses on meat, dairy also has a significant footprint. By one calculation, it accounts for more than 3 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions — far more than the entire aviation industry.
According to Perfect Foods’ website, if U.S. food makers were to switch to only 5 percent of the bovine protein made with the company’s precision fermentation process, it would be equivalent of removing up to 2.7 million passenger vehicles from roads each year. That’s equivalent to the number of cars each registered in Arizona, Colorado or New Jersey. And it would offset the emissions from 2.2 million homes’ electricity use each year, which is equivalent to more than all new homes built annually in the United States.
By removing cows from the equation, the production of milk is “dramatically more efficient,” says the company’s website, producing up to 97 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions than conventional dairy.
According to figures from The Good Food Institute (gfi.org) — a nonprofit that aims to boost innovation in alternative proteins — $590 million was invested in fermented alternative proteins in 2020, and $300 million of that went to Perfect Day.
Rice and methane; no easy solutions Rice presents a two-fold challenge. Methane and arsenic. The first has to do with climate change and the second has to do with food safety.
A nutritional staple for more than half of the world’s population of 9.7 billion people, rice has its downside: Rice production emits methane, a greenhouse gas that’s more than 30 times as potent as carbon dioxide. Although figures vary, recent research suggests that flooded rice fields, referred to as “rice paddies,” account for about 10 percent of emissions from agriculture globally.
Why is this so? It turns out that water that floods the fields blocks oxygen from penetrating into the soil. As a result, the low-oxygen, dense, and waterlogged soils that the plants grow in provide the perfect environment for microbes that produce methane gas. The longer the fields are flooded, the more those bacteria build up.
Looking to the future, the world’s growing population, and along with it, increased rice production, could present even more of a problem when it comes to climate change.
Solutions aren’t easy to come by, primarily because rice is grown in so many ways in so many parts of the world. But researchers are working on figuring out ways to help reduce the methane emissions.
One possible solution that has shown good promise is a sequence of wetting and drying of the fields to prevent methane from building up. If timed perfectly, this has the potential to reduce emissions by 90 percent.
However, this is no slam dunk. This and other irrigation-related possibilities, face many challenges. For example, in areas where rice is grown during the rainy season, farmers can’t drain their fields. Another challenge is the farmers’ ability to control water well enough to make sure both wetting and drying are happening when they should. And even in California, where fields are so large and irrigation delivery so slow, farmers can’t wet and dry their fields “on cycle.”
Then, too, farmers are not rewarded for reducing emissions and don’t suffer any penalties for increasing them. To change this around would take millions, if not billions, of dollars, money for something that some governments consider a low priority.
Nevertheless researchers and farmers see rice management as a good opportunity for the Global Alliance for Climate Agriculture (http://www.fao.org/gacsa/en/) to show on-the-ground projects in the most promising locations and also ways to boost incentives to make improvements in water management.
Food safety tied to arsenic in rice Rice contains arsenic. That goes for organic and brown rice, as well as for conventional rice. In fact, some studies have shown that organic and brown rice can contain more arsenic than conventional rice. That is especially the case with brown rice because arsenic is mainly concentrated in the husk of the rice.
So how does arsenic get into rice? To begin with, arsenic is naturally present in bedrock and is absorbed by the rice through the soil or irrigation water.
A common way of growing rice is in paddy fields — fields that are flooded with a great deal of irrigation water. In many growing areas, this water is contaminated with arsenic. In addition, arsenic may accumulate in the soil of the paddy fields, which makes matters worse. Then, too, rice absorbs more arsenic from water and soil than other crops.
Even so, while the levels of arsenic in many rice products aren’t high enough in themselves to pose acute health risks in the short term, including cancer, consumers are advised to keep an eye on how much they’re eating. According to a research project in Sweden, eating rice and rice products a few times a week is fine. However, arsenic content in baby food containing rice has remained a concern. It can cause developmental problems as well as other issues for babies and developing systems in children’s bodies and brains.
Rinsing rice before cooking can help get rid of a minimal amount of the arsenic. But it also washes off valuable nutrients, among them iron, folate, thiamine and niacin. Boiling rice with a generous amount of water that is then discarded can decrease arsenic content by half. Some varieties such as jasmine and basmati contain less arsenic than other varieties. And some brands have less arsenic than others.
One of the solutions to the problem of arsenic in rice is a lot like one of the solutions to lowering methane emissions in rice production: manipulating the amount of paddy water in the fields. In one study, plant scientist Daniela Carrijo of Oregon State University found that letting soil moisture drop to 35 percent volumetric water content twice during the growing season could cut the amount of inorganic arsenic by half compared to what happens when the paddies are continuously flooded.
Another research project found that while while keeping the fields dry for a longer time reduces the accumulation of arsenic in the rice grains, it decreases total yield and productivity and can also increase levels of cadmium, which is another deadly toxin.
How hot is our planet getting? Climate scientists say that the earth’s surface temperature has already warmed by about 1 degree C, or 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, since the 1800s, before industrialization took hold. The fear is that it’s on its way to reaching 1.5 degrees C, or 2.7 F by as early as 2030.
According to the panel’s recent report, the increase is already at 1.2 degrees C — and rising.
What does this mean to all of us? Bottomline, the more the Earth’s temperature rises, the more changes in the climate system we’ll see. For example, more frequent and intense high temperature extremes, heavier rains, agricultural droughts in some regions, intense tropical cyclones and even less Arctic snow ice, snow cover and permafrost, which lead to rising sea levels.
Climate change scientists warn that at an increase of 2 degrees C when compared to the temperature in pre-industrial times will seriously harm the natural environment as well as human health and wellbeing. And with that comes predictions that dangerous and possibly catastrophic changes in the global environment will occur.
For this reason, the international community has recognized the need to keep warming well below 2 degrees C and pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees C.
“We need immediate action on energy,” said UN Secretary General Gutteres.”Without deep carbon pollution cuts now, the 1.5-degree goal will fall quickly out of reach . . . . If we combine forces now, we can avert climate catastrophe. But, as today’s report makes clear, there is no time for delay and no room for excuses.”
(To sign up for a free subscription to Food Safety News,click here.)
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/gray/ZPF5N74GKVD2HPKL4ULDFJ7PJ4.jpg)
To begin with, cattle are at the top of the list when it comes to agricultural sources of greenhouse gases worldwide.
They point out that while most of the concern about food and climate change focuses on meat, dairy also has a significant footprint. By one calculation, it accounts for more than 3 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions — far more than the entire aviation industry.
Solutions aren’t easy to come by, primarily because rice is grown in so many ways in so many parts of the world. But researchers are working on figuring out ways to help reduce the methane emissions.
How hot is our planet getting?
