Crop To Cuisine

Indiana gains recognition for food stamp efficiency

C2C — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 19:31:21 +0000

Federal officials said Thursday that Indiana will be rewarded for having fewer errors in its food stamp program a year after the state was fined for making too many mistakes, including underpaying some food stamp recipients and overpaying others.

Indiana was among the most improved states from fiscal year 2009 to 2010, bringing its payment error rate down to 2.6 percent of cases in 2010 from 7.1 percent the year before, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers food stamps.

USDA Undersecretary Kevin Concannon said Indiana will receive a $1.6 million bonus from the agency because of its progress.

“Indiana is certainly headed in the right direction,” he said.

Breweries recognized in business leadership

C2C — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 19:16:23 +0000

Sam Kass, head chef at The White House, and Sam Calagione, the founder of Dogfish Head, are Nos. 11 and 46 on Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business list. They put their heads together last week at Fast Company‘s Most Creative People conference, where Calagione praised the White House’s home brewing and cooking initiatives. (Kass has been brewing beer at the White House from locally sourced honey.)

“We just tasted the honey porter yesterday, which was unbelievably good, if I do say so myself,” Kass said. “We have no idea what we’re doing–we’re just experimenting, so anytime you want to come for a visit and give us some pointers, we’d be more than happy.”

“What herbs and spices are you and Michelle [Obama] growing in the garden?” Calagione asked Kass.

“Only legal ones,” said Kass, to peals of laughter.

The serendipitous brainstorming session occurred during Calagione’s enlightening talk on the state of the brewing industry (see video above). His startup, Dogfish Head, is one of 1,700 breweries in the country–two of which, InBev and SABMIller, control over 80% market share. Roughly another 10% of the market is owned by imports Heineken and Corona, while independent domestics such as Sam Adams and Yuengling make up for the rest. “You can see the odds that us little guys are up against in this industry,” Calagione said.

Gulf fights Seafood Fraud with Technology

C2C — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 13:38:39 +0000

That grouper you had for dinner last night may not actually be grouper at all. According to a recent report from Oceana, an international ocean-protection organization, seafood may be mislabeled as often as 25% to 70% of the time, at least in part because of the economic incentives to label cheaper species as more expensive ones. But consumers who actually want to know what they’re eating will soon have a choice thanks to Gulf Wild, a initiative from the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders Alliance that puts numbered, digitally printed tags on individual fish caught in the Gulf of Mexico.

Gulf Wild was born as a response to the Gulf oil disaster “as a solution to prove that our fish didn’t come out of oily water,” explains Jason DeLaCruz, a commercial Gulf fisherman who works with the organization. Fishermen who participate in the program individually tag each fish caught on their boat (on a grouper-catching boat like the one DeLaCruz operates, up to 1,000 fish can be tagged on a trip). When consumers, retail buyers, and chefs buy the fish, they can look up the tags on Gulf Wild’s website to learn about the species, the fishermen who caught it, and the 10 square mile harvesting location in the Gulf. The organization also tests the fish for toxins.

“The number one focus is to make this a fisherman-driven program, to make sure he’s getting a premium price for his product,” says DeLaCruz. “A lot of guys in town are having to compete selling our fish to different restaurants with other things labeled as grouper that aren’t actually grouper. There are so many fraudulent fish.” Hopefully, if restaurants start advertising their tagged fish, consumers will shy away from potentially counterfeit products, providing a boost to local fishermen.

L.A. School District eliminates flavored milk from menus

C2C — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 13:32:50 +0000

The Los Angeles Unified School District on Tuesday, with a 5-2 vote on a new dairy contract, became by far the largest district in the country to remove flavored milk from its menus, part of its effort to make school food healthier and help combat childhood obesity.

The milk issue has overshadowed other changes in the district’s food services division, which serves 650,000 meals a day at 1,000 sites. A menu overhaul is underway that will mean fewer meals that resemble fast food and more vegetarian offerings. Spinach tortellini in butternut squash sauce and California sushi rolls, along with many ethnic foods, are to be added. Corn dogs, chicken nuggets and other breaded items are out, said Dennis Barrett, food services director.

“Absolutely, by the fall the district will be a national leader,” said Matthew Sharp, senior advocate with the California Food Policy Advocates, who has long worked on school food reform.

The Board of Education does not generally vote on individual menu items, but it weighed in on flavored milk because it must approve large contracts. The board approved a five-year, $100-million dairy contract Tuesday that excludes chocolate and strawberry milk. It includes low-fat and nonfat plain milk as well as soy and Lactaid milks.