Monthly Archives: August 2010

Goodness Grows in NC – Guest Post from Yarddawg

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Frequent commenter and buddy of mine Yarddawg sent this along and it's worth sharing.  Enjoy!

There are many sources of information concerning organic foods. There are also many viewpoints and information sources on the subject. There is also a significant price premium (up to 60% more) consumers pay to go "organic" versus conventionally grown foods. This is BIG business and therein lies the crux.  Although highly disputed by organic proponents, in 2009, the British Food Standards Agency found “There is no evidence of additional health benefits from eating organic food,” declared Gill Fine, the FSA’s director of dietary health. Organic proponents have fought back. The full Times of London article gives more insight. Another article by the popular garden writer Don Engebretson AKA The Renegade Gardener also paints an even harsher, more frightening, critique of the popular myth of the benefits of organics. Click on The Renegade Gardener and then click on Myth of the Week. It's the first article listed, named  "Organically produced food is safer than conventionally produced food". It is eye-opening and, pardon the pun, food for thought. If that's not enough to make you question things this Business Week article titled, The Organic Myth, will at least make you think. 

The British findings conclude, both organically and conventionally grown foods are equal in taste, nutrition, and both equally safe for consumption.Proponents of organics went bonkers, in my opinion, due in part to the unpleasantness associated when the inconvenience of scientific facts disputed the prevailing organic propaganda. It's also a bit of the smallest person in the room who's usually the loudest. Organic food production is estimated to be maybe 3% of the total US food production.  And, oh yeah, price too…. 60% more than "regular" food is quite an incentive to raise Hell and protect your turf. Many in the "religion" of organics have gained a rather elitist, almost cult-like following. The bad news on organics is this price premium all but excludes families struggling to make ends meet. After all, why should consumers pay way more for the same taste, safety, and nutritional value?  Supermarket chains like Whole Foods and others, virtually built their businesses on the heels of the organic movement and its appeal to granola heads. If you don't believe me pick an afternoon, any afternoon, and observe the regular cast of characters frequenting any Whole Foods Supermarket. Now don't get me wrong I shop there too but I'm very selective on the items I purchase. 

Here's something to be aware of. Both organic growers and non-organic growers, distributors, wholesalers, and retailers have to make a profit to survive. Wal-Mart, to the dismay of many, has now joined the organic fray and many in the organic camp are not at all pleased with this development.  Again, the elitist attitude possibly comes into play. The evil empire strikes again. This move is a potential game changer. If organic food ever becomes more price competitive and available to lower income consumers, a large company like a Wal-Mart will likely lead the way. I have no lower or higher opinion of a Wal-Mart than I do of a Whole Foods. They are both the same for me…. Corporations. Both businesses operate for profit and shareholder return and will do what they have to do to optimize business results and profits. It baffles me though why one entity is considered as an evil empire and the other a good corporate steward. You can also throw Trader Joe's into the same mix. TJ's $8 billion in sales and the fact it is so secretive and less than transparent makes this firm even more troubling.

As you may have guessed I'm more than a wee bit cynical about organics and the purveyors of organics but not totally close minded. I like to hear differing viewpoints. I just don't buy into all the organic hype at this point.  Admittedly opinions on this subject are all over the place and frankly there are many on both sides pumping out hyperbole and misinformation. Profiteers are also lurking trying to make a quick buck. The best advice for anyone seeking true information on organics is to seek out university or extension based research information which is probably the most reliable and certainly the least biased. This NC based info from NC State University is a pretty good starting point.

GrimesTomato
 

The best advice I can give is this. If you don't grow your own food, make every effort to visit or get to know and buy from a reliable local farmer or from a local farmer's market rather than a corporation or supermarket chain. Stay close to individual farmers and eliminate as many middlemen as you can. In season follow the 40 mile rule. In other words support local and regional farmers whose transportation costs are much lower and the savings are passed on to consumers. I have routinely purchased local produce such as heirloom tomatoes for $1.50 to $2.00 per pound at local farm markets all season long. The same products from the aforementioned trendy chain were $3.99 per pound (see photo) just today and from Pennsylvania. I've seen them for as much as $5.99 out of season or when there is no local competition. By the way, is there a town named Pennsylvania, NC? Other deals of the day at WF were Bison Tenderloin for a mere $26.99 per pound and some unpronounceable French cheese for $24.99 per pound. And don't get me started on bottled water which costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $8.00 or more per gallon. Get it? The quote often attributed to P.T. Barnum ; " There's a sucker is born every minute." Well if he really said it he certainly wasn't kidding. So, when possible, I only buy fresh, in season, produce from local growers. Organic vegetables and fruits or any produce coming from Chile or milk powder shipped from New Zealand to go into a French owned, US made, organic yogurt or other place 9,000 miles away isn't very green. Fruits and vegetables from Chile in February are picked green, shipped green, arrive green,are sold green, and usually taste green for my taste. Some importers also use an artificial ripening chemical (ethylene, acetylene, calcium carbide, to name a few lovelies we consume) to mask the early harvesting taste. Canning and preserving local stuff offers superior taste versus the plastic tasting stuff available in winter any day. To find local farmers and producers in our area click on NC Farm Fresh. Then select a product and county from the drop down menus. Other options are available to filter search results even more.

When possible Buy Local and remember….. Goodness Grows in North Carolina.

Yarddawg

It’s America So I’m Allowed to Think You’re an Idiot. And Vice Versa

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On Sunday my daughter's soccer team was playing in a tournament in High Point.  While the girls were warming up I was standing on the side of the field near three men I didn't know, who were obviously fathers of players from one of the other teams at the complex.  I wasn't paying any attention to them until one of them raised his voice and said, "You're joking, but it ain't funny.  I'm telling you that if we wanted to build a church in Saudi Arabia near Mecca they wouldn't let us.  That's what I'm saying; it ain't right that they can come here and build a mosque by the place where 3,000 Americans perished, but they wouldn't let us do it there." (The quote may not be exact, but it's very close).

I wanted to turn around and look at him, but I had girls to help coach and I didn't want to waste my time on him.  Still, his statement stuck with me and when I had a chance to think about it I couldn't help thinking about what I would have said if he was talking to me.  To wit:

  • Last I heard it wasn't a mosque, it was a cultural center.  It's not right at Ground Zero, but a couple of blocks away.  You ever been to New York?  Being a couple of blocks away is liking being to canyons over in Utah. Maybe none of that makes a difference to you, but I think it would help your argument if you actually got the details straight.
  • Um, why would we want to be like Saudi Arabia.  I kind of prefer our little ol' nation built on the concept of free speech, separation of church and state, freedom to call our leaders names, etc.  Why would you compare us to Saudi Arabia?  Is Saudi Arabia the entity behind the cultural center?  Oh, and on a somewhat related note, were only Christians killed on 9/11?
  • Another reason I love our country:  I know I disagree with you (if I'm gonna be honest I'll have to say that I think you're a Glenn Beck sycophant who hasn't thought for himself since kindergarten) and I'm pretty sure you'd disagree with me (actually you'd probably think I'm a liberal wuss who would bend over and kiss Osama's behind), but that's OK because we're Americans.  We're supposed to be able to think about each other like that, and truth be told, we could probably have a cold beer and laugh about it later.

Is this a great country or what?

Yo, Winston-Salem Folks Interested in Trader Joe’s

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All you folks who got together to create the video aimed at convincing Trader Joe's to open a store in Winston-Salem will probably find this Fortune article interesting.  I for one didn't know that the same German family that owns Trader Joe's also owns Aldi.  From the article:

You'd think Trader Joe's would be eager to trumpet its success, but management is obsessively secretive. There are no signs with the company's name or logo at headquarters in Monrovia, about 25 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. Few customers realize the chain is owned by Germany's ultra-private Albrecht family, the people behind the Aldi Nord supermarket empire. (A different branch of the family controls Aldi Süd, parent of the U.S. Aldi grocery chain.) Famous in Germany for not talking to the press, the Albrechts have passed their tightlipped ways on to their U.S. business: Trader Joe's and its CEO, Dan Bane, declined repeated requests to speak to Fortune, and the company has never participated in a major story about its business operations.

Some of that may be because Trader Joe's business tactics are often very much at odds with its image as the funky shop around the corner that sources its wares from local farms and food artisans. Sometimes it does, but big, well-known companies also make many of Trader Joe's products. Those Trader Joe's pita chips? Made by Stacy's, a division of PepsiCo's (PEP, Fortune 500) Frito-Lay. On the East Coast much of its yogurt is supplied by Danone's Stonyfield Farm. And finicky foodies probably don't like to think about how Trader Joe's scale enables the chain to sell a pound of organic lemons for $2.

I love this quote about the "typical" Trader Joe's shopper:

Kevin Kelley, whose consulting firm Shook Kelley has researched Trader Joe's for its competitors, jokes that the typical shopper is the "Volvo-driving professor who could be CEO of a Fortune 100 company if he could get over his capitalist angst."

Can we say Ardmore and West End?

I Keep Telling Myself It’ll Grow Back

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 Last night will go down as one of the more unique experiences of my life.  As I've written before (probably ad nauseum) the Triad Apartment Association holds a food drive for Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina each year and at the end of the drive we have an event to recognize the organizations that raised the most food.  Last night we held the event on the rooftop deck of the Nissen Building in Winston-Salem and, as promised, I had my head shaved as part of our fundraising efforts.  We threw in a last minute twist and allowed anyone who wanted to shave a stripe in my head to do so if they contributed $20 to Second Harvest.  That resulted in $140 in additional donations, which equates to about 980 meals or 1,680 cans of food.

I have to say that there's something surreal about having your head shaved in front of 50 people on a roof twenty floors up in downtown Winston-Salem.  It was definitely worth it, and for the record here's the final tally for TAA's efforts: 223,682 cans of food (or cash equivalent) donated to Second Harvest.

That's the good news, but here's the bad news: although donations are up over 50% since last year, need for assistance is up over 100%. We could have raised 500,000 cans and it wouldn't even put a dent in the need, which means it's never too late to help.  To find out how you can help visit Second Harvest's website; I guarantee you won't regret it. 

A ton of people and multiple companies made the food drive possible and if I tried to thank them all here I'd have the longest blog post in the history of blogging.  We'll be recognizing them all at the TAA website and I'll make sure to link to it when we do.

Special shout out to my barber David Sowers of Lewisville Barber Shop for making the trip downtown and making sure that my head came out unscathed.

In a Land of Dropout Factories, Batting .500 is an Achievement

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A very interesting article about US colleges that are "dropout factories."  An excerpt:

Certainly, Chicago State enrolls a large share of academically underprepared students compared to more selective schools such as UIC or Northwestern, so its graduation rate might be expected to be lower. But the idea that Chicago State is doing the best it can with the kind of students it serves is belied by ample countervailing evidence. As the chart below shows, there are more than half a dozen schools in the United States with student bodies that are remarkably similar to that of Chicago State in every important respect—from race to test scores to family income—but whose graduation rates are at least double, and in some cases more than triple, the graduation rate of Chicago State.

Take North Carolina Central University, which enrolls 8,500 students. About 85 percent of students at both schools are black. NCCU’s median SAT score is 840, the approximate equivalent of about 17 on the ACT, even lower than Chicago State’s average ACT of 18. The difference, however, is that NCCU tries to work with the students it has. The result: while Chicago State graduates about 13 percent of its students, NCCU graduates about 50 percent. “We have the philosophy that if we admit the students into this institution we have a great responsibility in ensuring their success,” says Bernice Duffy Johnson, dean of the school’s University College, which focuses on supporting students during their first two years.

Students entering NCCU are told from the start that they are expected to have a goal of graduating in four years. The University College keeps students together in groups and assigns them advisers who must approve all major academic decisions and meet with students frequently. NCCU students even sign a contract upon arriving, a document that lays out the goals of what they are going to accomplish. If they start to struggle, they sign an additional contract that commits them to even closer monitoring. Above all, what drives places like NCCU is a culture of experimentation and data collection. The administrators track students, and they track results. If something works, they keep doing it. If it doesn’t, they try something else.