Upstaging the tomatoes at D.C.'s newest farmers market

   
It may be hard to pay much attention to the produce, meat or breads for sale at Washington, D.C.'s newest farmers market when it opens Thursday afternoon. Shoppers -- maybe even the vendors -- are likely to be on the lookout for some star shoppers: the Obama family.

Eighteen farmers and producers will set up the market outside the White House grounds, north of Lafayette Park, on Vermont Avenue between H and I streets.

"It would be wonderful" if the Obamas came to shop, says Ann Yonkers, co-director of FreshFarm Markets, a nonprofit organization that will run it. "But we're not counting on it."

The idea developed over time, Yonkers says. Her organization was excited about the garden planted at the White House earlier this year, she says, adding that  she was introduced to Sam Kass, White House assistant chef and a former personal chef for the Obamas by another chef, Nora Pouillon. "We began thinking, 'Wouldn't it be great ...,' " Yonkers says.

The White House garden "became such a great symbol for growing your own and paying attention to what you eat," she says.

The new market will sell meats, cheeses, produce, baked goods, flowers and preserves. Vendors accept food stamps and WIC and senior citizen coupons, FreshFarm Markets says. It will run Thursdays from 3 to 7 p.m. through Oct. 29.

White House Farmers Market launches Thursday

According to the Chicago Tribune, the White House Farmers Market will indeed launch this Thursday:

Speaking at the Chefs Collaborative conference in Chicago Tuesday, U.S. Department of Agriculture undersecretary Ann Wright told 150 delighted food professionals about the market, which will sell local produce from D.C. area farmers and run late into the fall. But those hoping to buy some green beans and bell peppers grown by the First Lady herself will be disappointed. Most of the White House garden produce goes to area food banks, Wright said.

Shucks. I was really hoping I could find some of the Obamas' honey on Foodzie.

-- Krista Simmons

Photo: Victory garden outside San Fransico's City Hall at Slow Food Nation. Credit: Krista Simmons

Getting food to people who need it

After a story was published about Food Forward, a group of people who pick produce that's going unharvested and pass it on to food banks, we heard from readers who are trying to help feed the hungry by taking advantage of food that's otherwise not being used.

AmpleHarvest.org is connecting back yard gardeners who have more than they can use with pantries that need the food. The founder, Gary Oppenheimer, says that after he became director of the community garden in West Milford, N.J., he learned that many gardeners left food unharvested if they couldn't eat it or give it away.

So he started AmpleHarvest in May; 900 pantries around the country are registered on the site, he says.

We also heard from Adriana Martinez, who lives in the Long Beach neighborhood of Wrigley. Last  month, the residents there opened the Wrigley Village Community Garden on Pacific Avenue.

Martinez is the garden manager and says she hopes "to inspire youth to be good stewards of the land and teach all to grow their own. Local resident Sammy Portillo actively works with at risk youth and has donated a plot to neighborhood children and is often found in the garden working with them. Our 6th district Councilman Dee Andrews also donated a plot to a low income family that lives adjacent to the garden."

The industry group the Egg Board has launched the Good Egg Project, as in being a good egg. And for each good egg out there who pledges to "eat good. Do good every day," farmers will donate one egg to the charity Feeding America, up to 1 million eggs.

-- Mary MacVean

Photo: Food Forward volunteers at work last month. Photo by Stefano Paltera / Los Angeles Times

Farmers, mayor celebrate markets anniversary

When Lorraine Tenerelli tried to get her husband to bring their peaches to sell at Los Angeles County’s first farmers market 30 years ago he didn’t want to be bothered. But he tagged along with her to a church parking lot in Gardena.

“When he saw the mob of customers, he said, 'We’ve got to plant more,' ” Tenerelli said Thursday at the weekly farmers market outside City Hall, where Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and other officials joined with farmers, market organizers and some of the city’s best-known chefs to celebrate the anniversary and the growth of farmers markets to a total of 121 today -- more than any county in the country, the mayor said.

The celebration ranged from serious to fun, including a salsa contest -- the eating kind, not the dancing kind -- plus chef demonstrations and plenty of food vendors, naturally.

Villaraigosa also announced a food policy task force that will “help turn L.A. into the farmers market capital of the world.”

“When you think of it, what is more important than the food we put on our table?” he said.

Every week, 1,000 farmers and food producers sell their wares to about 250,000 shoppers in L.A. County markets, he said, adding later that he shops at the Sunday market in the Larchmont neighborhood.

Food may be cheap, but is it a bargain?

There’s been a lot of talk lately about how cheap our food is, what with “value meals” and discounts galore. I recently spotted a 5-pound container of peeled garlic from China for $7.99; at a farmers market a few days later, garlic was $1 a bulb -- and I had to peel it myself!

Similarly, almonds were about $8 a pound from the farmers market, $3.49 at Super King Markets.

If you’ve got teenagers at home, you might be spending a small country’s GNP on food, but even considering last year’s food price increases, Americans spend less of their disposable income on food, about 6%, than the citizens of other countries. Considered another way, we spent 18% less on food in 2007 than in the 1970s, Ellen Ruppel Shell writes in her new book, “Cheap,” which looks at the cost of consumer goods.

But is cheap food the bargain it seems? Naturally, it's a complicated question.

For all too many of us, all that cheap food is making us fat -- and obesity is no bargain. Estimates are that obesity and its attendant diseases will cost more than $100 billion a year.

But many people have come to consider high-quality fruits and vegetables fancy, elite products available at Whole Foods or farmers markets at high prices, Shell said. “What’s gotten lost” is nutritious food at affordable prices.

Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University, noted that over the last quarter-century, fast-food prices have decreased while produce prices have increased -- at comparable levels. “There’s no question that they are relatively more expensive,” and so people with less money buy food that’s less nutritious, she said.

And if Americans are growing increasingly uncomfortable in their jeans, some people are as uncomfortable with the state of our food affairs.

“Food is too cheap. But it depends. If you are a poor guy in a Bombay slum, it’s too expensive,” said Hans Herren, president of the Arlington, Va.-based Millennium Institute, which promotes sustainability and issued a report this year on the state of agriculture.

Cheap food has a “huge environmental cost that everyone has to pay for,” including polluted wells and dead rivers, Herren said in a telephone interview from Northern California, where he was vacationing.

It's time for lunch -- school lunch, that is

Thirty million children eat school lunch every day. A pretty big captive audience, and plenty of healthy-food advocates want to see some changes in the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program.

So what do food people do when they want to make a statement? They do it with food, naturally. Slow Food USA has organized "Time for Lunch," a campaign to draw attention to school food. Around the country, almost 270 pot luck "eat-ins" are planned on Sept. 7, in schools, community gardens, parks, homes and other spots. One goal is to get 20,000 people to sign a petition to the federal government asking for changes in the school food programs.

“We want to tell the story of America coming together to demand food that’s good for their kids,” said Slow Food’s president, Josh Viertel.

For Viertel and others, that means more fresh fruits and vegetables and more federal money for schools to buy food -- many child nutrition advocates would like to see $1 a day per child more -- reimbursements are now less than $3 for each free lunch a cafeteria serves.

One of the Los Angeles events will be at 4 p.m. at Fancifull Fine Food and Baskets, on Melrose Avenue near Larchmont. Computers will be available for people to sign the Slow Food petition, and there will be cooking demonstrations for children by Homegirl Cafe. People are asked to bring a dish to share.

Other eat-ins are planned in Elysian Park, Culver City, Highland Park and elsewhere around L.A.

Many educators now see the cafeteria as a part of a child’s learning, and food services officials are listening to students’ opinions about food they’re served, said Matt Sharp of California Food Policy Advocates. And decision-makers are tying what kids eat at school to their long-term health and to the costs of treating conditions associated with obesity, including high blood pressure and diabetes.

If you seek a Mountain Dew, L.A. County machines just won't do

Before the L.A. County Board of Supervisors voted to make the food in most of its vending machines more healthful, it heard from people who wanted to comment on the idea. Among them was the director of recreation and community services for the city of Baldwin Park, Manuel Carrillo.

Baldwin Park passed a similar motion in 2003, and it has since taken several other actions to improve the health of its residents. According to Marlen Garcia, a City Council member, the city has many young families that need education and assistance in finding ways to buy and eat nutritious food.

In L.A. County, 400 to 500 vending machines will be required to offer only choices that meet guidelines set by the state for machines and student stores in schools. The guidelines limit fat and sugar in foods, among other things.

When Baldwin Park switched vending machine choices from fried chips to baked, and from soda to water (sports drinks are still there  too), there was some griping from adults but not from young people, Carrillo said. Initially, there was a slight decline in revenue, “but it quickly returned to normal revenue,” he said after the vote.

“If someone is thirsty after they play in a basketball game, it really doesn’t matter,” he said, adding that they’ll take a sports drink or water if soda is not available.

And he should know: All that health information prompted him to cut down on sodas, change his eating habits and exercise more. He lost 30 pounds.

-- Mary MacVean

Photo: Maribel Carmona buys a drink at Santa Ana City Hall. Photo by Don Kelsen / Los Angeles Times

Should the fat pay more?

 

Our friends on the Health desk, posed the question: Should fat people be taxed more heavily? (Pun intended).

In all seriousness though, in the big ongoing healthcare reform debate, the growing costs of caring for patients with obesity-related diseases has become an issue, um, on the table. (Another pun intended).

So, we ask you, the foodies: Should the fat pay more for their poor food choices?

To read the full article: Tough love for fat people: Tax their food to pay for healthcare

-- Lori Kozlowski

 Photo credit: Tim Boyle / Getty Images

 

San Francisco government takes on food

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has issued a directive that he hopes will change the way residents of his city eat. It takes on community gardens, food in institutions such as jails and hospitals, and locally grown food. The San Francisco Chronicle has more.

-- Mary MacVean

(Photo by Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

Sampler Platter: Creme brulee, beer and snow cones

Immigrant beer, sandwiches from Hong Kong and snow cones in today's food news roundup...

• Umami Burger might be looking for another location. New on the current menu: taro and yucca fries; ice cream sandwiches from Milk; the Manly burger. Coming soon: lobster rolls. Eating LA
• Is bo lo bao, a crunchy sweet bread from the Hong Kong/Macau region, the new banh mi? Fork in the Road
• Crème brûlée cart prowls the Mission in San Francisco. Serious Eats
• Sno-On-The-Go, drive-through snow cone hut, coming to Mission Viejo. Fast Food Maven
• Michael Pollan reviews food and farming policy during Obama's first 100 days. Salon
• Top 10 hand-me-down cookbooks according to AbeBooks. No. 1 = "The Joy of Cooking," by Irma S. Rombauer.
• Tecate focuses on selling beer to immigrants rather than targeting broader Hispanic market. Ad Age

-- Elina Shatkin

Photos, clockwise from top: Crème brûlée meets the business end of a blowtorch. Credit: Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times. Tecate cans on the factory line. Credit: Bob Grieser / Los Angeles Times. A new Kentucky Grilled Chicken two-piece meal. Credit: Brian Bohannon / Associated Press