In 2010 Budget, President Obama Offers $1.25 Billion To Resolve Black Farmers' Pigford Claims

Is The Reconstruction Era Over At USDA? National Black Farmers' Association president Dr. John Boyd on the record....

Later today, when the President announces his 2010 budget, which slashes 121 programs and about $17 billion, there'll be one crucial area where spending will increase. Working with his closest advisers, President Obama is attempting to redress the longstanding civil rights grievances of black American farmers, by proposing a $1.25 billion deal to settle the 'Pigford Claims," a longstanding discrimination against USDA.

The funding could benefit as many as 80,000 black farmers, who have experienced decades of unconscionable behaviour from USDA employees, in the form of denied services and racially biased lending practices. Pigford has been an emotional battle spanning multiple administrations and Ag secretary tenures, and the budget announcement is due to years of work by a bipartisan group of farmers, lawyers, and non-profit Ag and justice groups, led by Dr. John W. Boyd, Jr., president of the National Black Farmers Association (NBFA) (above). The President inherited the issue when he took office, and both he and Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack pledged to help. The Congressional Black Caucus has been working on the issue too.

But today's settlement offer almost didn't happen.

"After the President got into office, they [administration officials] asked us to wait another two years, because of the state of the economy," Boyd told Obama Foodorama last night. "I said--two years! Some of these people have waited a lifetime already!"

Many of the farmers involved in the settlement dispute are elderly, and many of the younger farmers who will qualify for settlement money saw their parents and grandparents fighting the USDA. Recently, Secretary Vilsack called the USDA "the last plantation," an entirely accurate description of the pervasive culture of "Good Old Boy" behaviour among white, male agency officials at the local, state and federal level. According to lawyers and farmers Ob Fo has spoken with, it was acceptable and routine for USDA officials at every level to "persuade" black farmers that farm services and loans weren't available to them, that deadlines had passed, and to throw away applications for services. Last week, when the NBFA held a protest in front of USDA headquarters on the National Mall, farmers from around the country told stories of discrimination and bad practices at USDA. In every case, the state was different, but the behaviour of USDA officials was the same (pic: two farmers at last week's rally, in t-shirts with their parents' pictures; their parents were involved in Pigford, too).

Boyd said that he had repeatedly pointed out to White House officials that the longer Pigford went unsettled, the more the President would be involved in a situation he had no hand in creating. Top-level advisers, including Valerie Jarrett, have been crucial to resolving the issue, and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have been involved, too. Most recently, on Tuesday, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC) introduced The Pigford Claims Funding Act of 2009. Sen. Grassley has introduced various versions of this legislation in the past decade, as have others on Capitol Hill. While still an Illinois senator, the President also sponsored crucial Pigford legislation, which was included in the 2008 Farm Bill.

Boyd is pleased that the President has moved fairly rapidly to allocate money to settle Pigford, especially becasue last week the money being offered to the black farmers was $100 million. Still, Boyd said that $1.25 billion is still a fairly low sum.

"$2.7 billion is a better figure," Boyd said. "We're talking about thousands of farmers, decades of discrimination, people losing their land and going bankrupt, people whose lives and livelihoods were ruined based on the color of their skin. If these farmers had been white, they would have had all the support USDA gives farmers, and I wouldn't still be working on this."

Boyd added that at a time when the government is sending billions of dollars to banks which then turn around and spend the money on executive bonuses and vacations, it's particulalry galling that the Pigford issue has been regarded as just another "small problem."

Boyd farms on the North Carolina/Virginia border, and says he hopes Pigford really will be settled soon, so he can stop coming to Washington. But he worries that Pigford may well get lost again when the President's budget goes to Capitol Hill and is subject to votes (in pic: A farmer from Georgia wears a t-shirt with all the names of those who work on his family's farm...all have been impacted by Pigford).

"I've devoted my life to this," Boyd said. "I just want it to be over. All the black farmers want it to be over. We've waited long enough."

It should be noted that settling the Pigford claims also helps promote other parts of President Obama's agricultural agenda, and to fulfill campaign promises. Most of the black farmers farm smaller, family owned concerns, and the President has promised to encourage this kind of farming.

*Photos by Obama Foodorama, April 29, 2009 at USDA headquarters, Wahsington DC.

Eat Pig & Die? H1N1 Flu Inspires Conflicting Reports On Safety Of Pork, But Secretary Vilsack Still Eats It Every Day

Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack and interim FDA director Dr. Josh Sharfstein testified about Swine Flu on Capitol Hill today. (Above: Sec V with Sen. Herb Kohl at the hearing)
Sec V said:
One-Let me be absolutely clear: it is safe to consume pork products. Two-USDA is involved in surveillance and vaccine development for swine. Three-USDA is well prepared should we detect the 2009-H1N1 flu virus in U.S. swine. And finally-USDA is working to keep markets open for pork products. mAnother point I want to reiterate is that there is no evidence of the 2009-H1N1 virus in U.S. swine. We continue to take steps to verify that there are no signs of this virus in our swine herd, including working with state animal health officials, private practitioners, and our own federal veterinarians in the field.

But Scott Kilman of Wall Street Journal points out:
The Us has no program in place for testing hog herds. A pilot program is being developed by the CDC, but it hasn't started yet. Veterinary experts say it's impossible to know whether US pigs are free of the new virus, which was detected over the weekend in a Canadian hog herd. Worse, farmers aren't required to report flu outbreaks in their pigs to authorities.

At the same time that Secretary Vilsack was on Capitol Hill, the World Health Organization issued a report about pork, which said it is dangerous to consume meat from flu-infected pigs. Their bullet points:
*Flu viruses can survive freezing, be present on thawed meat * Blood of H1N1 infected pigs may contain virus, and make people ill * Meat from sick pigs or pigs found dead must not be consumed * Guidelines are needed to protect workers handling pigs, particularly those who slaughter pigs, who can be exposed to blood and other secretions from pigs, which could be contaminated with flu virus
*Authorities and consumers should ensure that meat from sick pigs or pigs found dead are not processed or used for human consumption under any circumstances.

Eating flu-contaminated pork can make you ill, and the US has no protocols in place to ensure that flu-infected pork is not in the foodchain. Now, who does the Average American pork-loving Consumer believe about the safety of pork? Our own Ag Secretary, or the zoonotic disease specialist from WHO? When's Peggy Hamburg going to be confirmed as FDA commish, again?

*Getty pic

Healthy Kitchen Kass-ual: White House Chef Sam Kass Cooks With Chicago Culi Students

Perhaps the President had to go out to lunch yesterday at Ray's Hell Burger because White House assistant chef Sam Kass was cooking at Martha's Table in Washington. Mr. Kass joined six lucky culinary students from Chicago's Richards Career Academy high school to cook their award-winning recipe for the annual Cooking Up Change contest sponsored by Healthy Schools Campaign (above: Alvaro Aguilar, Rafael Ruiz, Emanuel Sandoval, Mr. Kass, Mike Martinez, and Marquice Kent). The non-profit HSC organization works on a variety of school issues, and yesterday's Cinco de Mayo-themed event was the kickoff for a national campaign to focus attention on children's school lunches, in advance of the upcoming refunding of the Child Nutrition Act; re-authorization occurs next Fall (above: Mr. Kass with Marquiece Kent) .

For HSC's annual contest, student teams compete to create healthy, nutritious school lunch recipes that can be served in school cafeterias which use USDA funding for lunch programs (about 30 million students participate in these programs, and child nutrition is the largest single part of USDA's budget). With a fixed price of about $1.30 per student per day, USDA critics say it's a tough call to create an excellent menu, although in the UK, Chef Jamie Oliver has managed to create brilliant locally sourced school lunches for about .65 cents per child. The Richards students did a terrific job with their meal, which included a chicken-stuffed bell pepper, a carrot quesadilla, and fresh fruit salad "refrescante" (pictured, above; editorial note: It was very tasty!)

The winning team not only got to cook with Mr. Kass, but their recipes were also cooked at schools around the country yesterday, and specially prepared for Congressional members on Capitol Hill.

Mr. Kass was present at the event as a "private" volunteer rather than as an official White House spokesperson, so he didn't join the group of excellent panel speakers, which included Healthy Schools Campaign founder and executive director Rochelle Davis (above); Jesse Ruiz, of the Illinois Board of Education; Louise Esasian of Chicago Public Schools; and Rafael Ruiz, one of the award-winning students. Each discussed the need for more funding for child nutrition programs, and for working to get overly processed foods removed from the USDA-sanctioned list of approved school lunch foods. In the Bush era and backward in time, all kinds of curious low-nutrition food items crept onto the USDA-approved list of school lunch ingredients; for instance, ketchup has been considered a vegetable under USDA guidelines, and large industrial farming interests routinely beg the USDA for bailout purchases of their commodity products. There's also currently no USDA requirement that school lunch foods be locally sourced, as fresh as possible, or grown with either low- or no-pesticide use (or completely organically grown, either). Unfortunately, there's also no structure in place to encourage environmentally friendly Ag practices from the companies that sell their products to the USDA. With luck (and continued work by advocacy groups like HSC), all of these issues could change with the Obama administration. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack has already shown himself to be open minded, willing to consider new policies, and he seems to be an advocate for farmers from all branches of the Ag tree, from conventional through organic--crucial for changing the dynamic of what's acceptable in school lunches. President Obama has also pledged to change school lunches; in his most recent budget, he called for $1 billion for childhood nutrition programs. Both the President and First Lady have made food and nutrition a policy priority (above: Student chef Rafael ruiz presents Mr. Kass with a Cooking Up Change chef's jacket)

Lately, everyone seems to want to meet Mr. Kass (his appearance in People magazine last week has amped this up; and he was also part of this morning's news feed on CNN, when the network suddenly turned into the Obama Food Channel). He was mobbed with requests for photos, and now seems pretty good at ignoring having video cameras stuck into his face--CNN was at the event, among other msm. He's kinda rocking the Shaka Obama vibe--and is also a lefty, like the President (above: Mr. Kass with David Blackmon, the director of the Culinary Arts program at Richards Career Academy). The culinary students were thrilled to be cooking with Mr. Kass, and he discussed knife skills, food safety, and healthy food choices. He was quick to offer advice during the recipe demonstration, encouraging the kids to be creative when cooking, and attentive to their dishes.

"Even if you've made a dish a hundred times," Mr. Kass said, "Always taste it. Taste is key. Don't assume it's going to taste the same every time."

Mr. Kass sat with the students during lunch, and they asked him about life as a chef, and particularly about working at the White House. At one point, one of the students asked Mr. Kass to say "hi" to his mother via phone cam video, and Mr. Kass leaned into the phone cam, and said in very good Spanish "Hi, your son Michael is an excellent chef!"

The students asked Mr. Kass to autograph their special "Cooking Up Change" chef jackets, and after he did, Mr. Kass asked the students to sign the special jacket they'd presented to him. And then the culi champs had to dash. They were off to Capitol Hill to present their same meal to members of Congress, in the Longworth Cafeteria. Mr. Kass went back to the White House....

Ray's Hell Burger Might Be Appropriately Named...Critical Health Violations In Last Public Inspection. Should President Obama Worry?

Pre-eminent food poisoning attorney and blogger Bill Marler has tipped Ob Fo that Ray's Hell Burger, the Arlington, VA hamburger joint that the President and Vice President visited yesterday, has been cited by the Arlington Health District for health code violations as recently as December 18, 2008, their last inspection. Among other things, mouse droppings were observed in the storage area at Ray's, and employees were handling food without protective gloves. But the joint was also given a dangerous "critical" citation:

CRITICAL: The food establishment serves hamburgers [cooked-to-order] undercooked without informing consumers of the significantly increased risk consuming such food by way of a disclosure and reminder using brochures, deli case or menu advisories, label statements, table tents, placards, or other effective written means.

Both the President and Vice President ordered their burgers medium well yesterday. Eating anything but a well-done burger is like playing Russian Roulette, which even the USDA will tell you; the agency recommends cooking hamburgers to a temperature of at least 160 degrees, but you're free to cook at a much higher temp, too. Medium well is 150-155 degrees. Can that tiny difference in temperature be enough to make you ill with a foodborne bacteria, such as E. coli? Yes. Hundreds of thousands of the teeny E. coli nasties can fit on the head of a pin...but it takes only three to make you profoundly ill.

How long does it take for E. coli symptoms to develop and make you ill? At least a few days, but sometimes far longer, as the bacteria multiply and grow in your intestinal tract until they cause a toxic reaction. Worst-case E. col scenario: Death, after loss of renal functioning, and having your body bloat like the Goodyear Blimp. Mild-case scenario: Fever, stomach cramps, vomiting, relentless diarrhea.

In future, when the President is making "unannounced" stops at local eateries, it would be terrific if he'd order his burger fully cooked, since his "people" clearly aren't checking the health records of restaurants, which are frequently available online (yes, Arlington, VA posts its restaurant inspection records online). Also, the President brought a bunch of Ray's take-out back to the White House, giving new meaning to the term special delivery, if there was any problems with the food. Below: Reggie Love carries Ray's take-out across the WH lawn, with POTUS and VPOTUS:

Yikes. How does the President's date-night restaurant, Citronelle, do in food safety, btw? It's unclear. Though Mayor Adrian Fenty has some path breaking ideas about our fine city, posting restaurant inspection results online is a work in progress, according to the the spokesperson Ob Fo chatted with earlier today at the District's Department of Health. DC has no requirement for posting restaurant inspection violations anywhere that is visible to the public, unlike LA, which prominently posts a letter grade in the front window of every eatery.

*Related: POTUS, VPOTUS visit Ray's is here. FLOTUS and POTUS visit Citronelle is here. CNN covers Citronelle, WH chef Sam Kass and becomes Obama Foodie TV is here.

Obama's Organics: Dave Murphy On The Economic And Environmental Impact Of The New 2009 Organic Initiative

In a brilliant move that gives new federal funding to organic producers as well as highlights the relationship between agriculture production and environmental issues, USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan has announced the 2009 Organic Initiative, which will make $50 million available to organic farmers. It will be under the umbrella of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), and administered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service. During Election Season, President Obama pledged to support organics as part of the Obama Biden Rural Agenda, but until now, there has been no concrete move to make this pledge a reality.

Farms that grow crops using conventional practices have a whole range of federal subsidies available to them under wide-ranging USDA programs. But historically, organic farmers have not had the same access to USDA funding, and this has dramatically limited growth potential. The new initiative is being applauded in the sustainable farming world, and rightly so. Dave Murphy, of agriculture advocacy group Food Democracy Now! gives some perspective:

"Organic agriculture is the only section of American agriculture in the last thirty years that has been entirely entrepreneurial," Mr. Murphy said. "The fact that organic farmers have managed to get a 3.5 percent share of the market is amazing, because they've received no government subsidies. It's been an uphill battle, and a heroic effort. They've had to do it all on their own." (Mr. Murphy, pictured)

Mr. Murphy says that the announcement of the funding is a path breaking move for USDA, and he applauded the decision. He pointed out that despite no official financial support from the government, organics are the fastest growing sector of American agriculture; last year the market increased by seventeen percent.

A sixth generation Iowan, Mr. Murphy has seen the environmental depredations of industrialized agriculture first hand. After working in Washington, he returned home to Iowa four years ago to help save his family's farm, when a 5,000 head confined animal feeding operation was being proposed just up the road. It was a long, personal battle to block the massive hog confinement operation and its attendant environmental pollution, and Mr. Murphy's efforts thrust him onto the national political stage. This eventually led to the founding of Food Democracy Now!

Before President Obama made his Ag appointments, FDN advocated for deputy and under secretary positions at USDA to be filled with sustainability minded candidates, and created "The Sustainable Dozen," a list of candidates who'd worked in Ag policy and farming, who could bring their knowledge and experience to the USDA. Ms. Merrigan was on FDN's Sustainable Dozen list, and a petition in support of all the candidates rapidly garned 94,000 signatures. It should also be noted that Mr. Murphy was a big supporter of Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack, back in the early weeks of the Obama administration when Secretary Vilsack was still being regarded as a contentious nominee.

"These are exciting times for sustainable agriculture," Mr. Murphy said. "For the first time, we're having government really encourage organic farmers, whose farming practices have a positive benefit for air, water, farm animals---and people."

Mr. Murphy said he can't understand why there are still people on Capitol Hill who oppose funding being aimed specifically at organic Ag practices.

"It's simply unconscionable these days," Mr. Murphy said. "We have incontrovertible proof that some of the practices of conventional agriculture have extremely negative side effects, such as polluting of water tables, creating carbon problems, creating odor pollution, and possibly helping spread disease. Organic practices should be encouraged for a range of reasons that go beyond the fact that it also creates nutritious food."

It's also unconscionable to oppose organics for another key reason. President Obama's entire, larger policy agenda is dependent on teasing out the intricate connections between economic recovery and cleaning up the environment, between greening the business sector and helping smaller businesses and individuals become economically viable. Funding organic production is vital to achieving these particular goals in the Ag sector; organics have already proved to be a growth industry.

*Who's running the Capitol Hill pushback on organics? Senator Mike Johanns (R-Nebaska), an Ag Secretary under President Bush II, weighs in with this excoriating analysis, which aired on the National Association of Farm Broadcasters network, on April 30.

Fascinating Obama Foodorama Fun Fact....

Ob Fo is the top Google hit out of more than 86 million searches for "Obama food." In a tenth of a second, beating all major media and multimillion dollar infotainment corporations. Er, just saying.

This Foodorama fun fact was pointed out yesterday by three different DC event planners when your interpid blogger was requesting press access for some of the swirly shindigs that are the appetizers for this weekend's White House Correspondents' Association Dinner.

Press access granted, BTW.

Is Ob Fo going to the actual WHCA dinner? Hmm, what's your guess?

Michelle Obama At The Time 100 Dinner

Ob Fo is not really interested in the menu for the Time 100 dinner held this evening in New York, since it didn't take place at the White House or in Washington. But here's a chic pic of the First Lady, who is on the list of 100 most influential people, along with the President and 98 other people they jointly overshadow.

*Read a full transcript of FLOTUS's remarks here.

The First Lady Visits Sesame Street....

FLOTUS is in New York today, and she confabbed with Elmo and Big Bird on that excellent street named after food. They made a video about healthy living and nutrition, and the First Lady said of her visit:

“I think it's probably the best thing I've done so far in the White House. I never thought I'd be on Sesame Street with Elmo and Big Bird and I was thrilled. I'm still thrilled - I'm on a high.”

Sens. Grassley and Hagan Introduce Legislation To Support Black Farmers' Pigford Claims

Good news today for the National Black Farmers Association, and the thousands of farmers hoping to get the Pigford settlement issue re-opened. Today, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) took up the cause and introduced The Pigford Claims Funding Act of 2009, which would help more than 4,000 eligible black farmers in North Carolina. Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC) is co-sponsor; the Act helps only farmers from her home state, but it's a good start. There's an estimated 75-80,000 farmers who would qualify for post-Pigford settlement funding, nationally.

Last week, on April 28, black farmers led by Dr. John W. Boyd, Jr., president of the National Black Farmers Association, staged a protest in front of USDA headquarters on the National Mall (Dr. Boyd at mic, above). The NBFA has been working for more than a decade to redress long-standing civil rights violations, in particular the 1999 Pigford v. Glickman monetary class action suit, which attempted to compensate black farmers for decades of racially discriminatory USDA lending and credit practices. The Pigford case, when settled, in reality paid only a tiny proportion of eligible farmers, because thousands of farmers missed the unannounced filing deadline or were discouraged form joining the suit. On Wednesday, the NBFA group marched up to Capitol Hill following the rally, led by Dr. Boyd--and his mule, Struggle, to meet with lawmakers. The next day, they met with Senators and USDA officials (in pic: A list of names of black farmers who are eligible for Pigford claims is unrolled at the rally, and stretches a block up the Mall).

Sen. Hagan, on the record about the Pigford Funding Act:

“Years ago, thousands of African American farmers were found to have been unfairly discriminated against when applying for loans, credit, and other forms of financial help to ensure their farm’s success. The 2008 Farm Bill passed without adequately addressing the costs required to settle the claims in the Pigford case, and ultimately, help right the injustices these farmers faced so many years ago. This legislation seeks to correct that problem, and ensures the farmers who were discriminated against receive what is fairly due to them.”

The original class action suit, Pigford v. Glickman, was filed by Timothy Pigford of North Carolina, and settled in 1999, but it rapidly became apparent that many more farmers should have been included in the suit. While still a senator, President Obama introduced legislation that got into the 2008 Farm Bill which provided an additional $100 million for black farmers. That sum was meant to be just the beginning of new USDA payouts to eligible farmers, but recently, it's become clear that the sum would be all that was available to black farmers, due to the current economic budget-slashing climate on Capitol Hill. With so many farmers potentially covered in the new settlement, it's simply inadequate funding.

The Grassley-Hagan bill ensures that once the first $100 million runs out, eligible petitioners will be able to collect damages. The legislation also allows for legal fees to be paid from the fund in addition to anti-fraud protection regarding claims, which is a major issue, as the farmers have faced a huge series of challenges dealing with claims, individually and as a group. Sen. Grassley introduced similar legislation in 2007 (In pic: John Boyd, left, with Sen. Grassley, center)

The President Makes a "Surprise" Visit To Ray's Hell Burger...Politicos Ponder The Policy Impact

The President and The Sheriff made an unexpected lunch stop today at Ray's Hell Burger in Arlington, Virginia. Press Pool coverage showed the President ordering "Your basic cheddar cheese burger, medium well," and asking for Dijon mustard on his burger. POTUS also asked the cashier if he could "vouch for the fries."

The cashier replied that Ray's doesn't have fries, but rather has tater tots. The President, slightly dubious, requested a single order, to share with The Sheriff. The Vice President ordered "a swiss cheese burger, jalapeno peppers" also done medium well, and asked the cashier who, exactly, was in charge of putting ketchup on the burger. The burgers at Ray's are $6.95 each, and POTUS and VPOTUS each paid cash, separately, then stood in line and waited...like everyone else. They also ordered burgers to go.

POTUS and VPOTUS were then filmed at a table, where POTUS requested spicy mustard. Cut to crowd shots outdoors, and POTUS getting into The Beast. The story was less than two minutes long, but was popped into the 15-minute-rotation network feed on CNN, alongside a story about Israeli President Shimon Peres, the kidnapped California three-year-old, etc. CNN was in charge of video today for the pool, luckily for them, since the President was stepping out.

CNN then happily amped up their Obama Foodie Coverage even more this afternoon, following a morning of food-centric Obama coverage that included the First Couple's Date Night Dinner, and an interview with DC chef Michel Richard. (Above: The President ponders the non-French fries)

Late in the afternoon, Wolf Blitzer's The Situation Room turned into The Obama Hamburger Hour when Wolf recapped the whole Obama/Biden Hamburger Campaign with Dana Perino and Donna Brazile, two political commentators who generally parse Capitol Hill events that are unrelated to food. Perino is President Bush II's former press secretary, and Brazile is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, and ran Al Gore's presidential campaign.

Blitzer questioned the pair, in all seriousness, about whether such unexpected foodie hijinks are good for the President's image, and both Brazile and Perino assured him it was just fine. Brazile said it was swell for the president to get out of the White House and mingle with "regular folks." Blitzer seemed entirely unaware of the earlier Date Night coverage that'd dominated CNN in the morning.

*Of course there's a video of the burger bash; watch it here. Over at Marlerblog, pre-eminent food poisoning attorney and future head of USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service Bill Marler ponders whether or not eating an under-cooked hamburger is a security issue for the President and The Sheriff...

Upcoming: White House Assistant Chef Sam Kass Cooks With Chicago High School Students In Washington

...as part of the Healthy Schools Campaign lunch event, which was held in DC today. Details shortly!

Pic: Sam Kass on right, with culi students from Richards Career Academy, in Chicago.

CNN, Headline News As Obama Foodie TV

Add Washington chef Michel Richard of Georgetown's Citronelle to the list of restaurateurs who dish & tell. This morning on CNN and CNN's Headline news, Richard spilled the beans about The First Couple's Saturday Date Night dinner. The President's motorcade arrival, complete with armed Secret Service members hanging out of the back of a armored station wagon, put the locals on high alert (above: POTUS and FLOTUS stroll the WH grounds after dinner).

According to Chef Richard, the President had braised Short Ribs, and the First Lady had the lobster burger. Each had a martini, and Richard even found it necessary to parse how the First Couple ate their dessert, which was a Napoleon:

"They remove the dough," Richard said (sic). "And ate the cream!"

Richard also told CNN that the Obamas "looked like a couple of teenagers." He was thrilled that FLOTUS kissed him twice on each cheek, and that POTUS thanked him for dinner in French. CNN was quick to point out that the President paid for the dinner with his own credit card, and left a 20% tip.

The crowd of onlookers was reliably reported as about 100 by the White House press pool, but CNN amped it up to 250, apparently to convince news viewers that din-din was a huge event (crowd pic below). Georgetown was described as "toney."

About two seconds later, CNN/Headline News also reported that White House assistant chef Sam Kass will be cooking later today at the Healthy Schools Campaign lunch event, which is taking place at Martha's Kitchen this morning. Kass will be joined by a group of Chicago high school culinary students, who won a contest to create a healthy cafeteria lunch. The event seeks to focus attention on school lunch programs, and the upcoming re-authorization of the Child Nutrition Act.

Both stories went into half-hourly rotation on the newstream.

*Tim Carman of Washington City Paper talks with Michel Richard about his empire building plans, here.

Tomorrow Is Cinco De Mayo, But President Obama Is Celebrating Today

You weren't under the impression that Cinco de Mayo could pass without a bit o' Obama Taco art, were you? This one is entirely grassroots fabulous, and the taco crown the President is wearing is reminiscent of both the rays/rows of light on his campaign logo, as well as the fact that the President was frequently back-lit in his commercial campaign messages, making him look as if he had a halo. However, it's entirely unclear why the President is holding a pair of tightey whiteys. On the other hand, when Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack was running for president, waaaayy back in the dim mists of Election Season, he had a similar item of attire created in his honor....

A Cinco de Mayo fiesta is going on at the White House tonight. Details later!

*Obama taco fabulousness from the Ob Fo archive, via TacoTown.

Michelle Obama Foodie Homage: The Garden Marketing Schemes

First Lady Michelle Obama's decision to plant the White House Kitchen Garden is credited with a huge national bump upward in sales of seeds and gardening supplies. It's also generated a monster amount of media coverage, and lately, gardening tips and advice are as ubiquitous as dieting tips used to be on the intranets, on TV, and in print media. Ob Fo has seen lots of seed-selling and gardening sites that have been promoting seed mixes that are similar to what was planted in the White house Kitchen Garden, but Mywhitehousegarden.com is a company that's gone tennis ball lettuces-to-the-wall in terms of capitalizing on the First Lady's most popular food initiative. The savvy gardening capitalists are using the First Lady's name, image, and quotes to sell their dirt tek, and....look for some official White House pitchforking soon (above: A screenshot of the offending website).

A better place to get homage White House Kitchen Garden seeds is directly from the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, which oversees President Thomas Jefferson's historic plantation home, Monticello, located in Albemarle County, Virginia. Monticello's master gardener Peter Hatch donated seeds and starts from President Jefferson's recreated historical vegetable garden to the White House Kitchen Garden, as well as a shoot from a young Thomas Jefferson fig tree. There's an entire Jefferson homage bed in the White House Kitchen Garden, which includes Jefferson faves brown Dutch and Tennis Ball lettuce, Prickly Seed Spinach and Savoy cabbage, among other things. Food Initiative Coordinator/White House assistant chef Sam Kass says it's his favorite part of the garden (above: The White House Kitchen Garden. The Thomas Jefferson bed is on the right, mid-pic). The online Monticello store sells a huge variety of seeds, and the site even handily divides by gardening zone, for the new gardener. Click the links, or go visit Monticello in person. It's lovely, and the garden is beautiful. And by the way, Thomas Jefferson has a lesser-known home that's been historically preserved, and is open to the public. Poplar Forest is the first octagonal house ever built in America, and it's incredible. Located in Forest, Virginia, they run an Archaeological Field School, and all kinds of other education and arts programs

*Peter Hatch is a renowned horticulturist, who has spent more than thirty years restoring and curating Thomas Jefferson's gardens, and oversees the entire 2,000 acres of Monticello. He's the author of Thomas Jefferson's Gardens and The Fruits and Trees of Monticello, among many other gardening titles. His books are available through the Monticello book store or at Amazon.

Related: A chat with Peter Hatch is here. The first White House Kitchen Garden harvest happened last week, on the President's 100th day in office. Ob Fo's thoughts on messaging the White House Kitchen Garden are here.

H/T for the naughty FLOTUS gardening website: Daniel Bowman Simon at TheWHOFarm. Garden pic by Obama Foodorama.

The Specter Hanging Over Agriculture Policy: What Will Party-Hopper Arlen Do?

Senator Arlen Specter returns to his home state of Pennsylvania today for a Town Hall meeting, for the first time since his announcement last week that he was performing the magic trick of changing from Republican to Democrat. Of course Sen. Specter has been very active in national Ag legislation; Pennsylvania is a big Farm State, with 59,000 farm families and 9,000 dairy farms. One in six people in the state is employed in Ag, and Pennsylvania ag outputs contribute $45 billion annually to the national economy. Sen. Specter's actual first public outing as a Democrat took place last Thursday, when he sat on the Dem side of the room during a Senate committee meeting for Ag appropriations (Above: The President and The Sheriff welcome Sen. Specter home).

Sen. Specter's party jump is going to have wide-ranging impact on policy, but particularly Ag policy, both domestic and global. He's on the Senate Appropriations Committee, and his subcommittee assignments include Ag and foreign operations/state, among other things. This means he's been in on the dialogue for the hotly debated Global Food Security Act, S. 384, and closer to home, he had a lot to do with the 2008 Farm Bill. As a side note, he's also on the Senate Judiciary committee; he used to be the Ranking Member. With David Souter's exit, stage New Hampshire, Sen. Specter will have much to do with the new Supreme Court appointee.

For the 2008 Farm Bill, Sen. Specter was middle-of-the-road on the contentious issue of farm subsidies, and very supportive of Child Nutrition funding. He also supported the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) provision, which is a built in "trigger" that ensures that dairy farmers never make below a certain amount of money for milk; if milk prices plummet, the government starts sending farmers checks to cover the difference. The guaranteed price is currently a little more than $16 per hundredweight of milk. See, dairy farmers have to buy things like feed and oil, which go up and down with the market, and if these things are wildly expensive, farmers aren't going to make much money; the MILC was designed to ensure that they'd always make enough money. Unfortunately, our general economic policy and foreign trade interests have hurt dairy farmers recently, because a flood of cheap foreign milk imports into the American market--from places like China and New Zealand-- has dramatically lowered the price farmers get for milk. Things like feed and oil are very expensive at the moment, so even payments from the MILC can't make up the difference between (low) income earned and (high) production costs.

My Milkshake Brings All The Boys To The Yard...
On Earth Day, a group of dairy farmers staged a protest over the milk price issue during the President's appearance in Newton, Iowa, but this was almost completely ignored by the mainstream media; the same group of farmers had held a protest on the steps of Iowa's Capitol two weeks earlier, which also fell on deaf media ears. But Sen. Spector listened, and he's now busily trying to correct the pseudo-socialization of milk and the attendant market manipulations/fluctuations. He just introduced legislation to the Senate that would link the price of milk to actual production costs (hey, there's an idea! Pretty sure that's called capitalism). In practice, the Bill would profoundly revamp the way the government dictates minimum prices that food companies must pay farmers for milk. With luck, basing prices on farmers' costs could steer the government away from more taxpayer-supported subsidies, an Obama goal. But the Bill's wide reach is already turning into a stumbling block, because lobbying groups for farmer-owned cooperatives and the companies that buy milk both oppose it.

It's going to be quite a milkshake as the Bill gets battled over, and it's going to be fascinating to see how Sen. Specter's new party affiliation plays out in his voting on all Ag issues...

*Pic from Reuters.

The Obama First 100 Days: The Week On Obama Foodorama

This week on Ob Fo was all about the President and First Lady's First 100 Days at the White House. Some highlights of the coverage:

*A look at how agriculture/food policy in the First 100 Days of the Obama Era has become entwined with every other policy issue is here.

*100 Years of Discrimination: The National Black Farmers Association rallied in front of the USDA on the President's 100th Day, to call attention to more than a century of terrible civil rights violations in agriculture policy. Led by Dr. John W. Boyd, Jr., the group seeks to re-open the Pigford settlement. The President and Ag Secretary Vilsack, as well as the Congressional Black Caucus are getting involved....

*The first harvest from the White House Kitchen Garden happened on Day 100. Read about what was reaped, and how it was used.

*The White House Kitchen Garden as perfected non-verbal political messaging: Actions speak louder than words.

*The First Lady's huge uptick in popularity has been credited to "family, food, fashion," and she's become very active in all kinds of food initiatives, thanks to Food Imitative Coordinator Sam Kass. FLOTUS celebrated the First 100 Days by leading a team of 100 Congressional spouses in service at a Washington food bank. Food iconography created solely for the First Lady has been infrequent, so far...some rare shots from the Ob Fo archive. More Obama microniche blogging: New York magazine has developed a blog to track FLOTUS fashion. Check it out here.

*After 100 Days in The Kitchen, Food Initiative Coordinator and White House assistant chef Sam Kass lands on People mag's 100 Most Beautiful People list, as part of the "Barack's Beauties" section. Of course the First Lady was front and center, and People managed to do it right.

*A very special First 100 Days Foodie Homage: Artist Liz Hickok's Jell-O White House is here.

*An "exclusive, massive, unique look" at the President's First 100 Days in the White House is here, courtesy of Pete Souza, official White House non-food photographer, and the White House Photo Office. There are some beautiful shots that relate to WH food events and the Chefs, but no actual food photos, alas. Still, it's awesome.

Other hot topics this week:
The Flu That Has 100 Names: Panic sets in over a pandemic, Ag markets are crumbling, the Pork Industry is hysterical. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack works overtime in a heroic attempt to stop a pandemic of misinformation. Our multi-billion dollar pork industry impacts all kinds of policy areas.

*Miriam's Kitchen Fundraiser: The First Lady visited Miriam's Kitchen in March, as part of her food initiative community service platform, and they've been happily reaping the benefits of their association with her ever since. Their annual fundraiser is May 14.

*Pic at top of post is FLOTUS and POTUS at the first State Dinner at the White House, for the National Governors Association, via Getty. Black farmers protest pic by Obama Foodorama.

The President And First Lady Have Their First Presidential Date Night At DC's Citronelle

The President and First Lady visited Michel Richard's Citronelle tonight, a Georgetown eatery that commingles fine French and American cuisine. The restaurant uses locally sourced and organically farmed ingredients and has been described by gushing foodie critics as "a culinary mecca," and "one of the top restaurants in the world." It's won many awards, and Chef Michel Richard has personally won just about every laud in existence, minus the Nobel Peace Prize, for his many decades of kitchen genius (above: Most media coverage occurred post-date, and FLOTUS and POTUS stroll the White House grounds after their dinner).

The dinner menu: Both the First Lady and the President ordered martinis, and they started with a shared tuna niçoise. The First Lady ordered the lobster burger, which is topped with crumbled potato chips, and the President ordered the braised Short Ribs. They were presented with a variety of desserts, and shared a Napoleon.

Chef Richard was unaware that the First Couple was showing up for dinner, according to the Washingtonian's Best Bites blog; the reservation was made for Social Secretary Desirée Rogers, and Richard found out an hour before service began. The Obamas were seated in a semi-private dining room.

A mob of onlookers gathered outside the restaurant, trying to see the First Couple, and one overly-enthusiastic fan shouted "welcoming" sentiments through a bullhorn....

President Obama's Off-The-Record Economic Policy Dinner With Paul Krugman & Joseph Stiglitz....

Sometimes more than the menu is secret at the White House...
Evan Thomas of Newsweek reports that on April 27, the President had a top-secret dinner in the old family dining room with top economists who oppose his financial plans, inclding Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglitz:

Mindful of his predecessor, Barack Obama seems to be trying harder to make sure he hears all sides. On the night of April 27, for instance, the president invited to the White House some of his administration's sharpest critics on the economy, including New York Times columnist Paul Krugman and Columbia University economist Joseph Stiglitz. Over a roast-beef dinner, Obama listened and questioned while Krugman and Stiglitz, both Nobel Prize winners, pushed for more aggressive government intervention in the banking system.

Roast beef? Sounds a little dubious as a choice of entree. After parsing the potential conversation stoppers at dinner, Writer Thomas concludes:

It will take more than a few dinner parties to avoid the fate of presidents who lost touch with reality...

Update: Krugman reiterates that the dinner was off the record with this blogpost. Michael Hirsh adds the rest of the guest list:

Paul Volcker, who has one foot in and one foot out of the administration as the head of Obama’s largely cosmetic economic recovery board; Princeton economist and former Fed vice chairman Alan Blinder; Columbia’s Jeff Sachs; and Harvard’s Ken Rogoff. Representing the home team, as it were: Obama’s chief economic adviser Larry Summers, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.

In pic: The most recent china service to be ordered for the White House is Laura Bush's White House Magnolia Residence China. It arrived at the White House Jan. 8, 2009, less than two weeks before the Bushes left.

A Night of Terrific Food For A Terrific Cause: Miriam's Kitchen Annual Fundraiser Is May 14

Miriam's Kitchen will be holding their lovely annual fundraiser, 100 Bowls of Compassion, on May 14 at the National Building Museum in Washington.

The event will be an evening of cocktails, fine food, and live music, with a silent auction of art work from around the world, as well as excellent travel and dining packages. Last year's fundraiser garnered more than a third of Miriam's annual budget, so the evening is very important. Miriam's has been much in the news lately, thanks to a visit in March from First Lady Michelle Obama, who joined the kitchen volunteers on the hot line to serve lunch, and made Miriam's and Mushroom Risotto--the entree of the day--instantly famous (above: FLOTUS in action on the hotline).

Miriam's Kitchen opened in 1983, and provides daily hot meals and a deep, exemplary, slate of outreach services to homeless and at-risk people in Washington, including all kinds of education, art and culture activities, which are designed to attract guests, and get them to stay around long enough to be helped. The kitchen operations are overseen by Steve Badt, a chef and non-profit maven who's as talented as he is energetic. Ob Fo visited Miriam's earlier this week, and there'll be an interview with Steve and more about Miriam's here on the blog tomorrow.

Steve's kitchen operation at Miriam's is known for serving fresh, healthy and delicious food, created primarily from generous donations provided by local farmers and food makers. Newly on the list of donors: The White House. Crops from the now-sprouting organic White House Kitchen Garden are headed for Miriam's. The menu Steve has created for 100 Bowls of Compassion is comprised of some favorites from Miriam's Kitchen, as well as contemporary foodie creations. For the past few months, Steve has been running an "adopt a lobster" campaign among his volunteers, so lobster can be purchased for the fundraiser (in pic: Steve in the kitchen at Miriam's, with the lobster campaign board). Rhubarb from the White House Kitchen Garden has already been donated to Miriam's and is being used by pastry chef Ann Brown as she creates her desserts for the fundraiser.

The 100 Bowls of Compassion menu is exceptional:

Shrimp and grits Lamb tagine
Argentinean beef skewers with chimichurri sauce Lobster purses with spicy soy dipping sauce
Seared cumin-spiced tuna on jicama with guacamole House-cured salmon with lemongrass and ginger
Michelle Obama Risotto

*Go here to visit Miriam's Kitchen website, and here to find out how you can attend 100 Bowls of Compassion, or to make a donation. They also have a new Facebook page here. Email: Info@mirimaskitchn.org. Twitter: @miriamskitchen.
Miriam's Kitchen is located at 2401 Virginia Ave NW, Washington, DC 20037. Phone is 202 452 8926.
*A video of the First Lady's visit to Miriam's Kitchen is here.

Michelle Obama Foodie Homage: Is A Flood Of First Lady Foodstuffs On The Way?

The First Lady is top of the pops among the American public--well, around the globe--after the first 100 days of the Obama Era.

Will the First Lady's new popularity lead to an upsurge in Michelle Obama food iconography? The President has an entire food subculture devoted to him, with a rich and deep archive of food iconography, and specialty foods created in his honor (or sort of) from around the world, and restaurants named after him, which started way back during Election Season, and has continued to build since November 4. The President's food iconography archive continues to get more complex, with all kinds of Anti-Obama food icons coming in to play, too (the Obamatussin cough drops are a case in point, as were the Tea Parties). Now that the First Lady has captured the hearts and minds of the world, Ob Fo is waiting for her 6,000 mini-cupcake portrait, for the gumball portrait, the skittles portrait...the general transmutation of her image into food. To date, there's only been one high profile artist's portrait of the First Lady created out of foodstuffs (by Argentian art collective Mondongo), and a couple of cookies that bear her image. Her photo is occasionally silkcreened onto cakes, but it's rare to find one of FLOTUS alone (like the one, above, from Africa); usually she's accompanied by POTUS.

If you see any Michelle Obama food portraits, do send 'em in!

A Swine By Any Other Name: Hogs, Flu And The Semantics of Spin

From lipstick pigs to sick pigs to accusations of porkulus, President Obama just can't get away from issues surrounding hogs...
Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack has been the spokesmodel for the pork industry all week, criticizing trading partners who've banned imports of American pork products, calling for a name change for the new flu from "Swine" to "H1N1," and announcing that pork is a staple of his own personal diet. Vilsack, a former two-term governor of Iowa, the second largest hog state in the US, knows his pigs like nobody's business. It's not helping much. Fifteen countries have now banned US pork imports. Egypt's been killing off pig herds, stock prices are plummeting across the board in Ag markets but particularly in pig shares, and lots of people aren't makin' bacon. Meantime, US hog producers want humans to stay away from their herds, because humans can give hogs the flu. But fear not: the White House wants everyone to know that new Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is swooping in to save the day. On Whitehouse.gov, the glowing photo essay "Sworn in and straight to work" says it all. Pork is a $15 billion industry in the US. Perhaps it's time for a lovely, high profile White House dinner featuring locally raised stuffed pig belly. (Pic above: From the Ob Fo archive, a pic of the President as pork, one of the many anti-Obama food icons developed during the election campaign)

While the government has officially adopted H1N1 as the name for the flu, as of this morning the US media is still insisting on using "Swine Flue;" CNN, MSNBC and a random sampling of news channels shows that "Swine Flu" is still the preferred term. Since the TV messaging is far more pervasive and moment-by-moment than what comes out of the White House, "Swine Flu" as a cultural phrase has big traction. Perhaps the Pork Lobby needs to be attacking the TV advert trough directly, since Sec V's efforts are falling on deaf ears. In a fun bit of literary oddness, the European Union has adopted the name “novel flu,” while the Canadian Health Ministry is considering a petition by the Canadian Pork Council to rename the virus “North American flu,” in an interesting bit of xenophobia. The actual origins of the flu seem to be pan-continental; this interview is a very interesting--and frightening--analysis from inside the Centers For Disease control. A look back at past apocalyptic flu campaigns is here, at Very Short List. In the '70s, Swine Flu was being touted as the start of End Times, too.

Smithfield, the multinational American-based conglomerate that owns the biggest hog CAFO in Mexico, located at what has been widely and perhaps mistakenly regarded as ground zero for the flu, released this statement to reassure their own employees as well was worried eaters. It's a masterpiece of spin, filled with reassuring language that obfuscates the fact that they haven't released actual herd health test results, and have only now started to test the Mexican hog herds for flu. Mexico is currently developing the spin that a Mexican migrant worker brought the flu into Mexico from the US. We'll see how that goes for their spin campaign, and for re-directing where investigations of flu origins actually occur.

**Tom Philpott of Grist is tracking the back and forths in the flu investigations and their relationship to CAFOs, and doing an excellent job of monitoring Big Ag spin. Read him here.

*H/T to all the RFF writers. Loving you.