Food Safety Working Group: Definitely In The 21st Century. Excellent Policy Points Announced For Surveillance, Prevention, Response, Recovery...

The key members of the Food Safety Working Group didn't formally announce Michael Taylor as the new, special Deputy Commissioner of Food during their press conference today, but they did announce a new, excellent public-health- based approach to food safety.
Food Pol expert Marion Nestle of Food Politics, however, is confirming that Michael Taylor has gotten the job. What was announced today: A new, more aggressive way of monitoring food safety, which has three core principles: Prevention, improving enforcement, and improving response to/recovery from food borne disease outbreaks, according to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

During today's announcement, Secretary Sebelius thanked Rep. John Dingell and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, longstanding champions of food safety, before she introduced her FSWG partners, Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack and Vice President Joe Biden (in photo above).

In the audience for today's announcement were family members of foodborne illness victims, and VP Biden said changes in food safety laws were "long overdue," and had been unchanged since 1906..."since Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle." He noted that part of his work with the Middle Class Task Force was ensuring food safety, and made a long statement about imported foods, processed foods, and how we're all put at risk by these.

"In the past, we've focused on food safety problems when they occur, now we're putting our focus on prevention," said VP Biden. "The tragedy of someone getting sick from food is made worse by someone else getting ill after we know what's making people ill."

"The President has made food safety an important national priority," VP Biden said.

He closed by thanking Bryan Silbermann, president of the Produce Marketing Association, someone who has been critical in promoting food safety for the produce industry.

Jointly, VP Biden and Secs. Sebelius and Vilsack announced the following imperatives for the new food safety approach:

(1) Prioritizing prevention
(2) Strengthening surveillance and enforcement
(3) Improving response and recovery from outbreaks

In an effort at better management, the FSWG is seeking to coordinate the activities of agencies that oversee food issues, and has created two new positions:

1. Deputy Commissioner for Foods, to oversee and coordinate FDA's efforts on food, including food safety. This position, reporting to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, will be empowered to restructure and revitalize FDA’s activities and work with USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, and other agencies, in developing a new food safety system. --This is the new Michael Taylor position...

To continue reading about the Food Safety Working Group's new initiatives, click here....

The Obamas In Russia, Day 2: Kremlin Reception

President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama toured the Kremlin today, following the President's breakfast with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Above, the President shakes hands with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill.

At left, the First Lady chats with Russian First Lady Svetlana Medvedeva, wife of President Dmitry Medvedev.

*Related: Dinner at Gorki is here; From Russia With Love Part I is here; Part II is here. *Getty Images

Live, Today: Food Safety Working Group Issues "Key Findings" & Announces Michael Taylor As "Special Advisor On Food" For FDA...?

Is Food Safety A Class Issue?
Today at 1:30 PM Eastern time (US) the Food Safety Working Group will livestream its "key findings" at both WhiteHouse.gov and Food Safety Working Group. In a press conference at the Eisenhower Executive Building in DC, Vice President Joe Biden, Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will discuss exactly what the FSWG has been doing since President Obama established it in March in a good effort to coordinate and upgrade the nation's food safety system. Vice President Biden, who is the chair of the Middle Class Task Force, will highlight and discuss the importance of food safety to middle class families, according to the press advisory. Your intrepid blogger is very interested in hearing this particular take on food safety, because y'know, food-borne pathogens are really free radicals. Food borne pathogens don't discriminate on the basis of age, gender, or income--although they do tend to kill kids and the elderly at a higher rate of frequency than, say, the average middle-class, healthy 45-year-old. The Obama admin likes to intermix its policy platforms, but these days, perhaps someone from the Office of Faith-Based Partnerships should be showing up at this meeting, too. After the live stream, Secretaries Vilsack and Sebelius will take questions at the White House Facebook page. (Photo above: VP Biden and Sec. Vilsack speak in Pennsylvania at one of the Rural Tour events, a swell cross-country listening tour the Secretary is doing this summer in rural communities).

Are We In The 21st Century? Michael Taylor Could Help...
There should be a lot to talk about today, given the fact that USDA still has no leader for its own meat safety division, the Food Safety and Inspection Service, and given the fact that there's a huge Class 1 (you could die) beef recall still going on. Nestlé recalled its E coli-contaminated Tollhouse Cookie Dough on June 18, but while shopping on July 4, your intrepid blogger still found lots at the supermarket (photo above), and had found recalled cookie dough the week before, too. This is because all recalls are VOLUNTARY, even when food that could kill you--or cause permanent, life-altering illness--has been sent into the marketplace. The only progressive piece of Food Safety reform that has occurred in the Obama era, to date, is a ban on downer cows being allowed to be slaughtered and put into the food chain. Downer cows aren't cattle with depressive disorders, BTW, they're cattle that are too ill to walk the slaughtering line. Yep, before President Obama took office, sick cows were routinely winding up on dinner plates, both here at home and abroad. When he established the Food Safety Working Group, the President pledged to "bring food safety into the 21st century." Most of America's still partying like it's 1999, however. According to Reuters, during today's livestream, a new Deputy Commissioner of Food will be announced; this individual will be responsible for coordinating food safety among the federal agencies that monitor it. But Food Safety insiders tell Ob Fo that Michael Taylor, who's previously worked within the government food safety agencies, will be named as the Special Advisor on Food for FDA.

How Food Safety Is Monitored in America: An Obama Dinner As Object Lesson
There are currently twelve different regulatory agencies that can impact the Obama cupcakes on your Lincoln china, and this hasn't changed seven months into the Obama Era. For instance, the menu for the Obama's Charm Offensive Dinner, an early shindig that was designed to get reluctant Republicans on board with the President's program, included salmon from Canada, produce from at least three different states, dairy products, grains, and wine. Thus the meal was regulated by the USDA, the FDA, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and the Bureau of Commerce. That's a lot of federal activity for a couple hours of wooing Republicans! But that's how it goes in US food safety. The regulations and requirements that exist are scattered like confetti among a pile of different agencies. This hasn't served America's eaters very well. (Above: A place setting from the Charm Offensive dinner)

*Photos: Biden/Vilsack from USDA Press Office; Tollhouse Dough by Obama Foodorama; Place Setting by Pete Souza/White House

Greenpeace Provides Dessert After Obama/Medvedev Dinner At Gorki

...or at least a visual dessert. Greenpeace beamed the laser-generated light display, above, onto a bridge by the Moscow hotel the Obamas are staying in this evening. The First Family is occupying the Presidential suite of the five-star Marriott Grand Hotel on Tverskaya Street, which is on the road leading to the Kremlin. The message says "Leaders Act Save Climate," in case you can't read it, and it's interesting that it's in English....

*Related: Dinner with the Medvedevs is here; From Russia With Love Part I is here; Part II is here; President Medvedev on Sausages and Freedom is here. Reuters photo.

President Obama and Prime Minister Putin Obama Putin Breakfast Russia

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin served President Obama breakfast this morning at Novo-Ogaryovo, Putin's home outside Moscow. The local media called it ‘a traditional Russian breakfast,' but it was a fairly lavish spread of smoked sturgeon, pancakes, eggs with black caviar, and quail dumplings. For dessert: Vanilla ice-cream with sweet cherry sauce. Definitely korolevskij zavtrak, a king's breakfast.

Tea service for the meal was complex and historical: Water was boiled in a samovar, a traditional pot, as a waiter dressed in full national gear fanned the coals with a leather boot. Fancy! And it will definitely help the President's efforts to reset international relations....

*Above: PM Putin has his back to the camera. Photo by Reuters.

The Obamas Dine With The Medvedevs At Gorki Residence: Sausages and Freedom On The Menu

President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama dined with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and his wife Svetlana at the presidential residence in Gorki this evening. Gorki is a suburban neighborhood outside of downtown Moscow, and the presidential residence is a park-like compound. President Medvedev gave the Obamas a tour of the grounds, which include a helicopter landing pad, an underground bunker, a swimming pool and tennis courts.

Inside the residence, a robotic cat was present, and it took tiny, secret digital photos with the camera inserted in its tail (below).

*From Russia With Love Part I is here; Part II is here; President Medvedev on Sausages and Freedom is here. Reuters photos.

Independence Day Awesome: Foo Fighters At The White House July 4th Barbecue

Via Stereogum, this fun pic of Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, post-sound check for the Obama Family July 4th barbecue on the South Lawn of the White House (pic from patti_heck, and there are some more excellent ones in her flickr photo stream). Later, during the barbecue, the Foos premiered a new song, Wheels:

The Senate Agriculture Committee, Health Care Reform, And The Health Care Lobby: Thoughts On Influence & Awareness

If You're On The Senate Finance Committee AND The Senate Agriculture Committee, Is There A Deep Conflict In Your Psyche Over Health Care Reform And Food Policy?
According to a story in today's Washington Post, hospitals and medical groups have hired more than 350 former government staff members and retired members of Congress in hopes of influencing those currently running the show on Capitol Hill during the ongoing debates on health care reform. The interesting graphic, above, shows these staffers-turned-lobbyists, but equally interesting is the fact that a group of Senators on the Senate Finance Committee, which is making the key decisions in the Health Care debate, are also current members of the Senate Agriculture committee (as well as Ag committee members from the 110th congress): Sens. Charles Grassley (IA), Max Baucus (Mont), Blanche Lincoln (Ark), Kent Conrad (ND), Mike Crapo (UT), Debbie Stabenow (Mich), Pat Roberts (Kan).

Senators Crapo, Lincoln, and Stabenow are all on the Senate Subcommittee on Nutrition and Food Assistance, too. As it is now beyond argument that health care reform cannot be achieved without dramatic reforms in America's eating habits (thanks to food-related diseases such as diabetes and heart trouble burdening the the system with billions of dollars in annual costs), it's worth noting the kind of agriculture each of these Senators represent. All of their states are heavily invested in industrialized agriculture, and recently, the American Medical Association announced that some of the "side effects" of industrialized ag practices, such as antibiotic resistance, airborne pollution, and climate change, are highly detrimental to human health. The AMA is so serious about this connection that it announced a pledge to support local, sustainable and organic agriculture practices. In fact, there's a building national movement to alter food policy within health care institutions, led by medicos such as Dr. Preston Maring, who is bringing farmers' markets directly to hospitals. He's just one of many doctors who have taken personal action to make this kind of change. And certainly the relationship between food and health care reform is an issue that the Obama administration is critically aware of; First Lady Michelle Obama has given a series of speeches in the last month that highlight the relationship between changing eating habits and reducing health care costs (most recently at Unity Health Care, last week).

Because so many of the Senators on the Finance Committee have a critical interest in maintaining the AgriBusiness status quo in their role as Ag Committee members, it's worth pondering what kind of an influence they--and their staffers-turned-lobbyists--could potentially have on reform debates. The Senators listed above are bulldogs about protecting their constituents' rights to carry on with AgriBusiness as usual; in a series of recent hearings over various food policy/Ag Bills, they've collectively managed to get reducing monetary caps for Ag subsidies off the table, hijacked a couple critical elements out of food safety initiatives, and ensured that climate change initiatives got watered down in ACES...among other things. Will the American Medical Association's new interest in a different kind of Ag system have any impact at all? And are the staffers-turned-lobbyists as protective of Big Ag practices as their former bosses, the Senators? Will their experience working with Ag state deciders have any impact on what they're lobbying for, in terms of an awareness of the need for food policy to be directly included in health policy initiatives--? And will anyone have an awareness of the connections between the role industrialized agriculture and the USDA, through an ongoing, historic program of subsidizing foods that are not the best nutritional choices, particularly for school lunch programs--have played in our current epidemic of food-related disease (those alarming statistics of obese children are haunting...)?? It will be interesting to see how it all develops, because it's alllll connected, after all...

And this doesn't even begin to address the problems of having lobbyists influence the discussion, in general. Over at Beyond Green, Tom Laskawy parses this part of the equation.

*Go here to see the full-size graphic at Washington Post, and here to read the full story...

The Obamas In Moscow: Day 1, Part 2

Michelle Michalenko, who cooks at the US Embassy in Moscow, took these pix of President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama during their meet n' greet today at the embassy. Above: The President speaks to staffers while First Lady Michelle Obama looks on; US Ambassador John Byrle is at right.

The President chatted with the Marines assigned to the embassy, and posed for this shot, above.

The First Lady signed autographs and chatted with the excited children of Embassy staff, above. Photos by Michelle Michalenko. She tweets: @soireechef.

The Obamas In Moscow, Day 1

The Obamas have arrived in Moscow, and since it's already early evening there, they've had a full day of activities. President Obama met with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev at the Kremlin; Jake Tapper of ABC does a good sum-up of the issues under discussion here. In advance of President Obama's breakfast tomorrow morning with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Ed Henry of CNN, who by the way is very nice about tweeting food details to your intrepid blogger when he's on the road with the WH press pool, ponders who's really running the government in Russia here. The Washington Post does a full wrap of the joint Obama/Medvedev news conference, with tranlation, here. Above: President Obama and President Medvedev meet at the Kremlin.

First Lady Michelle Obama and daughters Sasha and Malia toured the Kremlin with Russian first Lady Svetlana Medvedeva (above). They visited the Kremlin's Winter Garden and the Cathedral of the Assumption, and the Armory, which has a huge collection of imperial regalia, and the State Diamond Fund, home to the 190-carat Orlov diamond as well as the world's largest sapphire.

After the Kremlin, the Obamas went to the US Embassy to meet with staff, and have a late lunch. Michelle Michalenko, one of the chefs at the US Embassy, Tweeted a bit while the Obamas met with staffers (@soireechef). Ms. Michalenko wrote that she got to shake hands with the President and First Lady, and then Mrs. Obama signed autographs for staffers' kids, while the President shook hands with the Marines.

This evening, the President and First Lady are scheduled to have dinner with President Medvedev and Lady Medvedeva at Gorki, the presidential residence.

*Related: President Medvedev on Sausages and Freedom.
*Photo at top of post by Pete Souza/White House; First Lady photo by Vladimir Rodionov/AP

The Ghosts Of White House Kitchens Past: Happy Birthday George Bush!

From the archive of White House foodie history: Today is President George Bush's 63rd birthday. The photo, above, is of the former president celebrating his 60th birthday at the White House. The lovely cake was made by former White House Executive Pastry Chef Thaddeus DuBois, who had a 1-1/2 year run in the position and worked with current Executive Chef Cris Comerford. DuBois was hired following the retirement of Exec Pastry Chef Roland Mesnier, who served at the White House for 25 years. DuBois left abruptly, and was replaced by current Exec Pastry Chef Bill Yosses. The multi-tiered style of the cake, with decorative sugar plaques, animals (the bulldog is from President Bush's alma mater, Yale) and a sugar replica of the White House, is very much a trope in White House cake designs for holidays and special events.

Chef Yosses (in pic) went to work full time at the White House in January, 2007, although he'd worked as a "seasonal hire" during the 2006 holiday season. President Obama refers to Chef Yosses as the "Crust Master," and has spoken glowingly about his pie-making skills, as has First Lady Michelle Obama.

*During the Bush years, the White House used to run an awesome, fun series of online Q&As with members of the kitchen and gardening staff, in which the public could submit questions. Go here to read one with Chef DuBois.

*Photos by White House photographer Shealah Craighead.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev: The "Sausages And Freedom" Interview

As President Obama arrives in Moscow to engage in discussions on reducing nuclear weapons, cooperating on security, non-proliferation and missile defense, and expanding the ties between American and Russian society and business, it's worth noting the very complicated dynamic between the Russian government and the Russian citizenry, as the ongoing transition to Democracy continues, and the idea of "civil society" is still being developed. In April, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev gave his first-ever interview to Novaya Gazeta, a newspaper that has been a harsh critic of the current administration. President Medevedev spoke with writer Dmitry Muratov about what "civil society" means in the context of difficult economic times, when fundamentals such as food and shelter are very expensive, and unemployment is high (photo: President Medvedev during the interview). An excerpt:

A social contract: Once again about sausages and freedom

NOVAYA GAZETA: On April 15 you will host the Presidential Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights Council....Do I understand that today civil society is more important to you then that of “plainclothes men”?

DMITRY MEDVEDEV: You know, civil society is a category that we have not fully absorbed in Russia. Throughout the world civil society is the flip side of the state. The state is not only a political machine, it is also a form of organising life in society, one that is based on state power and relies on the law, while civil society is the human dimension of any state. Though its members are governed by state legislation they often act according to human laws that, incidentally, do not always have a legal form. Still quite recently, many people did not understand the words civil society. A state is more or less clear. But what is civil society? A society of citizens? So we are all citizens of our country. And now there is the understanding that civil society is an integral non-governmental institution in any state. An institution that provides feedback. The organisations of people who do not hold office, but are nevertheless actively involved in the life of their country.

Therefore meetings and contacts between the President and representatives of civil society are indispensable. Let me emphasise: these relations are not easy for any authority, because all members of civil society and representatives of human rights organisations have a huge number of issues to raise with the government and leaders. They have a lot of questions, and these are questions the authorities do not always want to answer. But that is why such contacts must be systematic, including contacts within the framework of the Council you mentioned. I expect that this will be an interesting conversation. It will likely be hard, but therein lies its value.

NOVAYA GAZETA: For a few years now there has been an unspoken contract between state and society (or, more precisely, the majority of society): the state provides a given level of comfort and well-being, and in exchange society remains loyal to the state.

DMITRY MEDVEDEV: You mean “democracy in exchange for prosperity” or, say, “sausages in exchange for freedom”?

NOVAYA GAZETA: Yes. But now, in the absence of prosperity, what do you think a new contract could be? I will not even say the word thaw, but perhaps the defrosting [Alexander Auzan’s term] of society is pertinent? Since neither society nor the state can deal with the crisis alone, they will have to talk.

DMITRY MEDVEDEV: The idea of a social contract is certainly one of the brightest human ideas and has undoubtedly played a very significant role in the development of democratic institutions throughout the world. The origins of Rousseau’s idea are well-known, but if you refer to the modern social contract then I would say that its framework is laid out in our Constitution. The Constitution is a special agreement between on the one hand the state and, on the other, its citizens.

NOVAYA GAZETA: An agreement on what?

DMITRY MEDVEDEV: On how to exercise power in the territory of our state, of our country. In this context, the social contract refers to the partial assignment of authority, which by virtue of natural law belongs to the individual, to the state so that the state guarantees individual’s prosperity, life and liberty. But it seems to me that one should never oppose a stable and prosperous life, and a set of political rights and freedoms. You can not oppose democracy and well-being. On the other hand, it is clear that the inalienable rights and freedoms of the individual and citizen may be in jeopardy if society is unstable, if the elementary needs of individuals are not provided for, if people do not feel secure, if they do not receive their wages, if they are unable to buy basic foodstuffs, if their lives are threatened.

Therefore, I see no contradiction in your question to me. It is obvious that the social contract goes back not only to the well-known theories of the 17th and 18th centuries, but also to our Constitution.

NOVAYA GAZETA: Are you suggesting that you can offer Russia both freedom and prosperity?

DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Yes.

*Read the full interview here.

*Photo at top of post: Obama and Medvedev matyroshka dolls from a Moscow bazaar, via Foreign Policy Report

In Russia, White House Kitchen Garden Makes First Lady More Popular Than President

Russian interviewer shares "a secret" with the President...
President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama depart for Russia today with daughters Malia and Sasha, to begin a week of foreign travel; they'll be in Moscow tomorrow through July 8 (Above: The First Family at Andrews Air Force Base, about to board Air Force One for the trip).

In advance of the trip, the President gave his first interview to Russian media, which was shot on July 2 in the Map Room at the White House, and aired yesterday on ITAR-TASS/Rossiya TV. Under discussion: Russian-US relations, the nuclear threat, global security. The interviewer, who spoke pretty good English, said to the President: For the new President, your plate is awfully full, and then toward the end of the interview, brought up food issues.

The questions from the Interviewer, below, are verbatim.

Interviewer: How comfortable, your family -- your wife, your daughters, first of all, your mother-in-law -- (laughter) -- feel here in White House as a new home?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, you know, we’ve gotten used to it. When we first got here, obviously it’s much bigger and fancier than anything that we had lived in in the past. And what we’ve discovered is, is that -- the second and the third floor is where we live, and it is actually a very comfortable space. And the people, the staffs are just wonderful and very supportive. What I haven’t gotten used to is still the difference of being President where you can’t just go down to the street and go to the local restaurant or go to the --

Interviewer: But you visited a restaurant two weeks ago.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, we did, but these days now I have 15 Secret Service cars -- (laughter) -- and helicopters and so I miss sometimes being able to just walk around like an ordinary person. But it’s a small sacrifice to make for the privilege.

Interviewer: Well, I tell you a secret, Mr. President. Maybe you don't know, but your wife, Michelle, may be more popular in Russia than you. You know why?

THE PRESIDENT: Why?

Interviewer: Because of the garden kitchen.

THE PRESIDENT: Oh.

Interviewer: Because kitchen gardens very popular in Russia, and when she started to make a kitchen garden around the White House she became very popular. But historically, role of the First Lady very important in the United States. What do you think about her role in your presidency?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, she’s done just an extraordinary job. Her first role is to make sure that our children are doing well. And our two girls, Malia and Sasha, are just special young ladies, and they have made the adjustment very well, and that’s because Michelle is such a good mother...And then she’s also, I think, been an inspiration to a lot of women here in the United States who combine careers with parenting. I think she is somebody who they can identify with because she’s had to balance a lot of different issues. So she’s doing a marvelous job. I’m very, very proud of her.

The Interviewer presented the President with an Obama Matryoshka doll at the end of their chat; these are the traditional folk craft nesting dolls that are popular in Russia (in pic: an Obama Matryoshka, and a Medvedev Matryoshka).

*Read the full text of the ITAR-TASS/Rossiya TV interview here.

*Getty photos

Independence Day Tea Party At Southfork Ranch

The Cons celebrated Independence Day in a very special way yesterday: There was a Tea Party at South Fork Ranch in Dallas. The anti-government shindig didn't get a ton of media coverage, but of course Ob Fo is ravingly interested, thanks to the food symbolism.

The Cons adopted Tea as their symbol of choice in February, as a nod to the historic pre-Revolutionary War tea dumping in Boston Harbor. On April 15, Tea Parties were held around America, and big crowds turned out to express dissatisfaction with all kinds of Obama admin initiatives. Ob Fo was at the DC Tea Party--which was extra interesting because there was no actual tea allowed, thanks to DC park service restirctions. And that particular party seemed to have been masterminded by Fox News; reporter Griff Jenkins was veddy veddy friendly with the DC organizers.

Yesterday's Tea Party in Dallas had a pretty specific set of objectives: Promoting limited government, fiscal responsibility, personal responsibility, the rule of law and national sovereignty. Organizers claimed that 50,000 people would show up to engage in fun activities such as mailing postcards to Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle, which demand (yet again...yawn) that she release the President's birth certificate (pic at the top of the post); the Cons are still trying to claim the President is not an Amerikan. But Dallas Morning News reports that the event had more like a couple hundred people attend--maybe. Of course Con Hottie Michelle Malkin was critically involved; check out her site here.

*Related: RNC CHair Michael Steele on teabaggery is here.

What Will Obama Foodorama Discuss On The Radio Tonight?

This evening, your intrepid blogger will be on CBS radio 830 WCCO for a chat about...the usual...with on-air talk maven Jearlyn Steele, who hosts Steele Talkin'. Tune in live! if you're in or near Minneapolis, Minnesota; or listen online here at 8:00 PM Eastern, 7:00 PM Central, 5:00 PM Pacific time.

With luck, we'll cover fun topics such as the Folk Foodways of the White House, Presidential and First Family eats during public outings, Obama food art, Senator-elect Al Franken, and, perhaps, people who insist on further demolishing their reputations by repeating false facts about the White House Kitchen Garden, even though they've already been publicly spanked--er, thoroughly corrected--on the topic. Looking forward to it!!

White House Independence Day Barbecue: A Unique Backyard, The "Unmistakable Joys of Being An American"

The Obama family gathered on the State Balcony of the South Portico of the White House to welcome 1,200 guests to their Independence Day barbecue, which honored military service people and their families, and included wounded veterans from the Walter Reed Medical Center (above). During the President's remarks, the First Family was flanked by 21 servicemen and one service woman, who'd been chosen by their own branches of the Armed Forces as special heroes.

The President said:

...although this backyard is a little bit unique, our gathering tonight is not so different from gatherings that are taking place all across the country, in parks and fields and backyards all across America. In small towns and big cities, folks are firing up grills, laughing with family and friends, and laying out a blanket in preparation for the big show. They're reliving the simple, unmistakable joys of being an American.

It was Malia Obama's eleventh birthday, and the President noted that when she was younger, he used to tell her that the fireworks were for her. "I'm not so sure she believes that anymore," he said, to laughter from the crowd. Malia had an American flag painted on her right cheek.

The President praised military service men and women, and promised continued support:

The United States of America is proud of you. I'm proud to be your Commander-in-Chief. And that's why, this Fourth of July, I renew my pledge to each and every one of you -- that for as long as I have that immeasurable honor, you will always have the equipment and support you need to get the job done. Your families will always be a priority of Michelle's and mine...

The President credited the “brave efforts” of U.S. troops for enabling the military to transfer control to all Iraqi cities and towns to Iraqi security forces this week. He said those efforts were allowing “a sovereign and united Iraq” to take control of its own destiny.

On the picnic menu: Grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, potato salad, watermelon slices, corn on the cob, garden salad with walnuts and cheese, ice cream, lemonade, Coke and Pepsi products, Sam Adams Light and Stoudts American Pale Ale (with a big American flag on the label) from the Adamstown, PA microbrewery. Grills were set up outdoors, and all the White House chefs worked the line, assisted by visiting culinary students from Brainfood, who have been interning in the kitchen this week.

The USO hosted the entertainment, and Jimmy Fallon, the host of NBC’s “Late Night,” emceed the event. The Marine Band performed (in pic, marching through the South Lawn). Singer Michelle Branch played a short set, and the Foo Fighters were the headliners. They got through about a half dozen of their hits, then stopped early to make way for the fireworks display on the National Mall, which started during the middle of their final song. There were lots of kid-friendly activities: Volleyball (above), basketball, face painting, Uncle Sam roaming around on ten-foot-tall stilts.

White House staff and their families and senior advisers also attended the bash. (Above: The President and First Lady shook hands with guests for about twenty minutes during the picnic).

*Press was pooled, and they were tossed out after the President's remarks. Photo credits, top to bottom: Alex Brandon, AP; AP; AP; Pete Souza/White House; Getty

Independence Day 2009: How We Got Here, What It Means, And Writing The Next Chapter In The American Story

At the White House this evening, the Independence Day picnic will honor military families, as President and Mrs. Obama continue to remind us all that without our heroic service men and women, who do far more than just bear arms in the name of their fellow Americans, the US would not be the great nation we're all privileged to live in. There'll be 1,200 guests at a barbecue on the South Lawn, and in keeping with good ol' American tradition, the menu is straight-on old school July 4th picnic: Grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, potato salad, watermelon slices, corn on the cob, garden salad with walnuts and cheese, ice cream, lemonade, Coke and Pepsi products, Sam Adams Light and Stoudts American Pale Ale (with a big American flag on the label) from the Adamstown, PA microbrewery. The Foo Fighters, Michelle Branch and the Marine Band will perform; Jimmy Fallon will emcee the event. Guests will be able to watch the awesome fireworks show that takes place over the Washington Monument when it's dark. Today is Malia's eleventh birthday; Happy Birthday Malia! (Pic: This AM, the President and First Lady arrive back at the White House from Camp David, where they were celebrating Malia's birthday)

It took a lot of hard work from the grassroots to get the President elected, the kind of revolutionary gumption and initiative that helped transform America from the original 13 Colonies to a great nation. This blog has archived the foodie elements of that drive for change (such as the cake, above, made by "dragonfly79," and the one at the top of the post, by Sarah Ramey); they're just some of the millions of Obama foodstuffs from Campaign Season. But it's a spirit that has threaded through the entire fabric of the cultural consciousness for more than two hundred years, which has flourished in times of peace and times of war, in times of plenty and times of hardship. Today, in his weekly address, President Obama perfectly sums this up:

Today, we are called to remember not only the day our country was born – we are also called to remember the indomitable spirit of the first American citizens who made that day possible. We are called to remember how unlikely it was that our American experiment would succeed at all; that a small band of patriots would declare Independence from a powerful empire; and that they would form, in the new world, what the old world had never known – a government of, by, and for the people. That unyielding spirit is what defines us as Americans.

Bake sales, pancake breakfasts, picnics, and pot-luck dinners were some of the critical grassroots tools used to focus efforts to get the President elected. These speak to the creativity that is inherent in the American Spirit, to a longing for a sweeter, kinder time, to the values of making something enduring and transcendent from scratch--whether it's a cake, or a new America. Now, the President and First Lady are asking everyone to focus this kind of 'culinary passion' on service; the Summer of Service campaign has key food initiatives, such as food bank drives and community garden projects (yep, had to toss a pitch in for this, because it's a swell thing). Check out the United We Serve website here, to start your own project. It's all a part of the First Lady's campaign to encourage the country to re-think the connections between food and health, which is vitally important to enacting change, across the board, in our country. It was the small, local militias organizing into a larger army for the greater good of a new America that transformed the collection of colonies into a nation; and the same is true now, when local action is critical to create change, no matter what action theatre is chosen, as we "write the next chapter in the American story." And we're lucky to be able to do so. Listen to The President's Independence Day message, here. (The lovely cake, above, was made by Brian Ferris, who blogs at Traditional Cake)

Happy Fourth of July To All!

Adios, Sarah Palin

Your intrepid blogger was a very bizzy baker during Campaign Season, and created foodie iconography for a variety of candidates, including this Sarah Palin cupcake, which became pretty popular on the internets. Now it's time to wish her a final farewell, as Governor Palin steps down from office and rides her domesticated moose off into obscurity. Or into a campaign for 2012...but good luck with all that.

White House Fourth of July Barbecue Honors Military Families; Foo Fighters Will Perform

Obama daughter Malia will share her 11th birthday tomorrow with more than 1,200 guests for the big Independence Day bash at the White House, hosted by President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. The event will honor military service people and their families, and include White House staff and their families, too. As a side note, this is the first Obama family birthday to be celebrated at the White House, and may be the only one for 2009. The First Lady's birthday was just prior to Inauguration Day, and last month, Sasha's birthday was celebrated in France. In August, during President Obama's birthday, the family will most likely be on Martha's Vineyard, an island in the Atlantic off the coast of Massachusetts, for a brief vacation.

Perhaps Malia will get all hipster now that she's a tween, because the Foo Fighters will be playing at the Independence Day picnic, thanks to intense lobbying by staffers who really are hipsters (Foos, in pic). The Marine Band will also perform, and the event will culminate with fireworks. The South Lawn provides the best view in DC of the fireworks display that takes place each year over the Washington Monument.

Special event souvenir stadium cups have been created by JH Specialty, an Indiana firm (if you squint, you can see the special logo in the photo). Of course American flags and other traditional Fourth of July swag will be all over the South Lawn, too.

The White House Culinary Academy Welcomes Students From Brainfood

The "White House Culinary Academy" has been going at full boil this week. Ten kids from DC non-profit Brainfood have joined the White House chefs in prepping for the huge 4th of July picnic for military families that President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will host tomorrow on the South Lawn of the White house.

Brainfood runs a series of after-school and summer culinary programs for high school students that includes classes ranging from kitchen safety to international cuisine. It's geared toward helping kids learn all kinds of life skills using the culi arts as a focus, rather than creating future chefs. The Brainfood students have gotten excellent cooking tips as they worked alongside Executive Chef Cris Comerford, assistant chef Sam Kass, Executive Pastry Chef Bill Yosses, and his assitant Susie Morrison. A big job this week has been shucking corn, because 1,200 guests are invited to the July 4 BBQ. The visiting students also helped prep for last Thursday's White House Luau, as well as last Friday's staff picnic. (Above: Sam Kass with Brainfood kids)

Of course the Brainfoodies visited the White House Kitchen Garden with Sam Kass (above), where they planted tomatoes, as well as got a lecture on the biocycler, the special composter that uses food waste from the kitchen.

Giving tours of the garden has become a regular part of Chef Kass's schedule, in addition to everything else he does. He's also developing a culi and garden curriculum for schools, according to White House sources. (Below: Chef Kass and the biocycler)

The President On Policy, Putin...And Pie

AP writer Jennifer Loven sat down with President Obama yesterday for a huge, comprehensive interview in advance of his departure for Russia on Sunday (pictured, above). They covered tons of ground, from unemployment through nuclear threats...and of course there were some food issues discussed. The President noted that good nutrition is as important as a good education in terms of "leveling the playing field" and making race a non-issue, an idea that has been a critical focus in the admin for months. And then things got giddy. At the end of the interview, Ms. Loven asked if there was time for "a couple quick, fun questions," and the President agreed to answer:

Ms. Loven: Tell people something about the White House that they might know, some secret about this building that they might not know.

President Obama: Some secret about — the pastry chef here makes the best pie I've ever tasted, and that is causing big problems for Michelle and myself. I mean, whatever you, whatever pie you like, he will make it, and it will be the best pie you've ever eaten. And so we are having to figure out how to resist ordering pie every night.

It's pretty amusing that Ms. Loven was fishing for perhaps a ghost story, or a detail about the Lincoln Bedroom, but the President instead answered with praise for Executive Pastry Chef Bill Yosses, whom he's previously referred to as 'The Crust Master.' That's the kind of thing that seals his rep as the foodiest president since Thomas Jefferson. In a March interview with Oprah, the First Lady noted that the White House pie is "dangerously good."

*Pastry Chef Yosses has been at the White House since 2007, and formerly worked at NY restaurants Bouley and Citarella, and helped open Paul Newman's Westport, Connecticut restaurant Dressing Room. He's also the co-author of Amazon bestseller Desserts for Dummies. A recipe for his cobbler is here. Jennifer Loven is the President of the White House Correspondent's Association, and she sat beside the President during the recent Nerd Prom, the annual black-tie affair at which the President is gently roasted. This year, Ms. Loven was critically involved in the Obama Bread Bye-Bye. Other Ob Fo coverage of the dinner is here.

*AP photo.

Lunch Counter Sit Ins And The Civil Rights Act

President Obama noted the 45th anniversary of the passage of the Civil Rights Act today. Lunch counter sit-ins were a major part of the years-long non-violent protest campaigns that ultimately led to the passage of the Act, so of course these are highlighted in the President's remarks:

Forty-five years ago today, President Johnson signed into law historic legislation that moved America closer toward fulfilling the dream of our founding – a dream of opportunity, equality, and justice for all. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended legal discrimination, helping grant all Americans equal justice under the law – no matter what their gender or the color of their skin. The Civil Rights Act was born during Freedom Summer 1963, but its passage was only possible because generations of Americans of all backgrounds stood up, sat down, and marched in freedom’s cause. Once it was signed into law, a renewed pledge was made to all Americans not to deny any man a seat at a lunch counter, not to deny any woman an opportunity in the workplace, and not to deny any child a chance to make the most of their God-given potential. But while the Civil Rights Act opened doors of freedom and opportunity, we know that far too many inequities and barriers remain in the African-American community and across this country. And we must continue to break down these barriers in our laws, our policies, and our hearts so that we can not only fulfill the full promise of the Civil Rights Act, but perfect the union that our founders created two hundred and thirty-three years ago this week.

*Photo of the President this morning via Getty. Sit in photo from UPI: North Carolina A&T college students – Ronald Martin, Robert Patterson and Mark Martin – sat down to integrate this Greensboro, N.C., Woolworth lunch counter on Feb. 2, 1960

Huffington Post Calls It A Food Fight; Really, It's A Fact "Fright" To Claim The White House Kitchen Garden Is Contaminated

The White House Kitchen Garden Gets Sludged Again
Much thanks to all the readers who wrote in about Andrew Kimbrell's The Obama Organic Family Garden: Swimming in Sludge? which materialized out of the pooposphere of poor fact checking on Huffington Post last night. Mr. Kimbrell was sourcing his story on lead contamination at the White House directly from the June 17 Mother Jones story by Josh Harkinson, Did Sewage Sludge Lace The White House Veggie Garden With Lead? --which Ob Fo had already dismantled. But apparently Mr. Kimbrell doesn't read Obama Foodorama. Or he just really, really wanted to write about sewage sludge, and suggesting that the Obamas are "swimming in it" seemed like a savvy turn of phrase (Above: First Lady Michelle Obama at the recent summer garden harvest, with students from Bancroft Elementary School)

Anyway, Ob Fo posted a piece correcting the record on Huffington Post earlier today, which gives a big dose of lead fact checking to Mr. Kimbrell's piece--and to the Mother Jones story again (HuffPostGreen is tweeting this as Food Fight!). Regular Ob Fo readers will recognize the response as a shortened version of the interviews with Dr. Kimberly Gray of Northwestern University, Dr. Gabriel Filippelli of Indiana University, and Dr. David L. Johnson of SUNY that previously appeared here at Ob Fo about the same lead myths.

But Mr. Kimbrell also apparently failed to notice Mother Jones's June 24 update to Harkinson's post on sewage sludge, which says:

UPDATE: The blog Obama Foodorama interviewed lead experts who pointed out that 93 ppm is not an unusual level of lead in urban soils. That level is still well above natural levels and the EPA's own 56 ppm "ecological soil screening level"---hence my reasonable assertion that the garden is "contaminated with lead"--but the contamination could also be the product of old exhaust from lead-based fuel. Of course, it won't be possible to know the background lead level on the South Lawn unless someone sampled it before sludge was applied (a White House spokesman did not return a phone call). Given that lead levels in sludge can legally be way higher than what was found on the Obama garden, I still believe lead could be a factor in the 93 ppm, but how much of a factor will be hard to say.

Okay, the last sentence makes no sense...lead IS a factor in the 93 ppm, so perhaps the writer means sludge...but Mother Jones did make a nod at clarification.

But That Update Didn't Include A Conversation That The Mother Jones Writer Had Which Further Corrected The Record
Dr. Filippelli, the soils expert quoted in both of Ob Fo's pieces, has just e-mailed this bit of alarming info:

I was already contacted by the original author [Harkinson] of the Mother Jones piece, and I explained on the phone why I would not be concerned by those Pb levels, and why indeed the sludge may have not had any negative impacts on the garden soil itself, at least in terms of heavy metals.

This particular conversation wasn't mentioned in Mother Jones's update, perhaps because it would bust their story.

Anyway, it continues to interest your intrepid blogger that some of the people who are most likely to take media stabs at the White House Kitchen Garden are those who profess themselves to be champions of environmental stewardship and of a food system that's local, sustainable, and organic. Mr. Kimbrell is executive director of the Center For Food Safety, which has done good work in raising awareness about important food issues. It's unclear what could have possibly possessed him to not fact check a piece on such a high-profile topic as the WHKG, and urban gardening and lead issues in general. It's also unclear why such a terrific project as the garden is the subject of continuing attempts at malignment from other folks who are supposedly working to promote the kind of changes that the garden itself seems to symbolize. Many other food and gardening blogs posted about the Mother Jones sludge/lead contamination, too, without fact checking. Even very reputable ones.

The other bizarre element to the whole bashing thing is that anyone who thinks the White House left a single stone unturned in planning the garden is...what's the most delicate, diplomatic, term? Oh yeah, silly. The White House was well aware that the first food garden planted on the campus since WWII was going to be big news. Of course all details were accounted for. Of course appropriate testing was conducted. The White House has the finest minds in America, experts in every field, available for consultation. It's beyond silly to imagine that the garden wasn't thoroughly "vetted."

There's no question that toxic sludge issues are a critical part of the environmental conversation in America, and something that deserves continued coverage. But attempting to use the White House Kitchen Garden as the poster object for this is ridiculous.

As a side note: Still giggling over Mr. Kimbrell calling the White House Kitchen Garden "The Obama Organic Family Garden." OOFG is the sound your intrepid blogger makes when reading specious things about the White House Kitchen Garden.

*Photos by Samantha Appleton/White House