Movie review: Farmageddon

It sounds so absurd that everyone who hears about it assumes there must be more to the story. A family in Ohio is held at gunpoint for hours because they run a natural food buying club. After three raids, a California goat farmer sells all of her goats for fear of losing them. After a year of quarantine, a Vermont dairy loses all of its sheep -- not to a disease or a bear or a common thief, but to the same bully that held the Ohio family at gunpoint and harassed the California farmer -- the U. S. government. No, there were no illegal drugs. There were no illegal guns. There was nothing illicit, yet these law-abiding citizens were treated exactly as if they were producing and selling deadly street drugs to children. What were these people doing that caused SWAT teams to descend upon their farms and point loaded weapons at their children? They were selling raw milk. Yes, raw milk.

Saturday, Mike, Margaret, and I went to Chicago to see the documentary Farmageddon, which is about the government's harassment of farmers who sell raw milk. I had heard most of the stories before, but I always had a few lingering questions in the back of my head, and this movie answered them and gave me lots more information. Throughout the movie we meet farmers who are intelligent, articulate, and educated -- two of them have PhDs -- and we learn over and over again that the FDA and USDA harassed them without cause. No one died. No one even got sick. There were no lab test results indicating that someone might get sick. There was simply a bureaucrat who decided that another small farm needed to be shut down. Since 1970, 88 percent of America's dairy farms have disappeared, and they have been replaced by corporate-owned factory farms.

Since this harassment started, farmers have been getting smarter and started connecting over the Internet to share their experiences and advice. Unlike the sheep farmers who naively complied with the USDA's demands a decade ago, thinking that they could work through the system -- only to have the USDA take their sheep and kill them ten days before their hearing in a court of law -- today's farmers are fighting back, taking videos and pictures of the raids and calling friends and customers to serve as witnesses to the raids. Filmmaker Kristin Canty used a lot of this footage in the movie so that we could see exactly what is happening. It is scary and shocking and infuriating.

It is scary to me as a person with milk goats who sells a small amount of milk legally in my state. It is shocking to me as a person who believes that justice will prevail. And it is infuriating to me as a tax-paying citizen that literally millions of dollars has been spent on surveillance of innocent farmers who are merely trying to make a living doing what they love and what they believe in.

No one is saying that all milk should be raw or that pasteurization should be abandoned. They are merely saying that as free people, we should be allowed to choose. As one woman says in the movie, she could have legally smoked cigarettes every day when she pregnant and no one would have tried to stop her, but she can't buy raw milk in her state. Why do some states make raw milk illegal when it is perfectly legal for corporations to sell us edible food-like substances with ingredient lists that read like chemical formulas rather than recipes? They say it is because raw milk can make people sick, but that's like saying the sky is blue. ANY food can make you sick if it is improperly handled, including pasteurized milk. In the last few years, people have died from eating tainted spinach, green onions, peanuts, and most recently, strawberries! And no one was arrested in those cases. The reality is that milk produced in a factory farm needs to be pasteurized, but that's a discussion for another day.

Yours truly (left) with filmmaker Kristin Canty (right)

We attended a special showing of the film at the Gene Siskel Center in Chicago that started with a meet-n-greet prior to the film screening. We were lucky enough to meet Canty and talk to her about why she decided to make the movie. I knew this was her debut film, but the amazing thing is that she had no experience or education in film making. She was "just a mom" of four children, one who had very bad allergies, and when she started buying raw milk, her son's allergies disappeared. When she learned about the harassment of raw milk farmers, she told friends about it, but no one believed her. Everyone said there must be drugs or guns involved or something besides milk. Then she started writing letters to film makers, telling them they should make a movie, but this was when Food, Inc had just come out, and everyone was telling her that the world wasn't ready for another food movie. So, Canty decided to make the film herself because it was a story that had to be told.

In the Q&A after the movie, Canty said that although the movie is in limited release, some key people are seeing it, and it looks like it will be showing on Capitol Hill soon. She also heard through the grapevine that Big Ag is planning to start spending millions to fight the negative images presented about factory farming in movies like Food, Inc and Farmageddon. So this is what it's all about -- money. Rather than improving their practices and their own farms, which would result in a healthier planet, healthier animals, healthier food, and healthier people, they are planning to throw a few million at marketing in an attempt to convince consumers to continue buying their products.

Online auction, author interview, and trip to Antiquity

I don't remember how I heard about Brenda Novak's Online Auction for Diabetes Research, but I knew immediately that I wanted to help. Last year, I donated a scarf made from our llama and sheep wool. I wrote the biography of the two animals that donated their fiber for the scarf, which I sent to the winner, along with photos of the animals.

This year, I'm donating a five-day, four-night stay at Antiquity Oaks, including all meals. Click here to learn more about what else is included. If you have no interest in bidding on a homesteading vacation, I would still encourage you to head over to the auction and check out all the incredibly cool things that have been donated, like lunches with best-selling authors, a trip to Mexico, books, and jewelry.


I asked Brenda Novak to join us today, because I'm sure she can answer your questions better than I can. To get started, I've asked her a few questions. And in case you didn't click on Brenda's link yet, she's a romance novelist, so there are lots of books in the auction, as well as manuscript critiques by agents and editors, which are very hard to come by. Usually agents just send you a form rejection letter, and you have no idea why they didn't want to represent your work. If you're a writer, you should check those out.

Deborah: Lots of people have children with diabetes, but most of them are not out there raising hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. What made you decide to do something like this?

Brenda: From the moment my son was diagnosed I wanted to do something to fight back. It's that old instinct of wanting to protect the child who's threatened, I guess. But as I've gotten more and more involved in fundraising I've realized that Thad isn't the only reason I do it. There are SO many out there in the same situation. Too many. I believe this is a disease we can beat, and I'm making it my life's mission to push for a cure.

Deborah: What are your favorite items in this year's auction?

Brenda: Oh boy! There are so many! LOL I would love to come to Antiquity Oaks. I've never even heard of another place like it so I think that opportunity is a special one. Beyond that, the Marilyn Sears Bourbon painting is one of my very favorites. She is an amazing artist. I own three of her paintings already and would love to have this one, too. The trip to Hawaii from Jane Porter sounds like a dream come true. I think it would be a blast to head over and relax on the beach. Then there are the Coach purses from Anna DeStefano, a ton of autographed books from Booklovers Bookstore, the Treasure Trove from Lauren Hawkeye and the antique jewelry from Dianne Despain. I often pour through those categories. Oh, and I salivate over the opportunities, thinking about how much I would've enjoyed buying agent and editor reads when I was unpublished. I'm very happy with my publisher (love, love, love my editor) and my agent and yet I'm tempted to bid on these reads just because I see them as golden. And they are golden! We've had writers find an agent through the auction. One writer even sold her book to Harlequin because of the auction.

The author critiques are some of the best bargains. These people do such a good job in helping those who win their feedback. We even have New York Times Bestselling Authors doing some of these critiques (as well as authors who will one day hit the big lists ).

The promotion items for published authors always get me excited, too. MJ Rose has donated a fabulous AuthorBuzz package I'd love to have. Heather Graham has donated a trip to New Orleans for the Writer's for New Orleans Conference over Labor Day. It would be wonderful to win either of those things. And I'd dearly love to have lunch with Catherine Coulter, Barry Eisler or Diana Gabaldon, all of which have been generous to donate their time.

I could go on all day, as you can tell. LOL There are 2000 items--including an iPad from Nancy Berland Public Relations (something I have my eye on). But I do want to mention what's new this year. I'm sponsoring a writing contest via the auction. All entry fees go to research, of course, but the benefit to the writer is this: a panel of New York Times Bestselling Authors will judge the entries, I'll pick the winner from the finalists, and that winner will receive a six-month mentorship from me as well as guaranteed reads from my agent and my editor.

Deborah: Tell us about your son. What does Thad like to do? Does his diabetes slow him down at all?

Brenda: My son doesn't let diabetes slow him down at all. He's larger than life and, as the baby of the family, loved well and probably a bit too indulged. He plays a lot of sports and loves to buy tools and fix things. He's an entrepreneur in the making--always planning how he's going to make money by starting this business or that. I don't know that I've ever met a more capable or loving child. He has a great sense of humor and loves people of all kinds. I do wish he'd be more careful with his diabetes, however. He doesn't want to have the disease so he often tries to ignore it, which is very dangerous.

Deborah: What does the future look like for Thad and other children with diabetes?

Brenda: I think it looks very bright! I believe we'll find a cure that will enable my son and all the other children (and adults) with diabetes to live longer, healthier and more comfortable lives.

And it's not too late to make a donation. I heard about the auction last year when there was only a week or two left, but I contacted Brenda and asked if I could make a donation. If you'd like to donate an item to the auction, just click here and let Brenda know about it!

If you have any questions, post it in the comment section, and Brenda will be checking in today to respond.

Visit with author of "Complete Idiot's Guide to Composting"

If your attempts at gardening have not been all that successful, don't give up. I grew great plots of weeds for years before I finally got it figured out. And I'm still learning more every year. My biggest mistake was that I thought I could just plant seeds and they'd grow. Ha! Then I heard that compost was a good organic fertilizer, so I figured you just pile things up, and they rot, right? Well, yeah, sort of.

Today we have a visit from Chris McLaughlin, author of The Complete Idiots Guide to Composting. If you want to grow organically, this is one of those skills that you simply must acquire. And it's a great way to make a lot of your garbage magically disappear. I had a few questions for Chris, so here goes --

Deborah: How did you get interested in gardening?

Chris: I started gardening when I was 14 years old...so, several years ago for sure *grin*. I had a couple of tomato plants, and marigolds the first time around. I was surprised how much I enjoyed watching plants mature.

Deborah: How or when did you start writing?

Chris: I started writing in the 4th grade - seriously. I remember my 4th grade teacher telling me that I should be a writer. Of course, like all young writers, I dreamed of fiction and played with it on and off for years. Later, I realized how nice it was to share what I had been learning with other people and it dawned on me that non-fiction wasn't as boring as I had once thought, LOL. Because my love for growing things stayed with me and I delved more and more into the subject - it was natural for me to write about that.

Deborah: Why did you write a book on composting? It doesn't seem like a topic that would need a whole book to address it.

Chris: I was actually pedaling around another non-fiction book that I was writing about suburban farming (homesteading, or however you look at it). I had some great responses but I began to realize that the market was about to become saturated with this very topic. Instead of trying to push something that already had many voices, I decided to think ahead of the curve. What was it that all of the new gardeners (per the Victory Garden movement) out there were going to need? Ahhh...soil! New gardeners were about to be amazed at just how crappy their soil was - and I had the remedy: compost. By dumb luck, I had an agent interested in representing me at the very same time that a pub house was looking for someone who could write a composting book...it all just lined up right.

By the way, I'd been an avid composter for years and was thrilled at the success I had with rabbit manure. I can create compost REALLY fast with my rabbits.

Deborah: What are you doing in your garden right now?

Chris: Oh, my. Well, I always have perennials and shrubs going on...my husband loves Japanese maples and I love propagating, LOL. In my veggie garden I'm growing all heirlooms this year and trying varieties I've never tried before. I have 13 varieties of tomatoes but 42 of them..hehehe. Lettuce, broccoli, all kinds of mild peppers, carrots, cucumbers, beans, squash, radishes, watermelons - oh I'm growing Moon & Stars watermelon and a couple other delicious-looking ones that I have no idea where I'm going to fit them... I also end up tucking lots of annuals in everywhere to bring in the beneficial insects. This is also the first time that I'll be growing some gourmet beans for a local chef's restaurant and I'm super excited about that.

If any of you have questions about gardening or composting, click on "Comment" and start typing. Chris has agreed to hang around today and answer your questions. And she is also giving away a copy of her composting book! So, if you'd like to win a copy, just leave a comment, and you'll be automatically entered to win. Deadline to enter is Wednesday at midnight, central time, and Chris will mail the book to the winner as soon as it is available May 4.

Visit with gardening author (and a give-away)

We have a visit today from Sheri Ann Richerson, one of the authors of The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Year-Round Gardening, as well as 101 Organic Gardening Tips, 101 Gardening For Beginners Tips, 101 Ways To Self-Sufficiency Through Your Garden Tips and 101 Tips For The Secret Life Of A Gardener.

Deborah: How did you get interested in gardening? Did you have a green thumb, or did you have to really work at it?

Sheri: My grandmother grew roses and various flowers. Both grandfathers raised vegetables. My parents also had a garden. I hated gardening because I hated the spiders that lived in the strawberry patch my mother made me weed!

When I got my own place, my mother kept bringing me flats of impatiens. I planted them simply to make her feel better. Then, about a year before she died, I discovered herbs. Not only were they useful, but they were so fragrant. I fell in love with candy mint!

From there I looked for fragrant, unusual plants to grow. I have grown cloves, nutmeg, chocolate (Theobroma cacao) and everything in between including impatiens which I have grown to enjoy in the shade garden!

I must have a green thumb because most of what I grow thrives.

Deborah: What are you doing right now in your garden or greenhouse?

Sheri: I'm planting early season crops outside, under cover - sugar snap peas, spinach, cabbage, potatoes, radish, etc. We are re-doing the greenhouse and considering adding ponds under the benches to grow catfish. I am working really hard this year to grow enough food to live on as well as add more crops to the winter garden so there is more fresh produce year-round.

Deborah: What inspired you to start writing about gardening?

Sheri: I was given a greenhouse as a gift. I was sent all kinds of seeds from all over the world through people I met online. I was writing about Harley-Davidson motorcycles when I saw a post for freelance writers on Suite101. I applied to be a writer for a topic called Tropicals and Exotics. I figured I might as well write about a topic I was researching anyway. I was accepted. The topic has been retired, but I am still a writer with them.

Deborah: What do you say to people who don't have a green thumb?

Sheri: Anyone can garden! Most people make one of two mistakes - they either over-water or under-water. Once they learn how to properly water, properly fertilize and give the plant the right amount of light, they will be amazed at what they can do!

Thanks for joining us today, Sheri!

If anyone has any questions for Sheri, just holler. She's agreed to check in a few times today to respond. And if you'd like a copy of Sheri's newest book, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Year-Round Gardening, just make a comment, and you'll be automatically entered. The deadline is midnight central time Sunday.

Chat with Wild Fibers publisher

A couple weeks ago, I was surfing the Web and found this amazing magazine that reports on fiber animals. We're not just talking sheep and goats here. No, they travel the world visiting with people who raise animals that produce all sorts of fiber -- from alpaca to qiviut to yaks! As soon as I found the magazine, I thought of all of you. I know a lot of my readers love fiber, fiber animals, and fiber art. So, today we're visiting with Wild Fibers editor and publisher Linda Cortright, pictured above with a qiviut. I've asked her a few questions, and she's agreed to pop in a few times today to answer any questions that you have! Also, Linda is offering a 20% subscription discount to Antiquity Oaks readers who call in their subscription today!

Deborah: Which came first, your interest in fibers or fiber animals, and how did that happen?

Linda: I am one of those people who grew up knitting Fisherman’s sweaters from scratchy Irish wool. This was back in the days when the wool actually came from Ireland, and not Australia or New Zealand as most of it does now. Although I loved to knit, that particular experience didn’t get me terribly juiced about fibers. When I was in my late thirties, I made one of those “don’t look back” career changes and moved from suburban Philadelphia to rural Maine. I bought four cashmere goats, which simultaneously launched my ridiculous passion for fibers.

Deborah: Why did you decide to start a magazine devoted to fiber animals?

Linda: Wild Fibers is truly the byproduct of my own nosiness. Every time I would take my goats to a show, I would jump around the animal pens talking with other fiber folk. Hasn’t everyone done a little “tire-kicking” down the alpaca aisle at least once? I was fascinated by the histories of the different animals from around the world, and yet all of the publications only focused on a specific breed. “The Camelid Quarterly,” for example, is wonderful; but as a casual enthusiast, I don’t need to know how to trim llama hooves or build a holding pen. Wild Fibers has always been focused on different cultural traditions surrounding the fiber industry and less about the “how to” aspect of the industry.

Deborah: Do you have a background in publishing or journalism?

Linda: Obviously not, can’t you tell from all the typos? To this day I don’t really consider myself a writer. Even if I slept with Strunk and White under my pillow every night for a year, I would still do things with punctuation that would make a fifth grader howl. My professional background includes everything from being a dog groomer in Manhattan to working for CBS. Before I started Wild Fibers I was working for a non-profit on the coast of Maine helping to sustain island communities. My experience at the Island Institute is what gave me a deep appreciation for working with small, indigenous cultures – it is an art unto itself and critical for doing my job.

Deborah: Is there any particular article that will stick with you forever -- you know, the one you'll never forget?

Linda: There are a few articles that I confess every time I read them, they still make me laugh, and I even know the punch line is coming. But there is one article that to this day still puts a lump in my throat, “Surviving the Massacre” is about what happened to the farmers and their animals during the collectivization under Stalin. I had visited with a shepherd in northern Kazakhstan and after four hours it was all I could do not to keep from weeping on the floor. Often times there are parts of my job that are heart wrenching, and frequently, I don’t write about them unless the information can serve some greater good. But so very little has been written about this period in history because it has been buried with so many other Soviet secrets. It was one of the most remarkable interviews and will undoubtedly stay with me forever.

Deborah: Do you have a favorite fiber animal?

Linda: No, of course not… well, maybe one. I adore my cashmere goats, and even if they gave me bags of rug wool I would still feel the same way. I love the character of the goat; mischievous, playful, and equal parts devoted and yet distant. I have never met a goat that didn’t give me the giggles within the first thirty seconds. And on a purely superficial level, I have seen some seriously handsome bucks that would give my tail a twitch, or two!

Deborah: Do you have a favorite fiber art?

Linda: One of the great things about the fiber arts is that they adapt so well to different moods. There are some days when row after row of a complicated lace pattern really satisfies my OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) tendencies. And then, there are days when whacking about a hunk of wet wooly felt feels more satisfying than an extra large dish of ice cream. Unfortunately, sometimes projects get put on hold until I’m back in the right mood. I suppose as long as I stay moody, I won’t ever have a single favorite. Who knows, maybe my knitting is really about hormones.

Deborah: What about a favorite fiber?

Linda: If you looked in my closet you would probably say cashmere, but I think qiviut is the most divine fiber. You can throw it in the washing machine and it doesn’t felt or shrink. Why would anyone ever wear polar fleece when they can toss a qiviut sweater in the dryer? I understand that there’s a wee price difference, but qiviut is exquisitely soft, warm, and it goes to supporting native communities in the Arctic. I try to make informed choices about everything I buy, and though I am a huge proponent of buying local, I truly support efforts that help remote communities whose cultural heritage is in jeopardy. The wonderful thing about the natural fiber industry is that it affords us all the opportunity to help each other in so many wonderful and meaningful ways. How wild is that?

So, now it's your turn! If you have any questions about fiber, fiber animals, or fiber arts, just give Linda a holler in the comment section. And remember, she's only here today (Wednesday) -- and if you call in a subscription today, (207) 594-9455, just tell them you're an Antiquity Oaks reader, and you'll get a 20% discount off the regular subscription price of Wild Fibers.

Join us for a visit with Margaret Hathaway

When most of us fell in love with goats or goat cheese or mohair or whatever, we just moved to the country and bought a few goats. Yeah, we had a few surprises along the way, but in the end, it all sort of worked out. However, Margaret Hathaway and Karl Schatz decided to do things a little differently. They fell in love with goats when they lived in New York City, and although they did like goat cheese, they wanted to fully explore the goat world -- meat, fiber, packing, even the Chicago Cub's Curse of the Billy Goat -- before deciding exactly what kind of goats they wanted. So, they quit their jobs in 2003, put all their worldly possessions in storage and started a year-long exploration of goats across the United States. Their first book, The Year of the Goat (which I reviewed on the blog last year) was published two years ago, and it chronicled their journey from NYC professionals to nomads to goat farmers.

Their second book, Living with Goats, was published last month. Margaret describes it as "the book I wish I'd had when I first became captivated by these animals." (Margaret is the writer, and Karl is the photographer.) It covers all the basics of goatherding: housing, fencing, feeding, breeding, raising kids, health, goat milk, goat meat, and a final chapter on other uses for goats, like fiber, packing, and showing. Lists of resources round out the book, including supplies and equipment you will need, breed registries, equipment suppliers, and other books about goats.

We first met Karl and Margaret when they visited our farm in the spring of 2004, which she wrote about in Chapter 14 of The Year of the Goat, and there are a couple pictures of us in their new book. I asked Margaret if she'd join us on the blog today, and she agreed. She'll be checking in today to answer your questions, and she has also generously agreed to give away an autographed copy of each book to two lucky readers. So, if you're interested in winning either a copy of Year of the Goat or Living with Goats, just leave a comment and let us know which book you would like to have. It's okay to say both, but you can only win one, and you have to leave your comment by midnight central time Friday. Winners will be chosen randomly and posted Saturday.

There are a few questions I've been wanting to ask Margaret myself, so I thought I'd take this opportunity ...

Deborah: After visiting goat farms all over the country and discovering all the different uses, why did you ultimately decide on dairy goats and why Alpines?

Margaret: When Karl and I were traveling, our favorite breed changed with every visit. We'd meet someone who raised Boers or Cashmeres or Saanens, and we'd get caught up in their enthusiasm for their animals. Especially when goats are well cared for and in great condition, it's easy to fall in love with any breed! We ultimately decided to raise dairy goats because I wanted to experiment with cheese making. We also wanted our farm to be a small, integrated homestead, and to do that, it was essential to have at least one milk-producing animal. (Lately, I've been lobbying for a dairy cow, too, but that's a whole other story....) We chose Alpines because their coloring and markings vary so much--I love that each goat has its own look. That said, we did add a Saanen doeling to the herd this spring, and one of our does is half Boer--we fell in love with her before we noticed her ears!

Deborah: What has been your most memorable moment so far in your life with goats -- good or bad?

Margaret: I think the most memorable moment with goats, for me, has been delivering our first kid. Our younger daughter, Beatrice, was only two weeks old, and Karl had just gone back to work from his paternity leave, when we heard the commotion in the barn. The doe was still pretty slight, so we weren't even sure that she was bred, and suddenly I was in the barn with an infant strapped to me in the baby wrap, my 22-month-old daughter, Charlotte, propped on a bale of hay, and a kidding kit, a couple of goat handbooks, and a big stack of towels! During the whole birth, I completely identified with the doe because my own labor was so fresh in my mind. I kept involuntarily pushing when she had contractions! The scene was total chaos--Charlotte cheering on the mama goat one minute and crying hysterically the next, Beatrice needing to nurse part way through, me wondering what on earth I was doing trying to juggle so many babies. Thank goodness it was a smooth delivery! Karl made it home a few minutes after the kid was born, so we were able to clean him up (of course it was a buckling) as a team. But it was a wild morning!

Deborah: Can you ever see yourself going back to life in the city?

Margaret: No, I really can't. I love the energy of cities, and I like to visit big cities at least a couple of times a year, but the farm is our home. The whole rhythm of our life is agricultural now--from the goats to the poultry to the gardens and orchard. We enjoy the work, and the feeling of satisfaction that we get from eating food we've grown or raised ourselves. This Thanksgiving we roasted our own turkey, mashed our own potatoes, served our own fresh and aged cheeses and some chicken confit and turnip pickles for appetizers--it was truly something to be grateful for, and it was wonderful to share the fruits of the homestead with our guests. I love that our daughters understand where their food comes from and are so comfortable with animals. Managing the whole menagerie can be tricky sometimes, but we wouldn't trade it.

Deborah: It doesn't sound like you live out in the middle of nowhere like we do. Can you tell us a little about where your farm is located?

Margaret: Our homestead is in southern Maine, about half an hour's drive from Portland. By day, Karl is the director of Aurora Photos, an international stock photography agency that's based in Portland, so when we were looking for property, we had to be within reasonable commuting distance. Because we're in such a densely populated part of the state, our ten-acre farm is ringed by subdivisions--we're a little island of agriculture in a sea of McMansions. We live in a farmhouse with an attached barn that was built in 1901, and we've been gradually rehabilitating the barn and the property for agricultural use, adding pens, stringing fence, tilling the garden and pruning the orchard. It's amazing to be able to bring life back to what once must have been a bustling farm! And despite the crowing roosters and the occasional turkey slaughter, our neighbors seem to get a kick out of our farming adventures.

Deborah: Did you always see yourself as a writer, or did you start thinking about it after you became interested in goats?

Margaret: My parents are both writers and they teach in an MFA program, so writing is kind of the family business! I did work on a lot of writing projects before--including a couple of ghost-writing projects and a (terrible) novel that I was working on when we lived in New York--but I think the goats helped me to find my writing voice.

Deborah: Will you continue writing? Do you have plans for additional books?

Margaret: Yes, I will continue writing and I do have plans for more projects. Right now, I'm working on some essays about life on the homestead and I'm blogging on our web site, www.tenapplefarm.com/. I'm also planning a book project about life on the suburban homestead and how we're trying to find a balance between our agricultural life and being good, relatively normal neighbors. I'm not sure what shape the book will take, but it feels like a natural next project.

Okay, now don't be shy. If you have a question about goats, traveling, memoirs, or writing, post it in the comment section. And if you'd like to win one of her books, be sure to let us know before midnight Friday.

Foodies have a song!

Someone once said that to have a movement, you have to have a song. Well, now we have our song! About a week ago, I heard Million Dollar Nile's, "What You Don't Know," a song that basically sums up everything people need to know about their food -- and what's behind the subversive eating movement. The song talks about corn -- how it's in pretty much every processed food in the supermarket, how it's fed to livestock that can't digest it, how sugar and fat are subsidized by the government (through corn), and how it's leading to all kinds of medical problems.

I got so excited about the song, I played it for everyone in the family, and then I thought, why stop there? And besides that, we had a few questions that I really wanted to know the answer to -- and I thought that you, my real-food-loving readers, would love the song and want to know more about the band that came up with this amazing idea!

Band members Matt Swanson, Dan Stonington, and Nicole Comforto agreed to be my guests on Antiquity Oaks today, so in addition to answering my questions below, they're graciously agreed to drop in a few times in the next 24 hours to answer your questions!

Deborah: What inspired you to write this song? Have you read Michael Pollan's books or seen "King Corn"?

Matt: During the summer of '08 my wife and I spent two weeks kayaking in Glacier Bay, Alaska. After long days of paddling through the wilderness, we would kick back on the beach, cook a leisurely dinner, and read out loud. The book of choice was Michael Pollan's “The Omnivore's Dilemma.” In packing meals for the expedition, we had of course been concerned largely with weight, bulk, and cost, and thus had ended up with a disproportionate number of dried soup and stew mixes made by Bear Creek and the like. So as Michael Pollan launched into a critique of the industrial food system, one of us would follow along on the breathtaking lists of ingredients that adorned our discarded 'food' packaging. It was a horrifying experience--there were regular shouts of disbelief as Michael revealed yet another disturbing secret of the food industry. Each progressive ‘Progresso’ meal became harder to stomach, and the unbelievable dichotomy of pristine wilderness mixed with the daily ingesting of polysyllabic corn derivatives made a deep imprint in both of our minds. The song “What You Don’t Know” shortly followed our return home from this trip.

Deborah: That's so exciting that Omnivore's Dilemma made such a difference in your life! You mention a lot of health conditions in the song that are caused by a modern diet. Did any of you have health issues that served as a wake-up call?

Matt: I think we’re all fortunate to be young and relatively healthy, but just looking around it’s hard to miss the manifestations of our national eating disorder (as Pollan coins it). Obesity is the most obvious and prevalent affliction. One line of the song goes: “We’ve got diabetes and we’re chronically obese, from all this high fructose and all this subsidized grease.” I think this gets to the heart of the matter. By subsidizing the corn and soy industries so heavily, we’re driven to astonishingly low prices on such ingredients as high fructose corn syrup and soybean oil. Soda, fast food and other such low cost/high calorie foods are a logical outgrowth of such subsidies. The people who truly depend on such cheap options are in the low-income bracket, where obesity is most rampant. Thus, this becomes an issue of social justice, and I believe that what is happening is wrong.

Deborah: You have a long list of multi-syllabic ingredients that are in food. Are they all derivatives of corn? Did it all come from a particular label, or did you just pick a few random ingredients?

Matt: They are indeed all derivatives of corn which I tracked down on a corn allergy website. On it a woman by the name of Jenny Connors has assembled an extensive list of ingredients to be avoided by those with corn allergies. From this huge list, one can assemble most of the packaged food products sold in the supermarket.

Deborah: How has the song been received? Do people know what you're talking about? Do they care?

Matt: The song has been quite well received, and we often hear people referring fondly to “the corn song”. With the explosion of farmer’s markets and local, organic producers, this has been a really hot topic, and I think people appreciate our humorous portrayal of what can be an overwhelming and disturbing issue. In fact Michael Pollan himself came across this song and featured it recently in his newsletter.

So yes, I do think people know what we’re talking about, and they care deeply. We may be preaching to the choir at this point with our progressive-minded fans, but we’re hoping to broaden our audience and extend this message to more and more folks. In fact, to expedite this process, we are donating all the proceeds from our CD to non-profits focusing on sustainability. Here’s how it works: Anyone can go to our website, buy our CD for $10, and then nominate an organization that they think should receive the money. We’re hoping to start a ripple effect with this, so that lots of people get to enjoy our music and we get to donate a sizeable sum to a good cause. It’s a win-win (especially since we all have day jobs) so help us spread the word!

Deborah: Gladly! What's your diet like? Any tips for people attempting to navigate the food jungle and eat healthier?

Dan: Grow your own! One of my favorite lines from Matt's song is "if you really like organic then don't make it transatlantic" - so true. This summer for the first time in several years, I had a housemate with an avid green thumb. Nothing quite beats the convenience, health, and deliciousness of coming home after a busy day, being hungry, and needing to only skip into the backyard for a head of lettuce, a tomato, some kale, and strawberries. Add a bit of goat cheese and dressing and you're set for a fresh dinner salad.

Matt: I second that completely. The summer after our fateful kayaking adventure, we turned every inch of our backyard into a garden, and we’re still harvesting mountains of produce from it. I like Michael Pollan’s distinction between industrial organic and small scale producers. We’re often faced with the dilemna of buying organic produce from some mega farm in California versus non-certified produce from uncle joe’s farm down the street. I’m a big fan of local. Also as you move up the food chain it gets even dicier. Terms like cage-free and free-range can be really misleading, as it really means ‘access to a tiny plot of daylight that animal never really goes to’: I say if you can find a local livestock producer and have them slaughter an animal for you, then stick it in the freezer, that’s the way to go for meat eaters. And why not get your own chickens for eggs?

Nicole: I was lucky enough to be raised by a vegetarian health-nut father. I didn't appreciate his insistence on carrots instead of candy bars until I was in college and realized one day that junk food had no appeal to me. Since then I think I've found a good balance between eating healthily while also enjoying the occasional indulgence. I think that the first step to eating well is to find a regular source of good local produce (whether it be your garden, a farmer's market, or a produce delivery service) and then start experimenting with new produce. Soon you'll find new dishes that you love and start carving healthier foods.

Deborah: What's your favorite healthy food or meal?

Nicole: There are so many to choose from! Lately if I'm in the mood for something quick and healthy I'll saute up whatever vegetables I have around with cashews, organic chicken or tofu, a little sweet chili sauce and spices, and serve them mixed in with rice noodles.

Matt: My favorite breakfast: Homegrown red potatoes, sautéed up with fresh green onion, and garlic from the garden, served with eggs from backyard hens, and topped with salsa from garden tomatoes and chilis. Okay, I’m drooling now…

I'm drooling now, too! Okay, while I'm cleaning off my keyboard, you can listen to Million Dollar Nile's song. Just click below:



And remember, if any of you have questions for Seattle's greenest bluegrass band, just give 'em a holler in the comment section.

For more posts on real food, check out Real Food Wednesday and Fight Back Friday!

Me and Ricky Gervais

That's probably the last headline you ever expected to see on my blog. Seriously, I'd have laughed if you told me that I would ever be writing about Gervais here. But as it turns out, the star of Ghost Town and I have a lot in common -- at least when it comes to food.

When my October issue of Bon Apetit arrived in the mail Saturday, I immediately started flipping through it, especially since it promised apple recipes. The Granny Smith tree is full of apples, but that will have to wait. I was talking about Gervais. So, what do we have in common?

Cheese, for starters! Gervais told Bon Apetit that he is "Never without a nice, mature cheddar" in his refrigerator. I'd love to ask him to define "mature." I prefer one that's aged at least two years, but I can settle for one that's been aged a year. I once had a nine-year-old cheddar that I would eat daily if I could afford it; and cheddar is simply not going to sit in my cheese cave for nine years.

Gervais also said he keeps a good amount of Pinot Grigio on hand. I, too, am a semi-sweet wine lover, although Pinot Grigio is my second or third favorite variety. My favorite is Fetzer's Gewürztraminer (even if I can't spell it without looking at the bottle). In addition to the California winery's Gewürztraminer having the best taste, I also heart their wines because they are committed to sustainability. When we had a winery 45 minutes away (and on the route to grandma's house), I bought their wine by the case like any good locavore. But since they closed, I feel good buying Fetzer's wines. For starters, all of their grapes have been grown organically since the 1980s. Check out their website to see all the great things they do. They have an entire section of their site devoted to sustainability. But I digress.

The most exciting thing about Gervais is that "everything" in his refrigerator is "organic and free-range, from fruits and vegetables to eggs and chicken." When asked if there is anything he won't eat, he says, "I won't eat any animal that's been mistreated, abused, or hasn't had a good life. I do eat fish and chicken, but it's got to be free-range, organic. I've got to sleep at night."

How exciting that a popular comedian like Gervais is saying this in a mainstream publication like Bon Apetit. Made my day! (Yeah, I know, it doesn't take much to get me excited sometimes.) Until I re-read the article just this very moment, I completely forgot that he also loves chocolate. I should invite him over for dinner sometime. We could have some goat cheese and Pinot Grigio on the deck, watching the geese and ducks on the pond. For dinner, I could make chicken satay from my happy, free-range chickens, and then we could have chocolate mousse pie or pudding for dessert. (He likes pudding.)