Spade & Spoon: Localizing the Way Westerners Eat

A small paragraph on a back page of Sunday's Oregonian revealed that after six years of debate over the safety of cloned meat and milk, the Food and Drug Administration is set to give a final approval this week that cloned food is safe to eat.

The FDA made an initial decision on the matter in December of 2006, ruling that cloned cattle, pigs and goats were, "as safe as the food we eat every day." The decision was followed by a public comment period in which 145,000 people opposed the FDA’s plans to introduce cloned food.

But these comments seem to have gone unheard as the FDA plans to announce a final approval.The move would come less than a month after the Senate also voted to delay the FDA’s endorsement of cloned food. [more]

Spade & Spoon: Localizing the Way Westerners Eat

The USDA has mailed out the most recent Census of Agriculture, held every five years to count the number of farmers and ranchers working in the United States. Among other things, the census gathers information about land use and ownership, the age of farmers, their production practices and income. Policy makers then use census data to make decisions affecting agricultural programs and community planners use the information to identify needs and services.

In the West, the USDA will use the 2007 Census to gather more information about Native American farmers, organic farmers and those involved in growing crops used to make bio-based fuels.

While information from the Census of Agriculture provides vital information about farms and ranches in our country and how they have declined over the last century, it also uses a broad definition of a farm to do so. [more]

The 'Next Aspen': Part IV

Jackson Hole, Wyo., has tried hard to cling to its Western heritage, even as it becomes an international playground for the super-wealthy. Boardwalks still line the streets and echo with a satisfying thud under foot. The downtown is lined with Old West facades, even if national retailers like Eddie Bauer and Coldwater Creek lie inside.

Jackson, though, is a place that has struggled as much as any Western resort town with the price of popularity. As I travel the Rockies in search of the "next Aspen," it's hard to find a better contender than this A-list cow town of multi-millionaires. [more]

Hank and John Green

Here’s the format: a man’s face, speaking quickly, fills a small screen on the Web page. Fast cuts jam his witticisms together. He’s talking about his brother, Hank, and something about “nerdfighters” and charities. You can’t grasp the whole of what he says. Something about punishments and Fraggle Rock.

The man is John Green. He’s reading a viewer comment: “If a nerdfighter falls in the forest and there’s no one there to hear her fall, is she still made of awesome?”

His reply: “That’s an excellent question and very plausible because everyone knows that, one, nerdfighters are clumsy and, two, we do spend a lot of time alone. The answer is that nerdfighters are made out of even more awesome when they act nerdfighterly when no one is watching.”

This is Brotherhood 2.0, a year-long video blog project of brothers and self-proclaimed geeks, Hank and John Green. Hank lives in Missoula and runs the environmental Web site Eco Geek. John is an author of young adult fiction who recently moved to Indianapolis.

The brothers’ enthusiasm and humor has been infectious. [more]

Holidays in the Grand Canyon

My down coat and flip-flops are packed. I placed my toothbrush in a plastic bag and an 11-book, 2-map library into a waterproof container. I've sorted and organized food and my daily life for a departure and descent into the Grand Canyon for a 23-day river trip over Christmas and New Years.

My fear and excitement both stem from the same place: turning the power button to "Off" for 23 days. For someone who reads the newspaper religiously every morning, it's a challenge to tune-out for such an extended period of time. But also thrilling to tune-in to nature's pace, which I especially appreciate after working as an Outward Bound instructor spending three-seasons a year in the wilderness.

I just need to remind myself that my steaming morning coffee will be spent reading the geologic history eroded into the canyon walls — and the world will still be turning when I return. [more]

NewWest.Net Highlight: The 'Next Aspen': Part I

A week before the slopes are set to open for winter, Park City, Utah’s streets – wet with rain that can’t bring itself to turn into snow – are nearly empty. It is the depths of off-season, when tourists and part-timers are gone and resort towns turn themselves back to the locals. So where are the locals? As I walk down the street, I can’t help but feeling a little like this old mining town has become a ghost town.

Park City marks the beginning of my off-season journey through some of the Rockies’ premier ski resort towns, not in search of powder days but of a resource even more precious to ski towns than snow: the character that gives each community its unique sense of place. These are towns that, along with their neighbors, have undergone some of the most dramatic recent changes in the West.

They also serve as bellwethers as more and more towns become caught up in an economy based less on traditional resources than on lifestyle. It’s not even about skiing anymore. It is about people seeking out a corner of the West that calls to them.

• Part I: Park City, Utah: 'Where Have All the Ski Bums Gone?'
  
• Part II: Ketchum, Idaho: A Five-Star Dilemma
  
• Part III: Big Sky, Mont.: It's a Community. Is it a Town?
  
• Part IV: Jackson Hole, Wyo.: ‘Every Town Has its Song’
  
• Part V: Aspen Colo.: Devil or Guardian Angel?

Yoga On & Off the Mat

The New Year, replete with its resolutions and resolves, is an excellent time to begin, resume or continue an asana (posture) practice. And in Missoula, there are few places better than 123 West Alder Street.

The Yoga Fitness Center sits at the far end of downtown Missoula, just before the town’s main north-south street dead ends into railroad tracks. If you face your mat north, you can just barely see the tips of the tall grass that blankets Waterworks Hill while standing in tadasana, mountain pose.

Inside, the practice space is clean and simple. Fresh flowers and a few pieces of framed art provide the only contrasts against light blue walls. Katie Heath has owned the studio for five years, and like the space, she maintains a simple attitude about her yoga practice. [more]

Spade & Spoon: Localizing the Way Westerners Eat

This Christmas season those who play naughty received an early gift from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). On December 21st the EPA announced a proposed rule change that would exempt large livestock operators from the need to report releases of hazardous substances to the air when they come from animal waste. Under the proposed rules, they would no longer need to disclose hazards like ammonia and hydrogen sulfide to local, state and federal agencies.

The EPA argues that this approach is “better” for reporting hazardous contamination because farms are burdened with current reporting requirements.

But in a recent response, Ed Hopkins, Director of the Sierra Club's Environmental Quality Program wrote, "Once again Bush's EPA is poised to put polluters before public health." [more]

Boise Crime and the Holiday Season

Something crime-inducing is in the water in the Boise area. Or maybe it’s just that people are panicky about not having enough dough this holiday season but the Boise Police Department has a lot of work on their hands this week.

The BPD issued three reports of robberies in the last two days. Garden City and Meridian each had one.

First there is the story about the bank robber who held up the US Bank on Vista at 9:43 this morning. [more]

Spade & Spoon: Localizing the Way Westerners Eat

After a six-week standoff, the Senate approved a $286 billion Farm Bill on Friday by a vote of 79-14. The vote was the largest margin to pass the Farm Bill in over 30 years, but reaction to the final Bill has been anything but unanimous.

While, the Senate’s version of the Bill will provide new funds for some farm programs, food stamps and conservation, it will keep the much debated subsidies for farmers and ranchers in place. Rather than lower the cap on how much individual farmers receive, as outlined in the Dorgan-Grassley amendment, the Senate’s Bill will allow for subsidy payments as high as $750,000 that won't take effect until 2010. The Houston Chronicle reports Southern lawmakers used a procedural maneuver to prevent the approval of these stronger limits on subsidy payments to large, commercial rice and cotton growers. As it is, the Senate Bill allows subsidies to be made to farmers whose adjusted gross income is $2.5 million or less.

Acting Secretary of Agriculture Charles Conner said Friday he was "disappointed" with the Senate Bill, particularly the rejection of the Dorgan-Grassley amendment that would have limited subsidy payments to $250,000 and free up $1.15 billion for anti-hunger programs, fragile grassland protection and the settlement of lawsuits filed by farmers of color suffering discrimination in government farm programs. [more]