Brown Tide: A Day on the Bayou
For over half a century the people of Bayou La Batre, Alabama have gathered for a ceremony that is both a celebration and a memorial. They pray for a safe and bountiful fishing season and remember those who have lost their lives in seasons past. This small fishing village does not have the sugar white beaches and sparkling high-rise condominiums so often associated with the Third Coast. For every Destin there are a dozen Bayou La Batre’s.
The people who live here work hard just to scrape by in a profession that is equal parts heritage and obsession. Ask anyone who has ever made a living on a boat and they will tell you once the sea gets in your blood there is no getting it out. Things have been particularly rough in Bayou La Batre after equal devastation from both Ivan and Katrina and now the looming oil spill.
My reason for venturing to the Bayou was to be a judge in the annual Gumbo Cook-off. But as the event neared it was obvious that I would be experiencing something much more than a gaggle of gumbo. Any thoughts I had of a blog post filled with flowery descriptions of spices and the richness of broth were now metaphorically obscured by crude oil. In this town full of rugged people I saw despair etched on the faces of everyone. As one festival organizer told me, the oil slick has, “certainly been the topic of conversation.”
Folks here have little trust in the government. For years they have endured stringent federal regulations supposedly designed to preserve the environment and protect American consumers. Meanwhile that same government has turned a blind eye to an avalanche of imported seafood teeming with toxic chemicals. The post-Katrina response from FEMA that had many in New Orleans crying foul would have seemed like a Godsend here. And now the same government which abandoned them five years ago has again drug its feet leaving the town in peril. The Obama administration told them the leak was a mere 1000 barrels a day when in reality it was 200,000. To them there is little difference between the current regime and its predecessor.
My fellow judges, locals both, regaled me with stories of the Blessing during the Reagen years. The whole town would pack the church yard standing shoulder to shoulder, a sea of people joined in jubilation and thanksgiving. Those days are gone now. Five years have passed since Katrina and the town is just now starting to look like it did prior to her arrival. Now this.
Of course the D.C. elitists have been on every talk show they could find saying that you cannot compare Deepwater Horizon to Katrina. I dare you to stand on the Bayou and say that without the luxury of a team of Secret Service agents. The great irony of the day was the uncharacteristic wind blowing directly off the Gulf. People around here recognize that strong and hot breeze; it is just like the one that hits as a hurricane is barring down on you. But this is a storm of a different complexion and its effects will not be measured in years but decades.
Amid all of the doom and gloom there was still a festive spirit among the crowd. They lined up to try the foods from their new neighbors from Central America and Southeast Asia. Blues musicians took the bandstand while people funneled into the church to sample the seafood that built the town. Artisans had erected a tent city to hock their wares as families ventured to the wharf to look at the shrimp boats decorated like Mardi Gras floats. Everywhere children laughed in played.
Virtually every resident in Bayou La Batre either works on a boat or at a business that’s sole purpose is to support the fishing industry. Fishing is the only game in town. Those of us who are a little long in the tooth realize we were saying goodbye to something. Before leaving, I spoke with Mark Kent a writer for the Mobile Press Register assigned to cover the event and he expressed his concerns saying that more than the economic and ecological devastation he was worried about the spirit of the people.
Amen.
Brown Tide: A Day on the Bayou
The following is an excerpt from a piece I did after visiting Bayou La Batre, Alabama this weekend. Bayou La Batre is one of the small fishing villages threatened by the Gulf Oil Slick. The full article is available at ThirdCoastCuisine.com
For over half a century the people of Bayou La Batre, Alabama have gathered for a ceremony that is both a celebration and a memorial. They pray for a safe and bountiful fishing season and remember those who have lost their lives in seasons past. This small fishing village does not have the sugar white beaches and sparkling high-rise condominiums so often associated with the Third Coast. For every Destin there are a dozen Bayou La Batre’s.
The people who live here work hard just to scrape by in a profession that is equal parts heritage and obsession. Ask anyone who has ever made a living on a boat and they will tell you once the sea gets in your blood there is no getting it out. Things have been particularly rough in Bayou La Batre after equal devastation from both Ivan and Katrina and now the looming oil spill.
My reason for venturing to the Bayou was to be a judge in the annual Gumbo Cook-off. But as the event neared it was obvious that I would be experiencing something much more than a gaggle of gumbo. Any thoughts I had of a blog post filled with flowery descriptions of spices and the richness of broth were now metaphorically obscured by crude oil. In this town full of rugged people I saw despair etched on the faces of everyone. As one festival organizer told me, the oil slick has, “certainly been the topic of conversation.”
White House Kitchen Garden a Facade?
The White House has certainly touted it’s Kitchen Garden, even going so far as to having it featured as the “theme ingredient” on a special Iron Chef:America. I am sure the first lady is passionate and devoted to the sustainable, local and/or organic lifestyle. Mrs. Obama certainly seems sincere in her concerns for the environment and in rescuing our children from the obesity epidemic created by agribusiness juggernauts like Monsanto and their foot soldiers, the fast food industry.
I do not, however, believe her husband cares about these issues. After all his actions suggest an ambivalence reminiscent of his predecessor. Supposedly, pandering to big business is the realm of Republicans but President Obama has dangerously littered the government with agribusiness pawns.
Despite being given a list of 12 qualified candidates (known as the sustainable dozen) for key positions in his administration, the President has made numerous suspect appointments to bureaus charged with protecting the public’s welfare. No, suspect is not the right word, nefarious is more accurate. The conflict of interest created by these appointments is borderline criminal, not unlike naming John Dillinger Secretary of the Treasury.
Take the President’s choice to head the Department of Agriculture (USDA), Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack. Vilsack has long been a champion of genetically modified (GM) corn and other grains. Genetically modifying corn to be more resistant to herbicides was a process developed by Monsanto in the 1970’s. But, as science has since proven, GM corn is the root cause of every e coli outbreak on record. Ever.
Vilsack has such a notorious reputation for being a puppet for agribusiness mega corporations that a satirical PSA was actually commissioned by environmentalists. That’s right, environmentalists are opposed to this Democrat. Here’s the video:
After being pummeled by his own supporters for selling out the USDA to Biotech, Obama did throw them a bone. The President named Kathleen Merrigan, director of the Agriculture, Food and Environment Program at Tufts University (and one of the sustainable dozen) as his Sustainable Foods Czar. Sure it is just a token gesture and the position is largely meaningless but it calmed the masses. At least for a while.
Another one of President Obama’s appointments was naming Michael Taylor as special assistant to the FDA Commissioner for food safety. Taylor will actually be making laws that affect the profitability of Monsanto, the primary client of his employer prior to joining the Obama administration. Before working for Monsanto, Taylor was part of the George H W Bush administration, again making policy for the FDA. Prior to that stint with the FDA, Taylor worked for Monsanto. His resume is the very definition of “conflict of interest.”
Green publication The Huffington Post has called Taylor, “The person who may be responsible for more food-related illness and death than anyone in history,” here’s what else they had to say:
If GMOs are indeed responsible for massive sickness and death, then the individual who oversaw the FDA policy that facilitated their introduction holds a uniquely infamous role in human history. That person is Michael Taylor. He had been Monsanto’s attorney before becoming policy chief at the FDA. Soon after, he became Monsanto’s vice president and chief lobbyist.
Now Barrack Obama is not the first President to turn the keys to the nation’s safety over to Monsanto. As mentioned above the first President Bush also employed Michael Taylor despite an obvious conflict of interest. President Bill Clinton had a troubling number of his advisers moving into lucrative positions with Monsanto once his term was over, like Marcia Hale an assistant to the President for intergovernmental relations. It’s certain that the so-called “Monsanto revolving door” is not one of Obama’s promised changes.
The President naming the head of New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection, Lisa Jackson, to lead the EPA has raised an eyebrow or two. Jackson does not have documented ties to big business like Taylor or Vilsack. At the same time she has shown an alarming familiarity with lobbyists even going so far as to hire corporate lobbyists like Nancy Wittenberg to work on her staff.
While most feel Jackson’s tenure with the NJDEP was marred in ineffective leadership and finger-pointing, some environmentalist groups insist that her lack of production was not her fault. Apparently the one thing that both sides agree on is that Jackson accomplished nothing during her term.
As his Surgeon General, President Obama has picked Alabama physician Regina Benjamin. Dr. Benjamin was given the assignment of helping Americans get healthier. Her work with rural, impoverished patients in the heart of Katrina country is quite noble. But the well documented fact that she accepted $10,000 from Burger King just before joining the Obama regime is understandably curious.
The money was purportedly for serving on a nutritional advisory panel with the fast food giant. There is something peculiar about the nation’s top doctor being on the payroll of a company that produces the Angry Whopper, a sandwich with 1120 calories (657 from fat), 175 mg of cholesterol, 73 grams of total fat, 25 of which are saturated, three are the heart disease causing trans fats. Oh, and let’s not forget that virtually everything Burger King sells incorporates Monsanto’s Frakencorn into it, the burgers, the buns, even the soft drinks.
Though the national media have tried to portray these appointments as positive moves, farm-to-table advocates do not share in the enthusiasm. Sure there are a handful of White House orchestrated blogs like Obama Foodorama whose job is to spin these Presidential missteps, but most have found the business-as-usual appointments disconcerting.
If the White House Kitchen Garden inspires others to plant their own then that is outstanding. Surely growing the vegetables that are used in the White House does slightly lower the burden on the over-taxed citizenry. The first lady is setting a wonderful example. And while it is a quaint idea, from the outside looking in it appears to be just another parlor trick. Clearly the President’s stance on the environment lacks transparency.
