You can follow Ina’s write-in campaign to replace Roland Burris on her Facebook page or on Twitter.

WASHINGTON – Today a broad coalition of organizations hand-delivered the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) more than 180,000 letters responding to the agency’s request for comments on rules governing the use of antibiotics on industrial farms.  By the tens of thousands, American citizens have sent the FDA a clear message: antibiotics are a vital foundation of public health in the United States; overuse and misuse has created a threatening crisis of antibiotic resistance; and it is time for the federal government to ensure strict veterinary oversight and force the food animal industry to curtail the routine use of antibiotics.

The letters were collected by a coalition of organizations committed to saving antibiotics as pillars of public health in the United States.  The groups include: Center for Food Safety; Center for Science in the Public Interest; CREDO Action; FamilyFarmed.org; Farm Aid; Food & Water Watch; Food Democracy Now!; The Humane Society of the United States; Organic Consumers Association; and Union of Concerned Scientists.

The correspondence from citizens responded to requests by FDA for comments on two recent actions related to oversight and control of antibiotic use in food animal production.   In March, the FDA announced its intention to alter its Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) guidelines, which govern the role and procedures veterinarians must follow with regard to prescribing antibiotic use in animal agriculture.  In June, the agency issued draft guidance calling on the food animal industry to voluntarily curtail the non-judicious use of antibiotics on industrial farms, which threatens human health.
Reflecting the view of leading scientific and health experts, the citizen comments express concern that the planned revisions to VFD guidelines could weaken veterinary oversight and controls on antibiotic use on industrial farms and that the FDA guidance on non-judicious use does not sufficiently curtail the misuse and overuse of antibiotics in animals that are not sick.
Here are examples of comments sent to FDA:

“My healthy and gorgeous dream boy of a son, Simon, died within 16 hours of his first symptoms.  The cause: antibiotic resistance.  Simon contracted an antibiotic resistant bacterium, MRSA (methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus).  His infection could
have been prevented years ago when bacteria actually succumbed to antibiotics.”

“Take this opportunity to protect our food supply, our population, and the future of medicine with a meaningful regulation that helps to solve a dangerous current situation.”

“Antibiotics in agriculture should be used under direct supervision of a veterinarian on individual animals.”

“I am an infectious disease specialist, and well aware of the progressively increasing problem of resistant bacteria, now not only a problem in hospitalized patients, but in many individuals acquiring hard to treat infections in the community. Scientific research has established that the widespread non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in the raising of food animals, has contributed greatly to this problem. I strongly support new regulations to ban the use of antibiotics in feed, and restriction of antibiotics to treatment for infection, carried out by licensed veterinarians.”

Together, the coalition of organizations is calling on FDA to heed the overwhelming scientific evidence and outpouring of citizen concern by (1) strengthening the agency’s VFD guidelines and (2) making mandatory, rather than voluntary, its June guidance to ensure that antibiotics only be used under veterinary supervision to treat sick animals, thus protecting human health.

NEWS MEDIA CONTACTS

Center for Food Safety: Paige Tomaselli, staff attorney, 619.339.3180, ptomaselli@icta.org

Center for Science in the Public Interest: Jeff Cronin, director of communications, 202.777.8370, jcronin@cspi.org

CREDO Action: Adam Klaus, campaign manager, 415.369.2047, aklaus@credomobile.com

FamilyFarmed.org: Jim Slama, founder and president, 708.763.9920, jimslama@familyfarmed.org

Farm Aid: Hilde Steffey, program director, 617.354.2922, hilde@farmaid.org
Food & Water Watch: Darcey Rakestraw, communications director, 202.683.2467, drakestraw@fwwatch.org

Food Democracy Now! Dave Murphy, founder and director, 917.968.7369, dave@fooddemocracynow.org

The Humane Society of United States: Jordan Crump, public information officer, 240.654.2964, jcrump@humanesociety.org

Organic Consumers Association: Ronnie Cummins, national director, 218.349.3836 ronnie@organicconsumers.org

Union of Concerned Scientists: Brise Tencer, Washington representative, Food and Environment Program, 202.378.0606, btencer@ucsusa.org

• Last year, David Ormsby did an excellent survey of Illinois political blogs. Give it a look and see if any look familiar to you.
• Community Media Workshop recently did a survey of Chicago-area blog. Click here to have a look at it.
• Sock puppetry discussions are on Cap Fax and Daily Herald and New York Times.
• There seemed to be some interest in FourSquare. Here are a couple of articles that discuss how this new technology may become more pervasive in coming election cycles. As I mentioned, Facebook will soon unveil their own version (“Places“) of the technology. We’re going to have to see how this technology plays out. Personally, I think it will be a great organizing tool but it’s still new, with relatively few people using it. We’ll see if FB Places changes this.

Thanks for coming out, and apologies for my coughing fits. Give me a shout if you have any questions or want to talk about anything in more detail.

The book is out in stores now, so be sure to pick it up. If there ever was a thing as “public policy beach reading,” this is it.

Were You Born on the Wrong Continent? How the European Model Can Help You Get a Life

BY THOMAS GEOGHEGAN

THE NEW PRESS / AUGUST 10, 2010

“A passionate case for the high-tax, regulation-heavy model of life on the Continent….the narrative unspools in a chatty, anecdotal style; it’s jumpy, appealingly digressive, and winning.”
—Publishers Weekly

There’s been a lot of throwing around of the term “socialism” by critics of President Barack Obama, who has been maligned as a European socialist by conservatives even though his administration’s agenda isn’t close to that of a European social democracy. But if you really think about it, perhaps we would be happier in cozy Germany or France, where there is a socialist-type government to catch us, than in the wide-open, free-fall United States.

This was exactly what was on Chicago labor lawyer and author Thomas Geoghegan’s mind as he began to sneak out of his workaholic American life to see what life is like in Europe. Were You Born on the Wrong Continent? is his report to his fellow captives here in the U.S. It’s not just that European social democracy is “nicer.” It’s not just that, under European-type socialism, many of us would perhaps be happier. It may be that only with some form of it can our own country, with its ballooning trade deficit, globally compete—or even just keep going without repeated financial crashes and crack-ups. High-wage Germany, which offers the most bottom-up worker control of any European country, nearly ties with China as the leading exporter in the world, well ahead of the United States. But in China and America we work until we drop while in Germany, they take six weeks off a year (with a shocking number of four-day weekends along the way). It’s not just that the Germans can outcompete us, but they seem to be doing it with one hand tied behind their backs.

Geoghegan focuses much of the book on Germany, a country that explodes the myth that European socialism invariably leads to anemic economies and persistently high unemployment. Using Germany as a model, he argues the middle class is the real beneficiary of European social democracy—its members reap free education, free child care, free nursing home care, guaranteed vacation time, and generous unemployment payments—while their white-collar American counterparts struggle to pay for the same. What drives our economy in the U.S. and inflates our GDP actually makes our lives less comfortable.

A wry, timely book, Were You Born on the Wrong Continent? helps us understand why the European model, contrary to popular neoliberal wisdom, may thrive well into the twenty-first century without compromising its citizens’ ease of living—and may just be the best example for the United States to follow. Think of it as a patriotic act to pick up Were You Born on the Wrong Continent? and learn from these other countries—perhaps some measure of personal happiness will be an inadvertent result.

The only problem is, this creates antibiotic-resistant superbugs that can wreak havoc on human populations (aka people like you and me). Some folks even think we’ll reach a point where antibiotics are useless in combating disease. That is, unless we change the way we use/misuse them.

FDA is currently reconsidering the rules in place for administering drugs to livestock. In response, a thoughtful group of nonprofits has gotten together to create AntibioticsAction.com. From this site, you can write a letter to the FDA and the White House and tell them  to “protect human and animal health by establishing concrete regulations and effective oversight that will protect our antibiotics.” In short, that means stop juicing our food with unnecessary drugs.

Give it a look, and consider sending a letter yourself.

Small businesses learn to use social media to boost sales, fix problems – chicagotribune.com.

Over in the MSM world, Charlie Wojciechowski from NBC5 did an excellent piece, including some good quotes from Dan and Andrew at the Green Chicago Restaurant Co-op. Check it out:

Today, GCRC announced the first wave of restaurants that successfully earned Guaranteed Green status. All in all, a very successful event, with good turnout from media and participating chefs including Helen Cameron from Uncommon Ground, Chris Koetke from Kendall College, Rick Bayless from, well, from everywhere; GCRC founder Dan Rosenthal and a bunch of others.

Here’s edited version of press conference, with full press release to follow….

(June 22, 2010 – Chicago) The Green Chicago Restaurant Co-op (www.buygreenchicago.org) today announced the first wave of success for Guaranteed Green, a new program that helps Chicago-area diners identify and support local restaurants that have taken significant, verifiable steps toward protecting the environment.

“Six months ago we challenged the Chicago restaurant community to make bold changes to help protect the environment, and it responded in force.” said Dan Rosenthal, co-founder, Green Chicago Restaurant Co-op. “Today we are proud to announce the inaugural class of Guaranteed Green, 20 restaurants that challenged industry assumptions, invested time and money, and employed old fashioned ingenuity to become more environmentally responsible.”

The Guaranteed Green program launched last fall when some of Chicago’s finest restaurants committed to pursuing sustainability in a comprehensive manner by going through a rigorous certification process. Twenty of these restaurants have now successfully followed through on this commitment, and several more continue to work through the process. With the growing success of the program, Chicago is quickly becoming a national leader for sustainability in the restaurant industry.

Guaranteed Green is available to any licensed foodservice establishment that becomes certified by either the Green Restaurant Association (www.dinegreen.com) or Green Seal (www.greenseal.org), two independent, national not-for-profits that have created comprehensive environmental standards for restaurants.

Rick Bayless, lifelong champion of the environment and chef/owner of Frontera Grill and Topolobampo, both of which are now Guaranteed Green, and the new, L.E.E.D. certified XOCO, applauds the certification program:

“It’s really hard as a chef to know exactly what choices to make. When the Green Chicago Restaurant Co-op was founded with Dan’s vision, it made my life a lot easier. There was focus on what we need to do,” said Bayless.

“This is the next right move for us and as a city of great restaurants. You can’t go anywhere these days without hearing about the great restaurants of Chicago. I want people to think about these restaurants not just in terms of food quality and uniqueness but in terms of the way we relate to the environment. And I feel we’re making steps in that direction.”

Guaranteed Green Chicago restaurants now have an emblem placed in their front window featuring the sprouting green fork, which is the signal to Chicago diners that the restaurant they have chosen is truly “green.”

In addition to being awarded the Guaranteed Green window emblem, restaurants which have achieved their certification are also now recognized in numerous print media and on multiple websites, including city and state tourism sites. Chicago Magazine, ExploreChicago.org, ChooseChicago.com, and several other dining guides now include the fork and leaf icon as part of their regular restaurant listings.

In order to earn certification in either program, a restaurant must meet environmental standards in the areas of sustainable purchasing for food, cleaning products, food serviceware and furnishings, as well as management of energy, water, and waste. To prove that they have met the standards for each of these categories, restaurants must submit extensive documentation to their certifier.

Uncommon Ground, Helen and Michael Cameron’s restaurant in Edgewater, added to its already impressive list of accomplishments by achieving 3-Star Certification® through the Green Restaurant Association. Even though the Camerons’ restaurant was already recognized as having the nation’s first certified organic rooftop farm, they put Uncommon Ground through the GRA’s certification program to continue to push the environmental envelope, and demonstrate to their guests that they are committed to a comprehensive approach to sustainability.

“It’s one thing to say you are green, but it’s quite another to prove it through a third party certification such as the Green Restaurant Association,” says Ms. Cameron. “Their standards are rigorous and it was a great learning experience to provide all of our documentation. Now I am motivated to work with the GRA to continue improving upon eco-friendly (and money-saving) business operations, and to educate our staff and our customers about what we are doing.”

A complete list of Guaranteed Green restaurants follows.

ABOUT US
The Green Chicago Restaurant Co-op is committed to providing professional procurement services in support of increasing the type and volume of sustainable products and services purchased by restaurants and other businesses in the Chicago area.

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GOING FOR THE “GREEN”
Chicago restaurants which have achieved “Guaranteed Green” status

Avec
Big Jones
Blackbird
Bleeding Heart Bakery
Blind Faith Café
Dining Room at Kendall College
Frontera Grill
Keefer’s Restaurant
Poag Mahone’s
Roti Mediterranean Grill
Simone’s Bar
Sopraffina Marketcaffé (5)
Topolobampo
Trattoria No. 10
Uncommon Ground (2)