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GOURMET NEWS FEBRUARY 2015 www.gourmetnews.com GENERAL NEWS 6 Navajo Nation Continued from PAGE 1 rate and the fact that thousands of residents live without electricity and refrigeration. "It's a crisis," said Denisa Livingston, Com- munity Health Advocate at Diné Community Advocacy Alliance, an organization that works to improve the health of Navajo Na- tion residents. Livingston describes the daunting, complicated circumstances her or- ganization faces as it works to improve nu- trition on the reservation. From her perspective, a number of elements contribute to the problem: First, the food network on the Navajo Nation relies heavily on conven- ience stores and is slanted toward junk food. There is a dearth of farming, in part because the Reservation's inhabitants – once a popu- lation of skilled farmers – have become ha- bituated to processed foods. In addition, the Nation's population is largely undereducated about nutrition, and leadership and policies in the Nation lag behind the evolving crisis. A central problem in the food crisis is the nature of the Reservation's food supply. While residents lack access to healthful foods, junk food is another story. There are plenty of potato chips and donuts to go around. As a result, obesity rates run as high as 60 percent in some age groups, and one out of three Navajos are diabetic or pre- diabetic. While the Navajo Nation and DCCA are hard at work encouraging residents to select healthier foods, the problem of the lack of availability of healthful foods is a more difficult one to tackle. In a recent survey of Navajo food retailers, DCAA found that stores stocked as much as 80 percent junk food. Even residents who are more educated on nutrition and seek out healthful foods have problems finding the products they want. "Children are learning about healthy eat- ing and healthy lifestyles at school," said Livingston. "There's a great program run by Indian Health Service, so the kids are learn- ing, 'Hey, I need to eat healthy.' But when they go into the stores and go back home, there is an overwhelming presence of un- healthy foods." For parents who want to give their fam- ilies more nutritious food, the solution is simple: road trip. Whether it's to Gallup, New Mexico, Flagstaff, Arizona or another of the cities and towns that ring the borders of the Navajo Nation, it is common to see family trips of 100 or even 200 miles to buy groceries. Seventy percent of spending by Navajo Nation residents (including both food and non-food expenditures) takes place off the reservation. This accounts for $1.6 billion in total annual activity. A good chunk of that spending could support new food markets on the reservation, and DCAA is excited about the prospect of working with Navajo Nation officials to at- tract potential new retailers. In the service of this objective, DCAA, plans to advocate for tax incentives to entice retailers to come to the Reservation. Another piece of the Navajo Nation nutri- tion puzzle concerns the promotion of local farming. Soil quality varies greatly over the Reservation's 27,000 square miles that span parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. In addition, the land suffers from uranium tail- ings in the soil and uranium in the water supply – the result of mining for the nuclear weapons and nuclear energy programs. However, there is plenty of arable Navajo land that could serve an agricultural pur- pose. In addition to a patchwork of private efforts, the USDA is launching a program geared toward helping Navajo Nation fami- lies start their own farms. The Navajo Nation benefits from fed- eral programs that provide direct food as- sistance. Some 60 percent of reservation residents receive some sort of federal nu- trition benefits. Private organizations are part of the efforts as well. An example is Harvard University's Partners in Health organization, which will be providing Navajo Nation families with monthly vouchers that can only be used to buy healthful foods. However, while outside assistance helps members of the Navajo Nation in their efforts to improve reservation nu- trition, Livingston believes that ulti- mately it will be the people themselves, as well as local retailers, that form the most vital piece of the puzzle. By getting Navajo citizens to visit local retailers and become involved in the legislative process, Livingston reports that DCAA is already effecting some change. "On Face- book, we see posts about our people eat- ing healthy foods, drinking fruit water, exercising and [about] store owners buy- ing produce from local farmers to sell in their stores," she said. "We've heard stories like this happening across the Reservation," Livingston added. "The consistency of it, we don't know, but starting from a point where citizens didn't even know they had the power to do this – go into a store and say, 'Hey, we want more healthy food' – it's very exciting to get peo- ple … to replace unhealthy foods with healthy food." GN Hall of Fame Continued from PAGE 1 An overarching theme of the evening's festivities was the focus on how specialty food professionals are in a unique position to contribute to the betterment of their world through shaping the ways in which people eat. In his keynote presentation, Goldman recounted the peculiar career arc he went through, beginning as a political activist and campaigner and eventually transitioning into the world of tea. He said that it would come as a complete surprise to his younger self that he would end up having a greater impact on society as a tea professional than he ever could have hoped to achieve as a politician. "There's nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America," said Goldman, paraphrasing Bill Clinton. "I've come to the conclusion that our government, our system is not what's right with America. I'm a big believer in the democratic system, but I would argue that the people in this room – the people who shape our diets, who shape what we grow and how we consume it – have at least as important a role as any elected official." Seeking to inspire those in attendance as they move forward to focus on how they can be a positive force for change in their communities and in the world, Goldman urged companies to work social and envi- ronmental goals into their business models, not just for the good of the planet, but for the good of their bottom line as well. Ac- cording to him, by creating Honest Tea as an aspirational company, the result has been a net benefit to the company as a whole. "Our society is at an unprecedented and exciting moment where the passion to im- prove the health of our population and the health of our planet coincide into amazing business opportunities," said Goldman. "You can make a financial and social im- pact by helping people live longer, better lives, lives that are more in harmony with the natural world." Illustrating Goldman's point, each of the recipients of the 2015 Specialty Food Asso- ciation Leadership Awards seems to fit into the business model promoted by the tea CEO. That is, each of these companies in- corporates aspirational social and environ- mental goals into their professional plans. This year's award winners included Adnan Durrani of Saffron Road and David Grem- mels of Rogue Creamery in the Business Leadership category, Ahmed and Reem Rahim of Numi Organic Tea and Sara Holby of Ajiri Tea in the Citizenship cate- gory and Jeni Britton Bauer of Jeni's Splen- did Ice Creams and James May of Wisdom Natural Brands in the Vision category. In his acceptance of the award, Durrani echoed Goldman's keynote, citing Saffron Road's aspirational qualities as an impor- tant contributor to the company's overall success. "A mission-driven business or en- terprise can have stronger social impact and an impact on producing progressive values for the betterment of humanity than any governmental, religious or political in- stitution can have," he said. Several of the award recipients specifi- cally referenced their companies' accom- plishments in bettering those around them as they accepted their awards. Ahmed Rahim, for example, explained how Numi Organic Tea, by sourcing fair trade tea, has been able to create a positive symbiotic re- lationship with the farmers on which it re- lies. "These farmers have actually helped us create our vision," he said. "Through the efforts and the collaboration and all the time we spend with our farmers, it has nur- tured us so much as a company. It's taught us how to be better citizens." Britton Bauer similarly referenced her company's efforts to support the communi- ties in which Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams op- erates, arguing that having a social purpose has actually benefited the quality of the product. "We believe that business and en- trepreneurship can help solve complex so- cial problems," she said. "It used to be that a company had to sacrifice quality in order to be a company who chose to create social change … but that has changed. In fact, today it's quite the opposite. The best prod- ucts are coming from companies who be- lieve in paying a living wage, in working earnestly to lower our environmental foot- print, in fair trade and better direct trade." Perhaps none of the Leadership Award re- cipients better epitomizes the values of a so- cial mission-driven business than Sara Holby of Ajiri Tea. The team at Ajiri works tirelessly to improve lives in rural Kenya. The company purchases tea at fair prices from a co-op of small-scale Kenyan farmers. It employs 63 local women to hand make la- bels for its products from the bark of banana trees. And it operates a non-profit that pays the school fees for 25 orphan children. "I think what's wonderful is that all of you in this room are so supportive of us and of companies that can make a difference in the world," said Holby. "Every time a store chooses to take Ajiri Tea and give it a chance and put it on our shelves, and the consumer comes in and looks at it and chooses to buy it, they are making a difference in people's lives in Kenya. By making a choice here to do something like that, you're giving stu- dents in Kenya opportunity." GN In a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and Secretary of Agricul- ture Tom Vilsack, the International Dairy Foods Association recently called for the replacement of Japan's current import ad- ministration program in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, calling it a potential Achilles heel in the negotiations. Japan's Agriculture and Livestock Indus- tries Corporation is the state-trading enter- prise that administers the country's manufacturing milk quotas and imports of dairy products under tariff rate quotas. IDFA believes that ALIC operates in a trade-distorting and inconsistent manner that makes it difficult for U.S. dairy ex- porters to access the market. IDFA sent the letter in advance of bilat- eral meetings and the TPP Ministerial held recently in Sydney, Australia. IDFA urged the officials to seek to replace the current ALIC system with a tariff rate quota system as part of the bilateral negotiations with Japan. IDFA supports significant and real mar- ket access into Japan for all dairy products that would reach across all tariff lines and ultimately bring tariffs to zero within a rea- sonable transition period. Based in Washington, D.C., the Inter- national Dairy Foods Association repre- sents the nation's dairy manufacturing and marketing industries and their sup- pliers, with a membership of 550 com- panies within a $125-billion a year industry. IDFA is composed of three constituent organizations: the Milk In- dustry Foundation, the National Cheese Institute and the International Ice Cream Association. IDFA's nearly 200 dairy processing members run nearly 600 plant operations and range from large multinational organizations to sin- gle-plant companies. Together they rep- resent more than 85 percent of the milk, cultured products, cheese, ice cream and frozen desserts produced and marketed in the United States. GN U.S. Dairy Manufacturers Call for Replacement of Japan's Import System

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