Big Bite

On New Year’s Eve, Congress quietly passed the extension of the 2008 farm bill, with drastic ramifications. Funding was slashed for healthy eating programs for food stamp recipients. Money was cut for organic agriculture. Specialty crop grants for a rural development program were axed altogether.

These are among the issues Jared Cates wants to see supported in the next farm bill that Congress is scheduled to pass this year. At a talk at the Irregardless Café in Raleigh, Cates, who works for the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, a nonprofit focused on local, organic food, discussed how federal agriculture policy affects communities, the environment and personal health.

In the 2012 fiscal cliff commotion, you may have heard that the Food, Conservation and Energy Act, or the 2008 farm bill, expired. You may have heard people freaking out about the possibility of $7 gallons of milk.

The federal farm bill actually expired in September. House speaker John Boehner continuously refused, in Cates’ words, to bring new legislation to the House floor for a vote. “I was not surprised,’ Cates said. ‘The can was just kicked further down the road. I’m not surprised it happened at midnight, on New Year’s Eve, when everyone was on vacation.”

He’s referring to last-minute bipartisan legislation that extended the previous farm bill but that significantly cut important programs. These reductions could threaten North Carolina farmers and consumers alike. Ferd Hoefner, policy director for the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, called the deal “blatantly anti-reform.”

The bulk of the 2008 farm bill—almost 70 percent of its $289 billion allocation—went to nutrition assistance programs. According to the 2010 U.S. census, 17.8 percent of the state’s population lived below the poverty line, a traditional indicator of food stamp eligibility. Between 2007 and 2009, 8.6 percent of the population of the 13th Congressional District, which includes parts of Raleigh, for example, used food stamp benefits, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Several other North Carolina initiatives, including one that would bring a mini-mobile farmer’s market to communities across the state, and another that would offer revolving loans to farmers’ markets, were cut under the extension legislation.

“It’s something we all need to be aware of,’ Cates told his audience, ‘because you are what your policy tells you to eat. .We need a farm bill for the next five years that supports community, environmental and personal health. We need to fight to get programs back into the farm bill.”

When a serial entrepreneur, an industrial engineer, a restaurant owner and two Englishmen share a love of British hops, they join forces to present Cary's first full-scale brewery. Fortnight Brewing Company, scheduled to open at the end of the summer, is finalizing a location on the west side of town.

Named for the two weeks it takes for their brews to ferment, Fortnight Brewing Company was conceived by IT specialist Stuart Arnold and salesman Mo Mercado. The team has since grown by three, most recently with the addition of Cary Mellow Mushroom owner Will Greczyn. His wife, Kate, plans to work the bar and push the brews, as is common among pub wives in England. "Will loves English beer, he just wants to promote it so much. He's the perfect person, with his wife, to educate people when they come into the bar," Arnold says.

Fortnight plans to serve a number of English beers made with genuine UK hops and malt. Their pale ale, what the Brits call a "bitter," will have a base of Maris Otter malt, giving it a smooth nutty, flavor. Arnold says their English IPA is earthy, and contains about 4 percent alcohol.

"Sometimes it's refreshing to taste your pint, then drink it as quickly as possible," Arnold says. "There are a lot of things missing from American beer because there's such a high alcohol content."

That's right, less alcohol. (However, there also will be a selection of stronger beers, including an extra special pale (ESP) ale and several seasonal brews). England is known for its session beers, in which beer drinkers belly up to the bar and throw a few back without worrying about getting too drunk.

Greg Lewis, a hops expert and native Englishman, says Maris Otter is "a great British malting barley," and that we can expect a nice, "warm, gentle, bitter beer style" with a good body.

The Fuggle and East Kent Goldings aroma hops will give the brews a classic English aroma. "If they don't overdo the alcohol content, they'll produce beers that people can probably sit down and drink three, four, even five glasses at a sitting," Lewis says.