Photo: wikipedia

China may be ready to buy American pork again now, with fears subsiding about catching H1N1 flu from eating pigs, but hamburger has fallen from grace as a token of interstate tribute.  

With observers saying he’s a safe bet to win re-election next week, Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak has made a second bet with the Mayor Jim Schmitt of Green Bay, Wis., over the less-certain outcome of another contest: this weekend’s Vikings-Packers rematch.

But this time the booty Rybak will be due in the event of a second Vikings victory will include All-American beef steaks instead of hamburger. Disease-bearing burgers made in Wisconsin and eaten in Minnesota were the subject of a major investigative article on the front of the Sunday New York Times since the last mayoral bet was made.

Rybak’s pledge, should the Vikes lose, is to send to Schmitt sausage made in Minneapolis, beer brewed in St. Paul, and fudge from Lindstrom, Minn. — possibly a subtle bid for non-metro support for his unannounced gubernatorial run in 2010.

Photo: Xaminmo, Flickr

Minnesota officials succeeded in fighting off the term “swine flu” earlier this year, but three piglets that were displayed at the Minnesota State Fair last month have been confirmed today as the nation’s first porcine victims of the H1N1 virus.

The little pigs may have gotten sick after being handled by humans, who experienced their own flu outbreak during the fair.

Federal authorities say people can’t get H1N1 by eating pork. And in any case, there’s no indication that the disease has spread to domestic herds.

Photo: wikipedia

To the victor go the spoils, the saying goes. And so on Tuesday Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak took delivery of 10 pounds of hamburger from Jim Schmitt, mayor of Green Bay, Wisc., in fulfillment of the friendly wager they made on the Vikings-Packers football game. But the Vikings’ win wasn’t the only news since the mayors made their bet. On the day between the bet and the game, the New York Times published an expose on the serious health hazards of hamburger meat, focusing on a Minnesota victim and corporation and a processor in Wisconsin.

The Times article probed the source of hamburger meat that sickened Stephanie Smith of Cold Spring, Minn., in 2007, sending her into a medically-induced coma and eventual paralysis from which she is still trying to recover.

The meat was produced by the Minnesota-based Cargill, under its “American Chef” label. It was processed from sources around the country and hemisphere at Cargill’s plant in Butler, Wis.

Rybak’s reward for the Vikings’ 30-23 victory at Mall of America Field at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome: “10 lbs. of All-American Hamburgers, Seroogy’s Chocolate, and Wisconsin-made cheese,” according to his office.

The Times article didn’t mention “All-American Hamburgers” and there is no reason to suspect that Green Bay’s gift is any different from any other hamburger — besides, as its name suggests, being made from exclusively domestic sources.

“I want to thank Mayor Schmitt for giving us a taste of Wisconsin in addition to the delicious taste of victory we’re still savoring,” Rybak said in a statement, adding that the hamburger and other booty would be donated to Sharing and Caring Hands, a local charity that serves needy individuals and families.

Processed meat also hung in the balance with a separate wager between the states’ governors: Wisconsin sausage versus Minnesota pork.

Photo: MNDOT

UPDATED Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau. Minnesota State Fair. Celebrity butter carving contest. What more do you need to know?

Well, there is more to know, believe it or not, about Molnau’s activities with the National Lieutenant Governors Association. She starts her Thursday at the fair announcing an NLGA initiative called “Your Heart Is in Your Hands.” And then — oh, just read the press release yourself …

From the office of Gov. Pawlenty:

Governor Pawlenty and Lieutenant Governor Molnau’s Public Events Schedule for Thursday, September 3

Thursday, September 3

9:30 a.m. – State Fairgrounds
Lieutenant Governor Molnau announces an initiative from the National Lieutenant Governors Association, “Your Heart is in Your Hands.”
Education Center
Health Booth
Minnesota State Fairgrounds

11:00 a.m. – State Fairgrounds
Lieutenant Governor Molnau speaks at the award ceremony for Minnesota’s “2009 Outstanding Senior Citizens of the Year.”
Leinie’s Lodge Bandshell
Minnesota State Fairgrounds

12:30 p.m. – State Fairgrounds
Lieutenant Governor Molnau participates in a celebrity butter carving contest.
Moo Demonstration Area
Minnesota State Fairgrounds

2:00 p.m. – State Fairgrounds
Lieutenant Governor Molnau participates in the Birds of Prey show.
Department of Natural Resources Building
Main Stage
Minnesota State Fairgrounds

Update: Another day, another butter-carving competition.

Friday, September 4

4:30 p.m. – State Fairgrounds                     
Lieutenant Governor Molnau judges the Butter Carve-O-Rama public butter carving contest. 
Moo Demonstration Area
Minnesota State Fairgrounds

Photo: Mark Dahlager

President Obama’s birth certificate (or purported lack thereof) has been a central piece of rightwing agit-prop, but at the Minnesota State Fair’s crop art exhibit, it’s now a piece of agri-prop. 

Artist Mark Dahlager glued thousands of seeds to a board to create a facsimile of the famous document, adding the tagline “Move on #&%?! Birthers.” (See full sized view at bottom of post.)

Political themes have become a staple at the Fair’s crop art exhibit over the years, but Dahlager’s piece may break new ground by reproducing an actual government document.

Why did he do it? “I actually had another piece planned, but was increasingly irritated by the birther nut jobs and I guess that’s what inspired me,” Dahlager wrote in an email to the Minnesota Independent.

“It took me about 10 hours over 2 weeks — it’s not a technically very good piece (as evidenced by the lack of [an award] ribbon) — but I like it and I got to do a little spleen venting (which is good therapy).”

What does he think his crop art contributes to the debate over Obama’s birth certificate?

I would have to answer your debate question much like Barney Frank did during his recent town meeting. There really is nothing to debate and I have no interest in debating with the equivalent of a dining room table(s). It’s just an expression of my wonderment at a depth of ignorance that is unfathomable.

Photo: Molly Priesmeyer

The card visible at lower right in the photo is a required element of the fair’s crop art competition: a key listing each seed used in the artwork, along with a sample seed. Most categories of the contest require seeds to be from crops grown in Minnesota.

Dahlager (and indeed his family) is an inveterate crop artist, as evidenced by this bumper sticker:

See more political seed art at our Flickr page.

Related: Bachmann inspires seed art homages

Elsewhere in Minnesota news this morning …

ST. PAUL: Pawlenty’s talent agent returns to state payroll. The governor made former deputy chief of staff Bob Schroeder, who took a year off to book T-Paw for speeches and TV shows, his chief of staff. [Associated Press]

MINNEAPOLIS: Council quashing of park referendum imminent. The fight over a charter amendment granting the park board taxing authority will move to the courts. [Star Tribune]

RAMSEY COUNTY: Susan Gaertner “flabbergasted.” The county attorney and candidate for governor has seen it all, but the idea of moving her department to the crummy Metro Square building takes the cake. [St. Paul Pioneer Press]

HUTCHINSON: Like sister, like butter. With Elizabeth Olson’s ascension, one family is on its second Princess Kay of the Milky Way, and third finalist in the Minnesota State Fair contest. [West Central Tribune]

FRIDLEY: Seven mayors set to stay up on roof overnight. In a weeklong stunt next month the mayors of Blaine, Fridley, Ham Lake, Columbia Heights, Coon Rapids and Andover will raise money for local mental-health care that’s lacking due to budget cuts. [Blaine-Spring Lake Park Life]

STATE FAIR: Birth certificates are big. Obama’s is done in seed art, and man returns to his place of birth — the fair — with the certificate to prove it. [Molly Priesmeyer via Twitpic; KARE 11]

Photo: Environment Canada

Most people who fish like a good tussle. But those who prefer less aggressive quarry might try wetting a line downstream from an ethanol plant. A new study of 19 sites in Minnesota and Iowa shows that the production of biofuels can put plant-based estrogens into the water of the sort that have been linked to feminization in fish. Effluents from other plant-based industries showed similar results, mimicking female hormones that can cause fish populations to collapse. And not all rural wastewater treatment plants are up to the task of removing the hazards.

Civil engineering research led by Prof. Paige Novak at the University of Minnesota found plant-based estrogens, known as phytoestrogens, in surface water downstream from industrial sites in eight of 19 cases.

Novak’s study found phytoestrogens at environmentally-relevant levels not only around biofuels manufacturers, but also near a soy milk factory, a barbecue meat processing facility and a dairy.

Treatment plants appear to be capable of removing the compounds, but water leaving one of the three plants Novak tested still had enough phytoestrogens to damage fish.

The study, to be published in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, doesn’t identify the names or locations of the production or treatment facilities tested.

In Novak’s view, “Our nation needs to do some careful planning as we rapidly expand various plant processing industries.”

Photo: seifertforgovernor.com

One of the GOP contenders for governor has a theory about why state party leaders stopped a straw poll at Farmfest last week. “Apparently because it favored me,” explained state Rep. Marty Seifert. “They felt there was too much bias in favor of me.”

The party’s explanation: The poll would distract from an official straw poll in October.

Seifert grew up near the site of Farmfest, so he may have had a home-field advantage in the aborted straw poll.

He’s serious about his festivals: Seifert for Governor is the only campaign with a booth at the Minnesota State Fair this year.

Another Marty, State Sen. John Marty, triumphed in a straw poll at a DFL gathering on a farm north of Austin last last month.

80 of Minnesota’s 87 counties are considered to be mental health shortage areas (iStockphoto)

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — One of the most difficult challenges rural communities face is not only how to attract health care professionals to their traditionally under-served areas, but also specifically how to train them for their unique local needs, and keep them from leaving for often better opportunities in urban areas. The situation, which has been extensively detailed during a conference here last week, is especially dire in the field of mental health due to the combination of increased need, long work hours, lack of professional networks and typically low pay.

In northern Minnesota, however, a small group of local behavioral health specialists have created a post-doctorate program that has not only established one of the nation’s first pipelines of providers, but has enhanced the way existing agencies and providers interact for the betterment of an entire rural region.

Dr. Jeffrey Leichter, one of five founding members of the Minnesota Consortium for Advanced Rural Psychology Training, told conference attendees on Tuesday that one of the major challenges associated with bringing behavioral health care providers into rural areas is that few are adequately prepared for the realities of practicing there.

Jeffrey Leichter

“In a rural community, you can’t just say, ‘I treat eating disorders, and that’s all I do.’ You just can’t do that in a smaller community,” Leichter explained.

A mental health provider in a smaller community not only needs to be able to see a wide variety of clients at all life stages, often referred from various community agencies, but needs to understand when his or her scope of practice has been exceeded and a referral has to be made.

“That’s a very difficult thing to decide,” he said. “Do I keep a client even when I know that there is a provider several hours away with more knowledge about a specific condition? Since many clients won’t travel that far due to transportation or financial issues, are such clients actually better off with the care I can provide even when it will be more generalized? It becomes a question of whether some care is better than no care at all.”

There is also the aspect of running a “fishbowl medical practice,” in that clients and providers are thrust into the same day-to-day routines. The situation, he said, makes it difficult, if not impossible, for a provider to ever really leave the office.

“There are a lot of ethical boundary issues,” he said. “If you live in a small town, your client is pumping your gas. Your client is on the church committee with you. Your client is across the table at a supper you were both invited to attend. … Those are ethical issues that you don’t learn about in school.”

In addition to lower pay through a client-base that is primarily covered by either Medicare or Medicaid, the scrutiny and other unique demands that make it difficult for smaller communities to attract and retain providers, there is also the added burden of the inherent risk factors and cultural differences of working with a rural population.

“Most rural residents face triple jeopardy,” he said. “That is, they are poor, uninsured and live in isolated areas.”

Another way to describe the problem, he said, is by the “four As”: accessibility, availability, acceptability and affordability. Rural residents seeking even the most basic health care are impacted by each.

For all of these reasons and more, Leichter and four other local providers accepted a $23,000 Minnesota state grant and began writing a curriculum that would specifically provide post-doctorate psychologists with first-hand experiences of practicing in a rural setting. Since accepting its first psychology resident in 2006, MCARPT has graduated three students, all of whom have gone on to provide services in under-served areas of Minnesota. Two more residents are anticipated to complete the program this fall, and there is a possibility that the new section that begins in October will expand to three residents.

Those who developed and planned the Detroit Lakes–based training program, did so with a specific goal in mind: “Reduce the shortage of psychologists practicing in rural communities due to poor retention of mental health professionals in under-served parts of the state and thereby enhance access for rural residents to quality mental health services in their communities.” In short, it really was about creating a pipeline of professionals that could stem an existing and problematic shortage. The results of providing the service, however, have also had a local, positive impact.

“There are multiple benefits,” Leitcher said. “There is direct benefit to the community in the sense that we are populating the number of mental health professionals over the course of time that are going to be in the community. This particular project — and I don’t think I’m being overly boastful — has created cohesion among these 11 agencies that previously often times never talked with each other. There’s a connection … [and] now they all speak to one another in the interest of making sure the fellowship program works smoothly.”

Existing professionals within the community have also been able to combat feelings of isolation due to interactions, like group supervision meetings, that are built into the program.

“There aren’t a lot of psychologists in our area, but of those that are, many are involved in the program by doing supervision or teaching or some other type of training element,” he said. “I think it is very fair to say that a lot of folks who kind of felt like they were out there by themselves are now being brought into the fold of this project, and are feeling like they are a part of something that is very cutting edge and innovative.”

Since 80 of Minnesota’s 87 counties are considered to be mental health shortage areas, Leichter laughed when asked how long it would take MCARPT to provide psychologists to all under-served areas of the state.

“A lifetime at least,” he said and laughed some more. “But we are making a dent.”

Lynda Waddington is a reporter at the Iowa Independent.

Images like Iowa artist Grant Wood's idyllic farm scene sometimes obscure the real stresses that make up the daily lives of rural residents. (Photo courtesy Deere Art Collection)

The Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network, authorized (but not funded) by the 2008 farm bill, would create a national crisis hotline for rural workers and also mandates additional behavioral health services in geographically rural regions. While some states have hotlines and some capacity to provide behavioral health services designed for agricultural workers, others have nothing in place.

Statistics show that the presence of such services can reduce rural violence and suicides, which are currently on the rise.

“How many deaths will it take?” asked Mike Rosmann, executive director of AgriWellness, an Iowa-based nonprofit that promotes accessible behavioral health services for underserved rural populations. “[This] leaves farm people with fewer options to deal with mounting stress. It is especially true for livestock and dairy producers, although the picture is much bigger than just those industries because grain prices are declining and costs of production are rising above the value of products in the marketplace.”

U.S. Sens. Tom Harkin and Chuck Grassley of Iowa pushed for the creation of the stress assistance network as a part of the farm bill. Harkin, a Democrat who chairs the Senate Agricultural Committee, had requested $5 million be provided to the program during appropriations debate. Grassley, a Republican, and Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson of South Dakota also argued for “appropriating the maximum amount possible” in a letter sent to the agriculture appropriations subcommittee in May.

“Farming is one of the most stressful and dangerous occupations in the United States,” Grassley said in December 2007, while urging members of his own political party to stop their attempts to block inclusion of the network in the farm bill. “There are environmental, cultural and economic factors that put farmers and ranchers at a higher risk for mental health problems. Stress is agriculture contributes to rates of depression and suicide that are double the national average. This is true even in good times for farmers.”

Indeed, as senators who opposed creation of the network were quick to point out, the agriculture community at the time of the farm bill debate was flourishing. That is unfortunately not the case today as farmers brace against overall economic decline, suffer massive product price reductions and battle against misinformation about disease. Under these circumstances, and without a safety net, health care professionals are worried that the nation will once again witness breakdowns within agricultural communities similar to those seen during the 1980s farm crisis.

“The consequence of all of this is that there will be mounting frustration,” Rosmann said. “There is also a greater likelihood that more and more people will be frustrated to the point that they are going to do something because they feel like government isn’t listening. We have to have parity of behavioral health care for rural and urban people.”

The appropriations bills will now be taken into a conference committee where the differences between them will be reconciled. During the appropriations conference process, according to a spokeswoman in Grassley’s office, congressional rules do not permit funding for an item that was not previously contained in either the House or Senate versions of the bill. If the conference committee did attempt to include the funding, any member could object — and, given the debate during this item’s authorization in the farm bill, some lawmaker probably would.

“I worked very hard to put the Farm Stress Assistance Network in the farm bill,” Harkin said during a conference call Thursday morning with reporters. “It was attacked … during the farm bill debate, but we persisted and got it in. I just haven’t been able to get funding for it yet. The Republicans would not sign off on my efforts on this.”

There is also some speculation that funding could be included in overall health care reform, but such inclusion would likely be left to a newly created health care committee through recommendations from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

In that type of scenario, the U.S. Department of Agriculture would have much less influence in terms of ensuring urban-rural parity. Further, if health care reform does not include a public option and/or if preventive behavioral health services like the stress assistance network aren’t considered essential services, already cash-strapped rural families would be more likely to have to pay additional premiums to access insurance coverage for such services.

“I’m disappointed that the agriculture appropriations committee failed to see the positive benefits of this program,” Grassley said in a statement to The Iowa Independent. “Farmers continue to see drastic market swings and difficult weather patterns. The assistance of the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network would be a tremendous help to many feeling the impact of problems out of their control.”

The fiscal 2010 Agriculture, Rural Development and FDA Appropriations approved by the Senate includes nearly $101 billion in mandatory spending, an increase of roughly $13 billion from what was enacted in 2009, and just over $24 billion in discretionary spending, an increase of roughly $2.5 billion from 2009. The House bill calls for nearly $23 billion in spending, an increase of roughly $2.3 billion from 2009. The appropriations bill funds nutritional programs, food and drug safety initiatives, international food aid, USDA research and rural development programs.

Lynda Waddington is a reporter at the Iowa Independent.