Archive for the ‘Food Access’ Category
Seattle Grows Supper
Seattle Grows Supper on Friday, June 3, brought together a dynamic gathering of more than 30 chefs, farmers, food wholesalers, writers, nutritionists and others working on a community-based food system. The dinner was convened by the Seattle Tilth Advocacy Group, people who are farmers, food planners, processors and food justice advocates working to nimbly develop a more resilient Seattle.
As people made their way from table to table in a World Café-style potluck dinner, ideas bubbled up, were quickly reviewed, and refined.
Some fun, unique, and important ideas emerged from Seattle Grows Supper:
- Create an on-line Farmville-style game called “Farm Bill”
- Put recipes in CSA boxes that chefs develop unique to each neighborhood
- Provide spaces at farmers’ markets for very very local producers
- Permit farm stands in very small places, parking lots, corner stores
- Focus on mothers as change agents: Snacks, school meals, family dinners, are family-values issues we can all support
- Pay attention to the commons, particularly be aware of privatizing water rights
- Find stories and learn clear language that speaks across many cultures: food as medicine
- Develop achievable food system metrics and goals. Seattle can set a goal to grow and process 30% of what its people eat in the next five years — and we can compost 90% of our food waste!
People left the three-hour dinner “hungry for more”. Another Seattle Grows Supper over the summer seems likely. Stay tuned!
Update on Maine’s Food Sovereignty Movement
From Bob St.Peter with Food for Maine’s Future here’s an update on the food sovereignty movement in Maine and a way to lend support.
Whatever happened to Co-Existence?
Since its inception in 2006, Food for Maine’s Future has been confronting the disproportionate power agribusiness corporations have over food and farm policies. In our fight for liability protections that would protect Maine farmers contaminated by GMOs, (a fight we lost – twice), the Department of Agriculture opposed the effort, telling us and the Legislature that we must co-exist with biotechnology, and that farmers ought to be able to decide for themselves which agricultural practices are best. As for the federal government, their position on GMOs is that there is no substantial difference between genetically manipulating DNA of seeds and animals and more traditional breeding techniques. They use this position to justify not requiring mandatory independent testing or labeling in the marketplace. Along with the Department of Justice, the USDA has permitted one company – Monsanto – to take commanding control over the major crop seeds in the U.S., utilizing highly restrictive patent laws and monopoly practices in the process.
So when it comes to embracing a radically new technology like genetic engineering – unlabeled, untested, and controlled by corporate monopolies – the position of the Maine Department of Agriculture is Co-Existence.
But when it comes to production and distribution methods that have been time tested, are transparent for the buyer, and are created through an open and democratic process, the Department’s position is No-Existence.
Let me explain.
When Maine towns began passing the Local Food & Community Self-Governance Ordinance they made informed choices about what they want their town’s food and farm policy to look like. A total of four towns now have the ordinance; Sedgwick, Penobscot, Blue Hill, and Trenton. Not everyone agrees with this approach or the exemptions these towns have given their local food producers. But nevertheless hundreds of Maine citizens have democratically chosen local rules they believe are in the best interest of their residents. Read the Local Food & Community Self-Governance Ordinance and decide for yourself.
More…
Too Many Farmer’s Markets?
From the Seattle PI - could we have too many markets?
When farmers grumble that Seattle has too many farmers markets, it tends to deflate the city’s eco-foodie image, where the mayor rides a bike and officials encourage backyard chicken coops.
So with a new farmers market season dawning, some wonder if the grumbles have led to any changes. Has the alleged glut corrected itself?
Already, two markets have folded. They include the Olympic Sculpture Park market, promoted last year as fun, scenic grocery shopping for Belltown’s condo dwellers. But farmers found the sloping waterfront park with its zigzag path a logistical nightmare. And the crowds were just ho-hum. More…
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Urban Orchard Stewardship at Martha Washington Park
City Fruit is partnering with Seattle Parks and Recreation to train neighbors how to care for fruit trees on Park’s property. I recently visited one of the sites at Martha Washington Park. It looks lovely!
To learn more about how you can join the fruit tree stewardship program go here.
Entry to the park.
Loaded with blooms!
This old apple tree has been pruned and is ready for more productive years.
A nice spot for a picnic.
Feeding Kids Fresh From the Farm
Providing healthy, locally-grown food for school lunches is a no-brainer, right? Unfortuately, no. Farm-to-School programs turn out to be much more complex than one might suspect.
Vashon Island Growers Association (VIGA), a local chapter of the Washington Tilth Association, held its first workshop on March 4, 2011 to hammer out details about how to bring local fruits and vegetables to the three local schools on Vashon. The workshop brought together a diverse field of growers, government officials, and non-profits.
“There are many obstacles we’ll need to overcome to making this work,” says Mark Musick, who helped to organize the VIGA summit. “Food safety protocols that meet USDA standards are complex. Big farming businesses can afford staff to do complex USDA paperwork. We need make meeting food safety protocols comparatively easy for small, owner-operated farms while still holding to a high public health standard.”
VIGA members will form a grower’s cooperative to wholesale produce sales to the schools, complete paperwork for individual liability insurance for each farm, and may eventually work on a shared processing site.
Vashon Island currently has 38 active farms, with estimated 2010 retail sales of $312,315. Over a quarter of the Vashon’s farmers are participating in the school pilot.
VIGA is a “groundbreaking” collaboration pointing the way towards providing healthy, local food grown on small farms for institutions and large buyers.
New Indoor Public Market in Spokane
From NWCN.com here’s news on an indoor farmer’s market starting up in Spokane.
Plans are in the works to open a new type of farmer’s market in Spokane to be open year round. The Spokane Public market is set to open at Browne and Second Avenue in Downtown Spokane in May. Renovation is already underway to make the venue suitable for indoor and outdoor markets. Customers will be able to buy local produce, fruit, flowers, honey, meat, dairy, arts and crafts. Organizers said more than 100 small farmers and artisans are interested and ready to sell. “Where the institution commits to promoting these producers, to all that’s available year round,” said Spokane Public Market worker John Hancook. More…
Bill Moving Now on Washington State Cottage Law
From The Capitol Record here’s news on bill 5748 supporting Washington state cottage laws. Right now the bill is in rules, when it goes to the floor then testimony and calls to your legislators will be helpful if you support this measure.
The Senate Agriculture and Rural Economic Development Committee just heard public testimony on a proposal that would allow people to sell food that they made in their home, rather than in a commercial kitchen. The bill falls in line with what supporters call “cottage foods” laws, which several other states have adopted.
Under the proposal foods, like jams, dried fruit and baked goods, that don’t require heat or refrigeration don’t have to be made in a commercial kitchen in order to be sold to the public.
The goods would have to be sold in person and not through the mail or off the internet. It would have to have a label on it that includes the ingredients and a statement that states the product was made in a home kitchen and has “not been inspected by the Washington Department of Agriculture.” More…
Hands-On Skills Revitalize Community Centers
Sustainable Northeast Seattle teamed up with staff at Seattle Parks Ravenna-Eckstein and Meadowbrook community centers to produce Hands-On: A Community Skills Fair on February 12, 2011. Seattle Department of Neighborhoods also contributed a Small Sparks cash grant.
Sustainable NE is part of SCALLOPS (Sustainable Communities ALL Over Puget Sound), a consortium of 62 community-based groups building the resilient skills necessary to live more local, less energy intensive, more connected lives. About a third of the SCALLOPS groups, including Sustainable NE, are also a part of the international Transition network.
In a day-long series of more than 40 classes, participants learned skills ranging from cheese-making to Morris dancing, plumbing to pickling. “We were overwhelmed by how many people signed up in a short time,” said the statistically astute Sustainable NE co-founder Leo Brodie, “more than 300 people took an average of 2.3 classes.”
The community centers were buzzing with activity. Pounding tools, soap fragrances, vocal harmonies and laughter blended with more traditional community center sounds and smells of youth basketball classes. More than one youth sports parent asked eagerly when to sign up for the next series of skills classes.
Young people were a sizable chunk of Hands-On participants. The 18- to 30-year-old crowd are part of the Seattle “greenhorns” movement, looking for ways to learn basic life skills and connection after years in front of the Simpsons and I-Phones.
I took basic plumbing and electrical wiring, while my daughter studied Tassajara bread making in the morning. In the afternoon we both signed up for a class in making herbal products. Our teacher, Heidi Meir, studied Ayurveda, herbalism, and aromatherapy, and was eager to share her knowledge. There is clearly a potent blend of eager teachers, eager learners, and underutilized Parks community centers.
Seattle Parks is in the midst of a responding to $10 million budget shortfall in 2011. Part of their response is converting some community centers to “limited use” sites. A blue-ribbon commission is meeting for the next six months to determine how to best respond to community center budget woes. Let’s hope the commission keeps in mind the incredible success of Hands-On!
Sail Transport: Strengthening That “S” In Regional Food Security
By Kathy Pelish
Some hundred years ago in the Puget Sound, the steam-powered Mosquito Fleet plied our local waters, carrying profitable loads that ranged from Eastern Washington grain to Scandinavian women from Poulsbo, carefully toting over farm-fresh baskets of eggs to the city.
But go back even further in time, to days when intrepid pioneers looked out over our vast lands and knew that a rich network of maritime and rivertine routes would help to build their communities. Before our bittersweet affair with cars, before the great transcontinental railroads, before Mark Twain and the Mississippi steamboats, Americans moved by sailboat.
Skipper Fulvio Casali readies boxes of fresh produce for loading at the Sequim dock. Photo by Forrest Jackson
Think sail transport is a quaint notion for our high-tech lifestyle? Think again: in Ballard’s backyard, a local group of skippers, sailors and land crew are performing a labor of love in resurrecting pure sail. Sure, the boats have an engine for emergency backup, but the journeys take place overwhelmingly under sail, gliding gracefully through day and night to arrive on time to meet boxes of fresh vegetables from Nash’s Produce in Sequim, then a quick loading and a quicker casting off.
Customer Paula Jenson transfers her fava beans into her bicycle basket. Photo by Yann Riche
A trip leg can range from 10.5 to 36.5 hours carried out by volunteer boats sailing over the season; a fleet consisting of a 26′ Ranger to a 38′ custom-built vessel by a local boatwright.
Once safely docked, a small electric flatbed truck meets the sailboat and the vegetables travel their last low-carbon mile to Aster Coffee Lounge in Ballard, the delivery pick up point for the CSA.
With a practical range of 10 miles, the mini-electric truck sips its fuel economically from a household 110-volt connection. Photo by Kathy Pelish
Celeriac Has Sent You a “Friend” Request
With unusual vegetables like celeriac, it quickly became clear that the CSA customers might need some ideas for home preparation and enjoyment. So for each delivery, the co-op partners with a local chef, (from places such as Macrina or Ray’s Boathouse), who donates a recipe highlighting some of the vegetables. The back side of the flyer is given to the chef so he or she can tell their story and their interest in local foods, (sample below).
Land Ho! Vegetables Sighted On Those Thar Docks
Started in June 2010, the Salish Sea Trading Cooperative deliberated over its name, finally settling upon the regional name of Salish Sea to honor both its home roots and the original Coastal Salish tribes.
The structure, too, was crucial – with a fierce commitment to the more community-based model of a cooperative, the co-founders, (both Sustainable Ballard members), hope to eventually share out their model with SCALLOPS and Transition Towns. On January 18th, they presented their “lessons learned” for Sustainable West Seattle to ponder, (West Seattle has the potential resource of city-owned Seacrest Dock.)
Right now, their small CSA program shipping organic vegetables from Sequim to Ballard is the primary project but the co-op is busily exploring other transport opportunities, such as sailing in oats for Sound Spirits, Seattle’s first legal distillery since Prohibition.
CSA’s, of course, are a vital ingredient of a healthy foodshed. The co-op also periodically hosts customer socials, collaborating with other groups to add a fun or unique touch, such as BBQ’s on one of the boats, an oyster roast with Petite Madisons brought over from the successful restoration efforts on Bainbridge Island and a tour of Theo’s Chocolate Factory, (won at a Silent Auction at OUT for Sustainability’s Eat Local Now dinner).
Sailing I-5
At the first-ever Cultivating Regional Food Security Conference this past December, Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon raised his concern over how easily the Seattle region could hit roadblocks in replenishing its food supplies. He referenced the famous picture of I-5 during the 2008 flooding, wholly impassable, and the mountain passes also closed. Add in a vulnerable silver thread of just one railway running north and south, closed at times by landslides and transport alternatives seem scarce.
But what can get through in this difficult scenario are boats!
From halyard to hoe, from binnacle to broccoli, what your Ballard neighbors are envisioning and working toward is a redrawn model of transport that also adapts to increasingly expensive fossil fuel energy resources and adds very little carbon to our planet.
In this shift they are not alone: last summer the Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood, proclaimed “Making better use of our rivers and coastal routes offers an intelligent way to relieve some of the biggest challenges we face in transportation – congestion on our roads, climate change, fossil fuel energy use and soaring road maintenance costs. There is no better time for us to improve the use of our rivers and coasts for transportation.” And also having an enormous amount of fun along the way!
If you’d like more information go here or are interested in volunteering for the 2011 season, please email here.
CNR Update or Better Food Coming Down the Pike
Via the Community Food Security Coalition here’s an update on the Childhood Nutrition Reauthorization Act.
As reported in our previous newsletter the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) has fast-tracked implementation of several pieces of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act – including extended eligibility for afterschool meal programs, simplified procedures [pdf] for Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) reimbursement; and Improved participation requirements [pdf] for family day care programs. Since then, additional rules and procedures have been implemented. Now, schools are no longer allowed to require families to submit letters in order to ensure eligibility for free and reduced price meals. Instead, all states must put in place a method for exchanging eligibility information from SNAP/Food Stamp officials directly with local schools – a process known as direct certification. More…
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