Archive for the ‘On The Policy Front’ Category
Oregon Home Food Law
From Oregon Live here’s news on a progressive food bill awaiting the governor’s signature.
A bill clarifying rules for growers who sell at farmers markets cleared its final legislative hurdle Tuesday.
House Bill 2336 addresses direct farm sales to the public, either through buying clubs, community supported agriculture programs or farmers markets.
The proposal creates an exemption from food inspection laws, allowing limited sales of certain processed food made in home kitchens.
It would affect Oregon’s 120 farmers markets and hundreds of small producers, allowing them to sell unlimited quantities of their own fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs along with cured or dried fruit, vegetables and herbs. It also would allow sales of shelled and unshelled nuts; shell eggs; honey; and whole, hulled crushed or ground grains, legumes and seeds that are cooked before consumption. More…
The Seven Principles of Food Sovereignty
There’s a lot of talk about food soveriegnty but what is it? Here are guiding principles from La Via Campesina that help explain what it is.
1. Healthy, nutritious, culturally appropriate food is a basic human right
2. True Agrarian reform guaranteeing the nondiscriminatory access of all people to land, credit, training, technology and markets
3. Fair Trade: societies must recognize food first as a necessity for life rather than an item of wealth through trade
4. Ending coporate domination over all aspects of our food and agriculture
5. Social Justice and Peace: food and agriculture must not be used as a weapon for exploitation and oppression of people
6. Democratic control: peasants, small farmers and all of us must have truly democratic control over our own society’s food and agriculture
7. Sustainable agriculture
Public Health and Urban Ag
As a public health nurse I fully realize that we are healthier today not due so much to modern medicine but due to environmental measures such as purifying water, pasteurizing milk and separating disease vectors, like animals, from people. This has put me in conflict at times with my desire to live sustainably through eating super locally and having a strong connection with nature through raising my family’s food.
Most of us have grown up in an age without the horrors of pregnant women losing babies from listeria, neighbors getting sick from tainted beans and other things that can happen when good sanitation and safe practices aren’t followed. As a result things like pasteurization and vaccinations can seem like restrictive government interventions rather than positive procedures that keep populations healthy.
So where is the balance? Can we safely raise animals in the city? My hope is that the answer is yes but it is a question that I think will be raised more and more as urban ag grows.
Dr. Will Butler of Florida State University has written an excellent paper on this topic. Here is the abstract:
Pre-industrial city dwellers put up with noise, odors, pestilence, and disease associated with livestock as animals were integral to urban life. With technological advances over the last 150 years, dependence on local livestock has evaporated and animals largely have been moved out of the city. However, in the last decade, calls for sustainability and urban resilience as well as public health concerns related to diet have led to calls for a more localized food system. The local foods movement has gained traction, urban agriculture is on the rise, and livestock is finding its way back into the city. Through an analysis of municipal codes in communities that recently have taken up the issue of urban livestock, this paper explores how municipalities have navigated tensions associated with welcoming livestock back into the city. For each locality, I examine regulatory planning tools including zoning, site level restrictions, and permitting programs used to mitigate these tensions. I conclude by outlining questions that remain in planning for urban livestock and explore the implications for resilience and public health.
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…
Go Good Foods!
From Green Acres Radio here’s news on a great partnership promoting healthy eating.
The multi-ethnic churches call it “Moving Together in Faith and Health.” Grow healthy food on site, educate about healthy living, and change the health patterns of your congregation. Add a federal grant, an engaged School of Nursing and county health department and last, but not least, a non-profit called the “Just Garden Project” and you have all the ingredients you need for one of Seattle’s newest urban garden projects. More…
Seattle Farm Bill Principles
Seattle City Council President, Richard Conlin, continues to show his support for a vibrant food system in the region.
On Monday, the Seattle City Council adopted resolution 31296, supporting the Seattle Farm Bill Principles as policy guidance to the Federal Government in the renewal of the 2012 Farm Bill.
“One of my main goals as a Councilmember is supporting public health, economic development and protecting our environment, all essential to the viability and livability of our city and our economy,” said Council President Richard Conlin, Chair of the Regional Development and Sustainability Committee and sponsor of this resolution. “We hope that Seattle’s actions will serve as a model for other jurisdictions, and that they will follow our lead.”
Seattle, along with other municipalities, faces multiple health, social, and environmental problems connected to food. In 2007, up to 11 percent of adults in Seattle ran out of food. In 2008, the incidence of obesity in King County adults was 21 percent. Currently, 42 percent of Seattle’s public school students are enrolled to receive free or reduced meals.
The Farm Bill is the primary piece of legislation that determines our nation’s food and agriculture policy and will be renewed in 2012. The 15 Federal Farm Bill titles address important issues including supplemental nutrition assistance programs (SNAP, formally called food stamps), farm, trade, conservation, rural development, research, and food safety programs. 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…
Read more:
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.
Governor to Sign Cottage Food Bill Tomorrow!
It’s really happening! Washington state is going to have a cottage food law that allows people to make value added low risk products in their home then sell them.
Do you know anyone who is planning on doing this? I’d love to run some posts on what people are making, where they are selling and how it’s going. If you do please send the information to info@urbanfarmhub.org.
Here’s a link to the bill.
Support Maine’s Food Sovereignty Movement
From Bob St. Peter at Food for Maine’s Future here’s a way you can show your support for food sovereignty!
Maine once had durable local economies, replaced now by the global marketplace, absentee owners, and our near total dependency. Pointing fingers and demanding accountability is easy, rebuilding the food production infrastructure of rural Maine is going to be a challenge. It requires pathfinding people producing a diverse array of food locally. It also requires a diversity of people at all levels of decision making.
Back in January, Food for Maine’s Future delivered a letter to the 125th Maine Legislature and the office of Gov. Paul LePage asking for protections for Maine’s remaining family farms. We asked the State of Maine to look into how monopoly control by agribusiness corporations is hurting Maine farms of all sizes. Nearly 200 individuals, small farms and businesses, and community organizations from around Maine and the U.S. signed on to the letter in support. We received no response to our letter from either the Legislative leadership or the Governor’s office.
In light of recent passage of the landmark Local Food and Community Self-Governance Ordinance in three Maine towns, Food for Maine’s Future is circulating this Open Letter in Support of Maine Family Farms a second time for additional signatures.** This request for your support comes on the heels of the State of Maine’s official response to passage of the Local Food and Community Self-Governance Ordinance.
In a letter to the Town of Blue Hill dated April 6, the Maine Department of Agriculture declared the Local Food and Community Self-Governance Ordinance to be illegal, citing it as a violation of the State’s powers to preempt local decision making. The letter from Commissioner Walter Whitcomb states that “persons who fail to comply will be subject to enforcement, including the removal from sale of products from unlicensed sources and/or the imposition of fines.”
While many see the Local Food and Community Self-Governance Ordinance as an important building block for the economic and social well-being of rural Maine, the official position of the State of Maine is that it is a threat to public health and order.
Rather than policing face-to-face food sales and arguing over who gets to make the rules for our towns, wouldn’t we be better off using public dollars to resolve the underlying problems that have created the need for such ordinances in the first place?
Please take a moment to add your name to the Open Letter in Support of Maine Family Farms. Tell the Legislature and Governor that farm foreclosures, monopoly control of our food supply, and the intimidation of small-scale food producers by state and federal authorities are simply unacceptable.
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