Via Streetsblog Capitol Hill (with thanks to Joy!):
A new budget proposal is aimed at developing new food outlets in urban neighborhoods that policymakers call “food deserts”: White House Pitches $400M for Healthier Neighborhood Food Outlets
Via the Seacoast Eat Local blog:
Go Green, Go Healthy Fair - February 6th in Fremont
“This free, family-friendly event will also include massage, chiropractic care, natural cleaning ideas, nutrition ideas, energy conservation tools, stress reduction services, face painting, and healthy food samples.”
From Northeast Organic Farming Association of NH (NOFA-NH) via the Seacoast Eat Local blog:
There is nothing locally grown nor heirloom about genetically engineered food. The NH localvore, slow food and organic movement can collaborate and take the first steps in discouraging the presence of genetically engineered food and products in our state.
Take part in a meeting on
Wednesday, Feb 3
6:00-7:30 PM
Blue Moon Market and Café
8 Clifford Street, Exeter, NH
to hear about two bills in the NH House Committee on Agriculture and the Environment: one to label seeds that are genetically engineered or contain genetically engineered organisms (GMOs) and the other to provide farmers the right to seek damages if their crops become contaminated by GE crops. (The Café will still be serving food if you come hungry.)
Speakers at this meeting:
There will also be time for an open discussion about your interests in this issue.
The hearings for the two bills are scheduled for
Thursday, February 11
Legislative Office Bldg (LOB)
Concord, NH
11 AM for HB 1388 - Compensation for contamination
1:00 PM for HB 1172 – Labeling of GMO seeds
Please make the time to appear in person at any of these hearings, and let Elizabeth Obelenus at NOFA-NH know your plans. The many aspects as to why genetic engineering is not welcomed need to be covered at these hearings to build a strong case. For example, if you or someone you know works in the sciences and can talk from that point of view about why genetic engineering is bad for our health, or know a farmer that wants to grow sweet corn organically but wonders if their crop will get contaminated by neighboring GE corn, ask them to contact Elizabeth at NOFA. Written testimony is also encouraged.
NOFA-NH CONTACT INFO: (603) 224-5022 or info@nofanh.org.
Senator Deb Reynolds, chair of the Milk Producers Emergency Relief Fund (MPERF) Board, invites legislators, farmers, conservationists and consumers to a public informational forum on the Keep Local Farms initiative. The forum will be held in Representatives Hall of the State House in Concord on Tuesday, December 8 at 10:00 am. Keep Local Farms is a new voluntary program that is a joint effort of New England dairy farmers and the six New England state departments of agriculture, with the goals of stabilizing New England’s dairy farms and ensuring residents of a continuing supply of fresh, locally produced milk and dairy products. The December 8th forum will explain how the program works.
The forum is for anyone interested in New Hampshire’s milk supply and where it comes from, and where it will come from in the future. It is also for all those interested in maintaining the dairy farms that provide additional benefits of the scenic working landscape and rural character to New Hampshire communities, protect ground and surface water supplies, wildlife habitat and open lands enjoyed by outdoors enthusiasts of all kinds.
While the MPERF Board has determined that the state’s dairy industry is in need of assistance due to the depression of farm milk prices throughout 2009, (where farmers have been paid half of their costs to produce milk), the state’s revenue and budget shortfalls have left the fund established by the legislature in 2006 unfunded. The MPERF board is hosting this public forum on the Keep Local Farms initiative to raise awareness of the situation caused by the unprecedented, low milk market prices, and of this new opportunity to compensate farmers more fairly for what they produce and contribute to their communities and region.
The Keep Local Farms program connects consumers with dairy farmers through education and direct support. This is an opportunity for consumers who are interested in purchasing local foods to support local dairy farmers, their community and the local economy. For more information or to contribute, go to the website: www.keeplocalfarms.org
Dear Slow Food Seacoast Friends,
Please read the exerpts below from a great letter Slow Food leaders recently received from Slow Food USA’s president. It really describes the direction Slow Food is headed in. I hope it makes you feel good about your involvement, what we have already accomplished, and what we set out to do each time we meet, host educational events, or simply talk to one another - we are making a difference.
*****
Dear Slow Food leader,
Slow Food USA is going to change the way America eats. I’m excited by what we stand to accomplish together and I’m writing you this letter to convey three important things:
I want to share the goals I have for Slow Food and its local chapters. This will help to define the work we do together over the next twelve to eighteen months.
MAJOR GOALS
Historically, Slow Food has done inspired work locally, on the ground, and in our communities to raise awareness about the connections between food, land and people, and to make a better food system. It is time to build on and expand this work so that Slow Food can create deeper and broader changes in our food system. First, by ensuring our chapters are effectively connected on the ground to the organizations and people who are doing great work there; and second, by speaking with a united voice on key issues as we move forward.
* We can increase our reach, our impact and our value to members by making sure that we have strong connections in our communities between our chapters and each of the community leaders, individuals and other organizations doing related work there. As we branch out to do work with and include youth, work on food justice, and work that serves those most hurt by our current food system, local connections will be a vital way in which chapters engage.
o Having strong local connections ensures your local chapters can help to serve the interests of all those doing related work in your communities.
o By being connected to a local network, a chapter offers more value to its members. More than any other reason, people join Slow Food to be part of a growing movement and to be connected to a local community of people who share similar values and work. When a member becomes a part of your chapter, that member should become a part of a community and a movement.
o By having strong local connections, we broaden the reach of our local networks. This allows us to have greater impact as we advocate nationally.
* We will speak with a national, unified voice on key issues to help our movement change the food system. With local chapters and members all over the country, ready to speak out and call for change in our food system, Slow Food is perfectly positioned to advocate for national policy change. Already Slow Food is being brought into conversations with federal policy makers and White House cabinet members to talk about the issues that matter most to us.
o President Obama has voiced support for our cause but has made it clear that if we want to see change happen, we need to show him a social movement.
o We have never united our local voices into a national voice before, but now is the time to make it happen.
o In the coming months we will be working with you towards national campaigns on issues in our movement that can unite our voices and draw broad support. This is new work for many of us, but it is the work that we are called to do.
* Annual Report on Slow Food Chapter Activity: The annual reports you send us on your activity help us to create a clearer picture of what Slow Food is doing on the ground, nationally. Here are some highlights of your accomplishments in 2008.
o Over 30 new chapters opened in 2008. You now run 212 chapters, and there is a chapter in nearly every state. We only lack chapters in North and South Dakota, Kansas and Delaware.
o In 2008 you ran over 1100 events. That is more than three events every single day!
o More than 140 chapters are already involved in or want to be involved in advocating for food policy changes, creating more access to good, clean and fair food for underserved populations and educating members about food security issues.
o You raised and spent nearly one million dollars. Roughly half of the money you raised was spent on running events, which means money directed to good, clean, fair food producers, and education for members and the public. The remainder went to supporting good work changing our food system and building our movement. With it you established school gardens, sent farmers and students to Terra Madre, and ran amazing programs.
* Food Justice Primer: A NEW resource that offers ideas for beginning (or continuing) to work on food justice projects, including hunger and food access, urban farming, worker rights, food sovereignty and youth mentoring. It lists project ideas, samples of chapter projects, and local and national organizations who work in food justice. Find it at http://slowfoodusa.org/index.php/local_chapters/details/working_in_food_justice
In closing, I want to thank you again for all that you do for this organization, and for the sustainable food movement. Real community is built out of shared food and shared work. Even though we live far apart from each other, our food and our work are shared. So we are a community, a community trying to make a good, clean and fair food system. I feel blessed to be a part of this community, and I look forward to the good work we are going to do together.
Yours truly,
Josh Viertel
President, Slow Food USA
There’s been some concern about the powers written into HR 875, a bill introduced in the House by Rosa DeLauro. It stated purpose is to “to protect the public health by preventing food-borne illness, ensuring the safety of food, improving research on contaminants leading to food-borne illness, and improving security of food from intentional contamination, and for other purposes.”
There are many elements of the bill of concern to supporters of Slow Food. And if you subscribe to food-related email lists, you’ve probably been getting emails about it describing its dire effects - there have been rumors that it would outlaw organic farming or backyard gardening, or that it would require new regulations on farmers’ markets or direct sales.
As it turns out, some of those threats are exaggerated or even made up. Food & Water Watch, a well-respected watchdog group, has written an analysis showing that some of the scary statements about the bill are myths.The environmental blog Grist published a good entry on HR 875, as well. And the bill’s odds of passing aren’t great.
However, what’s left in the bill is still nothing to look fondly on. It’s mainly a set of measures meant to react to the problems inherent in an industrialized food system - not create new alternatives to that system. And it’s only one of a few other bills currently making their way through the House approval process (like HR 814, which contains the NAIS animal ID progam).
While many food advocates think the approach in these bills is the wrong one, it might be wise to honor the impulse - concern about food - while letting our representatives know about the potentially negative consequences to the legislation. Food and Water Watch makes a wise recommendation:
There is plenty of evidence that one-size-fits-all regulation only tends to work for one size of agriculture – the largest industrialized operations. That’s why it is important to let members of Congress know how food safety proposals will impact the conservation, organic, and sustainable practices that make diversified, organic, and direct market producers different from agribusiness. And the work doesn’t stop there – if Congress passes any of these bills, the FDA will have to develop rules and regulations to implement the law, a process that we can’t afford to ignore.
But simply shooting down any attempt to fix our broken food safety system is not an approach that works for consumers, who are faced with a food supply that is putting them at risk and regulators who lack the authority to do much about it.
The project we take on in reforming America’s food system is a big and complicated one. As we go forward, we’ll be faced with many opportunities to take positions on legislation and be in contact with our representatives. It’ll be important not only to react - to let Congress know when it’s on the wrong path - but also to work with our Congresspeople to let them know what it is we’re looking for. Yes, the industrialized food system is under-regulated and puts more people in danger than should be the case. But the way to solve that should not be to unfairly burden small farms and organic growers with regulations that threaten to put them out of business - especially when they’re not the source of the problem. We need to help our representatives understand the differences between industrialized and sustainable farming and food production practices. W’re in a collaborative process of citizenship - of educating ourselves and our representatives while we try to craft a new food policy, together.
This hasn’t been the first, and won’t be the last of many pieces of legislation we’ll need to look carefully at in the coming years. Now is a good time to begin to develop our skills in reading and understanding the legislation and seeking sources of analysis that we can trust. It’s also important to be sure we’re responding to facts, not exaggerations or misunderstandings of legislation. But regardless of whether everything is accurately represented to us when we first learn about it, it’s still a great time to open up the conversation with legislators. Once you have the facts, and know your opinion on HR 875 or HR 814, why not send an email or make a phone call to your representative today? Introduce yourself and say hello. We’re going to need to know each other well.
–Michelle Moon
[This is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Slow Food Seacoast, its members, sponsors, or partners.]
This alert just in from Kidsgardening.org, a branch of the National Gardening Association:
“Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has included an amendment in the Farm Bill to authorize $10,000,000 to establish a pilot program for community school gardens. The Farm Bill passed the Senate by a vote of 79 to 14 on December 14 with the school garden amendment intact. The Farm Bill is now headed to conference committee where the Senate and House will determine the final version of the bill which goes to the President. Your letters, e-mails, and phone calls to your representatives in the House can help ensure that the school garden amendment is included in the final version of the Farm Bill.”
More information on the actual amendment can be found on the KidsGardening Website.
Representatives can be reached by calling the general Congressional switchboard number: (202) 224-3121.
"In the last hundred years, 300,000 plant varieties have vanished from the earth ... and today fewer than 30 plants nourish 95 percent of the world population."
—Carlo Petrini, Slow Food founder and president
