Food & Agriculture . . . continued
Slow Food USA is working with Better School Food on this national campaign to improve the quality of food in our children's schools. Better School Foods offers informational resources for parents trying to improve the food in local schools, including a "Top 10 List" of high impact changes that can be made in school lunch programs:
- Eliminate All Products Containing Partially Hydrogenated Oils
- Eliminate High Fructose Corn Syrup
- Pay Attention to Portion Size
- Serve More Fresh Fruit & Vegetables
- Support Local Farms / Set up Farm-to-School Programs
- Offer Vegetarian Options Daily
- Serve More Whole Grains & Beans
- Discontinue Use of Poor Quality Oils
- Give Adequate Time for Students to Eat Lunch
- Decrease Refined Carbohydrate Foods & Snacks
In their "Top 10 List", Better School Foods explains in clear and convincing fashion why each of these top ten action items will improve children's nutrition and health, helping to fight the increasing risk of obesity and diabetes amongst America's children. We owe it to our kids to listen.
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Allen said Growing Power took particular pride in being a multi-cultural, multi-generational organization. He noted that more and more people of color were getting involved in the good food revolution. More African-Americans were joining this revolution over the last year or two, Allen observed, and Latino immigrants were starting new farms in the U.S.
In his moving presentation to a packed hall of NOFA conference participants, Allen took an audience of hundreds of food activists and organic farmers through a photo tour of the evolution of his work, from the 1990s when he bought the last existing farm in the City of Milwaukee, to the multi-faceted year-round food production systems he is pioneering today. Allen’s important address, recorded by Sustenance, and posted with his permission, is available as an audio mp3 in three parts here: (1) Allen's introductory comments on a 'Good Food Revolution' (9.5 MB download), and (2) Allen's description of the evolution of Growing Power (10.5 MB download) and (3) the details of Growing Power's composting systems, vermiculture and intensive agricultural growing practices (35 MB download).
Allen’s organization offers regular training sessions for growers and urban food organizers, and is also organizing a “Growing Food & Justice” conference for late October. Go to Growing Power for more details.
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- If managed properly, it could decrease the region’s contribution to global climate change and wars for oil, by reducing our need to transport food over long distances using fossil fuels.
- It would increase the nutritional value and quality of foods, by delivering them to consumers closer to the time of harvest and closer to peak ripeness.
- It would likely increase tourism to the region, by making the vistas in the region more open and more scenic (think of the wine grape districts of Western New York or the Sonoma area of California, for example).
- It would increase the quality of life in the region, by improving diverse employment and entrepreneurial opportunities, community health, regional pride, and the scenic nature of the regional landscape.
- It may improve the energy independence of the region, by helping to create feedstocks for biofuels , like farm-waste derived methane gas.
- It would increase our region’s political independence through increased material self-sufficiency (Thomas Jefferson observed the connection between democracy and the yeoman-farmer).
Dramatically expanding food production for the sustainability and self-sufficiency of the Pioneer Valley will involve some strategically focused effort and some strategic coordination. We’ll have to find ways to:
- Expand the amount of farmland in production, and ways to get affordable access to that farmland for young farmers and other new farmers – whether through innovative leasing arrangements, cooperatives, land trusts, new tax breaks or tax incentives, increased profitability of private farming ventures, expanded public ownership of farmland, or combinations of all of these. Expanded private gardening and community gardening can also raise a huge fraction of our fruit and vegetables, as the nation learned during the “Victory Garden” movement of World War II.
- Raise more farmers, through more educational opportunities for young people, and others, to learn about farming and learn how to farm. Expanded apprenticeships and internships, expanded programs at the high school, community college, and UMass levels can all be part of this, as well as public campaigns restoring popular interest in, and respect for, farming.
- Rebuild local food processing capabilities and other agricultural infrastructure. Local growers and entrepreneurs, working with groups like CISA, are already making pioneering efforts in this direction.
- Grow the nutrition we need. Over the past sixty years or so our food system has contributed to our national health problems, from obesity and diabetes to heart disease. We need to grow not just more food, we need to grow nutritious food and encourage food preparation in a way that preserves that good nutrition. Cooks, chefs, food processors, school dieticians, and others have a critical role to play. On top of the specialty crops that help farms generate sufficient profit, we’ll need to look for some nutritional staples we can produce in the Valley in greater quantity to help anchor a sufficient locally-based diet.
- Manage our regional water supply efficiently and ecologically, so that there is plenty of water available to expand irrigation capacity for agriculture when needed, without straining the river basin’s ability to sustainably supply water for industrial processes and domestic use, and to support the local environment.
- Expand equitable food distribution channels. As we guarantee the profitability and economic sustainability of local food production, we have to ensure access to that healthy local food supply to those with lower incomes, to all the children in the Valley, and our seniors -- sections of the community that may not be able to afford the locally-grown food premium that has in part helped expand local food production. Locally generated food coupons for farmers markets, CISA’s program subsidizing farmshares in CSA’s for low-income seniors, expanded food bank and school meal programs tied to local farms, and other programs will be able to help guarantee that the benefits of healthy local food production are shared by all members of our community.
- Manage farm wastes and compostable municipal wastes in an environmentally sound manner and on a cyclical basis. Right now many food nutrients are passing through the food system in a one-way flow-through, with fertilizers created from mined minerals and hydrocarbons going into crops and food, then ending up in food wastes and sewage dumped in our landfills or flushed down our toilets. University researchers, farm entrepreneurs, new generation engineers and municipal planners are all going to have to help change this picture in a way that safeguards community health and environmental sustainability.
The good news is that there are a lot of organizations already working on these exciting challenges right here in the Valley, with groups like CISA, NOFA-Mass, Nuestras Raices and others helping to show the way. (Click on Food & Ag Resources to find out more.) It's going to take a lot more of us getting involved, though, to ditch our diesel-driven diet and get back on the high road of a sustainable, locally-baded food system.
-- Rudy Perkins
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For media, books and articles on sustainable food & agriculture, click on Food & Agriculture, media & articles.
For organizations working towards sustainable agriculture, click on Food & Agriculture resources.
Page last modified: 9/5/09
