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La Vida Locavore is the blog for anyone whose crazy life includes planting, growing, weeding, fertilizing, raising, picking, harvesting, processing, cooking, baking, making, serving, buying, selling, distributing, transporting, composting, organizing around, lobbying about, writing about, thinking about, talking about, playing with, and eating food!

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P Eric Massa (D-NY)
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*=House Organic Caucus member
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Chair: P Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)
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P=Congressional Progressive Caucus

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Farm to School in Oregon: A "Fork-Ready" Project

by: JayinPortland

Wed Jun 24, 2009 at 15:56:01 PM PDT


HB 2800, the Oregon Farm-to-School and School Garden bill, is currently making its way through the Oregon House of Representatives.  Oregon is currently one of only a handful of states that does not allocate any state money to school food programs.  This bill would change that via reallocation of some state lottery proceeds, and will also help fund agricultural education efforts and school gardens throughout our state.  It is especially critical that this bill pass now, to build upon the success of current farm-to-school pilot programs at Portland Public Schools and in the Gervais school district.

Deborah Kane, vice president of Ecotrust's Food and Farms program, has an opinion piece in support of HB 2800 running in papers throughout Oregon -

For every $1 we spend on Oregon products, another $.87 continues to cycle throughout the Oregon economy. Beyond supporting the agricultural sector, when we invest in school food we create jobs and support the Oregon economy overall. School food is a "fork ready" project if ever there was one; that's good news in these difficult economic times.

Equity issues have to be considered as well. In Oregon, 46 percent of the children who eat school food do so as recipients of either free or reduced price meals. As the recession deepens, this number is expected to rise as more and more economically challenged families turn to the school meal program to help keep food in their children's bellies. Don't these children deserve the very best Oregon has to offer?

My Oregon State Rep, Jules Bailey, is a co-sponsor of the bill, so I'll focus my energy on contacting the key legislators mentioned here.  If you're also here in Oregon (or hell, anywhere - this is a good thing for everybody in America), please consider taking a moment to take action as well.  We only have six days left until this year's state legislative session ends.

JayinPortland :: Farm to School in Oregon: A "Fork-Ready" Project
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Some good news from the 2009 Oregon legislative session... (4.00 / 2)
The Oregon State Senate passed by a vote of 27-2 last Friday, Senate Bill 676, allowing the growth and sale of hemp for industrial uses.  The bill now heads down to the Oregon House for a vote.

"Senate Bill 676 will allow farmers to re-establish industrial hemp as an agricultural crop in Oregon," said Senator Floyd Prozanski (D-Eugene), who carried the bill on the floor. "Industrial hemp is an innovative crop that is regaining its popularity across the globe. This legislation sets the course for growing and selling this high-demand crop in Oregon."

Also, a number of angry right-wing backdoor measures aimed at continuing to wage the "War on Drugs" against chronically ill Oregonians with medical marijuana cards (and overturn our medical marijuana laws), by "allowing Oregon employers to continue to maintain 'drug-free' workplaces" failed miserably. :)

"Intelligent discontent is the mainspring of civilization." - Eugene V. Debs


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