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!
Agriculture
Chair: Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
- Max Baucus (D-MT)
- Michael Bennet (D-CO)
- Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
- Bob Casey (D-PA)
- Kent Conrad (D-ND)
- Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
- Tom Harkin (D-IA)
- Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
- Pat Leahy (D-VT)
- Ben Nelson (D-NE)
- Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)
- Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)
- Thad Cochran (R-MS)
- John Cornyn (R-TX)
- Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
- Mike Johanns (R-NE)
- Dick Lugar (R-IN)
- Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
- Pat Roberts (R-KS)
- John R. Thune (R-SD)
Appropriations
Chair: Daniel Inouye (D-HI) Ag Sub-Committee
Chair: Herb Kohl (D-WI)
- Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
- Dick Durbin (D-IL)
- Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
- Tom Harkin (D-IA)
- Tim Johnson (D-SD)
- Ben Nelson (D-NE)
- Jack Reed (D-RI)
- Robert Bennett (R-UT)
- Christopher Bond (R-MO)
- Sam Brownback (R-KS)
- Thad Cochran (R-MS)
- Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
- Arlen Specter (R-PA)
Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions
- Chris Dodd (D-CT)
Agriculture
Chair: B Collin Peterson (D-MN)
V. Chair: B Tim Holden (D-PA)
B Joe Baca (D-CA)
- John Boccieri (D-OH)
B* Leonard Boswell (D-IA)
- Bobby Bright (D-AL)
B* Dennis Cardoza (D-CA)
- Travis Childers (D-MS)
B Jim Costa (D-CA)
- Henry Cuellar (D-TX)
- Kathy Dahlkemper (D-PA)
B Brad Ellsworth (D-IN)
- Debbie Halvorson (D-IL)
B Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-SD)
- Steve Kagen (D-WI)
- Larry Kissell (D-NC)
B Frank Kratovil (D-MD)
- Betsy Markey (D-CO)
B Jim Marshall (D-GA)
P Eric Massa (D-NY)
B Mike McIntyre (D-NC)
- Walt Minnick (D-ID)
B Earl Pomeroy (D-ND)
- Mark Schauer (D-MI)
- Kurt Schrader (D-OR)
B David Scott (D-GA)
B Zachary Space (D-OH)
- Timothy Walz (D-MN)
- Frank Lucas (R-OK)
- Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
- K. Michael Conaway (R-TX)
- Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE)
- Virginia Foxx (R-NC)
- Bob Goodlatte (R-VA)
- Sam Graves (R-MO)
- Timothy Johnson (R-IL)
- Steve King (R-IA)
- Robert Latta (R-OH)
- Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO)
- Cynthia Lummis (R-WY)
- Jerry Moran (R-KS)
- Randy Neugebauer (R-TX)
- Phil Roe (R-TN)
- Mike Rogers (R-AL)
- Jean Schmidt (R-OH)
- Adrian Smith (R-NE)
- Glenn Thompson (R-PA) *=House Organic Caucus member B=Blue Dog Democrat
Appropriations
Chair: Dave Obey (D-WI) Ag Sub-Committee
Chair: P Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)
- Sanford Bishop (D-GA)
* Allen Boyd (D-FL)
- Lincoln Davis (D-TN)
*P Sam Farr (D-CA)
*P Maurice D. Hinchey (D-NY)
P Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. (D-IL)
P Marcy Kaptur (D-OH)
- Jack Kingston (R-GA)
- Rodney Alexander (R-LA)
- Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO)
* Tom Latham (R-IA) *=House Organic Caucus member
P=Congressional Progressive Caucus
Education and Labor
P Chair: George Miller (D-CA)
- Jason Altmire (D-PA)
- Robert Andrews (D-NJ)
- Timothy Bishop (D-NY)
P Yvette Clarke (D-NY)
- Joe Courtney (D-CT)
- Susan Davis (D-CA)
P Marcia Fudge (D-OH)
P Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)
P Phil Hare (D-IL)
- Ruben Hinojosa (D-TX)
P Mazie Hirono (D-HI)
- Rush Holt (D-NJ)
- Dale Kildee (D-MI)
P Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)
P Dave Loebsack (D-IA)
- Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY)
P Donald Payne (D-NJ)
- Jared Polis (D-CO)
- Robert Scott (D-VA)
- Joe Sestak (D-PA)
- Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH)
P John Tierney (D-MA)
- Dina Titus (D-NV)
- Paul Tonko (D-NY)
P Lynn Woolsey (D-CA)
- David Wu (D-OR)
- Buck McKeon (R-CA)
- Judy Biggert (R-IL)
- Rob Bishop (R-UT)
- Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
- Michael Castle (R-DE)
- Vernon Ehlers (R-MI)
- Luis F Fortuno (R-PR)
- Brett Guthrie (R-KY)
- Peter Hoekstra (R-MI)
- Duncan D. Hunter (R-CA)
- John Kline (R-MN)
- Kenny Marchant (R-TX)
- Tom McClintock (R-CA)
- Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA)
- Thomas Petri (R-WI)
- Phil Roe (R-TN)
- Todd Russell Platts (R-PA)
- Tom Price (R-GA)
- Mark Souder (R-IN)
- GT Thompson (R-PA)
- Joe Wilson (R-SC) P=Congressional Progressive Caucus
Wow! What a day! A little less than a year ago, I came to Lancaster for a half day to tour a few Amish farms and to learn about an Amish CSA cooperative called Lancaster Farm Fresh. If you read my book, you'll read about the CSA in chapter 5 (I think... I'm doing this from memory) because I loved it so much when I first visited. It's a scalable CSA model. Several farm families came together to form the cooperative a few years ago, and over time they've grown (both in number of farms and in number of CSA members). They sell some food to schools, they do some wholesale sales, and they are starting to get into farmers' markets too.
What I love about it most is that it's scalable... if new farms want to be part of a CSA, they don't have to do it all by themselves. Instead they can join Lancaster Farm Fresh, where they will automatically have a market for their goods and plenty of years of experience guiding them to be successful. This way, the farms can share trucks and warehouses, as well as non-farming jobs like marketing. And (my favorite part) because the cooperative is all organic with strict standards for humane treatment of animals, several farms have really shaped up the way they grow crops and raise livestock in order to join the cooperative.
What I found most impressive was the story of one farmer in particular. Last year I visited Aaron's beautiful farm when he showed a group of us foodies around. It was very clear how much he loves farming, and I loved this innovative contraption he'd come up with to harvest tomatoes. His tomatoes grew in a hoophouse, if I remember right, and he had lightweight, movable shelving hung from the ceiling that he could pull along with him as he harvested tomatoes, placing the tomatoes he picked in boxes on the shelves as he went.
The story continues this year, when blogger Anonymous Bosch took me to Reading Terminal Market. I went looking for the Lancaster Farm Fresh stand while we were there. When we found it, he looked at the heirloom tomatoes and said he thought that his wife bought these exact tomatoes recently. When we went back to his place, I saw that he did have that variety of tomatoes at home. Little did I know that Aaron - the very same man whose farm I visited last year - grew the tomatoes!!!
Today I visited Lancaster Farm Fresh again and spoke with Casey, the same person who led the tour last year. He showed us the heirloom tomatoes and commented that they were Aaron's. "Wait a second," I said, "Didn't we visit his farm last year?" Casey confirmed that yes, we (attendees of a food conference I attended who took the field trip to Lancaster, PA) did visit that farm. Wow. Talk about things coming full circle.
I was sorry to hear that Aaron shattered his leg in two places this year and he's been unable to work. However, I was thrilled to hear that in the classic Amish style (similar to a barnraising, where an entire community comes together to build an Amish family a barn all in one day), the community came together to plant Aaron's crops and they've been taking care of them and harvesting them while he's recovering from his injury. I realize that many people think that progress left the Amish in the dust, but in terms of their strong community and willingness to help one another out in their times of need, I think they are far ahead of the rest of us.
Many thanks to Lydia of SSBN and blogger Monkeybiz for hosting me while I'm here in beautiful Lancaster, and thanks to Casey of Lancaster Farm Fresh for taking time to chat with me today. This is one of the most beautiful areas in the entire country in my opinion and I'm just thrilled to have a chance to visit for the second time in a year.
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