Book Tour Update: From Amish Country to New York City

by: Jill Richardson

Sun Aug 09, 2009 at 12:23:36 PM PDT

Eddie C met me at Penn Station and we barely made it two blocks before he pointed out a New York favorite... an Italian-owned cheesecake place that's been making delicious desserts for longer than I've been alive. We stopped in for some treats and continued on to Brooklyn. We're currently at my publisher's place, relaxing a bit before meeting up with Sidnora, the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats, and the Brooklyn Food Coalition at 4:30pm.

The Pennsylvania trip was wonderful. This is exactly what I wanted from the book tour. Really, the book is an excuse to build the movement. In Lancaster, I spoke to a few guys who were interested in food justice and setting up farmers' markets in low income areas. We've got a market like that in San Diego so we shared ideas from Lancaster, Chicago (where one of the guys currently works... he's just visiting friends in Lancaster now), and San Diego. We exchanged email addresses and I hope to put them in touch with the folks in charge of the San Diego City Heights farmers market.

Later that evening, I gave a talk to about 20 people at a bookstore. The Q&A continued until I had been speaking for a total of 2 hours... lesson learned that I need to wrap things up quicker in the future, but it was exciting that everyone was so engaged. The Q&A gave a really local focus to the event, because we talked about groups people could get involved with locally, Pennsylvania state politics, and PA's Senators role in national politics. Much of the Q&A was more of a conversation between various members of the audience, and that was really exciting. I learned a lot from them, and they filled in local details that I didn't know about. It was neat to hear a Pennsylvanian's point of view about how the people in the state organized to save their milk labels 2 years ago. I was involved in that, but from a distance, and it was inspiring that the people of Pennsylvania got a chance to take action and see their own impact when their outcry caused the Governor to overturn a decision of the Secretary of Agriculture.

I've got a few pictures so hopefully later I'll be able to upload them and share them. If you're in New York, join us tonight in Brooklyn or tomorrow in Manhattan - details are at http://www.recipeforamerica.org

Late Night Sampler Platter

by: Jill Richardson

Sun Mar 01, 2009 at 20:59:01 PM PST

• Natasha Chart writes about a really innovative online CSA program. If I lived near this farm, I would SO sign up!

• Civil Eats talks to a few urban hen owners. Are they pets or food? Well, if I owned some they would be egg-laying pets. But my friend Jamie? His are food. He told me as a kid he'd own turkeys and name them "Thanksgiving" and "Christmas"... you can guess why he chose those names.

• Civil Eats also says that supporting farms is everyone's business. I quite agree.

• Obama Foodorama takes on the anti-Obama Tea Parties (Here's a 2nd write-up on them, also by ObFo. This one tells how the tea parties were planned - and planned to look spontaneous.). Ugh, why does the right wing even exist (other than for me to laugh at)?

• Marion Nestle takes on osteoblast milk, a new stupid food industry idea to make a kind of super-milk. They add "OMP" (osteoblast milk protein, whatever that is) to make milk extra-milky. Or something.

• Tom Laskawy wonders if the USDA fudged the numbers in the 2007 Ag Census. Remember all the excitement over the growth of small farms? Well... for the past several years, the USDA has been padding its numbers to account for farms who didn't respond to the census survey.

• Organic Consumers provides a write-up of Brooklyn's new culinary movement, which appeared to be alive and well when I visited last October.

• The USDA is tightening oversight of organic fertilizer. I assume this is in response to an incident in California in the past year in which organic farms were sold fertilizer that was labeled as organic but actually prohibited by organic standards.

• A new blog called Organic on the Green helps college cafeterias move to a more sustainable system.

• Check out this video on the National Animal ID System and why it should be rejected. We may be in the clear on some issues now that the Dems are in power, but NAIS is something several Dems actually support.