Sampler Platter 09.27.09

by: JayinPortland

Sun Sep 27, 2009 at 14:41:05 PM PDT

• A preview of sorts, in case you're interested - I'm currently working on a 3,000-or-so word piece on what's right and what's wrong (imo, of course) with this project.  Should be up by Tuesday or Wednesday.  Gilbert is the Arizona town I lived in for nine months in 1993-94, so I have a bit to say there on that...

• This Thursday, October 1, Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan will host a Facebook chat on USDA's local foods initiative.

• Here's an update on recently introduced school lunch-related legislation in Congress.

• Vanessa Barrington at Civil Eats writes on farmworker justice.

• Over at Grist, Sean Sellers thinks The Nation missed a huge opportunity in their food issue this year.  I haven't picked up a copy of The Nation myself since about 2005, when I let my subscription lapse.  I believe they lost their "edge" long ago.  Anybody think differently?

• Columnist and political speechwriter William Safire passed away today from cancer at the age of 79.

• The O brings us two good pieces - one on Joel Salatin's recent visit to Oregon (Corvallis, home of Oregon State University); and another on one Lunch Lady's Sea-to-School program in Alaska.

"Nourish the nation one tray at a time"

by: desmoinesdem

Mon Sep 14, 2009 at 22:00:21 PM PDT

The goal is to raise awareness of Farm to School programs for the upcoming reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act by depicting the cafeteria tray as the centerpiece for a reformed school food system that supports healthy children, local farms and smart schools. Learn more.

Everyone's seen those "priceless" MasterCard ads, but how many of you are old enough to remember the Richard Dreyfuss mashed potato scene in Close Encounters?

I'm relieved my first-grader is too picky to want to eat the school lunches (except one or twice a month when they serve pancakes or waffles). I would rather pack a lunch for him anyway.

Iowa should be doing much more to get locally produced foods in school lunches. The Malcolm Price Laboratory School in Cedar Falls has a good pilot program going this year, though.

Obama Connects Food to Health

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Aug 20, 2009 at 14:21:57 PM PDT

I have a two-part question.  One is choice, the choice that we make to eat the foods that we eat and the lifestyle that we choose to engage in.  And the second part, your family is very fit.  What do you and the First Lady and the girls do to encourage physical fitness, and what can we -- not the government, not private corporations -- do to encourage activity in the public-school system and in young people?

I've got a problem with the way this question is worded. There's no good substitute for the term "food choices" but they aren't always choices. You need to eat and that's not a choice. Poor people choose not to eat healthy food just like I choose not to buy a Rolls Royce. When the good stuff is never an option in the first place, how can you call a person's diet a "choice"? Second, if the government is (in part) responsible for the problems in our food system, then they also need to be part of the solution. We can't do it without government change. Period.

That said, Obama answers the question very well (below). Like me, he connects school lunch to children's health, and he talks about bringing local farm products into schools for the kids to eat. So now let's see if he can walk his talk.

Sampler Platter 07.18.09

by: JayinPortland

Sat Jul 18, 2009 at 17:45:04 PM PDT

• Check out this fantastic piece on when overeating starts (very) young, from New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni, I Was a Baby Bulimic.

• Maybe they just want autographed copies of Jill's book?  Deep sea jumbo flying squid have invaded the waters off San Diego...

• Meh, the only way for fast food franchises to "go green" is to cease existence.  A few building upgrades won't change the fact that they're still serving 3,000-mile caesar salads, 1,800-mile french fries and 7,500-mile hamburgers with tomatoes picked by modern-day slaves in Florida, etc...

• Looking towards the future of our cities - I love what Flint's been doing, and hope Detroit and other cities follow suit.  Are we seeing the beginning of a return to traditional urban living patterns of dense centers immediately surrounded by farmland?

• African-American churches on the South and West Sides of Chicago are battling food deserts themselves, opening new farmers' markets and starting community gardens on their properties.

• Time again here for my favorite berry - Pete Petersen brings us a quick primer on marionberries.

• A whole bunch of new Portland food carts!  I am definitely hitting Asaase sometime this week.  Afro-Caribbean vegan!  Can't wait for the new Mississippi Avenue food cart block to open soon, either.  I want a new Polish cart!

• Sticking with the Portland theme, two San Franciscans just spent a day eating through our city.  Decent tour, and they even hit a place I haven't been to yet, "Tao of Tea" on Belmont...

• Here's a piece on how farm-to-school in Portland has worked over the past few years.

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

by: JayinPortland

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

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.

Sampler Platter Meets Pot Luck

by: JayinPortland

Sun Apr 19, 2009 at 19:00:00 PM PDT

• A nice piece from (Bend, OR's) Bend Weekly touches on farm-to-school, and describes how school district food buyers and local farmers can connect.

• Hooray for Oklahoma City!  The people of the city will soon be able to enjoy great local craft brews...and the best part?  Unlike their NBA team, they do not have to steal it from Seattle!

• 44 million dollars of federal stimulus money will go towards aiding migrating salmon and making more efficient use of irrigation water in Central Washington.

• The Cass County Board of Supervisors in Southwest Iowa have just approved funding that will make them the latest government to have a local food policy council and a regional foods coordinator.  Kick ass, Cass!

• A view from Across The Pond (besides AAF's awesome input, of course...) - John-Paul Flintoff writes about digging for Britain.

• Surprise!  A quick NY Times blog piece drools over Portland's food scene.  Again.  I agree with her on the first point, though - the prices are amazing here.  There are at least a dozen fantastic restaurants / cafes / brewpubs within walking distance of my apartment (Inner SE Portland) where I can get a great (local, seasonal, organic) meal for pretty much the same price as a fast "food" "value" meal.  And since most of them are based around healthy whole grains, they'll also keep you full for much longer than the empty calorie "convenience" crap ever could.

• Closing out National Library Week, I have to include this piece from Emily Underwood at High Country News on the importance of small-town libraries.

• Also from High Country News, Michele Haefele writes that United States Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is on the right track.

• From the "Yet More Corporate Astroturf" files: Agribiz interests in California are organizing and paying for phony protests.  IMO, we need to focus on the real problem here, which is the destructiveness of these ridiculously unsustainable agricultural techniques.  It isn't "Pacific smelt vs. workers".  Rather, the real issue is "corporate greed and shortsightedness vs. workers and the rest of humanity and wildlife".

Use this diary as an open thread...

Monday Evening Sampler Platter

by: JayinPortland

Mon Mar 23, 2009 at 16:00:00 PM PDT

• A new restaurant near the University of Texas at Arlington, which uses locally grown, organic ingredients as much as possible, has a no-set-price policy, and asks customers to discreetly pay (in an envelope) afterwards for what they thought the meal was worth.  The idea is based upon an existing Salt Lake City non-profit community kitchen's model.  Can it work for a commercial establishment?  So far, the restaurant is coming up just short, although it's only two months old and the business itself is always a rough one.

• The City of Berkeley, CA may soon transform all of its parks and open spaces into habitats for bees, in an effort to reverse the recent global decline of pollinators.

• If you're in Kansas, you can vote for the best food in the state from now until March 31.  Unfortunately, restaurants must be at least a decade old in order to be considered, so that rules out Lawrence's Local Burger for at least the next 7 years.  I'm sure there's something else worth considering in Lawrence, though...

• USDA will update its Plant Hardiness Zone Map later this year, for the first time since 1990, to reflect the climate-change induced shifts of planting zones northward.

More below the fold...

A White House Garden's Nice, but How About Funding Farm to School?

by: Jill Richardson

Fri Mar 20, 2009 at 06:00:00 AM PDT

I can't help but get swept up in the excitement over the symbolism of the garden as well as the publicity it will bring to gardening and to eating fresh, local food. However, with Obama's position as the most powerful man in the world, I'd like to see him do more. Five years ago, Congress authorized a National Farm to School Program - but failed to fund it. Five years have gone by with no change. Now a major piece of child nutrition legislation is going through Congress so the timing is perfect. With his garden, Obama will bring change to the few lucky youngsters from Bancroft Elementary, but what about the rest of the nation?

School Lunch Sampler Platter

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Mar 10, 2009 at 13:51:44 PM PDT

Local Food in Schools

• IATP has posted what MN school lunch directors think about school food. The good news? 35% said they bought some local food!

• Civil Eats reports that Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is off to a good start - she's already advocating for the USDA to ease up its rules in order to allow more local food into schools.

• Some schools see a disconnect between the food in the school garden and the crap served in the cafeteria. The result? Revising the school district's "Wellness Policy" to advocate for serving locally grown food.