Kathleen Merrigan Plays Matchmaker

by: Jill Richardson

Sun Aug 30, 2009 at 11:12:26 AM PDT

1. The Community Facilities Program

The Community Facilities (CF) Program supports the success of rural communities by providing loans and grants for the construction, acquisition, or renovation of community facilities or the purchase of equipment for community projects.

As examples, she says an NGO (non-governmental organization) could receive USDA grant money to construct a community kitchen to teach healthy cooking classes using produce from farmers, a farmers' market, or cold storage to help a school buy and serve fresh produce directly from farmers.

2. The Business and Industry (B&I) Guarantee Loan Program

The purpose of the B&I Program is to help new and existing businesses in rural areas gain access to affordable capital.

As examples, she says the loans can be used to aggregate local farm products so they achieve enough volume to serve a school system, to build a mobile slaughterhouse, or to add equipment and storage facilities for a local food processor.

3. Value-Added Producer Grant Program

The Value-Added Producer Grant (VAPG) Program provides grant funding for agricultural producers who add value to their raw products through processing and/or marketing, thereby increasing farm income.

Selling value-added products is a very important tool for farmers to capture more of the retail dollar from the food they grow. I've actually met a few farmers who have received this particular grant. Merrigan's examples are an organic cooperative receiving a grant to conduct a feasibility study and develop a marketing plan to provide locally grown produce to schools, a farmer receiving a grant to direct market pasture-raised lamb to restaurants and stores, or a dairy farm receiving a grant to plan and execute a marketing campaign for their ice cream.

Way to go Kathleen! If this money is out there, it'd be great to see folks taking advantage of it!

Urban Farming doing the Motown Hustle

by: Eddie C

Mon Aug 24, 2009 at 17:45:42 PM PDT

By this time next year, he says, some of that land could be transformed, becoming the first phase of Hantz Farms L.L.C., an ambitious commercial farming operation that Hantz says can turn a profit.

"We have to move as a city from knowing why everything won't work to knowing why it will work," he said. "At some point, we have to step into the fire."

Hantz has been buying property on Detroit's east side, and plans to open shop with a 77-acre, noncontiguous farm growing food, trees and energy products - provided a few key pieces fall into place.

What seems to be the primary key is adjusting the real estate taxes that would eat up those profits. With good news from community efforts to favorable legislation pouring in the advantages of a millionaire investor might not seem too obvious but local government is much harder to change that public outlook. Mr. Hantz may have the power to change real estate taxes to realize those profits.    

Sampler Platter

by: JayinPortland

Wed Apr 29, 2009 at 12:56:10 PM PDT

• Today's LOL moment while looking through the news: Lobbyists with the National Association of Home Builders are whining about the Obama administration's reversal of another last-minute Bush administration attack on the environment and endangered species.  Always fun to see lobbyists pretending to be for "transparency" in government.  Especially since NAHB's PAC, BUILD PAC, apparently has trouble of their own in providing transparency when it comes to financial disclosure obligations right in NAHB President Joe Robson's own city council elections.  Amazing what 30 seconds of googling can reveal.  Hey Joe?  You might wanna check your own house first, before you start whining about 'transparency' in others', okay?

• An article in today's New York Times takes a look at college cafeterias that have gone trayless.

• This piece takes a look at the new student-run food pantry at Oregon State University in Corvallis.

• desmoinesdem has written about Rob Marqusee here before, and now he's back in the news.  Marqusee, the Woodbury County (Iowa) Rural Economic Development Director, will be eating only local foods for the month of June, and blogging his experiences at the Woodbury Organics site.

• An advisory council set up by Vancouver, B.C. mayor Gregor Robertson has issued a report suggesting measures to make the City the world's greenest, while the city's park board continues to debate a proposed ban on bottled water sales in park board vending machines.

• Dawn at the Sustainable Table blog posts a few very useful links to help determine exactly how long any given food stays good for.

USDA Needs Strict Organic Standards

by: jgoodman

Sat Nov 29, 2008 at 08:00:00 AM PST

I just finished reading Man Without a Country and Vonnegut specifically made a point to telling us we needed to make that statement often, at appropriate times of course, so we really thought about the present and appreciated the good things in life while we enjoyed them.

I personally think, as we move into the shopping season, that enjoying a good meal with our family and friends is of far greater value, more lasting value than spending money on gifts that may not be needed and are soon forgotten.

Slow Food Mixer at Sea Rocket Bistro

by: searocket

Fri Nov 21, 2008 at 14:30:18 PM PST

On Wednesday (Nov 19th), we hosted their mixer at Sea Rocket Bistro.  About 250 people mixed over the course of the evening, as well as lots of great local people who bring us our food.

* Dave from Da-Le Ranch brought local, naturally raised pork, chicken, and lamb.  You can find him at the Little Italy Farmer's market.

* Romolo Ghio, a local fisherman, brought one heck of a good time!  He didn't bring any fish though since it's lobster season and he doesn't do that.

* Steve, Rich, and Jessica from Chesapeake Fish Co. brought some amazing local caught swordfish.  

* Phil Noble from Sage Mountain Farm has become quite the local celebrity with such a great personality and wonderful produce!  Sea Rocket is now a drop off / pick up place for Phil's CSA.

* Peter & Mitch, local sea urchin divers, served fresh sea urchin they had caught themselves that same day.  Interview part 1 and interview part 2

* Cid da Silva owns a farm called Bella Vado and makes avocado oil that he gave samples of.  

* Peter Zien brought goat cheese that he made from raw goat's milk fed with the spent grain from AleSmith Brewery which he happens to own.  He can't sell the goat cheese though because of USDA laws.

* Joanne brought lots of bread from her bakery, Cardamom, which is on the same corner as us in North Park.  

Here are some pics of the party.  And for more reasonably priced local food, check out our movie nights.  Slow Food will be doing more events at other restaurants and I'll be sure to keep you posted on the searocket website!  

--Dennis

Wal-Mart's "Local" Food: A Bunch of Bull

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Nov 20, 2008 at 16:00:00 PM PST

USA Today confirmed my suspicion in their article 'Locally grown' food sounds great, but what does it mean?. To Wal-Mart, local means "in state." Period. If a Wal-Mart in Texas sells food grown 10 hours away in Texas, that's local. And if that farm was half the size of Manhattan, so be it. It's still, local, right? According to Wal-Mart it is.

The push for local food does not only emphasize reduced oil used for transportation but also patronizing small farms and businesses who care about the fate of your community because they live there too. When a business clearly does not care about the environment or the local economy (i.e. paying workers fairly and shopping for supplies at local businesses), then in my mind that business is disqualified as a "local" place I want to support.

How To Buy Good Tuna

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Sep 16, 2008 at 22:37:29 PM PDT

Purse seine ships, which close drawstring nets around schooling fish, became larger and more sophisticated, and fattening cages dotted the seas starting in 1996.

These cages, which can measure 50m (165ft) across, may represent the biggest threat to bluefin survival.

Tuna, often juvenile, are captured and dumped in the cages - or "ranches" - for months to fatten up, with all the associated problems of aquaculture: disease, waste and overfishing of the smaller fish used to feed the bluefin.

Fishing for giant bluefin has become hugely profitable.

In the 1960s, its meat sold in the US for seven cents a pound. This season, the first bluefin sold in Taiwan netted $105 a pound.

Depressing, yes? Well, I read an excellent article about sustainable tuna in the latest Edible San Diego and it applies to tuna lovers nationwide (which includes my cats, who are getting a treat tomorrow now that I know which tuna to buy!). Details below.

The Local Food Enterprise

by: Bob Giloth

Fri Sep 05, 2008 at 07:19:02 AM PDT

"This isn't just another thing for corporate America to cash into, " Joffe says of organic's growing chic. "It's not just a trend. It's a true paradigm shift. It's about sustainability and social justice, not just about the rich having access."

Kate Leslie. "A Growing Business," The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, September 4, 2008

Steve Martin Was Right, Let's Get Small!

by: jgoodman

Mon Aug 04, 2008 at 19:23:50 PM PDT

So, do you think that the human race, has reached our Waterloo? Have we finally hit the wall with our never-ending desire for "bigness"? I decided years ago that I didn't want my farming operation to get bigger. I liked milking 45 cows, raising their feed and doing a little direct marketing.

I liked being small.  

It'll go nicely on toast

by: by foot

Mon Aug 04, 2008 at 18:35:45 PM PDT

15 pounds of apricots!

Now, I love fruit of all kinds, and getting a pile of free fruit for making jam or sauce is a bit like finding the gold at the end of the rainbow, in my book.  But apricots?  Let's just say that "obsession" is not too strong a word.  I know the locations of a couple of dozen trees by memory, and most years I hang plastic bottles of flowering branches in various trees around town, in hopes of pollination.  It's usually no use, as we are subject to a lot of late frosts that destroy the crop.

This year, I didn't hang any flowering branches.

It mattered not a bit.

Welcome Back to Food

by: jgoodman

Tue Jul 22, 2008 at 09:11:02 AM PDT

Food is a wonderful thing, especially when it's local, fresh and nutritious. Despite the trials and tribulations of farming that I seem to dwell upon in my Northern Agrarian Monthly column, farming is a great way of life and it is also, (or at least it should be) about growing fresh local and nutritious food. Too often farming is not about food or ending hunger it is, more often than not, about corporate profit.

We often think that farmers markets are a product of our times as they spring up in cities and small towns across the country. Truth is, farmers markets are the traditional way of selling agricultural produce around the world.

The really nice aspect of this transaction is that the farmer receives just compensation for his product and the eater can be assured the product is fresh, local and grown in a manner that is acceptable to all. If these criteria are not met, the consumer can look for another farmer whose products better suit his or her needs.

Sweet

by: by foot

Fri Jul 18, 2008 at 22:14:01 PM PDT

I'm certainly not what you'd call an experienced beekeeper -- although I'd been around them a bit 20 years ago, we just acquired our first hive this Spring.  I'd been looking forward to it for months.

After separating the honey from the big chunks of wax with a collander, we ran the honey through a screen sieve before decanting to jars. Linden honey is considered to be a very fine type of honey.  It's light in color, and has a wonderful, almost minty flavor that I'd never tasted before.

Penny gave me a top bar hive last Christmas, and through the same local beekeeper who sold her the hive, boxed up a swarm of bees in May.  The beekeeper had been contacted by another beekeeper in nearby Arvada, who had a vigorous hive that had swarmed, resulting in a big ball of bees on a nearby shrub.

National Association of Counties Launches Healthy Counties Database

by: atagtow

Mon Jul 14, 2008 at 09:02:58 AM PDT

NACo is seeking resources to continue to build this database and provide instruction for doing so.  This is a great opportunity for states to showcase best practices and policies that improve the health of eaters.  

Best,
Angie Tagtow, MS, RD, LD
Food & Society Policy Fellow
Environmental Nutrition Solutions

"Locavore" is so last year

by: Jonathan Rees

Sun Jul 06, 2008 at 06:14:34 AM PDT