Exciting Government memo about local food systems

Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan just sent out a memo discussing “harnessing USDA rural development programs to support local and regional food systems,” which goes beyond fantasies and straight to how this system will be created and funded. Then she starts sounding a bit like the Northfield community kitchen group. She writes:

Imagine an NGO receiving USDA grant money to construct a community kitchen where farmers drop off produce and families join cooking classes that teach about healthy eating while everyone prepares fresh nutritious meals to bring home…Imagine a community using USDA money to construct an open-sided structure to house a farmers market…Imagine a school using USDA loan money to set up cold storage as part of a larger effort to retrofit the school cafeteria to buy produce directly from farmers and return cooking capacity for school lunch…Imagine…

EAT THE LAWN!

There's a new garden on campus. Here's what people think:

Shout has some commentary and pictures.

The Admissions Office made a great video and took some more great garden action shots.

FOOD TRUTH WEEK 2009!

It was big, it was bold, it was beautiful. 

Here's what the Carletonian had to say. We'll be in touch soon with our thoughts.

The Future of Food

Check out this 3-part interview series with Vandana Shiva:

The Future of Food

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Fair Food Across Borders

Last Friday, Melody Gonzalez from Fair Food Across Borders joined Food Truth for a powerful potluck presentation about conditions for farmworkers in northern Mexico, and related issues in the United States. Many Food Truth members and Bon Appetit manager Debi Wright attended in support of this critical issue. At a time when the food movement is getting schwanky press as Michelle Obama plants a vegetable garden and "organic" and "local" have moved beyond buzzwords, Food Truth was interesting in pursuing it's name---the truth of how our food system is operating, which includes the details that are too often hidden or unpublicized.

Melody showed the film, Paying the Price: Migrant Workers in the Toxic Fields of Sinaloa, which follows a group of families from their homes in southern Mexico, through their 30+ hour bus ride to northern Mexico where they (the whole family, small children included) work on a gigantic industrial farm, risking their health because of toxic pesticide fumigation, long hours, and poor access to adequate nutrition or education. and continued with a discussion. Gonzalez highlighted the fact that Mexican families are not just immigrating to the US to find work, rather, there are great amount of internal migration within the country as families seek work. Along with the devastating conditions that the workers and their children face in the fields, I was most struck by the landscape of the farm in Sinaloa---we may think Iowa and even the land surrounding Carleton are monocrop agribusiness, but at least there are windbreaks here and there, a handful of trees dotting the horizon. There was nothing but crops in the images of the farms of Sinaloa, miles and miles forever into the distance.

Representatives from Fair Food Twin Cities joined Melody, and Food Truth will be looking to work with them on actions and a longer-running, recently announced Student-Farmworker Alliance campaign called Dining with Dignity, calling college and university students to stand in solidarity with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers as they pressure Aramark, Sodexo and Compass food service providers to purchase tomatoes harvested in fair conditions, for a fair price.

Melody Gonzalez's speaking tour is a sort of kick-off for Fair Food Across Borders, which is aiming to build international solidarity around making visible the human rights abuses suffered by migrant farmworkers in Mexican agribusiness camps. We look forward to partnering with the organization in their upcoming awareness raising and campaigns.

A Sense of Wonder: 2 interviews with Rachel Carson

http://www.asenseofwonderfilm.com/

It would be so cool to show this film at Carleton...

Grow Girl! Women in Agriculture

On February 18, Northfield and Carleton Food Truth women gathered after dinner for a dessert potluck and discussion on women and agriculture. Students shared homemade fudge bars while community organizers, cooks, farmers, and mothers shared their views and experiences. What are the joys of farming as a woman? What are the challenges? What would you pass down to the next generation of farmers?

Women farmers are not so different from their male counterparts. They are strong farmers and hold a wealth of food and farm wisdom. These women are passionate about nourishing those around them and passionate about food. They describe nourishment from ‘hands in the soil to plate’ as a most rewarding life work.

The farming world, like the larger society, is not free of gender biases. Women have historically been less acknowledged and visible than men farmers. Further challenges have resulted from the growth of farm size in the United States because the importance of agricultural machinery has grown and continues to be engineered to fit men.

 Farming does not have to require big and expensive machinery. Rae Rusnak, widow, mother, and farmer of L&R Poultry and Produce, stated at the Minnesota Sustainable Farming Association Annual Conference (2/21/08) that people of all shapes and forms can farm. It is true – different people will think about and approach farming differently but in the end, anyone can grow food and grow it well. Indeed, woman farmers are becoming prominent movers in our country’s agricultural revolution. The evening gathering ended with activism. We collectively wrote a letter, urging Michelle Obama, to make the creation of a more sustainable food system and White House Victory Garden a priority. This will signal our country’s potential to grow locally and change our food policy.

 The evening was wonderful because it was intergenerational, a passing on insight from generation to generation, from woman to woman, from seasoned to aspiring farmer. Oral culture has and will always be a part of agriculture – it is the best way to capture the nuances and experiences that come along with working and living on the land. It also creates the sense of community that makes farming both an individual effort and collective enterprise.