By Sharon McMillan, New Urban Mom

"Consider this statement: The local food movement is a romantic movement that gives urban cheerleaders and regionalists an anchor upon which to turn ideals into practical strategies.

I think many well-intentioned people would agree that the effort we are putting into keeping more dollars in our community is not the magic pill for our economic challenges.

It is, however, a step in the right direction that requires a fully integrated and inter-generational approach to sustainable cities and regions..."

http://www.icic.org/connection/blog-entry/blog-local-food-movement-and-the-intergenerational-factor

A great resource to get a visual representation of where the US food deserts are located.

Definition of a Food Desert

“While there are many ways to define a food desert, the Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI) Working Group considers a food desert as a low-income census tract where a substantial number or share of residents has low access to a supermarket or large grocery store…”

Data Sources

“Data on population and income come from the 2000 Census of Population and Housing. The 1-km square grid data come from the Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center. Census population data, which are released at the block group level, are first allocated to blocks and then allocated aerially down to the grid level.

Information on supermarket and large grocery store locations comes from a directory of supermarkets and large grocery stores (food stores with at least $2 million in sales that contain all the major food departments found in a traditional supermarket). The directory was developed from a list of stores authorized to receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, augmented by data from Trade Dimensions TDLinx (a Nielsen company), a proprietary source of individual supermarket store listings, both for the year 2006. Details on these data sources can be found in the 2009 ERS report, Access to Affordable and Nutritious Food: Measuring and Understanding Food Deserts and Their Consequences.”

This is your opportunity to tell Congress what you want to see in that bill. The Committee on Agriculture has set up a comment box and is accepting comments from the public until May 20th. You may wish to tell Congress that you want the Farm Bill to support new ranchers and farmers or ensures that all Americans have access to healthy foods. To learn more about the Bill and to submit your comments, please visit the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition’s site: http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/5735/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=6017

Download the call for nominations: http://foodsecurity.org/uploads/2012_Food_Sov_Prize-Call_for_Nominations.pdf

Submit nominations online

Deadline: June 4, 2012

Description of Prize

People worldwide are taking back their food systems – fighting for their land and waterways, reclaiming vacant lots, teaching others how to grow food, and developing distribution systems – while simultaneously creating jobs, providing fresh food, preserving the environment, building rural-urban connections, advocating for just policies, and revitalizing their communities. In recognition and celebration of these struggles, which are part of the global movement for food sovereignty, the Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC), the US Food Sovereignty Alliance, and allied organizations will award the Fourth Annual Food Sovereignty Prize in October 2012 at a ceremony in New York City.

The recipient of this prize will have contributed significantly to the movement for food sovereignty through grassroots action, raising awareness, and/or developing and implementing new programs and policies. The prize recipient will be invited to attend, address, and participate in the 2012 Food Sovereignty Prize Ceremony with all expenses paid.

Past winners include:

• 2011: Winner – the Landless Workers Movement (MST) (Brazil); Honorable Mentions – the Grow BioIntensive Agricultural Centre of Kenya; Movimiento Campesino-a-Campesino/Farmer-to-Farmer Movement (Latin America); and the South Central Farmers of Los Angeles (U.S.)
• 2010: Winner – Family Farm Defenders (U.S.); Honorable Mentions – ROPPA (West Africa), Working Group on Indigenous Food Sovereignty (Canada); and Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (U.S.)
• 2009: Winner – La Via Campesina (Worldwide); Honorable Mentions – African Insect Science for Food and Health (Kenya), Toronto Food Policy Council (Canada); and Community Alliance for Global Justice (U.S.)

What is Food Sovereignty?

Food sovereignty, the right of people to determine their own food and agriculture policies, goes well beyond ensuring that all people have sufficient food to meet their physical needs. It asserts that people must reclaim their power of decision-making in the food system by rebuilding the relationships between people and the land, and between food providers and those who eat. First framed by the international peasant movement La Via Campesina at the World Food Summit in 1996, food sovereignty stems from global struggles over food, land, water, and livelihoods. These struggles have intensified over time as corporate control of agricultural production, fisheries, and food processing and distribution threatens our food systems. Corporations extract record earnings from consumers, particularly low-wage and working class families, while threatening the livelihoods of peasants and indigenous communities dependent upon land and water access to grow and harvest food. Families are literally robbed of their homes, food, income, and even lives. While transnational corporations and many governments profit from neoliberalism-the market-driven approach to social and economic policy stressing the ‘efficiency’ of private enterprise and free trade-food sovereignty offers a powerful alternative based on the following principles:

1. Access to safe, nutritious, and culturally appropriate food is a basic human right.
2. Agrarian reform is necessary to return ownership and control to landless and indigenous peoples, rural women, and peasant farmers and fishers.
3. Natural resources, especially land, water, seeds, fish and livestock, must be protected through sustainable care and use, as well as conservation of biodiversity without patents.
4. Food is first and foremost a source of nutrition, and only secondarily an item of trade.
5. Corporate control over agriculture, fishing and food, promoted by multilateral institutions and speculative capital, facilitates the “globalization of hunger” and must be challenged.
6. Everyone has the right to live free from violence, displacement, and oppression-food is not a weapon.
7. Small-scale food providers, particularly women, must have direct and democratic input into formulating food policies.

Criteria for Prize Recipient

The recipient must be an organization or movement that:

• has performed significant work to promote food sovereignty by raising public awareness, organizing on-the-ground action, or developing and implementing programs and policies;
• recognizes the importance of collective action in bringing about social change
• recognizes global linkages in food sovereignty work;
• recognizes and prioritizes the leadership of women, indigenous peoples, people of color, migrant workers and other food providers marginalized by the global food system.

While the roots of food sovereignty are largely rural, the Food Sovereignty Prize recognizes that urban communities fighting for control over their food are an important part of this global struggle.

Organizations involved in the Food Sovereignty Prize Task Force are not eligible to receive the Prize.

The Food Sovereignty Prize Task Force is seeking nominations until June 4, 2012. To submit a nomination, please fill out the nomination form. If you do not have internet access, please mail the below information to CFSC, 3830 SE Division, Portland, OR 97202:

1) The name, contact information, and point person for the group you wish to nominate.

2) A 350-word (maximum) description clearly outlining how the nominee meets the above criteria and supporting that nominee as the best choice for this prize:

Provide examples of how the group has:

- organized grassroots action

- raised public awareness

- developed and implemented policies and programs

3) Contact information for up to three (3) references. (These references can include anyone from community partners to supporters, etc.)

4) Any supplementary information to further highlight the work of the nominee will be appreciated.. Supplementary information might consist of articles, press releases or similar items. Please include no more than 5 supplementary materials.

2012 Food Sov Prize Call for Nominations.pdf

• Composting and Vermicomposting
• Aquaponics
• Poultry Husbandry
• Beekeeping
• Greenhouse Management
• Effective and Practical Permaculture
• Mushroom Production

OSBG Summer runs 16 weeks long, in 12 day trips throughout the summer:

May 17th-May 28

May 31-June 11

June 14-June 25

June 28-July 9

July 12-July 23

July 26-August 6

August 9-August 20

August 23- September 3

more info: http://schoolatblairgrocery.blogspot.com/p/summer-2012-how-can-i-grow-good-food.html

many thanks to Russell Harris from LSU Ag Center for leading the Grow Mo Betta workshop on Orchards & Bees

Via Flickr:
Russell Harris (LSU MGGNO)

The Blunt family became the first Growing Home participant that NOFFN assisted with a Garden Build.

Neighbors helped out and were enthusiastic about getting their hands dirty. Everyone kept commenting on how the garden was built by neighbors helping neighbors while everyone was learning.

Via Flickr:
Gentilly – Spring 2012

Interesting article by Nancy Huehnergarth that highlights the reporting leading to the massive grass roots activism we saw in March 2012, which resulted in policy and practice change

“Something remarkable happened recently in the world of food reform.

The pink slime debacle created the perfect storm of food system change, thanks to a combination of evocative language, consumer activism, arrogant industry behavior, viral social media, relentless mainstream media reporting and scientists willing to go on the record.

In less than a month, the pink slime story — in essence, that the meat industry had been surreptitiously mixing a cheap filler into America’s ground beef supply — managed to incite a massive grass roots uprising of angry, repulsed American consumers, who voted with their voices and their wallets, forcing major changes in both meat industry practices and USDA school lunch policy…”

From Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nancy-huehnergarth/pink-slime-controversy_b_1470192.html

Similar to Louisiana MarketMaker (that connects small/medium farms to potential buyers) the NOLA FFEx is for both individuals and small businesses to sell, buy, exchange products and services in New Orleans. We think of it as a training forum for growers so they can advance up to the scale of selling on Louisiana MarketMaker.

1. Produce/Food Products – vegetables, fruits, preserves, etc. to sell, trade, or buy
2. Soil/Compost – soil, manure, compost, worms, etc. to sell, trade, or buy.
3. Services – lot clearing, tilling, etc. to sell, trade, or buy.
4. Equipment/Tools – garden tools to sell, trade, or buy.
5. Transportation – trailer, pickup truck use, etc. you want to to sell, trade, or buy.
6. Land for Growing – requests for available land to grow, or offers of available land for growing
7. FREE Stuff – anything food & farm related (lumber, concrete blocks, dirt, etc.) that you want to offer or need

If what you want to buy, trade, or sell something that doesn’t fit these categories please email info@noffn.org and we will help you.

NOFFN and its partners have made great strides in initiating urban farm projects and now our work is needed more than ever.

And we get requests almost daily for assistance.

To help NOFFN staff better respond to requests for assistance we have created a form that we are making available to the public.  Fill it out and we will be in touch.