Food & Farming

Comment by Ecolocitizen on June 17, 2009 at 2:12pm

Here's an opportunity to teach some skills and spread knowledge:

I am writing on behalf of Trinidad Concerned Citizens for Reform, Inc. (TCCR), a 501c3 established in 1994 and serving the Trinidad and Ivy City neighborhoods of Northeast, D.C. The co-founder and Executive Director (and 5-time Ward 5 ANC) Wilhelmina Lawson is also a member of the Trinidad garden club and has made it an integral part of TCCR's mission to engage environmental work as a foundation for creating sustainable communities. This summer we have 11-12 youth (aged 14-21) joining us for 9 weeks beginning Monday, June 22 as part of the Mayor's Green Summer Youth Employment Program and we would like to involve them in learning to install rain barrels and agricultural gardening. Is it possible to partner with you and your crew of volunteers for training?

If you prefer, please give me a call at your next convenience: (202) 387-0572.
www.TCCRinc.org.

Sincerely,
sia

Comment by Ecolocitizen on August 9, 2009 at 11:20am

A cautionary tale which reinforces the value of permaculture and its polycultural, nature-mimicing practices:
You Say Tomato, I Say Agricultural Disaster
By DAN BARBER
Published: New York Times, August 8, 2009
Tarrytown, N.Y.

IF the hardship of growing vegetables and fruits in the Northeast has made anything clear, it’s that the list of what can go wrong in the field is a very long one.

We wait all year for warmer weather and longer days. Once we get them, it seems new problems for farmers rise to the surface every week: overnight temperatures plunging close to freezing, early disease, aphid attacks. Another day, another problem.

The latest trouble is the explosion of late blight, a plant disease that attacks potatoes and tomatoes. Late blight appears innocent enough at first — a few brown spots here, some lesions there — but it spreads fast. Although the fungus isn’t harmful to humans, it has devastating effects on tomatoes and potatoes grown outdoors. Plants that appear relatively healthy one day, with abundant fruit and vibrant stems, can turn toxic within a few days. (See the Irish potato famine, caused by a strain of the fungus.)

Most farmers in the Northeast, accustomed to variable conditions, have come to expect it in some form or another. Like a sunburn or a mosquito bite, you’ll probably be hit by late blight sooner or later, and while there are steps farmers can take to minimize its damage and even avoid it completely, the disease is almost always present, if not active.
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Comment by Ecolocitizen on September 10, 2009 at 11:29am

In all the brouhaha over health care reform, Michael Pollan reminds us of the fundamental importance of food and diet. This bring to mind the axiom "Let your food be your medicine, and your medicine food."

"No one disputes that the $2.3 trillion we devote to the health care industry is often spent unwisely, but the fact that the United States spends twice as much per person as most European countries on health care can be substantially explained, as a study released last month says, by our being fatter. Even the most efficient health care system that the administration could hope to devise would still confront a rising tide of chronic disease linked to diet."

"That’s why our success in bringing health care costs under control ultimately depends on whether Washington can summon the political will to take on and reform a second, even more powerful industry: the food industry."

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Comment by Ecolocitizen on September 11, 2009 at 2:44pm

White House Farmers' Market Approved
Market will be open on Thursdays
By JIM IOVINO
NBCWashington.com, 2009 September 11



Updated 8:31 AM EDT, Fri, Sep 11, 2009

Print Email Share Buzz up! TWITTER FACEBOOK

AP

The White House farmers' market has been approved.

FRESHFARM Markets announced the opening via Twitter after getting approval by the city to close a block of Vermont Avenue for the market.

The farmers' market will be held from 3-7 p.m. Thursdays from Sept. 17-Oct. 29 in the 800 block of Vermont Avenue, NW, between H and I Streets. The block will be closed to traffic from 1-8 p.m. every Thursday.

The organizers said the market will have 18 farmers and producers selling "delicious, healthy food grown on small, local, sustainable farms in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed region." They said the market will include pasture-raised meats, artisan cheeses, milk, yogurt, fresh fruits and vegetables, breads, baked goods and fresh flowers.

FRESHFARM operates eight other farmers' markets in the Washington region, including Dupont Circle, Foggy Bottom, Penn Quarter and Silver Spring.

Comment by Riley Hamilton on October 22, 2009 at 5:34pm

Has anybody else seen this book: Local Food, a Transition guide, it is sold out on Amazon. Would like to see if it contains some good ideas for meeting our Local Food goal.

Comment by Ecolocitizen on December 24, 2009 at 10:19am

This is the model which i think could work for us to acquire land for farming. It's happening right next door in Baltimore so maybe it's not so far-fetched ...

Baltimore approves plan to let community groups buy vacant lots
Land trusts would purchase plot for nominal fee after 5 years
By Julie Scharper | julie.scharper@baltsun.com
Published Baltimore Sun, December 24, 2009

Vacant lots transformed into gardens and playgrounds are bright spots in Baltimore neighborhoods - places for residents to talk, play and even grow food. But the people who clean, plant and tend these plots often have no guarantee that their hard work will not be cleared to make way for development.

Now the city has crafted a procedure for residents to permanently claim open spaces. Under a plan approved by the city's spending board yesterday, community groups that nurture a vacant lot for five years will be able to form a land trust to buy the plot for a nominal fee from the city.
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Comment by Ecolocitizen on May 15, 2010 at 2:14pm

In March, Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) introduced HR 4971, the Greening Food Deserts Act to help increase local agricultural production and fresh food availability in U.S. communities known as “food deserts” because of their limited access to affordable and nutritious food.

Economic, demographic and land use changes over the past 50 years have created these communities where supermarkets are non-existent and food quality poor. HR 4971 proposes the creation of an office under the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) focused on strengthening U.S. agriculture by moving from reliance on globally consolidated and
industrial food chains to a system that includes local production.

The bill looks at problems such as outsourcing and rising costs of transporting food over long distances as well as positive trends such as the recent increase in new farms that have begun smaller, less consolidated operations and the steady growth of farmers’ markets
throughout the United States.

This bill is an important step in rethinking the role of the USDA, which has traditionally focused on maximizing large-scale production as a way of carrying out its mandate to promote agriculture, food safety and nutrition. But large-scale agriculture leaves people
feeling disconnected from the sources of their food. Few U.S. citizens can afford to participate in large-scale agriculture. The bill asks the USDA to empower community garden programs, expand access to nutritious food by better connecting local communities with local farmers and promote agricultural education in schools.

When we consider how global trends of over-consumption overshoot Earth’s capacity, we see the need to shift the way we think of ourselves—from independent individuals to interdependent members of Earth-based communities. Community-based investment—especially in neighborhood gardens that connect people directly to the land—keeps
resources circulating locally. This has the potential not only to build community assets but also to strengthen social ties.

Ask your member of Congress to contact Marcy Kaptur’s office to co-sponsor HR 4971, or thank your member if he or she is already a co-sponsor. Click http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-4971 to see the current list of co-sponsors.

- From Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns (MOGC). To learn more about its work on food security, send an e-mail to ogc@maryknoll.org; write to MOGC, P.O. Box 29132, Washington, D.C. 20017, or visit www.maryknollogc.org

Comment by Ecolocitizen on July 13, 2010 at 4:00pm

Community Development and Preservation Corporation is seeking a volunteer consultant gardener to assist an affordable housing community set up its 20' x 20' garden at 1233 Valley Avenue SE near Congress Heights Metro. Eight residents and a local crew of youths are eager and willing to get started right away but need direction. They have topsoil, seeds and tools. I have suggested they get in some compost and mulch.

Respond directly to:
Telile Bayissa
tbayissa@cpdc.org
202-627-9953

Please copy me if you respond and circulate this to whom you think may be interested.

Thanks,
Larry

Comment by Arkady Brown on July 16, 2010 at 11:18am

Happy Friday All!!

I have a quick question that I am hoping one of you could help me with....I need information on worms for composting....where to get them...how many to get....type...ect. Anyone know anyone in the DC area who could help a girl out? Thanks in advance!

Comment by Steve Seuser on August 18, 2010 at 11:15am

Join us this Thurs., Aug. 19 at 7:00 pm at the former Bruce Monroe School site at Georgia Ave. between Columbia Rd. and Irving St., N.W. to discuss ideas for the community garden site on the property. The Community Development Support Collaborative has requested ideas for some immediate activity on the site to be completed by Sept. 30. There is some funding available for implementation of these ideas.

Contribute your ideas online here by leaving comments, or by joining us on Thursday. In case of rain, we'll meet at Sankofa Cafe at 2714 Georgia Ave NW at the same time.

Thanks!

Steve

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