Potluck News

March 2010

NESAWG website update combines document archive, tools, and social networking to support 12 state regional network

The Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group, which sponsors the NEFOOD-L listserv, has just completed a merge of their online resources to create the new and improved Nefood.org website, a combination of document archives, policy advocacy tools, and social networking. Membership to the social networking community is open to people living in the 12-state region who are active on the farm and food scene. Membership and content are moderated to keep the site focused. Currently the site has almost 800 members.

The website contains many resources for those working in sustainable agriculture, food systems, and public policy development. The website's social networking features are similar to Facebook. Members must create a profile and may upload photographs and videos. Members may post events which appear in a list on the website's home page. Members may also create groups which function similar to a blog with comments and document sharing.

All Nefood.org community members are invited to submit their organization's web link to be listed on their state's page at the site, and to post their farm and food events on the site. Also members are asked to sign in and update your profile as profile questions have changed to help us understand who is participating in the community, and where they live.

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USDA APHIS comment period on Environmental Impact Study of GE alfalfa extended to March 3

Consideration will be given to comments received on or before March 3, 2010. You may comment by either of the following methods:

- Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov/search/Regs/home.html#
to submit or view comments and to view supporting and related materials available electronically. Refer to Docket No. APHIS-2007-0044, Regulatory Analysis and Development.

- Postal Mail/Commercial Delivery: please send a copy of your comment to Docket No. APHIS-2007-0044, Regulatory Analysis and Development, PPD, APHIS, Station 3A-03.8, 4700 River Road, Unit 118, Riverdale, MD 20737-1238. Please state that your comment refers to Docket No. APHIS-2007-0044.

Comments received are posted on the Regulations.gov website.

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New TV series on food in the schools premiers Friday, March 26, 9:00/8:00C pm on ABC

British chef, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution goes to Huntington, West Virginia, statistically speaking, the unhealthiest city in America, to change the way kids and families eat, starting with the schools. For those who don't catch the show, the video clips online offer a sneak peek of a celebrity foodie taking on the issues healthy food advocates grapple with every day, and meeting formidable resistance.

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USDA and Department of Justice announce historic settlement in lawsuit by black farmers claiming discrimination by USDA

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced the successful resolution of the longstanding litigation known as Pigford II. The settlement agreement reached today, which is contingent on appropriation by Congress, will provide a total of $1.25 billion to African American farmers who alleged that they suffered racial discrimination in USDA farm loan programs. The settlement sets up a non-judicial claims process through which individual farmers may demonstrate their entitlement to cash damages awards and debt relief. Read more...

__________________________________________________________________________ National Organic Program "Access to Pasture" rule released by USDA to the satisfaction of organic dairy farmers

Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance has a web page of reporting, resources, and links intended to demystify this new organic standard, or you can download the USDA's 148-page Doc. No. AMS-TM-06-0198; TM-05-14FR.

__________________________________________________________________________ Patti the Garden Girl promotes urban farming and sustainable living with online magazine and video

New Yorker, Patti Moreno, has created an urban farm and a mini-media empire online with Urban Sustainable Living/The Urban Farm Magazine, and Garden Girl TV. The most recent episode of her Garden Girl TV series, posted on Grist.org, demonstrates how to start seeds indoors.

________________________________________________________________________ The Atlantic cultivates controversy on effectiveness of school gardens in helping children learn

Caitlin Flanagan wrote "Cultivating Failure: how school gardens are cheating our most vulnerable students" for the Jan/Feb 2010 issue of The Atlantic, in which she states, "The cruel trick has been pulled on this benighted child by an agglomeration of foodies and educational reformers who are propelled by a vacuous if well-meaning ideology that is responsible for robbing an increasing number of American schoolchildren of hours they might other wise have spent reading important books or learning higher math (attaining the cultural achievements, in other words, that have lifted uncounted generations of human beings out of the desperate daily scrabble to wrest sustenance from dirt)."

The Center for Ecoliteracy answered Flanagan's article with an essay by Lisa Bennett, "The School Garden Debate: To Weep or Reap?", which cites these two resources for those seeking the facts about the effectiveness of school gardens in helping children learn:

Promise of Place, enriching lives through place-based education > Research & Evaluation Reports

Buck Institute for Education, project based learning for the 21st Century > Does project based learning work?

__________________________________________________________________________ New report explains the many government agencies with jurisdiction over aspects of our food system

"Beyond the USDA: How other government agencies can support a healthier, more sustainable food system" by Maggie Gosselin (February 2010), for the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, is a handy 20-page report available as a PDF file, which reviews the role of 11 government agencies in creating our food system, including financial and antitrust departments.

__________________________________________________________________________ Sheep farming dermatologist shakes up lawn care chemical companies in new documentary

Documentary film A Chemical Reaction tells the story of a small town in Canada that banned lawn care chemicals when people started to get sick, and how they went to court to keep lawn care chemicals out of the stores and off their landscape. Directed by Brett Plymale of Portland, Maine, A Chemical Reaction was described as “rousing” and awarded four out of five stars by the film critics of the Montreal Gazette. SafeLawns.org founder Paul Tukey and CT-NOFA host the Connecticut premiere of A Chemical Reaction at Cinestudio at Trinity College in Hartford on March 7 at 2 PM. A VIP reception open to the public begins at 1.

__________________________________________________________________________ Details on new USDA APHIS Animal Disease Traceability program

The February 2010 Veterinary Services Fact Sheet posted online by APHIS is called, "Questions and Answers: New Animal Disease Traceability Framework" (downloadable PDF) and explains how this program will be developed, as well as how it is different from its predecessor, the National Animal Identification System.

__________________________________________________________________________ Michelle Obama launches national fitness and nutrition program "Let's Move: America's move to raise a healthier generation of kids"

Among the recent flurry of Presidential initiatives launched to address diet-related disease and child nutrition, the First Mom announces Let’s Move with the ambitious goal of ending the epidemic of childhood obesity within a generation.

__________________________________________________________________________ USDA Food Atlas has statistics about your community's food environment and eating habits

The online Food Environment Atlas has aggregated county-level statistics for the nation in a handy map tool that supports research and education about farming, eating habits, food access, nutrition, health and welfare, and the local economy. Statistics are organized into 13 categories each with several sub-categories providing details about things like foods eaten at home, availability of food stores, food prices, food insecurity, local foods, proximity to grocery stores, expenditures on food in restaurants, and much more.

__________________________________________________________________________ Niche Meat Processors Assistance Network Tweets Meat

Twitter can be a far-reaching, dynamic, and documentable tool for basic meat education. Thousands of people curious about meat – where to buy it, how to cook it, what it really is – are in great need of accurate information. Join Chris Raines of Penn State University (aka @iTweetMeat), farmers, foodies, butchers, and others each Thursday at 8 pm ET by logging into a chat called MeatCamp. Recent chat topics include livestock breeds, head-to-tail eating (what are those “other” cuts?), and buying meat in bulk. To participate, sign up for a Twitter handle at twitter.com. Then log in to one of the various chat portals and search for the "hashtag" meatcamp. For more info, contact Chris Raines at craines@psu.edu or visit http://meatisneat.wordpress.com

__________________________________________________________________________ Walmart uses video "The Secret Life of Sour Cream" to promote image of sustainability

"The Secret Life of Sour Cream" is a 3-minute video about how Walmart has collaborated with dairy farms and Dean Foods, and changed its operations to reduced the ecological footprint of Walmart's house brand of all natural sour cream.