Folks Gotta Eat tag:www.folksgottaeat.com,2010-03-14://7 2011-08-16T21:49:54Z Movable Type 4.35-en Fresh Moves for food deserts tag:www.folksgottaeat.com,2011://7.2741 2011-08-16T21:39:29Z 2011-08-16T21:49:54Z Melanie Redman http://melanieredman.com Photo courtesy of Flickr and Ed Yourdon
Here at Folks Gotta Eat, we've talked about food deserts before. According to Chicago-based Fresh Moves, a food desert is "a problem in which entire communities have severely limited access to fresh fruits and veggies, and therefore suffer from significant health issues related to poor diets." So, what can we do about them? ]]>
We love our cars back home in the States, so, it should come as no surprise that folks up and invented the "Mobile Produce Market." (Though back home in Missouri growing up, it was usual for folks to just pull over their van, car, or truck and sell their fruits, veggies, hand-made dolls, corn cob pipes - you name it - out of the back at any decent intersection. I'm pretty sure folks didn't need permits for that - they just did it.)

Fresh Moves is an organization in Chicago that came together to begin to address the problem of food deserts in the city. From the Fresh Moves website:

The answer? Put the whole thing on wheels! So Food Desert Action sprang into, well, ACTION. They were able to secure a bus, donated from the CTA. They partnered with Architecture for Humanity to transform the bus into a mobile produce market. They worked with volunteers at EPIC to put together this website. And now, they're working hard to bring the Lawndale community fresh, delicious, nutritious produce - and educating the public at large about how fun it can be to eat healthily.

]]> On food justice tag:www.folksgottaeat.com,2011://7.2646 2011-04-24T23:13:55Z 2011-04-24T23:32:38Z We've posted some definitions for clarification and/or inspiration on Folks Gotta Eat before, so let's keep adding to that list. Food Justice: Food justice seeks to ensure that the benefits and risks of where, what and how food is grown,... Melanie Redman http://melanieredman.com Photo courtesy of Flickr and s3bsg
Folks Gotta Eat before, so let's keep adding to that list. Food Justice: Food justice seeks to ensure that the benefits and risks of where, what and how food is grown, produced, transported, distributed, accessed and eaten are shared fairly. Food justice represents a transformation of the current food system, including but not limited to eliminating disparities and inequities. ]]>
This important definition is the opening of the introduction to a recent report by The Applied Research Center. The report - The Color of Food - "maps out the race, gender and class of workers along the supply chain, finding people of color typically make less than whites and hold fewer management positions." Some of you may have an immediate reaction of "duh, nothing new there," but even I was struck by the range and depth of inequities we must address if we want food justice.

A movement based on a holistic understanding of food justice needs to encompass the chain of food production that connects seeds to mouths. The food chain includes the workers that help to plant the seeds, harvest the crops, package the food, deliver the product and serve the meal to consumers. The future of good food must not ignore these workers and their livelihoods. Food justice must involve increasing their wages and improving their working conditions, so that they too can enjoy healthy and sustainable lives.

So, what are we up against in attaining food justice?

White men earned the highest wages of all race and gender groups working in the food system. For every dollar of median income a white man earned, men of color made 20 to 40 cents less (see Figure 6). Being a woman posed a severe penalty in wages for food workers. White women earned 63 cents for every dollar in median wage that a white man made. Women of color fared much worse: Asian women made 68 cents, Black women made 53 cents, and Latina women made 50 cents.

What is required of us to address this? 

A movement for food justice must advocate for the dignity of and respect for the workers who help to produce, process, distribute and serve us our food. 

I think the most important point this report highlights is the need to build meaningful and durable bridges between the food, labor and racial justice movements. I'm reminded of one of the most thoughtful environmental organizations I know of working out of the U.S., Green for All, and their focus on the links between poverty, race and environmental destruction. Collectively, we must dig deeper into the meaning of the term "sustainability" to ensure our applications are inclusive.
]]> Food deserts, continued... tag:www.folksgottaeat.com,2011://7.2579 2011-02-11T19:34:10Z 2011-02-11T19:48:31Z Recently someone stopped me in a conversation and asked what I meant by the term "food desert." We've talked about food deserts before on Folks Gotta Eat, but I like to revisit it and amplify some of the examples I... Melanie Redman http://melanieredman.com Photo courtesy of Flickr and Stuck in Customs
food desert." We've talked about food deserts before on Folks Gotta Eat, but I like to revisit it and amplify some of the examples I come across. ]]>
For definition purposes, "a food desert is any area in the industrialised world where healthy, affordable food is difficult to obtain" (thank you Wikipedia). Food deserts remind me how very tentative this whole "developed world" reality really is.

NPR's All Things Considered lays out a pretty clear example of a food desert and how direct the effects of lack of access to healthy food are on the well-being of folks who live in that food desert. 

Los Angeles is a food lover's paradise -- unless you happen to live in the Ramona Gardens housing project. Other parts of the city have organic farmers markets and natural food emporiums, but this neighborhood, surrounded by freeways, train tracks, and industrial warehouses, is isolated from all that.

Listen to the full story here. Do you have food desert examples and creative solutions to address them? Please post in the comments section.]]> Challenge for winter's dark days tag:www.folksgottaeat.com,2011://7.850 2011-01-18T21:02:16Z 2011-01-18T21:22:25Z I'd noticed a lot of people posting pictures of meals they'd made for their "Dark Days Challenge" on Twitter and on some blogs I read, and wondered what it was all about. A quick Google search lead me to Urban... Shana Hillman Photos courtesy of Shana Hillman
2011 Dark Days Challenge.]]>
Basically, it's a challenge to all interested to cook a minimum of FOUR meals a month (ideally one per week) using SOLE (Definition: sustainable, organic, local, ethical) ingredients during the dark days of winter. Participants then write about their meal and share their experiences. The challenge runs from December 1, 2010 - April 15, 2011, and the deadline to sign up and be featured in their aggregator was November 21st. I was kicking myself for missing out, but their own site told me not to worry and that "Although you can't formally join the Challenge anymore, we'd be happy to have you cooking along with us and sharing your experiences in the comments of the bi-monthly recaps!" So, here I am. I thought "why the hell not?" 

While it's pretty easy for me to make local meals during the summer, in winter this could be a depressing thought. But once a week? Only four meals in a month? Certainly this is something I can manage, and it will be a fun and low commitment way to make us think critically about what we are eating. Plus, seeing all the creativity and meal ideas from the other posters is inspiring and fun.

Here are the "rules" from their site:
What does local mean?
Traditionally, local food challenges call for a 100-mile radius. Winter time is more difficult in many climates, especially if you're new to eating locally, so my default definition is 150 miles. You can choose to make your radius smaller or slightly larger as you need. Typical exceptions are oils, coffee, chocolate and spices. If you're making fewer or more exceptions, please note that on your first post.

What if I can't find every ingredient locally?
That's why this is called a challenge! If you can't find every ingredient or heck even most ingredients, please still write about your attempts. This is just as much about what we learn, the obstacles we find and the decisions we make as it is about cooking with SOLE ingredients.

With those rules in mind, I give you my first Dark Days Dinner!
A roasted Beretta Farms chicken, which are available at the bigger Loblaws locations (Queen's Quay and Forest Hill locations for sure), and Rowe Farms shops around town, over carrots, candy cane beets and shallots from the Wychwood Barns farmers market, a random squash I don't know the variety of but it looked like a baby hubbard, baby turnips from the Maple Keys Kitchen Gardens, and thyme from my own garden that I froze this fall in Ziploc bags. I also threw about eight cloves of fantastic garlic that I bought from the Ontario Health Coalition during their annual Garlic Sale Fundraiser into the pan to roast with the veg, and chopped another two cloves to rub under the skin of the bird with some frozen parsley pesto  I'd made this fall when cleaning up the gardens for the season.

Now my biggest exception was salt - which is never gonna be local no matter how I look at it. Roast chicken in my opinion needs a lot of salt - especially inside the cavity. My other cheat was olive oil. I wanted to toss the veg and drizzle the chicken in something, and was a bit turned off at the thought of using some of the local rendered pig fat lard I have because you know I'm on a diet these days. So, I cheated and used some of the olive oil I'd bought at the farmers market on my California vacation - because it was local to my hosts home, right? Sure, I flew home with it, but that's sorta gotta count for something, right?

I figure that's not bad for a first try.

So what do you think - would four meals each month be doable? Fun even? What would you make? Or suggestions for what I should make?
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]]> Discount rate and our future tag:www.folksgottaeat.com,2010://7.446 2010-07-28T14:44:18Z 2010-07-28T15:11:50Z Humans are special, not because we are made in god's image, and commanded by the Bible to rule over the earth, but because we have the amazing ability to choose a future in which we thrive and develop in a... Melanie Redman http://melanieredman.com Photo courtesy of Flickr and Stuck in Customs
Humans are special, not because we are made in god's image, and commanded by the Bible to rule over the earth, but because we have the amazing ability to choose a future in which we thrive and develop in a just society while coexisting with a healthy natural world. - Jeff Schweitzer
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I often find myself arguing about the importance of public policy in shaping our future. Folks who are probably considered more radical than me often see policy as the barrier, not the opportunity. Obviously public policy can be both. Today, we're going to define "discount rate" and read an awesome piece about the potential and necessity of public policy to not just shape, but to save, our future.

According to Jeff Schweitzer and his piece on The Huffington Post, our discount rate measures how much we would pay to have some future benefit given to us now (the classic example is taking a lump sum instead of an annuity). Money today has greater perceived value than money tomorrow. (I highly recommend you read the whole article, as it's pretty interesting.)

In the context of a world with increasingly depleted resources due to our use and consumption patterns, the concept of personal discount rate is critical in understanding why we're making a sustainable future pretty darn hard to achieve, even when we have the knowledge of the immediate harm we are causing through our actions. So, what does this have to do with public policy? Well, Schweitzer believes, and I tend to agree, that healthy, vibrant communities and futures grow out of healthy, vibrant public policy.

We have not discovered Eden, only a common end point to help guide public policy. We know for a fact that left to our own devices humans will deplete a resource even knowing the dire consequences that will ensue. Appropriately designed and properly implemented public policies of regulation, taxation, incentives, and legislation can help prevent this tragic outcome. Such policies, highly specific to each country's and region's particular circumstances, would create an environment in which individuals acting in their own personal best interest at the same time contribute to society's long-term needs. Some confidence in a sustainable future goes a long way. Government has a critical role here, in spite of conservative objections, at least in removing perverse incentives and counterproductive subsidies.
]]> Feeding the future tag:www.folksgottaeat.com,2010://7.392 2010-05-25T16:34:50Z 2010-05-25T16:45:07Z I don't know how I made it to age 36 without becoming a liberal cynic like many folks I know. I am still filled to the brim, overflowing actually, with hope and excitement for this world, and the creativity, commitment... Melanie Redman http://melanieredman.com Photo courtesy of Flickr and Frederic Poirot
Feed the Future." And, as it's Teach Me Tuesday, I'll share it with you.]]>
So, what's this all about? More U.S. lip service? Well, the billions are going somewhere, and I'd sure as hell rather see them going to a comprehensive, strategic approach to supporting countries in their struggle to end hunger. Feed the Future is supposed to complement existing programs in agriculture and food security receiving funds from the U.S.

Feed the Future pursues two paths: (1) addressing the root causes of hunger that limit the potential of millions of people; and (2) establishing a lasting foundation for change by aligning our resources with country-owned processes and sustained, multi-stakeholder partnerships. Through our leadership in this initiative, we advance global stability and prosperity by improving the most basic of human conditions - the need that families and individuals have for a reliable source of quality food and sufficient resources to access and purchase it.

Now, I'm not naive in thinking that the U.S. will somehow, singlehandedly, lift the entire globe out of poverty. That would take some pretty radical shifts that folks just aren't ready to make. However, in collaboration with institutions, organizations and partner countries, we can hopefully take the things that really work to scale. I was most excited around the language in the project concerning women:

Women will be a pivotal force behind achieving a food secure world. In most developing countries, they produce between 60 and 80 percent of the food. Analysis by IFPRI shows that equalizing women's access to agricultural inputs can increase output by more than 10 percent. Studies show that when gains in income are controlled by women, they are more likely to be spent on food and children's needs. By investing more in women, we amplify benefits across families and generations.

(Jeez, how long did it take the world to name this? It seems like we've always known this - we just don't say it because it is a challenge to the dominant structures.) If you're really interested in this project, and I think you should be, check out the Feed the Future Guide.

Definition: A family is considered food secure when its members do not live in hunger or fear of hunger. Food security is defined as having four main components: availability, access, utilization, and stability.

]]> Do you understand farm subsidies? tag:www.folksgottaeat.com,2010://7.366 2010-05-05T14:03:30Z 2010-05-05T15:19:27Z I was reading in the Huffington Post this morning about U.S. farm subsidies and how rich farmers are still getting most of the cash. They made reference to the Environmental Working Group's "Farm Subsidy Database." As one of millions of... Melanie Redman http://melanieredman.com Photo courtesy of Flickr and Infinity Rain
Huffington Post this morning about U.S. farm subsidies and how rich farmers are still getting most of the cash. They made reference to the Environmental Working Group's "Farm Subsidy Database." As one of millions of folks who barely understands the complexities of farm subsidies, yet still has a physical reaction when I hear the words "corn subsidy," I thought I'd go take a look at the EWG database.]]>
Not only is the database itself a brilliant public tool, but there are some fantastic resources and data drill-downs for your use/interest. As a home-grown Missouri girl, I thought I'd check out that information first. It seems that Missouri received $8.46 billion in subsides between 1995-2009. But wait, here's the kicker, 58 percent of farmers in Missouri did NOT collect payments. Ten percent of those who did, collected 71 percent of all subsidies, amounting to $5.27 billion over 15 years. Folks, that seems kind of f***ked up. The thing is, maybe it isn't! Here's where we have to admit that most of us don't really understand the history and present manifestations of government farm subsidies. (Though after all my research, I think my first reaction to be upset at the distribution of farm subsidies is spot on.)

With that in mind, I did some research to find some learning aids to bring myself more up to speed. Perhaps you can join me in my learning and recommend some additional resources?

The first key to unraveling farm subsidy is to dig into the most recent Farm Bill. The Sustainable Agriculture Coalition has a fantastic piece called the "Grassroots Guide to the 2008 Farm Bill." Next, we have a lovely chart from The Washington Post from a few years back that lays out farm subsidy history:
farmsubsidygraphic.jpg
And folks, just in case you need to (and don't be ashamed), let's take it back to the high school level (which is sometimes where we need to return and learn, or remind ourselves of what we did learn). I found some fabulous resources on the PBS Web site for teachers. There is a free, multi-media curriculum called "The Cultivation of Agricultural Subsidies." I've embedded their awesome glossary of economic terms below. Scroll down to "subsidy" and watch the video. Bob is fantastic, if not a little freaky.

Glossary Widget

]]> Farmer Jane enters the scene tag:www.folksgottaeat.com,2010://7.363 2010-05-02T05:15:00Z 2010-05-01T22:43:11Z Yesterday evening, as I was putting off my yoga practice and surfing the Web for distractions, I came across the National Resources Defense Council's 2010 Growing Green Awards winners. Don't get me wrong, Russ, Karl, Fred and Mike are doing... Melanie Redman http://melanieredman.com Photo courtesy of Flickr and Curtis Gregory Perry
National Resources Defense Council's 2010 Growing Green Awards winners. Don't get me wrong, Russ, Karl, Fred and Mike are doing some fantastic work, but they're all older white men. Feeling a little deflated, I surfed on. Redemption came in the form of a new book released just yesterday: Farmer Jane.]]>
From the author: 

Women are passionate advocates for sustainable food and farming and have been changing the way America eats and farms for decades. Farmer Jane tells 30 such stories of some exceptional women leaders that are working on this change by farming, educating, advocating, and/or transforming how we eat through their food businesses.

But it's not just about being a woman. (Stay with me here.) It's about the impact that femininity has in changing businesses for the better. Women lean towards relationships and long-term strategies that prioritize future generations, and the good news is that this viewpoint is starting to become valued in the emerging green economy. It's all about systems thinking and perspectives of what the new (triple) bottom line should be - that of environment, people, and prosperity (health, and economic). Beyond their role in shifting business, women are raising the next generation of leaders, of farmers, of gardeners, of aware human beings that will care for this place long after we're gone.

On the Farmer Jane blog, author Temra Costa is posting interviews with some of the Farmer Janes. My favourite to date is Nikki Henderson from People's Grocery in Oakland. She used to work with Green for All, which was co-founded by Van Jones (my hero). In her interview, Nikki gives us two new definitions to add to the FGE definitions category. 

Sustainable food: 
Sustainable food is food grown with care to the environment, the people eating the food, and the people growing the food. 

Food justice:
Food justice refers to the agency and ownership of a group of people around their food choices and food system.

My true Saturday evening inspiration that helped me get off my bum and onto the yoga mat was this portion of Nikki Henderson's interview:

Any woman connected to her cultural heritage (no matter what color you are, because we all came from deep-rooted cultures a few generations back) knows that women are the carriers of life, love, and the soul of community. One of the many ways that we pass this along to future generations is through food. The grandmothers cook with the daughters who in turn cook with the granddaughters, and the stories in our food keep our communities rich and vibrant. Women, remember your heritage, remember the grandmothers. They still speak to us, and we must listen so we can heal the way food and farming work in our communities.

And that, my friends, is what I'm talkin' about.
]]> What in the world does **** mean, anyway? tag:www.folksgottaeat.com,2010://7.361 2010-04-30T16:05:29Z 2010-04-30T16:34:25Z One of the things I think regular folks find most alienating about the sustainable food system movement is the assumption that everyone knows what you're talking about. Terms get tossed around and we all nod as though we know what... Melanie Redman http://melanieredman.com Photo courtesy of Flickr and bitsandbobbins
definitions.

]]> Definitions are up for interpretation, context and discussion. It's also possible for terms to evolve their meaning over time. For example, the term "organic" when applied to food labeling, is contingent on the regulating body and the guidelines of the moment. All that to say, this isn't an exact science, but I think it's helpful in building bridges in understanding.

Our first term and definition? Sustainable Agriculture.

Don't feel bad if you can't put it into words, as the U.S. has only had a recognized definition in policy since 1990. It seems that the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NASC) helped the government nail it down for the 1990 Farm Bill.

The term "sustainable agriculture" means an integrated system of plant and animal production practices having a site-specific application that will, over the long term:
      • satisfy human food and fiber needs;
      • enhance environmental quality and the natural resource base upon which the agricultural economy depends;
      • make the most efficient use of nonrenewable resources and on-farm resources and integrates, where appropriate, natural biological cycles and controls;
      • sustain the economic viability of farm operations; and
      • enhance the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole.
I don't know about you, but that sounds mighty fine to me, folks.

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