Locavore News from Elbert van Donkersgoed
Posted: July 15, 2009
Categories: Food in the News / News from Sustain Ontario
Locavore News
Plumbline by Elbert van Donkersgoed
Perspectives on good food and farming
July 15, 2009
Guelph residents rarely take advantage of bylaw permitting backyard coops
The sound is surprisingly soothing — something akin to a babbling brook. The gentle clucking takes passersby on Huron Street by surprise. Most of them smile when they realize — yes — they really are seeing chickens through that chain-link fence. Right in the heart of the city. Guelph Mercury story.
Britney Spears turns to gardening
Spears, 27, who had a series of breakdowns in 2007, has tried numerous self-help schemes and counsellors, practised yoga and experimented with mysticism. While these appear to have failed to have the desired effect, gardening or ‘flower therapy’ seems to have struck a chord with the troubled singer. More  in the Telegraph (UK).
Wegmans Featuring Kids’ Gardening Kits and Tools
This spring, Wegmans Food Markets started selling gardening kits and tools to help kids raise their own vegetables. Some items are branded with favorite animated characters of the younger set, including Veggie Tales seed packets, Dora the Explorer trowels and Go Diego Go! garden gloves. Among the reasons Wegmans is encouraging children to garden: As they see plants thrive under their care, they feel a sense of accomplishment; they may be more eager to eat vegetables they’ve grown themselves; and knowing how foods grow prepares them to make smarter environmental and nutritional choices as they grow up. Progressive Grocer story.
Garden-sharing program bears fruit
The garden-lover’s version of Lavalife was launched in Toronto this week by a group of diehard food-growers. The site,SharingBackyards.com, posts ads from green thumbs looking for sunny spots to dig in and “brown thumbs” who have the land, but not the time or gift for growing food. In exchange for their soil and water, they get half the bounty. Catherine Porter writes in the Toronto Star.
Growers to voluntarily ensure farms protect wildlife (UK)
The groundbreaking new approach was made possible last week after the Government officially backed the industry-led Campaign for the Farmed Environment. The campaign – whose industry partners include the NFU, Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG), the Country Land and Business Association and Linking Environment and Farming (LEAF) – is being trialled as an alternative to compulsory set-aside, which was abolished last year. It argues that the site-specific benefits of set-aside are best retained by promoting the voluntary management of a relatively small area of farmland in well-located and positively managed ways. The new agreement will push farmers, growers and their advisers to take up management activities that will boost farmland birds, wider biodiversity and water quality in a way that is agronomically sensible. Horticulture Week story.
Farming in Edmonton
Berezan, who chucked a desk job for full-time city farming a few years ago, is the expert on how to transform Edmonton’s urban monoculture–stucco bungalow, front lawn and two spruce trees–into edible forests and no-till vegetable plots. He’ll even show you how to use your bath water, safely, on thirsty vegetables. Edmonton Journal story.
Vegetable Garden Consulting
City Farm Boy designs and builds urban vegetable gardens that make growing your own premium quality food easy and enjoyable. City Farm Boy also grows fruit & vegetables commercially in urban gardens and sells thru the local farmer’s markets. CityFarmBoywebsite.
Organic vs. natural a source of confusion in food labelling
A new study shows wide confusion among American consumers about products aimed at the green market. Many mistakenly believe “natural” is a greener term than “organic.” Chicago Tribune story.
Is this the future of food?
They look more like the brightly lit shelves of a chemists shop than the rows of a vegetable garden. But according to their creators, these perfect looking vegetables could be the future of food. In a perfectly controlled and totally sterile environment – uncontaminated by dirt, insects or fresh air – Japanese scientists are developing a new way of growing vegetables. Mail Online story.
Peter Piper would be in a pickle
The newest of St. David’s Hydroponics’ three greenhouse facilities is more than seven hectares of peppers under glass at a constant 26C-27C with a steamy 80 per cent humidity. It grows red, yellow and orange peppers and also eggplants. A giant new greenhouse filled with pepper plants as far as the eye can see – 100 metres of them to either side and 360 metres to the far wall – a whole city block, if they had city blocks out here in the hinterlands outside Niagara-on-the-Lake. This is farming at its most high-tech, a melding of agriculture and science, precisely monitored and controlled and as green as the peppers themselves before they ripen. The company won Local Food Plus certification last year. LFP is a non-profit organization that describes itself as “committed to building and fostering local sustainable food systems by certifying farmers and processors and linking them with local purchasers.” Toronto Star story.