Locavore News – World by Elbert van Donkersgoed

Author: Katie Rabinowicz

Posted: February 16, 2010

Categories: Food in the News / News from Sustain Ontario

Perspectives on good food and farming

February 16, 2010

Minister Visits Award Winning Riverside Market (UK)

Rural Affairs Minister, Elin Jones, said: “There are numerous benefits attached to farmers markets from environmental benefits such as reducing food miles to encouraging healthy eating and boosting the local economy. “Through buying locally sourced food and drink, we are minimising the energy used in food production, transport and storage and therefore securing a sustainable future for our farming and food industries. Meat Trade Daily News, Wales – Welsh Assembly government press release.

First Ever Rooftop Farm on Affordable Housing Project

Solar is not the only green feature appearing on affordable housing projects these days. In fact, a project in the South Bronx is hoping to combat food miles and food deserts at the same time, growing fresh, nutritious vegetables in a 10,000 sq ft rooftop greenhouse on top of a six story affordable housing project. But does the project make sense? Treehugger.

Consumers fed up with misleading food labels (Australia)

Consumer groups say the serving sizes listed on food packaging may be giving people the wrong impression about how much they should eat. While the US Food and Drug Administration is considering changing its standardised serving sizes because they are smaller than the average American’s consumption, consumer groups say Australia should take a different approach to food labelling.ABC News story.

School Gardeners Strike Back

In the article Flanagan saves special scorn—she’s really good at witty, seemingly undisputable scorn; I’ve long enjoyed her writing, and once in a while even agreed with it—for Alice Waters and the Edible Schoolyard, the program Waters launched 15 years ago at a Berkeley middle school where she saw a vacant lot. She has tirelessly and relentlessly turned that garden and a kitchen-classroom she built into a national movement to incorporate gardens into schools and what students learn in gardens into the school curriculum. It’s no stretch to say that Michelle Obama planted a garden on the White House Lawn and invited schoolchildren to be her first helpers as a direct result of Waters’s crusade. The Atlantic story

Food Deserts Could Bloom if City Hall Helps

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has hired a food policy czar and formed a Food Policy Task Force. And City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has said she will roll out a policy agenda for food this spring that will address the question of access in a more comprehensive way. The question now is how far these efforts will take the city toward a more holistic food policy. Gotham Gazette story.

Supplier to Buyer tourism event

Supplier to Buyer – a crucial event for anyone involved in the tourism industry, leisure and hospitality in South-West Wales – is being held at Haverfordwest tomorrow, February 3rd. “From food producers, web designers, interior decorators, retailers and others, they all benefit from a vibrant tourism industry,” she said. Western Telegraph story.

Food Policy Councils: Lessons Learned

Based on an in-depth survey of 48 Food Policy Councils, the authors found that despite dozens of successful case studies, Food Policy Councils tend to encounter similar challenges, challenges that can sometimes stymie progress, and must be countered with careful planning and evaluation. This report contains tips and case studies for successful councils, warns of common red flags, and includes ample resources for citizens and local governments who may be interested in establishing or helping run a Food Policy Council. Food First: Institute for Food and Development Policy report (3.0 PDF)

Will Walmart, not Whole Foods, save the small farm and make America healthy?

He was right. In the grocery section of the Raynham supercenter, 45 minutes south of Boston, I had trouble believing I was in a Walmart. The very reasonable-looking produce, most of it loose and nicely organized, was in black plastic bins (as in British supermarkets, where the look is common; the idea is to make the colors pop). The first thing I saw, McIntosh apples, came from the same local orchard whose apples I’d just seen in the same bags at Whole Foods. The Atlantic story.

The Next Wave: Wellness Food Trends for 2010

And what consumers are demanding is clear. “The new consumer mantra when it comes to health and wellness is ‘simple,’” says Kimberly Carson, director of beverage solutions for Sensient Flavors LLC (www.sensient-tech.com), Indianapolis. “Already there are products on grocery store shelves with ‘simple’ and ‘simply’ on the package, referencing both a simplification of the ingredient statement as well as…healthier ingredients.” FoodProcessing.com story.

Oscar-nominated film on food industry hits screens in the UK

Food, Inc is a 90-minute documentary that claims to expose “the highly mechanized underbelly that’s been hidden from the American consumer”. It claims the country’s food supply is controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and the environment. The film is being supported in the UK by the Soil Association which is encouraging as many people as possible to go and see it. Farmers Weekly Interactive story.

AND if You Have Time

Turn our cities’ windows into vertical veggie farms

I started The Windowfarms Project as a grassroots way to start to address a nexus in these issues– our food system– and to give ordinary people a way of participating in the “green revolution.” Over the last year, through an organized online collaboration of regular folks, we “windowfarmers” have designed a system for growing nutritious veggies in the windows of homes in a way that looks like an elegant garden/fountain. We have given away the plans and shown anyone how to make them out of cheap, easily accessible and recycled materials. Us windowfarmers are ongoingly testing new techniques and sharing results online to make windowfarms continually more efficient, more productive, more nutritious, quieter, prettier, and more tasty. Interesting Kickstarter project.