Locavore News – World
Posted: April 19, 2010
Categories: News from Sustain Ontario
- She yanks their food chains
- A welcome slice of American pie
- Legislation is the only way to improve hospital food, warns Sustain (UK)
- The best city farms
- Attracting more votes
- Meet the Farmer TV – Food from the Farm to the Plate
- Sustainable agriculture and local food production from ideas to action
- Sustainable Food Policy Board
- Community Food Security Coalition &Community Economic Development Working Group Orientation Session
- The Role of Food Policy Councils in Developing Sustainable Food Systems
Perspectives on good food and farming by Elbert van Donkersgoed
April 19, 2010
She yanks their food chains
She is known worldwide for her unbending fidelity to locally grown food and organic agriculture. When she championed local farmers and put their names on the menu, restaurants across the country followed. She replaced iceberg lettuce with field greens, and shoppers flocked to farmers markets for arugula and chicory. She insisted on grass-fed beef, and now it’s on menus everywhere. “She has fundamentally changed how people in this country understand food,” said Daniel Patterson, owner of Coi, one of San Francisco’s culinary lights. Why, then, does she inspire such animosity? Los Angeles Times story.
A welcome slice of American pie
Forget greasy burgers, a growing enthusiasm for good local food in the US is getting the nation salivating, says Simon Schama. Ask people in the UK what they think of American food and all too often their faces settle into the amused expression Mahatma Gandhi is said to have assumed when asked what he thought of Western civilisation. “It would,” he replied, “be a very good idea.” The same, many think, would be true of American food. For most people in Europe, I suspect, it seems not so much food at all as fuel. The burgers and fries shovelled down while the car is idling at the drive-thru, or gobbled by marooned air travellers waiting for the “delayed” sign to flip so they can finally make their connection to Detroit. Along the concourse plod the heavy herds in search of their own aviation fuel until at last they park their trolleys by the ketchup-stained corral, over which hangs a micro-climate of vaporised frying fat. Yum. Simon Schama’s point of view in BBC News Magazine.
Legislation is the only way to improve hospital food, warns Sustain (UK)
Standards for hospital food should be enshrined in law according to food policy pressure group Sustain, after failed attempts to improve it is found to have cost taxpayers more than £50m in the last 10 years. A new report by Sustain entitled Yet more hospital food failure… says legislation is the only way to improve food after 17 failed voluntary schemes in the last 10 years. CatererSearch.com story.
The best city farms
You don’t need to drag your family to the countryside to let them stroke sheep, feed chickens and ride donkeys. We’ve picked the ten best urban places that give you a taste of the good life. The Guardian lists the top 10 city farms in the Britain.
Attracting more votes
Gough briefed the body on a recently signed healthy food policy issued by the university. The policy solidified what the university has already began to impliment with the HealthyU program — calling for dining services and vendors to offer access to “wholesome, nutritious food choices.†Gough said this policy was in response to the university’s “responsibility as an institution to deal with this (obesity/overweight epidemic).†Gough said NKU would be working with Chartwells to implement the policy in the dormitory dining areas as well. The Northerner Online (North Kentucky University) story.
Meet the Farmer TV – Food from the Farm to the Plate
Welcome to Meet The Farmer TV! We will show you how you can support local food systems and benefit personally as well as enhancing your community and our environment. We will examine the special relationships that develop between the growers and the chefs and the consumers. By searching through the steps and the interactions of all the factors involved in bring Food from The Farm to the Plate we hope to show the deeper values and hidden benefits of supporting your local food systems. Meet the Farmer TV Looks at Local Food with JABA – video. JABA is the Jefferson Area Board on Aging (Virginia). Meet the Farmer TV website.
Sustainable agriculture and local food production from ideas to action
A Challenge Europe international networking event in Sweden. Just before the COP15 conference 20 Challenge Europe climate advocates gathered in Stockholm to develop their project, share ideas and network. The focus of the event was on the impacts of food and agriculture on the climate and how that can be countered through the advocates initiatives. During three days the advocates meet up with UK and Swedish experts in this field such as Jacob Lundberg from the UNs Food and Agriculture organization and Rosie Boycott, chair of London Food. Besides dealing with the theoretical parts of the subject got to meet the Swedish TV chiefs Rune Kalf-Hansen and Carola Magnusson to sample their sample their eco cooking and discuss seasonal and sustainable cooking. Video reporton what transpired during the event.
Sustainable Food Policy Board
Advisory body to the City Council and Travis County Commissioners’ Court concerning the need to improve the availability of safe, nutritious, locally, and sustainably-grown food at reasonable prices for all residents, particularly those in need, by coordinating the relevant activities of city government, as well as non-profit organizations, and food and farming businesses. See Section 2-1-170 of the City Code for additional duties. Austin, Texas, Office of the City Clerk website.
Community Food Security Coalition & Community Economic Development Working Group Orientation Session
This orientation session is the third time a group has come together to discuss ways to further community economic development under the umbrella of the Community Food Security Coalition. Previous meetings were held at CFSC conferences in Vancouver (2006) and Cherry Hill, New Jersey (2008). Many have shown enthusiasm for this idea. However, we need to find committed volunteers and resources to make this happen. Draft Minutes, Polk County Convention Centre, October 11, 2009
The Role of Food Policy Councils in Developing Sustainable Food Systems
Over the past 3 decades, several public and private organizations have fostered the creation of cross-sectoral “food policy councils†(FPCs) to engage and educate among a broad range of public, private, and academic institutions on theory and components necessary to the development of more sustainable food systems. Through an examination of data drawn from interviews with 13 food policy councils in the United States and Canada, this article examines the emerging role of FPCs in developing sustainable food systems. A grounded theory approach was utilized in collecting and analyzing information related to the organizational role of FPCs. Findings from interviews reflect on the overall “food policy council†concept and the role of these organizations in relation to government, policy change, facilitation, networking, and education. Significantly, interviews also indicated that FPCs actually focus more attention on programmatic as opposed to policy work. Article in Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition, Vol. 3, No. 2-3, June 2008: pp. 1–30.
AND if You Have Time
Customer Feedback Not on elBulli’s Menu
The case also highlights the distinction between understanding and listening to customers. “Adrià ‘s idea is that if you listen to customers, what they tell you they want will be based on something they already know,” Norton observes. “If I like a good steak, you can serve that to me, and I’ll enjoy it. But it will never be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. To create those experiences, you almost can’t listen to the customer.” Harvard Business School Working Knowledge story.