Locavore News – World
Posted: May 31, 2010
Categories: Uncategorized
- Sixty-Six Percent Natural
- Pete’s Greens: at the heart of the locavore movement
- Local Food Caucus
- EU seeks sustainable farm policy in reform
- Front and center in the nation’s food debates
- BeetNPath to offer New York college students a healthier fast-food option
- Local Food in Pretty Packages Displayed at Art Gallery, of All Places
- Agriculture and Food Sector: Critical Infrastructure and Key Resources
- UK Consumers Priorities for Sustainable Food Purchases
- UK Farmers Being challenged on their Environmental Performance
Perspectives on good food and farming by Elbert van Donkersgoed
May 31, 2010
Sixty-Six Percent Natural
The spread of agriculture over the last 300 years has been a dance of intensification and expansion. Nearly every area of the world has seen agriculture become more locally dense: agricultural land has become more and more agricultural, even in areas where it has been long established and where population density has increased as well. Details on Edible Geographywebsite. At Bill Rankin’s web site you can see an animation that shows the intensification and spread of agricultural land-use around the world over the past three hundred years. Radical Cartography.
Pete’s Greens: at the heart of the locavore movement
Love Tomorrow Today spent time with Peter Johnson, owner and innovator at Pete’s Greens in Craftsbury, VT. Pete talks about his remarkable four-season organic farm, how the local food movement is helping to revive this area of Vermont and how, if they can do it, anyone can! Love Tomorrow Todayvideo.
Local Food Caucus
The discussion of local foods is making its way from the dinner table to the halls of state government. A new Local Food Caucus is being put together by State Rep. Jim Davnie (DFL- Minneapolis) and State Rep. Ron Shimanski (R- Silver Lake). The bipartisan group will host several conversations in the interim on the issue and work with the Senate, which has a local foods caucus. “Minnesotans are interested in what they eat,†said Davnie. “They want to know where it came from and how it was raised. From the city dweller who wishes to eat healthier to the farmer hoping to diversify the local economy this issue transcends politics.â€Â Minnesota House of Representatives news release.
EU seeks sustainable farm policy in reform
European Union debate on overhauling the Common Agricultural Policy is set to focus on matching farm policy with plans to green the 27-country bloc’s economy by 2020, rotating EU president Spain said. The EU is set to overhaul the 50 billion euro a year ($61.88 billion) CAP by 2013, and many member states, like France and Poland, are keen to maintain spending levels because direct subsidies account for 25 percent of farmers’ income. But other countries are keen to cut the farm budget to fund other areas and maintaining subsidies will depend on linking the CAP to the EU’s wider economic, social and environmental aims. A report to be debated at the June 1 meeting seen by Reuters said farming may not be viable without maintaining subsidies as they are. Forexyard story.
Front and center in the nation’s food debates
The sap is running on a crisp spring morning — sugar maples along the roads are festooned with every manner of container, from gallon milk jugs to shining buckets. Steam and smoke waft upward from jury-rigged sugar shacks and multiroom log sugar houses worthy of a spread in Architectural Digest. This variety is typical across the country — the small producer’s next-door neighbor might be a multimillion-dollar producer. But beneath the bucolic image, there are questions. The artisanal food movement has added delicious, high-quality food to the national palate, but how does it affect the communities in which it is produced? What happens when artisanal products become too expensive for regular folks, the people who have always enjoyed them? Loss Angeles Times story.
BeetNPath to offer New York college students a healthier fast-food option
PrOats isn’t an everyday, microwaveable, fast-food meal with a long list of unpronounceable ingredients: it has only four ingredients, and two are organic. The product is a new frozen oatmeal made by the Ithaca-based company BeetNPath, and it couldn’t have a simpler ingredients list: organic steel cut oats, water, organic flax seeds and egg whites. “It’s a better oatmeal,” said Jeannine Sacco, BeetNPath’s president and head chef and recipe tester. Though its taste is unabashedly bland, and the package it comes in is only half-filled, Sacco said the 10-ounce portion contains 20 grams of protein and 7 grams of fiber, and is smaller to help students control portion sizes. They also suggest using the extra space in the package to add toppings such as fruit or vegetables to make PrOats a complete meal. Sacco hopes the product, which will cost $2.99, will answer an “unmet need” for healthier, more local food on college campuses. Ithaca Journal story.
Local Food in Pretty Packages Displayed at Art Gallery, of All Places
Local food is popping up everywhere, but in art galleries? That’s what I saw atPartners & Spade in the NOHO district of New York City. It is an exhibition of the packaging of foods made in Brooklyn, and range from the self-consciously designed products to the more traditional designs that have become part of people’s lives. Treehugger story.
Agriculture and Food Sector: Critical Infrastructure and Key Resources
The Agriculture and Food Sector has the capacity to feed and clothe people well beyond the boundaries of the nation. The sector is almost entirely under private ownership and is composed of an estimated 2.1 million farms, approximately 880,500 firms and over one million facilities. This sector accounts for roughly one-fifth of the nation’s economic activity and is overseen at the federal level by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Homeland Security report.
UK Consumers Priorities for Sustainable Food Purchases
Although interest in ‘sustainable food’ has grown substantially in recent years, an official definition for sustainability has yet to be agreed upon. ‘Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming’ provide guidance to consumers wishing to make more sustainable food purchases, in the form of seven guiding principles. Using these principles, this study seeks to assess UK consumer’s priorities towards sustainable food. A detailed structured questionnaire explored shopping habits, attitudes to sustainable food components (organic, fair-trade, local food and animal welfare), stated purchasing behaviour and demographic information. Questionnaires were sent to 2,500 randomly selected Nottinghamshire (UK) residents. A response rate of 35.6% was achieved. The data reveals that consumers prioritise packaging, how food is produced and animal welfare when considering sustainable food components. Stated purchasing behaviour demonstrates that ‘free range’ and ‘local’ products are more likely to take precedence over other sustainability aspects. Future research will seek to compare and contrast stated and actual preferences by comparing the population survey results to actual purchasing behaviour from supermarket data. The 84th Annual Conference of the UK Agricultural Economics Society paper.
UK Farmers Being challenged on their Environmental Performance
A new survey released by Farming Futures – an industry-led project which helps farmers respond to climate change – reveals that one in four farmers have noticed increased interest from customers in their environmental performance over the past year. 53% of those surveyed recognise that addressing climate change offers potential business opportunities – a significant rise on last year – and the number of farmers producing their own energy has doubled. Almost half are taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from their land (48%), and one in three (31%) farmers are doing something to adapt to the impacts of climate change. Encouragingly, almost half (47%) of farmers are confident that the industry’s target to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 11% by 2020 can be met. A significant 47% are improving energy efficiency on their farm. Farming futures news release.
AND if You Have Time
Locavore Fashion
Brooklyn’s Marlow & Sons are getting into the fashion business, selling leather bags and pouches made from the skins of house-butchered cows and pig.Eater.com item.