Food Policy Council of San Antonio

E-N article on Herff Farm garden, Will Allen on "The Splendid Table"

While waiting for the food policy conference coming up next Thursday and Friday, here are some links to read and listen to, to get you into the mood.

The Express-News SA Life section today features an article on Herff Farm's sustainable "inspiration" garden next to the Cibolo Nature Center in Boerne. Tracy Hobson Lehmann writes about the Nature Center's project to demonstrate a variety of sustainable practices for our climate. These include organic soil-building, growing with compost and mulch, keyhole gardens, drip irrigation, and nontoxic pest control methods.

Also on Saturday, "The Splendid Table," airing on Texas Public Radio, featured an interview with Will Allen about the founding of Growing Power, and his book The Good Food Revolution. Find it here.

And while I'm at it, I'll repeat the Living on Earth link from last weekend that features Mark Winne, keynote speaker for the food conference, commenting on food deserts.

Food Desert commentator speaking in SA May 9 to 11

Noted food activist Mark Winne was interviewed for this week's environmental program "Living On Earth," for an update on food deserts. Recent reports in the New York Times have questioned accepted knowledge about areas lacking access to healthy, affordable food, and how large a role this plays in personal behavior and health outcomes. LOE had treated this topic before and interviewed Winne, and for this week's show he gives an update on the issue and puts the current controversy into perspective. It's 10 minutes of very worthwhile listening, or you can read the transcript.

Winne will be in San Antonio week after next, as keynote speaker at the Food Policy Council of San Antonio's conference May 10-11. Registration closes soon, if you want to attend. Follow the link.

For the community at large, he is also speaking at St. Mark's Episcopal Church Wednesday evening May 9 at 7 p.m. RSVP to the church office, 210 226-2426 for that. St. Mark's is at 315 East Pecan downtown, and has free parking in the church lot across Jefferson.

Both of Mark Winne's books (Food Rebels, Guerrilla Gardeners and Smart-Cookin' Mamas, and Closing the Food Gap) will be available starting this week at The Twig Book Shop and the St. Mark's Bookstore. He will be signing them at the St. Mark's talk and at the conference.

Mark Winne spent much of his career in Hartford, Connecticut, first working for an anti-hunger agency, and then founding an organization to work on fixing the system that was producing so much inequity in access to healthy, affordable food. From that start, he has become one of our nation's leading voices on the causes of food inequity and the policies that are needed to correct it. His analysis and advocacy have influenced federal policy, and have led to the formation of food policy councils in many communities (including San Antonio). He continues his work these days from New Mexico, writing and traveling frequently for conferences, consulting, and speaking engagements.

Courses and certificates in Urban Agriculture

Palo Alto College has a certificate in Organic Agriculture that has a focus on urban agriculture. It is great to have this resource so close to home. We have a strong community and yard gardening culture here, but there is untapped potential for commercial growing inside the city.

A faraway option for such study is see Ryerson University's (Toronto, Ontario). James Kuhns, Instructor in the program (and past president of the American Community Gardening Association), writes:

If you are particularly interested in urban food and agriculture issues, the following two courses are available:

Urban Food Security (CFNY408) – this important course has recently been completely revamped. It explores the factors that currently affect urban food security and how to work towards creating socially-just, sustainable, urban food systems. (Note: the prerequisite for this course has been waived)

Urban Agriculture Types (CVFN412) – this course explores the wide diversity of approaches one can take to developing urban agriculture systems. The course forms part of an Urban Agriculture course series of four courses.
 
If a student completes the four courses, they will receive a formal document of completion from the university. The courses also count towards attaining a certificate in food security should students wish to pursue the certificate as well.

Download an application form and FAX it to distance education at (+1)-416-979-5196. Alternatively, you can scan the application form and send it by email to distance@ryerson.ca. DO NOT MAIL THE REGISTRATION FORM.

If you have any problems over registration, please contact Reg Noble, the Academic Coordinator at food@ryerson.ca.

Food Hubs and Yard Garden Networks at Southern SAWG

Friday I went to four sessions and a screening of the film "The Greenhorns." On Saturday, I went to sessions on policy and activism, especially around the 2012 Farm Bill. I still had a chance to catch a fascinating presentation by a Harlingen farmer who is transforming her area, one season at a time.

Two presentations from Friday were about rebuilding community around food. One was titled, "Food Hubs: Moving Higher Volumes of Good Food to Local Markets." A food hub, in this case, is a business that buys local farm products and distributes to groceries and supermarkets. The presenters were very forthcoming about the nuts and bolts, and the challenges, of putting together this kind of distribution network. I have notes and contact information to share with anyone who is interested in trying this.

The other was by Paige Hill of Urban Patchwork Neighborhood Farms, an Austin nonprofit that helps neighborhoods put together cooperative yard gardens for the residents' use, for sale, and for donation. Rather than finding one big plot for a neighborhood or community garden, she says, you can create small plots throughout the neighborhood, with all the functions served somewhere. They work with each group's unique circumstances--some people have space for a garden but no time, and others want to garden but might have too much shade for some of the crops they would like to grow. Some want food for their own households and to share with neighbors, and some want to sell at a farmers market. Most also donate some to nearby food pantries. She told a story about a backyard tilapia pond that one neighbor wanted to build, to supply fish for the neighborhood. What seemed like a daunting task was done in an afternoon by a group of teenage boys who needed a service project.

These gardens reduce the cost of living for everyone involved, and also increase the quality of life and quality of food. We can do it here, too.

 

Gardening for Good: Food Pantries, SNAPgardens

I've written before about Ample Harvest, a website that lists food pantries that accept donations of surplus produce from gardeners. So today, when the Express-News Grace of Giving series profiled the food pantry at El Divino Salvador United Methodist Church on West Woodlawn, I looked to see whether it is listed, and it is (search on ZIP code 78201). The church is struggling but is determined to keep the pantry open. Here's hoping they get all the help they need from the article.

If you have some cold-hardy greens or other veggies to donate, find a pantry near you and call them up to make arrangements.

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In other news, Daniel Bowman Simon, one of the guys who drove the WhoFarm bus (White House Organic Farm) throughout 2008, has launched a new project. He learned that SNAP benefits (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps) can be used to pay for seeds and plants for a household garden. He also learned that he was not alone in not knowing that.

He then learned that this has been true since 1973. So he started a non-profit, SNAPgardens, to raise awareness in ways that the USDA has not been able to. Under another NP's fiduciary umbrella, and on a shoestring budget, here are some of the things he has accomplished this year:

• Distributed “Food Stamps Grow Gardens” posters to plant-purveying, SNAP-accepting farmers markets in over half the states in America, plus DC, in languages including Hmong, Cherokee, and Spanish.  You can request posters for your farmers market or garden or wherever you want to hang them at: www.SNAPgardens.org/posters

• Presented on SNAP Gardens at the American Community Garden Association’s annual conference.
• Did a poster session at the Community Food Security Conference in Oakland.
• Led a USDA People’s Garden webinar on Food Stamps and Gardening.
• Researched the history of food stamps and gardening, which you can find at www.SNAPgardens.org/history.  A larger piece with more factoids was submitted to the journal Cities and the Environment and is now in the peer-review process.
• Provided public comments to USDA on their upcoming revision to SNAP Education, to make it more garden-friendly.
• Testified at a New York City Council hearing about some ways to make gardening an easier choice for SNAP recipients.
• Built a beta website with helpful hints and information.
• Answered lots of email inquiries from farmers, gardeners, extension agents and other government officials, and of course SNAP participants.
• Answered a whole bunch of interview requests, most recently from Grist.
• Helped build a 20x50 hoophouse at the High School for Public Service in Central Brooklyn.  The hoophouse will be used to grow seedlings for sale at the on-site, SNAP-welcoming farmers market!

Notice, in the Grist article, he is partnering with Dinner Garden, our hometown nationally recognized seed-donation nonprofit. In 2012, he plans to raise awareness by providing posters, collecting and sharing best practices, and setting up a toll-free information hotline. "We’ll do our best to inspire some of the more than 46 million Americans now depending on SNAP to put food on their tables to grow at least some of it themselves."

If you want to make an end-of-year donation, you'll be going through their fiduciary agent, Open Spaces Institute. Very easy.

I also notice on their Partners page that there are no local (or even Texas) organizations listed yet (Dinner Garden will be there soon, I'm sure). We'll be adding to them, won't we? There's a resolution for 2012.

 

Chicago urban ag update

I've written a couple of (fairly) recent posts about Chicago's attempts to codify urban agriculture. The outgoing Daley administration was proposing rules supposedly to recognize UA as a desirable activity and land use, yet strangling it with requirements for fencing, parking, and size limits that would have made some of the city's most vibrant urban farms illegal. With the prospect of a new mayor in sight, these rules still were very concerning, and thankfully were postponed.

Here is the latest: news coverage of Mayor Emanuel's press conference on his proposals, which were worked out with the full participation of the UA community and not just the zoning department.

Read the whole article. Meanwhile, here are a couple of good quotes:

"Erika Allen, head of seven nonprofit Growing Power farms in Chicago, predicted at the time that her group's work 'would be over' if the zoning ordinance passed.

"But Tuesday morning, Emanuel chose Allen's new Iron Street Farm in Bridgeport to present his proposed ordinance — one that marks a turnaround on almost every thorny issue in the last proposal.

"'We've been working really hard to see this happen,' said Allen, who served on the mayor's transition team. 'I think it's just a new administration and a changing of the guard. Former Mayor (Richard) Daley was supportive, but there was a lot of opposition coming out of (the zoning department) that was very much entrenched in "this is the way it we do it.'"

"'This shows a vision that the most needy neighborhoods can be the key to revitalizing our city by cleaning up spaces, providing jobs and growing good food,' said Ken Dunn, a critic of the previously proposed ordinance."

 

A Tale of Two Cities' Urban Ag Rules

Today I heard Erika Allen, head of Growing Power Chicago and president of the Chicago Food Policy Advisory Council, give an update on that city's recent attempt to regulate urban agriculture. Briefly, the proposed ordinance began as an effort to recognize UA as a legal land use in Chicago, and it would do that. But why would it also do these other things?

• Rather than creating a new zoning category for UA, the proposed ordinance would put UA in the "construction, sales and services" category. 
• The size limits (~.4 acre for CGs and ~.5 acre for urban farms) would have prevented several of the most successful projects in Chicago from forming. 
• Community gardens would not be permitted in industrial or commercial areas. 
• Commercial urban farms, including nonprofits, would not be permitted in residential areas (90% of Chicago's vacant land is in residential areas, so no economic development there from food projects).
• Food waste and other materials couldn't be brought in for composting on the site.
• Greenhouses could fall into a restrictive definition of "accessory buildings"
• Parking requirements would reduce the usable land on a site, even if ample street parking is available. Asphalt paving is specified, although the city elsewhere is promoting permeable ground treatments. 
• Fencing would not be required, but if a fence is erected, it must be "architectural." (So vacant land surrounded by chain link could not be beautified with gardens?) 
• Produce from an urban farm could not be sold in open-air or under tents, only in an enclosed building.
• Street frontage would have to be screened (preventing beautification, community engagement and education)

This is not urban agriculture that anyone in the good food movement would recognize, and rather than promote UA's benefits, it would prevent many of them. Allen has been agitating against its passage, and it was withdrawn from the city council agenda earlier this year. Apart from the strange and restrictive provisions, she objects to the lack of a public process.

In contrast, she says that in Milwaukee (home base of Growing Power), "you can grow food anywhere in the city."

Rahm Emanuel will be sworn in next month as mayor of Chicago. Many expect him to bring a more enlightened and comprehensive approach to addressing the city's food deserts. He is also said to be linking food production to economic development, environmental, and public space initiatives.

In the meantime, Allen is not letting down her guard on the proposed ordinance. She says the thing Chicago is seeking to promote/regulate is not like other businesses that could require tight controls: "Food is a human right."

Rahm to Chicago: "Let's Move! on Food"

Obama Foodorama reported today on Chicago mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel's food policy agenda for the city. Into an urban center already working at improving access to healthy food, he brings added emphasis to Michelle Obama's "Let's Move!" agenda for improving public health through better nutrition and increased physical activity. His program lays out a 360-degree view of the problems and solutions for an urban food system.

"To improve food access & affordability, the Mayor-Elect pledges 'a renaissance in local food production & distribution' with new policies and incentives for urban agriculture, grocery markets, food trucks..." Read the whole ObFo post. It brings up a variety of approaches to address food deserts, economic development, health, and community building.

As I reported a few weeks ago, Chicago has had (a) groundbreaking (so to speak) urban agriculture programs (including a branch of Growing Power headed by Erika Allen, daughter of Will), and (b) City proposals that didn't seem to appreciate the assets they were about to squelch. It will be exciting to see the energy that Emanuel can bring, with the broad understanding he seems to have for improving the food system.

Meanwhile, San Antonio also is a partner in "Let's Move!" through the Mayor's Fitness Council and other initiatives. Many of Emanuel's proposals, like making Chicago bike friendly, echo current programs of Mayor Julian Castro. It would be doubly exciting if we could partner with Chicago, leverage the food-system initiatives in our own ways, and move ahead even faster.

One of the best things about the food policy movement is being able to connect with other communities, so that the wheel is not reinvented everywhere. We can adopt and adapt, because while every place is unique, we all face similar challenges in reclaiming our food systems.

Where did the month go?

I am just back from another TCOOPS (the Texas Conference On Organic Production Systems, hosted by the Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association) annual meeting. Lots to write about there. Later. Meanwhile, here is a link to what I posted about last year's conference.

Before I get to the 2011 conference, here are some of the things I had every intention of writing about this month, but didn't get to. (Caveat, if I'd captured the info as I went along, there would be more factual references. As it is, I'm mostly winging it.)

Chicago ordinance

From Chicago, there was a lot of discussion about a proposed ordinance that would have (a) recognized urban agriculture as a legal land use, and (b) created regulations contradicting some of its best pioneering operations and their practices. Here is a pretty thorough analysis of that.

While it's nice, I guess, that the City of Chicago wants to recognize UA's value, the proposed ordinance had some nutty provisions, like no off-site compost materials. Where is the stuff supposed to come from? Urban farms are a great place for recycling food waste from all sorts of establishments (green), and wood chips from brush removal and landscaping (brown). Green + brown + time = new dirt!

Another problem was a size restriction smaller than some existing farms, including some Growing Power operations. So those would be grandfathered, maybe? Great, but what about others that could be equally worthy in the future? What problem is the City trying to solve, exactly? If you are going to take up the issue at all, why take a restrictive stance? That's why we have to pay attention, and give knowledgeable and factual input when these things are brewing.

And apparently, enough people did. The Chicago Food Policy Advisory Council sent out an email on the 26th, the day before this was to have been voted on, that it is "deferred until further notice." They will be busy playing catch-up and educating their public officials. Developing the vision they want, fingers crossed. You can't tell your good stories often enough, to enough people.

GE Alfalfa

On the federal front, it was a huge disappointment to sustainable agriculture last week when Secretary Vilsack approved the planting of GE alfalfa, in contradiction to a massive public outcry and recent court decisions upholding objections to the proliferation of GMO crops. The new buzzword, hatched by the industry seeking to profit from flooding agriculture with GMO crops, is "coexistence." There are huge discussions going on about what to do next. I know it is not over. (GE=genetically engineered, GMO=genetically modified organisms. Mainly to tolerate the use of the herbicide Roundup. GE pollen can contaminate organic fields, for starters.)

Local food entrepreneur

In local news, there was a very nice Express-News article by Jennifer McInnis, about a St. Philip's graduate starting a food truck business after cooking for his grandmother's senior center and for other ailing relatives. Worth a read, if you missed it!

Food Policy Council

Finally, the San Antonio Food Policy Council had its fourth meeting this month. We heard a presentation from UTSA demographers about data for a community food assessment, and heard about an Austin food assessment. We also formed committees that will focus on areas like membership, policy research, and governance. You can comment here if you have input or questions for the council.

I know there was more. If I think of it, and it's still timely, I'll get it down.

Coming soon--TCOOPS report, including a Farm Bill listening session, Len Trevino of the SAFPC rocking a Food Justice panel, and opportunities to get involved in our TOFGA region's activities.

Tester-Hagan language incorporated into S.510

As reported yesterday by FARFA and Grist, Senator Tester reached an agreement with the authors of S.510, the Food Safety Modernization Act, to incorporate provisions of the Tester-Hagan amendment into the bill. It is still important to contact your Senators if you have not already done so. You can now urge passage of the bill because it contains the measures designed to protect small producers and direct sellers. It isn't perfect, but it's much, much better than it was.

Please read the FARFA and Grist links. Each has different and valuable information about why this is good, and about the fights that still lie ahead to get this into law.