Author: D.W.

Mushrooming diapers (or diapering mushrooms?)

Allowing mushroom vendors in markets can be more complicated than it seems to outsiders. Since many mushroom vendors forage their product (which in turn means markets cannot inspect their sites) markets have to be creative while they practice what they preach (producers only rules!) The growing practice in this article may address although it seems to increase the need for production of diapers!


“Oyster mushrooms, Pleurotus ostreatus, can devour 90 percent of a disposable diaper within two months, observed Alethia Vázquez-Morillas of the Autonomous Metropolitan University in Mexico City in the journal Waste Management. (1) What’s more, the mushrooms grown on diapers are edible. Vázquez-Morillas has dined upon them herself.”
Conservation Magazine

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FMC to Partner with University of Virginia on Interdisciplinary Course on Researching Farmers Markets

FMC story

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Whole wheat pizza – well it’s a start..

Students to see healthier school lunches under new USDA rules.

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Empathy for Entrepreneurs

I think it’s important that market managers remember what sole proprietors/entrepreneurs go through to open (or open and close, open and close, open and close in this case) their business. Markets can take some of the edge and lonely learning curve time away from some of these folks, or at least invite them in for a spell to find some inspiration or camaraderie.
I admire these folks in a different way but just as much as that farmer with the gorgeous hothouse tomatoes- they’re both a little nuts and a lot dedicated to the health of their community, whether social or nutritional.

J’anita’s

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KSU Research and Extension 2012 plan

Kansas State University Research and Extension

Fascinating to see the body of work that Kansas Extension has for 2012. Targets like food security, childhood obesity, climate change. An ambitious and inclusive plan that other states should emulate.

  The planning process for KState Research and Extension continues to be ongoing.
Within our seven planned programs, the plan currently includes seven strategic opportunities.
Those opportunities are as follows: Sustain Profitable Agricultural Production Systems;
Prepare People in Kansas to Thrive in a Global Society and All Aspects of Life; Ensure an
Abundant and Safe Food Supply for All; Enhance Effective Decision-making Regarding
Environmental Stewardship; Identify Pathways for Efficient and Sustainable Energy Use, Assist
Communities in Becoming Sustainable and Resilient to the Uncertainties of Economics,
Weather, Health, and Security; and Create Opportunities and Support People in Kansas to
Improve Their Physical, Mental, and Emotional Health and Well-Being. 
K-State Research & Extension files a combined research and extension plan of work with the United States Department of Agriculture. The new 2012-2016 plan lists the seven planned programs that will utilize the work of 422 extension and 266 research employees. Within each planned program, there are specific knowledge areas that define the work, states the number of research and extension personnel for that planned program and lists the percentages of time given by research and extension employees on these knowledge areas. The 2010 plan of work had four planned programs while the 2012-2016 plan has seven planned programs: Global Food Security and Hunger; Food Safety; Natural Resources and Management; Childhood Obesity and Nutrition through the Lifespan; Healthy Communities: Youth, Adults, and Families; Sustainable Energy; and Climate Change. ‘We cannot be everything to everyone; therefore, we have to focus on serving the highest priorities.’ (2012 Plan – page 1)

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FMC Price Comparison Webinar – February 7

Tuesday February 7 at 2 pm EST.
In this webinar, farmer and community and economic development specialist Anthony Flaccavento of Rural SCALE, Inc. will discuss his recent price comparisons between farmers markets and grocery stores in six states, and offer advice on how this data can be part of efforts to reinforce markets’ commitment to equity and affordability.

FMC registration

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Community markets innovating in Central Brooklyn

Am in Central Brooklyn, working with 6 great community organizations who run markets. All 6 are creating innovative projects through their market, such as senior mixed baskets, rooftop gardens, night markets, food pantries and more. They use their market as their welcome wagon and as their laboratory for all of their ideas.
Inspiring to see what low-capital, high-energy activists can do with just a little bit of encouragement and entrepreneurial drive.

If you get to NYC, take the trip to Bed Stuy to see what is going on and share some ideas of your own with these wonderful organizations:

East New York Farms
Brooklyn Rescue Mission
Hattie Catharn Community Garden
Cypress Hills Youthmarket
Brownsville Farmers Market
Bushwick Farmers Market

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Queens isn’t done yet

I look forward to hearing a response from Greenmarket about the post at the bottom, especially as I know the Greeenmarket Director lives in Queens, and is truly committed to expanding the good food revolution to every part of the city.

My response would be that,yes California is unique in so many ways, including the amount of year-round produce available. Also, there are food deserts everywhere, including California and farmers markets often stand alone in combating those with healthy food. We need others in the fight, those shops and resellers who pay a fair price for farmers goods, and understand how produce should be displayed and sold properly. This takes time and patience and I hope that every time there is a farmer selling produce that is useful for her daughter, she takes the time to be an early adapter, so that one day, Queens will be a farm paradise.
Link to story

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Viva Farmers

Viva Farms tries to help new farmers overcome the many technical and financial barriers they face.

“There are five things every start-up farmer needs,” Mrs. Schaffer says. These include education in farm management, access to land, equipment (like tractors) and infrastructure (like irrigation and cold storage), start-up capital, and marketing and distribution support.
Viva Farms

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CFSC Policy newsletter

The best policy newsletter on food policy-and I’m not just saying that because I’m on their board!
It’s really worth a subscription.
CFSC

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Our season of sharing really starts now

For those deep in the market world, the year tends to go in patterns. Starting with workshops and meetings in the winter and early spring, we then gear up for the late spring season at market, then work madly throughout the summer, and end the year writing reports and attending to administrative needs.
Whether the market is year-round or your region has seasonal markets, it makes it hard to find the time to gain or share knowledge past those we see regularly at market.
As we start our workshop/conference season, I for one am looking forward to the Southern SAWG conference in Little Rock, AK. SSAWG functions as a regional entity, working with and through hundreds of associated organizations across 13 southern states. By building partnerships, sharing information and conducting analysis, they transform isolated ideas and innovations into practical tools and approaches for widespread use.

I have presented at past SSAWG conferences and am always energized by the farmer bustle and the very detailed assistance that is available to organizers across the South from this organization. We don’t have many large organizations down here, so we value each one we get!

There is still time to register for SSAWG; the information gained would be useful even if you are not a Southern farmer or food organizer. And if Little Rock is not possible for you to visit this year, at least sign up for their Newsletter.

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A Disciplined Approach to Evaluating Ideas – Scott Anthony – Harvard Business Review

An extremely useful article for the market world. Evaluation techniques should represent what is doable in a particular field while it asks people to stretch their imagination and analytical skills. Stepped evaluation (or as it is called in the article, “Stage-gate process”) for markets really is the best idea. marketumbrella.org’s 4M worksheets use that idea, and I know they have more coming along those lines in 2012…

to see the 4M sheet, go to marketumbrella.org and then log in to the marketshare project. View it under Shares.

A Disciplined Approach to Evaluating Ideas – Scott Anthony – Harvard Business Review.

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extreme weather

This may cross farmers and market organizers minds at times, but in my experience few have prepared for the possibility of having interruption in the food system. Being a New Orleanian, I have personally experienced it twice, with the 2005 levee breaks and then the BP oil spill. Even after restarting the food system twice, we still have no master plan for another crisis, although a few organizations like marketumbrella.org have some systems in place.
If we are having such a difficult time, I can imagine what those regions who have not seen a crisis in the past 30 years have done in preparation! Do they have a back up plan for contacting farmers and producers when the internet and main phones are out? Do they know what their community foundations have planned? Is there any emergency funds built for food system people? Who are the state and regional government leaders they need to know?
Watching the informal sisterhood of food NGOs in Vermont recover from Irene has shown me what collaboration can do within a single political entity. However, I have heard little about what the multi-state approach has been to that same disaster.

Extreme weather is happening in more states and in more ways with the global weather instability that our carbon emissions have brought. What then is YOUR plan in YOUR region? Who are your key players? What is the sequence of events that will unfold if (or can I say) WHEN it happens in your food system?

Top 10 extreme weather events by state

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