The McDonald’s restaurant on South Claiborne Avenue in New Orleans is utilizing a token system for customers who need to use the latrine….
The bathroom door now has a token meter for which customers will have to request to use the facilities. The token is free upon request.
You know, maybe I’m thick-headed; how is giving a token out to use their bathroom going to reduce trash or encourage good behavior?
What a treat to go along with this writer for her farmers market trip in Tokyo. Her purchases alone are worth the peek:
What we bought:
Ginger syrup kit from Tokaji Farm
White, brown, and black rice from Shigeyuki Kanai
Mochi, rice flour, and genmai meal from Kaya no Sato
Carrot jam from Tanno Farm
Edamame from Sanosuke Farm joined gifts of sweet potatoes and togarashi
Akagawa Amaguri winter squash from Kosaka Nouen
Her descriptions of the samples and products available are lively and show you the vendors pride in offering lovely offerings of basic human needs.
Just take a look at how eggs are displayed as if jewelry:
Eggs displayed at the Roppongi Market, Tokyo
Japanese market
Someday, I’d like to see it for myself.
Floods, drought and other nasty weather have made all of Louisiana — and 27 adjacent counties in Mississippi, Arkansas and Texas — an agricultural disaster area for 2011. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says its declaration is based on combined effects of severe storms, tornadoes, severe spring flooding, Tropical Storm Lee, widespread drought and excessive heat since Jan. 1.
“Mr. Kim, who witnessed mass starvation in Cambodia, losing a brother, refers to his two-acre plot as “my plenty.” His fellow farmer Sinikiwe Makarutsa grew up in Zimbabwe and now grows maize on land rented from a local church. She made enough money to buy a tractor and rototiller.”
Watch the video and sign up to support the project:
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Australian farmers, Garry Stephenson Coordinator of the Small Farms Program at Oregon State University, Stacy Miller, Farmers Market Coalition Executive Director and Jane Adams, the Australian farmers market organization founder talk about the growth of farmers markets in both countries. The market movement in Australia has grown in their first 10 years to 150 markets nationwide and this interview examines the growth concerns in both countries. Jane Adams speaks well on the criteria Aussie markets employ and being able to “buy dinner” and on the size of the markets versus diversity of products. Australian organizers will be in the U.S. at the end of the month to share their lessons and will attend the Community Food Security Coalition conference November 5-8 in Oakland CA.
(For subscribers of the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development and/or as a member of AgDevONLINE):
The local food movement is growing dramatically, and with it is emerging new lingo and jargon. The Food System Wiki — a collaboration of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Wisconsin Madison and the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development — is designed as a user-friendly and evolving repository of food system lexicon. This is a place where you can contribute new words and definitions, show how the terms are used, and fine-tune those of existing words.
There are several dozen agripedians contributing currently to the Food System Wiki. We would like to see greater participation from nutritionists, community development professionals, Extension agents, faculty, students, public officials, agency representatives, and, of course, farmers and food entrepreneurs.
Please join in the project! SIGNING UP to use the Food System Wiki is easy. After approval, follow the simple instructions to get started. Start by being a member of JAFSCD:
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The Smart Set: Things Aren’t Grrrrreat! – June 16, 2011.
HMMM, breakfast cereals (or RTE Ready To Eat cereals in industry parlance) are fading. Is this because there are alternatives or because they are more expensive? In any case, consumer behavior takes a slow turn…
Another way we can use the mechanism of markets to encourage food system changes. A student group in Hammond Louisiana called Reconnect will be hosting a one day farmers market at their Southeastern Louisiana University campus to encourage Aramark to consider buying directly from farmers for the campus. This one day market can begin a multitude of conversations around farming, food, small business growth and smart planning.
One day farmers market at Southeastern Louisiana University to be held on October 24th.
The Colorado cantaloupe crop that’s linked to 84 illnesses and as many as 17 deaths in 19 states has traveled so far and wide that producer Jensen Farms doesn’t even know exactly where their fruit ended up.
The company said last week that it can’t provide a list of retailers that sold the tainted fruit because the melons were sold and resold. It named the 28 states where the fruit was shipped, but people in other states have reported getting sick.
Seems to me that this story (and the organic strawberry story below) point to an uncomfortable truth in our work: We ALSO need to seriously address food safety in every market, in every town so that the chances of any food scare in our system is minimized. We can do it and we should do it.
Mother Jones has an article about how organic strawberries can come from plants that are not organically started. I insert two of the comments here, one that expounds our point of view, and one that does not:
That’s why farmers’ markets are getting so popular. More and more people want to know where their food is coming from. They don’t want to get sick from nasty bacteria or chemicals. The local market where we shop is busy every week, and the growers accept WIC, SNAP, and Senior Nutrition coupons (thus belying the popular right-wing myth that only rich yuppies go to farmers’ markets.)
Yesterday 03:40 PM in reply to
beware … the farmer’s markets AND roadside stands … ask the question … they are often owned by the BIG scale producers … being in a farmer’s market / road side stand … DOES NOT make it organic.
otherwise … yes … buy local … join the best local COOP or Food Share.
Hopefully, our friends in CA farmers markets have their conversational ear ready for this sort of question at their markets. Do you?
Let’s remember that its our job to spread the environmental message of good farming.
Helping Farmers Markets Grow 