Another excellent report by Ken Meter of Crossroads Resource Center:
Study calls for expanding the state's local produce economy – The Post and Courier.
Our Vermont Market Currency Report won a national design award, thanks to our amazing and patient designer Matt Hannigan, now working with GoodThree Design. I heartily recommend working with them on your next report.
Another fascinating statewide training program for markets is being developed, this time in West Virginia. Much excellent work seems to be going on there.
A commentary from yours truly on the food system found in my first hometown of Cleveland Ohio. Whenever I return to it, I am struck by the unusual underpinnings of their food work, being as it is deeply embedded within the community organizing/social justice strategy that is alive and well in many of their neighborhoods, as well as in the larger reality of figuring out what to do with their post-industrial inner core. Combine that with enthusiastic corporate greening, municipal support and the awareness of the need to combat the foreclosure crisis with innovative small business and residential reclamations and you get a dynamic little system coming to maturation there.
Better Eats for All | Belt Magazine | Dispatches From The Rust Belt.
Certainly, this article is talking more about how third parties help with prevention of crime but the very concept is highly adaptable to our work.The subject of rules and how they are established and maintained is an important topic in community food systems where so much is self-regulated. If we continue to advocate for “home rule” as it were, how do we embed the appropriate levels of control into these tiny volunteer-led markets and entrepreneurial food system projects? And beyond that, what levels of certification are truly necessary without killing innovation or democracy?
I think a big part of the answer is how well we understand the social ties that we have within each project and how they can be best utilized to maintain quality and openness.
Gelfand et al’s model says that having third party punishers in your neighborhood or workplace is dependent largely on “high average strength-of-ties and low mobility.” Or put more simply, knowing the people around you and not being likely to leave. The higher the strength of ties and the lower the mobility, the more third party punishment you’re likely to see. In these situations, Gelfand’s question (why are these people intervening?) has a logical answer: “Punishing responsibly fosters a culture of cooperation in the neighborhood, by signaling that defection is not tolerated.”
So what happens if we have low strength of ties and high mobility, which is sometimes the case in melting-pot cities such as D.C.? In highly transient communities where few people know their neighbors, third party punishers are far and few between. “It’s really difficult for responsible third party punishers unless there’s a few of them around a neighborhood,” Patrick Roos says. For those of you who consider yourselves white knights, this also means that “a single third party punisher is unlikely to remain one for a very long time.” (Unless that third party is, say, Jackie Chan’s character from Rumble in the Bronx.)
Why Some Communities Police Themselves, While Others Don't – Mike Riggs – The Atlantic Cities.
A Central City grocery store that received a low-interest loan under a city-funded program to bring fresh foods to under-served neighborhoods has been closed and placed on the market.
Owner Doug Kariker said the store was too much work. “I can’t do it anymore,” he said. The store was not profitable, he said, “but in our business plan, we didn’t expect it to be” in the first year.
First recipient of Fresh Food Retail Initiative closes, puts store on market | The Lens.
Article 89 of the zoning code will create clarity and predictability for anyone interested in growing commercial food and creating farms in Boston. The development of Article 89 was made possible through the exploration of six research modules which were studied and discussed in depth throughout 2012 during monthly public Working Group meetings:
Soil safety, pesticides and fertilizers, and composting
Growing of produce and accessory structures
Rooftop and vertical agriculture
Hydroponics and aquaculture
Keeping of animals and bees
Farmers markets, winter markets, farm stands, and sales
The existing Boston zoning code does not address many types of agricultural activities. If an activity is not identified, it is considered a forbidden use and requires an appeal process through the City’s Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA). Article 89 will identify urban agricultural activities to improve Boston’s direct access to locally produced fresh food.
Why Urban Agriculture is Good for Boston:
Community based farms can bring people together, increasing cooperation, collaboration, and neighborhood building.
Urban agriculture improves access to affordable, fresh, and healthy food.
Urban farming provides an opportunity for Bostonians to learn how to grow food and empowers entrepreneurs to operate a farm right in the City.
Local farming can be an effective tool for empowering youth by teaching young people how to grow food and run a business.
Urban farming teaches us about using land wisely, which helps us grow our neighborhoods and communities in a positive and healthy way.
Farming in the city is good for the environment because it can reduce transportation costs and carbon emissions on the buyer and grower’s end.
Urban farming is a great way to get Bostonians excited about sustainability and “greenovation,” so that we can make this a cleaner, healthier city.
Urban Agriculture – Article 89 Quick Facts_tcm3-38477
Although this story from Madison is a bit sobering (and was probably meant to be an alarming title by the writer, good work there Lindsay), it is also a well-reported one about the issues that we currently face in the hard work of encouraging benefit dollars to be spent on healthy food with farmers at markets. Clearly, by working closely with municipal partners these excellent markets have already begun to build deep understanding and support among those officials. We are still searching for an answer (or answers) to the costs and time needed to administer these programs, but there is no doubt that the success in attracting low-income shoppers has impressed our potential partners. I believe these programs will be rewarded in the long run with sustainable funding or with cooperative administration for managing the financials and outreach pieces if we keep telling our story in as many ways as we can.
What seems clear to me is that markets cannot continue to knock on doors for small amounts every season to fund these programs, but must instead find income streams that will maintain these programs over years. That work must happen even as we band together to fight for better technology and back office systems on a regional and national level. We can do both of those things if we collect and share data (good and bad) and talk often to each other about these issues.
The city has expressed significant support for EBT at farmers’ markets as well. In August through October of this year, grants from several local hospitals made $8,000 available in “MadMarket Double Dollars” at four smaller markets on the north side, the Eastside market at the Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center and two on the south side. For every $1 in Quest benefits, the user got another $1 from the grant.
City officials want to expand that program.
“We saw incredible growth of SNAP use at those (smaller) markets,” said Mark Woulf, the city’s alcohol and food policy coordinator. “That’s something we don’t want to lose. … Hopefully we can work through a solution.”
Woulf said financial support of the DCFM’s FoodShare program would require City Council approval, but it “would be on the table.” He conducted some of the follow-up surveys after the Double Dollars pilot program and was encouraged by what he heard.
“The Eastside market did something unprompted, which was give us a break down of (SNAP use at) individual vendors,” Woulf said. “I was impressed by how well spread out it was.”
So for food system organizers this idea may be seen best through the lens of using civic engagement (activities and education) to encourage deeper changes than will occur in just one visit to the market or in one school trip to a community garden.
In short: if you’re trying to change behavior or beliefs – your own, or other people’s – don’t assume that the most direct, vigorous or effortful route is necessarily the most effective one. The human mind is much, much more perverse and annoying than that.
This is one of my favorite books-and is a great one to share with those yet unfamiliar with the issues of GMOs and why less variety in the stores is bad-but I always feel like my description of it to others is wanting. Today, I read Linda Ronstadt’s USAToday review of her favorite books to give for gifts and finally, I have a good 30 second description to share for this book:
The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan: Four essays about plants’ ability to domesticate humans based on our desires for sweetness, beauty, intoxication and control of the food supply. Thought-provoking and at times hilarious, this book is so enjoyable that when I finished it, I turned back to the first page and read it straight through a second time.
Thanks to new NYC friends Anna and Manuel of Zago for sending this. Whenever I see an article on mobile markets, a few questions immediately come to mind, here are some in no particular order:
• How can people use these initiatives to leverage good food coming into their area more regularly? Has there been an example of a mobile truck initiative that led to food security? It would seem to me that if paired with some other food and social initiatives either in concert or in succession, this might be a powerful tool.
• Has anyone figured out a good business model yet? I believe that there is one out there, yes have not read of it yet.
Possibly using it as a simultaneous delivery mechanism for middle or upper income food orders might help offset the costs.
Or maybe mobile trucks can be a meal service that offers healthy food also as healthy prepared meals sent out just before and during non-traditional meal times (for those working people with typically odd work schedules) at low prices, along with some information. Sort of a combination of the food truck with the mobile market.
Or one of those ideas on our “someday” list at my last organization in New Orleans-to create a “useful” mobile market with non-food items like paper products, juice, simple hardware items etc along with those food items.
• Along those lines, is this type of thing best used as a temporal idea that to begin to promote good food and to gather initial data to then get the area to the next more permanent idea or is there a long term strategy as to their use?
• Finally, when farmers sell to these outlets, does it increase their reach or decrease it? In other words, have farmers begun to grow or make products just for these endeavors or are they taking products from other outlets? And if they have added this to their sales reach, is it financially viable for them to do so? And from the standpoint of the organizers, are many of these using their very mobility to share gleaned or seconds from those market farmers that these mobile trucks can reach easily and in some quantity on market day?
or as Manuel eloquently wrote in the conversation we had via email around this topic:
One of the biggest challenges for me when thinking about scale and community, especially when thinking about underserved urban populations, is the problem of density and offerings. The smaller and more challenged the environment the more difficult is to build volume, presence and relevance.
YES.
I look forward to the continuing conversation around this idea and connecting these initiatives to market organizations whenever applicable.
Better Health for Food Deserts: Are Mobile Farmers Markets the Answer? | Health on GOOD.
Feel free to read the details of the press release closely and notice how the deal is trumpeted as a way to cut costs for the companies involved and nothing about their “product” quality.
“Restaurants and other customers tend to want more than one supplier, and Mr. Delaney acknowledged that the merger could cause customers who use both Sysco and US Foods to go elsewhere for some of their products. “In our model, we have factored in that risk,” Mr. Delaney said. “We have been a little more conservative on our sales growth for the first couple years…but we are going to do everything we can to minimize customer flight.”
And this of course:
Sysco estimates the combined company will have about 25% of the U.S. food distribution market, up from about 18% now for Sysco alone.
I have been thinking we need a weekly radio call in radio show for farmers and shoppers and organizers to discuss food and farming just as we often do at farmers markets locally.
Maybe it should be on AM radio?
“… AM, which is simpler and cheaper, is of special value to minority broadcasters. No less important, it really comes into its own during an emergency. Ice storms, tornadoes and hurricanes can knock out power and mobile networks, but not battery-operated radios. AM signals travel further too, enabling a greater number of people to keep in touch. Most importantly of all, the AM industry has one supporter that really matters – the FCC, the federal agency that regulates radio, television and cable.
Last month, the FCC published various proposals to revitalise AM radio. They include looser limits on transmitter power at night and an end to regulations that made it difficult to install new equipment. AM stations will also be allowed to use spare slots on the FM spectrum to boost reception in urban areas. If they work, every devotee of driving around America will raise his voice in thanks.
Turning up the voice of America – Comment – Voices – The Independent.
I was just at their 2-day workshop (in lovely Pittsburgh-really!) and learned a great deal about human-centered design options. That group of concepts is uniquely equipped to help food system organizers with their short and long-term planning and if you have no way to raise the money to get to their workshop, I would still encourage you to look at their resources (their book is very useful) and purchase those to help you implement new collaborative ways to design your best world.
Helping Farmers Markets Grow 