food policy

North American Urban Agricultural Survey

We are very excited to invite you to participate in a Portland State University survey of organizations and businesses across the US and Canada involved in urban agriculture projects.

Urban agriculture is growing rapidly throughout North America, and we are interested to learn about the experiences of the organizations involved, as well as any obstacles they face. Municipalities have begun to craft new policies and regulations related to urban agriculture, and we hope that the information obtained from this study will help guide city planners and policymakers as they develop policies and programs that effectively meet the needs of practitioners.

This survey is intended for organizations and businesses, big or small, formal or informal, that are engaged in urban agriculture on any scale. The survey should take about 20 minutes to complete. Feel free to email us (urbanagsurvey@pdx.edu) or call Nathan McClintock at 503-725-4064 if you have any questions about the study.

We appreciate your time and interest. We’d also be grateful if you could forward this widely to your urban agriculture networks throughout the US and Canada – we know that there are many exciting urban agriculture initiatives that do not have a web presence, and we would like to hear from all the organizations that are doing this great work. Apologies in advance for cross-postings.

Follow this link to the Survey:
http://survey.qualtrics.com/WRQualtricsSurveyEngine/?SID=SV_9TOXJEPPQKIUSqx&_=1

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Back to Burlington

The late winter and spring are mad times for a farmers market consultant. The numbers of workshops and conferences has doubled or tripled in the last few years and every year since 2005 or so, I have been honored to be asked to present at 4 to 10 state or national convenings. I very much appreciate the opportunity to work with many market and market advocates at one time and to hear about new ideas and to meet some of those names I read from reports and posts on listserves.
In January, I spoke at NOFA-VT’s Direct Marketing Conference for the second year and I must say it’s a favorite of mine-a great mix of market organizers, farmers and agencies. Very focused and well attended. NOFA does an extremely professional job putting this on without showing the blood, sweat and maybe even tears, but knowing them its probably blood, sweat and laughs…
Part of why I went there was to conduct interviews with farmers and market operators to ensure their point of view is included within the state feasibility report that I am doing for NOFA and VAAFM (Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets) on their EBT, WIC, FMNP systems and what steps it would take to build a comprehensive and universal system for their markets. (And no, I don’t ski or participate in winter sports so outdoor fun doesn’t factor in….)
Unfortunately, my schedule, vendors winter flu and other issues prevented me from getting enough interviews, so I decided to come back and to buttonhole some more folks at the other conference I have heard about from many Vermonters-NOFA’s Winter Conference. Workshops, TED talks, a multitude of different points of views from producers to “eaters” and a seed swap among many other things.
If you’re nearby and can make it, you might want to register and check it out for yourself. If you’re further away, you might want to download their brochure and put one on in your town.

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Erin O’Donnell: The Food Movement in 2012.

These end of the year pieces can be interesting and yet disheartening too. This one seems to have a social justice lens and as such, it may be slightly more focused on winning policy changes in the industrial ag sector over actual alternative system wins in 2012. However, I agree with most of her top 5.

Erin O'Donnell: The Food Movement in 2012: Our Top 5 Learnings.

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34 States Shut out of Organic Farm Program by Congress and White House – NSAC

This is the kind of action alert that farmers and ranchers miss when there is no substantial statewide sustainable agricultural organization on which to rely. Again, to take it back to the market organizations-how can we help build the advocacy organizations for our farmers so they have access to programs to grow a better earth?

34 States Shut out of Organic Farm Program by Congress and White House – NSAC.

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SNAP Redemptions at Farmers Markets Exceed $11 Million in 2011

Last year, I posted the original graph that FMC and CFSC created to show food stamp (SNAP) redemption at markets since the 1990s.
This is the most updated published graph:

Farmers Market Coalition» Blog Archive » SNAP Redemptions at Farmers Markets Exceed $11 Million in 2011.

By the way, 2012 redemption was over 16 million. FMC will have an updated story this week or next.
Great job folks.

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FMC Submits Recommendations to the USDA

Today, the Farmers Market Coalition (FMC) submitted recommendations to the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service regarding their collection of data about farmers markets. These recommendations were developed in response to a request for comments on proposed revisions to USDA’s National Farmers Market Manager Questionnaire. Changes proposed by USDA include the addition of on-farm markets and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) operations to their annual information collection.

The USDA Farmers Market Directory offers the only comprehensive census of farmers markets currently available. In the letter, FMC supports efforts to maximize its accuracy, reduce market manager burden, and systematically improve the collective understanding of farmers market characteristics as well as those of on-farm markets and farm subscription programs like CSAs. We support elimination of the lengthy Farmers Market Manager Survey (currently conducted every four years, with a two+ year analysis/publication window) in favor of a more concise, timely, efficient annual data collection process.

We invite you to read FMC’s recommendations on our website, here where you’ll find a link to the letter submitted earlier today. As FMC President Bernie Prince points out in the letter, “market manager participation is crucial to ensure accuracy, and communication to the respondent population must be clear, consistent, and offer sufficient response windows.” We support annual data collection, coupled with the Farmers Market Directory update, that focuses only on a small set of questions clustered around an annual research theme. This theme should be identified in collaboration with other agencies and organizations (like FMC) each year and actively communicated to farmers markets well in advance. FMC pledges its continued efforts to help farmers markets engage in regular measurement and communication of their impacts.

As you prepare for a stellar 2013 season, what priorities do you think USDA should focus on in their national research efforts? We urge you to make your thoughts heard before the January 4th comment deadline. Please read FMC’s recommendations and consider endorsing them on behalf of your organization or yourself as an individual. Simply visit the regulations(dot)gov online form (here). In the Comment box, type “As a member of the Farmers Market Coalition (FMC), I endorse the recommendations submitted by FMC on January 2nd.” Of course, please add any additional suggestions you have for the agency as it relates to the collection of information about farmers markets, on-farm markets, and CSA operations. The deadline to submit comments is this Friday, January 4, 2013.

Happy New Year, and thanks for your ongoing support for stronger farmers markets!

Sincerely,

Your friends at FMC

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History of Food Stamp Usage at Markets

I often refer to the 2010 report “Real Food, Real Choice: Connecting SNAP Recipients With Farmers Markets” that was done by CFSC and FMC. The page that I refer most to is this one, so thought I’d post it here.

20121213-111403.jpg

Link to the entire report

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A Conversation with Michel Nischan

This is a good overview of the work Wholesome Wave does and how it came to be. Their impact is certainly being felt and the partnerships that they have created with markets and market networks are crucial to the goal of building the community food system.

A Conversation with Michel Nischan.

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Growing gardens

I am fascinated by the evolving role of urban ag in the community food system movement. It certainly has changed since its splashy beginnings in the 1980s and 1990s but what this story in the Sunday’s NYT points out is what I have also noticed: the belief that a large number of urban citizens want to grow their own food – and grow it every year – is not proven. I think the successful versions found anywhere are to scale and appropriate for the climate and demographic nearby. This might mean gardeners have a fallow season or maybe even a full year to recover and plan for the next planting or use their land for fruit trees. Here in New Orleans, we have a year-round growing culture with the most brutal weather in the summer: therefore, the idea of cover crops and soil solarization should be encouraged during June-September which gives people time to think and prepare for the fall planting.

The article quotes John Ameroso, who they interestingly call the “Johnny Appleseed of NY gardens” as someone who has that evolving view, he:

espouses more of what he calls an “urban agriculture” model: a food garden with a dedicated farmers’ market or a C.S.A. These amenities make stakeholders out of neighbors who may not like dirt under their nails and rural farmers who drive in every weekend.

“The urban-agriculture ones are flourishing,” he said. “There’s a lot of excitement. They’re active eight days a week.” But “community gardens, as such, where people come in to take care of their own boxes — those are not flourishing.”

It’s almost a cliché to point out that this new green model seems to have attracted tillers with a different skin tone. “Back then,” Mr. Ameroso said of his earlier career, “when we worked in Bronx or Bed-Stuy, it was mostly communities of color. Now when we talk about the urban agriculture stuff, it’s white people in their 30s.”

Production is the purpose of commercial agriculture and even for a community garden, it should be the goal. That production could be for a single home, or for donation or for income, but in every case a plan to produce food or plants should be required each year for every community garden space.

NYT growing growers

 

Here is a link to the excellent 5 Boroughs work to outline inclusive evaluation and strategic planning for projects.

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