“…That everyone will believe they are worth that.”

 

“It is a ridiculous business model,” Jennifer admits. “But we have pride in doing this accurately. No corners cut.”

The women are doing something right. At their last farm dinner, guests were shamelessly smuggling the handmade butter off the table into their purses. This budding success fills the trio with hard-won satisfaction. At the Mister Canteen truck, Anna gives impromptu baking tutorials about spelt to curious doughnut buyers. Misty breaks down the myths about lard. Jennifer shares tips for pasture-raised eggs and chickens.

“We talk all the time about how we are broke and poor, but we are rich in ways most people aren’t,” Anna says. “We have six gallons of milk every day. Four dozen eggs every morning. And we have purpose.”

Source: Back to the Land

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Against the Soda Tax | Jacobin

One of the most thought-provoking magazines on the newsstand gives an argument this month against soda taxes. The argument made here is both in how regressive taxes have been traditionally been spent in the US but also includes the unfair choices of what is being taxed:

While low-income people’s fizzy drinks are getting socked with taxes, most of the sugar-laden beverages favored by the upper middle-class and the rich are conspicuously exempt.

In Philadelphia, drinks that are at least 50 percent juice are excluded from the 1.5-cent-per-ounce fee. The bottled smoothies that line Whole Foods’s shelves? Tax-free, even when they contain more sugar than a Pepsi.

Beverages that are more than 50 percent milk are also exempt, a loophole big enough to drive a tanker truck full of venti white-chocolate mochas through.

Source: Against the Soda Tax | Jacobin

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Couple sues after town bans front-yard gardens

Richard Sarafan, attorney for Miami Shores, said the new zoning rule was not irrational and treated all homeowners the same: their front yards should be covered with grass, sod or a “living ground cover” not further defined. It’s no problem, he said, to have a vegetable garden in the backyard.

“There certainly is not fundamental right to grow vegetables in your front yard,” Sarafan said. “Aesthetics and uniformity are legitimate government purposes. Not every property can lawfully be used for every purpose.”

Source: Couple sues after town bans front-yard gardens

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The Market Place by The Peanut Butter Conspiracy

Sometimes I post songs on this blog that use markets are their setting. Some are lovely, some are evocative while others are a little silly. I’ll leave it to you to decide where this belongs.

Enjoy.

 

The Peanut Butter Conspiracy

Down in the marketplace, I have seen you many times my love
Standing there, you have looked so lovely to me
On seeing you, standing in that place my love
My heart like a candle on fire, melts inside my sigh
Shining on you, my eyes are burning like coals in me, my love
Quickly I see, that your thoughts are turning on to me
Feeling warmth I feel, the sun is shining down on me, my love
Soon, I know straight at me looking of thy
Eyes meeting eyes and we are looking at, We my love
Can turning us sigh, you sigh so mournfully
Using my eyes for eyes and casting them above my love
I notice, your father’s men are closing in on me.

Feelingly I take one last look at thy, my love.
Then burning and running and shouting and flailing the men with my fist
Screaming and aiming, your father’s men their guns my love
I’m over the wall they fired the first round and they miss
Away I go, today away, goodbye my love
It has been lovely but I’m too young to die
In the next city, I daze at a night, I will tell of your beauty my love,
And do you I know, do you? Some foolish young victim will fly
And do you I know, do you? Some foolish young victim will fly.

“Then burning and running and shouting and flailing the men with my fist”

Some crazy stuff happens at some markets.

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“Work” graphics

Funny graphics from Sarah Cooper from her site The Cooper Review.  Offered in good fun, as of course some meetings are actually productive!

 

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A decade after ‘The Omnivore’s Dilemma,’ Michael Pollan sees signs of hope

This new generation of young farmers is helping to build what amounts to an alternative food economy. That new economy is comprised of farms supplying local markets; farms employing organic and other sustainable methods; and farms raising animals outdoors, as well as producers of artisanal foodstuffs of all kinds and new distribution models such as the farm subscriptions known as CSAs, or community-supported agriculture. No one knows quite how large this new food economy is, but we do know it is growing much faster than the old one, which has stalled. Its rise is the direct result of consumers and producers working together to shorten the food chain in order to radically simplify the answer to the “Where does my food come from” question.

Source: A decade after ‘The Omnivore’s Dilemma,’ Michael Pollan sees signs of hope – The Washington Post

 

The New Food Economy also reconsiders TOD, 10 years after.

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Kansas Teaches Refugees The Business Of Farming To Help Them Rebuild Lives

On another note, Ellingsworth said the program had assisted many participants in finding land while others have bought their homes with the aid of their farming businesses. She added that one of the participants had recently sold nearly $900 worth of produce to a single restaurant which was a lot of money for the family especially during the winter months.

Apart from gaining valuable farming and business insight with the program, the participants also find companionship and form strong bonds with other members despite their differences in languages and ethnicity. Ellingsworth says that sometimes a farmer from Myanmar may become best friends with a farmer from Somalia, and they find a way to communicate with each other

 

Source: Kansas Teaches Refugees The Business Of Farming To Help Them Rebuild Lives – 60abc

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Hungry, Homeless and in College – The New York Times

How many markets are doing outreach to their community colleges?

According to a survey on economic insecurity among community college students released last year by the Wisconsin HOPE Lab, one in five students went hungry in the last 30 days due to lack of money and 13 percent were homeless in the last year, despite most of these students having financial aid and jobs.

More than 10.5 million students attend community colleges.

Source: Hungry, Homeless and in College

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Embrace Difference to Achieve Health Equity

Health equity is gaining prominence in public conversations about community well-being…

…Every community has its own culture and assets on which to build. These can direct efforts to achieve health equity by addressing the avoidable and unjust social, economic and environmental conditions that lead to health inequities. Active Living By Desig (ALBD) considers Community Context to include the residents, location, history, policies, systems and resources and the interplay of these factors. Those various factors have a unique influence on health in each community and must be understood and accounted for at every stage of the healthy community change process. This includes the selection of strategies and the order in which those strategies are implemented. To support this process, ALBD helps communities tailor their approaches using the Community Action Model as a guide through community change.

Source: Embrace Difference to Achieve Health Equity | Joanne Lee | LinkedIn

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Farmer Veteran Fellowship Fund Announces $320,000 in New Awards

The Farmer Veteran Fellowship Fund announced a record $320,000 in new awards this week. The awards, ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 went to 140 veterans who have already launched, but are still developing, their farm businesses. The grants are paid to third-party vendors on behalf of the veterans for things such as livestock, bee supplies.

Source: FARMER VETERAN COALITION

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“Juice wasn’t worth the squeeze”

So the story of the flameout of Dinner Lab is something to ponder. As a New Orleanian who watched it up close, I was mystified by what they were trying to sell; turns out, they were too. Even with 10 million bucks in venture capital available.
This type of badly managed tech “solution” often seems the food system equivalent of living in Tornado Alley: A high probability of sudden and uncoordinated disruptions with widespread destruction left behind. Of course, there are many excellent tech innovations that have also helped organizers too; just make sure that you investigate the goals, backers and the operation before encouraging farmers or markets to join up.

At each meal, Dinner Lab had guests provide detailed feedback on that night’s menu. The company thought it could make money off that data, but they learned there was no market for the information.

Since closing, Dinner Lab has ignored numerous messages from NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune about whether paid members would receive a refund.

Likely they will wait as long as the GoodEggs vendors waited for recompense for the orders they had prepared for delivery when that business closed without warning in mid week last August: forever.

Source: Dinner Lab autopsy: ‘Juice wasn’t worth the squeeze,’ CEO tells Forbes | NOLA.com

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