Street vendors are interviewed about their culture:
Food policy-stage center.
As the attendance at Community Food Security Coalition’s (CFSC) conference showed, the healthy/regional food movement is gaining maturity and strength.
Over 600 attendees from every part of the U.S. and Canada came together to discuss, to see Portland’s leadership and to network. (I can personally attest to the networking ability of regional food system people.)
The Coalition always manages lively face to face opportunities and backs it up with good leadership in the sessions themselves. Planners, public health professionals, farmers, market organizers, grassroots activists, city officials were all in attendance.
They also tried to use technology to get real time voting in the Friday plenary which had some bugs (Laurel MacMillan CFSC staff, was a trouper on stage with amazing aplomb and humor to keep it going and people engaged, paired with local leader/market trainer Suzanne Briggs up there with Laurel, typing madly) but since everyone was in good humor after a pleasant breakfast, all was fine by mid-morning.
From Vancouver’s Food Charter poster to the free pear savers (those spun their own debate) to the lively networking sessions (the South/Southeast session was almost drowned out by an insurance conference play acting in the next conference space but valiantly held their space) there was plenty to learn, see and hear. As we know the 2012 Farm Bill is the focus of every food system and CFSC did an admirable job capturing the breadth of issues on the table and tactics that will be needed. The draft of priorities outlined by CFSC included:
Defend and expand Community Food Projects and Farmers Market Promotion Program
Secure support for the infrastructure needed for local and regional food systems.
Increase access to federal nutrition programs participants to food system points of entry.
Work on urban-rural linkages across existing programs.
Require USDA to streamline SNAP redemption and technology.
Promote incentives for fruit and vegetable purchases for federal nutrition program participants.
Call for a USDA report and guidance document on how local government regulations can support access to healthy foods.
Incorporate more local product into DoD Fresh and USDA Foods.
Institutionalize the tracking and evaluation of Farm to School programs.
Of course, those were presented as draft priorities so that CFSC Policy Director Kathy Mulvey and Associate Policy Director Megan Lott can continue to evolve the platform based on the membership needs of CFSC. They were very active throughout the conference as they have been in the listening sessions they have held throughout the year.
As a board member of the Coalition, I was very proud of the program staff and the work done to make the conference happen. As always, Emily Becker our conference planner (and I am sure Aleta and Erika as support) hit another home run for the movement. Doubletree Hotel was a nice location with food sourced locally.
Subway map of food culture
Well this is interesting. Using a subway system, it shows chefs (and one or two activists) who are changing food at the present time and have influenced this current crop (Julia Child, Ruth Reichl). I can believe that this will stir some debate-for example, I know that the one New Orleans chef mentioned here John Besh is probably deserved, but I would say that Donald Link and Stephen Stryjewlski do too for Cochon, Herbsaint and Butcher. And if you are trying to get at the heart of it the local/simple ingredient movement in my city, then Jamie Shannon and/or Susan Spicer need to be mentioned. I am also not sure why Joel Salatin and Will Allen are the only 2 growers that I noticed in here.
Civil Eats talks about Food Policy
Messages from Food Policy Conference: From Neighborhood to Nation.
I love it when other people make my blogging job easier: here is a very good overview of the Portland conference from Jen Dalton, the editor of Local Eats about what she got out of the conference. Seems right to me…
Portland Food Policy Conference and Market visit
I’ll upload some content from the CFSC Food Policy Conference attendees later this week; it was a great conference with loads of good ideas flowing. I am sure CFSC will release some data from the sessions, especially from the voting session.
Portland hosted beautifully; the regional food community was gracious and inspiring.
– City 145.4 sq mi (376.5 km2)
– Land 134.3 sq mi (347.9 km2)
– Water 11.1 sq mi (28.6 km2)
Elevation 50 ft (15.2 m)
Population (2010)
– City 583,776
– Density 4,288.38/sq mi (1,655.31/km2)
– Metro 2,226,009
Seating at Portland Saturday Market
Portland Saturday Market display
CFSC Food Policy Conf-South/Southeast Networking Session
States in South/Southeast networking session at CFSC’s Food Policy Conf
Willamette River
Mkt Mgr tent-Portland
Display-Portland Mkt
Bamboo stand at Portland Market
Map of Portland Farmers Markets
Pink Umbrella-Portland vendor
Like many markets, Portland ensures they leave only memories for their hosts.
Map of flooding effect on farmland
The Mississippi delta and Cajun country of Louisiana are two areas where farmland will be affected quite significantly, but already some Missouri farmers have been flooded in order to save some populated areas. I would think the rural/urban divide is being tested with this crisis and once again, farmers markets may be one of the few bridges that help in the months ahead.
Certifications
The Chicago Green Market is adding a level of transparency to their markets. Starting this month, vendors will show their farm names, where they are located and what certification process they currently have passed. As many of you know, there is a wide selection of programs besides the USDA organic label that farmers can use. The Beyond Organic movement is growing, and it is quite possible that market vendors are more likely than industrial sector farmers to look for alternatives to organic; they have the ability to tell their own story to their shoppers which reduces the need for the complicated long work to get the USDA label.
And here are two points of view from the article that bolster my theory:
“GCM farm forager Dave Rand notes that it’s incredibly difficult, for example, to grow organic peaches in the Midwest because of pest and climate challenges. So a peach grower might opt for Food Alliance certification, which requires integrated pest management strategies that minimize pesticide use but allow it when necessary.”
“Three Sisters farmer Tracey Vowell said that she prefers the Certified Naturally Grown program because inspections are carried out by fellow farmers rather than certification inspectors. She finds this process fosters community and best-practices sharing rather than just requiring farmers to fill out paperwork.”
Calendar Intern needed
The National Young Farmers’ Coalition seeks a “Calendar Intern!”
They seek a “reliable, enthusiastic person to help fill the NYFC events calendar full of young farmer events, from coast-to-coast. It would require probably a few hours to start, and then no more than an hour a week after that. This is a super low-key and extremely helpful way to pitch in.”
Email lindsey@youngfarmers.org, if you’re interested.
Food Policy Conference
Although this post is unlikely to encourage you to register and attend the Community Food Security Coalition’s Food Policy conference at this very last minute, it might. And of course, it might just get you to the CFSC’s fall conference that will be held in Oakland CA this year.
In any case, if you are in driving or biking distance of Portland, do your best to attend and or to start to connect to your peers working on policy issues. Even if you simply download the workshop list and do your best to follow or reach out to the speakers and conveners at a later date, you’ll be doing your organization a world of good.
More data on social capital
As many of you know, the organization that I have been associated for the last 9 years, marketumbrella.org has been doing some very interesting data collection and measurement on markets in this area. Using trust as a proxy, NEED (Neighborhood Exchange Evaluation Device) has been measuring the quantity and quality of transactions and hopes to get an online tool (like the free SEED tool) up very soon.
When we started this project almost 4 years ago, only a handful of stakeholders understood why we were interested in this. Now of course, interest in bridging and bonding has grown exponentially, as has the interest in markets ability to manage that effort.
This article is another in a long line of studies of social cohesion, but is a good primer for anyone in your world who needs to understand how this can be seen as healthy behavior.
In a now-classic study of 6,928 adults living in Alameda County, Calif., conducted by Harvard researcher Lisa Berkman, PhD, and University of California, Berkeley, researcher S. Leonard Syme, PhD., people with few social ties were two to three times more likely to die of all causes than people with wider and closer relationships.
Food Stamp use soaring in these states
“Recent statistics from the USDA indicate that 14.2 percent of the U.S. population was using food stamps in February 2011, or around 44.2 million total, up from 33 million just two years before in 2009.”
Balle Conference
The New Economy is being shaped at the grassroots level. Connect, share and learn from 700 pioneering business owners and investors, elected officials, philanthropists, economic development professionals and BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies) network leaders as we spotlight the most innovative and entrepreneurial approaches to growing healthy, resilient local economies.
The conference will feature:
• 80 speakers
• 16 plenary sessions and off-site celebrations
• 24 interactive sessions
• 4 local living economy tours
• Living Economies Expo
• 3 pre-conference workshop intensives:
Accelerating Community Capital
How to Build a BALLE Network
Network Leaders Exchange
Proper procurement
One of my “go-to” organizations to learn from and to pass along ideas to others is the New Economics Institute which was formerly known as the E.F. Schumacher Society. The Society is housed on a hilltop in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, in the middle of one of the many land trusts that the society has helped build.
Taking labor, currency and land out of commodity thinking and practice is the fulcrum of their work and may I say they do it beautifully. Or to say it in a positive way, ” to promote the building of strong local economies that link people, land, and community.”
This audio is one of their excellent lectures and is something to listen to while typing, while sipping that morning coffee before diving into the pile of work. I say that after you read it, gift it to your local colleges and universities to hear on their own. In my mind, this is the way to tackle behavior changes everywhere- thinking about the responsibility of use of any and all resources in each small world. And, if you want to understand what a campus goes through to make changes, this might help you.
And if these ideas sound right, go procure a copy of ‘Small is Beautiful”, Schumacher’s landmark book. Then go back for many of their publications because I think, you might find they add to your perspective.
Carbon T.A.P. project
“So we ask the question of, ‘What if we can imagine the end of infrastructure as we’re designing infrastructure?”
Helping Farmers Markets Grow 
