The Future of Farming: Oxfam Release and Olivier De Schutter's Address to Congress

Today Oxfam launched it's GROW campaign with a panel is Washington, D.C. with special guests Academy Award-nominated actor Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond, In America), UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Olivier De Schutter, bestselling author on world hunger and cofounder of The Small Planet Institute Frances Moore Lappé (Diet for a Small Planet is celebrating its 40th anniversary), Dr. Cheryl Smith, President of Trillium and immediate past Chair of the Social Investment Forum, and Oxfam America President Ray Offenheiser.


Click here to listen in: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/grow-campaign


Tomorrow De Schutter  will present the findings from his report on agroecology and the right to food to the US House of Representatives.

Needed: A New Conceptualization of Agriculture

It is a mistake to think of agriculture as simply about productivity. Agriculure provides employment and livelihoods, it underpins food quality, food safety and nutrition, and it allows food choices and cultural diversity. It is necessary for water quality, broader ecosystem health,  and even carbon sequestration. Agriculture must necessarily be integrated with the many needs of humans and ecosystems.

Spring Seedlings for Summer Sustenance: Planting Round #2 in Newark

Last Sunday the Tabernacle Garden in Newark planted their summer seedlings as a part of a day of celebration over the gardens initial success.  As a part of Newark's Interfaith Week the tabernacle opened it's doors to the neighboring community and invited them to share in celebrating the projects progress so far, as well as plans for expansion in the following year.  Rabbi Curtis Caldwell kicked off the event with a welcoming speech, inviting the entire community to join in both the planting and harvesting of the garden, as well as the larger vision of creating a community project to serve as a catalyst and centerpiece for rejuvenating the community.  

Following a short commemorative video, which highlighted the initial planting with local Peshine Avenue Preparatory and TEAM Charter schools, the Rabbi invited up partner institution Planting Seeds of Hope to introduce the broader project goals to the community.  Emilio Panasci, local planner and representative for PSOH and Open Communities, explain the current on-site collaboration between the local schools, government offices, urban agricultural institutions and the faith community as well as the desire to expand the current project through the development of a new community development corporation based around the urban agricultural project and it’s potential offshoots.  

This potential was fleshed out in a brief discussion of example projects across other regions led by Ms. Payne, the teams sustainability and agricultural development consultant, and highlighted the cohesive potential of urban agricultural institutions to promote integration of diverse populations around community gardening activities, the possibility of addressing local economic issues through agriculturally based business ventures, and the potential for the envisioned educational center to serve in promoting multiple urban justice goals: increasing food access and nutritional education, as well as enhancing local public space and creating a haven for civic action and community activism.  

In closing, Stephen Panasci, the group’s landscape architect debuted the proposed garden design to be phased in over the next year.  The plan included the expansion of the current raised beds, as well as the addition of an Urban Orchard and various learning areas.  

The brief overview and call for community collaboration was followed by a meal prepared by the in-house Chef, Shonda, and featured nutritious dishes based on the vegetables and herbs the tabernacle expects to harvest from their garden later this year.  Following the presentation, local children and parents were invited to participate in the spring seedling planting.  The children were given a hands-on opportunity to connect with locally grown foods as well as the opportunity to learn about the life-cycle of plants and some growing basics.  Community members were also invited to participate in funding the future of the project with a mini-seedling sale, which took place throughout the planting.

A preview of the seedlings to be planted

Preparing the new beds

Tomatoes for the summer community dinners

Staking out our peas and beans

Learning how to loosen the roots

Planting Marigolds to scare off pests

Companion planting with onions and eggplants

Water for our thirsty transfers

All this and more in a days work!

Why Buy Local?

A new Iconograph by eLocal lays out the triple bottom line on why consumers should buy local foods, looking at the social, economic and environmental impacts that a shift towards local buying would bring.

(Click to enlarge)

Source: eLocal.com

Growing Community In Newark: Ground Breaking Event

Sunday marked the groundbreaking event for the Tabernacle Garden in Newark, New Jersey.  A community building venture hosted by the Tabernacle, the Garden will be open to the entire community and will be based in a partnership with the local Team Academy and Peshine Schools.

Some of the participants, including Tabernacle and community members, Planting Seeds of Hope members and local students.

Students choosing what to plant and learning why we were planting it now.

Cleaning out the beds for planting.

Planting our herb borders (Dill, Parsley, Basil, and Cilantro!)

Getting our fingers dirty at a young age: Community Mini-Gardeners!

More to Come Soon!

A Moveable Feast - Green Carts and NYC

An Edible Schoolyard Grows in Brooklyn

Yesterday Historic P.S. 39 The Henry Bristow Landmark School in Park Slope, Brooklyn launched an innovative Edible Community Garden (ECG) pilot program. The program plans to integrate the garden into the school’s curriculum, food program, and the surrounding community and is based in an edible micro-garden, showcasing modern planting methods appropriate for urban challenges. 

The growing obesity epidemic across the US has highlighted the critical link between children’s health and nutrition, and improving school food has been recognized as one important area where cities can tackle the problem at a local level.  School gardens have been recognized as engaging, hands on solutions to this issue. With the stated goal of engaging students in all aspects of farm to fork activities from inception to harvest, the project hopes to foster curiosity and a desire to understanding where food comes from in the students and community, as well as encouraging healthy lifestyle choices, and teach them in a hands-on way what it means to be environmental stewards.  

Currently, outside of several well-publicized and intensively funded school garden initiatives, few examples exist in the US that can quickly and affordably enable communities to tackle nutritional and food justice issues right now.  The pilot project hopes to team P.S. 39 staff with parents and community members in order to build a showcase school garden that aims to become a template and inclusive model of urban micro-farming for schools, homes, and businesses across the country, all within a 6 month time period.

P.S. 39 ECG intends to implement a garden-based learning curriculum where scientific principles come to life. The edible garden will be used to engage students with hands-on learning experiences from ‘seed to plate’ throughout the growing seasons.  The elementary classes will study, plant, maintain, harvest and enjoy the edible plants through curriculum-tied activities, learning about scientific principals through hands on experience. 

The pilot program will be based in pioneering sub-irrigated micro-garden planter technology, ideal for urban environments. Sub-irrigated planter systems (SIPs), store water and oxygen below the potting mix and roots, conserving water and nutrients, and are therefore more accessible and environmentally friendly alternative to conventional gardens.   The beneficial closed loop system dramatically increases yields, and aboveground planter system is ideal for urban lots without open soil areas or with possibly contaminated soil.   Through the use of readily available recycled containers such as shipping pallets and soda bottles, SIP design makes ‘plots’ portable and easy to maintain, as well as, providing an economically efficient solutions for communities with limited resources

The Edible Community Garden Pilot Program represents an integral component of a larger district-wide movement to become a pilot district for wellness in the schools.  Other local schools are also growing food in school gardens, implementing salad bars and healthier menus in their cafeterias, reducing styrofoam and waste, integrating food choices into the curriculum, and helping families learn to cook healthier meals.

Hopefully this innovative project will prove inspirational to other schools in the New York area and beyond, but also show that these projects can be successful even with limited time, funding and experience, so that all communities see that enjoying the fruits of their labors is within their reach.