Rodale - Organic Price Reporter

By Luci Beachdell | Friday, November 20, 2009, 11:39 AM

The Rodale Institute has just released an online organic price reporter. Whether you’re a grower or a buyer, you can visit the site, and check to see the cost of organic versus conventional in several different cities. It’s really more for the grower than the buyer - prices are in bulk (like I’m just not going to buy 40 pounds of onions at one time:) But still interesting.

I tried this out - first looking at one crop, one market, but quickly realized that the easiest way to do this is to look at one product, all markets. And I couldn’t get meat prices to come up in any markets. Keep in mind that Rodale set their organic prices based on information they got from distributors, handlers and grain elevators, and their conventional prices from a division of the United States Department of Agriculture.

Hopefully, they’ll get meat prices up there soon. And it would be really cool to see another column with farmer’s market prices.

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Environmental Justice Grant Funding

By Luci Beachdell | Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 08:04 AM

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 4, 2009

EPA Soliciting Applications for Environmental Justice Grant Funding

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is accepting grant applications for a total of $1 million in funding for projects aimed at addressing environmental and public health issues in communities. EPA expects to award approximately 40 grants of up to $25,000 each and will accept applications until January 8, 2010. Local governments and non-profit organizations are eligible to apply.

The goals of the Environmental Justice Grant Funding Program are to help communities understand and address environmental challenges and create self-sustaining, community-based partnerships focused on improving human health and the environment. Past projects have focused on issues including exposure to toxins, farm worker pesticide protection, mercury in fish, indoor air quality, drinking water contamination, and pollution from shipping ports.

In addition to the traditional criteria, EPA is encouraging applications that address the disproportionate impacts of climate change in communities by emphasizing climate equity, energy efficiency, renewable energy, local green economy, and green jobs capacity building.

Since 1994, EPA has provided more than $32 million in general funding to more than 1,100 community-based organizations.

For information on eligibility and application materials, click here.

CONTACT:
Deb Berlin
berlin.deb@epa.gov
202-564-4914
202-564-4355

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Ohio Local Foods Round Table

By Luci Beachdell | Monday, November 16, 2009, 11:52 AM

Last Thursday, I went to Reynoldsburg where the Ohio Department of Agriculture sponsored a Local Foods Round Table. More than 100 other people engaged in the local foods movement also attended. I went to the following sessions: Innovative Local Food Distribution, the Urban Food Desert Assessment discussion, Engaging Economic Development in Local Food & Agriculture, and listened to what other groups are doing around the state with local food groups.

Some snippets of interest:

Wooster, Ohio has opened a new, year-round Farmer’s Market. This market is a cooperative - both the producers and the consumers can buy shares - and volunteer hours can also be used to buy shares.

Ohio State University’s Social Responsibility Initiative and Center for Farmland Policy Innovation have been working on a number of projects around the subject of local foods. One ongoing study focuses on distribution of fruits and vegetables - Ohioans consume 4.65 billion pounds of vegetables and 3.08 pounds of fruit annually, yet less than 1% of these are grown by Ohio farmers. The question they pose is, of course, how can Ohio farmers directly source more of the produce Ohioans consume. Other studies include a report on Knox County’s local food system (expanding retailing and/or processing could result in the potential to support nearly 340 new jobs) and a study of attitudes about local and organic food, (and data showing that local food is more important to consumers than organic. Also see the Eat Fresh & Grow Jobs, MI report.

The Ohio Department of Development had representatives present. One of the statewide targeted industries is Agriculture & Food Processing, and the ODOD has growing interest in local food. Also look at the Entrepreneurship & Small Business page!

Ohio State University is currently working on a GIS mapping project to combine soical, economic (health?) and agricultural data. Once the site is online, individuals will be able to enter information (groceries, community gardens, farmers’ markets, & other food outlets) onto a map. I’ll watch out for further information on this and post it!

Wilmington College supports a program called “Grow Food, Grow Hope” , an Americorps Vista project - in partnership with community organizations - which is dedicated to raising awareness of the benefits of local food production, backyard gardening and increasing self sustainability in our daily food habits.

Pittsburgh, PA. Community Development Corporations are involved with running farm stands in the city. Can’t find the link right now - but here’s Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture and Urban Foodworks.

Cleveland/Cuyahoga County Food Policy Council is constantly forging new ideas and policy, engaging new farmers, developing a local purchasing policy.

Summit County has distributed “how to compost” literature to residents included with their utility bills. Summit County is, like Cuyahoga and Lorrain Counties, a home of Fresh Stops - a modified Community Supported Agriculture which gets fresh, local food shares to city residents in their neighborhoods at reasonable prices - and adds cooking and nutrition information at the same time.

If you attended the Roundtable and would like to add comments, please do!

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Lasagna gardens?

By Kat Christen, MetroParks Education Assistant | Tuesday, November 10, 2009, 09:53 AM

Grow your own food next spring - make a lasagna garden this fall!

Sabina & Sandhurst Community Garden lasagna bed

Lots of leaves this fall make a lasagna garden for spring. Lasagna gardening is a great, low-cost way to build a garden bed without a tiller. The method is simple; you just make layers of organic materials where you want your garden to be next year. For example, you can pick an area of lawn or soil, put down a layer of non-glossy newspaper about 5 pages thick then add other materials on top in layers.

Choose from: chopped leaves (or unchopped in thin layers), pine needles, compost, grass clippings, vegetable scraps, hay (moldy ok), straw, and/or more newspaper. Some people use cardboard as their bottom layer instead of newspaper. Woodchips are not recommended as a layer unless they are composted first-that is look like dirt instead of wood chunks.

These layers will decompose to create great garden soil over the winter. By spring you can plant your own very local food!

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CFSC’s Conference Material available online

By Luci Beachdell | Thursday, November 5, 2009, 08:42 AM

The Community Food Security Coalition is “a non-profit 501(c)(3), North American organization dedicated to building strong, sustainable, local and regional food systems that ensure access to affordable, nutritious, and culturally appropriate food for all people at all times. We seek to develop self-reliance among all communities in obtaining their food and to create a system of growing, manufacturing, processing, making available, and selling food that is regionally based and grounded in the principles of justice, democracy, and sustainability.”

CFSC held their 13th annual conference in Des Moines, Iowa in mid-October. They now have some of the conference workshop material available online here. Although I didn’t attend this conference - my conference of the year was instead the American Community Gardening Association Conference in Columbus, Ohio - the CFSC had really tempting and wonderful workshops. For example: Fresh, Local Food for ALL: Increasing Access to and Diversity Within CSA; Reduce Waste/Reduce Hunger in Your Community; Farm Business Incubation in City Neighborhoods; Community Food Processing & Culinary Job Training.

I’ll keep you posted about these conferences as more details are available. I think next year’s CFSC will be held in New Orleans in fall; the ACGA will probably be August in Atlanta.

Meanwhile, another great - and almost-local - conference is the Ohio Ecological Food & Farm conference. “Growing with Integrity, Eating with Intention” will be held in Granville, Ohio February 13th & 14th, 2010. Keynote speakers are Joel Salatin and Ann Cooper.

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USDA’s “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food”

By Luci Beachdell | Wednesday, November 4, 2009, 08:56 AM

The USDA has recently unveiled their new Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food website. The site is full of interesting information, especially grants and resources written in really clear, direct language.

However, be wary using the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) Farmers’ Market Search. The AMS Search didn’t find the 2nd Street Market until I punched in 45402 for a zip code - but neither 45406 or 45414 brought up the 2nd Street Market. I’d highly recommend taking a look at Miami Valley Grown’s brochure (attached)

or by going to Local Harvest and plugging in your own zipcode.

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UD Engineering Students develop rainwater collection systems

By Luci Beachdell | Tuesday, November 3, 2009, 02:27 PM

This week and last week, student teams from Assistant Professor Dr. Kenya Crosson’s first-year engineering design class (at the University of Dayton) presented their preliminary designs for rainwater collection at community gardens. They presented a variety of designs: collecting either from an existing roof, a constructed roof, or from a sloping drain-plate on the ground. (I’ll post pictures later if I get permission.)

Over the next month, the students will refine their designs, and build and test prototypes. Some of the teams will probably install the real thing to test at various community gardens.

To install a water hydrant at a community garden costs about $2000. The annual water bill ranges from $75-$200. The student teams were given a total budget of $250 to construct their designs. If they come up with a really good, easily constructed design - and the initial proposals are promising - this could make starting (or just watering) a community garden much less expensive!

Garden Station and Mr. McGregor’s Garden attended the presentations with me, and may be testing sites for the rainwater collection systems.

Mr. McGregor’s Garden

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