Even after two straight weeks of Pedalpalooza “bike fun,” you can still count on Portlanders to hop on the bikes and come out for an early morning ride. Last Sunday, with a group of 30 cyclists, Slow Food Portland hit the streets of Northeast to see what was growing in our neighbor’s backyards. And, if for some reason our hosts’ examples weren’t enough to inspire attendees to head home and dig up their own yards, our route took us past a panoply of home food production. Every block we turned down held an array of curbside plantings, front-lawn bee boxes, and roaming chickens. We clearly chose the right neighborhood for a tour.
We met that morning on upper Killingsworth at the newly-opened Columbia Ecovillage, which may well be the most ambitious co-housing community in the city. The 37 residences cluster together on one edge of a 4-acre former farm. Together, the residents are developing exciting new models for how a community can work together to feed itself. Between the chicken flock, the bee hives, the 24,000 gallon water cisterns, the orchard, and the garden plots, the Ecovillage has big goals for growing food. While most of us don’t have the same space at home (or the help of 30 families!), the residents offered great ideas for how you could apply their model in your own garden.
Dr. Lisa Weasel (who spoke at our February Happy Hour on GMOs), started things off with an explanation of their resident bee hives. She explained that bees are quite easy to raise at home; since they tend to fly diagonally up-and-out of their hives, they don’t require a very large yard. As for equipment, Lisa let us in on the rumor that Zenger farms may be developing a coalition of home beekeepers, who could share honey extractors and other useful tools. Networks like these will make it easier for more people to raise their own food, without concern for their limited knowledge or lack of supplies.
Nearby, another member, Dennis, led us through their well-pollinated “food forest;” the Ecovillage’s nut and fruit orchard. Much like bees, the work of tending fruit trees can seem daunting, but Dennis directed our group to the Portland-based Home Orchard Society, which offers advice and support for creating your own backyard food forest. With the number of trees on the property, the Ecovillage is lucky to have so many helpful residents; when you end up with bushels of fruit, you need to work together to preserve it through drying, freezing, and canning!
Today, Slow Food USA launches it’s first-ever national policy campaign for school lunch reform. With chapters across the country, we will join together to declare that it’s Time for Lunch, and time for our country to prioritize the overhaul of the Childhood Nutrition Act. Revitalized legislation will address low-income food insecurity and childhood obesity, but its impact could also extend far beyond the meals kids eat in the cafeteria. Because of the sheer volume of meals served in schools country-wide, school lunch reform has the potential to create numerous jobs in made-from-scratch kitchens, and to aid regional agricultural economies through local purchasing. Given the unprecedented support we’ve heard from the President and the First Lady on the issues of health care reform and ending childhood obesity, the time to act is now. To this end, Slow Food has put forth five simple requests to benefit American schoolchildren:
Raise the federal reimbursement for school lunches by $1 to $3.57, to better cover the costs of quality food.
Create greater oversight of all food sold on school campuses, including vending machines and “a la carte” options from school stores.
Provide funding for farm-to-school and school garden learning initiatives, to teach children a lifetime of healthy habits.
Establish incentives for school districts to purchase locally, thereby supporting their regional economies.
Initiate a “School Lunch Corps” that would train community members to work towards improving our school lunch system.
Throughout the summer, Slow Food Portland will be running events, petition drives, and letter-writing campaigns to raise awareness of this issue and build the public momentum necessary to show our legislators that it is time for a change. These efforts will culminate in a nationwide day of community-organized Eat-In picnics on Labor Day, September 7. If you’re looking for a reason to stay in Portland this Labor Day, we’ll be hosting our own massive picnic at the old Washington High School with the help of the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art and their Time-Based Art Festival. Expect a giant, checkered picnic blanket; wood-fired breads; mobile, edible gardens; and conversations about food and community. Stay tuned to our blog for more details as the big day approaches.
The organizing is just beginning, but here in Portland, we’re hitting the ground running, thanks to the exceptional work that organizations like Ecotrust and Growing Gardens have been doing for years to support better school lunch and garden programs. As we’ve mentioned before, Oregon has it’s own celebrity-chef Farm-to-School coordinator, Portland has already hosted this year’s National Farm to Cafeteria Conference, and the Oregon legislature has been reviewing a House Bill this session to raise the state school lunch reimbursement. While no one would argue that our work is anywhere near complete, these efforts have laid a strong foundation for the adoption of wider school lunch reforms.
For the next few months, this blog (and our Twitter and Facebook pages) will serve as your hub for updates on school lunch legislation and announcements about our summer events. There is a wealth of information out there on farm-to-school programs and the Childhood Nutrition Act, so to get you started, here’s a collection of some of the best resources for learning more:
Of course, you should make sure to check in with Slow Food USA’s official Time For Lunch campaign site
Local:
In Oregon, Ecotrust Food & Farms has advocated for improvements to state law and purchasing guidelines, while also connecting lunch programs with the resources and support needed to eat locally.
Growing Gardens assists schools in creating educational and nutritional gardens throughout Portland.
The eat.think.grow initiative is a coalition of Oregon-based organizations and school administrators who are working to develop the Portland Public Schools’ cafeteria and garden programs
National:
The Slow Food USA Blog has plenty of stories about school food advocacy.
School Lunch Talk keeps a running report going on cafeteria offerings and the latest school lunch policy.
Chef Ann Cooper (The Renegade Lunch Lady) keeps a blog with news updates and stories of her experience working for the Berkeley Unified School District (and beyond).
Dr. Susan Rubin of Better School Food runs an excellent blog on school food health and legislation.
Grist recently covered the USDA’s cancellation (and subsequent re-adoption) of Philadelphia’s Universal Feeding school lunch program.
Heritage Radio Network show Urban Foragers interviewed Ed Yowell of Slow Food New York and Kristen Mancinelli on the re-authorization of the Childhood Nutrition Act.
Not to be outdone by her husband’s remarks to the American Medical Association, the First Lady held her very own press conference from the White House Kitchen Garden, just a few days after the President spoke about the connection between healthy eating and healthcare. Her speech - ostensibly a thank-you-and-stick-with-it message to the Bancroft students who assisted with the first stages of the garden - got fairly wonky on policy details and made an impassioned argument for reforming our nation’s food system. Michelle Obama talked food deserts, childhood obesity, local foods, and urban gardens with a group of 5th graders. If kids can understand these issues, hopefully Congress won’t be far behind. Looking ahead to this fall’s reauthorization of the Childhood Nutrition Act, perhaps the stars (or the Sunburst Pattypan squash) are aligning. There’s work yet to be done, and the First Lady’s speech is inspiration to begin:
“But government also has a role to play in this, as well. For so many
kids, subsidized breakfasts and lunches are their primary meals of the
day. It’s what they count on. It’s where they get most of their
nutrition.
And the USDA’s National School Lunch Program serves approximately 30
million meals each year to low-income* children. And because these
meals are the main source of consistent nourishment for these kids, we
need to make sure we offer them the healthiest meals possible.
So to make sure that we give all our kids a good start to their day
and to their future, we need to improve the quality and nutrition of
the food served in schools. We’re approaching the first big
opportunity to move this to the top of the agenda with the upcoming
reauthorization of the child nutrition programs. In doing so, we can
go a long way towards creating a healthier generation for our kids.”
You can read the full text of the First Lady’s remarks here on Whitehouse.gov.
If you follow the Youtube link to the source video, you can also find related clips about the White House Kitchen Garden.
Just prior to last year’s presidential elections, Michael Pollan penned his now-famous open letter to the next President or, as Pollan would have it, our next “Farmer in Chief.” In the letter, Pollan neatly laid out the interconnectedness of food issues with all of the key campaign topics of the major candidates. He wrote:
[This] brings me to the deeper reason you will need not simply to address food prices but to make the reform of the entire food system one of the highest priorities of your administration: unless you do, you will not be able to make significant progress on the health care crisis, energy independence or climate change. Unlike food, these are issues you did campaign on — but as you try to address them you will quickly discover that the way we currently grow, process and eat food in America goes to the heart of all three problems and will have to change if we hope to solve them.
In the wake of Pollan’s article (and the election), speculation ran wild as to whether or not then-President Elect Obama had read the piece; a recent speech, however, gives reason to believe that some of the message may have sunk in. This week, the New York Times published the transcript of President Obama’s recent address to the American Medical Association on health care reform. Reading over Obama’s remarks, I couldn’t help but see the influences of Pollan’s letters, particularly in this statement about school lunch programs:
It also means cutting down on all the junk food that is fueling an epidemic of obesity, putting far too many Americans, young and old, at greater risk of costly, chronic conditions. That’s a lesson Michelle and I have tried to instill in our daughters with the White House vegetable garden that Michelle planted. And that’s a lesson that we should work with local school districts to incorporate into their school lunch programs.
Fixing school lunch can directly impact our nation’s health, while also aiding our flagging rural economies by prioritizing local purchasing. Coming directly from the President, that is an encouraging endorsement of school lunch reform. Perhaps he is beginning to understand the that our food system cannot be overlooked if he hopes to get America back on track.
If you weren’t able to catch the sneak preview screening of Food, Inc. in late April, now is your chance to see the film and to make your ticket price work towards real, local change! On Tuesday, June 23 at 7:00 pm, Cinema 21 will host a special “pack the theater” fundraiser for Slow Food Portland. All you have to do is mention “Slow Food” when you purchase your ticket, and $2 from your admission will go towards supporting our work for Good, Clean, and Fair Food. We will direct your donations toward our summer campaign for school lunch reform, and share a portion of our proceeds with the Farmworker Housing Development Corporation (with whom we ran the excellent May tour) to help them in their efforts for farmworker justice.
As Kim Severson pointed out in her recent New York Times review of the film, Food, Inc. is unique among mainstream food films - it is an unflinching portrayal of the problems with our industrial food system. Think of it as the live-action version of The Omnivore’s Dilemma crossed with Fast Food Nation. Having seen the preview screening, I can safely say that it is a deeply affecting film and it may just be the most important movie of the year. Upon leaving the theater, I immediately wanted for my friends and family to watch it, because I could think of no better or more moving way to convey the food issues that I passionately support.
Featuring Eric Schlosser and Michael Pollan, the movie covers ground that will be familiar to anyone who has read the two authors’ books, but the film’s true power comes from the deeply personal stories that are used to frame the message. The fixed-income family who must choose diabetes medicine over healthy food. The elderly seed cleaner who is ruthlessly run out of business by Monsanto for practicing a centuries-old tradition. The mother-cum-food-safety-activist who lost her son to e-coli. With stories this moving, it is little wonder that industrial food companies are battling the film tooth-and nail. Agribusiness had conniptions over Schlosser and Pollan’s books, but these filmic snapshots are proving even more difficult for them to combat.
Though it certainly hasn’t stopped them from trying. Very soon after early screenings, agricultural seed and chemical giant Monsanto launched a website to deliver the “real facts” about the film. (For a good rebuttal, author Jill Richardson deftly took Monsanto’s claims to task on her blog, La Vida Locavore.) The company refused to answer questions or meet with the filmmakers, and yet, they feel comfortable refuting all of its well-documented claims. What else could possibly provide a better endorsement for seeing the film than an opposition website headed by Monsanto? How about a whole cadre of food industry groups lining up to debunk the film with sites like “Safefoodinc.com,” as reported by Reuters. With this much backlash from the usual suspects, there’s a good chance the film has struck close to the truth.
Food, Inc. Film Screening for Slow Food Portland Cinema 21
616 NW 21st Ave
Portland, OR 97209 Tuesday, June 23, 7 PM
You can reserve tickets in advance online here - ONLY the 7 pm showing on June 23 will benefit Slow Food. (Make sure to mention “Slow Food” in the Coupon Code box.)
________
For more information on Food, Inc., visit the film website, which offers reading lists, school lunch petitions, links to partner organizations, and suggestions for ways to get involved with food issues.
We’ve also included a copy of the Farmworker Housing Development Corporation’s summer campaign letter (PDF) for you to download and read over. They will be talking in-person at the screening and available to answer your questions about their important work for fair food labor.
And a very special thanks is due to our marketing partner, Livingscape Nursery, for generously helping us to promote this important film.
Guest post by Katherine Deumling, Slow Food Regional Governor for Oregon and a member of the Slow Food USA Board of Directors ________
What is at stake in this year’s critical, long-term planning for urban and rural space in our tri-county region?
Yesterday, I testified on behalf of Slow Food Portland before the Reserves Steering Committee at Metro. This committee was created in response to Senate Bill 1011 (from the 2007 Oregon legislative session) to determine which lands outside the current Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) should be designated for urban use and which for rural (e.g. farm and forest, wetlands, etc.). For the last several decades, the UGB came up for discussion every five years, leaving both farmers and developers near the boundary uncertain of their future. Under this new bill, the Reserves Steering Committee, made up of four voting members (a Metro Councilor, and a county commissioner from Clackamas, Washington, and Multnomah County respectively) and many other folks, representing cities, businesses, agriculture, environmental groups, and civic/social interests, will review areas surrounding the UGB for potential conservation for the next 40-50 years.
The committee itself is a varied and large group, but with only four voting members, as mentioned above. In Metro/reserve speak, I came to understand that these folks are known as the “Core 4.” The committee has been taking public comment and has dispersed a survey, in addition to much research. In preparation for Wednesday’s committee meeting, Laura Masterson, farmer and citizen-extraordinaire and Slow Food Advisory board member, briefed me on the status of the committee’s work. Of particular concern to Slow Food and other farm/ag-related groups are the many, many acres of “foundation” farmland (the best soil for farming) that are up for discussion for urban reserve in Washington County. The Washington County Farm Bureau Foundation Lands Base Protection Map, included in Slow Food’s testimony, shows a proposed agricultural buffer zone along the perimeter of the current Urban Growth Boundary that would protect these foundation lands well into the future. It also presents possibilities for urban reserves outside the current UGB.
In addition to my testimony, Amy Benson of Square Peg Farm and a 2008 Terra Madre delegate, testified on the behalf of the Portland Area CSA Coalition (PACSAC), complementing our suggestions and concerns in many ways. Dozens of interested citizens and representatives from various area organizations attended the meeting to listen in on the proceedings. It will be interesting to see how this process proceeds over the next six months and there likely will be future opportunities for Slow Food Portland and our many members to weigh in on the importance of farmland in our region. So stay tuned!
You can download and read Slow Food Portland’s testimony letter to the Reserves Steering Committee here (PDF).
This urgent call-to-action comes from Deborah Kane and our partners at Ecotrust Food & Farms _________
There is a bill pending in the Oregon legislature that would make is possible for us to get better food into public schools across the state - HB 2800. You can read all about the bill and on-going advocacy efforts here: www.ecotrust.org/farmtoschool/ .
Today I’m writing to ask you to make your voice heard in Salem.
Really - please, send an email or make a phone call today. We’re hearing from Salem that the bill is still “very much alive” and part of on-going budget negotiations. We’re in a recession; the state is making horrible, gut wrenching decisions about maintaining social services and many other important programs. And yet - legislators in Salem WANT TO FUND HB 2800 and get better food into our schools. They want to do right by Oregon kids and farmers. Please, give them the gentle push they need. TODAY or TOMORROW; by the end of the week it may be too late.
THANK YOU,
Deborah Kane
Vice President, Ecotrust Food & Farms
Send this to five friends or better yet, 20 friends. Post this on your Facebook page. Go, go, go! This is the final stretch; we could actually get mandatory statewide farm-to-school funding this session, but we need a FINAL PUSH.
WHAT: HB 2800 “the farm to school and school garden” bill
YOUR REQUEST IS:
Oregon must ‘get started’ bringing Oregon products into the lunchroom with some amount of dedicated economic development funding (we’re asking for lottery dollars). We know the state can’t support the full allocation called for in HB 2800 but reduced funding scenarios are on the table and all of them deliver jobs.
HB 2800 creates jobs. No matter the funding scenario considered, HB 2800 puts people to work in Oregon.
The time is now. By leveraging federal dollars to match the state investment, HB 2800 stimulates the currently hurting local economy.
A wide range of Oregonians will benefit. HB 2800 helps to get healthy foods into our schools, enriches learning experiences for our children, supports local farmers, food processors, and manufacturers, and infuses money into agricultural economies across the state.
Any start is a good one. While HB 2800 requests $22.6 million, advocates are well aware that this scale of investment isn’t feasible in this current economic climate. Reduced funding scenarios exist and all deliver jobs.
HB 2800 impacts us personally. Let your legislators know the ways in which HB 2800 would affect you and your family.
(Testimony from 7-year old Zoe Kane summed it up nicely. When she doesn’t have enough allowance money for the big things, she just gets something small. That way, at least she still gets something. Oregon farmers and ranchers can do a lot with a little; let’s get them started with a statewide farm to school program of any size.)
The time is certainly ripe for yardsharing and produce swaps - growing numbers of people are seeking out ways to connect with local food and with their neighbors, and the media is taking note. Right after posting our own run-down of yardsharing resources here on the Slow Food PDX blog, the Oregonian ran an article on local garden collectives the very next day! Given the lengthy waiting lists for plots in the city’s community garden program, many Portlanders are informally partnering with their neighbors to till their yards and harvest their produce. Aside from mentions of the Tin Shed Cafe’s Urban Farm Collective, the Veggie Trader website, and Yardsharing.org, the Oregonian article also profiled a few individual Portlanders who are sharing their resources with their immediate neighborhoods. A short video clip with the article features one well-spoken gardener who explains the benefits of her .
Today in the New York Times, the consistently excellent Kim Severson spotlighted the modern gleaners and produce traders emerging around the country. It’s a practice with a long heritage, but one that has benefitted from the social networks of the internet:
Supporters of this movement hold two basic principles. One, it’s a shame to let fruit go to waste. And two, neighborhood fruit tastes best when it’s free.
“There have always been people harvesting fallen fruit,” Ms. Wadud said, “but there’s a whole new counterculture about gathering and eating public fruit. This tremendous resource is growing everywhere if people just start looking around.”
Severson shares the stories of an Oakland fruit forager, a Los Angeles actress who created a neighborhood co-operative, and a chef who admits to covetously sneaking ingredients from yards on the way to her restaurant. Excitingly, the article also acknowledges the great work being done by Katy Kolker of our very own Portland Fruit Tree Project. As she humorously explains the amazing urban food resources all around us, Kolker perfectly captures the hopeful spirit that yardsharing and produce gleaning represent:
“A family can only really eat 20 pounds of fresh apples or so before they cry uncle,” Ms. Kolker said. “A fruit tree is really made for sharing with your neighborhood.”
To watch a short profile of Kolker and her Fruit Tree Project, check out this clip from the great, locally-produced webcast series, Cooking Up a Story:
To keep up on the latest food policy news and events updates in between blog posts, you can now follow Slow Food Portland on Twitter! From @slowfoodpdx, we’ll be sharing interesting links and other small bites from around the web, ready for your enjoyment. Follow our broadcasts to hear about local food activities, to learn about national Slow Food campaigns, and to connect with other food movement tweeters. Already, we’ve covered sustainable seafood, school lunch programs, Michael Pollan jokes, film premiers, and more!
Recently, as I’ve been searching for soil and amendments for planter pots, I’ve heard a similar refrain from feed stores and garden centers: we just ran out. More people, it seems, are starting home gardens this season than any other year in recent memory. Perhaps it’s the economy. Perhaps it’s the Obama’s influence. Whatever the cause, households across the country are realizing the value of growing their own food. It won’t be long before these urban greenhorns also realize the three basic needs of every vegetable gardener: space, time, and a healthy appetite. Unfortunately, not every would-be homesteader has all three in ready supply.
And that is where yardsharing comes in. Lots of lawn, but too little time? Arrange with a neighbor to till your veggie bed. Too much produce and not enough bellies? Offer up your fruits to those without gardens. Ready to get your hands dirty, but live in an apartment? Find a willing homeowner with land to spare. Think of yardsharing as a new conception of the commons: rather than public allotments, individuals opt to share their own space or excess produce with those who have neither. I’ve been gathering up the names of the collectives and websites that typify this movement, and each week that I’ve held off on posting them, I’ve only found more! So, to avoid being completely buried by a list of yardshare opportunities, I’m sharing the fruits of my explorations with you.
Two of the projects that initially got me thinking about these ideas were the British Landshare website and San Francisco’s Garden Registry. Drawing on a long tradition of British allotments, Landshare was started by the UK’s Channel 4 and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, of the celebrated River Cottage. The site invites all gardening abilities, by allowing users to register as a landowner, a grower, or simply a helper. Similarly, the Garden Registry, which was created by Victory Gardens 2008+ (the group that created Slow Food Nation’s City Hall Victory Garden), connects growers, non-growers and those with a bumper crop, while also dialing in on the gardening micro-climates of the San Francisco peninsula. Both of these sites offer all of the style and interactivity of a social networking app, but put the technology to use with a DIY sensibility.
Here in town, Portland Yardsharing began last September as a way to both increase our access to local foods and to foster strong community relationships. The site maintains a Google map, where participants can list their yards or their interest in finding a plot of land. The project was featured on the “Homegrown” podcast last November, which gives a good idea of the ideas behind yardsharing:
Now, if it’s not a matter of land, but more an issue of “if-I-eat-one-more-zucchini-I-think-I’ll-scream,” a Portland couple has the solution with their newly created Veggie Trader. The site has gotten a lot of notice and is fast becoming a popular resource for gardeners looking to balance out their backyard yields, as well as for individuals seeking ultra-local foods. Users log on and connect with nearby eaters to trade or sell their garden’s bounties. Veggie Trader also runs a fun blog on gardening that will get you imagining the potential for barter-ready crops in your own backyard!
Another interesting local project find its impetus not from individual eaters, but from a restaurant trying to green their supply chain. The Urban Farm Collective was initiated by Janette Kaden, owner of the Tin Shed Garden Cafe on NE Alberta, as an alternative veggie source for her cooking. By managing a group of diverse urban plots, the Collective will set out this year to supply the Tin Shed and its backyard donors with freshly-harvested produce.
At the root of all of these yardsharing efforts is a desire not to let our food and land go to waste. With that in mind, it is worth mentioning two related registries of urban foodstuffs in Portland. The Portland Fruit Tree Project runs a volunteer cadre of dedicated fruit urban fruit pickers to make sure that public and backyard fruits make it to people’s stomachs. About half of the fruit is distributed to local food pantries (thereby helping with their crucial lack of fresh foods) and half is taken home by the volunteers. If you visit their website, you can register your own fruit trees for their volunteers to harvest on their next foray.
Meanwhile, Urban Edibles relies on foraging scouts, rather than the largesse of landowners, to maintain a searchable map of Portland fruit trees, herbs and wild foods that overhang or sprout out of the public space. With the help of their map, you can conveniently plan a walk to pass by veritable buffet of Portland produce. Of course, you’re encouraged to always ask permission before snatching someone’s fig that dangles above the sidewalk!
While the idea of landsharing is full of potential, it would never replace our region’s farmers (not that its initiators would ever hope to). To my mind, it offers a hope that we can all return to the greater self-sufficiency that families around the world once had, while at the same time it coaxes us to step out of our homes and interact with our neighbors. The knowledge that so many individuals have indepedently struck upon this same idea is incredibly encouraging for the future of our food.
We met that morning on upper Killingsworth at the newly-opened Columbia Ecovillage, which may well be the most ambitious co-housing community in the city. The 37 residences cluster together on one edge of a 4-acre former farm. Together, the residents are developing exciting new models for how a community can work together to feed itself. Between the chicken flock, the bee hives, the 24,000 gallon water cisterns, the orchard, and the garden plots, the Ecovillage has big goals for growing food. While most of us don’t have the same space at home (or the help of 30 families!), the residents offered great ideas for how you could apply their model in your own garden.
Subscribe in a reader