GrowCalgary Blog Posts

Jenny’s Food & Ag Update August 12, 2017

 

  • “Our idea of food sovereignty is based on a framework of solidarity and support for each other – not hatred” (La Via Campesina) http://bit.ly/2uQ9h59
  • FoodShare’s Sunshine garden grows nourishment for the soul (The Toronto Star) http://bit.ly/2vIWHSK                                            Garden at CAMH’s Queen St. location gives patients, volunteers a “magical” place to be themselves while building employment and social skills.
  • The future of urban agriculture is up in the air! The means urban ag policy has to be more grounded! (Medium) http://bit.ly/2uJoWmo
  • The Mad Cheese Scientists Fighting to Save the Dairy Industry (Bloomberg) https://bloom.bg/2u7WmZz                                              Amid an historic glut, a secretive, government-sponsored entity is putting cheese anywhere it` can stuff it.
  • White Lady From Hell Moves to Harlem, Immediately Goes to War Against Ice Cream (Fusion) http://bit.ly/2uTcH7I
  • ‘Allergic’ diners driving chefs crazy with picky demands (The Daily Telegraph AU) http://bit.ly/2uVNw4o
  • San Franciscans have been making avocado toast for more than 130 years (SF Chronicle) http://bit.ly/2vzq9Le
  • Real-Life Plague of Katydids Hits the American West (modern farmer) http://bit.ly/2ts8Ytv                                                                                 A mysterious plague of insects has hit the American West in insane concentrations – up to 70 bugs per square meter. Where do they come from?
  • Can San Jose Revitalize Local Food and Farms in Silicon Valley? (Civil Eats) http://bit.ly/2uJhGI4                                                                    Amidst scarce housing and vanishing farmland, a new report charts a course for better co-existence for tech and ag by 2040.
  • How a California dairy farmer beat Tesla to the electric truck (New Food Economy) http://bit.ly/2eOEf7D

 

Farming, Farmers, Ranching, Herding, Fishing & Production

  • Farmland owned by foreign interests on the rise (Center for Rural Affairs) http://bit.ly/2h6BLSv
    • Foreign Investors Are Snapping Up US Farms (Mother Jones) http://bit.ly/2w1yda7                                                                          American farmland is becoming popular with overseas investors – and that’s making people nervous.
  • Can San Jose Revitalize Local Food and Farms in Silicon Valley? (Civil Eats) http://bit.ly/2uJhGI4                                                                  Amidst scarce housing and vanishing farmland, a new report charts a course for better co-existence for tech and ag by 2040.                           The Valley of Heart’s Delight, the Santa Clara Valley, was the largest producer of stone fruit in the world in the 1960s. I remember as a child running through orchards eating apricots, cherries and plums, varietals we rarely see now…
  • New research: synthetic nitrogen destroys soil carbon, undermines soil health (grist) http://bit.ly/2w0vM4r                          Old article, but worth the reminder…
  • Farmers’ estimates of herbicide (dicamba) damage top 120,000 acres (Arkansas Online) http://bit.ly/2eIbSaW

Food and Culture

  • Decolonize Your Diet (Yes!) http://bit.ly/2uIaJXi                                    Love your Mexican food? Traditional indigenous food from Mexico is misunderstood in the US – and is actually among the world’s healthiest.
  • “six days a week, and sometimes seven” The Strength & Entrepreneurship Of An Elderly Woman (Edge of Humanity Magazine) http://bit.ly/2u7GWTz

 

Hunger, Food Access & Security, Obesity & Malnutrition

  • Four Charts That Show Who Loses Out if the White House Cuts Food Stamps (The Conversation) http://bit.ly/2eItgMQ

 

Healthy/Food Safety

  • How the Food and Drug Companies Ensure That We Get Sick and They Make Money (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2tJy1MD          Despicable: Corporate Profits at the Expense of Our Health
  • Why You Should Think Twice Before Getting Ground Beef From the Supermarket (Huffington Post) http://bit.ly/2u4ZFzh

 

Food Fraud/Scandals/Weird

  • McDonald’s Worker Posts Vomit Worthy Photos Of An Ice Cream Machine (Huffington Post) http://bit.ly/2ux07tm
  • Louisiana man found guilty of using fake farms to steal $1.6 million form USDA (New Food Economy) http://bit.ly/2tDN2vB

 

Labor/Unions/Coops

  • Another year of congressional inaction has further eroded the federal minimum wage (Economic Policy Institute) http://bit.ly/2v9qwPc
  • The women confronting California’s farm conditions (High Country News) http://bit.ly/2uQwipa                                                  Female farmworkers face sexual assault, pesticide exposure and low wages.
  • While regulators debate pesticide safety, California farmworkers keep getting sick (The New Food Economy) http://bit.ly/2fBQ7tU
  • As California’s labor shortage grows, farmers race to replace workers with robots (LA Times) http://lat.ms/2uhpTl7
  • Help wanted in the vineyards (New Food Economy) http://bit.ly/2h0dkWQ                                                                                            The nation’s harsh debate over immigration is reducing the labor supply in America’s vineyards. A drop in production could cost small wine making communities thousands of jobs and billions of dollars.
  • Monsanto Faces Class Action Suit Over Allegedly Violating Two Federal Labor Laws (EcoWatch) http://bit.ly/2tTXPT9
  • Long Island beer distributor strike ends, workers to keep pensions (New Food Economy) http://bit.ly/2v00EF4
  • The Shocking, Unmatched Pain That Wal-Mart Took to Avoid Unions (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2uJlc42                                                      Wal-Mart managers were supposed to contact corporate headquarters the moment they sniffed even a hint of union activity to get support in quashing labor reform.

 

Protests

  • Pittsburgh officials may have to ‘deflect’ attention from lead-contaminated water (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2vJHMaW
  • No water for poor people: the nine Americans who risked jail to seek justice (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2vnwEAL                                  To live without water means no bathe time for your kids, no cooking and no useable toilets. As the city of Detroit cut water to 83,000 homes since 2014, nine activists put their bodies on the line to protest.

 

Pollinators

  • Nesting aids make agricultural fields attractive for bees (University of Würzburg) http://bit.ly/2uIaxr1

 

Animals

  • A Eat Here: Ewe Gotta Eat Here: Flock of sheep make lunch out of Montreal parks (The Star) http://bit.ly/2v2tZ1l                                Six ewes and four lambs were carefully herded along the sidewalk from one park to another to fulfill their jobs as eco-friendly lawn mowers.
  • Study: antibiotic use in India’s chicken industry is a looming disaster (Food & Environmental Reporting Network) http://bit.ly/2w7lKOO
    • Study: The Prevalence of Extended-Spectrum Beta Lactamase-Producing Multidrug-Resistance Escherichia coli in Poultry Chickens and Variation According to Farming Practices in Punjab, India (Environmental Health Perspectives) http://bit.ly/2h9XXLL
  • Don’t Worry About New Alabama Mad Cow, Ways CDC, but Fact Suggest Otherwise (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2eOaR11        Government agencies protect big agriculture at the expense of our health.
  • Four Out of Five Americans Want Factory Farm Abuses to End: Here’s How You Can Help (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2v7KPwu        The majority of consumers are happy to pay more if it will help reduce animal suffering.

 

Business, Social Enterprise & Our Economy

  • Campbell’s to GMA: No Soup for You (Supermarket News) http://bit.ly/2tDMdXw                                                                                                … (Campbell’s will) withdraw its membership from the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) at the end of the calendar year…
  • Court Rules Against General Mills Motion to dismiss in ‘100% Natural’ Lawsuit (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2uJeVVX                                The DC Superior Court says it’s reasonable consumers wouldn’t consider Nature Valley granola bars that contain glyphosate “natural.”
  • Pepsico, Unilever and Nestlé accused of complicity in illegal rainforest destruction (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2uIGKhm      Palm oil plantations on illegally deforested land in Sumatra – home to elephants, orangutans and tigers – have allegedly been used to supply scores of household brands, says new report
  • Amazon-Whole Foods Could Transform US Farming (Medium) http://bit.ly/2ulgOYw                                                                                                And food stamps will help them do it.
  • What’s on the table at Amazon’s secret meeting with cattle ranchers? (New Food Economy) https://bitly.com/
  • Organic ranchers eye Amazon distribution ahead of Whole Foods deal (Reuters) http://reut.rs/2uZ8COB                                                            If Amazon’s grass-fed supply chain ends up being as off-limits as its data centers, that won’t be an encouraging sign for the future of agriculture.
  • Report: Back To Grass: The Market Potential For US Grassfed Beef (Stone Barns Center) http://bit.ly/2pbhYlr
  • Corporate Agricultural Dumping: Growing the Wealth Gap (Inequality.org) http://bit.ly/2umxygv                                                      When agribusiness corporations export food at artificially low prices, they widen the economic divide between the global North and South – and within rural America.
  • How We Can Transition to a “Bottom Up” Economy (Yes!) http://bit.ly/2tnE3P6                                                                                          Three ways to rewire the economy for equality and ecological sustainability

 

Water & Our Oceans

  • What Our Tap Water Says About the Way We Farm (Civil Eats) http://bit.ly/2tMSTCV                                                                              Agricultural runoff pollutes tap water supplies nationwide, and hits low-income rural communities hardest. A new tool from EWG helps connect the dots.
  • Pennsylvania watershed contaminated with radioactive material and endocrine-disrupting chemicals (The Watchers) http://bit.ly/2unombE                                                                                    Hydraulic fracturing has enabled a domestic oil and gas boom in the US, but its rapid growth has raised questions about what to do with the billions of gallons of wastewater that result. Researchers now report that treating the wastewater and releasing it into surface waters had led to the contamination of Pennsylvania watershed…
  • In Colorado Fracking Fight, Emails Show Constituents ‘Begging’ Lawmakers For Help (International Business Times) http://bit.ly/2urIF9K
  • Urban Farming and Water Conservation: A Way of Life on the City Farm (University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources) http://bit.ly/2u938wE
  • How Midwestern Farmers Could Help Save the Gulf of Mexico (Mother Jones) http://bit.ly/2wBgtiL                                                              This cool technique can rescue sea creatures and soil – so why aren’t more farmers using it?
  • A Trillion – Ton Iceberg Broke Off Antarctica and All I Can Think About Is Food (Yes!) http://bit.ly/2gQTptr                                            Climate change is getting worse, and policy makers are ignoring one of the biggest factors.
  • 5 Things to Know about the Trillion-Ton Iceberg (Scientific American) http://bit.ly/2gSgVq3                                                                          An iceberg the size of Delaware is now on the move

 

Government/Regulation/Policy/Farm Bill

  • Canada’s Surprising New Proposed Health Guide Favors Plant-Based Foods and Ignores Industry Input (The Food Revolution Network) http://bit.ly/2tSG5pw
  • Senate bill introduced by Alaska’s Murkowski would mandate GMO fish labeling (Seafood Source) http://bit.ly/2eRmVyv
  • The dark side of Trump’s much-hyped China trade deal: It could literally make you sick (The Washington Post) http://bit.ly/2v05mTN
  • EPA Greenlit This Pesticide Linked to Brain Damage. Eight Senators Are Fighting Back (Mother Jones) http://bit.ly/2v7dK3l  A new bill would put an agricultural ban on chlorpyrifos.
  • Trump’s pick for USDA’s “chief scientist” may actually be illegal (New Food Economy) http://bit.ly/2tZV5Cb
    • Press Release: President Trump Illegally Nominates Non-Scientist to Lead Science at the USDA (Union of Concerned Scientists) http://bit.ly/2v04DkM                                                Statement by Ricardo Salvador, Union of Concerned Scientists
  • Trump pick for USDA science post has drawn darts for lack of technical background and Science at the USD (Science Magazine) http://bit.ly/2uianFG
  • Trump officially nominates climate denying conservative talk radio host as USDA’s top scientist (ThinkProgress) http://bit.ly/2ueJLpn                                                                                                Sam Clovis, a former Trump campaign advisor and one-time conservative talk radio host, has no background in the hard sciences, nor any policy experience with food or agriculture.
  • Shocker: Trump’s USDA Appointees Are All Hacks (Mother Jones) http://bit.ly/2tpORMx                                                                      There’s a former Dow exec, a soybean rep, and a business Prof who once called Trump a “cancer on conservatism.”
  • Democrats in US Congress Urge Review of Amazon’s Whole Foods Deal (US News & World Report) http://bit.ly/2gQAhvH
  • Five reasons the Dems’ Better Deal could be a big deal for food (New Food Economy) http://bit.ly/2uyo5Vf                                              The new platform explicitly addresses corporate consolidation. At least new we’re talking about it.
  • Kansas SWAT Raid Over Tea Leaves and Tomato Garden Outrages Federal Judges (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2vhMxMd            The 10th Circuit laid into the cops who used tea leaves in the trash and a visit to garden store to target a suburban family in a hoped-for pot bust.                                                                                                                                         I posted about this when it happened back in 2012…
  • A New Law in New Jersey Is Combating Climate and Hunger – at the Same Time (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2tNhBz0                            Governor Chris Christie signed a bill that aims to cut the Garden State’s food waste in half by 2030.
  • Senate, No. 3027, State of New jersey, 217th Legislature, Introduced February 27, 2017 http://bit.ly/2u8tZZC

 

GMOs/Cloning/Food Technology/Synthetic Biology/Nanotechnology

  • Keith Kloor’s Endearing Love Affair With GMOs (Huffington Post) http://bit.ly/2uLiIDp                                                                                  New York University’s adjunct journalism professor has curious ideas about science and reporting

 

Poisons

  • 100,00 Pages of Chemical Industry Secrets Gathered Dust In An Oregon Barn for Decades – Until Now (The Intercept) http://bit.ly/2tYK18w                                                                                                … 100,000 pages of documents obtained through legal discover in lawsuits against Dow, Monsanto, the EPA, the US Forest Services, the Air Force, and pulp and paper companies, among others…
  • The Poison Papers https://www.poisonpapers.org/        Documenting the Hidden History of Chemical and Pesticide Hazards in the United States
  • “Poison Papers” Snapshot: HoJo Transcript Illustrates EPA  Collusion with Chemical Industry (PR Watch) http://bit.ly/2v40koS
  • Poison Fruit (The Intercept) http://bit.ly/2jItkcu                                   Dow Chemical Wants Farmers to Keep Using a Pesticide Linked to Autism and ADHD
  • Reuters vs. UN Cancer Agency: Are Corporate Ties Influencing Science Coverage? (Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting) http://bit.ly/2us20HN
  • Court Rules Against General Mills Motion to Dismiss, Says It’s Reasonable Consumers Wouldn’t Consider Glyphosate Containing Nature Valley Granola Bars ‘Natural’ (EcoWatch) http://bit.ly/2vBROLg
  • Reuters vs. UN Cancer Agency: Are Corporate Ties Influencing Science Coverage? (Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting) http://bit.ly/2us20HN
  • Nearly a third of food samples in CFIA testing contain glyphosate residues (CBC News) http://bit.ly/2pB0LRm                                        Levels of herbicide exceeded acceptable limits in 1.3% of all foods, 3.9% of grains among 3, 188 foods tested
  • Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Tests Positive for Roundup Herbicide Ingredient, Glyphosate (Organic Consumers Association) http://bit.ly/2uyGGAt
  • A day in the life with dicamba damage (Prairie Farmer) http://bit.ly/2vtiez3
    • Dicamba damage tops 2.5 million acres, mostly in Midwest and South (The Food & Environment Reporting Network) http://bit.ly/2tT8wsi

 

Resources

  • Agriculture of the Middle http://agofthemiddle.org/                  Research, education and policy strategies that keep farmers and ranchers on the land

 

GrowCalgary Blog Posts

Jenny’s Food & Ag Update July 21, 2017

 

  • You’ll Be Shocked to Lean We Have Good News About Food (Mother Jones) http://bit.ly/2sS5Lao                                                           On pesticides, farm animals, and Michelle Obama’s legacy, no less.
  • Eating Local – More than Ever – Is a Political Act (Civil Eats) http://bit.ly/2sZEuhd                                                                                              The Independence Day, a reflection on how eating might become a deeper, more powerful source of communal strength in a political moment when we most need it.
  • Bronx co-op building gets an elegant, High Line inspired green roof (Curbed New York) http://bit.ly/2tFK9y5                                      The 30,000 square food garden features winding paths, a gazebo, and more
  • Your Chocolate Might Have Survived This Fungus in Ecuador (Yes!) http://bit.ly/2tVQWCQ                                                                          Half of all cacao grown in Ecuador is ruined by disease called frosty pod rot. But farmers, exporters, and chocolate-makers are finding sustainable ways to combat it.
  • The chocolate milk survey revealed our ignorance of science, but not in the way you think (The Point) http://bit.ly/2tOi5IL

 

Farmers, Farming, Ranching, Herding & Production

  • Rise of mega farms: how the US model of intensive farming is invading the world (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2tniiCX        Demand for cheaper food and lower production costs is turning greed fields into industrial sheds to process vast amounts of meat an poultry
  • UK has nearly 800 livestock mega farms, investigation reveals (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2txKbn3                                                      US-style intensive factory farming of poultry, pigs and cattle is sweeping across the British countryside – raising concerns over animal cruelty
  • Nonprofit Helps California’s Asian-American Farmers Grow Their Businesses (NPR) http://n.pr/2tIVH29
  • The One Thing My Farm Training Never Covered: Racism (National Young Farmers Coalition) http://bit.ly/2tpGL7l
  • America’s Farmers Turn to Bank of John Deere (The Wall Street Journal) http://on.wsj.com/2ux6vBQ                                                          With banks more tentative, machinery maker raises financing to growers, keeping them as customers but feeding menacing debt
  • California Heat Wave Kills Thousands of Cattle and Overwhelms Dairy Industry (weather.com) http://wxch.nl/2sIGICl
  • Ward County (NR) Commissioners ask to halt cloud seeding following farmer criticism (KFYR TV) http://bit.ly/2vnm0tK
  • This shipping-container farm could someday solve the food desert problem (Washington Post) http://wapo.st/2tDdA0z
  • A former USDA inspector writes a thriller about the dark world of dairy cattle slaughter (New Food Economy) http://bit.ly/2tHg12x  It’s not always a pretty business.

 

Food and Culture

  • Decolonising Food Systems and Sowing Seeds of Resistance (African Center for Biodiversity) http://bit.ly/2tU3pHz
  • Can Taro Farming Heal Hawaii? (Civil Eats) http://bit.ly/2tZGnzE  A Maui farmer is reconnecting the health of the land to the health of his people.
  • A thriving food culture is making Viroqua (WI) the place to be (Le Crosse Tribune) http://bit.ly/2tzvqDi
  • Edible Doom And Gloom: LA’s Most Expensive New Restaurant Wants to Depress You for Dinner (The Hollywood Reporter) http://bit.ly/2tjaTjQ

 

Hunger, Food Access & Security, Obesity & Malnutrition

  • Bride Throws Party For The Homeless After Canceling $30,000 Wedding (Huffington Post) http://bit.ly/2u79lwr
  • SNAP Works (Huffington Post) http://bit.ly/2uddAY7                    Access to food stamps in childhood has long-lasting education and health benefits.

 

Gleaning, Reuse, Recycling, Composting & Waste

  • Urban Gleaning Grows Up (Civil Eats) http://bit.ly/2ujIaP8        From branch-sensing technology and drones to supporting refugees, the urban gleaning movement is ripe with innovation.
  • Wasted food could feed a healthy diet to two-thirds of Americans (The New Food Economy) http://bit.ly/2qBT2nH
  • Is It Really So Offal? ‘Ugly Food’ Boot Camp Entices Chefs And Diners (NPR) http://n.pr/2sxG9hk
  • Good Lord, The World Is Using Almost 500 Billion Plastic Water Bottles A Year (Fast Company) http://bit.ly/2spQhu5                      We’ll hit 580 billion by 2021
  • Plastic pollution risks ‘near permanent contamination of natural environment’ (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2u8XWdQ                      First global analysis of all mass-produced plastics has found humans have produced 8.3bn tonnes since 1950s with the majority ending up on landfill or oceans

 

Healthy/Safe Food

  • The Kings of ‘Rotten Eggs’ Are Going to Jail (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2tMSqz5                                                                                          Jack and Peter DeCoster, the former heads of Quality Egg Co., were finally punished for their role in a Salmonella outbreak.
  • Egg mogul Jack DeCoster sickened 56,000 people. He’ll serve just three months in prison (The New Food Economy) http://bit.ly/2u6KzNd
  • ‘We’re Losing More People to the Sweets than to the Streets’: Why Two Black Pastors are Suing Coca-Cola (The Washington Post) http://wapo.st/2tkC6D1
  • (Un)Happy Macaroni and Cheese Day: Toxic Chemicals Discovered in 10 Varieties of Macaroni and Cheese Powders (Environmental Health Strategy Center) http://bit.ly/2uxYnl4

 

Children & School Food

  • Check Out These Apps That Help Kids Find Free Meals in the Summer (modern farmer) http://bit.ly/2t5MfTU

 

Labor/Unions/Coops

  • Monsanto’s Foes Are Branching Out (Bloomberg BNA) http://bit.ly/2t9VYcI
    • Monsanto Just Got Hit With a Lawsuit It Didn’t See Coming (Mother Jones) http://bit.ly/2tr5Ct8                                              Migrant workers say they weren’t paid minimum wage for their work in the company’s fields.
  • Work sick or lose pay? (Economic Policy Institute) http://bit.ly/2sCDvne                                                                                            The high cost of being sick when you don’t get paid sick days
  • Chinese Laborers Built Sonoma’s Wineries. Racist Neighbors Drove Them Out (NPR) http://n.pr/2tjJAVX
  • San Francisco chefs leaving for rural areas in search of work-life balance (SF Chronicle) http://bit.ly/2t5UMGp

 

Protests

  • The global struggle of the local peasant (AlJazeera) http://bit.ly/2vl0Rzr                                                                                              Free trade agreements scripted by powerful governments and corporations destroy rural areas. Peasants will resist them!
  • Poverty Wages, Deportations, Wage Theft, Cockroaches: Farmworkers Demand Dignity From Ben & Jerry’s (Truthout) http://bit.ly/2tOw0eT

 

Pollinators

  • field tested: Neonics are really, truly bad for bees (Pesticide Action Network) http://bit.ly/2uuChje
    • Pesticides Are Harming Bees – But Not Everywhere, Major New Study Shows (NPR) http://n.pr/2tpE4oU
    • Country-specific effects of neonicotinoid pesticides on honey bees and wild bees (Science) http://bit.ly/2sXQOC7

 

Animals

  • An unlikely alternative to antibiotics: cayenne, sage, and cinnamon (The New Food Economy) http://bit.ly/2v5mbJ5
    • The Meat Industry Refuses to Track Drugs on America’s Farms – and It’s making Superbugs Worse (Mother Jones) http://bit.ly/2vsgPaZ                                                                          Alternatives to antibiotics exist, but farmers have no way to know when to use them.
  • This Beef Farmer Had a Change o Heart and Sent His Cows to a Sanctuary (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2vlycua                                                More than 60 cows will now get to live out their natural lives in peace.

 

Business, Social Enterprise & Our Economy

  • (Australian) Wholesalers on notice as grower group demands more transparency and fair pricing for farmers (ABC News AU) http://ab.co/2shzYv8
  • ‘The Restaurant Of Order Mistakes’ Hires People With Dementia So Every Order Is A Surprise (Diply) http://bit.ly/2vfdKeY
  • Big Food Snaps Up More Independents (Good Food World) http://bit.ly/2sQi3jn                                                                                            Today it was announced the Campbell’s will buy Pacific Foods, producer of organic and natural soups and broths, plant-based milks, and more. Last week, Hain Celestial snapped up Better Bean Company…
  • If Ben & Jerry’s Is Progressive, Why Won’t It Protect Its Farmworkers? (In These Times) http://bit.ly/2sDlULT        Remember, Ben & Jerry’s has been owned by Unilever since 2000
  • 1984 at the Grocery Store (Other Words) http://bit.ly/2vsp9HY    Amazon is buying Whole Foods, and that’s bad news for humans
  • Why Whole Foods’ Small Suppliers Think Amazon Will Be Good For Them (NPR) http://n.pr/2uiM4Vs                                                            The small companies that gave Whole Foods its local-food image are relieved to see Amazon taking over. But their hope may collide with the online retailer’s cost-cutting tactics.
  • Shoppers benefit from fierce Albany/North Berkeley grocery competition (East Bay Times) http://bayareane.ws/2uATFCF      New Albany (CA) Sprouts triggers ‘food fight,’ lower prices
  • Egg prices are at a record low, and nobody’s buying cage-free (The New Food Economy) http://bit.ly/2u0GWsu
  • Impossible Foods CEO: we want to eliminate all meat from human diets (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2t6uL93                                We can produce the food that people crave without using livestock, pledges Pat Brown founder of the ‘veggie burger that bleeds’
  • Detroit’s Underground Economy: Where Capitalism Fails, Alternatives Take Root (In These Times) http://bit.ly/2tzJaiC    Over decades of poverty, Detroiters have fostered a resilient informal economy based on trust.
  • Monopoly Capitalism in Action: How Amazon’s Acquisition of Whole Foods Could Affect Us All (Truthout) http://bit.ly/2szrP5p
    • Amazon’s Brave New Future: A Whole Foods where cheaper groceries come at a cost (Salon) http://bit.ly/2uG9xju
  • What happened when Walmart left (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2twTuGV                                                                                              In West Virginia, the people of McDowell County can’t get jobs, and recently lost their biggest employer – the local Walmart store. They describe the devastating loss of jobs, community and access to fresh food

 

Food Fraud/Scandals/Weird

  • Impostor Imports (The Cornucopia Institute) http://bit.ly/2uqeOwl                                                                                                To understand how the surge of organic imports is affecting organic farmers in the United States, one only has to talk to farmers…
  • Preference Or Prejudice? Central Europeans Ask Why They Get Cheaper Ingredients (NPR) http://n.pr/2t3yJUR

 

Water & Our Oceans

  • A New Zealand River Has Human Rights. Now Will Modern Law Come to Its Senses? (Yes!) http://bit.ly/2sCxp74
    • Ganges and Yamuna rivers granted same legal rights as human beings (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2nwOYGe                          Indian court cites the Whanganui in New Zealand as example for according status to two rivers considered sacred
  • Native Americans sue frackers over manmade earthquakes in Oklahoma (Nation of Change) http://bit.ly/2tYdIul                                  “If an earthquake comes through here and destroys the buildings, we can rebuild,. But if you pollute our water, we’re done.”
  • As Pruitt Guts Water Rules, EPA Will Allow Fracking Waste Dumping in the Gulf of Mexico (Truthout) http://bit.ly/2ubC7vU
  • Global use of wastewater to irrigate agriculture at least 50 percent greater than thought (Science Daily) http://bit.ly/2tIIc3o
  • ‘People Power Defeating Corporate Power’”: Atlantic City Says People Have Say Over Their Water (Common Dreams) http://bit.ly/2ugm9Rj                                                                                                “A ringing endorsement of the work done by community members to save their water system from a corporate takeover.”
  • Why Coastal Tribes Are Growing Clam Gardens That Look Like Asian Rice Fields (Yes!) http://bit.ly/2tUeNmZ
  • The First Offshore Shellfish Ranch Opens in the US, on the LA County Coastline (LA Weekly) http://bit.ly/2swOUtE
    • Catalina Sea Ranch http://bit.ly/2sxjaVc                                                First offshore shellfish ranch in US Federal Waters
  • Restaurants Are Returning Their Empty Oyster Shells To The Ocean To Rebuild Decimated Reefs (Fast Company) http://bit.ly/2sOuWps                                                                                               A partnership between a nonprofit and waste-management company in Mobile, Alabama has already diverted 2.8 million oyster shells from landfill.
  • Seven right whales found dead in ‘devastating’ blow to endangered animal (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2tTuk6l
  • Fish Farming Is So Filthy That Salmon Are Getting Lice (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2tQajeA                                                                                                    A study published in 2015 noted that factory-farmed salmon become “so depressed they give up on life.”
  • Salmon (farmed) retail prices set to leap owing to infestation of sea lice (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2vgICef                                  Wholesale cost rose 50% in 2016 as fish farmers from Scotland to Norway and Chile tried to tackle parasite problem
  • Study: Fish on Factory Farms So Stressed and Depressed They “Give Up On Life” (Mercy For Animals) http://bit.ly/2t7v3kK

 

Government/Regulation/Policy/Farm Bill

  • New Rules Against Animal Cruelty Raise The Stake For India’s Beef Wars (NPR) http://n.pr/2tSmgmN
  • EPA – Approved Dicamba Is an Airborne Menace and Some States Are Banning It (modern farmer) http://bit.ly/2u9EYpI
  • Trump Administration Gives Industry More Time to Adopt New Nutrition Fact Label (NPR) http://n.pr/2tYNZj1
  • “Why the hell am I paying more for this?” Major egg operations houses “USDA Organic” hens at three per square foot (The Washington Post) http://wapo.st/2urHrwh
  • The USDA is Helping Industrial Hydroponics Water Down the Definition of Organic Farming (In These Times) http://bit.ly/2tZLe0Z
  • (California) Farmers seek help from Sen. Kamala Harris. What did they want most? Hint: Starts with ‘w’ (Fresno Bee) http://bit.ly/2szhrdR                                                                                  Agricultural leaders and farmers pressed their case for a reliable water supply, immigration reform and their fair share of the Farm Bill during a roundtable discussion with Sen. Kamala Harris…
  • (California) State Seizes Farina’s Liquor License To Recover $274K In Unpaid Taxes (hoodline) http://bit.ly/2txQmHL
  • Republicans in several states are lowering the minimum wage – yes, you read that right (Salon) http://bit.ly/2tvIwli                              With the political world focused on the health care battle, Republicans in at least four (Missouri, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine) seek to cut wages
  • Missouri Republicans Lower St. Louis Minimum Wage From $10 to $7.70 (Huffington Post) http://bit.ly/2sjRUW7 and St. Louise minimum wage will drop from $10 to $7.70 (CNN) http://cnn.it/2sUEOhn
    • Missouri’s governor says raising the minimum wage will take money out of peoples pockets’ – so he’s lowering it (Business Insider) http://read.bi/2sLGuyw
    • Why the Minim Wage in St. Louise Is Going… Down (Governing the State and Localities) http://bit.ly/2tzqJrL
  • Maine’s new food sovereignty law put local control over local foods (Bangor Daily News) http://bit.ly/2sD6o2p
    • Maine’s new food sovereignty law means neighbors can sell each other raw milk (The New Food Economy) http://bit.ly/2u1fYAY
  • Monsanto’s Glyphosate to Be Listed on California’s Cancer-Causing Substances List (Care2) http://bit.ly/2tWVxFh                      It is a victory for environmental and health activists everywhere: glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup and other pesticide products, will officially be on California’s list of cancer-causing substances beginning July 7…
  • Minneapolis Just Adopted a $15 Minimum Wage in a Landslide Vote (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2tV0SwL                                                        City council members credit the hard work of grassroots labor organizations.

 

GMOs/Cloning/Food Technology/Synthetic Biology/Nanotechnology

  • Flacking for GMOs: How the Biotech Industry Cultivates Positive Media – and Discourages Criticism (The Progressive) http://bit.ly/2tJ5Ius
  • This Documentary Wants to Teach People About GMOs, But Experts Call It Propaganda (Munchies) http://bit.ly/2ui1Lgh        Marion Nestle’s response? “At this point, I think the less said about this film, the better.”
  • “Food Evolution”: Propaganda for Public Support of GMOs (Food First) http://bit.ly/2uJ2J5D
  • Food Politics: This Blog No Longer Accepts Comments, Thanks to GMO Trolls (EcoWatch) http://bit.ly/2tC5FTk
  • Have the ‘Food Evolution’ Fimmakers Mistreated Moms? (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2uUt5AQ                                                                    The documentary negatively portrays the entire organic food movement.

 

Poisons

  • Organic food backed by landmark report warning pesticides far more dangerous than was thought (Telegraph UK) http://bit.ly/2uiz59C                                                                                            Who ever thought that eating neurotoxins was safe, or petrochemicals?
  • Arkansas just banned the weedkiller that damaged hundreds of farmers’ crops this year (grist) http://bit.ly/2tqkiIR
    • Worry over dicamba grips Arkansas farmers (Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette) http://bit.ly/2uHUPZb
    • Farmers Say This Weedkiller Is Also Killing Their Soybean Plants (Mother Jones) http://bit.ly/2tynP6l                            Hundreds of complaints led to the Arkansas Plant Board to vote for a temporary ban on dicamba.
  • How hard is it to find products with these toxic chemicals? Shockingly easy. (Environmental Defense Fund) http://bit.ly/2sS6sAC

 

Events

  • NOFA Summer Conference                                                                       August 11 – 13, 2017                                                                               Hampshire College                                                                                       Amherst, MA                                                 http://nofasummerconference.org/

 

  • Using Gardens to Build Community: Summer Institute For Educators                                                                                                             August 15, 2017                                                                                 Poughkeepsie Farm Project 51                                                     Pughkeepsie, NY                                             http://nesawg.org/events/using-gardens-build-community-summer-institute-educators
  • Yale Food Systems Symposium                                                           September 29 – 30, 2017                                                                                   Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies                               New Haven, CT                                             https://yalefoodsymposium.org/
  • Undoing Racism In The Food System                                                   October 9 – 12, 2017                                                                                           Soul Fire Farm                                                                                             Petersburg, NY                                         http://www.soulfirefarm.org/food-sovereignty-education/undoing-racism-farmers-immersion/

 

  • NESAWG It Takes A Region Conference                                       November 9 – 11, 2017                                                                                     Lord Baltimore Hotel                                                                                   Baltimore, MD                                                 http://nesawg.org/conference
  • Community Food Systems Conference                                       December 5 – 7, 2017                                                                                     Boston Park Plaza Hotel                                                                                 Boston, MA                                                             https://nesfp.org/community-food-systems-conference-2017
GrowCalgary Blog Posts

Jenny’s Food & Ag Update July 6, 2017

 

  • Agroecology in the Context of Urban Agriculture and Food Justice Movements (The Cooperative New School for Urban Studies and Environmental Justice) http://bit.ly/2tdgZG9
  • Lebanese Grocery Store In Brooklyn Was Just Ranked The Best In The United States! (The961) http://bit.ly/2sYuHez
  • Too Many Americans Apparently Think Chocolate Milk Comes From Brown Cows (Huffington Post) http://bit.ly/2ts7M8P
  • We Will Son Be Using More Than The Earth Can Provide (Yes!) http://bit.ly/2sDuyhl                                                                                        Forget the GP, it’s time for our leaders to pay attention to metrics that matter.
  • Bakery Takes Pan-Maker to Court After $120,00 Worth of Cakes Get Ruined in Dessert Disaster (Time) http://ti.me/2sCipsF          US Foods sued for faulty cake pans…
  • Growing Community and Feeding the Revolution on an Atlanta Urban Farm (Civil Eats) http://bit.ly/2rrInQt
  • Farming Pathogens: An Evolutionary Biologist on the Links Between Big Ag and Disease (In These Times) http://bit.ly/2suxkVD
  • Scientists Scramble To Understand The Invisible Creatures Around Us Before It’s Too Late (Ensia) http://bit.ly/2rzbZui          Researchers are uncovering the importance of the trillion-plus kinds of microbes on the planet – even as they worry the richness could be disappearing.

 

Farmers, Farming, Ranching, Herding & Production

  • Australian farmer’s weed-destroying invention draws world interest (ABC News AU) http://ab.co/2rViQKR
  • The end of the family farm (Daily Kos) http://bit.ly/2sgh8Hi
    • Wisconsin Dairy Farmers Have Been Duped into Producing Too Much Milk (In These Times) http://bit.ly/2sEWB0l
    • USDA Food Prices and Spending 2017 http://bit.ly/2sIJNpZ
    • America Spends Less on Food than Any Other Country (Mother Jones) http://bit.ly/2rus8Od                                                  Keep in mind that US households spent 33% of income on food in 1963 and now spend 7% of income on food…

Food and Culture

  • The “Woke” Chef Behind the 1st Dominican Vegetarian Food Business in New York City (Medium) http://bit.ly/2tCPjXg

 

Hunger, Food Access & Security, Obesity & Malnutrition

  • Can Congolese Agriculture Fight Future Famines (National Geographic) http://on.natgeo.com/2rILfmZ                                               The Democratic Republic of the Congo is about the size of Western Europe, and only a fraction of its arable land is being used.
  • Call for mandatory screening to cut the risk of malnutrition in older people (The Conversation) http://bit.ly/2rIhliI
    • Study: Malnutrition risk of older people across district health board community, hospital and residential care setting in New Zealand (Australasain Journal on Ageing) http://bit.ly/2rDqfmB
  • The Nazis Used It, We Use It (London Review of Books) http://bit.ly/2r0B91j                                                                                            Alex de Waal on the return of famine as a weapon of war

 

Gleaning, Reuse, Recycling, Composting & Waste

  • All That Online Shopping Has Cardboard Consequences (NBC News) http://nbcnews.to/2st7bEJ                                                              And with Amazon buying Whole Foods…
  • A campaign to eliminate plastic straws I sucking in thousands of converts (The Washington Post) http://wapo.st/2u2EfUs

 

Healthy/Safe Food

  • Brining Healing Meals to the Chronically Ill in California (Civil Eats) http://bit.ly/2spYgUA                                                                  California nonprofits are advocating for a medically tailored meal pilot program for low-income residents.
  • Extra virgin olive oil staves off Alzheimer’s, preserves memory, new study shows (USA Today) https://usat.ly/2rV22n1
    • Extra-Virgin Olive Oil Preserves Memory and Protects Brain Against Alzheimer’s Disease, New Research at Temple Shows (Temple Health Newsroom) http://bit.ly/2sPAZxx
  • Association Between Indulgent Descriptions and Vegetable Consumption: Twisted Carrots and Dynamite Beets (JAMA) http://bit.ly/2sQlEN9
  • Doctors Want Sugar and ‘Cancer-Causing’ Foods Out of Hospitals (Live Science) http://bit.ly/2rzoJxG
    • Healthy Food in Health Care (Health Care Without Harm) http://bit.ly/1yHnb5P
    • Study: A growing opportunity: Community gardens affiliated with US hospitals and academic health centers (Science Direct) http://bit.ly/2sqdiuY
  • More peas or less Pepsi? Researchers compare how food policies could save lives (grist) http://bit.ly/2snxdJv
    • Study: Reducing US cardiovascular disease burden and disparities through national and targeted dietary policies: A modeling study (PLOS) http://bit.ly/2rCaqcu
    • Fruit and vegetable subsidies may work five times better than soda taxes (New Food Economy) http://bit.ly/2sfmmBw          What about using soda tax revenue to subsidize the cost of fresh fruits and vegetables?
  • Data reveals farmed salmon to be one of the most toxic foods in the world (Nation of Change) http://bit.ly/2sdLhXP
  • Doctors Are Warning Patients to Eat Less Meat (Mother Jones) http://bit.ly/2sAqnTS                                                                                             And more major medical groups are endorsing a diet heavier in plants.
  • You May Be Eating Chicken Contaminated With a Hallucinogenic Drug (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2sJUtTL                                                          The nation’s third biggest poultry produce is falsely advertising chicken that tested positive for a slew of drugs as “100% Natural.”     We all should know by now that there is no federal regulations on the use of the word ‘natural.’ It is meaningless…
  • Do poor people eat more junk food than wealthier Americans? (The Conversation) http://bit.ly/2t2mi85                                                  No, they don’t, it is the middle class that eats the most…
  • Study: The association between socioeconomic status and adult fast food consumption in the US (Economics & Human Biology) http://bit.ly/2rD4fZ5
  • Is Lean in the US Food Supply Decreasing Our IQ? (The Conversation) http://bit.ly/2rDgqoD                                                               A study has found that nearly 9 out of 10 baby food grape juice samples had detectable levels of lead in them.
  • Baby Food More Likely To Contain Lead Than Normal Food, Study Finds (Huffington Post) http://bit.ly/2sfXNnW                                  “There is no safe lead level.”
  • Why mounds of chicken tenders, pork bangers and canned pasta are on a recall (Miami Herald) http://hrld.us/2so505h

 

Education

 

Children & School Food

 

Labor/Unions/Coops

  • Rigged (USA Today) https://usat.ly/2ry2wnV                                    Forced into debt. Worked past exhaustion. Left with nothing.               This is why port truck drivers at the West Coast Ports of Seattle, Tacoma, Oakland, Los Angeles and Long Beach have all gone on strike in recent years. Many of these are the same issues that FedEx lost a court case on in 2014 http://bit.ly/2teha0Q
  • Labor Shortage Leaves $13 Million in Crops to Rot in Fields (Santa Barbara Independent) http://bit.ly/2t2IKAk                          More Mexican Immigrants are Leaving the US Than Arriving
  • California’s Wine Industry was Built on Slave Labor (The Daily Beast) http://thebea.st/2tEEjtq                                                                  During the 1850s gold rush, vineyard owners used an army of enslaved Native American workers.
  • Prison Labor Is The New American Slavery and Most of Us Unknowingly Support It By Spending Money With These Companies (Counter Current News) http://bit.ly/2rH9ems
    • Prison Labor: Three Strikes and You’re Hired (Ella Baker Center for Human Rights) http://bit.ly/1Cqf4gZ
    • ‘Modern-Day Slavery’” Many Southern States Have Prison Inmates Working in Governor’s Mansions and Capitol Buildings (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2tdD7A1                              Another old tradition that belongs in the dustbin of history.
  • A New Farm Worker Union Is Born (American Prospect) http://bit.ly/2toGG6S                                                                              Indigenous Oaxacan farm workers win themselves a union in the Pacific Northwest.
  • Farmworkers at Sakuma ratify historic first union contract (NW Labor Press) http://bit.ly/2swpby7
  • Farmworker union reaches tentative contract deal with Sakuma berry farms (Seattle Times) http://bit.ly/2rrqTPY

 

Protests

  • Veteran Organizer Gives Inside Look at the First $15 Minimum Wage Campaign (In These Times) http://bit.ly/2sy1F2E

 

Pollinators

 

Animals

 

Business, Social Enterprise & Our Economy

  • Organic Sector Posts Record US Sale: Survey (Progressive Grocer) http://bit.ly/2udnaGO                                                            Category growth outstrips conventional counterparts
  • Will Factory Farm Industry Evolve and Embrace Change – or Continue Practice of Torturing Chickens to Death? (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2sfqva2                                                                                                  Big retail customers lie Burger King and Subway are finally demanding change.
  • JBS to sell assets of Colorado-based Five Rivers, world’s largest cattle feeder (Denver Business Journal) http://bit.ly/2sPO2z4
  • Soda and Fast Food Lobbyists Push State Preemption Laws to Prevent Local Regulation (Forbes) http://bit.ly/2tOdcfJ                      Big food has a lots of power, it willing to use it, and cares about profit, not America’s health.
  • Amazon To Buy Whole Foods For $13.7 Billion (Huffington Post) http://bit.ly/2siQpbq
    • Why Amazon Bought Whole Foods (The Atlantic) http://theatln.tc/2tzaMjO                                                                            The retailer’s $14 billion bet isn’t just about the future of food. It’s about the future of commerce – especially for rich urban consumers.
  • Amazon’s Move On Whole food Is Primal More Than ‘Disruption’ (Medium) http://bit.ly/2ssM6u2
    • Amazon Deal for Whole Foods Starts a Supermarket War (NYT) http://nyti.ms/2sdywwe
    • Amazon Buying Whole Foods Will Stoke A Price War In The Grocery Business (Forbes) http://bit.ly/2tfoxVI
    • Amazon has a patent to keep you from comparison shopping while you’re in its stores (The Washington Post) http://wapo.st/2tDauIU                                                                        Amazon was awardee a patent May 30 that could help it choke of a common issue faced by many physical stores: Customers’ use of smartphones to compare prices…
  • Can food hubs boost rural farming economies? (High Country News) http://bit.ly/2bw92B4                                                                           The Department of Agriculture is funding new initiatives to streamline local food systems.
  • Can food hubs make small farms economically feasible? (High Country News) http://bit.ly/2rKbc5F                                                                A new effort near Lake Tahoe, California, brings farms and food buyers together to buck the system.
  • Migrant Workers Pour Trillions Into World Economy (IPS) http://bit.ly/2sisyIP
    • Report: Sending Money Home: Contributing to the SDGs, one family at a time (International Fund for Agricultural Development) http://bit.ly/2sYfpEI

 

Food Fraud/Scandals/Weird

 

Water & Our Oceans

  • A judge’s ruling on Standing Rock reinforces treaty rights (High Country News) http://bit.ly/2rFqDRH                                                        The first in a series of lawsuits sides with tribal sovereignty
  • Judge’s DAPL Ruling, Reckless Spill Record Pushes pipeline Company’s Shares Below $20 for First Time (EcoWatch) http://bit.ly/2taKCoq
  • The Colorado River is shrinking because of climate change (High Country News) http://bit.ly/2sHh98s                                                              A long-term drought threatens Western cities’ water supplies.
  • 5 Michigan officials charged with manslaughter in Flint water crisis (Nation of Change) http://bit.ly/2ttJH1F
  • Cancer-causing compound in (SF) East Bay Drinking water reaches near critical level (KRON4) http://bit.ly/2toq8YG
  • Scotch Whisky’s Future May Rest on Restoration (National Geographic) http://on.natgeo.com/2hszDnK                                         The Glenmorangie Distillery is embarking on an ambitious plan to restore oysters to the Dornoch Firth.
  • If you can’t beat ‘em, eat ‘em: Pasties may help cram woes (Phys.org)                                                                                                                       The unwanted crabs that have plagued Maine’s clam beds for years might soon play a new role – as appetizer.
  • Bummer: Report Card says some Southern California beaches hazardous to your health (LA Times) http://lat.ms/2sKsFzD

 

Government/Regulation/Policy/Farm Bill

  • The EPA Quietly Approve Monsanto’s New Genetic-Engineered Technology The Atlantic) http://theatln.tc/2sYwQXV                          It’s the first time RNA interference will be used to kill insect pests.
  • EPA chief met with Dow Chemical CEO before deciding not to ban toxic pesticide (LA Times) http://lat.ms/2tjmrXD
    • Environmentalists sue EPA for reversing Obama-era move to ban pesticide (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2nOawLm                  The EPA chief, Scott Pruitt, has ignored the scientific recommendation of his own agency to allow continued use of chlorpyrifos, despite its links to brain damage
  • Trump give pen to dow chemical CEO after signing executive order to eliminate regulations (Nation of Change) http://bit.ly/2sg8BS6
  • Crackdown on Immigration Is Terrible News for Anyone Who Eats Food (Mother Jones) http://bit.ly/2t9Xmy1                                    And it’s particularly bad news for farmers.
  • Brace for food price hikes thanks to Donald Trump’s deportation force (Daily Kos) http://bit.ly/2sYXMqt
  • EPA chief met with Dow CEO before deciding on pesticide ban (AP News) http://apne.ws/2sORv0i
    • EPA Chief’s Refusal To Ba Pesticide ‘Puts All Children At Risk,’ Pediatricians Warn (Huffington Post) http://bit.ly/2t8GVzV    The American Academy of Pediatrics says the agency “has no basis” to continue allowing brain-damaging chlorpyrifos on crops.
  • PRIME At Would Help Put the ‘Local’ Back in Local Meat Production (reason.com) http://bit.ly/2rClVjD                                States could set their own rules for meat that’s processed and sold within their own borders.
  • LePage (Maine) signs food sovereignty law, the first of its kind in the nation (Bangor Daily News) http://bit.ly/2sYd0NH                        … LePage signed LD 725, An Act to Recognize Local Control Regarding Food Systems, Friday legitimizing th authority of towns and communities to enact ordinances regulating local food distribution free from stat regulatory control.
  • California to Monsanto: Glyphosate is going on the cancer list (The New Food Economy) http://bit.ly/2suiRp0
    • California Gives a Giant Middle Finger to Monsanto (Fusion) http://bit.ly/2stXuEl
    • California Is Risking Public Health by Improperly Assessing Safety of Monsanto Herbicide (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2smtvzT                                                                            California’s proposed “safe Level” of glyphosate, the main ingredient in RoundUp, does nothing to protect citizens from harm.
  • Louis $10 minimum wage will revert back to $7.70 in August, (Gov) Greitens announces (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) http://bit.ly/2sdZzVR
  • San Jose to Crack Down on ‘Unpermitted’ Food Handouts to Homeless (NBC Bay Area) http://bit.ly/2tgx7Wr                                  Here we go again, vilifying those who have fallen pray to our economic policies…

GMOs/Cloning/Food Technology/Synthetic Biology/Nanotechnology

  • Braking: Kansas jury rules in favor of 7,000 farmers against Syngenta (The New Food Economy) http://bit.ly/2t0nARy
  • Monsanto Spin Doctors Target Scientists in Flawed Reuters Story (Huffington Post) http://bit.ly/2smK1zP
    • Here is the disputed Reuters Story: Cancer agency left in the dark over glyphosate evidence (Reuters) http://reut.rs/2sau2oD
  • Neil deGrasse Tyson Narrates New Doc ‘Food Evolution’ – a Blatant Case of Monsanto Corporate Propaganda (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2swL00r                                                                                          With its skewed presentation of science and data, the documentary is a flagrant example of propaganda for the agrichemical industry.
  • Neil deGrasse Tyson Owes a More Honest Conversation About GMOs than ‘Food Evolution’ (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2ti8iKl            By promoting Monsanto’s corporate propaganda, Tyson risks losing many of his devoted fans.
  • Top US Intelligence Official Calls Gene Editing a WMD Threat (MIT Technology Review) http://bit.ly/1TbcvWx                                  Easy to use. Hard to control. The intelligence community now sees CRISPR as a threat to national safety.
  • Researchers Have Traced The Genes For Antibiotic Resistance Back to Their Source (Science Alert) http://bit.ly/2tAhZQD

 

Poisons

 

Resources

 

GrowCalgary Blog Posts

Jenny’s Food & Ag Update June 14, 2017

 

  • The Politics of Food: The More Things Stay the Same, the More They Change (Food First) http://bit.ly/2sdUNuR
  • Organic foods backed by landmark report warning pesticides far more dangerous than was thought (The Telegraph) http://bit.ly/2qQYqSF
  • Study reveals tremendous benefits of eating less meat (treehugger) http://bit.ly/2pdD3dk
    • Study: Analysis and valuation of the health and climate change cobenefits of dietary change (Proceedings of the National academy of Sciences) http://bit.ly/2aMPT0o
  • Tomatoes Hate Cucumbers: Secrets of Companion Planting + Popular Planting Combinations (The Homestead) http://bit.ly/2rcORAW
  • ABC News May Have to Pay Billions of Dollars Because of “Pink Slime” (Mother Jones) http://bit.ly/2rWaqXc                                          But the food industry brought it on itself.
  • Eating on the Brink: How Food Could Prevent a Climate Disaster (Civil Eats) http://bit.ly/2rzrUZs                                                                        To address climate change, we must talk about food.
  • We Know for Sure That Bread Is Unhealthy – for the Environment, at Least (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2sfSWmp        Scientists have uncovered the true cost of a loaf of bread, and the planet is paying a dear price.
  • Here’s a Rare Glimpse of the Local People Impacted by the Destruction of Indonesia’s Rainforests (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2qNkSRc
  • Farmers Union: Agitate, Organize, Educate, and Cooperate (National Farmers Union) http://bit.ly/2rotmeQ
    • Our Chemical-Dependent, Profit-Driven, Industrial Age Complex is Not Going Quietly (In These Times) http://bit.ly/2sxWXC2
  • World’s first commercial carbon sucking machine turns greenhouse gas into fertilizer (Nation of Change) http://bit.ly/2rNTgfd
  • A Farm Journalist Tells Farmers What They’d Rather Not Hear About Climate Change (NPR) http://n.pr/2qL7KfE
  • Beyond organic: How regenerative farming can save us from global catastrophe (Nation of Change) http://bit.ly/2sBx6dh
  • As Climate Change Threatens Food Supplies, Seed Saving is an Ancient Act of Resilience (Yes!) http://bit.ly/2rZzSLx
  • Fractal planting patterns yield optimal harvests, without central control (Phys.ORG) http://bit.ly/2t9R51N                                              Bali’s famous rice terraces, when seen from above, look like colorful mosaics because some farmers plant synchronously, while other plant at different times. The resulting fractal patterns are rare for man-made systems and lead to optimal harvest without global planning.

 

Farmers, Farming, Ranching, Herding & Production

  • How this ninth-generation Californian got his start in organic farming (LA Times) http://lat.ms/2s9ymqq
  • California Farmers: How the State Feeds a Nation (LA Times) http://lat.ms/2kfb7aH                                                                                              … There are other fascinating tidbits scattered through the report. For example, while there are plenty of large farmers in California – 8,700 earned more than $500,000 in 2012 – they are vastly outnumbered by smaller farms – a little more than 61,000 earned less than $100,000…
  • California Agricultural Production Statistics (California Department of Food and Agriculture) http://bit.ly/2e3MEzw
  • Women Small-Holder Farmers, Key Drivers for Sustainable Production (Inter Press Service) http://bit.ly/2r2CBzz
  • Farmers Face Uphill Battle in Right to Repair Tractors (Civil Eats) http://bit.ly/2rL2nKp                                                                              Manufacturerers have out-lobbied and outspent equipment owners 28 – 1.
  • Can America’s Farms Survive the Threat of Deportations? (The Atlantic) http://theatln.tc/2qTVIMN                                                              In upstate New York, both workers and the farmers who employ them fear more aggressive immigration enforcement.
  • Desire for their labor, rejected as neighbors. Farmworkers in California face hostile communities (LA Times) http://lat.ms/2rsnscH
  • Trump’s rash departure from Paris agreement leaves farmers worse off (The Hill) http://bit.ly/2rx4eTc

 

Food and Culture

  • Blackfeet Researcher Leads Her Tribe Back to Traditional Foods (Yes!) http://bit.ly/2se33uK                                                                            Forced assimilation destroyed most nations’ diets, but now Native youth are learning to integrate local foods back into their daily lives.
  • 100 years after it disappeared, a giant Florida watermelon is brought back to life (Tampa Bay Times) http://bit.ly/2rVgdKu
  • Thee Battle Over Kooks Burritos Led to Death Threats and International Outrage. We Invited Portland Chefs to Weigh In. (Willamette Week) http://bit.ly/2sggKZW                                                  The story about Kooks provided tinder for a cultural inferno.

 

Hunger, Food Access & Security, Obesity & Malnutrition

  • How Do We End ‘Food Apartheid’ in America? With Farms Like This One (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2slm9iR                                            SoulFire Farm in upstate New York delivers fresh, nutritious food to poor communities.
  • Why Can’t America Solve the Hunger Problem? (Citylab) http://bit.ly/2sAQ0Ua                                                                                            The new book Big Hunger: The Unholy Alliance Between Corporate America and Anti-Hunger Groups agues that food bans and pantries don’t chip away at underlying issues that keep people food-insecure.     
  • The Food Stamp Program Is An Overwhelming Success. That Might Also Be Its Downfall. (Huffington Post) http://bit.ly/2rb8ZAY
  • Alabama counties cut 85% of their food stamp participants with no work in sight (Daily Kos) http://bit.ly/2rF42TL
    • ‘I’ve got to make $15 stretch’: Food stamp cuts hit Alabama’s Black Belt hard (AL.com) http://bit.ly/2sr3Msu

 

  • Trump wants to start charging stores to accept food stamps (cnbc) http://cnb.cx/2rBVDjW
    • Donald Trump wants to charge retailers a fee for accepting food stamps as payment from the poor.
    • The food stamp fee would be reassessed every five years.
    • Budget office predicts $2.4 billion in new revenue from the fee, which is seen hurting independent grocers more than big chains.
    • Separately, the Trump administration is proposing $191 billion in cuts over the next decade to the food stamp program.
  • Why It Was Easier to Be Skinny in the 1980’s (The Atlantic) http://theatln.tc/2rbZsvX                                                                                       A new study finds that people today who eat and exercise the same amount as people 20 years ago are still fatter.
  • Study: Secular differences in the association between caloric intake, macronutrient intake, and physical activity with obesity (Obesity Research & Clinical Practice) http://bit.ly/2t1P2h4

 

Gleaning, Reuse, Recycling, Composting & Waste

  • The Truth About Meal-Kit Freezer Packs (Mother Jones) http://bit.ly/2sg2alv                                                                                        They’re big. They’re filled with goo. And they’re rapidly accumulating in a landfill near you.                                                                                                     It’s not just the freezer-packs, every thing in that meal kit is wrapped in plastic, more to contaminate our environment and oceans…

 

Healthy/Safe Food

  • Organic foods backed by landmark report warning pesticides far more dangerous than was thought (The Telegraph) http://bit.ly/2qQYqSF
    • Report: Human health implications of organic food and organic agriculture (European Parliament) http://bit.ly/2jiica8
  • Scientists’ Study Sweetens Connection Between Cancer, Sugar (University of Texas at Dallas) http://bit.ly/2rmikqB
  • Chances Are, Your Soft Serve Ice Cream Is Filled With Funky Ingredients (Huffington Post) http://bit.ly/2rUpkeB

 

Children & School Food

  • Press Release: Text To Find A Free Summer Meals Site Near You (No Kid Hungry) http://bit.ly/2r9VBAT
    • Fresh California Fruits & Vegetables in summer meals for all kids. Now. (summer meals) http://bit.ly/2qYGHbZ
  • Delivering Summer Meals to Rural, Low-Income Kids with Retired School Buses (Civil Eats) http://bit.ly/2siCxAc                    The Lunch Express, a project from the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee, aims to feed kids and families during summer break in a region where on in four children lives at or below the poverty line.
  • A startup for millennial parents is banking on a $55 billion food opportunity no one talks about (Business Insider) http://read.bi/2s7tqjg                                                                                          Meal delivery service for baby…
  • Two East Bay schools, with chef Alice Waters’ help, commit to serving all organic meals next year (East Bay Express) http://bayareane.ws/2s1SHhz

 

Labor/Unions/Coops

  • DA: East Bay buffet owners stole $6.5 million, forced workers to live in racially segregated dorms (East Bay Times) http://bayareane.ws/2rfZVuD
  • ‘I just don’t call out sick anymore at all’: New report says Walmart punishes employees for taking sick days (Business Insider) http://read.bi/2rnTCJr
  • Walmart is asking employees to deliver packages on their way home from work (SF Gate) http://bit.ly/2qIhhjD
  • ‘An Idea Whose Time Has Come’: Lawmakers Roll Out Plan to Expand Worker Ownership (Common Dreams) http://bit.ly/2q9kUBa                                                                                    ‘Giving workers a seat at the table and their fair share of the profits they help produce is one way to even up the playing field and give hardworking Americans a chance to create an economy that works for everyone’

 

Protests

  • Veteran Organizer Gives Inside Look at the First $15 minimum Wage Campaign (In These Times) http://bit.ly/2sy1F2E                 The Fight for $15 and Trump resistance movement are teaming up “for a world where working for one of the riches corporations means you’ll never wind up homeless.”
  • Massive March on McDonald’s Take On “Donald Trump of Corporations” (Common Dreams) http://bit.ly/2s2lPFh                   The Fight for $15 and Trump resist
  • Wendy’s Board Chairman and billionaire investor Nelson Peltz to rabbis: “I have plenty of rabbis in my life… “ (Coalition of Immokalee Workers) http://bit.ly/2ratOjQ

 

Pollinators

  • Wild Bees Can Help Honey Bees – How Your Yard Can Supoort Them (Yes!)
  • How Grizzlies, Monarchs and Even Fish Can Benefit From US Highways (ensina) http://bit.ly/2qaQsUL                                            Roads often present perils for wildlife – but with good planning, they can benefit animals instead.

 

Animals

  • Resistance to last-ditch antibiotic has spread farther than anticipated (nature) http://go.nature.com/2rfyBws                Emergence of colistin resistance in farm animals around the world takes researchers by surprise.                                                                               We have know this is coming since the early 1970s, where is the surprise?
  • With New Leadership on the Way, Public Health Experts Demand WHO Take on Factory Farms (Common Dreams) http://bit.ly/2rNN9r6                                                                                          “The harms caused by large-scale, industrial animal farming are global in nature and felt beyond those who consume meat, dairy, and eggs,’ states a new open letter

 

Business, Social Enterprise & Our Economy

  • Despite Many Challenges, Grassfed Beef Could Go Mainstream (Civil Eats) http://bit.ly/2r9nOI8                                                                    The first in-depth analysis of the industry found the niche market has the potential to scale up to compete with conventional beef.
  • Report: Back To Grass: The Market Potential For US Grassfed Beef (Stone Barns Center) http://bit.ly/2pbhYlr
  • Behind a corporate monster: How Monsanto pushes agricultural domination (Green Left Weekly) http://bit.ly/2t9jXYj
  • The Astounding Size of the Marijuana Economy Dwarfs 10 of America’s Most Popular Food and Drink Staples (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2sy80uY
  • Backers of Honduran dam opposed by murdered activist withdraw funding (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2qT77kd
  • After Coal, a Small Kentucky Town Builds a Healthier, More Creative Economy (Yes!) http://bit.ly/2rkktkK                            Catering, farmers market, farmacy program, commercial kitchen, commercially packaged food products, maple syrup…
  • A report that analyzed every minimum-wage hike since 1938 should put a bunch of nonsense ideas to rest (Business Insider) http://read.bi/2e4SOOx
    • Report: Raise Wages, Kill Jobs? Seven Decades of Historical Data Find No correlation Between Minimum Wage Increases and Employment Levels (National Employment Law Project) http://bit.ly/1NX7xfd
  • Earn minimum wage in the US? You can afford to live in exactly 12 counties (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2r7xpPF

 

Food Fraud/Scandals/Weird

  • The Deceptive Art of Food Fraud (The Atlantic) http://theatln.tc/2r5TFV6                                                                                  The long history of fake foods includes horse-meat hamburgers, oil-and dust-peppercorns, and corn-syrup honey.
  • How millions of cartons of ‘organic’ milk contain an oil brewed in industrial vats of algae (The Washington Post) http://wapo.st/2shE8H2                                                              Schizochytrium algae is fed corn syrup…
  • DHA in ‘Organic’ Milk comes from Algae Fed Corn Syrup (The Cornucopia Institute) http://bit.ly/2rjY0o4
  • Wisconsin Corn Mill Explosion Leaves At Least 1 Dead, 11 Injured (Huffington Post) http://bit.ly/2rfwYkV

 

Water & Our Oceans

  • Michigan Health Chie Charged With Involuntary Manslaughter For Role In Flint Water Crisis (Huffington Post) http://bit.ly/2s18kon
  • The black-woman-owned business is trying to bring Flint clean water once and for all (mic) http://bit.ly/2sbtgJU
  • Over resident opposition, Trump administration approves Atlantic blasting (ThinkProgress) http://bit.ly/2ryOQYh            Seismic testing is strongly opposed along the Eastern Seaboard.
  • In The Fishing Industry, Gear Recycling is Finally Catching On (ensia) http://bit.ly/2ofsERd                                                                             Old fishing nets clutter harbors and kill sea life. But entrepreneurs are changing that.
  • Hundreds of Dead Seabirds, Sea Lions Wash Up In Southern California (Huffington Post) http://bit.ly/2rYh5R7                                The likely culprit is a toxic algal bloom, fueled by warmer ocean temperatures.
  • In the Depths of the Oceans, Human Activities are Beginning to Take Their Toll (ensia) http://bit.ly/2sXh3pr                                         Once seen as too remote to harm, the deep sea is facing new pressures from mining, pollution, overfishing and more.

 

Government/Regulation/Policy/Farm Bill

  • USDA Announces Farm to School Grant Awards – California among top recipients (CDFA) http://bit.ly/2soWiXs
  • There’s a New Way to Make Walmart Pay For The Food Stamps Employees Rely On (The Intercept) http://bit.ly/2skpjTq
    • Release: Rep. Khanna Introduces the Corporate Responsibility and Taxpayer Protection Act (house.gov) http://bit.ly/2rfun8f
    • Report: Walmart Workers Cost Taxpayers $6.2 Billion In Public Assistance (2012) (Forbes) http://bit.ly/2spAScC
    • Report: The High Public Cost of Low Wages (UC Berkeley Labor Center) http://bit.ly/1zaadcr
  • Trump Budget Enables Sales of America’s Wild Horses to Foreign Slaughter: Here Are 5 Better Ideas (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2sak9al                                                                                            From ecotourist attractions to border patrol mounts, wild horses are far more valuable alive than dead.
  • The EPA’s Inspector General Is Probing Whether An Agency Staffer Colluded With Monsanto (Huffington Post) http://bit.ly/2r5K6Wd                                                                                          The investigation comes in response to documents released in a court case of whether the herbicide glyphosate causes cancer.
  • How Chicken Farmers are Getting Clucked in a Supermarket Near You (In These Times) http://bit.ly/2qnCyhs
  • Stand Up for Family Farmers – Pass the Farmer Fair Practices Rules (National Farmers Union) http://bit.ly/2qQNdpR
  • Ontario becomes 2nd province to go ahead with $15 an hour minimum wage (Canadian Broadcasting Corp.) http://bit.ly/2qwh4Um

 

GMOs/Cloning/Food Technology/Synthetic Biology/Nanotechnology

 

Poisons

  • Roundup revealed: Glyphosate in our food system (Nation of Change) http://bit.ly/2sMYftw                                                                American regulators are dismissing key scientific data and continuing to raise the allowable limits for glyphosate residue in food.
  • What We Know About Chlorpyrifos, The Pesticide The EPA Thinks Is Bad But Won’t Ban (Forbes) http://bit.ly/2rt0xzy
  • Iowa’s oak trees are sick, and some say farm chemicals are to blame (The Des Moines Register) http://dmreg.co/2ta0W82             … There’s not much you can do about it, unless herbicide applied to corn and soybean fields is stopped, according to a DNR district forester.

 

Resources

  • Peasant Agroecology Schools and Peasant-to-Peasant Method of Horizontal Learning (Via Campesina) http://bit.ly/2r9i5Sx

 

Events

  • Slow Food Nations, Denver Colorado                                                           July 14 – 16, 2017                                                                 http://bit.ly/2rqTrfm
  • National Heirloom Exposition, 7th Annual                                       September 5 – September 7, 2017, 9am – 9pm                         Sonoma County Event Center at the Fairgrounds                               1350 Bennett Valley Rd., Santa Rosa, California 95404     http://theheirloomexpo.com/

 

Education

  • The Agroecology of Urban Farming: An Intensive Short Course (The Cooperative New School for Urban Studies and Environmental Justice) http://bit.ly/2rPLfDy

 

GrowCalgary Blog Posts

Jenny’s Food & Ag Update May 31, 2017

 

  • What ag schools really need to teach: a report (Food Politics) http://bit.ly/2qU2GlL
    • Report: The Challenge of Change: Harnessing University Discovery, Engagement, and Learning to Achieve Food & Nutrition Security (Association of Public & Land Grant Universities) http://bit.ly/2qMTH7E
  • The demand for ‘local’ food is growing — here’s why investors should pay attention (Business Insider) http://read.bi/2oNrLRO
  • Brexit and the coming food crisis: ‘If you can’t feed a country, you haven’t got a country’ (The Guardian)                                                 Britain’s food production depends on seasonal migrant labour from the EU. What will happen to those workers after Brexit? An how will it change the industry?
  • Ron Finley Celebrates Victory For His South Central Garden (Civil Eats) http://bit.ly/2qRFGGe                                                                    The renegade gardener who has long worked to give people in food deserts the ‘freedom to feed themselves’ has raised $550,000 to save his land.
  • Comes Down to Monopoly Control of the Aftermarket (Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting) http://bit.ly/2q60Fm5                    CounertSpin interview with Kyle Wiens on copyright overreaching
  • Chinese Chicken Is Headed To America, But It’s Really All about The Beef (NPR) http://n.pr/2pCDgfg
  • Mexico’s avocado army: how one city stood up to the drug cartels (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2riBAaz
  • If Raw Fruits or Veggies Give You a Tingly Mouth, It’s a Real Syndrome (NPR) http://n.pr/2qOh0fR
  • David Mas Masumoto: “I discovered that listening is love’ – the priceless art of story telling (The Fresno Bee) http://bit.ly/2ra8mrY

 

Farmers, Farming, Ranching, Herding & Production

  • In the Fields with Ben Burkett (Civil Eats) http://bit.ly/2rb7fdu   The fourth-generation farmer and legendary farm advocate shares lessons learned from his decades on the farm, the changes facing small farmers, and why to continue pushing for change.
  • What Do Farmers Need To Know About Climate Change? Conservation Planning (National Farmers Union) http://bit.ly/2qayMvi
  • In Napa, Mexican Americans have gone from migrant workers to vineyard owners. Here are 10 Latino-owned wineries to visit. (Matador Network) http://bit.ly/2r5FSzS
  • Birthplace of Fetzer’s Mendocino County win empire makes way for cannabis economy (Press Democrat) http://bit.ly/2qzGZWn
  • Farming and the geography of nutrient production for human use: a transdisciplinary analysis (The Lancet) http://bit.ly/2qSsHnv

 

Food and Culture

  • Street Smarts (Tasting Table) http://bit.ly/2qdCIso                            From the ultimate NYC pizza crawl to a market excursion in Hanoi, these are the 10 best street food tours around the world
  • This Week in Appropriation: Kooks Burritos and Willamette Week (The Portland Mercury) http://bit.ly/2qgBuvP
    • Portland Burrito Spot Shutters Amid Claims of Cultural Appropriation (Eater Portland, OR) http://bit.ly/2qIIaGy
  • The last farmer of Florida’s prized Zellwood corn is thinking of packing it in (Tampa Bay Times) http://bit.ly/2s1VR1U

 

Hunger, Food Access & Security, Obesity & Malnutrition

  • There Are 3 Major Famines on Our Planet Right Now – Can You Even Name Them? The Media Is Virtually Blacking Out Human Tragedy (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2oTUN1V                                        Millions of people are facing famine and drought in Somalia, South Sudan, and Yemen, but how many countries are paying attention?
  • Trump Wants Families On Food Stamps To Get Jobs. The Majority Already Work (NPR) http://n.pr/2rXBIce
    • Why Trump Cutting Food Stamps Could Starve America’s Economy (NBC News) http://nbcnews.to/2rNqmbA
    • Mulvaney: We must lower the debt for unborn children by taking food from existing children (Think Progress) http://bit.ly/2qjEZX8
    • The Problem Isn’t Food Stamps, It’s Poverty (NYT) http://nyti.ms/2rJSTld                                                                                    That so may working households qualify for the aid reflects the prevalence of low wage jobs, the real problem Washington should be solving.
  • GOP Congressman Declines To Say Whether Every American Is Entitled To Eat (Huffington Post) http://bit.ly/2r9JhgJ
  • Illinois Offers Devastating Preview of Trump-Style Cuts to ‘Meals on Wheels’ (In These Times) http://bit.ly/2rdGhSR
  • Donald Trump to Hungry Seniors: Drop Dead (The Nation) http://bit.ly/2r4mdQB                                                                                        Some 10 million elders are threatened by hunger – but the president’s budget would slash desperately needed funding for food programs.

 

Gleaning, Reuse, Recycling, Composting & Waste

  • If You Want To Be Healthier, Eat Your Trash (Huffington Post) http://bit.ly/2qBEyWS
    • Pumping Iron Down the Drain (Grist) http://bit.ly/2rzm6jd
    • Study: Wasted Food, Wasted Nutrients: Nutrient Loss from Wasted Food in the United States and Comparison to Gaps in Dietary Intake (Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics) http://bit.ly/2qtKx1k
  • Amazing building made from 1.5 million plastic bottles withstands fires and earthquakes (inhabitat) http://bit.ly/2r8yq9u
  • California’s Recycling Rate Drops Following Closures of More Than 500 Recycling Center (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2quqjj5            The state’s beverage container recycling rates have fallen below 80 percent for the first time since 2008.
  • It was a perfect California beach day … except for all the plastic pollution (LA Times) http://lat.ms/2pv30bJ
  • Why You Should Stop Feeding Your Baby From Trendy Little Food Pouches (Huffington Post) http://bit.ly/2s7vkA7                            They’re an environmental nightmare.

 

Healthy/Safe Food

  • More Than 5,600 Pounds of Beef, Pork, And Veal Recalled For E. Coli (Huffington Post) http://huff.to/2pj5bww                                     The meat was sold in six states.
  • California mom drizzled gas station cheese on her Doritos. Now, she’s fighting for her life (LA Times) http://lat.ms/2qC1gfB

 

Children & School Food

  • School District Switches to Local and Organic Meals, Cuts Carbon Footprint – and Saves Money (yes!) http://bit.ly/2rdUr7d  A new report reveals surprising results when Oakland overhauled its lunch menu at 100-plus schools by serving less meat and more fruits and vegetables.
  • Less Meat, Better Food, Happier Kids: Oakland Unified Reinvented its School Lunch (Civil Eats) http://bit.ly/2n9zoNK  In 2008 we transformed Oakland’s Senior Nutrition program (Meals on Wheels & Congregate Sites) to local, sustainably produced foods and cooked from scratch, we reduced our food costs by 1.6%, serving a vegetarian meal once a week…
  • Shaming Children So Parents Will Pay the School Lunch Bill (NYT) http://nyti.ms/2oZeLEE
    • Jim Hightower: Using lunch to punish the poor (Nation of Change) http://bit.ly/2rYyN40                                                              Nearly half of American school districts shame and stigmatize kids whose parents can’t afford school lunches.
  • America the cruel: While hedge fund managers pocket windfalls, kids lacking lunch money are shamed (Salon) http://bit.ly/2r0eLaH
  • ‘What is wrong with you?’: Michelle Obama savages Trump for gutting her legacy (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2pIlsv5              Former first lady attacks president’s reversal of regulations to help improve school lunches: ‘Thing about why someone is OK with your kids eating crap’

 

Labor/Unions/Coops

  • How low-wage immigrant workers are reviving unions (High Country News) http://bit.ly/2qAIXpJ                                                                In Los Angeles, a steady movement takes hold under the Trump administration.
  • Stop Supporting Child Slavery By Avoiding These 6 Chocolate Companies (Educate Inspire Change) http://bit.ly/2oZa8ve
  • Wal-Mart Settlement in First LGBT Workers’ Class Action Reflects Larger Shift (The National Law Journal) http://bit.ly/2q88H12
  • Exploitation and Abuse at the Chicken Plant (The New Yorker) http://bit.ly/2qCe9W1                                                                                        Case Farms built its business by recruiting immigrant workers from Guatemala, who endure conditions few Americans would put up with.

 

Pollinators

 

Animals

  • Meet Nevada’s cow cops (High Country News) http://bit.ly/2rhMYDe                                                                                    Where crime scene investigators ride the range.
  • The Largest Cockfighting Bust in US History Just Happened in California (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2pWPPxe                                      Sheriffs found a staggering 7,000 fighting roosters at a single location.

 

Business, Social Enterprise & Our Economy

  • The Real Reason Chinatown Produce is Crazy Cheap (Saveur) http://bit.ly/2qwsh3T                                                                                           The Wall Street Journal doesn’t find foreign imports or discounts for low quality vegetables, but rather a special network of suppliers selling especially fresh food
  • Access To Markets: The Greenway Farm Family & Farm Advocacy (National Farmers Union) http://bit.ly/2quqQSj
  • Walmart’s $237 Million Man: How Americans Subsidize Inequality (truthout) http://bit.ly/2qkHZh9                            Remember that US taxpayers subsidize each Wal-Mart store to the tune of $900,000, currently there are 4,672 Wal-Mart stores in the US (supercenters, neighborhood markets, discount stores & Sam’s Club) http://bit.ly/2rR8VHj
  • America has become so anti-innovation – it’s economic suicide (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2r4Ofeh                                                          What has been the driving force behind American innovation, the public or private sector?
  • Report: Invested in Exploitation? (Action on Aid) http://bit.ly/2qgZ6QF                                                                                      TIAA’s Links to Land Grabbing and Deforestation
  • Africa is not poor, we are stealing its wealth (Al Jazeera) http://bit.ly/2rAMpFh                                                                                              It’s time to change the way we talk and think about Africa.
  • Report: Honest Accounts 2017: How the world profits from Africa’s wealth (Global Justice Now) http://bit.ly/2qX1rnQ
  • US Organic Hotspots and their Benefit to Local Economies (Organic Trade Association) http://bit.ly/2mcoR7t                              The results are positive with lower poverty rats, higher median annual household incomes, organic agriculture can be used as an economic development tool…

 

Food Fraud/Scandals/Weird

 

Water & Our Oceans

  • University of Arkansas disposes of wastewater from nuclear plant in city sewer system (40 29 News) http://bit.ly/2qrqmzq
  • Life on the Keystone XL route: where opponents fear the ‘black snake’ (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2oUsela
  • Making Us All Sicker: Detroit Water Shut-Offs May Well Have Caused Irreparable Damage (truthout) http://bit.ly/2rRqBBy
  • In these Western cities, using less water costs more (High Country News) http://bit.ly/2rhsJpl                                                         Some homes pay five times as much as others for the same amount of water.
  • Great Barrier Reef can no longer be saved, Australian experts concede (Independent UK) http://ind.pn/2qA5Fya                                ‘In our lifetime and on our watch, substantial areas of the Great Barrier Reef and the surrounding ecosystems are experiencing major long-term damage’

 

Government/Regulation/Policy/Farm Bill

  • Why the US Should Seize & Occupy Canada’s Milk Policy (Medium) http://bit.ly/2qsNgXX                                                                Make American Dairy Great Again!!!
  • How Trump’s Skewered View of Rural America and Agriculture Threatens the Welfare of Farmworkers (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2qbHQj5                                                                                        Trump wrote an executive order on rural America as if farmworkers don’t exist.
  • ‘An Idea Who’s Time Has Come’: Lawmakers Roll Out Plan to Expand Worker Ownership (Common Dreams) http://bit.ly/2q9kUBa                                                                                      ‘Giving workers a seat at the table and their fair share of the profits they help produce is one way to even up the playing field and give hardworking Americans a chance to create an economy that works for everyone’
  • Judge: EPA’s Approval of Bee-Killing Pesticides Violated Federal Law (EcoWatch) http://bit.ly/2rhApZr
    • The Trump Administration Just Punted on How to Handle the Most Toxic Pesticides (Mother Jones) http://bit.ly/2qstY4H      Including one that likely sickened 12 farmworkers earlier this month.
  • Trump’s EPA Greenlights a Nasty Chemical. A Month Later, It Poisons a Bunch of Farmworkers. (Mother Jones) http://bit.ly/2qjKP9g
  • House votes to undo pesticide protections for nation’s waterways (Think Progress) http://bit.ly/2qqNEC5                Opponents say Republican-led bill takes away the public’s right to know about pesticides.
  • EPA Chooses Foreign Mining Interest Over Critical Alaska Watershed (Common Dreams) http://bit.ly/2pHnbAQ                          “If the Trump administration’s strategy is to put a foreign mining company first – and America’s greatest wild salmon fishery dead last – then sadly it’s succeeding”
  • A New Law Would Legalize Selling Home Cooked Food in California (Civil Eats) http://bit.ly/2pn6aOy                                  California is trying to legalize small-scale sale of food made by home cooks. But will it allow tech startups to treat home cooks like Uber drivers?
  • California’s senators just proposed a path to legal status and citizenship for farmworkers (LA Times) http://lat.ms/2pJDtKj
  • Missouri legislature passes bill to undo St. Louis minimum wage hike (Fox 2 St. Louis) http://bit.ly/2rd98U5
  • North Carolina Lawmakers Side With Factory Farms as Communities of Color Suffer From he Spraying of Hog Manure (Democracy Now!) http://bit.ly/2qBDCjb
  • Flint Residents Could Lose Their Homes Over Unpaid Bills for Poisoned Water (CommonDreams) http://bit.ly/2qG0k8K                  ‘I got scared, for probably the first time since this all started this actually scared me,’ local resident says of tax lien notice
  • President Trump’s Budget is an Assault on the Farm Safety Net and Rural Communities, NFU Says (National Farmers Union) http://bit.ly/2qTEGRO

 

GMOs/Cloning/Food Technology/Synthetic Biology/Nanotechnology

 

Poisons

  • UN experts denounce ‘myth’ pesticides are necessary to feed the world (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2mdHDII                                    Report warns of catastrophic consequences and blames manufacturers for ‘systematic denial of harms’ and ‘unethical marketing tactics’
  • Robert Kennedy Jr. Leads Lawsuits To Sue Monsanto For Cancer-Causing Roundup Weed Killer (March Against Monsanto) http://bit.ly/2oW1o8r

 

Events

  • Local Sustainable Economies Conference                             Northeastern University, Boston, MA                                                       June 7 – 9, 2017                                                                   http://bit.ly/2lMk7BZ

 

GrowCalgary Blog Posts

Jenny’s Food & Ag Update May 1, 2017

 

  • Better Tasting Strawberry Developed at Rutgers Makes Debut (Rutgers Today) http://bit.ly/2oWKV4s                                    Strawberries developed for New Jersey climate, not California, and to taste good, rather to be shipped across the country…
  • Red, Ripe and Renegade: Berries That Break All the Rules (NYT) http://nyti.ms/2ou6hsR                                                                                        They don’t produce a lot or last long. But Harry’s Berries, a 50-year-old family farm in California, thrives by selling strawberries at their peak.
  • 4 Not-So-Easy Ways to Dismantle Racism in the Food System (Yes!) http://bit.ly/2oQXU66                                                                              Our food system is built on stolen land and exploited labor. Here’s what we can do to fix it.
  • Mark Musick transformed the way Seattle thinks of local, seasonal food (Seattle Times) http://bit.ly/2oa0kBh
  • Big Agro on Campus (The Walrus) http://bit.ly/2o9n3cy        Universities claim industry-funded research on chemical and pesticide safety is scientifically sound. Not everybody is convinced.
  • The Match.com of Seed Saving (Civil Eats) http://bit.ly/2phTcjr  The Center for Food Safety rolls out a new site for seed saving and seed swapping, aimed at the tech-savviest generation of growers.
  • A River Runs Red And A Small-Town Paper Wants Answers (Huffington Post) http://huff.to/2p0urYR                                                 Art Cullen’s Pulitzer-winning work showed how agribusiness infiltrated an Iowa battle over pollution from farms.
  • Restaurant Group (ROC United) Joins Lawsuit Against Trump, Citing Unfair Competition (NPR) http://n.pr/2omTCEc
  • International Monsanto Tribunal In The Hague – October 2016 (Monsanto Tribunal) http://bit.ly/2oIkFML                                              Find here the full text and the summary of the advisory legal opinion delivered by the Monsanto Tribunal judges in The Hague on April 18th 2017.
  • Tribunal Judges: Monsanto Violates Basic Human Rights to a Healthy Environment (EcoWatch) http://bit.ly/2p7KjsI
  • In Trump’s America, Navigating a Path for a Progressive National Food Strategy (Civil Eats) http://bit.ly/2oIbID7                                There seems to be little in the way of a guiding federal strategy on food. Advocates say a national food strategy would change that.
  • This world-renowned chef saved his town’s economy with cheese and rice (Upworthy) http://u.pw/2pfoSJ4
  • The great global food gap: Families around the world photographed with weekly shopping as they reveal cost ranges from £3.20 to £320 (Daily Mail) http://dailym.ai/1gd74zt                  This is from 2013…
  • Indigenous rights are key to preserving forests, climate change study finds (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2oCuJ6F
  • Race and the Proletarianization of the American Farmer (Food and Farm Discussion Lab) http://bit.ly/2oCKtX5
  • Study: Higher crop yields won’t feed the world. Stopping unplanned pregnancies will. (New Food Economy) http://bit.ly/2oYcdsX
  • Saving America’s Broke Prairie (UN Dark) http://bit.ly/2pu6oE4    Scientists call the American prairie on of the most threatened ecosystems on the planet. Its loss would have consequences the world over.
  • Prescriptions For Fresh Produce, And Other World Changing Ideas In Food (Fast Company) http://bit.ly/2pGLsdx
  • On the Day of People’s Climate March, the Ponca Tribe Begins Its Own 273-Mile March (Yes!) http://bit.ly/2oXdkqi                                    A unique alliance among tribes, ranchers, and other landowners in Nebraska regroups to resist fossil fuel development like the Keystone XL.
  • It Takes Roots: US Food Sovereignty Alliance @ the #PeoplesClimate March (Food First) http://bit.ly/2qho9r4
  • 6 Mexican – American Winemakers to Check Out in Sonoma and Napa (Sonoma Magazine) http://bit.ly/2qhuzXl

 

Farmers, Farming, Ranching, Herding & Production

  • American Farmers Urge Trump: Stay in Paris Agreement (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2oy9qTR                                                          “Farmers are on the front lines of climate change, and they have been experiencing costly disruption fro climate change for some time.”
  • For Seed Rebels, Saving Life’s Building Blocks Has New Urgency (Civil Eats) http://bit.ly/2nUMJxt                                                                          As the seed industry consolidates, open source breeders hope to preserve a handful of important varieties for the farms o the future.
  • This inspiring 83-Year-Old Runs a 210-Acre Farm and has no Plans of Retiring (Reader’s digest) http://bit.ly/2oBv q2
  • Honor for environmental activist farmer, 83, surrounded by mines on three sides (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2pWDL05           For 30 years anti-pollution campaigner Wendy Bowman has stood firm against mining giants (New South Wales)
  • Farmers’ Beef With Trump Over ‘Big Meat’ (Bloomberg) https://bloom.bg/2oY4PvK                                                                                    An Obama-era measure meant to level the playing field for chicken growers is shelved, and the industry is delighted.

 

Food and Culture

  • Reclaiming native ground: Can Louisiana’s tribes restore their traditional diets as waters rise? (Food & Environment Reporting Network) http://bit.ly/2l4ESc3
  • If you Are What You Eat, America Is Allrecipes (Slate) http://slate.me/1SUENmd                                                                                   The nation’s most popular recipe site reveals the enormous gap between foodie culture and what people actually cook.

 

Hunger, Food Access & Security, Obesity & Malnutrition

  • To Solve Hunger, First Solve Poverty (Civil Eats) http://bit.ly/2oUOisu                                                                                        Hunger is big business…
  • Trillium Grow Grant supercharges food security for (Canadian) Island communities (The Manitoulin Expositor) http://bit.ly/2pGoW4y                                                                                          Inch by inch, row by row community gardens will be growing thanks to $651K in funding from an Ontario Trillium Foundation Grow Grant…

 

Gleaning, Reuse, Recycling, Composting & Waste

  • London’s plastic water bottle waste is out of control, mayor is told (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2q37k0b                                              Committee calls for deposit return scheme and free refill stations  after finding capital hooked on bottled water but not recycling
  • In the Fishing Industry, Gear Recycling is Finally Catching On (Food and Farm Discussion Lab) http://bit.ly/2q2TPxd
  • Could This Plastic Eating Caterpillar Be The Answer To Our Waste? (Huffington Post) http://huff.to/2p3EOgu                      Scientists sy the parasitic waxworm is capable of devouring plastic bags.

 

Healthy/Safe Food

  • The “True” Human Diet (Scientific American) http://bit.ly/2ooqmwI                                                                                          From the standpoint of paleoecology, the so-called Paleo diet is a myth
  • You’re Drinking the Wrong Kind of Milk (Mother Jones) http://bit.ly/1nN0gNE                                                                                            And we’re not talking about soy or almond, either.
  • America’s Drug Of Choice: It’s Not What You Think (Huffington Post) http://huff.to/2o76UqG                                                                              The next time someone tells you that she doesn’t eat dessert, no longer east sugar, or doesn’t want a birthday cake, believe her.
  • Drinking Four Cups of Coffee Is probably Safe (The Atlantic) http://theatln.tc/2oAoiWv                                                                                  The most comprehensive review of evidence on health consequences of caffeine use has just been published.
  • Study: Systematic review of the potential adverse effects of caffeine consumption in healthy adults, pregnant women, adolescents, and children (Food and Chemical Toxicology) http://bit.ly/2plPi9n
  • Should link between dementia and artificial sweeteners be taken with a pinch of salt? (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2pOPZbg

 

Children & School Food

  • America’s Second-Largest School District Says No to McDonald’s McTeacher’s Nights (AlterNet)                                                                           The Los Angles Unified School District adopted a resolution to end the kid-targeting of junk food.

 

Labor/Unions/Coops

  • ‘It makes me nervous’: Farmer who can’t find workers to havest his crops blames Trump (RawStory) http://bit.ly/2prdZmK
  • Despite Populist Rhetoric, Trump Is Poised to Preside Over Crackdown on Unions (Mother Jones) http://bit.ly/2qmxxWC      “He’s following the script from the Chamber of Commerce.”
  • Harvesting Union Rights in the Field (Labor Notes) http://bit.ly/2pgb29s                                                                                                    North Carolina farmworkers are getting ready for a season of organizing with the Farm Labor Organizing Committee. Unlike most guest workers, they have a say in their working conditions and seniority rights because they belong to a union.

 

Protests

  • Big Strike Brewing Against Trump: Coalition of More Than 300,000 Food Workers to Join May Day Showdown (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2qftiQr

 

Animals

  • Disturbing Facts About the Pork Industry Nobody Told You Before (The Unbound Spirit) http://bit.ly/2qvVyL8

 

Business, Social Enterprise & Our Economy

  • None of the world’s top industries would be profitable if they paid for the natural capital they use (grist) http://bit.ly/2pjzPsk
  • Beyond fair trade These ban-to-bar chocolate makers are upping the ante on working with cocoa farmers (Financial Post) http://bit.ly/2pnRGwi
  • Monsanto Has Violated the Basic Human Right to a Healthy Environment and Food (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2pvqopZ
  • No-tipping experiment fails to pay off at 2 popular Maine restaurants (Portland Press Herald) http://bit.ly/2pDO7VB  Owner / Chef Cara Stadler drops policy, at least for now, after profits decline at Bao Bao in Portland and Tao Yan in Brunswick, but legislation may offer another option.
  • Hard times for Whole Foods: ‘People say it’s for pretentious people. I can see why’ (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2pJ51lO
  • Where’s Your Retirement Fund Being Invested (act!onaid) http://bit.ly/2pJVmey                                                                                          TIAA is one of the largest private pension funds in the United States. It provides plans for teachers and nurses, but is funding their retirements through land grabs and human rights violations…

 

Food Fraud/Scandals/Weird

  • The Deliciously Fishy Case of the “Codfather” (Mother Jones) http://bit.ly/2mLekPB                                                                                            New England’s seafood industry is in deep trouble – thanks in no small part to one mogul’s seriously shady business.
  • Chobani sues InfoWars for spreading xenophobic conspiracy theories (ThinkProgress) http://bit.ly/2oM5orV                            InfoWars targeted the immigrant-owned company in a series of inflammatory posts last year.

 

Water & Our Oceans

  • Clean Water Is A Basic Human Right, And We Can And Should Make It Affordable To Everyone (Ensia) http://bit.ly/2pCegnj          As we invest in our public water systems – and we must – we need to distribute costs equitably.
  • Flint Water Crisis Is a Result of Systemic Racism and History of Segregation (Colorlines) http://bit.ly/2pZP5If                                              A new report tracks what led to the disaster – and how to prevent it from happening again.
  • Report: The Flint Water Crisis: Systemic Racism Through the Lens of Flint (Report of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission) http://bit.ly/2p46WjO
  • Skeptics Called Him a “Lead Magician.” But He Was One of the First Scientists to See Flint’s Toxic Water. (Mother Jones) http://bit.ly/2p1ai6K
  • Bangladesh’s water crisis: A story of gender (Aljazeera) http://bit.ly/2orqY8R                                                                                      Climate change is driving an acute water crisis in coastal Bangladesh in which women are bearing most of the strain.
  • Pipeline leaks 18,000 gallons of crude oil onto Kingfisher Co. Farmland (KFOR4) http://bit.ly/2pYQ7oC
    • Pipeline leaks thousands of gallons of crude oil onto Oklahoma farmland (Nation of Change) http://bit.ly/2pmCmA7
  • Chromium spill near Lake Michigan brings new attention to cancer-causing pollutant (Chicago Tribune) http://trib.in/2p9OZAS
  • The Saga of North Carolina’s Contaminated Water (The Atlantic) http://theatln.tc/2pxJ31W                                                                                  The states GOP leadership tried to make the state more business-friendly. Now residents are saying their water isn’t safe to drink.
  • Widely-Opposed Pipeline ‘Confirms Worst Fears’ After Two Spills Into Ohio Wetland (EcoWatch) http://bit.ly/2pT4bPv                  Energy Transfer Partners’ new Rover Pipeline has spilled millions of gallons of drilling fluids into Ohio’s wetlands. Construction of the $4.2 billion project only began last month.
  • Climate change causes glacial river in Yukon to change directions (Canadian Broadcasting Corp) http://bit.ly/2pLe01Y                      Glacier retreated so much that its meltwater switched course…
  • Baltimore’s solar-powered water wheel has now remove 1.1 million lbs. of rubbish from the river (Business Insider) http://read.bi/2ondtDb
  • Great Barrier Reef Reaches “Terminal Stage” as CO2 levels Rise at Record Rates (truthout) http://bit.ly/2psOX7J
  • Oceans Are Drowning In Plastic – And No One’s Paying Attention (Huffington Post) http://huff.to/2paYChX                                            “We’re being overwhelmed by our waste.”
  • How The Oceans Became Choked With Plastic (Huffington Post) http://huff.to/2paYChX                                                                                         The problem is staggering, and it’ll get worse if we do nothing.
  • Trump Signs Executive Order On Offshore Drilling And Marine Sanctuaries (NPR) http://n.pr/2pHc4eH
    • Scientists have found a 10 million gallon ‘bath mat’ of oil on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico (Business Insider) http://read.bi/2oTWhpS

 

Government/Regulation/Policy/Farm Bill

  • Trump Signs Executive Order for Agriculture (Ag Web) http://bit.ly/2oKbE2h
    • On-the-Record Press Briefing on the President’s Executive Order Promoting Agriculture and Rural Prosperity (The White House) http://bit.ly/2phxuyi
  • You’re (Canada) Paying Too Much for Milk (The Walrus) http://bit.ly/2oYYDmv                                                                                          The idea that Canada’s protectionist policies benefit mom-and-pop farms is mostly propaganda
  • Trump Has Okayed a Pesticide That Terrifies These Families (Mother Jones) http://bit.ly/2obKuWJ “We know this is dangerous fro the kids, but what are we supposed to do?”
  • Dow Chemical Donates $1 Million To Trump, Asks Administration To Ignore Pesticide Study (Vanity Fair) http://bit.ly/2oCBp4w
    • Public Records Sought on Dow’s Efforts to Pressure Trump Administration Over Pesticides, Endangered Species (Common Dreams) http://bit.ly/2owSttu
    • Pesticide maker tries to kill risk study (SF Gate) http://bit.ly/2pjfJ2s                                                                                               A group of three pesticide makers, including Dow Chemical, sent a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency demanding they throw out a study showing the impact of three pesticides on endangered species.
  • Iowa Senate Oks closing of ISU’s Leopled Center, other budget cuts (Des Moines Register) http://dmreg.co/2oYVXbk
  • North Carolina Republicans Are Trying to Keep Residents From Suiting Hog Farms (Mother Jones) http://bit.ly/2p0665A
  • Oakland, California Soda Tax: Oakland Council members Accuse Mayor Schaaf of ‘Bait and Switch’ With Soda Tax Revenue (East Bay Express) http://bit.ly/2oLeo4s

 

GMOs/Cloning/Food Technology/Synthetic Biology/Nanotechnology

  • Farmers Balk at Bayer’s Move for Monsanto (AgWeb) http://bit.ly/2ppAhoW
    • Farmer Sign On Letter to Attorney General on The Proposed Dow-DuPont, Monsato0Bayer and Sygenta-ChemChina Mergers http://bit.ly/2ppSlPY

 

Poisons

  • Canada finds excessive glyphosate levels in 3.0 percent of grain products (Food, Agriculture and the Environment) http://bit.ly/2qgjfYq
  • 6 Ways Trump’s Administration Could Literally Make America More Toxic (Mother Jones) http://bit.ly/2puPuTl

 

Events

Featuring: Keynotes from Raj Patel, Karen Washington, Malik Yakini and more! Regional Farm Tours. Hand-on Workshops & Paper Presentations. Local Food. Resource Fair and More!

The Farm to Plate Conference: Uniting to Create, Educate, and Celebrate a Sustainable and Equitable Local Food System

Schedule Dates: May 11 – 13, 2017

Groundswell Center for Local Food and Farming, the Food, Agroecology, Justice and Well-being Collective at Cornell, and Roots Rising Farm are pleased to announce the Finger Lakes “Farm to Plate Conference: Uniting to Create, Educate, and Celebrate a Sustainable and Equitable Local Food System.”

Location: Ithaca, NY and surrounding locations

COST: FREE

The 3-day Conference is FREE for all participants, thanks to the generous support of the organizations and grantors listed here. The ‘true’ cost to each participant would be $150 without this support. If you’re able, consider making a donation to support Groundswell Center & Rising Root Farm. We also welcome local business sponsorships. http://bit.ly/2qeCFfl

 

 

GrowCalgary Blog Posts

Jenny’s Food & Ag Update April 18, 2017

Jenny’s Food & Ag Update for April 18, 2017

  • What Cuba Can Teach Us About Food and Climate Change (Slate) http://slate.me/2p6GV3L                                                                                  After the Cold War, Cuba faced many of the agricultural challenges that the rest of the world is now anticipating.
  • Why the International Day of Peasants’ Struggles is important (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2ptF7PG                                                           We should celebrate one of the largest but least recognized groups in the world, who grow most of the food we eat.
  • Public Science Under Attack: Iowa State University’s Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture (Food First) http://bit.ly/2ojyiiK
  • Psychologists Explain Why It Feels So Good To Bake For Other People (Huffington Post) http://huff.to/2oFVqrE
  • We’re treating soil like dirt. It’s a fatal mistake, as our lives depend on it (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2g9XcQt
  • Tiny, family-run Iowa newspaper wins Pulitzer for taking on agriculture companies (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2p53O7G
  • ‘No one leaves any more’: Ethiopia’s restored drylands offer new hope (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2pEMUJW                                Migration is no longer the only option for many young Ethiopians, as careful restoration revives livelihoods on eroded and deforested land

 

Farmers, Farming, Ranching, Herding & Production

  • Recruiting Women Farmers for the Campaign Trail (Civil Eats) http://bit.ly/2obAt80                                                                                    Feeding off the post-election surge in political activity, the Plate to Politics network aims to help women farmers on both sides of the aisle campaign on a platform of sustainable food and farming.
  • Plate to Politics (Women Food & Ag Network) http://bit.ly/2ogaJr6                                                                            Advancing Women’s Leadership in Sustainable agriculture and Food Systems Development
  • Where grocery stores are sparse, one family nourishes a California town (LA Times) http://lat.ms/2ookZOV
  • Once in US illegally, Pajaro Valley organic farm owner pays it forward (Santa Cruz Sentinel) http://bit.ly/2oJaFDr
  • New Mexico farmer stakes his future on an abandoned, contaminated egg plant (The New Food Economy) http://bit.ly/2oHU3tI
  • Long Lost Photos Reveal Life of Mexican Migrant Workers in the 1950s America (Time) http://ti.me/2op3vDN
  • Michigan’s Tart Cherry Orchards Struggle To Cope With Erratic Spring Weather (NPR) http://n.pr/2o6TRDM
    • Climate Change Is Ruining Farmers’ Lives, But Only A Few Will Admit It (Huffington Post) http://huff.to/2opbh0Q
  • Why the Organic Checkoff is Bad for Organic Farmers, the Environment, and Independent Family Farm Agriculture (NOFA-NY) http://bit.ly/2nDA9zf

 

Food and Culture

  • Native Americans caught salmon here for millennia. Now the world is hooked (grist) http://bit.ly/2odOt1F
  • Food Sovereignty: Nourishing and Teaching the Next Generation (Indian Country Today) http://bit.ly/2o9kG9I                            Indigenous chefs pass on their culinary skills to regain food sovereignty
  • A New Restaurant Run By Refugees Is Revolutionizing One Of America’s Poorest Cities (Saveur) http://bit.ly/2oZdlgF
  • The Italian bakery explained: A guide to every cookie, pastry and dessert (nj.com) http://bit.ly/2oaL7Ly
  • The Instant Pot Is a Phenomenon – and Indian Cooks Are Using It in the Most Creative Ways (Mother Jones) http://bit.ly/2ohGjUB  Biryani in mere moments, anyone?

 

Hunger, Food Access & Security, Obesity & Malnutrition

  • Starving to death (Washington Post) http://wapo.st/2o58INn      Wars in four countries left 20 million people on the brink
  • Venezuela’s Bread Wars: With Food Scarce, Government Accuses Bakers Of Hoarding (NPR) http://n.pr/2p8ySzV
  • Analysis: What Americans get wrong about food stamps, according to an expert who’s spent 20 year researching them (Washington Post) http://wapo.st/2p5svOz
  • Portland (ME) has a new strategy for feeding low-income residents (Bangor Daily News) http://bit.ly/2p2Zw0J

 

Gleaning, Reuse, Recycling, Composting & Waste

  • Sweden Opens World’s First Mall for Repaired and Recycled Goods (Good News Network) http://bit.ly/2ndKlBO
  • Every Town Needs a Remakery (Films For Action) http://bit.ly/2mRLda6
    • Edenburgh Remakery http://bit.ly/2pm026q                    Refurbished electronics and furniture, with worship on how to repair their own stuff…

 

Healthy/Safe Food

  • The Coca-Cola addiction of Mexico’s indigenous population (El País) http://bit.ly/2eg1KB3                                                                                    In a country with Latin America’s highest death rate from diabetes, peasant communities are at risk
  • Pork Tacos Topped With Fries: Fuel For Mexico’s Diabetes Epidemic (NPR) http://n.pr/2oiOp2I
  • Rust, mold, parasites: Trump’s Mar-a-Lago cited for 78 health violations in the last three years (LA Times) http://lat.ms/2oani78
    • Trump’s Mar-a-Lago kitchen cited for food safety violations (BBC News) http://bbc.in/2pbxjoy
    • Mar-a-Lago Is the Definition of Excess – Except When It Comes to Refrigerating Raw Meat (Mother Jones) http://bit.ly/2p2PfC6                                                                                Florida health inspectors found “high-priority” violations in the kitchen at Trump’s “Winter White House.”

 

Children & School Food

  • Free meals, school gardens give Confederation Park students fuel to learn (CBC News) http://bit.ly/2ogJC1u                                    Saskatoon school says providing breakfast, lunch helps students in the classroom
  • Chicken nearly disappeared from LA school lunches. Now, it’s making a comeback (LA Times) http://lat.ms/2pBjhct
  • (NM) Lawmaker’s Childhood Experience Drives New Mexico’s ‘Lunch Shaming’ Ban (NPR) http://n.pr/2ox12Y3

 

Labor/Unions/Coops

  • The Truth About Undocumented Immigrants and Taxes (The Atlantic) http://theatln.tc/2k8pgC7                                                      They’re contributing billions of dollars a year to Social Security, but may never reap any retirement benefits from it.
  • Study: Public Health, Immigration Reform and Food System Change (John Hopkins Center for a Livable Future) http://bit.ly/2oO5jHV
  • Brewery owner boots sexist customer, unleashes must-read rant about women in the service industry (Daily Kos) http://bit.ly/2oitnyy
  • North Carolina needed 6,500 farm workers. Only 7 Americans stuck it out (The Guardian) http://wapo.st/2oYgxq2
  • Before you eat that chocolate Easter egg, think about the people who produce it (LA Times) http://lat.ms/2oE5PY2
  • Most California Dentists are immigrants. Where else do immigrants work? (Sacramento Bee) http://bit.ly/2oR0BZd          It’s well known that most California farmworkers are immigrants. But did you that so are most dentists, medical scientists, butchers and nursing aides?

 

Protests

  • Ivanka Trump’s website asks queer chef for an interview and her response is glorious. (Some News) http://bit.ly/2otXXGb
  • Berkeley Farmers Market Canceled Due To Safety Fears Over Pro-Trump, Alt-Right Rally (Eat Bay Express) http://bit.ly/2pxsrGM

 

Animals

  • Reports of Calves set alight after being doused in flammable liquid (Ten News AU) http://bit.ly/2ofgGHd

 

Business, Social Enterprise & Our Economy

  • These 10 companies control everything you buy (Business Insider) http://read.bi/2oYnual                                                                      The updated 2017 version…
  • The Pork Industry’s Stance on Antibiotics Totally Misses the Point (Mother Jones) http://bit.ly/2obGCjy                                                It’s as if they’ve never heard of superbugs.
  • Smithfield gets into the organ-transplant business (Food, Environment Reporting Network) http://bit.ly/2pe50WA
  • Organic Industry Watchdog Wins Major Antitrust Victory (The Cornucopia Institute) http://bit.ly/2nuwhDV                                  France’s Groupe Danone Sheds Stoneyfield in WhitWave Acquisition Merger would have combined Stoneyfield, Horizon, and Wallaby to Dominate Organic Dairy
  • Cooking Lessons: Disillusioned with fine dining, one of the world’s great chefs took on fast food. It has been harder than he ever imagined. (California Sunday Magazine) http://bit.ly/2oOs5ew
  • The Economic Pamphleteer Collection (Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development) http://bit.ly/2oQUjcp

 

Water & Our Oceans

  • What Is It Like to Live Without Running Water? Detroit Families Know (Yes!) http://bit.ly/2oCcRfC                                                                     A recent study predicts that in the next fie years, more than one-third of Americans will not be able to afford their water.
  • California’s Drought Is Over, but the Rest of the World’s Water Problems Are Just Beginning (Mother Jones) http://bit.ly/2oU82fm
  • 8 Million Californians Have Been Drinking Polluted Water For Years (Huffington Post) http://huff.to/2ozdogh                                          If you want to know how difficult it is to get a water contaminated regulated in the US, take a look at the Golden State.
  • A chemical spill, too close for comfort (Chicago Tribune) http://trib.in/2omMVkq                                                                                        The chemical spill from the US Steel facility in Portage caused beaches in and around Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore to close and left officials scrambling to determine the extent of damage caused to the environment.
  • Our Rivers and Lakes Contain a Scary Number of Pesticides and Pharmaceuticals (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2ovKspJ                                    And they only tested for a fraction of the 85,000 known chemicals.
  • Report: Shell and Dow Hid Cancer-Causing ‘Garbage’ in Pesticide, Contaminating Drinking Water for Millions in California (Environmental Working Group) http://bit.ly/2oqhbfS
  • What Will It Take To Keep Plastic Out Of The Oceans (Fast Company) http://bit.ly/2pqVzPV                                                                          A three-pronged overhaul of our global packaging and recycling system could potentially raise our plastic recycling rate from 14% to 170%.
  • Revealed: more than 1 million plastic pellets found on a single stretch of Scottish beach (inews UK) http://bit.ly/2prv6BG

 

Government/Regulation/Policy/Farm Bill

  • Understanding the anit-regulation agenda: The basics (Economic Policy Institute) http://bit.ly/2or64Dq                                          Regulations are protections for people, our environment, and our economy…
  • Why You Can’t Have Organic Food Without Soil (Civil Eats) http://bit.ly/1GD4tzT
    • Corporate Lobbyists / Influence Peddlers Eroding Organic Standards Analysis Illustrates USDA / Agrabusiness Collusion (The Cornucopia Institute) http://bit.ly/2ohXMNt
  • Restaurant Chain Settles Age Bias Case or $12 Million (ProPublica) http://bit.ly/2oTtRyt                                                                After a US lawsuit against Texas Roadhouse ended in a mistrial, the restaurant company, without admitting wrongdoing, settled the largest age discrimination case filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in decades.
  • America’s Toxic Workplace Rules (NYT) http://nyti.ms/2oYd0Lg      Why do federal regulators allow employers to expose workers to level of toxic chemicals far higher than those considered safe for everyone?
  • Western Organic Dairy Producers Alliance stalls USDA/OTA National Certified Transition Program NCTP (The Cornucopia Institute) http://bit.ly/2oVn6cL
  • Trump Just Appointed a Chemical Industry Honcho to Protect Us From Chemicals (Mother Jones) http://bit.ly/2pkd5Gp
  • Small California towns are facing off against oil companies – and winning (grist) http://bit.ly/2nXWas8
  • Bangkok, Celebrated For Its Street Food, Is Ordering Vendors To Get Off the Road (Huffington Post) http://huff.to/2nZkCxl          Thailand’s capital plans to get rid of all stalls by the end of the year.
  • Report: First City In The United States: Berkeley’s Tax On Sugar-Sweetened Beverages (City of Berkeley) http://bit.ly/2nSmEeh

 

GMOs/Cloning/Food Technology/Synthetic Biology/Nanotechnology

  • Monsanto’s Driverless Car: Is CRISPR Gene Editing Driving Seed Consolidation (Civil Eats) http://bit.ly/2pleADk
  • Lab-grown meat is about to go global, and one firms is feverishly paving the way (Quartz) http://bit.ly/2oNIxPk

 

Poisons

  • The Legacy of Mosanto’s PCBs: Oosing Pus, Birth Defects and Immune Problems (truthout) http://bit.ly/2p9ITAL

 

Events

  • Celebrate Farm to Fork                                                                                           4th annual Toronto GMO-Free Festival & Farmers Market Christie Pits Park May 20, 2017                           http://2017.nongmo.to/

 

 

GrowCalgary Blog Posts

Jenny’s Food & Ag Update April 8, 2017

 

Jenny’s Food & Ag Update for April 8, 2017

 

  • Seed Librarians Are Fighting to Protect the US’s Resilient and Diverse Food System (Pacific Standard) http://bit.ly/2nhi3Fq    How seed libraries are fighting against agricultural giants to increase genetic diversity in our crops.
  • Why Fiddlehead Ferns Are the New Superfood You Have to Try This Spring (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2nWWKZK                      Fiddleheads were all the rage in the restaurant industry in the early 1980s…
  • Our Current Food System Is Broken and Unjust – We Need a Paradigm Shift That Values Nutrition as a Human Right (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2nJGZ9t
  • There’s a big part of rural America that everyone’s ignoring (The Washington Post) http://wapo.st/2n7ff9Q
  • Ground-breaking truffle harvest portends something big in California (SF Chronicle) http://bit.ly/2orAd5a
  • California’s vineyards are coming back from the brink of disaster thanks to the winter rains (LA Times) http://lat.ms/2nslyIO

 

Farmers, Farming, Ranching, Herding & Production

  • California Dreaming: Will Scott Sharecropper’s Son (Capitol & Main) http://bit.ly/2nXKaYt                                                                              Will Scott is president of the African-American Farmers of California.
  • California Dreaming: Chukou Thao, Hmong Farmer (Capitol & Main) http://bit.ly/2nK4dsj                                                                    Chukou Thao is president of the National Hmong American Farmers
  • California Dreaming: Stephanie Honig, In The Vineyard of Change (Capitol & Main) http://bit.ly/2nwi1HK                                   … The family’s winery is know for both for the quality of its produce and for its sustainable methods.
  • Marion Nestle: Letters to a Young Farmers (Food Politics) http://bit.ly/2oLMoJE                                                                                              On Food, Farming, and Our Future
  • Why Some of America’s Small-Scale Organic Farms Like Mine Are in Jeopardy (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2oJBoR1
  • Farmer forgoes millions to preserve agricultural gift for Edmonton (Edmonton Journal) http://bit.ly/2oDat6f
  • What We Need Are Farms That Support Farmers, Consumers and the Environment (ensia) http://bit.ly/2mrqefv                Agroecology can help fix the food, water and energy challenges that conventional agriculture has created.
  • Study Shows Wildlife Habitat Is Disappearing In Favor Of Crops For Biofuel (Earth Justice) http://bit.ly/2nTFaUN
  • This area in Detroit is now America’s first 100% organic, self-sustainable neighborhood (The Hearty Soul) http://bit.ly/2lP1uAj

 

Food and Culture

  • For Centuries, These Asian Recipes Have Helped New Moms Recover From Childbirth (NPR) http://n.pr/2oqU07y
  • Meet the Palestinian-American Chef Fighting Cultural Appropriation in Food (Teen Vogue) http://bit.ly/2nybii5
  • Leaving the Resistance: Reem’s Brings Traditional Arab Bakery to Oakland’s Fruitvale (East Bay Express) http://bit.ly/2oGxZhC

 

Hunger, Food Access & Security, Obesity & Malnutrition

  • This Man Learned a Neighbor Needed Vegetables. What He Did Next Is Beautiful. (Global Citizen) http://bit.ly/2oqsGqk
  • Trump budget threatens nutrition services for poor women and children (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2mNLRaj
  • Immigrants Are Going Hungry Because They’re Worried About Being Deported (Mother Jones) http://bit.ly/2odCrYS

 

Gleaning, Reuse, Recycling, Composting & Waste

 

Healthy/Safe Food

  • Super Sizing Urban America (Pacific Standard) http://bit.ly/2mT81uX                                                                                          How Inner Cities Got Fast Food With Government Help
  • Pizza chains are making a desperate push to avoid posting calories on menus (Food & Environment Reporting Network) http://bit.ly/2nW7chw
  • Are Bad Diets Causing a Bowel Cancer Crisis Among Millennials? (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2nt6irX
    • Study finds colorectal cancer rates have risen dramatically in Gen X and millennials (EurekAlert!) http://bit.ly/2mKazaX
  • Burger King Has Made A Froot Loops Shake – Because Cereal Is Everything (Huffington Post) http://huff.to/2o6s87X

 

Children & School Food

  • Free schools meals pledge is truly Labour (UK) and will help pupils in mind and body (Labour List) http://bit.ly/2nOMeQy
  • How Greener School Lunches Can Help Fight Climate Change (Green School National Network) http://bit.ly/2o9uul1

 

Education

  • Crete Culinary Sanctuaries Educational Programs Celebrating Our Cultural and Natural Heritage http://bit.ly/2o2m4NZ
  • Certificate in Applied Agroecology Program: Farm Locally, Connect Globally. (Farm Centered learning Network) http://bit.ly/2j3ZUZ4

 

Labor/Unions/Coops

  • Why Flip Burgers When You Can Sling Weed? Denver’s Pot Boom Puts the Hurt on Local Restaurant Hiring (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2oy49Ne
  • Why Are People Dying to Bring You Dinner? The Shocking Facts About Our Food System (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2nujJIG                    We hear from the sweatshops behind our computers, sneakers and other attire—yet the exploitation of farmworkers has become normalized.
  • Oregon farmers scrambling as labor collides with Trump immigration crackdown (Oregon Live) http://bit.ly/2oFpu7j
  • America’s Growing Labor Shortage (The Wall Street Journal) http://on.wsj.com/2nweCXM                                                                              Lack of workers in ag and construction is hurting the economy.
  • Trapped by heroin: Lobster industry struggles with its deadly secret (Portland Press Herald) http://bit.ly/2nVjUxF

 

Protests

  • Workers, Black Lives Activists Join Forces to Continue Dr. King’s Poor People’s Campaign (Facing South) http://bit.ly/2mTuxDS
  • Louisiana’s Bayou Bridge pipeline is one permit closer to reality as groups plan continued resistance (Nation of Change) http://bit.ly/2oibuTj                                                                                                “It’s no surprise to us that the LDNR is issuing the permit, rubber stamping is business as usual in Louisiana.”

 

Business, Social Enterprise & Our Economy

  • Restaurants Cook Up A New Way To Pay Kitchen Staff More: A Cut Of Sales (NPR) http://n.pr/2onLpm7
  • Down to zero: How this Ottawa entrepreneur plans to change the way you buy food (CBC News) http://bit.ly/2mhNqAo
  • Score One for the Little Guys as W Hotel Drops Its Minimum Wage Surcharge in Seattle (The Daily Beast) http://thebea.st/2ladsDx                                                                                          The chain escapes a potential PR nightmare after getting called out for listing a surcharge to cover the cost of a higher minimum wage, but not one for the $4.1 million CEO.
  • Blue Apron buys Bill Niman’s BN Ranch as meal-kit business grows (SF Chronicle) http://bit.ly/2oq4gtl
    • Meal Kits Make Money on Razor – Thin Margins. So This Shocked Us. (Mother Jones) http://bit.ly/2nt2xE9
  • McDonald’s Will Use Fresh Beef On Some Hamburgers, And Wendy’s Isn’t Having It (Huffington Post) http://huff.to/2ohuMsj
  • What US Poultry Producers Do Not Want You to Know About Bird Flu (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2n9Rgrs                                                        A bird flue outbreak exposes the unethical and deceptive practices of poultry producers.
  • How Burger King’s Palm Oil Addiction Is Devastating Local Communities – and Plante Earth (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2nP4jln
  • Hopsopoly (Dollars & Sense) http://bit.ly/2nhBmO7                       Global beer mergers reach a new level.
  • The Restaurant Industry Depends on Immigrants. What Happens If We Lose Them? (Indy Weekly) http://bit.ly/2mz9zdf
  • Behind a Corporate Monster: How Monsanto Pushes Agricultural Domination (green left weekly) http://bit.ly/2ooL8gb
  • Charge the ‘rich’ to feed the poor: Madrid’s Robin Hood homeless café (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2hdmH4Y
  • A More Equitable Economy Exists Right Next Door (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2nF3Wtp                                                                                                  In Quebec, co-ops and non-profit businesses account for 8-10 percent of GDP.
  • Capital’s Hunger in Abundance (Jacobin) http://bit.ly/2oodF8U      As long as food is produced for profit and not need, people will go hungry.

 

Pollinators

  • Man Creates Gardens For Unwanted Bees, Grows Free Food in 30 (NOLA) Abandoned Lots (Good News Network) http://bit.ly/2mIGgVO
  • Bees Are Slowing Going Extinct. These Prisoners Are Trying To Stop That (Huffington Post) http://huff.to/2nAvhJH

 

Animals

  • Going Undercover at a Slaughterhouse – Humanity Is Capable of Atrocities It Simply Can’t Confront (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2njq7Sa
  • Dairy is scary. The public are waking up to the darkest part of farming (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2nD6KqF
  • Bird Flue Is a Big Deal. Of Course Trump Wants to Defund the Best Way to Contain It. (Mother Jones) http://bit.ly/2o6FRwc    The virus has now hit Georgia, the No. 1 poultry-producing state – and Trump plans to cut surveillance funds.
  • Japan Returns With 333 Minke Whale Carcasses After ‘Scientific Expedition’ (Huffington Post) http://huff.to/2nqK8qa                  Japan has been conducting this ‘research’ since the international moratorium on whaling in 1986…
  • Selling Dog and Cat Meat Is Still Legal in Most of US – but a Federal Ban Could Soon Be in Place (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2mZdBXK                                                                                          Forty-four states have no law standing between the family dog and the dinner plate.
  • Catastrophic antibiotic threat from food (Nation of Change)

 

Food Fraud/Scandals/Weird

  • San Francisco PD Cites Senior Citizen For Eating Pizza At Mid-Market Bus Shelter (hoodline) http://bit.ly/2nOzsFj

 

Water & Our Oceans

  • This Invention Lets Rural Hondurans Clean Their Water – And Own the Treatment Plant (Yes!) http://bit.ly/2n7evqp
  • There’s another story to tell about climate change. And it starts with water (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2osFM6N
  • Flint Victory Is Replicable, Residents Say: Other Cities Should Ditch Their Lead Pipes (truthout) http://bit.ly/2nB3E4I
  • Oil spill in creek originally underestimated, making it one of the largest in North Dakota history (Bismarck Tribune) http://bit.ly/2odyq2Q
    • December North Dakota Oil Spill More Than 3 Times Larger Than Initial Estimate (Huffington Post) http://huff.to/2oe4jbG
  • Brazil is handing over the Amazon rainforest to mining companies and big agriculture (Vice) http://bit.ly/2mQl4cw
  • Love Canned Tuna? More Grocers Want To Make Sure It Was Caught Responsibly (NPR) http://n.pr/2o43kup

 

Government/Regulation/Policy/Farm Bill

  • Europe poised for total ban on bee-harming pesticides (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2mYPuJO                                                                Draft regulations seen by the Guardian reveal the European commission want to prohibit the insecticides that cause ‘acute risks to bees’
  • Ganges and Yamuna rivers granted same legal rights as human beings (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2nwOYGe
    • Himalayan glaciers (lakes and forests) granted status of ‘living entities’ for protection purposes (9 News AU) http://bit.ly/2o0cEk9
  • El Salvador makes history as first nation to impose blanket ban on metal mining (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2nyQvJF
  • Trump’s Budget Would Set Food Systems Progress Back Generations (Civil Eats) http://bit.ly/2nMXa5H                                        A “mean-spirited” budget proposal would cut key programs supporting farmworkers, ag communities, fresh food access for low income Americans, and pesticide safety.
  • Donald Drumpf and GOP-Controlled Congress Strip Workers of Rights and Protections (and No One Is Talking About It) (Lambda Legal) http://bit.ly/2oLFXGg
  • ICE arrests New York farmworkers, alarming industry and advocates (Crain’s NY Business) http://bit.ly/2nLJHLf
  • EPA to Investigate Civil Rights Abuses Over Pesticide Use in Hawaii (Beyond Pesticides) http://bit.ly/2npjhMb
  • Senator Demands More Info About EPA Chief’s Refusal To Ban Brain-Damaging Pesticide (Huffington Post) http://huff.to/2oynIYB
    • Will Trump’s EPA Greenlights a Pesticide Known to Damage Kids’ Brains? (Mother Jones) http://bit.ly/2ntLQKA
    • EPA Chief, Rejecting Agency’s Science Chooses Not to Ban Insecticide (NYT) http://nyti.ms/2oDGg5T
    • Common Pesticide “Disturbs” the Brains of Children (Scientific American) http://bit.ly/2nqXWBz
    • EPA Chief’s Refusal To Ban Brain Damaging Pesticide Shows Profit Trumps Public Safety (Huffington Post) http://huff.to/2nCUi8J
  • The Military Believes in Climate Change – The EPA, Sadly, Does Not (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2o27UO1                                              Defense Secretary Mattis sees climate change as a threat to national security.
  • Congress Will Put Public Health at Risk If It Passes This Dangerous Food Safety Bill (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2oSqjd2            The so-called Regulatory Accountability Act jeopardizes critical food safety rules.
  • Red state legislatures are taking away workers’ raises and paid leave (ThinkProgress) http://bit.ly/2nqEo0g                                                  A rising wave of preemption laws blocking cities from increasing their wages and benefits is sweeping the country.
  • Heartless In The Heartland (Huffington Post) http://huff.to/2omOT5z                                                                                          It’s the first time that a state (Iowa) has nullified local minimum wage ordinances that have already taken effect
  • In Major Victory for Environment, Maryland Legislature Votes to Ban Fracking (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2nB7wTk                                        The vote enshrines the three-year ban, enacted in 2014, as a permanent major environmental victory.
  • California EPA becomes first US agency to declare that Roundup causes cancer (GM Watch) http://bit.ly/2oqbCk7
    • Glyphosate to be listed under (California) Proposition 65 as Know to the to Cause Cancer (California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment) http://bit.ly/2oO2Hp8
  • (CA Assembly) Bill would force employers to ensure ICE agents have warrants (SF Chronicle) http://bit.ly/2n5CTo0
  • Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection Sues Town for Trying to Protect Their Environment (In These Times) http://bit.ly/2oQHKdt

 

GMOs/Cloning/Food Technology/Synthetic Biology/Nanotechnology

  • Oregon Bill Would Create Trespass Cause of Action for Landowners Against GMO Patent Owners (Lexology) http://bit.ly/2nz56EQ
  • Inside the Network Funding GMO Propaganda and PR to Cover Up Toxic Chemical Risks (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2nDpAPu

 

Poisons

  • Researchers find glyphosate in pregnant women, worry about impact on infants (Food & Environment Reporting Network) http://bit.ly/2nW65hP
  • Popular Farm Pesticide Found in Drinking Water (EcoWatch) http://bit.ly/2oashHz
    • Study: Occurrence of Neonicotinoid Insecticides in Finished Drinking Water and Fate during Drinking Water Treatment (Environmental Science & Technology) http://bit.ly/2oashHz

 

Events

  • Healthy Hives, Healthy Lives, Healthy Land

Ecological and Organic Strategies for Regeneration

The 35th National Pesticide Forum, April 28 – 29, 2017

University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN

Humphrey School of Public Affairs

http://bit.ly/2mIQjdE

 

GrowCalgary Blog Posts

Jenny’s Food & Ag Update March 23, 2017

 

  • ‘Come West, California is Hiring’: State Recruits EPA Climate Scientists (KQED) http://bit.ly/2maX2g7
  • Frederick Douglass On How Slave Owners Used Food As A Weapon Of Control (NPR) http://n.pr/2nj7eTc

 

Farmers, Farming, Ranching, Herding & Production

  • Can Rodale Create a Unified Voice for Organic Farmers in Washington? (Civil Eats) http://bit.ly/2m01OKd                                      The Organic Farmers Association hope to give farmers a place at the table on federal food policy.
  • The Hows and Whys of Hops (Seattle Times) http://bit.ly/2nbk1HO                                                                                        You’re going to drink it. You may as well know something about it.
  • Here Are the Three Main Challenges Facing US Agriculture Over the Next 50 Years (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2lQGutD
  • Many shades of gray – The context-dependent performance of organic agriculture (Science Advances) http://bit.ly/2nye057
  • This Is the Future of Farming (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2m2Jnn7        This is what cutting-edge looks like: The ‘world’s first post-organic produce’ grows at this vertical farm.
  • Texans Receive First Notices of Land Condemnation for Trump’s Border Wall (Texas Observer) http://bit.ly/2mKRMi4
  • The reindeer herder struggling to take on oil excavators in Siberia (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2nKZzur
  • Who Grows Food For Blue Apron? Their Resident Agroecologist, Alison Grantham, Explains (modern farmer) http://bit.ly/2lAmV7M
    • A pioneer of humanely raised meat is betting the farm on Blue Apron (Washington Post) http://wapo.st/2nCH4LK

 

Food and Culture

  • Baba’s Home Style Perogies May Be The World’s Only Drive-Thru Perogy Joint (Huffington Post Canada) http://huff.to/2me8Jyw
  • For Afghan Immigrants, Nowruz Celebrations Of Spring Are A Taste Of Home (NPR) http://n.pr/2nxzP7z

 

 

Hunger, Food Access & Security, Obesity & Malnutrition

  • World faces worst humanitarian crisis since 1945, says UN official (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2mUO0DG                                 Twenty million people face starvation without an immediate injection of funds in Yemen, South Sudan, Somalia and Nigeria, warns Stephen O’Brien
  • World Food Program says ‘race against time’ under way to prevent Yemen famine (Reuters) http://reut.rs/2mqOiyD
  • #LetThemDie: ‘Heartless’ Donald Trump Blasted For Killing Meals On Wheels Funds (Huffington Post) http://huff.to/2nquPSP
  • National Survey Shows High Rates Of Hungry And Homeless Community College Students (NPR) http://n.pr/2mycXjM
    • Striking Number of College Students Are Hungry and Homeless (The Atlantic) http://theatln.tc/2nKRV2o                         A new report says two-thirds of community-college students don’t have enough to eat, and 14 percent are homeless.

 

Gleaning, Reuse, Recycling, Composting & Waste

  • A New Supermarket Lets You Pay What You Want for Less Than Perfect Food (modern farmer) http://bit.ly/2mhjQq1                           A new supermarket in Germany only sells food that would be tossed out by most grocery stores. While they aren’t the first store to sell would-be-garbage goods, they are the first to be a ‘pay what you want’ establishment.

 

Healthy/Safe Food

  • Sell By, Use By, Best Before – Ugh. New Initiative Tries To Reduce Label Confusion (modern farmer) http://bit.ly/2mbWd6t            There actually are no rules on the books for expiration dates. In fact, the only food that is required to have one is infant formula.

 

Children & School Food

  • High School Students Start Club To Make Sure No One Sits Alone At Lunch (Huffington Post) http://huff.to/2mFeub9
  • (Australian) School ditches traditional met pies and sausage rolls to employ sous chef who trained at a hatted restaurant – but would your kids eat fom the menu? (Daily Mail) http://dailym.ai/2nkfDWr
  • ‘Outrageous’: expert slams White House for denying school meals’ link to learning (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2mVcFVT

 

Labor/Unions/Coops

  • Wages rise on California farms. Americans still don’t want the job (LA Times) http://lat.ms/2nzpyIK                                                              Trump’s immigration crackdown is supposed to help US citizens. For California farmers, it’s worsening a desperate labor shortage.
  • On Michigan farms and in restaurants, who will fill jobs? (Crain’s Detroit Business) http://bit.ly/2mnAK5O
  • Waiter fired after asking Latinas for ‘proof of residency’ at upscale Huntington Beach eatery (LA Times) http://lat.ms/2nFRuY6
  • Trump’s Plan to Make America Great Again Using Cheap Foreign Labor (Mother Jones) http://bit.ly/2noRZW7                                          The H-2 visa program leaves workers open to exploitation.
  • A court’s decision in a Maine labor dispute hinged on the absence of an Oxford comma (Quartz) http://bit.ly/2mGk7nO
  • Teamsters Maintain Lyft Driers Should Be Classified As Employees (Teamsters) http://bit.ly/2mEtClP                                    First it was FedEx that lost when they claimed their drivers were contractors, California’s courts determined the same thing for Uber in 2005, now Lyft.

 

Protests

  • It Takes Something Seismic to Get This Group Protesting (Esquire) http://bit.ly/2mqL2nm                                                                      The Mennonites are out in the street.
  • Big Strike Brewing Against Trump: Coalition of More Than 300,000 Food Workers to Join May Day Showdown (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2mUcIjo

 

Business, Social Enterprise & Our Economy

  • Big Chicken Goes Antibiotic-Free (modern farmer) http://bit.ly/2noQSsf                                                                                          Giants in the poultry industry are mobbing away from the use of antibiotics in a big way. Perdue stopped using antibiotics last year and now Tyson, the largest chicken processor in the US, has pushed up its plans to stop using the drugs by June.
  • Burger King Vows To Stop Buying Chickens From Animal Abusers (Huffington Post) http://huff.to/2o2uHoHThe burger chain gave itself seven years to meet standards for humanely raised birds.
  • Pepsi, McDonalds, Nestle, Other Major Brands Implicated in Illegal Destruction of Critical Elephant Habitat (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2nKqaHl
  • Honey Nut Cheerios Pulled Its Bee Mascot Because Bees Are Disappearing (Huffington Post) http://huff.to/2nG2Bj5
  • House of hemp: Growers call for a processing plant in WA to supply building industry (ABC News Australia) http://ab.co/2nhclAF
  • Seven Oil Multinationals That Are Pulling Out of Canada’s Tar Sands (environmental defence) http://bit.ly/2m4ckTJ
  • None of the world’s top industries would be profitable if they paid for the natural capital they use (grist) http://bit.ly/2n58VBv              I remember posting this in 2013 when it was first published… It is more applicable today.

 

Food Scandals, Fraud, Weird

  • This former official dodged jail time in the Flint water crisis, just has to write an apology letter (grist) http://bit.ly/2mqDekJ
  • ‘100 Percent Orange Juice’ Probably Isn’t As Natural As You Think (Huffington Post) http://huff.to/2mSPgWQ
  • Terrifying ‘My Little Pony’ Sting Cheese Is Pink, Tastes Like Strawberries (Huffington Post) http://huff.to/2nb9qfD

 

Water & Our Oceans

  • Trump Said He’d Fix Flint. Hobbling The EPA Is An Odd Way To Do That. (Huffington Post) http://huff.to/2n4JC2n                              The agency enforces regulations that are supposed to prevent lead from poisoning people’s water.
  • Updated: Can This Genius Strategy Stop Big Ag from Dumping Fertilizer Into Drinking Water? (Mother Jones) http://bit.ly/1EDrl2w
  • Using Nonnative Oyster (shells) to Help Restore Native Oysters in the Puget Sound (Earth Island Journal) http://bit.ly/2mdFdIh
  • Proposed Federal Budget Would Slash Puget Sound’s EPA Funding by 93 Percent (Seattle Weekly) http://bit.ly/2mdXnux

 

Government/Regulation/Policy/Farm Bill

  • Aid in reverse: how poor countries develop rich countries (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2jKd6j6                                                                        Yes indeed, if you look at USAID, we are not giving of the good of our hearts. We created USAID to open new markets. Case in point; food aid to Afghanistan has included a great deal of rice. Because Afghanistan is an arid or semiarid country all their rice production is dry land rice, which has lower yields than patty rice. Therefore, rice is a product that is consumed by the wealthy. When USAID and countries like Thailand donated rice, they were donating the equivalent of caviar to those starving in Afghanistan, creating new markets for the worlds subsidized rice…
  • No African citizens granted visas for African trade summit in California (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2njDhSV                                  Every single African citizen who requested a visa was rejected, according to the organizer of the African Global Economic Development Summit
  • Mexico canceled sugar export permits to the US because it couldn’t find anyone to negotiate with (Business Insider) http://read.bi/2ng96Zw
  • Donald Trump Has A Weird Way Of Showing How Much He Loves Farmers (Huffington Post) http://huff.to/2nkDcOW        Trump wants to “honor” farmers, but his policies could put their livelihoods at risk and their health care on the chopping block.
  • The Cuts in Trump’s Budget You Haven’t Heard About (Yes!) http://bit.ly/2n9ma64                                                                                        Whole national outrage is focused on Public Broadcasting and the National Endowment for the Arts, tiny agencies helping communities that teeter on the edge of poverty would also disappear.
  • Trump budget director: Feeding elderly and children has to end, it’s not ‘showing any results’ (Daily Kos) http://bit.ly/2nxaZ50
    • Meals on Wheels only isn’t ‘showing any results if you ignore these results (SF Chronicle) http://bit.ly/2nzaPgV
    • White House Says Cutting Meals on Wheels Is ‘Compassionate’ (New York Magazine) http://nym.ag/2nsMEjV
    • How much does Trump want to screw over those in need? His budget eliminates Meals on Wheels (Daily Kos) http://bit.ly/2mUEYpf
    • Trump’s Budget Would Kill a Program That Feeds 2.4 Million Senior Citizens (Time) http://ti.me/2nwbGeG
    • Trump, Ryan budget will kill more Americans per year than all Muslim extremist attacks combined (Daily Kos) http://bit.ly/2nKz1IX
    • People are furious that Trump’s new budget cuts funding to Meals on Wheels (SF Chronicle) http://bit.ly/2mXTooD
  • No, Feeding Hungry Kids and Seniors Isn’t a Waste of Money (Mother Jones) http://bit.ly/2mVh2SH                                                        Next up: puppy kicking?
  • Meals on Wheels is not showing any results’ only if you ignore all these results (The Washington Post) http://wapo.st/2nNDPNK
  • Meals on Wheels sees donation surge after Trump proposes funding cuts (Washington Post) http://wapo.st/2mGJIvc
  • Donald Trump’s Agriculture Pick Has Some Serious Ethics Issues, Too (Huffington Post) http://huff.to/2nu3awP
  • Report: Trump budget will slash the EPA, State Department, Amtrak, Meals on Wheels Grants (Vox) http://bit.ly/2n1t1OU
  • Trump’s Plan to Slash Weather Forecast Funding Is Terrible News for Farms (Mother Jones) http://bit.ly/2lOXQHn
  • Congress Approves of Drug Test Measure that ‘Vilifies Unemployed Workers’ (The District Sentinel) http://bit.ly/2nw3MCe
  • EPA Official Accused of Helping Monsanto ‘Kill’ Cancer Study (Boomberg) http://bloom.bg/2mb2NdA
    • Monsanto Weed Killer Deserves Deeper Scrutiny As Scientific Manipulation Revealed (Huffington Post) http://huff.to/2n0ZmDn
    • Monsanto Weed Killer Roundup Faces New Doubts on Safety in Unsealed Documents (NYT) http://nyti.ms/2n3yYe6
    • Has Monsanto Orchestrated a Massive Cancer Cover-up? Unsealed Court Case Documents Point to a Scandal (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2nwKfBL
    • Judge Threatens to Sanction Monsanto Secrecy in Roundup Cancer Litigation (Huffington Post) http://huff.to/2nql8iT
  • California judge rules against Monsanto, allows cancer warning on Roundup (Nation of Change) http://bit.ly/2mQrZ8l
  • Un-Sweetened: How A Maryland County Cut Soda Sales Without A Soda Tax (NPR) http://n.pr/2mkJ72f
  • Arkansas “Ag-Gag” Legislation Could Be Bad News for All Whistleblower (modern farmer) http://bit.ly/2mJr5b3
  • Path to the 2018 Farm Bill: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition) http://bit.ly/2mGNmpM

 

GMOs/Cloning/Food Technology/Synthetic Biology/Nanotechnology

 

Poisons

  • UN experts denounce ‘myth’ pesticides are necessary to feed the world (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2mdHDII
  • Monsanto Isn’t Feeding the World – It’s Killing Our Children (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2mQZ9Tk                                                                 Two new reports issue scathing indictment of US and global regulatory systems in collusion with chemical companies.
  • WHO Report: The cost of a polluted environment: 1.7 million child deaths a year (WHO) http://bit.ly/2lQSZRY
  • UN Human Rights Council: Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, 27, Feb. – 24, March 2017 (UN General Assembly) http://bit.ly/2n9MLwG
  • Strawberries, Spinach Top Dirty Dozen List of Produce Containing Pesticides (Earth Island Journal) http://bit.ly/2mJB175                                                                                        Report finds pesticide residues often remain on fruits and vegetables even after they are washed
  • Trying To Avoid Pesticides In Your Food? Maybe Don’t Buy Those Strawberries (modern farmer) http://bit.ly/2nBydcZ
  • Public Interest Groups, Farmers File Lawsuit Challenging Monsanto’s Toxic Pesticides (Center For Food Safety) http://bit.ly/2mgNXhO
  • Dozens of California Towns Have Childhood Lead Poisoning Rates Higher Than Flint’s (Huffington Post) http://huff.to/2nnLV2T

 

Pollinators

 

Animals

  • Radioactive Boars Rule Abandoned Japanese Towns In Wake of Fukushima Disaster (Huffington Post) http://huff.to/2neHmoP
  • Cockfighters Defy the Law – and on National Television No Less (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2mXndGA                                                                      The fact that this brutal practice continues – despite being illegal in all 50states – left HBO host Bryant Gumble dumbfounded.
  • Jim Hightower: 2016 Was a Disaster for America’s Democracy, But a Good Year for Egg-Laying Hens (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2njcfsb                                                                                              Before Trump took power, 2016 was a good year for protecting chickens.
  • US Activist’s Efforts to Rescue Dogs from Asia’s Meat Trade Draw Both Praise and Censure (Earth Island Journal) http://bit.ly/2mA6zM8

 

Events

  • Webinar Series: Farmers Markets First!                                                       How to Keep Farmers Markets at the Top of the Local Food Chain

Webinar: See and Be Scene: How to Create Community Around Local Food

Over 1,000 market managers were surveyed by the USDA in 2016 and 64% reported that hosting community events boosted the amount of customers coming to the market. Get ideas for affordable, easy-to-launch community events and activities that attract shoppers – and keep them coming back.

WHEN: March 29, 12:00-1:00pm Presentation, 1:00-1:30pm Q&A

WHO SHOULD ATTEND: Farmers Market Managers

REGISTRATION LINK: http://www.nyfarmersmarket.com/createcommunity

FMM Pro graduates, you can earn 1 continuing education credit by participating in both webinars!

 

Laura Biasillo                                                                                                     Agricultural Economic Development Specialist                                     Cornell Cooperative Extension of Broome County                                     (607) 584-5007 – Phone                                         www.ccebroomecounty.com                                                                                    Find us on Facebook

Cornell Cooperative Extension is an employer and educator recognized for valuing AA/EEO, Protected Veterans, and Individuals with Disabilities and provides equal program and employment opportunities.
Please contact the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Broome County office if you have any special needs.
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Broome County is supported by public and private funding. Primary cooperating partners are the County of Broome, the State of New York and SUNY’s Land Grant Colleges at Cornell University, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

 

  • Plant Propagation & Seed Starting Workshop                   WRENTHAM- The Southeastern Massachusetts Agricultural Partnership (SEMAP) is pleased to announce their first workshop of the season! Learn how to start the season for your farm or garden the right way. We’ll be visiting White Barn Farm,  a small vegetable farm located in Wrentham, Mass. The husband-wife farmer team, Chris and Christy Kantlehner, use organic practices to supply a CSA, farmstand, and restaurant accounts with fresh produce.  White Barn also has a huge plant sale the weekend before Memorial Day every year. Growing seedlings for that very financially significant sale is a major part of early season farmwork at White Barn Farm. After the plant sale, many of the crops grown for sale are produced by transplant – either with a water wheel transplanter or a paper pot transplanter. We’ll see these tools and learn how they are used. Christy will share her experience and the methods currently used in her greenhouse.                                                                                                                         When: Saturday, March 25, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM                       Where: White Barn Farm,  458 South St, Wrentham, MA

Cost:  $5 Beginning Farmers, $15 SEMAP Members, $20                           General Public

Register online at semaponline.org/seedstarting

 

 

Other

  • Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development http://bit.ly/2nQ7HJE                                                          Open call for papers

 

GrowCalgary Blog Posts

Jenny’s Food & Ag Update March 10, 2017

 

  • Special Report – Voice of Justice: Women for Agricultural Transformation (Food First) http://bit.ly/2n3Y6zf
  • Acta Non Verba: The Youth Urban Farm Program Educating and Uplifting East Oakland Kids (Bay Area Bites) http://bit.ly/2lDE1CS
  • As California’s Organic Farming Pioneers Age, A Younger Generation Steps In (NPR) http://n.pr/2lF49tE
  • This area in Detroit is now America’s first 100% organic, self-sustainable neighborhood (The Food Revolution Network) http://bit.ly/2lHLSxx
  • Farming Gives Hope to Some Veterans with PTSD: ‘I Found a New Normal in My life’ (WV Public Broadcasting) http://bit.ly/2lAoFPt
  • At Alaska’s only seed-cleaning facility, things are really shakin’ (Alaska Dispatch News) http://bit.ly/2lSICxH
  • Modern agriculture cultivates climate change – we must nurture biodiversity (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2joESmb                              Crop-breeding innovations are merely a short-term solution for falling yields. Only agricultural diversity can ensure food security and resilience
  • Here’s Why the USDA Is Wrong to Certify Hydroponics as ‘Organic’ (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2mTOd78
  • Solar-powered floating farm could produce 20 tons of vegetables daily (Nation of Change) http://bit.ly/2mqq9Zb
  • He tore off his chef’s coat and told a black-tie crowd, ‘I am an immigrant’ (Miami Herald) http://hrld.us/2l0ICic
  • Dirt Poor: Have Fruits and Vegetables Become Less Nutritious? (Scientific American) http://bit.ly/2m2WVCh                                  Because of soil depletion, crops gown decades ago were much richer in vitamins and minerals than the varieties most of us get today. It is not only soil depletion but cultivars developed to grow quickly with uniform size and color, picked green to be shipped across the country or across the world…
  • WHO’s ‘priority pathogens’ list highlights urgent need for new drugs (Canadian Broadcasting Corp) http://bit.ly/2lOLqeq
  • The rise of biodynamic farming: a return to ‘the way farmers farmed for millennia’ (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2mbeaPq
  • Reverse Advertising: Graphic Warning Labels Show the Sinister Side of Products (Truthout) http://bit.ly/2lTistV
  • Copper is great at killing superbugs – so why don’t hospitals use it? (Down To Earth) http://bit.ly/2lAlHKF
  • Farm-To-Table Amenities Yield Profits (Builder) http://bit.ly/2mDgUHZ                                                                                      They are also players to gentrification on urban areas of the San Francisco Bay Area…
  • Farmers sue World Bank lending arm over alleged violence in Honduras (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2lLFqXM

 

Food and Culture

  • How the Chili Dog Transcended America’s Divisions (The Atlantic) http://theatln.tc/2lEhukp                                                                The national dish is really a fusion of immigrant fare.

 

Hunger, Food Access & Security, Obesity & Malnutrition

  • In Famine-Hit South Sudan, Women And Children Eat Water Lilies To Survive (Huffington Post) http://huff.to/2m0mUup

 

Gleaning, Reuse, Recycling, Composting & Waste

  • A Whole New Kind Of Grocery Store Is Coming To The US (Huffington Post) http://huff.to/2m91LNS                                                 Zero-waste retailers imagine a world with much less garbage.
  • How the Plastic Bag Became So Popular (The Atlantic) http://theatln.tc/2mZQihb                                                                                        It took years of industry advocacy before the cellophane sack, invented in the 1960s, caught on.

 

Healthy/Safe Food

 

Children & School Food

  • DeVos Questions If Schools Should Provide Free Lunch (Yahoo News) https://yhoo.it/2kY6djz
    • Actually, Betsy DeVos, There Is Such A Thing As A Free Lunch (Huffington Post) http://huff.to/2llJJoy                                                  For many children, that free lunch at school is the only meal they will eat that day.
  • Poor kids eating free breakfast? Not if congressional Republicans have their way (Daily Kos) http://bit.ly/2lcelIt
  • Low-Carbon meals; A Triple Win for One of California’s Largest School Districts (EcoWatch) http://bit.ly/2mquoXz
    • Report: Shrinking the Carbon and Water Footprint of School Food: A Recipe for Combatting Climate Change (Friends of the Earth) http://bit.ly/2n32BsQ

 

Labor/Unions/Coops

  • More than 50 detained in immigration raids at Asian restaurants in Mississippi (LA Times) http://lat.ms/2lD9EKS
  • Experts Warn Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Could Destroy the US Agriculture Industry (Vanity Fair) http://bit.ly/2mxdl2n
    • After Trump’s immigration order, anxiety grows in Florida’s farm fields (Washington Post) http://wapo.st/2mzunwV
  • Big Meat’s Dirty Little Secret: Few Jobs for Americans (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2lWW9qz                                                                                          With few exceptions, American citizens simply won’t work in slaughterhouses.
  • Berkley CA: Student Workers at University Walk Off Job and Form Union (Its Going Down) http://bit.ly/2mg2JaT

 

Protests

  • Pittsburgh Restaurant Gives Female Staff Paid Day Off For ‘A Day Without A Woman’ (Huffington Post) http://huff.to/2mliz2q        Male bartenders, including the mayor, will take over their shifts while raising money for Planned Parenthood.
  • Strawberries and Solidarity: Farmworkers Build Unity Around Driscoll’s Berries Boycott (In These Times) http://bit.ly/2lw3yca
  • Protests begin in DC after motion to halt Dakota Access in denied (Nation of Change) http://bit.ly/2m9O1yM

 

Business, Social Enterprise & Our Economy

  • Can Agroecology Bring Jobs To America’s Hearland? (Huffington Post) http://huff.to/2lzoRu0                                                                Rebuilding our local economies through local food production…
  • Some diners are furious about a pricing strategy tat is becoming the ‘new normal’ at restaurants in states that raised the minimum wage (Business Insider) http://read.bi/2mForWi
  • A Black-Owned, Woman-Owned Craft Bottle Shop Is Coming to Uptown Oakland (East Bay Express) http://bit.ly/2n2d0pK
  • Jim Hightower: The Speculating Farmers of Wall Street – Making Quick Money Has Seized American Farmland (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2m5oSbT                                                                                Financial trusts snatch up valuable US acreage, then convert into fast-buck investments for global speculators.
  • Billionaire behind Rainforest Café, Bubba Gump’s: ‘We can’t afford’ to gie SF workers healthcare (SF Gate) http://bit.ly/2n5Ujop
  • Police say they were ‘authorized by McDonald’s’ to arrest protesters, suit claims (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2lxf86G        Fight for $15 chapter in Memphis alleges that officers engaged in surveillance and intimidation of fast-food worker organization

 

Food Fraud/Scandals/Weird

 

Water & Our Oceans

  • In Flint, Mich., there’s so much lead in children’s blood that a state of emergency is declared (The Washington Post) http://wapo.st/2maXytM
  • Study finds 6,600 spills from fracking in just 4 states (Science Magazine) http://bit.ly/2l4Jgeh
  • These Programs Keep Toxic Algae out of Drinking Water – And Trump Wants to Gut Them (Mother Jones) http://bit.ly/2m8QcU6
  • Sand mining: The global environmental crisis you’ve probably never heard of (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2mw53sk                    From Cambodia to California, industrial-scale sand mining is causing wildlife to die, local trade to wither and bridges to collapse…
  • Striking photos taken from space show dramatic impact of 2017 storms (SF Chronicle) http://bit.ly/2n5J9MW
  • ‘Extraordinary’ levels of pollutants found in 10km deep Mariana trench (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2lMUfsF

 

Government/Regulation/Policy/Farm Bill

  • UN experts denounce ‘myth’ pesticides are necessary to feed the world (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2mlZU8d
  • France passes controversial bill making cameras mandatory in all slaughterhouses (Nation of Change) http://bit.ly/2miLneK              The French national assembly voted on Friday to monitor slaughterhouse practices and worker behavior to prevent animal cruelty as well as hygiene and safety violations.
  • Germany bans meat at all official functions to combat climate change (Nation of Change) http://bit.ly/2lUhdLX                            Because animal agriculture is responsible for a large percentage of greenhouse gas emissions, Germany’s Federal Minister for the Environment recently banned meat from being services at official functions.
  • Republicans Just Made It Easier For Companies To Exploit Workers (Huffington Post) http://huff.to/2mhZCPG                        They vacated an Obama executive order that would have punished federal contractors that rip off or endanger employees.
  • Senate votes to repeal labor protection laws that safeguarded poultry workers (The Guardian) http://bit.ly/2mi3LDt                Trump has vowed to sign bill to eliminate Obama-era mandate to disclose on-site injuries and fatalities, which occur at a high rate in chicken-processing industry.
  • EPA environmental justice leader resigns, amid White House plans to dismantle program (Washington Post) http://wapo.st/2mbyrnh
    • Trump slashes Great Lakes funding by 98 percent in early budget plan (Michigan Live) http://bit.ly/2lF0U3F
  • Monsanto Cancer Lawsuit Take Dramatic Turn Over EPA Official’s “Highly Suspicious” Role (BuzzFlash) http://bit.ly/2md1AS0
  • Trump’s Removal of Bumblebee From Endangered List Is Illegal, Advocates Say (Truthout) http://bit.ly/2lCLhdY
  • Why the people who grow your food are worried about Scott Pruitt (Nation of Change) http://bit.ly/2miPzLH                            Pruitt’s approach to the EPA is likely to threaten farmworkers, who are highly exposed to the effects of climate change, including heat stress and increased pesticide use.
  • Farmers are Cheering Trump’s Repeal of an Environmental Rule That Doesn’t Affect Them (Mother Jones) http://bit.ly/2mTcCZy    Agriculture is actually the only industry exempted from the Waters of the United Sates rule.
  • Who Could Benefit From Water Rule Change? Trump And His Golf Courses (Huffington Post) http://huff.to/2mb3vUU
  • Bill advances to exempt seasonal (Montana) workers from minimum wage (SF Chronicle) http://bit.ly/2l7ZX8O
  • Appeal Filed in Lawsuit Over Alabama Minimum Wage Law (US News & World Report) http://bit.ly/2mEtiIj                                              Fast food workers and civil rights groups are appealing the dismissal of a lawsuit that challenged an Alabama law that blocked Birmingham’s plans to raise the minimum wage.
  • Major victory for California cities vs. Monsanto over PCB contamination (Nation of Change) http://bit.ly/2lX4kD9
  • Chevron, Aera Energy sue to block Monterey County, California’s voter approved ban on fracking (Nation of Change) http://bit.ly/2nez0xp

 

GMOs/Cloning/Food Technology/Synthetic Biology/Nanotechnology

  • Brazil becomes the newest country to refuse GMO imports from the United States (Nation of Change) http://bit.ly/2lc9wyR                 As of 2015 there were 38 countries that had banned GM crops.
  • Monsanto loses millions of dollars after Indian farmers switch to indigenous seeds (Nation of Change) http://bit.ly/2mupCHS        Monsanto claims that the genetically modified cotton seeds they sell are superior. So why are so many people trying to switch?
  • Vegetable technology gap (Politico) http://politi.co/2n5YVr2         Washington spends millions on crop research. Why doesn’t more go toward the foods we’re actually supposed to eat?
  • Why Trendy Nanosilver Products Are Hazardous to Your Health and the Environment (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2mj1Uj5                    Over 400 products on the market use nanosilver technology, and most aren’t reviewed by the EPA.

 

Poisons

  • Monsanto and Bayer’s Chemical Romance: Heroin, Nerve Gas and Agent Orange (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2lTomi3
  • The Toxins That Threaten Our Brains (The Atlantic) http://theatln.tc/2n4tiNI                                                                              Leading scientists recently identified a dozen chemicals as being responsible for widespread behavioral and cognitive problems. But the scope of the chemical dangers in our environment is likely even greater…
  • US Agriculture Still Using Antibiotics That Cause Bacterial Resistance to Life-Saving Medicines (AlterNet) http://bit.ly/2mXQXna
  • Bald Eagles Keep Dying And No One’s Talking About It (The Dodo) http://thedo.do/2n85MDI                                                                  “They cannot even open their beaks.”

 

Animals