Food and Agriculture

Should Food Irrigated With Fracked Water Be Labeled?

August 20, 2015 Lydia O'Connor, www.huffingtonpost.com Create! Food and Agriculture, Fracking, Water

By Lydia O'Connor - A new bill proposed in California would require all produce irrigated with fracking wastewater to come with warning labels. The bill, which Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D) introduced on Monday, would require any crops grown with water that had previously been injected into rock formations to free oil and gas reserves and sold to consumers in the state to be labeled. The warning would read, "Produced using recycled or treated oil-field wastewater." "Consumers have a basic right to make informed decisions when it comes to the type of food that ends up on the family dinner table," Gatto said in a press release from his office. "Labeling food that has been irrigated with potentially harmful or carcinogenic chemicals, such as those in recycled fracking water, is the right thing to do."

Now Free & Legal To Plant Vegetable Garden In LA

August 19, 2015 Amanda Froelich, www.bullhorn.nationofchange.org Create! Food and Agriculture, Land, Law, Los Angeles

By Amanda Froelich in Nation of Change - As ridiculous as it sounds, growing food on government land is an illegal practice in many cities and towns across the U.S. But not everyone desires – or has the means – to pay an extraordinary amount on fruits and vegetables just to maintain their health. For this reason, a growing percentage of the populace has begun planting foods near their home and on lesser-visited plots of land in the city. Known as Guerrilla gardening, this practice has been deemed illegal, as the food foragers do not have a permit to grow a garden – even if they are only trying to use the Earth to its fullest capacity. Such was the case for Ron Finley, who, four years ago, was given an arrest warrant for planting carrots outside of his home on a small strip of city-owned land.

London Neighbors Create ‘Instant’ Permaculture Gardens For All

August 19, 2015 Sami Grover, www.treehugger.com Resist! Food and Agriculture, Land

By Sami Grover in Tree Hugger - I've gotta say, I've been loving the Living with the Land video series from Permaculture Magazine. Whether it's showing us vegan organic agriculture, mature forest gardens, no-dig market gardening or regenerative agriculture through holistic grazing, the series has introduced some wonderful ways to manage land that don't just "do less harm," but actually heal the soil and renew biodiversity too. But most of the examples so far have been rural. Given that more and more of us are living in the city, how can we rethink our relationship with the soil? One answer, I think, is to rethink our relationship with each other.

Wine ‘Goliath’ Bullies ‘David’ Egg Seller

August 9, 2015 Shepherd Bliss, www.popularresistance.org Educate! Big Ag, Environment, Food and Agriculture, Local Economy, Sustainability

By Shepherd Bliss. Sonoma County, CA - It’s a classic Goliath vs. David story, with Sonoma County’s powerful wine industry as Goliath. Their high-paid lobbyists and marketers re-branded this region from our cherished, natural “Redwood Empire” to their commercial “Wine Country.” Goliath hoards more than its fair share of water, agricultural land, and road space. These wine barons run a Wine Empire that colonizes food farms and usurps natural resources. Wise Acre is a local David. Most wineries here are owned by large corporate investors from Wall Street and outside the US. “The Myth of the Family Winery: Global Corporations Behind California Wine,” published by the Marin Institute, documents this. A few alcohol companies own most of the wine production here.

Blow The Whistle On Agribusiness, Ag-Gag Law Unconstitutional

August 7, 2015 Staff, www.centerforfoodsafety.org Resist! Agribusiness, Food and Agriculture, Whistleblowers

By Staff for the Center for Food Safety - Idaho’s Ag-Gag law is unconstitutional, the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho ruled today, overturning the law. In a landmark victory for a broad-based public interest coalition of national nonprofits, including Center for Food Safety (CFS), the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Idaho, the court held that the Ag-Gag law, Idaho Code sec. 18-7042, violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Today’s decision marks the first time a court has declared an Ag-Gag statute unconstitutional. “This is a huge victory for free speech, animal welfare, and food safety. Without the ability to witness and expose the illegal and unethical behavior that goes on in one of the nation’s most powerful industries, we are all vulnerable. This latest ruling affirms our right to report abuse in order to protect animals and our health,” said Paige Tomaselli, senior attorney for Center for Food Safety.

Occupy The Farm: Documentary Explores Activism In Urban Farming

August 6, 2015 Emily Nink, www.csmonitor.com Create! Food and Agriculture, Urban Farming

By Emily Nink in CS Monitor - Approximately 15 percent of the world’s food is now grown in urban areas, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. Urban farmers are uniquely situated to deliver healthy food to residents of cities and reach low-income urban populations. But these farmers face unique challenges, including lack of access to water, contaminated soil, and competing uses for land. Occupy the Farm, a documentary film released in fall of 2014, focuses on the story of 200 urban farmers in California who took action to save a publicly-owned research farm from becoming developed for real estate. On April 22, 2012, hundreds of community members broke a lock on a fence to enter the Gill Tract and plant vegetable seedlings on 14 acres of land owned by the University of California, Berkeley.

Japan’s ‘Sacred’ Rice Farmers Await TPP Death Sentence

August 4, 2015 Nicole L Freiner, www.theconversation.com Educate! Farming, Food and Agriculture, Japan, Rice, TPP

By Nicole L Freiner for the Conversation - Rice is one of the five sacred areas of Japanese agriculture (with pork and beef, wheat, barley and sugarcane). To many, especially those living in rural areas, it remains the primary ingredient of the Japanese identity. As one farmer here said, “without rice, there is no Japan; the culture is a rice culture, it is the most basic element.” Japan’s rice farmers have long been the backbone of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. But lately, as their numbers dwindle along with a declining population and demand for rice, this key cultural constituency seems to have lost the strength it once had to demand the government’s support. There are now around 2 million rice farmers in Japan, down from 4 million in 1990 and as many as 12 million in 1960. The US is pushing Japan to increase its duty-free imports of American rice and related products from 10,000 tons a year to 215,000 tons. The US also wants Japan to open up its lands to foreign investment.

A Haven From The Animal Holocaust

August 4, 2015 Chris Hedges, www.truthdig.com Educate! Animal Rights, Farm, Food and Agriculture

Only in the insanity of corporate America can nonviolent animal rights activists be charged as terrorists while a white supremacist who gunned down African-Americans in a South Carolina church is charged on criminal counts. Only in the insanity of America can Wall Street financers implode the global economy through massive acts of fraud, causing widespread suffering, and be rewarded with trillions of dollars in government bailouts. Only in the insanity of America can government leaders wage wars that are defined as criminal acts of aggression under international law and then remain, unchallenged, in positions of power and influence. All this makes no sense in an open society.

World’s Largest Rooftop Greenhouse Coming To Chicago

July 31, 2015 Lorraine Chow, www.ecowatch.com Create! Chicago, Environment, Food and Agriculture

By Lorraine Chow in EcoWatch - Chicago probably isn’t the first place that comes to mind when you think of farming, but the city’s Pullman Park district will soon be home to the largest rooftop greenhouse in the world. Once construction is complete, the behemoth 75,000 square foot green space, built and operated by Gotham Greens, will be larger than a football stadium and even some city blocks. As Business Insider puts it, “For some perspective on the size of the greenhouse: the average size of a city block in many parts of the U.S.—including Portland, Oregon and Houston, Texas—is 67,600 square feet. An NFL football field is 57,600 square feet. This greenhouse is larger than all of these things.” According to a Gotham Greens, the greenhouse will produce up to 1 million pounds of sustainably grown, pesticide-free produce annually. The harvest will also be distributed through local retailers, restaurants, farmer’s markets and community groups.

Out Of Sight: The Labor Abuses Behind What We Eat

July 30, 2015 Erik Loomis, www.dissentmagazine.org Educate! Food and Agriculture, Neoliberalism, Worker Rights and Jobs

By Erik Loomis in Dissent Magazine - This Smithfield story tells us much about food’s role in the globalized economy. First, it shows that the food industry outsources production for the same reasons as other industries—to pollute and to exploit workers while minimizing resistance from empowered locals with labor and environmental organizations. The meat industry already locates its facilities in antiunion states such as North Carolina, and even politicians in more progressive states, like Maryland governor and Democratic candidate for president Martin O’Malley, oppose regulations demanded by citizens to keep their water clean because they fear that the meat industry will move to another state. If the regulations in all the states become too strict, NAFTA has opened up Mexico to American agribusiness. States compete with states and nations with nations in a race to the bottom. Ecosystems and workers suffer.

Gardening As Resistance

July 27, 2015 Unicorn Riot, www.unicornriot.ninja Strategize! Food and Agriculture, indigenous, Resistance

By Unicorn Riot - In late July Unicorn Riot interviewed three members of Zintkala Luta: a Minneapolis-based educational nonprofit dedicated to offering youth and activists access to nutritional foods and programs which teach native traditions, L/Dakota and Ojibwe language and local organic food cultivation. They are among a growing movement of others working to create autonomous food systems within their neighborhoods. This movement utilizes urban farming to break away from modern industrial agri-business by creating food sovereignty within local communities. Zintkala Luta, which means “Red Bird”, looks forward to the Fall harvest where they will host the local community for dinner and teach simple recipies made with regionally native vegetable species. They will also be teaching medicinal plant gathering traditions.

Yes Men: ‘Skip Showers For Beef’

July 26, 2015 Derek Markham, www.treehugger.com Strategize! Climate Change, Drought, Food and Agriculture, Water

By Derek Markham on TreeHugger. Los Angeles, CA - It's admirable that people want to conserve water at home, especially in light of the severe droughts that are affecting many areas, but the amount of water used in homes pales in comparison to that used by industry. While residential water use is but a small slice of the pie (~14%), the meat and dairy industry is said to account for some 47% of all water used in the state of California. And of course, we all want to do our part to help the beef and milk producers continue to guzzle water, so a couple of smart fellows have come up with a great solution, which allows people to have their beef (and milk) while sacrificing a bit of personal hygiene for the good of industry.

Ending The Food Deserts In Baltimore

July 26, 2015 Antonia Blumberg, www.huffingtonpost.com Create! Baltimore, Food and Agriculture, Urban Gardens

By Antonia Blumberg for Huffington Post - Rev. Dr. Heber Brown, who heads Pleasant Hope Baptist Church in Baltimore, is spearheading the Black Church Food Security Network in conjunction with the Baltimore Food and Faith Project of the Johns Hopkins Center For a Livable Future and Black Dirt Farm, a local group of urban farmers who grow food on the historic land of Harriet Tubman on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Their aim is to bring together black churches and black farmers to provide their communities with healthy, nutritious food. In Baltimore, 34 percent of the city’s African American population lives without access to fresh, healthy foods, compared to just 8 percent of white residents. Food justice came to the forefront of Brown’s mind five years ago when he was a new pastor at Pleasant Hope and found himself visiting members of his congregation in the hospital up to four times a week. “I realized the people I served were in the hospital, many of them, because of diet-related issues,” he told HuffPost.

Save Monarchs, Plant More Milkweed

July 25, 2015 Center For Food Safety, www.ecowatch.com Create! Animals, Environment, Food and Agriculture

By Center For Food Safety in Ecowatch - Center for Food Safety (CFS) released today a detailed, 80-page scientific report, Monarchs in Peril: Herbicide-Resistant Crops and the Decline of Monarch Butterflies in North America. The comprehensive report reveals the severe impacts of herbicide-resistantgenetically engineered (GE) crops on the monarch population, which has plummeted over the past twenty years. The report makes it abundantly clear: two decades of Roundup Ready crops have nearly eradicated milkweed—the monarch caterpillar’s sole source of food—in cropland of the monarch’s vital Midwest breeding ground. At the urgent request of scientists and public interest groups, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is currently considering listing the monarch as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. The report is being presented to Congress today at an expert briefing on the decline of monarchs.

28 Inspiring Urban Agriculture Projects

July 25, 2015 Food Tank, www.foodtank.com Create! Farming, Food and Agriculture, Urban

By Food Tank - Around 15 percent of the world's food is now grown in urban areas. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), urban farms already supply food to about 700 million residents of cities, representing about a quarter of the world’s urban population. By 2030, 60 percent of people in developing countries will likely live in cities. At Food Tank, we are amazed by the efforts of hundreds of urban farms and gardens to grow organic produce, cultivate food justice and equity in their communities, and revitalize urban land. Urban agriculture not only contributes to food security, but also to environmental stewardship and a cultural reconnection with the land through education. The Urban Food Policy Pact (UFPP), to be signed on World Food Day, will address the potential of cities to contribute to food security through urban agriculture.

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