Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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Rio Grande Community Farms
http://www.communityfarm.org/projects/index.html

(Community Food Security Coalition is at http://www.foodsecurity.org/  )

"Local responses with local resources are the most permanent, sustainable 
solutions there are."

 Rio Grande Community Farms is a ABQ based nonprofit organization which works 
in partnership with City of ABQ Open Space Division to establish farming 
projects that promote farmland preservation and production of food crops for 
local consumption at city-owned Los Poblanos Fields. Projects currently 
underway are:

The Community Garden
Volunteer and Service Learning Program
Workshops
The Albuquerque Food Security Network
The Annual MAIZE MAZE
Autumn Festival Harvest Markets
Wildlife Habitat
Internship Program
The Alvarado School Garden

THE ALBUQUERQUE FOOD SECURITY NETWORK

Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and 
economic access to the production and consumption of sufficient, safe and 
nutritious food to meet their dietary needs for an active and healthy life.

Sufficient, nutritious food is essential to life and a fundamental right of 
every person as defined in the UN Declaration of Human Rights and the UN 
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The world’s nations 
confirmed this right and bound themselves to eradicate hunger and bring food 
security to all at the World Food Summit in Rome in 1996.

Those of us that are food secure and regularly shop where we like, and can 
afford to eat what we like, often assume this is the case for everyone. 
However, food security is more complex. Many underserved neighborhoods lack 
buying power and therefore lack access to the kind of food services that are 
easily taken for granted.

In addition to examining the wages and household budgets of those needing 
food assistance, other relevant questions to food security are: Who is 
producing food? Where and by what means it is being produced? And, who has 
the means necessary to produce it? Currently most of our food is grown on 
only 9% of our country’s farms, and these are also the farms that receive the 
most government subsidies. Our nation’s small and mid-size farmers also need 
equal government support in the form of programs which help access markets 
that pay them a decent wage for their labor, and insure farmland protection.

To address the issue of hunger and poverty in the 21st century, we need to 
examine the economic realities of industrialized agriculture, the impact of 
government subsidies and market forces, our national policies, the real cost 
of industrialized agriculture in relationship to environmental problems as 
well as international trade.

The portion of the land at Los Poblanos Fields, which is planted in field 
crops and community garden plots is in part subsidized by a Food Security 
grant from the USDA. The grant is a 50% matching grant to help establish Los 
Poblanos Fields as a source for fresh food for local citizens who are food 
insecure. This means that for every dollar the USDA funds, RGCF must earn or 
find a matching dollar. Produce sales, our yearly membership drive, income 
from the maze, and contributions from other grantors provide the matching 
funds. The intention of the grant is to support RGCF in establishing a 
Community Food Network by partnering with local organizations, church and 
service groups, and government programs and divisions, as well as individuals 
to make local fresh food available to ABQ citizens who need food assistance, 
i.e. are food insecure.

People all over the USA, Europe and Canada are working on some of the same 
problems we have in Albuquerque. The rest of this article introduces you to a 
national organization called The Community Food Security Coalition of which 
RGCF is a member.

The Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC) http://www.foodsecurity.org/ is 
a non-profit 501(c)(3), North American organization dedicated to building 
strong, sustainable, local and regional food systems that ensure access to 
affordable, nutritious, and culturally appropriate food for all people at all 
times.

The coalition seeks to develop self-reliance among all communities in 
obtaining their food and to create a system of growing, manufacturing, 
processing, making available, and selling food that is regionally based and 
grounded in the principles of justice, democracy, and sustainability. The 
coalition is made up of organizations concerned with social and economic 
justice, the environment, nutrition, sustainable agriculture, community 
development, labor, poverty and hunger.

One of the coalition's main political efforts in the past year has been the 
federal government's 2002 farm bill. The coalition advocated for small and 
midsize family farms within that huge, unwieldy, corporate-farm-oriented 
piece of public policy. The coalition believes the resulting bill would have 
been a lot worse without our lobbying. Its next political thrust will be the 
reauthorization of the Children's Nutrition Act, where the coalition will be 
an advocate for community groups supporting children's health.

Some of the groups in the coalition lobby and some work in their communities 
supporting local farmers, making sure all community members have enough to 
eat and advocating for healthy food, air and water. One of the principles of 
community food security is that "a stable local agricultural base is key to a 
community responsive food system.

Farmers markets are definitely part of the picture, but there are other parts 
that probably have a larger impact. Another area of focus is changing 
institutional buying and implementing subsidized fresh food programs for 
eligible families. One example is the farm-to-school program. In several 
cities throughout the country school food service departments are contracting 
with local farmers to supply fresh, local foods to school cafeterias. We live 
in a state that is among the highest in poverty while local farmers are 
struggling to survive. We've all heard about the rise of child obesity and 
Type 2 diabetes in young children.

Our kids need healthy food. They need to know where food comes from and that 
fresh local food tastes a lot better than food that has traveled thousands of 
miles and been stored for long periods. They need to know about the health 
risks associated with fast food.

These projects such as the farm-to-school programs begin with us; with 
farmers, parents, schools, the health community and whoever else is 
interested. We can start big or small; there are no blueprints. Community 
members figure out what works. But, radical change needs to happen for the 
health of our children and family farms. Radical change doesn't just happen. 
It's a result of strong community voices.

Local responses with local resources are the most permanent, sustainable 
solutions there are.