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  • From: "Ralph Sole" <rsole@kc.rr.com>
  • To: "Healthy soil and sustainable growing" <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] LiveBlogging Edible Institute 2011
  • Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2011 17:30:24 -0600

Fabulous! Keep on, Keeping on.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
To: <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Saturday, January 29, 2011 4:06 PM
Subject: [Livingontheland] LiveBlogging Edible Institute 2011



LiveBlogging Edible Institute 2011
Posted on January 29th, 2011 by Chef Kurt Michael Friese
http://networkedblogs.com/dD6WR

Hello from sunny Santa Barbara, CA and the 2011 edition of Edible Institute at the Hotel Mar Monte. Today and tomorrow I'll be liveblogging the goings on here for those of you who couldn't make it and for those who did but mighta missed something. Since it's live please forgive typos and so on - I'll put on my editors hat at the end of the day.

Follow the goings on on the Twitter machine via the hashtag #EI2011

We've a heckuva lineup today, including a keynote from no less than Dr. Joan Dye Gussow, who is a serious food producer, a writer, and officially a retiree from Teachers College, Columbia University where she is Mary Swartz Rose Professor Emerita, former chair of the Nutrition Education Program, and where she still teaches her course on nutritional ecology every fall. Her latest book is called (I adore this title) "Growing, Older."

Things are scheduled to start rolling here in about 20 minutes, so the first update from here will happen in about an hour or so. Take a look at the schedule of events, and please check back throughout the day (and again tomorrow).

But first, a word from our sponsors - a quick shoutout to the folks that helped make this thing happen:

St. Germaine

Green Project Consultants

and Verterra.

OK, we're getting underway here with a welcome from Edible Communities co-founder Tracey Ryder. Shoutouts to the above sponsors, staff, and the instigator of all of this, Edible San Francisco publisher Bruce Cole.

Dr. Gussow has taken the stage, and is saying a few nice things about our humble publications, and says she's going to start with her "Cassandra role." Says she's "spent several years depressing college students."

"I feel the need to confess that I don't feel as if I belong here," Gussow says, on account of feeling not as up-to-date on all the foodie-goings-on these days. She then reveals that she's an Iowa girl, originally - she grew up in Orange City - way up in the northwest corner of the state, and named not for the fruits - somewhat obviously - but for William of Orange.

Dr. Gussow is concerned about what she calls the "Frivolity of the US food supply."

"Whenever you don't understand something I'm saying, simply assume I'm trying to be funny."

She's touching now on her first book, The Feeding Web, which came out in 1978 - a true harbinger of the coming food movement which told of the absurdity of the food supply. "People need to ask where all those marshmallow-enriched purple cereals in their technicolor food supply were coming from."

Rodale Press, she tells us, did the first study of how much of our food might possibly be produced locally in light of the first energy crisis in the late 70s. At the time she had a student at the time who did an independent project on her native Haiti about how the only US aid going on there was that we had taken their hogs, sent them Iowa hogs, which they were to raise and send to the US. This while Haitians were starving under Papa Doc.

her first attempts to get people to eat seasonally and locally "sank like a stone" because people thought that for example people who live in the northeast would starve and "what would the people of Iowa do for vitamin C?" Check in on my own Edible Iowa for some answers to that question.

She's not trying to urge everyone to grow their own food and recognizes that that's not realistic, but says its vital to link their life to nature - and food's a great way to do that. "If we win our war with nature, we lose."

"We have just elected - or the corporations have, or whoever's in charge now - a strange group of people who don't believe in climate change to add to the people who don't intend to do anything about it."

"Business as usual is no longer an option, but we're doing business as usual."

She highly recommends (as do I) Bill McKibben's brlliant book Eaarth.

She's optimistic about the growing availability of local foods. "People who used to admit embarassingly that they lived in Brooklyn now brag about it."

But, "Those with an investment in the status quo will not give up without a fight."

Fear is an obstacle, she says. But it's being addressed by films like Food, Inc, and Foer's book "Eating Animals."

Those that say organic can't feed the world fail to realize that they had their chance and haven't succeeded, so maybe we should try it. GMO's have failed thus far to broadly increase yields, says Gussow.

"We have an sustainble food supply, and Michael Pollan said that what unsustainable means is that it will end." And that, she says, gives her hope.

Ooo, a nice shoutout too to the Slow Money Movement.

"I believe the local food movement is building a model for supporting us when the end of the current scene comes, and it will come" She urges us to take a stand too for economic and social justice.

"Living as if our food is infinite on a finite planet."

"We know that we are all a guilty party," she tells us, "including those who grow their own food in New York and then FLY to California to talk about it"

Quoted Jim Hightower quoting his father "Everybody does better when everybody does better."

"Hope is the lesson nature keeps teaching me"

"We need to pay more for local food from local farmers and that's going to have to be OK."

And with that, a big standing O for Dr. Gussow.

Question time: and the first asks what DOES she eat in January? Answer briefly is that she does a lot of puttin' up (need to know more about how? Check out Sherri Vinton's book Put'em Up).

Another asks her to comment on state and federal budget cuts resulting in universities funding and being funded by big ag and chemical companies, etc. She blames some of it on California passing Prop 13. Reminds me of the famous Oliver Wendall Holmes quotation "Taxes are the fee I pay to live in a civilized society."

Break time, and then our first panel on "Will Urban Ag Change the Way we Eat", with:

Annie Novak: Founder and director of Growing Chefs, field-to-fork food?education program; the children gardening program coordinator for?the New York Botanical Gardens, and co-founder and farmer of Eagle?Street Rooftop Farm in Greenpoint. Annie has worked with the CENYC?Greenmarket, Slow Food, and Just Food advocating and growing urban?agriculture throughout NYC. Her work in agriculture has been featured?in New York Magazine, Edible Brooklyn and the Martha Stewart Show?among other press.

David Cleveland: Professor, Environmental Studies Program University?of California Santa Barbara. Recent work: Trade offs between ?Agriculture, Open Space, and Urbanization. The ?value of land: Agriculture, food and urbanization in the Goleta?Valley, California.

Ashley Atkinson: Director of Project Development and Urban Agriculture?- Greening of Detroit Ashley gardens with passion and is?growing a new economy in her community that could change the way? Detroit uses its open spaces. As the Director of Project Development?and Urban Agriculture for the Greening of Detroit, Atkinson is?developing Detroit's premier market farm from a 30-acre city park?filled with sewer pipes; all on a budget of $40 per week.

And moderated by:

Kerry Trueman is the co-founder of EatingLiberally.org, a netroots website & organization that advocates sustainable agriculture, progressive politics and a less-consumption driven way of life. She blogs regularly at Eating Liberally, right here on Huffington Post, and Civil Eats.

OK, a few Pixie tangerines and we're back with the aforementioned panel

Deborah Kane of Edible Portland (among a lot of other fantastic exploits, like FoodHub) is handling introductions.

Annie's talking about all the benefits of green roofs (rooves?) and showing some pictures of her work in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Novak: "Beekeeping seemed like a great idea because it was illegal at the time and that was stupid."

And a shout out from Novak to the great work of Growing Power

David Cleveland is talking about "What does localizing mean? - changing the way we eat or greenwashing?"

The question is, is localization the answer to the problems in our dominant agrifood system?

Part of the problem is we don't truly know if localizing is helping because there are no solid statistics on it. So he set out to get some.

It doesn't help on greenhouse gasses because of transportation, because a farmer's pickup is less efficient than 18 wheelers. But most of the fossil fuels in industrial ag are used in things like nitrogen fixing and pesticides.

Pushback coming from the likes of Walmart because local food is starting to eat into their bottom line "The L word is beginning to replace the O word"

Cleveland urges us to keep labor in mind - is the local food raised by local hands? California relies on noncompetitive labor for producing it's 50% share of the fruit, vegetables and nuts America eats.

He points out that the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt began in no small measure because of food prices.

Ashley Atkinson is now talking about her work in Detroit. mentions she doesn't like the term "food desert." Thinks it's inaccurate

"There are 50K vacant lots in Detroit that are ready to be farmed."

The growers with Grown in Detroit have agreed not to sell their food outside Detroit until their food access problems inside Detroit are lessened.

Everything she has shown - gardening, beekeeping, chickens, etc. is illegal in Detroit but "we do it anyway" - big applause.

And a shoutout to the fine work of Brother Nature

Question about dealing with municipalities and all the illegal stuff they just mentioned. Ashley says Just Do It - ask for forgiveness rather than permission. "If we'd asked for permission we'd have never done what we did"

Gary Nabhan asks if the food miles issue is dead. David Cleveland says yes and we should recast the issues around local and sustainable food.

Another break, and then we return with panel #2:

Activists and Advocacy: SOLE Food's Message for Change.

Tom Philpott moderator. Grist food editor, Tom Philpott farms and cooks at Maverick Farms, a sustainable-agriculture nonprofit and small farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.

PANELISTS:

Ralph Loglisci: Project Director for the Johns Hopkins Healthy Monday ?Project. Before joining the Center for a Livable Future, Ralph served?as the Communications Director for the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute?of Bioethics. However, it was his work as the Communications Director?for the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production that Ralph?became aware of the intricate connections between food systems, the?environment and public health.

Debra Eschmeyer: Marketing & Media Manager of the National Farm to? School Network and the Center for Food & Justice. She works from a ?fifth-generation family farm in Ohio, where she continues her passion?for organic farming raising heirloom fruits and vegetables. Prior to ?joining CFJ, Debra was the Project Director at the National Family ?Farm Coalition in Washington, DC where she focused on U.S.?agricultural policy and food sovereignty initiatives among grass roots? domestic and international rural advocacy and other social justice ?networks.?? She also blogs right here at HuffPo.

Dan Imhoff: Co-founder of Watershed Media, a researcher, author, and ?independent publisher who has concentrated for nearly 20 years on?issues related to farming, the environment, and design. He is the ?author of numerous articles, essays, and books including Food Fight:?The Citizen's Guide to a Food and Farm Bill, Paper or Plastic:? Searching for Solutions to an Overpackaged World; Farming with the? Wild: Enhancing Biodiversity on Farms and Ranches; and Building with? Vision: Optimizing and Finding Alternatives to Wood.

Philpott:

The rise and fall of the American industrial machine has lead to local food systems in these communities like Detroit, need to move beyond the 3-5 percent

Federal policy perpetuates the current dominant food system

Why aren't policy makers learning from detroit and other local food systems? Need to push policy in these directions.

Last two admins were abysmal, then Michele Obama using soft power to effect change, but President Obama is still putting agribiz based people in his administration.

Eschmeyer

She helped make farm-to-school competitive grant program possible

Points out that Republic budget cutters do not have direct subsidies on their hit list, but to have Americorps, NEA, Organic Certification, and ObamaCare.

Urges people to help collect data that support these ideas, for example: $1 spent on local food circulates $3 in the community - that's a low estimate.

Collaborate with people smarter than you. And join the Community Food Security Coalition, among many others.

Highlight your heroes - like Ashley (above)

"Every ingredient has a lobbyist," but Eschmeyer believes Edible Communities could be the "lobbyist" for the good food movement.

Ralph Loglisci:

Is studying the effect of the Meatless Monday thing, seeing if their is science behind how well it works.

A shoutout to the Center for a Liveable Future blog

Points ou that this is not an elitist thing - we want good healthy food for EVERYONE. Reminds me of Josh Viertel's recent video question to President Obama: "Why do Fruit Loops cost less than fruit?"

Dan Imhoff describes himself as a "reluctant wonk"

A Manure lagoon is now eligible to be part of a farm environment protection plan

Talks about how industrial ag says "you don't understand agriculture"

The Tea Party could actually be an ally to the real food movement - cutting $5billion in subsidies, and how good food can be an economic engine

The map of the disaster relief farms and the non subsidized farms are the same

Says he is rewriting Food Fight:?The Citizen's Guide to a Food and Farm Bill, for the new 2012 Food & Farm Bill

References the issue brought up by Mission Readiness. (See my essay on the subject called Why Johnny Can't March)

New Food & Farm bill should include:

Delink nutrition title from land and farm title
No subsidation without social obligation
"Getting perennial by the next centennial" - taking a much longer view of agriculture
A Suburban and Urban Ag title
One size doesn't fit all: Regs are currently made only for big ag.

MUST get urban people involved in the Food & Farm bill

Now LUNCH! Back in an hour or so.



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