Local Food Columbus » New Farmers
Food Chain Meeting in July
A Food Chain Meeting that will take place early the morning of July 16th in Bellville. It will be at the Dutch Heritage Restaurant just off of Interstate 71 (four exits north of Polaris). This bi-monthly meeting has proved to be a great networking opportunity for growers, processors, buyers, and others to meet. The topic next month is OSU’s Eat Global, Buy Local initiative, and the speaker is OSU Dining Service’s Sous Chef Patrick Murphy. Details are on the Flyer(pdf). … Read entire article »
Filed under: Local Food Processing, Meetings & Events, New Farmers, Restaurants
How do we move farming to the cities?
This was originally posted as a reply to Sam Rose’s question on Ohio State University’s Local Food Systems network. “So, the question is: how can we plausibly increase the amount of farmers? The answer seems to be to take farming to where most of the people are at: in the cities.” –Sam Rose I very much agree. In bringing farming to cities, we face two major obstacles, neither of which are insurmountable. The first is that, even with intensive models such as Square-Foot gardening, Grow Biointensive, or SPIN, farming still requires land. A person aiming only to feed his or her own family might find a backyard sufficient, but someone trying to grow enough to earn a living is going to need either a lot of land on which they can grow during … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured Articles, New Farmers, Urban Farming
NPR: City Folk Flock To Raise Small Livestock At Home
Urban Chickens are gaining in popularity as more locavores seek alternatives to industrially grown food. Municipalities are seeing more pressure from residents who want to keep backyard chickens, bees or even a mini-goat. “Whether from tighter food budgets or local-eating ideals, more and more people are petitioning their cities to allow small animal husbandry. City dwellers are accustomed to being awakened at night by the occasional siren or the roar of a low-flying jet. But the nocturnal disturbances in a Denver neighborhood have a slightly more agrarian feel.” Read the Full Story on NPR.org … Read entire article »
Filed under: New Farmers, Policy and Regulation, Urban Chickens
Raising Chickens in the City
Metro Farm blog site is discussing Chickens in the City They will have a podcast this saturday on the topic. If you miss it at 9am they have archives where you can hear them anytime by clicking here. The forum on their site has some interesting discussion on this topic. … Read entire article »
Filed under: New Farmers, Urban Chickens
H.R. 875 and the Food Safety Bills
The analysis below clarifies what the bill will and will not do. Mentioned is HR.759 which can cause some issues for small farmers including recordkeeping requirements for farms and safety standards for fresh produce. Link to HR.759 PDF Link to HR.875 PDF Food & Water Watch’ s Statement on H.R. 875 and the Food Safety Bills The dilemma of how to regulate food safety in a way that prevents problems caused by industrialized agriculture but doesn’t wipe out small diversified farms is not new and is not easily solved. And as almost constant food safety problems reveal the dirty truth about the way much of our food is produced, processed and distributed, it’s a dilemma we need to have serious discussion about. Most consumers never thought they had to worry about peanut butter and … Read entire article »
Filed under: Local Food Processing, New Farmers, Policy and Regulation
What is the National Animal Identification System & Why It Should Be Rejected
Web Video of the Week: What is the National Animal Identification System & Why It Should Be Rejected. Part 1: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu9oKmqQpD4&hl=en&fs=1&border=1] Make sure you view Part 2 here … Read entire article »
Filed under: New Farmers, Policy and Regulation, Urban Chickens
Free Resources for Starting Your Garden
Here are couple of good resources for starting Community Gardens. These are also useful if you are starting your own personal or market garden. The Get Green Columbus Community Garden Manual Guide The guide is published by the City of Columbus and has information on getting access to land plots, borrowing tools and other resources to get started. During February, The Franklin Park Conservatory has a free 2 hour class on starting a community garden: This FREE educational program is designed to provide gardeners with the information and resources necessary to launch and sustain their community garden. This program is presented as a partnership between the Columbus Foundation, The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, and Franklin Park Conservatory. Classes will be two hours long, with a lecture during the first hour, and the second hour featuring … Read entire article »
Filed under: New Farmers
Farmer’s Market Community Foods Consignment
An interesting concept at community food bank in Arizona that runs community gardens and farmer’s markets in underserved areas. They have a program where home gardeners and local farmers can sign up and drop off produce at the stand to be sold on consignment. No resold produce all must be grown locally by the participant. This allows small backyard gardeners, who may only have occasional small amounts of produce, to contribute to the food security of their neighborhoods. The farmer’s markets that the food banks hosts all accept food stamps. Community Food Bank Consignment Program Posted by: Mayda … Read entire article »
Filed under: Farmer's Markets, Food Pantries, New Farmers
Interview with Vilsack, Obama’s pick for Ag Secretary
This entry by Brian Depew on Tue, 12/16/2008 on Blog for Rural America provides some insight on how Vilsack will fare on issues important to sustainable minded small farmers. It is encouraging. Although his enthusiasm for biotech is one of his major negatives, he does address some of those issues in this interview. Vilsack Appointed Ag Secretary, Interview Redux | Center for Rural Affairs. by Mayda … Read entire article »
Filed under: Farmer's Markets, Food Pantries, New Farmers, Policy and Regulation
New and Small Farm College 9 Week Course
Chester Bowling is working with OSU Extension Ag Educators to develop a 9 week course for new small farmers. It covers some interesting topics. Can we develop something similar for urban microfarming. Perhaps an online course with additional presentations at public library meeting rooms. New and Small Farm College idea at Ohio localfoodsystems.org by Mayda … Read entire article »
Filed under: New Farmers
