Good Food for All

Daily Digest: Aquaculture in Milwaukee and Local Foods Week in Michigan

Sweet Water Organics, an urban farm based in Milwaukee, WI, is featured in the Wall Street Journal for selling fresh yellow perch and lettuce to local residents and restaurants.  

The Peterson Garden Project, a former Victory Garden during World War II, is offering community garden plots.  

The Mike Nowak Show will feature a live broadcast, "Growing in Austin", from the Third Unitarian Church in Austin on Sunday, May 16, where community members will be planting a vegetable garden. 

Governor Granholm of Michigan proclaimed May 16-22 to be Local Foods Week, in conjunction with the National Farm to Cafeteria Conference in Detroit May 17-19. 

Schools in central Ohio are banning processed foods in favor of local and fresh products to serve in cafeterias.

Daily Digest: Local Food Radio, 2010 FamilyFarmed Expo, and Chicago Food Policy Summit

Attention local food businesses and farmers: Save $100 on early registration (before Jan. 10) for the FamilyFarmed Expo exhibit.  The 2010 Expo will take place at the UIC Forum, March 11-13. 

Session proposals at the Chicago Food Policy Summit are due Jan. 11: Download RFP for CFPAC 2010 Sessions. 

Mike Nowak's recent radio show featured local food leaders in Chicago.  Listen here. 

A new EPA ruling would improve air quality, reducing the stunting of plants and trees. 

A new World Health Organization report cites local food as a way to improve food safety.  

Los Angeles Times has a piece about the nuances of the local food vs. Big Ag debate.  

Supporting local farmers is a first step, but focusing on local processing, distribution, and retail are equally important (via HuffPost).

Links to: 

Jobs & Opportunities 

Grants Database 

Daily Digest: Illinois Environmental Heroes, Sustainable Food Stories,

Governor Quinn announced the 2009 Illinois Environmental Heroes.  Among them include local food leaders Debbie Hillman, Garry Griffith, Dinah Ramirez, and Michael Howard.  

Food safety in school lunches could become an integral part of the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act set for March 2010. 

Download the 2010 Project Orange Thumb garden grant application. Twenty-two grant recipients in the U.S. and Canada will receive $1000 worth of tools and more.  Deadline is Feb. 19, 2010. 

Change.org highlights the top 5 sustainable food stories this year: The White House Garden, food safety and health care, farmers markets, web portals for local food, and urban farming.  Below is a USDA chart showing the increase in the number of farmers markets over the past fifteen years. 

 

(via)

Models for local foods distribution and beginning farmers

A non-profit in Virginia, Local Food Hub, is providing a much needed service for the community: local food aggregation and distribution.  

Illinois is one of 18 states to receive grant money from USDA for programs that will combat childhood obesity.  The Illinois Stewardship Alliance website also offers up-to-date information on the Conservation Stewardship Program, Value-Added Producer Grants, and more federally-funded initiatives. 

Begin Farming Ohio is a new site for beginning farmers in Ohio, with resources and profiles.  To find out about such programs in Illinois, visit The Land Connection. 

Daily Digest: Central Illinois Farm featured in The New York Times Magazine

Spence Farm, located in Fairbury, Illinois, was featured in the New York Times.  The Travis family has revived their family farm, supplying the Chicago market with specialty produce.  Read the article and view the slideshow. 

Knox County voted Wednesday to establish a food policy council to support more farmers to grow produce for local markets. 

Whole Foods will start to use the Non-GMO Product Verification Seal, a recent participant in the Non-GMO Project. 

USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan released a memo, stating that USDA will try to allow more rural development programs to support local and regional food systems.  Read the memo here. 

WBEZ featured Seven Generations Ahead and its farm-to-school programs.  

Slow Food Chicago President Lynn Peemoeller recaps the Time for Lunch Eat-In in Daley Plaza. 

What role do parents play in their children's nutrition? 

(Photo: David La Spina for The New York Times) 

Daily Digest: CFSC Scholarships, Umoja Community Builders, and Aquaponics

Scholarships to the CFSC Conference in Des Moines, IA are due Monday, Aug. 17.  Download Fresh Taste scholarship application. 

An analytical look at Detroit's food landscape and opportunities for urban farms:  Could agriculture be the 'new urban renewal?' 

Growing Home was profiled on Chicago Now. 

Over 35 students from North Lawndale worked as Umoja Community Builders this summer, conducting surveys and researching food access issues in their community. 

OrganicNation.TV profiles aquaponics at AquaRanch in Flanagan, IL. 

An investigative Tribune report looks at pesticides in peaches and the Environmental Working Group's "Dirty Dozen". 

(Via)

Friday News Digest

From Earth Day to a countdown to the growing season, this week was full of interesting news stories and upcoming events.

Local

There are still over 2,000 CSA shares left in Chicago.  Look at this list and sign up today!

Students of STEP (Solutions to Environmental Problems) presented their semester projects (bee keeping, composting, growing herbs on rooftops, and working with Bhutanese refugees to grow their native foods, to name a few) at yesterday’s Food Systems Forum at Loyola University. 

'Future Master Gardeners' from Hyde Park’s Harte Elementary School created earthboxes at the Museum of Science and Industry.

Openlands’ Jaime Zaplatosch says to plant your cool season crops this week.

The Peoria Journal Star featured the Good Earth Farm Alliance, a CSA consortium in Western Illinois. 

The Local Beet reports that Kankakee's farmers' market begins tomorrow.  

If you're in Chicago, check out the Green and Growing Fair tomorrow at the Garfield Park Conservatory.  View the brochure here. 

Only one more week till Urbana's Market-at-the-Square opens. 

National

USA Today weighs in on a low-carbon diet.  

USDA ‘embraces sustainable food’ by planting the first crops in the People’s Garden.

Food Cooperative Beginning in Chicago

After the closing of Hyde Park Food Co-op in January 2008, there were no storefront food cooperatives left in Chicago. 

Starting this spring, the Dill Pickle Food Co-op will be renting a space at 3039 W. Fullerton Ave. The Chicago Tribune featured an article today, “Logan Square area to host new grocery dedicated to local and organic produce.”

 

Dill Pickle will be one of the few independent grocers in Chicago offering local and organic produce.  True Nature Foods, Green Grocer, and Newleaf Natural Grocery are other stores in Chicago offering local foods.

The cost of membership in Dill Pickle is $250, which can be paid over five years. Each member gets one vote in the coop. Memberships are still available.

 

Read more about Dill Pickle.

 

Spotlight on: Western Illinois

Western Illinois is preparing for the upcoming growing season with some exciting new developments related to local food. 

Good Earth Food Alliance Launches New Website

The Good Earth Food Alliance launched its new website this week, offering a CSA program to the Peoria, Galesburg, and Kikapoo areas.  The GEFA network is a collaborative of over ten sustainable growers and producers, offering "not just food...but piece of mind too."  The Good Earth CSA program aims to provide 45-50 different foods this season.

One of the members of GEFA is Amy Brucker of Appleton Hollow Farms (photo below from the GEFA farm slideshow) who recently started farming after completing the Central Illinois Farm Beginnings Program, offered through The Land Connection and The University of Illinois Extension. Read the article in Radish Magazine about Appleton Hollow here.

 

U of IL Extension and John Wood CC Offer Local Foods Class

The University of Illinois Extension Adams/Brown Unit will offer an class this spring at John Wood Community College, entitled "Building Community: One Bite at a Time."

Here is the synopsis of the course from the Locally Grown blog.  The class will take place at JWCC on Thursday, April 2, 2009.

"Locally grown", "sustainable", "localvore", "seasonality"—you have heard the words, but what do they mean? A class titled Building Community: One Bite at a Time will define these terms as the possibility of building a sustainable local food system is explored. The class will be taught by University of Illinois Extension staff Carrie Edgar and Brenda Derrick on Thursday April 2, 2009. Offered by John Wood Community College as one of their community education courses, the class will run from 6:00-8:30 pm in room D022 of the Paul Heath Center. The cost is $20 and those interested can register by contacting JWCC at 217-641-4941 or http://www.jwcc.edu/communityed.asp.