CSS Food-related items, 20 Aug 09 edition

[Lance Christie]

Canyonlands Sustainable Solutions, Food Group items, 20 Aug 09 edition

(1) The food group did Beekeeping Basics on 28 January 09 and Introduction to Hunting on 31 January 09.

(2) In Shanghai, 60% of the vegetables and 90% of milk and eggs consumed come from urban farms located within the city.

(3) The Urban Chicken League is headquartered in Albuquerque, NM.  That city allows each residential household in the city 15 chickens and one rooster.  This is believed to be the most liberal city ordinance regarding urban chickens.

(4) Most trees and shrubs can survive a 20% leaf loss without suffering any damage.  For insect identification, two books to rely on are: Rodale’s Insect, Disease & Weed I.D. Guide and Whitney Crenshaw’s Garden Insects of North America.

(5) In 1943 alone, 20 million “victory gardens” produced 8 million tons of food.

(6) David Lumbra has assembled the Garlic Database on <OrganicGardening.com>.  You can locate the database by using the Find tool on the website home page.  The database contains hundreds of multiseasonal tips and tricks he gathered from organic growers on the Organic Gardening forum for growing garlic.

Example, for feeding fall-planted garlic: when the first 3-5 inches of leaf growth emerges in the spring, side-dress bulbs with bloodmeal and compost.  Once leaves stop growing, do not feed or you will decrease garlic bulb size.

If planting garlic in the spring, chill the cloves in the refrigerator for at least eight weeks prior to planting, and set out as early as possible after freezing temperatures end.

Lumbra emphasizes that soil rich in organic matter is the most important factor in growing large garlic.

(7) Borage, anise hysop, bee balm, dill, and winter savory entice bees into the garden where they will then pollinate squash.  Bright red flowers such as cypress vine, scarlet runner bean, and Mexican sunflowers lure hummingbirds.

(8) Organic Gardening 1947 edition suggested loosening the soil in a garden bed with a fork about three weeks before planting, then add a half inch of compost and rake the surface of the bed until it has no weeds, dirt clumps or big stones.  Over the next three weeks, pull all weeds that come up.  Raking and then letting the soil sit brings out weed seeds.

(9) Within the cell of all plants, temperature controls the expression of enzymes, which catalyze specific reactions, turning on the proteins and hormones that manifest growth.  Enzymal systems are adapted to particular temperature ranges.  At temperatures below their adapted range, enzymes become tightly bound and ineffective.  At too-high temperatures, enzymes break apart and dissolve into the aqueous content of the cell.

(10) On Saturday 27 June the Youth Garden Project conducted a workshop on bees.

(11) On 29 May the Youth Garden Project conducted a composting workshop.

(12) Tom and Ruth Neuberger in Canistota, South Dakota, sell “free ranging, grit eating, dirt scratching, poultry, pastured pork, grass fed beef, lamb and goat - raised the OLD FASHIONED WAY.”  In South Dakota they deliver their animals to their “Goosemobile” refrigerated truck.  Customers living in other parts of the country can place orders with them but must arrange for a form of shipping.  They also sell goosedown pillows and comforters they make.  They also provide cooking instructions and stuffing recipes for goose.  Phone: 605-296-3314, or < goos...@unitedway.com>.

(13) The World Food Prize will be awarded in October, 2009.  See < www.worldfoodprize.org> for what that is about.

(14) The Community Food Security Coalition’s annual conference will be held in Des Moines, Iowa at the Polk County Convention Center on October 10-13.  The conference “will include plenaries on building networks for food system change, labor and immigration policy, and strategies for changing the industrial food system.”  The conference also has 50 workshops. < www.communityfoodconference.org>.   The plenary titles are “From Commodities to Community Food Systems,” “From Commodities to Communities of Practice: Building Resilient Networks for Food System Change,” and “A Fair Share for Labor in the Food System.”

(15)  ORGANIC HEADWAY AT USDA:  Kathleen Merrigan was confirmed by the Senate on April 3, 2009, as Deputy Secretary of Agriculture.  Merrigan has a background in organic farming and was a member of the Organic Farming Research Foundation board.

On May 5, 2009, the USDA restored their technical and financial assistance to farmers during 3-year conversion to certified organic farming under the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).  This assistance was provided for in the 2008 Farm Bill but the Shrub administration’s rules for implementation of the program were incomprehensible and unworkable.  The Obama administration promptly issued new rules that sound like Obama, not George W., wrote them.  In 2009 $50 million is available under the EQIP organic conversion assistance program, with a limit of $20,000 to any given farm in a year and a 6-year cap to any given farm of $80,000 in financial assistance.

In 2009 the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service’s Organic Agriculture Research and Education Initiative got 154 applications for organic research grants totaling $98 million in requested funds for the 2009 funding cycle, twice the application rate for the 2008 funding cycle.

According to the USDA Economic Research Service, the total number of certified organic operations in the USA increased 54% from 6,592 in 2000 to 10,159 in 2007.

(16) The Nebraska Environmental Action Coalition and the Nebraska Food Cooperative have teamed up to transport and deliver farm-grown produce, particularly garden-fresh fruits and vegetables, from regional Nebraska farms to sales venues in large Nebraska cities in the region.  The planned range for this year is east of Highway 183 to the Missouri River - the eastern half of the state.