Do the rot thing

"You're asking me what my favorite vegetable is to eat? I don't really see how that question is relevant,"  grumbled Nate after giving his impassioned testimony at last week's Oversight Hearing for the Department of General Services down at City Hall.

I ducked my head and winced, but the autistic 6th grader had a point. We had come to advocate for environmental responsibility within the DC public school system, not chit chat about carrot sticks. Nate had just suggested on-site composting as a possible solution to our school's need for responsible food waste disposal, perhaps even better than the heavily polluting transfer trucks that had been picking up our food waste. We didn't understand why the composting program we'd been participating in for the past three years at our school had suddenly stopped mattering to the DC government: last June, the compost pickup contract had mysteriously lapsed and now all school waste was going into the landfill. We were there to find out why, and how to get things up and running again.

"We were taught how to put things into recycling, trash, and compost bins. We have done it and it worked. But then -- kaboom! -- it stopped. We want to know how this happened. Who exactly is responsible?" demanded 8-year-old Zia. The audience actually clapped. In spite of the clear "no applause allowed" sign posted outside of the hearing.

"What I see in the adult world looks like you don't care. Kids do. It matters to us more because we will live longer than you. We want to live healthier, too." explained her classmate, Eli.

"Are you calling me old?" joked the panel chair, Councilman White. Eli visibly blushed, and squeaked out a timid "Um, yes?"

I know our eleven-person group was primarily comprised of people too young to vote (yet), but we knew our stuff and presented an articulate and compelling case for restarting composting at our school. Was Councilman White taking us seriously? I found out later that we'd ended up on his twitter feed, but maybe kids testifying was simply an unusual form of entertainment, a break from the norm. Would anything be done to get cafeteria composting up and running at our school any time soon? I was proud of my students' civic activism, but dubious about our impact.

Well it turns out that someone was listening after all. Earlier this week, our friend Bobby at DGS stopped by the school to thank student testifiers in person for their efforts that have apparently lit a fire under the new DGS director. He demanded that his department prioritize school composting, and indicated that he would visit our school and others doing this critical environmental education work. Until we testified, and wrangled a few other passionate environmental educators at other public schools to submit their own testimony, Bobby had been pretty sure nothing would happen this school year. Now there was an urgent demand from the top to get a compost pickup service in place, and retraining for custodial staff on the calendar in the near future.

I'm so proud of our students!!

Maybe in coming years we can even get composting going at City Hall. I mean, seriously, Mayor Bowser, for all of this talk about DC's focus on the environment, the security guard didn't want to let me into the building with a non-plastic fork to eat my salad and I had to pack out the banana peel left from my lunch so I could compost it at home....

Bikers to the rescue!

Readers, there is nothing more attractive than a man doing good. Well, maybe a man on a bicycle doing good. And I am lucky enough to be dating one. Fancy that.

I hate wasting food. It is shocking the amount of perfectly edible food that is thrown away in this country every day, especially while an unacceptable number of Americans suffer from malnutrition and food insecurity. I regularly see giant trash bins outside of supermarkets and restaurants spilling over. I hear food waste and hunger statistics bandied about so frequently that the problems seem too big to take personally, and I worry that the majority of us don't understand that these problems concern each and every one of us. Some days I find it hard not to lose hope. But then there are moments that I realize that the solution can also concern each and every one of us....

Today I had the good fortune to accompany Matt on his first shift as a food rescuer: picking up already prepared, delicious, unsold food and delivering it to a great, local program that needed food. Usually a car is needed for this sort of assignment, but after a bit of research Matt learned that some food donations can be delivered on two wheels. It was actually pretty easy, and we ended what was otherwise a rather lazy Sunday feeling pretty good about life.

12:30pm - While checking his email at the farmers market, Matt learns that the load of baked goods he'd signed up on his Food Rescue app to deliver this evening was going to be a bit large for a single cyclist to haul, so he asks me to join him. I happily agree, eager to see the program in action.

1:00pm - Eat lunch near the farmers market.

2:00pm - Start watching Game of Thrones, Season 6. (Don't judge me, it's good. And don't you dare tell me what happens in Season 7!)

4:30pm - Thunder and rain begin.

5:30pm - Bike over to Seylou -- home to the most amazing whole grain breads, including croissants (I know, I couldn't believe such a thing existed!) -- to pick up bread donation.

6:00pm - Load 4 enormous bags of bread into our (thankfully waterproof) bike panniers and start heading north to Christ House. Rain intensifies.

6:30pm - Bread delivered. Delivery volunteers adequately soaked and smiling, and about 50 pounds lighter. Rain stops. Head back to my apartment to change into dry clothes and watch a bit more Game of Thrones. Easy peasy.

Interested in helping to address hunger in your area? Consider joining the Food Rescue project, as a donor, recipient, or transporter. Or maybe starting a chapter in your town. Learn more here.

Call the Mayor today: a quick way to support healthy food in DC!

During yesterday's monthly meeting of farmers' market managers from around the city, I learned that Mayor Gray is finalizing the budget for the 2013 fiscal year and is considering designating a small amount to farmers' market incentive programs for the very first time in our city. But he needs to hear from DC farmers' market supporters about making nutrition incentives a priority. Currently, the budget does not include any funding for farmers' market incentive programs. (I know! Embarrassing. Boston's Mayor Menino realized the need for city-supported Bonus Bucks way back in 2009....)

On behalf of the D.C. Farmers Market Collaborative, I have a call to action for you:
Please call Mayor Gray TODAY!

I know it's a beautiful day, so maybe you can use this call from your cell phone as an excuse to step outside for a few minutes....

Please call the Mayor's Office at 202-727-6263 -- okay, or you can stay at your computer and email vincent.gray@dc.gov -- and relay the following message:

"My name is ____ and I am a supporter of D.C. farmers' markets, especially [name of market(s) you support]. It is critical that you designate $150,000 into the fiscal year 2013 budget for farmers' market incentive programs. These include SNAP (formerly the Food Stamp Program), WIC, and Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program (FMNP) recipients. This District support would help leverage additional investments from foundations and other donors. It would help low-income consumers double the amount of fruits and vegetables they can purchase at participating farmers markets and generate local economic activity."

Background:
By providing an incentive for SNAP, WIC, and FMNP shoppers, farmers market incentive programs benefit low-income consumers, bolster the local economy, and promote consumption of fruits and vegetables. For example, a SNAP recipient who redeems $5 of these federal benefits at a D.C. farmers market that operates a "Bonus Bucks" program would then receive $5 worth of those Bonus Bucks (matching incentives) to spend on healthful, locally grown food. This means that the SNAP recipient ended up with $10 to spend on produce that day. In DC, such grant-funded pilot programs are working effectively at eight markets (in fact, the Columbia Heights and Ward 8 markets did so well they had to apply for additional funding!) and are expanding to even more DC markets (including a few some of you all helped to raise funds for back in December -- remember?) in the 2012 season.  These incentive programs benefit low-income consumers, but they also bolster the local economy and promote consumption of fruits and vegetables.

Please forward this message far and wide! We need your help!

Need help buying food? Ask me.

Saturday marked my first visit to the Ward 8 Farmers' Market, set up next to the impressive ARC facility on Mississippi Avenue in Southeast DC. I'd been hearing about the market for a number of months from my friend Michael (the market's manager) and the chance to do some SNAP outreach with my friend Crissa (of DC Hunger Solutions) presented me with the perfect opportunity to check out this seasonal market not so very far from the Southern Avenue stop near the end of the green line metro.

SNAP -- for those new to food policy or this blog -- stands for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which in DC can be in the form of EBT (Electronic Benefits Transfer) cards, WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) vouchers, and/or Senior FMNP (Farmers' Market Nutrition Program) coupons. In short: food stamps. Thanks to a group called Wholesome Wave, the Ward 8 market, like a growing number of farmers' markets in the area -- including the Columbia Heights Community Market, the Crossroads market, and some of the FreshFarm markets -- offers Double Dollars. Most of these subsidized markets will double up to $5 or $10 (per shopper, per market) the amount of fresh, local food that low-income shoppers can purchase using EBT, WIC, or FMNP payment methods... but the Ward 8 Market is the first one I have ever been to that will double all of these without a limit on per-market usage. So someone with, say, $30 to spend can get $60 in fresh, healthy fruits and vegetables in a single visit. (I can totally consume $60 in fresh produce in a week. So can a normal family of four.) Now that's pretty awesome.

[Actually, speaking of awesome, my favorite story about the Ward 8 market involves a local group of do-gooders who call themselves The Awesome Foundation: Having been chosen from among the inaugural pool of applicants for the first round of DC's Awesome Foundation grants, Michael told me of an afternoon a few months back when a woman handed him a paper bag full of cash -- $1,000, to be exact -- so that his fledgling market could offer free, snazzy canvas bags for first time market shoppers to tote their produce. True story. And much less shady than many of the recent goings on involving piles of cash and officials in this fair city of mine....]

While the Ward 8 Farmers' Market is not overly large -- two produce vendors, a potted plant seller, a guy selling fresh bread and frozen pastured meats -- it was well attended by a nice mix of loyal regulars and first timers who came by the information tent to pick up their double dollars. I had donned a bright green "Need help buying food? Ask me" t-shirt and as I worked alongside Crissa to hand out informational fliers and recipe cards, I quickly learned that most folks that I spoke with at the market who can receive food assistance benefits already know about and receive them. There were a few who asked for more information on behalf of friends or relatives who were new mothers or elderly, but most were pretty savvy. (I will say that it was a little unsettling to realize that these days I would actually qualify for food stamps myself. Eep.) It was a friendly group of neighborhood shoppers and farmers who, I must say, were pretty generous souls. I mean, how often does a complete stranger offer me some of his delectable fresh peaches from the market on the walk to the subway? (Okay, that sounds sketchy, but it totally wasn't!) I learned as much about the generosity of the human spirit as I did about food assistance programs that day.

I am not sure how typical Saturday's market day was -- the site was shared with an FCA Community Day -- but it was a pretty steady crowd and I saw lots of produce and vouchers exchanged. I have a hunch that Michael and his small cadre of local food producers will continue to contribute to building a happier, healthier community of local food shoppers out in Ward 8 for quite awhile.

Too hot to garden? There are other ways to be active...

DC is a political town. There are at least three protests or marches every weekend (and I know this because tourists clog both streets and metro trains every weekend and talk about their causes rather more loudly than necessary). It seems to happen every time I leave my apartment. Yes, it's nearly impossible to avoid political engagement in these parts, but it is the nation's capital and so it -- like the plethora of free museums -- comes with the territory.

Now, I'll be honest, summer weather can be a little brutal -- whose idea was it to build this city in a swamp, anyway? -- and schlepping around with clipboards collecting signatures or waiting to see your representative can wear a politically active citizen out. But fear not: you can be an activist without leaving the comfort of your living room. Um. Er. I mean home office. Here are a few things that lovers of food access, bicycling, and empowerment might like to support by virtual means:

Act Locally

Make the DC Dept of Transportation accountable to their pledge to increase and improve bicycle lanes in the city. (Seriously, between aggressive traffic and potholes, I almost died about five times on my ride out to ECO City Farm last Thursday; once I hit the Anacostia River Trail System I was golden, but how about some more east-west bike lanes, DC?) I've definitely noticed a marked uptick in bike lane use (by cyclists as well as by cars, grrr) even just in the past year since my return.

With one online form you can send an email to the Mayor, the director and bicycle coordinator of the DDOT, and Tommy Wells (the Ward 6 councilman) and urge them to push for bike lanes along L and M streets downtown. Thanks, WABA, for helping us advocate for a more bike-friendly city!

Act Nationally

Save SNAP (aka food stamp) benefits in danger of being cut as part of the Deficit Reduction Plan. Thanks to the DC Hunger Solutions/Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) website, it's as easy as sending an email or calling your senator (if you have one, ahem). The letter that you can sign -- or edit, if you're a former English teacher like me (what, I can't help myself) -- urges the president to reduce the deficit in ways that won't increase poverty. You know, a little responsible policy making. (Those of you who followed the passing of the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act may recall the bittersweet victory that funded improved school food while slashing SNAP benefits. And speaking of bittersweet....)

Act Globally

Perhaps you are more of a "pocketbook activist" -- yes, I just coined a term -- an online shopper who likes to put her money where her values are. Well, then you'll want to check out some of the items offered via Bittersweet -- a local group I've become somewhat enamored with recently. They are putting out a quarterly magazine focused on DC's most pressing social issues, but they also serve as an online outlet for responsibly produced goods from socially conscious groups around the world. (Not cheap, but very cool.) One thing that captured my attention in Bittersweet Zine's winter 2010/2011 issue on economic empowerment was the micro-loan gift cards. (Darn it, I can't find a link to this issue online, but you can go to the Opportunity International website.) If you're on the lookout for a cool birthday gift for a friend or family member, consider giving them a gift card to support a small-scale entrepreneur of their choice.

Speaking of Bittersweet Zine, keep your eyes peeled for their upcoming issue, featuring an article by yours truly on food communities in DC.... (Don't worry, mom and dad, I'll be sure to send you a copy.)

Save our strawberries!

A couple of weeks ago I biked to my friend Preeti's place in Bethesda for dinner (and to meet her adorable new puppy). I wasn't there to talk about food justice or anything -- I swear -- but the post-dinner conversation turned to food policy as my friend told me about an amazing field-based plant gene bank that she'd learned of through her work, where a group near St. Petersburg maintains some crazy number of rare fruit varietals... a facility in imminent danger of being closed. I started following the story, incredulous that the Russian government was considering tearing down this priceless plant vault -- an international treasure, to say the least -- to build a few luxury homes. With the nonsensical methodology of a Palin campaign, it seems that there is a very real threat that the plant bank that survived the 900-day siege of Leningrad during WWII (when a dozen devoted scientists starved to death rather than eat the seeds and plants contained in the vault) is in danger of being demolished by a housing developer. I didn't know this kind of stuff happened outside of made-for-TV movies.

One would think that developers could, oh, I don't know, choose somewhere else in the gigantic country to build some houses -- Russia is not exactly a tiny place -- but no. One might suggest, as I did, to simply move all of the plants to a new location. I mean, we're talking about a century of plant stewardship and cultivation about to go down the tubes. Thousands of varieties that don't exist anywhere else on earth. Turns out that they can't simply be transferred to, say, round out the Svalbard seed vault. See, the problem is that many of the plants -- like the 1,000 varieties of strawberries -- reproduce not by seeds but by runners. They can't simply be moved. The process would be lengthy, expensive, and laborious, and the option was not on the table to begin with. Cripes, what can we do?

Last week's NY Times blog featured a story on the impending doom of the invaluable plant collection: "The director of the Pavlovsk station has said that bulldozers could be in the fields within three to four months if the court decision goes against him. And that, the trust says, would 'destroy almost a century of work and an irreplaceable biological heritage.'" (Three months! It's taken Monsanto decades to methodically destroy seed crop diversity around the world.) According to change.org, "all those thousands of varieties of crops — 90 percent of which are not found anywhere else in the world — will be bulldozed to make way for luxury homes. Genetically diverse and incredibly rare varieties of crops would fall victim to the ubiquitous McMansion, a tragedy of epic proportions."

The Russian court is expected to make its decision on Pavlovsk on August 11th. Tomorrow! I just signed the change.org petition asking President Dmitry Medvedev to protect Pavlovsk and the future of food. You can add your voice, too. Together, I hope we can save the strawberries.

----

Why crop diversity matters:
I don't know that I've written much on the blog about this issue, so if you're wondering why I am advocating for the preservation of a plant gene bank in Russia when my focus is sustainable food in America, well, let me just say that it's all related. Above and beyond the visual enjoyment of different blooms and gustatory pleasure of a breadth of flavors, we need to keep as many plant varieties in existence as possible, especially food plants, because they might literally save our lives one day. You see, each unique strain of tomato or corn or strawberry has a set of characteristics that makes it desirable under particular circumstances. Maybe it requires less water or is resistant to a particular plant blight or grows in poor soil. The best way to build a more secure food system that is resilient in the face of adverse growing conditions is to keep a lot of varieties around, since different strains thrive under different conditions. If we continue to lose these precious variants, not only will our food options be less interesting, we may lose the ability to grow food at all. What if Monsanto manages to get everyone in the world to grow a single variety of corn (patented by them, of course) and then a pest emerges that wipes out that single variety? There'd be a lot less high-fructose corn syrup on the market, but think about the other implications.

Show me the movement

I have come into contact with a lot of inspirational people so far in my journey to learn about food. Many have been the farmers who have chosen to devote their lives to sustainable agriculture, to growing good food for others in their community because they feel it's the right thing to do. Some are folks I have read about for some time, who have emerged as voices speaking powerfully on behalf of the movement toward better food in our country, those changing the way we interact with food. There's Michael Pollan, whose books and articles continue to examine the bizarre animal that is the American consumer of foodlike substances in an effort to inform and advocate for a food system overhaul. (I really did get kind of giddy listening to him speak, and found myself entirely too shy to introduce myself when I was within 3 feet of him during the book signing at the Food For Thought festival back in Madison.) There's Will Allen who is fostering relationships within his local community and beyond while he produces massive amounts of chemical-free food and teaches folks how to grow their own. (I was also too awestruck to introduce myself to him when he gave a talk at the local community center during my time in Madison.) And there's Dave Murphy, the food activist I finally worked up the nerve to try and contact and subsequently had the pleasure of meeting at the recent conference on food security in Des Moines.

Dave, who founded Food Democracy Now in an effort to promote more sustainability-minded Secretary of Agriculture candidates for appointment under the new White House administration, comes to food from an entirely different angle than many at the conference. Some folks work on community organizing, some on food production, some on establishing connections between farms and buyers, some on nutrition education. Dave works on policy. It's important for folks to know how to produce and consume food responsibly, he conceded, but for real change to happen on a larger scale, what he argues for is a change at the policy level. In short, we need legislation that shifts state and federal funds to encourage more sound agricultural practices, and which ceases funding to programs that are destroying farmers and their livelihoods (not to mention the planet and our national health).

While he casually references the ridiculous number of miles he's put on his car going around to talk with farmers all over the state, it's evident that he really does his homework: talking with people who make the policies and those affected by them to get a real understanding of what's going on. (And talk about smart. I swear he eats those indecipherable proposed House bills and regulation documents for breakfast.) From Dave, I learned about the horrific state of large-scale animal food production in our country, and in Iowa in particular. There are more humane ways to raise animals for food than on confined animal feedlots (or as they are known in the business, CAFOs) -- I have visited farms all around the eastern half of the country, so I know there are alternatives. Dave told me of a pending proposal to give millions of dollars to perpetuate a failing (and, in my opinion, ethically reprehensible in its treatment of animals) factory farm system to stem the farmers' record losses resulting from high feed costs and massive overproduction. Another bailout?? Rather than amending their practices, these farms who are sitting low on the hog (for a change) are asking for more government money to continue (subsidized) business as usual. What will be done with all of the excess pork that can't be sold? Most likely it will end up in some fried pork foodlike substance on your kid's styrofoam school lunch tray.

"Show me the movement": I've heard the now famous instance of President Obama -- well, it's famous in the local food movement world, anyway, since Pollan has bandied it about in a few of his talks by now -- claiming that in order for the White House to get behind the relatively small but growing call for sustainable, regional food systems, people were going to have to get louder about it. There needs to be a public outcry against the current system that is slowly but surely making us poorer and then killing us earlier. Our current food system, like our healthcare system, is broken. (And you thought I could make it a whole post without ranting about healthcare, which, incidentally, was another hot topic at the food security conference. Well, as I've said, they're related.) The fact that Ag Secretary Vilsack gave a talk at breakfast during the final morning of the food security conference means that Washington may be starting to listen. But we're not loud enough yet.

Change. Michael Pollan may write about it, but it's people like Dave who will make it happen. Right now, he is part of a campaign that is gathering signatures to protest the pork bailout package. You can add your voice to the petition here. It is a small but important step toward the long overdue overhaul of our country's food system.

Young MacDonald had a farm

Yesterday and today were spent biking through southwestern Wisconsin. The weather has been a challenge -- 3 rainstorms yesterday alone and winds so strong that my main fear at the campsite last night was not the usual getting eaten by a bear or being struck by lightning but that a tree was going to fall on my head -- so I have not been encountering the usual number of bikers or woodland creatures with whom I might converse. (Also, with the fear of impending skull crushing, I laid awake most of the night.) I've had lots of time to think.

During one of these extended musing sessions, I got to thinking about how farming is simultaneously ingrained in our culture -- just look to children's songs like Old MacDonald, B-I-N-G-O (sorry if it's in your head now, too), or The Farmer in the Dell -- and devalued by it in recent years. I've been hearing about the "brain drain" from a few folks lately: how school counselors (and parents) are encouraging the best and brightest from farming communities to pursue non-farming careers. I mean, farming is hard work, who can blame them for encouraging a path that is physically less taxing, more highly respected, and often better paying than farming?

On the other side, many of the folks coming *into* farming don't come from agricultural backgrounds. In fact, most seem to be coming out of liberal arts colleges, young farmers drawn to sustainable food production because of a philosophical ideal -- maybe they harbor a pastoral vision of life as homesteaders or perhaps they pursue farming as a political act, an attempt to address food inequities. There is a sizable group of young farmers who actually grew up on farms, left, and have found themselves returning to the land, longing for a chance to grow things and feed people. This last group describes the majority of women farmers I spoke and worked with last week in the greater Madison area.

April (of West Star Farm), Kristen and Dawn (of Blue Moon Farm), and Diana (who runs Dreamfarm) each admitted to a desire to return to rural roots as the driving force behind her decision to farm. All wanted to live somewhere green, grow things, raise food for themselves and their communities. And they're succeeding. There is a thriving local food culture in Madison, with many small farms and CSAs. And yet, instead of being in competition -- as a traditional market might dictate -- the producers support each other, sharing the idea that the more the collective farms succeed, the more able they are to feed everyone. (Including me: both April and Kristen loaded Ollie up with produce before I left each farm. It's hard to turn down farm fresh produce....)

Farmers are notoriously independent and isolated. Not so with the young (and not so young) farmers around Madison. There are a few things that might explain this anomaly, but I think it comes down to community support. First, there is MACSAC (Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition) -- a group that works on everything from building farmer customer bases to subsidizing low-income CSA shares to facilitating internships at CSA farms. There are also groups like REAP (Research, Education, Action, and Policy) Food Group -- a coalition that works to build a stronger regional food system and better-educated eaters through programs like Homegrown Lunch and publications such as the Farm Fresh Atlas. (REAP also organizes events like the Food For Thought Festival, meant to highlight food issues in the region and which this year brought me in close proximity to Michael Pollan for the first time. I mean mere *feet* away: I had volunteered to help with crowd control during his book signing session following his talk on Saturday.) And, finally, there are educated consumers -- CSA shareholders, restaurants, farmers' market shoppers, co-op members -- who support these devoted farmers. If only we could mimic similar food system development in other parts of the country!


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