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The Go-Betweens - washingtonpost.com
The three have found a niche because the area lacks an efficient means of distribution between farms and restaurants. Distribution can be an expensive venture, so few have made it their business.
"There's plenty of supply. There's plenty of demand. But there's little distribution," says Cathal Armstrong, chef-owner at Restaurant Eve. "It's the weakest link."
Is a Food Revolution Now in Season? - NYTimes.com
They have encouraged the growth of farmers’ markets and created such a demand for organic, natural and local products that they are now sold at many major grocers, including Wal-Mart.
Can the Internet help small farms act big? | Grist
But it’s still heartening to see folks working on the IT challenges of a local food system and holding out the possibility that someone out there is developing the Craigslist—or better yet—the Facebook of local food.
Food Companies Try, but Can’t Guarantee Safety - NYTimes.com
Increasingly, the corporations that supply Americans with processed foods are unable to guarantee the safety of their ingredients. In this case, ConAgra could not pinpoint which of the more than 25 ingredients in its pies was carrying salmonella. Other companies do not even know who is supplying their ingredients, let alone if those suppliers are screening the items for microbes and other potential dangers, interviews and documents show.
The Charleston Gazette - West Virginia News and Sports - News - Study finds food-wrapper chemicals in blood
A new scientific study has for the first time found a group of chemicals used in coatings on food wrappers in human blood.
Food Politics » Food miles: do they matter?
before jumping to interpret this paper as an argument against the value of local food, Jackson suggests that we think about the other, perhaps less tangible, benefits of local food production. He is a transportation expert so he particularly emphasizes reductions in air pollution, noise, congestion, paving, heat, and the removal of trees. On the personal side, the benefits include more physical activity, “social capital” (the conversations and other transactions between consumers and farmers), income that stays in the community, and - not least - food that is fresher and tastes better.
I’ve always thought that the real benefits of local food production were in building and preserving communities. I like having farms within easy access of where I live and I like knowing the people who produce my food. If local food doesn’t make climate change worse and maybe even helps a bit, that’s just icing on the cake. Or am I missing something here?
Sustainable Food - Change.org: Less Means More For Europe's Low-Input Farmers
Though no poem insists that "food is food and agriculture is agriculture, and never the twain shall meet," that may as well be the watchword in both fields.
The chasm between the two is rarely bridged at any level of public discussion or decision-making. Food writers rarely report on farms, and vice versa. Nutritionists rarely discuss anything that happens to food before it's harvested, and vice versa for agronomists; even the champions of organic farming rarely make nutritional claims. Doctors barely know about nutrition and hospitals serve what is called hospital food, just as farmers and processors don't fret about what happens to diabetes rates when all their corn is turned into cheap pop and junkfood filler. Government ministries and departments of food and agriculture rarely meet, let alone worry about harmonizing their policies.
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Though no poem insists that "food is food and agriculture is agriculture, and never the twain shall meet," that may as well be the watchword in both fields.
The chasm between the two is rarely bridged at any level of public discussion or decision-making. Food writers rarely report on farms, and vice versa. Nutritionists rarely discuss anything that happens to food before it's harvested, and vice versa for agronomists; even the champions of organic farming rarely make nutritional claims. Doctors barely know about nutrition and hospitals serve what is called hospital food, just as farmers and processors don't fret about what happens to diabetes rates when all their corn is turned into cheap pop and junkfood filler. Government ministries and departments of food and agriculture rarely meet, let alone worry about harmonizing their policies.
The Poisoned Fruit of American Trade Policy — Food & Water Watch
An examination of U.S. consumption of produce that is commonly eaten as well as grown in America found that over the past 15 years Americans’ consumption of imported fresh fruits and vegetables doubled, but border inspection has not kept pace with rising imports, and less than one percent of the imported produce is inspected by the federal government.
U.S. Food Safety No Longer Improving - NYTimes.com
Dr. Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the agency’s food center, agreed. “As supply chains get longer and longer,” Dr. Sundlof said, “there’s more opportunity to introduce contaminants that have a public health effect.”
The young and the landless — Beginning farmers face numerous challenges :: by Twilight Greenaway :: Culinate
They’re not wearing overalls or brandishing pitchforks, but the young farmers who appear in the trailer for the documentary film “The Greenhorns” are the real thing. Their faces are sun-worn, the dirt under their fingernails is visible on camera, and they look like they’ve stopped between sweat-inducing tasks to share agricultural secrets with the audience
Toward a less efficient and more robust food system | Grist
But what if much more of our food dollars stayed within the community—and got cycled through organizations like New River Organic Growers and the Watauga and Ashe County Farmers markets? Here’s a rule of thumb: Communities spend about $1,000 per person on food. About 83,000 people live in our three-county area full time. That means we’re spending something like $83 million every year on food. And that doesn’t even count the money that tourists and second homers spend eating. The great bulk of that money drains out of the community and into the pockets of the people who own Wal-Mart and McDonald’s and Lowes Foods.
There’s no way one farmer, or even a group of farmers, can make the investments we need to bolster our food economy. This is a community-scale opportunity that requires community-scale efforts. That means farmers, consumers, elected officials, and landowners working together to harness our assets and overcome our obstacles as a food community. And that is a process that can gain force today.
Foodie, Beware | Mother Jones
if you shop at the farmers market in part to vote with your food dollars—for a stronger local economy, say, and for better stewardship of the land, and for a food network that lets you know exactly what you're putting in your mouth—and if you'd prefer not to feel like a dupe, it turns out that going to the farmers market isn't enough anymore. Now you actually have to find out exactly who's behind every folding table, how their business is really doing, and accept the disappointment the answers are bound to bring. But isn't that what a farmers market is supposed to be about—caring about how and where and by whom your food was grown?
Ecotrust Press Room
"This research confirms that farm to school programs are a viable investment that can make an immediate impact on nearly every sector of our state's economy," said Deborah Kane, vice president of the Food and Farms program for Ecotrust. "We knew the effort would likely benefit the Oregon agricultural community, and of course Oregon's children. We were encouraged to learn that the benefits extend far beyond the most obvious."
Local food subscription services grow in popularity - Kansas City Star
“A CSA can really knit a community together. People who participate in a CSA have a relationship with the farmer and their food,” says Season Burnett, director of the Kansas City CSA Coalition. “Not only is it good for the farmer and the consumer, CSAs also benefit the local economy and environment, since money spent on locally grown food stays closer to home.”
Sustainable Industries | Food and Farms | Food systems impact climate change
Distributed among all its component parts, the food system represents one-third of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions but most analysts have yet to take it seriously. They should. Although individuals may forego buying extra “stuff” during the economic downturn, we’re not eating appreciably less. If anything, the food system’s percentage as a contributing factor will likely rise.
Sustainable Industries | Breaking News | The future of food
Even though some farmers experienced stronger-than-normal profits during this period, due to steep price increases generated by the demand for ethanol and global demand for cereal crops, only 1 million of the 2.2 million U.S. farms reported positive income from agriculture; almost 50 percent of farms earned $2,500 or less in sales in 2007. (During this period, the number of farms with sales of less than $2,500 actually increased by 74,000.) For many of these farm families, purchasing necessities like health insurance is out of the question. In what other field could these businesses be considered going-concerns?
Visalia Journal - Farmers Lead a Bid to Create 2 Californias - NYTimes.com
“City people just don’t know what it takes to get food on their table.”
But while the plan is not new — the idea of two Californias has been floated dozens of times — the motivations and geographical scissor-work are. Frustrated by what they call uninformed urban voters dictating faulty farm policy, Mr. Rogers and the other members of the movement have proposed splitting off 13 counties on the state’s coast, leaving the remaining 45, mostly inland, counties as the “real” California.
President Promises to Bolster Food Safety - NYTimes.com
Each year, about 76 million people in the United States are sickened by contaminated food, hundreds of thousands are hospitalized and about 5,000 die, public health experts estimate.
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