Comments(0) Why do things like this always happen when I’m already busy?
For the rest of you, boston localvores have announced a local beer tasting at MIT on Sept 13th. Sounds fun!
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In my new-ish capacity as the person responsible for most things electronic at The Food Project, I met the other day with Kelley O’Connor of Massachusetts Local Food to discuss possible overlap of our work. In particular, we at TFP maintain a list of local farmers and the things they produce on their farms, which is also going to be one of the many pieces of Mass Local Food’s job.
From my perspective, the issues with our current list is that it’s a bear to update, being just a bunch of static pages, and that there’s some duplication between it and other people’s lists. Seems like everyone involved (farmers, local food buyers, and food organizations like us) would be better off with a more up-to-date and trustworthy listing, which is only going to happen if keeping it up to date is a simple process, and if there wasn’t so much potential confusion between the various farm listings (more on that below).
We spent a fair amount of time just trying to put together a picture of the different parties already engaged in providing online lists of MA farmers (for my benefit; Kelley has this stuff down cold). It turns out that most regions in MA are covered by one site or another, mostly not overlapping with one another, though there’s certainly duplication.
Side note - after Kelley walked me through this list & I dug around, I noticed that the Mass Department of Agriculture has all of this info and more.
There are also some national listings which include Massachusetts farms:
It’s pretty silly to be duplicating all this info, but it’s not immediately obvious how to effectively share data while still presenting the relevant parts through existing channels (to wit, the above sites). For the Mass Local Food project’s purposes, the easiest thing would be some facility tied into the local food coop software that they’ll be running their operations through. If that was done in a modular fashion, it might also be a labor saver for all these sites that are either maintaining manual lists of farms, or maintaining their own web databases.
We also tossed around the idea of a standard Farm Markup Language for exchanging updates. FML, anyone?
Next steps include digging further into the food coop software, and continuing to reach out to potential partners on the information-sharing and web DB aspects. This isn’t the most urgent project on my pile, but it’d be great to come up with something over the winter that put us in a position to do smart things for the ‘09 season.
Update: while I hope it’s implied, I realized this post is incomplete without an explicit acknowledgment of all the hard work done by TFP staff and interns to assemble and keep our guide up to date, as well as the maintainers of all the other farm lists mentioned. When looking forward to possible improvements, it’s all too easy to take for granted the labors that got us where we are.
Comments(0) In FiB’s grand tradition of last minute notices, allow me to present a press release from yesterday:
Tomorrow, izzitgreen.com and alldaybuffet.org have teamed up to hold a happy hour event raising money for The Food Project. COME AND JOIN US @ Church in the Fenway neighborhood of Boston from 6 to 9pm on Wednesday. For more details, check out: http://alldaybuffet.pingg.com/CauseForDrinksBos
$2 from every drink purchased will be donated directly to TFP.
(TFP being The Food Project, my current employer)
Update - finally caught up on my boston localvore reading and noticed that they’ve got a free cheese tasting going on tonight at Somerville’s Growing Center. Sounds delicious.
Comments(0) Last week, I mentioned that the latest Lionette’s newsletter has some great stuff on the sustainable seafood in these parts. On further reflection, I think it’s important enough to be worth a reprint here. Without further ado, here’s the fishy parts:
This month we’re talking a lot about fish. Why? If we thought things were bad for our food supply on land, our aqua system is in a much worse condition. For a long time, scientists and other intelligent people have been warning us of catastrophic times for sea creatures. We long ago wiped out Atlantic salmon. All that “fresh Atlantic salmon” you see is farm raised. I have heard that salmon could be farm raised in a healthy and sustainable way that doesn’t destroy the aqua system or our bodies… but those methods wouldn’t allow the price of salmon to be so cheap.
There has been outrage over how awful farm-raised salmon is (not only in flavor, but in its unhealthiness and the aquatic devastation it causes), and so the demand for wild salmon has skyrocketed. But there is no more salmon left in the Atlantic Ocean to be caught commercially. There are many, usually futile, attempts to re-stock salmon in the Atlantic, but nothing significant has happened yet. Even West coast salmon is tricky because California, Oregon, and Washington have little to no commercial seasons anymore. So it all rests on the shoulders of Alaska’s fisherman. Alaska and Iceland are often considered quite sustainable in their fishing practices.
Unfortunately, when the ocean-caught salmon season started this year, the fish was more than $40/lb. Climate change, overfishing, natural ocean variations, and too much demand with not nearly enough supply, have made it an awful year for salmon so far.
Again: The more we try to cheapen our food the more expensive it gets. Want an interesting read? Check out this op-ed from the New York Times about this very topic.
These are the fish we’ll have in the upcoming weeks:
Later this summer we will have local (not Rhode Island) striped bass. Please wait until late July before you eat striper. Maryland and Rhode Island start their seasons early, but their standards are much lower then the rest of the East coast. Striped bass has recovered well from overfishing, so let’s not screw it up. Just wait until it’s in season in Massachusetts, then eat it through Labor Day.
Here are a few excellent overall do-and-don’t Web sites for buying, cooking, and eating local and sustainable seafood. We often refer to the site blueocean.org, as well as info from Chef’s Collaborative, and Ocean’s Alive. We also cannot recommend highly enough just going to the New England Aquarium (conveniently located on the Blue line), and asking lots of questions about choosing fish wisely. It’s easy: From the T, get off at the stop ubiquitously named AQUARIUM. We always look forward to talks with representatives of the aquarium when we and they are at the same green or sustainable events held around the city.
One last tidbit: On 18 June Boston.com ran this story ran by Beth Daley: U.S. supermarkets not doing enough to protect fish: Greenpeace report. Check it out.
Lionette’s Market sells fish, but we’re pretty strict with what we sell: We don’t carry fish that’s threatened or endangered; we prefer to buy from local fisherman; and all of our fish is caught sustainably (either hook-and-line or pole-and-line). Dropping nets is not a sustainable method because it usually ruins the ocean floor. And we’re definitely are trying to buy varieties that have less mercury than other species. All fish has has mercury in it because we’ve polluted the water so much. So we’re trying to look at species with less. At this point in time it’s best not to eat lots of fish.
What we don’t carry, and what we believe shouldn’t be eaten, is:
Atlantic Halibut. Despite the front-page article in the Boston Globe’s food section on June 4, Atlantic halibut is not a fish we should eat. Like cod and bluefin tuna, only eat Atlantic halibut if you want to make sure your kids never eat it. In our opinion, the article is particularly irresponsible as it features chefs who have reputations for buying intelligently. The article talks about how Atlantic halibut can help out the struggling Maine lobstermen. The article is called “Luxury for locavores.” How disgusting.
The article mentions that Atlantic halibut it is a luxury food, but doesn’t say why it’s so pricey. Nobody should be fishing for fish that is not recovering from overfishing, or fish that threatens to be gone in our lifetime. If some Maine lobstermen catch a few and sell them to some wicked high-end restaurants, then fine: the filthy rich can have an extravagant dinner. But none of the rest of us can eat it. And for God’s sake, Boston Globe, don’t write about it! Just let the wealthy have their secret privileges. What people like the writer Jonathan Levitt need to get through their heads is that such stories are painfully irresponsible. Because then people come in to stores and ask for Atlantic halibut, and that drives up demand, and then more people go fishing for halibut. The article never mentions what a simple Google search on halibut will show; that it should not be eaten!
Two days after that article ran, NPR aired a quick story about a local fishery commission explaining that Atlantic sole, flounder, and halibut, are not recovering from efforts to save the fish from overfishing, warning that they should not be commercially fished. Lots of people came into Lionette’s Market looking for Atlantic halibut, but nobody came in mentioning the little news brief on NPR.
For the record, we do not sell Atlantic halibut. We have sold Pacific halibut, which is in better shape than its Atlantic brother. But it is better to realize that if you are going to live in Boston, you should really only eat what is local. Enjoy halibut next time you go to San Francisco.
Cod. If you still want to eat cod, take your kid, nephew, niece, or some young person you like, to the Boston Aquarium. Go to the New England fish tank, and have the kid explain to you what THREATENED SPECIES means. Clearly no one gets it. Cod, the fish we named a Cape after, was so abundant that people couldn’t imagine it could ever be overfished. But we managed to do it. That is how efficient we are.The cod tank at the Boston Aquarium is right near the petting tank: that will brighten up your spirits when you can touch mussels and see scallops open up!
Bluefin tuna. I think local Massachusetts commercial fishermen caught just 10 last year. It’s nearly gone; get over it now, and maybe your kids can enjoy a piece or two of it in the future.
Comments(0) First of all, it’s strawberry season in NE. Woo!
On that topic, all reports are good on the CSA front this year. Here’s one from an exciting new player on the local food in Boston blogging tip, Boston Localvores. Special props for their local beer section, and personable about page. In some alternative reality where I manage my time more efficiently, this site might be a bit more along their lines, or any of the other fine sites that continue to pop up. Maybe it’s time to turn FiB into an aggregator or something.
Finally, the latest Lionette’s newsletter is also worth a mention (it’s not on the web yet, but go ahead and sign up for the emails) — some really interesting stuff about local & sustainable fish, and a new program for delivering Lionette’s goods to other parts of town, kinda like a CSA dropoff point. Warning: I really dig Jamey’s closing thoughts, as usual, but I suspect they are a tonic too bitter for most folks just yet.
Comments(0) Eat the Suburbs! passes along news of a new site by Permaculture co-founder David Holmgren, discussing four possible outcomes of where the combined forces of peak oil and climate change could take us. Biking around the Boston area today & noticing all the near- or over-$4/gallon gas, the former is looking realer and realer.
As I’ve mentioned before, it’s concern with these two horsemen of the apocalypse that in large part motivates my interest in local food systems. Holmgren’s widely regarded as a deep and experienced thinker on the topic, but his works have been pretty hard to get into. Future Scenarios is certainly a briefer, more focused look into Holmgren’s thoughts on possible futures.
What’s the local connection, you ask? As you may have read here a couple of posts ago, Bostonians have two nearby options for getting some hands-on permaculture training in the coming season, so there’s a chance to make something of any inspiration/perspiration you might get from reading your Holmgren. The first design course is just a few weeks away, starting June 11 at Plowshare Farm, in Greenfield, NH (pdf info sheet). In September, the same course is being offered down on the Vineyard (pdf).
Look for me at the latter of the two — I’ve never made it down to the Vineyard, and a week hanging out with permaculturists in the early fall sounds like a great way to get introduced to a place. Not to mention it being high time to get more familiar with a great body of knowledge and practice
that seems likely to be of ever greater importance.
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Thanks to a huge amount of research by local community gardener, artist, and food purveyor Laurel Kirtz, I’m happy to point to a new page on this blog, Resources. There you’ll find lists and pointers to Boston-area local-food-friendly grocers, events, cooking resources, farms, restaurants, and more.
I’m only beginning to sink my teeth into all of it, and hope to at least get links in place for more of the listed resources that have web presences. Corrections and additions are most welcome (my email’s over on the right side of the page).
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This past fall, I had the chance to spend an educational and enjoyable weekend doing the first two days of the world-renowned permaculture design course, led by Dick Pierce and hosted by the Green Grease Monkey guys at their HQ in Brighton.
Though I’d been reading about permaculture and talking to permaculturists for a few years, there’s really no replacement for spending some concentrated time going through a well-ordered learning process. In particular, some of the basic concepts about energy flow and the benefits of different sorts of edges had previously escaped me, but now I’m starting to see them all over the place.
Based on my experience, I heartily endorse the two-day course for anyone interested in the stuff I write about on this blog, and I’m happy to pass on the news from Dick (after sitting on it for quite a while) that the same two-day course is being offered this coming weekend, April 12-13, and as of a few days ago there were still a few slots — more info here (PDF).
If that’s not an option or not enough permaculture for you, Dick is going to be doing two full-length (nine day) courses later in the year, one in June in Greenfield, NH (PDF) and one in September on Martha’s Vineyard (PDF). Of special interest for people such as myself who’ve been through the two-day course, is that having done so cuts the full course down to seven days. Although getting the time free will be a challenge, I’m fixin’ to find a way to get out to the Vineyard course — maybe I’ll see some of you there.
Comments(1) Welcome to Food in Boston’s first, and quite possibly last, fiction review.
Rarely do I purchase fiction in hardcover, and this book was no exception. A few months back, I saw a notice on urban planning critic and peak oil author Jim Kunstler’s thought-provoking Clusterfuck Nation that he would soon be finishing a post-peak oil novel, and was willing to send review copies to people with relevant blogs. I sent him a quick email and forgot all about it. Much to my surprise, a couple of weeks ago my review copy showed up, just about in time for me to read it by time it hit the stores (which was last week).
The novel is set a number of years after terrorist attacks and the loss of access to petroleum have disrupted the United State’s ability to function as a nation. It covers a few weeks in the life of a small community in upstate New York, struggling with lawlessness and the absence of modern medicine and conveniences. Although it tells a story set in the future, World Made by Hand doesn’t read like any science fiction I’m familiar with. What is familiar about this book is its vision for our future, drawn largely from Kunstler’s previous book, the nonfiction The Long Emergency.
One of the origins of my interest in local food systems has been a growing awareness of the fragility of the supply chains that provide us with relatively cheap food from California, Mexico, and further abroad. The possibilities of climate change and peak oil threaten to disrupt these supply chains, putting our access to food in question. Even two or three days without these long-distance food imports could empty a major US city’s supermarkets. What might it be like to live under different circumstances?
The future depicted in World Made by Hand is perforce one of extremely local food. No fossil fuels are available to transport food from across the country or the world; even getting a boat down to Albany for trade is fraught with peril due to the absence of government or law enforcement. Local production of plants takes on a whole new importance in this scenario — for food, of course, but also as fuel for stoves, stock for alcohol, material for clothes, and opiates for surgery.
World Made by Hand depicts the northeast as a relatively decent place to live under the changed conditions. Boston proper doesn’t fare as well, with the racial conflicts common to larger cities, and big problems caused by increasing sea levels and extreme weather.
Of course, this is a work of fiction, not a window into the future. One of its charms is its success in presenting both the bad and the good of a worrisome possible outcome for our society. Kunstler depicts a community that finds ways to work together, eat and drink well enough, and enjoy itself, despite a lack of fossil fuels and imported avocados.
There’s plenty of lovin’, killin’, and backwoods dentistry/surgery described in varying amounts of detail, so the squeamish might want to steer clear.
Comments(0) Plenty of local food-related events going on in the next month or so:
Next Thursday, Slow Food BU will be having a panel called The Foodie’s Dilemma: How Boston’s Cheapskates Can Eat Sustainably featuring a mix of local & visiting luminaries.
There’s an interesting new initiative afoot to build a statewide Local Food Cooperative, modeled on the Oklahoma Food Cooperative. Meetings are being held around the state, with the local one being in Cambridge on March 8:
Mass. Local Food Coop Meeting and Potluck
The new Massachusetts Local Food Cooperative will hold a potluck lunch featuring an informational and organizational meeting Saturday, March 8th, from 12 to 2 p.m. at the Central Square Branch of the Cambridge Public Library, in Cambridge, MA
The aim of the new coop is to enable Massachusetts consumers to purchase from local farmers and food producers using an online shopping cart and a volunteer distribution system. The group’s coop management software allows producers to post information about their products and allows consumers to search and view a variety of products. The payment goes to the farmer and the cooperative takes a small percentage to cover the coop’s costs.
Anyone interested in this new way to find and purchase local food and products is invited to join the discussion. For more information about this meeting or others planned throughout the state during the next month contact Kelley O’Connor at 978-422-7669 or kelleyoconnor@gmail.com.
Slow Food Boston has a film series going at Theodore Parker Church Sanctuary, in West Roxbury. The two yet to play are Eat at Bill’s on March 9, and The Real Dirt on Farmer John on April 13. Both start at 4 PM, and run $5.
The Boston Gardeners Gathering is on Saturday, March 22nd. I don’t see them on the web, but the following is culled from a BNAN pdf:
The 33rd Annual Gardeners Gathering will be on Saturday, March 22, 2008 at the Curry Student Center, Northeastern University from 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. The Gathering is free and for ALL gardeners and others who would like to be gardeners; the emphasis will be on community gardening. Garden gloves will again be available at the discounted price of $2.00 a pair. As we are unable to mail to each gardener, we need your help in telling others, please spread the word.
Thanks to the Lionette’s newsletter for a number of these items — it’s a great resource, and I don’t say that just because they mention this blog favorably. Really!