Earth Week: Detroit agriculture film screenings

Grown in Detroit tells the story of the heroic efforts underway at the Catherine Ferguson School to redeem the city’s young and its land. Students at the Catherine Ferguson School are working to change those statistics as proud urban gardeners learning to cultivate the land and feed their families.

Thursday, April 22nd. 6:30 pm. Andover Newton Theological School’s Wilson Chapel in Newton. Join Principal Asenath Andrews for a screening, fundraiser and reception of Grown in Detroit, featuring her Detroit school and farm for teen moms.

Tickets available at www.lizwalkerjourneyproductions.org

Friday, April 23rd. 6-8 pm. MIT. EG&G Education Center, Room 101, Cambridge.
The Tufts Food System Planning Coalition and Planners Network Boston Chapter presents a special screening of Grown in Detroit and Detroit:green + a panel discussion about the role of agriculture and justice in community development and urban revitalization.

Panelists include:
Julian Agyeman, moderator (Tufts Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning Department Chair)
Matt Kochka (reVision House Urban Farm)
Alice Leung (Top Sprouts)
Betsy Johnson (Boston Collaborative for Food and Fitness, South End/Lower Roxbury Open Space Land Trust)

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.

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!

• Made it to the NOFA Winter Conference on Saturday. Highlights for me included historical perspectives from farmers with 25+ years experience growing organically in the region, (re)connecting with a great bunch of folks, and a 400-person potluck lunch. Man, these organic farmers know how to have a good time.
• Here’s a reportback on Saturday’s pig butchering workshop at Lionette’s, from chefs study blog. Sounds like it was educational, and delicious.
• Kerry Bodine dropped me a note about her new blog, Wicked Flavory, “A blog for folks in New England who think about where their food comes from.” It looks great, too — check out the blue cheese photo on the current top post. Added to the feed reader.
• Technically this was a few days ago, but the website for the Real Food Challenge had its “under construction” launch. Though they’re not going to be up to full speed until the start of the ‘08-‘09 school year, there’s already some good resources in place, and the beginnings of a powerful coalition of colleges and universities.

I don’t think you need an excuse to hold something like this, but a nominal reason for the event was the recent release of Vandana Shiva’s new book from South End Press, which includes a troubling-but-inspirational essay from James Lionette of Lionette’s Market, who kicked off the night’s discussion. Other panelists were Adrieanna Bozeman & Kettia Louis, interns at the Food Project; Matt Kochka, grower at ReVision House; and Jean Claude Bourrut, grower at the Farm at Long Island Shelter.

Economics

It still doesn’t sound like anyone’s getting rich around here producing or selling real, local food. That said, some of the panelists see potential for a better economic picture, especially if the proximity of producers and consumers in local food systems can be better taken advantage of.

There are certainly innovative arrangements being made already to get good local food to Bostonians in an economically sustainable fashion. For example, ReVision House does some interesting collaboration with local farms, including redistributing food from Drumlin Farm in their CSA, and from Allandale Farm at their farm stand. These have both been successful ways of getting local food to people in their part of Dorchester.

The Challenge of Winter, and Limited Land

This came up a number of times: how can we feed ourselves locally through the winter? A decentralized root cellar network could help. James Lionette argued that there’s a gap on the demand side: too many people still act like children and turn their nose up at turnips & cabbage, but those are what were traditionally eaten around here in the winter (along with meat & other animal products, of course). Jean Claude Bourrut’s farm feeds 2,000 shelter guests daily; there’s no way they could produce enough food on their 2 acres to store a significant supply for that many people. ReVision’s Matt Kochka ran the numbers and came up with ~900 farms within 40 miles of Boston, which still don’t produce enough to feed everyone in the metro around the year. Jean Claude followed this up by reiterating that there just isn’t enough farmland to support the people in & around Boston as long as we’re going to use it for golf courses & the like.

A farmer from Lincoln’s Blue Heron Organic Farm shared some thoughts about how much potential suburbs have for producing food. The main barrier has to do with the relative market values of real estate and of food. Suburbs can overcome this using conservation policies, as is the case in Lincoln where they and many other farms are located.

A recent emigrant from the Berkshires pointed out that there is, in fact, a thriving local food system there, and it’s an easy trip from Boston for anyone who’d like to get a bit of the experience.

Things aren’t all bad; we can always make sprouts in our kitchens, and can & otherwise preserve food during the summer. Getting through the winter in these parts has traditionally been done by preparing in the harvest season.

Local Grains?

A little (expensive!) spelt & bulger is produced in the Champlain Valley, but generally the economics of producing grains in the NE are much less favorable than for veggies or animal products. There was some confusion about King Arthur Flour being owned by one of the big agribusinesses; it looks like they’re actually a 100 percent employee-owned business. Maybe the point was more about their grain coming from industrial producers?

Farm Bill

We talked about the general situation with the farm bill, as well as its impacts on our local food system. People from the Food Project who had recently visited Senator Kennedy’s office heard that nobody had been in touch with the senator about the importance of preserving the Community Food Projects money — if I understand correctly, this helps keep the Food Project running in Boston, and similar initiatives throughout the country. More info at the above resource, and at Slow Food USA. It looks like the bill is about to hit the Senate floor, so there’s still time to contact Senators Kennedy and Kerry & let them know about our needs here in Boston.