Trends of 2011, Resolutions for 2012

Another year is coming to a close - here in the office it doesn't feel like anything is ending since the Organic Land Care Accreditation Course is quickly approaching in February and the CT NOFA 2012 Winter Conference will be following closely on March 3, but we won't object to a long weekend.

The sustainable food movement had a good year in 2011:

• The "local' food industry had doubled from 1999 to 2009 and is estimated to be worth $7 billion in the United States in 2011
• Restaurants are going "hyperlocal" by growing food in restaurant gardens - some behind restaurants and others on the roof (we had one restaurant garden on our 2011 Annual City Farm and Garden Tour - 116 Crown in New Haven)
• Do-it-yourself canning, pickling and preserving - learning how to preserve fresh food through the winter is a great way to keep your diet local year-round!
• There are more community gardens and urban farms than ever, and, say what you will about the economy, consumers want to support them.
• Farmers occupied Wall Street making the same demands for a political system that supports people, not corporations

Do you have any 2012 New Year's Resolutions? The most common answers are some combination of "lose weight", "live more healthfully", "spend more time with friends and family"

I have some good news, all of these resolutions lend themselves to eating local and organic!

We like these resolutions, they can make you happier, healthier, and thinner (if you're concerned about that)

• Eat in. I like this recommendation to lay off the take-out, and try making your own bread. If you're really inept at cooking, look for some cooking classes in your area, more restaurants are offering them as a way to bring customers into their kitchens!
• Start a garden! It's not too hard (we're here to help!), you can save money on food, help the environment and you'll have a healthy food source in your yard!
• Share your resolutions with other people, make sustainable dinners for your family and friends, bring them to the local farm where you buy your produce!
• Buy a share in a CSA, contact farms now to see when you should buy your shares and to see if you can reserve one (some CSAs have already sold out their shares for 2012)

Here's to 2012!

Kristiane

And a happy, hearty, healthy New Year from all of us in the CT NOFA office.

Winter Farmers Markets Expand to More than 1,200 Locations for Fresh Local Foods

According to the USDA, the number of winter farmers markets in the country has increased by 38 percent since 2010, from 886 to 1,225 total markets nationwide.  This means winter farmers markets account for 17 percent of the total number of markets, a promising and currently growing figure.  The USDA believes that much of this growth can be traced to the adoption of hoop house technology by small farmers as a way to lengthen their growing season and continue to offer fresh fruits and vegetables into the winter.

Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan gives some encouragement to those who are considering offering produce into the winter months: “Consumers are looking for more ways to buy locally grown food throughout the year.  Through winter markets, American farmers are able to meet this need and bring in additional income to support their families and businesses.”

If you're thinking about starting a farmer's market and want to learn more about the support the USDA can provide you, check out the article here.  If you're looking for a winter farmers market or CSA program near you (a great way to have delicious, healthy, local food year-round while supporting your local economy) or if you want to try out some new winter food recipes, check out our Winter Food Project webpage here. 

Happy Eating!
Melissa

The Huffington Post Reports: "Monsanto's Corn Linked to Organ Failure"

The Huffington Post first published a story in 2010, which then was updated this year and has been reposted several times recently (perhaps because the GMO debate is really heating up again) that the International Journal of Biological Sciences has found that GMO corn consumption is linked to organ failure in test rats.

The conclusion of the report states that:
"Effects were mostly concentrated in kidney and liver function, the two major diet detoxification organs, but in detail differed with each GM type. In addition, some effects on heart, adrenal, spleen and blood cells were also frequently noted. As there normally exists sex differences in liver and kidney metabolism, the highly statistically significant disturbances in the function of these organs, seen between male and female rats, cannot be dismissed as biologically insignificant as has been proposed by others. We therefore conclude that our data strongly suggests that these GM maize varieties induce a state of hepatorenal toxicity....These substances have never before been an integral part of the human or animal diet and therefore their health consequences for those who consume them, especially over long time periods are currently unknown."

What it comes down to - is that it doesn't matter if GMOs are good or bad (though the health and environmental threats are daunting), the fact that scientists are questioning the safety of GMOs is enough.  Until GMOs are deemed safe or not - we at least deserve the right to choose whether to risk it or not.  In my search for images of GMO Protests, the first several photos were all from different countries.  These global protests are not against scientific progress - they are against the "unknown" and the unanswered questions surrounding GMO food safety.

Bulgaria: http://lesconcepts.wordpress.com/tag/ichiro-sato/

South Korea:
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/include/print.asp?newsIdx=20476

Spain:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/04/20/858692/-Genetically-Modified-Plants,-New-Study-Released

Ireland: http://www.gmfreeireland.org/potato/photos.php

Keep telling the Food and Drug Administration how you feel about GMOs by adding comments to legal petition (Docket # FDA-2011-P-0723-0001/CP) calling on the FDA to label genetically engineered (GE) food.

All the best,
Kristiane
kristiane@ctnofa.org

Are you passionate about GMO labeling legislation?

 







A message from Bill Duesing:

Dear Friends,

I hope you are well and enjoying the holidays with family.

You may have heard that Rep. Roy is planning to introduce legislation to require the labeling of foods containing Genetically Modified Organisms in the next session.  He has bipartisan support.

This seems like something that you would be interested in and support. 

CT NOFA is supporting this effort, as is so far, The Ledgelight  Health district and the United Church of Christ. The CT League of Conservation Voters will support it as soon as we have a bill to show them.

Most polls (for over a decade or more) have shown that the vast majority of people in this country also support labeling of foods containing GMOs.

This could be very helpful to the local food movement in Connecticut, since almost all local food (except meat and dairy products) doesn't involve GMOs.  The coming of GMO sweet corn next year opens up a big can of worms.

It might also have a beneficial health outcome since many junk foods contain GMOs, while fruits and vegetables, whole grains and legumes don't.  

If successful this will be another in a long line of Connecticut's significant environmental firsts.  There is an Initiative in California to do this too.

We are having a meeting in Hartford this Friday, at 10 in the LOB.  Bob Burns, who is a leader in this effort, says that Rep. Roy is arranging a room.  Senator Maynard has committed to coming. Tom Reynolds will be there.  Diana Urban supports this and may be there.  Edith Prague is 100% behind this effort but is recovering from surgery.

It would be great if you could be at this meeting. Check with Rep. Roy's office rm.3201for exact location of the meeting.

If you can't attend, let us know if you are interested in supporting, or if you have any questions.

I'll paste the language for the California initiative below, as well as some questions about how it treats GMO feed, although I need to spend some more time with the complicated language there to really understand what it means.

It would be wonderful to work with you on this.  

Best wishes for 2012.

Bill

Here's a link to the California Initiative language. 

Kraft Foods' Environmental Foodprint

Kraft Foods, the world's second largest food producer has released the results of a survey on the company's effect on climate, land and water including analysis of their agriduclutral production.

The first thing that surprised me about the articles about the findings, were the number of food brands that  Kraft foods owns including, Cadbury, Maxwell House, Nabisco, Oero, Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia, Tang and Trident.

Also, Kraft has already put in place some efforts at being more sustainable and has set a number of ambitious goals to attain by 2015.

The survey was conducted in a partnership with Quantis, Inc., a company that specializes in Life Cycle Assessment.  The World Wildlife Fund analyzed the results as part of its market transformation initiative.
'
Kraft found that nearly 60% of its carbon footprint is from farm commodities and 12% of the carbon footprint is from transportation and distribution of products.  80% of the land impact is from agriculture, and 70% of their water footprint is from growing raw materials.

http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/ahfss/emergency_preparedness/Transportation.html

The study confirms that Kraft's biggest environmental liability and potential leverage point for improvement is increasing the sustainability of its agricultural suppliers.

Krafts 2010 goals to be achieved by 2015 were to:

• increase sustainable sourcing of agricultural commodities by 25%
• reduce 50 million miles from its transportation network

The other five goals are related to manufacturing efficiency.  With 60% of Kraft's carbon footprint coming from their agricultural sources, Kraft needs to pressure their agricultural suppliers to be more sustainable and shift more of their agricultural production to locations more local to manufacturing and distribution points. And consumers need to pressure them to do this too. Decentralized, local farm production is of course preferable, but large companies are going to continue to purchase food from the agricultural industry.  This large industry can reorient itself to be more sustainable and local, it just requires some more thought, planning and oversight.

WWF has charged that supply chain work requires the formation of long-term partnerships based on the identification of shared objectives.  Kraft's plans to make manufacturing more efficient are commendable, but they aren't changing the agricultural practices that have the greatest negative impact on the environment and our livelihoods. 

http://www.kraftfoodscompany.com/MediaCenter/country-press-releases/us/2011/Pages/multi_media_12142011.aspx

http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/12/kraft-supply-chain-sustainability/

http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2011/12/22/Kraft-Maps-Sustainability-Footprint-122211.aspx

 

Turning Away from Corporate America Toward Farming

Courtesy of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

There's been a lot of buzz lately about young people becoming increasingly interested in farming and specifically in organic production.  Back on the 12th, NPR ran an article on it's food blog, The Salt, about a push among young people to abandon corporate life in favor of a more agrarian alternative.  Disillusioned with stifling corporate values, and in response to an economy where the daily grind is less likely to yield positive results, thousands of people are returning to the land.  Another recent article by MSNBC points out that, although farming is inherently risky and expensive getting started, agriculture has fared better than many other parts of the economy during the recession.  Many young people see farming as a calculated risk; one that has a greater likelihood than an office job of working out to their advantage, whether the gains lay in profits or in emotional well-being.  With more than 60% of current farmers over the age of 55, we need a new generation of young farmers to prevent reliance on an ever-decreasing number of producers.

If you are getting started as an organic farmer and need some help tackling big challenges like land access and marketing, register for our Getting Started in Organic Farming Conference to be held Saturday, January 28, 2012 at the CT Forest and Park Association in Rockfall, CT.  Don't miss this opportunity to network with other new farmers and learn from the experts about how to be successful.  You can learn more and register here.  If you've been farming for less than 10 years you may qualify for a scholarship: find out here.

Have a wonderful afternoon!
-Melissa

A Decade in Organic Land Care

Our certificate from IFOAM welcoming the NOFA
Standards in Organic Land Care to the IFOAM
Family of Standards

The NOFA Organic Land Care Program, a regional project out of the Connecticut NOFA office, has been accrediting professionals for 10 years now.  And we want to expand the organic land care movement to be bigger than ever in 2012.  Organic should be the standard in landscaping. 

This year our standards were accepted to the International Family of Standards established by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements.

We celebrated 13 AOLCPs who have been with the program for a decade!

We received news that the 2012 Beyond Pesticides Forum will be held in New Haven, Connecticut on March 30-31

Our Accredited Organic Land Care Professionals (AOLCPs) : Have taken the NOFA OLC 5-day Accreditation Course in organic landscaping, passed the Accreditation Exam, pledged to provide organic land care according to the NOFA Standards for Organic Land Care, maintained continuing education by attending a minimum of 4 credit-hours of organic landscaping education annually and must pay an annual fee ($100) to support the work of the OLC program

If you are a homeowner, check out our homeowner's guide and brochure about going organic at home.

If you have a landscaper, ask them if they're accredited - there needs to be a demand for organic!

If you're looking for a landscaper, find an Accredited Professional near you in our database.

Ask your town government or schools if any of their groundskeepers are accredited - it's state law that no pesticides can be used on k-8 schools, and towns are also implementing these bans on town lands.  

If you're a land care professional, think about accreditation 

Frank Crandall

The course is coming up:

Massachusetts
January 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and a snowdate of Jan. 15th
Worcester State University
486 Chandler St.
Worcester, MA  01602

Connecticut
February 15, 16, 17 and 21, 22, and a snowdate of Feb. 23rd
CT Agricultural Experiment Station
123 Huntington St.
New Haven, CT  06511

Camilla Worden

Rhode Island

February 27, 28, 29, March 1, 2 and snowdate of March 5
Kettle Pond Visitor Center
Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge
Charlestown, RI 02813

Read about how a couple of our AOLCPs and committee-members, Camilla Worden of Brookfield, CT and Frank Crandall are making their accreditation work for them.  While you are helping the environment and offering customer safer land management practices, you can also really help your business.