Oakland Food Policy Council

National News

• Beginning Farmer and Rancher Opportunity Act: The US House is currently reviewing the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Opportunity Act of 2011. The act is a mandate to ensure appropriate funding to farmers and ranchers from the government through inclusion in the 2012 Farm Bill. In addition to BFROA, Senate and House Agriculture Committees will be reviewing the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP) as well as the Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative (OREI) and Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI), as separate, stand-alone programs with enhanced mandatory funding. These funding opportunities set out to increase the number of farmers and provide opportunities for beginning farmers to develop and support a sustainable, innovative farm or ranch.

  For a short summary and additional background on BFROA go to: http://www.landstewardshipproject.org/programs_bfroa.htmlor http://sustainableagriculture.net/our-work/beginning-farmer-bill/ or to take action, visit http://sustainableagriculture.net/take-action/

• US EPA Statement on Brownfields and Land Revitalization: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has taken a huge step recently in the release of the Brownfields and Urban Agriculture Interim Guidelines for Safe Gardening Practices and the Partnerships for Sustainable Communities: Urban Farm Business Plan Handbook. These documents are part of a recent call to improve local, sustainable food systems throughout the nation. The program began with a pilot urban farm in Toledo and has since impacted the growth of urban farms throughout the country. The literature provides information for new and experienced farmers and gardeners and provides resources for developing business plans and implementing safe and sustainable practices that work with the landscape to improve the quality of the soil and the local environment. Experts from local and state governments, academia and non-profits compiled the information from gathered research and various programs. It offers extensive information and recommendations on urban gardening and addresses the need for and link between high pollution and low food production in low-income, underserved neighborhoods.

  FMI, visit the EPA website at http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/urbanag/ http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/urbanag/pdf/bf_urban_ag.pdf, Guidelines

  http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/urbanag/pdf/urban_farm_business_plan.pdf, Business Plan

• Healthy Food Financing Initiative becomes a reality!
• Third Maine Town Passes Landmark Local Food Ordinance
• There's a new interactive map tracking Food Sovereignty and Food Policy Councils across the U.S! Click here to check it out.
• Vermont: a bill was introduced to the House that would require the labeling of GMO foods. Read more here. A 2004 piece of legislation requires seed to be labeled if it is GMO. More information here.
• Baltimore's Department of Planning and the Department of Housing and Community have released a request for qualification for Urban Agriculture in the City of Baltimore. Read more here.
• Govenor Patterson Launches Public-Private Partnership to Expand Grocery Stores in Underserved Neighborhoods. Read the article here.
• Read the recent Grist article about the history and future of urban grocery stores. Click here.
• Click here to read more about a new vertical farming model in Portland, Oregon. This model incorporates neighborhood economic development with more traditional vertical farming models.
• A new report on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010 was released on June 15th and will be open for comments until July 15th. To read the report and share your thoughts, visit the USDA website here.
• The Reinvestment Fund, PolicyMap, and the Brookings Institute have partnered to created a geographic information system (GIS) mapping tool that is designed to guide the strategic work of policy makers at the local, state, and national level. Click here to read more.
• The USDA has launched a fantastic new tool: the U.S. Food Environment Atlas, which provides maps and statistics on food environment indicators, and gives "a spatial overview of a community’s ability to access healthy food and its success in doing so." You can see some sample maps drawn from this tool on La Vida Locavore; one example illustrates the correlation between soda consumption and diabetes rates.
• First Lady Michelle Obama has just launched her "Let's Move" campaign, aimed at ending childhood obesity. Two major components of the campaign focus on school food, and access to healthy and affordable food in our communities.
• New Jersey grocer who builds supermarkets in poor neighborhoods to be a guest for President Obama's State of the Union Address on Jan 27. Read article here.
• The USDA initiative, "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food" is aimed at connecting consumers with local farmers and creating greater economic opportunities for small farms. This initiative, along with the opening of the White House Farmers Market, marks a shift toward greater federal support of local food systems. Learn more about the initiative, watch First Lady Michelle Obama's speech on the significance of fresh food and find a farmer's market in your area.
• Getting at the Roots of Climate Change: Food.Even in Copenhagen, where agriculture is getting less attention than it arguably should be considering its impact and potential for mitigating climate change, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack spoke about the need for research, and seeing agriculture as an opportunity for climate change mitigation. Read article here.
• Food Insecurity: The number of Americans who lived in households that lacked consistent access to adequate food soared last year, to 49 million, the highest since the government began tracking what it calls "food insecurity" 14 years ago, the Department of Agriculture reported Monday. Read the NYTimes article here.
• Justice Department and USDA to explore anti-trust violations in the agriculture industry. Read the Justice Department press release here.
• Sidewalk farms? Veggies on parking strips? You bet! Anything is possible in Seattle..
• Urban gardens are flourishing around the country on vacant lots, rooftops, the occassional Dodge flatbed, and in school yards. Politicians at all levels of government are taking notice. Check out this article about White House officials in Philadelphia exploring Philly's Fresh Food Initiative as a potential model for urban food system reform.
• Community gardens and urban agriculture get a boost of support from the Nashville Davidson County Council.
• Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld District Court Judge Charles Breyer'searlier ruling of May 2007, in which he found that the USDA failed to address concerns that Roundup Ready alfalfa will contaminate
  conventional and organic alfalfa. The Ninth Circuit decision affirms
  that USDA violated national environmental laws by approving GE alfalfa
  without a full Environmental Impact Statement. To learn more about genetically engineered foods, visit the Center for Food Safety.
• In his address to the American Medical Association on Monday, June 15, President Obama publicly acknowledged the ability of healthy dietary habits to prevent the occurence of chronic illnesses in America. President Obama also referred to the First Lady's organic vegetable garden as an example of how we can prevent chronic illness in future generations, noting that we should incorporate gardening into school lunch programs. You can see the entire address here.
• First Lady Michelle Obama invited Bancroft Elementary students back to the White House vegetable garden to harvest lettuce, peas and other goodies on Tuesday, June 16. In her address to the student farmers and the nation, the First Lady urged us to tackle epidemic rates of obesity and chronic illness by improving access to fresh produce in low income communities, and by including more nutritious food in school breakfast and lunch programs. The policy implications are clear: prevention is possible, we can eat our way to health, and save about $120 billion a year in medical costs. Watch her address here.

International News

• An opinion piece written by John E. Peck on June 21st documenting the struggle for national and international food sovereignty from both an historical and contemporary perspective. Read the article here.
• Copenhagen: peasant farmers can save the planet! Carbon reduction potential of ecological farming methods is highlighted at Copenhagen, as protests against industrial agriculture gather strength. Read article here.
• The World Food Summit Wraps Up-The three-day summit at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization headquarters in Rome ended with little new headway in efforts for a new strategy to help farmers in poor countries produce enough to feed their people. Read article here. Also, read Raj Patel's brief on the summit here.
• Bello Horizonte, Brazil awarded Future Policy Award 2009 for addressing the issue of Food Security. Recognized as the world's most comprehensive policy that tackles hunger immediately and secures a healthy and affordable food supply for all. Please click here for more information.
• Toronto's Food Policy Council moves to include the voices of its youth in policy decisions. Read more here.
• At the July 10 G8 meeting in Italy, heads of state from around the world responded to President Obama's call to fight against global hunger, espeically in Africa, with 20 Billion dollars in agricultural aid. Food justice activists are checking the fine print to see if we are on the verge of a major shift in global polcies to remedy hunger.
• Home gardens are all the rage it seems. Just on the other side of the pond, Queen Elizabeth installs a vegetable garden at Buckingham palace.