Urban Gardens & a Save-the-Date!

(Image credit: The New York Times)

Urban gardening is all the rage! From the New York Times to LA, and everywhere in between, from Cuba to China, and all across the globe, folks are growing more of their food than they have in years, and a lot of them are growing it in cities. To learn more about the movement, click on one of the links above! 


A little closer to home, you have a great opportunity to see urban gardens in action! The Yamhill Soil and Water Conservation District is holding their second annual Garden Bike Tour this month!

The details:
URBAN GARDEN BIKE TOUR
JULY 28th
10am-1pm

This self guided tour is free, open to the public, and a great opportunity to learn from experienced urban gardeners right in your own community! There are three stops on the tour, all a leisurely pedal apart. To print off your map you can click here, or visit our events calendar here! Hopefully we will see you out there!

This picture is from last year's tour: bikes and visitors at Ellie's beautiful garden. Look what you have to look forward to!

In the midst of all this talk about subsidies...

...this article came out!

With the House Ag Committee having just passed their version of the Farm Bill, protecting subsidies but making cuts to programs like SNAP, Farmers Markets, and local food systems work, you may feel like despairing. But did you know that New Zealand, a nation whose agriculture was even more subsidy-dependent than our own, did away with their agriculture subsidies in one fell swoop back in the 1980s. And despite the drastic, abrupt shift (not to mention that they undertook it in the middle of an economic crisis in agriculture), only 1% of farms were lost. Everyone else figured out what they needed to do to remain viable, diversified their operations, branched out into value-added products, and otherwise found ways to make things work. Today, New Zealand agriculture is stronger than ever, and completely subsidy-free. Inspiring! Read the full article below.

Do you think that something like this could ever happen in the US? What would it take to make it happen? What would it look like? Leave your comments below!

image credit: marvinfarms.co.nz

In New Zealand, Farmers Don't Want Subsidies

By Mark Ross (original article by the Huffington Post here)

Every five years or so, members of Congress from rural areas team up to push through a costly extension of farm programs. They are at it again this year. The Senate recently passed legislation to keep billions of dollars in subsidies flowing to farm businesses, and the House just passed a similarly bloated bill out of committee.

Farm bills are an inside game. Politicians never give the public a good reason why U.S. agriculture needs to be coddled by the government. Members of Congress focus on grabbing more subsidies for home-state farmers, and they rarely discuss or debate whether all this federal aid is really needed.

It isn't needed. New Zealand's farm reforms of the 1980s dramatically illustrate the point. Faced with a budget crisis, New Zealand's government decided to eliminate nearly all farm subsidies. That was a dramatic reform because New Zealand farmers had enjoyed high levels of aid and the country's economy is more dependent on agriculture than is the U.S. economy.

Despite initial protests, farm subsidies were repealed in 1984. Almost 30 different production subsidies and export incentives were ended. Did that cause a mass exodus from agriculture and an end to family farms? Not at all. It did create a tough transition period for some farmers, but large numbers of them did not walk off their land as had been predicted. Just one percent of the country's farmers could not adjust and were forced out.

The vast majority of New Zealand farmers proved to be skilled entrepreneurs -- they restructured their operations, explored new markets, and returned to profitability. Today, New Zealand's farming sector is more dynamic than ever, and the nation's farmers are proud to be prospering without government hand-outs.

Prior to the 1984 reforms, subsidies stifled farm productivity by distorting market signals and blocking innovation. Many farmers were farming for the sake of the subsidies. For example, nearly 40 percent of the average New Zealand sheep and beef farmer's gross income came from government aid.

When the subsidies were removed, it turned out to be a catalyst for productivity gains. New Zealand farmers cut costs, diversified their land use, sought nonfarm income, and developed new products. Farmers became more focused on pursuing activities that made good business sense.

Official data supports on-the-ground evidence that New Zealand greatly improved its farming efficiency after the reforms. Measured agricultural productivity had been stagnant in the years prior to the reforms, but since the reforms productivity has grown substantially faster in agriculture than in the New Zealand economy as a whole.

Since the reforms, agriculture's contribution to New Zealand's economy has remained steady at about 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Adding activities outside the farm gate, such as processing of milk, meat and wool, agriculture is estimated to contribute over 15 percent of GDP. By contrast, agriculture's share of the economy has fallen in many other industrial countries.

With the removal of subsidies in New Zealand, agricultural practices are driven by the demands of consumers, not by efforts to maximize the receipt of subsidies. At the same time, the whole agricultural supply chain has improved its efficiency and food safety has become paramount. Businesses that deliver inputs to farming have had to reduce their costs because farmers have insisted on greater value for money.

More efficient agricultural production in New Zealand has also spurred better environmental management. Cutting farm subsidies, for example, has reduced the previous overuse of fertilizer. And cutting subsidies has broadened farm operations to encompass activities such as rural tourism that bring management of the rural environment to the fore.

The message to American farmers is that subsidy cuts should be embraced, not feared. After subsidy cuts, U.S. farmers would no doubt prove their entrepreneurial skills by innovating in a myriad of ways, as New Zealand farmers did. And we suspect that -- like New Zealand farmers -- American farmers would become proud of their new independence, and have little interest in going back on the taxpayer gravy train.

Now would be a great time for America to embrace Kiwi-style reforms because commodity prices are high and U.S. farm finances are generally in good shape. It's true that weather conditions and markets create ups and downs for agriculture, but over the long run, global population growth will likely sustain high demand for farm products. Some people claim that America needs to subsidize because other countries do. But unsubsidized New Zealand farming is globally competitive, with about 90 percent of the country's farm output exported.

The removal of farm subsidies in New Zealand gave birth to a vibrant, diversified, and growing rural economy, and it debunked the myth that farming cannot prosper without subsidies. Thus rather than passing another big government farm bill that taxpayers can't afford, the U.S. Congress should step back and explore the proven alternative of free market farming.

# # #

Mark Ross is a general manager of the Federated Farmers of New Zealand, which is New Zealand's leading farm organization. Chris Edwards is editor of the Cato Institute's www.DownsizingGovernment.org.

Wins & Losses on the Farm Bill

Wins & Losses: Breaking down the Food and Farm Bill

(from the Slow Food USA Blog--for original post click here)

Written by Tim Smith, Slow Food USA’s Associate Manager of New Media

Last week, Washington became the food capital of the country as the Senate debated the 2012 Food and Farm Bill, culminating in the passage of the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act of 2012 yesterday afternoon. Like most people in the country, your next thought most likely is: what does this mean for me?

Well, it means that we are one step closer to approval of the single biggest piece of legislation that governs what we grow and eat in this country, and how it is distributed. It is a 5-year, $969 billion bill that touches every single person’s life in this country. Every farmer, parent, cook, eater, student, and activist is impacted by the policies the Bill addresses and we only have one chance every five years to influence it. Now that the Senate has passed their version, it is up to the House of Representatives to pass their own version before the bill can officially become law.

Okay, now that we’ve cleared that up, you’re probably wondering: is the Senate Bill a good thing or a bad thing? Well, I guess that depends on what you’re priorities are. Back in March, Slow Food USA sent a letter to the leaders of both the Senate and House Agriculture committees outlining our priorities and asked for a good, clean, and fair Food and Farm Bill. You can read the letter here for more specifics, but we basically boiled it down to three key points:

We asked them to ensure…

1. a health focused food system, an end to hunger, and access to healthy food;
2. a level “plowing” field for family farmers & vibrant regional farm and food economies;
3. good environmental stewardship.

Under these guidelines, in a lengthy bill that involved over 300 amendment requests, there were definitely some victories and certainly some losses. In an attempt to make sense of it all, I’ve broken it down with the top 5 wins that we can take away from the bill and rounding it out with a bottom 3 of losses from the process:

Wins:

1. The Senate passed an amendment sponsored by Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) that provides critical funding for rural jobs and new farming opportunities. This means, among other things, that a young person in Wisconsin who wants to start a new farm, but lacks access to the kind of credit that would allow her to do that could now qualify for funding through the Rural Micro-entrepreneur Assistance Program.


2. The Senate passed an amendment sponsored by Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) that makes sure that farms receiving subsidized crop insurance will be required to follow basic conservation guidelines. This means if a large conventional farm in Ohio receives insurance payments to cover against their losses for the year, they will need to follow the same conservation laws that were previously only applied to farms receiving direct subsidies.


3. The Senate passed an amendment sponsored by Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) which makes it much easier for organic farmers to gain access to crop insurance. Right now, if an organic farmer in New York wishes to receive crop insurance, he will have to pay a much higher premium than his conventional farming neighbor, but they are both reimbursed at the same rate. This would change that and set the reimbursements to more appropriate levels.


4. The Senate rejected amendments by Senators Rand Paul (R-KY) and Jeff Sessions(R-AL) that would have further weakened the already weakened SNAP program. These amendments would have made it harder for states to provide food assistance to their most vulnerable citizens.


5. The Senate Agriculture committee’s bill puts an end to costly, direct subsidy programs that do nothing to support healthy farming practices. Currently, if you own farm land in New Mexico that qualifies for a direct subsidy, you will receive payments from the government even if you don’t plant a single crop. This bill will end that practice.

Losses

1. The Senate did not consider an amendment sponsored by Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) that would have make it unlawful for a meat packer to own or feed livestock intended for slaughter. The current practice among meat packers is to slaughter their own livestock when prices are too high and buy from farmers when prices are low. This amendment would have created a fair marketplace for family farms raising livestock, not disproportionately favoring large slaughterhouses.


2. The Senate rejected an amendment by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) that would have re-directed some crop insurance funding to eliminate the cuts to the SNAP program. Without this amendment, an estimated 500,000 households across the country will lose $90 per month in SNAP benefits.


3. The Senate did not consider an amendment by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) that would have enabled schools to purchase from local and regional producers. This amendment would have allowed school districts to continue participating in the Department fo Defense Fresh Program while making their own fresh produce purchases.

In the end, how do we score the Senate Food and Farm Bill? I think it was best said by Senate Agricutlure Ranking member, Senator Pat Roberts before the official votes were cast, “Is it the best possible bill? No. It is the best bill possible.” Now, on to the House we go.

Farm Bill Victories So Far!

Good morning everyone!

In case you haven't heard, the Senate has been working away on the 2012 Farm Bill and its some 300 amendments over the past several days. So far, the voting has been a succession of victories for those who are interested in a better food system that honors local and regional food systems, small scale, beginning, and organic farmers, and the value of direct-to-consumer marketing avenues. You can read the latest updates on the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition website, here (day one of voting), here (day two of voting), and here (live updates!).

Even better news is that our Oregon Senators have been hard at work pushing valuable legislation to successful votes! Senator Merkley spearheaded the move to make crop insurance programs work better for Organic farmers. Previously, crop insurance pay outs were dispensed based on commodity prices, meaning that Organic farmers, with their diverse crops and high market values, did not receive fair compensation in the aftermath of farm disasters. Bravo, Senator Merkley! And second, Senator Wyden successfully passed his amendment to establish a pilot program for Farm-to-School purchasing of unprocessed and minimally processed foods. Another great victory!

This is such an exciting year for the Farm Bill! Even if you are normally bored by legislative happenings, I hope that you will take a moment to read the updates linked to above, and perhaps give our Senators a call to say "Thank you for supporting Good Food!"

Another Look at the Farm Bill

If you've been wrestling with the whole concept of the Farm Bill (it's complex for sure!), then check out these great infographics! They do an excellent job of breaking down just what this huge piece of legislation means, what it does, and how it affects our daily lives. I can't stress enough how important it is for citizens to understand this bill: remember, everyone eats!

Do you have any questions about the Farm Bill? Post them in the comments, and I'll do my best to answer them!


From TakePart.com: to see a bigger, zoomable version, click here.

From GOOD magazine: click here. This one is interactive!

The Farm Bill

If you didn't know already, the new draft of the Farm Bill is currently in debate on the Senate floor. This behemoth piece of legislation consists of 5 years and billions and billions of dollars of funding for nutrition, commodity subsidies, farm insurance, conservation, and other food and farm programs. Historically, the Farm Bill was established to assist farmers in a volatile and flooded marketplace. Today it is best known alternatively as the source of commodities that support a broken agribusiness program, and as the source of the largest single government handout (SNAP, formerly food stamps, is funded by the bill).


Love it or hate it, this piece of legislation is a crucial measure of the food and farm environment in our nation. It has the potential to do great good and great harm. It is vital that we each know what the Farm Bill is, and the affect that it has on the foods available to us and the farmers in our communities.


Here are three things that you can read that will catch you up to speed on the Farm Bill 2012 happenings: 


First there is an awesome infographic that summarizes the history of the Farm Bill, it's current function, and the affect that it has on our lives as Americans.


Second there is a report from the Community Food Security Coalition about the current amendments and proposed funding per program for the 2012 bill. 


Finally, there is a letter recently delivered to Congress from the foremost food advocates in our country: Michael Pollan, Alice Waters, Wendell Berry, and about 30 other major voices for our food system appeal to Congress to pass an effective Farm Bill that invests in a healthy and sustainable future for our nation. Very inspiring.




All right then... that's a quick and dirty introduction to the Farm Bill situation. If you are moved to act by reading any of the above, please take a moment to call your congressperson. You can find their phone number via the US Capitol switchboard by calling (202) 224-3121, and asking for your senator's or representative's office. Thank you for advocating for a better food future in America!

They took a trip across America...

... and documented it in food. Awesome.

Watch the trailer right here, and if you like what you see, you can find all of the videos they made during their cross-county odyssey right here.

Enjoy!