Cheap Sustainably Raised Pork Sandwich? I don't think so.

I didn't read the article by Knute Berger, but Allison Scheff has struck a nerve in her Seattle magazine article, The Foodie's Blindspot. While I do try my damndest to choose restaurants that source locally, sometimes I just want Paseo!

Reporting from New Orleans

Urban Food Link is back in New Orleans for the American Planning Association conference and boy has it been fun to be surrounded by food systems folks! The day started with a 4 hour workshop on how to conduct Health Impact Assessments, which can identify potential health outcomes of a policy or project.

Next a realization that in the midst of this conference, I was stranded in a virtual food dessert. How ironic. With all due respect to the Ernest Morial Convention Center, your food sucks. Food options during the 4 hour workshop were limited to hotdogs, candy and chips - not exactly fresh and healthy. So I ventured out into the neighborhood in search of a small grocery, a corner store, someplace where I could buy some fruit for the next few days. Alas, my search was in vain. Nary a grocery store to be found and all the corner stores were stacked floor to ceiling with powerade and beer. I know there is healthy corner store work afoot in New Orleans - I'm taking a tour of it on Monday. But today was a bust on the healthy snack front.

The day ended in the wonderful Southern Food and Beverage Museum celebrating the area's unique culinary heritage. Here the APA Food Interest Planning Group was treated to crawdad quesadillas, goat cheese brushcetta, and other savories sourced from the amazing Crescent City Farmers Market. It was a great opportunity to hear about food planning work in other cities and strategize about how to increase recognition of the value of this work. Stay tuned for more action from this Interest Group!

King County Awarded $15.5 Million to Prevent Obesity

Great news on the the funding front!! Michelle Obama was on hand via a live webinar this morning to announce awards of Recovery Act funds through the Department of Health and Human Services. The First Lady congratulated all of the states and programs selected through the very competitive process. In all, 44 communities were chosen out of 250 to receive either tobacco prevention or obesity prevention funds. King County was one of seven communities chosen to receive funds for both - $15.5 million for obesity prevention and $10 million for tobacco prevention.

Working with the City of Seattle, the Public Health department will soon implement several strategies for increasing access to healthy food and promoting healthy eating habits, along with increasing opportunities for more physical activity near schools and neighborhoods. Strategies will be selected through a request for proposals, for which schools, community agencies and local government will be able to apply. Details for the RFP will be made available at a community meeting on March 26. More information about the Public Health process is available at www.kingcounty.gov/health/cppw.

More information about the award and the communities selected can be found on the HHS website - http://www.hhs.gov/recovery/

Urban Food LInk Endorses Mary Embleton for King Conservation District

Here at Urban Food Link, we have been involved in strengthening our regional food system for close to ten years. Mary Embleton has been right beside me and served as an incredible mentor along the way. She's deeply committed to sustainable agriculture, knows the farmers and their issues, and has a degree in ag economics to boot so she can hang with all the data heads too.

Next week, on March 16, voters will elect a new member to the King Conservation District, which directs millions of natural resource dollars. You MUST VOTE IN PERSON on March 16th! No mail in ballots.

There are 5 candidates running. ONLY Mary Embleton, Executive Director of the Cascade Harvest Coalition, understands the interests of the regional food and farming community.

The other candidates are:
Mara Heiman, Former John L Scott Agent
Teri Herrera, Realtor, John L. Scott Real Estate
Kirk Prindle, Biologist, City of Issaquah
Max Prinsen, President of Save Habitat And Diversity of Wetland

For more information on the candidates and elections visit: http://www.kingcd.org/new_ele_2010.htm

Unlike other King County elections, the KCD election process requires that voters show up in person at polling locations - there is no absentee or mail in ballots. Last year only 2,700 people voted in this election.

A list of all the polling locations and hours are below. Please take a minute right now to plan where and when you can vote next Tuesday, March 16.

Polling Locations:

Auburn King County Library
1102 Auburn Way South, Auburn
Poll hours 10:30am – 8:00pm

Bellevue King County Library
1111 110th Avenue NE, Bellevue
Poll hours 10:30am – 8:00pm

Carnation King County Library
4804 Tolt Avenue, Carnation
Poll hours 10:30am – 8:00pm

Des Moines King County Library
21260 11th Avenue South, Des Moines
Poll hours 10:30am – 8:00pm

Downtown Seattle Public Library
1000 Fourth Avenue, Seattle
Poll hours 10:30am – 7:30pm

Shoreline King County Library
345 NE 175th , Shoreline
Poll hours 10:30am – 8pm

Vashon King County Library
17210 Vashon Highway SW, Vashon Island
Poll hours 10:30 am – 8:00pm

Now you have the information you need.. Don't Forget to Vote on TUESDAY.

Will Allen Says Stop Talking and ACT: Seattle Declares 2010 Year of Urban Agriculture

In a week filled with both community and policy- level activity, Seattle has shown that this city is at the forefront of the Good Food Revolution.

On February 3^rd, the City declared 2010 the Year of Urban Agriculture. A new website has been created that will serve as a virtual gathering place for community groups active in urban agriculture. The site will also serve as a repository of information about city-led initiatives like P-Patch, Neighborhood Matching Grants, and land use planning.

Just hours before the big announcement, Seattle welcomed MacArthur Genius and founder of Wisconsin-based Growing Power, Will Allen, whose intensive urban agriculture training programs have sparked a re-commitment to local food across the nation. Mr. Allen visited the city to tour our urban farms and share his experience with researchers, youth activists, and community organizations dedicated to improving access to healthy food.

Citing Seattle’s commitment to local food, Mr. Allen noted, “Seattle has more worm bins than any other city in the country.” This commitment on the citizen level is impressive, but the work must be accomplished cooperatively to be successful. Imploring the audience to stop planning for healthy food and take action, Allen encouraged strong leadership among community organizations to take a multi-cultural, multi-generational approach to ensure healthy food is available across all our communities.

Job creation is also a priority for Mr. Allen. Tracing the history of the organization, he discussed each new component of intensive agriculture that he developed on his land. Whether creating static pile composting bins, which last year turned 10 million pounds of food waste into compost, or a developing a 110,000 gallon aquaponics system, Growing Power is committed to having youth deeply involved in the projects so they learn an array of skills along the way. Construction, electrical and plumbing skills are taught through the creation of rooftop gardens; marketing and other business skills are taught through the sale of the myriad goods produced on the farm; and of course farming skills themselves are taught as youth learn to grow sustainably and raise goats, chickens, turkey, bees and fish.

The success of Growing Power has inspired dozens of other cities across the country and across the globe to take a new look at how they feed themselves. Here in Seattle, the commitment is not new. But in some ways, the work of expanding our local food economy is just beginning. Only recently has there been a groundswell of support across communities and across jurisdictions. The City of Seattle has been active since 2008, when the Local Food Action Initiative passed and created a policy framework for expanding local food production. Of course there is only so much acreage available in the city. We rely on the health of our rural farm community to ensure a steady supply of fresh, community-grown farm products.

The county has also been busy re-assessing its role in a successful food economy. The King County Department of Natural Resources recently issued its FARMS Report, which outlined several challenges to meeting the goal of viable, long-term farming in the region. For starters, we need to grow new farmers if we want to keep growing food in this region. Efforts that focus on farmer training and programs to keep farm land affordable are desperately needed. The report also makes clear that if we don’t require agricultural uses on land designated as Agricultural Production District land, we may soon be surrounded by hobby farms and subdivisions.

Finally, there are two very bright spots on the horizon. A Regional Food Policy Council has been approved and will soon begin meeting to advise on food systems issues across the four county region of the Puget Sound Regional Council. This kind of cross-jurisdictional approach can facilitate comprehensive solutions to expanding the local food economy for rural producers and urban consumers. A Washington State Food Policy Council is also making its way through the legislative process and may soon be a reality as well.

These efforts demonstrate that our policy-makers are paying attention to the incredible impact that a community-based food system has on so many aspects of our daily lives. Will Allen’s message to City Hall was clear, “lead or get out of the way.” The Good Food Revolution is here – and it appears that both community and policy leaders are standing together ready to advance.

For more information on food system happenings in Seattle, go to www.urbanfoodlink.com

Fresh Food Financing - Seattle Should Hop on Board!

What do commercial real estate and food security have to do with each other? Plenty. In places like New Jersey and Pennsylvania they are working to increase access to fresh food by increasing access to capital for food retailers. Through programs like New Jersey Food Access and Pennsylvania Fresh Food Financing Initiative, these states are increasing the number of grocery stores and other food retailers operating in under-served communities. In Pennsylvania, the project was supported by New Market Tax Credits through a partnership with The Reinvestment Fund and is expected to result in creation of almost 4,000 jobs and over a million square feet of new supermarket development in low-income neighborhoods.

These initiatives have been so successful that a National Fresh Food Financing Initiative has been proposed in Congress. Similar to the Pennsylvania model, the National model would offer one-time grant or loan assistance to retailers for expansion or renovation of their facilities and allow them to increase offerings of fresh, healthy food that meets the specific needs of their community. This is just the kind of creative collaboration the Puget Sound needs! We should be doing more to encourage healthy food retail - especially in those neighborhoods where access to grocery stores is lacking. A national model is very encouraging, but even if this fails, Seattle OED should be partnering with our local non-profit lenders to offer similar opportunities to our communities. Delridge, south east Seattle, south King County... there are plenty of places where access to capital could make all the difference in supporting grocery retail and bringing fresh food to our neighbors.

The current proposal is in the form of a resolution introduced by Pennsylvania Representative Allyson Schwartz. Let's hope the members of Congress can keep their enthusiasm for good health sustained long enough to recognize the contributions a program like this can make!

Learn more at www.urbanfoodlink.com

Good News for the Good Food Movement

It's been an astounding week for food! Seattle hosted the illustrious Eric Holt Gimenez from Food First. Eric was on KUOW's Weekday program before heading off to speak about food sovereignty at the UW. We had trainings on healthy retail conversions and public workshops on rule changes at WIC. We had the USDA launch of listening sessions to end childhood hunger and the "Feed a Neighbor" program. All this just on the heels of Obama declaring the week of Thanksgiving the new "National Farm-City Week." President Obama recognized the “vital ties between our urban and suburban communities and their local farmers through regional food systems, farmers markets, and community gardens.”

I think it may be fair to say that the Good Food Movement has arrived!