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!

Access to Healthy Food Starts with Planning

Across the country an array of institutions are recognizing the important role that urban and community planning play in creating healthy environments in which to live and work. The most recent example is the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which recently awarded the American Planning Association (APA) $100,000 to identify and evaluate food access goals in comprehensive and sustainability plans.

Thanks to the work of our very own Acting Food Policy Council, in 2008 the King County Comprehensive Plan was updated to state that food is as important to health and well-being as air and water. Our comprehensive plan calls a local and regional food system that is "ecologically and economically sustainable and that improves the health of the county's residents." The plan was highlighted in a fall issue of Planning Magazine, which notes that the concepts of a sustainable food system are integrated throughout the plan and include support for small-scale and family-owned farming. In addition, the plan outlines the need for reviewing the regulatory framework in which local food systems operate, particularly land use and zoning issues. The ultimate goal is to ensure that everyone in our region has access to fresh, healthy food. 


The APA's Planning and Community Health Research Center will conduct the survey over the next two years and is expected to publish their report in 2012. The Center is dedicated to integrating community health issues into local and regional planning practices by advancing a program of research, outreach, education, and policy. In the Pacific Northwest, we’re lucky to be ahead of the curve in recognizing the value of this kind of approach to improve access to healthy food. And we’ll be happy to use the results of the study to further our goals around healthy food retail and to ensure that our family farms remain viable.

www.urbanfoodlink.com

Dear Restaurant Chefs,

Please help us teach kids about healthy food. We have a national childhood obesity problem and it's critical that our kids start learning early what it means to eat healthfully - especially when they are eating out. Why is it that the only thing available on kid menus is fish and chips or mac and cheese? I know it's cheap to make fried food. I'd happily pay more than $4.50 to have a small portion of something nutritious, but do we really have to spend 20 bucks to order salmon and lentils?

If you must limit options to fish or chicken, can you at least offer grilled or baked? And some steamed vegetables and rice instead of the ubiquitous plate full of fries? Kids can't learn to be adventurous eaters - or even healthy eaters - if they're only offered fried comfort food.

Thanks for listening!

Some Thoughts on Good Food

“People need to get over the idea that local food should be cheap.” - Diane Dempster, Charlie's Produce

Truer words were never spoken. But how do we reconcile the need for a vibrant local food economy with the inability of so many in our communities to afford healthful, nutritious food?

I just finished watching Good Food, the illuminating documentary by Melissa Young and Mark Dworkin that aired on KCTS and was struck by the passion and the care our region’s farmers take in producing the food they sell. The PNW is blessed with great abundance from local ranches and dairies, fisheries, fruit and vegetable growers. We even have folks growing local grains that make it to our own groceries, bakeries and pizza shops rather than getting shipped overseas. The question is can everyone in the community truly participate in a sustainable food system?

As many in the film suggest, building a resilient local food system means recognizing the value of each element that goes into our food production. This means paying farm workers good wages and treating them respectfully. It means careful treatment of animals. It also means respecting the land and growing food in a way that replenishes the soil rather than depleting it. While many of us are eager to support this way of growing our food, few of us realize the costs associated with stepping away from industrialized food production. A sustainable food system is much more labor intensive. It requires a deep knowledge of soil nutrients, crop rotation, natural pest management. Cheap chemical pesticides must be replaced by workers in the field, pulling weeds and monitoring pests by hand. When the true costs of food production are understood, it becomes more apparent why a product is priced the way it is.

This is all well and good for producers. They work hard to provide fresh, healthful food and keep local economies going by connecting to local equipment suppliers, mechanics, retailers, etc. They deserve the price they ask and our gratitude to boot.

But what about those who simply can’t afford to pay that price? Many folks advocate for food bank gardens, gleaning programs, home and community gardens. These options do provide for many low-income families, but what does it say about our society that low income families must rely on charity or grow their own fresh food rather than participate in the mainstream food economy? When did access to healthful food become a privilege?

Of course we know that hunger and food insecurity are income issues. Folks who don’t make decent wages will purchase whatever they can afford. Often this means highly processed, cheap food with poor nutritional value. Thankfully there is growing support for some low income families to have access to better food. Through programs like the WIC Farmer Market coupons and Senior Farmer Market coupons, and SNAP, many families can use their food assistance to purchase fresh foods either at area farmers markets or at their local food retailer. The Washington State Farm-to-School program has given priority to Washington grown produce for school district purchases, which ensures that those kids for whom school lunch is the most reliable meal will get more access to fresh produce.

There’s another movement afoot that can help increase access to healthy food for low income families. Healthy corner store efforts seek to increase the amount of fresh and healthy food available at neighborhood stores and to decrease shelf space for unhealthy foods. The emphasis here isn’t necessarily on local, although most efforts do seek to include at least a few locally sourced items on the shelves. The main objective is to increase healthful options in neighborhoods where fast food predominates or where access to fresh food is simply not available. In cities across the country, advocates are finding creative ways to get produce, eggs, low-fat milk and whole grain products onto corner store shelves. A recent adaptation to this work is to assist corner stores in becoming certified as WIC vendors, which requires store owners to carry an array of healthful food choices, including fresh fruits and vegetables. An incentive for store owners is that the new product selection can attract other customers who may have been doing their food shopping away from the neighborhood.

No one is suggesting that local food should be cheap. There are dozens of reasons to support our region’s food producers and to advocate for their long term viability. But the reality is that for many families, local food is unaffordable. While food assistance programs and healthy food retail projects don’t address the affordability of local food for low-income families, they do help ensure that healthful food isn’t completely out of reach.

Urban Food Link Participates on B Sustainable Indicators Panel

I was honored to be asked to participate in the 2009 Community Indicators Consortium International Conference in early October. My panel discussed the value of the B-Sustainable Community Indicators project and I shared some of the challenges we have in creating indicators for the food system. The tool is incredibly powerful and has the potential to open some doors with policy makers who need to see the data before committing to policy changes.

Some excerpts from the panel discussion are included on You Tube! You can watch it here.

Food Systems is SO in Vogue - literally

So I was sitting at the salon the other day, trying to zone out by flipping through Vogue. I'm not a fashionista, but the salon is for fantasies right? And right there in the middle of the magazine are 3 articles about guerilla gardeners, urban agriculture, the impact of local eating on climate change. Ok so two of the three articles were really photo shoots of hipsters in stylish tweeds and expensive boots, but the premise of the shoots was food systems.

When this work makes it into Vogue magazine it has definitely become mainstream and that is a very good sign. (Thank you Michelle Obama for making gardening cool!) There are projects popping up all over Seattle - Clean Greens, Delridge's Healthy Corner Store, South Park's Mobile Market - that come from the people most affected by our broken food system. Supporting their work means continuing to engage communities to build local leadership capacity. It also means working together to create messages that resonate with diverse communities. This kind of advocacy is creating strong partnerships for addressing access to food, while at the same time raising awareness at the policy level.

It's great that the mainstream media is finally paying attention to food systems issues. Let's use that exposure to keep the pressure on our local policy makers. Food systems change starts with the demand for food justice. Working together to build leadership means empowering folks to take that demand to city hall. It's the only way to make sure that access to good food is always in vogue.

www.urbanfoodlink.com

A Little Money Buys a Lot of Calories at the Corner Store

Some sad statistics from RWJohnson Foundation research in Philly... does anyone know if similar research has been done here?

Children in Philadelphia who attended public schools and shopped at corner stores before or after school purchased almost 360 calories of foods and beverages per visit, according to new research published in Pediatrics. Chips, candy and sugar-sweetened beverages were the most frequently purchased items. This is the first study to document both what foods and beverages children purchased in local corner stores on their way to and from school, and the nutritional content of those items.

www.urbanfoodlink.com

Louisiana's on Board with Healthy Retail!

Some states are way ahead of us in connecting food systems and economic development... but Louisiana? If there's anything good that came out of Katrina, it's that the state is paying attention to the need to serve communities better and to find ways to increase economic development opportunities for their neighborhoods. Here's a story about the Fresh Food Retail Intiative, which uses some CDBG funds (Community Development Block Grant) to create a revolving loan fund for small grocers and fresh food retailers. The program is designed to help retailers increase their shelf space for fresh food and to offer training on stocking, marketing, and selling fresh food. Now who's laughing at Bobby Jindal?

www.urbanfoodlink.com

Prospects for healthy corner stores

I'm on a mission to crack the healthy corner stores nut in the King County area. We've got lots of neighborhoods that lack access to fresh healthy food and even more regional food producers who should be connecting to these neighborhoods. There are some great new tools for linking together those who want to buy (like small groceries or corner stores) with those who want to sell. If we can just figure out the logistics of these transactions we'll be on our way to improving public health AND contributing to some economic development in the region. It won't be easy, but Urban Food Link is up to the challenge! (Along with lots of fabulous partners of course!)

For more info, go to www.urbanfoodlink.com

Docs Get on Board with Healthy School Lunch!

This week the Institute of Medicine recommended that schools focus on providing more fresh, healthy food in their breakfast and lunch programs. Now THAT's a helpful step at healthcare reform and obesity prevention!

For more information, visit my website www.urbanfoodlink.com