"Federal stimulus money is providing food stamp recipients more money to spend -- on french fries or fresh veggies?"
That was the subhead of
this story in
citylimits.org by Nevin Cohen. It's all for a good cause - fruits and vegetables - though Cohen determinedly favors local produce. From the piece:
Now's the time to redouble our efforts to increase access to fresh fruits and vegetables, which not only improves the nutritional status of low-income families who suffer disproportionately from diet-related diseases like obesity, diabetes and heart disease – but also supports local farmers throughout the region, helps to sustain agricultural communities, and protects ecologically sensitive areas (like NYC's own Catskill watershed) from harmful development
Later....
As we look to the next round of stimulus funding, one critical bricks-and-mortar project would make a huge improvement to our food system. A wholesale farmers market located adjacent to the city's existing produce market in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx would make it dramatically more profitable for midsize farmers to sell their fresh products in New York. By one estimate, the market would enable some 250 farmers to distribute their products in the city, making it economically viable for grocery stores, schools, hospitals and restaurants to buy a reliable supply of local food. :
More headlines snatched from the Web:
The Department of Transportation should have legislation drafted to allow Mexican trucks to operate in the United States by the time President Obama visits Mexico on April 16 and 17, according to a department spokesman.The administration has called on DOT, the State Department and the U.S. Trade Representative to devise a plan to continue cross-border trucking after Congress on March 11 terminated a pilot program in the 2009 omnibus appropriations bill.
Coming from countries as far apart as Honduras and Malawi, these 'land-to-mouth' farmers use organic farming methods, which have been finely tuned by centuries of reliance on the land for survival," writes the UK-based development charity Progressio. "Their tips are being launched as 100,000 credit-crunched Britons queue up for allotments, vegetable plots are created in many more of our 15 million gardens, and sales of fruit and veg seeds have jumped by 28 percent."
Try some or all of the following strategies for increasing your fruit and vegetable intake. Remember, fresh, frozen and canned fruits and vegetables all count.
- -Drink a frozen fruit smoothie for breakfast
- -Keep a vegetable platter on hand
- -Add vegetables and legumes to favorite soups
- -Add fresh fruit as a topping to cereal and yogurt
- -Opt for an all vegetable lunch
- -Top salads with legumes
- -Choose a rainbow of colorful produce
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the National Science Foundation will pay $48 million over the next five years to fund research and solve critical agricultural challenges around the world.The program, called BREAD — Basic Research to Enable Agricultural Development — will make competitive awards to research projects addressing drought, pests, disease and other problems plaguing small farmers who rely on their crops as the source of their income and food, according to an announcement.Gates and the NSF will split in half the cost of the program.
Rabobank buys ag loans Reuters
Rabobank Group said on Monday it will buy $354 million in U.S. agricultural loans from the Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation in a bid to extend its reach into what remains a relatively healthy segment of the U.S. economy
Ag chemical industry shudders at organic White House garden Examiner.com
Climate change experts call nations to commit to action Guardian
The draft G20 communique leaked at the weekend makes only the smallest reference to climate change, and appears to be vague on the subject of how green the $2tn (£1.4tn) stimulus package agreed by world leaders should be. This provoked the eminent climatologist James Hansen, director of Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, to tell the Guardian: "If this is the best they can do, then their 'planet in peril' rhetoric is probably just that - empty rhetoric
Grain prices plummet under weight of planting forecast Bloomberg
U.S. farmers are preparing to plant record amounts of soybeans and demand for corn is falling, driving prices to the lowest levels in more than two years.
A new survey from the National Gardening Association found a 19% increase in the number of Americans who plan to plant a garden this year -- and 21% of them will be brand new to gardening. Last year, 31% -- or an estimated 36 million households -- had a garden, and 10% of them say they plan to devote more time to it this year. While the recession is clearly the main driver -- with 62% of gardeners saying the recession is motivating them -- there are other factors at work. About 58% say they just want better-tasting food, 54% want to lower food bills, 51% want better-quality food, and 48% want to know that their produce is safe.
Opponents will say — as they have many times in the past — that finally putting a price on the pollution that is a primary cause of climate change will wreck our economy. But that is a fundamental misunderstanding of the situation we face. After more than a century of relying on fossil fuels as the leading driver of economic growth, it's time to change course.
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