1-10 Coalition Reaches Out To Educate about the Farm Bill
(L to R) Scott Murray, Organic Farmer; Kari Hamerschlag, senior Analyst, Envir. working Group; Eric Larson, Ex Director San Diego County Farm Bureau; Jennifer Tracy; Ex Director San Diego Hunger Coalition participated in a Farm Bill Forum April 2 in San Diego hosted by the 1-10 Coalition.
The goal of Kari Hamersclag's visit was to educate about the current Farm Bill that has been stalled in Congress, and to encourage support for the Local Farms, Food, and Job Acts that will help california and the San Diego region-strengthen the viability of small and mid-scale diversified farms while increasing access to healthy food for our families.
WHAT'S NEXT?
According to the handout for the event, The fate of agriculture and anti-hunger programs are in the hands of Congress.
ACTION PLAN
The action recommended: Please contact our representatives and senators to let them know that you want a farm bill that better meets the needs of San Diego.
Phone calls are more effective than email and are surprisingly easy to make. You won't be asked to defend your views. just state your position and where you live. Find contact info for your representative at
http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/
CONGRESS (HOUSE) REPS OF NOTE
JUAN VARGAS
Member of the Agriculture Committee of the House of Representatives.
http://vargas.house.gov
http://vargas.house.gov/htbin/formproc/newsletter-subscribe.txt%26display%3D/...
I ENCOURAGED REP JUAN VARGAS TO SUPPORT THE LOCAL FARM, FOOD, AND JOBS ACT
I congratulated Rep Juan Vargas here and encouraged him to support the Local Farm, Food, and Jobs Act here:
Congratulations. I look forward to your support for the Local Farms, Food, and Jobs Act that will help California and the San Diego region strengthen the viability of small and mid-scale diversified fours while increasing access to healthy foods for our families. You can read more about this here: http://www.ewg.org/agmag/2012/01/local-food-and-farm-bill-small-investments-b...
http://www.facebook.com/ivpress/posts/420430171360128
April 5, 2013
9:36 am
SUSAN B DAVIS
http://www.house.gov/susandavis/
MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVE AGRICULTURE COMMITTEE
http://democrats.agriculture.house.gov/singlepages.aspx?NewsID=34&LSBID=23%7C69
SUGGESTED LANGUAGE
I'm calling to urge support for the parts of the farm bill most critical to local San DIego Farmers; conservation, farm credit, speciality crop and research and cooperative extension programs. These programs have been targeted for cuts when they should be strengthened.
OR [representative only, not senators];
I'm calling to urge support for House Resolution 90, which calls on the House to protect SNAP (food stamps) from cuts that would harm San Diego families struggling to put food on our table.
OR
OR, I AM CALLING TO URGE YOU TO CO-SPONSOR THE LOCAL FARMS FOOD AND JOBS ACT
1/ I'm calling to urge you to co=sponsor the Local Farms, Food and Jobs Act that will help California and the San Diego region strengthen the viability of small and mid-scale diversified farms while increasing access to healthy food for our facilities. 2) Please ensure that provisions from the LFFJ Act are included in the Farm Bill. 3) I also urge you to protect spending for farm bill nutrition title programs that are critical to residents in the San Diego region right now. Major cuts to these programs can be avoided if the Farm Bill cuts the wasteful crop insurance subsidies that primarily benefit large scale commodity farms and insurance companies. 4) We need to increase invest,end in conservation and local, healthy, food and farming programs.
OTHER FARM BILL EVENTS ASSOCIATED WITH THE FARM FILL FORUM
Thurs, April 4 Farm Bill Strategies for San Diego Stakeholders
Sat. April 27th (10am2-2pm) Day of Dialogue-=-"Taking Action to Achieve Food Equity"
Please visit the 1 in 10 website for full details:
Http://www.sdfoodpolicy.org
MY TAKE
YOUR ENCHANTED GARDENER
LESLIE GOLDMAN
I want to acknowledge the work of the San Diego 1-10 Coalition for pulling together the 2013 Farm Bill Forum; What's at Stake for San Diego Families & Farmers? The event was hosted by the San Diego 1-10 Coalition. A lovely dinner was hosted courtesy of Cultivating Food Justice ( http://www.SDFoodJusitice.org
) & the new Saboteur's Kitchen Co-op ( Http:/www.SaboteursKitchenCoop.org )
The events were held the first week of April 2013. The first event, April 2, had a panel that included Diane Moss; Founder & Executive Director of Project New Village; Eric Larson, Executive Director of the San Diego County Farm Bureau; Kari Hamerschlag, Senior Analyst, for the Environmental Working Group; and Scott Murray, Owner of Murray Farms, an organic farmer for more than 40 years. The second event, April 4, was hosted by the San Diego Hunger Coalition & The Environmental Working Group, Thurs., April 4 at the Price Building in City Heights.
I taped much of the Farm BIll Forum April 2, and did a bit of an interview at the end with Eric Larson.
The panel did an excellent job.
This was my first opportunity to meet Eric Larson, who was an important player in the decision of some of my favorite Hillcrest Farmers' Market farmers to vote No on Prop 37, the CA Right to Know Label Geneticially Engineered Food Act. I worked full time on the Yes on Prop 37 issue. I was in shocked and highly discouraged during the final month of the prop 37 campaign to hear some of the concerns of my local organic farming friends and allies who relied on what Eric Larson had to say.
My sense is that much of the information that encouraged local organic farmers and others to vote no on 37 was misinformation. I came to this Farm Bill Forum, wanting to meet Eric Larson, a very important man who was instrumental in the Prop 37 vote locally among the farming community.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS FROM PROP 37
In another blog, I will post the brief interview I did with Eric Larson. Eric basically told me that the San Diego Farm Bureau originally planned to be neutral on the Prop 37, but after studying the bill, he felt it would put a burden of paper work on local farmers.
In future Plant Your Dream blogs, I want to dissect and give proponents and opponents for for YES on 37 an opportunity to engage with the ideas that he shared. I want to thank Eric for his good work in behalf of San Diego Farmers, many who trust and value his opinions.
GETTING EDUCATED ABOUT THE STATE OF OUR NATIONAL FOOD EMERGENCY
THE ELEPHANT IN THE CLOSET IS GMO FOOD
I believe the elephant in the closet both nationally and now locally is education around GMO Technology and the impact of GMO Foods on health.
In my own research, GMO Technology applied to Agriculture and food is basically untested in spite of the FDA. The Federal Government, all the way into the White House is clearly supporting Big Ag that is Biotech oriented.
PLEASE SUPPORT THE OCCUPY MONSANTO MOVEMENT AND ITS EVENTS
Please support the Occupy Monsanto Movement.
http://occupy-monsanto.com
FOR A DETAILED UNDERSTANDING OF THE CURRENT BROKENNESS, PLEASE
WATCH THIS TALK BY VADANA SHIVA MARCH 25, 2013
This is underscored by This Quote from the Organic Farming Research Foundation Blog:
ORGANIC FARMING RESEARCH FOUNDATION ON THE FARM BILL
http://ofrf.org
The near stranglehold which agribusiness holds over policymaking in Washington, DC was painfully evident in the six month spending measure Congress approved last week. Buried deep in the last minute compromise were two legislative riders hand crafted by the agricultural biotechnology and concentrated animal feedlot operation (CAFO) lobbyists. The first rider guts judicial review of the process for approving genetically modified seeds while the second rolls back USDA’s already weak regulations protecting the contract rights of poultry and beef producers.
Getting Congress to undercut both judicial and executive branch protections for small farmer and consumer interests in a single bill reinforces just how blatantly agribusiness rules the roost on Capitol Hill.
At the same time that Congress was rewarding agribusiness, it continued to ignore the legitimate interests of American’s organic, sustainable, local and beginning farmers. The previous round of behind-closed-doors budgeting in late 2012 lopped off nearly $500 million in crucial funding for research, marketing and credit programs serving these fast-growing groups. Congress missed a golden opportunity to do the right thing and fund these common sense, cost-effective programs through last week’s spending bill. There is still time, though precious little, to secure 2013 funding for these programs. We’re not going to let Congress sacrifice the future of America’s organic, sustainable, local and beginning farmers while it props up the discredited agribusiness model.--The Organic Farmers' Burden
Mark Keating | Mar. 26th - 4:42pm
http://ofrf.org/blogs/organic-farmers-burden
IN REGARD TO THE FARM BILL
In regard to the Farm Bill, my position is that BIg Ag in America is a profoundly broken system that has added to and created a state of National Food Emergency. I address some of this concern in a Huffington Post Article I wrote in 2010.
CHEWING ON FOOD SAFETY: A NATIONAL CONVERSATION IS NEEDED
What Washington knows about food has no ground from a beet's point of view. The cornerstone of authentic food safety is first of all, growing some of your own food, and second, having a personal relationship with the farmers growing the rest of your food. This is an ideal. How many of us live in places like San Diego where we can grow food 12 months of the year and get to know more than 100 local farmers by name?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lesliex/chewing-on-food-safety-a-_b_750967.html
That year, I was working full time on the Food Safety Modernization Act, that passed Congress finally as a Rider to another bill that had nothing to do with the profound impact of the bill that gave the FDA increased power to potentially manhandle local farmers. Some of my allies on the national scene favored the passage of this act, while others in the national sustainability movement, and many smaller farmers, were very much against its passage.
HR 933
Last September, I had the honor to be among some of the world's leading proponents of small local farming and food growing, many who have seen the devastating effects of GMO Technology first hand and up close.
The conference was called the National Heirloom Expo, and this year's dates will be September 10,11,12 in Santa Rosa, CA.
Through hours and months of full time blogging on the GMO issues, my conclusion is that our Government, its FDA and numbers of lead movers and shakers within the USDA are pro Biotech Ag people. WIthin the USDA, there are as well numbers of voices who uphold the organic standard. One of our greatest allies was Kathleen Merrigan, the assistant Sec of Ag. She resigned a few weeks ago. I spoke at the Organic Listening Day at the USDA in 2011. I was profoundly moved by the reception for my ideas that we needed a million more young people gardening. The USDA itself, I learned later, was seeking input on where to invest available funds. They wanted to increase organic agriculture.
The Panel in San DIego as well had Kari Maerschlag, who works out of the Oakland office. I have had personal contact a number of times with Ken Cook, the EWG Director. I highly recommend the EWG website for outstanding resources.
BOTTOMLINES
One of the themes of the Farm BIll Forum was that the appointment of Juan Vargas, a local congressman, to the agricultural committee, was a ray of hope for us. I look forward to getting to know him better; however, I saw this Ag committee work before during the Food Safety Modernization Act Passage.
I made my point verbally at the Forum: Our greatest hope for creating a viable local farm economy is to increase the number of hands we have locally in the soil. This begins with educating a new generation of youth.
As a member of the Organic Trade Association, one of our lead lobby groups on the Hill, and as a friend of both the Organic Farming Research Foundation, and the Organic Center, other national organizations work on the Farm Bill, I have to say, that the greatest hope for San Diego is to continue post haste in the direction that the 1-10 coalition has been heading.
We need to continue to grow local power, create more food grown locally, and great the food policy we want.
I agree with Eric Larsen when he said that demand controls the market. More and more people need to grow their own food as well as support our remaining local farmers through shopping the Farmer's Markets and becoming members of CSA'S (Community Supported Agriculture Programs).
SUPPORT FOR FRANK KONYN DAIRY
One of the biggest positive takeaways for me from the 2013 Farm Bill Forum was hearing from Scott Murray, a long time friend, about Frank Konyn, who is now one of our last remaining dairies in San Diego County. We once had 150 such dairy farms, Scott said. Frank Konyn still produces organic fertilizer that in my lifestyle in a goldmine.
I called and left a message. I want to support the Seed Dream that this Daily flourish. I want to go visit and see how I can help through this popular Plant Your Dream Blog.
More details later...got to run...
Leslie Goldman
Your Enchanted Gardener
April 4, 2013
WHAT'S AT STAKE FOR SAN DIEGO FAMILIES?
FLYER FOR THREE ACTIVITIES IN THE FIRST WEEK OF APRIL 2013
http://sdfoodpolicy.org/downloads/FarmBillevents-April2013c.pdf
http://sdfoodpolicy.org
MY BOTTOMLINES
If we want to evolve beyond the Farm Bill Mess, and it is a mess, Start to Grow some of your own food. Join the Campaign to Grow A Healthier Pizza. The Right to Know and Knowing how to grow your own food are keys to taking back our power.
JOIN THE CAMPAIGN TO GROW A HEALTHIER PIZZA
http://www.facebook.com/GrowAHealthierPizza
LOOKING AT THE ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP SITE
Great material!
I first met Ken Cook, the Director of the Environmental Working Group when I attended the Organic Summit in 2011. I spoke at the USDA for an Organic Listening Day. I last planted seeds with Ken at the GMO Panel at the Natural Product Expo West 2013 in early March.
MY FAVORITE PLACES TO GET EDUCATED ABOUT THE FARM BILL
ONE OF MY FAVORITES FOR BACKGROUND
"FOOD FIGHT"
FROM THE SITE
The 2012 Farm Bill reauthorization debate is upon us, with the current law due to expire by September 30. Watershed Media has completely updated and revamped our popular Farm Bill primer, Food Fight: The Citizen’s Guide to the Next Food and Farm Bill, to maximize mainstream attention and democratic participation in this all important process.
So much has changed in the few short years since we released the first edition: Food Stamp enrollment has skyrocketed, deep cuts have been made to conservation programs, commodity prices have reached all-time highs, and nearly 40 percent of the feed corn crop is now used to make biofuel. Food Fight assesses the present state of food and farm policy by translating complex legislation for activists, media, concerned citizens, and policymakers new to the game.
Our campaign is under way with events planned around the country and hundreds of books in the hands of journalists, educators, politicians, and voters. We hope you will join us in getting the word out and voting with your fork!
http://foodfight2012.org
FOOD DEMOCRACY NOW ON THE FARM BILL
http://www.fooddemocracynow.org/blog/categories/farm-bill/
ORGANIC CONSUMER ASSOCIATION ON THE FARM BILL
http://www.organicconsumers.org/farm.cfm
ORGANIC TRADE ASSOCIATION ON THE FARM BILL
Farm Bill Overview
The Farm Bill is a large piece of legislation that has considerable power over American agriculture and is passed roughly every five years. The Farm Bill largely focuses on nutrition programs such as The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps or SNAP). However, the Farm Bill also covers commodity programs, conservation, trade, rural development, research, forestry, energy, horticulture and organic agriculture, livestock, crop insurance, commodity futures, and more.
The Farm Bill creates, changes, removes or continues programs as Congress sees fit. This includes providing both mandatory and authorized funds for various agriculture programs.
OTA makes sure that organic is a part of the discussion when the Farm Bill is being debated before the House and Senate Agriculture Committees by educating key Members of Congress and their staff about the organic industry. OTA closely monitors Farm Bill discussion and action in order to ensure continued support for the organic industry.
Hearings for the 2012 Farm Bill are now underway. For the Agriculture Committees’ hearing schedules, click here for the House and here for the Senate. Below, find OTA priorities for corresponding years, memos that cover pertinent hearings, submitted testimony, and handouts that OTA is distributing at meetings with Congressional offices.
http://www.ota.com/PublicPolicy/Legislative/FarmBill.html
DEDICATION
I was inspired today to create new art for one of my main poems of the year.
"We Will Make Up One Morning in a Post GMO World."
This Poem is dedicated to Dr. Emanuel Bronner, the Soapmaker. Part of his story is told in "Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox." Yesterday in San Diego, we had a Farm Bill Forum to help educate. It was a very civil gathering, but the dimensions of what were being discussed were absurd. The Gov is basically out of control. It is a bankrupt system. I went on a bit of a tirade, in the style of Emmanuel. I hope I did not offend too many with my passion and my truth that the answer to how to make sense of the Farm Bill is to get busy becoming a Special Interest ourselves that grows Heirloom Seeds and co-creates a Grassroots Movement that outgrows all the insanity in the world that now has its way with Gov. For those who have not yet got the message, the Farm Bill and the Gov are in the hands of those who receive the subsidies and grow our commodity crops. They are, for the most part, consumed with Biotech Ag that is spreading unregulated throughout our farm fields, and is now immune from the Courts interfering with their assault on Nature.
Edmond Bordeaux Szekely, the Essene Renaissance Pioneer once said that "The Quality of any government depends upon the quality of the individuals who form the government. " We, The People, are intended in this nation, to be in charge of our government.
We will regain our power as we begin to again grow some of our food and support the local farmers growing the rest of our food--whenever possible. Food can be grown in the most adverse conditions, even vertical growing methods outside of soil. In these extreme times, I recommend all methods of growing food with the proper seeds.
This is my Mantra coming out of the desert, two days after Easter Sunrise and one day after Passover 2013:
We will wake up one morning
in a Post GMO world with smiles on our faces.
We will have returned our earth to sanity.
All those in favor, please plant heirloom seeds and ancient grains--as nature gave them to us--today. The season of Grassroots Growing has begun.
Leslie Goldman
Your Enchanted Gardener
San Diego, California
--Leslie Goldman
Your Enchanted Gardener
Campaign to Grow A Healthier Pizza on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/GrowAHealthierPizza
As Published on the Plant Your Dream Blog on Curezone
http://curezone.com/blogs/fm.asp?i=2051788
April 3, 2013
3:42 pm
We will wake up one morning
in a Post GMO world with smiles on our faces.
We will have returned our earth to sanity.
We will have claimed the Right to Know what is in our food.
We will Know we were born to grow some of our own food
and to support local Farmers who say “Happiness is Organic!”
because we are a Friend of the Farm.
Health Practitioners will point to a nation whose people are no longer Genetically Modified.
We will see gardens planted with heirloom seeds.
We will come to partake of the purest of water.
We will see with real eyes see that we--all of us-- are growing
in the same Pot called Planet Earth. Nature says Plant Your Dream!
When we hear this message, we will be free of adversaries
who decided they would grow “Food” that doesn’t feed our Soul.
The World that we knew--the Economy we imagined working--
is worth no more now than dead old dollar bills turned by
Eden Foods into pencils.
Abundance will Grow with us no longer complaining,
blaming or banking on a bankrupt system.
Our Voices will be heard. Our Noble Visions for
America The Beautiful will be seen.
We are here to Grow A Healthier Pizza. I see this world coming.
We are each destined to be its Gardener.
Nature’s Original Technology will prevail.
How Fast Can a Dream Grow? As Fast As A Blade of Grass!
IMPORTANT LINKS fROM THE SD FOOD POLICY MEETING
VOICE OF SAN DIEGO STORY
APRIL 3, 2013
http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/active-voice/article_f7ca3f1e-9c8c-11e2-b4c6-0...
BIG AG FLEXES MUSCLE
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/03/big-agriculture-tom-vilsack-monsanto-89...
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ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP WAS PRESENT
Thank you!
1-10 Coalition Reaches Out To Educate about the Farm Bill
HAMI GIFT ITEM SPRING FUNDRAISER 2013
The Book, "Grow A Healthier Pizza" is being written to inspire a new generation of Youth to see themselves as Sacred Seeds through planting Sacred Seeds, seeds called Heirlooms that have existed for many generations in their biodiverse state. In my role as Uncle Leslie in the science classroom of my niece Ms Eva Becker, the 2013 Art Work that says, "How Fast Can A Dream Grow? As Fast as a Blade of Grass!" now hangs. Below it our the names of esteemed companies and individuals who support the Youth through our work with the Campaign to Grow A Healthier Pizza.
KAMUT® INTERNATIONAL
http://www.kamut.com/en/history.html
KAMUT® INTERNATIONAL
The KAMUT® INTERNATIONAL Team at the Natural Product Expo West 2013. L to R, Jamie Ryan Lockman, Trevor Blyth, Tara Blyth, and Bob Quinn.
http://www.kamut.com/en/history.html
Latest Study Confirms The Health Benefits of KAMUT® WHEAT
Study Supports Eating Wheat, Despite the Gluten-Free Trend
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/study-supports-eating-wheat-despite-the-glut...
DR BRONNER's MAGIC SOAPS WERE FOUNDED UPON MORAL ABC'S
http://www.drbronner.com/dr_bronners_philosophy.php
DR. BRONNER'S MAGIC SOAP IS A COMPANY THAT TEACHES FAIR TRADE THROUGH PRACTICING WHAT IT PREACHES
Display of Dr. Bronner Magic Soaps March 18, 2013 in the science classroom of Ms Eva Becker. The display did not last long! The youth are drawn to these soaps and bumper stickers that say, "Commit Random Acts of Kindness and senseless acts of Beauty."
DR BRONNER's MAGIC SOAPS WERE FOUNDED UPON MORAL ABC'S
Please Watch this inspiring Video about the Organic Palm Oil used in Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d03Jm8xv4sg
5942 views
April 3, 2013
YOUR ENCHANTED GARDENER
LESLIE GOLDMAN