Date: 4/14/2010 9:44:16 PM ( 14 y ) ... viewed 1759 times
I want to invite everyone to come to the
Upcoming 2010 Food Justice Conference
April 24-25, 2010 to meet Jared Muscat,
the spark, along with many other UCSD
students behind the the long awaited
Urban Farm at UCSD. The farm breaks ground
this Saturday, April 20. I am sure they would
not mind a few extra hands to cheerlead the
students or do some digging.
129 members so far.
One of numbers of Food Not Lawns Facebook sites.
I am the main admin for this one.
Also, at the upcoming 2010 Food Justice Conference
you will hear local organic farmer Barry Logan,
of the La Milpa Organica Farrm Community,
the keynote speaker on Sunday afternoon,
2:30pm - 3:45pm / Keynote: Barry Logan.
Plan on being at the conference both days
all day for an incredible growth experience
as San Diego Food Groups Coalese and invite
your participation in creating a City-Wide Unified
Movement
Here is a Video of Barry speaking to
Remineralizing the soil as a key to
good health and nutrition.
Logan's style of farming supports the
time tested methods used over eons
that is little known by most Foodies,
but well known by those who shop
and eat his tasty food available at
the Hillcrest Farmers' Market Each Sunday
from 9 AM-2 PM.
I will be co-teaching numbers of workshops
at the 2010 Cultivating Food Justice Conference.
Included is one on contain gardening. I am
also helping to organize the workshop on the
Basics of Urban Homesteading that will feature
backyard gardener Obado, Carolyn Chase,
co-founder of The SD Earth Fair, and BIll Tall,
a source for local organic plants
The long awaited UCSD
Urban Farm starts getting dug this Saturday.
Congrats to Jared Muscat who intoduced me to the project.
If I decide to stay in SD this weekend i will go and tajke photos
of this wonderful event.
The 8th Annual Student Sustainability Convergence
04/11/2010
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On the dates of April 30 thru May 2 at the University of California San Diego hundreds of students will gather to learn, share, and become friends. The weekend will be full of delicious local and organic foods, hands on learning, workshops, captivating speakers, and, of course, celebration.
CSSC Convergences are an opportunity for students from UCs, CSU’s, City Colleges, Private Univerisities, High Schools, and even out of state schools to come together to share resources, build community and plan action around the student sustainability movement. Convergences are organized by students for students. If you’ve never attended a CSSC Convergence, you have to join us – it will be a llife changing experience.
This Convergence holds a particularly important role in the future of student activism, as it aims to once and for all sew together the connection between the efforts of human rights and environmental care. The UN definition of sustainability includes these two ideas and after decades with people working on both sides (sometimes together) we have now come to a point where an effort in one aisle is futile if not hugged by an effort from the other side, that is to say, this Convergence weekend, sustainability will once and for all be defined as an effort not just for the earth, but for the earth and its people.
If you are interested in volunteering at the Convergence (free admittance) email Jared at jared@sustainablefooducsd.org. And for more info check out: http://www.sustainabilitycoalition.org/
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7:43 PM
April 15, 2010
Next, I spent some time on the UCSD FACEBOOK site here,
led their by Cara Cadwallader of the San Diego Roots Sustainable
Food Project.
If you have a green thumb, a window and a serious Do-It-Yourself ethic, you too, can be a farmer ... even in your downtown apartment building. Spring is here, and for urban dwellers with no access to soil, hydroponic gardening is a way to grow fresh veggies indoors.
"Window farming," as it is called, is catching on in New York City and beyond. Window farmers use recycled 1.5 liter water bottles, clay pellets, plastic tubing and inexpensive fish tank air pumps to create their indoor gardens. There are now 4,000 registered users at windowfarms.org. Farmers are tending to their greens everywhere from the U.S. to Italy, Israel and Hong Kong.
WindowFarms
A simple window farm system is a column of upside down water bottles, with plants growing out of holes cut into the sides. An air pump is used to circulate liquid nutrients.
What are Window Farms??
Window Farms are vertical, hydroponic, modular, low-energy, high-yield edible window gardens built using low-impact or recycled local materials.
Goal 1
to start a Windowfarming craze in New York City and other dense urban areas, helping people grow some of their food year-round in their apartment windows.
Goal 2
give ordinary folks a means to collaborate on research and development of these vertical hydroponic food-growing curtains through the community site at our.windowfarms.org
ON THE NPR SITE,
I found this add from one of their
sponsors. It is called Food For Thought.
It mentioned the large number of crayons
that can be made out of an acre of soybeans.
There are many other insightful bits
of information in this Youtube made
by the Monsanto Company
that donates funds to support NPR.
Just found this
from Monsanto Company
HIGH COST OF FOOD DRIVES
THE MARKET TO GMO USE
I then was led to Will Taft
and this insightful piece about the high cost of food
and how it is a determining factor in people with less cash
flow choosing GMO food. There is a lot of discussion on this
site aout labeling, and ethical food.
I have a bit of concern about the use of hydroponic
growing of greens in windows in New York inside
plastic water bottles.
This is a distance from digging in the soil.
The process uses no soil. It is great for people
who want to grow some of their own food.
I am a bit concerned however, about the highly
toxic nature of what happens to plastic bottles
that receive sunlight pouring into them.
Consumption of the water by humans left
in a car has been reported to be hazardous
to human health.
CONSUMPTION OF WATER FROM
PLASTIC WATER BOTTLES MAY BE
HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH
This first came to my attention while
watching the DVD called
"Addicted to Plastic."
The CDC data shows that 93 percent of 2,157 people between the ages of six and 85 tested had detectable levels of BPA's by-product in their urine. "Children had higher levels than adolescents and adolescents had higher levels than adults," says endocrinologist Retha Newbold of the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, who found that BPA impairs fertility in female mice. "In animals, BPA can cause permanent effects after very short periods of exposure. It doesn't have to remain in the body to have an effect."
But experts are split on the potential health hazards to humans. The Food and Drug Administration has approved its use and the EPA does not consider it cause for concern. One U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) panel agreed, but another team of government scientists last year found that the amount of BPA present in humans exceeds levels that have caused ill effects in animals. They also found that adults' ability to tolerate it does not preclude damaging effects in infants and children.
"It is the unborn baby and children that investigators are most worried about," Newbold says, noting that BPA was linked to increased breast and prostate cancer occurrences, altered menstrual cycles and diabetes in lab mice that were still developing.
THE (FDA) FOOD SAFETY MODERNIZATION ACT
IS NOW GOING BEFORE THE SENATE
IN THE WEEKS TO COME.
That Bill is called #s-510.
I have been writing about it
and will give a briefing at the
upcoming 2010 Cultivating Food Justice Conference,
April 24-25 at SDSU.
The briefing will last 20 minutes.
Here are the details:
PRESS BRIEFING UPDATE ON #S-520
THE (FDA) FOOD SAFETY MODERNIZATION ACT
The eminent passage of #s-510 will give the FDA more funds to regulate
small organic farmers. Only the midsize farmers
will have to pay $3400.00 more to set up a new system
for tracking, according to one report I read yesterday.
Every foodhandler in the supply chain will need from their suppliers electronic records with documentation for the products they handle. That’s easy to do with ScoringAg.
If it’s a small farmer with e.g. 3 locations (farmhouse, 2 other buildings) 5 different field of crops, 3 goats, 3 sheep, 1 flock of chicken and 5 pigs, the price is $ 11.00 for a whole year.
If you want some pictures with the product, they can be uploaded right into the record page and cost $ 0.25 per picture.
A small operation can sign up right on the internet and we can help over the phone with no extra cost. Traceback codes are generated in the database and are included in the record price. They can be printed on a label or the traceback code can be inserted into a rubber stamp.
For a midsize operation, handling about 350 cases a day or about 10.000 a year, the cost for the records with traceback codes will be $ 192.50. If you would need a barcode scanner, 20.000 traceback labels (2 for each case), set-up fee and training, then the total cost would be about $ 3,400.00.
THE TREND SUPPORTED BY THE FDA
IN ITS EFFORT TO SUPPORT FOOD SAFETY
IS TOWARD HYGIENE ON THE FARM
AND DOWNPLAYING THE NEED FOR
BUILDING UP THE SOIL AS A WAY TO PRODUCE
HEALTHY CROPS AND HEALTHY PEOPLE
Here is a story that addresses the trend
and speaks to the Leafy Green rules
supported by the FDA.
Follow-up Appointment: The USDA spent most of December soliciting public comment on its industry-driven proposal to allow packers, processors, shippers and marketers to use a federal agreement to certify their leafy greens; a staggering 3,500 comments poured in. One “no” responder is Judith Redmond, the co-owner of Full Belly Farm in Yolo County, Calif., and the president of the Community Alliance with Family Farmers, an advocate group.
“We’re not just a group of farmers that doesn’t want to be regulated,” she says. “But having buyers set the rules for an on-farm situation is highly problematic. The buyers aren’t often familiar with the reality of agriculture.” And the reality, Redmond says, is that the rules in the marketing agreement were already being followed by some of the same large farms that processed the tainted greens. “The marketing agreement is more of a public relations effort than a scientific attempt to address a public-health problem,” she adds.
WHAT IS BEHIND THE DRIVE TO PASS
#5-510? IT HAS TO DO WITH BRINGING
US PRACTICES INTO HARMONY WITH THE
CODEX ALIMENTARIUS GUIDE LINES FOR FOOD SAFETY
The FDA, and is our food Czar,
Michael R. Taylor wants to bring US law
into sync with the Codex Regulations.
This is clear form his statement here
before the Dennis Kucinich Committe on
leafy greens last summer, during the period
that the first part of #s-510 was passing the house.
THat bill #2749 was an embarrassment to the house
of Representatives. The public outcry was so great that
the bill was defeated. The committee in charge then regrouped
and within 24 hours was able to get the bill passed
with little public oversight. Now #s-510 is up, and will
likely pass. Much of the committee work on #s-510
is below the public radar.
MICHAEL TAYLOR
BEFORE the DENNIS KUCINICH
Hearing JULY 29:
"In addition, FDA is leading an effort
through the Codex Alimentarius Commission,
the international food safety standards body,
with support of the Food and Agriculture
Organization/World Health Organization,
to develop commodity-
specific annexes to the Codex hygienic code
for fresh fruit and vegetable production,
starting with an annex for fresh leafy
vegetables and herbs."
--Mr MICHAEL TAYLOR
Our Food Czar for the FDA
Senior Adviser to the Commissioner on food issues
The above quote is from the written testimony
of MICHAEL TAYLOR July 29 at the
REP DENNIS KUCINICH
SUBCOMMITTEE ON DOMESTIC POLICY
COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT
AND GOVERNMENT REFORM
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
The Subcommittee Hearing was Titled:
"Ready to Eat or Not? It Examined
the Impact of Leafy Green Marketing Agreements.
You can read Michael Taylor's complete
testimony at this link
" national food safety systems based on those standards, are essential to protect public health and support the continued expansion of global food trade.
NOTE: THIS IS ABOUT GLOBAL FOOD TRADE as well as public health.
"foodborne disease is a significant public health problem worldwide, with enormous human and economic costs. "
NOTE: THIS IS ABOUT ECONOMIC COSTS DUE to humans getting sick
from contamination.
Volume 23, Number 1, Winter-Spring 2003
E-ISSN: 1088-3142 Print ISSN: 0036-0775
DOI: 10.1353/sais.2003.0012
Glavin, Margaret O'K.
A Single Microbial Sea: Food Safety as a Global Concern
SAIS Review - Volume 23, Number 1, Winter-Spring 2003, pp. 203-220
The Johns Hopkins University Press
Foodborne disease is a significant public health problem worldwide, with enormous human and economic costs. Food safety systems designed to protect consumers face several challenges: the emergence of new pathogens and other hazards, the reemergence of pathogens and other hazards thought to be controlled, and the heightened threat of food as a vehicle for bioterrorism. Global food trade contributes to and magnifies these challenges through the introduction of contamination from one country to another; the multiplication of opportunities for contamination as food travels longer distances and over longer periods of time; the magnified impact of contamination as products reach more people over a wider area; and the difficulty of knowing the origin or history of a food that has been shipped through multiple countries. In responding to these threats, national governments and international bodies must answer a number of key questions. What are the gaps in existing food safety systems? What responsibility do developed countries have to improve systems in less developed countries? What is the role of international bodies? This article argues that global standards focused on public health outcomes, and national food safety systems based on those standards, are essential to protect public health and support the continued expansion of global food trade.
When I first investigated the leafy green issues
and the outcry of farmers who were being asked to
destroy large fields of produce to come into sync
with the Leafy green laws, I came across this
alternative approach from Japan that would
be of interest to the folks in New York using the
plastic bottle BPA approach.
What is the education that
needs to happen both in Washington D.C.
and around the nation?
I asked BARRY LOGAN,
of LA MILPA ORGANICA FARM
in Escodido, California.
ONE CHOICE:
EMBRACING THE DIRT!
This farming style has existed
for thousands of years.
"Bio-diversity is everything!"
says BARRY LOGAN
of LA MILPA ORGANIC FARM
ANOTHER CHOICE
HYGIENICALLY GROWN VEGGIES
PURE, WITH NO DIRT
These are becoming popular in Japan.
and grow well in GMO Seeds that
certainly would be highly regarded
by the CODEX ALIMENTARIUS COMMISSION
our "INTERNATONAL FOOD SAFETY BODY"
"They look more like the brightly
lit shelves of a chemists shop than
the rows of a vegetable garden.
But according to their creators,
these perfect looking vegetables could be the future of food.
In a perfectly controlled and totally sterile environment -
uncontaminated by dirt, insects or fresh air -
Japanese scientists are developing
a new way of growing vegetables."
WHAT IS THE ANSWER
TO OUR FOOD DILEMMA?
WHAT IS THE SOLUTION
FOR HEALTHY FOOD SAFETY?
WoW!! Another
Powerful Teacher
Jeffrey Smith
I would like
on KEEP the BEET's
BEET KEEPERS, Return Team.
This is must reading,
his blog on the HUFFINGTON POST.
"BEET KEEPERS, Return!"
sez KEEP The BEET MEDIA STAR
The World's First Talking Beet Plant.
"In truth, the FDA's GMO policy
was not even up-to-date when
it was implemented in May 1992.
FDA documents made public from a lawsuit
revealed that virtually all the agency
scientists asked to comment voiced
strong warnings that GMOs
may cause serious health problems.
But the FDA was under orders
from the White House to fast track GM foods,
and the person in charge of FDA policy was the former
attorney of biotech giant Monsanto--
and later become their vice president.
The scientists and the science were ignored."
--JEFFREY SMITH,
SEEDS OF DECEPTION author
The Reference about the VIP--that's
MICHAEL R TAYLOR, our President's
current Food Czar.
Mr. TAYLOR is an amazing person
guiding our future into Harmonizing
with CODEX ALIMENTARIUS.
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