zenjen’s Recent Comments

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  Farm to Schools and localization

  I'm a huge advocate of developing farm-to-schools programs as well as programs where kids grow their own. I've seen several really successful examples of this, especially when the growing is integrated into other programs such as math, history and science.

  We are farmers in NY State and would love to see more support of this. I would love to see farm programs in our schools but a significant challenge is the weather! We grow vegetables and we do extend the season with greenhouses, but the demand, of course, is highest in cold months when it comes to schools and lowest when production is highest.

  On another note about localization... Our neighbor is an organic dairy farmer and would like to keep his product local. So he offered to sell directly to schools. The red tape to make that happen made it impossible. He sells to Organic Valley instead and his milk travels long distances to his consumers.

  Don't get me wrong. I'm not naysaying any localization effort and I'm continuting to try to figure it out. We live in a fairly depressed area and it is amazing to me how poorly folks around me eat even though most grew up in farming families. And even more amazing is how ignorant their kids are about where their food comes from. So I'm trying to be part of the change and the solution. I just get snagged on the weather and timing issues (as well as the red tape issues). So if anyone has ideas on how to bust through these challenge I welcome them!

  Thanks! (And I appreciate all the good comments before mine!)
  On Think locally, act infrastructurally posted 10 months, 2 weeks ago 15 Responses

• Click here to view comment in original post

  Farm to Schools and localization

  I'm a huge advocate of developing farm-to-schools programs as well as programs where kids grow their own. I've seen several really successful examples of this, especially when the growing is integrated into other programs such as math, history and science.

  We are farmers in NY State and would love to see more support of this. I would love to see farm programs in our schools but a significant challenge is the weather! We grow vegetables and we do extend the season with greenhouses, but the demand, of course, is highest in cold months when it comes to schools and lowest when production is highest.

  On another note about localization... Our neighbor is an organic dairy farmer and would like to keep his product local. So he offered to sell directly to schools. The red tape to make that happen made it impossible. He sells to Organic Valley instead and his milk travels long distances to his consumers.

  Don't get me wrong. I'm not naysaying any localization effort and I'm continuting to try to figure it out. We live in a fairly depressed area and it is amazing to me how poorly folks around me eat even though most grew up in farming families. And even more amazing is how ignorant their kids are about where their food comes from. So I'm trying to be part of the change and the solution. I just get snagged on the weather and timing issues (as well as the red tape issues). So if anyone has ideas on how to bust through these challenge I welcome them!

  Thanks! (And I appreciate all the good comments before mine!)
  On Think Locally, Act Infrastructurally posted 10 months, 2 weeks ago 14 Responses