Comments Rebecca T of HonestMeat has made

better food infrastructure = economic development

A few ideas:

1. Use some of the stimulus money to fully fund the Beginning Farmer & Rancher program of the USDA, which includes a myriad of programs aimed at strengthening and recruiting new farmers, including Individual Savings Accounts which encourages savings.
   
2.  Increase funding for the USDA Community Food Program, which usually gets about 80-85% more proposals submitted than there is funding.  CFPs inspire innovative food security projects and businesses in both urban and rural areas, providing healthier food options and economic development at the same time.
   
3.  Either through USDA Rural Development or through the Economic Development Administration, create a grant & loan program to build food and agricultural incubators in cities and in the country.  Business incubators have proven to create more sustainable businesses and employment opportunities.
   
4.  Dramatically expand the USDA Value-Added Producer Program to include more capital cost funding and include building needed food infrastructure such as abattoirs, butcher shops, cold-storage facilities, and the like.

Questions to look at

A few things to be on the look out at Terra Madre (based on my family's experience of it two years ago).

1. Do you think they focus more on style and marketing materials than substance?
   
2. How do they facilitate producers to meet and learn from each other, if at all?
   
3. Does it feel a tad colonial with all of the delegates from the developing nations hawking their wares and with very few opportunities for them to speak, lead workshops, or interact with other delegates in a non-commercial way?
   
4. How well are the workshops organized?  Apart from these workshops, how else do delegates meet and learn from each other?
   
5. Do the chefs get their own special dinners in which the farmers are not invited to?
   
6. Does Carlo Petrini get center stage in nearly every plenary session they hold?
   
7. Ask some delegates, what good has befallen them since getting involved with Slow Food?  For example, has Slow Food helped them commercialize their products?  Helped them identify sources of funding?  Paired them with an exporter or distributor?  Identify where to locate a rare type of seed or animal?  Anything concrete??
   
8. How are children and youth (not just college students) concretely involved in Terra Madre?  If not, how will this movement spread to younger generations?

Age is irrelevant

Good piece, but one thing.  Age is irrelevant to this story of a good food revolution.  When I worked at a beginning farmer incubator, most people were middle aged or older, seeking a dramatic career change.  Many of them had worked in the fields for 20 plus years and decided that they were finally ready to run their own farms.  If we truly talk about a transformation, we cannot exclude the many new farmers that are parents and grandparents, even great-grandparents.  We have to do this together and honor the energy and wisdom that comes from all ages. On The key political, economic, and cultural needs of young farmers posted 1 year, 2 months ago 12 Responses

Whole Foods meat department

Excellent post.  Last month I went into a Whole Foods while on vacation, asking for a particular steak from a 100% grassfed steer.  The butcher told me that they did not carry 100% grassfed, only "certified organic" beef and "natural, antibiotic-free" beef.  I told him that organic beef can be feedlotted the last third of their life and he said he didn't think that was possible.  I asked him a few other questions about beef and pork, and he displayed an amazing lack of understanding of the meat industry.  He did say he was disappointed that their lamb came from New Zealand when Oregon (the state I was visiting) has a great supply of grassfed lamb.  All of this illustrates that Whole Foods supposed commitment to local suppliers, reputable sources, and sustainable sources of meat is suspect.On The natural foods giant stumbles into an E. coli outbreak posted 1 year, 3 months ago 2 Responses

Grazing in the West

I live in the West and we practice short-duration, high-intensity grazing that does not damage the range.  In fact, this method has been shown to revive and replenish grasslands and even help bring native grasses back as it mimics natural animal herding behavior.  All grazing in the West is not the same, nor is every animal's impact the same (for example, goats eat browse while cows eat grass).  So it paints an inaccurate picture to categorically say that grazing is bad for the West.  See what happens when you remove it completely- the brush will invade and create horrendous fire conditions.On From New Jersey, bad news for factory farms posted 1 year, 3 months ago 7 Responses