At least twice everyday for the last 10 years I have walked by the LIC Community Garden lovingly tended to and I used to think how beautiful!  This largely industrial area with light manufacturing businesses, warehouses and auto-body shops had welcomed a garden carved out of little more than an alley.  For a very modest fee of $20 you too could have access to plant and enjoy all year.  Recently, however, I've changed my tune.

While a flower garden at first seemed like a great idea because the area was a bit gray and needed the splash of color provided by the reds, greens, purples and pinks, it now seems like a luxury we cannot afford.  I think I just heard hearts plummeting all around me.  Humor me and think about it.  Isn't it possible that the price of oil, unwise investment in corn for ethanol, rapidly rising food prices and the federal government's lack of a sound energy policy can make you change your mind about the use of land for a community flower garden?

As I walked past the garden on my way home from work one day this week and with my mind needing a problem to solve I came up with a draft business plan.  I realized that with a farmer's market one block away, a neighborhood full of young children and the price of foreign grown food quickly inching upward this garden could easily serve a stronger and more useful community purpose.  Wouldn't it be wiser to use the majority of this garden to plant seeds that yield food?  The organizers of the garden working in conjunction with the local Public School could hold classes and summer workshops for the school children and others from the neighborhood.  The children could learn how to plant and grow seeds that produce the fruits and vegetables they often see at their dinner table and hopefully school cafeteria.  The food could be sold at the local farmers market held July though November and the proceeds could go back to the garden to help pay for the seeds, etc.  This would also be an opportunity for the school to abandon the unhealthy practice of bake sales to raise PTA funds substituting a fall youth market instead.  I don't know about you, but I would much sooner purchase a bunch of carrots from a young, rosy cheeked farmer than his/her mom whose pushing store bought cupcakes.  Sorry mom!

It is really time that instead of thinking about developing technology to resolve our problems that we start changing the way we live.  One way to do that is to turn flower gardens into food gardens or in other words to think of "food and not lawns."  America is full of smart people who have been on a 7-year vacation.   We need to start thinking for ourselves again.  

If these ideas have left you wanting to read more I recommend starting with the following:

Food Not Lawns by Heather C. Flores and New Urbanism and The Pratt Center for Community Development and Edible Estates

"Just as there is an ethic to growing food there is also an ethic to eating. As we continue to be more aware of what we are eating, we must also think about how we eat. The ritual of coming together to break bread was once the basis of community; yet with the onset of instant dinners and television, fewer and fewer meals are eaten together; more often than not we now consume our food alone and ‘on the run.’ This disrespects food and ourselves. Let us reclaim the family and community meal where values are taught and senses are heightened."

– Alice Waters of Chez Panisse Restaurant in Berkeley, CA

On Tuesday, December 18th Mayor Bloomberg and New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn proposed legislation that would improve access to fresh produce in the city’s underserved communities.  The program would enable 1,500 new street vendors to be phased into underserved neighborhoods in the five boroughs over two years. According to the legislation these “Green Carts” would sell unprocessed, unfrozen, raw fruits and vegetables. Any produce that is cut, sliced, diced, peeled, or otherwise processed, may be sold if it is commercially wrapped in pre-sealed packages.  

The underserved neighborhoods were determined by the fruit and vegetable consumption habits relative to residents in other areas of New York City. The 1,500 permits would be allocated based on that information. Therefore, if the legislation passes Bronx and Brooklyn will each get 500 permits; Queens will receive 250 permits; Manhattan will receive 200 and State Island will receive 50 permits.  Permits will be issued by the NYC Department of Consumer Affairs for a fee of $75 and would be good for two years.

It is no longer a secret that obesity and diabetes are problems that are swallowing up New Yorkers at a fearful rate especially in low-income communities where supermarkets are scarce.  In a recent New York Health Department survey, it was reported that 90% of New Yorkers said they ate less than the recommended 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day and 14% said that on many days they ate no fruits or vegetables at all.  New York City Department of Health experts have estimated that 100,000 more New Yorkers would eat fresh fruits and vegetables with this proposal.

If the legislation passes, the next step should be to work with upstate farmers to provide these Green Carts with local, nutritious New York State produce.

On Thursday, January 31, 2008 The Committee on Consumer Affairs of The New York City Council held a hearing on Intro 665-A also known as the Green Cart legislation.  Both Dr. Thomas Frieden, Commissioner of New York City’s Department of Health & Mental Hygiene and Ben Thomases, Food Policy Coordinator from The Office of the Mayor, responded to three hours of questions from Council Members.

There is overwhelming support from food policy, health and nutrition experts for the granting of 1,500 permits for vendors that will sell unprocessed fruits and vegetables in specified areas of low-income neighborhoods. On the other side of the issue, The Committee on Consumer Affairs mentioned the possible “chicken and egg” syndrome of needing to first educate the public on the importance of eating fresh fruits and vegetables before making it available on a vending basis. Additionally, the entrepreneurial approach of letting vendors choose where they will position their carts could lead to their set up in front of existing, tax-paying supermarkets and other food stores. 

Overall, the issuance of additional vendor permits for New York City to sell any sort of merchandise seemed to be at the heart of the committee’s concerns.  Council Member Charles Barron (D-Brooklyn) was probably the most direct and honest of all when he underscored the obvious: in an election year when many Council Members are term-limited and running for other city-wide offices, irritating business owners in their districts may not be the best way to get elected to a higher office. 

There are three possible outcomes for this legislation: 1) a modification of the bill that in some way accommodates the concerns regarding additional vendor permits and unfair competition; 2) a pilot program is initiated; or ) in an election period the bill just quietly disappears.

EDITOR'S NOTE: On February 27, 2008 this bill passed with some modification!  1,000 permits will be available instead of 1,500 and the Health Department must publish a study 15 months after the law goes into effect which examines the program's effectiveness, and whether amendments are necessary and/or if the program should be expanded.  Perhaps most importantly, in order to satisfy the concerns of small businesses and supermarkets, if green carts are vending in areas not authorized by the legislation or selling something other than fruits and vegetables, the City can refuse to issue, refuse to renew, suspend, or revoke permits, and in some cases can even seize vendors’ carts.

EDITOR'S NOTE 2: The Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund will provide a grant for $1.5 million through the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City that will help green cart operators get up and running.  The grant will be used to support cart operators over the next two years as follows:

• To develop a branded and functional cart design to help customers recognize green carts;
• To establish a relationship with non-profit wholesalers in order to create a dedicated supply of high-quality and low-cost produce;
• To create a loan fund in partnership with Acción New York to help cart operators cover their start-up costs; and
• To launch a coordinated marketing campaign to promote Green Carts.

Click on the links below to stay informed about Intro 665-A and to voice your support:

New York City Council Legislation

Legislation History

New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene

Support Green Cart Legislation

As if the show were not enough, now we have to contend with the cookbook.  Who needs a Top Chef sitting in your kitchen?  After all aren't we each the top chef's of our own kitchens? What about on your coffee table? Oh my god shades of Sandra Lee--theme decorating.  Throne reading?  What ever would would Thom Filicia say?

Bring it on.  When? In March they say.  But what will they say?  Aren't all of the recipes already on the web site?  Well supposedly the book will dish up 100 recipes from earlier seasons, information about the divas I mean chefs, judges and crew as well as about who develops the challenges and how the some of the show's well known tag lines originated.  I thought all of this behind-the-scenes stuff was already shared in those brilliant blogs? Oh....could they have been holding back some really juicy information for the brilliant book?

And as if the cookbook wasn't enough, look for a game and of course knives to appear on the scene too.

Okay Hattie, Ida and Anne Russ have a t-shirt....I guess we can give Top Chef a cookbook!

Look for that signing at your local bookstore soon enough......

While silencing (honey) bees sounds like it might be a good idea to those who have a fear of bees or severe allergy, in truth the disappearance of over 800,000 honey bees from their hives in the United States alone is the tip of a devastating problem that it is said will rival global warming.

While watching the PBS Nature show this evening "Silence of the Bees" I couldn't help think how familiar some of the issues surrounding this problem sounded.  And then I realized that the film King Corn that I wrote about just a week ago shares some of the same themes. Disappearing bees is another example of how fragile our food supply is and how exponentially increasing crop yields and using toxic pesticides can create a dangerous imbalance.  

So why are bees important? Bees pollinate one-third of the food produced in America or $15 billion worth including fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds (and while we're at it cotton plants) as they feed on flower after flower unintentionally shuttling grains of pollen from one plant to the next.  Without bees pollinating, the plants would be unable to reproduce and the only food left for us to eat would be corn, wheat and rice unless we pollinated by hand and let me tell you that is truly not sustainable; bees only make it look easy. Pollinating by hand would make food so expensive starvation would become the norm in America too--the $15 billion dollars the bees charge would inflate quickly to $90 billion if pollination was taken up by humans.  Think of it this way: bees pollinate 3 million flowers a day while humans could only handle about 30 trees a day.  This is a case where nature really is the only answer--there is no substitute for the bee.  As an example of how CCD is effecting the price of honey, I am a rather fond consumer of raw (unfiltered and unheated) honey for its health properties and I have noticed a $2.00 jump in a 16oz jar of local (NY State) over the last six months.

What is Colony Collapse Disorder or CCD?  Basically it means that bees are disappearing; they leave the hive as if to work, but do not come back.  When bees become ill under ordinary circumstances they leave the hive to die to prevent infection to the whole colony, but CCD is a mass evacuation of all worker or forager bees.  The only bees left at the hive are the Queen bee and very young bees not yet ready to forage.  CCD is occurring in the USs as well as in Italy, Poland, Portugal, Central and South America and China.   The problem is so acute that the scientists in the infectious disease labs at Columbia University are now studying the problem.  This is the first time the university has studied non-human diseases.  The Columbia University scientists have been studying bee DNA from CCD hives and they have noticed that bees are actually afflicted with many different infections and health related problems, but they have not yet absolutely identified the one cause of CCD.  Their disappearance has so far been linked to either toxic pesticides, malnutrition or an auto-immune virus like AIDS.  The one most promising diagnosis is a virus known as IAPV or Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus.  They can track IAPV back to Australia and since the US has purchased bees from Australia to help in the pollination process it is possible that the disease was imported.  Some European scientists have said that they "almost hope CCD is caused by a parasite because that would be easier to resolve; problems found in nature are not easy to figure out or resolve."

Okay, I've ruptured my ID.  There is nothing this video has to do with anything except that I once had an English Bulldog (Cholmondeley, Lord Sloane of Pedley) and I am celebrating YouTube from which I occassionally pluck a video for this web site.

Meet Tyson--the skateboarding bulldog! Apparently self-taught--

So what is Blog Action Day? Well it is over 20,000 bloggers who have registered their published blogs with the web site blogactionday.org and in so doing have committed to blogging about the environment in unison on the same day.  So what does someone who blogs about sustainable food write about the environment?   Food miles or Buying Locally of course!

Okay so what are food miles?  Food miles refers to the distance food travels from its source to your plate.  It is one variable in the assessment of the environmental impact of food, how that food travels to your plate should also be considered.  So food travels an average 1,500 miles from the field or processing plant to you.  Consider the fuel necessary to transport that food to your home and its impact on the environment.  And don't be fooled by organic foods.  Just because they're organic doesn't mean they haven't travelled and therefore not impacting the environment.  Think of an northeastern family eating frozen organic peaches by growers Cascadian Farm.  Those organic peaches have now travelled well over 2,500 miles from the state of Washington.  Add in the round trip by car to the market to purchase them and you have added a few more miles and foreign fuel.

The term food miles is a first cousin to locavore or someone who lives their life eating food grown or produced within 100 miles of where they live. This is also where the now familiar term Buy Local fits in to the discussion.  Locavores prefer to buy from farmers or producers they know and they prefer to walk, bike or use public transportation to shop (and work).

Another important reason to consider buying locally is the freshness, ripeness and nutritional quality of foods picked and eaten on the same day. Foods that have spent up to a week travelling by truck, freighter and in planes will quickly lose nutritional value. 

Finally, consider all the packaging necessary to secure food for long periods of time.  How much of that packaging do you think can be recycled?

For more information about the locavore movement click on the links below:

Locavore

The Case for Local Food in A Global Market

In Search of the Ripe Stuff

100-Mile Diet

Eat Seasonal

Yeah what a way to start off a film, but that's the way King Corn made its debut today in New York City.  As you already know  I'm a vegetarian and I absolutely do not eat any food items that include corn syrup or high fructose corn syrup, but I have to tell you by the end of the film I felt that I should have my hair analyzed too. 

We grow a whole lot of corn in this country.  Try 90 million acres planted this year.  Friends Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis who made the film King Corn in Greene, Iowa demonstrate how and why farmers grow corn by growing just one acres worth which in the 21st century will yield 200 bushels.  That yield helps to outpace the newest of grain elevators which stretch as high as the eye can see.  Images flash across the screen of mountains of corn kernels.  The Swiss Alps having nothing on us--no kidding.  Bittersweet farming events in Iowa include the controlled burn of outdated two-story grain storage buildings.

And oh my god are we in even more trouble than that.  Think about this...60% of a cow's daily diet is corn.  And that's not the corn you and I expect to get when we sit down at the table.  That's genetically modified, starchy crap you couldn't eat if it were boiled for a week and then slathered in butter and salt.  It's corn grown for feed and to be turned into high fructose corn syrup.  That means that the hamburger you just bought at McDonald's is full of sugar, fat and chemicals.  Remember the old "Where's the Beef?" commercial?  Well who knew it was ahead of its time? And think about what would happen if your diet were made up of 60% of one starchy, chemically altered food?  What would that do your system?  Well it does the same thing to a cow's system so much so that cows need mega doses of antibiotics to help stem the effects.  And guess what, you're consuming those antibiotics one way or another too.  That's the way our cows are fed and why?  It helps to fatten them up faster--it gets them to the slaughter houses in 150 days instead of several years.

Another point in the film that made an impression on me is the way GMO or genetically modified foods actually work.  The corn in all those fields is genetically modified which means it is "linked" to specific pesticides.  In other words, the weeds in our corn fields can be killed by pesticides that do not harm the corn because the corn has been chemically altered to resist the pesticide.  But this also means that you have to grow the specifically altered corn that matches the weeds in your fields and of course use the appropriately linked pesticide.  Why the hell did feeding us have to be come so technical?

This all started with farm subsidies and Americans supposed desire for cheap, abundant food supplies.  Frankly, I think that's a load of crap.  I never remember begging Congress for cheap, worthless food.  I don't remember asking for supermarket aisles full of 50 different kinds of sodas, chips and cookies.  Did you call your Senator or Congress person and specifically ask for this?  No, of course not.  The trouble is we're not calling them to rebel either.

One could be other worldly about this and wonder what an alien would think if he/she were looking down on all of this. Frankly though, I just wonder what the Amish think.  And yet just one more reason to Buy Local!

Go see King Corn.  You won't be loosing two hours of your life, I guarantee you could add ten years to it.  And just ignore the popcorn on your way into and out of the movie theaters unless of course it's organic and locally grown.

Editor's Note:  Here's a challenge--wouldn't it be great if we could do something truely worthwhile with all of that corn?  How about using it for packaging in place of styrofoam and other harmful materials?

The following 2007 events are related to the way we eat.  Click on the links to learn more and GET INVOLVED!

• October 12th - November 2nd: King Corn--  Hits the movies.  Learn how much corn is in your hair!
• October 14th: Discussion about King Corn at The Tank--  An evening with the makers of King Corn.
• October 15th:  Blog Action Day--   One issue. One day. Thousands of voices about the environment.
• October 16th: 24th Annual World Food Day Teleconference-- Climate: Changes, Challenges and Consequences
• October 21 - November 18th: Milk-n-Honey-- Multimedia play about food, appetite and the American experience.
• October 23rd: Stop Climate Change
• November 8th: The Hundred Mile Diet--   James MacKinnon confronts the 1,500 mile meal
• December 1st-- Just Food's Regional Summit on Food, Farms and Community    

I had several firsts this week and visiting the New York State Fair in Syracuse, New York was one of them.  Governor Spitzer's comment in his inaugural address "like Rip Van Winkle...New York has slept through much of the past decade while the rest of the world has passed us by" could also be an apt description of the fair. And the fair can easily be a symbol of the disconnect between upstate and downstate New York. 

To provide a little bit of background, first of all I am a fourth generation New Yorker so pardon the alternating biting criticism and modicum of gloating.  Beyond that, The Fair was born in 1841 with an $8,000 item by the New York State Legislature for the "promotion of agriculture and household manufacturers in the State."  It was the first fair of its kind in the country and considered a huge success with between 10,000 and 15,000 visiting farmers.  In 1849 a 50-foot tall, manually-powered wheel was introduced as what turned out to be the very first Ferris Wheel.

Where has all that innovation gone?

When I approached the gates I was so excited to see the Pride of New York banner and ecstatic when I went through the turnstile and laid eyes on its imposing exhibit.  And that's where the excitement ended.  Lest you think I am completely negative the butter sculpture gets rave reviews, but it is the fair's only redeeming exhibit and I am not completely sure what exactly is on display.  I understand the great detail of the two farm boys balancing on a fence, their wavy hair and facial expressions, a mother cow turning its head to tend to its calf nestled in a bedding of hay, but beyond that what am I absorbing about New York? What have I really learned about New York State agriculture and the need to connect downstate consumers with our upstate farmers in order to help improve their economy?  Where are the interactive displays from the great upstate universities advertising their tremendous scientific efforts, where are the exhibitors from SUNY-Buffalo talking about advancements in creativity research? Where are the corporate sponsors with their visionary and interactive exhibits of life in 2050?  Where are downstate New Yorkers and the international visitors that could and should be mesmerized by all that New York has to offer? What is the connection between that Pride of New York exhibit at the gates and what I am seeing in the various displays and livestock barns throughout the fair?

One notable event at the fair occurred on September 3rd when Farm Aid 2007 kicked off with a caravan press event including guest speaker NYS Agriculture Commissioner Patrick Hooker and other dignitaries.  The caravan began in upstate New York collecting homegrown foods to help feed the musicians and crews at Farm Aid 2007 in New York City.  The caravan is also intended to highlight cutting-edge community efforts and state-supported programs that strengthen the state's agriculture and help more people gain access to good food grown on family farms.  Read more about Farm Aid 2007 on this blog after the concert on Sunday, September 9th.

Oddly, this press event was totally disconnected from the food that was being served up to the 1,000,000 fair attendees. The stench from old oil was practically overpowering and whatever had once started on a farm was so totally altered by the time it got to one's plate it was unrecognizable.  Fried oreos, taffy, loads of corn dogs and cotton candy and dozens of other vendors from Anywheresville, USA dominated the food options.  I would be willing to bet that the candy apples didn't even come from New York State--the number 2 grower of apples in the country. And the milk producers in the Dairy Building were drowned out by the frozen lemonade stands.

The Rockefellers set up their "camps" five hours out of New York City at about the same time as the first fair and the Olympics shined a bright spotlight in 1980, but what now is the draw to central New York for the rest of us?

I asked Cornell Cooperative Extension representatives from the Syracuse area how they thought the fair had changed over the years. The first response was a sigh followed by an animated discussion about the increase in bad, fried food and decrease in agricultural exhibits.  When I asked how they would change the fair, the question interested them and they appreciated the challenge.  Responses included resolving problems with infrastructure, a needed increase in funding and a need to battle the entertainment versus education war.  

In truth there are a number of issues that need to be resolved including image, but these are surmountable with partnerships that provide funding, creativity and include participation.  I could only wonder what Governor Spitzer was thinking when he finally made an appearance this year and bit into that sausage as tradition requires. If anyone should make a difference it is a downstater who becomes Governor and makes one of his campaign issues "...to be one New York again."