AK Root Cellar : Dear Mr. President-elect....

AK Root Cellar

This blog is for those of you who would like to add more local foods to your diet, meet local farmers, learn new recipes based on seasonal eating and preserving the summer harvest. Food is political too, so here you can learn about and influence local and national agriculture issues, and participate in helping to rebuild the Alaska food system. May each of you chew happily and wisely.

About me

Ellen Vande Visse

Ellen Vande Visse, MS, was an organic market gardener from 1986-2006. She instructs and consults about sustainable agriculture, compost, compost tea, and eco-gardening through her own Good Earth Garden School and for UAA. She is a published author about Alaska gardening. For more info, please see goodearthgardenschool.com.

Local farms and CSAs

NEWSLETTER

Sustainable Agriculture for Alaska

This July-Sept., 2008 Cooperative Extension newsletter includes a story by Matt Shaul of Cranberry Ridge Farm on how his Wasilla farm got started in goat cheese production.

EATING LOCAL

High grocery bills spur CSA interest

Read this June 9, 2008 Fairbanks News Miner story on three Fairbanks-area CSAs and growing demand for their local produce.

DNR's new farm, food, etc. directory

This Excel spreadsheet includes 16 categories from farms to farmers markets, herbs to aquaculture. Provided by the Div. of Agriculture, Department of Natural Resources

Resources

Local Farms and CSAs

Find local produce, eggs, fowl and meat nearby.

WEB RESOURCES

Slow Food USA

Envisions a future food system based on principles of high quality and taste, environmental sustainability, and social justice.

Local Harvest

Helpful website to find farmers' markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food. Local producers also register on this site.

Sustainable Agriculture

Dedicated to educating the public on a sustainable food and agriculture system that is economically viable, environmentally sound, socially just, and humane.

American Farmlands Trust

The nation's leading advocate for farm and ranch land conservation.

Community Food Security Coalition

Dedicated to building strong, sustainable, local and regional food systems that ensure access to affordable, nutritious, and culturally appropriate food.

Weston Price Foundation

Dedicated to restoring nutrient-dense foods to the human diet through education, research and activism.

Dear Mr. President-elect....

Posted by farmfresh

Posted: October 16, 2008 - 6:46 pm

Comments (0) |

Michael Pollen wrote a long and thoughtful piece in The New York Times that anyone who cares about food sources and food policy won't want to miss. Here's a taste, and here's the link.

It may surprise you to learn that among the issues that will occupy much of your time in the coming years is one you barely mentioned during the campaign: food. Food policy is not something American presidents have had to give much thought to, at least since the Nixon administration — the last time high food prices presented a serious political peril. Since then, federal policies to promote maximum production of the commodity crops (corn, soybeans, wheat and rice) from which most of our supermarket foods are derived have succeeded impressively in keeping prices low and food more or less off the national political agenda. But with a suddenness that has taken us all by surprise, the era of cheap and abundant food appears to be drawing to a close. What this means is that you, like so many other leaders through history, will find yourself confronting the fact — so easy to overlook these past few years — that the health of a nation’s food system is a critical issue of national security. Food is about to demand your attention.

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