Contains job listing of interest to some, perhaps
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2000 18:21:20 -0500
From: Marla Rhodes <mrhodes1@emerald.tufts.edu>
To: NE community food systems <nefood-l@listproc.tufts.edu>
Subject: NEFOOD POTLUCK NEWS 1/24/2000
* * * * * * * * * NEFOOD POTLUCK NEWS 1/24/2000 * * * * * * * * *
Happy Birthday to us...
NEFOOD-L IS TWO YEARS OLD!
In January of 1998, 112 people signed up to the first nefood-l postings.
Since then, subscriptions have risen monthly to 360 current subscribers. To
browse through past listings, visit our message archives at:
http://csf.colorado.edu/archive/food_security.html
Nefood-l focuses on sustainable food system projects and information-sharing
in the northeastern and mid-Atlantic states. At the message archives,
you'll also find the listings for comfood-l messages, a national version
of nefood-l.
Nefood-l is here for you. So feel free to tell us about your new projects,
ask for information, bat around ideas, and encourage others to log onto
nefood-l.
Have you visited the Northeast Food System Partnership website? Are your
projects listed in the on-line database? Check it out at
http://northeastfood.tufts.edu
Up and running since September 1999, the website has been viewed from such
faraway places as Thailand, Belgium, Russia, Canada, Arab Emirates, South
Africa, Malaysia, and Croatia. Just think, your organization may inspire a
new Croatian community food security project! Check it out from time to
time...I add to it several times a month. If you haven't viewed it since
autumn, you'll appreciate the fresher, more colorful look - all done on a
shoestring budget.
The internet is revolutionizing the way we communicate. If you spend
hundreds of dollars holding conference calls, you may be able to accomplish
the same thing for practically free. All participants need access to a
computer with speakers and internet service. Did you know there are websites
with free audio chat rooms...just purchase a $5 microphone (available at any
computer store), create your own temporary chat room and hold regional
conference calls for the cost of your on-line internet time. Talk to me if
you're curious to learn more.....Marla Rhodes (northeastfood@tufts.edu;
617-627-5442)
** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
DEMAND FOR EMERGENCY FOOD AND SHELTER IS ON THE RISE IN NORTHEASTERN CITIES
A survey of 26 cities released by the U.S. Conference of Mayors shows hunger
and homelessness grows unabated, despite an expanding national economy.
Among the findings of the "1999 Status Report on Hunger and Homelessness in
America's Cities", demand for emergency food related assistance in 1999
increased 18% over the previous year, the highest level since 1992.
Northeastern cities surveyed had the following increases in demand for
emergency food assistance (% increase in 1999 from 1998 levels):
Boston, MA: 16%
Burlington, VT: 15%
Philadelphia, PA: 18%
Providence, RI: 30%
and Trenton, NJ: 6%
Increase in homelessness was one factor. In Boston, for example, 1999 was
the first year in which all emergency homeless shelters reported being
over-capacity in every month, including summer months.
The full 112-page report is available online at
http://www.usmayors.org/uscm/homeless/hunger99.pdf
** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
NORTHEAST SEED GROWERS TAKE THE "SAFE SEED PLEDGE"
Excerpted from a posting by Brian Tokar of NERAGE
(http://www.bckweb.com/nerage/):
Johnny's Selected Seeds, based in Albion, Maine, has pledged to not
knowingly buy or sell genetically engineered seeds. Johnny's was targeted
earlier this year year by anti-biotech activists in the Northeast, under
the umbrella of NERAGE (Northeast Resistance Against Genetic Engineering),
for publishing a statement in their 1999 seed catalog suggesting that they
might offer genetically engineered varieties in the future. The company
received many hundreds of letters from its regular customers and other
concerned individuals suggesting that Johnny's had severely damaged its
reputation as a supplier to organic growers in the region. Several major
growers in New England said they would not buy from Johnny's until they
took a firm stand against the use of genetically engineered seeds.
Johnny's is one of eight companies in New England, and 40 in the U.S. and
Canada, to sign onto the Safe Seed Initiative, a project launched by
heirloom seed grower Tom Stearns (High Mowing Organic Seeds, Wolcott,
Vermont), with the assistance of Vermont-NOFA (Northeast Organic Farming
Association) and the Boston-based Council for Responsible Genetics.
Other regional companies that have signed the pledge are Fedco Seeds
(Maine), Cook's Garden (Vermont), Butterbrooke Farm (Connecticut), Zwann
Seeds (Vermont) and the seed saving networks in Maine and Western
Massachusetts.
** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
CALENDAR OF EVENTS YEAR 2000
It's time for NOFA's winter conferences. NOFA is the Northeast Organic
Farming Association. There are chapters in 7 states. http://www.nofa.org
links to all. These conferences have many workshops suitable for farmers,
gardeners, interested dabblers, and community activists. The contacts
listed below can tell you more about specific workshop topics.
NOFA CONFERENCES (AND SIMILAR SUSTAINABLE AG FARMING EVENTS):
1/29-30: NOFA/New York 18th Annual Conference, will be held in Troy, NY;
theme is seeds! Contact Tammy Hinman, 315-824-2864; thinman@dreamscape.com.
2/4-5: "Reclaiming the PASAbilities," the 9th Annual Farming for
the Future Conference, will be held in State College, PA; contact
Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture, 814-349-9856 x2,
info@pasafarming.org.
2/19: NOFA/Vermont's Annual Winter Conference will be held in Randolph, VT;
contact NOFA-VT 802-434-4122.
2/26-27: National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture's 3rd Annual
Meeting will be held in Washington, DC; contact the Campaign at
914-744-8448; Campaign@magiccarpet.com.
OTHER UPCOMING EVENTS:
2/27-29: "FRAC Policy Conference on Fighting Hunger and Poverty in the New
Millenium." DC. Co-sponsored by Food Research and Action Center, Second
Harvest, National CACFP Forum. Includes plenary with Marian Wright Edelman,
founder of the Children's Defense Fund. Contact Wanda Putney: 202-986-2200
x3021 email: wputney@frac.org website:www.frac.org
2/27: "Nutrition, Your Health, and Traditional Diets" by Sally Fallon,
author of Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically
Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats. Montpelier, VT. Center for
Sustainable Agriculture, 802-656-5459.
3/6: NEW DATE!! "Urban Agriculture, Is It For Real?" NEW DATE!!
Philadelphia, PA. A realistic look at entrepreneurial urban agriculture.
Conference to be held at Philadelphia Flower Show. Contact Sally McCabe
215-988-8846, smmcabe@pennhort.org
3/22: "World Day For Water". UNESCO wants organizations with websites
that describe water-related projects to be linked to their site at
www.unesco.org/science/waterday2000. If you would like to create a link
for this international event, send a request to JM.Fuente@UNESCO.org
** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
POSITIONS AVAILABLE
* 2 POSITIONS AT PROJECT BREAD/WALK FOR HUNGER, BOSTON, MA
*Food Stamp Outreach Assistant to develop outreach materials and recruit
and train outreach partners.
*Media Relations/ Communications Assistant to help coordinate special event
media, publications, organizational communications.
Send resume/cover letter to Project Bread, 160 N. Washington St, Boston, MA
02144 or fax to 617-248-8877.
*MANUAL EDITOR, AMERICAN COMMUNITY GARDENING ASSOC.
The American Community Gardening Association (ACGA) is seeking an editor
for the Growing Communities Curriculum. The editor will complete a 100-300
page manual which brings together training materials related to many aspects
of community gardening, as part of the ACGA's From The Roots Up program.
A more detailed description of the project and an outline of the manual
are available: contact KarenPayne@compuserve.com
** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
CAUSE FOR THOUGHT...
* In the U.S. more than 80% of seed varieties sold a century ago are no longer
available.
* A single parent working a full-time job at minimum wage will fall
substantially short of the poverty line if she supports two children -
earning $3,000 less than the $13,880 federal poverty level for a household
of 3
people. Yet food stamp caseloads have been steadily declining since
implementaion of welfare-to-work programs. At least one-third of eligible
households are not receiving food stamp benefits. Outreach workers are
trying to reverse this troubling trend.
* "Charity is not going to be enough to solve our social
problems...Redistributing wealth is not going to be enough...Stop expecting
donations simply because your cause is noble, [Billy Shore] says. You have
valuable, and sellable, assets - expertise, networks of volunteers, long
experience in helping people. Stop thinking of how to get donations; start
thinking of how to market assets. You can create your own wealth, enough to
effect social change on a vast new scale - lasting, radical social change.
And that is a task worth devoting a lifetime to..."
("Profit With Honor: Billy Shore wants to help nonprofit institutions link
their charitable works with profit-making enterprises. But would something
of value be lost in the process?" by Tracy Thompson, The Washington Post
Magazine, 12/19/99) [as quoted in FRAC Update 12/30/99]
** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
IF YOU HAVEN'T HEARD ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF NH BREEDING PSEUDO-CHICKEN FOR
KFC, THEN YOU'RE NOT ON THE RIGHT EMAIL LISTS.....
...but I guess I am. I received this email rumor a few weeks ago, and have
been asked by others if it's true. I guess it's not as
laughable as I thought. While it makes claims that are easy to check for
accuracy (like "you'll notice that the KFC ads don't use the word "chicken"
in them") and describes a method of growing bio-engineered chicken parts
that doesn't sound economically justifiable, it did sound earnest enough to
make you wonder...well, maybe.....
here's a summary from "Lifline" section of USA Today, 1/13/00:
"NO COLONEL OF TRUTH: Yet another Internet hoax is making the rounds, this
one claiming Kentucky Fried Chicken was required to change its name to KFC
because the fast-food chain no longer sells chicken parts but instead uses
genetically engineered organisms grown in vats (The logic being that the FDA
won't allow this "food" to be called "chicken" - mr). The message cites a
study done at University of New Hampshire as its source, but the
University's Jim Cerny states unequivocally that no such study has ever been
done. "I'd like to think that people who've been using the Internet would
recognize a hoax, but I guess not," he says. For more information, see the
Urban Legends Web page at http://www.urbanlegends.com/ulz/kfc.html
~+*~+*~+*~*+~*~END OF POTLUCK NEWS; ADD YOUR OWN POSTS!~+*~+*~+*~+~+~*+~*+~*+
Nefood-l is a project of the Northeast Food System Partnership, and is
sponsored by the Center for Agriculture, Food and Environment at Tufts
University, the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (NESAWG),
Hartford Food System, and the Lawson Valentine Foundation. For more
information, contact:
Marla Rhodes
Northeast Food System Partnership
Information Coordinator
northeastfood@tufts.edu
617-627-5442
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