(This information is any local, national or international news on why we should be changing our farming and eating habits.)

City Breaks Ground on July 1 for Slow Food Nation Victory Garden San Francisco

July 12 Community Planting Day with Mayor Gavin Newsom, Slow Food Nation
Founder Alice Waters and Dozens of Bay Area Community Gardening
Organizations
San Francisco, CA (June 24, 2008) — Beginning Tuesday, July 1, ‘’‘the lawn in
front of San Francisco’s City Hall will undergo a transformation from grass
carpet to edible garden,’‘’ as dozens of Bay Area organizations join together
to plant the Slow Food Nation Victory Garden. On Saturday, July 12, Mayor
Gavin Newsom, Slow Food Nation founder Alice Waters and more than 100
volunteers will plant the first edible garden in the City’s Civic Center
since 1943. read more

Urban Farmers’ Crops Go From Vacant Lot to Market

By TRACIE McMILLAN
Published: May 7, 2008
In the shadows of the elevated tracks toward the end of the No. 3 line in East New York, Brooklyn, with an April chill still in the air, Denniston and Marlene Wilks gently pulled clusters of slender green shoots from the earth, revealing a blush of tiny red shallots at the base. read more

Farming among the next crop of local startups

Growing food locally a pricey prospect for first-time farmers
By Jennifer Langston Seattle P-I Reporter May 19, 2008
Siri Erickson-Brown kept 27 chickens this spring in her Capitol Hill apartment, where the closet doubled as a grow operation for hundreds of tomato seedlings.
Two summers ago, she was one of dozens of interns apprenticing on local farms, learning to snip slugs, handpick lettuce, raise pigs, fertilize soil and chat up customers.
When she was done, she faced a daunting challenge: finding affordable farmland near Seattle.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/363729_youngfarmers20.html

Video: Family lives off the grid on 1/5 acre

http://tinyurl.com/3t5nzq

Environmental Cost of Shipping Groceries Around the World

NY TIMES
Cod caught off Norway is shipped to China to be turned into filets, then shipped back to Norway for sale. Argentine lemons fill supermarket shelves on the Citrus Coast of Spain, as local lemons rot on the ground. Half of Europe’s peas are grown and packaged in Kenya.

In the United States, FreshDirect proclaims kiwi season has expanded to “All year!” now that Italy has become the world’s leading supplier of New Zealand’s national fruit, taking over in the Southern Hemisphere’s winter.

Food has moved around the world since Europeans brought tea from China, but never at the speed or in the amounts it has over the last few years. Consumers in not only the richest nations but, increasingly, the developing world expect food whenever they crave it, with no concession to season or geography.

Increasingly efficient global transport networks make it practical to bring food before it spoils from distant places where labor costs are lower. And the penetration of mega-markets in nations from China to Mexico with supply and distribution chains that gird the globe — like Wal-Mart, Carrefour and Tesco — has accelerated the trend.

But the movable feast comes at a cost: pollution — especially carbon dioxide, the main global warming gas — from transporting the food. read more

Gardens could be victory over food prices

By Tessie Tennyson
Posted: April 27, 2008 Milwaukee Journal Online

There’s been a lot of buzz recently about world food shortages and upcoming increases in food prices. Flour already has gone up because farmers are producing corn for ethanol instead of wheat, and there’s some concern that fresh fruit and vegetable prices will follow suit since truckers who transport these staples probably will pass rising gas prices onto consumers….
Milwaukee is an ideal place to push for widespread gardening. The city’s already on the map as a resource for urban gardeners. In early March, Milwaukee hosted the Urban Agriculture Conference, and it drew people from all around the world - they even talked about shopping center roof gardens complete with chickens, and gardens in skyscrapers - with pigs.
It’s not surprising the city was chosen for the conference. There are many community gardens in the city and suburbs, as well as spots where people can rent plots to hoe and plant and chat with neighbors. All those community gardens aren’t widespread enough to have the impact the Victory Gardens did, but getting everyone into the act could make a difference. read the entire article

Go Green and Cut Meat

TORONTO (Reuters) — As the United States wrestles with its worst bout of food cost inflation since the early 1990s, reducing meat in your diet may help stretch your grocery dollars — and also protect the environment.
Government figures show that grocery costs have gone up 5.1 percent in 12 months. Eggs alone are up a dramatic 25 percent over last year, Labor Department figures show. With household budgets strained by higher food costs and increased prices at the pump, switching out some of the more-expensive meat protein for cheaper plant protein can help reduce food budgets. more