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| Southern SAWG Newsletter,
Volume 5, #8 | August 2009 |
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| Greetings! As summer reaches the halfway mark, plans for beating the heat and the pests are underway, as well as activities for keeping up with busy markets and CSAs, with fall planting and cover-cropping on the horizon. Also on the horizon, as summer vacations draw to a close, are preparations for the kids to return to school. Along with the usual back-to-school activities is a growing awareness of the crisis in child nutrition in this country. The Time for Lunch campaign, spearheaded by Slow Food USA to bring healthy locally grown food into our schools in tandem with the Child Nutrition Act Reauthorization movement, is gaining attention throughout our region. Read on to learn more. In this issue you'll also find information about a valuable program for farmers with disabilities, a new resource for organic on-farm processing, and, as always, exciting upcoming events. Wishing you happy harvests, and some time in the shade… --Your friends at Southern SAWG |
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 Packed with information on processing organic ingredients into value-added organic products, Farm Made: A Guide to On-Farm Processing for Organic Producers, is a new 40-page report published by the Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture. It provides an overview of organic certification and food processing, and examines four enterprises: Sorghum Syrup, Packaged Fresh Salad Greens, Jams, Jellies, and Spreads, and Table Eggs. Written by George Kuepper, Holly Born, and Anne Fanatico, who are experienced sustainable agriculture writers and researchers, the report includes information on organic production, processing, and regulations for each enterprise, and has overviews of each enterprise with an overview of organic production and certification, plus extensive resource lists. Download Farm Made, or contact ATTRA (the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service) at 800.346.9140 to receive a print version. The guide is published by The Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture, distributed by the Kerr Center and ATTRA, with funding from the Organic Farming Research Foundation. More than $4.1 million in grants will be awarded by the USDA to help farmers and ranchers with disabilities through the AgrAbility program, which assists thousands of disabled people in agriculture overcome obstacles. Through the USDA's Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service (CSREES) funds are awarded to land-grant universities that collaborate with non-profit disability organizations to address the needs of farmers and other agricultural workers with disabilities. The program has improved the financial stability and access to life activities for participants, and the ability of states and regions to deliver timely services to those with disabilities. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the grants on July 24, 2009, saying, "Given the right resources, farmers with disabilities can run productive and profitable farms. The AgrAbility program can provide the resources and tools producers need to enhance their quality of life and be successful." Since the program began in 1991, more than 30 states have received funding, resulting in on-farm assistance to more than 12,000 farmers, while educating thousands of professionals on how to accommodate people in agriculture who have disabilities. The typical award provides up to $180,000 per year for up to four years to qualifying universities. Out of twenty-two grant recipients for 2009, five are located in the South:
Activities will include the 42nd Anniversary Celebration and Estelle Witherspoon Lifetime Achievement Award Dinner, a variety of exhibits, workshops, and trainings, and a presentation by Dr. Joe Leonard, USDA Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights. For more information and to register… This in-depth workshop, presented by Georgia Organics, will provide valuable training and resources for farm and crop planning and recordkeeping; the basics of organic certification; rotations; cover crops; and insect identification and management. In addition to classroom sessions at the historic Whiskey Bonding Barn, a farm tour at D & A Farm will feature Dave Bentoski, farm proprietor, along with presenters John Ruberson, Ph.D., Professor of Entomology at UGA, who will discuss insect pests and predators, and Daniel Parson, M.S., of Parson Produce, who will discuss production issues. Cost is $35 for members of Georgia Organics, and $45 for non-members; includes farm tour, lunch, and take-home resources. To register and for more information or contact Karen Adler. Produced in Partnership with the Risk Management Agency of the USDA Learn about solar, wind, geothermal, water use and reuse, energy conservation, rainwater harvesting, green and sustainable building, organic growing, alternative transportation, and straw bale construction. Featuring exhibits, guest speakers, natural food, and family activities. Entry fee: $10 for Friday or Sunday, $12 for Saturday or $20 for a 3-day pass. Children under 12 free. For more info… |
Slow
Food USA Organizes National Day of Action on Labor Day
Slow Food USA has
launched Time for Lunch, a
national campaign to provide America's children with real food at
school. Capping the campaign will be community Eat-Ins taking place
across the country on Labor Day, September 7, 2009. The Eat-Ins will
highlight the need for real, healthy food for
the 30 million children who participate in the National School Lunch
Program, which is part of the Child Nutrition Act that Congress will
reauthorize later this year.  "The way we feed our kids is a reflection of our values. We cannot, in good conscience, continue to make our kids sick by feeding them cheap byproducts of an industrial food system," said Josh Viertel, president of Slow Food USA. "It is time to give kids real food: food that tastes good, is good for them, is good for the people who grow and prepare it, and is good for the planet." With nearly 32 percent of children ages 2 to 19 considered obese or overweight, and one in three born since 2000 in jeopardy of developing diabetes in his or her lifetime, providing schools with real food should be a national priority. Slow Food USA is a non-profit leader in the work to create a just and sustainable food system. With 200 chapters throughout the United States, the organization preserves and promotes vanishing foods and food traditions, and provides support and advocacy for local sustainable farmers. Judith Winfrey, leader of Slow Food Atlanta and one of the farmers at Love is Love Farm in Douglasville, Georgia, underscores the importance of joining the Child Nutrition program with the local food movement. "As a farmer in the South, one thing that is interesting about this campaign is that it calls for incentives in the USDA program to buy from local farmers." In 2004, a section was added to the Child Nutrition Act to provide schools with grants that would enable them to purchase local foods and to teach lessons on healthy eating in kitchen and garden classrooms, but Congress never appropriated funds for it. As Winfrey said, this year the message is for Congress to guarantee $50 million of mandatory funding for the Farm to School Program (F2S) in the 2009 reauthorization. F2S is a competitive grants program that supports the purchase of local foods from small and medium sized farms by school systems. F2S can improve both farm income and child health and nutrition. The Time for Lunch campaign is asking people to contact their legislators to discuss the issues of the Child Nutrition act, and help them learn effective ways to accomplish this. The main step is to push the government to provide the mandatory funding to source food locally, and to teach children healthy eating habits through innovative farm-to-school programs and school gardens. This past spring, thirty fifth graders joined Michelle Obama in planting a vegetable garden on the White House lawn. "What I found with my kids [is that] if they were involved in planting and picking it, they were much more curious to give it a try," Mrs. Obama said. Every child deserves the opportunity to learn healthy eating habits at school. Act
Now!
The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) points out that the August Congressional recess, from early August through September 3, is an especially good opportunity to meet with and get to know your members of Congress, and educate them about Farm to School and other issues. Their schedules fill up fast, so act now. Key Southern states for the Child Nutrition Act include Georgia, with Saxby Chambliss as the ranking member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, as well as Arkansas, Mississippi, and Kentucky, with Senators serving on the Subcommittee on Nutrition and Food Assistance, Sustainable and Organic. House Representatives from Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee serve on the Healthy Families and Communities Subcommittee. Click here for information and resources from NSAC. Another important plank on the Time for Lunch platform is to urge Congress to allocate $1 more per day per child for lunch. The USDA currently reimburses schools $2.57 for each meal served to a student who qualifies for free lunch. Most of this covers labor, equipment and overhead costs, with less than $1 going toward actual ingredients. The Eat-Ins are potluck events, and the really fun part of the campaign. Because Eat-Ins take place in public, they provide an opportunity to bring neighbors together, get media attention, and build community support for giving kids real food at school. Some of the Eat-Ins taking place on September 7 are big picnics in public parks or in front of City Halls; others are potluck lunches on the grounds of a local school; and some are small family gatherings on sidewalks and front lawns. Of the 195 Eat-Ins currently scheduled in 47 states, a total of 29 Eat-Ins are registered in the South, with eleven states in our region participating. States such as Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina are leading the pack. In Georgia, Slow Food Atlanta is organizing a giant picnic Eat-In at Piedmont Park in central Atlanta, as well as six smaller neighborhood Eat-Ins in surrounding communities and counties. In Marksville, Louisiana, Slow Food Avoyelles is organizing a volunteer workday Eat-In at the site of a new Edible Schoolyard garden at a public charter school. In the morning, volunteers will help out at a shed-raising in the garden; then, for lunch, they'll sit down for a potluck in a tree grove. The local chapter in Charleston, South Carolina, has kids and their parents staffing tables at farmers' markets and Whole Foods to collect signatures for the Time for Lunch petition. And in Charlotte, North Carolina, Slow Food Charlotte is organizing an evening cookout Eat-In with local meat on the grill, local musicians playing music, and volunteers to collect signatures for the petition. So far, there are no events scheduled in Mississippi and Arkansas. If you want to get something started, or learn how to join in, click here. As Jerusha Klemperer, Slow Food's Time for Lunch campaign manager, reminds us, "When President Truman signed the National School Lunch Act into law in 1946, he said, 'No nation is healthier than its children, or more prosperous than its farmers.' By giving schools the resources to buy good food from local farmers, we can ensure the long-term health of our kids, our farms, our economy and our country." To show your support, sign on to the petition, read Slow Food USA's platform for updating the National School Lunch Program, or for details on how to organize your own Eat-In on Labor Day, visit… To learn more about community food systems, farm to school programs, and local food projects, visit…  Real food
from Serenbe Farms
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Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group, Inc. (Southern SAWG) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization founded in 1991 to promote sustainable agriculture in the Southern United States. |
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