Got a truck? You can help the “coolest urban ag project around.”

After months of planning and planting, a fleet of 25 Truck Farmers across the country are about to take to the road. One snag! Not enough trucks.

by Hnin Hnin

Some farmers have thousands of acres of land. Some farmers have a few. Truck Farmers have a pile of dirt in the back of a pickup truck.  Truck Farm is a simple concept with a big impact. It’s a mini-mobile farm, an edible exhibit, and the focus of a documentary coming out this winter. What exactly can you do with a 4x8 bed of soil and seeds on wheels? Add an ambitious farmer with the passion to teach kids about growing and eating healthy food, and you’ve got one of the coolest urban agriculture projects around.  That’s why Slow Food USA has partnered up with Truck Farm to recruit some of the freshest new urban farmers in town.

After months of planning and planting, a fleet of 25 Truck Farmers across the country are about to take to the road, popping up at schools, camps, street fairs, outdoor concerts, and anywhere else large groups of youth congregate.  They’re revved up and ready to go…

BUT there’s one snag—7 of the 25 farmers don’t have a truck!  Meet Cate Brennan, a student and leader of Slow Food University of Rhode Island.  With your help, she and her group can become some of the youngest Truck Farmers on the fleet. 

More after the jump

Chasing Chiles: place-based foods & climate change

A new book called ” ‘Chasing Chiles’ captures the essence of why people continue, against all odds, to grow the food that they love.”

Chasing Chiles, a new book by Kurt Friese, Gary Nabhan and Kraig Kraft, looks at both the future of place-based foods and the effects of climate change on agriculture through the lens of the chile pepper—from the farmers who cultivate this iconic crop to the cuisines and cultural traditions in which peppers play a huge role.

Below is an excerpt from chapter 3 of Chasing Chiles, :

One of the most delightful food discoveries for us in Mérida was xnipek (pronounced SHNEE-peck). The name comes from the Mayan language and means “dog’s nose.” Unappetizing as that might sound at first, rest assured there is no dog in the recipe. It’s simply a reference to this salsa’s heat level. Hot chiles can cause the nose to run, thus the metaphor.

There’s more to xnipek than just heat, though. It not only uses the Yucatecan powerhouse chile—the habanero—but also includes the native fruit known as naranja agria, or bitter orange, which is also the secret to great Yucatecan escabeche. It’s hard to find fresh in the States, so there’s a brief recipe for a reasonable facsimile following our rendition of this fiery relish.
We found many versions of xnipek in our travels around the Yucatán. All had the habanero and bitter orange, but beyond that they varied widely. This is why we prefer the term genuine to authentic—it allows for many interpretations while still remaining true to tradition.

Xnipek is one of the salsas collectively referred to as Pico de Gallo, or “beak of the chicken,” a reference either to the size of the chopped ingredients or to chicken feed. It’s made of many ingredients chopped together to form more of a relish than a sauce (or salsa). Our favorite renditions include the unique addition of fresh cabbage, which adds another layer of flavor and crunch.

½ cup green cabbage, chopped or shredded
2 fresh habanero chiles, seeded and minced (you could substitute any chile, but you’d lose the right to call it “genuine”)
2 medium-ripe tomatoes, cored and diced
1 red onion, peeled and diced
½ cup fresh-squeezed bitter orange juice (or use the facsimile, below, but stick with fresh)
3–4 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Soak the cabbage in ice water for an hour or so to make it crispy. Drain and dry thoroughly using a salad spinner or paper towels.

Toss the cabbage together with the habaneros, tomatoes, onion, and bitter orange juice. Let stand at room temperature for a couple of hours, or in the refrigerator overnight, then add the fresh chopped cilantro right before service.

Yields around 2 cups

Makeshift Bitter Orange Juice
Combine in a 2:1:1 ratio, fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice, orange juice, and lime juice. Let stand for an hour. It will keep in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 1 day.

Recent GE approvals face wide-ranging criticisms

Earlier this year the USDA stunned the food and farming community by unexpectedly approving three new genetically engineered (GE) foods. Here’s a recap of some of the main concerns around these additions to our food system.

by Emily Vaughn

Earlier this year the USDA stunned the food and farming community by unexpectedly approving three new genetically engineered (GE) foods. Here’s a recap of some of the main concerns around these additions to our food system.

The green-lighted foods are herbicide-resistant sugar beets and alfalfa and a type of corn tailor-made for ethanol production. While the latter two are not intended for human consumption, they’ll still impact people-food.  The corn and alfalfa are extremely likely to cross-pollinate with their organic or non-GE relatives.  Cross-pollination would render nearby fields of sweet corn unsuitable for human consumption, and disqualify milk or dairy products from receiving the organic label if the cows are accidentally fed GE-tainted alfalfa.  The proposed buffer zones that could be required to surround GE alfalfa plots aren’t enough to put organic farmers at ease.

The sugar beets have yet to pass an environmental safety test, but were given the go-ahead for planting this season in order to avoid a shortage of sugar (50% of table sugar in the US is beet-derived).  As if that’s not bad enough, the herbicide that the beets (and the alfalfa) are engineered to tolerate is becoming less effective as surrounding weeds are developing a resistance to the chemical. Agribusiness’s claim that this generation of GE crops is reducing our reliance on chemical inputs is looking thin.

On top of gene drift concerns, it’s looking like corn-based ethanol isn’t the green energy solution we were hoping for; ethanol faces increasing criticism for being energetically inefficient and for driving up food prices worldwide.

More after the jump

Bees feed us: now they need our help

Honeybees are under attack but despite years of research the culprit for colony collapse disorder (CCD) has yet to be identified.

Click here to sign our bee petition.

Honeybees are under attack but despite years of research the culprit for colony collapse disorder (CCD) has yet to be identified.

What we do know is that there’s probably not just one thing causing the massive die-offs, but several factors interacting to cause a perfect, lethal storm.

What difference does it make?

 
• Roughly 30% of our food gets brought into the world by honeybee pollination
 
• The increased yield and quality of crops that have been visited by honeybees adds $15 billion to the annual US agricultural economy.
 
• The impact of another year of 40% losses of honeybee populations will be devastating to food production, food prices, and biodiversity. 

How can I help?
LEARN more about CCD by: 1)  hosting a screening of Vanishing of the Bees. The filmmakers of this award-winning documentary, narrated by Ellen Page, have offered significant discounts on screening licenses to Slow Food members.  Email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) for more information.  2) Download this one-page information sheet on the importance of bees to our food system. Also, you can download a screening guide for the film by clicking here.
 
SIGN the petition. The EPA recently pledged to take a closer look at one of the factors that watchdog organizations like Beyond Pesticides and Pesticide Action Network believe to be a contributing cause of CCD. Together we can hold the EPA accountable to its promise to dig deeper into some of the likeliest causes of CCD, like a new class of agricultural pesticides. If you’d like to gather petition signatures on your own—at a screening, or outside your supermarket—and send them to us, you can download a petition sheet by clicking here.
 
PLANT a bee friendly habitat in your garden or windowsill with pollen- and nectar-rich flowering plants like sunflowers, berries, gourds, and most herbs.
 
REDUCE your usage of insecticides and herbicides around the home. They may get rid of pests, but they can also harm “non-target” insects such as honeybees.
 
SUPPORT your local beekeepers, and producers of rare honey. Learn about honey varieties in your area and those on the US Ark of Taste.

The threat that this phenomenon poses to our food security and our economy is grave.  We can’t just swat this problem away.

Thanks for being a part of the solution. And if you haven’t yet signed our petition to the EPA, click here.  
 

International Terra Madre Day celebrated

Today marks the second annual International Terra Madre Day—a day for celebrating eating locally, and honoring our local food communities. 

Today marks the second annual International Terra Madre Day—a day for celebrating eating locally, and honoring our local food communities.  In particular it can be a time for delegates to Slow Food’s Terra Madre conference in Torino to share with their experience from the conference with their communities.

This year there will be more than 1,000 events in over 120 countries, with over 50 of those events happening here in the U.S. Some communities got started early:  over fifty Slow Food Seattle members and community supporters came together on November 28th for a day-long fish canning workshop called – “Time to Tin a Tuna!” - taught by Jeremy Brown, a Bellingham-based commercial fisherman and longtime proponent of Slow Food (as well as a Terra Madre delegate!). Wild Pacific Albacore has been in the news for all the right reasons - topping the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Super Green List and on National Public Radio in a feature on the growth of micro-canneries in the Pacific Northwest. Though you can find canned albacore tuna at your local food co-ops or fish markets in many communities, this was an opportunity to learn firsthand with someone well-versed in the process and safety considerations of using pressure cookers. At the end of the day, attendees left with both with the pride of supporting a local fisherman and a good stock of Wild Pacific Albacore to last through the long northwest winter.

To read more about the event, click here.

Thanks to Jennifer Johnson for photos and Slow Food Seattle blog post! Photos feature Slow Food Seattle members, Philip and June Lee & their family learning how to can tuna as well as Tuna-canner extraordinaire Jeremy Brown, a Bellingham-based commercial fisherman

Apple Varieties Disappear from U.S. Markets

Four out of five uniquely North American apple varieties are extinct—with more to follow if we’re not careful.
by Holly Huitt

Graniwinkle Apple. Photo by Ben Watson

Download Noble Fruits—A Guide to Conserving Heirloom Apples here.

It’s hard to imagine that a fruit as ubiquitous as an apple could qualify for an endangered foods list. After all, you could walk into any grocery store right now and be greeted by rows and rows of brightly polished red and green specimens.

Look a little closer, and you’ll see that these apples probably belong to one of the eleven apple varieties that make up over 90 percent of apples grown and eaten in the U.S., with Red Delicious alone constituting a hefty 41 percent. Now consider that a century ago, more than 15,000 varieties unique to North America populated our landscape with beautifully striped and spotted skins and names like the Dula Beauty, the Gloria Mundi, and the Newton Pippin.

Only one fifth of those varieties survived, with 81 percent of those precious few considered “endangered” on the marketplace. A new report from Slow Food USA, Noble Fruits—A Guide to Conserving Heirloom Apples, draws attention to the rapidly declining number of apple varieties—and proposes some solutions along the way.

The instructive guide highlights many little-known heirloom varieties, and provides tips and advice for people interested in planting and harvesting them. The guide also raises awareness about the accessibility of heirloom apples—many varieties are available at the over 5,000 farmers markets and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs throughout the U.S., often at prices that are similar to, if not below the prices of those cookie-cutter supermarket varieties.

“Apples are the canary in the coalmine. The decline of traditional, American varieties exposes the impact of our industrialized food system. We are losing our delicious, edible history.  Local and unique foods are becoming extinct as food designed for travel and shelf life dominate the market,” says Ed Yowell of Slow Food NYC. 

Luckily, groups around the country are working to keep America’s apple heritage alive. To read more about their projects, the stories behind the apples, and how to plant your own, download Noble Fruits—A Guide to Conserving Heirloom Apples here.

The Food and Climate Connection - New Video

An amazing new video from WHY Hunger exploring the links between climate change and the global food system.

How we farm and eat is simultaneously one of the greatest contributors to climate change and one of its greatest potential solutions. The same global food system that is making us sick, increasing food insecurity, and polluting the environment is also contributing to climate change.  Climate change, in turn, is contributing to rising rates of hunger and food insecurity. As much as 1/3 of greenhouse gas emissions come from the food system. 

Want to know more about that?

WHY Hunger has released a brand new online film called “The Food and Climate Connection: From Heating the Planet to Healing It,” that highlights the impact of today’s global food system on the climate and how a community-based food movement around the world is bringing to life a way of farming and eating that’s better for our bodies and the planet. Featuring interviews with farmers, community leaders, and sustainability advocates, the film highlights how the industrial food system is among the greatest contributors to global warming and how sustainable farming practices can pose a powerful solution to the crisis.

The movie was done in collaboration with Anna Lappe, author of the recently released “Diet for a Hot Planet,” which also explores this crucial intersection between how we grow and transport our food and how that affects the planet—not to mention how the changes in our environment willl affect the way we grow and transport our food moving forward.

Got Justice? Madison Anti-trust Workshop

The third of the Department of Justice/USDA Anti-trust workshops is underway in Madison, WI, as we write this.  Last night, as in Ankenny Iowa a few months ago, there was a town hall held the night before the workshop. Here’s a report from the field…-ed.

by Siena Chrisman, WHY Hunger

Appropriately, the evening began with a picnic featuring local cheese and ended with an ice cream social under a yellow moon. In between, dairy farmers, consumer advocates, professors, labor union representatives, faith communities, antihunger advocates, an aspiring cheesemaker, and even a Certified Public Accountant spoke out forcefully about the widespread injustices in the dairy industry.

The main event was a Dairy Town Hall Forum in Madison, Wisconsin, sponsored by Family Farm Defenders, National Family Farm Coalition, and Food and Water Watch, and timed to coincide with Friday’s Department of Justice and USDA workshop examining corporate concentration in the dairy industry. The workshop on Friday is part of the ongoing investigation (which I reported on here) by the two departments to determine whether food and agriculture companies have become too concentrated.

The dairy industry is one of the most concentrated in the country, with just one company controlling 40% of the US milk supply. Prices for farmers have fallen so low in the past three years that many dairy farmers were losing as much as $200 per cow every month in 2009. Meanwhile, even though the price farmers were paid for milk fell by almost 50% from 2007 to 2009, the retail price dropped by less than 25%. Someone’s profiting, but it’s not farmers or consumers.

More after the jump

Welcome home, Milwaukee apple

by Jennifer Casey, Slow Food WiSE Biodiversity Projects

I can just imagine…a warm autumn afternoon, in the not too distant future, sitting around the picnic table with a group of people to taste the Milwaukee apple.  I won’t be the only one curious about the character of this apple, for not one of the many chefs, growers, food activists, and just plain eaters that I’ve spoken with in and around Milwaukee, WI have ever sunk their teeth into this rare varietal.  Now, after much planning and a bit of planting, if we carefully watch over our tiny bench grafted trees, we’ll soon have our very own nursery to help usher this apple and others back into our regional foodways.

Guided by the work that the RAFT Alliance has been doing nationally, and with the help of local orchards Weston’s Antique Apples and Maple Valley, Slow Food Wisconsin Southeast  is joining others across the country to protect apple biodiversity.  We “adopted” the Milwaukee, but also planted the Pewaukee, Oneida, Ashmead’s Kernel, and Autumn Beauty apples—our choices of varietals guided by their ties to our region, description, and threatened or endangered status, or simply on the recommendation of one of our local orchard experts.  Our chapter also planted a variety of apple that we refer to as the “Stahl-Conrad”—named for the historic homestead in which our nursery sits.  The Stahl-Conrad Homestead once was home to a thriving orchard and now only and old, gnarly apple tree, sans fruit, still stands on the three acres that have been preserved. Wishing to cultivate this apple, we collected scions from the tree in very early spring and made our way to a grafting workshop at Weston’s for assistance binding our scions to root stock.

Here’s what Jeff Filipiak, one of Slow Food WiSE’s chapter leaders had to say about our apple planting day: “I’d never worked with tree graftings before, and this was a nice way to appreciate how a slow approach respects the present, past and future. Digging and getting one’s hands in the dirt kept me in the moment, taking the care required for the task. Planting old varieties draws upon the skills of farmers and fruit-growers developed over the course of decades. And planting a tree for food is an act of faith in the future (as Wendell Berry notes) and delayed gratification, since the benefits won’t be seen for years or decades in the future.”

More after the jump

Eat Gulf seafood

by Poppy Tooker, former chapter leader of Slow Food New Orleans and emeritus member of the Biodiversity Committee

The oil situation in the Gulf of Mexico is threatening an entire culture on Louisiana’s coastline.  Along every step of the food chain—from fisherman to chef to impassioned eaters like me—there is fear of the unknown.  Until the oil gusher is stopped, none of us can tell what the future holds. 
 
Shortly after Hurricane Katrina, the U.S. Slow Food Ark of Taste committee made an emergency boarding of Gulf seafood that seemed the most threatened at that time.  Louisiana oysters and wild-caught Gulf shrimp were welcomed onto the Ark of Taste along with the New Orleans poor boy bread that they are so often served on. 
 
Today, countless varieties of Gulf fin fish are hugely threatened, including lynchpins of our local menus like speckled trout and redfish.  Our gumbo crab, the Louisiana blue crab, which is found both in the Gulf and in our brackish waterbodies like Lake Pontchartrain, could be wiped out by the intrusion of oil into our estuary marshes.
 
Since the oil disaster began, I have heard from Slow Food friends across the United States who ask, “How can we help?”  The single best way to assist your food friends of the Gulf is to EAT GULF SEAFOOD. 
 

More after the jump