Foundation Journal

The best I can do today is share photos and a report from Jane Quinn on her field trip to Shatto Milk Company with her second grade class. I originally planned to join her but spent the day in Topeka for an agency conference for the area food bank. Jane grew up on a dairy farm near Amity, Missouri a few miles from the fast-growing Shatto Dairy in Osborn, Missouri. Shatto has 425 dairy cows milked twice a day, requiring 35 farm workers to handle the full operation of milking, milk production and bottling the product. The dairy has a 2000 gallon holding tank where they produce a variety of milk and cheese products that are available in local grocery stores. She has always maintained a fondness for farm life, especially the dairy farm variety. The farm she grew up on maintained a 50 dairy cow herd during the 1970's when she grew. She was eager to share the dairy farm on the field trip not only for Shatto's success at locally produced, small farm milk production but also f...

Will Allen with Milwaukee-based Growing Power described an astonishing collection of the group's food projects during the "Abolish Food Deserts" presentation at the Anita Gorman Conservation Discovery Center on August 27, 2011. Some have called the efforts of this organization a "good food revolution." Taking the pulse of participants of the event indicate there are a number of food growers and advocates willing to join the movement or re-double efforts here in Kansas City. "Abolish Food Deserts" event in Kansas City on August 27, 2011 (from left): Sasteh Mosley with Green Acres Urban Farm and Research Project, Will Allen with Growing Power, and Ernest Bradley with Lincoln University--St. Louis Urban Impact Center. Local growers, farmers, and advocates could barely contain their enthusiasm after the presentation, asking practical questions about the array of methods and practices described by Allen. Local growers asked about worms, composti...

Votes on key amendments to the Food Safety Modernization Act (S510) continue today, November 30, 2010 in the Senate, as legislators take up measures on the Tester Amendment and the controversial earmarks amendment. Several groups advocating for small farmers have taken stands on the bill, like Food Democracy Now : Now Big Ag is trying to kill these provisions, which exempt farmers that have sales of less than $500,000 and sell within 275 miles of their farm, and others are hoping to kill the bill outright. We can't let that happen, tell your Senators to vote YES on the Manager's amendment and pass the food safety bill to protect family farmers and consumers. For a re-cap of the bill and update on the latest votes see this from Food Safety News , which mentions a final vote on the Senate vote should occur today, too. The Senate food safety bill, which has been inching towards passage the past few weeks, cleared a key procedural hurdle Monday, but Senate leaders put off t...

Following the important food safety legislation (Senate S.510 bill) has been difficult because of the shifting positions by small food growers and multinational corporations. Amendments increased the complexity of the bill, such as the Tester Amendment. However, a key Senate vote appears likely on Monday, November 29 as reported by SFGate.com. Looking past dire warnings was not difficult, such as statements like how the bill "would outlaw gardening and saving seeds" and how "food safety is a Trojan horse for Monsanto" to dominate more of food production. A November 4 food safety roundtable on Grist.org clarified the positions of some: The Senate is expected to vote tomorrow [11/17/10] on the Food Safety Modernization Act -- and possibly pass it by this weekend. Yesterday, we posted our Food Fight participants' heated -- and lengthy -- debate over whether S. 510's provisions will harm small farms or producers. They also discussed whether the Tester-Ha...

The Kansas City Food Policy coalition met today to discuss distribution and production policy as a committee of the group. As meeting facilitator Katherine Kelly with the KC Center for Urban Agriculture indicated in her email announcement, the meeting focused "on policy issues that affect the production, distribution, and access of healthy, local food...which will be taking the lead on figuring out what city/state/federal policy initiatives we could create or get involved in that would help strengthen the local farming and distribution community." As a newcomer to the group interested in their direction and progress, I noted there was a good collection of representatives from many different types of organizations: local growers, CSA distributors, government health educators, financial foundation sponsors, environmental groups, and university agriculture programs. Several individuals addressed jobs for urban core youth and economic development for the same area. The food...

Rhonda Perry (photo: Mo. Rural Crisis Center) One Montana newspaper described the rancher response to proposed USDA rules as a "David vs. Goliath movement on to take action for fair market prices against corporate concentration." Missouri Rural Crisis Center's own Rhonda Perry added that "Missouri lost 90 percent of hog farmers since 1985. They (corporations) came in and said this was the wave of the future...." Perry attributed the drastic decline in locally owned farms and ranches to corporate consolidation, adding that consumer prices have increased. In an unusual display of supporting the "little guy," twenty-one US senators, including Missouri's Claire McCaskill, have signed on to a letter advocating for changes to USDA livestock rules [PDF] that will be the "first step towards leveling the playing field between producers and the packers." The list of senators includes 19 Democrats, 1 Republican, and 1 independent, though ano...

The Tomato Fair brought out a sizable crowd to Farrand Farms at 5941 Noland Road in Kansas City, Missouri on August 1, 2009. The full parking lot was a testament to the crowd size. The nursery farm is located in the Little Blue River valley between Raytown, Independence, Lee's Summit, and Kansas City. The event was well-organized by the nursery gardens owner as they had a lot of activities focused on the featured vegetable -- the tomato. There was a tomato tasting area, salsa tasting, tomato cooking demonstration, tour of a large demonstration tomato garden, several booths from local groups, and activities for kids. Locally grown produce, was one of the themes that several people talked about during the morning festival. Festival-goers heard Chef Jasper Mirabile, Jr. talk about using locally grown garlic and basil in his Italian recipes used at his south KC restaurant, Jasper's . Ginger Johnson, a master gardener with the new Heartland Harvest Garden at Powell Gardens in Kin...

Jane and I participated in the Kansas City Urban Farms and Gardens Tour on Sunday, June 28, 2009. The tour included a week of activities – educational, food tasting, and other activities to inspire healthy food advocates. We visited three sites – Harvesters food bank 's demonstration garden at 3801 Topping Ave (that's where I work!); Juniper Gardens at 1st and Richmond in Kansas City, Kansas; and Hun's Family Garden , 4730 Metropolitan Ave also in Kansas City, Kansas. At Harvesters food bank's demonstration garden we saw how volunteers had planted a wide variety of plants to show food bank visitors alternatives for growing their own food. The tour of Juniper Gardens started at the place where makeshift sheds and offices were set up on a recovered housing development land. The land was situated on the bluff over the Kansas River. If you look east from the community garden you can see the profile of downtown Kansas City. There were several large garden plots that were p...