Urban Gardens, Vegan Holiday Fest, and U.S. Food Crisis Working Group

WHAT RELEVANCE COULD THIS POSSIBLY HAVE TO GROWING FOOD?

Traffic pours out of the acres of parking lots surrounding Miller Park, home of the Brewers in the city of Milwaukee. Asphalt, ball park hot dogs, nachos....? What could this possibly have to do with food security? Ah, even in the midst of our urban landscapes, there is magic underway. Milwaukee is the home of urban farmer Will Allen, a towering man who once played NBA basketball. Allen recently was honored with the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship award of $500,000 for his leadership in establishing the Growing Power organization, and his innovative approach to raising food and building community on three acres in downtown Milwaukee. See more about his project on two videos, here, and also here.

Back on Maui, Carlos Garcia of the Optimum Living Alliance (OLA-Life.org), sent word about the upcoming Second Annual Vegan Holiday Festival, to be held Saturday, November 15th at the Haiku Community Center. With a fabulous feast of healthy food, keynote speaker Dr. Steve Blake, live music, and over $1,000 in raffle prizes, you'll want to mark this on your calendar, and bring friends and family!

Many names were added to this blog outreach list after the recent Body & Soil conference in Olinda, Maui. Thanks to all of you and offered things to post. I'd like to renew a request for each of you to keep this blog lively by letting us know what you have to offer, and also what you're looking for. And don't forget to post comments on the blog posts.

Looking for non-hybrid, non-GMO heirloom seeds? Try this link to the Ark Institute, which also has great information on Gardening Q&As, how oil is linked to food, and the food supply crisis. Mahalo to Summer Starr for sharing this website info.

Speaking of the food crisis, Andrea Samulon, Agribusiness Campaigner with the Rainforest Action Network sent this link to a website called U.S. Food Crisis Working Group. Ten major organizations, including RAN and Food & Water Watch are sponsoring this site. There is a call to sign on and work towards reshaping the years of misguided federal policies that have led to support for huge agribusiness, mono-cropping, and pesticide use, at the expense of the small farmer, and those practicing non-toxic methods, such as organic farming. I will be meeting Andrea in Decatur, Illinois next week to join in a RAN protest at the annual shareholders meeting of Archer-Daniels-Midland, one of the world's largest agribusiness conglomerates (along with Cargill) and responsible for continuing deforestation in biodiverse regions of SE Asia and Central and South America....mainly for soybeans, palm oil, and sugar cane to be converted to biofuels. 

Finally, Jay Ogden asked me to post information about his "Gardens-To-Go" containers, designed to make portable organic gardens more accessible in a variety of locations, such as schools or retirement centers. Thanks for your good work, Jay.

And now it's time for us to hear from YOU!  What's new and exciting in your garden, on your farm, and in your community? We'd love to hear about it, and share it.

Happy growing,

ROB