Tomato Blight Suggests Value of Small, Local Growers

For starters, if you’re planning a garden (and not growing from seed — the preferable, if less convenient, choice), then buy starter plants from a local grower or nursery. A tomato plant that travels 2,000 miles is no different from a tomato that has traveled 2,000 miles to your plate. It’s an effective way to help local growers, who rely on sales of these plants before the harvest arrives. It’s also a way to protect agriculture. If late blight occurs in a small nursery it’s relatively easy to recognize, as straightforward as being able to see the plant, recognize its symptoms and isolate it before it has a chance to spread.

This is less of an option on a farm that’s spread out over dozens of acres, nor is it likely once the plant gets to a large retailer. A plant pathologist from Cornell told me she visited one such store and noticed the tomato plants were infected with blight. She immediately reported it to the manager, who said he couldn’t remove the plants without approval from his superiors (which would take time). The pathologist returned a week later to find that the plants were still there.

In fact, this late blight outbreak appears to be a classic example of what Charles Perrow, a sociologist, calls a “tightly coupled” accident. With tight coupling — lots of tomatoes grown in one place, say, or distributed by one large retailer — failures in one part of the system can quickly multiply. The damage cannot be as readily controlled. The recent spike in food-borne illnesses is another example of the problems associated with an overly consolidated food chain. E. coli’s been around for a long time; what’s new is how quickly and widely it spreads when there are only a few big meat producers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/opinion/09barber.html?pagewanted=3&_r=1
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Bay View, Riverwest, Shorewood Pesto Party?

I have a giant plot of basil in my backyard garden to share.
Would anyone be up for a pesto party that would bring together
Bay View, Riverwest, and Shorewood food movement workers,
Along with folks from other neighborhoods?

There are two bus lines that make for one bus transport
Between these river lake communities.

Pesto bus parties?

Olde

Advance Child Nutrition Act

Hello All,

Through my work with Urban Food for Urban Schools I have become involved in working to pass a REAL and WORTHWHILE Child Nutrition ACT. Here are some talking points about the Child Nutrition ACT for those of you that would like to write your representatives (Kohl, Feingold, Moore). (you can put pressure on local officials as well to contact our Congressional Representatives) Letters WORK. Your representatives listen to you. If you don’t want to write your representatives. Consider signing the petition. The link is below.
http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php/campaign/time_for_lunch/

Please read through and if you have any questions feel free to email me. Please help our kids. Lets get this act passed the right way!!!!

Thanks for your time and your help in this matter. You will never be sorry to know that our future generation will be strong and healthy.

Theresa Kenney

---

Dear Senator Kohl, (insert name of rep. here)

Please consider making the Child Nutrition ACT a priority in your tenure. I believe that you care deeply about what happens to our children. Right now the National School Lunch Program provides a meal to more than 30 million children every school day. By giving schools the resources to serve real food, we can grant 30 million children the freedom to be healthy. By teaching children to eat well, we can make a down payment on health care reform. By providing children with locally grown fruits and vegetables, we can support local farmers and create green jobs in our communities. By purchasing local food, we can stop wasting oil on transportation and start curbing global warming. By raising children who enjoy real food, we can start laying the foundation for America’s future prosperity.

This fall, the Child Nutrition Act, which is the bill that governs the National School Lunch Program, is up for reauthorization in Congress. By passing a Child Nutrition Act that works for children, our nation can take the first step towards a future where no child is denied his or her right to be healthy and where every child enjoys real food. That’s why it’s time for Congress and the Obama Administration to:

1. INVEST IN CHILDREN’S HEALTH.
Give schools just one dollar more per day for each child’s lunch.
Under the National School Lunch Program, the USDA reimburses schools for every meal served: $2.57 for a free lunch, $2.17 for a reduced-price lunch and 24 cents for a paid lunch. Since these reimbursements must also pay for labor, equipment and overhead costs, schools are left with only $1.00 to spend on food. How can schools be expected to feed our children and protect their health with only a dollar a day? It’s time to build a strong foundation for our children’s health by raising the reimbursement rate to $3.57.

2. PROTECT AGAINST FOODS THAT PUT CHILDREN AT RISK.
Establish strong standards for all food sold at school, including
food from vending machines and school fast food.
At most schools, children can buy junk food in vending machines, at on-campus stores and in the cafeteria as “a la carte” items. These overly processed, high-calorie “fast” foods sneak under the radar of federal nutrition standards. They undermine the National School Lunch Program’s investment in children’s health and allow food companies to profit from selling obesity. It’s time to take the first step towards making real food the standard by approving Rep. Woolsey’s and Sen. Harkin’s Child Nutrition Promotion and School Lunch Protection Act of 2009.

3. TEACH CHILDREN HEALTHY HABITS THAT WILL LAST THROUGH LIFE.
Fund grants for innovative Farm to School programs and school gardens.
This spring, 30 fifthgraders 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 says. Every child deserves the opportunity to learn healthy eating habits at school. In 2004, a section was added to the Child Nutrition Act to provide schools with grants to cover one-time grants that 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. This year, it’s time for Congress to guarantee $50 million of mandatory funding for Farm to School programs.

We also ask that Congress and the Obama Administration:

4. GIVE SCHOOLS THE INCENTIVE TO BUY LOCAL.
Establish financial incentives that encourage schools to buy food from local farms for all child nutrition programs.
Buying fruits and vegetables from local farms is an economic engine for creating jobs in our communities, rebuilding rural economies, and supporting family farmers. By shortening the distance food travels – from farm to table – it also saves oil and ensures school foods are as fresh and healthy as possible.

5. CREATE GREEN JOBS WITH A SCHOOL LUNCH CORPS.
Train underemployed Americans to be the teachers, farmers, cooks, and administrators our school cafeterias need.
We can’t serve real food in schools without investing in school kitchens and the people who prepare and serve lunch. This spring, President Obama signed the Serve America Act, which expanded Americorps and reinforced his call for Americans to serve their country. Right now, our nation has an opportunity to train young and unemployed Americans to be the teachers, farmers, cooks and administrators we need to ensure the National School Lunch Program is protecting children’s health. President Obama has called for an end to childhood hunger by 2015; let’s answer that call by putting Americans to work building and working in school kitchens nationwide.

Kohl, Herb 330 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224–5653

Feingold, Russell
506 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224–5323

Gwen Moore
District Office
219 N Milwaukee St STE 3A
Milwaukee, WI 53202
Phone: (414) 297–1140
Fax: (414) 297–1086

Washington, DC Office
Phone: 202–225–4572
Fax: 202–225–8135
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Great New Resource for Urban Agriculture

With the burgeoning interest of city dwellers in growing their own food, one of the key challenges to food gardeners has been resolved with the USA release of the www.cityfoodgrowers.com organic gardening web site.

At the click of mouse, gardeners from any town or city in all USA states can select by day, month or plant on the correct times to plant, cultivate or harvest their food plants. The web site stores temperatures from over 4000 weather monitoring points in the USA, temperature profiles of 130 of the most common plants grown by USA hobby food gardeners and daily planetary information for the northern hemisphere.

Food gardeners will no longer need to use the complicated and sometimes inaccurate broad zonal planting systems. The web site allows for localisation of the garden climate profile down to the level of town and city and even suburb within large cities. As an example, the state of Illinois has 180 weather monitoring points and 4 within its largest city of Chicago. This localisation greatly improves the potential for successful planting. For gardeners interested in taking advantage of planetary forces, such as moon planting and biodynamic planting data, the web site integrates the often complex planetary information directly into the planting calendar. The web site also provides localisation for Australia and New Zealand.

Continued from front page:

When a food gardener starts using the web site, they create a local temperature profile for their garden and can even provide for shade factors in their garden and vary this over the year as the sun’s position changes with the seasons. When they use the site planting calendar, their search result will display when it is ideal to work with a plant on a month or day. It will also show which months during growing period when the gardener should expect extremes of heat or cold so they can take some precautions in advance to protect their food plants.

• We used the planting calendar on the Cityfood Growers web site today and last week with some interns to plant crops in our demonstration garden. It was extremely helpful. Thea Carlson, Angelic Organics Learning Centre, Illinois, USA

• The Cityfood Growers website is one of the most impressive sites I have encountered. The geographic specific detail eliminates many mistakes home gardeners make in planting the wrong plant in the wrong zone. Mary Trigger, CEO SGA online, Australia

Once a gardener decides on the appropriate plants to work with, they can access a large resource of information on each plant. Easy to use search tools on the web site make it very fast for gardeners to answer their common questions. Over 30 key plant attributes can be easily searched, for example: soil and planting requirements, ease of growing, space needed, container growing, water requirements, organic treatment of all pests and diseases for each plant, companion planting, rotation requirements and beneficial flowers.

The web site also provides a range of community features which are mostly free to access and extensive organic and biodynamic gardening instructional content. Cityfood Growers is based in Brisbane, Australia and released the first version of its web site in May 2008 for Australian users. The new release of the site in June 2009 opens the site to gardeners from the USA and other countries of the world.

• The Internet provides the capacity to be local and global at the same time and I feel our venture can play a strong part in helping to transform our food systems to be more locally based. We have attempted to use the power of the Internet and smart design to help food gardeners tie together often complex information so they get answers fast and can spend more time in their gardens and connecting with other people of like mind. Peter Kearney, founder of Cityfood Growers www.cityfoodgrowers.com

—
Thea Maria Carlson
Program Coordinator, Urban Initiative (Chicago)

Angelic Organics Learning Center
Chicago Office
6400 S Kimbark Ave
Chicago, IL 60637

Office: 773.288.5462
Mobile: 773.517.2193
Fax: 425.969.0317

10 Years and Growing - celebrating a decade of growing food, farmers, and friendships!

Angelic Organics Learning Center helps urban and rural people build local food systems. The Learning Center offers opportunities to grow healthy food and a better quality of life, connect with farmers and the land, and learn agricultural and leadership skills. To find out more, visit www.learngrowconnect.org.
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American Medical Association Passes Resolution Supporting Sustainable Food System

CHICAGO, June 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The American Medical Association (AMA) has approved a new policy resolution in support of practices and policies within health care systems that promote and model a healthy and ecologically sustainable food system. The resolution also calls on the AMA to work with health care and public health organizations to educate the health care community and the public about the importance of healthy and ecologically sustainable food systems that “provide food and beverages of naturally high nutritional quality.” The policy was approved today at the 158th annual meeting of the AMA in Chicago, IL.

“As our country wrestles with health care reform, the role of health care providers and facilities in providing education and leadership to help the population understand the link between the way we produce food and individual health is significant and cannot be overstated,” said Jamie Harvie, director of the Health Care Without Harm Sustainable Food Work Group. “Preventing disease is paramount in the provision of health care. Hospitals, physicians and nurses are ideal leaders and advocates for creating food environments that promote health. This policy is an important contribution to a prevention-based healthcare delivery system.”

The AMA’s new Sustainable Food policy builds on a report from its Council on Science and Public Health (http://www.ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upload/mm/475/refcomd.pdf), which notes that locally produced and organic foods “reduce the use of fuel, decrease the need for packaging and resultant waste disposal, preserve farmland … [and] the related reduced fuel emissions contribute to cleaner air and in turn, lower the incidence of asthma attacks and other respiratory problems.” Industrial food production is a significant contributor to increased antibiotic resistance, climate change, and air and water pollution.

The new AMA policy states:

-That our AMA support practices and policies in medical schools, hospitals, and other health care facilities that support and model a healthy and ecologically sustainable food system, which provides food and beverages of naturally high nutritional quality.
-That our AMA encourage the development of a healthier food system through the US Farm Bill and other federal legislation.
-That our AMA consider working with other health care and public health organizations to educate the health care community and the public about the importance of healthy and ecologically sustainable food systems.

“Physicians now recognize that one cannot easily separate the health of food from how healthfully that food is produced,” said Dr. David Wallinga, an attendee at the meeting, the Wm. T. Grant Foundation Distinguished Fellow in Food Systems and Public Health at the University of Minnesota, and a member of Health Care Without Harm. “The profligate use of antibiotics and fossil fuels in today’s food system, for example, is directly linked to climate change and to the epidemic of antibiotic resistant infections, in hospitals and in communities. “

President Obama, who spoke to the AMA meeting on June 15th, reiterated the importance of developing a sustainable healthcare system that leads to better patient outcomes. “If doctors have incentives to provide the best care instead of more care, we can help Americans avoid the unnecessary hospital stays, treatments, and tests that drive up costs,” Obama stated. During his visit with AMA he spoke on the White House victory garden, which was planted to help educate children on the importance of fresh healthy food.

In addition to providing fresh, nutritious food choices, health care food services across the country are implementing new initiatives such as sourcing organic food and meat produced without the use of antibiotics, buying locally produced foods, and sponsoring farmers markets and food boxes for staff. More than 240 hospitals have signed the HCWH Healthy Food in Healthcare Pledge. Signers pledge to work toward developing sustainable food systems in their facilities. In Congress, Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) has introduced a “Blueprint for Health,” legislation that calls for incentives to prevent chronic diseases, including investments in healthy and sustainable local and regional food systems.

HCWH is an international coalition of more than 430 organizations in 52 countries, working to transform the health care industry worldwide, without compromising patient safety or care, so that it is ecologically sustainable and no longer a source of harm to public health and the environment. For more information on HCWH, see www.noharm.org.

SOURCE Health Care Without Harm http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/06-17-2009/0005046061&EDATE=

—
Daniel Bowman Simon
The White House Organic Farm Project
www.TheWhoFarm.org/thanks
www.twitter.com/thewhofarm
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Milwaukee CSA’s With Openings June 2009

• JenEhr Farm -

Kay Jensen & Paul Ehrhardt
jenehr@aol.com
608–825–9531

• Stoney Meadow Farm -

Steve or Andrea Levsen
stoneymeadowfarm@wi.rr.com
262–893–3579

• Wellspring -

Jeff Schreiber
wellspringcsa@gmail.com
262–675–0195

• LotfotL Community Farm -

Tim Huth
tim@lotfotl.com

• Real Bread CSA (Enlightened Kitchen) -

Dean Malloy
surrealbread@yahoo.com
920–252–6036

• Country Haven Farm Meat & Poultry CSA - Chuck & Anna Maenner

info@countryhavenfarm.net
920–252–8515

• Afterglow Farm -

Steve and Sandy Sandlin,
sandy@afterglowfarm.com
262–957–0517

• Backyard Bounty -

Laura Comerford
920–892–4319
ljcomerford@hotmail.com
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Jill Richardson’s Excellent “Movement” Best To Read Book Recommendations

- Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
- Appetite for Profit
- Closing the Food Gap
- Diet for a Dead Planet
- Diet for a Small Planet
- Food Politics
- Grub
- Holistic Management
- Hope’s Edge
- Mad Cow USA
- Mad Sheep
- The Omnivore’s Dilemma
- Recipe for America
- Safe Food
- Seeds of Deception
- Teaming With Microbes
- What To Eat
- Stuffed and Starved
- Eat your heart out
- Not on the label
- Stolen Harvest
- Eat Here
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First Lady And Kids Who Helped With White House Garden

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-First-Lady-during-Bancroft-Elementary-School-Visit-5-29-09/

MRS. OBAMA. So I want to thank you all for what you’ve done to help us get the garden started. And Tammy, just to answer your questions, the garden is beautiful. It is blooming, it is bursting. We’ve already used about 80 pounds of lettuce. We’ve eaten it, we served it at a big fancy luncheon that I did for other congressional and senate spouses, and they just raved over it. And I told everybody about the work that you did to plant it, how you came back again and again, and how you’re working in your own gardens.

So everything is going well. We also shared some of the lettuce and some of the honey with Miriam’s Kitchen, as well, so already the work that you’re doing is not just feeding our family and the staff and our guests at the White House, but it’s feeding people who may not have anything to eat. So you all should know, when you come back to harvest in a couple of weeks, you will see a totally different garden.

Everything is blooming. We even had to replant some more lettuce because we used it up so quickly. But the beans are starting to sprout up. We put the tomatoes in. We’ve sent — rhubarb. We’ve had rhubarb pie. If you guys have had rhubarb, it tastes just — sort of like strawberry, and maybe Sam — Mr. Sam — (laughter) — maybe we can do something with rhubarb, a nice sweet when you guys come back for the harvesting.

And we used a lot of the herbs, seasonings in our salads and in our foods, so we are using every single aspect of that garden. And the tomatoes, hopefully, will be starting to come up, and some of the berries, as wellSo things are going well at the White House Garden, thanks to you all, and you should be proud of what you’ve done.

But this is exactly why I wanted to be a part of this project — what we’re seeing here. Being able to share this with the Bancroft School has just been a special treat because as the students indicated in their presentation, it’s not just about being out in the garden, being out in the open air, or being at the White House. They’ve really learned some lessons about nutrition. They’re making different choices because they’re a part of the process of planting and tilling the soil and pulling up the food. It makes such a huge difference in the choices that they make.

So this is an example of why we wanted to do this, and I’m so happy that today some parents and community members have been able to join us to see just how much these kids have learned and how much they’ve embraced these concepts, because it’s an example of what we can do nationally with kids and nutrition, because we have to have these conversations about nutrition in a society where we’re seeing growing rates of obesity and diabetes among kids. It is really about choices.

And one of the ways that I got involved in gardening and eating fresh foods is because I was a busy parent. When we started this election, even before this campaign, you find that your schedule is so packed that it becomes difficult to figure out how to quickly and effectively feed your family. So what do you resort to? I know, it was take-out, it was processed foods, it was everything quick and easy.

And we started to see that taking a toll on our health. And our children’s pediatrician gave me a little tap on the shoulder and said, you might want to make some changes. And the changes that we made were very simple. We added more fruits and vegetables to our plates. We eliminated processed foods. We didn’t say no to anything — we still went out — but it was just about moderation, and we were able to engage our children in the process of understanding what foods do to their bodies.

And like the kids at Bancroft, they ate up that information and they started schooling me and lecturing me about what I should be eating, and what a carrot does, and what broccoli does. And sometimes they look at my plate in disgust now. (Laughter.) But what that just told me is that kids can lead the way for us, because we care about them so much. I know I care about these kids as much as I care about my own. And I wanted to share some of the lessons that I learned as a parent and the improvement that I saw in our overall family health with the rest of the nation, because it is difficult if you don’t know about choices.

And we also know that access and affordability is also an important part of this conversation, which is why encouraging people to use farmer’s markets, community gardens are really critical. But we have to figure out how to make this more affordable.

And Bancroft School, this partnership has been right on track, because you’ve seen firsthand how possible it is to develop a community garden. There were times, my mother reminded me, when there were victory gardens all over communities throughout this nation. She talked about, as we went through this garden project — it was like — she just remembered that her mother — you know, they had seven kids would get their fruits and vegetables from a victory garden in their neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. And that was one of the reasons why during some tough times with a big family and very little resources, they always had fruits and vegetables. That was always something that was a part of their diet. So part of what we need to do is reengage our communities in this kind of dialogue.

But we also need to think more broadly about the quality of the foods that we give our kids throughout — what we’re doing in our schools, in our school lunch programs — because as the economy gets more troubled, there are going to be more and more kids who are going to qualify and rely on the meals that they get at schools, their breakfasts and their lunches.

And the next step — or one of the next steps in this conversation is figuring out how do we ensure, through the help of the government, as well as local communities, that the foods that our kids are getting in school each and every day is as healthy as it can be, so that we’re bringing some of these lessons home and we’re also expanding them in the classrooms and in the schools.

So this has been just a wonderful kickoff. And as you said, you think I’ve — you’ve enjoyed the hugs and the kisses and the hugs and the sharing? I’ve enjoyed that the most — getting to know you guys, digging in the dirt, you know, just being out in the open air and watching your excitement — because we did a lot of hard work moving that dirt with those shovels. That was harder than I thought it was. Remember we had to get the soil ready? That was hard. That stuff was heavy, wasn’t it?

AUDIENCE: Yes.

MRS. OBAMA: But you guys didn’t stop. And I didn’t think that we were going to finish planting everything. I told Sam — I said, well, we’re going to — when it was time to plant, I said, well, maybe we’ll get through some of this, but we’re going to run out of time. But what did we do?

AUDIENCE: Finish.

MRS. OBAMA: You finished everything. You guys planted every single thing in the White House Kitchen Garden. You did everything, and you didn’t stop until it was done. And you should be proud of yourselves because I am so proud of you.

Thank you. Thank you for being you guys, okay. So let’s go out and do some more planting. (Applause.)

Chronicle of Raising “Community Chickens”

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Happy-Homesteader/Community-Chickens-Site.aspx

“Community chickens” could mean a lot of things. In some neighborhoods, people take turns caring for the chickens: Someone opens the coop in the morning; another person gathers eggs during the day; someone else may feed chickens. Everyone shares the responsibility — and the eggs. But what’s the new Community Chickens project all about? It’s about building community and teamwork, sharing the joy of keeping poultry, and spreading the knowledge to help people successfully raise chickens, ducks and other fowl.

Cheryl Long, the editor in chief of Mother Earth News, and Hank Will, the editor of our sister publication,Grit, keep flocks of chickens. So do Bryan Welch, the publisher of both magazines, and a few other people around the office. We had several poultry-related products that we planned to test and write about. Then, Hank had a great idea. Why not write about the whole life cycle of chickens (and other poultry) as it’s happening (egg to table) and share the experience with our readers? (Great idea, Hank!)

The Community Chickens website serves as a resource for poultry information. As part of our commitment to poultry enthusiasts everywhere, we will be hatching eggs, trialing incubators, brooding chicks, raising and processing broilers and writing articles and reports that chronicle our efforts every step of the way. Our goal is to get more people raising poultry for food, fun, pest control and profit.
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New Web Resource on Food Policy Councils

We at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future have just added a section on food policy councils to our Gateway web site (http://aphg.jhsph.edu). We link to reports, journal articles, relevant organizations and other resources related to FPC’s.

The Gateway site also links to resources on urban agriculture and general food system topics. Overall, the site includes 35 topic areas that link agriculture and public health, and allows you to search several databases simultaneously.

Please peruse the Gateway and let me know off-list if you have any suggestions for resources we could add to the site. I’m at lhorriga@jhsph.edu.

Thanks very much.

Leo Horrigan

****************************************************

Center for a Livable Future

Johns Hopkins School of Public Health

Baltimore, MD

Tel: (410) 502–5057 Fax: (410) 502–7579

Email: lhorriga@jhsph.edu

Visit our web sites:

CLF site CLF blog

Agriculture and Public Health Gateway
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Website for farmers

I have had some great feedback about our web application for farmers and I am excited to announce that our doors are now wide open. You can now sign-up and have your website ready to go in just 60 seconds. (Normally this would take 2–4 weeks and cost $1000-$5000 of working with a web developer to get this far in the process.)

There is also a FREE 15 day trail so you can get started in 60 seconds and there is no cost and you do not need to give a credit card number.

I hope that you will check it out today and sign-up for a trial.

In 60 seconds you could have a website that looks like the site below (or you can choose from our 2 other themes.)
http://wheat.switchwebsites.com/

I have spent a lot of time on this and I am really excited to have people starting to use it!

Andrew

PS - Please tell anyone who might be interested that they can sign-up today at
http://farms.switchmarketing.com/pricing-and-sign-up/

--
Shauna M Bloom, PhD Candidate
Department of Geography, Hutt 137
University of Guelph
Guelph, Ontario
Canada N1G 2W1
519 824–4120 ext. 53137
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Local Food Movement Defined

“The local foods movement is about an ethic of food that values reviving small scale, ecological, place-based, and relationship-based food systems,” Ms. Prentice said.

Local Food Movement:

• small scale
• ecological
• place based
• relationship based

By the writer who coined term “locavore”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/13/dining/13local.html?_r=1
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Off the Grid Urban Aquaculture Campus Village

The bottom floor of the first new building would house

Co-operatives and Family Enterprises

The anchor co-op a cafe and grocery story on the order of
The Riverwest Co-op Cafe, perhaps in partnership with
Amaranth Bakery and the glorious MATC culinary school.

Another worker owned co-op or family business could be devoted to
Sparking multicultural aquaculture projects, Large and small…

Fabricating urban aquaculture and urban aquaculture components,
Lke worm condos, cold framers, hoop houses, green houses,
And Will Allen Growing Power inspired 10,000 gallon
Re-circulating bio-filtration 3 tier fish vegetable gardens.

Another could involve managing an eco-tourism/training aspect,
Another to developing small co-op or family spin off enterprises,
Perhaps in practical solar technologies and architectural,
Small is beautiful solar designs.
Inspired by the work of the partners comprising the

KK Aquaculture Village: Sun and Nature Powered

The three participating educational institutions might have
Live-in students of all ages from all over in the building…
Or buildings!

Will Allen and his Growing Power team, in partnership
With the members of the Milwaukee Urban Agriculture Network
Have prepared the soil for Milwaukee’s emergence as…

The Urban Agriculture Center of North America.

Fred Binkowski and team, of the Great Lakes Water Institute,
Supported by the Sea Grant Foundation, are preparing the
Fish and the waters, in partnerships with Growing Power,
and guidance for Sweet Water Organics…to create the day,
In Fred’s own words at the first board meeting of the Urban Aquaculture Center,
In 2007, when we have made a new Milwaukee idea:

Milwaukee As the Urban Aquaculture City of America

http://sweetwater-organic.com/blog/

http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/SweetWaterFishFarming/HomePage

Inspired by…

http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/GrowingPower/HomePage

Arugula, Basil, and Lily Co-operative Experiments

Dear All,

In my capacity as an intern urban farmer,
At the start of my 3rd year of a 15 year course of study,
Inspired by Will Allen and his Growing Power team,
And also many others showing up in
The urban agriculture/aquaculture movements…

I have planted far too many arugula and basil seeds
In pots and trays now located in my shanty Irish greenhouse and
My shanty Irish cold frames at Godshill City Farm.

I also have what might be a great number of yet vital
Lily and/or tulip bulbs, offered by Cor, our nation’s premier lily man.

The arugula are now well ready for planting in the ground.
I have many hundred of such plants waiting for intelligent handling.
I also have gloriously productive plots eager for arugula plants at
325 E. Euclid Ave.

The basil must wait until the first week of June
For planting in the ground.
I have many hundred basils looking for cultivators,
Using my yard’s land, or other locations.

Would anyone with to become part of a cooperative experiment,
To see what can be made of hundreds of basil, arugula, & tulip starts,
Combined with the very potent soil I have been developing in
Compost piles and worm bins at my family mini-farm…

And also using salvaged wood from the ships container boxes at the docks,
While connecting with wise and experimenced garden coaches,
Eager to make Milwaukee

The Urban Agriculture/Aquaculture City of America?

Lots of Links About Worms and Composting

www.youtube.com enter Red Worm Composting (The Compost Guy) for set
up demo [8:15]
www.youtube.com enter The Worm Guy (Peak Moment video 58) for city
wide composting [27:53]
www.youtube.com enter Can O Worms for Heather Gorringe and Richard
Fishbourne’s four part series to show how to set up a new Can-O-Worms
wormery (funny and informative about a retail system set up).
www.youtube.com enter Worm Bins; Vermiculture, Worm Compost, etc.
into the search box

www.redwormcomposting.com a website for frequently asked questions
and concerns plus videos
www.wormdigest.org a website for the complete novice or the highly
scientifically minded vermiculturalists
www.wormpost.com includes a very lengthy glossary and large scale
composters, plus a worm song
www.wormfarmingsecrets.com/book/ a brochure to build your own city-
wide worm farm

Rose Hayden-Smith Victory Garden Grower Group Invite

Learn more about Victory Gardens, sustainable food systems and gardening:

http://ucanr.org/blogs/VictoryGrower_Blog/
Join the Victory Grower group on Facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=8791929891&ref=ts
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Seek: Green Entrepreneur Community Group Consignment Peddlers: The Lily Project

Barter/sell lilies today & this work week. Lilies 50 cents per bulb, minimum $10 purchase if I deliver along lake river communities. Price might change by Tuesday if I have any left. Might donate them by Friday to those who prove they can plant them over the weekend. Call 414 232 1336 for deliveries or scheduling pick-ups. Green entreprenuers/community groups consignment peddlers encouraged.

80 Page Guide to Setting Up Your Own Edible Rooftop Garden

The Rooftop Garden Project, based in Montreal, Canada, recently published an 80-page “Guide to Setting Up Your Own Edible Rooftop Garden.”

http://rooftopgardens.ca/en/node/1159

New List of Milwaukee Community Gardens

http://www.wisconline.com/greenmap/milwaukee/sites/food.html

Kilbourn Park Victory Garden Blog!

http://victorygardenmke.wordpress.com/
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Sweet Chickens Are Coming to Milwaukee!

Coverage of the Mad City Chickens screening many of you attended last night (300 people were there!):
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/43501267.html

TMJ4′s urban chicken story by Shorewoodian George Mallet (with video link):
http://www.620wtmj.com/news/local/43499062.html

Good food movement Archives