New York City recently passed a regulation banning bake sales from public schools with the exception of one per month and after 6 PM (when no one is around). So what’s left to sell? Doritos, pop-tarts, bags of cookies and other processed junk-food permitted by the Department of Education. Instead of home-baked items prepared with love, care and admittedly, a bit of sugar, children will be left with the choice of factory-prepared, chemical laden “food-like products” with advertisements plastered all over the packaging.

Eric Goldstein, chief executive of School Food and Transportation for the Department of Education, defends the plan to the New York Times as “one piece in a holistic wellness puzzle,” stating that 40 percent of the city’s 1.1 million school children are obese or overweight. But did these children become overweight from eating their parents’ baked goods? Overwhelming evidence gathered from research on food deserts, school lunch programs and home-cooking would argue otherwise. In fact, it’s that industrialized junk food that started Americans down the path of obesity.

Allowing junk food to be the sole snack option outside of lunch further encourages the bad habits of already-confused children and teens about what foods they should eat. Rather than urging parents to provide healthier options, the Department of Education has once-again bowed to the interests of large corporations and circumvented the “healthy food” discussion altogether. This regulation allows for heavy advertising throughout the schools by corporations such as Kellogg and Pepsi Cola setting the course for a lifetime of irresponsible food decisions.

Parents, children and other concerned individuals will not take this issue sitting down. NYC Green Schools has organized a “Bake-In” and rally at City Hall on Thursday, March 18^th from four to six. Public Advocate Bill DeBlasio and Council Member Gale Brewer will attend the rally and Brewer will re-introduce the regulation for appeal on March 25^th. With enough support, there is hope that home-baked goods will once again be the focus of the bake sale and children will be spared the further bombardment of junk and ads.

For me, there’s nothing more uplifting than meeting children who are excited about growing their own food.  So when the Sweetie and I travel, we often google around looking for Edible Schoolyards to visit.

In Phoenix, we really hit pay dirt!  Mrs. Molly Roberts, a retired science teacher called back to replace a teacher on pregnancy leave, happily accepted the challenge and went right back to work showing her students at the Lowell Elementary School how to plant a salsa garden.

Mrs. Roberts understands that kids will get excited about gardening when they know they’ll get to taste the results, so the children planted tomatoes, cilantro, onions, and chili peppers.  To top it off, they planted some strawberries in order to make strawberry ice cream.

The kids planted both sun and shade gardens and make daily log entries to compare how the plants grow differently in the two diverse environments.  Mrs. Roberts also uses the garden to teach about how plants grow, how sun affects plant health, why healthy soil is important, and how to be good gardeners.  The children also learn the value of composting.

In this clip you’ll see Mrs. Roberts and the children telling you exactly what they’re up to.  One of the students shows off the sun garden, and you’ll see how excited all the children are!  I’m the one in the background asking all the questions.

In the second clip, one of the students tells you about what she enters into her log.  Another shows us the shade garden.

Here’s the principal, Mrs. Rosanna Hidalgo, showing us around the campus, rightfully called La Tierra Buena.  Never have I seen a public school with such lovely grounds. And somehow, Mrs. Hidalgo was going to find the time to play basketball with the kids after school let out. As we chatted with her, she said hello by name to every child who passed by. Wish I had a principal like her when I went to Elementary School.

Photo by Mykl Roventine

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently released final regulations that will triple the amount of biofuels produced in the United States.  These new regulations implement the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS2), which mandates that transportation fuels sold in the United States contain a minimum of 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels per year by 2022, a massive increase from the current 12 billion gallons.

The RFS2 also requires that biofuels produced at new facilities achieve at least a 20 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions when compared with conventional fuels. According to the recent guidelines developed by the EPA, which created a new emissions accounting model, corn-based ethanol achieves a 21 percent emissions reduction, just enough to put the fuel above minimum polluting standards – barely.

While the biofuels industry was obviously happy, environmental groups greeted the new emissions model with skepticism. Jonathan Lewis, an attorney with the Clean Air Task Force, said that the “EPA appears to have bent over backward to allow some highly problematic biofuels to meet the environmental criteria set by Congress.”

While we are now on the path to a radical 300 percent increase in biofuels production, the EPA’s own Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) – a detailed examination developed by the agency to determine the potential impact of the RFS2 – warns of the effects of this expanded production on water resources. According to the RIA, “EPA anticipates that increased corn production for ethanol will increase the occurrence of nitrate, nitrite, and atrazine in sources of drinking water.” The RIA also states that “in addition to potential additional contamination of sources of drinking water, surface and ground water supplies may be strained by increased production of irrigated corn for ethanol and the ethanol production process itself in local and regional areas. Increased pumping from agricultural aquifers to support ethanol production may accelerate the long running depletion of aquifers which has been documented by the USGS.”

Concerns about the impact on water from biofuels production have been voiced before and are becoming louder. A little more than a year ago, then U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Dick Kempthorne, stated: “To reach our ethanol production target of 7.5 billion gallons per year by 2012 will require 30 billion gallons of water a year to process, or the amount of the annual water needs of Minneapolis, Minn. And if just 25 percent of the new corn crop requires irrigation, ethanol will demand more water than the combined annual usage of all cities in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho and Nevada. As we increase ethanol production, we must have a holistic approach that takes into account its impact on water supply.”

And late last year a report by the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan independent arm of Congress that investigates federal government spending, concluded that more research is needed regarding both the water impacts of feedstock cultivation and biofuel conversion, and more data on water resources is required as well.

With so many warnings and so many uncertainties, the rush to a massive increase in biofuels production looks nothing short of reckless.

Walking through the door of the renovated Bed-Stuy warehouse, you may ask yourself, “what is this place?” Ahead, people swipe cards and work on touch screens computers. To your left, a well-stocked lending library; further ahead, a sun-drenched stairway, and to the right, a cheery cafeteria. Is it an office, a government building, a co-op? Nope. You’ve just entered the St. John’s Bread & Life Food Pantry.

I visited Bread & Life last week as part of a Food Systems Network NYC meeting and was impressed by the efficiency and opportunity the facility offered. Yemi Oyename, Director of Food Services for St. John’s, gave us a tour. The award winning facility, renovated in 2008, contains a large industrial kitchen which serves out over 1,000 meals a day. Ms. Oyename laughs when telling us she quickly nixed the idea for a deep fryer, but in her humor you can see the dedication to not only feeding the poor, but providing healthy, whole foods.

Anthony Butler, Executive Director, spoke of a lack of “best practices” exchange among food pantries, mostly because the data does not exist. At Bread & Life, the computerized system lets them collect this data to see what food people want, what gets left behind and how often each member frequents the pantry. Bread & Life not only covers food services, but a realm of other issues including immigration and legal aid. One of their most successful programs helps people attain official state IDs, something many of us take for granted. They also provide a medical team, a tax event and access to personal voicemail and email.

This all encompassing action represents a proactive approach that many food pantries are taking to address the problems that perpetuate poverty. Light years beyond dull canned goods and processed foods, food pantries like Bread & Life are working on innovative, comprehensive programs that don’t just fill bellies, but also offer hope to those in need.

Reverend Robert Jackson of the Bed-Stuy Farm and the Brooklyn Rescue Mission spoke about the need for community support and fresh food. While hunger represents the most urgent need, how that hunger is addressed is important. Will it be through a CSA share and the garden in Bed-Stuy, or from government-provided packaged goods. Is the community involved in these decisions, or do mandates come down from somewhere above? Whether it is access to a garden or access to a computer, the extra efforts and sense of autonomy that Bread & Life and the Bed-Stuy Farm provide for their members may be the keys to success.

The Bed-Stuy Farm is presently collecting signatures and support to save their farm from being seized. To learn more, please visit their website.

A Video Valentine from Vote Solar from Vote Solar on Vimeo.

Just a couple of days left before the big day and our friends at Vote Solar are still looking for their Valentine.  They haven’t given up hope, though, because they released a video in which they spell out their every desire for a perfect match:

Dependable?  Bright?  A little unconventional? Oh yes, solar is all of these.

Typical studies for middle and high school students include calculus, biology, history and chemistry, but let’s face it, who really remembers the atomic weight of Scandium? While some lessons are quickly learned and quickly forgotten, there are certain themes that stick with students, particularly those affecting and applicable to everyday life. The recently released No Impact Project curriculum draws attention to issues surrounding modern consumption and teaches students how they can lead less wasteful and more meaningful lives.

The No Impact Project was born from the film and blog “No Impact Man,” in which New Yorker Colin Beaven and his family chose to live with as little environmental impact as possible for a year. Buying locally produced food and forgoing unnecessary shopping, public transportation, and even electricity at one point, Beaven and his family found that they gained much more than they lost during the project.  The No Impact Project transforms some of the lessons learned by Beaven and his clan into lesson plans that teachers can use to help students learn about sustainability.

The lessons plans are divided into five categories; consumption, energy, food, transportation and water, each paired with a related non-profit group, including the Eat Well Guide for food. Using video clips and excerpts from the book, the plans engage students through warm-up activities, in-class discussions and take home assignments.  For example the food lesson has students examine the packaging their food comes in and develop a meal plan based on locally sourced food. The energy lesson has students create a “top 10” list of ways to reduce their energy consumption.

The five lessons plans, developed for grades six through twelve by Cari Ladd, M.Ed. are just a taste of what students (and the rest of us) can do to decrease our environmental impact. Accordingly, the curriculum, based upon national standards, lists a plethora of resources, projects and activities students can pursue. And with such a wide range of topics, there is sure to be a personal interest for every student.

In an era where the average teen spends seven and a half hours watching TV, talking on the phone, texting and surfing the web, it is important to remind them that they really don’t need any of these things. While the idea of giving up electricity for half a year may be extreme, it is certainly an awakening to the fact one can live a fulfilling life with friends, family, books and good food with minimal waste.

This post was written by Sophy Bishop, Program Assistant at Sustainable Table.

This is the second in a series of “how-to” videos showcasing the knowledge and creativity of farmers who are have worked with the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program (SARE)—either as grant recipients, cooperators or leaders. In the first video, Jeanne Carver (Imperial Stock Ranch, Eastern Oregon) described her ranch’s approach to value-added marketing. Now we turn to the Midwest where Steven Schwen of Earthen Path Organic Farm (Lake City, Minnesota) has built an innovative greenhouse that allows him to extend his growing season while reducing energy costs. SARE’s Farmer-Rancher Grants program provided critical assistance for Schwen in the beginning phases of his project.

At Minnesota’s latitude, farmers who can extend their growing season have a distinct advantage in the marketplace: By offering a product outside the “normal” growing season, they can receive a higher price. That’s what Schwen has done with his greenhouse vegetable production, starting earlier in the year with seedlings of warm-season vegetables (tomatoes, cucumbers, basil and peppers), and continuing production into the fall and even the winter months when he grows cold-tolerant crops such as salad mix, cilantro, scallions and carrots. Season extension is a common enough practice, but what makes Schwen’s operation so unique is the added innovation of thermal banking, which significantly reduces the energy costs of running a greenhouse for cold-season production. Schwen’s simple description of thermal banking is that it’s like a savings account: Instead of money, you save (or store) energy for future use. In this case we are talking about the heat that accumulates in a greenhouse during the daytime, especially on sunny days.

For more, visit Cooking Up a Story.

A few days ago, the Sweetie and I visited a 10,000-foot edible schoolyard garden planted by and for elementary school children in S. Kihei, Maui.

What a joy to be surrounded by robust pole beans, herbs, and tomatoes all planted by second and third graders.

We met with three dedicated members of South Maui Sustainability who have volunteered specifically to make this schoolyard garden flourish.  Afterwards we visited with three dedicated teachers who talked about how they are using the garden to educate the children not only about gardening, but about math, biology, and eating more vegetables.

Everything we saw and heard proved blatantly wrongheaded the argument put forth by Caitlin Flanagan in a recent issue of The Atlantic Monthly that learning to garden is a waste of time for children. (To access Flanagan’s article and Corby Kummer’s round-up of schoolyard gardeners rebuttals, click here.)

In this first clip, (courtesy of the South Maui Sustainability group), you’ll see how volunteers helped Kihei Elementary 2nd grade teacher Alana Kaopuiki create the school garden. The video features one of Ms. Kaopuiki’s science classes as they plant and weed a garden bed with training provided by South Maui Sustainability member Blaze (Gene Weaver) and Emily Goss, the committee chair for school gardens and the inspiration behind this project.

What follows are some informal videos shot by Michael Steinman during our visit on January 20, 2010.  In the first few clips, we have a tour of the garden beds by Kathy Becklin (SMS, Master Gardener, in blue); Nio Kindla (garden caretaker and professional chef, in black) and  Kirk Surry (SMS volunteer, in grey).  I’m the one in a sleeveless black top, listening intently and asking the occasional question.  You’ll hear about the challenges of growing in this particular environment, including the wind which you’ll hear in the background.  I comment on the similarities I experienced when volunteering in the children’s program at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, one being that many children are afraid to get dirt on their hands.

In the last two clips, we continue indoors for a chat with teachers about the potential of the garden.  Included are Sharon Castile (third grade teacher, in green stripes); Alana Kaopuiki (second grade teacher, in grey and black stripes) and Roberta Kokx (third grade teacher, in black).

It surprised us to learn that despite the many farms on the island and the trees everywhere dripping with citrus, many of the children living on Maui don’t have access to fresh fruits and vegetables and have no idea how they grow or where they come from.

It turns out that despite a long-standing agricultural heritage and the lush environment for growing, over 90% of the food eaten on this island is imported–yet another example of our food system gone topsy turvy.

Although much of Maui is still planted in sugar cane, the pineapple plantations are close to defunct and there is plenty of land for growing.  Trouble for these kids is that most of their parents work two jobs and have no time to grow their own food.

When one of the children was asked where a tomato came from, he replied:  “the supermarket!”

We feel reassured that with the continued dedication of the teachers and volunteers we met on this memorable visit, the answer to this question will soon be “the earth.”

Have you visited the Sustainable Table website lately? It’s packed with information about why sustainable agriculture is so important to personal health, environmental health, community health, and more. Worried about disease (obesity, cancer, diabetes), climate change, the air you breathe, or the water you drink?  Care about fair labor standards, immigrants’ rights, family farmers, or the humane treatment of animals? Look to our current food system. Once you learn how interconnected these issues are with our failed industrial agriculture system, you really can’t turn back.

If you are reading this blog post, I’m going to guess that what I’m saying isn’t news to you If it is, I’m happy you are here! With all of this information in hand, what can we do to take this discussion to the next level? Spread the word about the healthy alternative – and help grow support for sustainable agriculture.

Spreading the word is something each one of us can do. The more people we educate, and the sooner we do it, the faster we will see improvements in our food system. You can help spread the word by talking to the people you know, writing letters to the editor and commenting on blog posts.  You can also do it by organizing events, such as lectures, film festivals, conferences, classes, teach-ins and other sustainably focused events… or how about a sustainable dinner party? That sounds like fun and we are here to help!

Sustainable table has a new, free and easy to download and use “Sustainable Dinner Party Kit” with lots of materials and ideas to help you share your love of sustainable food with friends, family and members of your extended community. The Sustainable Dinner Party Kit (found in the presentation kit section on the Sustainable Table website) features handouts to help you plan the party:

• “Getting Started” – explains how you can give your entire party a sustainable focus, not just the food.

• “The Food” – focuses on all the ingredients – vegetables, meat and drinks – and why sustainably raised food matters.

• “Themes” – offers ideas to make your party more creative and fun with suggestions for movie night, iron chef challenges, comfort foods – all with a sustainable twist.

Please check out the new kit when you have time and let us know if it’s helpful!

And remember, if you do want to spread the word through other types of events, we have dozens of free, downloadable materials to help you. Check out our Sustainable Food and Factory Farming kits with speeches, handouts, and display materials.

This post was written by Neysa King, one of the interns in this video.  About a year ago, Neysa left a PhD program in Boston and started interning on organic farms with her fiancée, Travis.  They are currently working on a small farm in Austin, Texas. You can follow their progress at Dissertation to Dirt.

Most major US newspapers —The New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal to name a few—have run articles about people like Travis and me.  Young urbanites, galvanized by the local food movement, are moving to the country “for a fresh start,” they say. These articles tend to paint us as idealists, politically motivated, disgusted by industrial agriculture and willing to sacrifice lives in the city to recapture a fading food culture.  The writers delve into our motivations, marvel at the manual labor and often chuckle a bit at our precocity.  But too quickly, they write us off as a locavorist fad, neglecting a much-needed discussion of farming as a modern career. What is really drawing young people, like Travis and me, to try to make legitimate careers out of organic food?  What are our plans for the future?  Will we succeed?  In the shadow of a towering industrial food system, can we succeed?  That’s the question I—we—face every day.

The reasons young urbanites move from cities to farms vary, but I’d venture a guess that they are based upon a shared experience.  Many of us stepped out of college into a diminishing economy, unpopular wars, a feeling of political invisibility and soured expectations in the job market.  “Twentysomething” took on a listless new overtone of a disillusioned generation promised  a solid future in college, but met with debt and difficulty after graduation.  At the same time, new realizations about global warming, synthetic pesticide and fertilizer use, industrial meat, over-processed foods and diet-related disease brought our current lifestyles under a microscope.

In that context, city kids pursuing organic farming is not difficult to explain at all.  It is, in fact, the perfect intersection of issues much of America’s youth has attached significance to in recent years: environmental preservation, sustainability, independence, local food chains, workers’ rights and personal health. For young urbanites, organic farming is more than a job; it is a conscious step toward realizing our worldview.  Farming allows us new relationships with food, with our environment, with our communities, and with our bodies.  Moving “back to the land,” then, is actually a progressive step forward.  It is a rejection of our circumstances.  In other words, young organic farmers are seeking to change the current state of things by producing an alternative.  I think this is the key to understanding young urbanites’ interest in organic farming: it is at once an affront and an offering to the status quo.

Yet, while farming is more than a job, making it a viable job becomes complicated. Interning on farms for the last year has not been without its difficulties.  While my internships have given me skills that only hands-on experience can, the path to getting my own land is unclear.  Even finding a good job on an organic farm is difficult, since most farmers can’t provide benefits like health insurance or retirement savings.  So, our stories are not just pastoral narratives about shucking off materialism; they are stories about trying to create a career in a field that is underappreciated and underfunded.

There are practical impediments to young people learning to farm, and until those are addressed, socially and politically, most will not consider farming as a career and local organic farms will remain on the fringes of American food.

More young adults are farming organically now than ever in the last 30 years, whether for a season or for a career.   But for this trend to continue, farming must incorporate the components of  a viable career: living wages, feasible business plans, health care options and the potential for growth.  Young formerly-urban farmers may help bring about these changes, using skills brought from their earlier lives.  My generation is not going to trade in our iPods for stirrup hoes.  At least I’m not.  I live on a farm, but I love the city. My Support Local Farming bumper sticker is firmly attached to my MacBook.  This is not a contradiction; in fact, a farmer in touch with, rather than at odds with, the city’s energy, technology, values and needs may be exactly what’s called for to help make sustainable farming—and local, organic food—America’s primary food source.