From the monthly archives:

May 2010

USDA Report: Local Food Markets Growing, Effects on Health Still Unclear

by Editor May 29, 2010 environment

Share By Susan Richardson Farmers markets and other  direct sales of produce to consumers account for a small, but growing, share of U.S. agricultural production, according to a new report by the Economic Research Service, a program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  “For smaller farms, direct marketing to consumers accounts for a higher percentage [...]

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Shabazz Food Hub connects farms and cities

by Editor May 27, 2010 Community
Greens

Share A young volunteer at Shabazz Food Hub Market Days By Susan Richardson The smell of mustard greens sautéed in olive oil with garlic fills the air in an auditorium at Betty Shabazz International Charter School in Chicago.  People browse and buy produce and seedlings on a Saturday afternoon. It is Market Day at the Shabazz [...]

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GREEN FESTIVAL REPORT: Benefiting from the Green Economy

by Editor May 23, 2010 Community

Share COMMENTARY By Susan Richardson As Nicholas Lemann explains in The Promised Land, the advent of the mechanical cotton picker in the 1940s displaced black sharecroppers, adding to the Great Migration of African-Americans from the South to the North. Technological changes have always had an economic, social and racial impact.  Today, as we face another economic shift – [...]

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How far does your food travel?

by Cassandra West May 22, 2010 global food systems

Share We found the above chart while reading a 2003 report from the Agriculture Footprint Brief titled “Eating up the Earth: How Sustainable Food Systems Shrink Our Ecological Footprint.” The local-food movement goes beyond city dwellers’ desire to work in a garden because it’s a cool idea. It has strong ecological implications we all should [...]

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Hull-House farm (Episode 2): Some soup and signs of growth

by Cassandra West May 21, 2010 Community
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Share We promised a few weeks ago in a post about the Hull-House Museum urban farm that we’d return with regular updates on its 2010 growing season. We got back to the farm to record Episode 2 (see video below) this week after stopping in at the weekly (Tuesdays) Re-Thinking Soup lecture and lunch, a [...]

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Tom Tresser, Green Party candidate for Cook County Bd. president, talks urban agriculture

by Cassandra West May 19, 2010 Community

Share Seeding Chicago met Tom Tresser, Green Party candidate for Cook County Board president, last Saturday following a live broadcast of “The Mike Nowak Show” (WCPT 820-AM), held at Third Unitarian Church in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood. The special radio broadcast, called “Growing in Austin,” featured urban agriculture activists and community development groups, including CEDA (Community [...]

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Building Community in Woodlawn

by Editor May 17, 2010 Community
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Share By Susan Richardson Seeding Chicago talked to Benjamin “Benja” Murphy, coordinator of the 65th and Woodlawn Community Garden, about the connection between gardens and community redevelopment. Share

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Local food production could yield big economic benefits

by Cassandra West May 16, 2010 Green movement

Share If Midwestern farmers raised the fruit and vegetables eaten in the Heartland, they could create thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in income, according to a study reported recently by the Associated Press. The Iowa State University study looked at what would happen if farmers in six states — Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, [...]

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