October 24, 2014 | Nina Ignaczak

USDA Creates New Website for Climate Hubs

Excerpt: On Wednesday, October 22, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) launched a new website dedicated to its regional climate change “hubs,” which the Department created in 2013.  USDA maintains seven hubs–Pacific Northwest, Southwest, Northern Plains, Southern Plains, Midwest, Southeast, and Northeast–and three sub-hubs–Caribbean, Northern Forests, and California.  USDA created the three sub-hubs where “special aspects of biogeography, production systems, sector needs, or demographics suggested the need for focused work at a sub-regional scale.”

Source: sustainableagriculture.net

The Nation’s Largest Rooftop Farm Could Also Help Transform a Chicago Neighborhood

Excerpt: New York’s Gotham Greens rooftop farming operation recently announced that it would be expanding and building the nation’s largest rooftop farm in Chicago’s Pullman neighborhood. It’s a boon for both rooftop agriculture and for the Windy City’s mission to become an urban farming hub.

Source: Civil Eats

Investing in sustainable agriculture by converting farms to ‘beyond organic’

Excerpt: Farmland LP, a San Francisco-based fund and farmland manager pursues this goal by converting conventional mid-size farms to multi-crop “beyond organic” properties that use a closed-loop, where everything on the farm stays there, a process that reintegrates livestock, also making the system sustainable.

Source: The Guardian

Valent U.S.A. Corporation and MGK Enter into Marketing Agreement to Grow Sustainable Agriculture Brands across U.S.

Excerpt: alent U.S.A. Corporation (Valent) announced today an agreement with Minneapolis-based MGK to manage the marketing and sales of MGK’s crop protection line of insect control products within the United States beginning April 1, 2015.

Source: Business Wire

Boulder to partner in local food marketing campaign

Excerpt: A new campaign will aim to start off a “virtuous cycle” by getting Boulder County consumers to buy more local food and create a market for more farmers to grow it.

“Making Local Food Work” began in Boulder two years ago as an ad hoc group of educators, government officials and local food advocates. Those members are now formalizing their relationship, raising money and hoping to begin a major marketing campaign in 2015.

Source: Boulder News

Sacramento food activists push for urban farms

Excerpt: The ordinance is expected to reach the Sacramento City Council by the end of the year, and is being assessed by the county as well, said Matt Read, an organizer with Sacramentans for Sustainable Community Agriculture, a group that is promoting the idea of urban farming.

Source: Sacramento Bee

Oakland plowing a path for urban farming on vacant lots

Excerpt: Oakland’s getting ready for a rhubarb revolution.

After four years of planning, the city is poised to eliminate bureaucratic roadblocks for urban gardeners, making it easier for residents to turn the city’s 3,000 vacant lots into fields of arugula and marigolds.

Source: SFGate

All the News That’s Fit to Eat: Soda’s Aging Power, Antibiotics in Fish, and Unlimited Pesticides 

Source: Civil Eats