February 26, 2016 | seedstock

 

1 In Flint, Mich., moving the farmers market drew more poor shoppers [NPR]

Excerpt: Flint’s water woes are in the news, but the city is also a food desert. When its farmers market moved closer to public transportation, it made healthy foods more accessible to low-income shoppers.    

          

2 Toledo neighbors, city farmer at odds [Toledo Blade]

Excerpt: Would-be urban farmer Thomas Jackson harvested a crop of complaints in a meeting Wednesday night aimed at giving his Auburn Avenue neighbors a chance to vent. Mr. Jackson has been piling truckloads of wood chips on vacant lots centering on Auburn and Milburn avenues.              

3 Culinaria set to open urban farm close to San Antonio Medical Center [Express News]

Excerpt: Imagine a fence covered in flowers and produce that surrounds a gathering spot where children are growing their own produce and using it to cook nutritious meals while using sustainable farming practices that most adults never have heard of.               

4 Chickens now welcome in Will County, Illinois yards [Chicago Tribune]

Excerpt: Maria McLean wanted to give her three children a fun hands on lesson in raising chickens, but it turned into a civics lesson for the entire family.                

5 Cultivating relationships, connecting kids and schools back to real food [Second Wave Media]

Excerpt: Sprout’s successes show building relationships is what it takes to bring about change in how people get food.       

6 University Of Arkansas design team wins award for urban agriculture plan [5 News Online]

Excerpt: The University of Arkansas Design Center has received national recognition for a project centered around Urban Agriculture. Director Steve Luoni said the project is called the “Food City Scenario,” and he said it’s aimed to answer one key question.                    

7 Is urban farming only for rich hipsters? [The Guardian]

Excerpt: Farms are springing up in cities across Europe, but if they exclude lower income groups they’ll do little to help shift towards sustainable food system.            

8 How Mike Callicrate built an alternative cattle empire from ranch to retail [New Food Economy]

Excerpt: For years, rancher-activist Mike Callicrate has argued that livestock farmers are in an impossible position: they can’t go big, and they can’t go small.                   

9 How Italy’s oranges are linked to a modern day story of exploitation [The Guardian]

Excerpt: Thousands of migrants are living in squalid conditions in Rosarno, southern Italy, harvesting oranges for consumers across Europe.                 

10 Liberty Prairie Foundation announces local food micro-grant program in Lake County, Illinois [Chicago Tribune]

Excerpt: The Liberty Prairie Foundation recently announced a request for proposals for the release of its Lake County Community Food Systems Micro-grant Program. This program provides grants ranging from $500-$2,500 to support projects that will make local, fresh food more accessible and affordable.

11 Southeast sustainability: Local food systems are not inherently sustainable [The Post]

Excerpt: Over the past half century or so, agriculture increasingly has become a consolidated entity. Farming now is predominately industrial, mostly done by machines and focused on increasing production.           

12 Getting food to people who need it most [The Boston Globe]

Excerpt: The director of the Weymouth Food Pantry converted its system from one where people would come to a distribution center to a mobile operation, bringing the food to recipients by truck.         

13 The Black Panther Party: A food justice story [Huffington Post]

Excerpt: For most of my life, I didn’t know much about the Black Panther Party. As a white kid born the same year that Martin Luther King, Jr. became the name of a national holiday, the stories I did hear about the Panthers weren’t very inspiring.                 

14 Jacksonville, Florida mayor brings fresh produce to city’s food deserts [Food Coast News]

Excerpt: Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry is on a mission to make sure everyone in our community, no matter where they live, has access to healthy food.                

15 One mom turns food into cash for farmers [CNBC]

Excerpt: Linda Mallers, a Wisconsin mother of four, tells CNBC how she turned a P.T.A fundraiser into a business that helps local farmers.            

16 Zero Percent turns to crowdfunding to prevent food waste [Chicago Tribune]

Excerpt: Distributing food to the needy is often more problematic than supplying it in Chicago. Good food goes to waste at downtown restaurants because nonprofits, many of which are located on the outskirts of the city, don’t have the resources to go pick up leftovers.             

17 Aquaponics aim to change Kansas City’s Eastside [University News]

Excerpt: When you think of the east side of Kansas City, urban areas around the nation and poor nations around the world, you can picture poverty, crime, food deserts and urban blight. On the east side of Troost, that reality is vividly so.                  

18 Could growing food in gravel be pay dirt for sustainable agriculture? [Sustainable Brands]

Excerpt: A new age in gardening is dawning: Geological agriculture, aka gravel gardening — a completely soil-less way to grow all kinds of crops in sedimentary rock.