April 1, 2016 | seedstock

1 Connecting local agriculture with education [Tillamook Headlight Herald]

Excerpt: In 2014, Tillamook Bay Community College officially launched its Agriculture and Natural Resources degree program. This Associate of Applied Science (AAS) Degree was the result of a unique partnership between the college, community, industry partners and organizations.                

2 Local farmers filtering into social media [TH Online]

Excerpt: Inspired by a Facebook page called The Adventures of Dairy Carrie, Kristi Bellmann turned to social media about five years ago to advocate for owners of small farms.                 

3 Grit and grace: Female Farmer Project reinvents traditional image of farming [Seattle Times]

Excerpt: Penny the sow, a newborn pink piglet when Mulkern visited Redfeather Farm in Duvall last year, has turned out to be a fabulous mother. “Come out, pig pig pig,” Veranth calls in a singsong voice.                 

4 Lawmakers support Minnesota urban agriculture effort [Bemidji Pioneer]

Excerpt: Forget farms taking up thousands of acres, massive tractors and full grain bins. Instead, the Minnesota House Agriculture Policy Committee on Wednesday turned its attention to urban farming, small plots that often produce vegetables for families.                   

5 St. Roch Market in New Orleans launches urban farmers market [The Times-Picayune]

Excerpt: Not all vegetables grow in the country. Since Katrina, urban farming has become more popular in New Orleans. Next Sunday (April 3), St. Roch Market will hold its first urban farmers market.                  

6 How to help fight childhood hunger? Open a market inside a school. [The Boston Globe]

Excerpt: An hour after dismissal, a line of parents and their exuberant children has already formed outside the large activity room in the Kennedy-Longfellow School, waiting for the monthly K-Lo Market to open.                 

7 Growing a local food system in Tahoe [KUNR]

Excerpt: It’s spring and that means our farmer’s markets will be opening up again soon. Meanwhile, a new approach to local food is bringing fresh veggies to the masses up in Tahoe.                  

8 USDA Blog » Unlocking the toolkit for stronger local food systems [USDA]

Excerpt: Every community wants to support initiatives that promote economic growth and create new jobs, but sometimes it can be hard to decide on the best way to accomplish these goals.  Now there is a new resource to help communities make the economic case for investments in local food.                 

9 Black farmers in Detroit are growing their own food. But they’re having trouble owning the land. [PRI]

Excerpt: Lorenzo Herron is a 26-year-old Detroit native and urban farmer. His degree in agribusiness from Michigan State University brought him back to Detroit in 2012, where he began growing cherries, raspberries, strawberries and mulberries on the city’s east side.               

10 Forgotten Harvest to merge successful for-profit food subsidiary into Detroit Eastern Market incubator

Excerpt: The nonprofit food rescue plans to merge the for-profit Hopeful Harvest Foods Inc. subsidiary it launched less than two years ago into SEED, the food incubator/accelerator operated by Detroit’s Eastern Market Corp. and Garden Fresh founder Jack Aronson.             

11 Instead Of tossing out our food, what if we just fed it to an energy producing machine? [KUNC]

Excerpt: Food waste is an expensive problem. The average U.S. family puts upward of $2,000 worth of food in the garbage every year. What some see as a problem, others see as a business opportunity.                 

12 A no-nonsense guide to growing food in your apartment [City Lab]

Excerpt: Once, the roof was silver tar, sticky and blinding in the summer heat like a melting spaceship. Now, it’s a green oasis three stories above the ground.

13 A ski town greenhouse takes local produce to another level [New York Times]

Excerpt: Vertical Harvest, a multilevel hydroponic greenhouse in downtown Jackson, Wyo., is bringing year-round fresh vegetables to a place better known for its snow.                   

14 Connecticut’s ‘vertical ocean farmer’ wants to change world’s food supply system [Hartford Courant]

Excerpt: Bren Smith’s “vertical ocean farm” doesn’t look very impressive, just some black and white buoys bobbing in the waves off Long Island Sound’s Thimble Islands.                  

15 Conserve Alabama – Effort to support conservation, small and urban farms in Alabama launched [Cullmansense]

Excerpt: Against the backdrop of the Alabama River at the Union Station Train Shed, the Alabama Soil & Water Conservation Committee (SWCC) launched a new initiative to continue its mission of conserving Alabama’s natural resources: Conserve Alabama.                

16 Not all community gardens are created equal [New Food Economy]

Excerpt: In More Than Just Food: Food Justice and Community Change, scholar-activist Garrett Broad casts a critical gaze on the food justice movement.