(ROC) believes that the best way to make the food system sustainable is to connect and support the people and parts within the system that have the knowledge, roles, relationships and commitments required to successfully manage a rapid transformation. A food policy consortium meeting in July, 2009 focused on the issues of food security, foodsheds, and public-private partnerships to accelerate change. Many now believe it only a matter of time until this welcome and healthy set of ideas takes over the body politic.SF Mayor Newsom Announces First Regional Food Policy in US knitting the many elements required to create a functional foodshed that serves rich and poor. Mayor Newsom’s directive calls out the need to prioritize healthy food access and the interdependence of rural and urban communities in a period of economic crisis. aims to increase the amount of local food grown and eaten in the town. Businesses, schools, farmers and the community are all involved. Vegetables and fruit are springing up everywhere. Pubic flower beds being transformed into community herb gardens and vegetable patches. a "collaborative effort to build more locally based, self-reliant food economies - one in which sustainable food production, processing, distribution, and consumption is integrated to enhance the economic, environmental and social health of a particular place" Web Video: Eat the Suburbs: Gardening for the End of the Oil Age a letter from the National Organic Coalition to members of Congress on how organic agriculture reduces Local Harvest -- Farmers Markets / Family Farms / CSAs / Organic Food Local Sources of Grass-Fed Meats, Eggs and Dairy -- along with wild-caught seafood, produce, nuts, honey, and more. Ecology Action -- the group that developed biointensive gardening and the concept of mini-farms, highly productive, resource-conserving, low-capital-input, cost-effective small farms and gardens. Books for Transition from Chelsea Green Publishing Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture -- by Toby Hemenway Newly expanded introduction to permaculture for the home gardener, now with a new chapter on urban permaculture,Permaculture Videos on Permaculture Activist Food without Freezing or Canning: Traditional Techniques Using Salt, Oil, Sugar, Alcohol, Vinegar, Drying, Cold Storage, and Lactic Fermentation -- by The Gardeners and Farmers of Centre Terre Vivante.Canning Resources and Canning Parties -- NY Times article Root Cellars Discussion --on -- The Oil Drum Plow to Plate -- Helping young people, and their communities, learn about healthy food. New Crops for Farms, and, Perhaps, Profits -- NY Times article Innovation to the Rescue Urban Vertical Farms proposals for creating multi-story structures for sustainable organic food production within cities. |