Huerto de la Familia (The Family Garden) is a partner organization that PHP supports. They do wonderful work to expand opportunities and training in organic agriculture and business creation to families with the least access, but whom have great potential to benefit. Huerto de la Familia is bringing life-changing opportunities to families in their community. Learn more about their mission, their work and how to support Huerto’s programs.

And watch their fabulous film series, “Harvest of Pride,” on their website!

A couple random items

1) Creative and waste-free ways to extend the life of your produce, in and out of the refrigerator

FRESH the Movie, in addition to being a great film (which you can borrow from PHP for showing) is a great resource for other things like extending the freshness of your produce!

Where you have strawberries, tomatoes or sweet corn, here are ways to store all those fruits and vegetables, especially if you’re trying to avoid using plastic bags, from the Berkeley Farmers Market. 

2) Hunger in Your County

And you can find out about hunger in your own county with this map from Feeding America which covers the entire country. I looked at the stats for the county where Louisville is located and was intrigued. The data is from 2010.

Clarksville is a community that is large and spread out. The neighborhoods that have fewer markets also tend to be less affluent niehgborhoods. These citizens are faced with a decision to either buy processed foods at a high price, or spend time and money on transportation to reach a farmer’s market or supermarket. 

Whenever Presbyterians approach our food and farm policies, we can hang our hats on our faith conviction “that God our Creator has made the world for everyone, and desires that all shall have daily bread” (UPCUSA, Minutes, 1979, p. 189). This underlying conviction of a right to food shapes our advocacy about agriculture and the food system.

With this value in mind, you can weigh in on the Farm Bill debates that are heating up in our nation’s capital ~ Write to your Senators about the Farm Bill today! This link takes you straight to the PCUSA which allows you to reach your Senators in less than a minute. Seriously. Time yourself.

“Why would I do that? you ask . . .

Well, our nation’s food and farm policies, as embodied in the U.S. Farm Bill, impact people and communities from rural America, to urban centers, to developing countries – hundreds of millions of people! In the current budget climate, the Farm Bill’s limited resources must be targeted effectively where the need is greatest. We must prioritize programs and policies that curb hunger and malnutrition, support vibrant agricultural economies in rural communities, and promote the sustainable use of natural resources.

The PC(USA) Office of Public Witness has joined with the interfaith community to call for a Farm Bill that promotes local food security in the U.S. and around the world, strengthen rural communities, and care for the land as God’s creation. 

The Senate is currently debating the reauthorization of the Farm Bill – the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act of 2012 – and consideration promises to drag out for over a week, as hundreds of amendments will be offered.  Your Senators need to hear from you about a just and healthy Farm Bill.

The letter will do this automatically, but let’s lay out the important issues. What we want is a Farm Bill that:

1. Restores cuts to the SNAP program, while reforming crop insurance subsidies.  Senator Gillibrand has introduced an amendment to this effect.
2. Fully funds conservation programs, such as the Conservation Stewardship Program, and preserves the conservation compact, making sure that enrollment in any new insurance subsidies are tied directly to compliance with conservation programs.
3. Includes full mandatory funding for Socially Disadvantaged Farmers through the 2501 title. Senator Udall has introduced an amendment to this end.
4. Includes all elements of the Local Farms, Food, and Jobs Act (S. 1773) introduced by Senator Brown.
5. Includes the Packer Ban to limit consolidation in the meat industry, in accordance with the amendment introduced by Senator Grassley.
6. Robustly funds the Rural Development title, which is essential for spurring rural economic activity and creating jobs.
7. Shifts our food and farm policy away from price supports that advantage the large, industrial farms, and instead levels the playing field for small and medium-sized growers, as well as a new generation of farmers.          

Right?!

U.S. food and agricultural policy must focus on adopting best agricultural practices that put the health of its citizens, the land and the livelihood of farmers and farm workers over the interests of a small number of large, industrial agriculture operations.  Stand up to protect not only farmers, without whom we would all go hungry, but to enact a food and farm bill that fairly and judiciously serves the interests of all Americans. 

In a 1985 statement, the Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly wrote “we believe it is the responsibility and duty of the Federal government to enact a comprehensive, long-term food and fiber policy, with specific price, production and conservation goals designed to protect and enhance family-farm agriculture in the United States … We believe further that this nation must establish a strong system of sustainable agriculture and prevent the continuing concentration of land in the hands of a smaller and smaller number of owners” (Minutes, 1985, p. 399).

You’re still reading? Click here and register your beliefs with your civil servants sitting in Congress.

Now!

Today, June 5^th, is not only the transit of Venus in front of the sun, but it is also when all these things are happening:

• World Environment Day

• Rio+20 Day of Action

• 15 days to the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (and the parallel People’s Summit).

Better late than never, right?

On June 18-22, Environmental Ministries staffer, Rebecca Barnes-Davies will attend the People’s Summit with the World Council of Churches delegation. She will be watching the development at the UNCSD, learning from workshops at the People’s Summit, and blogging on Eco-Justice Journey for Presbyterians about her experiences while in Rio. She hopes this will help us gain a better global understanding of our call to care for God’s creation, even as we continue our local efforts in our own places.

So to help celebrate the day, perhaps you might:

• Participate in a World Environment Day activity or a Rio+20 Day of Action.

• Learn more about Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development 

• Read about various concerns, hopes, and vision for the People’s Summit:

• Stakeholder Forum

• Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance

• Via Campesina

• Use this faith reflection resource on Rio+20 preparations

• Pray for the outcomes of Rio+20

• Explore PCUSA environment and energy policies

And since this is the Food and Faith Blog, learn about the connections between food and climate and climate and food.

Finally, contact me at Andrew.KangBartlett@pcusa.org if you want to be on the next Open Food Justice Call–Thursday, June 14 at 4:00 pm eastern time. The theme is, yup, “Climate Change: Why Food Matters A LOT!”

The Presbyterian Hunger Program is encouraged by the emergence of the many faith-based initiatives sprouting up around the country to bring resilience to our food system, and health to people and God’s Creation. These efforts often engage youth and multiple generations, result in greater food security, give people decision-making power over their food, increase healthy eating, create jobs and local economic growth, support local family farmers, use land ecologically, raise awareness about local and global hunger and poverty, and encourage a view of food as sacred and as a right for all people. When done well, such initiatives are wonderful ways to build relationships, community and power. We are eager to support this work as one small way we can help build God’s vision of a New Heaven and New Earth.

Emily Rooney, garden coordinator at The Glory Hole, explains that nearly all of the food available in Juneau is either flown or shipped in, “Juneau is in a sensitive spot…if there was a transportation glitch for a week, we wouldn’t be able to feed ourselves.”

The strawberry season in Kentucky is only 2-3 weeks, so when the time comes, you have to get your hands on as many berries as possible. 

When it comes to food and fairness, few populations are more consistently disregarded than our nation’s incarcerated individuals.  Sentenced to time away from friends and families, and kept indoors with little access to fresh air and community engagement can leave inmates even more broken and disjointed from society than ever before.

The cost of detention does not present itself solely through spiritual degradation for inmates; it also presents a very real financial cost to American taxpayers at roughly $129/day (estimate based on 2009 California State Prisons cost analysis).  This money goes to inmate healthcare, security, feeding, administration and rehabilitation.  One jailer in Woodford County Kentucky decided as part of his term to cut some of those costs and engage inmates in taking ownership for their food and their well-being.

This week’s Food Fighter, Jailer Johnny Jones

Read more. . .

The radish is an easily recognizable and common garden crop.  It is a member of the brassica family, which includes other veggies like turnips, cauliflower, mustard and kale.  I like to think of radishes as cabbage’s crunchier cousin or broccoli’s baby brother.