Fresh Food!
Support the Campaign for a Fair Farm Bill

By Tia Lebherz of Food and Water Watch

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About every four years, the farm bill comes up for reauthorization by Congress. Many people –  especially those living in urban areas, far away from any farm land –  have never heard of the farm bill and don’t think is has anything to do with their lives.  However, in reality, this is one major piece of federal legislation that everyone should be keeping an eye on.

The farm bill determines how the food we eat reaches our plate. It includes everything from nutrition programs for low income families, or SNAP (formerly food stamps), to land conservation and over 1,000 pages worth of in-betweens. 

What is currently not included in the farm bill are protections that ensure fair markets for our small and mid-sized independent farmers, nor rules that prevent ever-increasing mega-mergers by big agribusiness. And that is exactly what Food & Water Watch’s Fair Farm Bill Campaign is all about.

Our current food system is broken, and it didn’t happen by accident. Decades of bad food policy designed to benefit agribusinesses and mega-farms, combined with unchecked corporate mergers, have wreaked havoc on family farmers, public health and rural communities.

Our food system is no longer working for most Americans. Most supermarket aisles do not offer good, nutritious foods as feasible shopping options. What you will find is an abundance of cheap, processed foods that are generally unhealthy, or meat from factory farms produced with antibiotics and artificial hormones and vegetables raised with pesticides that are often produced halfway around the world.

At the same time, small and medium-sized family farmers across the U.S. have been driven out of business or are barely making ends meet. Our country is losing its farming backbone because big companies set unfair prices for livestock and crops, cheating small and medium-sized farmers out of money they need to cover their costs. The companies get away with it because farmers often don’t have anywhere else to sell their products.

Corporate consolidation of our food system is pushing our small and mid-sized farmers out of business, while large companies like are making record profits.

Find out how you can get involved in leveling the playing field for us all.  See below.

Tia Lebherz
Field Organizer
Food and Water Watch
216.200.7960 (google voice)
310.963.0789 (mobile)
tia@greencorps.org

LEARN MORE:http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/food/fair-farm/

SIGN THE PETITON:http://action.foodandwaterwatch.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=9179

Emerging Leaders:
Hard at Work!

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Our emerging Leaders had lots of fun creating posters promoting our February Souper Saturday! 

Ms. Foster one of the Blaine Avenue Community Gardeners and Ms. Spivey, the Hough Youth Librarian engaged 24 youth aged 4 - 14 in this fun activity.

I was so pleased to watch these young people bring their own experiences into play when creating their posters.  I
 can't wait until the weather breaks and we can see their creativity in the garden!  For now please enjoy their work at the link below.

https://picasaweb.google.com/117417241875462723468/EmergingLeaderWorkshopPromotingSouperSaturdayPlantFamilies?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Green Your St. Patty's Day

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Date/Time:  March 17, 2012 - 9:30am - 12:00pm

Location:   City Rising Farm 8814 Blaine Ave. Cleveland, OH
See map: Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, MapQuest

Please join Food and Water Watch’sFair Farm Bill Campaign, City Rising Farm, Blaine Avenue Community Garden and The Green Triangle for a Day of Action at City Rising Farm. Refreshments provided.

RSVP here.

The Fair Farm Bill Campaign in Cleveland and our partners invite the community to come out to help City Rising Farm get prepared for its Spring planting season and take action for a fair farm bill. We will be working at City Rising’s permaculture garden location and learning more about why the farm bill is so important and what we can do to shift the power away from big corporations and back in to the hands of our farmers and eaters.

The Farm Bill is a piece for federal legislation that governs all the agricultural policy in
 the country. It comes through congress once every 5 years and 2012 is one of those years.

City Rising Farm’s mission is to help people in underserved communities learn to grow fresh local food and build healthy long lasting relationships with each other so they can use those skills and relationships to create opportunities in their own neighborhoods.

For more information, contact Tia Lebherz at 310.963.0789 or tia@greencorps.com.

SOUPER SATURDAYS

March: The Blurb About Herbs!

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March's Souper Saturday, The Blurb About Herbs!

Our incredible team of gardeners, organizers and community partners put on another great day of fun... this time on the subject of herbs.  The dynamic duo of Josh Koppen and Lara Roketenetz engaged us all in creating decoupage planters to put our mini herb gardens they showed us how to plant in.  We then made sachets with dried lavender flowers.  Hmmm, hmmm what a wonderful fragrance that was!

Lunch was chock full of herbs.  We had bread, herb butter, herb cheese, lavendar cookies, roasted potates with rosemary, tomato basil soup,  lentil sprouts and salad.  We also had chamomile and berry iced teas.  We were full as little bunnies in the lettuce patch when we left.

As always we captured the fun for those of you who were unable to make it.  Please feel free to check it all out at the link below.

https://picasaweb.google.com/117417241875462723468/SouperSaturdayTheBlurbAboutHerbsMarch2012?authuser=0&feat=directlink

February: Plant Families and Companion Planting

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February's Souper Saturday, Plant Families and Companion Planting

Friends, food and fun, 'nough said!

See the pictures at the following link.

https://picasaweb.google.com/117417241875462723468/SouperSaturdayPlantFamiliesAndCompanionPlanting?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Souper Saturday:
The Blurb about Herbs
March 10, 2012

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City Rising Farm, our Blaine Avenue Community Gardeners, and our Hough Library community partners are presenting Souper Saturdays a series of hands on workshops for youth and adults on the second Saturday of each month from January through June.  Topics  include but are not limited to  agriculture, gardening, and community building and are free.

The workshops will take place at the Hough Branch of the Cleveland Public Library located at 1566 Crawford Rd., Cleveland,  OH  44106.

The schedule is as follows.

10:00 am - 12:00 pm 
Youth session 
Herbs
Instructor - Josh Koppen, Natural Builder, Permaculture Activist

12:00 - 1:00 pm   Lunch
Soup, bread, salad provided by City Rising Farm and the Blaine Avenue Community Gardeners

1:00 - 3:00 pm  Adult session 
Herbs, Planting and Uses
Instructors - Josh Koppen, Natural Builder
Terah McNeal

Please RSVP to info@cityrisingfarm.com  or 216-376-3640 so that we can be sure that we have enough supplies for all who would like to attend.

http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=404

Free Screening of the Documentary ‘Fresh’

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WHEN: March 22  6:30 -  9 p.m.

WHERE:
Deuteronomy 8:3 Cafe Books & Music
1464 East 105 Street , Cleveland, Ohio 44106  (Glenville)

Cleveland’s Fair Farm Bill Campaign, City Rising Farm and Deuteronomy
8:3 Cafe Books & Music will host a free screening of Fresh, an
important documentary about our food system.

Fresh celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across
America who are re-inventing our food system. Each has witnessed the
rapid transformation of our agriculture into an industrial model and
confronted the consequences: food contamination, environmental
pollution, depletion of natural resources and morbid obesity. Forging
healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision for
the future of our food and our planet.

Among several main characters, Fresh features:

• urban farmer and activist Will Allen, recipient of MacArthur’s 2008
Genius Award.
• sustainable farmer and entrepreneur Joel Salatin, made famous by
Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
• supermarket owner David Ball, challenging our Wal-Mart dominated economy.

Seating for the movie begins at 6:20 p.m.  Come early to grab some of Deuteronomy 8:3 Cafe Books & Music  delicious food.

The movie will start at 6:45 p.m. Run time is approximately 74
minutes. Discussion and action stations to follow.

Northeast Pre-Release Center:
Garden Design Contest

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Read their story at the link below.

http://www.cityrisingfarm.com/thank-you-northeast-pre-release-center-souper-saturday-0212.html

Don't forget to vote!

http://www.cityrisingfarm.com/northeast-pre-release-center-garden-design-entries.

Photo used under Creative Commons from Lollie-Pop