By Rosalin Luetum

More than 5,000 people attended last month's Brooklyn Food Conference presented by Brooklyn Food Coalition (BFC).  According to BFC Coordinator Nancy Romer, most attendees found it to be the most diverse event they have participated in, in terms of class, race, age, gender, employment and interests.  Judging from the audiences, two of the biggest priorities that emerged from the day's conversations were school food and labor.  The largest groups -- parents, teachers and youth -- came out for school food reform, pushing for greater investment in fresh fruits and vegetables, local sourcing of food, school gardens and food studies in the curriculum. Discussion in the labor workshops proposed legislation that would guarantee the right to organize, be collectively represented, and establish safe working conditions, living wages and paid sick days for all workers. In Romer's words, the conference was a "mass popular education event that helped to define and grow the food movement."  To learn more and find out how to help build the movement, visit BKFoodConference.org.

 *The update is a continuation of a Q and A with Nancy Romer that took place prior to the Brooklyn Food Conference. Read the original article here.

Image: Schoharie County, photo courtesy of Dougtone via Flickr Commons

Image: New York City, photo courtesy of Nadavspi via Wikimedia Commons

by Abby Youngblood

On May 12, five thousand people from New York City and beyond gathered at the Brooklyn Technical High School for the 2012 Brooklyn Food Conference.  The conference included a Youth Summit with over 300 youth and more than 150 workshops across a broad spectrum of food systems issues.  Workshops topics ranged from discussions about culture, spirituality, labor, health, hunger, emergency food, entrepreneurship and the Farm Bill to hands-on sessions on making compost and fermenting cabbage.  Throughout the day, “mega- workshops” took place in the school auditorium on food policy issues, hydraulic fracturing (or “fracking”), and on building partnerships across urban and rural divides.

by Rosalin Luetum

Photo: Courtesy of encore.org

In anticipation of the second Brooklyn Food Conference on May 12th, Rosalin Luetum touched base with Nancy Romer (pictured left), the General Coordinator of the Coalition, to learn how the 'movement' has made strides and what the priority areas are now.

Rosalin Luetum (RL): The Brooklyn Food Coalition effort has been an impressive grass roots movement since it kicked off with the 2009 conference. Lots has happened in Brooklyn around food in particular over these last 3 years.  As you anticipate and plan for this next and much bigger conference, we have some questions about the developments in this 'movement' from 2009 until now. Over the last three years:

RL: What would you say are the most significant developments in the 'good food movement' in Brooklyn?

Nancy Romer (NR): The biggest change has been in people’s consciousness.  It has been a huge leap forward in the food movement.  With that change has come the cross-fertilization of ideas in areas such as urban agriculture, providing access to healthy foods for all, sustainable agriculture, school food, and justice for food workers. 

Awareness has been the biggest and most important piece, and there are a lot of other smaller pieces under that.  For example, in terms of urban agriculture, more people are growing food at home and tending home gardens.  The anti-fracking movement is exciting and powerful.  With food workers, there are important campaigns shining a lot on sweatshops working to change current work conditions.  The food co-op movement has been growing, and parents are working to improve the food in their kids’ schools.

by Challey Comer

Photo: Cross River Resevoir, courtesy of @JoshDickPhoto.com

Conservation programs that benefit rural farmers impact urban residents of New York City (NYC) by way of watershed management for the City’s water supply.  The NYC Watershed, a system of 19 reservoirs and 3 controlled lakes spanning from the lower Hudson Valley to the northern Catskills, utilizes programs within the Conservation Title of the Farm Bill through a public-private partnership.  The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) partners with the Watershed Agricultural Council (Council), a nonprofit organization located in the NYC Watershed.  The Council works with over 1,000 landowners in an eight-county region to implement conservation practices that protect the City’s drinking water quality.  For nearly 20 years, the Council has offered voluntary programs to farmers and forest landowners with funding support from DEP and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).  

Back in January 2012, we talked about Greenmarket farmers, Mike Betit and Amanda Andrews of Tamarack Hollow Farm in Vermont, and Lucky, their time share Holstein ox. Read the original story here.

Lucky was added to the farm's workforce to plow and haul. So, with few economies of scale on Mike and Amanda's 88 acre organic farm, Lucky was a versatile, cost-effective contributor to the bottom line of their operation. In fact, Lucky was so useful, he has been replaced in permanent residence by two Dutch Belted Oxen, Thunder and Lightning.  Dutch Belted are beautiful black cattle with a white 'belt' around their middles noted, like all dairy breed oxen, for their strength and for their ability to thrive on good quality forage. They are medium in size, weighing about 1,700 pounds. The oxen, pictured with Amanda in the field, arrived this month and, by all reports, Mike, Amanda, Thunder, and Lightning are all doing well.  In fact, Thunder and Lightning already come when called and follow Mike around the fields.

by Beatriz Beckford

The mood was cheerful on the evening of March 21, 2012 as over 100 parents from East New York, Brownsville, and Cypress Hills gathered to speak their minds about school food issues impacting their children. The event, Healthy Schools, Healthy Kids: A Town Hall and Community Forum, was organized by the Brooklyn Food Coalition, NYC Department of Health, and United Community Centers and attended by several elected officials.