Biofuels Hub in Portland, Oregon SustainableBusiness.com A new biofuels hub in Portland, Oregon is bringing together three companies with a verticallly integrated facility featuring manufacturing, a distribution terminal, and a cooking oil recycling facility. Whole Energy Fuels Corporation, based in Bellingham, Washington is setting up a distribution terminal there, Oregon Oils, a cooking oil recycling operation, and Beaver Biodiesel is moving its manufacturing from Albany, Oregon to Portland.
Controversial Alaska bill would provide rural veterinary care AlaskaDispatch.com
Although some veterinarians routinely visit hard-to-reach rural areas of in Alaska, parts of the state haven’t had veterinary care in years. A recent bill would provide for licensed veterinarians from outside of the state to practice in these areas on a short-term basis. Some worry that without state oversight, volunteer care givers could get away with providing sub-standard care.
A Place for Old Chickens, Outside the Pot NYTimes.com
Because most chickens lay the majority of eggs early in life, and can live about 10 years, the quest for a place where chickens can live out their sunset years has brought a boom to at least two farm animal sanctuaries and led Pete Porath, a self-described chicken slinger, to expand the portion of his business that finds new homes for unwanted birds.
A Restaurant for the 99 Percent – Of Chefs CNBC.com (blog)
Although they all had a background working in Michelin-starred restaurants, what Erik Oberholtzer, Matt Lyman and David Dressler really craved was “farmer’s market food at a price we could afford,” says Oberholtzer. It took two years of fundraising and conceptualizing, but in 2006, Tender Greens was born with the goal to support locally sourced food and small farmers.
How Making Food Safe Can Harm Wildlife And Water NPR (blog)
We’d probably like to think that clean, safe food goes hand in hand with pristine nature, with lots of wildlife and clean water. But in the part of California that grows a lot of the country’s lettuce and spinach, these two goals have come into conflict. Environmental advocates say a single-minded focus on food safety has forced growers of salad greens to strip vegetation from around their fields, harming wildlife and polluting streams and rivers.
Getting in touch with other FoodHub Members is easier than ever with the newest round of updates to the FoodHub Message Center. Check out these four easy ways to communicate and connect.
Take Advantage of One-to-Many Messaging:
Now, just like your regular email inbox, you can send a single message to multiple contacts with just the click of a button.
From a new message click Add Recipients or, if you know exactly who should be on the list, just start typing their name in the ‘To:’ box.
From your contact list, select the contacts you want to message and click ‘Add to Message’ to continue editing your email.
Seafood in LA frequently mislabeled, group says Los Angeles Times
Tests on seafood sold at Los Angeles sushi bars, other restaurants, and grocery stores have revealed that more than half is not labeled correctly, a nonprofit organization is reporting. Red snapper, Dover sole, white tuna and other fish were often different species, the group Oceana found in DNA tests of seafood from 74 retail outlets in Los Angeles. In all, 55% of 119 fish samples from across L.A. were misidentified, Oceana said.
Water issues, struggling dairies cloud California agriculture Western Farm Press
California agriculture is the most diversified in the world with roughly 400 different commercial crops. However, there are two elements that intrinsically tie together just about every segment of the state’s No. 1 industry. The obvious is water. The other is not so apparent — the dairy industry.
Food Deserts and Obesity Role Challenged Science Daily
It has become an article of faith among some policy makers and advocates, including Michelle Obama, that poor urban neighborhoods are food deserts, bereft of fresh fruits and vegetables. But two new studies have found something unexpected. Such neighborhoods not only have more fast food restaurants and convenience stores than more affluent ones, but more grocery stores, supermarkets and full-service restaurants, too.
Government Takeover Of Farm Subsidy Would Save Billions, Economist Says National Public Radio
Arithmetic can be quite enlightening sometimes. One of the country’s top agricultural economists just fiddled with the government’s balance sheet on crop insurance, and arrived at a shocking conclusion: We’d spend billions of dollars less than we do now if we just gave away a simplified version of the insurance for free.
If the food’s in plastic, what’s in the food? Washington Post
In a study published last year in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, researchers put five San Francisco families on a three-day diet of food that hadn’t been in contact with plastic. When they compared urine samples before and after the diet, the scientists were stunned to see what a difference a few days could make.
“The Regional Food Hub Resource Guide is an important tool to help promote local and regional efforts to support small and medium sized producers,” said Agriculture Deputy Secretary Merrigan. “Food hubs play a critical role in developing stronger supply chains and addressing the infrastructure challenges while supporting food access, regional economic development and job creation.”
The guide is an extensive collection of information and resources, providing background on everything needed to develop or participate in a regional food hub. It also highlights the economic contributions food hubs make to local communities and the role they play in expanding regional food systems. Included in the guide are resources for finding funding opportunities, support, best practices, strategies to address challenges and more.
Currently, according to the USDA, there are more than 170 food hubs operating throughout the country. The innovative business models espoused by food hubs allow farmers of all sizes to meet the growing consumer demand for fresh, local food by gaining entry into commercial and larger volume markets such as grocery stores, hospitals and schools.
“The new guide is the most comprehensive handbook on food hubs ever available,” Merrigan said. “Now farmers, buyers, researchers, consumers or anyone interested in creating a food hub in their community can tap into a single resource to find the information that they need.”
The Regional Food Hub Resource Guide follows a release earlier this year of the Know Your Farmer Compass, a guide to USDA resources related to local and regional food systems. The Compass consists of an interactive U.S. map showing local and regional food projects and an accompanying narrative documenting the results of this work through case studies, photos and video content. Both the Food Hubs Resource Guide and the Compass will be updated as new findings arise from case studies and projects underway.
Starting this year, the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Services will award up to $3.5 million in grants to assist schools in procuring food from local producers and support agriculture and nutrition education efforts such as school gardens, field trips to local farms, and cooking classes.
These grants are part $5 million in funding awarded to the USDA through the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, and will be provided to the agency annually. The grants are intended help schools respond to the growing demand for locally sourced foods and increase market opportunities for producers and food businesses. The remainder of the funding will go to support technical assistance and administrative costs related to USDA’s farm to school program.
“School cafeterias are great places to champion U.S. agriculture and to teach students where their food comes from,” said Deputy Secretary Merrigan during a visit to Southern High School in Harwood, Md., where she announced the funding opportunity. “More and more, schools are connecting with their local farmers, ranchers and food businesses each day and these programs are a great way to bring more local offerings into school cafeterias and support U.S. producers as well. As we struggle with obesity and associated diet related diseases, farm to school programs give us one important tool to help our kids make lifelong healthy eating choices.”
Letters of intent are suggested, but not required, by May 18, 2012. Project proposals are due June 15, 2012.
Check out the Farm to School section of FoodHub’s Knowledge Base for resources on developing your own Farm to School program, then visit the USDA Farm to School website to learn more about this new grant and sign up for an educational webinar on how to prepare your proposal.
In an old Chicago meat plant, greens and fish grow OregonLive.com
The old stockyards are long gone, replaced by an industrial park and a mindset that, from now on, Chicago will try to move past the images in Upton Sinclair’s novel “The Jungle”. Now, you will find a jungle of a very different kind here. It’s on the third floor of an old meat-packing plant, a humid hothouse, of sorts, filled with rows of greens and sprouts, even exotic white strawberries. Nearby, in large blue barrels, lurk tilapia, fish native to tropical regions.
Louisville hosts Slow Food summit Louisville Courier-Journal
Local foodies have long embraced the revival of interest in locally grown and produced foods. Now, the Louisville area will be recognized for those efforts when Slow Food USA holds its biennial National Congress starting Friday at The Brown hotel. About 150 Slow Food representatives from the 225 local chapters in the United States will be at the congress.
Detroit’s food revolution helps revitalize city in decline Windsor Star
The success of Slows Bar-B-Q and other local food businesses is a rallying point for a cadre of entrepreneurs fighting to shake off Detroit’s reputation as a culinary wasteland and give people a reason to return. Progress on the food front is more than an interesting sidebar to Detroit’s high-profile attempt to reverse decades of decline.
Foie gras isn’t forever Los Angeles Times
In 2004, California enacted a law that gave the foie gras industry until July 2012 to find an alternative to force-feeding ducks. That deadline is fast approaching. When drafting the bill, California’s only foie gras producer was contacted — Guillermo Gonzalez with Sonoma Foie Gras — to give the industry time to find an alternative to force-feeding. In turn, Gonzalez urged Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s signature on the bill.
Food Stamps Helped Reduce Poverty Rate, Study Finds New York Times
A new study by the Agriculture Department has found that food stamps reduced the poverty rate substantially during the recent recession. The food stamp program, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, reduced the poverty rate by nearly 8 percent in 2009, the most recent year included in the study, a significant impact for a social program whose effects often go unnoticed by policy makers.
David and Lori Hoyle of Creative Growers in Noti, OR, know being a new farmer isn’t easy. At first, it was difficult for the Hoyles – who have been farming since 1996 – to know which tactics were best for growing a sustainable business as beginning farmers. But they soon discovered it was about more than just producing the highest quality crops.
“There are a lot of people who grow really good food,” said David, “but if you don’t pay attention to your business practices and learn how to market your products you’re gonna fall to the wayside with a truck full of really good stuff.”
Even after almost 15 years of being in business Hoyle still keeps an eye out for new and innovative ways to respond to customer demands and market his products.
“It doesn’t behoove me to be comfortable in our current situation where demand outweighs supply,” said Hoyle who discovered FoodHub in 2010 and jumped at the chance to use the tool to find new markets and connections.
“It doesn’t do us any good to have one-time sales. What we’re looking for is someone who week in and week out is going to be a steady customer,” he said. “One of things about FoodHub that I really like is that the people you meet there are very in the game. They want it to be more than a sale. They’re looking for a relationship.” Read the rest of this entry »
Chef David Anderson. photo courtesy Accanto When David Anderson became head chef at Genoa and Accanto in Portland he was tasked with building unique, seasonal, locally-sourced menus for each restaurant– a perfect fit for a Northwest chef eager to broaden his connections in the region’s ever-growing local food network. Now, two years later, Anderson is a local sourcing pro and shares some of his recommendations for making, keeping and advancing connections with producers.
1. Search FoodHub every week.
Anderson took his post at Genoa and Accanto in 2010, the same year FoodHub launched, and it became clear that the site was the perfect place for him to broaden his sourcing horizons. In that first year, Anderson made a connection with Creative Growers out of Noti, OR, and still works with them today (Read more about Creative Growers’ recipe for working successfully with local chefs here). Even after two years of using FoodHub Anderson says he still finds value in what the site brings to the table and that there are a few key ingredients for using it successfully.
“Have fun, search, pay attention to the miles away and be realistic,” he says. “Searching is the best function on FoodHub. I browse the site at least once or twice a week and I’ll spend anywhere from a half hour to an hour on it.”
Anderson also noted that buyers should update the product section of their profile to include those local products that they’re looking for and read the weekly Fresh Sheets that send product alerts and marketplace updates straight to buyers’ inboxes.
“We change the menus really often and being micro-seasonal is a big part of that,” Anderson says. “Since taking over here at Genoa I’ve been getting more involved in finding and developing connections. FoodHub has helped me do that for sure.” Read the rest of this entry »
Just in time for the beginning of the 2012 season, the USDA announced last week that more than $10 million dollars of grant funding is available this year through their Farmers Market Promotion Program (FMPP). Now in its seventh year, this grant program is intended to bolster local farm-direct marketing efforts on a national scale through funding projects like road-side stands, farmers’ markets and community-supported agriculture (CSA). Special priority will be given to projects that increase access to fresh and affordable food options in underserved or low-income communities. Applications can be submitted online at www.grants.gov, with more information available at www.ams.usda.gov/FMPP. Read the rest of this entry »
‘Nature’s Barcode’ Tells The Story Of Foods’ True Origin NPR (blog)
Already in use to measure air quality and detect gas leaks, “optical stable isotope analyzer” technology, created by the Silicon Valley firm Picarro, can also detect isotopes in food. Access to this information could be a boon for food companies, government agencies and consumers who want to ensure raw ingredients and additives are really what they say they are.
Valley’s small farms find growing market as consumers demand local produce Yakima Herald-Republic
Small farms in the Yakima Valley, including Fewel Farms, are catching onto the “locavore” ethos, the consumer-driven movement to purchase food grown nearby. As a result, the Valley’s vegetable market, though tiny in comparison to the biggies — wine grapes, apples and cherries — has grown beyond a cute niche.
‘Pink slime’ forces beef processor into bankruptcy msnbc.com
Ground beef processor AFA Foods filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday and said it plans to sell some or all of its assets, citing the impact of media coverage related to a meat filler critics have dubbed “pink slime.” Meat processors have faced a backlash over the use of an ammonia-treated beef filler they call “finely textured beef.” Food activists have campaigned to have it banned arguing the product was unappetizing, but supporters say the product is safe to eat.
A Shortage of Rural Veterinarians Means Retirement Must Wait NYTimes.com
In Texas, a shortage of rural veterinarians persists and grows worse each year. The shortages can greatly hinder the careers of ranchers, whose numbers have already dwindled because of drought and an industry-wide profitability drop in the last 30 years. Many longtime rural veterinarians have no successors. And because most veterinary graduates want to practice in urban areas on small animals, the prospects for solving the problem are grim.
Olive oil and milk among top ingredients used in ‘food fraud’ msnbc.com
Food adulteration is more than just your neighborhood fish counter selling you farm-raised salmon and telling you it’s line caught. It’s ingredients that can go in ingredients to make products sold by your reputable local grocer or restaurant. New research shows that the most common food fraud ingredients are olive oil, milk, honey, saffron, orange juice, coffee and apple juice.
