A few weeks ago, my mother brought home and showed me a box of triscuit crackers. On the back, there were three pictures.
One picture showed a few people in a vegetable garden, and the other two depicted a single person tending container herb gardens in their window seal. Under the pictures, the box read: "Join The Home Farming Movement." The small print is worth quoting at length:
Everyone should have the chance to experience the simple joy of growing your own herbs and vegetables, no matter where you live. Whether it's in your own backyard, on your windowsill, or in a plot you share with your neighbors, that's what home farming is all about. Triscuit is working with Urban Farming to create over 50 community-based home farms across the country. To find tips and to connect with other home farmers, visit triscuit.com/homefarming.
What were talking about is a product line of Nabisco--owned by Kraft Foods, the largest industrial food processor in the United States-- endorsing a movement that, long term, could prove counter to their bottom line. Fascinating.
The website they put together is worth exploring. Urban Farming, a non profit based out of Detroit did their homework, and together with Triscuit, they put together some great short-video resources on raised beds, container gardening, soil preparation, plant spacing, seeding, etc.
. . .
Below are some other pieces of the food movement:
*Washington Post: "D.C. Council launching campaign against childhood obesity" by Tim Craig
*From "A Good Food Manifesto" by Will Allen, CEO of Milwaukee's Growing Power:
I am a farmer.
While I find that this has come to mean many other things to other people – that I have become also a trainer and teacher, and to some a sort of food philosopher – I do like nothing better than to get my hands into good rich soil and sow the seeds of hope.
So, spring always enlivens me and gives me the energy to make haste, to feel confidence, to take full advantage of another all-too-short Wisconsin summer.
This spring, however, much more so than in past springs, I feel my hope and confidence mixed with a sense of greater urgency. This spring, I know that my work will be all the more important, for the simple but profound reason that more people are hungry. The manifesto continues on the Growing Power Blog.
*"Seattle City Council Announces '2010: the Year of Urban Farming'"
*A pair of young guys in San Fran earning their living like me: TheUrbanFarmers.org/
*New York Daily News: "Bronx students, volunteers plant seeds for Hunts Point urban farm" by Daniel Beekman.
*Video about the NYC "Green Markets" (Farmer's Markets):