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The Trump Administration’s False Promise to Rural America
The Administration claims that GMOs should be accepted on scientific grounds. And it says that its motivation for this policy is to provide large benefits to rural economies that grow these crops, and sustainability. This is undoubtedly aimed at currying favor with an important Trump constituency. But on balance, science does not support the value of GMOs for rural society or sustainability in the U.S.—just the opposite. Several recent research studies have added to the mounting record of GMOs contributing to harmful industrial agriculture in the U.S.
The Trump Administration’s False Promise to Rural America
According to a recent article, the Trump Administration intends to increase pressure on Europe and China to accept food containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs). An Administration task force has been set up to advance these goals, despite a history of European resistance and caution in China.
The Administration claims that GMOs should be accepted on scientific grounds. And it says that its motivation for this policy is to provide large benefits to rural economies that grow these crops, and sustainability. This is undoubtedly aimed at currying favor with an important Trump constituency. But on balance, science does not support the value of GMOs for rural society or sustainability in the U.S.—just the opposite. Several recent research studies have added to the mounting record of GMOs contributing to harmful industrial agriculture in the U.S.
So far, GMOs have largely been the handmaiden of corporate seed and pesticide companies. The vast majority of acres are planted to herbicide-resistant and Bt insect-resistant crops like corn, soybeans, and cotton owned by these companies under patents that prevent seed saving by farmers. Engineered crops in the U.S. are used overwhelmingly in the predominant industrial agriculture system, which causes extensive environmental harm. Since the advent of engineered crops, this trend toward industrialization has only increased, with increasing monocultures of one or two crops that are more vulnerable to pests and other problems.
Engineered crops require less labor per acre, reducing the need for workers and jobs on farms. On the other hand, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) found in a major report last year that genetically engineered (GE) crops do not increase productivity or reduce tillage, which has often argued to be a major sustainability benefit of these crops. As pointed out by the NAS, most of the gains in conservation tillage preceded the introduction of herbicide-resistant GMOs.
The trend toward reduced labor and industrialization has not led to wellbeing in rural communities. Studies by sociologists have long found that by many measures, rural areas dominated by industrial agriculture faired poorly compared to areas with more diverse farming systems.
With increasing adoption of newer industrial farming technologies—corresponding to the growth and dominance of GMOs in major commodity crops—net farm profits are now as low as any time since 2000. In the meantime, the cost of growing these crops has risen dramatically over this same time period. In other words, proportionately more farm revenue is going to pay for land, increasingly expensive corporate seed and other industrial inputs, not to farmers. It is hard to see this as a formula for prosperity in farm country, as farmers are squeezed more and more by economically powerful corporate interests.
Less, Not More Sustainable
GMOs have also facilitated the consolidation of the seed industry, through patents and contracts. This has led to bundled seed products like GMO traits and pesticide seed coatings. These increase exposure of the environment, farmers, and residents of rural communities to harmful pesticides, as well as increase costs to farmers.
The unsustainability of industrial agriculture is epitomized by increasingly dysfunctional weed control, aided and abetted by GMO herbicide-resistant crops. The skyrocketing increases in glyphosate herbicide use encouraged by these crops has resulted in an epidemic of weeds no longer controlled by this important herbicide. By now, this is widely known.
But mounting problems caused by industry’s “solution” of new GMO crops resistant to old herbicides like dicamba are just emerging. Harm to neighboring crops, especially non-GMO soybeans, from dicamba drift during and after spraying of the new engineered crops is pitting farmer against farmer. This led Arkansas to ban its use. By late July, reports of harm from dicamba drift topped 700 complaints, greatly exceeding previous years. High rates of crop damage are now reported by other states, with Missouri and Tennessee also restricting use. The result of dicamba harm is likely to be lower productivity for many damaged soybean fields. Actions by states to restrict the use of dicamba should be understood in the context of the desperation of many farmers to control glyphosate-resistant weeds, caused by the use of glyphosate-resistant GMO crops.
It is noteworthy that dicamba damage has occurred after EPA approved new forms of the herbicide intended to reduce its notorious volatilization and drift-damage potential. But as with glyphosate before it, large increases in the use of dicamba and 2,4-D are encouraged by these new GMO crops. And use later in the season when higher temperatures increase volatility at a time when susceptible crops are vulnerable, may overwhelm the reduced volatility of new forms of the herbicide.
Farmers may also have been blindsided due to restrictions on research by academic scientists on the volatilization and drift potential of the new herbicide formulations. Several academic weed scientists commented that they were not allowed to test these properties in a timely way. Alarming restrictions on the traditional roles of academic research, due to patents on GMO crops, were revealed several years ago. The industry and its supporters claimed that voluntary measures to allow research had addressed this problem. The current situation exposes the fallacy of those assurances.
It does not take a cynic to wonder whether Monsanto anticipates that many more soybean farmers will be forced to adopt this new menace simply to avoid harm from herbicide drift. That won’t save fruits and vegetables that are not engineered for herbicide resistance, harming thriving local food production.
And before long, these new crops will fail as have, increasingly, glyphosate-resistant crops. Weeds are already developing resistance to all of these herbicides, and many have resistance to multiple chemicals, making herbicides as a whole increasingly ineffective.
Meanwhile, agro-ecological methods that are not dependant on these herbicides are available for growing corn and soybeans and are practical, highly productive, as well as good for the environment.
Long-term research that demonstrates this also shows that these methods are as or more profitable than industrial farming but use far fewer synthetic chemicals. And, importantly, more profit goes to workers and farmers than to buy inputs like more expensive GMO seed, pesticides, and fertilizer. In other words, more of the profit stays with farmers and farm workers to spend in their own communities.
Insecticides That Harm Bees, Coupled with GMO Crops, Are Not Needed
A similar situation is unfolding with neonicotinoid insecticide seed coatings, which were supposedly safer than earlier insecticides. Years of research shows that “neonics” are harming bees and other helpful farm insects, and many other beneficial organisms. Pesticide and GMO companies have challenged this research by claiming that the evidence of harm from farm fields, rather than labs, is inadequate. This neglects the overall convincing weight of the evidence from many experiments, and also neglects convincing field data on harm of important wild pollinators like bumblebees.
But now, two research papers confirmed that neonics harm honeybees on the farm, including near crops such as corn. This is particularly important because corn is our most widely grown crop, at around 90 million acres.
I recently published, with Center for Food Safety, the most extensive analysis to date of the peer-reviewed science literature on neonic corn seed coating efficacy and alternatives. It documents dramatically increasing use of coated seed in parallel with Monsanto’s engineered gene to control rootworms.
Monopoly control allows corporations to apply the insecticide to corn seed without providing farmers a choice, so that now about 90 percent or more of this seed is coated with neonicotinoid insecticides. This contradicts the common claim that engineered Bt corn has dramatically reduced insecticide use on that crop. While the volume has decreased, the amount of land exposed has gone up dramatically. This allows many more pollinators and other beneficial organisms to be exposed—one of the basic measures of risk. Bt corn has been accompanied by an increase from about 30 percent of the corn cropland exposed to insecticide before the engineered trait to about 90 percent now—not a reduction to 18 percent of acres treated with insecticides due to Bt, as previously claimed.
The new report shows that harmful neonic insecticide seed coatings rarely increase productivity, are an unnecessary cost to farmers, and that alternatives using agro-ecology methods are productive and beneficial for the environment. This puts to rest the self-serving claims of the industry that these seed coatings are needed to protect corn productivity.
GMOs did not cause neonic seed coatings, and some of the remaining non-GMO corn may also be treated with neonics and other pesticides. But GMOs and neonics are part of the same industrial seed package. And as well, the use of neonics contradicts the claims that Bt has reduced insecticide use in corn as determined by the critically important measure of exposure, contrary to previous claims.
What About the Future?
Advocates for GMO crops suggest that the dominance of current engineered traits like herbicide resistance, or the problems they cause, are mere anomalies or coincidence. They like to focus on possible future crops that they feel would be more beneficial. Or they like to point to the few traits like virus-resistant papaya, commercialized 20 years ago and grown on a tiny percentage of GMO acres, to demonstrate the potential for benefit. But the dominance of the current crops is a fact that has remained for the 20-plus years of commercial GMO use, and the reasons for this need to be understood, not dismissed offhand.
Advocates of GMOs, perhaps scientists especially, also complain that those that are critical of the technology ignore similar issues with conventionally bred crops. That criticism may have some merit for some GMO critics, although many others understand that conventional breeding for industrial agriculture also leads to harm. Still, even if GMOs are a leading edge of industrial agriculture, rather than its sole embodiment, this does not reduce the harm they are causing.
If future GMO crops are to have a possibility of playing positive environmental and social roles, on balance, it will require that they are developed and deployed under policies and other conditions that favor and value agro-ecology, rural society, food sovereignty, and the environment over corporate control and excessive profit. For the most part, those conditions do not currently exist. That does not mean that some GMO traits won’t be developed which provide some benefits. But until there is fundamental change in food and farming systems, the technologies will be dominated by GMO crops designed to foster industrial agriculture. This is hardly a formula for either rural benefit or sustainability.
Pina: We Need More Innovation To Repurpose And Reclaim Natural Resources
Pina: We Need More Innovation To Repurpose And Reclaim Natural Resources
Tinia Pina, sustainability professional and Founder and CEO of Re-Nuble, is speaking at the inaugural New York City Food Tank Summit, “Focusing on Food Loss and Waste,” which will be held in partnership with Rethink Food Waste Through Economics and Data (ReFED) and with support from The Rockefeller Foundation and The Fink Family Foundation on September 13, 2017.
Pina received her Bachelor of Science degree in Business Information Technology from Virginia Tech and studied briefly at Columbia University’s Earth Institute. She has six years of experience in the financial services industry and six years within the sustainability and food waste management industry. Her experiences related to food waste, food systems, and the circular economy have fueled her passion to increase our communities’ resilience, prosperity, and knowledge to help us live more conscious lives. Pina’s pioneering business model has earned her a Huffington Post Millennial Impact Grant, the American Express Emerging Innovator award, and a MillerCoors Urban Entrepreneur grant, among other honors.
Food Tank had the opportunity to talk with to Pina to find out what drives her innovative approach to reducing food waste.
Food Tank (FT) What originally inspired you to get involved in your work?
Tinia Pina (TP): Food became personal for me as a former volunteer Prep-SAT teacher in Harlem with New York Cares. Every Saturday at 9 am, I noticed how the options for nutritious food within a two-block radius from where I was teaching not only impacted the productivity of my kids in class but also ultimately dictated their future. By working to indirectly help increase the production of more produce supply, I am committed to helping more healthy food become affordable as a result of more organic farms servicing densely populated areas.
Tinia Pina is a sustainability professional, and Founder and CEO of Re-Nuble. She will be speaking on September 13, 2017, at Food Tank’s NYC Summit.
FT: What makes you continue to want to be involved in this kind of work?
TP: Until premium priced, slow, organic, food fast casual chains are located in communities representative of a larger demographic range, I will continue to fight this good fight. These establishments’ business models are incredibly successful but their impact is limited if they are claiming to be a benefactor in increasing the accessibility of nutritious food.
FT: Who inspired you as a kid?
TP: The most immediate and direct sources of inspiration were my mom and my grandfather. Both were relentless, independent, hard workers that always figured out a way to make something work. These qualities transcend my career for what has honestly evolved into my life’s purpose by figuring out how to apply contrarian ways of thinking to various challenges present in our food system. As an engineer, my grandfather was a big thinker and made logical order of non-consequential theories and topics. I like to believe I apply this aspect of his personality when problem-solving as I tend to connect the dots related to trends, developments, and innovations that impact very different economies while reflecting my mom’s ability to persevere.
FT: What do you see as the biggest opportunity to fix the food system?
TP: I see distributed manufacturing, production, and sourcing being the largest opportunity for a number of reasons: increasing supply chain efficiencies, resilience, and economic development. Though nascent in development, our team also recognizes and is working on finding ways to use existing biological resources to increase plant productivity with the goal of removing the need for synthetic agriculture inputs.
FT: Can you share a story about a food hero who inspired you?
TP: Ever since I read Jonathan Bloom’s American Wasteland, I have become enamored by the negative externalities that exist after food is consumed. I think there are a ton of heroes that have really left a footprint on returning a sense of conscious, purpose, and innovation both in food service and food production, such as Dan Barber, but to make the dialogue around food waste relatable and meaningful to the common consumer and will always influence my ‘why,’ has been effectively done by Jonathan Bloom.
FT: What’s the most pressing issue in food and agriculture that you’d like to see solved?
TP: I’d like to see the food system incorporate more innovation in the repurposing and reclamation of natural resources. I know many producers and food distributors want to increase their food waste recycling but the existing infrastructure is de minimis at best. Often this entices major decision makers to resort to the option that is the most economical, easiest to decide on, and allows their team to easily outsource. That’s right, it is landfilling. Given the barriers to entry and high costs, I hope that this spurs more partnerships and innovation, blending existing technologies in applications that allow for higher volumes of food waste processing into new and innovative products serving higher market-based needs.
FT: What is one small change every person can make in their daily lives to make a big difference?
TP: In my apartment, we try to be stewards by controlling our own food waste, which is heavily dependent on meal planning. New food items are seldom purchased until we have ensured that we’ve used everything in our pantry and refrigerator to the best of our abilities. This requires ingenuity, thriftiness, and the ability to not be easily influenced by consumerism.
Which Country Is The Most Sustainable?
Which Country Is The Most Sustainable?
The Food Sustainability Index (FSI), developed by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) with the Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition (BCFN) Foundation, ranks countries on food system sustainability based off of three pillars: food loss and waste, sustainable agriculture, and nutritional challenges.
“A food system does not sit in isolation, and a large number of stakeholders act together according to dynamics created by specific drivers,” say researchers Francesca Allievi, Marta Antonelli, and Katarzyna Dembska, who worked on the Food Sustainability Index with the BCFN Foundation. This causes increasing complexity at the regional, national, continental, and global level, they explain. Trying to assess the interaction among its parts creates a high level of these creating a high level of uncertainty when trying to assess the interaction among its parts.”
Released in 2016, the FSI aims to encourage policymakers to place food and its production issues as high-priority items in their policy agendas. BCFN has since released two Food Sustainability Reports: “Climate Change and Famine: Issues at the Heart of International Awareness,” which focused on climate change, food security, and food safety; and “Environmental, Food and Migration Sustainability: Three Challenges To Overcome Together,” raising awareness about crucial issues surrounding food and sustainability. Both reports were a joint effort between BCFN and the Milan Center for Food Law and Policy.
According to the FSI, The world population is projected to reach 8.1 billion by 2025. Ninety-five percent of this growth will come from developing countries, many of which are dealing with the double burden of hunger and rising obesity. Meanwhile, climate change is presenting new challenges to the agriculture sector. By highlighting performance of different countries and identifying best practices, the index establishes a comparable benchmark for leaders around the world to reference and measure their progress in establishing a sustainable food system.
The FSI is publicly available. Data can be accessed in the form of a map or a country ranking, and the full dataset can be downloaded. Through this approach, the FSI can serve as a tool for policymakers and experts to take action, students to be educated, and the public to adjust their behavior for the well-being of our health and our planet.
“The objectives of the FSI are not only to highlight the performance of countries, but to establish a comparable benchmark, to offer examples of best practices at the national and city levels, and to measure progress over time,” say the researchers.
The index analyzed the 20 countries in the G20, which maintain the largest economies and contain two-thirds of the global population, as well as five nations from regions otherwise unrepresented, using 58 different indicators to measure sustainability. FSI identified France, Japan, and Canada as the top-scoring countries. The top score earner, France, maintains a holistic policy response to food waste and nutrition issues. For example, French supermarkets are required to donate excess food and tax incentives are in place to discourage unhealthy food consumption.
Fixing Food, a white paper released with the FSI, advises developing countries to use institutional and infrastructure reform to improve sustainable agriculture practices. “Including more transparent land rights, greater access to finance…and stronger infrastructure for storage, transport, and logistic, can promote greater efficiency,” write authors of the report. Policy options to address nutritional challenges include public education campaigns, tax measures on unhealthy foods, and restrictions on junk food advertising to children.
The EIU and BCFN Foundation also developed City Monitor, a city-level database and evaluation tool for urban food systems. City Monitor applies sets of quantitative and qualitative indicators, such as child obesity rates and quality of urban farming initiatives, to assess urban food systems.
Together, City Monitor and the FSI provide city and national-level benchmarking tools to help leaders take action on food production, nutrition, and food waste issues. “Progress will be measured over time by updating of the FSI in the next years through new inputs, feedbacks, and new focus of research,” say the BCFN Foundation researchers.
Hydroponics – Future of Urban Food | CV Prakash | TEDxPESITBSC
Hydroponics – Future of Urban Food | CV Prakash | TEDxPESITBSC
Posted on August 16, 2017 by adminlfad
Simplified Hydroponics – Who Can Grow?
Where can you grow?
Why?
Grow Local, Eat Local.
Lt. Cdr CV Prakash is a former underwater weapons specialist of the elite Submarine arm of the Indian Navy.
Upon retirement CV learnt Hydroponics from the best of growers in Australia and is a pioneer in the field of Hydroponics in India. A hands-on Grower, Food Park designer, Auditor & Trainer in Hydroponics, CV’s “Pet Bharo Project” is credited for India’s first commercial hydroponically grown strawberries, spinach and herbs.
He is credited for building India’s first state-of-the-art Hydroponics Greenhouse and is one of the most widely read academic paper authors. His mission is clear- to bring simple yet sustainable technology that can help almost everybody grow clean, residue free, nutritious food. The best part about his technology being that it has very little entry barriers and reaches the poorest of the poor.
He believes that “it’s not enough to just have know how, but one must do how and show how”.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx
Posted in Hydroponics · Tagged English, Food, Gardening, Global issues, Health, india, plants, TEDxTalks
Boston Medical Center Urban Farm Serving Up Veggies To Patients
Boston Medical Center Urban Farm Serving Up Veggies To Patients
Updated: Aug 15, 2017 - 6:59 PM
BOSTON - On top of the industrial, mammoth Boston Medical Center power plant building sits an urban oasis.
Row after row after row of fresh vegetables span the Albany Street building roof.
For BMC, the rooftop farm not only promotes the healthy lifestyle its doctors want their patients to lead, but it helps feed patients in need.
You'll never guess where all these beautiful crops are growing! But I'll show you tonight at 5:15 and 6:45 on @boston25!
"We thought it'd be a great idea to have local and healthy food," said David Maffeo, senior director of Support Srvices at BMC. He was one of the people who came up with the idea of the garden.
The vegetables go directly to the hospital's food pantry and demonstration kitchen, as well as to the hospital's cafeterias and inpatient population.
"Diabetes patients, cancer patients, weight management patients, renal patients. We're coming up here first and picking the food that we're using in our classes," said Tracey Burg, chief dietician at BMC.
This past June, BMC reported that about 1,800 pounds of fresh veggies and fruits were harvested from the roof. By the end of growing season it's predicted that 15,000 pounds of food will be harvested.
It first opened last summer as the first hospital-based rooftop farm in the state. Altogether, there is 7,000 square feet of growing space, along with two urban beehives.
Higher Ground Farm runs the garden, along with the farm on the Boston Design Center roof in the Seaport.
"I just didn't believe that we could grow as much food as we can and we've just grown this amazing amount of food so far. It's definitely blowing my expectations of what we could do with it," said Lindsay Allen, the farm manager.
In addition to the veggies, the garden reduces the hospital's need to transport food and also provides employees with volunteer opportunities
BMC has been working to become greener and in recent years has been recognized as one of the greenest hospitals in the U.S.
At A Chicago Embassy Suites, Sky Garden Is As Local As It Gets
At A Chicago Embassy Suites, Sky Garden Is As Local As It Gets
Tuesday August 8th, 2017 - 9:00AM
Sky Garden at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Chicago Downtown Magnificent Mile
CHICAGO—The hotel industry has embraced the farm-to-table movement, so much so, it’s no longer a novel idea but a practical way to source fresh ingredients locally and strengthen the guest’s connection to the land. From an onsite rooftop garden to a vertical hydroponic farm, it’s as local as local food gets.
The Embassy Suites by Hilton Chicago Downtown Magnificent Mile is taking the concept a step further by getting the food up close and personal with guests. The 455-all-suite hotel has turned its atrium into a greenhouse of sorts, to herald the arrival of its new Sky Garden and herb collection. Care to pinch a sprig of mint as you wheel your bags through the atrium? The hotel calls it a “direct to fork” approach.
“We have an amazing atrium with loads of natural light; it is one of the most striking features of the hotel. We were crafting a marketing message that would take that into account in our guest interactions," said Mike Rogers, director of sales & marketing for the hotel. Simultaneously, General Manager Konstantine Drosos attended a meeting on repurposing vacant buildings for urban farming. "When we put our heads together, we realized these were complementary concepts and could become something of an urban greenhouse, creating an opportunity for our guests to interact with a green space 365 days a year,” Rogers said. “Coinciding with our discussions on our greenhouse idea, we happened to be working with a client who does exactly this sort of thing—DIRTT Environmental Solutions. We approached them about feasibility, took a walk around their showroom and it took off from there.”
The Sky Garden was built by DIRTT Environmental Solutions, a provider specializing in prefabricated interior design components. DIRTT stands for “Do It Right This Time.” The company puts a strong focus on supporting the environment and people, as much as functional design, noted Rogers. The construction was customized to the hotel’s needs and specs and contains largely modular components, providing opportunities to evolve the space to keep it relevant.
“We wanted the Sky Garden to be a touchpoint, something for everyone to celebrate as they see fit rather than forcing it on our guests. For our chefs, this means herb-centric banquet menus and herb-focused enhancements to our cooked-to-order breakfast and evening reception,” he said. “While seasonality influences the primary components of our menus, the herbs themselves can be a consistent component adapted seasonally. For example, rosemary and watermelon agua fresca in summer can give way to rosemary biscuits in the winter.”
Unlike outdoor gardens, which are seasonal in many climates, the indoor Sky Garden promises to be a year round opportunity to engage with guests.
“There are two distinct trends that influenced this project. First, micro-sourcing is everywhere. We wanted to try to cut out the middle man and instead of farm-to-table, came up with a way to connect direct-to-fork across multiple touchpoints that fit within the Embassy Suites Brand Pillars. This presented opportunities with both our evening reception and our cooked-to-order breakfast,” he said. “Second, while there is an almost instinctual desire to eat 'al fresco,' the other trend we were keying on is the rooftop garden. In Chicago, these gardens are prevalent, but are also often inaccessible to guests and only in bloom for part of the year. The Sky Garden allows us to repurpose the atrium in a way that keeps it activated 365 days a year—come rain, snow, sleet or shine.”
Training associates how to share the Sky Garden with guests varies by department, with each group getting involved in a way that helps to connect the dots. Team gatherings were hosted in the atrium for sales, catering, concierge and culinary teams to ensure operational teams were involved and experienced the herbs, food and beverage. “To help take that story home—literally—and make it part of people’s lives, we gave out basil seeds to our housekeeping team. Our mantra to our clients and colleagues is to ‘cultivate your senses,’” Rogers said.
It’s not uncommon for a staff member to tear off pieces of mint or basil to highlight the smell and experience of the Sky Garden, which is there to activate all of the senses during a visit.
“We discourage actually eating the herbs directly, as they have not been washed or treated for consumption,” he said. “The fixture is permanent and we strategically located the herbs in the top two rows of the wall to ensure our younger guests wouldn’t be too tempted to get into things.”
A courtyard of faux bamboo in the hotel’s atrium has been turned into a real garden, but the story branches out in many directions from there.
“Whether it is the F&B experience onsite, a recipe to take home, or the DIY herb planters we hand out to our VIPs as gifts, there are so many ways to continue the story,” he said. “Philosophically, I have always felt herbs and the hospitality industry are a natural fit; the same way herbs enhance a dish, the right hotel team enhances people’s special moments, be it a wedding, vacation, key business meeting or any number of things. The Sky Garden is the embodiment of what we do at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Chicago Downtown Magnificent Mile.”
—Corris Little
How Change Happens: Inspiring Examples from Urban Food Policy
How Change Happens: Inspiring Examples from Urban Food Policy
Many of us in the world of food policy are excited by what is happening in cities. Hundreds of municipalities are developing and delivering policies to improve the food system. Fortunately, extensive efforts to document them means we know a considerable amount about what they are doing—a whole host of activities, including improving public procurement, building greenbelts to address climate change, training organic gardeners, enabling rooftop gardens, innovating strategies to reduce food waste and improve food safety, cutting down on trans fats, introducing soda taxes, eliminating marketing in sports stadiums, and tackling food insecurity.
We know a lot less, though, about how cities are managing to do all this. When change—especially policy change—can be so extraordinarily difficult, how have cities actually made it happen?
This was the question behind a new report released this week from the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food). Looking in depth at four cities—Nairobi (Kenya), Belo Horizonte (Brazil), Detroit (USA), Amsterdam (the Netherlands)—and one city-region, the Golden Horseshoe (Canada), the report explores the nuts and bolts of policy making. Based on interviews, it shares the insights of people who have made urban food policies happen, so that others can make food policy happen in their cities, too.
Our findings? Cities are undoubtedly innovators in food policy but that this innovation happens through often quite mundane processes. It’s not always exciting; it happens mainly behind the scenes, but it matters a great deal for getting stuff done.
In Nairobi, for instance, we uncovered the fascinating story of how urban agriculture went from being perceived as a blight on the city to an asset that is positively promoted by the Nairobi Urban Agriculture Promotion and Regulation Act 2015. What brought about this U-turn was the sustained efforts of civil society to unify and amplify the voices of urban farmers and to build supportive relationships with national civil servants.
In Detroit, we found that, through the 2013 Urban Agriculture Ordinance, the city had moved to regulate and support burgeoning urban agriculture activity, which has been putting vacant land to use and bringing fresh food to many neighborhoods. It did this through an inclusive process involving the urban farming community as well as planning professionals, and negotiations with state-level farm interests overcame a major legislative barrier.
In the city region of the Golden Horseshoe around Toronto, Canada, we found a healthy alliance of people from across the food system implementing the ten-year Golden Horseshoe Food and Farming Plan to support the economic viability of the sector. How did they manage to agree on a common plan between many different actors, professions, and potentially conflicting interests? The key was a drawn-out drafting process with skilled mediators going back and forth to reach consensus-wording that meant the same to everyone.
In Belo Horizonte, we found a policy to tackle food insecurity that has been in place for more than 20 years. What lay behind the longevity of this policy was undoubtedly its early institutionalization within city government, while civil servants have worked behind the scenes to uphold the core principles, particularly through changes in municipal government.
In Amsterdam, we found a relatively new policy that promotes integrated working between city departments to address the structural causes of obesity. What enabled this integrated working was requiring each department to identify ways to address obesity through its day-to-day work. Moreover, to demonstrate that obesity is not just a public health matter, initial responsibility for the program was given not to the Public Health Department but to Social Development, instead.
Cities are doing a lot. They are identifying, leveraging, and growing their powers where necessary. They are engaging across government, involving communities, civil society, and food system actors, finding innovative ways to fund themselves and working hard to gain the political commitment needed for them to last. What we now need far more of is monitoring, evaluation, and learning. Cities are aiming to transform their food systems, no less. To do so, we need to know more about where they are having an impact, what the impact is, and what can be done better. A better understanding of the pathways to positive change will help show, even more, what urban food policy can do to change the food system and where it can have the most impact.
Click Here To View The Full Report
I Tried the Click and Grow Herb Garden — Here's How It Went
I Tried the Click and Grow Herb Garden — Here's How It Went
Lisa Freedman | 2017
(Image credit: Click and Grow)
Although I do most of the cooking and cleaning, I like to joke that my husband is in charge of keeping all the living things in our house alive. He makes sure I eat real meals like a normal human (not just cheese and gummy candies), he feeds our fish and the dog we sometimes babysit, and he's in charge of all our plants.
This division of labor came about after I killed three too many succulents and an air plant. (Seriously, how does one kill an air plant?) It's not entirely my fault, I like to tell myself — the light in our apartment is never the same!
I have also killed every basil kit I've ever tried, yet I was eager try the Smart Herb Garden by Click and Grow. After all, they make it sound so easy! Here's how it went.
Image credit: Lisa Freedman)
Day 1
The setup seemed simple enough (especially considering I didn't read all the directions before I started. Don't judge! I was too excited!). I unpacked all the pieces, popped the three included basil pods into the device, added water, and was about to plug the machine in when I saw a handy little warning tag.
"Grow light cycle is 16h on and 8h off. To avoid running the light at night, plug it in right after waking up!" it said. Thanks for the tip, tag. Given that it was the early evening, I waited until the next morning to plug it in.
Buy: Smart Herb Garden, $60 at Click and Grow
(Image credit: Lisa Freedman)
Day 2
This thing is bright! How bright is it? My husband said it was so bright, he thought I had left the refrigerator door open when he first keyed in the door one night after work!
(Image credit: Lisa Freedman)
Day 3
Growth! Already! I couldn't believe it! My husband was getting grumpy about the light, saying that whatever money we were saving by not buying basil at the supermarket, we were now spending on our electric bill. I calmed him down by sending him this text from the Click and Grow website:
"We've worked with the world's leading LED technologists to invent a natural-looking light system that gives plants enough light to grow while only requiring 6 watts of energy. This keeps the electricity bill for running the Smart Herb Garden a whole year to around 4-5 dollars."
(Image credit: Lisa Freedman)
Day 4
The sprouts were already starting to look like basil! And I hadn't even really had to do anything yet. I regularly checked the bobber, which indicates the water level, and I didn't have to add any water. So far, I didn't have to do anything!
(Image credit: Lisa Freedman)
Day 7
It was time to take the plastic domes off (you're told to do it once the sprouts start to reach the domes). I removed them, and I swear I got a whiff of fresh basil. I was gardening!
(Image credit: Lisa Freedman)
Day 9
My garden was looking so good, I got a little brag-y and decided to use my kitchen's chalkboard to show off what I was growing. My husband said it was hardly food, but despite his jabs, I could tell even he was impressed!
(Image credit: Lisa Freedman)
Day 10
I was getting impatient and wanted to see what my basil tasted like. I ripped off one of the smallest leaves I could find (probably an act that's not endorsed by Click and Grow) and popped it into my mouth. It was flavorless and bitter at the same time. I felt bad for disturbing the plants. I do not suggest this.
(Image credit: Lisa Freedman)
Day 13
Look at all this growth! My favorite part of this experiment was going into the kitchen every morning to see how much my plant had grown.
(Image credit: Lisa Freedman)
Day 15
My husband and I went away for the weekend. Before we left, I filled up the water reservoir (something I'd had to do a few a times now) and briefly wondered if I should add the second included arm, which would move the light higher away from the plant. I decided against it because we were in a hurry and I wasn't sure it was necessary. Turns out, it was. The plant grew as tall as the light and some of the leaves got burned as a result. Ecks. Was this the beginning of the end, I wondered?
(Image credit: Lisa Freedman)
Day 21
With the second arm added in, the plants seemed to be recovering nicely and they didn't seem too mad at me for my lapse in judgement.
(Image credit: Lisa Freedman)
Day 29
I did it again! Argh! We went away for a full week and I thought there was no possible way the plants would grow so much in just seven days. A few of the tallest leave burned. This was on me.
(Image credit: Lisa Freedman)
Day 32
With the third and final arm added into the light, I wondered when it'd be time to start cooking with my basil. I think part of me was waiting for a light to change colors, alerting me to the fact that it was time to eat. There was no such light and I checked the instructions, which let me know that I could have already been trimming and eating the plant!
(Image credit: Lisa Freedman)
Day 33
I trimmed some leaves and made the best-tasting, freshest pesto I've ever whipped up. (I make a lot of pesto, but usually with stuff from the grocery store). Within a few days, new leaves were already growing up from the stem.
(Image credit: Lisa Freedman)
Day 41
The three plants are still growing strong (although some stems are starting to get a little droopy). And I'm up to my eyeballs in basil. Not complaining!
My Final Thoughts on the Click and Grow System
This electronic garden really can turn anyone's black thumb into a green one. It was extremely forgiving of all my mishaps and continues to grow a plentiful supply of fresh basil. While it does a lot of the work for you, it does not do all of it. You do have to add water (the bigger the plants get, the faster the water needs to be replenished). You also have to add the arms to the light (but there is some wiggle room there in terms of timing). And you have to watch the plants and know when it's time to harvest. Luckily, I'm beginning to get a feel for when my basil needs a trim. The biggest problem I'm having now is coming up with enough meals to use up all this fresh basil. (Again, not complaining.)
Of course, if you are even a little bit better at keeping things alive than I am, you should have no trouble with a basic pot.
Urban Gleaning Grows Up
America’s 42 million home and community gardeners grow an estimated 11 billion pounds more food than they can use. Meanwhile, 87 percent of Americans are not eating enough fruits and vegetables.
Urban Gleaning Grows Up
From branch-sensing technology and drones to supporting refugees, the urban gleaning movement is ripe with innovation.
BY JORDAN FIGUEIREDO | Food Waste, Nutrition, Urban Agriculture | 07.12.17
America’s 42 million home and community gardeners grow an estimated 11 billion pounds more food than they can use. Meanwhile, 87 percent of Americans are not eating enough fruits and vegetables.
The good news is the movement of people who harvest that excess home-grown food, known as urban gleaning, has matured over the past decade or so from a weekend hobby for locavores to a growing sector of the food economy. In recent years, dozens of private and public groups around the U.S. have gotten organized around getting this extra food onto people’s tables.
At the recent Gleaning Symposium, hosted by the Green Urban Lunchbox in April in Salt Lake City, today’s urban gleaning renaissance was on full display. More than 10 organizations from places as far flung as Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Tucson spent two days sharing information, strategy, and stories about building the urban gleaning movement around the U.S.
Among the participants were volunteer computer scientists from Boulder, Colorado, who have created an online map that’s logged 1.2 million of the world’s edible (and gleanable) plants; a couple of guys from Atlanta who turned their old-fashioned southern music jamboree cider fest into a gleaning organization; and a Salt Lake City organization that transformed a 35-foot school bus into an educational greenhouse and gleaning organization. It was clear from these innovations and more that gleaning organizations have come a long way in recent years.
Taking Care of Trees, People, and More
We’ve long known that eaters benefit from urban gleaning, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that tree-owners do, too. “Before we can finish our pitch, [fruit tree owners] are already like, ‘just take it, take [the fruit] away,’” said Craig Durkin, co-founder and board member of Atlanta’s Concrete Jungle. “They are tired of the rotting fruit and flies that often arrive when a tree produces way more than they can handle.”
There is a similar story being told in Utah. “A lot of homes in Salt Lake City sit on quarter-acre lots and the city was built around this idea that you would grow your own food,” said Shawn Peterson, founder and executive director of the Green Urban Lunchbox.
Peterson finds that many Salt Lake City homeowners can’t pay for the services to maintain their trees. So, in addition to gleaning, his organization also offers pruning, pest control, and fertilization services for fruit trees after the harvest season is over. The group has serviced and gleaned fruit from 2,500 trees over the last few years, but Peterson estimates there are 47,000 more out there.
Some urban gleaning organizations, like Tucson’s Iskashitaa, go beyond fruit trees and provide other services to the community. Iskashitaa, named after the Ubuntu word for working cooperatively, helps the area’s refugee population from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. In addition to connecting refugees through gleaning, Iskashitaa teaches English literacy and offers other community resources. As Iskashitaa founder and executive director Barbara Eiswerth explained, their participants may be isolated in other arenas, “but food is the common denominator—it brings us together, it empowers them.”
Stepping Up Gleaning Technology
Technology is increasingly connecting urban gleaning organizations to their communities in diverse ways. For example, Salesforce supports nonprofits in tracking volunteer statistics, pounds gleaned, donor contact information, and more, free of charge, making it much easier to run an organized gleaning operation than ever before.
Concrete Jungle’s Durkin partnered with Georgia Tech University to create tree-tracking software called FoodParent, which they offer for free to the community. The FoodParent maps also keep track of the seasons in which trees in the 500-square mile Atlanta area are ripe and ready to glean.
Durkin has also tested tree-surveying drones, “branch bending” sensors that can tell when trees are heavy with ripe fruit, and a branch-affixed device that photographs the trees (and fruit) and tweets out the pictures.
While technology can play a great role in advancing urban gleaning, several users did share some warnings at this spring’s Symposium. For instance, while open-source mapping has worked well for Falling Fruit, the worldwide, online, open-source map of our edible urban landscapes, it did not provide the same result for the Philly Orchards Project: When a selfish forager decided he wanted all Philly’s fruit to himself, he deleted their entire map! Ethan Welty, co-founder of Falling Fruit, also cautioned against using Google Maps for everything, as the technology makes it “so easy to move data that there are a lot of messed-up maps out there.”
Re-Connecting to Real Food
In a world over-saturated with processed food, the Jamie Oliver quote, “Real food doesn’t haveingredients, real food is ingredients,” hits the right mark. For this reason, empowering under-resourced (and unaware) folks to pick their own food—rather than requiring a team of volunteer gleaners—is a big part of the equation. Because much of that soon-to-be-wasted fruit grows in others’ yards, questions about how to glean without trespassing are regular aspect of the movement.
“More than 50 percent of the population is living in urban areas—how can they play a role in how we feed ourselves?” Welty said. “[With gleaning] people can stay connected to where their food comes from.”
Robyn Mello, orchard director of the Philly Orchards Project, echoed that sentiment. “People just haven’t been told they can harvest these trees that are everywhere,” she said. With 1,100 trees planted over the last 10 years in 57 community public spaces, Philly Orchards bridges that gap, re-connecting the community to food growing all around them.
“My vision is that somewhere in the future we are no longer necessary—and we get people harvesting all these trees on their own,” Mello said.
Photos courtesy of Concrete Jungle.
13 Facts About "Organic" Foods That Will Shock You
image: http://mobile.wnd.com/files/2017/07/organic-fruits-vegetables-tw-600.jpg
No Testing, Mostly Imported, More Sickness, Higher Costs, More Subsidized
WASHINGTON – Do you choose “organic” produce because it’s healthier and locally grown?
Think again.
And that’s not the worst of it, says the report by the Capital Research Center.
Here are some shockers about how the “organic foods” phenomenon is costing you more, making foods less safe and costing real American organic farmers marketing share:
http://mobile.wnd.com/files/2017/07/USDAorganicbudget-386x1024.png
1. So-called “organic food” in America tests positive for synthetic pesticides four times out of 10.
2. Up to 80 percent of food labeled “organic” in American stores is imported. This increase has coincided with incidents of organic food-borne illness.
3. The USDA tripled its organic foods budget over the last eight years without requiring any field-testing of either domestically grown produce or imported.
4. During that time, tens of millions of dollars in subsidies were given to preserve the 0.7 percent of American farmland devoted to growing organic food.
5. The USDA has increased spending to $9.1 million on the organic bureaucracy, yet none of its 43 staffers are responsible for finding fraud, field-testing for safety, recalling unsafe food or encouraging domestic farming.
6. About 43 percent of the organic food sold in America tested positive for prohibited pesticide residue, according to two separate studies by two separate divisions of the USDA, conducted in 2010-2011 and 2015.
7. Organic groceries accounted for 7 percent of all food sales in America last year, but the U.S. government contracts out organic inspections to a total of 160 private individuals for the entire country. There are only 264 organic inspectors worldwide.
8. The USDA’s National Organic Program tests only finished product and only 5 percent of the time covering only pesticides, never looking for dangerous pathogens from manure. Yet synthetic pesticides show up 50 percent of the time. It took until 2010 before any field-testing at all was required by the USDA.
9. The USDA “certified” label for organic food is not based on any objective, scientific process that ensure authentic or safe produce. In fact, the program is regulated by the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service and not connected to the department’s food safety, research, inspection, nutrition or risk management services.
10. Many natural pesticides approved for organic use are more toxic than the synthetic ones used by conventional farmers.
11. Though the USDA insists on an annual onsite inspection of every organic farm and facility it certifies, the inspector (regardless of country) needs permission from the farmer or processor whose facilities he or she intends to inspect, and he or she makes an appointment weeks in advance. Individual inspectors can be refused contracts to perform inspections by any USDA-certified organic entity, with no reason required.
12. Many of the 79 certifying agencies that grant USDA organic certification to farmers and processors receive 1.5 to 3 percent of gross revenue from their clients – this “royalty” from an industry worth roughly $40 billion a year. As noted, certifiers collect these royalties only on shipments they approve.
13. Many farmers make use of manure, but usually not on crops for human consumption. Only in the organic industry is manure routinely applied to fields growing crops for humans, a practice which can be detrimental to human health – even deadly, especially when manure is not fully composted. Even so, the USDA does not require field testing for possible fecal contaminants on the organic crops it certifies, even though such testing costs less than $25 per episode.
As long as consumers believe organic food is worth more (that it is “wholesome,” “natural,” and “authentic,” so certified by the USDA) no one making money in the organic sector will be obligated to prove organic food is worth the extra cost. Meanwhile, the interests of non-organic consumers, conventional and biotech farmers, processors, and wholesalers recede as the organic movement, with its knee-jerk opposition to modern farming, dominates the debate and sets the rules.
Farmer Josh is Bringing Ultra Local Food to NYC (and Asking Hard Questions About Our Food System)
Farmer Josh is Bringing Ultra Local Food to NYC (and Asking Hard Questions About Our Food System)
JULY 11, 2017 by EMILY MONACO
Josh Lee may have grown up on a farm in North Carolina, but he never expected to end up a farmer himself -– especially not in New York City. And yet that’s exactly what the fifth-generation farmer has done with Green Top Farms, a “seed-to-salad” delivery service that brings ultra fresh, ultra local food to offices throughout NYC, in the hopes of helping people think more about where their food comes from.
Fifth-Generation Farmer From NC to NYC
At 18, Lee left the farming life behind, and he was never encouraged to return.
“Even though I was farming every summer, it wasn’t something that I was encouraged to stay and do,” he says. “’You’ve got to go to college; be a doctor or a lawyer, some sort of professional career.’”
For Lee, the calling came from education, and so he became a special education teacher in New York City. But while Lee was living and working in the Bronx, he never quite abandoned his farming roots. He kept up an interest in the industry, particularly in new developments like vertical farming, which allows growers to produce food in vertically stacked layers, thus using a smaller footprint of space – within a shipping container or building, for example.
“I kind of became in-tune with vertical farming and urban farming in general, when I saw this Colbert Report back in 2008,” he says. “I just thought that was the coolest thing I’d ever seen.”
While Lee still had no intentions of going back into farming – at least not until he was retired – vertical farming piqued enough of an interest for him to set up a Google Alert, which yielded maybe an article every few months. Of course, that was all about to change.
Taking Vertical Farming to New Heights
Over the years, Lee’s Google Alert yielded more and more information, and in 2014, Lee decided to join the trend. He left teaching to found Green Top Farms, a hydroponic urban growing experiment. The farm grows microgreens, which are harvested daily and paired with local, seasonal ingredients to create delicious salads, which can either be ordered individually or, the company’s specialty, for “farm-to-work” salad bars, delivered right to your office.
“I don’t know if in a blind taste test it tastes better,” says Lee, “but for me, knowing where food comes from, it always tastes better, because it comes with a story, something behind it.”
Image care of Green Top Farms
Over the past three years, the project has grown exponentially, and now, Green Top Farms is looking for more space. The company’s new Kickstarterproject was created with the hope of moving into a new 1,000 square foot location that will combine hydroponic farming and kitchen.
“Right now we are completely squeezed where we are,” says Lee. “We have a very small growing operation, and everything we’re growing is being used.”
But while Lee and his colleagues can be applauded for their success, they are still encountering one major problem – a problem that’s plaguing not just these local food producers, but America’s food system on the whole: transparent sourcing. While Lee and his colleagues know exactly where their microgreens come from, they have to rely on external sources for their other salad ingredients, and sometimes, no matter how hard they try, even they don’t know where these foods are coming from.
Local Food Is A Question of Education
It was when Lee was first teaching that he realized what a huge problem the lack of transparency in our food system is.
“That’s where I really saw the night and day contrast with how I grew up and my relationship with food and farming and the kids I was teaching and their relationship to food and farming,” he says of the Bronx high schoolers he was working with.
“I remember interrupting the whole lesson several times to explain the difference between a fruit snack and a real fruit or explain why they spell cheese with a z in some of these ‘cheez’ snacks: because it’s not real cheese.”
Lee’s roots in education persist in his new career: he continues to teach people about these important issues through Green Top Farms.
“I tell our customers, ‘Well, we know where some of it comes from, but we don’t know where all of it comes from, and we think that’s a problem, so help us move in that direction of more transparency.’”
All deliveries are made with zero-emission vehicles. They go faster than regular bikes, so couriers can deliver more food in the same amount of time.
Fixing Our Food System One Salad At A Time
Green Top Farms is, at its core, a micro-solution to a macro-problem. From the depletion of the rainforests to the death of pollinators to the record rates of diabetes, problems related to food and nutrition are skyrocketing in this country, problems that Lee believes are all inextricably linked.
“I personally think that all of those problems come from the fact that we’re really just not in touch with what we’re eating,” he says.
“If you’re really serious about having a better food system, then we not only have to change some of the things we’re doing in farming and improve our distribution so that we’re not wasting so much food, we also have to change the way we’re eating,” he says. “And that’s on all of us.”
Green Top Farms is doing its part to reconnect people with their food: not only by growing it close to where people live, but in being open about all the work that still needs to be done. But at least as far as Lee is concerned, it’s a true labor of love.
“I’ve never been so broke, I’ve never eaten so well, and I’ve never been so happy, all at once,” he says. “I’m living my dream life, for sure.”
Print Your Own Aquaponics Garden With This Open Source Urban Farming System
Print Your Own Aquaponics Garden With This Open Source Urban Farming System
Derek Markham (@derekmarkham) Lawn & Garden June 29, 2017
Aquapioneers has developed what it calls the world's first open source aquaponics kit in a bid to reconnect urban dwellers with the production of their food.
Combining open source, digital fabrication, DIY, and urban farming, this startup's project aims to put the tools for zero-mile food into the hands of everyone. Aquapioneers, based in Barcelona, Spain, is focused on getting more people to grow more of their own food right at home, while at the same time enabling a 90% reduction in garden water consumption and a doubling of plant growth rates.
The Aquapioneers system resembles the Open Source Beehives project and the AKER open source urban ag kit in its construction, as the aquaponics plans are designed to be downloaded and "printed" locally with a CNC router at a Maker Space or Fab Lab, which keeps shipping costs and emissions down, while also allowing for easy assembly and a low-maintenance growing experience.
"With this system in place, carbon-intensive worldwide shipping is no longer necessary, reducing dramatically our environmental footprint and contributing to mitigate climate change. In fact only the data will travel, not the material" - Guillaume Teyssié, co-founder of Aquapioneers.
With this aquaponics setup, the entire growing ecosystem waters and fertilizes itself, thanks to the (almost) closed loop created by the conjoined 50-liter fish tank and 70 x 30 x 30 cm (~27.5" x 11.8" x 11.8") grow bed, which feeds the food crops with the waste from the fish while the plants' roots clean the water for the fish. The fish do need to be fed, and the Aquapioneer system is designed to employ an LED grow light, which requires an electricity input, but it could be illuminated by the sun instead, enabling the carbon footprint of food grown in it to be kept as low as possible.
"Cities are growing bigger and they lack sufficient space. Aquaponics comes as a perfect solution for this, as it allows vertical farming and utilizing unused public and private space." - Loic Le Goueff, co-founder of Aquapioneers
"We aim to revolutionize urban agriculture and promote food self-sufficiency in cities." - Le Goueff
© Aquapioneers
Aquapioneers is currently in a crowdfunding phase in a bid to raise at least €15,000 to finalize and fully document the open source plans. Backers of the campaign at the $43 level will receive early access to both the design files for printing locally, as well as a manual for successfully operating an Aquapioneers ecosystem. The team will release the files into the public domain under a Creative Commons license several weeks after the end of the campaign. More information is available at Aquapioneers.
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INTERVIEW: Architect Thomas Kosbau On The Exciting Future Of Sustainable Design In NYC
INTERVIEW: Architect Thomas Kosbau On The Exciting Future Of Sustainable Design In NYC
POSTED ON MON, JUNE 26, 2017BY EMILY NONKO
Since Thomas Kosbau began working for a New York consultancy firm running its sustainable development group, in 2008, much has changed in the city’s attitude toward green design. Kosbau has gone from “selling” the idea of LEED certification to building developers, to designing some of the most innovative sustainable projects in New York to meet demand. He founded his firm, ORE Design, in 2010. Soon after, he picked up two big commissions that went on to embody the firm’s priority toward projects that marry great design alongside sustainability. At one commission, the Dekalb Market, ORE transformed 86 salvaged shipping containers into an incubator farm, community kitchen, event space, community garden, 14 restaurants and 82 retail spaces. At another, Riverpark Farm, he worked with Riverpark restaurant owners Tom Colicchio, Sisha Ortuzar and Jeffrey Zurofsky to build a temporary farm at a stalled development site to provide their kitchen with fresh produce.
From there, ORE has tackled everything from the outdoor dining area at the popular Brooklyn restaurant Pok Pok to the combination of two Madison Avenue studios. Last November, ORE launched designs for miniature indoor growhouses at the Brooklyn headquarters of Square Roots, an urban farming accelerator.
ORE’s latest project—and the one Kosbau feels best embodies his design philosophy—is Farmhouse, a sustainably-designed, minimalist community venue and kitchen for the city organization GrowNYC. The Union Square building features a live indoor growing area, fully-functioning kitchen, and a design inspired by the traditional geometry of the American barn. Kosbau and GrowNYC have continued their partnership to design a massive Bronx agricultural distribution center for the organization, to be called FoodHub. When it opens, the building will employ the city’s first closed-loop, entirely organic energy system that utilizes self-purifying algae blooms generated by rainwater. The system, of course, was designed by Kosbau.
With 6sqft, Kosbau discusses how his early projects set the tone for ORE Design, what’s unique about sustainable work in New York City, and how designers have to step up to the plate to offer great design that also happens to be environmentally friendly.
So you came to New York from Oregon.
Thomas: Yes, born and raised in Portland, Oregon. When I moved to New York, it wasn’t at the forefront of my mind for what kind of designer I was. But I think inevitably it’s influenced a lot of my design work.
What factors led you to start a firm in 2010?
Thomas: A combination of many different elements, which has resulted in some of our best projects. Part of it was the recession. I worked five years for another architect as a sustainability consultant in real estate. After a year, the recession hit, and the firm came to a cataclysmic halt. It made me question what would come next, and I already started receiving queries from my network to pick up small projects. I gravitated toward design work, small residential projects, then a store.
But the real culminating event was that I submitted an entry for the IIDA green idea competition hosted in Korea, in 2010. My design was a replacement for asphalt—an ubiquitous material in the world. I put together a proposal for replacing the world’s asphalt with organically-grown sandstone, as way to offset numerous health concerns associated with it.
I won that competition around the same time I received two major commissions from relationships I started years before. One was the Dekalb Market, the shipping container market in Downtown Brooklyn, and the other was Riverpark Farm, the first portable rooftop farm in an urban environment. There, we used milk crates to create a temporary farm on a stalled building site. Both were products of the economic downturn—they were stalled building sites that needed activation for various reasons.
Dekalb Market, courtesy ORE Design
Tell me more about Riverpark Farm.
Thomas: It was a site located right next to Riverpark, the restaurant owned by Tom Colicchio. The team was pretty forward thinking about doing something with this empty land. So they reached out to GrowNYC to think of a solution for a farm that would potentially be moved within a year. GrowNYC tapped our shoulder to do that.
Riverpark, courtesy ORE Design
It seems like these early projects set a tone for your firm, and how it thinks about sustainability.
Thomas: I think the gene that was inside of me from Oregon—mostly from my mother, who founded a community gardening program in Portland—was dormant. But as soon as the need became a higher-level issue, and designers became tasked with thinking about these things, the influence ingrained in who I am came out. The environment revealed this direction and ultimate design brand.
What makes NYC an interesting or challenging place to experiment with sustainable design?
Thomas: You can debate whether this is the most urban place in the world; it’s certainly the most urban environment in the United States. It’s also one of the most concentrated and most interesting environments in terms of diversity. There are so many ideas from around the globe that find a home here and are placed in a small dense environment.
Land is so critically valuable, as well, so people consider it precious. To see food, community gardens, and urban agriculture become such a priority is a litmus for how important it is to the world. We’re seeing rapid urbanization across the globe, and there’s been an influx of residents to New York making the land more precious.
It’s an exciting environment. There are so many different factors on how to use land, what’s considered valuable in green design, and thinking about design that’s equally productive as it is attractive.
Since founding your firm, have you seen a rise in awareness in sustainable design?
Thomas: I have witnessed a shift in priorities. It’s more accepted as a norm to be sustainable, and less of a selling point. LEED was an early vehicle to sell sustainability—we really had to sell developers on how these features could bring a return of value, even if it’s just from a branding standpoint. LEED has become so ubiquitous that’s not the case anymore, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. The real revolution is that it made material sustainability an absolute must for projects. LEED created a market for sustainable materials to outperform other materials in sales. That’s the real shift. It’s that the choice is easier, and sustainable materials have become as performative, in terms of longevity, have much less of a cost premium, and there’s more variety.
The next step is good design. Making green design interesting, without being tagged green design.
What projects of yours really embody that idea?
Thomas: Farmhouse was our first project to unify our core values with our design aesthetic. It’s our first embodiment of “this is who we are.” It has the nonprofit roots, as a community space with an educational component for GrowNYC. Then there’s the green technology with the hydroponic walls, and food production on site. We did research into recycled materials that solve design issues, evidenced in the acoustic panels we chose. That became our major design move—to use acoustic panels we had pre-manufactured in our geometry, and unite the space with one design feature. It’s not only aesthetic, it balances the acoustics of the space and it’s a placemaker.
Inside farmhouse, courtesy ORE Design
We also used solar tubes to bring natural light into the darkest spaces, and we sourced hardwood from a forest that was drowned in the 1960s. That feature is then awash in natural light.
Farmhouse, courtesy ADG – Amanda Gentile Photography
We didn’t pursue the LEED designation for Farmhouse, though it could easily be Gold if not higher. We offered the option for the client, but LEED is no longer an identifier as an interesting, sustainable space. We pushed the design to make it a unique space. That’s on the shoulder of designers now, we have to be better to make these spaces speak for themselves.
So what’s next for the firm?
Thomas: GrowNYC is working on a really cool project up in the Bronx, a regional food hub. GrowNYC supplies the food for the city’s green markets, and it’s a huge task. The president of GrowNYC and his staff feel they’ve mastered the logistics for moving food in small quantities, and want now build a larger distribution center for farm fresh produce they can bring into the Bronx to distribute to various programs. It would be tenfold of what they’re able to provide now. They’ve tapped us to look at how to make a highly-performative building, with offset carbon emissions and localized power production. We also designed an “anthropomorphic stomach” for the building—a “bio digester” that would take food waste to provide energy for the electricity and heat of the facility.
275 South rooftop forest, courtesy ORE Design
L&M Development also tapped us to create a roof amenity for one of their buildings [275 South, in the Lower East Side]. The building is a 1970s, poured-in-place concrete bunker. It has a huge, bearing capacity. We looked at what it would take to allow large groups on roof—we needed to put a certain amount of steel to get to that level. We also wanted to maximize the view, so we elevated the steel above the existing concrete parapet. With the bearing weight, and 40 inches of room from the new roof to the existing roof, we realized we could plant a forest up here. That’s what we decided to do. We’re planting 80 mature aspen trees, and conceptually carving into the forest floor so the benches are situated within the forest, and trees frame different views toward Brooklyn.
If it’s done in time it will be the location of my wedding in September. The client didn’t have a problem allowing me to do that because they knew it’d get done quickly.
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Farm On Wheels Will Deliver Fresh Produce to Indy Food Deserts
Farm On Wheels Will Deliver Fresh Produce to Indy Food Deserts
Maureen C. Gilmer , maureen.gilmer@indystar.com
Published 7:00 a.m. ET June 30, 2017 | Updated 7:09 a.m. ET June 30, 2017
Brandywine Creek Farms Rolling Harvest truck made its debut at the to serve Indy food deserts Circle Up Indy event at IPS School 51 in Indianapolis on Saturday, June 24, 2017. Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar
'I want to see more farmers come together to end hunger'
Jonathan Lawler planted a seed a year ago that has multiplied into so much goodness even he is surprised.
The Greenfield farmer decided last spring to turn a chunk of his livelihood into a nonprofit with the goal to feed the community. Brandywine Creek Farmswas a leap of faith, but its yield is poised to touch all corners of Central Indiana.
"My job as a farmer is to feed the world, and we have people going hungry in my backyard," Lawler said at that time.
Now, he has partnered with two local hospitals to take his farm on the road.
The Rolling Harvest Food Truck, sponsored by Community Health Network, will take fresh, locally produced food into communities where it is scarce, particularly on the city's east side. It will be offered at little to no cost to those it aims to serve.
"Jonathan came to us with his mission of improving access to food for those in food deserts," said Priscilla Keith, the hospital's executive director for community benefit. "But in addition to providing food, he also wants to educate the community, particularly children, about how food is grown, what kinds of food grow here and to let them know fresh food is best if you can get it."
The 30-foot trailer packed with 6,000 to 7,000 pounds of fresh produce harvested at Lawler's Greenfield farm and at an urban farm on the east side will make weekly (or more frequent) stops at four east-side locations: Community Hospital East, 1500 N. Ritter Ave.; Community Alliance of the Far East Side Farmers Market (CAFÉ), 8902 E. 38th St.; The Cupboard Pantry, 7101 Pendleton Pike; and Shepherd Community Center, 4107 E. Washington St.
Eventually, the program could be expanded to the hospital's north and south sites.
Community pitched in $25,000 for some of the pilot program's expenses, while Lawler has invested his time, his expertise and, above all, his heart.
"I've come to the conclusion that hunger is a business for some organizations, and as an American farmer, I want it to be a thing of the past in this country," said the 40-year-old father of three. "I want to see more farmers come together to end hunger because we are the ones who can do it."
Elijah Lawler from the Rolling Harvest truck and Brandywine Creek Farms gives out free tomato and pepper plants during the trucks debut during the Circle Up Indy event at IPS School 51 in Indianapolis on Saturday, June 24, 2017. The Rolling Harvest truck will make weekly stops at east side locations that are being hard-hit by Marsh closings. Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar
Lawler is working with Hancock Health on a similar program dubbed Healthy Harvest, which will travel into Hancock, Madison, Henry and Shelby counties. Hospital CEO Steve Long said the initiative is part of the Healthy 365 movement in Hancock County.
Both harvest trucks will help chip away at food access problems and point people back to the country's agrarian roots through education, Lawler said.
Inside the temperature-controlled Rolling Harvest trailer are vertical growing towers, so visitors can learn how food grows without going to the farm. An educational staffer will be on site at each stop to talk about the benefits of fresh food.
"Food is actually growing in the dirt; it's as fresh as fresh can be," he said. "The towers will be unloaded at every market, and people will be able to see their food growing and harvest it right there."
Keith said the partnership will help address some of the social determinants that affect the health of the hospital's patients and the larger community, and it advances Community's goal of treating patients more holistically.
"We are really encouraged that we have had not just one, but two health partners who now share the philosophy that real food is the best medicine," Lawler said.
Walkscore.com ranked Indianapolis last among major U.S. cities for access to healthy foods in a 2014 study. Only 5 percent of residents live within a five-minute walk of a grocery store. The lack of access to healthy food on the east side has recently become more acute with the closings of the Marsh grocery stores at 21st Street and Post Road and at Irvington Plaza.
This summer, Lawler also is working with Flanner House community center on the northwest side to establish a working urban farm to feed the neighborhood. Flanner Farms sprouted from a dream of center director Brandon Cosby and food justice coordinator Mat Davis to ease the food insecurity that threatened to rob the neighborhood residents of their independence.
"After looking at the food desert issue, we decided to encompass education more into our mission, along with distribution," Lawler said. "Almost everything our society is doing to address hunger is acting as a Band-Aid. I believe that education and local agriculture can be a solution."
More About Urban Agriculture:
This urban farm will feed an Indy food desert
How Hamilton County gardeners are helping feed their hungry neighbors
Call IndyStar reporter Maureen Gilmer at (317) 444-6879. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
On Top Of Hong Kong's High Rises, Rooftop Gardens Take Root
Client Gina Ma (left) stands with Rooftop Republic's Andrew Tsui (center) and Pol Fàbrega amid the rooftop garden of a French restaurant in central Hong Kong. Rob Schmitz/NPR
On a typical block in Hong Kong, thousands of people live on top of each other. Pol Fàbrega thinks about all these people as he looks up at the towering high rises above the streets. And then he thinks about all that space above all these people.
"The square footage here is incredibly expensive," says Fàbrega, staring upwards. "But yet, if you look at Hong Kong from above, it's full of empty rooftops."
It is, he says, a big opportunity for growth.
Fàbrega is not a developer. In a city full of bankers, he's a gardener. He helps run a gardening cooperative called Rooftop Republic that aims to make the best use out of Hong Kong's thousands of roofs.
"In Hong Kong, currently there're around 700 hectares of farmland that are being farmed," explains Fàbrega, "So the amount of rooftop space is almost the same as the amount we're using today to farm – like, actual farmland."
Hong Kong's agricultural contribution to its GDP is 0.02 percent. Fàbrega's goal is to boost that tiny number by filling Hong Kong's 1,500 acres of rooftop space with vegetable gardens.
He's starting small, by giving tutorials to city residents. On the roof of Fringe, a French restaurant in Hong Kong's Central district, Fàbrega and Rooftop Republic co-founder Andrew Tsui give a tour of garden containers full of Romaine lettuce, kale, cherry tomatoes, and carrots.
Rooftop Republic has helped fill more than 26,000 square feet of rooftop on 22 rooftop farms. The biggest one is on the roof of Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific, where 40 employees manage container vegetable plots on a daily basis.
Expat resident Gina Ma's rooftop garden is tiny by comparison, but she's spreading the word at her children's school. "I was like Johnny Appleseed. I was calling everyone up, called the school and I was like, 'I have seedlings they're amazing! And they're all, like, organic and stuff that you can't get here. Take them!' "
It's that last point, being organic and healthy, that's important to Rooftop Republic's clients. "In the case of Hong Kong, we also face a particular challenge that 98 percent of our vegetables and fruits come from China," Fàbrega says. "There's endless amount of scandals surrounding food that's from mainland China."
And that's why Rooftop Republic's first clients were a handful of restaurants and hotels in a city where returning to the land can be as simple as a quick trip up the stairs to the roof.
New Research: Mediterranean-Style Diet Leads to Healthier Outcomes in Children
New Research: Mediterranean-Style Diet Leads to Healthier Outcomes in Children
Researchers at the University of Pharma, Italy, recently published a study in Nutrients identifying a link between a Mediterranean-style diet and key health outcomes in children. Children who more closely follow a Mediterranean-style diet are more likely to exhibit other healthy behaviors and outcomes such as increased physical activity, higher academic achievement, and better quality and quantity of sleep, the research reveals. The study analyzed the behaviors of approximately 700 school-aged children enrolled in the Giocampus educational program, created by Barilla and the University of Parma to improve the wellbeing of future generations through healthy eating education and promotion of physical activity.
The study adds to a growing body of research showing a positive association between a Mediterranean-style diet, healthy weight status, and sleep quantity and quality in children and adolescents. That is, better adherence to a Mediterranean-style diet may be associated with healthier weight status as well as more sleep and better-quality sleep.
“The Mediterranean Diet and the adoption of a healthy lifestyle do not mean just eating well and exercising, but also sleeping well. In fact, the word ‘diet’ in ancient Latin and Greek actually implied a lifestyle, rather than exclusively a dietary regimen,” says Kristen Wilk, MS, RDN, Senior Account Executive at Edelman, Food & Nutrition.
A Mediterranean-style diet incorporates the traditional healthy living habits of people from countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea, including Italy, France, Greece, and Spain. While Mediterranean cuisine varies by region, a Mediterranean-style diet is largely based on a high intake of vegetables, fruits, nuts, beans, cereal grains, olive oil, and fish, and small portions of meat and dairy. Pasta tossed with other healthy ingredients such as vegetables, beans, lean proteins, olive oil, and herbs is an easy, balanced Mediterranean-style meal. The Passion for Pasta Advisory Council, a project of Barilla bringing together scientists, nutritionists, and researchers to encourage sustainable consumption of pasta, provides a range of Mediterranean diet-friendly recipes on their website.
Other studies have revealed that following a Mediterranean-style diet can reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke and help fight against depression.
Gussie Green Students Participate in Fresh Future Farm’s First STEAM Based Summer Camp
Gussie Green Students Participate in Fresh Future Farm’s First STEAM Based Summer Camp
Fresh Future Farm and North Charleston Recreation are excited about the first session of urban farm summer camp that started Tuesday, June 27.
Children from the Gussie Greene Community Center will journal, measure, map, cook and sing about eggs, okra and wood fired pizza prepared with ingredients harvested a few feet from where they are sold. The camp was originally planned for ten students, so Germaine Jenkins, FFF co-founder and CEO, recruited extra volunteers and held an online fundraiser to accommodate the Gussie Green’s twenty-five students. An anonymous donor generated excitement that helped the farm achieve its $2800 goal within a week. The camp focuses on STEAM learning (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics).
“Forty years ago, a trip to a neighborhood community garden changed my outlook on life and vegetables. I was determined that our neighbors would be the first to experience this hands-on camp.” says Jenkins. “We are humbled to join forces with Karen Latsbaugh of Cities + Shovels (Germaine’s first gardening mentor) and musician Chaquis Maliq and inspire children and families to garden and reconnect with fresh produce. Campers take home recipes and ingredients to recreate meals at home with their families. Who knows, the next BJ Dennis or Will Allen might be mixing fresh parsley and garlic to add to okra soup this summer.” Chef BJ Dennis taught the children about okra’s importance to the Lowcountry and helped campers harvest and prep farm fresh squash blossoms for fresh okra soup. Matt McIntosh of EVO pizzeria will donate dough, cheese and sauce and bake personal pizzas campers prepare with farm herbs and veggies tomorrow, Thursday, June 29.
The farm will host two additional summer camps on July 4-6 and July 25-27 from 8-10:30 am. There are still spaces available in each session. They are still seeking sponsors cover camp expenses – campers from the surrounding area pay $1 per day.
About Fresh Future Farm
Located in the Chicora-Cherokee area, a certified ‘food desert’, Fresh Future Farm uses urban agriculture to improve access to high quality foods in at-risk communities and as leverage to establish socially just economic development. The farm store is also among the small number black operated grocery businesses in the state. All proceeds from sales go back into operating expenses and programming. FFF’s sells fruit, vegetables, herbs and fresh eggs grown on the farm along with a mix of procured produce, fresh eggs, dairy, and basic and specialty grocery staples at fair prices where they are needed most. The farm store accepts SNAP (food stamp) benefits for food, seeds, and plants. Along with the store and now summer camp, the farm offered its first organic gardening class this past spring, and is actively seeking to train residents to help run the operation.
Fresh Future Farm is a non-profit social venture Mrs. Germaine Jenkins, a working class North Charleston resident who was recently recognized as one of the Top 50 Southerners by Southern Living Magazine and is a 2015 Charleston Magazine Community Catalyst award recipient. She created FFF with Growing Power Inc., the national nonprofit urban farm and land trust created by Will Allen, as a model. Fresh Future Farm strives to grow food, healthier lifestyles and the economy in the Charleston Heights area of North Charleston through the following products and services:
Commercial Urban Farm and nNeighborhood Farm Store
Educational farm tours and activities for school youth, families and out-of-town visitors ï Cooking demonstrations and organic gardening classes
Workshops on innovative urban farming techniques
New urban farmer and food entrepreneur incubator
Collaborative community development projects with strategic partners
Fresh Future Farm Mission:
To leverage healthy food and grocery products to create socially just economic development.
For more information about Fresh Future Farm, please visit www.freshfuturefarm.org.
Urban Crop Solutions Collaborates With Albert Heijn (Ahold Delhaize) & Bakker Barendrecht
Urban Crop Solutions Collaborates With Albert Heijn (Ahold Delhaize) & Bakker Barendrecht
Climate change, the global lack of arable land and the fact that more and more people are living in cities are a real challenge for the daily supply of fresh and healthy food for retail companies.
As an innovative and progressive retail company Albert Heijn, member of the global retail group Ahold Delhaize, is always seeking to work with partners using the most advanced cultivation methods, for the benefit of their customers. As a major vegetable and fruit supplier for Albert Heijn, Bakker Barendrecht plays a significant role in this process. The past three days Urban Crop Solutions (UCS), a specialist and reference as a global total solution provider in the fast emerging world of indoor vertical farming, teamed up with Albert Heijn and Bakker Barendrecht
Already more than a decade ago Albert Heijn has acknowledged the importance of sustainable cultivation methods. At the same time, their supplier for herbs, Tuinderij Bevelander, has begun to produce chives with hydroponic systems. Nowadays, the customer can still buy these chives produced on water at Albert Heijn. The implementation of this innovative cultivation method is becoming more accessible, due to the increasing technological developments. UCS is playing a key role in making indoor vertical farming systems more accessible. The agtech company develops tailored plant growth installations (PlantFactory), has its own range of standard growth container products (FarmFlex and FarmPro) and has an in-house team of plant biologists which develops plant growth recipes to grow a wide range of crops in these installations.
UCS has joined forces with Albert Heijn and Bakker Barendrecht in order to promote this high-tech method of cultivating. A FarmFlex container was strategically placed in front of the headquarters of Ahold Delhaize in Zaandam (The Netherlands) where the past three days employees could visit this mobile indoor vertical farming system. Global Sales Director, Brecht Stubbe and Chief Technical Officer, Dr. Oscar Navarrete were on-site to provide detailed information.
“The past 3 days were a very intense experience”, explains Brecht Stubbe, responsible for Urban Crop Solutions for this project, “Working together with these well reputed cultivator and retailer group confirms our view that our solutions will definitely be part of the solution to meet with the ambitions of our partners to supply their customers daily with fresh and healthy food.”
USDA Announces Grants Designed to Increase Amount of Local Food Served in Schools
USDA Announces Grants Designed to Increase Amount of Local Food Served in Schools
June 13, 2017 | seedstock
News Release: WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Agriculture today announced the projects selected to receive the USDA’s annual farm to school grants designed to increase the amount of local foods served in schools. Sixty-five projects were chosen nationwide.
“Increasing the amount of local foods in America’s schools is a win-win for everyone,” said Cindy Long, Deputy Administrator for Child Nutrition Programs at USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service, which administers the Department’s school meals programs. “Farm to school projects foster healthy eating habits among America’s school-age children, and local economies are nourished, as well, when schools buy the food they provide from local producers.”
According to the 2015 USDA Farm to School Census, schools with strong farm to school programs report higher school meal participation, reduced food waste, and increased willingness of the students to try new foods, such as fruits and vegetables. In addition, in school year 2013-2014 alone, schools purchased more than $789 million in local food from farmers, ranchers, fishermen, and food processors and manufacturers. Nearly half (47 percent) of these districts plan to purchase even more local foods in future school years.
Grants range from $14,500 to $100,000, awarding a total of $5 million to schools, state agencies, tribal groups, and nonprofit organizations for farm to school planning, implementation, or training. Projects selected are located in urban, suburban and rural areas in 42 states and Puerto Rico, and they are estimated to serve more than 5,500 schools and 2 million students.
This money will support a wide range of activities from training, planning, and developing partnerships to creating new menu items, establishing supply chains for local foods, offering taste tests to children, buying equipment, planting school gardens and organizing field trips to agricultural operations, Long said. State and local agency interest and engagement in community food systems is growing. Having received 44 applications from state or local agencies, 17 state agencies will receive funding.
Grantees include the Nebraska Department of Education, which will refine and expand the “Nebraska Thursdays” program, which will focus on increasing locally sourced meals throughout Nebraska schools, and the Virginia Department of Education, which will focus on network building to ensure stakeholders from all different sectors are leveraged. Both the South Dakota Department of Education and the Arkansas Agriculture Department will use training grants to build capacity and knowledge about the relationship between Community Food Systems and Child Nutrition Programs. More information on individual projects can be found on the USDA Office of Community Food Systems’ website at www.fns.usda.gov/farmtoschool/grant-awards.
USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service administers 15 nutrition assistance programs that include the National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), and the Summer Food Service Program. Together, these programs comprise America’s nutrition safety net. Farm to school is one of many ways USDA supports locally-produced food and the Local Food Compass Map showcases the federal investments in these efforts. For more information, visit www.fns.usda.gov.
US Food Price Inflation Continues To Outpace Overall Inflation
US Food Price Inflation Continues To Outpace Overall Inflation
6/8/2017
From 2012 to 2016, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for all food (grocery store and restaurant food) rose by 6.1 percent—a larger increase than the 4.5-percent rise in the all-items CPI. When the CPI for a specific category, such as food, rises faster than the all-items CPI, it indicates that prices for the category are rising faster than prices for consumer goods and services as a whole.
Livestock and crop diseases, major weather events, and shocks to global food markets have caused price inflation for food to outpace many other consumer spending categories. Only prices for medical care and housing rose faster than food prices during 2012-16.
Food prices experienced larger increases than prices for recreation and education and communication, and apparel and transportation prices fell over 2012 to 2016. The 10.3-percent decline in transportation prices—a result of falling gasoline prices in 2015 and 2016—helped hold down economy-wide inflation. Food-price inflation outpacing economy-wide inflation is not a recent phenomenon. Over the last decade, food-price inflation averaged 2.4 percent per year and overall inflation averaged 1.8 percent per year.
This chart appears in ERS’s data product, Ag and Food Statistics: Charting the Essentials.