NCAT Newsletters
NCAT ACTION
Other NCAT Newsletters
NCAT ACTION is a quarterly newsletter featuring local solutions for a sustainable future, provided as a benefit of NCAT membership. Each seasonal issue focuses on a different topic, providing information that will help you move toward a more sustainable lifestyle in your home and in your community. ACTION features thought-provoking commentary, informative news stories, and extensive resource lists compiled by NCAT's expert professional staff.
Contents of past issues, and a feature from the current issue, are highlighted below.
Want to receive your own copy of ACTION and have access to all the great articles in every issue of NCAT's quarterly newsletter?
Become a member of NCAT today and start reaping the benefits! |
No. 12 / Summer 2008: Local Flavor
Inside this issue of NCAT ACTION:
- Local food systems in Southwest Iowa
- Farmers' market EBT programs
- Food miles
- NCAT's Risk Management insurance tool
- Disaster assistance
No. 11 / Spring 2008: Farming Goes Uptown
Inside this issue of NCAT ACTION:
- NCAT's farm energy resources
- Urban farming
- Organic soil management
- Minority farmer resources
- Montana climate change website
No. 10 / Winter 2008: Fields of Progress
Inside this issue of NCAT ACTION:
- Reducing pesticides in cotton
- Regional food systems
- New energy bill
- Stop junk mail
- Oilseed update
No. 9 / Summer 2007: Sustainability In Your Backyard
Inside this issue of NCAT ACTION:
- Saving fuel on the farm
- Grow Montana
- Farm energy search tool
- Steps toward sustainability
- ATTRA turns 20
No. 8 / Spring 2007: NCAT Happenings
- Take Action
- Making Change
- Driving Down Energy Costs
- Technical and Not So Technical
- NCAT Updates
No. 7 / Winter 2007: Feeding the Community
- Local food resources and references
- Gleaning
- Local food for hospitals
- Schools and colleges put local food on the menu
- Grow your own
No. 6 / Fall 2006: A Changing Climate
- Climate change basics
- Biodiesel economics
- Personal impact calculators
- 20 x '25 initiative
- Drought resources from NCAT
No. 5 / Summer 2006: Festival of Sustainability
- Climate change and global sustainability
- Fairs and festivals
- Computer recycling
- SustainabilityFEST
- NCAT turns 30
No. 4 / Spring 2006: Growing Community
- Building bike trails
- Food miles
- Community garden success stories
- Starting a community garden
- Local currencies
No. 3 / Winter 2006: Fresh Starts, New Opportunities
- Students as food system leaders
- Livable Communities for All
- Counties and cities address waste and energy
- Making communities more sustainable
- Sustainable community success stories
- Tools to aid in sustainable community planning
No. 2 / Fall 2005: Preparing for Winter
- The Energy Bill: Some Things You Need to Know
- Extend your gardening season
- Weatherize your home now to save energy and money
- Get your car ready for winter
- LED holiday lights
- Interactive home energy websites
No. 1 / Summer 2005: Conserving Water and Energy
- Be Cool: Save Energy
- Drip irrigation and compost success stories
- Technical and basic tools for saving water
- Energy assistance close to home
- Save energy and money in your lawn care
- Protecting the right to water
Feature Article:
Urban Farming
Food security is defined by the Community Food Security
Coalition as “a condition in which all community residents obtain
a safe, culturally acceptable, nutritionally adequate diet
through a sustainable food system that maximizes community
self-reliance and social justice.” Unfortunately, this is not happening
in many cities. Food insecurity is more the norm; in lowincome
neighborhoods where fresh food is non-existent, and in
affluent suburbs where fast food restaurants give the appearance
of food abundance while maintaining the status quo of ill-health,
which researchers understand is responsible for the sad
increase in hospitalizations due to diabetes and allergies.
There is an old remedy for food insecurity, and many people
are re-discovering it as they engage once again in
backyard gardening. The new urban gardeners,
however, are anything but your
typical tender of a few rows of tomatoes
and sweet corn. The new gardener
is an urban farmer who
grows literally tons of
food on small plots
in towns and suburbs,
provisioning
farmers market stands, restaurants,
and community
supported agriculture share boxes on a weekly basis. Urban
farming provides income to city dwellers, through jobs for farm
workers to return on investment for land owners. Most importantly,
the urban farmer is a community-minded individual who
is radically engaged in urban renewal and economic revitalization.
Urban farming is not a new concept, but it is gaining new
support among diverse citizens groups all over the country.
Schools, colleges, city councils, parks departments, anti-hunger
groups, and non-profits are coming together to give a fresh
new meaning to “greening the city.” Large metropolitan regions
like Philadelphia, Boston, New York, Vancouver and
Toronto have initiated substantial programs to foster urban
agriculture. Seattle citizens have begun as well to develop a
food policy initiative that will help alleviate food insecurity in
their city. Good things are happening in smaller cities as well.
Wilkes-Barre, a city in northeastern Pennsylvania, has several
exciting projects underway that have the potential to bridge
the gaps between food production and food consumption in
the city. NCAT is involved in both and is helping groups to
come together to address these complex issues of food insecurity
and community revitalization.
The Commission on Economic Opportunity of Luzerne
County, in cooperation with the city’s health department and
Penn State Cooperative Extension, has developed an urban
community garden in the working-class section of the city that
involves participation by neighborhood children from the time
the seed is planted until the produce is eaten. Organizers plan
to use this garden to teach kids about food production and to
encourage community ownership. Only in its second year, the
garden is a topic of conversation in many circles around the
city, and is positioned appropriately on some land donated by
Geisinger, a local hospital. The garden volunteers and neighborhood
kids will gather on May 16 to plant transplants and
begin the garden’s second season.
Another exciting project in the city is the development of
an urban entrepreneurial farm on the campus of Wilkes University.
The farm will serve as a demonstration farm and is
the site for a SPIN-Farming (SPIN) workshop to be held on
campus on May 19 and 20. This 2100-square-foot intensively
managed farm will be managed and worked by Wilkes Students
and faculty, and is being advised by Andy Pressman and
Lee Rinehart, NCAT staffers housed at the Northeast Regional
Office in Shavertown. This farm has the potential of reshap-ing the way hundreds of people in the city view food and farming.
Placed on a busy street corner on the edge of campus, its
52 planting beds will produce greens, herbs, tomatoes, and cut
flowers for use by the school food service and to be sold at an
on-campus market stand. The coordinators are considering selling
community supported agriculture shares in the farm as well,
where subscribers would receive a box of fresh veggies in season
each week.
Perhaps one of the best things in planning for the Wilkes
urban farm is that it will serve as a field trip site for the children
who will be attending a summer camp at Hillside Farms, a local
non-profit educational farm dedicated to encouraging sustainable
living and ecological agriculture. The kids will visit
the urban farm, help harvest produce, plant successional crops,
and taste the farm’s bounty as well. For many, this will serve to
substantiate the idea that food and farms are not, and should
not, necessarily be ideologically separated from the city.
Urban farms bring the farm to the city, and reconnect people
with food and the land. The projects taking place in Wilkes-
Barre mirror successful efforts happening in hundreds of communities
throughout the world. NCAT is very pleased to be a
part of this exciting initiative, and will continue to seek ways to
encourage city farming to alleviate food insecurity.
Want to receive your own copy of ACTION and have access to all the great articles of NCAT's quarterly newsletter? Become a member today and start reaping the benefits!
Other NCAT Newsletters
ATTRAnews
Six times each year, the free ATTRAnews brings you up to date on the latest developments in sustainable agriculture, what's happening at the USDA and with Sustainable Agriculture Working Groups around the country. ATTRAnews features events and opportunities in sustainable agriculture, information on funding and financing, and it keeps you current on programs and policies that can affect your future. In ATTRAnews you'll read about Farm Bill implementations and production practices and the National Organic Standards. ATTRAnews is available in both print and electronic versions. Subscription information and past issues are available online.
Weekly Harvest
Issued every Wednesday, the Weekly Harvest e-newsletter is a Web digest of sustainable agriculture news, resources, events and funding opportunities gleaned from the Internet and featured on the ATTRA - National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service website. You can sign up for a free subscription and view the newsletter archives online.
Cosecha Mensual
NCAT's Spanish-language electronic newsletter on sustainable agriculture is issued monthly. Subscribers enjoy news items and reviews of Spanish-language resources. Subscriptions are free and the archives are available online.
The Networker
This quarterly newsletter is compiled by the LIHEAP Clearinghouse, an NCAT project. Stories highlight state energy assistance program and low-income energy news. Past issues and a complete article index are available free online.
Montana Green Power Update
This free monthly electronic newsletter contains the latest success stories in renewable energy development in the state of Montana, hot tips, information on financing and tax incentives, upcoming events, and links to stories from regional and national sources as featured on the Montana Green Power website. Sign up for subscriptions online.
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