NCAT Newsletters

NCAT ACTION
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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.

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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.