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Urban farmer’s work honored
Lee Berquist, Milwaukee Journal Sentinal
Will Allen, a former professional basketball player turned urban farmer, was awarded a $500,000 “genius grant” today by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
Allen, 59, is believed to be the first recipient of the award from the Milwaukee area.
He is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Growing Power, 5500 W. Silver Spring Drive in Milwaukee…
…Growing Power started in 1993, with Allen using teens in the Silver Spring neighborhood to grow food at its retail store.
The organization grew from there, and in May, it expanded its program of selling grocery bags of fruit and vegetables for $14 — enough produce to feed a family of four for a week.
See also Gristmill – Way to Grow! Urban farmer awarded ‘genius’ grant, 23 Sep 2008
(22 September 2008)
UN to buy emergency food stocks from poorer farmers
Xan Rice, The Guardian
More than 350,000 small-scale farmers in Africa and Central America will soon begin selling produce to the UN in an initiative that could transform the way food aid is purchased.
Announcing the five-year $76m (£41m) pilot project yesterday, the UN’s World Food Programme said it would buy surplus crops from low-income farmers in 21 countries to help boost fragile economies. The food will be used for regional hunger emergencies and safety net schemes, such as school feeding projects.
While the WFP currently buys about 80% of its stocks locally in the developing world, virtually all of it comes from traders and large-scale farmers…
(25 September 2008)
Food Labels: Organic? Fair Trade? Certified Humane? What Does it All Mean?
Bryan Luukinen, Eat.Drink.Better
Fair Trade Coffee. Certified Humane Raised and Handled Chicken. Organic everything.
Anyone not living under a rock in a remote, sandy location for the last five years has seen the prodigious rise to prominence of eco-labels at their local grocery store. You may not pay these little badges much attention, or if you do, you may be wondering what the heck they mean.
Read them or not, the badges of virtue on everything from cereal to chicken to laundry detergent are bound to get more prevalent, and represent an attempt by many companies to find a niche in an ever-expanding food and food products market. Join me for a stroll down the aisles as we try to decipher what these insistent insignias truly stand for…
(23 September 2008)
