NYS Regional Food Community Project

The Regional Community Food Project (RCFP) is itself a "mini- food policy council" recognized by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, Agriculture Commissioner Patrick Hooker, and the New York State Council on Food Policy.

In the fall of 2005 community leaders and individuals concerned with food security, food safety, community health, individual wellness, economic prosperity and agricultural sustainability began gathering to discuss the one element we held in common: food. The common thread securely bound the participants together and lead to the formation of the Regional Community Food Project (RCFP) and monthly meetings thereafter.

The RCFP is a collaborative effort among "food" stakeholders in the Southern Tier. "Members" are a diverse group of organizational representatives and individuals including concerned community residents, farmers, farm organizations, USDA staff, health professionals, dieticians, Cornell Cooperative Extension staff, public school administrators, food service directors, food bank managers and food pantry leaders, and others. Members represent six Southern Tier Counties including Broome, Chemung, Chenango, Delaware, Otsego, Tioga and Tompkins.

Together RCFP works to create and support food secure communities and thriving, profitable farms. We work to ensure that all residents, underserved groups and food service providers have access to quality local foods. We support local farmers and the development of a strong local food system, including food processors, distributors and markets. We work to strengthen the connection between food and health by promoting the use of local food as the cornerstone of community health. And we educate residents on the many benefits of buying locally produced food and provide them information on how and where to purchase it.

The purpose of the Regional Community Food Project is to promote and help implement policies and practices leading to increased use of nutritious, locally produced foods, creating food secure communities, and improving the quality of life in South Central New York State.

The RCFP truly is greater than the sum of its parts; what we accomplish together could not be accomplished individually. The food system, as you all know, is complex and multi-disciplinary, and the problems being addressed by the RCFP are bigger than any one of us could solve ourselves. Together we are taking initial steps towards solutions by building understanding and assisting one another. The RCFP works across the disciplines. We are acutely aware that we can't solve the problems alone and rely on each other for guidance, support and expertise.

The RCFP gathers as a group to both learn and share and in this way becomes increasingly effective in strengthening farmer-consumer connections. Members have individually lead projects which benefit the RCFP community as a whole. Stories of opportunities and challenges are brought to monthly meetings.

One such success story shared is the Chenango County Bounty. Under the direction of Opportunities for Chenango, the program builds local capacity for local foods with such innovations as: a map and stamp card campaign, an "Eat Local This Week" challenge, Bullthistle Bucks, and the newly created "Farmer's Market at Your Door" program.

RCFP members are getting creative helping members of the community access safe and nutritious foods. The Food Bank of the Southern Tier is exploring ways that locally produced foods can have an important role in their hunger relief efforts, while The Rural Health Network is improving access to farmers market and local farm products for homebound elderly and the disabled, and the Johnson City School District fills backpacks with nutritious foods for kids to take home.

The projects are successful because a push-pull effort follows an identified need by one RCFP member. Other members who have experience working with growers, or organizing transportation, or marketing ideas all assist in the effort. Together problems begin to be solved.

The RCFP recognized early on that policy acts as a barrier to the accomplishment of our goals. Utilizing productive upland pastures not suitable for other types of agriculture is a goal of our member the NYS Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative and the RCFP. But getting ruminants out on pasture is only part of a local food system; the other part involves getting those products to market, which requires local slaughtering and processing capacity. RCFP partner NY Farms! is currently working with Cornell University on a Livestock Processing Work Team to address such issues.

RCFP Partner the Center for Agricultural Development & Entrepreneurship, CADE, is working with both farmers and processors to create value added "hubs". The Evans Farmhouse Creamery is one such example, where not only does the creamery processes local dairy products but they also distribute other agricultural products throughout the region. In this way the RCFP works to support and expand regional infrastructure.

Educating the public is critical to increasing local use of local foods. Farms enrich communities in numerous ways and that value must be compensated for. RCFP realizes that local foods may not be the least expensive and recognizes the need to defend such costs to local customers. Helping to increase consumer awareness to the benefits of eating healthy and locally is undertaken individually and collectively.

One consumer outreach effort undertaken and lead by Cornell Cooperative Extensions of Broome and Tioga, with support by Broome and Tioga Farm Bureaus, was the organization of the annual "Farm Days at the Mall". At this event farmers are invited to have tables and displays and talk to shoppers, mall walkers and visitors about their farms and farm products. This year the request for assistance to find local farmers was greater than ever and RCFP members were happy to help.

The "Taste of Tioga" organized by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tioga County provided another type of opportunity for people to connect with farmers through collaboration with local restaurants. Such a venue provided farmers two market potentials.

Each of the counties has coordinated and published local food guides and has worked to distribute them in numerous venues.

Health and wellness on numerous levels is an unstated RCFP goal. Individual health, community health, economic health, and environmental health are all a concern. A state of wellness is achieved when health is in balance within and among these elements.

Holism is the method employed to create wellness. Decisions are not made independently but are instead mutually dependent upon each other. The director of the Resource Conservation and Development Agency of South Central New York leads RCFP members in collective, holistic decision making.

A "Growing Health" conference organized by the Rural Health Network of South Central New York was a groundbreaking effort to bring numerous community constituents to the table in an effort to expand the concept of health and wellness, and to assist attendees in making the direct connection of wellness to the need to support local agriculture. "Growing Health" helped introduce the farm and food sectors to the health and human service sectors, and initiated important community discussions and connections that continue today.

If one were to look at defined regions, united in the effort of protecting food security locally, such as proposed "Food Sheds", ours is a model we would recommend. The RCFP is an effective vehicle moving efficiently towards defined goals.

The successes we can measure are not funded directly by any one organization, but by the contributions of each of the members. There is no budget, there is no program manager, there is no working capital, but there is heart, strong will, determination, and solid convictions-- all of which have carried the RCFP to date. Like other collaborative groups working to develop a regional food system, we continue to look for financial support and depend upon community and partner generosity.

The RCFP is an open working group and organizations and individuals are encouraged to participate. The annual planning meeting will take place January 22. Meetings are the fourth Thursday of the month from 2-4 at the Broome County Cornell Cooperative Extension office on Upper Front Street.

"Bullthistle Bounty" was a project of Opportunities for Chenango - and included a discount card for local products including food, a Hometown Holidays shop local booklet and OFC co-sponsored the Eat Local Challenge with Cornell Coop Ext. Chenango.

The "CHENANGO BOUNTY: Farmers Market at Your Door" is a project of the Chenango County Agriculture Development Council - a delivery service of wonderful local foods. For more information see www.chenangobounty.com

One way to help the environment and create sustainable landscapes is to usenative plants. Here is a conference all about it in nearby Ithaca:
Designing with Native Plants.
Creating Sustainable Landscapes for the Finger Lakes & Upstate New York
Date & Time: Friday February 20, 2009; 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM
at Cornell's Lab of Ornithology
For more information, see the website http://www.tompkinschamber.org/events/show/53

Schools Need to Think Outside The Classroom

NYS governor Paterson recently announced major funding cuts to NYS schools.

Because of this, all of the cities and towns are just abuzz about the impending educational disaster. Not wanting to inject this particular post with the normal upstate rhetoric of removing NYC from the state, there are several things that can and need to be changed to survive this economic earthquake. NYS has been hit hard economically twice in 1 decade - 9/11 and now.

I just wrote a letter to the editor, and wish to expand upon it further here. For many of the answers lie in sustainability, conservation, and of course, common sense.

School Week
I actually don't like the idea of shortening the school week, but this will be the single largest cost effective move possible. There are also ways to make this less of a day off than most would think. I do know it adds to the burden of the parents, but with the way many jobs are going, their weeks may be shortened as well.

So, with this understanding, the school week must be shortened to 4 days, rather than the average 5. This will mean an increase in the length of the school day by a full hour, along with the use of electronic media to augment the classroom during days off.

The advantages of closing schools for 3 straight days, rather than just 2 are many.
Reduced utility costs. There are few areas in life that one can reduce the cost of anything by 15%-20% in a single move. But the truth is, it's possible. Lighting, heating, cooking energy will all be reduced by at least 15%. Cooking will be a full 20% since the kitchens will be closed for at least 1 days. Lighting and heating costs will be reduced at least 15% since there will be 3 straight days with little or none used. There is a cost to reheating to working temperatures daily, so eliminating at least one of those reheating cycles will reduce the energy more than the straight reduction of not heating for at least 1 additional day.
I keep saying at least 1 day since many schools have programs running on weekend days as well. These will need to be rescheduled for during the new school week to realize the true savings necessary.

Salaries. I do not advocate in any way, a cut in teachers' salaries. They will still be working the same number of hours. These hours, however, will be distributed in different ways, not reduced. Not Reduced. The savings will come in the form of the support staff. Cafeteria workers, cleaning crews, bus drivers and administrative staff. Because the lengthening of the school day does not fully replace the number of hours total the school would normally be open, these people will all lose hours, but should still remain full time. This will not reduce health care, unemployment, worker's comp., etc. It will, at least reduce the overall cost by about 5%.

Buses. The first reduction is from 1 fewer days running. This should reduce costs by at least 15%. The second way to reduce the cost further is to reduce the number of stops each bus makes per mile. Most districts have a limit of 3-4 stops per mile. If stops were reduced to 2 per mile, regardless of which side of the road the children lived on, mileage and maintenance per bus would be improved by a full 5%. With fuel costs having been what they were in the past few years, a 5% reduction in cost, regardless of current prices, would be welcome to any school district.
Another reduction should be in distance travel. No trip should be taken that is of a greater distance than 30 miles, round trip. It will significantly curtail many sports, but the sports will remain, band competitions will remain, and some day trips will remain. Shortening the distances regularly traveled for these purposes should reduce fuel and maintenance costs another 1-2%.

Food. The school lunch program needs to be eliminated in its current form. Except for those being surved free lunches due to family economic needs, there should be no need for a full school lunch. However, fresh fruits and vegetables should be available to augment lunches brought from home and snack times in elementary schools. This will save the family and the schools alike. It is cheaper to pack a lunch, than pay for the school program. It will allow the schools to reduce costs of operating at least 1 kitchen per school, and often multiple kitchens in larger schools or high schools. The reduction in energy and staff would see a savings of 5-8%.
Considering the school lunch program is a way to rid the agri-business of surplus foods and little else, this is not a substantial loss.

Long Term

School districts need to view this as an issue that will never go away. By taking all of the above actions will allow a possible surplus in funding, which can be spent in making each building more energy efficient/independent.
Even in NYS, solar is viable. There is a new solar technologythat would be of great use to virtually every public building in NYS - for they all have flat roofs. And since Germany is finding this technology worth the investment, NYS should consider it a perfect fit.
There is also new wind technology that makes even the lightest breeze in many of our valleys capable of producing electricity at a fraction of the cost of current turbines.
Low flow toilets, more efficient lighting, radiant heat are all within grasp of schools with the tightest of budgets, and will give huge savings in a matter of 3 years or less.
Existing technology for taking the older diesel powered buses and making them run on old frying oil can be incorporated, while buying buses that run on electric can be seen as a future investment.

The Children

I can actually see a very real benefit to the children from this current crisis. School has become little more than memorization fueled by candy bars and soda from the snack machines in the entryway.

By having slightly longer classes per day, students will have a better chance of understanding and comprehending the information being given to them. Having pod casts created either as a weekly review or of daily lectures to DL in school or through the internet, they have the opportunity to listen to the information as often as necessary, of which many children would benefit.

All communities have a public access channel that is underutilized by the community. This would be the perfect combination of technology meeting need. Create an hour-long program for each subject as a weekly review to be shown at specific times throughout the week. This way each subject would be reviewed with the parent there to assist, if need be, in explaining the topic. And with so many hours available on the channel, these could be run for literally every topic of every grade. These 2 pieces of technology, along with tutoring sites online, would give each child the opportunity for the additional review all teachers agree children need.

The reduction of the use of school buses will aid the children. A program launched recently called Walk THERE explains it very nicely. The children will lose weight, be more fit, and reports are showing they are also more attentive and less prone to outbursts in class. The parents who make the commitment to the Walking School Bus are finding they are healthier, lose weight and have less depression. What more could you ask for?

Removing the school lunch program will also aid the children. These meals are typically out of the control of the nutritionist hired by the school districts, due to the food stuffs being surplus and mandated for use by the governments. This means the meals are typically high in fat, low in fiber, high sodium, high sugar and low complex carbohydrates which all make for a very difficult afternoon in the classroom. By having the nutritionist detail appropriate lunches to be sent from home, augmented by fresh fruit and vegetables in the cafeteria, the children will be healthier and far more attentive for afternoon classes. This gives the very real opportunity to have children learn the information being taught the first time around, negating any damage done by a shortened week.

Starting a vegetable garden on site would allow the children to watch the full cycle of their food, which has been proven to improve their dietary habits - from projects 35 years ago to present day. It would also allow more control over what the children eat and what is needed by them.

A program called (Neighborhood Harvest) would also be of great assistance to school food programs by utilizing local fruit grown but not harvested by private individuals. NYS has hectares of orchards that have gone almost wild that would do very well to be trimmed up and harvested for our schools, soup kitchens and food pantries. There are other sources as well, such as NY Food Exchange that would be perfect for connecting schools with growers, families with growers, etc.

This is an incredible opportunity for NYS to seize upon, revolutionizing education in ways never before imagined in ways that are already available to all. Nothing needs inventing. Nothing needs to be created. It's waiting to be utilized.

Ask your school district what it is planning on doing to create the next generation of education - something that hasn't evolved in generations.

PS - my numbers aren't based on any study or any information other than common sense and I have kept them all conservatively based.

NYS Recycling Plastic Bags

New York Governor David Paterson signed into law a bill that requires many retail establishments to start programs to collect plastic bags for recycling.

Starting Jan. 1, 2009, large grocery stores and retailers that provide plastic bags will be required to spot bins where customers can place their returned bags.

Judith Enck, New York State’s deputy secretary for the environment, said statistics show that consumers throw away roughly 100 million of the bags nationally every year.

"The bill signed by Gov. Paterson will make it easier for New Yorkers to recycle used plastic bags and encourage greater use of reusable bags," Enck said.

New York's law applies to stores with more than 10,000-square-feet of retail space or those that are part of a chain with more than five stores, each with more than 5,000-square-feet of retail space.

With the new state law, local governments are pre-empted from adopting their own shopping-bag recycling laws.

Numerous municipalities, including New York City, already passed similar legislation and have established recycling programs. The new state law builds on these existing programs, enabling all New York residents to participate.

"This is a significant victory for New York’s citizens and the environment," said Sharon Kneiss, VP of the American Chemistry Council’s Products Divisions. "The new law creates one consistent standard statewide that all municipalities can follow, while allowing existing programs to continue uninterrupted."

According to the APC, the most recent statistics show that the recycling of plastic bags and wraps increased 24 percent in 2006 nationwide.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Read this in our local paper, but found it on "Recycling Today Magazine".

Some NYS Information

I've been seeing a bunch of different ads for websites regarding farms, farming, organic produce, locavores, etc. and thought it would be nice to start actually looking at some of them as well as sharing them. If you find any you'd like added, please contact me.

Farm Broome
This site is still in its early stages, but appears very well thought out and I believe it will expand rapidly.
If you'd like to start a farm, have a farm that you'd like to have people know about, want to get into agri-tourism or just want the schedule for the local farmer's markets, this seems to be a good site to visit.

Buy From The Back Yard
This was started by both Cornell Cooperative Extension and a NYS Senator - Tom Libous. Again, it's kind of thin on content, but you can see how much agriculture is actually occuring in the Broome, Chenango, Tioga county area. Very interesting.
And if you have a small agricultural business, you can start a blog on this site in order to let folks know what products you sell and when they'll be available.
Trust me, it's worth it to get a little free advertising.

NY Farms
I've not looked at this one extensively - I only have so much eye-power per day to scan websites. Very rich and in depth. If someone else can review this one, I'd appreciate it!

Pride of NY
LOL - No, not a gay rights site. Pride in agriculture in NYS. Again, haven't review it. Will soon.