Great Lakes Echo (http://greatlakesecho.org/tag/food/page/2/)
Although farmers markets seem to be popping up all the time, both urban and rural areas adequate access to healthy, natural food, according to a report by the Michigan Food Policy Council.
The locavore movement has taken off in the last five years at least. This notion that consuming food that is raised and grown close to where we live was even given a memorable send-up in the hit IFC comedy “Portlandia.” But parody is not the only thing the locavore movement has spawned. Over the last five years, food hubs have become an increasingly popular way to scale the local food movement affordably and efficiently.
This Chicago resident envisions fish and plants as central to an accelerator for urban food production.
He hopes his recycled meatpacking factory grows food and supports urban farming pioneers.
About 25 percent to 29 percent of adults in the Great Lakes region are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics. Playing with their potatoes might just be what the doctor ordered.
Michigan civil rights officials recently reported that some migrant workers live in substandard housing, face poor working conditions and undergo racial profiling.
Farm officials say the vast majority of migrant housing passes inspection. But the state’s inspection program has been slashed by half.
Nearly 9,000 schools across the country did not have any food safety inspections, during the 2007-2008 school year. The law requires two every year.
Nearly 19 percent of Michigan residents reported a time in the past 12 months when they lacked enough money to buy food.
The statistic comes from a national Gallup survey of more than 530,000 Americans.
I have been groomed to be an “organic food snob.”
I munched on whole grain bread with organic peanut butter and jelly, organic apples and grapes as a 5-year old in the cafeteria. I had organic carrot cake for every birthday until I was 16 and trips to the local farmers market in my family were made more frequently than trips to any major supermarket. So, today I guess that it is understandable that I feel very comfortable spending a significant part of my income buying groceries with the organic label on it. I am not ashamed to admit that I have driven across Lansing, Mich. for an hour looking for organic bananas and raspberries, which are not always available at the conventional grocery store here.
As if overeating wasn’t already a problem, now we are offered the option to eat our dishes. Large, hollowed out loaves of bread known as “bread bowls” have become a trendy addition to the menu of a startling amount of chain restaurants. They are fully operational bowls, filled with soup, pasta, chili, dip, quiche and even salad, and customers love it. I once watched a woman practically throw her tray back at the cashier after her broccoli and cheese soup was served in ceramic. However, after the meal was returned to her in the sourdough she requested, she ate the soup, leaving the bowl that had caused so much controversy, on the tray.
Haley Walker
Nov. 20, 2009
James Jiler says the more time prisoners spend in the garden, the less likely they are to repeat an offense. The author and activist has spent years advocating for the benefits of prison horticulture, including making inmates more marketable when they get out. “People are less likely to go back to prison if they come out of it with an education,” Jiler said. “I want them to go home with a skill, and find a purpose in life that is better than making license plates, and learning how to care for the earth is a huge therapeutic benefit that people need.”
Jiler is the founder of the Greenhouse Project, a “jail to street” horticultural training program in the New York City’s Rikers Island Jail system.