Hi, Folks!
The e-mails I'm getting say that the Community Food Projects have been zeroed out -- that's our future funding (we're still behind CFSC projects, but if we did have funding, that's where it would come from.) I've gotten about 3 e-mails forwarded from the Community Food Security Coalition mailing -- I thought I was on their list, but I haven't received it yet. I did get a note that the House hearing will be on C-Span tomorrow (Thursday) beginning around 10 AM. There will be Internet feeds as well: http://www.c-span.org/watch/index.asp?Cat=TV&Code=CS I suggest using the Internet feeds (I learned this with the pet food recall stuff) as there are 3 different C-SPAN feeds and who knows which one your cable company thinks is the "main" one. The whole thing is a mess -- basically, the commodity payments are being cut very, very slightly and the Community Food Projects are being gutted so that the "Fruit and Veggies Snacks for School Kids" that the nutritionists want can be funded. That should help local farmers, but it rots that they are gutting what little small grower projects they have to fund another small grower project and leaving the commodity growers alone. In short, the Northeast Coalition has pretty much failed with a Democratic Ag Committee that felt the Farm Bill is really just about Midwestern commodity growers and doesn't want to upset their core base (the Midwestern commodity growers). It's very troubling as the coalition really put quite a group of health care providers, small growers and NE farmer's market providers together. Money still talks in DC -- those of us who support local agriculture are still shut out and those of us in urban ag are even more in the "fringe." We all have A LOT of work to do -- a significant more than any of us realized as almost everyone expected that the NE coalition would actually make some gains in the Farm Bill. I welcome everyone's thoughts on this matter -- after they've called their Rep and asked for the Community Food Projects to be re-funded. Dorene Pasekoff, Coordinator St. John's United Church of Christ Organic Community Garden and Labyrinth A mission of St. John's United Church of Christ, 315 Gay Street, Phoenixville, PA 19460 _______________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org To post an e-mail to the list: [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org
