Dear All, Would anyone care to spend some time Developing a memo to express what would be Worthy federal initiatives to advance the cause Of urban farming and community gardens.
This memo will be read be a few of the members Of one of the candidates urban policy team. Here is what Jerry Kaufman, president of Growing Power, The Milwaukee based enterprise founded by Will Allen, Had to say in response to the Obama Urban Policy paper. http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/UrbanPolicy *On this page…* 1. ECONOMIC PROSPERITY<http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/UrbanPolicy#toc1> 2. HOUSING <http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/UrbanPolicy#toc2> 3. POVERTY <http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/UrbanPolicy#toc3> 4. EDUCATION<http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/UrbanPolicy#toc4> 5. HEALTH CARE<http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/UrbanPolicy#toc5> 6. CRIME AND LAW ENFORCEMENT<http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/UrbanPolicy#toc6> 7. STRENGTHEN HOMELAND SECURITY<http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/UrbanPolicy#toc7> 8. STRENGTHEN LIVABILITY OF CITIES<http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/UrbanPolicy#toc8> 9. HELPING FAMILIES<http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/UrbanPolicy#toc9> 10. Grass Roots Suggestions for Improving Obama Urban Polichy Paper<http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/UrbanPolicy#toc10> 1. 10.1 Jerry Kaufman, President of the Board, Growing Power<http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/UrbanPolicy#toc11> 2. 10.2 Response to Kaufman's Suggestions<http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/UrbanPolicy#toc12> 3. 10.3 Urban Agriculture Provisions in American Planning Association Policy Guide on Community and Regional Food Planning<http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/UrbanPolicy#toc13> Jerry Kaufman, President of the Board, Growing Power Some suggestions for the Obama urban policy paper Jerry Kaufman <http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/JerryKaufman> The Obama policy paper, Investing in America's Cities, contains many excellent proposals. I'll key on two of them: "fostering healthy communities" (under the section Health Care) and "building more livable and sustainable communities" (under the section Strengthen Livability of Cities). Each proposal could be strengthened by recognizing the contribution that a stronger local food system underpinned by urban agriculture projects can make. The emphasis in the Obama policy paper on fostering healthy communities is squarely placed on improving the built environment. How a community is designed—the layout of its roads, buildings, and parks, and having safe places for children to walk (sidewalks) and to play (playgrounds within walking distance of residents)—is seen as having a "huge impact" on the health of a community's residents. Furthermore, the lack of such facilities is considered to be "a major contributor to the growing numbers of overweight children". No question that the growing incidence of overweight children and adults is a serious problem. While improvements to the built environment can help raise the level of health of any community's residents, the Obama urban policy misses an opportunity to address an even more significant factor. And that is the quality and accessibility of the food we eat. In many disadvantaged urban neighborhoods, poor diet is a leading cause of community health problems and the rising incidence of overweight and obese residents. Many studies show conclusively that poor diet leads to increases in overweight and obesity residents, which in turn contributes to the spike in diabetes, some cancers, and heart disease cases. Consequently, attention to fostering healthy communities should be given to improving the access of people who live in inner city neighborhoods to more nutritious, affordable, safe and healthy foods. How to do this? Support the local food movement, particularly by expanding the reach and range of urban agriculture projects which includes, among other things, community gardens, farmers markets, farm to school programs, community supported agriculture farms, market basket programs, and roof top gardens. Here's a suggestion for adding a couple of other sentences to the paragraph in the "foster healthy communities" section. A major cause of community health problems and the rising incidence of overweight children can be traced to an inadequate supply of healthy, nutritious food available to residents of less advantaged urban neighborhoods. Food deserts and overabundance of fast food places are contributors to these problems. Attention needs to be given to supporting the growing local food and urban agriculture movements. These efforts will lead to creating an environment that will provide more nutritious, healthy, and affordable foods for all city residents. In addition, a local food/ urban agriculture strategy can help strengthen community capacity, provide greater self-reliance, help youth development, provide jobs, and reduce dependence on fossil fuel use. Why not an Obama Healthy Local Foods Act to parallel the Healthy Places Act that Barack Obama introduced? The same omission is also evident in "building more livable and sustainable communities" (under the section, Strengthen Livability of Cities). No recognition is given to the need to have a vigorous and flourishing local food and urban agriculture system. Smart growth considerations like residents having greater access to walk, bicycle, and other transportation alternatives, which the paragraph emphasizes, are important for building more livable and sustainable communities. But that desirable goal can be enhanced by efforts to improve access to quality, healthy and nutritious food for everyone in a community. Such access would clearly contribute to building more livable and sustainable communities, not only in terms of improving the health of all residents of the community through encouraging healthier diet, but also for capturing the benefits of less use of fossil food energy, helping empower residents of disadvantaged communities with useful skills, and contributing to youth development. Response to Kaufman's Suggestions This is very exciting. As a Family Physician in an urban community clinic (Los Angeles) I am struck daily with both the level of diabetes and obestiy in my largely Latino population and the lack of safe places for my patients, both children and adults, to exercise and find affordable fresh produce. There's a dearth of Farmer's Markets in the immediate area despite an abundance of fast food venues, and not all of the limited parks in the area feel safe to the locals who are so in need of open space. I'm delighted to see work in this area. "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" Urban Agriculture Provisions in American Planning Association Policy Guide on Community and Regional Food Planning http://www.planning.org/policyguides/food.htm (Adopted by the American Planning Association Board of Directors, May 11, 2007) •recognize that urban agriculture can offer an important solution for improving access to healthy foods in low-income areas (p.2) •recognize that inner cities have significant amounts of vacant land that when used for vegetable gardening by low-income residents can produce multiple health, social, and economic benefits (p.6) •prepare comprehensive and neighborhood plans that recognize community gardens, farmers markets and other forms of urban agriculture as desirable civic uses in neighborhoods, and provide sufficient space, infrastructure and inter-modal transportation access for such uses (p.11) •support studies that consider the impact of locally oriented food production and distribution activities—e.g. farmer's markets…community gardens, public markets, and other locally sourced food businesses on the area-wide economy (p.12) •encourage mixed-use neighborhood design and redevelopment to include small and mid-size grocery stores (e.g., 3,000 to 20,000 square feet), seasonal farmers markets, and open space and related infrastructure for community vegetable gardens to allow residents to grow their own food (p.13) •on publicly owned lands, such as schoolyards, parks and greenways, and tax foreclosed properties, support the development of vegetable gardens, edible landscaping, and related infrastructure, and the formation of partnerships with community-based nonprofits serving low-income residents for garden related programs (p.13) •support development of urban agriculture projects and community vegetable gardens on school, park, and community center sites, and near public agency offices and nonprofit providers offering health, human and social services (p.14) •promote the provision of community gardens, urban agriculture projects, and community kitchen in multi-family and low-income housing projects (p.14) •provide incentives and special zoning provisions to integrate locally supported agriculture (e.g., community gardens, urban agriculture, small farms) into existing settlements and new areas of residential developments (p.15) •develop plans and redevelopment proposals for food insecure areas with sites and incentives for community gardens, entrepreneurial urban agriculture projects, farmers markets, neighborhood grocery stores, and food assistance programs (p.17) •assist urban agriculture projects through land use, zoning, facility location and related community development activities where some produce is sold at farmers markets and to restaurants, where food business incubation in community kitchens creates value-added products like salsa and salad dressing, and where food kiosks and catering operations are opened (p.17) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20080513/4f82b4ee/attachment.html _______________________________________________ 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
