Will Lexington have a community farm?

Last month, the Town of Lexington became the owner of the 8-acre Busa Farm property in Lexington, MA. But what will become of it? Because the farmland was purchased using Community Preservation Act funds, the land must either be used for recreation, open space, historic preservation, or affordable housing (1).

Members of the Lexington Community Farm Coalition (LCFC) would like to see the land used for a community farm.

What is a community farm?

The LCFC hosted a discussion panel “A Year in the Life of a Community Farm” in December to address this very question.

Community farms are run for and by the community. Around Massachusetts, such farms are frequently run by nonprofit organizations. What will happen to Busa Farm is particularly important, because it is one of the last, few working farms left in Lexington.

Panelists included representatives from community farms in neighboring towns (from left to right): Matt Celona and Christy Foote-Smith of Drumlin Farms (Lincoln, MA), Michael Iceland from The Food Project (Dorchester, Lynn, and Lincoln, MA), Jen James from Codman Community Farms (Lincoln, MA), Verena Wieloch from Gaining Ground in Concord, and Greg Maslowe of Newton Community Farms.

There are many benefits of a community farm, including:

• Educating people of all ages about farming and where their food comes from, such as through farming apprenticeships
• Local and fresh food for the community and to be donated to local food pantries
  
• Increasing individuals' physical activity
• Bringing together the community
  

For a recap of the panel, read Leah Bloom's excellent article "Residents study community farm options" in the Lexington Minuteman. In addition, read about the LCFC in the Boston Globe, and what the Boston Localvores said on this issue.

Lexington is my hometown, and I am currently studying nutrition at BU. But I never really thought about where my food came from and how it was grown until I was introduced to the group Slow Food BU my freshman year. Ever since then, farming and local and sustainable food have become very important in my life. I WWOOFed in Canada two summers ago, have been secretary of Slow Food BU since last year, enjoyed my first CSA share from Stillman's and interned at CitySprouts this past growing season, and will be taking the Master Urban Gardener Program with the Boston Natural Areas Network this winter.

I wish I had known about and taken advantage of community farms such as Drumlin Farms and The Food Project when I was younger, but it is never too late to learn about and become active in these issues. Sustainable and local food is not only important for the environment, but is more nutritious, and tastes better. Above all, it is extremely important to educate youth about how food grows and where it comes from, which is what a community farm can help to do. Luckily, there have already been some developments in Lexington over the past few years to help increase awareness about where our food comes from:

• The Lexington Farmers' Market
• The program Kids Cooking Green
• Estabrook School has a greenhouse?!
  

What can you do?

• You can help support the LCFC's effort to use the Busa land as a community farm by simply signing this petition.
• The LCFC is helping to sponsor a screening of The First Millimeter: Healing the Earth, followed by a discussion with Jim Laurie at the Cary Public Library on Tuesday, January 12 at 7 pm. More info about the screening here.
• On Sunday, January 24th, the Lexington Selectmen will be deciding what to do with the Busa land. Come to ask the selectmen your questions and find out what they have to say about farming and what the land should be used for! Time: 7:30-9 pm. Location, TBD.

Keep updated on the Lexington Community Farm Coalition by visiting their site, joining their Google Group, following them on Facebook, or following them on Twitter @lexfarm. Or better yet, get involved!

My Experience Through Hell: Dante's Inferno in 10 Courses

Having aided JJ Gonson from Cuisine En Locale in the past, when I heard about JJ's next O.N.C.E. one month ago, I knew I had to take part. JJ's O.N.C.E.'s, or One Night Culinary Events, are multi-course meals held on short notice sporadically throughout the year, and include as much locally sourced food as possible.

However, this was not like any other O.N.C.E. It was not going to be just once. Three nights, 10-courses, full with actors, dancers, music, and script: a culinary, theatrical, and musical interpretation of Dante's Inferno. Welcome to

O.N.C.E. in Hell

Venue: Club Oberon, home of the American Repetory Theater's The Donkey Show.

Dante's Inferno is the first of three parts of Dante Alighieri's allegorical work, The Divine Comedy. This poem describes Dante's journey through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio), and Heaven (Paradiso). The great Roman poet Virgil is Dante's first guide, and it would be he who would lead guests through Inferno and the 9 Circles of Hell, in what would be a magnificent production.

Weeks of work were put into the event, from all aspects of production and people of all talents. As a part of the kitchen crew last Tuesday, I was led by the three chefs of the show: JJ Gonson, Trevor Smith, and also Jennifer Ede, who did an amazing job communicating between the kitchen crew and the servers. The kitchen work involved some very intense chopping, cooking, dishwashing, and plating to serve approximately sixty people, and the work could not have been done without the contribution of many other Cuisine En Locale volunteers. Because of the intensity of the work, the time flew by. And before I knew it, we were already plating the tenth course, Heaven.



Luckily, in addition to being a part of the kitchen crew on Tuesday, I had the opportunity to attend the event on Wednesday. And it was wonderful to be able to see the hard work put into the kitchens become a part of this:



Virgil, our guide for the night, led us through the 9 Circles of Hell, each with its own culinary, theatrical, and musical interpretation, for the evening.

The night began in "Limbo," with a Clear Flour bread roll and water. Next, the two lovers Paolo and Francesca tangoed in "Lust," while we were served a Duxbury oyster shooter with a Keown Orchards Green Apple mignonette sauce. Guests were subsequently brought to the third course, Gluttony, where the servers, who were essential to creating the feel for the evening, carelessly tossed baked beans and Stillman's apple cider-glazed pork ribs in our plastic bowls with extremely large spoons. As we were served, Virgil led Cerberus, 3-headed dog and guardian of the Gluttons, engage in an eating contest with himself and a large bowl of beans. "Wrath" presented irritated and impatient waiters. So if you had been too busy enjoying the show rather than eating, you had best be prepared to wolf down the Jasmine kale salad with Grapes of Wrath Vinaigrette. "Heresy" was next, with a lobster salad enclosed in a delicate and flakey tomb-shaped puff pastry, adorned in a chili pumpkin sauce.

We were then taken to the seventh course, "Violence," where the Minotaur, part man, part beast, tore beets and smeared the "blood" all over his body, as we were served Jen's dark-red, sauerkraut cold beet soup, topped with white creme fraiche. "Fraud" followed as the eighth course, where guests received, suprise: Tofu Wellington, not the anticipated Beef Wellington that was written on the menu. In "Treachery," we were given Beelzebub's Beelzeburger, as the servers rocked out to a song about fast food. And then Lucifer came forth, Prince of Hell.

Lucifer, Virgil, and the servers

After the nine circles of Hell (and bypassing Purgatory), we found ourselves in Heaven, guided by Dante's dead and beloved Beatrice (who did some amazing acrobatics), and where Dante comes face to face with God (Anthony Saffery), who strummed some lovely tunes on the guitar.

It was a wonderful, entertaining night, and enjoyable in more ways than one.

Many thanks to Clear Flour, Keown Orchards, Stillman's Farm, Verril Farms, and Sherman Market, who provided much of the locally sourced food for the night. And a big thank you to everyone else who made these nights possible, including the servers, actors, dancers and Oberon staff, the sound, production, and tech staff, the Cuisine En Locale crew, volunteers, and many others!

For another take on the event, a more detailed course-by-course description of the night, and some links to the musical components of the evening, I encourage you to read this review on LimeyG bends yer lughole.

It was wonderful to not only be a part of the kitchen crew one night, but also to be able to enjoy and appreciate the show on another evening as well. I am already looking forward to the next O.N.C.E.

CitySprouts' School Garden Celebration!

Last Saturday, I volunteered at CitySprouts' School Garden Celebration (formerly the Harvest Festival), which was a blast!
Despite the rainy weather, we had a fabulous set-up indoors, which still allowed us a view of the Graham & Parks school garden.

I had the opportunity to work at the Stone Soup station with JJ Gonson from Cuisine En Locale.

The kids did a wonderful job chopping up the vegetables for the soup, the majority of which were a generous donation from Parker Farm!

Photo courtesy of Susan Young

Although most of the festival was indoors, we cooked the stone soup outside. The soup, which was mostly vegetables, salt and pepper, and just a little bit of stock, came out delicious and warm and was perfect for the cold, rainy day.

At the celebration, each of the schools set up tables, held activities, and sold various items to help raise money for their gardens.

Photo courtesy of Susan Young

Activities during the day included pumpkin decorating by the Haggerty School, and apple cider pressing!

Photo courtesy of Susan Young

There were various informational booths at the festival, including one with School Nutritionist Dawn Olcott. Dawn coordinates the Tasty Choices program in the Cambridge Public Schools, which helps to bring more local foods into the school lunches.

In addition, the King Open School will be involved with the program Food to Flowers, part of an environmental iniative by Compost That Stuff and the City of Cambridge.

And how could I not take a picture of this gorgeous broccoli?

Despite the rainy weather, the School Garden Celebration was very well attended by children, parents, and the community.

CitySprouts' is a nonprofit that now maintains gardens in ALL of the public schools in Cambridge, and helps to incorporate these gardens into the school curriculum. Read my previous post about interning with CitySprouts. Interested in volunteering? Find out more information here!

All photos taken by Annabelle Ho unless otherwise noted.

The Future of Food Conference & Michael Pollan!

My apologies for not posting in awhile...I always seem to get busy no matter what time of year it is!

In any case, I had a wonderful end to finals week with the conference The Future of Food: Transatlantic Perspectives on May 8th and 9th. And the next Tuesday, I finally saw Michael Pollan speak at the West Roxbury Branch Library!

The Future of Food Conference, organized by the Institute of Human Sciences, was meant to encourage people to think more consciously about the food they buy and eat. It discussed some of the present problems regarding our food systems and sustainability, and also presented some potential solutions to these problems.

The two day conference began with the workshop "Wild Fermentation," which featured Sandor Ellix Katz, author of the books Wild Ferementation and The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved. Katz taught us about fermentation and how easy and simple it is to make sauerkraut. In vinegar or acetic acid fermentation, yeasts convert carbohydrates -> alcohol + CO2, and bacteria subsequently convert the alcohol -> acetic acid + water, producing vinegar (1).

After Katz, Bryant Terry, whose latest book is Vegan Soul Kitchen, talked to us with a lecture, cooking-demo, and dinner. Terry, also an eco-chef and food justice activist, spoke with us about his experiences; and the menu included recipes featured in his book, such as citrus collard greens with raisins.

Next up was a free screening of King Corn, with an introduction by filmmaker Ian Cheney and subsequent discussion with film director Aaron Woolf. The film discusses how corn has become a commodity and is in almost everything we eat. Additionally, corn is one of the U.S.'s most over-produced and over-subsidized crops. If you have not seen this film yet, I highly recommend it!

Saturday was comprised of five panels and two keynote addresses. The presenters included Satish Kumar, editor of the magazine Resurgence; Mark Winne, author of Closing the Food Gap; Benedikt Haerlin, president of Save our Seeds; Harriet Lamb, Executive Director of the Fair Trade Foundation; Michael Ableman, farmer and author of Fields of Plenty, and many more!


Numerous thought-provoking facts and comments were made, such as:

• 40% of greenhouse emissions are food related
• 30-50% of food produced in the U.S. is thrown away
• 30-40% of the cereal production in India is rotting after harvest
• The food crisis is the product of cheap food/food subsidies
• Many genetically modified plants are marked with antibiotic-resistant marker genes, which has led to some controversy.
• In the Union of Concerned Scientists report "Failure to Yield" by Doug Gurian-Sherman, genetically engineered crops actually do not increase yields! See the press release here.

There were many great discussions, questions, and comments made on Friday and Saturday, and hopefully videos of the entire conference will be up on the Institute of Human Science's website soon!

For another take on this conference, read Slow Food BU's blog post or my friend Elizabeth's post.













Last year I had made a trip to Brown University in Rhode Island to see Michael Pollan, only to be told that the room was packed and that I could not get in. So on Tuesday, May 12th, I was very excited to finally see him in Roxbury!

Michael Pollan highlighted a few topics from his books, which include "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and "In Defense of Food."

In short, Michael Pollan suggests that we should "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." A few other things that Michael Pollan touched upon:

• Nutrition science- it started in the 1830's/1840's, so it's not very strong yet, and it's arguable at best. Most often, they are based on food frequency questionnaires, which are not the most reliable.
• Nutrition labels- can be off by ~20-30%!
• Companies/committees can say to eat less of a nutrient but not less of a food.
  -This caused the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition to recommend to ''Choose meats, poultry and fish that will reduce saturated-fat intake," and to not to give their original recommendation to "reduce consumption of meat," due to uproar from the meat and dairy industry (1).

The traditional Western Diet, which includes everything but vegetables, fruits, and whole grains, often leads to chronic disease. Thus, we need to rethink about what we're eating, and so Michael Pollan is currently collecting Food Rules to make this transition for Americans easier. Some rules he has already collected include:

• Don't eat anything you've ever seen on TV
• Eat all of the junk food you want, as long as you make it yourself
• The Japanese quotation: "Eat until you are 80% full"

If you have any other helpful food rules, e-mail them to Michael Pollan at foodrules[at]michaelpollan.com!

And if you would like to read another recap of Michael Pollan's visit to Roxbury, read my friend Elizabeth's blog post here.

For those of you in the area, hope you've enjoyed the long weekend and the lovely weather!

Who Owns Your Food and Water Globally and Locally?

Last Friday, Simmons hosted the 12th annual International Women's Day breakfast: Who Owns Your Food and Water Globally and Locally?

The breakfast started off some amazing bread from Mamadou's Artisan Bakery in Winchester. One of IWD's slogan, Bread & Roses, calls for fair pay, decent working conditins, and respect. The phrase originated from a protest in Lawrence, MA, in which women's factory hours were reduced, but production increased and workers' salary was cut.

In the U.S. and many other parts of the world, we are used to the idea of paying for water. However, Patricia Jones from the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee spoke about access to water as a human right.

According to a 2006 Report on the Water Crisis by the UN:

• 1.1 billion people don't have access to safe water
• 2.6 billion don't have access to water sanitation
• 5 million die annually from water-related diseases

Nevertheless, here is a good sign: South African was the first constitution to incorporate water as a human right. Improving water sanitation is within our interests. Every dollar spent on water sanitation benefits the economy by $8!

With the number of water shut-offs rising and increasing water scarcity due to global climate change, among other reasons, we need to learn more about our water. You can start from as little as paying more attention to your water bill, learning more about the Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act, or supporting grassroots organizations such as the UUSC. At the moment, the U.S. has no national water policy. What Patricia recommends: the U.S. needs a just and equitable national water policy with women involved, and which has a priority for the poor.

Other speakers included Ruby Maddox-Fisher, the co-founder and past director of the community-based urban agriculture program in Springfield, MA: Gardening the Community. The GtC:

• Makes use of abandoned lots to grow fruits and vegetables
• Helps to educate youth about urban agriculture
• Increases access to locally produced food, and promotes the community
• Contributes to the greening of the city and helps to recycle urban wastes, such as grey water
• Grey water, or water produced from domestic purposes such as dishwashing or doing laundry, can be filtered and cleaned and used for other purposes!

Jenny Ruducha, involved with several NGO's such as Save the Children and PATH, spoke to us about the international outlook on Food and Nutrition. Some interesting facts to note:

• World agriculture produces 17% more calories per person than 30 years ago.
• 982 million people live on <$1/day. And unsurprisingly, around the same number of people, 963 million, suffer from hunger worldwide.
• In Sub-Saharan Africa, 1:3 people are chronically hungry.
• According to FAO, 33 countries are facing critical food shortages.
• Poor nutrition is the cause of more than 1/2 of all child deaths worldwide.

Solutions include food and cash transfers (a project already undertaken in Malawi) and addressing chronic food insecurity through productive safety nets.

Last but not least was the director of Natick Community Organic Farm Lynda Sinkins. Because we all eat, we are all part of the agriculture system. And because 85% of food is imported, and 15% is produced locally, we need to support and buy from our New England farmers so they do not run out of business. And with local CSA's, greenhouses, and urban agriculture, the ability to buy local produce and to do so year round is increasing every day!

And if you would like to learn more about International Women's Day, look here!

The World Food Crisis and Response

This semester, BU is offering a free Gastronomy Lecture Series in Food Studies! (However, you need to call and reserve your space in advance!)

Last Friday, professor of Anthropology Ellen Messer spoke about Food and Security: Crisis, Challenges, and Choices. She addressed hunger, defined as access to nutritionally adequate food. Although enough food is produced worldwide to feed everyone a nutritionally adequate diet, there are the problems of access, unhealthy food choices, and underdeveloped community food organizations.

Photo source: http://sitemaker.umich.edu/356.cho/children_in_poverty_worldwide

One problem decreasing access to wholesome foods is high prices. High prices can result from decreased production (due to weather, politics, and warfare), increased demands for commodity crops and biofuels, a decreasing economy, and more. Because farmers see so little returns for their crops, many end up growing a combination of cash and specialty crops in order to have enough food to eat, while still making enough money to survive.

More than half of the hungry live in 7 countries: Bangladesh, China, DRC, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, and Pakistan.

There are controversial solutions to these problems, including biotechnologies vs. agroecological/organic technologies, large-scale vs. small-scale farming, and free vs. fair trade.





What the individual can do: You can become more a more informed consumer: suggested reads included What to Eat by Marion Nestle and Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappé. Several international organizations involved with sustainable food systems worthy to look up are Oxfam International, Care, and Global Exchange.

The next lecture in the gastronomy series: Henry Ford, Colonial Kitchens, and the Performance of National Identity by Abigail Carroll on March 27!

And if you haven't checked out the Culinary Historians of Boston yet- they have a monthly speaker series always open to the public!

Real Food Summit!

Last weekend several members of Slow Food BU and I visited UMass Amherst for the 2nd Annual NE Real Food Summit, where over 300 students from the northeast gathered to network, attend workshops, and brainstorm ideas on how to bring local, sustainable, fair, and real food into our schools.

Real foods help to nourish the earth, producers, consumers, and communities. And with over $4 billion dollars spent on food every year by universities, colleges can make a significant impact on food supply trends. Thus, a goal of the Real Food Challenge, which runs the food summits, is to get 20% of all foods purchased by colleges and universities towards real foods by 2020.

Ways that students can become involved in the movement towards more sustainable foods include joining the Youth Food Movement, creating or joining a Slow Food on Campus Convivia, joining the Real Food Challenge, or by holding an eat-in.

Workshops included "Building Food IQ and Sharpening Your Sound Bytes" by Dr. Susan Rubin, the founder of Better School Food. At this workshop, students learned, among other things, that the sweetener high-fructose corn commonly found in commercial foods has been indicated to be contaminated with mercury. Furthermore, it takes around 17 feet of sugar cane to make 1 cup of sugar. Suggested reads included The End of Food by Paul Roberts and Death by Supermarket by Nancy Deville.


Meanwhile, in another workshop students discussed The Farm Bill and the Northeast with Simmons faculty member and NESAWG consultant Larry Dixon. Although improvements to the Farm Bill can always be made, students recognized some of its positives- including the fact that the farm bill sets aside money (over $2 billion for the next five years) for nutrition and food safety net programs.

I will discuss food and food issues in later posts, but in the meantime here is a movie that I highly recommend: The Future of Food.