In his article Innovative Distribution Can Combat Food Deserts, Derek Singleton examines the impacts poor food distribution can have on a community.  Often times this creates food deserts, such as those found in certain Detroit neighborhoods, where residents do not have access to affordable healthy food, or supermarkets. Food deserts can often be found in low income urban neighborhoods throughout the U.S.

Finding a solution to combat food deserts is not always that simple. As Derek points out, “… food deserts are a multidimensional problem that requires multidimensional solutions. It’s important to keep in mind that these are just a few pieces to an incredibly complex puzzle.”   However, solutions can be found at the local level.  In the case of Detroit, grassroot community initiatives include (amongst others): Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), Farmer’s Markets as well as Regional Food Hubs.

In the age of the Internet, new online-enabled storefronts could also play a significant role in the local food supply network.  Such online storefronts would only stock fresh produce according to Internet orders, and could be able to provide the ordered food within just a few hours from when the order was placed.

All the efforts made to bring fresh foods to food deserts need to coincide with a change in peoples’ choices for a healthy, nutritious, diet.  Education and creating a new awareness of the important benefits of healthy food is key to finding a lasting, sustainable solution to the problem of food deserts.

For more information read the complete article: Innovative Distribution Can Combat Food Deserts
 

Derek Singleton recently wrote a very interesting article on Food Distribution in the U.S. Following is a short excerpt. Clink on the link below to be directed to the complete article.

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According to a 2010 article in The New York Times, Americans consume 31 percent more processed foods than citizens of other nations. One reason for this is our food distribution networks. Our average food item travels roughly 5,000 miles before it’s consumed. Because of this, our foods are prepared and packaged to be shipped long distances.

Current trends suggest that the status quo of long-distance food distribution may be primed for disruption. Increased consumer demand for locally-grown organic foods, coupled with a renewed interest in living in urban cores and rising gas prices, collectively suggest that U.S. food distribution networks will soon need to evolve to support these and other shifting lifestyle and economic trends.

For a glimpse of what our future food distribution chain might look like, we need only look to where these trends have already advanced a few steps ahead of us: Europe.

To continue reading follow this link.

For more info visit: http://gmofilm.com/

The June issue of The Organic & Non-GMO Report features an interview with farmer-author Eric Herm. To read the interview visit: http://www.thenon-gmoreport.com/articles/june2011/generationsfarmerorganicnongmo.php

Hunter Richards wrote an interesting article on how technology can benefit the organic farmer.  In it he describes structures such as the roller crimper, “a device dragged by a tractor,” or the hoop house.  Read more by visiting his article, http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/accounting/organic-farmers-can-they-be-tech-savvy-1022111/

Eric Herm, a fourth generation farmer from W. Texas, discusses sustainable farming, local food production, and the critical need for more farmers in America to see themselves as guardians of the land. His book, Son of a Farmer, Child of the Earth, details commercial agriculture’s strain on natural resources, delicate ecosystems, and the farmer.

Thursday, February 24th – 7:00 pm
Bluestocking Bookstore
172 Allen Street between Stanton and Rivington, Manhattan NY
Free and open to the public.
For more info, call Bluestockings 212-777-6028
Cosponsored by Sustainable Table

Friday, February 25th – 1:00 pm
New York University
Department of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health
35 West 4th Street, Room 1080 (10th Floor), Manhattan NY

Saturday, February 26th – 4:00 pm
Brooklyn Public Library
Central Library, Dr. S. Stevan Dweck Center for Contemporary Culture
10 Grand Army Plaza
Brooklyn, NY
Free and open to the public.
For more info, call the Brooklyn Public Library 917-275-6945

Sunday, February 27th – 6:30 pm
The Commons
388 Atlantic Ave
Brooklyn NY
organized by Leaders in Environmental Advocacy at Pratt (LEAP)
suggested donation $ 5

Tuesday, March 1st – 7:00 pm
The Old Stone House
Washington Park / JJ Byrne Playground
5th Avenue at 3rd Street
Brooklyn NY
Free and open to the public.
For more info, call the Old Stone House 718-768-3195

Eric Herm’s book, Son of a Farmer, Child of the Earth, was reviewed in Sunday’s, January 9th, edition of the San Antonio Express-News.  The review is by Ed Conroy.  I’ve enclosed the review below:

“Eric Herm, a fourth generation cotton farmer currently working on the family farm near the West Texas town of Ackerly eloquently offers a cautionary tale in his important first book for those of us who take for granted plentiful, relatively inexpensive food at the supermarket.
He succinctly sums up the message of the first half of his book on Page 15, saying “If we persist in following the model of commercial agriculture, we are destined to fail.”
In three engagingly written and well-researched opening chapters dealing successively with the issues farmers face with seed, soil, rain and water, Herm produces a powerful critique of the problems caused by a model of agriculture increasingly reliant upon genetically modified organisms and pesticides.
He also tells the reader a lot about what the world looks like to a 36-year-old man who got off the farm to get an education in journalism, traveled the world, worked as a sports broadcaster, and decided to return to the farm with a new wife (and now a son), where his father and mother still work and live.
In short, he argues that “commercial agriculture” is slowly ruining vital resources to the point where another American Dust Bowl and other farming disasters — such as the continued collapse of commercial bee colonies — are not inconceivable.
Herm offers a wealth of information about growing practices known as permaculture, alternative ways to deal with insect pests, and rainwater harvesting, together with long lists of related books and websites that open up a multitude of possibilities for farmers and gardeners alike.
Having taken the reader to the point where it appears reasonable to have serious concerns about commercial agriculture, Herm launches into a series of prescriptions for curing what ails not only the farm but American society as a whole.
In his book’s second half, Herm leaves the terra firma he knows so well to tackle questions of money, government and social organization and what he foresees as the inevitable end of a petroleum-based economy.
It is here that some of his prescriptions lack the same kind of fact-based research and historical perspective as his analysis and critique of American agriculture.
Rather than analyzing in depth current federal agricultural policies and offering specific alternatives to them, including incentives for getting more young people involved in farming, Herm provides a 10-point guide to the American farmer that centers on disengaging from the mainstream economy and “getting smaller.”
He doesn’t quite say how to do so without going out of business.
On the other hand, his advocacy for cultivation of hemp (not the psychoactive kind) as a source of energy, food and clothing makes a lot of sense.
One does not have to agree with Eric Herm’s prognostications and prescriptions to see that his analysis of American agriculture’s problems is trenchant and troubling.
We can hope this book will add to the consciousness of the need for good food as the key to good health already being encouraged by Michael Pollan, Bill McKibben and many other writers — and spark a healthy debate about the future of the American farm.”

Ed Conroy is a San Antonio writer and critic.

Monday – November 22nd, 7:00 pm
The Commons, 388 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217

What is the current state of commercial agriculture? How to build a healthy and sustainable future, that interconnects farming and community.


Join us along with:

Eric Herm, 4th generation farmer from Western Texas, and author of Son of a Farmer, Child of the Earth (Dreamriver Press).

Judith LaBelle, President of Glynwood, which empowers communities in the North East to support farming and save farmland.

Dan Miner, longtime peak oil activist, volunteer organizer with Post Carbon Institute and 350.org, and past Chair of Sierra Club NYC.

Cheryl Rogowski, farmer, The Rogowski Farm, Pine Island, NY.

Co-sponsored by:
Brooklyn Food Coalition
Slow Food NYC
TriState Food Not Lawns
Neighborhood Energy Network

Suggested donation: $ 5

Subway – Train:
Hoyt-Schermerhorn; A, C and G
Bergen Street; F
Atlantic-Pacific; B, M, Q, R, 2, 3, 4 and 5
Flatbush Avenue; LIRR

Bus: B63 and B65

For more information call 718-715-4365. Connect to this event on Facebook.

Eric Herm, author of Son of a Farmer, Child of the Earth will be a guest on Blue Planet Almanac radio on Monday, July 26th, at 11:00 am ET. Listen the show live on HealthyLive.net.

Eric will be interviewed by host, Mike Austin. The program will include two other guests. As stated on Blue Planet Almanac’s site:

“Sustainability is cross-disciplinary. From anywhere you stand you could pick up a figurative pebble or rock, toss it as lightly or hard and you like, and strike a subject which involves environmentalism, its law, policy, farming, food, water or a myriad other important things. Environmental lawyer Bruce Rich, American farmer Eric Herm, and personal development wizard Mick Quinn will explain the interactions of those things for us.”

For a more detailed description please visit the Blue Planet Almanac website. It should an interesting and very informative show.