The Seattle Foundation’s GiveBIG is a one-day, online charitable giving event to inspire
people to give generously to nonprofit organizations who make our region a healthier and
more vital place to live.

Each credit card donation* made to PCC Farmland Trust on The Seattle Foundation’s website
between midnight and midnight on Wednesday, May 15, 2013, will receive a prorated portion
of the matching funds (or “stretch”) pool. The amount of the “stretch” depends on the size of
the stretch pool and how much is raised in total donations on GiveBIG day.

* The Seattle Foundation will “stretch” all donations up to $25,000 per donor, per organization.

GIVE BIG to PCC Farmland Trust on May 15th– click here to be directed to our profile page on the Seattle Foundation’s website.

Maria Hines and Congressman Jim McDermott, April 2013, Washington D.C.

What would it be like to only have $6 a day per person to feed your family? How heavy would it make our hearts feel to look into the eyes of a child who was still hungry and lacked the nutrition they needed to think clearly in school, grow strong, and feel healthy? My heart feels heavy knowing that one in five children in King County are food insecure (according to the City of Seattle Food Action Plan).

My name is Maria Hines, chef/owner of 3 certified organic restaurants in Seattle (Tilth Restaurant, Golden Beetle, and Agrodolce). I made the commitment to have all the restaurants be certified organic, through Oregon Tilth. Eating nutritious organic food at home drove the desire for me to nourish those who come to Maria Hines Restaurants, to receive organic food and the pleasure of taste.

It tugs at me, knowing that being able to afford healthy nutritious food is currently a privilege, not a right. There is a lack of food equity in the world. How can I promote that everybody should eat local, nutritious, sustainable food when so many of our brothers and sisters struggle to afford nourishment? Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) caseloads have risen 83% since 2009. 122,197 Seattleites visit food banks each quarter. Physicians diagnose 10,000 to 20,000 pesticide poisonings each year in the U.S. and diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in King County.

The SNAP Challenge

In my quest for answers I’ve come across some amazing opportunities. In order to get the smallest glimpse of how much local, nutritionally dense, sustainable food one could eat on $6 a day with the SNAP benefit, I challenged myself to be on this budget for 30 days. I was humbled deeply within the first week of this challenge. It was incredibly hard, nearly impossible to get the USDA recommended amount of fruits and vegetables. Finding local foods in a large budget oriented grocery chain was equally hard. When you add the cost of sustainable foods, the challenge becomes even harder. With sacrifices and creativity it is barely possible to eat local, nutritionally dense, sustainable food on a SNAP budget. The biggest sacrifice fell in the local department. Frozen local organic strawberries were more expensive than frozen organic mangos from Mexico. I should also mention that the “local” strawberries were from USA. Not even a state origin was mentioned on the packaging. The majority of the sustainable fresh fruits and veggies that I came across, were not very seasonal at the budget oriented grocery chain. I know that some budget-driven grocery stores do a better job than others with labeling local origin, but working full time doesn’t allow for much time to travel far to search for and obtain these items (and I don’t even come close to living in a food desert). I encourage everyone to spend a week or month taking the SNAP challenge and seeing what you may learn through the process.

PEW Charitable Trust’s Super Chefs for Superbugs

Sustainable meats are also expensive. But it is the only healthy meat option out there. I refuse to eat any meat that has been injected with antibiotics. Humans can build up a resistance to antibiotics when eating meat with antibiotics and when they become ill, they are unable to treat their illness with antibiotics because they have built up a resistance to it. This is appropriately named a “superbug”. There have been many scientifically proven deaths and severe illnesses created from antibiotics in meat. Please note that if a package reads “hormone-free”, that does not mean antibiotic-free.

I had the opportunity to speak with our local leaders on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. in April 2013. The PEW Charitable Trust accompanied me to Senator Patty Murray and Senator Maria Cantwell’s offices, to sit down and have a conversation about how to resolve the issue of antibiotics in meat. There is currently legislation on the table that will help end the deaths and sickness created by this issue. My friends Chef Tom Colicchio and Chef Sam Talbot also joined me in speaking with Congresswoman Hoffman from California, and Senator Feinstein’s New York offices on Capitol Hill about the issue. It was wonderful to be able to speak about this with our fine decision-making leaders of  Washington State. I encourage you to visit, call, or write our leaders, if you so desire. They really do listen.

Food Equity

So what’s the answer? How do we create food equity for all? How to we make sure that all our  brothers and sisters can gain access and afford  local, sustainable, nutritious foods?

There is a solution that would draw us closer to solving this problem. Creating incentives for SNAP recipients to receive a matched dollar amount to spend on fruits and veggies at their local farmer’s market is one possible solution. The good news is, there are many organizations out there providing this service. The result of the matching is overwhelmingly positive on so many levels. Food equity is increased to lower income families, local small and medium sized farms are supported, health care costs go down, and our local economy gets stimulated.

Wholesome Wave has been one of the organizations leading the charge and setting the example in providing this service. Their data demonstrates that when there is a SNAP incentive dollar match program at farmer’s markets, that 27% of market sales come from SNAP users, the farmers see a 41% increase in sales, and 95% of the SNAP shoppers say they value the quality of produce. In April 2013, I also attended the Wholesome Wave 4th annual convening in D.C. I was able to visit Congressman Jim McDermott’s office with my friend Ned Porter, from Wholesome Wave, to request support for the SNAP incentive program to be included in the upcoming Farm Bill (due to be completed October of this year). This would allow us the possibility to sustain matched dollar incentive programs for SNAP recipients at the federal level.

Does a program like this exist in Washington State? There were a few pilot programs that occurred last year at selected farmers markets. One of the programs is called Fresh Bucks. This program was a pilot at 7 Seattle farmer’s markets last year. Their data showed that 1,500 low income individuals were impacted, there was a $70,000 increase in sales for the local farmer’s, 85% individuals said they ate more fruits and vegetables, and the estimated economic impact to the local economy was $125,300. An expanded Fresh Bucks pilot will run again this year. The funding for the Fresh Bucks program is a collaboration of public and private funding. We are at risk of not being able to expand the pilot this year and at risk of not turning the pilot into a concrete program due to funding challenges.

If you are interested in learning about how you can assist in leveling the food equity playing field in our community, please email Sharon [dot] Lermon [at] seattle [dot] gov. No matter how big or small your financial, time, or vocal contribution is towards this cause, it will be of great benefit for many. This food system, is our food system. We have the right, the opportunity, and the privilege to honor and care for the food grown and to provide nourishment for every human being.

Development encroaches on the prime soils of the Puyallup Valley, of which Sturgeon Farm is at the center.  Photo: Dennis Lussier

The Sturgeon Farm, once a thriving dairy, dates back to the 1920s. By July of this year, this fertile farmland could begin the “inevitable” transformation into a subdivision. Will you help us save it?

PCC Farmland Trust is leading a call to action in the Puyallup Valley to save what’s left of one of our most valuable natural resources: farmland.  Often the land that is the most agriculturally valuable–flat and well-drained prime soils—is also the most desirable for development.  In the Puyallup Valley the development pressures are especially high, and organic farmers especially few.  With your support, we have made some conservation progress in the area- but we stand to make so much more, beginning with the Sturgeon Farm.

That’s where you come in.  Saving this farmland is a critical step toward a more sweeping vision for the valley. Sturgeon Farm is adjacent to our Orting Valley Farms project and down the road from the Historic Reise Farm, which we conserved in late 2012.  These properties combined could create an opportunity for substantial growth and shared resources in a small agricultural community.

You can help us save this farm by making a donation toward the cost of a conservation easement.  To date, donors and public funders have contributed $1.1M toward the total $1.5M needed

The Trust has until July 1 to secure the final $400,000, or the owner will begin to develop the land.

By making a gift and helping us close that gap, you will be capitalizing on the preservation work we’ve already fought for, charting a course toward a tangible and meaningful alternate vision in Pierce County. Saving Sturgeon Farm is an opportunity to tip the balance in favor of green expanses of agricultural production, strengthened local economies, and farmers feeding their communities.

If you decide to help us pull this off, we can set in motion some powerful momentum—a domino effect of agricultural revitalization! Won’t you join us by making a gift to this project today?

P.S. If you’d like to stretch your gift further, you can donate to this project through Give BIG on May 15^th.

Drink Beer, Save Farmland!

The following breweries are donating a proceed of beer sales to the Farmland Trust in May:

Saving the “Magic Skagit” – The Seattle Times looks at conserving the Lower Skagit Valley.

Hitting foodies where it hurts: climate change is now threatening wine production.

In giant monocrop news, “This year, amber waves of grain to be replaced by CORN.”

The Environmental Working Group (EWG), long a source of very helpful information and tools  (Dirty Dozen/Clean 15; The “Skin Deep” Cosmetics Database, et. al.) has released a study in which they’ve determined that most supermarket meat has a very large number of dangerous bacteria. Luckily, EWG also provides a tip sheet, a label decoder, and a “better meat finder”–all of which assist meat eaters in making better choices and purchases.

Strange bedfellows indeed. A controversial provision, nicknamed the “Monsanto Protection Act, was slipped anonymously into the Senate version of the Agricultural Appropriations Bill, passed last month. The more surprising part was just how upset the Tea Party was about it.

Is Organic Better? Consider asking a fruit fly.

Mark Bittman takes a look at the emerging world of more sustainable, healthful fast food.

Bees finally get a break:  The EU bans neonicotinoid pesticides.

Cheryl the Pig Lady at Reise Farm. Photo: Dennis Lussier

For those of you keeping an eye on things down at PCC Farmland Trust’s newest conserved property–the Reise Farm in the Puyallup River Valley—you may have noticed a few changes occurring. Just before spring’s earliest buds began to pop, a pink blur could be spotted crisscrossing the Reise Farm landscape, feverishly setting up fencing, roosting boxes, mud baths, and prepping the dormant farm for a flurry of new barnyard residents.

In early spring, donning her signature pink coveralls and a smile that could lighten up the dreariest of days, Cheryl Ouellette, fondly known as Cheryl the Pig Lady, relocated her operation from 5 acres near Tacoma to 40 acres of the Reise Farm just outside of Orting. As one can imagine, moving a farm isn’t an easy feat!  But with the help of a few friends and interns, Cheryl successfully moved all of her chickens, goats, sheep, turkeys, dogs, and of course the pigs—including her 1,500 pound boar Ebony—to their new home at Reise Farm.

Cheryl’s farming roots go back to 1999, when she began raising food in a sustainable manner to support her family. Today she serves as an integral part of the local agricultural community. Cheryl brings with her a wealth of knowledge of integrated farm management practices, which will lead to increased fertility of the land and help to enhance the agricultural values. Utilizing a well-orchestrated rotational grazing system, Cheryl’s pigs, goats, chickens, ducks, turkeys, and sheep all work together to sustainably remove unwanted weeds, till the soil, manage unwanted pests, and of course, create nutrient rich compost.

Over the next three years, Cheryl will be working with the Trust to certify the land as organic in accordance with National Organic Standards, and will also partner with us in our efforts to enhance the riparian habitat and natural ecosystems along Ball Creek running along the western edge of the property.

PCC Farmland Trust is excited to be working with Cheryl the Pig Lady and we’d officially like to welcome her to the farm! If you’d like to contact Cheryl or learn more about her operation and where to find her products, be sure to visit her website: cherylthepiglady.com.

Some thoughts courtesy of the U.S. Food Administration circa 1917, during World War I.  Probably a little different than current governmental administrative messaging.

In honor of National Farmworker Awareness Week, Grist illustrates some data about the typical American farmworker.

Across the American heartland, farmland prices are soaring: The New York Times examines the high crop prices driving the farm boom.

Securing adequate land to grow crops and raise livestock was the top challenge identified in the latest survey of participants in the American Farm Bureau Federation’s Young Farmers & Ranchers program.

Sort-of-kind-of an upside to climate change?  Well, for farmers in Greenland at least.

Kathleen Merrigan, the No. 2 official at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, announced last week that she would be leaving her post as USDA’s deputy secretary. Food advocates everywhere say, “Uh Oh”.

Four beekeepers and five environmental and consumer groups take matters into their own hands, filing a lawsuit in Federal District Court against the EPA for its failure to protect pollinators from dangerous pesticides.

And finally, the Modern Farmer Tumblr reports on what is clearly the most important breaking news anywhere: the results of their 2013 Baby Farm Animal Power Rankings.

Drink Beer, Save Farmland!

The following breweries are donating a proceed of beer sales to the Farmland Trust in April:

Lois Fisher with friend on Camelot Downs Farm. Photo: Jo Arlow Photography

It’s hard to believe that March has already come and gone—and with the kickoff of our new On the Farm educational series, we had a couple of opportunities to witness the beautiful emergence of spring!

On March 9^th, we hosted an incredibly successful volunteer work party at Sanford’s Farm in Orting to enhance the habitat and conservation values of the property. Volunteers from all over Puget Sound took advantage of a rare sunny day in early March and showed up in droves to grab a shovel and dig into some of that fertile Orting Valley soil. In total, we had over 140 people come together from The Boeing Company, Pierce Conservation District, EarthCorps, REI, The City of Orting, Sanford’s Farm, PCC Farmland Trust, and the local community. In just over 3 hours we planted 350 native trees and shrubs, moved 60 yards of mulch, reused over 1,000 burlap sacks, and consumed 147 Chipotle Mexican Grill burritos! Oh, and we can’t forget to mention that the Sanford’s turkey added to the excitement of the day by laying her first egg! Wow, what a day. Special thanks to The Boeing Company who made sure that each volunteer left holding some fresh farm goodies in their hands, including eggs from Sanford’s Farm and neighboring Little Eorthe Farm, as well as freshly harvested root veggies from Tahoma Farm across the street. It seems that everyone had a great time down at Sanford’s Farm and we can’t wait to do it again.

The following weekend, On the Farm hit the road and headed north to Whidbey Island for a farm tour at Camelot Downs, where 22 baby lambs waited patiently to make their public debut. With farmers Gary and Lois Fisher leading the way, boot-clad attendees walked down the wooded path towards the gates of the picturesque farm where flocks of geese, ducks, and guinea fowl broke into a chorus of “honk, quack, and squawk”. Dolly the guard llama paced nervously back and forth along the fence line, unsure of what to make of the bright pink polka dotted boots scampering across the fields. Ginny the Hinny was much more comfortable with the gang of giggling toddlers and graciously welcomed every hug and pat that came her way. Thank you to everyone who made their way out to Camelot Downs, enduring the unrelenting wind to learn about organic farming, land conservation, and a few of Gary’s interesting facts!

If you are interested in joining us On the Farm, we are still looking for a few more volunteers to help us out at Growing Things Farm in Carnation, Washington on Saturday April 13^th, where we are partnering with Stewardship Partners to plant a hedgerow along Sykes Creek to enhance salmon habitat in the Snoqualmie Valley. This will be another great event for families, community groups, and individuals to make an impact, help the environment, and learn about organic farmland conservation. So hurry and register before all of the tasty burritos that Chipotle Mexican Grill will be bringing for lunch are spoken for!  Hope to see you on the farm!

In 2012, the Trust partnered with the Trust for Public Land and Globalwise, Inc. to commission a study of the farmland in Puyallup Valley.  View the full report. [PDF]

Building off of the findings from the Pierce County Agricultural Strategic Plan written by Globalwise in 2006, the study examined various farm and economic metrics in a sub-area of the Puyallup Valley, and included farmer interviews and examined opportunities for food processing and market expansion in the region. The study also set out to explore the feasibility of conserving corridors of agricultural land, gauged the effectiveness of the Trust’s past work and examined opportunities for an agricultural economic revival in the valley. For the Trust, this report confirms our current focus on the highly threatened farmland in the Puyallup Valley, helps us understand the implications of our work when we focus on a specific geographic area, as well as understand the impact that agricultural conservation can have in communities with highly threatened agricultural land, on the urban fringe.

If you have questions about the report or would like to learn more, please contact Melissa Campbell, our Conservation Director.