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.

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.

–Brenda Campbell, Stewardship & Community Education Coordinator

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!

Junk food, super weeds, and GMO A Go Go!  Oh my.

Grist notes that land trusts are catching on to this whole local food and farmland preservation thing.   

Carrie and Ken Little of Little Eorthe Farm talk farming in the Tacoma News Tribune.

A damning indictment of corn ethanol in only half of a page in EWG’s Corn Ethanol:  Bad for Farmers, Consumers, and the Environment.

This Crosscut article takes a look at the idea of “Where Cows Meet Clams” –a series of workshops through NNRG that explores the relationship between the health of Puget Sound water, soil and habitat, and the health of working farms and forests.

Apparently, it’s official:  Nearly Half of All U.S. Farms Now Have Superweeds. 

Perhaps you’ve seen some of McDonalds’ latest greenwashing in the form of advertising for their new “sustainable” fish sandwiches?  Sound too good to be true?  It is.

Infomatic Films presents “GMO A Go Go!“, a tongue-in-cheek, retro-style short film about the dangers of GMO’s.

Whoops, now there’s horse meat in IKEA meatballs.

The New York Times Magazine tackles the “Extrordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food“, including exploration of “the bliss point,” “sensory-specific satiety,” and “vanishing caloric density”.

And finally, some purely fun stuff: Modern Farmer’s Tumblr blog is already a PCC Farmland Trust office favorite, what with their weekly Baby Farm Animal Power Rankings (often an inspiration for our Farmland Trust Friday Farm Fuzzies on our Facebook page), but now they’ve gone and created a Farmhouse Pinterest page that is the stuff of dreams.

Jeremy Sanford.  Photo: Dennis Lussier

When Jeremy and Angela Sanford first heard about the opportunity to relocate their family to a piece of land just outside of Orting, Washington, they jumped at the chance. Jeremy credits Angela’s grandmother, Marline McClane, with encouraging the couple to take the leap and start their own farm business. Serendipitously, Marline is deeply familiar with the valley, having grown up just down the road and fondly recalls spending many of her early days picking hops at a neighboring farm.

“Grandma is a huge support. She’s the gasoline in my car,” Jeremy says with a grin.

Growing up on a conventional farm, spending his high school days as a member of Future Farmers of America, and even participating in the rodeo circuit for a bit, Jeremy has spent the past 7 years working on an organic farm on Whidbey Island developing his skills as a farmer and envisioning the day when he would be working his own land. In July 2012, that day finally came and with the stroke of the pen the lease was signed and Sanford’s Farm was born.

“It felt kinda like a homecoming, you know? We knew we had to be there.”

Backed by a strong family network supporting their endeavors, the Sanford’s and their 3 kids moved onto their 27 acres of prime agricultural soils in the Orting Valley and immediately began work to prepare the land for the 2013 growing season. The farm, part of the 100 acre Orting Valley Farms project, was preserved forever in 2009 when PCC Farmland Trust and Pierce County purchased the development rights from the old Ford Dairy, utilizing funds secured through the Washington State Wildlife Recreation Program (WWRP) and Pierce County’s own Conservation Futures program. Today the Orting Valley Farms project is home to 3 organic farm businesses operations, including Little Eorthe Farm, Tahoma Farms, and now Sanford’s Farm. Jeremy states that knowing he would have the support of PCC Farmland Trust and other organic farmers in the area fell in line with his desire to incorporate education and sustainability into his farm plan, and would ultimately help him fulfill his goal of not only participating in, but helping to grow a farm community.

With the 2013 growing season rapidly approaching, the Sanford’s are chomping at the bit. Having already spent most of the winter raising and harvesting roughly 100 broiler hens and a couple of turkeys, Jeremy has another batch of baby chicks staying cozy under heat lamps until spring arrives and they can emerge from the barn. Sanford’s adult layers are steadily producing gorgeous farm fresh eggs and as soon as weather permits and it’s safe to sow, he’ll have over 5 acres planted in specialty row crop vegetables.

As if all those new farm responsibilities weren’t enough to keep him busy, Jeremy has also been eagerly participating with PCC Farmland Trust, Pierce Conservation District, and EarthCorps, helping to organize an upcoming volunteer restoration event at Sanford’s Farm. Taking place on March 9^th, over 100 volunteers will descend onto the farm, grab a shovel, and work to reestablish 650 feet of a native riparian buffer along a tributary to the neighboring Carbon River. These efforts will not only enhance habitat for fish and other wildlife but will also improve the conservation values of the farm– something that Jeremy is all about. After the event, participants will be encouraged to stick around for a farmer-led tour of Sanford’s Farm and hear firsthand Jeremy’s long-term vision and plans for the coming years.

–Brenda Campbell, Stewardship & Community Education Coordinator

The battle to save the bees continues, as insecticide is further linked to colony collapse: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jan/16/insecticide-unacceptable-danger-bees?intcmp=122

North Olympic Land Trust recently preserved 24-Carrot Farm, which is immediately adjacent to 70-acre Delta Farm, conserved by PCC Farmland Trust in 2000. Through this project, the two properties will be reunited: www.sequimgazette.com/news/article.exm/2013-01-17_peninsula_group_to_preserve_24_carrot_farm

HuffPost’s Alison Spiegel is one of many to weigh in on the study published a few weeks ago by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, which estimates that as much as half of the food we produce gets thrown away: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alison-spiegel/reducing-food-waste_b_2517354.html?utm_hp_ref=green&ir=Green

Could it be that Walmart and the big food companies are starting to have a change of heart regarding GMOs? http://grist.org/food/are-walmart-and-big-food-pushing-for-gmo-labeling/

PCC’s own Trudy Bialic is featured in this New York Times article on the same topic: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/01/business/food-companies-meet-to-weigh-federal-label-for-gene-engineered-ingredients.html?hpw&_r=0

Wenonah Hauter, author of “Foodopoly”, on the consolidation of the food industry and the struggle for independent farmers and companies to stay afloat in the face of corporate mergers and bad food policy: http://grist.org/food/aisle-be-damned-how-big-food-dominates-your-supermarket-choices/

The latest thought-provocation from Mark Bittman: failure, progress and the need for patience: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/01/fixing-our-food-problem/

And finally, one of our farmers already knows all about benefiting from the latest farming trend: guard llamas. http://modfarm.tumblr.com/post/41795855010/guard-llamas-guard-llamas

–by Kelly Sanderbeck, Annual Fund Manager & Story Catcher

Farmland as investment? It may be a bubble, but people are opening their pocketbooks – not to a volatile stock market or zero-rate interest, but to a speculative investment that is finite:  farmland. The Midwest looks like a feeding frenzy with farmland being bid at double the price of just 5 years ago. “Farmland seemed like a much safer vehicle to get an income stream even though … it’s not a high-income stream, at least it’s more than you would get on treasuries at any duration,” says investor Andy Trupin.

For those interested in the broader future of food as well as investment, PCC Farmland Trust is looking at options for locally-focused “conservation financing” so that investors can support young farmers getting on the land. National organizations such as Farmland LP and Slow Money currently exist and will act as models as we explore further in this direction. In the meantime, we’ll continue to work with organizations such as FarmLink to help us connect a farmers with farmland.

Sometimes our work feels like pushing a boulder up hill, especially regarding GMOs. The battle against corporate food in California “wasn’t an election so much as a sale,” said Gary Hirshberg, founder of Stonyfield Farm and chairman of Just Label It!, a national G.M.O. labeling campaign. Then there’s the USDA’s GMO-friendly report which places the burden of proof of any contamination on organic farmers. Small farmers had hoped the Administration would help them fight Big Ag, but, says poultry farmer Craig Watts:  “You had farmer after farmer after farmer telling the same story, basically pleading for help, and absolutely nothing has come of it.”

Luckily there are groups pushing back, such as the Humane Society’s work to turn around animal confinement farms and the Union of Concerned Scientists’ report on the economic benefits of organic farming. Even the ‘4-crop rotation’ idea used by Thomas Jefferson is coming around to conventional farmers, as it “produces the same yields, sharply reduces the toxicity of freshwater runoff, and eliminates many of the problems associated with genetically modified crops, including the emergence of glyphosate-resistant weeds.”

Keep pushing that boulder, and we’ll exact slow and steady social change through our pocketbooks, our persistence and our people power!

In other news:

With the end of the year, many donors reach into their pockets to support the organizations they love. With the looming “fiscal cliff”, and threatened cuts, the charitable gift deduction is in danger! Whether you’re interested in a tax deduction or not, right now is an important time to express your support to Congress for the charitable gift deduction that benefits citizens as well as non-profits, while providing a vast array of benefits to the community.

And finally, eat more produce to be happier!