Meeting Notes 12/2/08

SSA meeting 12.2.08
Role call: Amber, Liz, Paige, Lenin, Jen, Katie, Maggie

Olive Harvest:
- good
- olive oil is ready
- what to change? Competitive attitude, make sure that people know to bring ladders
Eco-Farm
- 8 scholarships for $100
- Applications coming soon, due in early January, stay posted
Slow Food on Campus
- need students to sign for contract either Wednesday or Thursday, no commitments just approval of club
- lets make Slow Food and SSA work together, Amber and Katie can be liasons between two clubs so that both groups know what’s going on
DC Meetings with Brennan and Linda
- they need an SSA student representative to attend planning meetings for the Oxford Circle DC bc it is going under renovation becoming the sustainable (menu planning, student activist, compost, any inputs)
- Liz and Jenn interested
- Conferences around country = “Strengthening the Roots”  one in San Diego in Februrary
- Allen Doyle= new sustainability manager coming to next DC meeting, come to SSA meeting too
- Farm to college in Spring lots of fun ideas (farmers market on site- use swipes, milking, ag activities, bands- have students talk between acts, what you can do now that you are moving out handout, including social justice issues, **growing seedlings and giving away herbs and veggies- plant around March and use project compost)
- UCOP food group Statewide phone conference once a month need SSA representative there  Liz interested
- Two CSSC food reps from state  Briand Seaby from Davis
- Collaborating with other clubs (project compost, R4…
- Dani and Sarah are working to have DC allow CoHo to use their post-consumer machine lets support them bc they need it
- ASI external meeting next week, Maggie and Katie going to dinner, lots of big time people networking and workshopping- How ASI is going to do its stuff
- Could we have someone from ASI come talk and explain ASI?
Popcorn  what to do with it?
- how much is not shucked?
- Food bank
- We could sell it
- Can we freeze it? How long will it last?
TGIF CSSC is starting this, Lauren Jabusch is student leader
- we want to be involved
- they need individuals
- send out to list serve if you want to get involved
- tabling and educating
- goal to have it voted on in next ASUCD election- need a lot of voter turnout
Environmental club tabling event
- do we want to be there?
- No good experience in past, but if someone wants to go for it
Gmail account
- We have one!
- Dani is going to check it regularly
- Maybe have it forwarded to Paige
Blog:
- Amber is going to keep it updated
- Posting meeting notes and updates
UC Davis site
- we need to change some stuff on it, how do we do that?  ask Creative media, amber
- Keep gmail account on there
- Add blog site
Obama Letter
- use forum to post your topics
- ask CRD students if they want to be involved, maybe read over what we have written
- everyone get your stuff up by Dec. 20
- comment on the others by Jan 1
- then we will review it all and
Outreach
- lets ramp it up!
- Have events on central campus
- Should we change where we meet? Would more people come if we were central- we could use PC office (bottom of freeborn)
- We will use the PC office
Action items
- Maggie: contact Brennan about Liz and Jenn
- Maggie: give Liz’s name to Brian,UCOP
- Paige: contact Dani about how much popcorn
- Paige: working calendar on blogger
- Maggie/Katie: ask ASI person to come talk to us about ASI
- Paige: contact Lauren that we are interested in TGIF
- Amber: update blog and contact Creative Media
- Katie: Send email out to obama action group to add your platform issues on forum
- Maggie: make doodle for time slots for next quarter meetings
- Katie: email obama group about deadlines
Future Agenda Items
- Allen Doyle
- Popcorn
- Sending obama letter
- Citrus glean
- Seedlings for college night

SSA Summary

Click here to view the SSA summary that Dani and Maggie put together for ASI.

Meeting Notes 11/11/08

Taste test of Squash:
- Red Squash (?) – 2; 3; doesn't like it; good with savory seasoning
- Butternut – 2; second sweetest; good for soup; easiest to peel; 2; 2
- Delicatta – 1; sweetest; 4; 1
- Buttercup – 3; starchier; 1; taste like yams/sweet potatoes; pie; 3


Olive Harvest – Alida
Sunday before Thanksgiving: Sunday, November 23rd
Time: TBA – 9am tentatively
- Bring a picnic lunch
- Check for stuff in olives (bolts, etc.)
- Mike Madison will be pressing our olives
- We will be doing it by weight again – Alida will be checking in with Rick about the scales
- We need: carts, barrels, buckets, ladders, etc.
- Mike will be donating bins for the day to use to
- Danielle – Ask Tim to borrow Experimental College Garden Ladder
- We are planning on picking in the same area as last year – to the west of the UC Davis Airport
- Alida and Rainbow will be sending out a "save the date" to the listserve soon (like tomorrow?)

Scripps (Community Currency) – Nico (niko.barry@gmail.com) and Rainbow
- How does a community currency work? – a lot of people and groups and people in Davis are interested in supporting a local economy; the name is pretty self explanatory – this is a currency that you print out specifically for your community; it is totally legal
- Why have a community currency if we have a currency already? – dollars are used typically for car payments, rent, etc.; don't necessary want to spend it on things that support a local currency; with community currency people are able to spend their community currency towards community goods
- How does it work? – Pay $10 each month and get $2 community currency – post goods/services on a board (internet, bulletin board); exchange of goods and services using only the local scrip. The people spend the currency pretty quickly so it circulates well and supports a healthy economy
- Ithaca Hours? – community currency system in New York;
- Ideas for buying services/goods: Training, buying tools, all people who buy the scrip are sharholders in what to spend the money that is generated in buying the scrip (the $10 monthly charge)
- Using a currency may be better than a service exchange, but here are some service exchange programs ideas:
- TO move forward:
o Contact local community groups that would support the project, like the CoOps, the Davis Food CoOp, Project Compost, Students for Sustainable Ag, CSSC, Farmer's Market Association, The Domes, Davis People's Free School, J- St. CoOp, N- St. CoOp, MLC,
- Things to ask:
o Is this interesting, and something you would like to pursue – YES, SSA likes the idea and wants to pursue it
- Alida – has information for Nico and Rainbow on another program that is running into issues with their community currency
- Will the Davis Business Association, City Council be involved – Nico will be contacting them….
- Does anyone you know have good web skills to help design a good website to help set this up – LIZ MAY KNOW SOME, SHE WILL ASK…
- Rainbow – on
o Has talked to a lot of people that have been interested in the topic, and people who have tried it
o It will take a lot of attention and support to make it more sustainable
o Free Service Exchange can be designed instead – no direct exchange, no accounting, you can use these services if you want; you submit one service, and then you have a list of services that you can choose from yourself
o The IRS is wanting people to keep track of these expenses, so it somewhat defeats the whole purpose of the community exchange
o Christie – in Berkeley, there are several credit unions that are offering a community building investment program that shareholders have the ability to vote on what projects they would like to see occur in their community
- IRS issue is kinda scary – Nico will be doing more research on this; Ithaca Hours do not have to keep track of their currency; we may be able to get around this by changing the name, instead of "Davis Currency", it can be something more like "
- Alida will be getting her friend's research project on Local Currencies, and will be forwarding it to Nico and listserve….
- Please send us Input on services that you would be interested in offering, so that we can get an idea of what the community would be providing...
- Getting local business involved/on-board is good, because then we won't be putting them out of business

Obama Action – Christie McCullen
- COMFOOD listserve is asking organizations for policy suggestions
- SSA will be doing our own thing, and also send it to COMFOOD
- Can publish our letter to the Roosevelt Institute
- CCE for reorientation guide for 2009-2010
- Organization
o When do we want to send it out? December 8th
o We want it to be concise, so that Obama will actually read it
- Ideas for letter:
o Put on smart-site in form of wiki; people can add things to the wiki based on these ideas
- Publish letter – send it California Senators (Boxer and Feinstein), ASI, SAREP,

IDEAS FOR LETTER:
Maggie:
Small scale has relatively higher output than large scale + it increases jobs in the agricultural sector so support small scale
Support new farmers credit, capital, resources, and public, abandoned lands (describe the creativity and ambition of new farmers paired with creative urban landscapes to make food)
Farming in education
Decreasing dependence on petroleum
Funding research
Funding extension
Where does the funding for all this new support come from? Decrease subsidies!
Increase Equip type environmental subisidies instead and not directed to CAFO's
Make big ag responsible for negative externalities
Harvest methane from shit lagoons for energy
Make patenting life illegal (i.e. Don't necessarily go against biotechnology but go against the laws that allow corporations to patent life forms)
Kendra:
Locally-marketed food tends to be more diverse and fresh, improving"food security";
Common sense tells us that locally-marketed food carries less embodied
transport energy, contributing less greenhouse gas etc. problem is, those damn (highly biased) new zealand lamb producers (in the economist and NY times) and some UC davis study i can't wait to read, both refuting claims of local food distribution efficiency, seem to have (unfairly) gotten most of the recognition on this issue. Anyone have convincing articles on this to recommend?
3. Farmers who own their land are more likely to steward it well and
contribute to overall environmental quality.
4. Small farms who sell locally contribute lots more to their local
economies (i heard michael shuman say something like 40% of local farms'
income dollars stay in their communities, vs. 8% of wal mart and safeways'
food dollars... anyone have a citation?)
5. The goldschmidt idea that rural social welfare is better where family
farms are alive and well... our own mccannell and fujimoto have contributed
to this research, and a much-overlooked government paper shows that
communities which have excluded corporate agribusiness on a certain scale,
across the midwest etc., have ended up faring better than those which
invited it in. I have some good references on this, but welcome more. it's a
good one.
6. Land permanently dedicated to smaller-scale agriculture helps create
growth boundaries and is more likely to provide good buffers, wildlife
habitat, and all the things listed above than land constantly being optioned
out by developers.
Alida:
Along with supporting new farmers, support programs for minority and
immigrant farmers and for farm workers who want to start their own farms
*Help for young returning veterans to start farms
*Immigration reform! Addressing legal status etc for the people who
grow/harvest/process our food
*Extending national labor standards to agricultural labor, and enforcing
them
*Fair labor certification program (like organic- or adding labor into
organic standards)
*Cooperative development programs
*addressing international trade, trade agreements, etc as a part of this, another big/difficult topic but CRUCIAL to the futures of small farmers both in the US and abroad
Need to add:
- whole food system
- economic security
- energy security
- nutrition
- urban development
- social justice
- international trade (NAFTA, CAFTA)
- Food Safety
- Labeling Regulation***add Legalize Irradiation for all leafy greens? This should be opposed
- Food Access (Social Justice) - Community Planning for Grocery Store placement
- Farm-to-School/Farm-to-Institution/Farm-to-College
- Tax credits for businesses who use local foods
- Taxing people who purchase processed foods
- Subsidizing produce crops, not commodity crops
- Seed saving
- Waste management à more composting! (education, community based)
- Textiles (Sweatshop Free)
Christie** Check out the California Food and Justice Coalition à policy recommendations for the Farm Bill reform (more food system)

Meeting for Obama Action – Meet Next Tuesday at Christie's House – 7pm 809 E. 11th Davis, CA

Next SSA Meeting – Tuesday November 25th

Olive Harvest 2008

Students for Sustainable Agriculture was at it again - they harvested a load of olives from the campus and turned it into liquid gold (and by liquid gold, we mean olive oil of course!)

This year, the olive harvest took place on Russell Blvd, just on the north side of campus. Around 30 people came out to join SSA in picking. Ladders were in tote, as well as bike carts, tarps, buckets, and canvass bags. People had all sorts of means to reaching the high clusters of olives deep in the olive tree branches including hoisting themselves up on stepstools, buckets, and tables. The most efficient pickers were those who brought their ladders.

A big thanks to Alida, Rainbow, and Rick for organizing this year's olive harvest and securing permission from the University to pick on campus. Also, a great big thanks to Mike Madison of Yolo Bulb for pressing our olives into olive oil for us. Check back soon as to how much olive oil we pressed and where to pick up your oil!

SSA Makes Real Food Challenge Website

Students for Sustainable Agriculture was spotlighted on the Real Food Challenge website for their work on educating students during Local Food Week about the REAL FOOD!

Check it out here:

http://realfoodchallenge.org/

Local Food Week Fall 2008!

Students for Sustainable Agriculture hosted its twice-annual Local Food Week in October. The goal of the event was to celebrate local food and help to educate the community about local food, social justice, and real food issues. The Real Food Challenge campaign was also took part this week, and students had the opportunity to urge their campus food providers to provide REAL FOOD - at least 20% by 2020.

The week's event entailed as follows:

Tuesday
- Tour of the campus Tri-CoOps gardens led by Project Compost Director and SSA foodie Liz Fitzgerald.
- Proposition 2 speaker Michael Gregor from the Humane Society of the United States came and talked to us about the proposition for animal welfare in dairy, pork, and poultry industries.

Wednesday:
- East Quad Farmer's Market - SSA had a poster at the Student Farm stand
- Farm to College night at the campus dining rooms, Segundo and Tercero. SSA members dressed up in kiwi, corn, and pea costumes and talked to students about the Real Food Challenge, what University Dining Services is doing when it comes to real food, and engaging students and community members in conversations about local food systems

Thursday:
- CoHo Taste Test - Katie Cooper and Paige Culver, SSA members, went shopping at the Davis Farmer's Market to get together a great salad made from local greens and fruit for all of the UC Davis community to try. There was another great appearance from the kiwi, corn, and fruit.
- Sex funk and Danger at the Student Farm - SSA members and friends rocked out to some amazing music and REAL food at the student farm!

Meeting Notes October 28th, 2008!!

SSA meeting notes 10/28/08


Attendees: jen, Liz, Alida, Maggie, Dani, nick, and Katie

Local foods week debrief

TUESDAY:

-Co-op garden tour: 3 people, led by lizà went alright

-improve: promotion for next time, add poster to tri-coop sign

-yes, do it next time!

-Prop 2: needed opposition, very one sided
-good to have something political for next time

WEDNESDAY:

-farmer's market: poster (thanks Jen!)
-need to get student farm more involved

-Farm to college night: fun!
-did we get our message across? – No!
-what to do better: not be so "disneyland", not make pictures the focus (take picture after); need to get deeper, radical
-next spring will be outside and more community members…be thinking about what to do then

THURSDAY:

-CoHo tasting: more responsive and approachable from audience, people came to us instead of being part of the traffic flow, not as aggressive; pictures optional


Sex funk and Danger
-Fun!
-food= good, Katie is happy to do that again
-next time: lunch time on the quad, music, mic talk, friends play music
-where were the student farm people????
-Priority= get student farm seen
-Add map to flier
-King Corn: didn't happen, no show …showing later

Things to add:

- health center: info on how real food can be healthy

- how to hook people in: physically or metaphorically

- pay attention to little details
-ex: student farm vs. central location

follow up:

- list serve updated

- pictures: Dani, Paige, Jay, Katie, Liz – get pictures to Dani to create poster

Other items:

- Olive oil pick is weekend of 22/23…more to come soon

Obama Gives Thoughts on Michael Pollan's Times Magazine Letter

In an interview with Joe Klein of Time Magazine today, Sen. Barack Obama acknowledged the brilliant letter to the next president by Michael Pollan and said that agriculture is a huge contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, is a national security risk, and is built on cheap oil:

“I was just reading an article in the New York Times by Michael
Pollan about food and the fact that our entire agricultural system is
built on cheap oil. As a consequence, our agriculture sector actually is
contributing more greenhouse gases than our transportation sector. And
in the mean time, it’s creating monocultures that are vulnerable to
national security threats, are now vulnerable to sky-high food prices
or crashes in food prices, huge swings in commodity prices, and are
partly responsible for the explosion in our healthcare costs because
they’re contributing to type 2 diabetes, stroke and heart disease,
obesity, all the things that are driving our huge explosion in
healthcare costs. That’s just one sector of the economy. You think
about the same thing is true on transportation. The same thing is true
on how we construct our buildings. The same is true across the board.
For us to say we are just going to completely revamp how we use energy
in a way that deals with climate change, deals with national security
and drives our economy, that’s going to be my number one priority when
I get into office, assuming, obviously, that we have done enough to
just stabilize the immediate economic situation.”

To read this at it's source click HERE!

Also, check out this letter to Michael Pollan!

Farmer in Chief

By MICHAEL POLLAN
Published: October 9, 2008

Dear Mr. President-Elect,

It may surprise you to learn that among the issues that will occupy much of your time in the coming years is one you barely mentioned during the campaign: food. Food policy is not something American presidents have had to give much thought to, at least since the Nixon administration — the last time high food prices presented a serious political peril. Since then, federal policies to promote maximum production...

Read the whole article HERE!

October 14th Meeting Notes

Meeting Notes – 10/14

Liz got an email asking SSA if we want to hook up with Ag Sciences. This person should come to our meeting and let us know details and specifics.

Olive pick – there is a berkeley olive pick but Luis/Sean is not going to lead Davis olive pick. Does someone want to head that. Also, Mike is not going to press olives for other people. UC Davis does have its own olive press. Will the olive press people be okay with us picking UCD olives. Alida might lead it up. Maggie will ask Alida to head it up. Ask Sean the process he went through.

Cookbook sale on Friday – Thank you Mark for making sure we got in! It was fun and nice. Handouts and cookbooks were printed with a decent Kinko's discount. Sold 10 cookbooks and net profited 55 bucks with cookbooks left over to sale. Paige will put photos on blog site.

LOCAL FOOD WEEK

Tuesday-

Co-op Garden Tour 12-1

Prop 2 Talk 6pm in Veihmyer 212

Michael Gregger – will also be on Local Dirt

Looking for another person to represent other side.

Wednesday

10-2 Farmer's Market – Student Farm – Katie will do poster and Dani will give them a stack of fliers.

4:30-8:00 Farm to College

Table at two locations.

Segundo and Tercero – At least four tablers total. Cool Eating Cards and Recipes and Big Green poster for Segundo. Two baskets of student farm produce. Digital cameras-liz, katie, paige, comment cards, costumes, release forms/sign saying this will be put on rfc, slogan, veggie stamps.

We don't want to be too demanding but we don't want to say that the food system is perfect.

More Real Food Now

More Real Food

I Heart Real Food

Real Food Please

What's Real Food?

I support Real Food

I'm taking the Real Food Challenge!

Co Ho Celebrate Real Food

Examples for CoHo

Examples Dining Services

plus comment card

Segundo

Amber, Maggie, Jen, Little bit of Liz

Tercero

Lenin, Paige, Katie?, Alida?

Thursday

12-2 coho taste and table and comment cards – Mary Strange Mu Auxilliary Services for a table set up right outside hot food line – Paige – cameras, veggie suits, cut up old paper and bring cool pens. taste test – for free from student farm, reserve veggies from SF&D – nominate katie and amber – talk to raul to see if we can get produce from student farm/purchase from farmer's market – we can volunteer to pick it. get popcorn and test it to make sure it pops – dani will test popcorn. get the produce to them Thursday morning.

5:30 S,F,&D Bowley -

$50 dollars for S, F &D

Field house if it rains.

How much ampage do you need?

Katie said she would make rice and beans.

Liz will get dishes and silverware.

Jen will help wash.

7:00 King Corn/popcorn – Liz will deal King Corn

Amber needs to tell SSA action.

Don't print more seasonality charts until talking to Mark.

UC Davis Celebration Banquet and SSA!!

On the evening of October 10th, 2008 Students for Sustainable Agriculture and the Student Farm tabled at the UC Davis Celebration Banquet for the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences!! The event was beautiful, with a huge Farmer's Market display and catered food.

SSA would like to give a special thanks to Mark Van Horn and the Student Farm for involving SSA in the banquet! SSA was the ONLY student organization at the event and with the help of the Student Farm, SSA was an important part of the banquet! Our table was right across from the Farmer's Market display, and everyone who came in walked right by our table! It was great to "show-up" SSA and the Student Farm at such a nice event!

Another thanks to Katie and Ethan for helping table! It was a fun night, and we all got to eat some yummy food and get a bag of veggies from the Farmer's Market display! Thanks to Carrie Cloud for all her help, and everyone else who was involved! The event was a great success!

SSA not only handed out our Cool Eating Tips, we also sold our cookbooks! We sold a total of TEN and all the proceeds go toward SSA and future activities. Yeay!

Meeting Notes from September 30th, 2008

SSA Meeting Notes 9/30/08
permanent meeting time is Tuesdays at 6:30
need to contact Teresa Costa to reserve a room and have her contact custodial services > Maggie’s on it
Dani’s managing the listserv
Amber is still the treasurer? Paige will check.
Paige picks up mail
We are invited to the Berkeley Olive Fest next month (no date known)
SSA stuff will be kept in the field house from now on
Paige will take inventory of fliers and get more copies if needed
Events
Michael Greger to speak on Prop 2
On Oct 21st in the afternoon/evening
Need to reserve a room, a small one
Maybe a debate? If that’s ok with him
Prop 2: farm safety and cruelty act, supports local farms, ensures animals have a certain ammt of space, bad for factory farms!
Fall Local Food Week
Need to start working on it now
Close to farm to college night (Oct 22nd)?
Committee: Maggie, Liz, Jenn, Katie, Paige…
UCD Centennial
Weekend of Fri Oct. 11th
They want to sell our cookbooks
Don’t know if we can sell them/table
Sac community garden
We are wanted to help design and build a community garden at an appt. complex in Sac
People reluctant to adopt project, very labor intensive
Cosponsor Beehive Collective event?
It is a group of artists who do interactive, politically charged art installation and travel all over the world to present them
Need some money, maybe 50-100 dollars?
SSA has supported them in the past
Rainbow is the contact person, Alida will contact here
Oct 16, Enviro Club Showcase
Event to showcase enviro clubs on campus
In the evening time, in Geidt hall, contact Brian Seaby
CSSC Convergence
Oct 24-26 at SFSU
Info about it will go out on listserv
Farm to College Night
Oct 22nd
Real Food Challenge
this is the Real Food Challenge Month of Action!
lets stack that with Farm to College night
comment card campaign at dining facilities on campus
event at Market Garden?
Cant have true potluck: cant serve homecooked food to random public
We can have music outside, speakers inside
Can go thru co-ho for catering (give them raw materials and have them prep for a small fee)
Movie on the quad? Potato sack races? Fun ag activities?
Local foods week group will talk more in depth about these events
ANNOUNCEMENTS
student farm potluck next Tuesday
Hoes down this weekend, go!
Project Compost is awesome, volunteer meetings are in the MU basement, room MU 43, on Mondays at 6pm. Come on down!
Idea about using community currency in Davis (Brandon will do more research. Did I get your name right?)

Thanks for note taking Liz!

WOW Resource Fair

On Tuesday September 16th, SSA and The Student Farm joined together in a joint recruitment effort at the Graduate Resource Fair! The tabling went very smoothly, and we had a lot of traffic. A great big thanks to all those who helped out, especially Mark, Ann, Christie, and Aubrey! It was tons of fun, and both SSA and The Student Farm received lots of new recruiters! Welcome to all the new SSA members! Whether you come to meetings, or just utilize our great list serve, we are glad to have you.

September!

Hello all! I hope you've all been having fantastic, adventure-filled and restful summers. It's time to welcome in the new year and SSA encourages you to check back here periodically for updates and events.

Cheers!

Envisioning...

... a look back at this year's SSA highlights and ideas for the coming year.

Focus the Nation

Working as a subcommittee branched off of the main SSA group worked really well.

We did a good job outreaching and getting people on the listserve to participate.

This was a high profile event that garnered a lot of attention

We should distinguish ourselves more from the Sodexho booth (people thought we were the same! yikes!)

Tools we used for this event are being used for other events (the cool eating poster/cards)

Suggestion: Have the professional talks at the same place the booths were

Picnic Day

Tshirt/cookbooks fundraising, though not much money was made

Good outreach, but many people were not from Davis

We should try sharing a booth with other student orgs. (i.e. project compost, student farm, etc.)

Forgo this event, if we are lacking in time and energy

Local Foods Week

A lot of work, so we should have a subcommittee to plan this as early as January and not just one wonderwoman (i.e. Dani). and use some ASI grant money to pay people as an incentive

Went well with a variety of activities, FREE FOOD worked better than movies

Movies still a good idea but not for the amount of money – maybe just one movie

Highlight social justice issues – CIRS do a panel (maybe for ESLP). Instead of having a normal tabling event at the Taste of Coho, we could feature a social justice booth here to get more attention.

Whole Earth

A lot of activities back to back right before WEF

We need to get a better spot next year – by the stage?

The only reason we made money is because we were able to sell strawberries (bought from Capay Organic) to tri coops.

It would have been nice to have people manning the booth both days

Good to have stamps

Get really big posters to be more visible

If we do it for two days we will need to ask the CoHo for cold storage

We have to take responsibility for baskets (ask people to bring them back, or just sell them in paper bags)

Grant proposal

Alida and Luis wrote it

Student Farm/CoHo Poster project – part way done (check it out at the Coho!)

zine – on hold until Alida's thesis

art show – kelly wants to help out

we didn't actually get the money in our account but they are straightening it out

think about future sustainability grants for future funding

olive pick

Went great -- a lot of people came out

potluck afterwards should be in a more public place for people who might not know other people

ask Sean to write a “How to coordinate an Olive Pick”

citrus gleaning

Christy organized it and put it in the enterprise

find citrus trees and ask neighbors to come pick food

Ask Christy to add the letter to the smart site and write a “how to citrus glean”

house was volunteered for cooking and some citrus goods were returned

action research team

Going well

suggestion: eslp could plan local foods week through an ART

local dirt

we need new co hosts

dani is considering do it

rori is leaving

natalie will continue

first meeting of the year/quarters

maggie found it on a flyer at the co op

outreaching on list serv

davis wiki

we had a potluck and a student farm tour

we want more student farm workers involved

invite ASI out there

guide to publicizing an event

sustainability coordinators at dorms

talking to grad advisors for CRD, ECL and IAD

Blog

SSA blog is getting updated regularly for agenda items, pictures, news and event updates

Amber will continue working on it

Eat Local

There is a website on where to purchase locally

Overall/General

Have an orientation session on how to:

Reserve rooms for events

Add to SSA davis wiki

Add to SSA list serv and Smartsite

Food Systems ActionResearch Team

Is going really well. Want to continue into next year as part of SSA.

2. Next Year

Next year we could do an independent research to get credit for the continuation of the ART team. Maybe Ryan could sign off on independent study. ASI.

Real Food Challenge

Real Food Challenge is a way to build solidarity with other sustainable ag work across the country. Leadership training in Arroye Grande in late July. Want to send 2 or 3 people. Perhaps cover transportation with ASI funds. Want to work with RFC next year.

Other projects

Slow Foods Project – Could be the more enjoyment piece of SSA

i.e. collaborate on the olive harvest

Slow Food Conference in San Francisco. Get UC Davis people there.

Canning – Alida might teach a class on canning. Paige is interested in a canning activity too

Outreach brainstorm (email list serv, facebook, participatory activity on the quad with FREE food, flyering – besides school building – co op, farmer's market (?), delta, mishka's, newspapers (aggie and enterprise) lyra halperin – will write a press release and send things, signs at bowley, student farm, co ops, dining commons, co ho little table fliers, spac club days – go be out there and table, davis wiki, table at the DC, go to the core classes for grad groups, ryan's food systems class

SPAC positions

paige for president

someone for treasurer (list serv)

have a facilitating techniques class if club gets bigger

we like having non hierarchial governing structure

Critical activism work vs. socially accepted education presentations

We do want to incorporate more activism work. We think the ART this year is part of that and the Real Food Challenge for next year. We want to continue to push the envelope.

In the past SSA made a concerted effort to be on important committees at all time – made us seem big but at the same time we need the student body standing behind us. We need to get student demand through more education = Real Food Challenge

Glad to have representation on the ASI steering committee

rally for foods – thinking about collaborating with project compost and/or critical mass

SSA is going to vary and change by who is at the table

We should have a visioning after we get new recruitments to create a space for self empowerment.

also think of simple tasks for people to have responsibility for.

we like the idea of breaking off into smaller teams to do different things

having positions (not hierarchial) that people are responsible for to make sure things get done. i.e. listserv person, flyering person, davis wiki person, etc. everyone can take initiative, don't need to ask permission to do what one is interested in.

fate of the CCE website – great idea – someone needs to take that on.

sean can pass the baton of treasurer if someone signs up before he leaves (august)

get extra credit points to go to one of our presentations – i.e. kick off meeting

Think about our overlap with CSSC and ESLP. We could collaborate more?

Envisioning Meeting TODAY

SSA is having its envisioning meeting today 6pm at Bowley (potluck first, then discussion). Come by and discuss what we've accomplished this year, what we could work on and what we should plan for the next year.



To kind of prep ourselves for the meeting we can refresh our memory about our mission...


.....To realize our mission (and vision) we employ the following methods:

• Connect communities through the celebration of food
  

• Integrate practice and theory to promote ecosystem and human health
  

• Empower students
  

• Utilize local resources and knowledge
  

• Support both interdisciplinary and experiential education
  

• Advocate research pertinent to sustainable agriculture
  

• Stimulate innovative and accessible public outreach in the greater community
  

• Facilitate discussion among diverse viewpoints and perspectives
  

• Support the greater community of farmers, farm workers, and consumers

Projects: past, current and on-going

• Development of curriculum for new UCD Sustainable Agriculture major
  

• UCD/Davis Sustainable Ag directory
  

• Farm-to-College
  

• Campus Food System Sustainability Project ~ check out our Participatory Action Research Summary and Workbook!!
  

http://www.agronomy.ucdavis.edu/IAD203N/IAD203N-05/CFSSP/203_stars_final.pdf


• Community outreach (website, sustainable agriculture poster displays, attending events, fact sheets etc.)
  

• Recruitment, network building and strategic planning
  

• Alternatives in Sustainable Agriculture lecture series planning
  

• Local Dirt! A public affairs radio show focused on agrifood system issues.

• Slow Foods USA convivium
• Real Food Challenge
• Focus the National
• Local Foods Week
  

Hope to see you at 6pm tonight!

Whole Earth Festival 2008

Whole Earth Festival takes place on Mother's Day weekend every year here at the UC Davis Quad and surrounding grassy areas. It is a great opportunity for us to fundraise and get out message of Eating Local Food out there to the masses. Each year we typically sell produce from a local farm. In the past farms included Terra Firma and produce varied from cherries to strawberries and even snow peas. This year Amber hooked us up with a sweet deal with Capay Valley Organics for fresh, local, organic strawberries. We sold the strawberries as well as our t-shirts and cookbooks.

Whole Earth Festival was a fun filled day. We were able to outreach to dozens of community members and non-community members, and even some little kids. Alida's craft project was a big hit with the young'ins and the adults alike. She made rubber stamps that were used to create patches of things like: "I Eat Local," "Sustainable Aggies," "I <3 style="font-style: italic;">[insert favorite veggie here]".

Thank you to Amber for organizing, Luis for donating a tent for the day, our friend who biked our strawberries from market to campus, and the countless number of members who showed up to help table and fundraise: Alida, Laura, Emma, Maggie, Katie, Christie, and more!

-Dani

Local Food Week!

This is what Alida and I have come up with the the Davis Wiki Site, the SAREP/ASI newsletter, and the CCE Reorientation guide on Local Food Week! I added the pictures in for person touch:

Local Food Week has become an annual tradition at the University of California, Davis campus. Hosted by Students for Sustainable Agriculture, the week is oriented toward educating the campus on the importance of eating locally grown and produced foods. The week's events also stress the importance of a socially just and ecologically sound food system. Eating local decreases the number of "food miles" - meaning that less fuel, carbon, and energy overall is used to get the food from farm to plate. Eating locally can also help support small-scale family farms and strengthen the local economy. Local food makes it easier for the consumer to know how their food was produced and to be able to shake the hand of the person who grew it. Eating locally enables one to establish a knowledge of the food that they are consuming, including its origins, the growing practices, the labor practices involved in food production, and so much more.

Many activities have rocked local food week in the past. One exciting event is a collaboration with the Coffee House in an event called "Taste of the CoHo," where the CoHo shows off their locally grown and produced ingredients and products that they use in typical entrees. Students have an opportunity to taste the entrees for free!

Local Food Week is also aimed at building awareness of the presence of the UC Davis Student Farm, a small-scale organic farm that produces enough food to feed 61 families through Community Supported Agriculture and also countless numbers of student volunteers who work on the farm. During the week, bike tours take students who may have never seen the farm before or
who want to know more about getting involved at the Student Farm out to the place that seems so distant, but is so very close. The Student Farm is located directly to the west of the Colleges at La Rue, and is only a 5 or 10 minute bike ride from the Memorial Union. This year, members of Students for Sustainable Agriculture are planting several rows of popcorn out at the Student Farm to be used at Local Food Week movie screenings!

Other events and activities that happen during Local Food Week are panels, discussions, lectures, and film screenings all on the importance of sustainable food systems, buying local, reducing environmental impact through food, and more. Other student organizations, such as Project Compost and the Davis Veg Society, have helped in providing tabling events and speakers for Local Food Week. Programs, such as the Educational for Sustainable Living seminar, have also contributed events in the past.

Most importantly, Local Food Week is what YOU make of it! Do you want to see any particular topic covered? Have a burning question about food systems you want answered by a panel of experts? Want to see a movie on food systems with your friends? Come to meeting of Students for Sustainable Agriculture and get involved in planning Local Food Week- make it yours!

-Dani