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

Visioning notes from last year

Damian has provided the archives for SSA meeting notes dating way back in the day to 2004. I'm still figuring out a way to put them as archives on this site. In the meantime, this might be something good to read over and keep in mind for our visioning meeting next Monday (5.19.08). Things to think about: what have we accomplished? what should we continue to work on? what should we not? should we be celebrating and partying and having more fun together? what are some things we should work on for next year?

"SSA notes continued: SSA Visioning Retreat Session 10/14/07

Members present: (???)

Mission:

Stimulate innovative & accessible public outreach to community:

-Does our name SSA limit our scope and our reach? Other people might see us as being focused on “ag” while we see ourselves as having a bigger scope. i.e. people are not really concerned about “local” in food, more concerned about “social justice”- so we need to think about this in our framing let’s follow up on this- framing & language

Facilitating discussion among diverse viewpoints & perspectives

-Last year’s social justice in sustainable ag lecture, Dori’s seminar on GE foods, panel on affordability of organics, radio station, Alt Ag seminar….

Dealing with affiliations- more official liaisons to communicate back & forth

-Farm tours- q&a forums

Supporting greater community of farmers, farm workers, and consumers

-Let’s add food system workers to this- “agriculture & food system workers”

-but this is really big- how far do you go?

-difference btw mission/vision and how we actually strategically engage-

-if we did nothing but advocate for CIRS & CAFF we’d have a lot of good work to do

-more visibility of good student work.

-this point is tied to local knowledge, outreach, the idea that the university is not necessarily the experts.

-physically supporting- working on farms

furthering above stated goals/mission/objectives in greater community instead of being an objective in itself- this principle speaks to sphere of influence

Overall mission thoughts: Does this speak to our mission?

-It’s only meaningful with the bullet points- our one sentence mission is not meaningful by itself.

-First sentence of mission is important to give a few parameters

-We should develop a values statement- explicitly say what we are acknowledging implicitly

Goals:

Integrate w/student farm

Broaden our conversation

Integrate production/food system

Keep things interdisciplinary

Outreach to greater community

Dealing with affiliations

Ideas:

Visual history

Farm tours

Presenting our work

Organization Building:

-Meetings used to have: Meals, facilitator, notetaker, consensual decision process, notes are circulated. DP experience: meetings would have some discussion & those most interested would take lead, other people would sign on to work on it, they’d do logistics outside the meeting. Then people report back at meeting as to what they’ve been doing, checkin, decisions are made at group. Meetings are more reporting on projects, not working on projects with entire group. Like a steering committee.

-SSA is kind of like a sounding/advisory board- lets people work on what they’re interested in and report back on what they’re doing- not about process of particular projects.

-It’s an affiliation- communication, social relations-

-Process: do we make action teams for the year? – not all at once-- meeting is continual process of reporting back.

-Scale—do we have enough people to do it? – it’s a communication issue, doesn’t matter how many people. Mtg is about concise communication- details come later.

-this works well but can’t be super rigid- burnout factor of ppl working on multiple projects- mtgs can be a place to introduce ideas & see who’s interested, depending on what topic is.

-letting people choose how much to become involved- whether/how much to work on projects- ppl can come just for dinner. Retentionà having short meetings.

-lets continue doing it this way.

-What groups do we have now:

--asi liaisons

--sodexho

--local dirt

--undergrad major/curriculum building

--event planning

--tours, field trips organizing

--outreach**this should be a committee of its own- having a standing committee of this would be good.

(we used to have a recruitment committee- it’s not that fun says KR)- maybe recruitment is a part of outreach

-3 arms: keeping this balance in everything

--Website as part of outreach! It needs help/ maintenece- logistics are falling to wayside

--PR/communications committee

-do we want to separate 3 arms or integrate each into everything? How to deal with integrating action/education/fun? Value statement?

Visioning mtgs are impt- will it happen again, how to make sure it does and renew knowledge of how we operate on a yearly basis?—we agree to address this annually at least—probably again in January.

** wrapup: at each meeting, choose a facilitator & notetaker for next mtg. Facilitator starts an agenda for the mtg and sends out an email, notetaker sends out notes. This is how it works.**

Undergrad major/ASI: report on history and state of affairs:

-in 2003, committees were formed, reports re: what is UCD doing for sustAg? Bradford reports- proposed undergrad major and ASI. Since then, SSA people have been on curriculum development committee. Research to bring in stakeholders’ voices (academics from around country, farmers, practitioners, students) – reflects what’s going on in sustainable ag education. ASI developing simultaneously- hiring new faculty in different disciplines. SSA has helped with search committees to advance our mission statement. Most faculty are onboard, curriculum is being developed. Looking forward: it’s a huge opportunity for SSA- to get more people on board. Curriculum could have a lot of what we do, but as a formal process—opportunity for activism being acknowledged as “credible” learning- getting beyond positivistic views of university. – action learning as part of curriculum.

ASI UPDATE

Alida is the liason to ASI and attended the strategic planning meetings for ASI. ASI sees SSA as a key stakeholder group that they want to engage. It’s important for us to maintain our autonomy from ASI. That’ll be a delicate balance for us to handle in these formative years of ASI. We need to balance our activism and work relationships with ASI faculty, so that our representation with ASI remains respected. ASI will probably not actively seek out our input, but we have support within that institute if we want to give input. Damian suggests that we democratize our ASI and other organizational representation – that is, we demand that ASI always has student representation for their various committees and that students elect those representatives. There is a potential conflict of interest with students who are both employed by ASI and serve as student representatives. Although power dynamics will exist within these student-ASI relationships regardless of employment. This year, we need to decide what relationship and representation we want and what it will look like (including specifications). We should look at the history of the formation of SAREP to understand some of the issues of inequality that resulted in litigation and legislation to create SAREP and other concessions. Important for SSA to be involved because the research that ASI puts out will influence and define the sustainable ag agenda. There’s great possibility that issues of social structural inequality will not be addressed by the faculty, but could be if student voice is a part of that. An SSA representative will advise the student committee (made of ~ 6 members – 2 from each of UCD’s colleges).

· Action Item: Create the student committee of ASI with help from Tom Tomich.

· Action Item: Plan a long conversation/dinner meeting of the history of SAREP and themes of cooptation and concessions – Alida and Damian.

SSA AND SODEXHO RELATIONSHIP

What should that relationship look like? We have an invitation from Sodexho to play a supporting role with their farm-to-college night. We can have a discussion about what involvement to have at the next meeting. Danielle thinks that we should continue to work with them because the University is who is responsible for employment policy, not Sodexho itself. Can we be involved and still represent our position on employment? Can we team up with SOC to table a"

it kind of ends there, but i hope you guys found this as helpful as i did!

-Amber

Eating gets even more complicated

Here is a very interesting read from BBC News that sheds light on research that factory farming may actually be more environmentally friendly than organic, pasture-raised meat. For vegetarians, it's probably just adds to their conviction for saying no to meat at all, but it definitely makes things even more complicated for those who love the environment but like to eat meat. And for all you lacto-vegetarians (vegetarians who consume dairy), don't think you're off the hook either... the article has a section about how dairy is just as wasteful as eating beef! Read on! Click here for the link

Meat in a low-carbon world

By Tom Heap Costing the Earth, Radio 4

Feel-good food just got tricky.

It was easy when "good" meant anything which could have stepped off a John Constable canvas: free range chicken, foraging pigs and grazing cattle.

But then climate change came along. No one noticed at first, still concentrating their fire on the obvious targets like 4x4s, long flights and coal power stations; but our meaty diet is laden with greenhouse gases, and trying to reduce them throws up some unpalatable choices.

It has prompted the Vegetarian Society to take out adverts in the paper declaring that our carnivorous tastes are a "silent but deadly" assault on our climate.

First a few farmyard facts. Cows and sheep are ruminants which means their digestion produces much methane, a gas with about 20 times the global warming power per puff than carbon dioxide.

It comes out in breath, burps and farts. Their manure is also heavy with nitrates which pollute both water and air.

Pigs produce less gas, but plenty of manure. Chickens eat and waste little.

There is also a vast difference in the efficiency with which they turn vegetable fodder into meat protein; and the less land you need to feed each animal, the more you have left for anything else - like climate-friendly forests.

Cows and sheep need 8kg of grain for every 1kg of meat they produce, pigs about 4kg. The most efficient poultry units need a mere 1.6kg of feed to produce 1kg of chicken.

The UN's food and agriculture organisation has added all this up and decreed that livestock warms the planet more than transport.

Organic poultry meat has about 45% more global warming potential than indoor-reared poultry meat Peter Bradnock, British Poultry Council

So in fear that the "anti-carbon tyrant" might wipe their business from the planet, the meat industry has been looking for low greenhouse gas (GHG) solutions, and the problem is that many of them are found indoors.

Housing animals gives humans control. The diet can be precisely manipulated to maximise growth and minimise polluting gases.

Animals do not waste food energy on running about and keeping warm. Their manure can be collected and burned as a fuel, avoiding damaging evaporation and seepage into rivers.

In the future, it is hoped that sealed barns would have exhaust vents where the harmful gases could be captured before they entered the atmosphere.

This combination of precision husbandry and species advantage is what puts commercial indoor poultry sheds at the top of the climate chart.

Peter Bradnock of the British Poultry Council says: "Organic poultry meat has about 45% more global warming potential than indoor-reared poultry meat.

"If you're rearing outside, then the bird is using a little more of its feed to keep itself warm, or simply to keep itself cool in hot climates."

Dairy drawbacks

There is a further hiccup with the vegetarian option: most of those who avoid meat source their protein from dairy foods.

And dairy animals pump out gases and gobble up supplementary feed just like the rest.

If you are avoiding meat for climate reasons, you should be shunning dairy too.

But as abandoning it is unlikely, are there any reduced GHG options? Yes; but once again, they are not the rustic visions you see in the adverts.

Jon Moorby of the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research at the University of Aberystwyth believes that intensive indoor dairy farms are more climate friendly than their outdoor brethren.

"In general, intensive dairy farms are actually quite good for the environment, because it allows us to control what we do with what comes out of the cow much better than in a more extensive system," he says.

"With the animals being inside all the time, it allows us to control the manure and slurries from them much better than we can when they're outside."

But that goes contrary to a basic belief that animals should be allowed to range outdoors in as natural an environment as possible.

"Your Holstein dairy cow is almost like your Formula One car of the bovine world, and you wouldn't keep your Formula One car outside under a bit of plastic, would you?" counters Jon Moorby.

"So you've got to nurture them. Being inside, especially when it's bad weather, is the best thing for them."

Find that all too distasteful? Then try this: upland-grass-fed sheep and cattle graze on land where little else will grow and their feeding habits actually encourage wildlife.

So they may be a bit gassy but at least they are not demanding that distant lands be ploughed, and they are nibbling a home for birds, butterflies and beetles.

Vegetarians argue that the simple answer is to avoid meat; but altering the diet of billions is a tall order and would rock the lives of millions of farmers.

But in negotiating the place of animals in a low carbon world, we should remember that, unlike cars, they are life forms and deserve respect.

Costing The Earth will be broadcast at 2100 BST on Thursday, 8 May, on BBC Radio 4 and repeated at 1500 BST on Friday, 9 May, at 1500 BST. You can also listen online for 7 days after that at Radio 4's Listen again page.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/7389678.stm

Published: 2008/05/08 11:03:04 GMT

© BBC MMVIII



-Amber

Important agenda items...

... and meeting notes from our May 5th meeting!

1. Strawberry spring harvest

If you haven't already noticed nor been stuffing your face full of them these past few weeks....it's strawberry season! SSA will be having its annual spring harvest at Pacific Star Gardens Sunday May 18th. We are going to meet at the MU flagpole at 1pm and bike there. It's about 7 miles from campus and will cost $12 for a big container full (you can eat as you pick too).

Dani is opening her house for anyone who would like to make strawberry related goodies until about 8pm that evening. You can join us for either the harvest or the eating if you're pressed for time!

2. Whole Earth Festival

I sent a sign-up sheet for WEF booth. We need more people! Please come and help us out by giving an hour or two of your time between 9am-5pm. We are booth #473 and will be promoting sustainable agriculture and selling strawberries.

3. Popcorn for SSA

Raoul Adamchak (the head honcho of the Market Garden) is lending a space for SSA to plant popcorn to have for future events. Woohoo! We will be planting the popcorn this Thursday May 8th at 2pm.

4. Farm to College night will be June 4th at all the freshman dining commons. More on this later.

5. A second copy of th eCoffeehouse - Student Farm poster will hopefully be put up at the Student Farm (at Bowley, I believe) very soon :)

6. Keep on the lookout for the new Slow Foods USA convivium that will be coming to Davis. Amber and Katie are planning with a woman named Nicole to have this be something SSA supports, rather than a separate group from it. SlowFoods will be more of the celebration aspect of agriculture -- enjoying and appreciating good, quality food -- while SSA and the Real Food Challenge will be the activism component of our mission.

7. SSA Visioning Night

This will be a crucial last(?) meeting to talk about our vision and goals for next year. We want to brainstorm now to prepare ourselves better and think about these things ahead of time. This is the meeting to come to if you want to be heard to see things being done that didn't get to be addressed this year. Some ideas that we'll be bringing up are hopefully more emphasis on social justice and student outreach and education.

The meeting will be at BOWLEY. Monday, May 19th at 6pm. As usual, we'll have our potluck and eat good things while we discuss good things.


-Amber

Local Fair Trade?

The phrase Fair Trade might conjure up the idea of fairness and equality to a farmer far, far away in the tropics or the other hemisphere. You might think that the farmer was part of a mean, nasty agricultural system that didn't treat him very well because that country isn't developed enough to think about those kinds of things.

In reality though, Fair Trade is a movement that is happening here on our very U.S. soil as well, as people are starting to respond to the shocking truth there are farmers in this country who are living like slaves. What's more shocking is that many of these farmers are working in organic farms. I know that until very recently, I personally have always believed that organic farms was all good and ethical -- that it was all about doing the right thing, taking care of the land and protecting the health and well-being of the farmers.

Read this excellent, excellent article to have the knowledge of what's kinds of injustices are going on in America's organic industry and how people are responding to it.


Also, to take action, you can sign this petition that's aiming to help bring justice and relief to the Imokalee farm workers in Florida. This group of farm workers are just one case scenario where they are treated as slaves -- minimum wages, physical abuse, and no worker benefits.

-Amber

Let's hear it for the first Students for Sustainable Agriculture blogspot post! Yay!

Hopefully, this will be one of those things that the fabulous members of SSA will update pretty frequently to inform the world about what we're doing in the campus and community.

So to start this blog off, how about a picture of the Local Foods Week kick-off both at the Coffee House? There you will see (from left) Katie, Dani, Amber, Alida and Maggie's rockin' cool eating tips poster from Focus the Nation that she painted! LFW was really well organized and of course, delicious. Maybe Dani (the wonder woman who made it happen) can fill us in on more details a little later on :)



One very, very exciting thing about LFW was the debut of the Coffee House - Student Farm poster. This poster was made possible by the collective effort of Lani (the genius designer), Alida (the fierce one with the funds), Amber (the enthusiastic visionary) and Natalia (the lovely Coho intern on the left in the picture). We all wanted to show the people of Davis who frequent the CoHo that the 25-year partnership with the Student Farm is a working relationship where many of the foods at the CoHo are grown right on campus and picked by students. This poster should be at the CoHo for.... ever? (hopefully!) Go check it out! ASAP!


Check back next week for Whole Earth Festival (WEF) updates. What is WEF, you ask? It's a festival driven by education, food, art and music aimed at being zero waste. It's next Friday and Saturday (May 9th and 10th) so don't be shy to check it out.

Well that's about it for now. Here are some tips to spend your weekend the SSA way:

1) Go to the Davis Farmers' Market. It opens 8am-1pm every Saturday. It's strawberry season, and it's hard to pass up farm fresh, local strawberries.

2) Cook a meal made with local ingredients for your friends and/or family. Like this simple, healthy Penne With Whateveryougot Vegetables I made the other day... (cook the penne. to make the "sauce" heat some olive oil in the pan, cook a sliced onion and diced carrot until onions are a bit soft, season with salt, add some greens like chard or kale or bokchoy, add in that last bit of pasta sauce from last week you never used up.toss with the penne and add some chopped fresh herbs like parsley. if you're not vegan, sprinkle in some parmesan cheese. yum!)


-This is Amber on behalf of SSA. Over and out!