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!