Fall 2006
MLT Newsletter
Board of Directors:
Ken Dahlberg, Chairperson
Maynard Kaufman
Michael Kruk
Jim Laatsch
Lisa Phillips, Treasurer
Michael Phillips, Secretary
Thom Phillips, Managing Director
Jan Ryan
Jon Towne
Dennis Wilcox
I don't know if people have been checking on the MLT web site, I
wouldn't, since its front page hasn't changed substantially for the
almost 10 years since its inception in January 1997. But what has
changed is that there is a link to MLT newsletters where we are
finishing off "republishing" the entire collection of
newsletters(hopefully we'll get them all) dating back to 1979.
As a nonprofit philanthropic organization in middle age (we have 30
years under our belt!), MLT has been a little guilty of resting on its
“laurels” when there never has been more need to secure the
planet's environment, people capital, and food supply. Of course our
actions are always and always will be local, but global problems can be
solved by local solutions. We have some new people attending our
directors meetings with new ideas. Hopefully a fruitful process has
been started that will revitalize us by using our 30 year history and
experience to maximize our effect in the present to work towards a
future that is as achievable as it is sustainable.
In the meantime, send us the membership form (with a check or course!)
and give us your take on what MLT is all about and a vision of its
future. Better yet, send us an article for the next newsletter (one can
only hope!). Another need is a new logo. The pumpkin farm is getting
outdated. Any of you graphics types want to tackle this give us some
ideas or samples!
This newsletter issue is more lengthy (I measure the length according
to cost to mail) and gives examples of MLT in action through its
advocacy of wise public policies as we see it and our promotion of
other like minded organizations.
With the election season over, you
may be tired of the idea of “lobbying”, but MLT does
advocate the improvement of our food and energy systems. So I'm
including a letter by Maynard published in the Kalamazoo Gazette and
the Benton Harbor Herald Palladium recently.
A Future with More Jobs
"We are surrounded with insurmountable opportunities." Pogo
Our candidates for state and local office all claim to be concerned
primarily about jobs as Michigan's extensive automobile industry
deconstructs. But so far, none has demonstrated the kind of vision we
must demand of our political leaders; the kind of vision that could
transform the bad news of the auto industry into the good news of new
jobs.
In addition to its own lack of vision, the auto industry is hurt by the
rising prices of oil as global oil production is near its peak. Many
petrogeologists have been telling us that this peak will likely occur
in this decade, and if production declines as global demand increases,
prices for oil will continue to rise. This is more bad news for
American industry, but it could be good news for Michigan's workers, IF
our political leaders would help to create the new industries that are
now needed.
What is needed? To begin with, renewable energy to replace expensive
fossil fuels that produce greenhouse gases. Because of its Great Lakes,
Michigan is among the best sites in the US for wind power. Large
turbines could be manufactured in Michigan and set up to contribute to
electric energy, and wind is currently producing electricity at one
third the price of nuclear energy. Harnessing wind energy is safer and
would create more jobs.
As fuel becomes more expensive, mass transit is needed to reduce
private car use. More interurban buses are a start, but rebuilding
Michigan's abandoned interurban railroad lines offers a longerterm
solution.
Promoting and restructuring Michigan's agriculture to reduce our
dependency on food sent to us over long distances is another important
source of new jobs. Creating more demand for Michigan food and using
new technologies and systems for local yeararound production and
distribution makes this eminently doable.
The gubernatorial candidate that wants to lead Michigan into a more
sustainable future of energy self reliance, with more jobs, should
begin as soon as elected. And as citizens we should vote for the
candidate with the vision to make these "insurmountable opportunities"
a reality.
Maynard Kaufman, board member of Michigan Land Trustees, in behalf of its board of directors.
Here is another piece by Maynard
describing some work he is doing in his native Arlington Township.
Issues of land use planning (some think there shouldn't be any!),
industrialized agriculture and its conflict with the environment and
residential/homesteading land use, sustainable energy use along with
state oversight are issues which present to all rural areas.
LAND USE ISSUES IN RURAL TOWNSHIPS
Maynard Kaufman
I have been attending meetings of the Arlington Township planning
commission recently and have tried to make recommendations which might
make new houses more energy efficient. I soon learned that the planning
commission has had to vote to defer its authority over such matters to
the state. It may still be possible, but more difficult, to make
recommendations to the state. The members of the Arlington Township
planning commission did give me time to speak and listened respectfully
to my report on the impact of rising energy prices.
As I attended these meetings I learned much more about how the planning
board is working to revise its land use plan. As we in Michigan Land
Trustees are reconsidering our mission it may be that we can benefit
from an examination of some of the issues the township is facing.
As a background it may be helpful to understand what the citizens of
the Arlington Township have said about their concerns regarding land
use. During the past year a questionnaire was sent out to about 750
residents and the results were interesting. Of the 232 who responded to
the question of whether Arlington Township should preserve its rural
character, 201 agreed or strongly agreed it should. When asked whether
the preservation of its natural environment should be a top priority,
199 of 234 respondents agreed or strongly agreed that it should be a
top priority in the township. These two questions received by far the
largest plurality of agreement. Concern over how to protect and
preserve these assets in the township against the perceived threats of
development was also strongly expressed in response to other questions.
We can distinguish between shortterm and longterm threats to what
residents in rural townships cherish. In the shortterm it is
development: an invasion in the form of creeping suburbanization, or
sometimes leapfrogging suburbanization, by exurbanites from Chicago and
other cities. The abundance of fresh water in this state will make it
increasingly attractive to people from other states too. Typical
responses to this threat are efforts to preserve farmland, as we have
seen in the farmland preservation ordinance passed last year in Van
Buren County. On the state level we have “right to farm”
legislation which threatens the wellbeing of all of us in rural areas
as CAFO's (Confined Animal Feeding Operations) are protected.
The longer term threat to our bucolic way of life will come under the
impact of rising prices for food as a new wave of homesteaders seeks
their “five acres and independence” in the country. Give
the so called “migration reversal” we saw in the
backtotheland decade of the 1970's in response to the energy crises of
that decade, it is highly predictable that this will happen again,
probably within five to fifteen years.
We should be aware that shortterm solutions, such as the preservation
of farmland for conventional fossil fueled agriculture, may be
counterproductive in the longer term. Perhaps the longterm vision of
advocacy groups such as MLT could serve as a corrective to shortterm
political responses.
Another issue that came up in the questionnaire mentioned above was the
wish for better roads. As rural residents continue to depend on their
cars to get to jobs or shopping centers they naturally want to
resurface gravel with bituminous pavement. When I was planning a kind
of ecovillage based on solar power, one of the discouraging obstacles
was the cost of a paved road. But how long will cars be central to the
American way of life? My more or less informed guess is: for five to
fifteen years. We need to help the planning for a different future.
The origins of MLT are rooted in the energy crisis of the 1970's. This
is how we got started. As I think about the role of MLT in the coming
era of expensive energy, I would hope we can reiterate our emphasis on
the use of land for local food production. We may be able to do this
most effectively as gadflies on the township and county level and
through programs such as we used presently. But we may also want to
consider whether we can advocate for changes on the state level when
that becomes necessary, especially as the state mandates its standards
on township and county levels. I hope we can consider and discuss how
we might do this.
A consensus of MLT members (probably)
is that agriculture in the United States is in shambles. Heavily
subsidized, it has succeeded in keeping food prices low, while
decimating small family farms and traditional third world agriculture.
It relies on huge capital resources creating a “monopoly”
where only 2% of our population can participate as food producers in a
meaningful way. It relies on mono cropping and large livestock
confinement operations with a narrow and “patented” genetic
base leading to many vulnerabilities on every level.
Ken Dahlberg contributed the following to the Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group Listserv:
Let me share my thoughts on these issues which each of you touched on
in different ways. Just as the community food security movement has
sought to add new dimensions and levels to traditional understandings
of hunger moving from individuals to include community and
sustainability issues my work on food systems has led me in similar
directions. Rather than looking at the health/treatment/sustainability
of individual animals or the safety of their products alone, we need to
also look at the health and sustainability of food systems and their
three basic subsystems: social, natural, and technological.
A healthy food system is one with biological and cultural diversity,
local and democratic control, and is based on primarily on the use of
local resources. What helps make it sustainable is the health and
regenerative capacity of its subsystems over time. That is, that each
of these subsystems can reproduce and regenerate naturally, without
high dependence on external factors and can adapt to changing
circumstances.
If we look at the history of traditional agricultural systems as
they've been transformed into industrial food systems, we see that they
have become less diverse and more simplified, more centralized and less
democratic, and more dependent upon technologies that require external
knowledge and resources (especially fossil fuels).
Recognizing this, we have to ask what impacts a new technology (or new
organization/policy tool) will have on the health of the food system.
Technologies are not neutral not in scale, design purpose, nor
historical context. As Hank points out, many recent food technologies
are designed to increase corporate control (and profits) over a portion
of the food system.
It is precisely because of their systemic risks that violations of
natural boundary systems are controversial and every attempt to give
them a public direction through regulation or labeling, or to exercise
the precautionary principle is met with strong political opposition and
attempts to focus only on specific narrow issues rather than systemic
issues. Examples include splitting the atom, violating the boundaries
of cells and their components (genetic engineering) and now
nanotechnologies which break down natural boundaries between the
physical and biological systems.
If we look at cloning, it will clearly move industrial agriculture and
food systems more in the direction of monocultures (simplification),
greater centralization and corporate control, and more dependence upon
scientific knowledge (and evaluation) that is more and more removed
from the average person or community. Being centralized and building
additional vested interests, it will offer another obstacle to creating
food systems that reduce food miles, fossil fuel use, and global
warming. Every aspect is 180 degree opposite the direction we need to
be going to build healthier and more sustainable/regenerative food
systems.
I hope this helps explain why I'm strongly opposed to cloning, no
matter how "safe" cloned meat and milk is, no matter how limited the
impacts may be on individual animals.
There are a few farmer's markets in
the area, one of which is Lawrence. Other than growing your own,
farmers' markets are unexcelled in getting fresh, local food, while
many times offering face to face contact with the grower. Jan sent me
the following which I pasted unedited.
_____________
This spiel was read by Jan Petersen,
Lawrence Farmers’ Market Master, October 30, 2006 at the annual
Farmers’ Market Appreciation Dinner to an audience of local
vendors and supporters of our county’s farmers’ markets.
This idea about more local growers growing more food for more local people is something I can really sink my teeth into.
I grew up in a house of big ideas. My father was a theologian and
my big brother is a philosopher in NYC. Whenever something big and
wonderful like this happens, I need to find some big ideas to go along
with it. So humor me.
There are lots of big crazy ideas to latch onto out there but this one
is a beauty because it encompasses so many facets of our life and it
has so many different parts that fit together so nicely that it creates
a healthy system with checks and balances so that the big idea
can’t get out of control and be unmanageable or fall apart and
dissipate too quickly.
By encouraging a local food system, you encourage vitality and energy
in many other areas at once… in sustainable industries that
can’t be outsourced. Growing more diversified food crops leads to
more demand for local processing, local distribution, local retailing
and local preparation and eating (restaurants) and increased awareness
of farm preservation and land use issues.
In my dreams, you may say.
The beauty of promoting local foods is that the demand is there and
it’s increasing. And the first and foremost response to this
demand throughout our nation has been a grassroots response.
Farmers’ markets are sprouting up all over the country.
Any change that comes from a grassroots gurgling and bubbling is the
healthiest, most stable kind of change, because it is the result of
widespread public commitment and involvement. It’s the surest and
most exciting way for us to find real solutions to our social and
economic problems instead of passively voting for one political
sound-bite solution or another.
This resurgence of interest in good food seems to be a perfect example
of the PEOPLE knowing better FIRST and acting on it … and the
government, education, corporations and the media scrambling to catch
up.
The opportunity to shop at public markets and meet the growers and know
where your food comes from is bringing people out… and into new
ways of feeding their families. Three weeks ago I was at the DuPont
Circle Farmers’ Market in Washington D.C., one of the
nation’s foremost producer-only farmers’ markets, and
witnessed the crowds of people who are changing the ways they pattern
their lives to take advantage of this opportunity.
The market was an excursion and an adventure for them, perhaps even a
ritual, from which they would bring back fresh food, now instilled with
special meaning and value, take it home and learn to cook with it and
enjoy what should be one of the most delightful of human experiences,
eating lovingly prepared real food.
Many people already recognize the ecological values of growing food
locally. Diversifying crops can be a healthier, more profitable, and
more sustainable approach to agriculture. Public awareness of the value
of agriculture helps increase the ethical relationship people have to
land and natural resources. Realizing a connection to the land around
them and the care-giving of that land helps combat what I think is one
of our greatest social problems: absolution of responsibility for the
effects of our bad habits and patterns of living.
Perhaps it will be the need to lower our dependence on fossil fuels
that will necessitate a renewal of local food systems. I wish I could
hand out special- effects glasses that would enable you to see through
the eyes of Lee LaVanway from the Benton Harbor Fruit Market who spoke
here at our supper last year.
He recognizes the sanity behind rebuilding the infrastructure of a
local food system. He said, “We invest in bridges. We invest in
roads. We invest in schools, police departments, fire departments,
libraries, airports and many other things attributable to the public
good. Why shouldn’t we invest in a safer, healthier, more secure
and sustainable food system?”
He suggests our communities need to invest in commercial kitchens
equipped with batchprocessing equipment like individual quick frozen
freezers, canners, choppers, mixers, and batch-sized commercial food
processors in general…and meatpacking facilities where farmers
can add value to their beef, pork and poultry.
I believe that the promotion of local food industries in no way
reflects a protectionist view of our economy. To be legitimate players
in world markets we need to set standards of decency and balance and
well-being for ourselves. We are sitting on an exciting opportunity for
innovation and entrepreneurship (that’s what Americans are good
at and are free to do!). We could be leading by example and setting
standards for other countries to follow. Investing in local food
systems may be one key to improving our living standards without
depleting our natural resources…and enhancing people’s
sense of material and personal security…and creating meaningful,
sustainable jobs.
In our audience tonight we have a real live Agriculture and Natural
Resources Innovation Counselor. Mark Thomas has been trained by
Michigan State University and strategically positioned in our area to
help you assess the developmental phase of your agricultural business
or product idea and walk you through your first steps. He used to be
stationed right here in Van Buren County in Paw Paw where he could
encourage wonderful things to happen but our commissioners recently
made the mistake of throwing out the baby with the bathwater when they
balanced the budget.
Allegan County grabbed him up right away as economic development
director because they know what they’re doing but he still works
in our area as an innovation counselor if you want some help.
More farmers growing more fresh local food for more local people also
addresses many individual health concerns. Getting fresh, local foods
into our schools is one of the smartest things we could do for our kids
and community. While we’re at it lets get ‘em back out in
the dirt. Get ‘em gardening. Also, if I had to choose between
investing in a pro-health local food system and the current
conventional alarmingly expanding and complex health care system,
I’d much rather spend money on prevention. Someday soon
we’ll feel guilty if we stay well, eat an apple a day and keep
the doctor away, because then we can’t contribute to one of our
nation’s largest economic engines. What’s up with that?
But, wait, there’s more. We live in one of the best agricultural
areas in the state to take advantage of this trend. In the words of Lee
LeVanway again, “If we work together and stand united for better
access to locally produced foods, our farm families will respond. And
if we seize the idea of community-based food systems as a means to
revitalize our towns, villages and small cities; and stress its
connection to an enhanced quality of life for all, we will most
certainly enhance our general quality of life.”
We here tonight can start working on a broad public message that this
is what we want and we can start framing our arguments for better,
tastier, more healthful food. We can start tonight. Julie’s gonna
show us how.
Now this Mighty Mouse of idealism will hand the mike over to the Wonder
Women of hard-headed realism, Julie Pioch from MSU Extension.
Julie Pioch then proposed a plan to
come up a logo and slogan to promote local foods in Van Buren County
for use on area restaurant menus and store shelves. Audience members
had a chance to “vote” on initial ideas such as
“Taste the local difference,” “Food with a place, a
face, and a taste.”
Send your ideas and designs to
piochj@msu.edu. As always, Jan stands ready to repay your efforts with
rutabaga, zucchini and some shrubbery at next years’ market!
From the Detroit Free Press November 22, 2006, with permission of the author:
Michigan needs to win the food game.
Christopher Bedford
Newspaper columnist Erma Bombeck once observed: "Thanksgiving
dinners take 18 hours to prepare and 12 minutes to consume -- the
length of most televised football half times." This Thanksgiving,
perhaps, the food will get a little more attention than the
Detroit-Miami game, given the Lions' record. But, for the most part,
food is an invisible force in Michigan. It is taken for granted. Its
source is unknown.
Few people know that less than 5% of the dollars spent on food in Michigan go to state farmers.
This inattention may be ending.
On Oct. 12, the Michigan Food Policy Council released 20
recommendations for Gov. Jennifer Granholm's review. In general, the
report calls for bettering the economic viability of Michigan farms, in
part through programs that directly connect consumers to locally grown,
healthy food.
This work by the council represents an important first step toward
acknowledging the critical role that Michigan's food system plays in
our state's future.
Take, for instance, health care. In 2004, Medicaid expenditures
consumed 28% of the state's general fund, with the percentage predicted
to rise to 40% within the next few years. Much of this budget-busting
increase could be avoided and even reversed through an intentional
program of prevention built around healthy Michigan-grown food.
For example, Michigan providers spent $3.7 billion in 2004 to treat
Type 2 diabetes, more than 90% of which could have been treated with
diet.
Wouldn't it have been cheaper and more effective to provide healthy local food to these diabetes sufferers?
In Grand Rapids, Spectrum Health's NOW program (Nutritional Options for
Wellness) treats seven major diseases with doctor's prescriptions for
healthy food with spectacular results.
Education could also reap rewards from this new attention to our food
supply. Virtually every Michigan leader has called for improvements in
educational attainment as critical to our collective future. Yet little
mention has been made of the importance of proper nutrition in
preparing children to learn. Increasing the number of farm-to-school
programs, school and urban gardening programs (both recommendations of
the Food Policy Council) could do much to increase both student
nutrition and local farm income.
Finally, healthy local food is good business for Michigan.
If every Michigan household dedicated just $10 a week to buy
Michigan-produced food, that would generate an estimated $5 billion in
new economic activity. This boon would require not a dime of public
money.
Rich Karlgaard, publisher of Forbes magazine, writes that "the most
valuable natural resource in the 21st Century is brains. Smart people
tend to be mobile. Watch where they go. Because where they go, robust
economic activity will follow."
In the new industries of the 21st Century, quality of life can play a
more important role than tax breaks in business location decisions.
Opinion surveys have discovered that local food produced by farmers
consumers can know -- "food with a human face" -- is a high priority
for the "smart people" that Michigan arduously works to attract. Being
intentional about developing its own food supply could give Michigan
the competitive edge it needs.
CHRISTOPHER BEDFORD, 62, is cofounder
of the Sweetwater Local Foods Market in Muskegon and president of the
Center for Economic Security, a new nonprofit dedicated to the
proposition that "the only secure economy is an ecologically
sustainable economy." Write to him in care of the Free Press Editorial
Page, 600 W. Fort St., Detroit 48226 or oped@freepress.com.
Copyright © 2006 Detroit Free Press Inc.
Much of what we do, besides our
written advocacy positions such as those from Maynard and Ken
preceding, is giving small grants to small worthwhile organizations
whom we want to promote. Many have been mentioned in previous
newsletters. Fair Food Matters is a group right up our alley and the
following is their recent proposal for grant assistance and a summary
of their activities.
Proposed and grant approved at the MLT meeting of October 22:
October 20, 2006
Dear Michigan Land Trustees Board Members:
I am writing, as the Manager of the Growing Matters Garden
program (a project of Fair Food Matters), to invite your organization
to invest in our program. Please find below background information
about our program, information about our funding needs, as well as our
2006 budget outline.
Fair Food Matters, a local non-profit organization, has the mission of
serving the southwest Michigan community as an educational resource for
food issues relating to health, environmental responsibility, and
social justice. One component of the organization is the Growing
Matters Garden program. Our original garden site, a 6,000 square foot
urban educational garden, is located on the north side of Kalamazoo. We
partner with Family and Children’s Services and the Boys and
Girls Club at this site, providing a hands-on, experience-based
ten-week summer program for local youth, ranging in ages from 6-16. Our
free educational program serves as a wonderful opportunity for area
children to become actively connected with their food supply from seed
to harvest, to learn how to grow healthy organic produce in a
sustainable manner, to gain a better understanding about local and
global food and land use issues, and to simply have a good time working
and playing together in a safe greenspace.
This year we have expanded our program to include a second site - the
school garden at Woodward Elementary School for Technology and Research
(WSTAR). The Growing Matters Garden program is proud to be working with
the students, teachers and staff at WSTAR. We assisted with garden
planning, planting, and classroom presentations at the elementary
school this past spring. We also provided support throughout the summer
- helping with much needed summer garden maintenance, offering weekly
gardening lessons and games, and working to bring many WSTAR students,
families, and neighbors together to enjoy the school garden. The
Growing Matters Garden program would like to continue to work during
fall/winter 2006 to help incorporate the school garden into more of
WSTAR’s current curriculum. When surveyed last spring, 79% of
responding teachers indicated that they would use the garden more if
lesson plans were made available. Many were interested in learning how
they could better incorporate their school garden into the subject
areas of math, history, language arts, social studies, science,
nutrition and wellness, physical education, and art. With additional
funding, the Growing Matters Garden program would be able to research
and develop age-appropriate lesson plans and curriculum ideas for
WSTAR. We would also be able to assist teachers and students with
garden planning and seed starting in the classrooms during late
winter/early spring of 2007.
As a result of evaluating our operations over the past few years, the
Growing Matters Garden program has expanded the manager position from a
seasonal position to a part time, year round position. We feel that
this change will allow us to better oversee existing programs, continue
to expand our partnerships with community organizations, and to provide
long-term vision for the future of the garden. We have also learned to
keep our summer classes to a maximum of nine children and to have two
garden staff members available at all times. In addition, we
established better routine maintenance activities to ensure that
weeding and watering occurred on a more consistent basis.
The Growing Matters Garden program provides many wonderful
opportunities for volunteers to come together, lend a helping hand, and
take an active role in environmental stewardship. This year we had over
200 volunteer hours donated to our program! We continued to serve as a
volunteer site for interns from Western Michigan University’s
Environmental Studies program, volunteers from the MSU Extension Master
Gardener Program, as well as local youth from the Volunteer Center of
Greater Kalamazoo VolunTeen program. The Growing Matters Garden serves
to strengthen relationships across many barriers. College students join
with at-risk youth, the colleges align with a local non-profit, and
everyone in the community is welcome and encouraged to join in, whether
as a Guest Educator, a Gardener-Sponsor, a Farmers’ Market
Assistant, or as another needed set of hands helping to work the common
soil of our garden mission.
In order to fund our program, we have submitted grants to community
organizations, contacted community members and businesses for
“Sponsor-AGardener” donations, and sold produce at the Bank
Street Farmers’ Market. A portion of our funding requests has
been granted for this year. These funds have mainly been applied
towards some of our staffing needs and the costs of supplies for our
summer program. We are currently
pursuing additional funding to cover the costs of evaluation/program
assessment, fall/winter curriculum development for WSTAR, and the
development of long term fundraising strategies for our program. We are
asking Michigan Land Trustees to consider an investment of $1000 for
our program to assist with some of these costs. Please see below for our 2006 budget outline.
Thank you for seriously considering our invitation.
Sincerely, Heather Crull, Growing Matters Garden Manager
Heather provided a summary of their 2006 growing season. Apologies to
Fair Food Matters and Lisa and Chris for not including the 2005 season
summary due to space considerations.
(A 2006 Update for the MLT Newsletter)
Fall comes swiftly to the Growing Matters Garden (a project of Fair Food Matters)
By Heather Crull, the Growing Matters Garden Manager
As the colorful leaves slowly drift off of the trees and a chill
settles in the evening air, we at the Growing Matters Garden program
take pause and reflect on yet another successful growing season! After
investigating potential new sites for Fair Food Matter’s urban
educational garden during winter 2005, we were excited and relieved to
learn that we would be able to continue to utilize our main garden site
on the North side of Kalamazoo. The new property owners, Chris and
Diane Hindbaugh, were very generous, offering to continue to host our
6,000 square foot educational garden!
In addition to our main site, we expanded our program this year to
include a second site – the school garden of Woodward Elementary
School for Technology and Research (WSTAR). Partnering with parents,
teachers, and staff, we assisted with spring planning, planting, and
classroom garden activities. During the summer we continued to assist
the school with regular summer maintenance and provided a free,
educational gardening program for students, families, and neighbors at
the school. The Growing Matters Garden program hopes to continue to
provide support this fall and winter, developing a garden based
curriculum for the school and providing in-class assistance with garden
planning and seed starting.
We had a wonderful growing season at both of our garden sites this
year. Over 50 youth participants from Family and Children Services, the
Boys and Girls Club, and WSTAR came out to our 10-week summer program
focusing on organic, sustainable gardening practices. Students enjoyed
being outside in the fresh air while they worked the soil, planted
seeds, harvested and ate fresh fruits and vegetables, and played garden
games. We were sad to see the summer come to an end but we all look
forward to another great educational program next year!
The Growing Matters Garden program was also a participant in the Bank
Street Farmer’s Market again this year. Throughout the season we
had a variety of tasty produce for sale – spicy red and white
radishes, crisp lettuce mixes, crunchy yellow/green/purple beans,
bunches of fresh broccoli, tangy green onions, smooth bell peppers, and
many different shapes, sizes, and colors of tomatoes and peppers. Our
produce was available for purchase at the edge of the People’s
Food Co-op table and with everyone’s generous support we raised
over $500 at the market for our program! Look for us again at the
market during spring and summer of 2007!
As with previous years, the Growing Matters Garden program continued to
serve as a wonderful opportunity for volunteers to come together, lend
a helping hand, and take an active role in environmental stewardship.
We had over 200 volunteer hours donated to our program this season! Our
gratitude goes out to our intern from Western Michigan
University’s Environmental Studies program, the volunTeens from
the Volunteer Center of Greater Kalamazoo, the MSU Extension Master
Gardeners, and the many community members that helped with the gardens.
All of their work helped make the season such a great success!
Although market is over and the gardens will soon be put to bed, the
staff of the Growing Matters Garden won’t be hibernating this
winter! We have a variety of projects to keep us busy until next spring
– evaluating, fundraising, garden planning, and creating lesson
plans. If you are interested in helping out with our program, donating
materials/funds for spring 2007, or simply want to know more about what
we are doing, check the Fair Food Matters website, www.fairfoodmatters.org, or email the garden manager, Heather Crull at h_crull@yahoo.com. Stay warm and stay tuned for the next update from the Growing Matters Garden in 2007!
A memorable statement by MLT Director
Mike Phillips at some bygone MLT meeting was: “We keep meeting
until the money runs out”. While this can pertain to any
nonprofit group, it is especially true for MLT today. Generating funds
has never been a high priority with MLT, an organization having had a 5
dollar membership for most of its existence (by the way this has been
doubled to 10 dollars recently!). Many (actually, most) don't bother
renewing. If we are to get serious in ensuring our future, we need to
get serious about collecting dues! Recipients of this take note! Of
course thanks to those who do not shirk their responsibilities, many
contribute many times the $5 membership fee.
So get out that checkbook, better
yet, also send us input on the form provided or an email giving us your
views where we should be headed and what kind of organization MLT can
be. Also feel free to include any names with addresses of anyone you
think should receive this newsletter or would be interested in
participating in MLT.
Hoping you and yours have a happy holidays!