News
Filling the Food Safety GAPs for Small Farms
Stacy April 15, 2009By Wendy Wasserman Spinach. Peanuts. Tomatoes. Lettuce. Pistachios. In the past few years, there has been mounting consumer and producer discussion about food borne illness. Some of the high profile cases of wide-spread food borne illness have been traced back to incomplete food safety protocols occurring at large producers and commodity processors. Regardless of the…
Letter from the board: Anticipating a New Farmers Market Season
FMCIn these days when we’re all pre-occupied with “the market,” there’s a real feeling of being grounded when we think about the ‘place’ (both physical and emotional) our farmers market occupies. Our visits are always so much more than transactions – they are about re-connecting our lives through food – food from the people where we live, our place. In a day of standardized products and depersonalized relationships, isn’t it deeply satisfying to see the natural diversity in the shapes and sizes of fresh produce? To have the conversation be as important as the actual purchase, and to once again visit with neighbors and acquaintances, most of whom have also stayed pretty close to home over the winter months?
Health, Hospitals, and Farmers Markets: Preston Maring Interview
Stacy April 8, 2009Preston Maring, the doctor behind the initiative to host farmers markets at Kaiser Permanente hospitals, speaks about the connection between health, healthy eating habits, and farmers markets. Watch the five minute interview at: http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=7280838
Letter from FMC Concerning Food Safety
Stacy April 3, 2009What follows is a reprint of a letter sent to FMC members on March 12 Dear Fellow Farmers Market Advocate, In the last few days, there has been much discussion and speculation surrounding H.R. 875, the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009, which was proposed by Representative Rosa DeLauro and 39 other co-sponsors and currently…
USDA Seeks Reviewers for FMPP Applications
StacyWASHINGTON, April 2, 2009 –– The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) invites individuals to share their expertise in reviewing project proposals for the 2009 Farmers Market Promotion Program (FMPP) grant program. The FMPP program began in 2006, with the goal of expanding direct producer-to-consumer market opportunities in the United States through the…
Quaker Oats Offers Community Hunger Mini-Grants
Stacy April 1, 2009Quaker Oats is offering grants for projects that will help combat hunger in your community. The Quaker Go Grant program will select twenty winners each month from April through August 2009. Winners will each receive a $500 cash grant to fund their projects.Visit Quaker Oats Community Hunger Grant for more information. Application deadlines for the…
Wallace Center Publishes Case Studies of Value-Added Enterprises
StacyReaping the benefits of diversity isn’t just an advantage of the natural world, but also a measure small farmers can encourage in their own business practices. Value-adding is an efficient, low-risk way to diversify income streams in a way that complements current direct-marketing efforts. The Wallace Center at Winrock International has recently completed a study…
Maine Farmers’ Market Convention Offers Networking and Training Opportunities
Stacy March 26, 2009For Immediate Release (207) 664-2424, ext. 4452 Winter Harbor – The Maine Farmers’ Market Convention, held last weekend on the campus of the Schoodic Education and Research Center in Acadia National Park, drew farmers, farmers’ market managers and municipal officials from all over the state. Nearly 100 people participated in the event which featured presentations,…
Grants Available though the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program
FMC March 25, 2009The Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP) provides resources to support the development of education, outreach, curricula, workshops, educational teams, training, and technical assistance programs to assist beginning farmers and ranchers in the United States and its territories in entering, establishing, building and managing successful farm and ranch enterprises. This program will also provide…
Online Training For Food Safety and Marketing of Local Foods
FMCA South Dakota Cooperative Extension Service Web site offers online training in food safety and marketing strategies for foods that are grown and marketed locally. The training is a self-paced study that provides content along with follow-up questions to assess what participants Share I online pharmacy no prescription and. This felt stripped use, viagra for…
