Land Stewardship LIVE-WIRE, April 21, 2005
Hello:
This is the 22nd issue of "Land Stewardship LIVE-WIRE," the Land Stewardship Project's e-mail newsletter. We send this out periodically to provide an update on activities and information related to LSP's work. We hope you enjoy this service, and are looking for feedback. Please send your comments to Brian DeVore at bdevore@landstewardshipproject.org.
If you prefer not to receive this newsletter, please e-mail lspwbl@landstewardshipproject.org and write, "remove LIVE-WIRE" in the subject line.
IN THIS ISSUE
1) Happy Earth Day
2) Community Food & Farm Festival April 30 & May 1
3) Volunteers Needed for Food & Farm Festival
4) LSP Members to Present at Living Green
5) Farm BeginningsT Field Day May 14
6) Garden Tour May 15
7) SE Annual Meeting June 25
8) Boody at Food Conf. April 27-29
9) Check the Calendar
10) 2005 CSA Directory Available
11) Local Control Key to Healthy Rural Communities
12) Uncapped Subsidies Have Negative Impacts Here & Abroad
13) Ads Call for Limits on Ag Subsidies
14) Art Show Deadline June 1
15) Looking for Farmland
16) CSA Intern Needed
17) Worth Repeating
18) Worth Repeating II
19) Worth Repeating III
20) Join LSP
1) HAPPY EARTH DAY
LSP will be helping celebrate Earth Day at two locations this weekend:
-We will have a display at this year's Earth Day Celebration at Wargo Nature Center in Lino Lakes, Minn. This year's theme is "Plants and People: A Natural Connection. "The event will be Saturday, April 23, from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. LSP's Louise Arbuckle will be there with the LSP display and materials so stop on by and say hi. For more information and directions, go to http://www.anokacountyparks.com/qlinks/wargonc/wargonc.htm,
or call
651-429-8007.
-An LSP "Day at the Farm" Earth Day Petting Zoo will be held Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., at Winona State University in Winona, Minn. There will be lambs, chicks, calves and kids (the four-legged kind). There will also be free trees for those who register and drawings for the kids. For details, call 507-523-3366 or e-mail lspse@landstewardshipproject.org.
2) COMMUNITY FOOD & FARM FESTIVAL APRIL 30 & MAY 1
The Community Food and Farm Festival will be happening again this year in conjunction with the Living Green Expo. The Expo will be held April 30 & May 1 at the Minnesota State Fair Grounds, Grandstand Building. For more information, visit
http://www.landstewardshipproject.org/foodfarm-main.html#links. This year's event will feature 20 farms and a Dine Fresh Dine Local food court.
3) VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR FOOD & FARM FESTIVAL
Looking to have fun while interacting with people interested in stewardship-based food production? LSP needs volunteers to help out at our booth during the Community Food and Farm Festival April 30 and May 1. Any commitment of time during those two days will help. For more information, contact Olivia Holter at 651-653-0618 or olivia@landstewardshipproject.org.
4) LSP MEMBERS TO PRESENT AT LIVING GREEN
Speaking of the Living Green Expo, LSP members will be presenting at this year's event:
—On Sunday, May 1, at 11 a.m., Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)
farmer Chris Blanchard will speak on "Slow Food, Organic Farming and Community Supported Agriculture." That workshop will be in the lower level of the Grandstand in Tent W6. Chris and his family were featured on the cover of the January/February/March 2004 Land Stewardship Letter.
—Eric and Lisa Klein will speak Sunday at 4 p.m. on "Creating a Personal Connection Between the Farm and the Consumer." The Kleins direct market pork, beef and chicken from their southeast Minnesota farm. They will also be speaking in the Grandstand's lower level in Tent
W6. For more on the Kleins' operation, see page 24 of the January/February/March 2005 Land Stewardship Letter.
For more on the Living Green Expo, check out http://www.livinggreen.org.
5) FARM BEGINNINGST FIELD DAY MAY 14
A public Farming BeginningsT field day will be held May 14 at the Lamb Shoppe in Hutchinson, Minn. For details, contact: Laura Borgendale at 320-269-2105 or
laurab@landstewardshipproject.org.
6) GARDEN TOUR MAY 15
LSP's southeast Minnesota office will be sponsoring a "Sustainable Landscape Design" garden tour May 15 from noon to 3 p.m. This event will feature information on planting and pruning, as well as design and herb production. There will also be lunch and a plant exchange (bring one, take one; bring two, take two). It will be hosted by Master Gardener Barb Nelson of Winona. The cost is
$15 for LSP members and $25 for non-members. For more information, contact Karen Benson at 507-523-3366
or lspse@landstewardshipproject.org.
7) SE ANNUAL MEETING JUNE 25
"Food, Family and Farming" will be the theme of the annual meeting of LSP's southeast Minnesota office on June 25. It will be hosted by the Pangrac family, who produce milk near Lewiston, Minn. The Pangracs are innovative grass-based producers and have been key supporters of LSP's Farm BeginningsT program. This event will feature a pig roast, silent auction, farm tour, a presentation
on the international Slow Food conference, and an election of Steering Committee members. The cost for LSP members is $10 for adults, $5 for kids and $30 per family. Non-member fees are $20 for adults, $5 for kids and $50 per family. Reserve a spot by calling 507-523-3366 or e-mailing spse@landstewardshipproject.org.
8) BOODY AT FOOD CONF. APRIL 27-29
LSP Executive Director George Boody will be participating in "A Taste for Change: New Ways to Think and Talk About Food" April 27-29 in Landsdowne, Va. This conference, which is sponsored by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, is designed to help people working on issues of food and society better understand how the public currently views issues and what will influence them in coming years.
For more on LSP's work related to food issues, see http://www.landstewardshipproject.org/programs_linking.html. Also, check out the January/February/March 2005 Land Stewardship Letter for the latest Stewardship Food Network, our annual listing of farmers and retailers involved in providing consumers locally produced
food.
9) CHECK THE CALENDAR
There are many other great events on tap during the next several weeks. For the latest on meetings, field days and other activities, check out http://www.landstewardshipproject.org/index-calendar.html.
10) 2005 CSA DIRECTORY AVAILABLE
The 2005 Twin Cities Area CSA Directory is now available. It lists two dozen CSA operations that deliver fresh, sustainably-raised vegetables to the Twin Cities on a weekly basis during the growing season. For a free copy, visit http://www.landstewardshipproject.org/pr/05/newsr_050307.htm. For information on getting a free paper copy, call Louise Arbuckle
at 651-653-0618 or e-mail her at lspwbl@landstewardshipproject.org. You can also pick up a copy at the LSP display during the Community Food and Farm Festival (see item 2).
11) LOCAL CONTROL KEY TO HEALTHY RURAL COMMUNITIES
If rural Minnesota is to have a vibrant middle class and the kind of economic development that offers a future for its young people, strong local government is critical, state Attorney General Mike Hatch told a crowd of over 200 people March 22 at an LSP "local democracy" meeting in Stewartville. For more on the meeting, as well as the latest developments at the Minnesota Legislature,
see http://www.landstewardshipproject.org/pr/05/newsr_050324.htm. To view the latest action alerts on this and other issues, go to http://www.landstewardshipproject.org/news-alerts.html.
12) UNCAPPED SUBSIDIES HAVE NEGATIVE IMPACTS HERE & ABROAD
Agricultural subsidies are not a bad thing when used correctly, but uncapped subsidies are harming rural economies both here and abroad, said a West African rural leader during a recent tour of the Granite Falls-Montevideo area. Madame Alimata Traoré, president of the Regional Union of Rural Women in the Mali region of Sikasso, Africa, visited the area on April 14 as a guest of LSP and
Oxfam America. Traoré spoke at the United Church of Christ in Granite Falls, as well as at the Chippewa County CROP Walk rally in Montevideo. See http://www.landstewardshipproject.org/pr/05/newsr_050415.htm for details, including an MP3 audio file featuring Traoré's comments.
13) ADS CALL FOR LIMITS ON AG SUBSIDIES
Calling the USDA's crop subsidy program a virtual "unlimited handout to the biggest operations," LSP, in partnership with Oxfam America, launched a series of newspaper and radio advertisements recently supporting firm limits on commodity payments through passage of the Rural America Preservation Act of 2005. To see and listen to the ad, go
to http://www.landstewardshipproject.org/pr/05/newsr_050329.htm.
14) ART SHOW DEADLINE JUNE 1
The current "show" featured at LSP's Stewardship Art Gallery (http://www.landstewardshipproject.org/index-gallery.html) is "Abundant Harvest." Thanks to all who contributed to this show. We are now accepting entries for our spring 2005 show. The theme is "New Life on the Farm," and the deadline is June 1. Please submit them
to Louise Arbuckle at lspwbl@landstewardshipproject.org. If your entry is chosen to appear on our website, you will receive a free LSP membership for you or as a gift for someone else.
The entries should celebrate new life on the farm, whether it is plants, animals or humans. We will accept any kind of artwork: sculptures, paintings, illustrations, photos, etc. For photos, candid shots work well; black and white or color is fine. Tell us when and where you took the photo. Please provide a title for all entries. Send entries as digitals or scanned files. Do not send originals.
If you are using pictures from your digital camera, they will work just fine if they are JPEG files. If you are scanning the images yourself from photographs or artwork, it is better to save them in either TIFF or EPS format. When
scanning, use a 150 PPI ("pixels per inch") setting.
If you have any questions, e-mail Louise or call her at 651-653-0618.
15) LOOKING FOR FARMLAND
LSP members and Farm BeginningsT graduates Theresa, Kathy and Nick Zeman are looking to buy farmland in south central or southeastern Minnesota. They are looking for 40 to 80 acres where the can set up a diversified vegetable and livestock operation. You can reach them at 507-330-2151 or zeman@cannon.net.
16) CSA INTERN NEEDED
The Minnesota Food Association's May Farm Community Supported (CSA) operation is looking for a summer intern. The farm is located near Marine on St. Croix, just 45 minutes from St. Paul. For more information, contact Josh Bryceson at 651-433-3676 (day) or 651-433-4689 (evening). You can also send a resume with references to: May Farm CSA, 14220 B. Ostlund Trail North, Marine, MN 55047. The Minnesota
Food Association's website is at http://www.mnfoodassociation.org.
17) WORTH REPEATING
"We are realizing that the preservation of family-based farms, rural communities and biological diversity has everything to do with human nutrition, the essence of flavor and the pleasures of the table. "
— farmer and LSP member Audrey Arner, writing in the latest Land Stewardship Letter about her experiences at the international Slow Food conference.
18) WORTH REPEATING II
"Basically it has cost lives."
— Alimata Traoré, a cotton farmer from Mali, West Africa, speaking about the effects of excessive crop subsidies (http://www.landstewardshipproject.org/pr/05/newsr_050415.htm)
19) WORTH REPEATING III
"The people in Dodge County that have been standing up for their rights are just average citizens who care about our environment because we live there. When more people get involved, the decisions are going to be better. "
—Dodge County farmer Evan Schmeling, speaking at a recent LSP meeting (http://www.landstewardshipproject.org/pr/05/newsr_050324.htm)
20) JOIN LSP
The work of LSP, including the LIVE-WIRE, is supported by the donations of people like you. To become a member, give a gift membership, or donate an extra gift above your membership, visit http://www.landstewardshipproject.org/index-joinus.html. If you have
questions about membership, contact cathye@landstewardshipproject.org.
LSP_LIVE-WIRE is Land Stewardship Project's e-mail newsletter. To unsubscribe or to change your options or password visit: http://www.communityforum.net/mailman/listinfo/lsp_live-wire.
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