Kathryn Rozen-Gagnon: OnEarth Correspondent

• In Summary: Loving the Local Food Movement

  Because the semester is coming to a close, this will unfortunately be my last blog on my work researching local food. So this blog will be a summary of the work I have done this semester and what I plan to do in the future to continue spreading the word about eating locally.

  But, before we get to that, I just wanted to mention that in a recent episode of Bravo's Top Chef, contestants were challenged to create dishes using only food grown locally in California. True, this didn't necessarily reduce their options much, as California is a main agricultural state in the U.S. However, it is great to see this emphasis on such a popular show - further proof that more and more are jumping on the local bandwagon, and that eating locally can be delicious!

  Ok, now back to the serious stuff. This past semester I have investigated the local food movement through my research. My research has had three main aspects. First, I have been reading literature to learn the facts ...read full post

  
  
  Comments (0)  |  December 15, 2009

• The Fantastic Four Winds Farm, Part 2

  Last time I wrote about Four Winds Farm and some of agricultural techniques they use to be more energy efficient. This week I'm going to write about the other ideas they have incorporated that you might not typically associate with a farm. I apologize for diverging into more general green practices and not sticking strictly to food based practices. But as I describe all of the eco-friendly precautions Jay takes, I think readers will appreciate that Four Winds Farm is a great example how farming can be sustainable.

  One of the main goals of local food is to address the lack of sustainability in our conventional food production system. I think it follows that we should think holistically at the environmental impact of the farm, not just at the impact of techniques specific to food production. Of course it is not good to rototill, use chemicals, keep animals in overcrowded inhumane conditions, transport your food thousands of miles, and employ countless other strategies ...read full post

  
  
  Comments (0)  |  November 25, 2009

• The Fantastic Four Winds Farm

  A while ago when I was compiling a list of resources for people interested in finding out about local food, I found Four Winds Farm on LocalHarvest. Their description on the site emphasized their organic farming methods, heirloom products, and grass-fed livestock. Seeing that they were 65 miles away (within the 100 mile ‘local' radius), I emailed the owners to see if I could come up , speak with them, and see their farm. I did this because I wanted to go see how food is made firsthand. Our culture has a huge disconnect from the means of food production, and seeing that food growing from the ground or walking around can reduce that disconnect. There are biological reasons behind how we grow food; these plants and animals have distinct life cycles and growing conditions (this is why a banana in New York is never local). An interesting side note - in agribu...read full post

  
  
  Comments (2)  |  November 16, 2009

• A Day in the Life of a Wholesale Greenmarket Promotions Intern

  Hey readers, I'm trying something a little different with my post this week. Instead of going over factual information about local food, the point of this post is to give readers an idea about what I am doing right now at Wholesale Greenmarket. I'm going to talk about what I'm learning, and why I'm so excited to be doing it. I apologize in advance for veering away from my usual type of post, but I hope you guys will find it interesting to see how an effective nonprofit organization like CENYC works from behind the scenes in terms of everyday work.

  "Hi, my name is Kathryn and I'm calling from the Council on the Environment of New York City and the State Department of Agriculture and Markets." Each Friday, at the beginning of 30-50 conversations, I say this to different produce retailers in the Bronx. I'm getting pretty good at it - or at least I like to think so. While it seems a like a generic, scripted, and somewhat stiff introduction, I've found that it ...read full post

  
  
  Comments (0)  |  November 10, 2009

• An Interview with Dr. Eleanor Sterling

  Dr. Sterling, for those who aren't familiar, is currently the director of the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation (CBC) at the American Museum of Natural History, as well as a faculty member at Columbia University's Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology Department. Dr. Sterling's research has ranged from historical changes in land use in Vietnam to studying lemur populations in Madagascar.

  Over the past several years, the CBC has been emphasizing food as an important biodiversity issue.  In 2004, the CBC published Living With Nature: Cooking for Biodiversity (one of the authors is Dr. Sterling), and two Healthy Eating for You and the Planet brochures (one on eating ...read full post

  
  
  Comments (0)  |  November 9, 2009

• Bringing Bulk Buying to Local Food: Wholesale Greenmarket

  This week I went to the Council for the Environment of the City New York (CENYC) to talk to the folks at the Wholesale Greenmarket program. CENYC is awesome and has many great programs, ranging from the Environmental Education Program to the Community Garden Program (click the links to check out what these programs are all about). Wholesale Greenmarket provides a way for businesses to buy fresh local produce in bulk at competitive prices. To the environment, every table that switches to local food makes a huge difference, and programs like Wholesale Greenmarket are essential to making this transition feasible on a larger scale. The farmers that are now a part of the Wholesale Greenmarket have been at Hunts Point Food Terminal since 2007, with little management and support. That's where CENYC comes in - they just ...read full post

  
  
  Comments (0)  |  October 28, 2009

• Becoming a Locavore: tips for making the transition

  I'm now finishing my third week of eating local produce, and I have to admit I'm missing exotic fruits and summer veggies. After experiencing the challenges associated with switching to a (partially) local diet, I have to ask myself; if after three weeks I'm already getting tired of just eating local produce, how have so many people kept completely local? And yes, they do exist. In fact, in recent years the local food movement has gained momentum; in 2007 "locavore" was announced the word of the year by the New Oxford American Dictionary. Just googling "locavore blog" gave me 1 and a quarter million hits!

  So how do they do it? Here are some tips I've learned from personal experience or come across in my research. If you've been inspired to buy even a few products locally, I hope this helps. And if you haven't decided to give living like a locavore a try, maybe these will convince you how easy it ...read full post

  
  
  Comments (0)  |  October 21, 2009

• How Green is Your Table?

  Today I went to the Green Table, a restaurant in Chelsea Market featuring local food. As part of my research I've been looking around for New York restaurants that focus on local food. To any other New Yorkers, check out the book "Clean Plates NYC" by Jared Koch and Alex Van Buren for a good guide of NYC's "healthiest tastiest" restaurants. New York City is a pretty good area for local food -- many of the places the authors identify as healthy and delicious are also focused on serving local food. I picked the Green Table because they self-identify as a "fresh, local, seasonal, handcrafted sustainable eatery and wine bar."

  I went because people throw around a lot of lingo when it comes to food; food vendors and grocery stores advertise their operations as fresh, local, organic, sustainable, seasonal. With green movements gaining momentum, this type of marketing pays off, and often these words are used ...read full post

  
  
  Comments (0)  |  October 11, 2009

• The Price of Our Produce

  Walking through the produce section in my grocery store this afternoon, I was confronted by a veritable cornucopia of fruits and vegetables. At first glance, this variety seemed great - I could snack on a banana grown in India, an avocado grown in California. But then I took a second look at my cart. That banana, a tropical fruit native to Southeast Asia was never meant to sit next to that avocado, a fruit native to South America. Zucchini, which is harvested in the summer, shouldn't be bagged up and taken outside into the chilly fall weather. The surreal nature of the produce aisle struck me - an over-plentiful, sterile garden, where food is picked shelves instead of from the ground. No seasons. No geography. Everything you want, when you want.

  
  But where does your produce come from? The answer to this question is actually pretty simple. In most cases in the U.S. "not from around here" is accurate, regardless of your location. So how do fruits and ...read full post

  
  
  Comments (0)  |  October 5, 2009

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