I attended “Our Sustainable Restaurants: A Roundtable of NYC Chefs,” led by Leonard Lopate of WNYC public radio. On the panel were Dan Barber; Peter Hoffman of Savoy and Back Forty; Bill Telepan of Telepan; David Shea of Applewood; and John Tucker of Rose Water.

A very popular panel, the discussion ranged from the chef as instrumental in changing food attitudes to seed sharing, and even tackling the accusation that choosing to eat sustainably is an elitist idea. Barber and Shea explained how chefs, first and foremost, care about taste — and food grown sustainably and responsibly, especially locally, simply tastes better. The chefs agreed that sustainable food’s higher prices, which could be seen as elitism by some, is really just a reflection of the true cost of food; Americans have been accustomed to artificially cheap food for far too long and the higher prices are a correction. As one of them noted, many consumers are learning to say, “Food is where I want to spend my money — on what I put into my body, not what I hang off of it.”

My favorite verbal nugget of the session? Telepan quipped, “If we are what we eat, then we’re fast, cheap, and easy.”

Read the rest of the post here.

Food Democracy Now, a grassroots movement of farmers, writers, chefs, and other food-and-community types who advocate a sustainable food system, drafted the letter to President-Elect Obama urging him to appoint a Secretary of Agriculture who is well versed in sustainability and will have a “broad vision for our collective future” in a way that past appointees have not.

Food Democracy Now incorporates energy, environment, public health, and the economy into the reasoning behind supporting an appointee who believes the following are of utmost importance:

recreating regional food systems, supporting the growth of humane, natural and organic farms, and protecting the environment, biodiversity and the health of our children while implementing policies that place conservation, soil health, animal welfare and worker’s rights as well as sustainable renewable energy near the top of their agenda.

So delightfully ambitious, and what a refreshing (and at times so unbelievable, I’m still pinching myself) change from the food and farm policies of the 20th century!  I think this is an amazing time for America — we’re perched cautiously, teetering on the edge of total ruin, but we really have a chance to start turning things around.  And I think that appointing one of the following, as proposed in their letter, is an integral step:

• Gus Schumacher, former Undersecretary of Agriculture for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services at the U.S. Department of Agriculture; former Massachusetts Commissioner of Agriculture
• Chuck Hassebrook, Executive Director, Center for Rural Affairs
• Sarah Vogel, former two-term Commissioner of Agriculture for the State of North Dakota; attorney
• Fred Kirschenmann, organic farmer; Distinguished Fellow, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Iowa State University; President, Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture
• Mark Ritchie, current Minnesota Secretary of State; former policy analyst in Minnesota’s Department of Agriculture under Governor Rudy Perpich; co-founder of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
• Neil Hamilton, attorney; Dwight D. Opperman Chair of Law and Professor of Law and Director, Agricultural Law Center, Drake University

I’ll admit I’m not yet knowledgeable enough to make the case for the best pick, but frankly, I know that I would be beyond excited to have any of these accomplished, intelligent people in the top spot.  It’s quite telling that the Obama transition team has already begun working diligently on briefing documents for the appointee.  We have a lot of work ahead of us, especially if we want to make the next Farm Bill into a true Food Bill, as Michael Pollan has suggested.

Image courtesy On Bradstreet

Though the panel has plenty of ideas on fuel, factories, and the other usual suspects, the arena of agriculture still falls behind when it comes to solutions on how to effectively curb emissions.  Some proposals include methane capture — collecting pig manure, heating it, then using the methane captured from the process to add electricity to the local power grid — or engineering feed that produces less methane in the first place.

But many believe that meat production and consumption on the scale we see today is simply not sustainable, no matter how much we reverse-engineer what goes into or comes out of our livestock.  With the higher global demand for meat, especially from developing countries such as China and India, we’re losing rainforest and other land, and expending more fuel to transport and refrigerate it; some say that our best hope is simply to reduce meat consumption altogether.

I applaud any call for cutting down on the consumption of meat.  Don’t get me wrong: I love meat in all shapes, sizes, forms and flavors.  But I recognize the impact it has both on the environment and on our health.  Eating meat every day isn’t necessary, and it isn’t cheap, either — unless, of course, you consume meat that’s created on factory farms.  When I do eat meat, I take great care to understand where it came from and how the animal was raised and fed, because it’s worth it to me to hold out for higher-quality (and, yes, higher-priced) meat.  And because it’s more expensive, I eat less of it.  Lower consumption, lower expenditure, lower emissions… and lower blood pressure.

Image courtesy Justabird2

Yes, the job I thought might be the “dream job,” doing exactly, precisely what I wanted to do — working for a nonprofit on sustainable agriculture and local food issues, something I wasn’t sure I could actually discuss on this blog — is no longer mine.  Due to the economic crisis, specifically the giant market flops that occurred in September, two of the organization’s major donors pulled out.  The management had no choice but to let a third of its staff go; October 6th was my last day.

I was only there for two months, but I feel I learned a lot.  I really wanted to continue my work there, of course.  I was learning so much about sustainable ag and was so excited to dive in and get some important work done.  Alas, it was not to be.  But I did write my first grant, and work directly with farmers across the country, both of which were valuable experiences.

So, I’ve been looking for work for a month now, and still haven’t received any unemployment benefits.  I’m down to almost nothing.  Moths are flying out of my wallet.  I’m crossing my fingers that the gubmint cheddar will come in this week; I think I’ve finally gotten my Department of Labor representative connected with my former employer, and they should be able to iron out the remaining details quickly.  I hope.

In better news, however, I do have an interview today!  I’ve decided that, while nonprofits can be perfectly fine, they offer very little job security in the current economic environment, so I am by no means limiting myself to them.  And with Obama’s win on Tuesday, maybe, just maybe, the economy could be at least starting on a new (greener?) track within several months.  Obviously, I’m not pinning all my hopes on that, but we shall see.

If I don’t get any more leads in the next week or so, I think I may have to resort to waiting tables or working in a boutique.  It’s not ideal; I really don’t want to refocus my energies toward something that’s not on the path I’ve created for myself.  I’d prefer no detours, please.  I hate that it’s come to this, but when you need money, you need money.

O, how I wanted to attend last night’s Taste of Greenmarket fundraiser for CENYC.  Unfortunately, it was a benefit with benefit prices ($150 a head), and, well…that’s a bit rich for this blogger.  Fortunately, however, Anjuli Ayer at A Smart Mouth did attend, and covered the whole thing beautifully, complete with photos that’ll make your salivary glands go bonkers.

The event, created to celebrate harvest season at Greenmarket, featured the city’s best known chefs utilizing the most delicious local flavors of the season: Dan Barber of Blue Hill & Stone Barns, Mary Cleaver of The Green Table, Peter Hoffman of Savoy, Gabriel Kreuther of The Modern, and tons of other talented food folk.

Am I jealous?  Uh, yes.  Will I save up for a ticket next year’s Taste of Greenmarket?  You betchum, Red Rider.

Image courtesy Anjuli Ayer

I’m a familiar face to some of the farmers and sellers there, as I’ve been a regular visitor to the market for a few years now.  I’m excited to get to know some of them better, especially since I’ve been learning so much in the last couple of weeks about exactly how damn difficult farming can be.  I have immense respect for them and the backbreaking work they do every day just to get delicious food to hungry New Yorkers.

My first task was to pull on my Greenmarket t-shirt and affix my “volunteer” badge.  Tricky!

I heard from one of the farmers that a patron had asked him whether his peaches were frozen.  Apparently, they seemed cold to the touch, and the visitor was puzzled.  The farmer shook his head and wondered how and why anyone would think that peaches would be frozen when it’s peak peach season right now: “If they’re frozen, when were they frozen?  Why would we freeze them?”  He ticked off some other common-sense-less questions from city folk, such as “Do you bleach the brown eggs to get them white?” and “Did you go to high school?”  I chuckled, but of course the underlying realization is that many people remain, sadly, severely disconnected from their food.

Next, my market manager asked me to take some fliers and head down to Myrtle Avenue near some NYCHA housing and a Met grocery store to get the word out about the nearby Greenmarket busting with fresh, local food.  I was met with mostly polite interest, and many people accepted fliers.  I got to answer questions about price comparisons, availability of certain foods and when the Greenmarket was open.

I probably shouldn’t have felt so surprised to find that no one (save a few people) I spoke to about the Greenmarket, situated just two blocks north of them, had any idea it existed.  It’s become such a part of my mindset that I can’t imagine life without a farmer’s market.  I hope my presence got a few people thinking about their food — enough to get them to visit this Saturday!  Many Greenmarkets around the city now take food stamps, EBT and WIC, including those at Fort Greene Park and Grand Army Plaza, and I think it’s vital to make this well known.

When I returned, we started an ice cream food demo.  I wasn’t able to stay for the whole demonstration, as I had some friends who were apartment-hunting in the neighborhood and wanted me to show them around.  The market manager was all set to make peach ice cream, but when I mentioned that we had made blackberry ice cream at home the prior week, she was dead set on blackberry!  The ones she chose were so ripe and juicy that halving them made the cutting board turn purple.

My friends arrived just in time to witness the attendance of Keri Russell, her ridiculously cute baby, and even the baby daddy — a tall, dark, lanky musician type.  While perusing heirloom tomatoes, Keri lifted up the kidlet and playfully chomped on his thigh.  I don’t blame her; I, too, would have been whipped into a frenzy by the freshly picked Green Zebras and Cherokee Purples and mistook her baby for a juicy Solanaceae.

If all this sounds downright exciting to you, please consider becoming a Greenmarket volunteer.

Image courtesy of brookelynn16.

Some Californians have got the same idea in their heads.  Sonoma once had chickens running “wild” in the town center, until the population began to grow and parents complained that their children were getting pecked.  This week, the Sonoma City Council was considering allowing once again for residents to own chickens, roosters and rabbits in their homes.

Raising rabbits and poultry are a step toward self-sufficiency and provide healthier meat and eggs, proponents contend.

“Every single person should keep chickens,” said Bob Cannard, a former city councilman who has had chickens for nearly 40 years. “If everybody kept three chickens for every person in the household, we would change the nature of this country.”

Of course, Sonoma isn’t the pastoral near-utopia it used to be; some were especially concerned with the noise that roosters might create. Today, the ordinance passed, allowing even the smallest residence to own up to 16 chickens and eight rabbits, but — sorry, Foghorn — no roosters.  Which, frankly, should be quite all right, since amateur suburban farmers don’t need roosters to get more than enough eggs for themselves and their families.  Hens will do the job just fine.

In New York, Just Food’s City Chicken Project will provide chickens to a NYC community garden of at least eight participating persons, as long as it can comfortably provide eight square feet of space for each chicken.  Raising chickens in the city will help build community, teach children to understand the connection between dinner on the plate and animals in the barnyard, and help make your garden more sustainable by naturally fighting pests and weeds and fortifying soil tilth.

Image courtesy of the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat.

Fortunately, the brave Betsey at Brooklyn Farmer stuck it out, and she can provide the scoop!

And, by the way — Public Farm One?  Total disappointment.  There were some chickens in a closed-off pen, some brightly painted cylindrical structures covered in dated-looking stencils (apparently meant to be a playground), and a bunch of potted plants arranged in such a way that visitors could stand and walk under them but not really see what was going on inside them.  This sad display didn’t really do much for me, and didn’t really do much for the possibilities of sustainable urban agriculture.  Please to be trying harder next time, PS1. 

However, something good did come out of my thwarted efforts: I learned about The White House Organic Farm Project, headed by Daniel Bowman Simon.  He and his crew are driving a topsy-turvy biodiesel bus (pictured, at PS1 on Friday evening) purchased from Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry’s, and outfitted with a roof garden and apiary, from New York to San Francisco to spread the word about their petition to have the 44th president plant an organic farm on the grounds of the White House.  I spoke to Daniel briefly on Monday evening at the Union Square Greenmarket, and he seemed very busy but very enthusiastic about his project.  And he gave me a rather pretty sunflower.

A similar campaign by Kitchen Gardeners International called Eat the View calls for healthy, edible landscapes to be created in high-impact, high-visibility locations; they’re circulating a petition, “Vote for Veggies,” to have the next US president plant a vegetable garden on the White House lawn.

Some of you know that it was Pollan’s extremely popular book The Omnivore’s Dilemma that was a fiery catalyst for me — I went from a food enthusiast with intrigued by its effects on public health to a full-on sustainable agriculture geek who just had to do it for a living.  I’ve seen him speak once before, at The 92nd Street Y, with fellow high-profile locavore Dan Barber, chef of Blue Hill and creative director at Stone Barns.  He’s extremely engaging and does a great job of encouraging enthusiasm in others.

More heroes?  Of course!  A friend reminded me of The Greenhorns, “a documentary film that explores the lives of America’s young farming community—its spirit, practices, and needs.”  From their site:

As the nation experiences a groundswell of interest in sustainable lifestyles, we see the promising beginnings of an agricultural revival. Young farmers’ efforts feed us safe food, conserve valuable land, and reconstitute communities split apart by strip malls. It is the filmmakers’s hope that by broadcasting the stories and voices of these young farmers, we can inspire another generation of optimistic agrarians.

Our aim is to valorize the role of younger growers who continue to refine farming practices, to innovate in new markets, and to reclaim land under sustainable management. With this film, we hope to build the case for those considering a career in agriculture—to embolden them, to entice them, and to recruit them into farming.

Such a great idea.  They’re there to show others that it can be done, and even that it’s a great idea.  To be sure, it’s not an easy one, and there’s a lot of learning involved.  One also must be willing to live a pretty minimal lifestyle, as farming isn’t immediately (or consistently) profitable.

The people behind the Greenhorns project are young, bright, dedicated, ambitious, and you can just feel the excitement radiating from them!  I know, because I met some of them at the last New Amsterdam Market event in late June; they seem like some of the most concerned, and some of the happiest, people in the whole country.  Definitely check out their site — it’s chock full of essays and other resources.  You can watch a trailer, too.

Photo via truthdig.com

I cannot fully explain in conventional written language exactly how awesomely excited and totally psyched I am about this development.  I start on Monday and it cannot come soon enough.  I actually thought I was going to be starting early this week, so I was a little disappointed when I heard it wouldn’t be until next week…but I suppose it’s given me a little more time to enjoy my summer vacation, doing fun things like waiting for two hours at the DMV (“License X-Press,” it’s called — wishful thinking, I say) to finally exchange my Ohio license for a New York one, going to the post office and buying laundry detergent.

I wish I could be more specific, because I’ve never been so proud and excited about a job, but again, I have to keep schtum on a lot of the details.  Here’s the interesting part, in terms of the life of this blog: it was supposed to “chronicle my quest” to find a job in sustainable agriculture and local food.  Well, I found it.  I thought I would be taking a sort of “baby step” job doing PR for an environmentally conscious client or firm, for instance, to gain experience in the field.  But I didn’t even have to do that!  What I wanted was right there for me, and I grabbed it.  I’m almost pinching myself because I didn’t think it would happen so quickly and so easily — but it did.

I’m going to continue writing here, of course, because it’s been fun so far, and I’ve received a lot of encouragement.  To do it right, though, I’m going to have to have a discussion with my new bosses about what I can and can’t say.

I’m also more than a little freaked out by my monetary situation.  I don’t know when my first paycheck will appear in my hands/bank account; I’m certainly crossing my fingers that it comes in time to pay September rent.  I cannot spend any money that isn’t absolutely essential — that means pretty much food only.  I can’t even justify going out with friends when we have a fully stocked bar right here in our apartment.  It’s going to be a pauper’s existence for the rest of August, I’m afraid.