The headlines are full of food and gardening stories: The Obamas plant a White House vegetable garden, the Secretary of Agriculture jackhammers up the pavement in front of his office to create a People’s Garden, the National Gardening Association predicts a 19% increase in the number of new gardens, the New York Times Sunday Business Section devotes a full page and a half to talk about Michael Pollan, Alice Waters and the new documentary Food, Inc.
Time for Food+Farm 2009! Last year’s F+F event was so successful (including Roger Doiron of Kitchen Gardeners International plugging his OnDayOne.org winning idea for a White House Victory Garden . . . go Roger!) that we’ve brought it back bigger and better. This year’s Food+ Farm will run from May 7-10 and will include:
• Thursday, May 7th. Ted Ames: Fishing Voices. The Stonington lobsterman and MacArthur “Genius” winner will discuss his work researching the past and future of wild fisheries and how they can be restored and used sustainably.
• Friday, May 8th – Food, Inc. screening. A special advance-release screening of the new documentary exposing how corporations compromise profit over consumer health and safety in the American food industry. The film features such sustainable food luminaries as Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma), Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Joel Salatin (Polyface Farms), and Gary Hirshberg (Stonyfield Farm). Introduction and post-film discussion with Russell Libby, President, MOFGA.
• Saturday, May 9th am – Urban Gardening Fair at Cultivating Community’s Boyd Street Urban Farm in downtown Portland. The event will be a variety of demonstrations including garden preparation, composting, container gardening, rainwater collection and raised bed gardening. Attendees will leave with tomato or herb plants so that they can begin raising their own bit of food at home. We hope to have the adjoining community gardens, largely supporting Kennedy Park’s immigrant population, open for viewing as well.
• Saturday, May 9th, pm – An Evening with Bryant Terry. Eco chef, author, food justice activist, Bryant Terry works in many facets of food advocacy. He is currently a fellow of the Food and Society Policy Fellows Program, a national project of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and has worked to build a more just and sustainable food system and has used cooking as a tool to illuminate the intersections between poverty, structural racism, and food insecurity.
• Sunday, May 10th – Food+Farm University. MOFGA helps organize a series of intensive workshops to give attendees the skills to start producing their own sustainable food with a focus on urban/suburban food production. Topics will include, small space gardening, beekeeping, chicken care, and vermicomposting.
Stay posted to the SPACE website for full Food + Farm details.
