Hellgate CSA

I received this today in my email box:

ACTION UPDATE ON COMMUNITY FOOD PROJECTS IN THE FARM BILL

Thank you for all your efforts to date on behalf of Community Food Projects and other progressive farm bill legislation. Unfortunately, despite all your efforts, funding for Community Food Project (CFP) remains discretionary at $30 million and not mandatory as it has been for 10 years. This means that right now, CFP has no mandatory funding for FY 2008.

From Just Food:

Congress begins debates this week on the US Farm Bill, a sweeping piece of legislation that comes up for renewal every 5 years and sets laws for everything from whether schools can buy food from local farmers, to how much of taxpayer money goes to corporate agribusiness to whether or not people can use food stamps at farmers markets.

From Just Food:

Farm Aid 2007: A HOMEGROWN Festival will take place on Randall's Island on September 9th. This is first time that the annual concert, which raises funds to support family farming and to promote food from family farms, is coming to New York.

The festival will celebrate music, good food, and hands-on activities with family farmers and urban growers.

From the press release I received:

After its critically acclaimed tour of festival around the world, Screening Liberally is teaming up with Eating Liberally to bring Black Gold back to New York.

This riveting documentary examines how multinational coffee companies became the rulers our shopping malls and supermarkets and dominate the industry worth over $80 billion.  Coffee is the second most valuable trading commodity in the world after oil.

Tipped of by an article on Gothamist, I learned that the USDA may relax organic standards even further than they are currently. From the LA Times:

The agency is considering a list of 38 nonorganic ingredients that will be permitted in organic foods. Because of the broad uses of these ingredients — as colorings and flavorings, for example — almost any type of manufactured organic food could be affected, including cereal, sausage, bread and beer.

This is troubling.