In this update:

* New MC Community Garden to Help Feed Those in Need
* Review of Young Readers Omnivore's Dilemma, Plus Pollan Interview
* A New Resource for Sourcing Local Food
* The "Debate" on School Gardens
* Herbicide-Resistant Crops Fast Becoming Useless


New MC Community Garden to Help Feed Those in Need

More and more community gardens are being established in the U.S. to help feed those who suffer from food insecurity - the nearly one in five U.S. households, according to a recent study, who ran out of money to buy enough food at least once during 2009. We are delighted that one of the newest of those gardens will be right here in Montgomery County.

The Mishnah Garden project is the ambitious entry of temple Adat Shalom (Potomac, MD) into gardening as an activity to educate and nourish their congregation, the Earth, and those in need. They have just started building two 16' x 20' plots - 640 square feet, enough to produce several thousand pounds of food, most of it to be donated to the Manna Food Center.

According to garden founder Fred Pinkney, the garden is about "Education, Ecology and Empathy. Education because so much of our tradition is agrarian... we'll literally learn while sowing and reaping; Ecology, as a place to grow vegetables and herbs with our own hands, locally and in low-impact ways... as a celebration of sustainability; Empathy, as part of our social action program to reach out to those in need by donating our produce...."

Fred and his colleagues are doing a great job setting up the community garden and enlisting the support and involvement of their congregation, and Montgomery Victory Gardens is delighted to welcome them into the growing faith-based community garden movement here in our county. We will post the date of their "grand garden opening" in the future, but if you would like any more information now, please feel free to contact Fred at pa.sommers@verizon.net

And if you are with a congregation interested in starting their own community garden, don't forget about the MVG resource, "Tips for Starting a Faith-Based Community Garden."



Review of Young Readers Omnivore's Dilemma, Plus Pollan Interview

You will recall the MVG post last month (and year) letting you know that Michael Pollan's The Ominvore's Dilemma, the bible of the new food movement for many, had just been released in an Young Reader's edition.

We are happy to present to you now a review of the Young Reader's edition of The Omnivore's Dilemma. Our reviewer, Abe, is the 10 year old son of Takoma Park residents (and MVG'ers) David and Hannah. (You might remember Hannah from her previous MVG article on foraging for local acorns.) Abe is a not infrequent attendee at meetings in the area. He is homeschooled, and he loves violin, fencing, and reading - and local food!

Click here to read Abe's review of The Ominvore's Dilemma, Young Reader's Edition

You might also be aware that the indefatigable Mr. Pollan has just published another new book, Food Rules, An Eater's Manual. To read an interview with Michael Pollan about his new book by food magazine Epicurious, click here.



A New Resource for Sourcing Local Food

Most of us know where our local farmers market is by now. (Although we keep the list on the Montgomery Victory Gardens website, just in case!) But what if you are also looking for locally produced grass-fed beef - even kosher grass-fed beef - or local gourmet vinegars, or sustainably produced chocolate?

As part of our commitment to provide more resources to help you find local, organic, and sustainably produced food and food-related products, we encourage you to check out the nationwide directory "Local Harvest." While none of these online directories are complete, so rapidly expanding and changing is the local food scene, they can all offer something new. And indeed, I found on Local Harvest several sources of organic and sustainable food right here in Silver Spring that I had not previously heard of. (Including that kosher grass-fed beef.)

Also providing a large selection of organic and sustainable foods and food or agriculture products (such as wool) online, Local Harvest is well worth the visit if you want to expand your collection of local sources.



The "Debate" on School Gardens

Few people would argue the immense benefits of school food gardens.

In an age where most children have no idea where there food comes from or how it is produced, there can be few more profoundly important educational opportunities for a young person than to spend an hour or two of school time in a garden. As one teacher told me, you can use a garden to teach virtually anything - from environmental science, biology and nutrition to math, finances, and even art. Add on top of that the benefits of community building, healthy organic food, and simple time outside exercising in the fresh air and sun, and it's hard to imagine a better use of time. (Time spent working outside with soil even strengthens your immune system!)

That being said, the school garden movement, like any movement that threatens established practices, will always get pushback once it gets popular enough. And so, despite all reason, there are now some authors who are willing to go out on a limb and try to impeach the unimpeachable.  The most prominent of these attacks is an article in the current issue of The Atlantic by Caitlin Flanagan,  entitled "Cultivating Failure."

The article is, in a word, absurd. Ms. Flanagan tries to paint school food gardens, among other things, as an attempt to indoctrinate immigrant children into lives of servitude and low wages in the field.  Very hard to take seriously, and yet here it is in a major publication.

The food listserves, blogs and websites have been buzzing with responses to Ms. Flanagan's piece, and one of the best is by Michelle Owens, a colleague of MVG Advisory Board member and Master Gardener Susan Harris, on their excellent Garden Rant blog. (Where, according to a NY Times article," gardeners mouth off with the zeal of sports radio barkers." Check it out!)

To read the incisive and bitingly funny "Caitlin Flanagan Demonstrates What a Deficient Education Will Do to You," click here.



Herbicide-Resistant Crops Fast Becoming Useless

And why is that?

Because, according to this latest scientific study posted by Organic Consumers Association, "Weeds in GM [genetically modified] cotton fields in the US have developed resistance to the herbicide glyphosate to such an extent that this could threaten the sustainable use of glyphosate-resistant crop technology.... This highlights the growing number of cases of GM crops developing resistance to the popular chemical used by numerous GM farmers around the world, most of whom grow Monsanto's GM crops that are developed to resist the company's Roundup herbicide."

Spray the crops with lots of herbicide to kill weeds, and you get herbicide resistant weeds. Can you guess a similar, "unintended" if entirely predictable problem? How about when you use 70% of your antibiotics on animals intended for slaughter, as we do here in the U.S.?

This practice may help keep sick animals alive through their deplorable and inhumane experience in factory farms, but the one long term effect we know for sure is that it will lead to ever more lethal, antibiotic-resistant super viruses. Is that worth the price of a cheap steak today?



That's it for this week, friends! Don't forget to send us your feedback, as well as ideas for stories or local food events we can promote, by emailing us at info@montgomeryvictorygardens.org.

Yours in delicious, sustainably grown local food,

Gordon Clark,
Project Director
Montgomery Victory Gardens