The Montgomery County Parks Department maintains 10% of the land in our county. They are responsible for creating, maintaining and upgrading our stellar system of county parks, which now also includes a growing number of top-notch community gardens. These folks do an amazing amount of great work, and in particular we cannot thank David Vismara (Head of Horticulture) and Ursula Sabia-Sukinik (Community Garden Coordinator) enough for their efforts in bringing local food production to our county.

Unfortunately, Montgomery County is facing a record $779 million gap for fiscal year 2011 (FY11), beginning July 1, 2010 and Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett has recommended 17.5% or $14.5 million reduction to the proposed budget for Montgomery Parks - a drastic cut that could significantly hurt park services.

It is a time of belt-tightening for all of us in the county, but we need to make sure that the Parks Department budget is not cut too harshly. Master Gardeners made their presence known at County Council hearings earlier this week (waving seed packets, I am told!), but all the public pressure possible is needed to make sure we protect our county park system.

If Parks Matter to You, click here to find out what you can do to help protect them!

And click here to download the Parks Matter sign. Thanks!



Agrarian Author Steve McFadden - Sat. and Sun. April 17 & 18

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Montgomery County's famed Agricultural Reserve, Montgomery Victory Gardens is joining with Montgomery Countryside Alliance, Audubon Naturalist Society, Transition Takoma, Sugarloaf Citizens Association, the Menare Foundation and Northeast SARE (Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education) to present one of the top agriculture authors in the country today.

Please join us for one of two very special conversations with Steve McFadden, sustainable farming journalist and author most recently of "The Call of the Land: An Agrarian Primer for the 21st Century." 

Mr. McFadden has spent the past two decades writing about Community Sponsored Agriculture (CSAs) and sustainable farming.  His newest book "The Call of the Land,"was voted one of the "Best Books of 2009" by the NYC Food Systems Network; it provides a road map for communities seeking food security and sustainability, highlighting the connections between our food, the economy, our health and our shared environment.

For more about the book and the author, click here and here.

The second presentation will be Sunday, April 18 at The Lodge at Little Seneca Creek, 14500-A Clopper Rd. in Boyds, MD 20841. The program will start at 1pm. The program is free but seating is limited, please email to reserve tickets at info@mocoalliance.org

These should be two great events to discuss the future of local agriculture in our country and right here in our county - please join us!



"Food Access Solutions" in D.C. - Friday, April 16

Rooting DC, an umbrella group of urban agriculture activists, is following up on its massively successful February event (over 500 attendees!) with a food security panel discussion in our nation's capital, "Food Access Solutions: Urban Agriculture, Local Food & Community Development," to be held on Friday, April 16 from 10am - 2pm.

This location was chosen because DC Wards 7 and 8 are some of the areas in the nation's capital with the least access to supermarkets or other means to acquire healthy and affordable food. Two panels composed of both national and local food experts and activists will discuss subjects including food access in low-income DC neighborhoods, acknowledging work already being done under the radar, the dire health consequences of failing to act, community food security trends nationally, the difficulties in bridging cultures, and the possible creation of a DC food policy council.

The event will take place at Town Hall Education, Arts & Recreation Campus (THEARC), 1901 Mississippi Avenue, SE, Washington, DC 20020    Click here for directions. The panel will end at 1:15pm, followed by appetizers and networking discussion.

Due to the popularity of these events, registration is required. Click here to attend "Food Access Solutions: Urban Agriculture, Local Food & Community Development."



The Real 'Food Revolution' Starts with Healthy Appalachian Cornbread

North Carolina farmer April McGreger has watched the first three episodes of Jamie Oliver's "Food Revolution" on ABC, and she is not impressed. Why not, she asks the imported celebrity chef in this concise and cogent commentary (cornbread recipe included!), start your food revolution with local food ways?

Tying Oliver's effort to the long string of (often) misguided attempts by reformers to help the poor in Appalachia, as well as a stinging critique of the systemic injustices placed upon these folks by larger economic forces, including industrialized food producers, McGreger concludes that:

"Our food system's problems run deep--and the solutions won't come easy. However, we can begin by recognizing, celebrating, and supporting wholesome, traditional foodways. They hang on despite being ground down by industrialization. Here, we find much-needed common ground between two often opposed groups--the liberal outsider and the mountain old-timer. This partnership could provide the fire for a real, lasting food revolution--one that heals Appalachian people, Appalachian economies, and Appalachian environments."

Click here to read "The Real 'Food Revolution' Starts with Healthy Appalachian Cornbread." And thanks to MVGer Rana for passing this gem on!



On Job Creation - Local Veggies vs. Corn and Soybeans

Guess what? Those of us who crow about the benefits of local, non-industrial food have yet another study to back us up.

A new study by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University found that expanding fruit and vegetable production in the upper Midwest (Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin) could bring significantly more economic benefits than conventional industrial monoculture crops such as corn and soybeans on the same acreage.

The study identified 28 kinds of fruits and vegetables (including cherries) thatfarmers are able to grow in the region and concluded that their increased production could mean $882 million in sales at the farm level, and more than 9,300 jobs - almost 7,000 more jobs than are created by corn and soybean production on that same acreage. The study also concluded that sufficient fruits and vegetables for the six-state region could be grown on only 270,025 acres - roughly equivalent to the average cropland in one of Iowa's counties. Currently much of the fruits and vegetables in the region come from other parts of the country or even world.

A fascinating study, and yet one more piece of evidence on the benefit of local food production. Click here to read On Job Creation-Local Fruits and Vegetables vs. Corn and Soybeans.



Food, Inc. in Washington, DC - Tuesday, April 13

Metro D.C.'s leading community sustainability group, Ecolocity, will be showing the Academy Award nominated "Food, Inc." this coming Tuesday, April 13 at 7pm.

If you haven't seen it already, Food, Inc. does a phenomenal job of taking apart the industrial food system - meaning the food system which delivers 95% of the food we eat in the U.S. And even if you have seen it, it will be well worth your time to see it again, especially followed by discussion with members of Ecolocity, one of the few community based groups working actively toward a transition to our post oil future, which definitely means a post industrial food future.

Food, Inc. is the third in Ecolocity's series on the American food system: Food, Water, and Corporate Control: How Can We Fight Back? The movie viewing is free and will be held at the  Emergence Community Arts Collective, 733 Euclid Street Northwest DC. For more information email ecolocitydc@gmail.com, or click here.

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.