We Won! We Won! We Won! - School Vegetable Gardens to Be Allowed in MCPS Schools!

We are absolutely thrilled to announce that after a year+ long campaign, we have achieved a signal victory in our mission to build a more sustainable local food system in Montgomery County.  The Montgomery County Public School System has made it official - school vegetable gardens are now allowed on public school property!

Read all about this momentous occasion in our press release from this Monday.  (You might have to scroll down to see it.) You can also read The Gazette article here.

While the new guidelines are only for container gardens - which are a good first step if your school has no experience in gardening and wants to ensure success - MCPS officials made it clear that applications for properly planned in-ground gardens will also be approved.

This is a truly fantastic victory - one that will slowly but surely (or maybe even quickly!) begin to change the eating habits of many kids in our county - as well as the attitude of many adults about the importance of growing our food as locally as possible.  We would like to thank Montgomery County's Master Gardener Association, the 33 organizations that signed our open letter to Dr. Weast, and the many, many individuals who wrote letters, made phone calls, sent emails, spoke at public meetings, gave us money (couldn't do the work without it!), and in general made it overwhelmingly clear that the citizens of this county would no longer stand for anything less than a vigorous program supporting school vegetable gardens.  Way to go, everyone!

And now, for the next step - let's get those school gardens up and running!

A School Garden Checklist

And speaking of getting that school garden going, what a perfect time for this "School Garden Checklist" from Kitchen Gardeners International.

You want to figure out which stakeholders to involve?  The different types of gardens you can grow, what your money or curriculum needs will be, safety rules or possible challenges you'll have to overcome?  For answers to these and other questions, and for a generally excellent checklist of the things you should be thinking about, check out the School Garden Checklist!  (And thanks to MVGer Rana for passing this along!) 

School Garden Bill in the MD State Legislature

This is definitely the school garden time of year (or at least the school garden MVG update), as we are delighted to report that Montgomery County's own State Senator Raskin (District 10) has introduced legislation to significantly expand school vegetable gardens across the state.

While the language is still being amended, the bill would direct county boards of education to encourage the use of open space on public school property for the purpose of planting and maintaining gardens, as well as authorizing county boards to incorporate the use of school gardens into specified curriculum guides and to use specified produce in school cafeterias.  Pretty cool stuff, huh?!?  You can see the current bill language here (and again bear in mind, it is being amended!).

Testimony will be heard on the bill in the two coming weeks, but the most important thing you can do right now is call the members of the Senate and House Education committees.  (Please note: it doesn't matter whether or not they are your State Senators or Delegates - it is a state wide bill, and these are the folks you want to contact!)  If you don't have time to call them all, do make sure to call the committee chair and vice chair.  You should tell members in the House to "support Delegate Luedtke's School Gardens bill, HB 524" and for the Senate to "support Senator Raskin's School Gardens bill, SB 791."

Click here for the list of members of the House Education Committee.
Click here for the list of the members of the Senate Education Committee. 

Thanks for helping us take it to the next level!

"Rooting DC" Urban Gardening Forum -  Tomorrow, Saturday, Feb. 19

Last reminder for this great conference happening tomorrow!

The 4th Annual "Rooting DC" Urban Gardening Forum, sponsored by DC's Field to Fork Network, will be held TOMORROW, Saturday, Feb. 19 from 9am-4:30pm.  Whether you are new to gardening or an experienced green thumb who wants to explore the role of food gardening in your community, Rooting DC has something for you, including a series of family-oriented activities in the morning and free child care in the afternoon

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This is truly one of the most chock-full conferences we have seen in the area, and over 500 gardeners, farmers, cooks and food justice advocates are expected to attend.  (Last year approximately 1/4 of the attendees were from Montgomery County.)  This year's Rooting DC will take place at Coolidge High School, which is very close to Takoma Park and the Takoma Red Line Metro station.  

Rooting DC is free and open to the public.  Please click here for complete program details, directions and other information on the 2011 Rooting DC Urban Gardening Forum!

Green Matters Symposium - Friday, Feb. 25

And here's yet another great food conference coming up in Montgomery County, brought to you by our friends at Brookside Gardens - their annual Green Matters Symposium, to be held on Friday, February 25.

This year's Green Matters theme, "Real Food Renaissance," will focus on the growing number of local, regional and national grassroots efforts to encourage Americans to eat "Real Food." From public gardens to local government and nonprofit groups advancing change in our local food systems to high profile chefs committed to changing the way we eat and think about where our food comes from, we're experiencing a culinary renaissance.

There is a super speaker lineup, including Jonathan Bloom, a journalist and food waste expert, author of American Wasteland, Carla Hall, an area chef and one of the finalists in season five of Bravo's "Top Chef" series, and yours truly, MVG Project Director Gordon Clark - and I will be speaking on the topic "From Renaissance to Revolution: Why Growing Our Own Food Is Essential to Freedom."

Needless to say, it should be great, and these programs do sell out.  Click here for compete symposium information, including registration.

What's the Big New Trend Out West? - Agriculture School!

This is from Sunset Magazine's "Top 100 Cultural Trends Shaping the West:"

"Law school? That's so 1998. More students are heading to the West's ag schools, drawn by new curriculum emphasizing organic methods, sustainability, and the business savvy they'll need to thrive."

It turns out that not only is ag school a big new trend in the rest, but so is the next generation of young farmers.

Click here to read about these hot new trends.  Now what do we have to do so our best and brightest stay on the East Coast to get their training in sustainable agriculture?? (And thanks to MVGer Kit for passing this along!) 

Foodies Can Eclipse (and Save) the Environmental Movement

The environmental movement is facing very tough challenges today.  Just a couple years ago, we were talking about energy and climate change legislation.  Now it seems it will be a major fight just to keep the EPA from being gutted by Republicans in Congress.

At the same time, however, the food movement has been growing rapidly.  Sales of organic food have gone from $1 billion in 1990 to $25 billion in 2009, farmers markets and organic farms and popping up everywhere, the school garden movement is flourishing (in Montgomery County now too!), and even the federal government is pushing it, from First Lady Michelle Obama to the usually (and still, unfortunately) pro-agribusiness USDA.  Is it possible, this current Time magazine article asks, that the food movement could produce the sort of political and social transformation the environmental movement has been unable to achieve in recent years?

Personally we think it's a little misplaced to speak of the demise of the environmental movement as this article does, but there's no question the food movement is coming into its own in a major way.  As the author concludes, "Environmental and social changes are coming - and they will be served up on our dinner plates." Amen.

Click here to read "Foodies Eclipse (and Save) the Environmental Movement"  (And thanks to MVGer Rana for passing this one along - hey, she got a twofer this week!)