———————– ** Fresh Green Beans ** ———————– Grown in Kansas. Eaten Worldwide.

My kitchen trashcan stinks. Fruit and vegetable cores, the food that collects on my floor during haphazard meal prep, dinner leftovers too meager to warrant space in the fridge—they mix and mingle with their discarded packaging, together again. What stinks the most is that it all has energy and nutrients it’s ready to share. Instead of fulfilling any real purpose, however, it ends up in my little white wastebasket.

There is an alternative and it comes in the form of our wiggly, slimy worm friends. Vermicomposting, or worm composting, is a way to compost kitchen scraps quickly and effectively, and can be done inside of your home.

When worms get a hold of kitchen scraps, a highly complex chain of chemical, biochemical and biological interactions and reactions occur. The result is nutrient-rich excrement that is a valuable fertilizer. The worms provide an element that ordinary composting cannot. Worm mucous slows the release of nutrients so they won’t wash away when watering. Your Tylenol comes in time-release capsules, and your fertilizer can, too. The worms are also good little trash compactors, reducing waste volume as much as 60 percent.

While recycling nutrients may be as nature intended, I won’t tell you that inviting a pound of worms into your humble home will feel entirely natural. The set-up includes a worm composting bin of some kind. You can order one online or build your own.

I’m not one to trade one stinky problem for another, so the good news is that the worm bin is practically odor-free. The worms actually eat the odor-causing bacteria (not the food). After digesting the material, the worms produce the nutrient-packed end product, or castings. Although it is just a fancy word for poop, castings smell very much like soil or store-bought fertilizer. Little is known about just what makes worm digestion so fortifying.

Because the worms feast on the bacteria, fungi and protozoans that naturally decompose waste, the process is quicker than ordinary composting and the end product is more sterile. However, vermicomposting can be used in addition to, not as a replacement for backyard composting.

It’s kind of a heart-warming (-worming? Too much?) fairy tale: Rumplestilskin spins straw into gold, worms make trash into useful fertilizer. Even if your garden consists of a single houseplant, it beats sending the food scraps to a landfill, where they can’t breakdown and will live inorganically ever after. For more information on vermicomposting, including how-to’s and troubleshooting, visit BeSmart.org.

Sonya English

Check out my Podcast featuring an interview with Recycling Specialist Cassandra Ford about her Can O Worms vermicomposter.

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Visiting local farmer’s markets in Kansas City is a pastime that many people enjoy. What’s not to like? Buying fresh food from local farmers is cheap and it’s fun to see all of the various goods for sale.

This picture was taken at the City Market in downtown Kansas City. Picture courtesy of Google.

However, have you ever wondered what kinds of farms the food comes from? Well, there’s a good chance you could be eating produce that was grown at the Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture or KCCUA.

This program was founded by Daniel Dermitzel, a German who came to Kansas City after working as a television news producer in Los Angeles. After working the O.J. Simpson trial in L.A., Daniel realized he needed a career change and that is when he first became interested in farming. According to the KCCUA Web site, Daniel is interested in increasing the productivity of his farm with advanced technology.

After speaking with Daniel, I learned about community supported agriculture, which is when a group of people invests in a farm, and then shares the produce in the end. By doing this, everyone shares in both the benefits and risks associated with farming. If instead you choose to buy food at the grocery store, the farmer carries the risk alone. And when the farmer has a bad season, prices skyrocket and everyone has to pay.

Source: Notes from field trip on 3.7.08

In conclusion, buying food from local farmers in Kansas City is a great idea. Not only are you helping out your neighbor, you can also feel good about eating fresh, locally grown products. If you are more interested in learning about the KCCUA, they have paid and unpaid apprenticeships, as well as volunteer programs. Just visit their Web site to get more information.

Lindsay Crupper

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A topic that has come under discussion recently is urban agriculture. The Web site Collective Roots defines urban agriculture as “the production of food within the boundaries of a city. Urban agriculture can be a pot of herbs grown on a balcony, backyard gardening, rooftop gardening, greenhouses, market and community gardens, edible landscaping, and even beekeeping.”

In today’s world with the constantly increasing food and gas prices, urban agriculture sounds like a great idea!

According to the Collective Roots Web site, the idea of urban agriculture is not a new one. During World War II, it was common for Americans to grow victory gardens in support of the troops. The idea was for people to eat their own crops so that more agricultural goods could be sent to the soldiers abroad.

And since WWII, as city populations have increased, so has the amount of city farming. According to the Web site City Farms: Journey to Forever, “it was estimated in 1993 that city farms were contributing 15% to world food production and it was expected to grow to 33% by 2005.”

Regarding population increases, the City Farms Web site also says that, “Cities cover only 2% of the Earth’s surface but consume 75% of its resources. Cities are black holes, they’re swallowing our planet. But, more and more, they’re turning green.”

An example of an urban farm in busy West Chicago. Picture courtesy of newfarm.org.

In conclusion, urban agriculture is a great solution. As the world’s population continues to grow and more people move into cities, we have a huge opportunity to take advantage of. Why not feed more people in a more economical and environmentally friendly way? People will save money by not having to pay for the transportation of food and local farmers would thrive because they could sell their goods to their own neighbors. Overall, this is a win-win situation for everyone.

Lindsay Crupper

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“Poor Sachiko. You have to eat McDonald and pizza everyday.”

I’m a student from Japan. Before I left Japan, many of my friends mentioned fast food and felt sorry about an unhealthy and tasteless diet I’d go through.

Now, I can say they’re not right, at least in Lawrence. I like to go to downtown restaurants that serve a variety of food around the world. I love to cook using fresh ingredients from the downtown farmers’ market. After coming to Lawrence, I’m converted to a supporter of local food, too.

Photo Credit: Farmers’ Market in Downtown Lawrence Lawrence farmers’ market is open on Saturday morning and Tuesday and Thursday evening.

The farmers’ market, a community garden and restaurants that specialize in regional ingredients, Lawrence offers great venues for local food. The benefits of local food vary from taste to health, to the environment and local economy.

To be a prouder Lawrencian, how can we support local food and build a more sustainable food network in Lawrence?

Search Lawrence Sustainability Network and Local Harvest: They tell us farms and restaurants that specialize in regional ingredients.

Support local farmers through a subscription service: Small-scale local firms are vulnerable to risks such as bad weather and pests. Daniel Dermitzel, farmer and associate director of Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture, said we can help local formers by sharing those risks and subscribing to Community Supported Agriculture. Under the subscription service, organized farmers collect a fixed fee from customers and provide products periodically. The amount of share depends on the performance of those farmers. Rolling Prairie Farmers Alliance is available for the Lawrence area. 

Volunteer for the Lawrence farmers’ market: It’s a great way to share your passion with customers and vendors. 

In the long run, we should create more opportunities for farmers to sell their products.

Open the farmers’ market in winter: Although not many products are available during the winter season, opening the markets would help stabilize farmers’ income and satisfy customers’ demands. The Christian Science Monitor reports winter indoor markets that have become popular in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa. 

Create a local food kiosk on the KU campus: The kiosk could sell fruits, snacks and meals made of locally grown ingredients. It can be promotional, too.

Start a Farm-to-School program in Lawrence public schools: Farm to School is a program which schools provide meals using locally produced foods. Schools also provide learning opportunities, such as farming, gardening and studying about nutrition. This program would enable local farmers to sell their products and raise students’ awareness of food and health. 

Your participation wanted! And don’t miss Lawrence farmers’ market! It opens on Saturday morning and Tuesday and Thursday evening from mid April to November.

By Sachiko Miyakawa

The field trip to a farm in Kansas City, Mo. made me hungry. I smelled the soil, learned about material to grow vegetables and talked to farmers. I almost said, “Can I have a bite of this romaine? Look, so fresh!”

Photo Credits: Sachiko Miyakawa These are inside the green house of the farm.

The farm is a certified organic farm in the Kansas City metropolitan area. Daniel Dermitzel operates the firm. He also serves as the associate director of Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture to promote fresh and healthy food in the city.

Along with the increasing awareness of food safety and environmentalism, urban agriculture like Dermitzel’s farm is gaining attention across the country. Urban agriculture is the practice of raising food locally, especially within or around cities. It reduces consumption of fossil fuels and pollution from shipping and provides fresh vegetables, fruits and meat to city residents. According to the Urban Agriculture Conference,urban agriculture supports food security, provides employment and income to cities, and offers a learning experience for school children. Also, products are often sold in farmers’ markets, encouraging communications between consumers and producers. Urban agriculture activates community.

But not all cities can afford land for farming. In some places, landowners can make more money lending the land for other businesses. Increasing efficiency and profits of farms is necessary to develop urban agriculture.

BBC reports scientists at Columbia University proposed a future of urban agriculture in New York City. The “vertical farm,” a 30-story skyscraper with glass walls would feature farms for varieties of crops and livestock. Energy would come from a solar panel and fuel made from the farm’s waste would provide energy. Wastewater would be recycled in the complex.

TreeHugger features an underground farming in downtown Tokyo. Although the farm’s purpose is rather a display and experiment, the underground farming is an example of unlimited possibilities for the future of urban agriculture.

By Sachiko Miyakawa

Workers package Earthbound Farms lettuce for shipment.

http://blog.americanfeast.com/2006/05/

The organic movement was started as an alternative to commercial agriculture, an alternative to the homogenization of our food crops, to free market domination by corporations, as a way to beat the Man - right? As organics becomes more popular, it also becomes more mainstream and commercialized.  Now we are in a sort of tug-o-war: should organic products keep growing, or will this type of unlimited growth compromise the original values behind the organic movement?  Using my not-so foolproof Oreo science in Part 1, it’s clear that the commercialization of the organic movement is a complicated issue, complete with blind turns and detours.

One thing is clear: Wal-Mart’s ability to determine market prices for organic products does not sit so well with many farmers who run smaller organic operations.  For many farms, including the two-acre plot run by the Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture (KCCUA), the price premium consumers pay for their organic produce is reflective of the labor premium they put into the production.  These small, intensively managed operations allows for a stunningly diverse harvest from a surprisingly small area; a stark contrast with the expansive fields of lettuce managed by Earthbound Farms.

Volunteers working at KCCUA.

http://www.kccua.org/

Many consumers, including UC Berkley’s renowned food journalist Michael Pollan, are worried that as organics gets bigger, its original values will disappear, and that “going organic” will be nothing but a passing fad.  Already, lobbies for large companies have worked to allow synthetic substances into organic processed foods (like my Oreos).

To lower prices, imported organic produce shipments from China could continue to increase. The environmental costs of food transportation are astronomical, so the benefits of converting tracts of land to organic production methods are arguably outweighed with the amount of fuel burned to ship the food across the Pacific Ocean.  Unfortunately, organic foods produced on a small scale for local consumption are not likely to get any cheaper.  The truth of the matter is that the cost of most foods on the grocery shelves is artificial: government subsidy handouts to large farms mean low prices on the shelf.  The high costs to the environment and to us as taxpayers, who provide the money for the subsidies, are not represented by the totals on our receipts.

So is the organic movement standing on its last leg?  Will Wal-Mart - and other marketplace giants - succeed in devaluing ‘organic’?  If you have an opinion, make your voice heard as Congress continues to reformulate the Farm Bill, an incredibly important piece of legislation that determines the placement of those subsidies funded by our tax dollars.  You can also head to the Downtown Lawrence Farmer’s Market, where you can meet and greet with the farmers as you buy your produce.  We don’t have to sit back and watch the clock, your voice will help decide if the organic movement answers the grim reaper’s knock on the door.

–Jennifer Kongs

Organic Produce at a Wal-Mart.

Credit: bdunnette at flickr.com

I like Oreos. I grew up eating them dunked in milk, making wishes and predictions about my secret crushes as I twisted them in half, eating them in peanut butter after watching Lindsay Lohan do it in The Parent Trap - ah, those years as an impressionable teen. Now, my much older, mature self tries to eat organic foods (meaning I go at least a few weeks between performing Oreo prophesies about potential relationship prospects).

In a recent perusal of the shelves at the grocery store, I noticed a new face of Oreos - besides the colored Easter variety. I saw a fantastic culmination of my love of cream filling sandwiched between two branded chocolate cookies and my attempts to eat organically: the organic Oreo. (In my head this experience was accompanied with celestial lights and singing, but I might be making that up).

Not only are many common snack foods adding a pesticide-free variety to their product lines, but big players like Wal-Mart are bringing organic products en masse to their stores’ shelves. Organic is going mainstream, spreading from its humble beginnings in one-room natural food co-ops to the expansive shelves of national supermarket chains. The terms “organic” and “healthy” now go hand-in-hand, and the increasing demand for organics is pushing farmers to their limits. Just in 2006, demand for organic milk exceeded supply by nearly 10% - there just weren’t enough udders to fill the bucket so to speak.

Wal-Mart, with its sheer size and purchasing power, can put pressure on suppliers to switch to organic practices. Many small organic farms now produce on a commercial scale. Earthbound Farms, once a family-operated fruit stand, now has 28,000 acres planted with 100 types of fruits and vegetables. You can now buy their packaged salad greens at grocery stores across the country.

The term “organic” and “expensive” often go together, too, implying that eating healthily means paying a premium. (It also means buying the Oreos with a weird “natural” finish on the bag.) Wal-Mart, known for its low prices, has the potential to make organic foods more affordable - meaning you don’t have to frequent Whole Foods or the Merc to buy a variety of pesticide-free foods.

I wonder if one of my Oreos can foresee the future of organics (since they have failed in accurately predicting my love life): Could Wal-Mart, a price-gouging free market bully, suck the breath of life out of the organic movement?

Stay tuned for Part Two - I have to run a best out of three Oreo trials, to ensure accuracy of course.

–Jennifer Kongs

At the start of this class, Simran handed out SIGG metal bottles students could use and reuse instead of buying disposable plastic bottles or carrying around more permanent hard plastic ones, known as polycarbonate bottles. We learned about the possible toxins used in the manufacture of polycarbonate bottles such as Nalgenes. Today the New York Times posted that Canada is likely to label a plastic common to sturdy bottles as toxic.

Canada would be the first country to declare bisphenol-a, or B.P.A., a toxin that threatens health. BPA has been shown to disrupt the hormonal systems of animals. According to the article, the chemical is used in the manufacture of Nalgenes, baby bottles and the linings of canned foods. -Jen Humphrey

groovygreen.com

This week I had to write a food review for Natural Home magazine. I was amazed at how difficult it was to find out which food companies were green and which were greenwashed, and which products were organic and which were….organic…washed? I contacted about 25 different companies, asking if they’d send samples. A week later I received an e-mail from Kellogg’s saying that they could not send me their Gardenburger product because they did not have many to spare. But that I should not feel insulted and that our magazine is the most amazing magazine that ever wrote about nature or homes or natural homes.

Ok, so it didn’t go exactly like that. But you get the idea. I didn’t care. I didn’t want their darn burger anyways. But what really irked me was that Gardenburger was not a small blossoming company like I suspected. No-no, they were owned by Big Papa K.

I felt so used and lied to. I needed a shower.

So if I (a well-informed, green-blogging, prudent, brilliant, environmental magazine intern) couldn’t easily tell the difference between the green and that which has been washed green, how is the average consumer supposed to?

The world is in a desperate need of a green consumer report organization. Now I realize that Consumer Reports actually does have a green site called Greener Choice. This site is actually a great place to start, its very informative and helpful. But it is not nearly developed as the Consumer Reports Web site. Or how about a green consumer wiki like Tip the Planet where people can easily log on and write about the greenness or greenwashing behind different products and companies?

Man, I should really get on that.

Or maybe I’ll just leave it to some corporation with a lot of money.

Talk about a vicious cycle…

-Travis Brown

I have a new hero. Granted, I’ve added him to my list of 18.5 other heroes, but he has inspired me nonetheless. Reader, meet Daniel Dermitzel.

Daniel Dermitzel – associate director of Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture

After a stint in broadcast journalism and a bit of world traveling, Dermitzel decided he was tired of reporting on how the world was changing. He decided to start doing his part to change the world. Dermitzel became a part of the David that is battling the Goliath that is giant multinational food corporations.

He started at Trailside Farm, an organic vegetable farm in Calhoun, Mo. Dermitzel had no previous experience in farming, but he stuck with it and taught himself. Years later, he co-founded Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture (KCCUA), where he is now the associate director.

Demitzel and his organization grow things. They grow a lot of things– especially considering it is all done on a 2-acre farm. They have grown about 40 different vegetables and numerous herbs. The KCCUA sells most of their produce through a community-supported agriculture program (CSA). CSA members pay a fee and in return they receive weekly bundles of vegetables and herbs for 21 weeks. The KCCUA also sells their produce at local farmers’ markets. But the KCCUA doesn’t just grow- they teach the gospel of sustainability, they spread the word of urban agriculture! KCCUA has multiple programs that reach out to the community and promote community farming and sustainability.

I got a chance to participate in the inner-workings of KCCUA. It was a particularly cold day and the farmers were getting ready for an evening freeze. I, a mere visitor on a field trip, was enlisted to help. I got dirty, I got sweaty, and I nearly ruined my kicks. But it was a grand old time. I got was able to bond with the soil and some of the people who grow the food. I saw, smelt and felt how absolutely natural of an environment that this food was growing in. I now have a new appreciation for organic food and the work that these farmers put into feeding their community.

Now, I realize that if I buy a Dole organic banana, I can go online and see the farm from whence it came. Whoopdeedoo. That doesn’t compare to actually seeing, smelling, and laboring on the land where your food was created.

So I have a proposal for you, reader.

Visit a local farm. You can log on to SustainableTable.org and find the farms nearest you. It’ll be a dandy experience and you’ll be surprised how much it’ll make you want to bite into nothing buy fresh, organic creations of the earth for the rest of your life

And if you aren’t or aren’t able to go to a farmers market. If you don’t care to see where your veggies come from, you should at least meet the people who grew your food.

-Travis Brown