A new aquaculture bill entitled the “Research and Aquaculture Opportunity and Responsibility Act” introduced last week by Senator by David Vitter (Louisiana) is worthy of support. As described in the press release, the bill calls for a 3.5 year delay on new offshore aquaculture permitting. The bill would require a report to Congress on the [...]

Lawyer Andy Weisbecker recently posted an opinion piece in Food Safety News in which he discusses the problem of limited access to healthy food and its contribution to the burden of obesity and diet-related disease.
The term “food desert” refers to a location-generally, a low-income neighborhood-from which residents must travel twice as far as those living [...]

On Tuesday, Animal Welfare Approved and the Pew Environment Group presented a public panel discussion about raising pasture-based animals, and reclaiming these sustainable farming systems as the source of our meat and dairy.  The star-studded panel included Nicolette Hahn Niman, attorney and author of Righteous Porkchop, Carole Morison, former Purdue chicken farmer turned whistleblower and [...]

Over a hundred Baltimore residents gathered on Saturday night for the 4th edition of an innovative fundraising event called STEW. STEW is a joint project of Baltimore Development Cooperative and Red Emma’s Bookstore Coffeehouse, where attendees pay $10/person for the opportunity to share a multi-course locavore meal and listen to the financial needs of three [...]

On Friday, April 12th, Food Access Solutions: Urban Agriculture, Local Food, & Community Development, a panel discussion between leaders in the food movement on a regional level and leaders on the local level took place in southeast Washington D.C. in Anacostia. My interest in Urban Agriculture comes from my desire to integrate schools and [...]

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health embraced the Meatless Monday campaign back in 2003, and the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future has proudly served as the national campaign’s scientific advisor ever since. Today I welcome and laud The Johns Hopkins Hospital for launching its own Meatless Monday campaign. In an effort [...]

Maryland House Bill 1135, the Grocery Store Property Tax Credit Bill, passed the House yesterday with 138-0 votes! The bill grants a property tax credit to grocery stores throughout the state located in low-income areas. Delegate Justin Ross, the main sponsor of the bill, represents Prince George’s County, an urban county surrounding Washington, DC. Delegate [...]

This post was originally published in the spring 2010 issue of Edible: East Bay. For the link to this article from that magaize - http://www.ediblecommunities.com/eastbay/spring-2010/food-for-thought.htm
Beyond “Museum” Gardens
With all of the coverage of Michelle Obama in the news lately, you would be a fool not to think that gardens are the answer to all of [...]

This past weekend, I witnessed hundreds of volunteers working in a very tangible way to take back the food system for a community. The ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu said, “the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” This was a stride. Two high schools in Richmond, Calif in the [...]

When I first arrived in Amsterdam, I was thrilled to see that there was a good-sized and well-stocked organic market on the corner of the street I was staying on. I immediately saw that the awareness of and demand for biological (organic) foods was widespread. I saw organic markets littering many neighborhoods in Amsterdam, along [...]