Press Release

Raleigh, October 15, 2009: The Center for Environmental Farming Systems
(CEFS) and Burt's Bees are pleased to present Will Allen as the 2009
Sustainable Agriculture Lecturer. Allen is the founder and CEO of Growing
Power, Inc., and is the recipient of a 2008 MacArthur Fellowship, commonly
known as a "Genius Grant." He also was recently featured in an appearance
in the movie Fresh.

In the world of urban "food deserts" - areas with limited access to fresh,
affordable foods - convenience stores, fast-food chains and liquor stores
reign supreme. The two-acre Growing Power farm in downtown Milwaukee is

Bad news for those of you still growing tomatoes: the late blight
that has been wreaking havoc in the mountains has made its way to the Piedmont.
I diagnosed my first case this morning. You can find all the details on
Cooperative Extension’s Growing Small Farms website at http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/chatham/ag/SustAg/cropproblems.html

If you hope to keep harvesting tomatoes, it’s a good idea to
start scouting your fields every couple of days to inspect for this disease.
See photos and get control recommendations on the GSF website. The next few
days are supposed to be cool and wet which are optimal conditions for the
spread of this disease.

When I first started working as an Extension agent in North
Carolina 10 years ago, I was surprised that there were not more CSAs in the
area. As a graduate student in Florida, I had helped start a CSA and enjoyed
having a working share which allowed me to work on a local organic farm. When I
did my first CSA workshop in Chatham County in 2002 we had about 30-35 CSAs in
the entire state. I just updated my list of NC CSAs last fall (see http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/chatham/ag/SustAg/csafarms.html)
and we now have about 100! I see tremendous interest in
and potential for this model and think it is past time to do another

The National Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement (NLGMA) is
coming to Charlotte.
A coalition of the biggest players in the national market for processed leafy
greens has asked the USDA to issue the NLGMA as a means to “minimize
microbial contamination of fresh leafy green vegetables in the growing and
handling processes, enhance the overall quality of fresh product in the marketplace,
and boost public confidence in these commodities. “ Proponents of local,
organic food argue that the agreement would do just the opposite because it
would lead to further concentration in the leafy greens industry into a few

August 31 and September 15, 2009: Pollinator Conservation Workshop and Garden Tour

Pittsboro, NC

Advocates for Health in Action and the Wake County PTA Council are
working together to provide a workshop" "Brains and Bodies, How PTA
Parents Can Influence the Health & Academic Success of Students
through School Gardening" on October 6th from 10-11:30 at Marbles Kids
Museum in Raleigh. While this event is being marketed to parents,
anyone interested in school gardening is welcome to come!  We will be
discussing what it takes to start and maintain a school garden, and a
local teacher will share her experiences with the group to help promote
this idea.

Our goals:

1)       Support LOCAL farmers who can offer fresh fruits, vegetables and flowers to our employees and visitors

2)       Promote health and wellness to employees, patients, visitors and Wayne County

We hope to have our first farmer’s market on Thursday, August 20.

We are in the initial planning stages, so we don’t have all the details for you in this email. However, we wanted to send this notice to you in hopes that you could help us generate some leads.

If you or a local grower are interested in participating, please send a letter of introduction and interest to me at the address below:

Murray Cohen grew up a city kid on Chicago's south side, where farmers were characters in songs and storybooks. But the forces of change moving through his generation got him thinking about where food comes from.

"In all honesty, I was a back-to-the-land hippy in the '60s," he says.

After 38 years of farming a couple of hundred acres in Chatham County, Cohen still believes in what drew him to a career in agriculture as a young man: People need clean food.

Raleigh is a wonderful place to live, but for the past decade the
city has been falling steps behind the Western Triangle in the field of
grassroots agriculture. This is why I am taking the initiative to create a Crop
Mob for the Eastern Triangle region. A Crop Mob is a group of experienced
agrarian volunteers that can go out to a site and do a lot of work in a short
amount of time. This can be extremely helpful to a local small farmer trying to
make a living on their next harvest or a community that wants to start a garden,
but doesn't know where to start. You can take the time to check out the
successes Crop Mob has had in the Western Triangle region at their website: http://cropmob.org. They have been

Margaret Gifford makes her rounds on a recent Wednesday evening near closing time at the Carrboro Farmers' Market. With a cardboard box in hand, she reminds farmers that she's there to collect any produce they can't sell and won't keep until the next market day.

"We're collecting as always," Gifford tells Hailey Moses, who works for Cane Creek Farm.

"I have some stuff for you," Moses says, and hands yellow squash and zucchini to Gifford.

To donate food, Margaret Gifford is always collecting donations at Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings at the Carrboro Farmers' Market. For information about the market's hours and location, go to www.carrborofarmersmarket.com