Food Physics

Special Thursday Meeting followed by a Screening of “The Price of Sugar”

Dear elitist food snobs,

Oh, did I get your attention? I know firsthand that each and every one of you are on this mailing list for all the right reasons. However, some seem to doubt your reasons for commitment to a group like Slow Food. Slow Food members have been labeled everything from elitist, to exclusive, to a movement unable to effect real change on the world’s food system.

The graduate students working towards the CHANGE certificates are seeking a more nuanced understanding of the motivations of campus eaters in general… so, at this Thursday’s regularly scheduled meeting, we have the distinct pleasure of being joined by CHANGE students who will conduct a focus group discussion on Slow Food members’ eating habits, motivations, taste, future ideas, etc. They need 6-10 of us to tell them why Slow Food is important enough for us to devote massive amounts of time to it.

If you want to get some food issues off of your chest, now is the time to do it!

Plus, the icing on the cake is the presentation (finally!) of “The Price of Sugar,” a documentary film about the sugar industry and labor abuses in the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

For more information on the movie, and to see the trailer, go to: http://www.thepriceofsugar.com/

*** Both meeting and movie will be held in Bradley Memorial, 1225 Linden Drive!! (map)

Thursday, April 30th

The meeting will begin at 5:30 in Room 202

The film will begin around 7:30 in Room 125

Free Popcorn!

Please let us know if you can make it!

Food Sovereignty Events

A “GreenHouse” Residential Learning Community for UW?

Organizing meeting: Friday, April 24, 12:00-1:00pm
Gordon Commons, room A-1
Lunch provided! Please join us!

Friends,

We invite interested faculty and graduate students to join us for a discussion of the possible development of the “GreenHouse,” a residential learning community with sustainability as its constitutive theme.

Residential learning communities are residence halls organized around the provision of diverse, integrated, curricular and extracurricular educational opportunities for the students who live there. Six learning communities have been developed at UW-Madison to serve students interested in such areas as entrepreneurship, women in science and engineering, languages, liberal education, and multiculturalism (see http://www.learning.wisc.edu/communities/res.html).

We believe that creation of a residential learning community focused on sustainability would be a timely and pedagogically productive addition to campus life and learning.  What we are provisionally calling the “GreenHouse” would offer undergraduate students the opportunity both to contemplate the meanings of sustainability and to actually enact sustainable practices with the guidance and active participation of faculty, fellow students, staff, and citizen mentors.

UW-Madison is uniquely well positioned to support such an undertaking.  Many faculty and graduate students are deeply involved in research and teaching on sustainability.  Many university programs are committed to finding practical applications of sustainability.  And there are in and around Dane County many advocacy groups working for a healthy environment and social justice.  These resources can be mobilized in the service of educating students from all majors and fields of study.  Especially, the “GreenHouse” could be a vehicle for the recruitment and retention of students from ethnically and socially diverse backgrounds.

See the attached “Proposed Framework for a GreenHouse Residential Learning Community at UW” for our initial vision of how this project might unfold.

Wouldn’t you like to be involved in this enterprise?  Won’t you join us to talk about how we might envision the “GreenHouse” and how we might move it forward?  Won’t you consider giving this project support , advice and energy?

Please meet with us on Friday, April 24, 12:00-1:00pm, in Gordon Commons, room 1-A to discuss this exciting possibility.  If you would like a free lunch, courtesy of L&S Academic Services, please RSVP by Wednesday, April 22 to Cal.Bergman@housing.wisc.edu. Gordon Commons is located between University Square and the SERF.  To get to room 1-A, enter Gordon Commons on the West side of the building that faces Sellery Hall.   We will have a greeter in the lobby to show you the way!  Contact us if you have any questions, or cannot make the meeting but would like to be involved.  We hope to see you!

Jack Kloppenburg, Department of Rural Sociology, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies
Cal Bergman, Department of Residence Life
Grace Latz, undergraduate International Studies-Global Commons major
Ashley Lee, undergraduate Rural Sociology major

Taste of the First Market Family Dinner Night

Fellow Slow Foodies,

There are many ways to tell that the dark days of winter are truly behind us and that spring has arrived, but some more than others appeal to the inner cook in all of us. For instance, the Dane County Farmers Market has finally coming out of hibernation to return the lifeblood of gastronomic activity to the sleepy capital square.  Hoards of food lovers flocked to the stands this Saturday to buy as many of those short season, wild greens as they could carry, and then they sped home to create their favorite springtime dish.

If you missed the market this week, or overlooked the ramps and sorrel completely while you were there, don’t worry!  Slow Food UW has done the footwork for you, battling the strollers and market fanatics to bring you our latest family dinner night.

A Taste of the Market!

This Monday, April 20th

5:30 pm

In the Crossing Kitchen
(Corner of University and Charter)

We will be making grilled cheese sandwiches made with the sharp granular bite of Hook’s 5yr cheddar and mellowed with creamy Cedar Grove white cheddar and colby cheeses, with pesto made from Harmony Valley ramps, Farmer John’s Parmesan, and Cherokee Bison Farm’s fresh sunflower seed oil.   The sandwiches will be served with pureed sorrel soup, using JenEhr Farm’s sorrel and bacon (in the non-vegetarian variety) from Fountain Prairie Farms.

In general, we at Slow Food were ecstatic about shopping in the fresh air and sunshine to source these menu items. As well, we had the opportunity to talk with the vendors about sourcing food for the Slow Food Café in the future.  It is immediately apparent that we have some real allies willing to do whatever they can to make this project a realistic endeavor (thank you again Fountain Prairie Farms!). This trip to the market was a refreshing reminder of the sense of community and cooperation a local food system could deliver. See you on Monday!

Free showing of the film “The Future of Food”

Time: 7:30pm
Where: Memorial Union TITU
Free Popcorn will be provided!!

In partnership with Green Week Events, FH King is presenting the film “The Future of Food”. This film offers an in-depth investigation into the disturbing truth behind the unlabeled, patented, genetically engineered foods that have quietly filled U.S. grocery store shelves for the past decade.

Shot on in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, The Future of Food examines the complex web of market and political forces that are changing what we eat as huge multinational corporations seek to control the world’s food system. The film also explores alternatives to large-scale industrial agriculture, placing organic and sustainable agriculture as real solutions to the farm crisis today.

Sustainable Agriculture at UW-Madison

How should CALS address sustainbility? Weigh in at April 20 meeting or via web forum.

We invite you to join us at an open meeting to discuss how the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences can most effectively engage the challenges posed by the need to enhance the sustainability of the food and agricultural system. This meeting will be held on Monday, April 20, from 1–3 p.m. in room 351 Moore Hall. You can also share your views online at www.cals.wisc.edu/wisa. CALS will also be holding a series of listening sessions for stakeholders. Updates on this process will be posted at www.cals.wisc.edu/wisa.

The Dean of The College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS) at UW-Madison has asked us, three faculty members, to advise her on CALS’ approach to supporting food and agricultural sustainability generally, and for a re-visioning of the role and structure of the Wisconsin Institute of Sustainable Agriculture (WISA) in particular. In its current configuration, WISA includes the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems (CIAS), the Nutrient and Pest Management program (NPM), and the Integrated Pest Management program (IPM). These units have strong records of research, education, and outreach and have cultivated important relationships with constituencies in Wisconsin and beyond. Many individuals and groups have worked tirelessly for a more sustainable food system, and we believe their efforts should provide the foundation on which CALS will continue to enlarge its contributions in that area.

There now exists a widespread sense that all elements of society can be making more sustainable choices. This is nowhere clearer than in the food and agricultural sector where rapid growth of demand for organic and sustainably produced foods have highlighted the need for land grant universities to increase their commitments to facilitating a transition to new farming practices and marketing arrangements. Although many faculty and units in CALS are working on issues of sustainability, better integration of their activities could produce fresh and important synergies. In today’s rapidly changing social, biophysical, and technical environments, CALS needs to ensure that it maintains a robust but flexible institutional framework for guiding its contributions to the development of sustainable food and agricultural systems for Wisconsin, the nation, and the world.

CALS administration has asked us to develop a proposal for a process whose goal is to produce a framework for enhancing the capacity and effectiveness of WISA. We are committed to developing this proposal through open, transparent, and inclusive dialogue. Between March and June 2009, we plan to convene 6 to 8 stakeholder listening sessions at which input into how the process should be constructed will be collected and distilled.

At these sessions we will seed the discussion with the following questions:

1. Does CALS need to develop a revised approach to food and agricultural sustainability, and what should be the role and structure of WISA in particular?
2. What processes might be used to develop that approach?
3. What resources need to be mobilized to develop and support this initiative?

The meeting on April 20 is intended to solicit advice, views and guidance on these questions from the campus community. We welcome the participation of any faculty, staff, graduate students, or undergraduate students from across the university who would like to comment on these matters.

In addition, we are providing web-based opportunities for public comment on our three central questions. Interested faculty, staff, students, citizens and stakeholders can share their views through participation in an open blog at www.cals.wisc.edu/wisa. Confidential or other commentary can be sent directly to the three of us at wisa@cals.wisc.edu.

By the end of this exercise, we believe that we will have a good idea of

• the level and distribution of support for a CALS initiative to develop a revised approach to food and agricultural sustainability;
• the contours and elements of a consultation process that would have broad legitimacy among stakeholders;
• which organizations and/or individuals would be willing and well positioned to participate in that process.

By early summer, we expect to produce a draft proposal for a process for a review and re-visioning of the role and structure of WISA that is informed by broad stakeholder input. This would include recommendations of a formal charge, for leadership, for representative participation, an outline of consultation formats and procedures, and a time frame for completion. Our draft proposal will be circulated to stakeholders who will be asked for comment. Once this document has been vetted by stakeholders, a final report will be delivered to the Dean of CALS.

We look forward to many fruitful discussions about sustainable agriculture and are excited to be involved in this process.

Jed Colquhoun, Associate Professor, Department of Horticulture
IPM Advisory Group
Integrated Pest and Crop Management Advisory Group

Randy Jackson, Assistant Professor, Department of Agronomy
Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center
Affiliate Faculty, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies
Affiliate Faculty, Agroecology Program

Jack Kloppenburg
Professor, Department of Rural Sociology
Co-Director, Program on Agricultural Technology Studies
Affiliate Faculty, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies
Affiliate Faculty, Agroecology Program

Food Security Panel Discussion

Please join us for a panel discussion on

Food Security,

Access

and Politics

in Madison and Wisconsin

featuring:
Judi Bartfeld, Department of Consumer Science, IRP, UW Extension
Lydia Zepeda, Department of Consumer Science, NIES
Jack Kloppenburg, Department of Rural Sociology, NIES

Topics to be discussed include food security and access around Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Homegrown Lunch program, politics of local food and other alternative food movements, and how federal agricultural and food policy plays into these issues. Panel presentations will be followed by a question and answer period. Free and open to the public.

Wednesday, April 22
4 p.m. – 6 p.m.
On Wisconsin Room, Red Gym
716 Langdon Street, Madison, WI

Panel presentation sponsored by the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and the Humans and the Global Environment (CHANGE) certificate program.

Upcoming Community Garden Related Events

Tues. April 14th  6:30 pm  Wilmar Center (953 Jenifer St.)  Community Presentation of plans for Central Park!  Will the proposed park include garden space or can community gardens exist adjacent to Central Park on a separate parcel?  Come and express your support for more community garden space!  If you can not attend in person, please send your comments to Alder Marsha Rummel:  district6@cityofmadison.com

Wed. April 15th  6:00 pm  Escape Java Joint (916 Williamson St.)  Eastside Community Gardeners Meeting!  Come get involved in plans to gain access to more garden space on Madison’s Eastside!

Thurs. April 16th  4:30  pm  UW-Madison, Rm. 5120 Grainger Hall    Building a Sustainable Neighborhood in the Inner City: The Case of Milwaukee’s Walnut Way – talk with Sharon Adams, program director of Walnut Way Conservation Corps, which has partnered with Growing Power to support urban agriculture, as part of their framework of environmental stewardship and civic engagement.

Fri. April 17th  6:00- 10:00 pm  Escape Java Joint (1019 Williamson St.)  Citizens Concerns Art Exhibit!  Come find out how citizens of Dane County express their environmental concerns through art – including artwork about community gardens!  Info?  www.speakingthroughart.com

Sun. April 19th  12:30 pm – 6:00 pm  First United Methodist (203 Wisconsin Ave.)  Food, Faith, and Earth Day- a Celebration of Creation.   2:45 pm Keynote:  Prof. John Ikerd, Univ. of MO- Columbia, author of Small Farms are Real Farms.  Educational workshops include:  Nurturing Soil and Soul in the Garden; Food, Kids, and Communities: Surviving the Food Storm; Hunger Close to Home; Eating Seasonally, Eating Locally; Greening Your Faith Community; Food Sovereignty 101; Extending the Local Food Season;  5:00 pm  Dinner featuring local food, $8 per person in advance by April 12th  ($12 at the door)  Info?  www.foodfaithearthday.org

Wed. April 22nd  5:30 pm  Central Park (S. Ingersoll and E. Wilson)  Earth Day Rally!   Celebrate Earth Day with speakers and music!  Bring some compost, topsoil, and/or annuals/seeds to help out the young trees struggling to get established.  We’ll also be picking up trash, collecting non perishable food items for local food pantries, and doing some post-rally “guerrilla gardening” across the East Isthmus…

Wed. April  22nd  7:00 pm  Madison Infoshop (1019 Williamson St.)  Earth Day Community Potluck and Outdoor Movie at Dusk!  Featuring the Dr. Seuss classic, the Lorax, followed by the 1973 dystopian eco-detective film, Soylent Green, set in New York City in 2022 and starring Charlton Heston, Leigh Taylor-Young, and Edward G. Robinson.  Bring a dish or drink to pass and a chair, pillow, or blanket to sit on for the movie!  Info?  #262-9036

Sat. April 25th 8:00 am – 6:00 pm  Avant Gardening (3055 Siggelkow Rd. in McFarland)  All day workshop hosted by Growing Power, focusing on living biological systesm (composting, vermiculture), hoop house construction, and community project design.  Registration is $75 – please RSVP to:  rep13131@yahoo.com

Building A Sustainable Neighborhood in the Inner City: The Case of Milwaukee’s Walnut Way

Date and Time: Thursday, April 16, 2009 at 4:30 p.m.

Location: Grainger 5120

Informal talk with graduate students, April 17, 12:30-2:30, 208 Music Hall

Sharon Adams is Program Director of Walnut Way Conservation Corps in Milwaukee WI. Her lecture will emphasize the innovative framework they employ to guide neighborhood civic, economic, and environmental practices. The framework is premised on principles of social justice and environmental stewardship, a culture of mutual aid and peaceful negotiations, and a spirit of restorative love.

Among the components of sustainability that the Walnut Way Conservation Corp promotes is a neighborhood that fosters: opportunities for artistic expression; access to quality and affordable food; environmental stewardship; workforce and business development; civic engagement; enriching educational and social opportunities for all ages; increased spiritual, physical and mental well-being; and quality housing to serve an economically diverse population.

Walnut Way Conservation Corps recently received a 1 million dollar Zilber Neighborhood Initiative Award to help transform the 30 block area surrounding the organization. In 2001, she and her husband, Larry Adams, launched the non-profit Walnut Way Conservation Corp. Since then, $19 million of private housing investment has been accomplished in the neighborhood. 125 new homes have been constructed, 142 homes rehabbed, a neighborhood center has been built, and 42 rain gardens installed.