what if coolio came to our potluck?

http://jezebel.com/5422505/coolio-cooks-drunk+ass-chicken-and-mozzarella-for-the-pimpish-fella

class notes nov 4th

Everybody pick 3 research questions
-broad, frame whole project
- how can we empower local agriculture mvmt
*process of empowerment through collectivity
-barriers to involvement in the local agricultural mvmt
-how does local agriculture/food systems work in and around Athens
- how do we increase consumption of local food
-what are prospects of marketing local food to low-income consumers
-health(maybe in conclusion section)
3 research questions=
1) what does the Athens, Georgia food system look like?
a. Where do consumers buy food, labor etc
2) Mechanisms for increasing consumption of local food esp. low –income consumers
3) Do/how do community or social networks or collectives facilitate consumption of local food consumption
4) other
5) missing pieces


Interviews and how we want to talk about results-
We want Raw data, verbatim words
The tone that you set prior to data collection, you have to remain neutral during data collection

Timeline:

Reading day= wed 9th
Finals= 10th-15th
8th= potluck
15th= report due
journal=2nd

lit review committee = dec 1st
intro/conclusion= dec 8th
editing= last
next week bring transcribed interviews coded

http://www.ftcldf.org/
web page of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund
...especially relevant given the recent raw milk fiasco with Locally Grown

potluck

The other day I posted a note online to about thirty friends from a range of "circles", as a sort of experiment (I'm curious about what level of interest and what types of responses I get). I've already gotten a ton of positive responses and would like to put together a potluck/discussion group soon... and would love for all of you guys to come as well, once I've set a date. Here's the note (Avery suggested I post it):

I’ve been getting increasingly involved in and curious about food ; what and why people make certain choices, how food systems work (who is empowered/disempowered in the process), and what I/we can personally do to create change. So this leads me towrestle with some questions: What, if anything, can I do on an individual level to impact this community’s food systems? Why, in a system where there is more than enough food (quantitatively) to feed everyone, are people still hungry and/or malnourished? Is “local food” possible/plausible on a city-wide, or even larger, scale?

It seems to me that in Athens we’ve got quite a few small, fragmented food-centric organizations which fit into two broad, distinct categories – some focus on eradication/reduction of hunger (from the perspective of food distribution/redistributio

n in the community), and some focus on promotion of local foods (from the perspective of ecological sustainability and local farmer livelihood). But to my knowledge, there’s no cohesive movement which addresses both socio-economic/political inequities and issues of ecological sustainability at the production end of things… no structure, for instance, that helps make local farmers’ produce available/accessible to those who need it most (the food insecure).

In discussions I’ve been having (esp as a part of classes) about potential ways of bridging this rift, a number of obstacles are brought up, regarding social/cultural perceptions/expectations and logistics (geographic, financial, and organizational). I’m also curious about what the implications might be in terms of forming a cohesive movement; a number of people, including myself, have been hesitant out of fear of constructing too much of a “top-down” approach… I might argue that an ‘ideal’ system would need to function and be engaged with on a grassroots level that can be more flexibly catered to specific communities’ wants/needs.



I’m really interested in getting your perspectives…

• Have you been involved in anything of the sorts (be it volunteering at a food bank, buying locally, or getting involved in an activist organization)?


• Are you satisfied with the food system you participate in? If anything, what do you think can/should be done? What sorts of obstacles do you see, and how might we navigate them?


• Would you personally be willing to grow your own food, or contribute time and energy to a community garden effort?
  
  .... And (finally), would you be interested in coming over to my house for a casual potluck with a group of friends to share food and talk about these ideas and personal experiences? <3

World Food Day

This is in my inbox and sounds like something some of you are interested in. Plus, refreshments.


The International Association for Students in Agricultural and Related Sciences at UGA (IAAS UGA) would like to invite you to participate in the World Food Day festivities!
World Food Day is a worldwide event designed to increase awareness, understanding and informed, year-around action to alleviate hunger. To commemorate this day, we will be watching the live World Food Day teleconference and participating in discussion. The teleconference is broadcast live from Washington, D.C., and the panel consists of Max Finberg from the USDA, Rep. Jim McGovern, who serves as co-chair of the Congressional Hunger Caucus, and Joy Phumaphi of Botswana, Vice President and Head of the Human Development Network at the World Bank. There will also be a live feed from the World Food Prize Laureate in Iowa. In addition to viewing the teleconference, we will host a discussion and provide refreshments for guests. For more information about World Food Day, visit http://www.worldfooddayusa.org/.

Date: Friday, October 16, 2009
Time: 12:00 P.M. - 3:00 P.M.
Place: Conner Hall Room 103

If you have class during this time, come when you can! This is a great opportunity for students from all disciplines across the university to gather and discuss the problems and solutions concerning world food security.

notes 8/7 : questions

Expect an email from Dr.Trauger with a better summary of the questions we came up with. In the meantime, these are the questions we were throwing around yesterday.

questions for farmers:
apprenticeship/internship program?
what is the labour arrangement? who works and how are they paid?
how much of your food do you eat? is this mostly what you eat, or do you feed yourself mostly with food you haven't raised?
the social role of farming: why did you start farming and why do you farm now? why continue?
what would you ideally want to happen to your food?
whom/what are you responsible for once the food has been harvested?
barriers/opportunities to expanding your market, and offering your food at a lower cost
what are alternative structures you envision? do you support these? what support would you need to engage in these?

questions for activists:
who are you and what do you do?
explain organization
what are the results of your work?
how did you get started doing this? what is your motivation?
how do you deal with cultural difference, especially between yourself and others?
what are some problems you see and problems you don't see others answering? gaps in the system?
promote thinking outside of reality. envision ideal world.
what support could you use to accomplish your goals?
money - for what?
how important is healthy food to alleviating poverty? or more money to buy more junk food : is this a problem?
GOAL method: goals, obstacles, achieved, logistics.

when setting up the interview, tell the interviewee who you am, why you're contacting him or her, how you got the contact information, what you want to ask, and how long it will take (hopefully no more than 1 hour @ 10 questions per interview). Say that you will meet at his/her earliest convenience.
Reference Dr. Trauger and know that you can provide her email and office phone to make you more legit.
Come up with 10 questions per interview. This should turn out to make a 1 hour interview.

Good luck!!

november 30th notes

rough notes/info from yesterday. im also attaching an article on local school lunchie-pies!

http://www.eastbayri.com/detail/131599.html

Potluck oct. 13th
No class oct 14th
Oct 17th fall apple fest. 1-8
Folkathens.org
WIC
Athens.locallygrown.net
Will allen urban gardens
Audacity computer program

this week's (brief) notes 9/29

9/29

• Why do we care?
• knowledge gap- public education
o education
• choice – systemic/structures
o make other choices available

- how are we going to pay for healthy food in public schools?
o Farmers- low income, they can’t even afford to buy the food they produce, motivation
o Consumers- low income
o Whose responsibility is this to make people healthy?
• Self, community, government, business
• When we take govt route we often end up with complex problems
- Where are our priorities
- Civileats.com
- Utilitarian ethical responsibility
- People have a right to healthy food
- Human rights and responsibilities
- Food as an addiction

Bring list of questions, who do we need to talk to, what would you ask these people?

UGArden dinner and a movie : a summary

1. we drank chocolate milk from Johnston dairy farm out of Newborn, GA
more than 22g of sugar in a bottle = liquid ice cream. thinking about it is making me itch to drink some more...
2a. UGA seems cool with the plan to get a student & faculty community garden started next to the Ramsey center. even better, all the paperwork and approvals are rolling. get on the listserv to help out and/or get a plot in the near future.
2b. harvests will be shared with members and also donated (not sure where)
3. Abuela alert! as seen in this good documentary The Garden

Garden Photos

Hey guys!

I know it's a couple weeks late, but better late than never! Here are some of the photos I took the second week up on the roof. 

UGArden Kickoff

Wednesday, once you are out of class and have helped out at Food not Bombs, bike over to the Ecology building for dinner and a movie with UGArden. Food is local and awesome and the movie is, like the group's name, The Garden. Doors open at 7:30 and the film should start about 30 minutes hence.

UGArden is the campus community garden group; I'm a member because I want a plot to set up a compost pile so I won't always have to schlep my slop bucket (as my boss calls it) up to the geog roof everyday.

WFP: World Food Aid at 20-Year Low

The UN’s global relief agency is warning food aid has fallen to a twenty-year low despite the number of critically hungry reaching its highest level ever. The World Food Program says it’s facing a more than $4 billion shortfall for its $6.7 billion budget. The number of hungry people is expected to pass one billion this year for the first time.

-democracy now

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/9/17/headlines#8

getting started

hey yall
so i really want to make sure this blog is accurately representative of our collective experiences. i am therefore asking that everyone make your ideas and opinions known. the archiving and preservation of our work would obviously be inaccurate if done only by me. i was thinking one way to ensure all our voices are heard would be posting our journal entries to this blog **if you feel comfortable doing so**
if a blog seems inadequate, there are many other ways we can go about this. i'm still trying to figure out how this site works but my plan is to have all of you be executive contributors. this would mean you have the password to get on etc.
if there is a format/title/approach you would prefer, please let us know.

im attaching some pictures i took of the woman on my street (some of you know) who has created a community garden that benefits those who are hungry.
im also attaching a photo of one of the homeless men that frequents the garden and has become involved and interested in karen's project. this is a photo of him watching karen work in the garden.the photo in the header is a photo i took of a woman from northern Thailand that seems relevant to me but we can change the header around whenever. if there is an image that someone comes across that sums up our intentions, feel free to change the header. it might be fun to change it periodically??