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Sustainable Agriculture Louisville Platform Draft
SAL is developing a Platform for Sustainable Agriculture in Louisville. This platform will serve as a basis for gathering support for sustainable agriculture in Louisville and will be presented to Greater Louisville council people and candidates and public officials.
This platform is in development! Your comments and suggestions can help strengthen this work. If you would like to contribute to the development of the Platform Draft, please join the SAL email discussion group by clicking here.
Below are excerpts (as of April 23, 2002) from the current draft notes:
Sustainable Agriculture Louisville Platform Draft
To this initial draft will be added more detail and specific requests regarding such things as farmers market program expansion, institutional local food procurement, processing facilities and so on.
Sustainable Agriculture Visions/Principles
Greater Louisville Platform for a Just Place to Live: Based on Food Security, Community Strength, and Economic and Social Fairness
From Sustainable Agriculture of Louisville/Community Farm Alliance Jefferson County Chapter
We believe the primary objective of agriculture should be to feed all people well, not to generate profits for the few. Our goal is to develop a community-centered food system that will ensure nutritious and delicious food for all residents and prosperous livelihoods for farmers in and around Louisville. Different from the industrial food system-which distributes food from afar, poisons the environment, and pulls out profits from Louisville-a local food system creates relationships between producers and consumers, conserves fuel, is more conducive to ecologically friendly farming, and stimulates the local economy. A local food system is also
less susceptible to transportation and technological disruptions, therefore providing greater food security.
Along with the Community Farm Alliance, we believe that a local
family-scale farm economy provides the safest and most secure food supply, while at the same time allows for the continuation of Kentucky's rich rural traditions.
We seek partnerships, common effort and solidarity with other people and organizations in the Greater Louisville area working toward a more just and sustainable place to live. Rallying points and principles we hold dear include:
* Social, economic and racial justice
* Grassroots democracy and power based on collaboration and
solidarity with neighborhood, labor, faith-based, farm and other groups alongside concerned residents
* Accountable politics and policies shaped by the needs and
aspirations of people rather than by self-serving corporate interests
* Ecological wisdom and environmental vigilance, including protecting people whose occupations are endangered
* Community right-to-know and right to block destructive growth
activities * Preservation of farmland and controlled sprawl
* Support for ecologically sound land stewardship and agricultural practices
[specific action areas and objectives will be added]
- From Andrew Kang Bartlett 3/21/02
Farmers Markets:
We ask your support of the development and expansion of existing and new neighborhood farmer's markets at a rate of $10,000 per market with up to $5,000 going toward individual market operating expenses, with metro government paying the difference between the number of members at a rate of $100 each and the $5,000 dollar maximum amount. The other $5,000 per market would go toward the soon to be incorporated Farmworks Kentuckiana for staffing and coordination of area farmer's markets. New farmer's markets would receive the whole $5,000 in operating expenses until such time as they have 20 $100 dues paying members or until five years, whichever comes first.
New farmer's markets locating in limited resource areas would be eligible for an additional $5,000 annually for up to five years, for area ministries distributed low-income food coupon programs, such as has been established between the Bardstown Road Farmer's Market and the Highland Community Ministries.
We ask your additional support, on a 50-50 matching basis, of the efforts of area farmers working in the Louisville area as they pursue dollars from theTobacco Settlement.
(Latest draft 4-23-02 by Ivor Chodkowski, [email protected] )
Hi everybody,
I have had the chance, finally, to comment on the Platform DRAFT! I think most of what I have done is to try to sort things out, goal(s), beliefs, objectives, points and principles. I tried to work the sorting in a rhetorical fashion, repeating opening phrases, it's Walt Whitman's (or King James) anaphora, in case anyone wants to know, for purposes of emphasis, pointedly subtitling or identifying specific areas, and all along working to persuade, if possible. I added to the stuff about CFA, because, if we use it
at all, I think it should serve us well. Folks should know something of CFA's strength and we should use that strength to leverage our effort. About the title, Andrew will, I hope, forgive the surgery, the colonectomy, I performed. I was thinking of trying to give folks something quick and easy to say. Anyway here's the revision I've come up with. I offer it in the spirit of continuing conversation over the document.
eating is an agricultural act
--Wendell Berry
eating is a moral act
--????
from Sustainable Agriculture Louisville/Community Farm Alliance Jefferson County Chapter, we ask your support of this Greater Louisville Just Food Platform (Just Community or Just Food, Just Community or Just Community, Just Food)
Our Goal is to develop a community-centered food system that will ensure safe, healthy, fresh, and high quality food for all residents and prosperous livelihoods for farmers in and around Louisville. Different from the industrial food system, whose primary goal is to draw profit from Louisville, which distributes food from afar and which makes of the environment and fair labor and hiring practices little or no priority, our goal of a local, community-centered food system creates relationships between producers and consumers, conserves fuel, and stimulates the local economy. A local food
system, because of its close proximity, is less susceptible to transportation and technological disruptions and therefore provides greater food security. A local food system, because of its close connection, is more able to respond to and meet the real demands of all Greater Louisvillians.
We believe in a more just, sustainable, and livable community for all Greater Louisvillians
We believe food is central to this effort and that food production and distribution should be based on social, economic, and racial fairness, ecological wisdom, and grassroots democracy.
We believe the primary goal of agriculture should be to feed all people well, not to generate profits for a few.
Along with Community Farm Alliance and in support of its Greenprint for Agriculture, we believe that a local family-scale farm economy provides the safest, most diverse and productive, and most secure food supply, while at the same time allows for the continuation of Kentucky's rich rural traditions. We believe further that Greater Louisville stands to benefit, in a substantial way, and in proportion to its involvement, in the implemenatation of Kentucky's Long-Term Plan for Agricultural Development
toward which CFA contribute heavily.
In pursuit of this goal and based on these beliefs, we ask your support of these objectives:
[specific action areas and objectives would be added]
In our effort, we seek partnerships, common effort and solidarity with other people and organizations in the Greater Louisville area working toward a more just and sustainable place to live. Rallying points and principles we hold dear include: (I might sort these too. I also wouldn't be afraid of saying the exact same thing we said in the belief section. We could, of course, elaborate and add)
I am still working on the farmers market expansion section. Thanks for your
work on this Andrew.
peace,
Ivor
Fragmentary notes from our Platform conversation 3/19. They make most sense when read in tandem with Ivor's recent (3/29) comments on the Platform Draft. So, read over Ivor's text till you get to "ask your support as we pursue objectives." As you read, please feel free to add in comments and corrections.
Here are some of the objectives we discussed:
1) Support an increase in funding for Farmers' Market (There was a discussion about just how much money this meant, and how it got used. Someone was going to check on just how much Brdstn Rd recvd and from whom.). One thought was to request that the city fund the salary of a manager for all the markets - kind of an official Farmworks person. Related to this was suggestion that the city also fund related cultural events (I think they do already to some extent) at the Markets, e.g. live music.
2) We talked a lot about local procurement, its possibilities and
limitations. One suggestion was for the City/County to give
preferential consideration in its contracts to caterers who use locally raised foods. The thinking was that since catered events may be small and infrequent (in contrast with say a cafeteria) that the problems of volume and seasonality would not apply.
We also want to see how far it is feasible to push local procurement for other public institutions.
3) Getting pop machines out of city schools.
4) We discussed urban gardens but were not exactly sure how to frame our support of them into a concrete objective. Some further checking to see if specific desirable lots is necessary.
5) Some mention was made of getting WIC coupons and senior dollars in play at Farmers Mkts was made.
- Lisa Markowitz
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