Availability for April 2

It took less than a week for Michelle Obama’s White House organic garden to draw official protests from industrial agriculture. For example, the Executive Director of the Mid America CropLife Association says the idea of an organic garden at the White House makes her “shudder”, and wrote a letter to Mrs. Obama expressing her organization’s desire for conventional agriculture to be represented in her garden.

Meanwhile, many of you have been asking me about HR 875, the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009. The internet is abuzz right now with websites and emails saying things like this would outlaw organic agriculture, close farmers markets, and is about to be rammed through Congress by Monsanto. First off, let me assure you that none of these things are true. HR 875 is actually just one of several bills before Congress drafted in the wake of the salmonella outbreak tied to the peanut facility in south Georgia, and it may well be the best of the bunch. At its core is a proposal to divide the Food and Drug Administration into two agencies, one for drugs and the other for food. The legislation itself is somehow both very detailed about the authority the new food agency would have yet very vague about how its charge would be carried out. You can read the legislation for yourself here. It’s been referred to committee, but there has been no action taken on the bill. Its author, Rep Rosa DeLauro (her husband does not work for Monsanto, as some of the emails claim), has actually sat down with organic and small-scale farmers and is making sure amendments get written that would clarify and strengthen the legislation and make sure there is no undue burden placed on growers who sell locally. You can find a well-researched article about it all here. If you’re politically minded, it’s never too early to write members of the House Agriculture committee to let them know what sort of food safety law you’d like to emerge. Rest assured, something is coming down the pike.

In other news, the Athens Farmers Market is only a month away from its opening Saturday, on May 9th. A good number of our growers also sell there, so you’ll soon have another source for sustainably grown local food. Also, my cooking class covering “nature’s perfect food”, the egg, is next Monday, April 6, at Athens Rolling Pin. Registration is required, and it costs $35.

Now, on to this week’s bounty! There are quite a few new items this week as more growers come online. There are even veggie seedlings ready to go into your own garden is you want to give growing your own food a try. If you need a hand with that, Kevin Yates, a former grower at Roots Farm, has started an edible landscape business in Athens, Hungry Gnome Gardenscapes, that can help you get going.

Thanks for all of your support! We’ll see you on Thursday from 4:30pm to 8pm at the old market on Broad Street.