Waldo Farmers' Market - Opening Wednesday, May 4th, 2011

Waldo Farmers' Market Wednesdays

May 4 - Aug 31, 2011

3pm – 7pm @ Waldo ReStore

303 W 79th St.

1 block east of Wornall & 79th (KCMO)

Especially convenient for residents of Waldo, Brookside, Southtown neighborhoods and Prairie Village, the new Waldo Market is a mid-week, after-work opportunity to purchase organically and sustainably grown fresh, local produce along with other specialties such as bread, coffee, and soaps.

Our season will run through August 31, 2011 with consideration for extending into September.

More information is available online at http://wholesomewaldowednesdays.com where weekly information will be added as the season progresses. We look forward to seeing you each Wednesday!

"Get Your Grow On" with the 2011 Urban Farms & Gardens Tour

Greetings! We want to invite you to participate in what will be one of the most wonderful events in Kansas City this year! We're involved in helping to plan the fourth biennial URBAN FARMS & GARDENS TOUR of Kansas City - a 12 day celebration of the growing and eating of good food! The Tour, organized by the Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture and themed "Get Your Grow On!" hopes to inspire YOU to get out, get engaged, and find a way to grow, eat and advocate for more fresh, healthy food in our city. We have put together ten days of pre-tour events - educational workshops, inspiring films, children's activities, and delicious local eating events - all with ideas and information to help you "Get Your Grow On!" (see the full list below). On Saturday & Sunday, June 25 & 26, 38 urban farms, community gardens, school gardens, and urban homesteads across the metro area will be open to the public from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. with live music, cooking demonstrations, and children's activities lined up throughout the weekend. The tour will kick-off on Wednesday, June 15, 6-7:30 p.m. with an inspiring talk "Grow for the Future" by Michael Ableman, author, farmer, photographer and founder of the nation's first Center for Urban Agriculture at the Downtown Kansas City, MO Public Library. http://www.fieldsofplenty.com/ Tickets and event registration are now availableonline. If you are interested in volunteering during the pre-tour events or the weekend of the tour, please fill out this form and our volunteer coordinator will be in touch with you shortly. We need over 200 volunteers to take tickets, set-up sites, help farmers prepare for the tour, and clean-up when it's all over. You will get two free tickets to the tour and a t-shirt. We are proud to present the 2011 Urban Farms & Gardens Tour and hope you will "Get Your Grow On!" with us this June. Visit our website for farm biographies, a tour map, complete pre-tour event descriptions, bike tour maps and details, and all tour updates! Special thanks to our Major Harvest sponsors: UMB Big Bash, DST Systems, and Boulevard Brewing Company, and to all of our generous sponsors for making this event possible and supporting the vision of growing and eating fresh, healthy food in our city's neighborhoods. PRE-TOUR EVENTS: Wednesday, June 15, 6-7:30 p.m. Urban Farms & Gardens Tour Kick-off: "Grow for the Future" by Michael Ableman Kansas City, MO Public Library, 14 W. 10th Street, Kansas City, MO 64105 Co-sponsored by the Kansas City, MO Public Library and Park University Michael Ableman is an author, farmer, photographer, and food system activist. In his thirty plus years of work in the food system, his consistent message has been a call to engagement in the food system – to engage through our choices about what we eat, to engage through growing our own food, to engage through supporting a vital and sturdy local food system. As the farmer and founder of the country's first Center for Urban Agriculture in the country, he laid out a clear vision for urban farms as essential elements of sane, healthy, and lively communities. Mr. Ableman will share his thoughts on how we can redeem our food system and the integrity of the environment and embrace food as a keystone of human life and community. A reception featuring local and organic food and beverages follows the talk. Free, please register in advance FILM & THE ARTS Friday, June 17, 6-9 p.m. Us and Earth… Artistic Expressions of Urban Food and Farms Dream Studio, 711 E. 31st Street, Kansas City, MO 64109 Tuesday, June 21, 7 p.m. Queen of the Sun: What Are the Bees Telling Us? All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church, 4501 Walnut Street, Kansas City, MO 64111 Co-sponsored by All Souls Documentary Film Series Wednesday, June 22, 7 p.m. INGREDIENTS Screenland Theatre, 1656 Washington, Kansas City, MO 64108 Co-sponsored by Chipotle & Screenland Theatre Friday, June 24, 5 & 6 p.m. Truck Farm BadSeed Market, 1909 McGee Street, Kansas City, MO 64108 Co-sponsored by BadSeed Market & Chipotle 101 WORKSHOP SERIES Sponsored in-part by Morgan County Seeds Saturday, June 18, 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Plant Seeds: School Gardens 101 Kansas City Community Gardens, 6917 Kensington Avenue, Kansas City, MO 64132 Co-sponsored by Kansas City Community Gardens Saturday, June 18, 2-4 p.m. Make Wine: Mead Brewing 101 BadSeed Market, 1909 McGee Street, KCMO, 64108 Sunday, June 19, 2-4 p.m. Get Buzzing: Urban Beekeeping 101 Gibbs Road Community Farm, 4223 Gibbs Road, Kansas City, KS 66106 Co-sponsored by Northeast Kansas Beekeeping Association Monday, June 20, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Grow the Good: Faith Based Gardens 101 St. Pius X Church, 5500 Woodson Road, Mission, KS 66205 Co-sponsored by Mitzvah Garden, a Greater Kansas City Jewish Community Garden, Rosedale Healthy Kids Initiative, St. Pius X Church Monday, June 20, 6-8 p.m. Plant for the Future: Eco Garden/Farm Design 101 Kansas City, KS Public Library, 625 Minnesota Avenue, Kansas City, KS 66101 Co-sponsored by the US Environmental Protection Agency Monday, June 20, 5-6:30 p.m. Eat the Rainbow: Eating Color for Health 101 FUD Restaurant, 813 W. 17th Street, Kansas City, MO 64108 Tuesday, June 21, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Dig In: Community Gardening 101 Kansas City Community Gardens, 6917 Kensington Avenue, Kansas City, MO 64132 Co-sponsored by Kansas City Community Gardens Wednesday, June 22, 6-8 p.m. Feed Others: Urban Farming 101 Gibbs Road Community Farm, 4223 Gibbs Road, Kansas City, KS 66106 Wednesday, June 22, 6-8 p.m. Put Away: Canning 101 City Market's Farm to Table Kitchen, 20 E. 5th Street, Unit 20, Kansas City, MO 64106 Co-sponsored by University of Missouri Extension Thursday, June 23, 5:30-7:30 p.m. Lay Eggs: Urban Chickens 101 Roeland Park Community Center, 4850 Rosewood Drive, Roeland Park, KS 66205 Co-sponsored by CHIRP Thursday, June 23, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Grow Nuts & Fruits: Food Trees 101 Urban Impact Center, 1028 Paseo, Kansas City, MO 64106 Co-sponsored by Food Not Lawns Thursday, June 23, 6:30-8 p.m. Chow Down: Eating Local 101 Whole Food Market, Cooking Studio, 7401 West 91st Street, Overland Park, KS 66212 Co-sponsored by Whole Foods Market FUN FOOD EVENTS Sunday, June 19, 5:30, 7, 8:30 seatings Gather, Share, Feast! A local food dinner by Chef Celina Tio JULIAN Restaurant, 6227 Brookside Plaza, Kansas City, MO 64113 *Gardeners and farmers wishing to share product and get their names on a Celina Tio menu please contactami@kccua.org or call 913.831.2444 to let us know what and approximately how much you'll have to share. June 20-23, evenings "Eat Out Local" Nights Various Restaurants around Kansas City Friday, June 24, 6-7:30 p.m. Get Your Grow On! Cook-Off: A local food picnic Loose Park Pavilion, 51st & Wornall Road, Kansas City, MO 64112 Co-sponsored by Garden Center Association of Greater Kansas City Want to show off your cooking? You can enter your dish(es) in one of these categories: Local Appetizers, Local Side Dish, Local Main Dish, Local Dessert and have your original dish be judged by Ethne Clark, Editor of the national publication "Organic Gardening," Gordon Roe, publisher, tastebud magazine, Kansas City's own eating-well magazine, and Mary Pepitone, writer of the Kansas City Star's beloved food column, "Come into my Kitchen." Free for all picnickers, $10 per contest entry, and only thirty entries will be accepted. To enter your dish in the Local Dish Cook-Off visit: http://gardencenterassociation.org/joomla/index.php/get-your-grow-on-cook-off CHILDREN'S ACTIVITIES Friday, June 17, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. GROW A BOOK! Reading Reptile, 328 W. 63rd St, Kansas City, MO 64113 Saturday, June 18, 2-3:30 p.m. Growing Fun Food, Grinding Great Grain KC Community Beanstalk Children's Garden, 6917 Kensington, Kansas City, MO Co-sponsored by Kansas City Community Gardens and Bread of Life Organic Bakery TAKE ACTION EVENTS Ongoing Get Growing Kansas City! Growing Map www.bit.ly/GetGrowingKCMap Saturday, June 25, Missouri sites: 10 a.m.-12 p.m. and Kansas sites: 1 p.m.-3 p.m. Policy Maker's Tour Meeting location TBA, contact BethLow@kcfoodpolicy.org Co-sponsored by Food Policy Coalition of Greater Kansas City Saturday & Sunday, June 25 & 26, 10 a.m. group ride, meet at 9:30 a.m. Get Your Grow On... and BIKE IT! Crown Center, 2450 Grand Boulevard, Kansas City, MO 64108 www.urbanfarmstourkc.com | farmstour@kccua.org 913-831-2444

Sierra Club - Mother's Day Weekend is Coming Up... TIPS FOR A GREENER MOM

http://action.sierraclub.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=204882.0&dlv_id=176101

Mother's Day is this Sunday (May 8), so this week's tips suggest ways for you to help your mom be greener, no matter what type of lady she is. Maybe you'll get a gift idea or two too.

Tip #1: Green Her Gardening

Even if she's heavy into flowers and gardening, there are still ways she could be friendlier to the planet. If she's not using organic fertilizer and seeds, oreco-friendly gardening tools, consider those good gift ideas. If she's still using conventional pesticides, you may want to mention their effects and suggestgreener alternatives. Does she simply enjoy having flowers in the house? Order her an organic bouquet, or better yet, get her a whimsical, easy-to-grow potted plant that won't end up in the compost soon after Mother's Day.

Tell us: How do you help your mom go green?

2011-05-02 ~ WILL CAFOs PREVAIL IN MISSOURI?

Hello all,

If you haven't called or emailed the Governor's office, don't wait any longer!

If you have called or emailed him, please do it again! And ask your friends and family to do the same.

Below is the letter the Sierra Club and 4 other environmental organizations signed, urging the Governor's veto.

At this point, if you call the Governor's office, you probably won't have to verbalize any specific reasons for a veto, but some of them -- explained in the letter below -- include:

• threats to public health, including neighbors and employees who work in factory farms (confined animal feeding operations or CAFOs)
• threats to water quality, including surface water and ground water
• inadequate protection from factory farms for rural residents under current state law, which this bill will make even more inadequate
• negative impact of CAFOs on rural economies

The Governor has until Tuesday (5-3-11) before he must decide whether to veto or sign the bill. HOWEVER, he might not wait that long to decide, so please call as soon as you are able.

Phone # for the Governor's office: (573) 751-3222.

If you prefer to email him, here is the url: http://governor.mo.gov/contact/

Thank you,
Ginger Harris
Legislative Chair, MO Chapter, Sierra Club

April 20, 2011
The Honorable Jeremiah “Jay” Nixon
Governor, State of Missouri
Missouri Capitol Building
Jefferson City, MO 65102

Dear Governor Nixon:

The undersigned Missouri environmental organizations and their members strongly urge you to veto House Bill 209, a bill that severely limits the ability of rural Missourians to use the courts to redress pollution-related damages from industrial farming operations. If enacted into law, this measure would constitute a raw deal for the economic well being of rural communities, a raw deal for the public health of all Missourians, a raw deal for rural property owners, and a raw deal for our natural environment.

At its most basic, HB 209 enables out-of-state owners of Concentrated Animal Feeding
Operations (CAFOs) to increase their profits at the expense of protecting rural Missouri citizens. It grants unnecessary and unwarranted favors to CAFOs – unnecessary because the bill seeks to redress problems that don’t exist. There are few instances of repeated lawsuits against CAFOs. Indeed, repeat lawsuits only result when the polluting operations don’t abate their toxic emissions. (Abatement is feasible at reasonable cost.) In fact, the risk of lawsuits against CAFOs is nonexistent when these farms don’t pollute in the first place.

So why sign into law a bill that removes incentives for factory farms to clean up their act and become better neighbors, and which actually protects their ability to continue their foul practices?

Threats to Public Health: There is a vast body of scientific literature documenting the threats to public health and the environment stemming from the heavy concentrations of animal wastes that leak from factory farms. The threats range from drinking water contamination in local wells, including arsenic, bacteria and nitrates; pathogenic contamination of surface waters; antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the air, water, and soil, as well as in consumer meat products; and hydrogen sulfide and ammonia emissions (a concern for workers, children and elderly residents who live in close proximity to CAFOs). The U.S. Centers for Disease Control, University of Iowa, and Iowa State agree that CAFO air emissions constitute a hazard to public health and worker health, finding increased nausea, headaches, brain damage, vomiting or diarrhea and even life-threatening pulmonary edema. In addition to the gases hydrogen sulfide (a neurotoxin) and ammonia (a respiratory irritant), airborne manure particles from CAFOs have been shown to carry bacteria.

Threats to Water Quality: This is not merely a "rural issue," but one that affects all
Missourians. Toxic emissions of nutrients, fertilizers and pathogens from corporate agribusiness find their way into countless local rivers, streams and lakes, jeopardizing our drinking water, river quality and wildlife. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), pollution from agriculture contributes to poor water quality in more than 100,000 miles of rivers and streams in the United States, along with 2,500 square miles of lakes and 2,900 square miles of estuaries. These waters are so polluted that they are unsafe for fishing, swimming, or the maintenance of healthy populations of wildlife. (These figures greatly understate the impact of agribusiness pollution on America’s waterways, since they include only waterways whose quality has been assessed by state governments and those for which a cause of pollution was listed.)

Corporate Agriculture Needs Strong Regulatory Oversight: Many would like to believe that
local, state and federal laws can address many of these concerns, but that’s hardly the case. Our state laws regulating factory farms are meager, apply mostly to the largest (Class I) CAFOs, and are inconsistently enforced. Indeed, many CAFOs operate "under the radar" as Class II operations, meaning they escape the scrutiny of the Department of Natural Resources. Many of these are built right on stream banks or other inappropriate locations because DNR has no authority over them. All the more reason why we don’t need further de-regulation of these
operations.

HB 209 is Bad for Missouri’s Economy: If the environmental and health effects of CAFOs
aren’t enough reason not to grant them special favors, an equally compelling argument is the damage that CAFOs wreak on the economic viability of rural Missouri communities. CAFOs are a major factor behind the dissolution of small rural communities.

Take hog farming, for example. Hogs once provided a healthy economic base for farm and rural economies when the animals were owned by large numbers of independent producers who sold their animals in competitive open markets. Revenue for these farm families in turn fueled local economies in the form of feed mills, small packing plant and other agricultural support businesses, providing a diversified tax base to fund schools, roads, government services, etc. But the increasing concentration of hog farming – owned by just a few national corporations – has bled Missouri’s rural communities and has shuttered numerous small businesses. The profits are now leaving our state, rather than staying here in our rural communities.

Nor are CAFOs a source of good jobs for Missourians. In Missouri, the number of hog farmers, for example, has dropped from 23,000 in 1985 to 3,000 in 2007 – an 87% decline. A Missouri study found that corporate hog contract operations create a net loss of employment. While creating 9 jobs for every 12,000 hogs produced, corporate contract operations displace 28 jobs.

As to HB 209 specifically, it will greatly weaken the property values of Missourians who have the misfortune to own land, homes and businesses down-wind and down-stream from CAFOs. A study by the University of Missouri found that an average vacant parcel within three miles of a CAFO in Missouri lost about 6.6% of its value, but a parcel with a house on it within a tenth of a mile of a CAFO lost 88% of its value. If HB 209 becomes law, it will only serve to accelerate this diminished marketability and reduced use of property that borders CAFOs. We’re sure you agree that we should be taking steps to protect the property rights of rural landowners, Governor, not undermine them. There is a growing trend in Missouri of producing fruits, vegetables and meats for local and regional consumption, but farmers will be uneasy about such investments if a CAFO can move in nearby and pollute the air.

The irony in all of this is that Smithfield Foods (owner of Premium Standard Farms) doesn’t really need special favors like HB 209. And it certainly won’t pull up stakes and leave Missouri if this bill doesn’t become law. Smithfield is the world’s largest pork producer; it posted record profits in the last fiscal quarter. Large-scale agribusiness (and Smithfield Foods in particular) is among the nation's most powerful special interest lobbies. Smithfield spent $6.7 million on federal lobbying from 2005-2010, supported 17 lobbyists in Washington, D.C., and gave $1,256,100 to Congressional candidates. It also supported members of the Missouri legislature with campaign contributions. So why sign into law a bill that further rewards this job- killing, economy-harming industry when it hardly needs our help?

In the end, Governor, HB 209 is a politically motivated piece of legislation that gives preference to out-of-state interests at the expense of Missouri citizens. We urge you to do the right thing on behalf of all Missourians: please veto HB 209. Thank you.

Sincerely,
Liz Forrestal, Executive Director Missouri Votes Conservation
Jim Turner, Chair Missouri Sierra Club
Kat Logan Smith, Executive Director, Missouri Coalition for the Environment
Ted Mathys, Advocate, Environment Missouri
Tony Robyn, Executive Director, Audubon Missouri

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See also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWt9Ex1Mlo8