RE: An Open Letter to Michelle Obama (see the topic thread in Facebook)

I'm glad we have folks waking up to our problems with conventional food.

ONE THING that makes the defense of corn syrup as a basic foodstuff irrelevant (so far as I am concerned):

The simple fact that high fructose corn syrup is converted to fat much more readily than beet and cane sugars makes me demand the better products.

AMONG OTHER THINGS that make excessive use of U.S. conventional corn products a problem for me and the people I care about:

GMO (genetically modified organisms), Monsanto-style BT corn is worm-free (sweet corn, nearly all of the varieties that hit our conventional supermarket shelves) because it (the corn itself) is actually poisonous to eat. I actually enjoy picking worms off of our local organic corn because I know, beyond any doubt, that if the worms are alive and having a good meal so will I be.

DON'T EVEN get me started on how much fossil-fuel energy goes into conventional corn (fertilizer, pesticides, harvesting, processing & transport) - and converting it to ethanol is just an end-of-the-pipeline shell-game, a massive consumer-directed fraud, which sends BIG OIL lots of cash, all subsidized (talk about adding insult to injury) by our tax dollars.

Nuf sed?

For more about Michelle Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Troostwood Youth Garden Market - FRIDAYS & SATURDAYS - 5142 Paseo (KCMO)

Troostwood Youth Garden Market

Nieghborhood youth, providing fresh produce from A to Z...

Date:	Saturdays, 2009
Time:	8:00am - 2:00pm
Street:	5142 Paseo, Kansas City, Missouri 64110**

Phone:	816-444-5788
Email:	Ericka (@) TroostwoodYouthGarden.info

** At the top-left of the mapping site, our garden is green, green, GREEN now...

http://www.troostwoodyouthgarden.info/

Youth gardeners have the opportunity to explore urban agriculture in Kansas City, MO at the Troostwood Garden in Kansas City. Located on a corner lot donated for use by Rockhurst University, Troostwood Gardens is in an urban neighborhood.

There, a master gardener and ten youth work with Ericka Wright’s “Urban Agriculture Youth Program,” building their urban agriculture skills. They grow produce to sell at the Troostwood Youth Garden Market. Through the help of a 2005 grant from the NCR-SARE Farmer Rancher Grant Program, the Urban Agriculture Youth Program at Troostwood Garden’s hopes to in uence a change in youths’ lifestyle and at the same time improve their nutrition, environment, social and economic practices. Ericka Wright’s family started Troostwood Gardens on their property in 2000 as an activity for neighborhood youth.

“In the community I live in, we were the only house in the neighborhood with a swing set, so we had always kids in the yard. Many of the kids had low scores in reading and math,” explained Wright. “Most people enjoy eating, whatever level they’re at, and we  gured we could read a little, eat a little, do a little math, and learn together in the garden with the kids.”

At 41 years-old, Wright is disabled from muscular dystrophy, and values a healthful diet. Wright wanted to show children healthful nutrition as part of a healthy lifestyle. “In terms of sustainable agriculture, our project falls in line with community. It brings people together in an outdoor classroom, and makes people aware of sustainable gardening practices in the inner city, saving seeds, and eating healthfully,” said Wright.

Youth begin gardening each March and continue working in the garden and at the Troostwood Youth Garden Market until the last vegetables are harvested, typically in late October. “We’ve found that the youth developed better self esteem. They saw the fruits of their labor and how their hard work had paid off…They now have knowledge of a garden, what it takes to have and build one, and team work.”

Excerpted from:
http://www.sare.org/ncrsare/newsletter/NCRSARE_WinterSpring2008.pdf