Kansas City Food Circle Blog

K.C. "GREEN REALTORS", please take note...

NOTE: Since this article was drafted, the newest version of the proposed ordinance change(s) for KCMO included much friendlier treatment of front yard gardens in residential zones. Stand by for CHANGE!!

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A Kansas City Realtor in Support of the Proposed Urban Farming Ordinance

June 7th, 2010 | by sarahkc | Published in News | 6 Comments

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: fresh broccoli from my urban garden

You’ve probably heard about the City of Kansas City, Missouri’s proposed urban farming ordinance. The new ordinance would permit residents to sell home-grown produce at their homes – something that’s not currently allowed. The city council is set to vote on the ordinance Thursday, June 10th. You can review some of the details of the ordinance in this Kansas City Star article from June 2nd.

While there seems to be healthy support for the ordinance, much of it organized by a group called Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture, there has been some organized opposition as well – particularly from local real estate brokers and agents. They fear that urban farmers who sell produce from their homes will adversely affect the property values of their non-farming neighbors. A recent email from one agent included a flyer that contained the following assertion:

“It decreases property values because of the High traffic (auto & people) on & off the block, strangers constantly in neighborhoods increases crime risk & exposure, safety issues for children, workers & customers parking on the street coming & going.”

I respect other real estate industry professionals and their right to opinion, but I would like to clarify that I am a realtor who supports Kansas City’s proposed urban farming ordinance (although I disagree with the ordinance’s prohibition of front yard “row crops”). I believe that the presence of active, urban farmers is a good thing for our neighborhoods. The idea that the presence of enterprising gardeners and farmers will somehow ruin a neighborhood’s property values is unfounded.

Let’s keep in mind that property values are determined by what people value. The growing wave of interest and appreciation for urban agriculture and locally produced food is undeniable, and I believe that community gardens and active urban farmers add value to our neighborhoods. In addition to increasing the availability of healthy food, urban farming operations can help contribute a real sense of place and community to a neighborhood. These are values that healthy, sustainable neighborhoods have always found beneficial.

If you agree with me, and support the urban farming in Kansas City,
please send an email in support to
city_council (a) kcmo.org and mayor (a) kcmo.org

Whether you’re a realtor or a resident (or both), I would like to know how you feel about the proposed ordinance. Are urban farms a good thing for Kansas City’s neighborhoods? What do you see as the risks or the benefits ? Let me know what you think. Thanks for reading!

SEE FULL ARTICLE, BLOG SITE & COMMENTS AT:
http://sarahsnodgrass.com/blog/a-kansas-city-realtor-in-support-of-the-proposed-urban-farming-ordinance/#comments

WESTPORT PLAZA FARMERS' MARKET - at Westport & Wyoming - WEDNESDAY Evening Local Food in Kansas City

Visiting another area market this weekend, I noticed a hefty wealth of produce. The diversity was indeed eye-catching, but it was a farse for those of us in the know. They had selected produce to sell that was seemingly in season, but was clearly trucked in from points south (Texas? Florida? Mexico? Chile?). Smart eaters know that cantaloupe doesn't harvest here yet. Many vendors buy and resell surplus or second rate items meant for grocery produce departments. Is this what we go to the farmers' market for?

We don't mean to be snobby at the Westport Plaza Farmers' Market, but local is just plain better! Local food means less travel, less need for toxic preservation and refrigeration, more nutrition and more information about who took care of your food. Make an informed choice. Talk to the people who picked your produce and worked to get you the best in the area.

Whether it's lamb, beef, eggs, greens, salad mix, mushrooms, herbs, kohrabi, peas, honey, strawberries, or bread from local wheat, it is all from the KC area and is pure and honest. Ask your farmers on Wednesday from 4:30 to 7:30 at Westport Rd and Wyoming.

Dave Bennett
Market Mgmt.
Westport Plaza Farmers' Market
www.farmersmarketkc.org

WESTPORT PLAZA FARMERS' MARKET
Wednesdays from 4:30 -7:30pm,

make your local food selections on

Westport Road and Wyoming Street

in the lot located

three (3) blocks east of State Line

on the north side of the street.

Please join our new Facebook Group:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=118365048203386

Farmers' Community Market at Brookside - SATURDAYS 8am-1pm

Can you believe it? June is here, and Summer Solstice only 2 weeks away. Things are getting so exciting on our farms. Read on for more Spring Enchantment!

Happy June! Can't you just taste those tomatoes?! They're looking pretty good- we'll have enough to share... some day... but for now, the usual spring mix of veggies (maybe a few strawberries), the now famous toad abodes (if I have a spare evening to make new ones), stepping stones, and herb and flower transplants. We will hopefully find a few spare moments to make some new garden items this week- I've got some hens & chicks waiting for a project. See you Saturday! -Ami, Jim, Anna & Andrew

Bear Creek Farms

A hot sticky week here - must be summer! Jim and I spent a magical evening sitting on our deck watching thousands and thousands of fireflys flitting over the hay fields and listening to the whip-poor-wills. That surely is one of the best parts of summer!

This week at market we will have broccoli - piles and piles of broccoli, cauliflower, kale, lettuce, bok choi, spring onions, snap peas, snow peas, maybe some baby new potatoes, and whatever else we can find. There's no excuse to not eat healthy now!

See you Saturday!

New Roots for Refugees will be at market Saturday with great greens! Spinach, lettuce (if it doesn't bolt before then! we aren't the only ones hating this heat!), arugula, tatsoi, and komatsuna will be covering our tables. We'll have recipies for the ones that you don't know. We will also have some freakishly big radishes and turnips that are beautiful, sweet and juicy thanks to all that rain a few weeks ago. Look forward to seeing you on Saturday!

Hi All

This week alex will not be at market but Mary and I will be. I was

able to get my hay up in the dry while I was home Saturday. The

calves will enjoy that this winter. The dry weather has been nice. I

have replanted all the corn which did not come up because of the cold

wet period.We will have the third digging of Colorado Rose potatoes

and the last of the asparagus. There should be more beets this week

also.

jim wood

WoodMood Gardens

Green Dirt Farm: The very first batch of 2010 Bossa and Prairie Tomme will

come out of the aging room this week! We will also have Woolly Rind, Dirt

Lover and all of our flavors of Fresh.

AND we have lamb cuts again. We will have limited quantities of all of the

cuts this weekend so come early if you have your heart set on something

(or email us to hold it for you.)

Stop by and chat with us we'd love to see you!

KC Center for Urban Ag’s Community Farm:

W O W! Three capital letters needed for this week’s harvest…

SUGAR SNAP PEAS!!! SNOW PEAS!!! It must be SUMMER SQUASH, from a beautiful BRAND NEW BED: green onions, sccccccallions, fennel, FLAVORandCOLORFUL salad mix, gentle lettuce mix, mighty-microgreens, arugula, BROCCOLI, some CAULIFLOWER and CABBAGE, peace-loving Swiss chard, trusty kale bunches, maybe some collard bunches, mustard bunches, braising (if you haven’t tried it, WHAT are you waiting for?!)mix, no cucumbers, kohlrabi (aka manfood), HUMONGOUS turnips, beets, carrots, fresh cut herbs and only for the earliest of risers….

THE FIRST TOMATOES OF THE YEAR!

We’ll bring some tomato, basil, rosemary and a few other transplants.

If you haven’t started your own FRONT YARD GARDEN yet and need some advice…we’re full of it!

Get up and out early---See you Saturday morning!

BTW---have you seen June’s edition of our online newsletter, Urban Grown? www.kccua.org

From Blue Door Farm:

I hope everyone is enjoying this heatwave. I'm doing my best to, thinking of the now happy tomato and pepper plants, but I must admit my appreciation wanes around 2pm when I am in the field, thinking wistfully of air conditioning and a cold drink.

I'll be at market Saturday with broccoli (regular and bunched italian), head lettuce, cabbage (new this week!), chard, scallions and more.

I'll also have flower and herb transplants for those of you still working on your gardens.

See you soon,

Laura

Also, look for the Brookside market preview of the Ned Scott and his band, a fun, jam of American Roots Rock, blues, San Francisco and Georgia jammin', with a trace of KC Jazz, some British 60's, Southwestern country, some Nashville, Honkey Tonk and some Psychedelic 60's. Really!

And as always, don't forget to..

Buy Organic, Buy Local, By Brookside
Saturdays, April through October, 8 am to 1 pm
63rd and Wornall in the heart of Brookside
www.farmerscommunitymarket.com

Farmers' Community Market
at Brookside

Saturdays, 8am to 1pm
under the white tents at theBorder Star Montessori School
63rd & Wornall, Kansas City, MO 64113

The Farmers' Community Market at Brookside is Dedicated to Creating a Unique Partnership between the Community and Farmers who provide High Quality, Local and Organic Products in an atmosphere that is mutually beneficial, wholesome and fun.The Market also helps to support the Border Star PTA.

Market Friends! We are on Facebook. Please, take a minute to visit our page and suggest it to your friends!
If you are on Facebook, do a search for Farmers Community Market.
If you are not on Facebook, click on the direct link listed below:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Kansas-City-MO/Farmers-Community-Market-at-Brookside/115620695123742
Thank you for your continued support!
Pam
Pam Bramlett – Market Manager
Farmers’ Community Market at Brookside
Pam (a) farmerscommunitymarket.com
Phone 913-217-8535
Buy Organic, Buy Local, By Brookside
www.farmerscommunitymarket.com

Ongoing PERMACULTURE Lecture Series - Lawrence, KS

Permaculture and Sustainable Living

*PERMACULTURE EARTHWORKS: SWALES, TERRACES, WATER CATCHMENTS

**8TH LECTURE*
Wednesday, *2 June 2010*, 6:00-9:00pm - $$
12th Street Homestead, 1145 Pennsylvania St., Lawrence

*Steve Moring* of the *Kaw Permaculture Collaborative* will cover a critical component of any site design, that of maximizing water absorption and minimizing run-off. Several techniques can be used to modify the terrain as needed, and they are best done at the outset before any planting takes place. *Water catchments* can be roofs with tank storage, or ground basins like ponds or water gardens. *Swales and Key Lines* are water channels that spread run-off horizontally by gravity. *Terraces* are on-level contours that slow the down-hill flow of water. This lecture is the eighth in a nine-session permaculture lecture series, presented every two weeks. Interspersed with the lectures will be occasional field trips.

The lecture will be followed by a viewing of the film *"Water Harvesting"* by Geoff Lawton. A $30.00 admission fee will be requested at the door. The fees will support both the K.P.C. and it's parent organization, *Sustainability Action Network*.

For more information contact

Steve Moring at 785-691-7305

or smoring@grasshoppernet.com

For information on course content, meeting times and locations go to websites:http://groups.google.com/group/kpc-dev/web/kpc-event-postings

or http://kawpermaculture.wordpress.com

Weekly Sustainability Announcements from SAN

SUSTAINABILITY ANNOUNCEMENTS

SUSTAINABILITY ACTION NETWORK, Lawrence Kansas

1 June 2010

Local Solutions for Transition to a Sustainable Economy

ECO RADIO KC ¤ WEEKLY ECOLOGICAL ISSUES RADIO SHOW
Tuesday, 1 June 2010, 12:00noon ¤ on Kansas City Community Radio
Listen at KKFI-FM 90.1, or on web-streaming at http://www.kkfi.org/

On Eco-Radio KC this week, host Steve Mann will have a conversation with Marty Kraft about KC No-Till Gardening, it's theory and practice, and Marty's main garden project at the Niles Home for Children.

Stay tuned at 12:30 when the Bioneers radio series presents " Beyond the Bar Code: The Local Food Revolution". Because industrial agriculture is the single most destructive human activity against the environment, what we put on our collective plate and how we grow our food are going to be amont the most decisive factors impacting the fate of the Earth and public health. Few journalists have done more than Michael Pollan to serve up food for thought about our diet and food systems. He reports on the burgeoning worldwide growth of local food economies and a true Green Revolution.
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PERMACULTURE EARTHWORKS: SWALES, TERRACES, WATER CATCHMENTS ¤ 8TH LECTURE
Wednesday, 2 June 2010, 6:00-9:00pm - $$
12th Street Homestead, 1145 Pennsylvania St., Lawrence

Steve Moring of the Kaw Permaculture Collaborative will cover a critical component of any site design, that of maximizing water absorption and minimizing run-off. Several techniques can be used to modify the terrain as needed, and they are best done at the outset before any planting takes place. Water catchments can be roofs with tank storage, or ground basins like ponds or water gardens. Swales and Key Lines are water channels that spread run-off horizontally by gravity. Terraces are on-level contours that slow the down-hill flow of water. This lecture is the eighth in a nine-session permaculture lecture series, presented every two weeks. Interspersed with the lectures will be occasional field trips.

The lecture will be followed by a viewing of the film "Water Harvesting" by Geoff Lawton. A $30.00 admission fee will be requested at the door. The fees will support both the K.P.C. and it's parent organization, Sustainability Action Network.

For more information contact

Steve Moring at 785-691-7305

or smoring (a) grasshoppernet.com
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IT'S NOT A SPILL, A SINGLE EVENT ¤ IT'S A GUSHER, THE "GIFT" THAT KEEPS GIVING

No sugar coating please. It's a rupture, a geyser, a plume. "It's a nightmare that just won't quit" as Louisiana State University oceanographer, James Cowan Jr., said. At a mile underwater with geologic pressure near one ton per square inch, oil is erupting from the well. With the failure of the wellhead topkill, BP's last hope to plug the leak, it will be two more months before the relief bore is completed. At 90,000 barrels per day, another 5.5million barrels will be injected into the powerful Gulf loop current and then the Atlantic Gulf Stream. Meanwhile, BP claims it's only 5000 bbl/day (only!), but they aren't disclosing any data because they claim it's their oil, so buzz off! Their oil?! Excuse me, but they lost this oil, the essence of their problem. It's no more their oil than a deer that flees the hunter belongs to the hunter.

Richard Heinberg of the Post Carbon Institute recently said "This is what the end of the Oil Age looks like. The cheap, easy petroleum is gone; from now on, we will pay steadily more and more for what we put in our gas tanks—more not just in dollars, but in lives and health". A cogent overview of the disaster, and the struggle for accurate public information, is provided by the TrippleCrisis Blog at BP Blowout: the Real Costs of Fossil Fuels. More info on that group is available at TripleCrisis Blog.
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LAWRENCE PEAK OIL TASK FORCE
Thursday, 3 June 2010, 4:00pm
Public Works Conference Rm., City Hall Ground Floor, 6th & Massachusetts St.

Last month the task force gathered chapters of the draft Peak Oil Plan into a unified document. Graphics are being added as well as some new content, and an editor is creating a consistent format. The public is welcome to provide input at the meetings.

Meetings are open to the public, and the public is encouraged to attend. And the Peak Oil Task Force web page has developed an extensive list of resources (click on "resources") including other cities' action plans such as San Francisco and Portland, videos, advocacy groups like Post Carbon Institute and Transition Boulder County, and key data and reports.
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ALYESKA CONSORTIUM ¤ EVER HEAR OF THEM?

Started in 1970 to bring oil from the newly tapped Prudhoe Bay oil field, Alyeska handled everything from oil field operations, building and maintaining the Trans Alaska Pipeline, filling tankers at the southern oil terminals, and sailing the oil tankers to market. One of those tankers was the Exxon Valdez. At that time, the consortium was seven oil companies, and British Petroleum held controlling interest. Today the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company is owned by five companies, BP still on top: BP Pipelines Inc. 46.93%, ConocoPhillips Transportation Alaska, Inc. 28.29%, ExxonMobil Pipeline Company, 20.34%, Unocal Pipeline Company, 1.36%, Koch Alaska Pipeline Company, LLC 3.08% (there are those Koch brothers again!). More in depth reporting is on Democracy Now! at BP had majority holding in Alyeska - Exxon Valdez.
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LAWRENCE FOOD GARDEN TOUR ¤ SLUG - SUPPORT LOCAL URBAN GARDENERS
Saturday, 5 June 2010, 9:00am-12:00noon
multiple sites

This will be a self-guided tour to any of eighteen gardens by using a brochure and map available from all the garden centers and some hardware stores. This tour will feature community gardens and home gardens, in front yards and back yards, with chickens and fruit trees and more. It is being organized by several members of SLUG "Support Local Urban Gardeners" - SLUG | Urban Garden Planting

For more info, contact

khprather (a) gmail.com

or jajlehrman (a) yahoo.com
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THEY DRILL, THEY SPILL, THEY ALWAYS WILL ¤ NEVER AGAIN!

Oil extraction and transport has always been plagued by spills, at the well head, from tankers, at refineries, from pipelines. And BP has an egregious history of "accidents", the Exxon Valdez and the Deepwater Horizon being only their worst. And for refinery operations, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration found BP to be the worst in the industry - BP: Worst OSHA Safety Violations. But pollution is ubiquitous to the industry: think Unocol in Burma, Shell in Nigeria, and Occidental in Equador.

So when President Obama says things like "prevent and mitigate the impact of any spills that result from offshore drilling", and "what lessons can we learn from this disaster to make sure it never happens again?", just how delusional can he be? Anyone with any horse sense and who is not beholden to corporate handlers would logically conclude, as Max Ajl tells us, "an answer so obvious that it seems silly: stop offshore drilling. Stop burning oil. Wean ourselves at the fastest possible pace off a fossil-fuel based energy infrastructure. Transition to sustainable energy sources immediately, recognizing that a world in which industrial accidents cause barrels of bilious oil to flood into the ocean are intolerable." - BP: Obama's Do-Nothing "Root Causes" Commission.

And to that end, Sen. Bernie Sanders has introduced legislation featuring an Offshore Drilling Ban and Stronger Fuel Efficiency - read the Guardian UK article Oil spill shows drilling is not the answer. In a related effort, British attorney, Polly Higgins, wants large ecologically destructive acts to be considered "ecocide", and prosecuted in the International Criminal Court on an equal basis with genocide, war crimes, crimes of aggression, and crimes against humanity - British lawer urges UN to classify 'ecocide' as crime. For more info on this campaign go to This Is Ecocide | The destruction of ecosystems.
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LAWRENCE SUSTAINABILITY ADVISORY BOARD
Wednesday, 9 June 2010, 5:30pm
Recycling and Resource Recovery Annex, 320 N.E. Industrial Lane, Lawrence KS

The June agenda will be available soon. The S.A.B. meets monthly to discuss any and all aspects of furthering sustainability policies and practices by the City of Lawrence government and private persons. The public is welcome. Minutes are finalized in about a month after each meeting http://www.lawrenceks.org/wrr/envadvisoryboard
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BOYCOTT BP CAMPAIGN

The only surprise here is that no one called this sooner. And if you choose to follow the boycott, remember that the full company is BP-Amoco. Oh yes, don't forget Exxon-Mobil for the full effect. Boycott BP Petition
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KANSAS CITY ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT COMMISSION
Wednesday, 9 June 2010, 4:00-6:00pm
Mid America Regional Council, Rivergate Center 2nd floor, 600 Broadway, KC MO

The Environmental Management Commission promotes environmental awareness and resource efficiency to the City's leader and staff, to assist the progress of Kansas City toward sustainability. Members of the general public are encouraged to attend and observe meetings and to join and participate in its efforts. More information and the EMC April 2009 minutes are available at http://www.kcmo.org/manager.nsf/web/emc
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SUSTAINABILITY ACTION NETWORK - MONTHLY MEETING
Sunday, 13 June 2010, 4:00pm
Mirth Cafe, 8th & New Hampshire St., Lawrence KS

Local Solutions for Transition to a Sustainable Economy
S.A.N. organizes societal scale action for ecological sustainability both in our personal lives, and through public policy changes. "Be the change you want to see". The S.A.N. meeting agenda will include:

bicycle facility initiatives

plans for 18 July Permaculture Tour

S.A.N. Challenge Statement review

S.A.N.web site design

Lawrence Peak Oil Plan, draft review

Please join us
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LAWRENCE BICYCLE ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Tuesday, 15 June 2010, 6:00pm
Public Works Conference Rm., City Hall Ground Floor, 6th & Massachusetts St.

The agenda will be available soon. The Committee works to improve bicycle safety and awareness through education of motorists and non-motorists, develops bicycle plans and maps, and advises the City and County Commissions on bicycle priorities and needs. The agenda and information can be downloaded at Bicycle Advisory Comm | agendas & minutes.
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THE U.S. SOCIAL FORUM ¤ ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE
Tuesday-Saturday, 22-26 June 2010
Detroit MI USA

In 2010, The World Social Forum will happen by way of a distributed calendar of geographic and thematic social forums taking place throughout the year. For only the second time, it will have a session convene in the U.S., in Detroit Michigan - US Social Forum 2010 | Another US Is Necessary. The WSF is an open meeting place where social movements, networks, NGOs and other civil society organizations opposed to neo-liberalism and a world dominated by capital or by any form of imperialism come together to pursue their thinking, to debate ideas democratically, to formulate proposals, share their experiences freely and network for effective action. Since the first world encounter in 2001, it has taken the form of a permanent world process seeking and building alternatives to neo-liberal policies. This definition is in its Charter of Principles, the WSF’s guiding document." - from the website of the World Social Forum.

The National Coordinator, Adrienne Maree Brown, provides a good encapsulation of what to expect in Detroit at Invitation to the US Social Forum. A unique attribute of the gathering is it's functioning by Open Space principles, a horizontal structure of self organizing. A related resource is Terra Viva - WSF, providing a permanent online window on the World Social Forum, with ongoing reporting in many languages from as many of the events as possible.

The SUSTAINABILITY ACTION NETWORK, Inc. is a Kansas not-for-profit organization. DONATIONS ARE APPRECIATED, and checks can be mailed to P.O.Box 1064, Lawrence KS 66044. Our mission is to advocate and organize societal scale action to address sustainability issues. The triple crises of Energy-Ecology-Economy are building so rapidly that large scale action is needed immediately and methodically to overcome institutional barriers and advance public policy that preserves ecological sustainability. Our focus is to build a relocalized economy-ecology in concert with the Transition Town movement occurring in many other communities.

To join the Sustainability Action Network

please contact us at paradigm (a) ixks.com

Our current projects include:
1) Transition Kaw Valley - initiating transition to a relocalized post-carbon economy, and municipal level Peak Oil response planning.
2) Kaw Permaculture Collaborative - developing skills and resources for poly-cropping sustainable food production.
3) Energy Conservation & Renewables - advancing a green economy through decentralized technologies and regulations, for conservation and renewable energy.
4) Land Consortium - organizing interested stakeholders to acquire prime farmland in the urban fringe for land-based economic development and regional food security.
5) Water Rights and Watersheds - protecting the water commons, the source of all life, from privatization and contamination, and restoring our watersheds.
6) Electric & Human Powered Vehicles - promoting neighborhood electric vehicles and utility tricycles, including infrastructure and pro-active regulations.
7) Weekly Sustainability Announcements - informing and encouraging others to become active in the Sustainability Action Network, or other action driven groups.
8) Collaboration with sister organizations - such as: The Light Center eco-village; Kaw Valley Food System farm-based economic development; Citizens for Responsible Planning; Films for Action; Kansas River Valley Growers fighting for local water rights; national efforts by the Sustainable Energy Network; KC Metro groups like the Kansas City Food Circle and the All Species Project, etc.

We welcome suggestions for