West African agriculture advocate and women’s rights activist to visit Clemson during World Food Day 2012

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Dienaba Diallo, pastoralist farmer and president of Burkina Faso’s Collége des Femmes, will tour Clemson University’s Student Organic Farm and Clemson Public Service and Agriculture’s Simpson Beef Cattle Farm Oct. 12 as part of events surrounding World Food Day 2012. Clemson’s School of Agricultural, Forest and Environmental Sciences (SAFES) and the international relief and development organization Oxfam America will host the tours. Diallo will learn about Clemson’s work in the local community and around the world to promote food security and increased food production and will speak to students in field crop production and women’s studies classes. Diallo will also meet with Clemson faculty, administrators and researchers. Diallo is from a region of Burkina Faso in West Africa where millions of people are at risk of hunger and malnutrition. Since leaving her career as a history and geography teacher to return to her home village and rejoin her ethnic group's traditional vocation of animal herding, Diallo has advocated for better investment in small-scale producers. FULL STORY

Celebrating NW urban food harvests

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NORTH DENVER – UrbiCulture Community Farms celebrated the 2nd annual tour of Sunnyside’s local farms, “Tour de Harvest.” Founded by Candice and Jon Orlando, this urban farmer couple embarked on a mission to bring fresh produce to local families and women’s shelters, Family Tree and Safehouse. Irene Glazer was the first Sunnyside citizen to offer her garden as a testing ground for the concept. Since then twelve local yards and large, often barren plots, have given up grass, weeds and mowing as hosts to this urban farming affair. Sixty CSA members benefit from the fruits (and vegetables) of this labor of love by belonging to the consortium that provides garden fresh produce on a weekly basis. In addition, families in need are provided with fresh food, as an alternative to convenience store and fast food fare. On September 15th over 100 curiosity seekers and “localvores” set out on foot or bike to tour nine of these gardens for a progressive dinner party followed by a street side hootenanny. Gardens ranged from small front yards to mammoth back gardens, all punctuated with verdant leafy greens, eggplant, tomatoes, pumpkins, squash, and plants that shall remain nameless to many who wondered. Jon Orlando explained, “The trick is how you can grow a huge amount in a dense space. We don’t grow broccoli because it attracts aphids. We grow leaf lettuce, not head lettuce, because we can get two or three yields in a season. We live in a desert environment where climactic swings make it hard to manage gardens, so we utilize staggered planting to increase our output.” FULL STORY

Prince Protégé Taja Sevelle is Now an Urban Garden Guru

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When Prince took Taja Sevelle under his wing in the 1980s, the singer/songwriter’s career took off. After a whirlwind with Prince, she landed in Detriot to record with a Sony producer in the Motor City. But the motors weren’t being made much any more. “As I became acquainted with the city, I felt a lot of job loss and a lot of blighted unused land within the city proper,” Taje remembers. “It really caught my eye,” In 2005, Sevelle put her music career on the backburner because she so deeply felt the need and possibilities in her new city. She started the non-profit Urban Farming, which is now booming around the world. After launching with $5,000, three inner-city gardens and only herself on staff, she built the organization into 60,000 registered farms and gardens around the world. FULL STORY

Defining Sustainability in the Restaurant Industry

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Without a doubt, U.S. consumers want sustainable food, and demand is growing quickly. According to the Organic Trade Association, the market for organics alone has gone from $1 billion in 1990 to $26.7 billion in 2010. Interest in local food is also on the rise. According to the USDA, as of mid-2011, there were 7,175 farmers markets in the U.S, a 17 percent increase from 2010. Restaurants like Lyfe, a new fast casual chain launched by former McDonalds‘ execs and Mission Local Eatery in San Francisco are leading the charge towards more sustainable restaurant options. But as the market continues to grow, these restaurants and others like them struggle to define sustainability for their customers and suppliers. Restaurateurs and consumers often don’t know how to weigh the various attributes that fall into the sustainability bucket. FULL STORY