Bring your tools on Saturday between 11am – 3pm to the Chicken Wing garden located behind the convenience store on [...]]]> It’s Spring cleaning time! When you are rummaging through your garage, behind the house and in the shed, be on the lookout for any gardening tools. Our lil community building project could really use them!

Bring your tools on Saturday between 11am – 3pm to the Chicken Wing garden located behind the convenience store on NE 9th and Alberta.

Wish list: Digging forks, spades, shovels, rakes, hoes, pruners, weeders and wheelbarrows. We wouldn’t turn down a rear-tined rototiller or compact wood chipper either.

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RawMilkFreedomRiders.com Press Release February 24, 2012

Contact: Liz Reitzig, Co-founder, Farm Food Freedom Coalition 301-807-5063, lizreitzig@gmail.com www.RawMilkFreedomRiders.com

Baraboo, WI—Food sovereignty activists from around North America will [...]]]> Farmer Faces Possible 3-year Prison Term for Feeding Community

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RawMilkFreedomRiders.com
Press Release
February 24, 2012

Contact: Liz Reitzig, Co-founder, Farm Food Freedom Coalition
301-807-5063, lizreitzig@gmail.com www.RawMilkFreedomRiders.com

Baraboo, WI—Food sovereignty activists from around North America will meet at this tiny town on March 2 to support Wisconsin dairy farmer Vernon Hershberger and food sovereignty. Hershberger, who has a court hearing that day, is charged with four criminal misdemeanors that could land him in prison for three years with fines of over $10,000. The Wisconsin Department of Agricultural Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) targeted Hershberger for supplying a private buying club with fresh milk and other farm products.

DATCP has charged Hershberger with, among other things, operating a retail food establishment without a license. Hershberger repeatedly denies this, citing that he provides foods only to paid members in a private buying club and is not subject to state food regulations. “There is more at stake here than just a farmer and his few customers,” says Hershberger, “this is about the fundamental right of farmers and consumers to engage in peaceful, private, mutually consenting agreements for food, without additional oversight.”

At a pre-court rally scheduled for 11:00 at in front of the Sauk County Courthouse in Baraboo, food rights activists will read and distribute a “Declaration of Food Independence” that asserts inherent rights in food choice. A signing ceremony will be part of the rally. The signers expect the declaration will inspire a growing food sovereignty movement. Speakers at the rally will include members of Hershberger’s club.

Hershberger and other farmers around the country have been and are facing state or federal charges against them for providing fresh foods to wanting customers. In recent months the FDA has conducted several long undercover sting operations and raids against peaceful farmers and buying clubs that have resulted in farms shutting down and consumers without access to their food

It was [...]]]> Last summer, as I was languishing at my computer, fantasizing about a city chock-full of local produce, chickens, goats and honey bees. I began to read the urban farm collective email, as a few administrators often did, when there was a white flash that caught my attention in the corner of the screen.

It was a g-chat message from Holly Markham, a two-time champion UFC Garden Manager. For your edification, I am including the conversation as it happened, in its entirety.

Holly: Is this Janette?

Me: No. This is God.

Holly: Oh, my bad God.

Holly: Could you, via your omnipotent presence, relay a message to Janette?

Me: Sure.

Holly: Could your holiness pry into the depths of Janette’s heart and find out if she watered the 6^th and Mason garden yesterday?

Holly: If you reply with the correct answer then I’ll know that you are for real.

Me: Ooo that’s deep…her heart, I mean.

Me: Yes, she did. Deeply. She wants you to know for future reference that it took about a half an hour on account of the ‘deeply’ thing. And the three hose thing; it’s like the trinity.

Holly: Yes, and perhaps next time you could save us the trouble and bring forth the rains.

Holly: Approximately one inch a week would be perfect.

Me: I’ll see what I can do.

Holly: Please pass along my great thanks to Janette.

Me: Will do, Holly Markham.

Holly: And I’m sorry about that whole not believing in you thing…my mistake.

Me: Ooo. I forgive you.

Holly: Thanks  G.

We are seeking motivated, committed gardeners who share our passion for localizing food, improving neighborhoods and providing garden-based education to the volunteers who help us realize our mission.

“To gather community to transform vacant urban lots into productive, neighborhood food gardens.”

The UFC has eleven urban farms in N and NE Portland.

We are seeking motivated, committed gardeners who share our passion for localizing food, improving neighborhoods and providing garden-based education to the volunteers who help us realize our mission.

“To gather community to transform vacant urban lots into productive, neighborhood food gardens.”

If you are troubled by the way corporate food suppliers have been doing business and are concerned about the environmental, social and economic impacts of agri-business, then don’t delay, join the fight today.

There are many amazing and passionate gardeners and activists that make up the Urban Farm Collective. I’m sure you will benefit from getting to know and collaborating with them. It’s important work and you have the power to make a meaningful impact in your community by joining us in the effort.

If you are not a gardener, but share our values, please do pass this information along. We need all the committed and dedicated people we can muster to pull this project off.

On the heals of a successful kickstarter campaign, it may seem that the [...]]]> We are so proud to announce that the Urban Farm Collective has been selected to be in this years Willamette Week Give Guide! Last year the Give Guide was distributed to nearly 100,000 people and raised 1.2 million dollars for local charities.

On the heals of a successful kickstarter campaign, it may seem that the UFC is on the home stretch financially. This could not be further from the truth. If we can all promote the Give Guide with as much excitement and vigor as we promoted the kickstarter, we could raise enough to build a proper greenhouse, build more water catchment systems and make the drastic improvements necessary to our compost site. The kickstarter campaign provided the funding for us to be able to do what we do. The Give Guide could provide the funding for us to do what we do well.

The Give Guide is published around Christmas time and it functions much like kickstarter, in that donors receive rewards for their contributions. The difference is that instead of the UFC providing these rewards, the Willamette Week enlists local businesses to provide the rewards, and some of them have gone above and beyond. For example, if you give through the Give Guide on November 17th, you could win one bottle of each liquor that Clear Creek makes (think one full page, single spaced). This is an amazing opportunity and I hope that you all will give the UFC an assist when those Christmas bells start ringing.

We hope that this time still works for those of you that were planning on attending!!