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Rooting DC 2010: UDC’s Yao Afantchao on food, home, and growing

By Robert Thomason

When Yao Afantchao first left his village in Togo for the United States relatives and friends showered him with gifts of local foods so that he would not be without his native diet. Loaded with mangoes, the peanuts of his region and dried delicacies he crossed the Atlantic.

But when the US Customs Service inspected his bags at JFK Airport, his first lesson in U.S. food economics and practices was a shock. The foodstuff of Afantchao’s homeland was confiscated.

“That’s it; my life is gone,” Afantchao said recalling his feelings of the day and that loss. “The trip I made from New York to Philadelphia was the longest of my life.”

Since witnessing that initial clash between authorities and the food he loves, Afantchao’s stories about food have transformed as the nation’s population has become more diverse. He now works as an ethnic and specialty crop specialist with the University of the District of Columbia, helping immigrants find the foods they prefer and the local farmers to produce it.

As people arrive in the United States from other countries, they naturally bring their appetites with them. Although Afantchao in time re-acquired much of his accustomed diet, there was a transition period.

“We like to find our own food,” he said of the immigrant experience at the Feb. 20 Rooting DC conference. “People like to give you pizza and take you to McDonald’s. That is nice for a day. But ethnic food is not just food to the immigrant. It is also a source of culture.”

His eyes and palate have been on the look-out for these foods. “When I go to a home and they serve garden eggs, I am going back to that home,” quipped Afantchao, a large-framed man who sports a mustache and goatee around his ever-present smile.

As a community educator he travels widely in the region, from urban communities to rural Southern Maryland. He acts as a link between those willing to pay for familiar fare and the farmers who do or might produce it. One farm family he met was initially skeptical of planting crops they had never tasted and that had exotic names; 19 years later the farm is making money providing the specialty produce that immigrants and native-born consumers enjoy at their tables or in restaurants.

“Our foods are comfort foods,” Afantachao said. “In the United States, you are always willing to try something new. You are brave people.”

Working through UDC’s cooperative extension service and its agricultural experimentation service, Afantachao was on the team that helped determine a good choice of crops for this segment of the market. He mentioned a few main ones at the Rooting DC conference.

* Sawa-Sawa — A sorrel plant, or edible hibiscus, shic is good in salads. The red bud version makes a good tea.

* Jute leaf — a leafy green

* Avuvo — A plant in the Amara family that is expensive in Africa.

* Njamma-Njamma — A leafy green. Often outside Africa local greens, such as collards, are substituted and a dish by this name is prepared in West African fashion.

* Water leaves — good in stews with meat or fish

* Gboma – in the eggplant family

* Assorted hot peppers — Popular in many cultures

* Garden eggs – another eggplant

Thomason is the publisher of GlobalResourcesNews.com, a site about ecology and economics.

Big thanks and photo credit go to Beverlie Lord of Satsun Photography for the image above.

Cross-posted from Field to Fork Network.

Posted on February 25th 2010 in Events, Meta, Society | No Comments »

Realizing Democracy Through Farming Food

PLOTSKYrootingphotos01

By Matt Young

I’ve recently arrived in Washington from a place a whole world apart, New Mexico, and I’m still delving into how community works in the District. While my Congressional work to date has suggested a less than transparent, if not detached, relationship between the halls of power and the residents of the District, Rooting DC has given me a whole new perspective on the vibrant, stirring, service-driven nature of Washington, DC

The event brought together hundreds of activists, chefs, gardeners, farmers, community organizers, students, nonprofit professionals, and even politicians to bring a fully-integrated local food system to fruition. It represents a growing movement in D.C. to collaborate on how a local food system should look.

I found myself not just learning how to make a seasonal winter salad from Niko Welch; how to can lusciously spice-packed carrots from Liz Falk; how to realize and sustain a sustainable business model from Robert Egger; how to build kitchen connections between Mennonite farmers and inner-city youth from Kristin Roberts; and how to continually and passionately push for social change and a community voice from Andrea Northrup, Carl Rollins, and Parisa Norouzi.

PLOTSKYrootingphotos05 I also learned that as disconnected as Capitol Hill may be from the rest of the District of Columbia and the country at large, that optimism, transparency, accountability, innovation, responsibility, and community exists at the level of grassroots food systems. Such values provide the root base not only for healthy produce and stewardship, but healthy societies and healthy ecologies.

How appropriate, too, that something that can nourish us in the most rudimentary sense, such as a fresh batch of mustard greens, can also nourish us in the most systemic of ways, to draw people together to ensure sustainable cultivation of a new, true democracy

Matt Young currently serves as a Congressional assistant for Representative Peter Welch on Capitol Hill. When not answering constituent mail, Matt likes to dig deep into creating sustainable communities, listening to and writing stories of those voices you don’t hear everyday, and planting, weeding, harvesting, and getting dirty in crop rows, all skills he learned deeply through Real Food Challenge involvement at St. Lawrence University (Class of 2009).

Thanks to Andrew Plotsky for photos!

Posted on February 24th 2010 in Action, Events, Government Issues | No Comments »

Rooting DC Report: Starting seeds, increasing access and Mrs. Vilsack

BIG thanks go out to Nathan Bynum for capturing the energy of Rooting DC 2010 on video. You can check out more of his work here.

Posted on February 22nd 2010 in Access, Events, Food Security, Organizations | 2 Comments »

RootingDC 2010 Sneak Preview: Cooking Demonstrations

With shovels a RootingDC 2010 nd forks, local food justice advocates will descend on the Historical Society of Washington tomorrow for Rooting DC, the District’s own urban agriculture forum. Workshops are organized around four themes–production, distribution, preparation and preservation–in order to explore how food finds its way from the field to our forks.

For the first time in it’s 3-year history, Rooting DC will feature cooking demonstrations. Steve Seuser, who planned and coordinated the demonstrations, says that presenters will share how to prepare cooked, raw, and fermented foods, as well as canning basics. In particular, the demonstrations will feature recipes that are fast and affordable for families, as well as processes for gardeners who grow a lot and aren’t sure what to do with the overabundance.

Trayce McQuirter

Tracye McQuirter, a nutritionist with the UDC Center for Nutrition, Diet, and Health, will present during Workshop Session 2. We talked with Tracye about the importance of eating healthy and also got a sneak peak of her cooking demonstration. Read on:

Can you give us a sneak peek into your workshop at Rooting DC? What will you be cooking? What messages will you be focusing on?
I’ll be preparing Spicy Kale Salad, which is usually a big hit wherever I go. My goal is to show people how easy it is to prepare fresh greens in really satisfying ways that keep the nutrients and flavor alive and dazzling.

Why do you think it’s important to eat local, organic food or grow your own?
Growing and eating your own food gives you a sense of satisfaction in your soul that few things can so easily match. It’s also cheaper, more convenient, and more sustainable to grow your own food or eat the food grown by your neighbor, community, or local farmer.

It seems like empowerment is an important part of your work. In your classes, how do you use food to empower people?
Most folks in this country are masters at eating unhealthy food. I empower people by showing them how and why to become masters at eating healthy food. We look at who profits from our unhealthy eating habits and why what we eat is directly tied to whether or not we will have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, overweight, diabetes, heart disease, and a host of other killer diseases. Then we look at how to take matters into our own hands by learning to read food labels, choose healthier ingredients, and prepare lots of healthy and delicious dishes.

When teaching people about food and nutrition, what strategies or techniques do you find most effective?
In the course of my work, I teach people who are ages 3 to 83, so the tools that I use vary. For example, when I do food demos for little ones, I make sure to engage each of the five senses, so that might include singing a healthy food song and identifying the colors of each ingredient in our recipe.

You’ve been working on these issues for years. Do you sense a shift in people’s attitudes toward healthy eating and fresh produce? If so, how?
I’ve noticed that people are more comfortable saying that they want to eat healthier foods and are less likely to feel defensive about it. That is a paradigm shift. I’m hopeful that this shift will continue to grow and evolve into a desire to eat more fresh, plant-based foods and fewer animal foods for the health of ourselves and our planet.

Tracye McQuirter’s new book By Any Greens Necessary will be published on May 1, 2010. Contact her at www.byanygreensnecessary.com.

Rooting DC 2010 will be held tomorrow, February 20th, at the Historical Society in downtown DC.

[Cross posted to Field to Fork Network]

Posted on February 19th 2010 in Community, Events, Farmers, Food Security, Health, Organizations | No Comments »

RootingDC 2010 Sneak Preview: Urban ag guru Joe Nasr

At the Rooting DC conference this Saturday, activist, scholar, and consultant Joe Nasr will speak about how North American cities have been organizing for urban agriculture, and what the DC region can learn from that. Joe, who is based in Toronto, has worked on urban agriculture and food issues globally since the early 1990s. He has had longstanding ties to the DC region, discovering the subject by working with Jac Smit, “the father of urban agriculture.”

He is the co-ordinator for MetroAg – Alliance for Urban Agriculture, co-founded The Urban Agriculture Network and maintains several worldwide affiliations, including the Centre for Studies in Food Security at Ryerson University in Toronto . He received a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from the University of Pennsylvania.

Joe brings hands on experience to his perspective at the conference. He has mentored a number of students interested in urban agriculture worldwide, including architecture students working with food- and agriculture-related design. Joe also co-curated the traveling exhibition: Carrot City – Designing for Urban Agriculture, which showed how the design of buildings and cities can enable the production of food in the city, and is now being turned into a book. Hopefully we’ll see the Carrot City exhibit in DC in the near future!

In 1996 he co-authored a book, entitled, “Urban Agriculture: Food, Jobs, and Sustainable Cities,” which has now become a standard textbook on the subject. Long out of print, this book might become available online very soon. Joe is also spearheading the creation of a digital clearinghouse on urban agriculture that MetroAg is setting up currently – keep an eye for an announcement on the launch of that website really soon.

We are excited to have Joe in DC, and look forward to gleaning some green nuggets of wisdom from his knowledge and experience! Joe will joined in his session by Kim Hodgson, who has been spearheading initiatives related to urban agriculture at the American Planning Association, who will be sharing with us some exciting stories from across North America on how planners have been recently supporting urban agriculture.

Cross-posted at Field to Fork

Posted on February 18th 2010 in Events, Food Security | 1 Comment »

Robert Egger’s Call for Food Equality through Social Enterprise

Robert Egger will present his talk “Breaking through the Barriers—The Business of Better Food for All” at Rooting DC on February 20

Get ready to be rocked to your roots. Robert Egger has a record of putting ideas into action and after hearing his presentation at Rooting DC on February 20, you’ll be inspired to jump out of your chair and get to work. This dynamic go-getter founded DC Central Kitchen in 1989 by connecting the dots between food need and food waste—a landmark idea at the time. The organization now produces 4,000 meals a day for Washington’s hungry and provides cycle-breaking education and support through its Culinary Job Training program.

Egger knows DC’s foodscape intimately. In addition to furthering the success of DC Central Kitchen, he chairs the Mayor’s Commission on Nutrition and is actively working to get more local food into schools. His talk at Rooting DC (“Breaking through the Barriers—The Business of Better Food for All,” from 11:45 to 12:45) will spread his infectious enthusiasm for food equality by laying out ideas for what could come next—if we work for it.

As a frequent traveler, Egger speaks to groups around the country and observes other cities’ unique problems, as well as their bold initiatives. He started The Campus Kitchens Project as a replicable model that’s been implemented by 20 universities across the US. As he travels, he keeps an eye out for trends that could become lasting solutions. “Trends are potential. Trends are maybes,” he says.

In his presentation at Rooting DC, Egger will discuss America’s turbulent relationship with agriculture during the past century—from our ubiquitous dependence on the family farm, to the flight away from farming and into cities, and now to renewed attention on knowing where our food comes from.

What Egger calls the “return of the prodigal generation” to an interest in food and farming coincides with the potential for social enterprise as an alternative to charity. As an example, he cites Finger Lakes Fresh, an Ithaca, New York-based organization that employs people with disabilities to grow local vegetables. The produce is sold to local Wegman’s stores where shoppers can buy the food they want, while supporting an at-risk segment of their community.

Educating the public on the great potential for social enterprise is key. Although it’s catching on in the UK, most Americans still aren’t familiar with the concept. “The thing that’s missing in social enterprise is demand,” Egger says. But that also means that the time is right for advocates and entrepreneurs to step up and take action. “We have to start businesses that has the average person saying, ‘Whoa! Whoa, can you do that?’” he challenges.

Come to Egger’s presentation at Rooting DC and you’ll be ready to answer that question with a resounding “Yes!”

Robert Egger will present his talk “Breaking through the Barriers—The Business of Better Food for All” at Rooting DC on February 20 during Workshop Session 2, from 11:45 to 12:45. Register for Rooting DC now and view the full schedule.

Posted on February 12th 2010 in Action, Community, Events | No Comments »

Healthy food for all a tenet of Michelle Obama’s anti-obesity initiative

On Tuesday, sixth grader Tammy Nguyen brought down the White House with some choice words. Leading up to a much-anticipated announcement in the State Dining Room, Nguyen described how she helped grow a rainbow of vegetables in a kitchen garden on the “first lawn.”

“My friends and I have learned a lot about change, about eating healthy food, and making the right choices,” the former Bancroft Elementary School student explained. “My classmates and I plan to keep that color on the plate–and I don’t mean M&Ms,” she said.

Nguyen then introduced First Lady Michelle Obama, who summoned all hands on deck to bring the Bancroft students’ experience to every American child in the interest of better health. She outlined a detailed initiative, called Let’s Move, to curb the startling rate of childhood obesity (about one in three children is overweight or obese, she said), and save the nation’s kids from preventable diseases. Such an initiative can also create jobs and help fish the budget out of a deficit. That can only happen, Obama said, if many sectors work together and the action starts immediately.

“Instead of just talking bout this problem, instead of just worrying and wringing our hands about it, let’s do something about it,” said the first lady. “Let’s act…. let’s move.”

A new Task Force on Childhood Obesity will propel the initiative. Once on course, Let’s Move will include $10 billion in funding over 10 years for programs in the Child Nutrition Act reauthorization, and $400 million to infuse “food deserts” with supermarkets and other sources of healthy food. The specific tenets include healthier choices (clearer food labeling, better eating habits), healthier schools (through the Healthier US Schools Challenge Program and the Child Nutrition Act), and physical activity (an hour or more a day, and more opportunities to get that 60 minutes in).

Perhaps the most exciting part for DC Food For All members and readers is the fourth mainstay: Accessible and affordable healthy food for everyone. To achieve this, the task force will identify problem areas with a new USDA Food Environment Atlas, work to eliminate food deserts, and implement more programs for school gardens and urban gardening.

Michelle Obama not only brought the concept of a food desert to national attention; she proclaimed the initiative will banish such wastelands in seven years. And it seeks to push out childhood obesity in a generation. Fresh, local food claims an important place in both efforts.

Also exciting was the way Obama connected the dots. Having Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius commit to the task force and attend the announcement seemed only natural. Including the secretaries of agriculture, education, the interior, HUD, and labor spoke to a paradigm shift. Alleviating childhood obesity will take a multi-pronged effort, the umbrella approach implies, and a new way of thinking about food and well-being.

Obama had recruited former NFL star Tiki Barber—along with key players in the Obama administration, members of Congress, figures in sports and entertainment, and leaders in the business and medical communities—to join her at the announcement. But it was the mayor of a small town in Mississippi and a Milwaukee, Wisc. farmer who talked most convincingly about the power of wholesome food.

Mayor Chip Johnson, of Hernando, Miss., started a farmers market on shaky ground one August. “Everybody said ‘well, it was too late in the season’,” Johnson said. “But we said ‘no, let’s get going. Let’s do it now.’ So we started.” In the next two months, 23 vendors signed on.

Will Allen, who founded the urban farming initiative Growing Power, took the stage soon after Johnson. Allen stressed the importance of access to fresh produce, and explained that urban agriculture can prove very profitable. The average conventional farm produces about $500 or profit per acre, he said, while a new approach to agriculture that he uses yields $5 per square foot–a total of $200,000 an acre. In addition to eating the fruits of such operations, Allen feels it is crucial for children to take part in growing them.

As DC Food for All reported, urban agriculture is getting a lot of attention in America. District residents have already thrown their energy and ingenuity behind the idea, with initiatives like Common Good City Farm, the Washington Youth Garden at the National Arboretum and the Neighborhood Farm Initiative are doing just that.

It may not matter if it’s at a market or on a farm. When I talked with him later, Allen agreed that D.C. can make high-yield urban agriculture happen. For every challenge, like contaminants in the soil, he seems to know of an advantage—or five. Composting could play a part in soil remediation, and the excess compost could become a lucrative product.

Just like the buy-in Obama garnered from cabinet members, kids will need to take part in getting a move on. As the next generation of eaters and growers ripens, Allen said, the key is having the kids experience real food—like Nguyen’s classmates did. “If they can touch it and feel it,” he said, “they’re bound to go the next step.”

For more:

Watch the full announcement

Read the Washington Post coverage in today’s paper and yesterday’s All We Can Eat blog

Check out the new Let’s Move website

View the new USDA Food Environment Atlas, which identifies “food deserts” that lack sources of fresh food

Photos, from top: Michelle Obama announces the Let’s Move initiative; middle school student Tammy Nguyen recalls planting and learning from the White House Kitchen Garden; Will Allen, of Growing Power. All photos by the author.

Posted on February 10th 2010 in Access, Action, Events, Food Security, Government Issues, Health | 4 Comments »

Introducing DC’s Field to Fork Network

DC’s Field to Fork Network includes dozens of organizations working in Washington, DC to foster regional change in how we approach our food. Members of the Network represent urban gardeners, farmers’ markets, distribution co-operatives, food banks, local government agencies, academic institutions, nutrition educators, community organizers, and cooks – our work encompasses everything between a gardener’s or farmer’s field and your fork!

Sounds a little bit like the DC Food for All, eh? The difference is that the Field to Fork Network is focused specifically on urban agriculture. Further, the Field to Fork website will be less focused on the local food news and city policy analysis you’ve come to expect from the DC Food for All, and more a space for you to learn how to get your hands dirty – literally. That said, we’re in this food movement together and we’ll be building a strong partnership between the two resources.

Organization as a Network will strengthen the linkages between community gardening, food preparation, and nutritional outreach, resulting in a “field to fork” network that will:

encourage the use of underutilized green space within the District for agriculture,
support diversity, abundance, affordability thus, consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables,
expand health and economic benefits by increasing access to fresh produce, and
engage participants and volunteers in outreach and educational opportunities throughout the year.

2010 marks the third year that many of these organizations have collaborated to put on Rooting DC, an annual day-long forum for urban gardeners. (To find out more and to support the conference, come out to the Rooting DC Happy Hour fundraiser tonight at Commonwealth Gastropub. 3rd annual Rooting DC tonight.)

Throughout the year, Rooting DC coordinators have written monthly email newsletters outlining upcoming events, volunteer opportunities, and workshops put on by the partners. Now in creation of the Field to Fork Network website, this information will be easily organized and accessible on-demand at www.fieldtoforknetwork.org!

Use this website to

gather resources for gardeners,
find upcoming volunteer opportunities in urban ag projects,
learn about upcoming workshops,
find info on bringing a wider of diversity of crops to your gardening community,
get recipes for local seasonal produce, or
just stay up to date on DC’s field to fork news.

We hope you will find this website a valuable resource as we grow over the course of the next few months. Please feel free to make suggestions for what additional information or resources ought to be included, by emailing us at DCFieldtoFork@gmail.com

Posted on February 2nd 2010 in Access, Events, Farmers, Organizations | 1 Comment »

Five actions D.C. food advocates can take for Haiti

4288512065_3e4d760950 With aftershocks continuing to slam Haiti, we’re all struggling to grasp the losses the earthquake has claimed. Deciding how to help is yet another challenge. Why not start with food? Here are five ways to take action as a food lover and supporter of food access.

5. Go to one of the establishments owned by D.C. restaurateur Ashok Bajaj. As The Washington Post’s Going Out Gurus and the DC Restaurant Examiner Lisa Shapiro report, Bajaj is offering a month-long fundraising deal at his seven restaurants. He will also match any donations his employees make to relief efforts. Stop by 701, Ardeo – Bardeo, Bibiana Osteria-Enoteca, The Bombay Club, Oval Room, or Rasika. From January 19 to February 19, and one dollar from the sale of each featured menu item will go to American Red Cross relief for Haiti.

4. Look for a red cross next to dishes at members of The Neighborhood Restaurant Group. Also thanks to the Going Out Guide we know that do-gooding items include “cupcakes at Buzz, wines at Tallula, Columbia Firehouse and the Evening Star Cafe, and beer at Rustico, Birch & Barley and ChurchKey.” Proceeds from those sales will go to the Red Cross and Haitian Emergency Rebuilding Operation (H.E.R.O.)

3. Grab some vegan desserts (or donate your own handiwork) at a D.C. Vegan Bake Sale for Haiti. The first takes place this Sunday, January 24, at the Takoma Park Farmers Market. The market is held at Carroll Ave. and Laurel Ave. in Takoma Park, Md. from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Drop off baked goods by 9:45 a.m. Or catch the sale on Saturday, February 6, in Falls Church, Va., at 1230 W. Broad St. in the Falls Plaza shopping center. Times not yet announced on the site. Proceeds will go to Food for Life Global.

2. Purchase or donate yet more desserts at a food blogger bake sale in Dupont Circle, in or close to the Dupont Circle FRESHFARM Market, tentatively scheduled for Sunday, January 31. The market takes place in the PNC Bank parking lot at Q St. and Massachusetts Ave. NW from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Official details are TBA.

1. Learn about and support nearby nonprofits’ efforts to provide food, clean water, and other essential aid to Haitian survivors with a sustainable development focus. Partners in Health, which is dedicated to treating illness in developing countries, subscribes to the Haitian proverb “Giving drugs without food is like washing your hands and drying them in the dirt.” Food is essential to health and well-being, and NGOs like Partners in Health, ActionAid, and the American Red Cross of the National Capital Area know how to deliver it while, at the same time, working toward local empowerment and ongoing development.

Photo: Creative Commons/Insidedisaster.com

Posted on January 22nd 2010 in Action, Events, Organizations | No Comments »

Local Restaurants for Local Kids

Looking for an excuse for a night out this Friday? Look no further! On January 22nd you can support locally-owned restaurants, the sustainable local food economy, and Washington, DC kids! The DC Farm to School Network’s Local Restaurants for Local Kids fundraiser is happening at some of the best restaurants in the District.

Several local food and drink hot spots are generously donating a portion of their proceeds to the DC Farm to School Network this Friday. The DC Farm to School Network is an organization that works to bring healthy, local produce into DC public school cafeterias. By simply enjoying a delicious snack, cocktail, or dinner at one of the great participating restaurants, you will help to improve access to healthy, tasty and local foods in D.C. schools! See below for listings, or at the Facebook page.

DC Farm to School Network volunteers will be available at the restaurants, ready to answer questions or chat with you about our work. We look forward to seeing you at the restaurants below—tell your friends! We’re also looking for more volunteers – email Lauren@dcgreens.org if you’re interested.

Learn more about the DC Farm to School Network at www.dcfarmtoschool.org

Thursday, January 21st

Blue Ridge
5:30pm-10:30pm
2340 Wisconsin Avenue NW

Friday, January 22nd

Busboys & Poets
5th and K Street NW (Mt. Vernon Sq. Metro)
14th and V Street NW (U St. Metro)
4251 S. Campbell Ave, Arlington, VA

Coppi’s Organic (from 6pm-11pm)
1414 U Street NW (U St. Metro)

Eatonville
2121 14th Street NW (U St. Metro)

Bar Pilar
1833 14th Street NW (U St. Metro)

Farmers & Fishers (All day!)
3000 K Street NW (Georgetown Waterfront—Foggy Bottom Metro)

Clyde’s
3236 M Street NW (Foggy Bottom Metro)
707 7th Street NW (Gallery Place Metro)
5441 Wisconsin Avenue, Chevy Chase, MD (Friendship Heights Metro)

PS-7 (Lounge from 4pm-2am)
777 I Street NW (Gallery Place Metro)

Bread and Brew (5-8pm in bar)
1247 20th Street NW (Dupont Circle Metro)

Cafe Saint-Ex
1847 14th Street NW (U St. Metro)

RIS (Proceeds from seasonal cocktail & appetizers after 4:30pm)
2275 L Street NW
(Foggy Bottom Metro)

Posted on January 20th 2010 in Access, Events, Schools | 3 Comments »