Phase Seven

I have learned very important facts about the food movement from these resources.  The Dauphincounty.org site gave direct information on how you can grow a garden.  Opposing Views, Urban Agriculture gave me a different perspective on how productive the food movement can be.  The View point "Local Food not Necessary Better" allowed me to review statistics on how the food movement was viewed as not a good idea.

These three sources I will use.  But I also have others, and will get more.  With he continuous research, I have learned that there are criteria's that are involved int he food movement.  It was important for me to name the audience.  Once I chose the grocery stores, I decided more research was needed on how they make their selection of fruits and vegetables.

Why I the local food movement taking place in Pennsylvania? What is the local food movement?  How does the local food movement effect us in Pennsylvania?  I as still working on my analytic question.

The research has been very helpful.  It pushed me to look for more sources.  It also made me realize that I did not have enough of sources.

I think the blog was a good research and writing tool.  By the Phase 6, I realized more research was necessary to give more detail information.  I may have not realized this if I was not doing the blogging.  I felt like I was repeating the same information.  I thought the blog was helpful.

BLog#6

http://www.dauphincounty.org/government/Parks-and-Recreation/Dauphin-County-Parks/Pages/Community-Garden.aspx


Community Gardens are sparking up everywhere. If you do not have the allotted space to grow your own garden there are other options. the Dauphin County department Parks and Recreations have created community gardens. The county has eight acres they allow people to rent out a 30 x 30 foot lot. This endeavor beginned in 1977, for the low fee of $10.00 you can rent one or more of the 318 lots available. This is a wonderful opportunity to grow you own vegetables or flowers. The lots are of a large size. Therefore, you want to be prepare for lots hard work. In the summertime, gardens need to be water every day. This is project you can do with combined family members. You can also grow food to share with other, food banks, or friends.

This site is dated April 2013 very current. This is a suggestion of growing your own garden. It does not indicate involvement with the local food movement. Its intentment is share the planning of the gardening process. A very reputable site, PAGov, there is not individual writers listed. They want this community project be a success. By charging a fee of $10.00, that assures the total eight acre will be rented.




Kollin, C. (2012). The Best Business Model for Urban Agriculture Hass Yet to Be Determined. In N. Dziedzic & L. Zott (Eds.), Opposing Viewpoints. Urban Agriculture. Detroit: Greenhaven Press. (Reprinted from Urban Farming: It's a Growth Business, MarcGunther.com, 2010) Retrieved from http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/ViewpointsDetailsWindow?query=&prodId=OVIC&displayGroupName=Viewpoints&limiter=&source=&disableHighlighting=true&displayGroups=&sortBy=&search_within_results=&action=2&catId=&activityType=&documentId=GALE%7CEJ3010813219&userGroupName=harr60939&jsid=4eea3879d75e29aa19d55dfe93a84789

The Best Business Model for Urban Agriculture Has Yet to be determined
Urban Agriculture, 2012

Will Allen, the creator of Growing Power in Milwaukee, has successfully figure out the the way to produce large-scale compost operation, fish tanks and grow food. And be able to feed ten thousand low-income residents of the Milwaukee area. This a former basketball player whom is making it all work, he has fourteen green houses. Then the left over food is used for compost to grow vegetables and to feed the tilapia and lake perch in his tanks. His food business goes a step further and teaches life skills, writing skills and jobs for those that need them. He has improved the Milwaukee area.

This is local food movement on a large scale. This is example of a person choosing to help people through growing food. And utilizing their own money to invest. He has a model business. This article was so interesting that I searched for additional information on Mr. Will Allen. He has a website http://growingpower.org/ , his program is currently in 17 different cities.

This particular story has a couple more layers, he hires and trains teenagers life skills. He trains farmers to grow fruits and vegetables in greenhouses. One of his new endeavors to have multi-level greenhouses.

The food from this farm is sold to grocery stores, the farmers market and restaurants in the area. This was encouraging story for me. People are still able to eat fresh vegetables and fruits. This article came from Opposing Views, Harrisburg Area community College Library. This article was accurate, I watched a Steven Colbert interview him on his show. It was great interview. Very funny, but he gave more of his background and the love of growing things.

The intention of this article was to show different ways people receive and give help through the food movement. I enjoyed passing this information on. If there is someone that want to take the initiative to needy a neighborhood, this is one way to help.

DeWeerdt, S. (2010). Local Food Is Not Necessarily Better for the Environment. In A. Francis, At Issue. The Local Food Movement. Detroit: Greenhaven Press. (Reprinted from World Watch Magazine, 2009, May-June, 22[3], 6-10) Retrieved from http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/ViewpointsDetailsWindow?




It take more energy, and generates more emissions to grow grain, feed cows and produce milk based products and meat from the cows, than to feed grain directly to humans. The perception of raising animals on the farm, does not resonate with people. However, thinking about the delivery of groceries to the store, and then driving to the store to get them. People can easily relate to that. Therefore, it much easier to believe the problem with emissions is because of the latter. Not the feeding and growing of livestock.

This poses a couple questions. How much co2 does a cow release? How much does a cow eat? These are questions that I do not have the answer to as this time. With the local food movement information is always given about how long it takes for food to get to our table. How long does it take to prepare milk for our tables? That is another great question.

The local food movement has a positive benefits. Taking out the time to know you local farmer, help sustain the local farm, and at the same time enjoy local fruits and vegetables. Which is great, not sure if helping with emissions is one of the benefits.

Blog #4

I researched this article called "A New Prescription For the Local Food Movement" from Kendra Klein. This was from a website called "The Nation".


The CEO, Rob Casalou and the Chief Clinical Dietitian, Lisa Mcdowell from St Joe's Hospital decided to purchase food locally for the hospital. They started out with green beans. The challenged they received was the green beans were not ready for cooking, that have to be clipped and cleaned. The Chef complaint was he needed additional preparation time. The usual supplier of the green beans are ready to be cooked. This was the challenge, you buy locally, eliminating the middle man the savings were huge, the food was better. But you need more time to prepare the food.(Klein,2012).

The article was reliable. They were reporting results. I was able to find supporting articles on the net about the movement. The Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) have announced that 400 hospitals across the country the world have join. This organization encourages the hospital to purchase food locally for their cafeterias (Avila, 2012)

To tell the public that the local food movement is looking to move larger. This is informative and also a selling point. If you support the local food movement, then you may want to visit this particular hospital because they also support the same movement. As a informative article, it is clear that Ms. Klein gives you all the details with purchasing and distributing of food. This seems to be objective point of view. It not political but it could make a big difference on the food industry. In this article they give the food supplier name. He supplies all food and paper products. One stop shopping. The hospital food budget is four million dollars.(Klein,2012).



The Local Food movement is Hurting Farmers by Sierra Tishgart, Grub Street website.http://newyork.grubstreet.com/2013/03/local-food-movement-farmers.html

This article is stating it makes you feel better to shop from the local farmer's market, but however it is leaving the farmer with little to no money. Because the return on investments for fruits and vegetables are too small. Not profitable use of time. The farmers are surviving because of the school to farm partnerships and selling produce to WalMarts.(Tishgart.2013)

The local food movement is not helping the farmer. This was article from Grub Street website. Very short article there is no supporting evidence. The article is very emotional. Angry tone has been taken, curse words are used. This article can be called teaching and persuasion method used. I was able to find another article to support this particular theory. The intention are clear.

The two articles were different in several ways. The first article was very lengthy, current information was used, I was able to find supporting information. "The Nation" was more credible. The "Grub Street", is reputable website. Its is part of New York Times. The article however, was very short, and did not give supporting information. I was unable to find supporting information about the farmers making no money. Not as credible.



Cited Work

Klein, K. (2012). A new prescription for the local food movement. from http://www.thenation.com/article/170526/new-prescription-local-food-movement#

Avila, L. (2012) .Hospital-join-healthier-food-movement-video-story. from http://www.postcrescent.com/article/20130315/APC03/303150261/Hospitals-join-healthier-food-movement-video-story- written Lary Avila Post-cresecent media

Tishgart, S. (2013).The local movement is hurting farmers. from http://newyork.grubstreet.com/2013/03/local-food-movement-farmers.html

The Local Food Movement is the movement to purchase and consume locally grown foods.  When you purchase food from you local farms or farmers market.  Your are helping with the support. When you purchase food locally, you are forced to eat the vegetable or fruit that is in season. It also eliminates the process of shipping the food from warmer climates, these locations are generally far.  Use large amounts of fuel, this contributes to air pollutions.

There are studies have found agriculture production accounts for the bulk of greenhouse gas emissions (air pollution).  It takes more energy to grow grain, feed cows and produce meat and dairy products for human consumptions.  It is a better to change the eating habits of Americans than changing the buying practices of Americans.

The two articles that I chose, directly oppose one another.  It was difficult to find opposition of the Local Food Movement. They took out the time to explain why a change is needed in the practice of human purchasing and consuming. 

I am a supporter of the local food movement.  I directly buy meats from farms, and also use farmer markets.  I also have a garden every year.  What I did not know however, was the amount of energy goes into raising beef  and dairy cattle. 

Local Food Movement

The Local food movement is a wonderful movement, it allows you to eat healthier, fresher food. Fresh vegetables are always more enjoyable. The food movement promotes healthier eating. When vegetables or fruits are shipped. They are often picked before they are ripe. This results in lost of some of their nutrients. The local food movement promotes buying from you local farmer markets or directly from farms.


When I grew up, at our home, we always had fresh vegetables. Potatoes, cucumbers, watermelons, tomatoes, squash, onions, peas, peppers, corn. Additionally we had peach, apple and pear trees, and concord grapevines. It made me more aware of when fruit and vegetables are in season. In season, meaning the natural time of the year when fruit or vegetables grow in your area. For example apples are ripe in September.

Knowledge is power, environmentally it is important to know what going on with the food you eat and purchase. People do not always know where their food originated from. In place of employment my knowledge can be shared.

This blog will continually review the local food movement. It will be interesting to view the  local food movement effects, it will have on larger, inner cities. Where growing gardens and buying local may not exist.