Support urban farming in KC

Support Urban Food Production in Kansas City!!

The Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture, one of our community partners from Rock Out Reach Out is getting the word out about urban farming in our city. Whether you grow local food or buy local food, this information is very important to you. Come to BADSEED, Tuesday, October 20, 6:00-7:30 pm, to discuss proposing City Code changes that will benefit Urban Agriculture.

BADSEED has gotten a lot of flack and legal pressure lately about farming in the city, and I want to invite Kansas City friends and allies to support Kansas City urban farming by coming to this initial meeting.

Katherine Kelly of KCCUA says, "In our meetings with the Urban Planning and Development staff, and with various city council people, they expressed a willingness to work with us to develop codes that more accurately fit the ways that urban food production is developing in Kansas City, MO. They are in a review period looking at the revised codes, so the timing is good for refinements.

The Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture, Bad Seed Farm, and the Food Policy Coalition for Greater Kansas City are organizing a meeting of any interested community members who would like to have input into this process. You are invited to attend, Tuesday, October 20, 6:00-7:30 pm, at the Bad Seed Market at 1909 McGee, Kansas City, MO."

The goals of the meeting are:

· To look at existing codes that impact urban agriculture,

· To brainstorm about changes that might be useful and supportive of the benefits of urban agriculture, and

· To put together a volunteer committee of Kansas City, MO residents to lead the codes revisions process. This committee would work with KCCUA, the Food Policy Coalition, and city staff to research possibilities, prioritize, draft, and build political support for more urban ag applicable codes.

· Start a process that other municipalities in the metro area can use as inspiration and as a model for creating more urban ag friendly cities.

At the meeting, we will have KCMO Councilwoman Beth Gottstein, Patty Knoll from the Planning and Development Department of the city, and possibly other city representatives.

PLEASE RSVP to Katherine Kelly! They want to have some idea of how many folks to expect. And, if you can, bring a folding chair, Bad Seed will have some on hand, but depending on the numbers, we may need more.

If you have any questions about this, you can contact:
Katherine Kelly, KC Center for Urban Agriculture, 913-831-2444, or katherine@kccua.org
Gretchen Kunkel, Food Policy Coalition of Greater Kansas City, ghkunkel@kc.rr.com
Dan Heryer & Brooke Salvaggio, badseedfarm@hotmail.com

Even if you can't make commitments to the long process ahead, I hope we can have lots of people show overwhelming support for this initial meeting. Hope to see you there!

cell phone safety

Have you heard the buzz about cell phones? No, I don't mean the buzz when you have your phone on silent, vibrating across the table. The Environmental Working Group has just released a study about cell phone radiation and safety, and it has gotten a lot of attention in the US and around the world. Even the US Senate has called the authors of the report to testify before the Appropriations Subcommittee on Health. Read the article to find out more about the issues and to see how your cell phone ranks in radiation. Bad news for me, mine is high on radiation, so don't call me!

Do you know where your meat comes from?

Here's an interesting blog post by the Utne Reader about eating meat and your carbon footprint. I'm sure you've heard before that NOT eating meat is good for the environment, but these people remind us that, depending on where the meat comes from, it can benefit the environment to eat meat.


My wife and I have been members of a local meat CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) for over a year now. We feel good about both the environmental and economic impacts of supporting this local, natural farm because of their holistic approach to farming. We have also gotten to know the family of six who works so hard to put dinner on our table, which is something that sadly most of us don't get to experience anymore.

I encourage you to find out more about the foods you eat, not just meat. How far has it traveled to get to your table? What are the ingredients and where did they come from? (Mother Nature, or an industrial lab?) How processed is it? (Sometimes processed vegetarian foods use way more energy than a fresh piece of meat.) Who had a hand in making this for me?

If you're interested in local food, drop me a note at honset@william.jewell.edu and I'll tell you about some other Kansas City area resources.