BFC Action Alerts Digest 4/11/11

April 11, 2011Prospect Farm Leave a comment

Support the Fair Wages For New Yorkers Act

The Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act was introduced to City Council on May 25, 2010. It requires that developers who receive major taxpayer-funded subsidies must pay at least a living wage for the jobs they create.

The Food Policy Committee is drafting a letter of support on behalf of the Brooklyn Food Coalition, but we encourage you to send a message of support to your City Council Member. Go to Living Wage NYC’s webform to send your message.
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GMO: The Right to Know

Do you know what genetically modified organisms are? Do you want to know if they’re in your food? Read more about GMOs in our food in this blog post by Nutrition Evolution. One of the best ways to stay on top of the issue is to join Millions Against Monsanto. If you would like to join other BFC members in organizing an anti-GMO event on World Food Day (October 16) contact us at info@brooklynfoodcoalition.org.

Support Prospect Farm’s Compost System

April 11, 2011Prospect Farm Leave a comment

Here is your chance to support Prospect Farm’s continuing efforts to reduce, reuse and recycle!! Prospect Farm will be installing a 3 bin compost system in 2011 to streamline composting needs, improve your drop-off experience, and accelerate our process of soil remediation. We are working with Ioby.org to raise the funds in Spring 2011.

How You Can Help –> Simply go to http://ioby.org/projects/brooklyn/prospect-farm-compost-collection-bins

Every dollar donated to this project will be matched by funds from the Brooklyn Community Foundation. We will make double the money in half the time! Contribute to your ever-growing neighborhood project PROSPECT FARM NOW!

Thank you for all the support you have already shown and for your continued support & friendship. For questions please contact Astri at akingstone@verizon.net

Spring Volunteer Days A Success!

April 3, 2011Prospect Farm Leave a comment

Over 2 1/2 days members and volunteers managed to turn over all the plots, start some heirloom seeds (indoors), trench compost a new plot, take down a few trees, which were all cut and bundled for removal, clean the garbage and debris off the hill, plus move several hundred pounds of wood chips up the hill to make room for more growing space.

Turning the soil in trench composted plots

Laguradia High School Ecology Club Students are great workers.

Volunteers dug up huge rocks, which are now being used to line Prospect Farm's paths and terraces

Worms!

Turning the soil in trench composted plots

Members carefully cut down a tree.

Moving the wood chips up the hill to make more space. A tough job.

Bundling wood to be put on the curb for the city to pick up.

The new seed box

Volunteer Saturday April 2nd at Prospect Farm

April 1, 2011Prospect Farm Leave a comment

Prospect Farm invites you to the second half of our
2011 Spring Kick-Off Saturday April 2nd

Sunshine is in the forecast. If it rains the day will be moved to Sunday April 3rd. Volunteer, learn, sign up to grow or be a member in 2011. Spring Cleaning includes: trench composting, turning soil, preparing a new composting site, planting ornamentals, and more.

NOTE: We will begin accepting compost on Saturdays from 11am to 2 pm. Bring your food scraps down.

Saturday April 2nd
10 Am – 3 PM at Prospect Farm
1194 Prospect Avenue btw Seeley and Vanderbilt St, Brooklyn
F / G train to Ft Hamilton Station
Bring drinking water, gloves and a shovel if you have one. Children must be supervised by an adult.

Email Questions: prospectfarmbk@gmail.com

Event on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com

BFC Action Alerts Weekly Digest

March 28, 2011Prospect Farm Leave a comment

Paula our BFC Policy ambassador sends us the weeks action alerts

No Farms No Food Rally Wednesday
Nofarmsnofood

If you haven’t already, register today for the No Farms No Food Rally and Lobby Day in Albany happening Wednesday!

Bus transportation round-trip from New York City to Albany will be available. Bus departs Union Square at 7 a.m. and returns to Manhattan by 7:30 or 8 p.m. Lunch will be provided.

Proposed federal budget cuts threaten the GreenThumb program and its support of New York City’s Community Gardens!

Right now, Congress has proposed cuts to eliminate funding for the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program for the remainder of 2011, and a nearly two-thirds reduction to future CDBG funds. GreenThumb receives 100% of its funding through CDBG and could be eliminated or have its overall budget severely cut if HR1 is passed.

Contact your Representatives in the House and Senators Schumer and Gillibrand on behalf of NYC’s community gardens! Be sure to mention that GreenThumb is an important CDBG funded program, important to your garden and your community.

But wait, there’s more!

Don’t let the Administration gut innovative programs that reward farmers for environmental stewardship and protect fragile wetlands while leaving unscathed the $5 billion dollar a year that is spent on production subsidies in the form of direct payments – payments that go to farmers and landowners without regard to need or even crop price levels.

Tell U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Vilsack to stand up for the Conservation Stewardship Program and the Wetlands Reserve Program. If cuts are to be made then everything has to be on the table –a budget package that singles out conservation is shortsighted and unfair.
Join Millions Against Monsanto
Rally-poster

Love how Europeans have effectively fought against genetically modified foods? Millions against Monsanto is taking a similar approach, targeting both government and food retailers with a grassroots message: Label GMO Foods.

Join them online and sign the petition. They are planning a day of action in NYC on World Food Day in October.
Rally & Lobby Day To Stop Unsafe Gas Drilling

Join us again in Albany for a larger Rally & Lobby Day to stop unsafe gas drilling.

The rally will start on the Capital Lawn at 10:30 AM and be followed by visits with legislators throughout the afternoon. This is the day to get you and everyone you can to Albany and show with sheer numbers and diversity that all of New York; upstate, downstate, environmentalist, capitalist, scientist, mother, farmer, father, teacher, and student do not want this pushed ahead at the expense of our communities, our health, our water and our air!!!!

Register for the lobby day at http://www.citizenscampaign.org/hfrac. For a bus from Brooklyn contact Eric Weltman from Food & Water Watch at (718) 943-9085 or eweltman@fwwatch.org.

Policy Action Alerts from the BFC

March 22, 2011March 30, 2016Prospect Farm Leave a comment

Support the Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act

City Council Speaker Quinn will be holding a hearing in April for the Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act, Int. 0251-2010. Fighting for food justice includes fighting for food workers, which is why we think this legislation is so important.

Please show your support by calling Speaker Quinn with the message below at (212) 788-7210 or email speakerquinn@council.nyc.ny.us using the subject line “Support for hearing for the Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act.” Include your zip code!

Dear Speaker Quinn,

I call [or write] you today as a member of the Brooklyn Food Coalition to thank you for your commitment to holding a hearing for the Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act, Int 0251-2010.

Too often, jobs created with public subsidies pay poverty wages with no benefits. And many, if not most, of those jobs are in the food system. The median hourly wages of restaurant workers in New York is less then $9 an hour and close to 90% have no health insurance provided by their employers. It’s time for the city to stop subsidizing corporations who in turn refuse to pay their workers a
living wage. This results in larger profits for the corporations while the workers must turn to public assistance to just get by, resulting in a double subsidy costing the city even more money. Economic
development must be encouraged but not to the detriment of the very workers it’s intended to help.

We look forward to the upcoming hearing.

Click to email individual Council people.

If you can, please also attend this rally:

Brooklyn Mass Meeting for Living Wages
Date: April 4, 2011
Time: 06:00pm
Location: Bethel Baptist Church
265 Bergen Street, Brooklyn, NY, 11217

No Farms No Food Rally March 30

Please join Brooklyn Food Coalition, farmers, food advocates, local officials, environmentalists, and others who care about farms and food to lobby New York State legislators at the Capitol. Urge your representatives to support funding and legislation that:

Protects farmland for future generations
Increases consumer access to nutritious foods grown in New York
Helps farmers protect water and the environment
Strengthens New York’s farm and food economy

American Farmland Trust will provide transportation and are promising a delicious farm-fresh lunch! Sign up today and see you there.

Help Save Our Bees

Nearly a third of all honeybee colonies in North America are dying every year. ‘Colony Collapse Disorder’ is a major contributor to these deaths, and while there is still no scientific consensus as to the cause, keeping pollinators healthy is crucial for the health of our environment and the future of our food.

Honeybees pollinate many of the foods we eat – from apples to chestnuts to raspberries and squash. That’s why I’m asking you today to join Slow Food USA’s campaign to save the bees, and our food chain.

Tell the White House: Put the Breaks on GM Seeds

In the space of just two weeks the USDA has deregulated genetically modified (GM) seeds for beets, alfalfa, and corn produced for ethanol. President Obama needs to hear how YOU feel about GM seeds; his administration is under the impression that supporting Monsanto will make them appear business-friendly even though GM seeds could destroy small family farms, especially organic farms.

Action: Please contact the White House (via Food & Water Watch) or call the White House at (202) 456-1111 to tell them you oppose GM seed deregulation.

Say No to Frankenfish

Genetically engineered salmon is on track to be the first GE animal approved for human consumption. It’s time to stop this Frankenfish for good by passing a bill to ban GE salmon in the U.S.

The FDA is trying to approve GE salmon as a new animal drug, but the truth is, U.S. food agencies don’t have a way to fully evaluate the impacts of GE salmon on human health or the environment. Last fall, we delivered over 90,000 comments from our supporters opposing the approval of GE salmon and so far, the FDA hasn’t approved it.

Please ask Senators Gillibrand and Schumer to co-sponsor the bill (S. 230) to ban GE salmon.

Senator Charles Schumer: (202) 224-6542 or (212) 486-4430
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: (202) 224-4451 or (212) 688-6262

Spring Kick-Off: Our First Volunteer Days!!

March 22, 2011Prospect Farm Leave a comment

Prospect Farm invites you to the
2011 Spring Kick-Off March 26th, 27th + April 2nd

Volunteer, learn, sign up to grow or be a member in 2011. Spring Cleaning includes: trench composting, turning soil, preparing a new composting site, planting ornamentals, and more.

Three Days
Saturday March 26th, Sunday March 27th & Saturday April 2nd
10 Am – 3 PM (Sunday will probably be a shorter day) at Prospect Farm
1194 Prospect Avenue btw Seeley and Vanderbilt St, Brooklyn
F / G train to Ft Hamilton Station
Bring drinking water, gloves and a shovel if you have one. Children must be supervised by an adult.

Email Questions: prospectfarmbk@gmail.com

Event on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=173476679371820#

Upcoming End of March Events

March 17, 2011March 30, 2016Prospect Farm Leave a comment

March 19th – Volunteer to build a compost bins at Sustainable Flatbush’s Church Avenue Communal Garden, East 21st Street at Kenmore Terrace, 11 am – 3 pm. Details here.

March 25th – “Is Local Agriculture Good for the Environment: The Hidden Costs of Food in New York City” event at the Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Avenue at 103rd Street. 6:30 pm, $6 museum members; $8 seniors and students; $12 non-members. Reservations required. Details here.

March 26th – Spring Kick-Off volunteer/learning day at Prospect Farm. 10am – 3 pm. Bring work gloves, water, and a shovel if you have one. Children must be accompanied an adults.

April 2nd – Second Spring Kick-Off volunteer/learning day at Prospect Farm. 10am – 3 pm. Bring work gloves, water, and a shovel if you have one. Children must be accompanied an adults.

Compost videos from Annie Hauck

March 13, 2011March 30, 2016Prospect Farm Leave a comment

Hello Prospect Farm Members,

Am happy that the frame insert for our ‘Straw Fort’ last year has a new home at Prospect Farm.
You can see its life as a combined insulated compost bin and cold frame to grow salad greens (assembled, filmed and maintained in our front yard due diagonal to Prospect Farm last winter – see videos 4 & 5 at http://www.brooklynmompostcompost.com.

Since many Prospect Farm members are involved in composting, our videos on the NBC GreenIsUniversal blog and Facebook page link may be helpful:
http://www.greenisuniversal.com/?p=25184

Finally, we designed and constructed a three-part compost bin for the community gardeners at Ft. Tilden.Using nearly all re-purposed and found materials, the bin cost about $2.34. See it at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUSop21LrqI

Enjoy and best wishes in composting,
Annie Hauck-Lawson

Making Brooklyn Bloom free at BBG this Saturday March 12th

March 7, 2011Prospect Farm Leave a comment

This year’s Making Brooklyn Bloom focuses on the ways gardening can build communities and strengthen relationships among neighbors, schools, service organizations, and beyond. The free event features fifteen workshops—covering topics in urban sustainable horticulture including rooftop farming, citizen science, and caring for street trees—all presented by community leaders in urban greening, members of BBG’s horticulture staff, or experts from other environmental organizations in New York City. First Annual Wilbur A. Levin Keynote Address with workshops all day. Free.

Saturday, March 12 | 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Brooklyn Botanical Gardens
Details: http://www.bbg.org/visit/event/mbb_2011/