Sustainable Food & Agriculture

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Sustainable food and agriculture policies bring economic benefit to small farmers and small businesses, health benefits to consumers, and environmental benefits to the land, air, and water.

Members: 34
Latest Activity: Nov 14, 2011

Why Sustainable Food and Agriculture

After a group member wondered privately to me if she had anything to add to the conversation because she is new to the topic, I responded with this message. I decided to post it here, too, as an introduction to what I hope the SF&A groups evolves into.

Thanks for joining the conversation! By all means, please jump in with any topics and questions you may have. The group is for people of all experience levels with the topic. Interest in sustainable food and agriculture is not limited to a single group of people or type of person. After all, everybody eats!

I posted the legislation topics as a starter issue to get folks thinking, but I hope this group evolves into something that includes opportunities to help at all levels of interest. And, I only hand-picked a few potential pieces of legislation in Nashville that have some impact on the topic.

Ideally, as the group evolves, we'll have links and good info for a variety of audiences including home gardeners, small business owners, environmentalists & folks involved in the food industry.

My personal vision for this group is that we can build a community of interested Democrats here to help each other find and share information relating to the many issues that affect our food and agriculture policies. This ranges from tips for home gardeners (especially folks interested in organic/chemical-free gardens), info on legislation affecting small farmers, encouraging entrepreneurs to develop local food processing businesses, monitoring environmental impacts on our food supply (such as the TVA ash spill in Roane County), lobbying for new methods of regulating small farmers and independent food producers to better able them to compete with giant agri-businesses, and even tips on where to find and buy good local food.

Sustainable food policy connects to a variety of issues including energy independence, environmental protection, small business development, local economics, health, and community building. If you eat or plan to eat in the future, you have something to contribute here.

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Comment by Paula Flowers on April 23, 2009 at 9:16pm: Great group! I am working on a great biomass project which will provide a sustainable biomass agricultural industry in Tennessee, implemented through a small farmer-owned new generation cooperative to provide biomass production and processing for clean energy and ethanol production. From farm to the fuel pump and life-cycle carbon negative! Go TN farmers!

Comment by Eric Scott Lykins on April 16, 2009 at 9:26am: farmers' markets, stores, groups, initiatives...
Knoxville Local Food Resources, from aforkintheroad.org
...best link found at the above link: Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project: asapconnections.org

Comment by Shane Rhyne on April 14, 2009 at 5:41pm: I'm uploading some discussion topics in the group's forums. Right now I'm looking over legislation currently sitting before the state house and state senate that touch on some issues common to the sustainable food & agriculture topic. This is by no means a comprehensive look at all of the topics, but I hope to keep adding some as we go. Feel free to jump in and add some, too. Also, feel free to jump in and add your own comments or thoughts on some of these. Are there some pieces of legislation (currently listed in the forums or otherwise) that you feel passionately about and that you believe should be getting the attention of your fellow SF&A members? Let us know. Thanks!

Comment by Shane Rhyne on April 5, 2009 at 9:12am: Eric,
That sounds like a great project. I'd love to come by some time and see it!

Comment by Eric Scott Lykins on April 4, 2009 at 1:27pm: Shane, thanks for creating this group. I work at Manhattan's and Patrick Sullivan's in Knoxville's Old City and we are in the sprouting phase of putting a farm on top of Manhattan's. If it goes well, we have a lot more space on top of the antique store beside P. (Not O'!)Sullivan's. We would appreciate any tips.

Comment by Shane Rhyne on April 3, 2009 at 4:23pm: Welcome to the Sustainable Food and Sustainable Agriculture group. I have high hopes that we can work to make a difference on this issue in the coming years.