Sunday, October 3, 2010

Doctor Sets Up Successful Organic Food Market Outside Hospital

a widespread interest in food and healthy eating among his peers.

“This is a generation that cares a lot more and knows a lot more about the importance of diet,” he said. “We need a system that educates physicians about nutrition, and we’re the ones who are going to have to fight for it.”

The sheer scale of Kaiser, which holds farmers’ markets at 30 sites, makes changing the way food is bought a challenge, but also an opportunity.

“We can leverage our size to create greater demand for healthy food,”

“It’s difficult for farmers to crack the institutional supply chain,” he said. “We need a ‘universal adapter’ that can pair small producers with big customers.”

a regional growers’ cooperative

putting some of Kaiser’s undeveloped land into agriculture.

“As someone who relies on evidence-based medicine, it bothers me that we don’t have clear metrics to guide these food-related initiatives,” he said. “But for now, I remind myself of the enduring value of another care-giving principle: common sense.”



http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/22/dining/22doctors.html?pagewanted=all

Doctor’s Orders: Eat Well to Be Well

Peter DaSilva for The New York Times

Dr. Preston Maring, left, who began a farmers’ market at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, with his son, Ben.

Published: September 21, 2010
OAKLAND, Calif.

DR. PRESTON MARING was striding along a hospital corridor at double speed on a recent Friday morning, his tall frame, white hair and frequent gesticulations prompting waves of greetings from colleagues, who also took care to sidestep his forward momentum. His destination was the weekly farmers’ market he started in 2003, just outside the front door at the Kaiser Permanente medical center here.

“Since it’s mine, I made the rules — all organic,” he said as he skimmed by a line of stalls where fresh fruits and vegetables are sold to hospital workers, passers-by and even, he said, those bringing patients to the emergency room.

Dr. Maring, 64, a gynecologist and obstetrician with three decades as a surgeon, is well known as a former physician in chief at the hospital, the man who spearheaded the creation of its new pediatric neurosurgery unit.

But increasingly, his reputation and perpetual motion revolve around his conviction that in the health professions, the kitchen must become as crucial as the clinic. Food is at the center of health and illness, he argues, and so doctors must make all aspects of it — growing, buying, cooking, eating — a mainstay of their medical educations, their personal lives and their practices.

Though Dr. Maring blithely refers to himself as “that food nut around the hospital,” he is serious about the role he believes doctors should play in creating awareness of healthy food choices. To that end, he has worked to obtain fresh local food for hospital trays and in cafeterias. He began a Web site and blog that offers recipes and advice on meal planning and budgeting. He spent the summer working on a series of three-minute Web videos to explain the basics of shopping for healthful foods and efficient preparation techniques.

He also created a kind of culinary road show, which regularly takes him to health care institutions around the country, toting a PowerPoint presentation, a couple of plastic vegetable knives (“one of the great technological breakthroughs”), some salad ingredients and the makings of a vinaigrette.

“I like to put doctors on the spot,” he said, referring to his penchant for hauling a senior clinician up to the front of the room to chop vegetables with him. “We tend to be exalted, and I want to show the staffs that many of us don’t know how to mince garlic.”

If there was ever a time when doctors need to be as handy with a peeling knife as they are with a scalpel, this may be it. The draft version of the federal government’s 2010 Dietary Guidelines, which will be formally released in December, identifies obesity as the nation’s greatest public-health threat. It also notes the relationship of fast food (and physical inactivity) to unhealthy weight gain and emphasizes the importance of plant-based foods in the diet.

Despite evidence that doctors have a greater life expectancy than average, they don’t necessarily look after their own dietary health, said Dr. Walter Willett, chairman of the nutrition department at the Harvard School of Public Health. “You’ll have a pretty hard time these days finding a doctor who smokes, but not nearly as hard a time finding one who eats terrible food.” He recalled a major breakfast gathering he attended several years ago: “I came in a bit late and was struck by the surreal image of senior scientists feeding on junk while discussing solutions to national nutritional problems.“

Dr. Willett cited surveys showing that during examinations of obese patients, doctors often don’t remark on overweight as a health issue. “Many of them just avoid it,” he said, either because they doubt their counsel will be heeded or because they don’t know the issues well enough themselves, leading the patient to underestimate the gravity of the situation.

For many doctors, an uneasy relationship with nutrition starts as early as medical school. Long hours and ready access to fast food, often on the hospital grounds, tends to undermine students’ best dietary intentions, said Dr. Robert F. Kushner, a professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, where he directs the Center for Lifestyle Medicine. “Even the ones who come in excited about eating well and exercise find that good habits are harder and harder to maintain as time goes on,” Dr. Kushner said.

Dr. Maring’s son, Ben, 30, a fourth-year medical student at New York University School of Medicine, hopes to change that. Mr. Maring has developed a series of cooking classes that incorporate salient aspects of nutrition and clinical medicine. He named his scheme CHEF — for Cook Healthy, Eat Fresh.

In 2009, he began lugging duffel bags filled with cooking implements and ingredients from his Brooklyn apartment to the medical school campus on East 31st Street in Manhattan, where he commandeered a spare lounge and taught fellow students simple preparation techniques, introduced guest speakers in specialties like diabetes and endocrinology, and handed out reams of recipes.

“I thought it was important for medical students to learn how to cook and eat well,” he said. “I also thought it was important for us to walk the walk when it comes to counseling patients about the importance of diet. We get so little training in nutrition that I wanted to provide some basic knowledge.”

Dr. Maring said: “You should have seen him trying to drag a convection oven into a taxicab. We cooked together as a family when he was a kid, but he blew past me a long time ago. Now I’m his sous-chef.”

Ben Maring, who has his father’s imposing build and forceful personality, but with a quieter, more scholarly mien, first planned on a career as a chef and did a post-culinary-school apprenticeship at Thomas Keller’s Per Se restaurant in Manhattan in 2005.

“It was very much like the world of a hospital, where you’re on your feet the whole time, you have to make the right decisions very quickly, and you have to be highly self-motivated while also working as part of a team,” Mr. Maring said. Nor was Mr. Keller’s keen appraisal of the neophyte’s technique unlike the scrutiny he now endures on hospital rotations. “I remember being at the pass” — the area closest to the dining room — “about to sauce a plate, and Keller came and stood right next to me,” Mr. Maring said. “I was so nervous. I was trying to artfully drizzle a broken foie gras vinaigrette, and my hand was just shaking. He jokingly asked if I had had too much caffeine.”

Mr. Maring is encouraged that CHEF’s feedback surveys show students are developing confidence in their cooking skills, making better food choices and feeling more comfortable talking to patients about the links between diet and health. He is developing recipes geared to the seasonal offerings at a new farmers’ market at Bellevue Hospital Center, adjacent to the N.Y.U. medical campus, which was begun in July by Aviva Regev, 24, a third-year student and CHEF participant.

Mr. Maring has another ally in Benjamin Navot, 25, a third-year student who entered medical school directly after graduating from the French Culinary Institute in Manhattan and has taught some CHEF classes. Mr. Navot acknowledged that, like Mr. Maring, his perspective on food is greatly influenced by his previous experience. But he, too, senses a widespread interest in food and healthy eating among his peers.

“This is a generation that cares a lot more and knows a lot more about the importance of diet,” he said. “We need a system that educates physicians about nutrition, and we’re the ones who are going to have to fight for it.”

But the older generation can pick up a few new tricks, too. Preston Maring said that in some ways, his attempts to get more fresh local foods into hospitals have been reminiscent of his days as a young resident at Kaiser, particularly the need to climb a steep learning curve.

“I became the person who asks dumb questions constantly,” he said of the time he has spent over the last couple of years studying the technical aspects of food-distribution systems. “I just learned, for example, that cherry tomatoes with the stems still on are a no-go in an inpatient setting, and that at Kaiser there’s a specific size limit for an apple on a tray, because they’re stacked vertically for delivery.”

Kaiser Permanente, which is a provider and an insurer, is the largest nonprofit health care system in the country, with about 8 million members, 15,000 doctors and 170,000 employees, predominantly in western states. The sheer scale of Kaiser, which holds farmers’ markets at 30 sites, makes changing the way food is bought a challenge, but also an opportunity.

“We can leverage our size to create greater demand for healthy food,” Dr. Maring said. Kaiser Permanente Oakland, for example, serves 6,000 inpatient meals a day, 80 percent of which have no special restrictions.

“It’s difficult for farmers to crack the institutional supply chain,” he said. “We need a ‘universal adapter’ that can pair small producers with big customers.” Toward that end, he helped start a regional growers’ cooperative and joined the board of the nonprofit entity that administers it, the Community Alliance With Family Farmers.

Dr. Maring also envisions Kaiser’s role expanding into areas like environmental stewardship, and he has carved out a kind of subspecialty in institutional real estate, with the goal of eventually putting some of Kaiser’s undeveloped land into agriculture.

“As someone who relies on evidence-based medicine, it bothers me that we don’t have clear metrics to guide these food-related initiatives,” he said. “But for now, I remind myself of the enduring value of another care-giving principle: common sense.”

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Another Study Shows Significant Lifestyle Changes - Diet, Exercise - Are Much Better Than Medication

Drastic lifestyle changes are best treatment for diabetes, obesity

Saturday, October 02, 2010 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
http://www.naturalnews.com/029918_diabetes_lifestyle_changes.html

(NaturalNews) A new study published in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine has found that making considerable lifestyle and dietary changes are highly effective at improving the health of diabetes patients, as well as preventing of cardiovascular illness. Getting regular exercise and eating better, say researchers, are once again the best routes to take when combating disease, rather than simply take medication.

Researchers compared the effects of two different treatment approaches on over 5,000 obese patients with type-2 diabetes. One group participated in an "intensive lifestyle intervention" program that involved dietary changes and fitness regimens, while the other group took medication and met three times a year for group education and support sessions. After four years, the lifestyle intervention group lost an average of more than six percent of their body weight, while the education and support group lost less than one percent.

The lifestyle intervention group also experienced lower blood pressure levels, improved hemoglobin A1c levels (a measure of blood glucose) and elevated levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), also known as "good" cholesterol.

"[T]he differences between the groups averaged across the four years were substantial and indicate that the intensive lifestyle intervention group spent a considerable time at lower cardiovascular disease risk," explained the study authors.

Medication alone does little to improve the long-term health of diabetes patients. This study and others prove that lifestyle and dietary changes are absolutely necessary to improve overall health, which starts with maintaining a healthy weight, eating foods that support good health and staying physically fit.

Avoiding highly-refined foods like white sugar, white rice and pasta are a given for most diabetics. But eating foods like organic, raw vegetables and nuts for instance, can help not only to improve symptoms but even reverse the disease.

To find out how to stop diabetes in 25, check out the book How to Halt Diabetes in 25 Days by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger.

Sources for this story include:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_relea...

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Prostate Diagnosis and Treatment Lags, but Research on Lifestyle Yields Clues

Eight Weeks to a Healthier Lifestyle Revisited

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Brain plaques do not cause Alzheimer's (we've been lied to for 20 years)

Brain plaques do not cause Alzheimer's (we've been lied to for 20 years)

Saturday, October 02, 2010 by: David Gutierrez, staff writer
http://www.naturalnews.com/029921_brain_plaque_Alzheimers.html

(NaturalNews) Turning 30 years of established Alzheimer's dogma on its head, researchers are now increasingly rejecting the theory that sticky plaques in the brain are responsible for the mental degeneration caused by the disease.

"The plaque is not the main culprit in terms of toxicity," said Alzheimer's doctor and researcher Scott McGinnis of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital.

In Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia, patients' mental functions steadily deteriorate, including their memories and ability to care for themselves. Researchers have long believed that this degeneration was caused by sticky brain plaques of a protein known as amyloid beta. Now, they are instead blaming free-floating pieces of amyloid beta known as oligomers.

"If you say Alzheimer's, everyone immediately thinks that it's the plaques that actually cause the disease. That couldn't be further from the truth," said Andrew Dillin of the Salk Institute in California and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. "The data actually suggest these plaques are a form of protection that the body tries to put on. So this is a sign that your brain was trying to do something very useful and helpful to you, and the remnant was the formation of amyloid plaques."

In a recent study, researchers genetically engineered mice that could produce oligomers but could not form plaques. Compared with mice that could produce both, the plaque-free mice did not fare any better.

Similarly, drugs designed to prevent the human brain from forming plaques have consistently failed to deliver any improvement in Alzheimer's patients, and have not slowed the progress of the disease.

If plaques are actually a bodily defense mechanism as the new theory suggests, such drugs may actually make things worse.

"This [plaque] hypothesis is actually completely wrong, and we need a new way to start looking at this disease," said Dillin. "This is actually not a viable therapeutic avenue."

Sources for this story include: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS....

Articles Related to This Article:

How Acetyl-L-Carnitine prevents Alzheimer's disease and dementia while boosting brain function

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Caffeine May Prevent and Help Reverse Alzheimer's Disease

Popular Alzheimer's Drug Found to Be All But Worthless in Independent Study

Tips to Prevent Alzheimer's Disease Revealed in Three Recent Studies

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Wednesday, September 29, 2010

BWN - Health v5

11-Year-Old Describes Broken Food System in Five Minutes

As Posted at Civil Eats by Paula Crossfield

Last month, an 11-year-old had much to say about the perils of the American food system. Speaking at a TED conference for young people called TEDx in Asheville, North Carolina, Birke Baehr discussed food irradiation, GMOs, CAFOs, farm run-off, the problem with marketing food to kids and more, all in five minutes. On the subject of paying more for better quality food, Baehr said, “With all the things I’m learning about the food system, it seems to me that we can either pay the farmer or pay the hospital.”

He also talked about his future aspirations. “Awhile back I wanted to be an NFL football player. Now, I’ve decided I’d rather be an organic farmer instead,” he said to the cheering audience. “That way I can have a greater impact on the world.”

Watch it here:
http://www.tedxnextgenerationasheville.com/presenterbios

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Thursday, September 23, 2010

Death by Vaccination: The Gates Foundation and the New Eugenics

Death by Vaccination: The Gates Foundation and the New Eugenics
September 22, 2010
Gary Null
Richard Gale & Gary Null
September 22, 2010
http://www.garynull.com/home/death-by-vaccination-the-gates-foundation-and-the-new-eugeni-1.html

While lecturing at the elitist TED 2010 conference in Long Beach, CA, Bill Gates slipped a statement while speaking on the dangers of climate change and over population: “Vaccines? I love them.”  His admission was made in the context of his philanthropic strategy and, as we will see, vaccines play a dominant role in his firm conviction that population reduction is an urgent priority for the survival of humanity. Then the question is, who should be eliminated from the population? Who is elected from the public to make such decisions? The short answer is no one. Hence it is being done quietly thru foundations, international agencies and private industry.

Today the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is “the most powerful charity in the world, and one of the most quietly influential international organizations of any sort.”[1] The Foundation is funded to the tune of  $34.6 billion plus an additional $30 billion from Warren Buffet’s investments. This is almost the entire budget of the World Health Organization (WHO).

Gates has followed in the footsteps of the Rockefellers’ lead to usher the New Green Revolution, an aggressive onslaught of genetically modified seeds (GMOs) to increase large scale corporate-influenced agriculture in Africa, India and elsewhere. The international GMO initiatives have devastated small cooperative farms that have served as the lifeline of food for centuries and as resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of farmers. Of course nobody among the oligarchic elite, such as Gates, Rockefeller and Monsanto execs, will suffer from the consequences of this failed revolution.

However,  it is vaccine research and development targeting Africa primarily, but also other developing nations, that holds center stage in his Foundation’s strategic funding. During the recent 2010 World Economic Forum, Gates announced he would spend $10 billion over the next ten years on child vaccine development for poorer nations.[2]. While calling this admirable might appear to be an understatement, which vaccines and which channels of funding rquire scrutiny in order to assess the value and motives of the Foundation’s mission.

In 2000, the Gates Foundation founded the International Finance Facility for Immunization (GAVI) and that organization’s Global Fund for Children’s Vaccines. GAVI is a global collaboration that includes governments, the Rockefeller Foundation, the World Bank, WHO, the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers, UNICEF, vaccine makers, and other influential entities. All of these are zealot vaccination promoters. The organization’s mission is to vaccinate every child in Africa. Through GAVI and its various programs, an estimated 250 million children in developing countries have already been vaccinated.[3]  But the Foundation itself does not perform drug and vaccine research and development. In addition to traditional grant giving, it also provides lines of credit. For example, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative received from the Foundation a $100 million line of credit to empower the nonprofit organization to influence HIV vaccine development within the vaccine industrial complex.[4]

Over the past several years, evidence is accumulating over Gates’ and his Foundations’ duplicity in saying one thing and acting otherwise. For example, frequently Gates has stated his opposition to Big Tobacco and claims he refuses to invest or fund any organization and company contributing to smoking. However, a recent investigation showed that the Foundation has in fact invested in Big Tobacco for quite some time.[5] Similarly, behind his verbiage on tackling climate change and shifting to non-fossil fuel technologies at the TED conference, Gates remains a heavy investor in Big Oil, particularly Exxon-Mobile and British Petroleum—perhaps the two oil companies the most corrupt history in recent decades.[6]

We appear, therefore, to be faced with a serious uncertainty over the public image of the very likable, mild-manner Bill Gates, who expresses repeatedly his ambition to improve the health of the developing world, and then the possibility of other ulterior motives that are contrary to saving lives. Should we take Gates and his Foundation’s word that their primary objective is to improve the health and well-being of children in poorer nations by fighting disease and illness with vaccines? Or is his vaccine agenda another ruse with a more sinister agenda? For example, it is hard to imagine that Gates is unaware that his commitment to the Green Revolution is in point of fact a Green Disaster and that no GMO has lived up to its promise. Yet he simply continues his enormous funding of agricultural genetic manipulation projects. Therefore, we believe there is sound reason that his Foundation’s many international vaccine initiatives represent much more than excessively kind-hearted charity.

Over the past several years, the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet has printed a series of in-depth analyses of the Gates Foundation with disturbing revelations. In a September 2008 article, “Misfinancing Global Health: A Case for Transparency in Disbursements and Decision Making,” the authors’ investigation came to the conclusion that aside from excessive funding of high profile Western institutions and organizations, there was “a heavy bias in funding towards malaria and HIV/AIDS, with relatively little investment into tuberculosis, maternal and child health, and nutrition--with chronic diseases being entirely absent from its spending portfolio.”[7] And a later study by Dr. David McCoy from the Center for International Health found that “the grants made by the Foundation do not reflect the burden of disease endured by those in deepest poverty.”[8] None of these findings have been covered to any extent by mainstream media nor any governing body.

No one can doubt Gates’ intellectual genius and talent/ Neither are we questioning his philanthropic endeavors that exceeds that of any other human being.  So, then, why is his Foundation spending such wealth unwisely, and why is it ignoring far more effective and less costly solutions and practices for relieving the suffering of millions of children, women and men throughout the developing world.

In his deconstruction of Bill Gates’ charitable agenda, F. William Engdahl writes, “Vaccinating a child who then goes to drink feces-polluted river water is hardly healthy in any respect. But of course cleaning up the water and sewage systems of Africa would revolutionize the health conditions of the Continent.”[9]  Far more effective would be the Foundation donating its billions to improve sanitation and hygiene, and provide nutrition to the 2.6 billion people who have none, for increasing clean water sources so 900 million global residents can have access to drinkable water (now at 1 in 3 Africans). Instead, the Foundation could be funding thousands of health clinics focusing on the chronic illnesses these populations suffer from most.[10]  This is simply common sense. “Bad water,” says the Stockholm International Water Institute’s director, Anders Bentell, “kills more people than HIV, malaria and war together.”[11]

Spending billions of dollars to develop new vaccines and launch monumental efforts to vaccinate  African children plagued with diverse infectious illnesses promises to be a fruitless enterprise while these populations continue to live in squalor.  After decades of mass vaccination programs across Africa, current vaccines have neither proven their medical effectiveness and safety nor their ability to truly enhance the quality of life of impoverished Africans. Instead, as part of its Millennium Development Goal, the Foundation prefers to make its Rotavirus Vaccine Program to battle diarrheal diseases one of its two major focuses (in partnership with PATH, the WHO and the CDC).[12]  The FDA has already announced warnings of Rotavirus vaccine’ life threatening adverse effects, such as intessusception or the severe twisting of children’s intestines that can lead to death.[13]  Children in developing countries, already suffering from extreme immune-deficiencies due to malnutrition, lack of sanitary living conditions, and local diseases only have their bodies further weakened after any vaccination.

As a keynote speaker at the TED 2010 conference, Gates laid out his rationale for an international effort towards global depopulation.  He said, “If we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we could lower that [projected to 9 billion people by 2050] by perhaps 10 or 15 percent.“  New vaccines for depopulation?  What Gates might be referring to by “new vaccines” is the creation of new generation sterilizing and/or aborting vaccines with an ingredient or genetically engineered component that can go undetected.  Vaccines to prevent pregnancy already exist; in fact, they have been with us for a long time. One area of vaccine research the Gates’ Foundation is funding in its Grand Challenges Explorations is the use of nano-particles.[14] Such engineered vaccines, with no gold standard for long term safety and efficacy, could virtually go undetected without highly advanced and expensive technologies to identify their presence.

As early as 1968, the Rockefeller Foundation’s annual report recommended anti-fertility vaccines as a viable means for lessening the human population growth rate that should be aggressively pursued.

The quandary lies in an ethical, moral and transparent means, which honor the free choice of the individual, for reducing the global birth rate. Unfortunately, past history shows that previous attempts to inoculate communities with anti-fertility vaccines have not only been unethical but covert and criminal. And when one thinks about it, what better way to lessen population growth, in addition to reducing years of life-expectancy, than through family planning vaccination programs spearheaded by government mandated international finance and health organizations, such as the World Bank, UNDP and WHO, and by willing governments and billionaires who are happy to help fund eugenic efforts?  In addition, there are many powerful non-profit organizations, such as Save the Children and US Aid, who benefit handsomely from these multilateral institutions and rely upon their funding to carry out their demands.

An early anti-fertility trial using human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG), a hormone essential for pregnancy, in vaccines was completed in 1988 in India through a Rockefeller collaboration with India’s National Institute of Immunology. The Rockefeller annual report declared success. Yet according to Betsy Hartman, Director of Hampshire College’s Population and Development Program, “although one vaccine has been tested on only 180 women in India, it is being billed there as safe, devoid of any side effects and completely reversible.”[15]

Perhaps the most thorough documented investigation into the covert use of anti-fertility vaccines is a 1995 report, “Are New Vaccines Laced with Birth Control Drugs,” compiled by J.A. Miller, a correspondent for the pro-life missionary movement Human Life International. In the early 1990s, the WHO, supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, the World Bank, the UN Development Programme, and the US’s National Institutes of Health undertook stealth anti-fertility initiatives under the disguise of tetanus vaccination programs. These vaccines were administered to unsuspecting and poor communities in Mexico, Nicaragua and the Philippines.[16]

The tetanus vaccines, manufactured by Connaught and Intervex in Canada, and CSL, Ltd in Australia (a leading maker of the H1N1 flu vaccine that has been implicated in statistically significant numbers of seizures and heavily supported by the Rupert Murdoch family) were laced with hCG.[17] Scientists working on the project discovered that the tetanus vaccine was an ideal vehicle for introducing hCG peptides that when injected into a woman’s body would induce hCG antibodies thereby preventing pregnancy. In brief, a woman’s body turns on autopilot to attack her own natural production of hCG.[18]

All would have gone well for the scheme’s masterminds if it were not for individuals working in local religious charities having observed some highly suspicious procedures. For example, why were only women between the ages of 15 to 45 receiving the tetanus shot and no men? And why were multiple booster shots required during the following months when a single tetanus injection is well-known to provide protection for ten years? In the Philippines, laboratory results of vaccinated woman in almost all cases discovered the presence of hCG antibodies; lab investigations into the vaccines uncovered the presence of hCG; and a subsequent investigation found that none of the hCG-laced vaccine lots had been registered with the government’s Bureau of Food and Drugs.  The episode was entirely a black op, a super human stealth experiment preying upon poor innocent women.[19]

While the above is the best documented example, other less well known eugenic experiments during the 1990s using anti-fertility vaccines have been conducted in Haiti and among the Akha people in Thailand, in poorer African-American neighborhoods in Los Angeles, and among indigenous people in North and Latin America.

A 1995 BBC documentary, “The Human Laboratory,” interviewed Filipino women’s activist Mary Pilar Verzosa, who reported on the vaccine’s adverse effects. These included fertility cycles that were “all fouled up,” spontaneous bleeding and miscarriages.[20] Seemingly, women were not screened to determine whether or not they were pregnant before injections. Consequently in addition to interfering with a woman’s ability to become pregnant the WHO was launching a clandestine experiment to observe whether the vaccine would trigger miscarriages.

No published studies exist for long-term follow up on women receiving hCG-laced vaccines and associated severe adverse effects. Given the WHO’s past record of seriously flawed misjudgments and secrecy--their recent fabrication of a level-6 H1N1 pandemic being an excellent recent example--and those of the other organizations complicit in covert vaccine operations, we should not be surprised that such studies exist. Because the hCG hormone is involved in many other bodily functions besides pregnancy, it is likely that artificially creating hCG antibodies in a woman would result in a cascade of serious incurable health problems.  The hormone plays an important role in endocrine functioning of the brain’s hypothalamus. It is a known diagnostic marker for certain types of tumors.  Artificially interfering in its production could potentially cause any number of different cancers. Since hCG is essential for healthy pituitary gland function, such toxic vaccines would interfere with this master gland’s regulatory function of maintaining homeostatic balance, hormonal equilibrium, throughout the body’s endocrine system. There can be an incalculable number of adverse conditions resulting from such a vaccine.

If used with the wrong motives, vaccines can e excellent devices for lessening lifespan. In addition, there are unanswered questions about how safe and effective vaccines actually are. For example, a child will not develop cancer or acquire a chronic autoimmune dysfunction a week or two after receiving a flu or measles injection. Yet, vaccines, especially those relying upon animal tissue to culture viruses during the manufacturing process—the influenza, the MMR, and yellow fever vaccines—are known to be highly contaminated with foreign animal viruses (including Avian Leukosis Virus and Equine Arteritis Virus), genetic fragments of such viruses, oncogenes (genes that turn normal cells cancerous), and prions (tiny proteins responsible for incurable diseases and neurological disorders in animals and humans). Public awareness of this fact appeared in transcripts from private meetings of the Center for Disease Control’s Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee and the Evolving Scientific and Regulatory Perspective Workshop in 1998 and 1999 respectively and obtained by British investigative journalist Janine Roberts.[21]

According to the committees’ participants representing, “the largest public health institutions in the West,” it is impossible to remove DNA contaminants from vaccines. When the question was raised whether or not vaccine DNA contamination could cause cancer or autoimmune disease, one respondent stated, “when you consider that almost every one of these vaccines is injected right into the tissue... I think you couldn’t do much more to get the DNA expressed [to get contaminating cancer-causing DNA taken up by human cells] than to inject it into a muscle in the way it’s being done.”[22]

Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg, Chairman of the health committees in the German Parliament and the European Council, reported that Novartis was using a “nutrient solution” relying on cancer-cell lines in a bioreactor to manufacture its H1N1 vaccine. He issued warnings that adverse reactions to this kind of engineered vaccine are unknown.[23]

Bill Gates’ mission to protect poorer populations from disease through mass vaccination, his sense of urgency that the global population is too large and needs to be reduced, and his deep financial and collaborative enterprises with the oligarchic elite, health agencies and multilateral organizations with a past history of eugenic intentions and experimentation, make for a bizarre mix that raises serious questions about the truth behind his Foundation’s motives.

America has a long history of eugenic science through the first half of the twentieth century--John D. Rockefeller, Margaret Sanger, Paul Popenoe, Madison Grant and others. The names of the organizations and facilities they founded or supported tells the story. Andrew Carnegie’s Institute was the primary funder of the Eugenics Record Office that operated from the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories. The Laboratory was closed in 1944 after the public became aware of thousands sterilizations it oversaw.

Likewise the Rockefellers were major funders of not only Cold Spring Harbor but also the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Eugenics, which became the center of the Nazi’s extermination experiments. The Rockefellers’ Population Council, with the mission to advance birth control, was first headed by Frederick Osborn, a leader in the American Eugenics Society.[24]  And there is no reason to believe America’s eugenic tradition has died out, although it has mutated into what might appear to be a less malignant form compared to the days when over half of the fifty states were conducting forced sterilization on poor woman and inmates in prisons and mental institutes.

Nobody should doubt the eugenic agenda remains alive and well in America. In fact, behind the closed corridors among the global elite, it is gaining fuel. For these people, sacrificing poor people in the developing world on the altar of a distorted Manifest Destiny, and setting their own rules in modern technologies--vaccines and GMO seeds--with the potential to destroy every unborn child is simply racism and bigotry. Kenyon College anthropologist Ken Smail, in a 2004 World Watch article, wrote, “That there will be large scale reduction in global human numbers over the next two or three centuries appears to be inevitable. The primary issue seems to be whether this process will be under conscious human control and (hopefully) relatively benign, or whether it will turn out to be unpredictably chaotic and (perhaps) catastrophic.”[25]

The weakness in today’s elites’ depopulation agenda is fourfold. First it has always been the poorer, less educated segments of humanity that should be reduced and no one else. Therefore, second, since they cannot be allowed to have a freedom of choice or vote on the matter, the elites must make this decision for them. Third, their argument crumbles since it is the elites themselves that place value on one particular life as being different than another. And finally, since depopulation cannot be executed transparently, it must be done through deceit and clandestine means.

So what are the lessons to be learned from this? The wealthiest elite on the planet are rarely questioned about the correctness of their actions and schemes. As long as one of these individuals say they are giving huge sums of money to a cause to end disease and suffering, we are not suppose to probe further. Rather, in the case of mainstream media, such people are to be worshiped as saviors. The oligarchic elite are so well interconnected on multiple boards of directors, clubs for the rich and powerful, think tanks, and among the high ranks of elected legislators and politicians that it is difficult to have an open and honest debate on the merits of their actions and spending. When a Ted Turner says we should reduce the world’s population by more than half, and Bill Gates suggests a 15 percent reduction, do we really understand they are following a form of eugenic genocide?

NOTES

[1] Beckett, Andy. “Inside the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.” Guardian UK. July 12, 2010.

[2] Engdahl, F. William. “Bill Gates Talks about Vaccines to Reduce Population.” Financial Sense Editorials. March 4, 2010.

[3] “Gates Foundation Decade of Vaccines.” The Lancet. March 2010. Vol. 10. No. 3. p. 39

[4] Beckett, Andy. Op cit.

[5] Schestowitz, Roy. “Gates Foundation Retreats After Being Exposed as Funder of Big Tobacco.” Techrights.org. April 19, 2010.

[6] Schestowitz, Roy. “Bill Gates Invests Heavily in Deception about Global Warming and in Abusive Monopolies.” Techrights.org. February 22, 2010.

[7] “What has the Gates Foundation Done for Global Health,” The Lancet. Vol. 373, no. 9675. May 9, 2009

[8] Ibid.

[9] Engdahl, F. William. Op cit.

[10] Deen, Thailif. “Summit Failure on Water, Sanitation Would be Recipe for Disaster,” Commondreams.org September 14, 2010

[11] Deen, Thailif. “Time Running Out Faster than Water, Experts Warn,” IPS News. September 6, 2010

[12] GAVI Alliance. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAVI_Alliance

[13] “New Rotavirus Vaccine Danger: FDA Warns as Possibly Life-Threatening for your Child” Health and Wellness. February 13, 2007

[14] Butler, Byron. “Gates Foundation donates $7.8 million to global initiatives.” The Daily Tell. May 14, 2010

[15] Maessen, Jurriaan. “Rockefeller Foundation Developed Vaccines for “Mass-Scale” Fertility Reduction.” Infowars. August 5, 2010.

[16] Miller, JA. “Are New Vaccines Laced with Birth Control Drugs?” Human Life International Reports, Vol. 13, No. 8, June/July 1995

[17] Centers for Disease Control. “ACIP Recommendation for Use of CSL Influenza Vaccine.” CDC Press Release, August 5, 2010

[18] Miller, JA. Op cit.

[19] Ibid.

[20] Taylor, Daniel. “Vaccinate the World: Gates, Rockefeller Seek Global Population Reduction.” Global Research. September 7, 2010.

[21] Gale, R, Null G. “Vaccines’ Dark Inferno: What is not on Insert Labels” Global Research. September 29, 2009; also see, Roberts, Janine. Fear of the Invisible: How Scared Should We be of Viruses and Vaccines. Impact Investigative Media Productions: Bristol UK, 2009

[22] Ibid.

[23] “Does Virus Vaccine Increase the Risk of Cancer.” Bild.com (Germany) September 7, 2009

[24] Taylor, Daniel. “Eugenics Moves to the Twenty-First Century,” Old-Thinker News. August 27, 2007

[25] Smail, Ken. “Global Population Reduction: Confronting the Inevitable,” World Watch. September/October, 2004


Sunday, September 19, 2010

Mexico bans sodas, fried foods and junk food from public school (while the USA does nothing)

Sunday, September 19, 2010 by: David Gutierrez, staff writerEmail this article to a friend Printable Version  FREE Email Newsletter
http://www.naturalnews.com/029776_public_schools_Mexico.html

(NaturalNews) The Mexican government is moving forward with plans to ban all junk foods from public school by the start of the coming school year, officials have announced.

"The kids are going to complain, of course," said education minister Alonso Lujambio. "We are going to start a profound cultural change."

In January, President Felipe Calderon launched a major anti-obesity campaign, and government officials have regularly referred to Mexican children as the world's fattest. While the merits of this specific claim are open to dispute, it is well confirmed that obesity rates in Mexico are rapidly approaching those of its northern neighbor, and that 4.5 million children between the ages of five and 11 -- 26 percent -- are already overweight or obese.

According to health minister Jose Angel Cordoba, fruit and vegetable consumption has dropped 40 percent in the last 15 years, while consumption of sweetened beverages has increased 50 percent. In addition, runaway urbanization is blamed for destroying open spaces and thus leading to a drop in physical activity.

Under the new rules, schools will be bared from serving or selling sugary sodas, juices or processed snacks, including local favorites such as tamarind candies. Unhealthy less-processed foods to be banned include pork rinds, atole (a sweetened corn starch-based beverage), fried tacos and tortas (sandwiches). Some exceptions will be made for healthier versions, such as tortas made from beans, avocado and cheese, or chicken and vegetables. All tacos, burritos and salads must be low in fat.

While the law does not target the off-campus vendors who gather at school gates at the end of the day, Lujambio said the government will soon initiate programs designed to improve the nutritional content of their foods as well.

The guidelines will apply to all 220,000 public and private elementary and middle schools in the country. Before taking effect, they must be approved by experts and a review committee.

Sources for this story include: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/201... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/wor....


Labels: Food, Junk Food, School Food, Mexico
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Saturday, July 24, 2010

THE FOREST AND THE FIRE-KEEPER - "In every Ending There Is A New Beginning"

From the last story of the book the Global Forest
by Diana Beresford-Kroeger , pages 163-166,

Meet her in a short video:
http://www.stuartbernstein.com/beresford-kroeger.html

THE FOREST AND THE FIRE-KEEPER
"In every Ending There Is A New Beginning"

Unlike books, words are old. So are the oral traditions of global cultures. A collective memory was kept alive and passed on in the oral traditions of storytelling, songs, poetry, and family bloodlines. Occasionally within a culture a mystic would arise who could see a clear vision of the future from the patterns of the past. These mystics were prophets. They had the gift of prophecy and their words were remembered.

The oral tradition of any culture is its essence. It skims off wisdom and keeps these nuggets close from bosom to bosom down through the generations. This wisdom is collectively gathered and is committed to memory for use. Those who gather this wisdom have many names in many cultures. For the First Nations, the aboriginal peoples of North America, they are called the "Fire-keepers."

The fire-keeper is the keeper of legends. The fire-keeper is also charged with the memory of prophecy. Such items of future history are recorded according to a dateline of some event outside of the normal measurement of time. This clocks the event into the future in a timeline that nobody can dispute.

The forecasts of prophecy are fairly common phenomena that are often adopted universally and become embedded in the public's consciousness of the time. These, too, are remembered in common as an anchor for the prophecy itself.

At present there is a prophecy for the direct future of the times in which we all live. This prophecy concerns nature itself. Nature or Mother Nature, which is sometimes described as Gaia, is composed of a complex web of life in which all things live in an interdependent manner. The small is equal to the large in this network of life. And the small is codependent on the large for its life force. Every cog is placed in every wheel for a reason. There is a balance there too, a little play in this giant system so that it all works together hand in hand.

There is a timeline for this prophecy, too. The prophecy will happen around the time of the great dying of the North American maples, Acer saccharum, the sugar maples. These maples are the great feeding trees of the eastern seaboard of America. These trees will begin to decline from the tip. At first the tops of the trees will wither and die. Then the disease will spread downward through the trees until they lose all of their leaves. This dying is the beginning of the timeline of the destruction of nature.

The rape of nature has then begun. Other trees will succumb to various infestations. The loss of the forests will foreshadow a period of devastation. People will not realize what they have done, but they will continue in their path of demolition. From the peoples of today will arise another new generation of children. These children will be different from all those who came before. These children will have many gifts. They will be able to do extraordinary things.

Primarily these children will have the gift of telepathy. They will be able to communicate with one another across the globe, even though they do not know one another. Their recognition factor will be youth itself. These children too will have the gift of the dream. In the dream they will have clarity of vision. From this dream they will understand what has happened to nature. They will understand it and comprehend what their parents have done. Many of these children, too, will have the gift of prophecy. This will frighten them in the beginning until they gain an understanding.

Then the children of this generation will want to help the planet and nature in a collective way. They will hold hands across the planet in their minds. They will alter their parents' ways. They will encourage one another. In this circle of life the children will save their parents through a dream and through a prophecy. In saving their parents they will save the planet.

This is an old legend, told before the advent of the computer or the Internet. It was told before the advent of radio, television, mass media-even before electricity. It was told at a time when the sugar maples were healthy and producing copious quantities of sap for maple sugar.

Even as the words of the legend of the fire-keeper come together there is a truth to them. The media is filled with stories of nature's abuse. Those who should protect nature calmly put whole forests like the boreal forest on the chopping block without a moment's hesitation. Those who want more oil are busy with their killer sonar techniques in the krill-rich waters of the Tatarskiy Proliv (Strait of Tatar) between Sakhalin Island and mainland Russia, the birthing ground of the bowhead and the feeding grounds of the great whales. There seems no end to greed and no beginning to sustainable management of the planetary resource basis.

But the children exist. They have been taught a better mode of planetary management. The consumerism in their lives bores holes of unbearable solitude. They are already reaching for something else, something elusive, something that is color-blind to race. It is called dignity, the dignity of life, all life.

===

Diana Beresford-Droeger is a botanist and medical biochemist who is an expert not he medicinal, environmental, and nutritional properties of trees. She lives in Ontario, Canada, surrounded by her sprawling research gardens filled with rare and endangered species.

From an Amazon.com review:
Perhaps because of the Irish ancestry she references at the outset, with its tradition of storytelling, the form of the essays is far from scientific but rather that of almost mystical, poetic appreciation. They even begin with a subtitle "refrain" that captures the essence of each piece. Yes, the book is full of the amazing facts I was hoping to find - such as the existence of warm-blooded plants and the complex chemistry that trees have evolved in order to survive. And there is a hopeful theme of the potential to reverse global ecologic devastation through reforestation. But most of all this is the sensually and lovingly written ode of a passionate scientist, harking back to writers of more enlightened ages."

From the cover of The Global Forest:
All of life as we know it hangs on trees in a matrix of complexity we call the living earth.
Her extraordinary bioplan shows how trees can be planted in rural and urban areas to promate health and counteract pollution and maintain biodiversity in the face of climate change.

Using the voice and style of her ancestors including, Irish Seanchai, the traditional story tellers who drifted through the landscape at night visiting farmsteads, she has crafted an original work of natural history. Her indisputable passion of life inspires people to see trees and their own connections with nature with awe.
http://www.stuartbernstein.com/beresford-kroeger.htm

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Friday, July 23, 2010

Family Farmer, Could Save the American Economy - Willie Nelson & Friends Farm Aid Support ...

Rebuilding America's Economy with Family-Farm Centered Food Systems

How Willie Nelson’s Bedrock, the Family Farmer, Could Save the American Economy

by Laura Edwards-Orr

As an advocate for local, and for family farmers, I know that there is immense power in the experiential. When you have a direct relationship with a farmer, you just know that relationship is mutually beneficial. When you see four leggers on pasture instead of concrete, it only makes sense. But, do we have our talking points lined up on a deeper level? Are we ready for that serendipitous moment when online dating sets you up with an agribusiness ladder climber who wants to debate free trade two beers in? Or when it comes time to make policy recommendations or offer a zinger quote to a reporter? Despite being a career local foods non-profit staffer, I don't always feel prepared when I leave the realm of the story for that of the concrete. Now that consumer awareness of the story of local has reached a critical mass, it is time to take our movement to the next level. Research. Organize. Speak out.

In celebration of its 25th year, Farm Aid, the longest running concert-for-a-cause, has published a report to help us make this push. Rebuilding America's Economy with Family-Farm Centered Food Systems takes one of the more sensitive topics in the American psyche today, the economy, and convincingly demonstrates the bounty of opportunity that family farmers can bring to local and regional communities.

Starting with a rally cry from Farm Aid's celebrity board, originally drafted in a letter to Congress in September of 2008 in a call to recognize the potential of family farmers to revive the collapsing U.S. economy, Rebuilding America's Economy paints a vision of what our nation could look like:

A $1 billion [a micro mini portion of the $700 billion bailout] investment in family farm agriculture would enrich us all, because we are all shareholders of the family farm. The return on investment in the family farm includes thriving local economies, nutritious food for better health, a safer and more secure food supply, a cleaner environment and more renewable energy. Investing in local, sustainable and organic food would shorten the distance between eaters and farmers, conserve energy, create economic opportunities, and new jobs through innovative processing and distribution systems, resulting in a better, greener, more efficient food and farm economy.

Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young, and Dave Matthews Farm Aid Board of Directors

Showing the sophistication of knowing millions of farmers over the years, Farm Aid authors launch the report by eschewing black and white definitions of "family farmer" and other key terms. Instead, the report offers that family farmers are those who own the majority of the land or tools, make most of the decisions, and do most of the work. Perhaps more importantly, however, that each farmer who meets the above description inherently possesses the capacity to earn and demand fair wages, further community well-being, be an environmental steward, and promote public health. These are the values that make up the foundation for the family-farm centered food systems envisioned in the report.

It's hard talking points fall right into line as you read "Rebuilding America." For example, research by David Swenson of Iowa State University, in conjunction with the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, shows "increased fruit and vegetable production could boost regional farm sales by over $882 million, and spur retail-level sales as high as $3.31 billion. The effort would also generate 9,032 farm-level jobs and 9,652 retail level jobs, and a corresponding $395.1 million in farm level labor income..."

To my mind, jobs and increased income/sales are exactly what's needed at this very moment in economic history. Just in case data doesn't make people's heart sing the way mine does, I will simply submit that the report gives a multitude of similarly compelling facts that demonstrate the potential impact of small and medium sized farms to create thriving local economies by growing local, direct markets and regional value chains to feed wholesale demand.

Giving color to the well-researched data, are six case studies that show what can be done when a commitment to values is held equally to that of the bottom line: Shepherd's Grain, Indian Springs Farmers Association, Woodbury County, IA, Red Tomato, Hardwick, VT, and Community Farm Alliance. These case studies show that each region, group of farmers, or specific product requires its own innovation. In Kentucky, for example, where tobacco used to be the cash crop, Community Farm Alliance has helped farmers put their Tobacco Settlement offers to good use shifting their farms to more diversified operations. With more food crops in the ground across the state, CFA can now estimate that "if Kentucky were to match the national average for per-farm direct marketing sales, it would generate an additional $7.9 million in farm income and $15.8 million for the state as a whole."

In 1985, Willie Nelson named the family farmer the backbone of the country and the bottom rung on the economic ladder on which all else depends. Twenty-five years later, it is the job of the enthusiast and the advocate to understand what family farmers truly have to offer and what resources they need to seize the moment. Farm Aid, this report, the resources (down to the footnotes), and case studies in it, are an excellent place to start.

Laura Edwards-Orr started her career as a local foods advocate at Farm Aid. She now works for Canton, MA based Red Tomato and works as a freelance writer, researcher, and data nerd for organizations and businesses working to create family-farm based food systems and value chains. She lives in Providence, RI with her husband, horse, dog, two cats, and is expecting her first two children this fall.



http://www.farmaid.org/site/c.qlI5IhNVJsE/b.6060101/k.6E56/Funding_Opportunities.htm

Family Farmers and Economic Stimulus: Funding Opportunities

Click here to download Funding Opportunities for Investing in Family Farm Centered Food Systems as a pdf file.

Right now, numerous funding opportunities from several federal agencies can be harnessed to create thriving local and regional food systems with family farmers at their base. Several of these programs are underutilized; others often award the same recipients year after year, squandering opportunities to advance the reach of the Good Food Movement. Still other programs are just now being recognized as opportunities for investing in family farmers and local and regional food systems.

While many of the opportunities highlighted below are part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the 2008 Farm Bill, or both, we issue a challenge to think outside the box and consider funding possibilities that cross sectors and foster new collaborations. Taking advantage of these opportunities can forge regional food markets, rejuvenate "agriculture in the middle" and stimulate local economies all at once.

Tractor icon = funding opportunities for which farmers and ranchers are eligible.


Working In Concert: Food Systems and Rural Development
Whether by encouraging innovative marketing strategies or through new infrastructure like food storage facilities, the following grant and loan programs offer great promise for utilizing local and regional food systems to spur rural economic development across the United States.

Business & Industry Loan ProgramTractor icon

Community Facilities Program

Economic Development Administration Programs

Rural Cooperative Development Grants

Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program

Rural Business Opportunity Grants

Rural Business Enterprise Grants

Value-Added Producer Grant ProgramTractor icon


Linking Food Systems with Public Health & Nutrition
There are a number of new and existing programs that enable public health and nutrition goals to be strategically linked with the development of local, family farm economies. Below are some resources for exploring these important connections.

ACHIEVE Healthy Communities Program

Communities Putting Prevention to Work Program

Farmers' Market Nutrition Program

Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program


The Heart of Community Food Security
With obesity, diabetes and other chronic conditions related to poor nutrition disproportionately impacting rural, low-income and minority communities, access to affordable, healthful foods is a critical element of food security in the United States. The following programs offer unique opportunities to include local and regional food systems as a central strategy in achieving community food security.

Community Development Block Grants

Section 108 Loan Guarantee Program

Community Food Projects Competitive Grant Program

Community Outreach Partnership Centers Grant

Community Service Block Grants

Healthy Urban Food Enterprise Development Center Program


Agriculture and the Green Economy
It is a natural fit for those interested in local and regional food systems to work in tandem with the larger movement toward a green economy. Numerous opportunities exist to bolster on-farm income with renewable energy endeavors, establish a new "green" workforce, and expand community infrastructure to support more sustainable food systems founded on the hard work of family farmers.

Biomass Crop Assistance ProgramTractor icon

Brownfields Development Program

Rural Energy for America ProgramTractor icon

Training Grants for Green Jobs and Emerging IndustryTractor icon


From the Ground Up: Support For Farmers and Ranchers
At the heart of every food system is the individual farmer or rancher. Investments at the farm level are essential for the stability and prosperity of local and regional food systems, which in turn contribute to the economic and social fabric of their communities. The following programs are available for farmers and ranchers, or are otherwise targeted in a way that directly enhances farmer and rancher livelihoods.

Farm Service Agency's Farm Loan ProgramsTractor icon

Farm Storage Facility Loan ProgramTractor icon

Farmers' Market Promotion Program

Specialty Crop Block Grant Program

Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program


Knowledge Is Power: Research and Information Services
Many resources are available to support research initiatives that can be utilized to grow the body of knowledge that supports local and regional food system development. They can also better equip individuals and organizations to do the legwork of building these systems from the ground up.

Agriculture and Food Research Initiative

Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural AreasTractor icon

Federal-State Marketing Improvement Program

Small Business Innovation Research Program

Sustainable Agriculture Research and EducationTractor icon

Corporation for National and Community Service Volunteers


Farm Aid maintains that an investment in local and regional family-farm based food systems is an investment in the health and prosperity of all Americans, the communities in which they reside, and the economies that keep them afloat and profitable.

The list above is by no means exhaustive, but covers a wide range of programs that traditionally were designed for and utilized by narrow audiences. The challenge before us is to think creatively about funding resources, prospects for cross-sector collaboration and community mobilization strategies that can leverage these opportunities. This is a critical element to growing the Good Food Movement and a needed step in building a better future for us all.

EXPANDED LISTINGS


Working In Concert: Food Systems and Rural Development


Tractor icon Business and Industry Loan Program


  • Description: Through the Business and Industry (B&I) Loan program, USDA co-signs on guaranteed loans to provide rural businesses with affordable capital. USDA promises to pay a portion of any loss a business owner cannot repay, which lowers the lender's risk and allows for more favorable interest rates and terms to the borrower. B&I loans are to be used for purchasing and refurbishing assets and refinancing debt. About $100 million will be set aside for local and regional food projects in FY 2010, with priority given to underserved rural populations.
  • Award Type: Guaranteed loans
  • Maximum Award: Up to $10 million; some special exceptions for loans up to $25 million
  • Who's Eligible: Nonprofit organizations that are lending institutions; other lenders to business owners in eligible rural areas. Eligible business owners may be cooperatives, nonprofits, corporations, Indian tribes, public bodies and individuals. Eligible rural areas include any area with 50,000 residents or less, excluding urban areas that are contiguous or adjacent to these areas. Cooperative processing facilities can be located in non-rural areas as long as the facility serves local farmers and improves the farm economy.
  • Timelines: The loan program is ongoing, but applications for extra funds from the Stimulus Bill (ARRA) must be submitted by September 15, 2010. Groups are encouraged to apply at any time.
  • More information: http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/rbs/busp/b&I_gar.htm. Also visit the Rural Development Field Office locator at http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/recd_map.html to find your State Rural Development Office.

Community Facilities Program


  • Description: The Community Facilities Program provides loans and grants for the construction, acquisition, or renovation of community facilities or for purchasing equipment for community projects. Over $930 million in ARRA funds will go toward this program, which USDA's Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food initiative envisions can be used to encourage the development of farmers markets, school and community kitchens, community food banks, food storage or distribution centers and food preparation centers. This program is ideal for non-profits and cooperatives interested in building food system infrastructure, though, importantly, funds cannot be used for any commercial purpose.
  • Award Type: Direct loans, guaranteed loans, grants
  • Maximum Award: Varies by project and community type
  • Who's Eligible: Nonprofit organizations, local governments, tribal governments. The financing of "essential community facilities" applies to rural areas, which can have no more than 20,000 residents.
  • Timelines: The next Request for Applications (RFA) will be released in September of 2010.
  • More information: General: http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/rHS/cf/cp.htm. Also visit the Rural Development Field Office locator at http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/recd_map.html to find your State Rural Development Office.

Economic Development Administration Programs


  • Description: The Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration (EDA) has many programs that support the construction or rehabilitation of public infrastructure. These projects are designed to retain jobs, attract capital and provide technical assistance and research to help communities cope with economic changes. The EDA has made investments in rural food and agriculture infrastructure projects before, and while local and regional food systems development has not been an explicit focus in the past, the EDA is interested in any proposal with significant job-creating potential, and with a focus on sustainable development.
  • Award Type: Competitive Grants
  • Maximum Award: Varies by program
  • Who's Eligible: Nonprofit organizations acting in cooperation with some public State entity
  • Timelines: Varies by program
  • More Information: For general program overviews see: http://www.eda.gov/AboutEDA/Programs.xml or contact regional EDA offices: http://www.eda.gov/AboutEDA/Regions.xml.

Rural Cooperative Development Grants


  • Description: USDA encourages the development or improvement of effective cooperative organizations through its Rural Cooperative Development Grants. These funds help establish and operate institutions, such as vegetable processing and marketing cooperatives or community development credit unions, with the purpose of improving rural economies. By strengthening marketing opportunities for agricultural producers, this program can be an important tool in developing strong local and regional food systems in communities across the United States.
  • Award Type: Grants
  • Maximum Award: $200,000 with a 25% matching fund requirement.
  • Who's Eligible: Nonprofit organizations and higher education institutions.
  • More information: http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/rbs/coops/rcdg/rcdg.htm. Also visit the Rural Development Field Office locator at http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/recd_map.html to find your State Rural Development Office.

Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program


  • Description: The Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program (RMAP) was created in the 2008 Farm Bill with the purpose of empowering rural entrepreneurs to establish new businesses or continue existing rural microenterprises. Through RMAP, USDA will provide grants to "Microenterprise Development Organizations" that offer training, technical assistance or small loans to new and existing rural small businesses. The program fills an important void left by other similar lending programs at the federal level, which tend to focus on non-rural communities. RMAP will have $13 million available for 2010, at least $4 million mandated in 2011 and $3 million mandated in 2012.
  • Award Type: Microloans and Grants
  • Maximum Award: Loans of less than $50,000; Grant limits not yet announced by USDA
  • Who's Eligible: Nonprofit organizations, Indian tribes, or public institutions of higher education
  • More information: USDA does not yet have a website for this program, but information is available from the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition at http://sustainableagriculturecoalition.org/publications/grassrootsguide/local-food-systems-rural-development/rural-micro-entrepeneur-assistance/ or on the Center for Rural Affairs website: http://www.cfra.org/policy/micro/federal-micro-program. 

Rural Business Opportunity Grants Program


  • Description: The Rural Business Opportunity Grants Program (RBOG) promotes sustainable economic development in rural communities of exceptional need through training and technical assistance for business development, rural entrepreneurs and business managers, rural business incubators, and economic development officials. Funds also assist economic development planning. These funds could be leveraged for local food system development through projects that focus on food businesses and community food enterprises.
  • Award Type: Competitive Grants
  • Maximum Award: $50,000 for projects serving one state; $150,000 for projects serving two or more states; $250,000 for project periods of up to two years
  • Who's Eligible: Nonprofit organizations, public bodies, Indian tribes, and cooperatives with primarily rural members. RBOG serves rural areas, which this program defines as areas with 50,000 residents or less, excluding any urban area contiguous or adjacent to such areas.
  • Timelines: Final applications are due June 28, 2010. The anticipated award date is September 15, 2010.
  • More information: http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/ga/trbog.htm. Also visit the Rural Development Field Office locator at http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/recd_map.html to find your State Rural Development Office. 

Rural Business Enterprise Grants Program


  • Description: The Rural Business Enterprise Grants Program (RBEG) provides grants for rural projects that finance and facilitate the development of small and emerging rural businesses. They can fund distance learning networks and employment-related adult education programs, and assist with business development. Funds can also be used to acquire and develop land, or to construct buildings, plants, equipment, access roads, parking areas, and utility and service extensions. USDA's Know Your Farmers, Know Your Food initiative envisions RBEG funds being used for rural food processing businesses, facility planning, financing, constructing or refurbishing; or for training farmers to produce in coordination with a facility.
  • Award Type: Grants
  • Maximum Award: None, though priority is given to smaller projects
  • Who's Eligible: Rural governments or public entities, Indian tribes, and nonprofit organizations
  • Timelines: Interested applicants should contact their Rural Development Office to determine eligibility and begin the application process.
  • More information: http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/rbs/busp/rbeg.htm. Also visit the Rural Development Field Office locator at http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/recd_map.html to find your State Rural Development Office. 

Tractor icon Value-Added Producer Grant Program


  • Description: Through the Value-Added Producer Grant program (VAPG), USDA provides grants to producers who process or market their raw products to add value to their businesses and retain a higher portion of the retail dollar. VAPG awards planning grants for activities like business plan development, as well as working capital grants for needs like labor, inventory, advertising and so forth. The 2008 Farm Bill includes "locally-produced" marketing as an eligible activity. In addition, USDA is reserving 10% of these funds to develop local and regional supply networks. Another 10% of funds are available for both beginning or socially-disadvantaged farmers and ranchers and small or midsized farms and ranches.
  • Award Type: Competitive Grants
  • Maximum Award: $300,000 for working capital grants; $100,000 for planning grants
  • Who's Eligible: Independent producers, farmer or rancher cooperatives, producer groups, majority-controlled producer-based business ventures, and nonprofits (which must be farmer controlled in certain circumstances).
  • More Information: http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/rbs/coops/vadg.htm


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Linking Food Systems with Public Health & Nutrition


CDC's ACHIEVE Healthy Communities Program


  • Description: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) ACHIEVE (Action Communities for Health, Innovation, and EnVironmental changE) Healthy Communities develop and implement strategies to prevent or manage risk factors for heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, obesity, and arthritis. Through this program, the CDC funds selected national organizations, which provide technical support and funding to selected communities. In this way, ACHIEVE harnesses the experience and expertise of its national partners to strengthen community leadership and activate change around the country. The holistic approach to prevention lends itself well to local and regional food system architects.
  • Award Type: Competitive Grants, covering 3-year periods.
  • Maximum Award: Varies. Most ACHIEVE funds are split between Category A and Category B recipients. Category A recipients re-grant to local organizations while Category B recipients are responsible for promotion and dissemination of effective tools and do not re-grant.
  • Who's Eligible: Category A recipients include the National Association of County and City Health Officials, the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors, the National Recreation and Park Association, and the YMCA of the USA, who award funding to local entities and work closely with them on program development, implementation and evaluation, and also help them network nationwide.
  • Timelines: ACHIEVE has added 93 communities since January 2008 and aims to have 200 total participating by Spring 2013. Category A organizations will be adding approximately 40 new communities to the program each year, with the latest round of additions announced in February 2010.
  • More information: http://www.achievecommunities.org/Pages/default.aspx and http://www.cdc.gov/healthycommunitiesprogram/communities/achieve.htm. Contacts for the national organizations and for general inquiries can be accessed at http://www.achievecommunities.org/pages/contact.aspx.

Communities Putting Prevention to Work


  • Description: The CDC's Communities Putting Prevention to Work program is a major new funding initiative under ARRA that aims to address two leading preventable causes of death and disability: obesity and tobacco use. The goal is to reduce disease risk factors, prevent and/or delay chronic disease, promote wellness in children and adults and provide positive, sustainable health change in communities. Those interested in promoting local and regional food systems with programs in health and wellness may be able to access this funding stream. Organizations are encouraged to contact state and local health departments to inquire about partnering on these opportunities as soon as possible.
  • Award Type: Cooperative Agreements awarded on a competitive basis
  • Maximum Award: Varies
  • Who's Eligible: Funding will be awarded to health departments, but subcontracting with community groups is encouraged.
  • Timelines: Varies by program
  • More information: http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/recovery and http://www.hhs.gov/recovery/programs/cdc/chronicdisease.html

Farmers' Market Nutrition Program


  • Description: In numerous states, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs (SNAP), Senior Nutrition Program and Women Infant and Children (WIC) Program are participating in the Farmers' Market Nutrition Program (FMNP), which allows FMNP coupons to be used to purchase a variety of fresh, nutritious and locally-grown produce. The central goal of the FMNP is to support local food systems through direct marketing opportunities. Special priority is granted to projects that increase access to local, fresh foods among low-income residents. When it is not practical for individual farmers to obtain a license to accept program benefits using standard Electronic Benefit Technology (EBT), a farmers' market sponsor can acquire a license to allow all eligible farmers to accept benefits through a centralized point-of-sale device.
  • Award Type: Competitive Grants
  • Maximum Award: $100,000
  • Who's Eligible: Nonprofit organizations, local governments, tribes, economic development corporations, agricultural cooperatives, and regional farmers market authorities
  • More information: General: http://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/FMNP/FMNPfaqs.htm and http://www.fns.usda.gov/fsp/ebt/fm.htm; Senior Farmers' Market Nutrition Program: http://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/SeniorFMNP/SFMNPmenu.htm; WIC Farmers' Market Nutrition Program: http://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/FMNP/FMNPfaqs.htm#3

Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program


  • Description: USDA envisions the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program as an integral part of the larger campaign against childhood obesity and efforts to improve the eating habits of our country's youth. Created in the 2002 Farm Bill, this program introduces elementary school children to a variety of produce they may otherwise never encounter. Participating schools can purchase fruits and vegetables through several means, including local producers, so long as they follow proper procurement guides. The 2008 Farm Bill expanded mandatory funding for this program with an additional $101 million in FY 2010 and $150 million in FY 2011.
  • Award Type: Grants
  • Maximum Award: Funding is allocated among States using a formula that allocates half of the funds equally among states and the rest based on State population. States will re-grant the money to elementary schools that participate in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP).
  • Who's Eligible: All 50 States, the District of Columbia and U.S. Territories. The program is generally administered through State Departments of Education (a few states run the program through their Departments of Agriculture), via agreements with school food authorities.
  • Timelines: All funds remain available until expended, with new funding each fiscal year opening up in July.
  • More information: http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/FFVP/FFVPdefault.htm


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The Heart of Community Food Security


Community Development Block Grants


  • Description: For 36 years, the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Community Development Block Grant program has offered grants geared toward poverty reduction, community revitalization and individual or community economic self-sufficiency. Those interested in promoting local and regional food systems may be able to access these grants. The following projects, if targeted to stimulate economic recovery and growth, could qualify: beginning farmer programs, community food distribution centers and integrated growing, processing, storage and distribution systems.
  • Award Type: Grants
  • Maximum Award: Varies
  • Who's Eligible: Local and state governments, who grant to eligible communities
  • Timelines: The 2010 application deadline passed in April.
  • More information: http://www.hud.gov/offices/cpd/communitydevelopment/programs/

Section 108 Loan Guarantee Program


  • Description: The Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Loan Guarantee Program is the loan provision of the Community Development Block Grants Program (CDBG), and finances economic development, housing development, public facilities rehabilitation and construction projects that benefit low- to -moderate-income people. Past funds have been used for food systems projects, such as creating farmers markets in communities with little access to fresh food.
  • Award Type: Guaranteed Loans
  • Who's Eligible: Metropolitan cities and urban counties (i.e. CDBG entitlement communities) and non-entitlement communities that apply with States who administer the CDBG program
  • Timelines: Grants are accepted on an on-going basis.
  • More information: http://www.hud.gov/offices/cpd/communitydevelopment/programs/108 or find your State Community Planning & Development Director at: http://www.hud.gov/offices/cpd/about/staff/fodirectors/.

Community Food Projects Competitive Grants Program


  • Description: Since 1996, the Community Food Projects Competitive Grants Program has fought food insecurity by supporting projects that promote the self-sufficiency of low-income communities while addressing food, nutrition and farm issues. Eligible projects are designed to increase food security in communities by bringing "the whole food system" together to assess strengths, establish linkages, and create systems that improve the self-reliance of community members over their food needs. Funds can be used for infrastructure development and grants favor projects with creative, innovative marketing strategies.
  • Award Type: Competitive Grants
  • Maximum Award: Total awards of $10,000-$300,000 for 1-3 years, with no more than $125,000 to be expended per year. These one-time grants require dollar-for-dollar matching funds, though this can be achieved through in-kind donations.
  • Who's Eligible: Grants are intended to help eligible private nonprofit organizations that need a one-time infusion of federal assistance to establish and carry out multipurpose community food projects.
  • More information: http://www.nifa.usda.gov/nea/food/in_focus/hunger_if_competitive.html USDA has identified the Community Food Security Coalition (www.foodsecurity.org), Growing Power (www.growingpower.org), and World Hunger Year (www.whyhunger.org) as organizations that offer appropriate assistance for completing grant applications to this program. Interested groups in need of assistance should contact these organizations directly. Organizations can apply for these grants directly at www.grants.gov.

Community Outreach Partnerships Centers


  • Description: Community Outreach Partnerships Centers (COPC) grants are awarded to colleges or universities for projects that revitalize distressed communities in urban areas. Project types are diverse and have included food systems work, like the creation of a local urban agricultural enterprise.
  • Award Type: Competitive Grants
  • Maximum Award: Up to $400,000 for 2 or 3 years to establish and operate COPCs. Grantees must match at least 50% of research activities costs and 25% of outreach activities costs with contributions from private sources or State and local governments.
  • Who's Eligible: Colleges, universities and other institutions of higher education, with no restrictions on the characteristics of targeted communities.
  • Timelines: HUD publishes an annual Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) and an application kit for the COPC Program.
  • More information: http://www.hud.gov/progdesc/copc.cfm Application kits are available from the University Partnerships Clearinghouse 1-800-245-2691 or http://www.oup.org/

Community Service Block Grants


  • Description: Administered by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Community Service Block Grants (CSBG) work to alleviate poverty by supporting programs that provide employment, education, housing, emergency services and nutritional counseling in low-income communities. CSBG has supported several projects relevant to local and regional food systems, including community gardens, community canneries, food buying groups, food banks, nutrition and food preparation counseling, and group meal provisions.
  • Award Type: Block Grants
  • Maximum Award: Varies each year. HHS distributes money as mandatory block grants to States and Indian tribes, which re-grant 90% of the funds to state and local organizations on a discretionary basis.
  • Who's Eligible: States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Territories, and Indian Tribes and tribal organizations, all of whom may re-grant to organizations with demonstrated expertise in providing training to low-income individuals, families and communities or to organizations officially designated as a Community Action Agency.
  • Timelines: Each July, HHS issues a notice reminding State and Indian Tribes to submit annual applications. State allocations are made in the Fall. In FY 2010, over $680 million were allocated to states, and nearly $5 million were allocated to Indian Tribes.
  • More information: For general program information visit http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ocs/csbg/aboutus/factsheets.htm. Organizations interested in accessing funds should find their regional staff contacts at: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ocs/csbg/aboutus/staffassignements.html.

Healthy Urban Enterprise Development Center Program


  • Description: The 2008 Farm Bill authorized this grant program to establish and support one Healthy Urban Food Enterprise Development (HUFED) Center. The HUFED Center is meant to increase access to healthy affordable foods (including locally-produced agricultural products) to underserved communities through innovative marketing and distribution systems. USDA recently announced its grant award to the Wallace Center at Winrock International to establish and maintain the center. The HUFED Center will provide training and technical assistance for food enterprises and award sub-grants to eligible entities for healthy food enterprise development over the next several years. In providing technical assistance and grants, the HUFED Center shall give priority to applications that include projects to benefit underserved communities and develop market opportunities for small and midsized farms and ranches.
  • Award Type: Sub-grants, Technical Assistance
  • Who's Eligible: Nonprofit organizations
  • Timelines: 2010 letters of Inquiry were due to the Wallace Center in March.
  • More information: http://www.nifa.usda.gov/fo/healthyurbanfoodenterprisedevelopmentcenter.cfm or http://www.wallacecenter.org/our-work/current-initiatives/healthy-urban-food-enterprise-development-center. Contact the Wallace Center at hufed@winrock.org or 1-703-531-8810.


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Agriculture and the Green Economy


Tractor icon Biomass Crop Assistance Program


  • Description: The Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) was established by the 2008 Farm Bill to promote the cultivation of highly energy-efficient bioenergy crops that show exceptional promise and to develop those new crops and cropping systems in a manner that preserves natural resources. BCAP provides financial assistance to producers or entities that deliver eligible biomass material to designated biomass conversion facilities for use as heat, power, bio-based products or biofuels. With the prospect of adding new on-farm income streams for producers, this program could be an important strand in a web of programs that restore the prosperity of family farms and build local and regional energy options for their communities.
  • Award Type: Direct payments, cost-share payments, and matching payments
  • Maximum Award: Farmers will be eligible to enter a 5-year agreement with USDA for annual or perennial crops or a 15-year agreement for woody biomass.
  • Who's Eligible: Farmers and ranchers or entities that deliver eligible biomass material to conversion facilities
  • Timelines: Check the Farm Service Agency (FSA) website for updates on FY 2010 Notice of Funds Availability.
  • More Information: http://www.fsa.usda.gov/FSA/webapp?area=home&subject=cops&topic=bcap

Brownfields Development Program

  • Description: Through ARRA, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provided $100 million to its Brownfields Development Program. This program turns once-contaminated properties into productive community assets, awarding eligible applicants through grants in job training, assessment, revolving loan fund and cleanup programs. While not typical of this program, the following projects that foster local and regional family farm food systems could be eligible: farmland reclamation, urban greenhouses, community garden or farm sites, organic transition, rebuilding food processing and manufacturing facilities, and renovating buildings to become community food distribution centers.
  • Award Type: Grants in Job Training, Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund and Cleanup categories
  • Maximum Award: Job Training Grants are funded up to $200,000 over two years. Brownfields Assessment Grants are funded up to $200,000 over three years or for coalitions, up to $1,000,000 over three years. Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund Grants are funded up to $1,000,000 over five years. Brownfields Cleanup Grants are funded up to $200,000 over three years.
  • Who's Eligible: State, local and tribal governments; land clearance authorities; quasi-governmental agencies; regional council or redevelopment agencies; states or legislatures; nonprofit organizations
  • Timelines: Most deadlines for the FY 2010 funding have passed. Check the EPA's website for information on application deadlines later this year.
  • More information: http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/grant_info/index.htm

 

Tractor icon Rural Energy for America Program


  • Description: Administered by USDA's Rural Development Agency, the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) is a new 2008 Farm Bill program that amends and combines previous Farm Bill energy programs. REAP provides cost-share awards for energy audits and renewable energy technologies, as well as grants and loans for energy efficiency improvements and renewable energy systems. Eligible projects include systems that may be used to produce and sell electricity, offering exciting opportunities for additional on-farm revenue while contributing to energy needs at the local and regional level.
  • Award Type: Cost-share awards, grants and loans
  • Maximum Award: Varies
  • Who's Eligible: Farmers and ranchers who gain 50% or more of their gross income from agricultural operations, small rural businesses, and rural electric cooperatives. For the energy audit program, the following are also eligible: state, tribal and local governments; land-grant colleges or universities and other institutions of higher education; and rural electric cooperatives or public power entities. Grants to agencies or groups who assist farmers with energy audits and assessments are also available.
  • Timelines: Applications are due by June 30, 2010.
  • More information: http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/rbs/farmbill/index.html or contact you State Rural Development Office

Tractor icon Training Grants for Green Jobs and Emerging Industry Sectors


  • Description: The ARRA dedicates $60 billion to "green jobs" and dedicates $750 million to a competitive grant program in job training for "high growth and emerging industry sectors." While alternative energy tops the administration's agenda, family farm-based local and regional food systems have an important role to play in green job generation. The Department of Labor (DOL) plans to use ARRA funds to prepare workers for green jobs.
  • Award Type: Training Grants
  • Maximum Award: Varies
  • Who's Eligible: Beginning farmers, immigrant farmers, those interested in fresh food processing or marketing positions and sustainable agriculture training initiatives are potential beneficiaries of these funds.
  • Timelines: Solicitations for Grant Applications administered by the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) will be published on www.grants.gov and in the Federal Register.
  • More information: http://www.doleta.gov/brg/GreenJobs


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From the Ground Up: Support For Farmers and Ranchers


Beginning Farmer & Rancher Development Program


  • Description: Beginning farmers are defined as producers who have 10 years or less of experience, and according to 2007 estimates they account for approximately 21% of family farmers. To address the needs of a new generation of farmers and ranchers entering the agricultural sector, the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program funds initiatives that provide beginning farmers and ranchers with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed. USDA targets 25% of funding to projects that address the needs of limited resource and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, including minorities, immigrants, women, and farm workers who want to become farmers.
  • Award Type: Competitive Cooperative Agreements
  • Maximum Award: $300,000
  • Who's Eligible: State, tribal and local governments; nonprofit organizations; colleges and universities; cooperative extensions; other appropriate partners
  • Timelines: The newest Request for Applications (RFA) can be accessed at http://www.nifa.usda.gov/funding/rfas/bfrdp.html. Applications were due April 2010.
  • More information: http://www.nifa.usda.gov/fo/beginningfarmerandrancher.cfm or http://www.nifa.usda.gov/funding/bfrdp/bfrdp.html. Applicants can apply directly at http://www.grants.gov.

Tractor icon Farm Service Agency's Farm Loan Programs


  • Description: Many existing and aspiring farmers and ranchers lack the sufficient assets or repayment capacity to qualify for commercial loans. The Farm Service Agency's (FSA) Farm Loan Program offers direct and guaranteed loans to producers to purchase land, construct or refurbish buildings, purchase equipment or livestock, establish permanent crops or finance annual crops. Loans can be used to refinance debts in some cases. In addition, the program targets some funding for beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers.
  • Award Type: Direct and guaranteed loans for ownership and operation.
  • Maximum Award: $300,000 for direct loans; $1,094,000 (adjusted annually) for guaranteed loans.
  • Who's Eligible: Farmers and ranchers who are not ready to obtain financing from commercial lending sources. Targeted funds are available for beginning farmers and ranchers and for socially-disadvantaged farmers who are women, African Americans, American Indians, Alaskan Natives, Hispanics, Asian Americans or Pacific Islanders. Retiring farmers may use this program to transfer land to new generations of farmers.
  • Timelines: Program is ongoing
  • More information: http://www.fsa.usda.gov/FSA/webapp?area=home&subject=fmlp&topic=bfl

Tractor icon Farm Storage Facility Loan Program


  • Description: On-farm storage can help farmers maximize profits. It can be especially critical for producers growing fruits and vegetables for fresh markets, allowing them to store and preserve produce rather than harvesting just before leaving for market. USDA's Farm Storage Facility Loans program finances the purchase, construction, or refurbishment of farm storage facilities and new cold storage buildings, including prefabricated buildings with a useful life of at least 15 years. Financing may also cover site preparation and cooling and electrical equipment.
  • Award Type: Direct loans
  • Maximum Award: $500,000, with terms of 5,7, 10 or 12 years. Down payment and security requirements vary with loan sizes, and interest rates are fixed with rates comparable to Treasury Securities.
  • Who's Eligible: Individuals and businesses that produce eligible commodities, including fresh fruits and vegetables as well as hay and renewable biomass. Applicants must meet additional requirements.
  • Timelines: Check with your local FSA for specific application deadline information
  • More information: To read more about eligible commodities, facilities, upgrades, cost items, and other requirements, visit: http://www.fsa.usda.gov/FSA/webapp?area=home&subject=prsu&topic=flp-fp

Farmers' Market Promotion Program


  • Description: The Farmers' Market Promotion Program (FMPP) was created through an amendment of the Farmer-to-Consumer Direct Marketing Act of 1976 and is administered by the Agricultural Marketing Service. In the 2008 Farm Bill, the FMPP became mandatory for the first time and now has $30 million in funds for fiscal years 2009-2012. The grants authorized by the FMPP are targeted to help communities support local food systems and farmers through the improvement or expansion of domestic farmers markets, roadside stands, community supported agriculture programs and other direct producer-to-consumer market opportunities. A minimum of 10% of funds are set-aside for new electronic benefits transfer (EBT) programs that expand farmers market access to low-income individuals participating in federal nutrition programs.
  • Award Type: Competitive Grants
  • Maximum Award: $100,000. Applicants are limited to no more than one grant in a fiscal year, and starting in FY 2011, grantees cannot receive grants in two consecutive years.
  • Who's Eligible: Agricultural cooperatives, producer networks, producer associations, local governments, non-profit corporations, public benefit corporations, economic development corporations, regional farmers market authorities, and Tribal Governments.
  • Timelines: Applications were due April 15, 2010.
  • More information: See http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/FMPP for FY 2010 guidelines.

Specialty Crop Block Grant Program


  • Description: This flexible grant program, administered by USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service, provides state assistance for the production of specialty crops. Funds are used to enhance the competitiveness of fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, and nursery crops. This program is a tool to strengthen local and regional food systems by increasing the viability of "buy local" programs, establishing premium markets for organic produce, improving the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of distribution systems, bolstering marketing programs and establishing producer cooperatives for specialty crop growers.
  • Award Type: Block Grants to State Departments of Agriculture
  • Maximum Award: Varies by state
  • Who's Eligible: Departments of Agriculture in all fifty states, the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico who often re-grant to local organizations.
  • Timelines: Application Timelines are due July 29, 2010.
  • More information: http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/SCBGP Interested parties should contact their state department of agriculture.


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Knowledge Is Power: Research and Information Services


Agriculture and Food Research Initiative


  • Description: The Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) is a new, overarching competitive grant program to provide funding for fundamental and applied research, extension and education to address the food and agricultural sciences. Grants address priorities in the following broad research areas: plant health and production and plant products; animal health and production and animal products; food safety, nutrition, and health; renewable energy, natural resources, and environment; agriculture systems and technology; and agriculture economics and rural communities. Several of the programs under AFRI can be creatively harnessed to build strong local and regional food systems.
  • Award Type: Competitive Grants, which may have terms of up to 10 years
  • Maximum Award: Varies
  • Who's Eligible: State agricultural experiment stations, colleges and universities, university research foundations, other research institutions and organizations, Federal agencies, national laboratories, private organizations or corporations, individuals, and any group consisting of two or more of the aforementioned entities.
  • Timelines: For updates on deadlines for various AFRI programs, visit: http://www.csrees.usda.gov/funding/afri/afri_program_deadline_dates.html
  • More Information: http://www.nifa.usda.gov/fo/agriculturalandfoodresearchinitiativeafri.cfm

Tractor icon Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas


  • Description: Funded by USDA's Rural Business-Cooperative Service, the Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas (ATTRA) program provides information to farmers, ranchers and other individuals on a variety of sustainable agricultural practices, encouraging their adoption as a way to maintain or improve profits, produce high quality food and reduce adverse environmental impacts of farm operations. A number of high quality publications have been issued by ATTRA. ATTRA can also provide technical assistance for producers interested in developing marketing cooperatives.
  • Award Type: This is not an award program, but offers valuable information and technical assistance
  • Who's Eligible: Farmers, ranchers, market gardeners, extension agents, researchers, educators, farm organizations, and others involved in commercial agriculture. Particularly emphasis is given to economically disadvantaged or traditionally underserved communities.
  • More information: http://www.attra.org

Federal-State Marketing Improvement Program


  • Description: The Federal-State Marketing Improvement Program (FSMIP) is a matching grant program that provides funds to State Departments of Agriculture and other appropriate State agencies to explore barriers, challenges and new market opportunities for food and agricultural products and to encourage research and innovation that improves the performance of the marketing system. FSMIP funds support a wide range of applied research projects. The program's broad flexibility lends itself to a variety of programs that can bolster food systems based on family farm agriculture.
  • Award Type: Matching funds for State Departments of Agriculture and other State agencies
  • Maximum Award: Approximately 25 projects are funded each year, and the average grant is $50,000. In recent years, grants have ranged from $25,000 to $135,000.
  • Who's Eligible: State Departments of Agriculture, who may re-grant to local organizations
  • Timelines: Application deadlines for FY 2010 have passed.
  • More information: http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/FSMIP.

Small Business Innovation Research Program


  • Description: Eleven federal agencies participate in the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program each year. USDA's program is administered by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and awards competitive grants to qualified small businesses to support research endeavors that address scientific problems and opportunities in agriculture. SBIR does not award funds to establish businesses. Instead, it aims to stimulate private sector technical innovation, strengthen small businesses, increase private sector commercialization of USDA-supported innovations, and encourage innovation in women-owned and socially- or economically-disadvantaged small businesses.
  • Award Type: Competitive Research Grants
  • Maximum Award: SBIR Phase I grants are limited to $80,000 and a duration of 8 months and are open to any small business meeting SBIR eligibility requirements. SBIR Phase II grants are limited to $350,000 and for 24 months and are only open to previous Phase I awardees.
  • Who's Eligible: Small businesses, with no more than 500 employees. See the NIFA website for more information on eligibility requirements.
  • Timelines: Application deadlines for FY 2010 have passed. Phase I awardees will be announced in May 2010. Future deadlines for the program will be announced on the NIFA website.
  • More information: http://www.nifa.usda.gov/funding/sbir/sbir.html

Tractor icon Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education


  • Description: The Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) Program is a competitive grant-making and outreach program with the mission of advancing sustainable innovations to the whole of American agriculture. The sharing of project results is a cornerstone of the SARE program, with field days, workshops and conferences in every region, and an Outreach office producing an ever-growing library of books, bulletins, online resources and a vast archive of know-your-farmer profiles of SARE grantees. SARE is uniquely grassroots, with four regional offices administering the program and local experts guiding SARE through administrative councils. Some regions offer Graduate Student, Sustainable Community Innovation and Planning grants.
  • Award Type: Competitive grants
  • Maximum Award: Varies by program; awards range between $30,000 - $150,000+
  • Who's Eligible: Nonprofit organizations, researchers and individual producers
  • Timelines: Deadlines vary by program. Contact regional offices for details.
  • More information: http://www.sare.org

Corporation for National and Community Service Volunteers


  • Description: The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) is an independent government agency that runs the AmeriCorps Volunteer in Service to America (VISTA) and Learn and Serve America (LSA) programs. Communities and organizations across the United States have utilized both of these programs to help launch local and regional food systems projects.
  • Award Type: Volunteers, whose compensation and living expenses are supported by CNCS
  • Maximum Award: For VISTA, grants may cover the full volunteer stipend, but not the administrative expenses of operating the program. LSA funds draw from non-competitive grants to State Education Agencies based on a statutory formula.
  • Who's Eligible: Nonprofit organizations, colleges and universities, local, state, or federal agencies
  • Timelines: Varies
  • More information: http://www.americorps.gov/for_organizations/apply/vista.asp or http://www.learnandserve.gov.





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