Fairy Dust Day
Yesterday was a day filled with fairy dust. It started at 9 AM with a meeting at Bastyr College of Natural Medicine with an organic gardening instructor and the manager of the school's organic garden. We are establishing a partnership so the students can support the Sammamish Valley Grange garden. They wanted to see the site that afternoon. As four of us were standing in the Heritage Garden circle the winds picked up rather strongly. One of the women commented on it and I spread out my arms as if to fly...just like I did at Esalen on the large rock overlooking the waters. She and I acted like children. She said, "The spirits are happy." I love being with people who speak my language!
I received a call from Hawaii to discuss my Circle of Life class. That made me think/feel that I'd like to take my Turtle's Circle of Life book with me to have it available at the class. I'm looking at how that can be accomplished. I don't think I want a regular book. I need it to complement my class. I love coloring books...they are "sexy"...they turn me on! I love the artful designs that let me color in the open spaces as I choose. Coloring books are enchanting! I have one about Dragons!! I have more questions than answers regarding this Turtle book. How can my book and class support the whole brain body?
We had a productive meeting with Sammamish Valley Alliance. We are getting more focused and taking more action regarding the protection of our agricultural valley. I'm learning a lot from a woman friend who likes to do research. From her I learned about our new regional Food Policy Council out of Richard Conlin's office with the City of Seattle. I am so excited about this new system and will speak for 3 minutes at our city council to urge our city to get involved:
Richard Conlin, Seattle City Council President
Newsletter
http://www.seattle.gov/council/conlin
NEW REGIONAL FOOD POLICY COUNCIL APPROVED
On Thursday, January 28, the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) approved the creation of a Regional Food Policy Council. The Regional Food Policy Council (RFPC) will work with community, business, agriculture, and government partners to identify gaps in the region’s food system and develop integrated policy recommendations and actions that will help our region move towards a food system that supports healthy people and communities and environmental sustainability.
A local Acting Food Policy Council, with modest funding support from WSU Cooperative Extension and lots of volunteer energy, has been working for several years, and has been a very important partner in developing the Local Food Action Initiative (LFAI) and in the implementation work that has happened since the LFAI was approved by Council in May of 2008. Part of the work program for the LFAI has been to create a permanent Food Policy Council, as has been done in a number of other cities and regions around the US and Canada.
Our goal was to create the Food Policy Council on a regional level. A regional approach can combine the interests and representation of urban and rural people, and support making connections on the regional level between farm producers and urban consumers. The work of the RFPC can inform economic development strategies, protection of farmland, and developing food processing and marketing opportunities for locally grown food. PSRC, which is the planning group for four counties (King, Snohomish, Pierce, and Kitsap), and is governed by local elected officials from the region, is a great place to be the center for food policy development.
The Obama administration is very supportive of these kinds of efforts, and has launched a grant program specifically targeted at supporting Food Policy Councils. The City of Seattle has already received a $300,000 federal grant to support community organizations implementing the LFAI, and the experience and energy around local food issues in this area would make the Puget Sound Regional Food Policy Council a great candidate for a federal grant to advance its work. Members of the Acting Food Policy Council will work with my office and PSRC to structure the new RFPC and develop this funding source over the next several months.
Once the new body is established and funded, it will bring together representatives from across the food system, including those involved in production, processing, packaging, distribution, consumption, and food waste, as well as agencies addressing environment, housing, emergency preparedness, and economic development issues. This group will develop policies that will protect farmland, foster economic development, improve public health, and increase access to fresh, local food.
I received a call from Hawaii to discuss my Circle of Life class. That made me think/feel that I'd like to take my Turtle's Circle of Life book with me to have it available at the class. I'm looking at how that can be accomplished. I don't think I want a regular book. I need it to complement my class. I love coloring books...they are "sexy"...they turn me on! I love the artful designs that let me color in the open spaces as I choose. Coloring books are enchanting! I have one about Dragons!! I have more questions than answers regarding this Turtle book. How can my book and class support the whole brain body?
We had a productive meeting with Sammamish Valley Alliance. We are getting more focused and taking more action regarding the protection of our agricultural valley. I'm learning a lot from a woman friend who likes to do research. From her I learned about our new regional Food Policy Council out of Richard Conlin's office with the City of Seattle. I am so excited about this new system and will speak for 3 minutes at our city council to urge our city to get involved:
Richard Conlin, Seattle City Council President
Newsletter
http://www.seattle.gov/council/conlin
NEW REGIONAL FOOD POLICY COUNCIL APPROVED
On Thursday, January 28, the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) approved the creation of a Regional Food Policy Council. The Regional Food Policy Council (RFPC) will work with community, business, agriculture, and government partners to identify gaps in the region’s food system and develop integrated policy recommendations and actions that will help our region move towards a food system that supports healthy people and communities and environmental sustainability.
A local Acting Food Policy Council, with modest funding support from WSU Cooperative Extension and lots of volunteer energy, has been working for several years, and has been a very important partner in developing the Local Food Action Initiative (LFAI) and in the implementation work that has happened since the LFAI was approved by Council in May of 2008. Part of the work program for the LFAI has been to create a permanent Food Policy Council, as has been done in a number of other cities and regions around the US and Canada.
Our goal was to create the Food Policy Council on a regional level. A regional approach can combine the interests and representation of urban and rural people, and support making connections on the regional level between farm producers and urban consumers. The work of the RFPC can inform economic development strategies, protection of farmland, and developing food processing and marketing opportunities for locally grown food. PSRC, which is the planning group for four counties (King, Snohomish, Pierce, and Kitsap), and is governed by local elected officials from the region, is a great place to be the center for food policy development.
The Obama administration is very supportive of these kinds of efforts, and has launched a grant program specifically targeted at supporting Food Policy Councils. The City of Seattle has already received a $300,000 federal grant to support community organizations implementing the LFAI, and the experience and energy around local food issues in this area would make the Puget Sound Regional Food Policy Council a great candidate for a federal grant to advance its work. Members of the Acting Food Policy Council will work with my office and PSRC to structure the new RFPC and develop this funding source over the next several months.
Once the new body is established and funded, it will bring together representatives from across the food system, including those involved in production, processing, packaging, distribution, consumption, and food waste, as well as agencies addressing environment, housing, emergency preparedness, and economic development issues. This group will develop policies that will protect farmland, foster economic development, improve public health, and increase access to fresh, local food.
posted by Community Threads @ 11:25 AM
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