All posts by Doug

Student Agricultural and Food Systems Innovation Prize Launched – Help Innovate Agriculture!

Posted by Tawny Mata, Senior Advisor, Office of the Chief Scientist, on February 4, 2014 at 4:30 PM

This post is part of the Science Tuesday feature series on the USDA blog. Check back each week as we showcase stories and news from USDA’s rich science and research portfolio.

Food ties all of humanity together, and making sure there is enough to go around while conserving our natural resources is critical to USDA’s mission. Our researchers think about how to sustainably produce greater quantities of safe and nutritious food every single day. Our in-house science agency, the Agricultural Research Service, has labs across the country that work on just those problems, while our National Institute of Food and Agriculture seeks out the most promising ideas from our university partners and awards the funding needed to get started.

Sometimes, all it takes is a fresh perspective to make a big jump in progress.

That’s why USDA is in cooperation with Agricultural Innovation Prize: Powered by 40 Chances to find the best new ideas for addressing the challenges in agriculture and food systems. This competition, coordinated by the University of Wisconsin at Madison with support from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, will award $215,000 in prizes to students with the most promising innovations in agriculture. The grand prize winner gets $100,000!

USDA is reaching out to its university partners to pass the word along to potential contestants and to its own agency scientists to serve as mentors to help teams take their idea to the next level.

If this challenge sounds fun and important, and you’re ready to sign up as a contestant, go to http://agprize.com for more information about the scope, prizes, and timeline for the competition. You must submit your idea by February 28th, 2014, so get brainstorming! We, here at the USDA, can’t wait to see what you can do.

And if you want to be a judge or a mentor to student teams, head over to http://agprize.com/information-for-the-public/judges to get involved.

– See more at: http://blogs.usda.gov/2014/02/04/student-agricultural-and-food-systems-innovation-prize-launched-help-innovate-agriculture/

Posted 2/12/14

Growing Food Connections Launches Website to Train Communities across the U.S. in Food Systems Planning

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Growing Food Connections, a research, planning and outreach initiative to strengthen community food systems across the United States, has launched www.GrowingFoodConnections.org as a resource repository for communities looking to broaden access to healthy food and sustain their local farms and food producers through public policy.

Led by the Food Systems Planning and Healthy Communities Lab at the University at Buffalo in partnership with Cultivating Healthy Places, Ohio State University and American Farmland Trust, Growing Food Connections (GFC) will target 10 “Communities of Opportunity” – communities poised to tackle their food access challenges and agricultural viability – with an intensive program of education, training, technical assistance and extension activities.

The five-year, $3.96 million initiative is funded by the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. American Planning Association is a key project partner along with a National Advisory Committee of esteemed leaders in agriculture, food systems and public health.

“Communities increasingly are looking for ways to connect their populations – particularly the under-served – with healthy, affordable and culturally acceptable food while fostering a viable agricultural sector,” said Samina Raja, PhD, UB associate professor of urban and regional planning, director of the Food Lab and a principal investigator for Growing Food Connections.

The new website, along with GFC’s direct extension activities in these communities, led by the American Farmland Trust, will ensure planning officials have the tools they need to develop, implement and maintain policy solutions to sustain agriculture and strengthen their food systems.

“This effort is unique,” suggests Julia Freedgood, Assistant Vice President of Programs at American Farmland Trust, “because it builds capacity of local governments to support family farmers and ranchers as a path toward community food security.”

Kimberley Hodgson, planner and principal of Cultivating Healthy Places notes that “the website will provide local government officials with a range of tools to assist them in developing their own food system plans and policies.” A social networking forum and webinars will support information sharing and peer-to-peer dialogue across participating communities. Forthcoming is a comprehensive database of local and regional public policies, from food production ordinances to food system plans and local procurement policies, to facilitate policy change.

With information on continuing education, doctoral programs in food systems planning and policy at Ohio State University and University at Buffalo and student internship opportunities, the website also supports GFC’s goal to develop an educational framework for the next generation of food systems planners.

For more information, visit: www.GrowingFoodConnections.org.

Posted on 2/12/14

Successful Turnout at the Second Food Policy Summit

The Second Food Policy Summit turned out to be a great success. The event exceeded attendance expectations. Over 200 people came for the Just Lead/Info Fair and Public Forum which doubled our attendance from the first Summit.

The idea of food awareness is slowly spreading across the city. Approximately 40 attendees were at the Policymaker Summit, 50 attendees at the Workshop, and about 60 people at the research table.

For more information about the Second Food Policy Summit, visit the following web sites:

New Food Policy Council Takes on Problems in the Local Food System – Buffalo News (10/23/2013) (pdf)

Students Make Nutritional Mark at Food Summit – Buffalo News (10/22/2013)

Students to Play a Key Role in Buffalo Food Policy Summit – Buffalo News Blog (10/22/2013)

Food for Thought…”Think about Food” – Buffalo Rising (10/14/2013)

Posted 10.28.2013

UB Students Study Food Environment in Jamestown, NY

A group of graduate students from the Masters of Urban Planning (MUP) program presented a plan to promote healthy food retail in Jamestown, New York. Students prepared the plan on behalf of the Chautauqua County Health Network’s Creating Healthy Places initiative which aims to make Jamestown, NY a healthier place to live, work, and play.

The project was funded by the New York State Department of Health. A recent news article about students’ presentation is available here.

Posted 12.17.2013

New Food Policy Council Will Help Tackle Problems Affecting Local Food System

A celebration to mark the launch of the new Food Policy Council of Buffalo and Erie County was held at the Public Forum and Info Fair held at the Burchfield Penney Arts Center, on Wednesday, October 23, 2013.

The Food Policy Council (FPC) of Buffalo and Erie County is a subcommittee of the Eric County Board of Health, and was created by law in May 2013. This is the first FPC recognized by law in New York State.

The council, which comprises of 17 voting members, will offer guidance to local policy makers on ways to improve the local food system for the region’s farmers, consumers, and other stakeholders.

A link to a Buffalo News article describing the launch of the FPC can be found here: http://www.buffalonews.com/city-region/communities/new-food-policy-council-takes-on-problems-in-local-food-system-20131023 or here (pdf).

Posted 10.27.2013

Announcing the 2nd Buffalo Food Policy Summit

The Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities – Buffalo Partnership, University at Buffalo, Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, Inc., and SUNY Buffalo State College will be coming together with various local community organizations and public agencies to host the Buffalo Food Policy Summit.

The 2nd Buffalo Food Policy Summit will take place on October 23-24, 2013 and will feature 6 events over the two days. The goals of this unique Summit is to introduce the Food Policy Council of Buffalo and Erie County (FPC) to policymakers and residents, and illustrate how they can participate in the new Council to create a more sustainable food system.

The Buffalo Food Policy Summit gives the community and sponsors a platform to voice their opinions, spread their ideas, and address various food issues that are prominent in the Buffalo community. The Summit comes at an important time as it can inform multiple local policy efforts currently underway. Current policy efforts that can strengthen the city’s food system include the Buffalo Green Code process, which is intended to overhaul Buffalo’s land use plan and 60-year-old zoning ordinance; the work of the Western New York Regional Economic Development Council , which recognizes agriculture and food systems as key economic development priorities; and the One Region Forward Regional initiative to develop a bi-county regional sustainability plan.

For the event schedule, you can visit the Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities website located here. Events at the Summit are free and open to the public.

Posted 10.10.2013.

Food Lab Participates in 5th Annual Tour de Farms Ride

Members of the lab participated in Tour De Farms, an annual fundraiser for the Massachusetts Avenue Project and GOBike Buffalo. Our 21-member team, the Beehive, rode 35 miles from West Side Buffalo to Oles Farm in Alden, NY on Saturday, September 14.

Tour de Farms raises awareness about the city and region’s food system. Riders visit community gardens and urban and rural farms along the route. At the end of the route, everyone shares a meal at Oles Farm, a local sustainable farm in Alden, NY. The event celebrates sustainable transportation and the local food system.

The team, which comprised of members of the UB Food Lab, representatives of Grassroots Gardens of Buffalo, as well as family and friends, received an award for the largest participating team. The team raised awareness about bee Colony Collapse Disorder in Western New York. For more information you can check Cornell Cooperative Extension’s research on Colony Collapse Disorder.

Tour de Farms was sponsored by Independent Health, The Buffalo News, U-Haul and the University at Buffalo.

Posted 09.18.2013

Jerome Kaufman Fellowship in Food Systems Planning Awarded to Subhashni Raj

The first recipient of the School of Architecture and Planning’s Jerome L. Kaufman Doctoral Fellowship is presented to Subhashni Raj. She is a Fulbright scholar and climate activist who will start her PhD this upcoming Fall. She will continue working with the Food Systems and Healthy Communities Lab under the guidance of Dr. Samina Raja, UB Associate Professor of Urban and Regional Planning.

This fellowship was inspired by Jerome Kaufman, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who created the field of food systems within the field of planning. Without his support, innovative research, and commitment to the community, the idea of food systems would not have been possible.

Read more about the Fellowship and future plans for Subhashni Raj on the School of Architecture and Planning’s latest news website.

Congratulations, Subhashni!

Posted 06.28.2013

Growing Together: A Sustainable Regional Plan for Food Access and Justice

Growing Together is a sustainable food access and food justice report for Erie and Niagara Counties, located in Western New York State. Through research and stakeholder engagement, the Food Lab is identifying assets and opportunities within the region’s food system. In partnership with the University at Buffalo Regional Institute, the Food Lab aims to craft tools that the bi-counties’ many municipalities can use to strengthen: the viability of food production; access to nutritious, culturally acceptable, and affordable food; and the linkages between food producers and eaters within their communities and the region.

Growing Together is one of five components of the bi-counties’ One Region Forward sustainability plan, which is funded by $2 million from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Partnership for Sustainable Communities Initiative. One Region Forward focuses on planning sustainably for food access and justice; land use and development; transportation and mobility; housing and neighborhoods; and climate change. The project is currently in the second year of HUD’s three-year planning grant.

Team members: Jessica Hall (Project Manager), Cristina Delgado, Travis Norton.

Erie County Board of Health Forms Food Policy Council of Buffalo and Erie County

On May 21, 2013 the Food Policy Council of Buffalo and Erie County was created by the Erie County Board of Health. The Board voted unanimously to create the Food Policy Council (“FPC”), the first of its kind in New York State, as a sub-commission of the Board. Local food systems partners championed the need for a Food Policy Council for a number of years. The inaugural Buffalo Food Policy Summit, held in September 2011, brought the issue to the forefront for local policymakers and other stakeholders, laying the groundwork for action.

The Food Policy Council will be an advisory body that serves as a resource to local governments on all issues concerning food. This will allow Erie County Government and any municipality to draw on the expertise of the FPC to advise decision makers on issues ranging from obesity and limited food access to economic development options including local food procurement requirements and increasing opportunities to purchase food grown right here in Erie County. The FPC provides support and acts as a resource on food systems and its impact on the health of a community. Members of the FPC are expected to be named later this summer.

The FPC was the result of the support and collaboration of many contributors, including the Community Foundation of Greater Buffalo; W.D. Henry & Sons Farm; University of Buffalo’s School of Architecture and Planning; Good Earth, Inc; Healthy Kids- Healthy Communities Partnership, a program of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; Oles Family Farm; Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, Inc.; Cornell Cooperative Extension of Erie County; Buffalo City Councilmembers Michael LoCurto and David Rivera; Be Healthy Institute; Dash’s Market; Erie County Department of Environment and Planning & Department of Health; and the Massachusetts Avenue Project.

Any questions or further inquiries, please contact, Sean Mulligan, at smulligan@city-buffalo.com or 716-851-5125.

Posted 06.16.2013