Action Resource Guide

A listing of resources you can use to water your "do-it" seeds

One of the articles in A Good Harvest (IC#42)
Fall 1995, Page 56
Copyright (c)1995, 1997 by Context Institute | To order this issue ...

Eating

Chefs Collaborative 2000
Oldways Preservation and Exchange Trust
25 First Street, Cambridge, MA 02141
tel. 617/621-3000
fax: 617/ 621-1230

Work with chefs in your region to support local farmers, talk to children about organic farming, help at farmers markets, or get involved with policy decisions at the national level.

EarthSave
706 Frederick Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95062-2205
tel. 408/423-4069

Join in urging your state and federal government to support low-input sustainable agriculture; attend local vegetarian potlucks and seminars on issues pertaining to plant-based diets.

Meadowcreek, Inc.
PO Box 100
Fox, AR 72051
tel. 501/363-4500
fax: 501/363-4578

Organize a food distribution network and encourage your community's restaurants, school cafeterias, and supermarkets to buy from local growers. Send for the free Guide to Starting a Local Food Project.

Mothers and Others for a Sustainable Planet
40 West 20th Street
New York , NY 10011
tel. 212/242-0010
fax: 212/242-0545

Send S.A.S.E. for information about where your food is grown, how to trigger changes in the food production system, and how to forge constructive relations with your supermarket managers.

S.A.F.E. (Sustainable Agriculture, Food and Environment) Alliance
38 Edbury Street, London,
SW1W 0LU, England
tel. +4-(0)171/823-5660
email: safe@gn.apc.org

Log your food miles. Learn how you can buy food from local farmers, and how to request labeling of food with its country of origin. (European focus.)

Urban Gardening

American Community Gardening Associations
325 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106
tel. 215/625-8280
fax: 215/625-9392

Turn a vacant lot into a productive community space. Write for information on how to get started, and for contacts in your area who are also interested in community gardening.

San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners (SLUG)
2088 Oakdale Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94124
tel. 415/285-SLUG

Use the nation's first urban youth farm as a model for your own urban agriculture project. Involve youth to help reduce crime and increase community health and pride. Call for an information packet.

The Trust for Public Land
116 New Montgomery Street, 4th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105
tel. 800/714-LAND
fax: 415/495-4103

Support local efforts to create parks and protect open space in your area. The Green Cities Initiative aims to reduce crime in 12 American cities through the creation of playgrounds, parks, gardens, and greenways.

Worm Digest
PO Box 544 Eugene, OR 97440

To learn the wonders of new earthworm technology, subscribe to the quarterly Worm Digest ($8 per year); read Turning Garbage Into Gold: An Introduction to Vermiculture Biotechnology by Uday Bhawalkar, $15 postpaid, or order the video ($28 postpaid). See Worm Revolution in this issue.

Farmer-Consumer Connections

Community Supported Agriculture of North America Inc.
818 Connecticut Ave. NW
Suite 800
Washington, D.C. 20006

A networking and technical assistance organization for existing, aspiring, and potential CSAs in Canada, the US, and Mexico; publishes the quarterly Seasonal News ($21/year).

Indian Line Farm
RR3, Box 85
Great Barrington, MA 01230

Find a CSA to join in Indian Line's 1995-96 state-by-state directory. Start a CSA using their 64-page handbook including job descriptions, outreach tactics, a bibliography, and a simple list of projects ($10); video ($35). Order CSA: The Producer/Consumer Partnership, $2. Send S.A.S.E. for more information.

North East Workers on Organic Farms (NEWOOF)
New England Small Farm Institute
PO Box 937
Belchertown, MA 01007
tel. 413/323-4531
fax: 413/323-9594

Exchange first-hand experience with organic farming for meals and accommodation. Weekends or extended periods. Find out new ways of linking farmers and consumers with Judy Steele's Local Food Links.

Political Involvement

FARM AID
334 Broadway, Suite 5
Cambridge, MA 02139
tel. 800/FARM-AID
fax: 617/354-6992

Join your local branch and support family farmers in preserving our food supply, protecting our natural resources, and sustaining the economic foundation of rural America.

Food and Water, Inc.
Depot Hill Road
RR 1, Box 114
Marshfield, VT 05658-9702
tel. 802/426-3700
fax: 802/426-3711

Become a member and help campaign for a pesticide-free food supply by confronting big food corporations. Call for information about your neighborbood network.

Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
1313 5th Street SE, Suite 303
Minneapolis, MN 55414
tel. 612/379-5980
fax: 612/379-5982
email: iatp@iatp.org

Connect to monthly Internet news bulletins on food safety, the 1995 farm bill, biotechnology, and intellectual property rights.

Land Stewardship Project
2200 4th Street
White Bear Lake, MN 55110
tel. 612/653-0618
fax: 612/653-0589

Read An Agriculture that Makes Sense: Profitability of Four Sustainable Farms in Minnesota ($15) for alternatives to the "get big, get out" farming mindset. Get involved with the Factory Farm Awareness Campaign, congregation-supported agriculture, watershed protection, or a gamut of other projects.

Committee for Sustainable Agriculture
PO Box 838
San Martin, CA 95046
tel. 408/778-7366
fax: 408/778-7186

Become a member and support healthy food, recycling, rural living, and better farming. Educate consumers on how and why to buy organic food.

Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture

See A Campaign for Sustainability in this issue for a report on the campaign's work to influence the 1995 Farm Bill. National contact is Amy Little, 914/294-0633.

Regional contacts are:

Northeast: Dorothy Suput, 617/666- 1005
South: Julie Burns, 704/299-1922
Midwest:Renee Robinso, 217/498 9707
West: Paul Weingartner, 208/882-1444
California: Kai Siedenburg, 408/458-5304
NW: John Fawcett-Long, 206/935-8738

Farming Information

Alternative Farming Systems Information Center
National Agriculture Library, US Dept. of Agriculture
10301 Baltimore Blvd., Room 304
Beltsville, MD 20705-2351
tel. 301/504-6559
fax: 301/504-6409

Contact for information about alternative farming practices from both scientific and popular literature.

The Center for Rural Affairs
Land Link
101 S. Tallman Street
Walthill, NE 68067
tel. 402/846-5428

Land Link trains young people to be effective small farmers and helps them manage financial arrangements to buy farms.

Rodale Institute Experimental Farm
611 Siegfriedale Road
Kutztown, PA 19530
tel. 610/683-6383
fax: 610/683-8548

Promoting healthy soil, food, and people, the institute provides information on systems ranging from rotational farming to soil fertility.

Land Trusts

American Farmland Trust
1920 N Street, Suite 400
Washington, DC 20036
tel. 202/659-5170
fax: 202/659-8339

This national conservation group brings farmland loss and environmentally damaging farming practices to the attention of policymakers and the general public. Join a consortium of 26,000 members.

Institute for Community Economics
57 School Street
Springfield, MA 01105-1331
tel. (413) 746-8660
fax: (413) 746-8862

Form a land trust in your own community with the Community Land Trust Handbook ($12).

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