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Aid is ineffective. By some estimates, more than $2-trillion has been spent fighting poverty since the 1950s, with little direct impact. The stories of failure are illustrated with hydro dams that never worked, crops that never grew and roads that went nowhere.

The Brookings Institution recently predicted even more dramatic gains ahead: “Between 2005 and 2015, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Ethiopia are each expected to grow by at least 6.3 per cent per year, and in the process, each is likely to see a quarter of its population lifted out of poverty.” Entrepreneurs, not aid spending, are driving this growth…

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Healthy seas and coasts would pay healthy dividends in a green economy, according to a report released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), International Maritime Organization (IMO), United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA), International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), WorldFish Center and GRID-Arendal, that highlights the huge potential for economic growth and poverty eradication from well-managed marine sectors.

The report, Green Economy in a Blue World, argues that the ecological health and economic productivity of marine and coastal ecosystems, which are currently in decline around the globe, can be boosted by shifting to a more sustainable economic approach that taps their natural potential – from generating renewable energy and promoting eco-tourism, to sustainable fisheries and transport…

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ACORN presents GROW! a fantastic award-winning film about the movement of young farmers in Atlanta, Georgia. GROW! screenings will accompany ‘Meet and Greet’ sessions for farmers and aspiring farmers to connect, access helpful resources and learn what agricultural apprenticeships are available within the region.

Are you interested in farming this summer? Following the 50 minute film, we will then lead a discussion about available New Brunswick-based farmer training opportunities. We will feature a panel of several farmers from the area, many of whom are offering farm-based apprenticeships for the 2012 season. Don’t miss this chance to meet these busy folks and learn more about issues facing the future generation of organic farmers in North America.

Admission is just $5/person with all proceeds supporting ACORN’s Grow A Farmer program.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

the Charlotte Street Arts Centre, Fredericton

Film starts at 7pm.

For further information about GROW! please see www.growmovie.net

For all other inquiries, please contact Lucia Stephen at lucia(at)acornorganic.org/1-866-322-2676.

Connect with and support the Fredericton Food Bank by checking them out on Facebook!

]]> http://nbfsanrasanb.wordpress.com/2012/01/26/fredericton-food-bank-is-on-facebook/feed/ 0 nbfsanrasanb 790_528 http://nbfsanrasanb.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/food-security-and-agriculture-the-missing-part-of-the-picture/ http://nbfsanrasanb.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/food-security-and-agriculture-the-missing-part-of-the-picture/#comments Wed, 25 Jan 2012 22:52:11 +0000 nbfsanrasanb http://nbfsanrasanb.wordpress.com/?p=2208 ]]> It’s been very clear – from the submissions to the Rio+20 compilation document, the statements at Rio+20 preparatory meetings, and in numerous research papers- that food security and sustainable agriculture need serious attention at the Rio+20 Conference in June. A commitment to resilient and equitable food system must be the goal.

As noted in the African Union statement at the Second Intersessional Meetingof UNCSD and the summary from the Regional Preparatory Meeting for the Economic Commission for Europe, both held in December 2011, a key strand of this is the need to address livestock and animal husbandry.

 Livestock is one of the most important sectors for employment and livelihoods within agriculture. The sector accounts for 40% of global agricultural GDP, and employs around 1.3 billion people. A billion of the world’s poorest people depend on animals for food, income, transport, social status, and security. Furthermore, in low-income countries, livestock production is often one of the few ways that women, the elderly, and children participate in the cash economy…

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When you trawl the pickle aisle of a Canadian grocery store you’re almost certain to see shelves of Bick’s products and that iconic red-and-green logo. It’s the country’s dominant producer of pickles. At least it used to be. After more than 60 years of processing cucumbers, onions, peppers and beets in Canada, Bick’s has closed its plants in Dunnville and Delhi, Ont., and moved its operations to Wisconsin.

The move has left the Canadian pickle industry adrift, with farmers fretting—worried not just about falling cucumber prices and disappearing markets, but the very fate of the Canadian-made pickle. Marshall Schuyler once grew 600 tonnes of cucumbers for Bick’s per year but has gradually been cutting back in favour of more profitable crops like soybeans and corn. This year, for the first time in 20 years, he won’t be planting any. “The future success of Canadian cucumbers—and many of our processed vegetables—depends on the consumers’ willingness to pay for food safety,” he says, referring to the rise of cheaper foreign imports that picklers like Bick’s are turning to…

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It’s called Transition Town Woodstock, a push to slowly reduce the community’s dependence on fossil fuels and to prepare for rising oil prices, group member Keith Helmuth says.

“The idea is to do what we can at the local and regional level to prepare for change,” the 74-year-old retired college professor, farmer and businessman said.

The core concepts behind Transition Towns are those of sustainable transportation, food supplies, households and businesses. The movement was sparked by British permaculture designers in the early 2000s and has spread across the globe…

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This past September, New Brunswick’s Mount Allison University held an event unprecedented in its 172-year-long history: a you-pick potato harvest. For the first five Saturdays of the new school year, students and Sackville residents were able to pick Russet and Superior potatoes from a boggy, 9.7-hectare farm in the heart of the campus. The rest of the spud harvest—a yield of 30,000 pounds—was transformed, to the delight of many ravenous undergrads, into fresh, hand-cut french fries and mashed potatoes in the kitchen at Jennings Hall.

The Mount Allison Farm had lain fallow for half a century before Michelle Strain, a gardener and the university’s director of administrative services, revived it this past spring in response to student demand for more fresh, local produce. Strain and her small team sought advice and borrowed equipment from nearby farmers, and received a guarantee from chef Tom Burrell, who runs the dining hall, to buy as much “homegrown”—as the chef calls it with a wink—produce as they could. Third-year anthropology student Heidi Goodine was one of two Mount A students who spent the past summer amending the soil, planting, watering and weeding—all by hand. Menaced by switchgrass, ferocious mosquitoes and relentless rain, the small crew (along with about 100 volunteers) produced a surprisingly large bounty…

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