CFPAC Food Justice Summit Registration Open
Also, Mint Creek Farm needs help to address damage from drought
Couple of Dudes, Hanging Out
Thanks to Barb for one of my favorite photos ever. At least Hobbes is photogenic.
Register Now for CFPAC’s Food Justice Summit
If you have interest (and you should) in crucial issues such as food justice, access, equity and sovereignty, urban agriculture, and other key aspects of our local food community, make a plan to attend all or part of the Chicago Food Policy Action Council’s 18th Annual Food Justice Summit. The hybrid Summit will be held February 8-10, and free registration is open.
This year will mark CFPAC’s return to live programming for the first time in three years, with a full day on Friday, February 10 at University of Illinois at Chicago’s Student Center East, 750 S. Halsted St. This will be proceeded by two days of virtual programming on February 8 and 9.
The theme for this year’s Summit is “Future Proofing the Food System.” Dr. Yoalli Rodríguez Aguilera, Assistant Professor of Latin American and Latinx Studies and Anthropology at suburban Lake Forest College, will be the keynote speaker.
Click below for more information and a link to the registration page. I hope to see you there on the 10th.
Mint Creek Farm Needs Help Surviving Slow-Motion Disaster
Local Food Forum has promoted outreach campaigns for farms that suffered devastating loss through fire. My friends at Mint Creek Farm, located in Cabery in east central Illinois, are seeking help dealing with a disaster long in the making: drought.
According to info posted by Mint Creek,
Mint Creek Farm has experienced a severe drought this year, and the cumulative effects of the decreased rainfall amounts since June led to several months of low pasture forage growth to feed our grazing animals, notably the sheep, cows and goats. As a result, we had to start purchasing and feeding organic hay several months earlier than average.
Now that it’s winter, our current cost of hay is approximately $500-$1000/per day to keep our herds and flocks fed.
If you’d like to help our farm through this difficult season, please consider the following. Our community consistently humbles us and we are incredibly grateful for all forms of support, past, present, and future!
One way to make an immediate impact is to donate to Mint Creek Farm’s fundraising campaign. The folks there note, “We have not taken donations before, but the circumstances our farm is in currently mean we need all the kinds of help we can get to enable us to continue the business without liquidating animals this winter.”
The farm says other ways to help include recommending Mint Creek to friends as a trusted source of ecologically and humanely raised meats; purchasing individual meat cuts through their online store or at selected Chicago-area winter farmers markets; making bulk orders of quarter, half or whole animals; subscribing to their meat CSA farm share; or loaning the farm $2,000 or more through a personally guaranteed note payable with a 5 percent interest rate.
Click below to visit the Mint Creek website to make meat purchases or subscribe to the CSA.