An Economic Development Framework for Sustainable Agriculture at URI, January 21, 2010

This Thursday, January 21, 2010, a free talk entitled "An Economic Development Framework for Sustainable Agriculture", sponsored by the van Beuren Foundation, Rhode Island Foundation, and University of Rhode Island, will be presented at URI by Michael Hamm, CS Mott Professor of Sustainable Agriculture, Michigan State University.

To be discussed:
If the regional population were to eat the USDA recommended daily portion of fruit and vegetables, what would be the increased consumption?

What share of that consumption pattern could be grown locally?

How much more land would have to be in cultivation in order to produce that quantity of food?

What would be the economic impact of the agricultural expansion?

talk location: University of Rhode Island Center for Biotechnology and Life Sciences, Flagg Road, Kingston Campus

Thursday, January 21, 2010, 10am - 12pm

RSVP for parking to Kim Dame, Grants Manager, van Beuren Charitable Foundation, 401.619.5910 or kdame@vbcfoundation.org

Deli meat demo, Saturday, January 16, 11:30-3pm

Deli Arts, a two-year old Massachusetts company founded by native New Yorkers, produces authentic New York deli meats (pastrami, corned beef, and two flavors of roasted turkey), and they just happen to be doing a demo at Eastside Marketplace on Saturday, January 16, 11:30am until 3:00pm. It also just so happens that January 14 is National Hot Pastrami Sandwich Day, so the timing seems quite auspicious.

From the Deli Arts website:

Deli Arts reflects our passion to preserve great, endangered, food traditions and share them with others. We are especially focused on restoring the grandeur of traditional regional and ethnic specialties that have crossed over into the mainstream – but somehow lost their soul along the way. These once great treats have become all but unrecognizable through assimilation and commercialization. We’re working hard, through research into traditional materials and methods and through innovation in modern preparation and packaging to bring these once great flavors and textures back to life...

I, for one, like the sound of that, and the fact that Deli Arts' founder, Dan Estridge, is a scholar of deli - blogging about deli meats here - is fascinating as well.

Slow Food RI's Annual Meeting, Tuesday, February 2 at 7pm

2009 was a great year for Slow Food Rhode Island: We not only saw our membership more than double, we also hosted and co-hosted some great events (movie nights, panel discussions, a movie followed by a talk on coffee with New Harvest Coffee Roasters, and a wonderful author and farmer talk with author-farmer Novella Carpenter and Providence's City Farm farmer Rich Pederson) as well as increased activism on the local and national level with the push to increase biodiversity and awareness of place-based foods through the Renewing America's Food Traditions (RAFT) Grow-out, and the Slow Food USA Time for Lunch campaign, which strives to get healthy food into schools through an increase in funding for the Child Nutrition Act.

As you may know, local Slow Food chapters are run entirely by volunteers, and our funding comes from event fees and donations to the chapter. In addition to events similar to those we hosted in 2009, we will be fundraising to send a local farmer, food producer, cook, academic, or advocate (or perhaps a couple of people) to Terra Madre in October 2010.

To start off 2010 strong, we are hosting our annual meeting on Tuesday, February 2 at 7pm at Local 121. There will be a delicious buffet available for $15, cash bar, and we are requesting a donation of $5 per person to help fund this year's efforts and events.

During the meeting, we will discuss our plans for this year and beyond - and we want to hear your ideas as well. We'd like to know what types of events you'd like to attend, and, of course, if you'd like to coordinate an event, we'd love that as well!

We will also vote on officers for our chapter, including Chairperson, Membership, and Secretary. The current officers are Chair, Amy McCoy, and Secretary, Ingrid Lofgren.

Please rsvp to slowfoodri@gmail.com, and feel free to send along any questions or suggestions for the chapter, whether you are able to attend or not. As always, if you are interested in volunteering with Slow Food RI in any way, please also drop us a line at slowfoodri@gmail.com.

We look forward to seeing you at the annual meeting and making plans for this year and beyond!