August 22, 2017 / by mcufone / Make A Comment / Filed under Farm/er feature
In August, RFC’s ED Marianne Cufone visited several of our farming friends in New York City and learned about all the amazing programs happening there.
First stop was Brooklyn Grange. Atop a giant building in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the farm grows across an expansive rooftop. The Grange hosts workshops, tours and events, including weddings, and has demonstration projects with chickens and bees. It is a beautiful space with 360 degree city and waters views. Their next endeavor is on the roof of the new mall in Sunset Park, across from Industrial City.
Next up, was spending time with Yemi Amu and the Oko Farms’ team, at their Moore Street Garden, in Buschwick, Brooklyn. The farm practices recirculating farming through a large aquaponics system with tilapia, koi, goldfish, catfish, bluegill and even crawfish! They host amazing community events, classes, workshops and more.
Lastly we learned about a very unique and interesting concept in urban farming – a free floating food forage forest – Swale in the Bronx, NY! Built atop a barge that travels to piers in New York City, the farm offers educational programming and welcomes visitors to harvest herbs, fruits and vegetables for free. The program strives to strengthen stewardship of public waterways and land, while working to shift policies that will increase development of foragable urban landscapes.
If you live in or are visiting New York – don’t miss these cool edible urban green spaces!
July 27, 2017 / by mcufone / Make A Comment / Filed under Fish, In the News
The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is a private labeling enterprise that reviews fisheries worldwide for certification to their standards. Companies seeking certification for their fisheries pay a fee to the MSC for review and certification. Fisheries are rarely entirely denied the label, though some fisheries have been given conditional certification if they make certain changes or improvements. Whether the label does or does not actually represent “sustainability” in fishing, the MSC label is one of the few that consumers often recognize on seafood, in large part due to intensive outreach and marketing. Name recognition may encourage shoppers to buy MSC labeled seafood.
Over recent months, MSC has been reviewing the Gulf menhaden fishery at the request of Omega Protein. Most people are not familiar with menhaden, (aka “pogies”in the Gulf). This is because menhaden is mostly a bait and reduction fishery – meaning menhaden aren’t eaten directly by people as an entree – most are “reduced” to fish oil and fishmeal for use in pet feed, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals (like fish oil pills) among other products and some is used directly as bait for catching other fish. Menhaden is the second largest fishery by weight in the United States, with over 1 billion pounds caught annually from the Gulf of Mexico.
Menhaden have been called the “most important fish in the sea”. These small fish are critical to the ecosystem – many larger fish in the Gulf rely on them as food, as do marine mammals like dolphins, and sea birds. They also are filter feeders so they can help maintain the quality of Gulf waters.
Menhaden are caught using spotter planes and encircling nets – so anything near the school of fish – like dolphins, sharks, and other fish, might get caught and killed too when the entire school of fish is scooped up and pulled in. The unintentional catch of other marine life is called “bycatch”. The menhaden industry itself acknowledges about a 1-3 percent “bycatch” rate, which sounds like not much, but considering over a billion pounds of menhaden are pulled from the Gulf each year, that means about 1-3 million pounds of bycatch annually, along with it.
The menhaden industry in the Gulf is just two companies – so most information is considered “confidential” – people cannot get enough good information about the fishery to know whether it could be considered sustainable or not. It is therefore difficult to support any MSC certification when there is little current publicly available information to confirm it.
Also concerning, is that there is no catch cap on Gulf menhaden except in Texas state waters. So companies can catch as much of these fish as they are able. Gulf menhaden are caught mainly in Louisiana waters and the rest in Mississippi, Alabama and Texas. Menhaden are also caught in the Atlantic, where there is an annual limit. This means that companies could reach the annual catch cap in the Atlantic, and then go fish more in the Gulf.
With a current push for more aquaculture in the U.S., there may be a rise in need for menhaden to feed the farmed fish. Also, getting an MSC certification might increase sales of menhaden, and products with menhaden in them, to those who would think it is more sustainable than other sources once it has the MSC label.
We are now waiting for MSC’s decision on Gulf menhaden.
Learn more about Gulf menhaden here.
June 22, 2017 / by mcufone / Make A Comment / Filed under Education
Recirculating Farms Coalition in cooperation with the USDA Farm Service Agency is hosting a series of outreach and discussion sessions for farmers in New Orleans, Louisiana and beyond. We are planning to have classes throughout the summer on topics that will provide training and information on how to participate in various federal farm/farmer support programs, such as getting insurance and applying for funding, equipment and other assistance. At these July meetings, we will review and select which topics are most important to our community and schedule dates and times for the classes, so the most farmers are able to participate. Help us support growers! Hope to see you at one of these meetings to provide your input. Snacks and drinks served.
(Others may be added):
July 6th – Loyola Law School, Room # 111, 5:30- 7pm
526 Pine St, New Orleans, LA 70118
July 11th The Healing Center, Interfaith Room 4th floor 5:30 – 7pm
2372 St Claude Ave, New Orleans, LA 70117
July 19th The People’s Health Jazz Market 5:30 – 7pm
1436 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd, New Orleans, LA 70113
July 25 Rosa Keller Library Meeting Room, 5:30 – 7pm
4300 S. Broad Ave, New Orleans, LA 70125
Please let us know if you plan to attend so we can have enough materials and refreshments for everyone. Questions? Contact media@recirculatingfarms.org or call or text 504-515-0161. You can also RSVP our Facebook Events page at: bit.ly/nolafarmersessions
Big thanks to all the above venues for providing free or very low cost space to make such events possible. We appreciate your generosity and support!
May 13, 2017 / by mcufone / Make A Comment / Filed under In the News
What a great week we had here at RFC in New Orleans! We initiated our partnership with the New Orleans Mission, an organization dedicated to supporting the homeless in our city. We installed raised garden beds at the Mission’s Women’s House and many of the women residing there were excited to get involved. Check out the story WGNO ran about it.
When our work in the garden was done, we picked some of the sweet limes and rosemary that were already growing there and made fresh rosemary limeade. We all enjoyed getting to know each other. We’ll be spending more time together in the coming months, as we’ll host gardening and health supportive cooking classes at the Mission regularly now.
Next up – a new garden for the Mission gents too and an urban farmer training program! Stay tuned.
April 22, 2017 / by mcufone / Make A Comment / Filed under In the News, Take action!
At its meeting in Colorado on April 21, the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), an advisory committee to the USDA National Organic Program, had a long discussion about whether hydroponic and aquaponic farms could keep USDA Organic certification. The Board reviewed what the term “Organic” means in the United States and other countries. The largest debate is over whether “Organic” requires soil, but there was little mention about other efficient resource use.
Hydroponics and aquaponics are sustainable systems and they are important for the future of agriculture because they reuse waste and water, they can use less energy, they can run on alternative energy, they are space efficient, they are versatile and today, organics should be about more than soil. It should be about the whole picture. We should be looking to improve our planet and these types of farms at their very core are eco-efficient.
It was especially ironic that the NOSB was considering pulling Organic certification from such highly eco-friendly farms on the day before Earth Day. Fortunately, the Board recognized that it needed more information before making such a crucial decision, and deferred their final recommendation until its next meeting in the Fall, and possibly even longer.
RFC member farmers, including Michael Hasey of The Farming Fish in Oregon (who brought pesto from his farm for the board and attendees to sample), also attended the meeting and provided comments and information to the NOSB. Tawnya Sawyer of Colorado Aquaponics offered NOSB members a tour of her facility at The GrowHaus there in Denver. A number of the board members participated.
Click here to see the statement RFC’s Executive Director, Marianne Cufone, released to the media on Friday, and click here for RFC’s comments to the NOSB.
