The initiative to accept food stamps at Grow NYC markets began in 2007 and at that time, these transactions amounted to a few thousand dollars. By 2009, it was $251,000. In 2010 we were up to $505,000. And in 2011, $620,000 worth of food stamps was spent at participating Grow NYC markets. Note, there are other markets that accept food stamps that are not affiliated with Grow NYC. A map of them can be seen here.

Nationwide, low-income Americans spent about .01 of their foodstamps in Green Markets. GOOD has a nice map showing which states have signed on to make this type of transaction more convenient for their food consumers and they kindly outline which states continuously hold out. Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming.  I’d be interested in seeing  a map that highlights overlap between big agribusiness turf and the program deniers.

We still have a long way to go in getting fresh food to all Americans. But it took many steps for the food system to change, to the point where the Crop Life Association came out against Michelle Obama for declaring the White House Garden as organic. For some seriously mind-blowing reading, take a look at the association’s call to arms for a letter writing campaign to tell the First Lady that the garden should not be organic.  For a more indepth discussion of that whole escapade, you can listen to Michael Pollan’s Illustrated Food Rules on the January 2nd, 2012 Leonard Lopate show.

Ultimately, every step taken to bring us to our current food system status-quo, every bill signed, every food pyramid created, every subsidy awarded, every cultural norm established, will need to be replaced by steps in a different direction, supported by a vision to take us there. I’d like to think that $620,000 worth of food stamps spent at  Grow NYC markets in 2011 is one of those steps.    [image via year of plenty]

My favorite response was found on Tree Hugger, who very simply said: “You Are Now One of 7 Billion People on Planet Earth.  Our recommendation: Live accordingly.” There is of course a more in-depth discussion of what this all means for limited resources paired with growing appetites for them over at Dot Earth.

I guess I would probably say the same thing to these babies as I would to any other one: You were born into exciting and amazing times, but they are also full of anxieties and concern that a lot of things need to be fixed. So you will have to work hard to contribute to the cause of betterment. Also, that is not going to get any easier for you, so you will have to be innovative, but you will have tools and talent beyond measure to make that happen. You will also have to learn about the role of lobbying in politics if you want all of your efforts to go anywhere. Live in a city. Be close to the people you care about. And yes, you will survive your teenage years.

In the time I wrote this, many more babies were born. And we now have 7,000,274,589 people on the planet. What do you you want to tell them?

[image via World Population Day]

All of these options have benefits and drawbacks, conveniences and hassles, but they all help us support local, fresh food supplies, which is mutually beneficial for both producers and consumers.

I recently had the pleasure of meeting Mallory Sustick who is involved in a new farm to table (via the internets) project called Plovgh (pronounced plough).  You will notice that their site is still in development, but as it says on there already, “Plovgh is a way to find, purchase, and receive food from farms.” It is sort of a hybrid, mash-up of many different models of sustainable food procurement in New York City. It is like a farmers market because there is no middle-man: You buy products based on certain farmers offerings, through Plovhgs website. It is like a CSA, because there is a specific pick up point in your neighborhood where you go get your goodies. And well, actually, nothing is really like the Park Slope Food Coop. It is, after all, the largest working food coop in the country. But you get my point. The Plovghs model will connect people to local farmers on their terms and schedule, at prices that are comparable to existing offers for such foods.

Check out their website and sign up to receive updates and news. You can follow them on twitter too @plovgh. [Image credit: Hand Plough by Frankie Roberto, on Flickr.]

City Atlas, a digital platform developed by the City University of New York (CUNY) Institute for Sustainable Cities at Hunter College and Artist As Citizen, launches this Thursday at www.thecityatlas.org. Generously supported by a 2010 Rockefeller Foundation Cultural Innovation award, City Atlas guides and inspires New Yorkers to participate in building a more sustainable future. An optimistic, relevant, and accessible hub of daily resources and ideas, the Atlas creates new and larger audiences for sustainability by mapping the important work being done by members of New York’s rich cultural, scientific, political and grassroots communities. City Atlas consists of the following components:

Explore | A collection of interactive maps tracing New York’s changing present and possible future

Lifestyle | A daily feed of events, tips, new ideas, and  ‘     NY Back’ volunteer opportunities

People | We ask New Yorkers–everyday people and experts alike–to share their thoughts on the city’s present and future.

Lab | Our very own micro funding initiative supporting innovative, participatory, and on the ground sustainability work in NYC

Archive | A collection of recent creative projects about the city

The weekly ‘Atlas Beat,’ which is pictured above, will feature a map of our top listings for the week, including current events,  new ideas, and fun facts.

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Grow NYC has a hurricane relief donation set up on their site for NY farmers who have experienced significant damage and impacts from Irene. As they say, the full extent of damage won’t be known for a few weeks, but right now, things are not looking pretty.  Governor Cuomo expects the damage to be in the range of $1 billion.

Interestingly enough, I was going to be doing a cooking demo this weekend with zucchini flowers at the Greenpoint Farmers market. And that may turn into more of an exercise in improvisation based on what is there. Delicate flowers may not have weathered the storm so well. But I will be there starting at 11 AM on Saturday. And I hope to see a packed, anxiety-inducing crowded market, full of New Yorkers supporting fellow New Yorkers.

Really people, if you enjoy our vast network of Greenmarkets and the stewardship that comes with their work, and all of the wonderful services they provide to both us and the larger NY economy, get out there this week to support our farmers. There’s never been a better time. And if you can’t quite make it, give what you can to the relief fund.

What prompted me to write this post was some reading I was doing on Colorado’s impressive growth in the renewable energy sector. The cleantech industry has grown by 32.7% in 2010, which was three times the national average. Nearly 20,000 people are employed by 1,600 companies. So, clearly the outlook in Colorado is pretty good for those in this budding industry.  But as I read this article, I got pulled into another post about the slight shift to mainstreaming the concept of a no-growth economy. It would in effect, be a stable, stagnant economy; concepts which are currently anathema to free market capitalism as we know it.  Without going too deep into this new macro-economic model (which is outlined in Prosperity Without Growth), George Monbiot’s explains in his article, that its not too much different than our current system, “people will still spend and save, companies will still produce goods and services, governments will still raise taxes and spend money.” But he also does mention restrictions on advertising and more government intervention, two ideas that might not float that well in this here democracy.

But back to what prompted me to write this blog entry: I couldn’t help but think about how these two ideas relate to each other. In a no-growth economy, is there still room for growth in the renewable energy sector? Would it just take the place of the existing carbon-based energy economy? Or does the growth in the renewables sector simply enable continuous, conspicuous, consumption? And how does any of this alleviate the growing (or non-growing) pains we may experience as the eternal promise of the free market dissipates?

I have a lot of questions. Maybe you do too?  Clearly I am not a trained economist. Just an eternal optimist. Curious as to how we are going to recreate something out of the bubble that finally burst.

(image above: word cloud from Obama’s recovery and reinvestment speech in 2009. Courtesy of McNitt)

This series of interviews with New Yorkers of color seeks to both explore these issues and to capture personal narratives of individual experiences related to community equity and sustainability.

Name: Shantay Armstrong
Neighborhood: Flatbush, Brooklyn
What do you do: Parent Coach @ Harlem Children’s Zone; Writer

My Green
What the heck does sustainability mean? I’m not sure actually, I think being able to live healthy and happy. Yes I do care if that’s what it means.

Would you consider yourself “green”? Yes, we have compost in our apt. and recycle and care about the earth because we and the earth are reflections of one another; when one lives, the other lives.

What do you do with your plastic bags? Save them – use them for garbage bags.

Do you recycle? Yes because I love my Mother Earth and am against useless waste.

Why would anyone want to have a garden? To grow one’s own organic fruits and veggies, to be satisfied by touching Mother Nature and giving back to land, to receive the blessings of the land, to become more grounded, to profit by selling organic foods that help other’s thrive.
Are bike lanes important to you? Why or why not? I think bike lanes are a good idea but I don’t particularly need them since I don’t ride a bike or drive

My Community
What makes your hood dope? Its full of Caribbean Americans and fresh produce and Caribbean food.

What makes it wack? Poverty, fast food, cops

What would your ideal open space include/consist of/look like? I love Prospect Park, but I’d love

to live by open plains or a farm

What does your community look like? Mostly apartment buildings being gentrified, bodegas, 2 main avenues with stores and supermarkets and grocery stores

Do you consider your community gentrified? Yes, and its in

the process of being gentrified. Gentrification began in Flatbush about 8 years ago. Growing up here it was all Black people, now it’s very diverse, stores have closed down, rents are changing, stored carry (some) different items, white people walk their dogs, but Caribbean Americans still account for maybe about half of the population. It’s changing.

Who are the gentrifiers? What are the signs of gentrification? Class, race, white families, mixed race families, young people, dogs being walked.

Does gentrification matter to you? Yes, I can’t stand gentrification. It’s disrespectful and a micro form of colonization.

Come back on May 2 for the next installation!

If you would like to be profiled in “Diversity in the City”, send an email to: mopierre@hunter.cuny.edu.

Descriptions of open positions, including requirements and application instructions, are available below. The deadline for all applications is May 15th.

Atlas Content Curator Internship

Atlas Social Media Internship

Food System Assessment Internship

Invasive Species Research Internship

Urban Sustainability Extension Service Internship

Video Media Internship

You can read more about the program on the CISC Summer Internship Program webpage.

Not to go too far down this road, but the movie “The Corporation,” was a provocative expose of how multi-national corporations are actually viewed as people–often sociopathic ones–with regard to certain rights and responsibilities. How, I wonder, might Mother Nature be judged? Surely she is not entirely innocent and can actually be viewed as somewhat of a wrecking ball through natural disasters. It is sticky logistics like this that make me curious as to how exactly this will play out. Social-ecological systems are intricately linked and to pretend otherwise would be a dangerous downplay of the complexity we find ourselves dealing with on a daily basis. But the basic ideas that the environment deserves attention, protection and other rights we generally believe (not always acted upon) humans should have, is a noble approach. I personally hold that framing and a different approach to teaching people about ecosystems, their services, and operations is a huge part of this paradigm-shifting challenge.  But it remains to be seen as to how this will be accomplished, in Bolivia or elsewhere.

From The Guardian’s coverage: (watch the video if you visit the site!)

“The law, which is part of a complete restructuring of the Bolivian legal system following a change of constitution in 2009, has been heavily influenced by a resurgent indigenous Andean spiritual world view which places the environment and the earth deity known as the Pachamama at the centre of all life. Humans are considered equal to all other entities.

But the abstract new laws are not expected to stop industry in its tracks. While it is not clear yet what actual protection the new rights will give in court to bugs, insects and ecosystems, the government is expected to establish a ministry of mother earth and to appoint an ombudsman. It is also committed to giving communities new legal powers to monitor and control polluting industries.”

Image via Orion magazine.