Greenhouse Work
07/03/23 – Over the weekend I bought an outdoor thermometer to measure the temperature of the greenhouse and today I did a ventilation test with the door open to see what the temperature would be at peak sunlight hours. Even with the door open since the morning the internal temperature was 110 °. Plants able to grow in Washington tend to lose their ability to pollinate at around 90 °, the heat causes them to lose their flowers and the vegetables don’t grow in right. A 40% shade cloth which is the one I ordered, should drop the temperature 5-10 °, which while significant probably won’t be enough with how hot Washington summers have been in recent years.
This afternoon I had a meeting with Beth from the Organic Farm to talk about ventilating the greenhouse. Her suggestion for best ventilation would be to install ridge vents in the ceiling of the greenhouse that can be manually pulled open and closed when needed. That would involve cutting into the fiberglass and installing them into the ceiling panels which are curvy. She says this would be the best solution but also quite an expensive one. Especially since I have just bought plants that I thought I had a proper home for but don’t, I can’t reasonably ask for what is most likely thousands of dollars in renovations. She did help me find all the ventilation points, and we got the bottom right one open although the water well is blocking the bottom left one from opening.
The water well is another issue, when Daniel gave me the keys he told me that there should be water access, but the water well outside isn’t hooked up to anything inside the greenhouse. Beth thinks she knows someone who can hook it up, and I am going to contact Daniel probably next week to see what he thinks. Beths other suggestion was a total strip and inventory of the space. I have gone through and organized some, as has RAD, and have a pretty good idea of what’s in there, but this week I am going to try and completely remove everything from the space, create an inventory list, put like things together, and identify the things in there I am unfamiliar with. I know there is a fair amount of plumbing and irrigation stuff in there, some of which we could use for plants, some which I think was specific to the hydroponics system, and I need to separate them from each other, as well as figure out what to do with the things from old projects. More updates to come!
07/05/23- I have been talking with Harry who is the head of SCARF, he has committed to finding a place where the plants can stay for the summer and where I can care for them until it cools down enough for me to transplant them into the greenhouse. I have been taking them outside for sun every day and watering them to Beths instruction so I am hopeful that they should be fine inside for a few more days. I am working on a written out proposal for how the greenhouse could function with other Evergreen supports and how the summer not being viable would work, I am hoping to finish this by the end of the Summer, work to put it into action over the next school year, adapting where needed. I am also making a curated list of helpful research information, books, databases, blogs, and news sites for students interested in sustainable community agriculture.
Research
This week I focused on researching policy surrounding food access and distribution on a larger scale. I started by looking at distribution on a larger scale. I started by looking at which was introduced on April 19th of this year. This act aims to strengthen the 2018 farm bill, which was passed a few months after the expiration of the 2014 farm bill. I used blog posts, press releases, and other materials from the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition to familiarize myself with relevant bill history, as well as the bill text from Congress.gov.
I chose this topic specifically because of some chapters I read earlier this week from Global Food Futures: Feeding the World in 2050 by Brian Gardner. In his book Gardner argues that the global issue of hunger is not because of our supply, that we grow enough food and have enough viable farmland to feed the entire world’s population as it is. Gardner lays out his case for the issue being in the distribution system, providing examples from across the world where food is in abundance in production but not available to the communities that grow it or live near it. Since I am trying to get a good understanding on sustainable agriculture and community food systems, I wanted to understand what the key needs were for local distribution, and what supports were in place already. I’m sure Washington has its own programming, but I didn’t have time this week to do both, so I am hoping to look into it next week.
I started by looking at the 2014 and the 2018 farm bills as the Local Farms and Food Act aim to strengthen programs already existing through active farm bills, and the 2014 and 2018 bills were incredibly similar with some smaller differences including what percentage of in-kind matching farmers could make, and giving the USDA decision making in that realm in some instances. The biggest addition to the 2018 bill was the introduction of an umbrella program called the Local Agriculture Market Program (LAMP) which combined existing programs. To pull from their blog post “A Closer Look at the 2018 Farm Bill: Local Agriculture Market
Program” they say
“By moving FMLFPP and VAPG under the umbrella of LAMP, Congress was able to ensure permanent, mandatory funding for both original programs, better coordinate local and regional food systems funding across agencies, and also maintain the core mission, priorities and activities of each. LAMP also includes some new initiatives, such as a regional partnership program to facilitate “foodshed”-level approaches to developing regional food economies, and new functions to support value chain coordination, food safety infrastructure
development, and food safety certification.”
and lists one of their continuing priorities as;
“Domestic farmersʼ markets, roadside stands, community-supported agriculture, agritourism activities, and other direct-to-consumer marketing practices.”
Both the Farmers Market and Local Food Promotion Program (FMLFPP) and the Value Added Producer Grants (VAPG) are grant programs for farms and farms, the first for funding direct-to-consumer marketing strategies, and the second for farms wishing to add an element of “processing” to their product such as making cheese from milk, so as to raise its value.
LAMP also introduced a regional partnership program to assist in supply chain collaboration and application support. As the NSAC puts it;
“Through this new partnership program, LAMP seeks to leverage federal investments to tap into private capital and help stakeholders enhance their collaboration. In order to accomplish this goal, priority will be given to projects that
leverage significant non-federal financial and technical resources. Eligible partners include but are not limited to: food councils, farmer cooperatives, state agencies, and Farm Credit System lenders.”
LAMP also expanded financial assistance for costs associated with the 2018 change in FDA health and safety standards as they applied to agriculture, creating limited match-program grants to cover the time and equipment needed to meet standards.
The Local Farms and Food Act aims to strengthen programs already existing within the 2018 farm bill, one of which is LAMP. This act would remove barriers that prevent smaller farms and farmers from receiving government aid by simplifying the application process, clearing up confusing language, reducing the match requirement for VAPG applicants with a gross AGI of less than $250,000, creating a new grant option of up to $100,000, increasing overall funding by $25 million and appropriations funding by $10 million, and giving the USDA permission to prioritize geographic diversity. (There are a few more changes but I don’t want you can find the act here)
If we are in fact facing a crisis of distribution and not supply, the improvement of programs like LAMP that prioritize local food systems and farm-to-consumer marketing practices is a key tenant in our community food security. The added focus on smaller farms and food producers can only be a benefit to our agricultural future, and supporting not only their farming practices but their marketing, technology, and supply chain practices ensures that the food we eat is sustainable for both the planet, the grower, and the consumer. I would love to know what Washington specific programs exist and if they mirror federal practices, if there are any that provide similar support? And are these practices applicable when scaled down or do we need the same goal with completely different methods?
In 2023, the 2018 farm bill is up for renewal, but I haven’t heard much about it yet.