HR 875: Food Safety Modernization Act

A bill called HR 875 was introduced recently to address food safety issues in our food supply chains.  The last link in those chains is our grocery stores.  Given the increasing trend toward growing our own food, there has been some misconceptions about how the bill applies to folks who have a small backyard garden, or container gardens.

Just the facts, ma’am

The always wonderful Eat.Drink.Better. blog has a great article by Derek Markham which debunks 5 myths surrounding the HR 875 bill, & clarifies its main purpose. From the article:

Myth: H.R. 875 “makes it illegal to grow your own garden” and would result in the “criminalization of the backyard gardener.”

Fact: There is no language in the bill that would regulate, penalize, or shut down backyard gardens.  This bill is focused on ensuring the safety of foods sold in supermarkets.

Speaking of myths: “We’re not an agrarian society anymore!”

That’s what I overheard an elitist designer say last year at a cocktail party. I disagree, and I think the separation of our lives from where our food comes from has been a significant detriment to our quality of life, our health, and the health of the planet.

We *should* re-embrace gardening & farming – in an adapted smaller scale way. Like small gardens sprinkled everywhere. So the big bad HR 875 bill won’t impede that practice – keep on rolling with those gardening plans, be they community, container, or backyard.

I learn so much from my clients!

A current one told me about this local company called Bountiful Backyards, which installed a bunch of fruit trees, edible landscape and some water management things on their property. They don’t have to mow their front yard, AND they can eat the blueberries and other fruit from their new trees!

Drool control needed

Ok so it’s possible that coming off my weekly 24 hour fast has a teeny bit to do with it, but every food item pictured in the header on the Bountiful Backyards site looks delicious.  They specialize in edible landscapes, and they are right down the road from us!

It’s a system

Believers that everything is connected, Bountiful Backyards takes a holistic approach to helping folks learn to grow their own, & include multiple areas of expertise:

• Food Production
• Soil Restoration
• Native and Beneficial Flowering Plants
• Water Management and Conservation
• Working with what you have

Whatever tack you want to take, they work with you to cultivate a regenerative ecological design and restoration project, large or small.

Why?

If not mowing isn’t enough to convince you, maybe 10 good reasons to opt for a garden over grass will. Reason #1 is my favorite:

1. Americans spend $30 billion every year to maintain 23 million acres of lawn. That’s an average of $1200 per acre, per year. The same sized area could still provide a beautiful space for recreation and feed a family of six if converted to edible landscaping as opposed to traditional landscaping.

Even if you don’t have a chef

What you eat. At least, if you want to be green, it *should* be. Looks like the Obamas will keep their chef they had back in Chicago, Sam Kass, who has a keen interest in healthy and local food consumption. And in keeping with his skills of bringing people together, they also will use the services of the former administration’s chef, Cristeta Comerford.

Alice Waters

We’ve written about the slow food movement before, championed by Alice Waters. She’s been an advocate of healthy and local with the Slow Food movement for decades. She also wrote a letter to Obama the day after the election, pointing out the opportunity to be an example of healthy and local meals:

At this moment you have a unique opportunity to set the tone for the changes we need to make in the way our country feeds itself. The purity and wholesomeness of your campaign can find a parallel in the purity and wholesomeness of the food at America’s most visible and symbolic address: the White House.

Others have urged the planting of a garden at the White House, & maybe it’s the next step?

How about a Kitchen Cabinet?

There may or may not be a Kitchen Cabinet established in the White House, but I’d sure like a stab at redesigning it with a certain affordable Swedish brand, & donate what’s in there now to Habitat for Humanity.

Square foot gardening blog